Wednesday 30 November 2016

1k TT not a great way to do it... C2CTC

So after being made redundant I lost my way a little and last rowed a HM on the 20th November - prior to that I have only rowed HM's and FM's other than a play at a 500m on the 7th - I had my skierg arrive on the 28th and played a bit that day - yesterday I did a HM on it - why not ....



so today being the last day of the month meant the last date for a 1k TT for the paddypower CTC boat - after a day of driving around trying to find a new car and doing a few jobs (including joining a new gym local to me with) meant I was getting changed to do a 1k TT at 10pm at night of the back of no race pace work at all... sure perfect set up .... usual race warm up on the model B (which really needs new rollers) in the shed at about 3 degrees C and off I set - idea was r30 target 1:32 - went a little better - throat is burning now and lovely to taste some blood at the end lol








Friday 18 November 2016

define your day don't let the day define you - Age PB 40-49H Marathon

So today is my last day in the office - after 10.4 years my role has been made redundant and so I'm off to pastures new - just popping in to collect a few things and go for lunch so with that in mind and the Crazy Bear challenge  in full swing I plumped for a full marathon today - and as my age group PB for the full marathon was only 1:57.1 pace (2:44:43.7 my overall PB is 2:28:30.8 1:45.6 pace) I figured I could break that age group PB easily enough (I did think it was still the Irish record but having just looked at the rankings I discovered Ally Cooper pulled 2:39:06.3 in October 1:53.1 - balls really should have checked that before starting lol) so with a target of 1:54 in mind off I set - had a few moments of doubt - not because of anything other than the ache of such distance - still dug in and kept going - just after 2 hours the fire alarm went off and although one of the instructors popped over and tried to communicate it to be (headphones in) the manager then came over and told me to carry on (only stopped for a moment) so in the end I managed 2 hours 42 minutes 19.9 seconds (was trying to get 2:42:19.5 - 42195 being the marathon distance) this was done at r22 75% HRR for the majority of it - and thanks to Ally I have a new target :o)







Saturday 12 November 2016

22 million meters after HM No5 for #crazybear2016

Now this is a lot of pictures lol sorry -  so after recent discussions on ways of doing the HM I thought I'd see what a 8by500m felt like buried in the middle so 6500m warm up then straight into a 500m which was repeated 15 times alienating between high rate/pace and recovery -  final recovery was 597m then straight into 6500m coll down. In terms of a "race training" piece I did not think it was affective at all. It did pass the time though. I stopped to grab water after rep 11 and final fast 500.

#CRAZYBEAR2016 No5
Also took me over 22 million meters on the erg


















Friday 11 November 2016

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





Thursday 10 November 2016

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)







Monday 7 November 2016

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)