Don’t poke the wounded beast – 30r20 PB

So – after a weekend away from the erg due to hip/back/knee/ankle pains – (and lots of anti inflams and pain killers) – I still ended up doing more chores than I’d like to have or than was good for me – but you don’t get “sick notes” from life (so I ended up laying two laminate floors, cutting the grass, fixing the washing machine and cleaning the house etc.) so today I have to row – have to – I’m going to Bristol on Friday – I will be rowing – I may not be as fast as I’d liked – but row I am – so I needed to steady the ship this week and what better than a good old 30r20.

 

Now after last weeks hissy fit on the erg I knew I’d done something to one of the “hang bolts” (part no. 99 on here -http://therowingcompany.com/shop/parts/model/c ) when I looked at it on Friday I figured I’d bent it – see picture

Oh no wait – I sheared it !

Oh no wait - I sheared both of them

So this became my warm up (AKA “the poke” )

After finding some bolts – well threaded steel and getting the top one replaced – I left the bottom one as it felt secure enough – I thought I’d best crack on with a quick warm up – so 1k done and tested 1:45 split for r20’s – found it OK on the back and hip and decided this was a better bet than anything fast for the first row back – it would enable me to feel through the stroke and detect any weakness – and off I set with the intention of going around 1:45pace – I found myself a tad quicker and went with it – no idea what my PB was other than it was faster than 1:45 I kept it going and on the final stroke I hit 8706m – I then did a cool down and on walking back to the changing rooms checked my 30r20 PB – 8699m – lovely – beware the wounded wulf !!

 

So the new PB – bang on 600 strokes – I actually stopped with 5 seconds left lol