20 by 1min on 1min off r20 - pride goeth before a fall...

Tonight I had a decent amount of training time and after doing something light-ish yesterday I wanted to do some pounding today to get the body and mind moving forwards. What better than a 1 min on 1 min off r20 :) so I looked up my blog for a guidance on pace - 20-by-1min-on-1min-off so I see I could manage 1:35 pace - when in full training ... off I went to the shed thinking 1:40 might be a good pace.. I did my full race warm up and re-assessed to 1:37.5 ... I hit the first rep and got a 1:35 ish out if it but on the last stroke the cradle for my phone and phone flew off and also gave a odd reading

 so I restarted and decided to target 1:35 (there goes the pride) and after the third rep the fall came and I dropped to 1:36.4 and on the 5th rep I really blew - completely miss timed the start and struggled my way through .. so there come the thoughts of ditching the session .. but I said to myself just do one more rep and forget the other 14 ... and so that continued and I pushed as much as I could on every single stroke and every rep I had with a small rally at the end - the HR doesn't show the effort but it wouldn't over such a small time frame.

 some of the final reps again showed the stroke count having a mind of it's own in ergdata...

Starter for 10 ... 10by30s 1m r r20 May CTC

Well it's been a while - life taking its toll and although I keep trying to get back into it I admit without the routine of a job to go it's been tough - I've started so many times in the last few months but stopped eve quicker, so maybe keeping account of myself may help.

It was a year yesterday since we had our sons Louis's diagnosis of Edwards Syndrome (Friday the 13th of May) and he battled on until just before his birth on the 13th July. So I once again had some reflections on life and once again I know I need to row for my own balance.

Other more recent happenings have been diagnosed with suspected Carpel Tunnel Syndrome which I first really discovered the last time I started to try and row again and we also sadly lost one of our dogs to doggy heaven. I checked my erg monitor this morning - last time I rowed was the 26th April - I also rowed on the 25th - for 30 minutes each time, prior to that it was March....

So where to start - well with the pains in the wrists a long slow one wasn't gonna help so as I knew that the current CTC is short reps I plumped for that to get the fun going in me. Deciding to be sesible I went with R20 and figured I should be good for 1:35 pace if not a little more. Into the gym at 9am and after the majority of my standard warm-up - which normally en-tales a max HR of 160 (I hit 180 without the high end sprint today....)

So not feeling hugely confident of I set and with a standing start hit 1:41 on the first stroke - hmm - 1:24 on the second and then settled in through the line at 167m with exactly 10 strokes. Then the fun began, with the monitor/ergdata for some reason at the end of the second rep even though I counted out ten strokes it came up with 11.... I noticed this again on the third but I had the erg lifting of the floor and so put it down to that I also noticed the monitor flicked up a 1:13 pace - odd at 20 spm .... on the 8th stroke.... something not right here.

The fourth rep it was getting daft and now I can see the ergdata it's showing I hit 1:13 pace on three of the strokes - it also recorded 13 strokes! So again putting it down to the erg lifting of the floor at the front I got up and walked over to grab two 20kg plates to hold the erg down. Funny how that takes it out of you in the middle of these kind of rows lol

That seemed to settle the issues of miscounting and pace out but it also took the stiing out my legs and so I slipped to just over 1:30 pace and at the end I was on 1:32 - still something to get me going and a target for next time so job done.

When in doubt - rate 20 it out 4by4min 4r C2CTC r20

When in doubt - rate 20 it out lol. Having been sick since new year and off the erg completely since the 8by500's ten days ago this was simply a case of getting it done with half an eye on the Irish only ten days away I'm not really sure if I'm going to go....

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

Punch the Power - 8by2:30 r20 full frontal video of last rep lol

Well today's session - done early as wouldn't have time in a lunch break - was 8 by 2m30s rating 20 with 3 minute 30 rest - have to admit the rest was maybe a little long for me - or maybe I didn't push hard enough early on?

