Final HM in the Crazy Bear challenge - Seasons Best (just)

Well firstly like to say a big thank you to Stuart Thorpe who came up with the idea of the Crazy Bear challenge which is to row (or ski) 30 half marathons in the 45 days leading up to xmas and also to David Plumb who's been key in organising it and all those who participated in the challenge whether they completed 1 or where called Jen who is currently on 60 or something daft - I just checked and she is on 62... in total 64 people signed up to it and at this moment 950 half marathons have been completed which is over 20 million meters rowed!

So yesterday I took the day off from a HM (and did the ctc instead) so that left me with today to get the 30th one done - I wanted to finish with a bang (after all that's why I'm called Beowulf) so I targeted a aggressive start which I hoped would see me close to (what was - more on that later) the current season best HM 40-49h which was set at 1h33m44.9s (1:44.8) by Tony Larkman with a drop back plan off my own Irish 40-49H record of 1:14:49.0 (1:46.3) and at 7am that's what I did. The first 5 minutes my mind and body went into a slight panic (maybe I should do a warm up...) but controlled that, unfortunately my gym shorts and my "undercarriage" where not getting along and no matter how much I wiggled and pulled around I just could not get the "landing gear" situated in a position that wasn't going to cause discomfort - this messing about went on for nearly 20 minutes and added into that was the Heart Rate pickup dropping I basically got so pissed of I dumped the handle (you can see this in the Garmin IQ detail below)

But it was the last day for the challenge and I wanted to finish it for more reasons than are obvious to the eye. So I picked up the handle and got on with the job at that point it was all about finishing the HM nothing more. Dropped the rate to 20 spm and just went for the grind. I've also been having slight wrist pain (right wrist) and certain skin issues on my backside (ie lack of it as I've grated a few patches off) so really not feeling the love for the erg. At about half way though I felt like I was getting into a good groove, undercarriage was nicely in place and legs felt strong so the new plan was to up the rate and see what happened. It turned out that I beat my seasons best by .7 seconds as Beowulf drove home the final 500m averaging around 1:30 split lol.

About half a hour before writing this I spotted Olaf Tufte broke the WR for the 40-49H half marathon at 1:40.7 average r25 1:10:49.0 - still I beat him over the final 97m ... lol

Easy as 1-2-3 - third and second HM of Crazy Bear Challenge

Easy as 1-2-3 - not likely - lol skin loss on backside already and still recovering from head cold made this a tough one - r20 HRR 70 % first half was worse mentally - once over the crest of the hill I simply rolled home

After leaving work yesterday I stopped of to complete the second HM which was r20 with a upper HR limit of 146

Crazy Bear Challenge day 1 HM @24

Start of the Crazy Bear challenge today - simply row or ski 30 Half Marathons in 44 days on either a Concept2 rowing machine or ski-erg. So todays target was get the first one done lol set off and found a rhythm at r24 settled in to a 75% HRR up to half way (153 bpm) then let then I let it drift to 80% HRR (160bpm) for the last 4k I aimed at a 1 hour 17 min finish time and then had some fun over the last 100m :o)

Control the controllable - HM r22 HRR 75% ish....

Well life has thrown another swerve ball at me last week - unable to say what exactly for a week or so but lets just say it's another life changing event - so two things I can do - curl up and cry or stand up and try and take that one step at a time - as this month is Movember and as I have signed up to ROWvember  set up by Cameron Nichol

Globally, the rate of suicide is alarmingly high, particularly in men. Too many men are ‘toughing it out’, keeping their feelings to themselves and struggling in silence. The Movember Foundation is aiming to reduce the rate of male suicide by 25% by 2030, and I want to help them get there. Help me stop men dying too young.

 so with that in mind and the upcoming "Crazy Bear" challenge of rowing a HM which is

As usual the challenge is to row or ski 30 Half Marathons in 44 days on either a Concept2 rowing machine or ski-erg. Starting 10th November at 00:05 running through till Finishing 24th December at 23:55 Start & finish times will run in accordance with your own Time Zone

I decided to have a try at a HM to see where I am - the back got the OK to go last Thursday and on Friday I did two 20 minute pieces with no ill effects so at least that's one thing going the right way....

