Fitness Matters WOD on a Model B - Drag 170 (plus a little lunchtime training)

Well I trained at lunchtime - aiming for 6 by 5min on 1min rest r28 - got about halfway on the 4th and lost motivation - which I am struggling with at the moment without any races or TT's to aim for - kind of in a wilderness 

So tonight a rare opportunity to train at home turned up - so I grabbed it - looked on Facebook at the Fitness Matters WOD and saw it was ...

500m x 15 (1 m rest) R24

(Reps 5,10,15 free rate)

Actually - I just remembered I saw that this morning and thought it was pretty nasty - wish I remembered that earlier ... So I asked Sam Blythe if he'd done it so I had a target - he said he hadn't but was kind enough to give me one (I'm not sure how kind it was now ...) the target 

"Start 1.35.x on the 24's. And 1.29.x on the free rate (which I would aim to do around 2km rate)"

Now as mentioned I had to do this on the Model B with PM3 - but I had the firmware updated and so plugged it into the laptop to get it set up on Rowpro (offline) need to dig out my HR reader as well at some point, So got the drag on the B to 170 (lowest it will go on the cog) and then just went straight into it conscious of time. The slide wasn't great and took some getting used to, the foot placing was the old wooden ones which I basically got my feet in and out of without loosening the straps lol and managed to get stuck while wiggling a couple of times. The row itself was fine for the first four reps r24 - then the 5th rep got me puffing and only 1min rest was interesting as I made a few deals with the demons on my shoulders - this continued (deal making) up until the final rep - can't remember what I promised them - but it's gonna be costly! Boy was I sweating by the end. Cheers Sam - over to you!

Fitness Matters WOD - 48 min alternating rate ladder.

Bit stressed currently so today I did the Fitness Matters WOD which consisted off

"48 min alternating rate ladder. 
(6 mins x 8 @ rate 18/22/18/24/18/26/18/28)
So set the C2 for 48 minutes and a split length of 6 min. You need to give thought to pace for each rate BEFORE you start. The R18 is not flat out, but quality and fairly even pace on each of the 4 splits of 6m. Great focus on technique. Then as the subsequent rates increase look to also increase your pace/500m accordingly."

I "borrowed" Sams splits as my target :o)

Went OK - used the first 6 minutes as a warm up - bit pissed off I messed up the third r18 as I had it down to do 1:52 on my piece of paper but during it in my head I got 1:53 from somewhere. Legs where dead on last 6 minutes but managed to drive home with 1:35's for final minute

Beat the coach, win a shirt! - Crossfit Rowing Challenge

So spotted this on the 18th Feb on CrossFitRowing page in Facebook

Beat the coach, win a shirt! Coach Jonathan just finished The Good Hurt- can you beat this score? Here's the WOD:
1000m, 4' rest
750m, 3' rest
500m, 2' rest
250m.
-Use the "interval-variable" feature on your PM3+ monitor!
-Men: beat Jonathan's score on all 4 intervals
-Women: average under 1:42.5 on all 4 intervals
-Post a screen shot to the comments, we'll get your contact info, and send you a shirt!

So once I checked they would send it to Ireland and that I could do it today I asked Q if it was OK to give it a bash he came back with a yes and some targets - and said this "Big training benefits from this session if you throw your heart and soul at it. It will require major focus and concentration."

So - the fact I was up most of the night with a sick toddler and awake at 5:45 am this morning was going to help - NOT - managed about 3 hours broken sleep i reckon last night - on the back of a lack of sleep the rest of the week - still I went down with my targets and set of on the warm up - if nothing else it's a good test of rowing and pushing the body while the mind is tired and fighting sleep deprivation.

Set of on the 1k after a warm up and all was going well - fought to keep myself pretty close to target and got through in a reasonable state, 4 min recovery of breathing and gentle paddling, Steadied myself for the 750 and off I went the start went OK and even the middle was reasonably comfortable but come towards the end the legs showed the tiredness and I was grinding through, OK 500m up and hit 1:25/26 at the start but then the legs started locking up badly and was a case of holding on for the finish - still managed to drill majority of the strokes home sub 1:30 split but I was in trouble. 250m left - 25 strokes - was hoping to light it up a bit here - but the legs where not with me and again it was a case of drill it home - I felt like I was pulling r30 but the monitor shows I was up at 35 - still not exactly blistering for 250m lol - job done - legs done - lungs done - throat done - t-shirt claimed :o)