Two reasons I didn't push earlier is a) lower back a little tender at mo b) no idea where to pace this (haven't done these in a long while) c) it was frickin early lol I figured somewhere between 1:35 and 1:40 would be a good place for the pace after a 1k with bursts at rate warm up I opted for 1:40 and to be honest in the first two I thought that was about spot on. After the third I obviously needed to negative split the rest - the 7th went quite well so on the 8th I thumped it (while keeping control)

2:30.0 750m 1:40.0 20

2:30.0 750m 1:40.0 20

2:30.0 750m 1:40.0 20

2:30.0 751m 1:39.8 20

2:30.0 752m 1:39.7 20

2:30.0 753m 1:39.6 20

2:30.0 757m 1:39.0 20

 2:30.0 779m 1:36.2 20  

AM Weights - PM short stuff - incl 1 min r20 almost sub 1:30...

5 min warm up on bike and some stretches

Squat - Barx5, 45kgx4, 50kgx3, 55kgx2, 60kgx1
           80kgx5x3

Flat Bench Press - Barx5, 35kgx4, 40kgx3, 45kgx2, 50kgx1
           55kgx5x3

Power Clean  - Barx5, 35kgx4, 40kgx3, 45kgx2, 50kgx1
           55kgx5x3 (did have 60kg on but couldn't shift it for even one rep lol)

Seated Cable Row 3x8x91kg (maxed out the stack on the machine)

At lunch I was delayed by traffic so really hadn't the time to do much - so did a few 100m's then a couple of 200m's and finished with some 1 minute r20 - still trying to get that sub 1:30 - missed by 1 meter on the second one!!

1min r20 test

lunchtime and although I had half a idea in my head to test a 1k (looking at 1:29.9 pace) once I got most of the way through the warm up I decided against it - the gym was very warm at lunchtime and there was a enough fatigue in the body to know that something else was required - as Q had requested a 1min r20 test I figured that would be a good fit as I was well warmed up - two attempts at getting sub 1:30 but alas due to sloppy erg timing and movement of said erg i was not to get it today - on the first attempt the erg strain was such that the phone cradle did less cradling and more dropping of my phone hence the video cutting out - add to that my timing was all over the place - think this was in due to the fact the erg was shifting too much as was my backside on the seat lol so I'm afraid only 325m r20 1:32.3

not feeling the love - 3 HD's and a 8by750 r20 1r

no training opportunities yesterday so last night I went to bed determined to get up and have a crack at a 30r20 pushing beyond the 80% HRR of recent times - but combination of events left me very short of time and interest - so although I got changed and sat on the erg I soon got off and headed to my desk (after a a quick shower and getting dressed)

So lunchtime beckoned and love for the erg was fast diminishing so instead of the mainstream training I have at the moment I thought I'd give myself a challenge and go for the CTC - idea was to pitch an effort towards the top of the rankings but rate restricted - seeing the current top score was 1:36.1 ave I aimed at that (ye - bad mistake at r20) mucked about at a kind of warm up then set the session - in a bad frame of mind which got no better as I started the first rep - although I was hitting the target i found the rate was heading to r22 and in order to get it back on track I had to drop a stroke and that meant a drop in pace and that wrecked my head. HD No1. OK regroup - why not 1:36 at r22 - set off and then I found I was missing the pace FFS HD No2. Sooo then I went for r24 1:38  target .... HD No3. Fine enough buggering about - r20 1:40 split - I mean I held 1:41.6 r20 for 30 minutes surely I can do 8 by 750 with 1 rest at 1:40 ....

That was tough - but more mentally than physically - thankfully I got it done 1:39.1 r20 8 by 750 1 minute rest

We will remember them - 11011 r20 70% HRR

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

As this is the 11th day of the 11th month - a day of remembrance for all those lost in conflict I set the monitor to 11011m (11th 0f 11th) and during the row thought about those who delivered the ultimate sacrifice.