Also I took in my PM5 to the gym which meant I could hook up my HR to the screen as well as the Fenix watch :o)

A HM in the AM - HM@20 80% HRR

Got up early this morning so once in work I had quite a bit of time for my usual Wednesday AM row and decided on the HM (like you do) target was to r20 and look around the 1:47 mark - set off a bit lumpy and found I was drifting into r21 territory (at one point I was 12 strokes over for the perfect r20 score but brought that back at the end) around the half hour mark I had to make a call as the mind and body weren't there today to carry off the 1:47 target so I called in the 80% HRR backup plan and after a few talks with myself managed to get through the no-mans-land and out the other side to actually enjoy the back end. Nice sweat to start the day.

HM - Start - Pause - Start - Stop - Start - Stop - Start - Technique!

so really shouldn't set off on a HM without some recent distance work - well not at a pace near to PB at any rate - oops - got into work with about 1h15m so decided to tap out a HM looking at my age group PB of 1:46.6 pace I decided to go at 1:45 pace and then set off hitting sub 1:44 pace pretty comfotably then dropped to sub 1:45 then the HR was hitting 80% HRR although I still felt OK up to about 30 minutes and this is when the mind started it's tricks and I took a pause but carried on with only a moment lost. Just before the hour mark though I actually put the handle down twice and un clipped from the erg but managed both times to get back on - the first time I hit about 1:45 splits and could still have broken my PB but this probably drove me to distraction and in part caused the second one. After picking up again on the last time I decided to just get through and aim at r20 with HR cap 80% and concentrate on technique - hard and fast drive - heals down - fast hands - not so easy when your legs are fried. Still HM completed and burnt some calories. Averaged over one hour and 15 minutes with a HR of 160 should do some good. Need to get distance work back in though, since December 24th 2014 when I pulled the HM at 1:46.3 I haven't rowed anything more than a 60 minute piece in a sitting - and I've only done 7 of them !

HM r26 - 40-49H Irish Record

Got in work and figured I had about 1h15m to row in order to get to my desk in time. So figured I could just about squeeze in a HM and set it up. Started at r24 and then let the rate drift up. The HR is obviously faulty and doesn't show the story - the phlegm on the monitor does lol my HM PB is 1:12:43.8 or 1:43.4 pace so still way of that.

HM @24 80% HRR

So after a good 7 hours sleep last night I was up and raring... to go for another pre work HM this morning - set off a little harder than yesterday and let it tail off. Now there seemed to be some good news as just after half way the HR drift really settled down and I actually gained and held pace - beat yesterdays time by 10 seconds and TE of 4.3 which is still down on Mondays.

HM @24 80% HRR

So after a good 5 hours sleep last night I was up and raring to go for another pre work HM this morning - set off in the same vein as yesterday and although I was hoping to chop a chunk of time of I ended up looking at the same finish time so I actually tried to target it but missed by 0.3 seconds on the overall time! lol

Some good news was that the ave HR for the piece was down 1bpm - yep - grasping at straws :o)

Just checked "Training Effect" and it came out at 4.2 vs 4.4 for yesterday - so again a little encouragement.

HM @24 80% HRR

Had a thought last night to do a HM this morning - so as I actually managed to get up on time I got into work with enough time to get it done - initially I thought about a 1:54 pace - then 1:50 - started and hit 1:48 so stuck with that but as the wheels started to wobble I steadied it by turning it into a 9-% HRR row and ploughed it out.

Trying To Stay Strong - 9 Irish records in 24hrs

The breakfast before the off

So - I did it - just - and it was a heck off a lot tougher than I thought or some people may have thought when comparing my PB's (mostly set within the last year) to the old records - there a scientific reasons for that which Q know best  :-D

See his views here Q-Power

The set up

Watched the TV during the Marathon - Film "2012"

Big thanks to all those who supported, rowed alongside, donated and basically helped me get through what I think was my toughest challenge to date - arguably tougher than the 100k and possibly not as bad as the 24hr - but then I didn't complete that one. Q as ever was immense with his approach and organisation but also there where guys on Facebook and Rowpro who helped probably more than they realised (too many to name all) but Adam Mell and Darren Simmons where huge - Adam actually rowed all the distances himself which was great inspiration and Darren's use of Twitter got us encouragement from some of the top rowers including Team GB. Also of course the Mrs who allows me to do these daft things and supports me during them.

So how did it go - well we had been up to Dublin (3hr one way trip) on the Thursday and Back on the Friday after a appointment at the childrens hospital (no huge emergency) - also I could still feel the effects of the 6k TT from earlier in the week (19:42.5) - but when am I ever rested :lol: so started off OK with the 6k bang on target and no issues, other than realising I could not see either predicted finish or ave pave rowing online - hmm - tried to sort it out to no avail. 1of 9 - 6k Record Taken ave 1:44.9

Then the 500m - without the pred finish or ave I was at a loss as to where I was - and I although I thought I had secured the record I found myself 0.1 too slow feck! 

So then the 1k - made sure I was comfortably under for this one. 

Then it was back to the 500m and nailed it keeping the pace under by a second. 

So onto the FM - had the Mrs in contact with Q to try and work out where I was with the split due to still not sorting it out and got that one knocked off - Rowpro was becoming a pain - tried to enjoy it and even took some selfies as I rowed lol. There would be a rest of just under a hour then the 10k.

Back in for the 10k and saw a few friendly faces online which was good as I needed them logged in and ready to go - READY - ROW - err I'm still sat there! FFS crashed again so set up a stand alone 10k and nailed that - so much easier with pred finish and ave pace. 

OK we'll do the 30min online - again some friendly faces and I'd also managed to get ave 500m pace showing - set off and it was tough but I got it. 

But after this is when Q and I needed to take stock so the first phone call was put in. The body was showing that it wasn't coping well with the pressures - two choices where revealed - one was to push the break out and do the hour and then the HM and 5k - the other was to swap the HM and hour round. I decided to crank the 5k out, rest and recover then hit the hour.

A bath and rest at this point.

OK back for the hour and from the start it was a struggle - I managed to get almost to 40 minutes - but with pace plummeting and HR soaring I had to make a decision - just finish it or bin it and get the HM done then push the hour out to the final hour of the 24. 

I took the second option - another quick call to Q - then went off on the HM - what's noticeable is that the 2:00.6 pace was a struggle for me and that the HR was actually dropping as the pace increased towards the end - a sure sign the body was close to being a bit naughty. Still HM completed and then left with the hour to do before 9am in the morning.

Up at just after 6 - weighed in and lost 2.5kg - quick breakfast then out with the dogs. Felt surprisingly well with the body - the skin not so much - I'm raw on my butt to the point of bleeding also the hands as well as two large areas on my chest where the HR strap rubbed. Still got dressed and then out to shed so not to wake the baby and got set - couple of technical issues meant I was delayed starting until about 7:55am - at 8am my phone alarm went off after I was about 4 minutes into the row - I tried to swipe at it three times to turn it off - no good as it was just too far so almost at a stop I got to it - turned it off and then back to the row - up to this point I was going quite well (target of 1:46.9 for the start) the pace boat was now over 10m in front of me and it took me till halfway to get level again - bearing in mind I needed to be 1:46.4 this wasn't helping. I had to dig in pretty deep and had more demons in my head than a row at this pace (for me) necessitated - but with the reasons being the row I put them to the fore and dug in - pretty much on my TT limit for the entire row I managed to get within the target and with two minutes to go called on Beowulf to carry me home - got it - thank god and thanks to all those people out there who believed in me and supported me.

Having done this challenge it really brought home to me how depression can set in - again looking at those old records they are so within me on a good day that it seems a simple task - but when you stack them up one on top of another - even though you know there are people out there supporting you and would be willing to do the task for you - ultimately you (I) are alone and sometimes that means you need to rearrange, sometimes you need to put that call in for help, I could well have failed today, would people think less of me, some may, others have more admiration for the fact you get so far, my one piece I would say is - if you need help don't be afraid to make that call - it can save something precious to you - samaritans website 

Just Giving Page for donations

Total Meters - 124,054 Rowing Time 7:44:44.3 Ave 500m 1:52.4

Written by Ad Mell