4by2k 3r r24

Lunchtime in work.

4×2k.

Three minutes rest.

Rate capped at 24.

Yesterday’s 30r20 had moved the benchmark.

Today was about seeing whether the next layer of the pyramid would move with it.

The result:

8,000m

29:20.6

1:50.0/500m average

r24

The splits:

7:24.2 — 1:51.0 — HR 152

7:22.1 — 1:50.5 — HR 157

7:20.1 — 1:50.0 — HR 162

7:14.2 — 1:48.5 — HR 169

One of the main things I wanted to work on today was maintaining the pace through each rep.

Not blasting the first few hundred metres, fading in the middle, then trying to rescue it with a hard finish.

Pick the pace.

Sit on it.

Get used to the grind.

That sounds simple enough until you’re halfway through a 2k and your head starts offering you all sorts of reasons to back off.

There were definitely a few mental battles in there today.

But that was part of the point.

Hold the pace when it starts to feel uncomfortable.

Stay patient.

Keep the rate where it should be.

And trust the work.

The overall progression between reps was exactly what I wanted too.

No mad first rep.

No hanging on by the third.

Just controlled pressure, then a little more, then a proper last one.

Compared with the last 4×2k on 20 October, which averaged 1:53.0, today was 3 seconds per 500m quicker across the full 8k.

That’s a serious move in a couple of weeks.

And it fits the old Q-Power idea nicely.

Build the base wider.

Then the layers above it start to rise.

Yesterday the 30r20 moved.

Today the 4×2k moved with it.

That’s the knock-on effect I’ve been waiting to see.

30r20 open HR

Today was the one I’d been waiting for.

A proper 30r20.

No HR cap.

No holding back.

Just thirty minutes, twenty strokes a minute, and see where the engine is now.

The target going in was around 1:56.8/500m.

The result:

30:00

7,842m

1:54.7/500m

r20

600 strokes

DF 131

That’s a big jump from the last one:

7,568m

1:58.9/500m

So today was:

+274m

4.2 sec/500m faster

And every stroke counted.

Thirty minutes at r20 should be 600 strokes.

That’s exactly what it was.

The pacing was probably the bit I’m happiest with:

1:55.8

1:55.8

1:55.7

1:55.6

1:54.9

1:54.6

1:54.3

1:51.2

So no heroic opening.

No blowing up halfway.

Just gradually squeezing it harder and harder until the final 3:45 became a proper finish.

The HR trace looked sensible too, rising through the 130s and 140s and finishing around 163, rather than the random dropouts I’ve been getting from the HRM-200.

And yes, the Spotify soundtrack helped.

The Prodigy’s No Good (Start the Dance) landed right in the middle of the piece and fitted the mood perfectly.

That middle section is where a 30r20 gets interesting.

Too far in to feel fresh.

Too far out to start celebrating.

Just sit there and keep applying pressure.

This is also where the Q-Power idea starts to matter.

One benchmark moves, and the others have to respond.

The 30r20 had been lagging behind the recent 4×2k work.

Not anymore.

At 1:54.7, the aerobic base has just got wider.

And that’s the point of the pyramid.

The wider and stronger the base becomes, the higher the spire can eventually rise.

The next 4×2k target gets quicker.

The next layer gets added.

Still a long way from where I ultimately want to be.

But today widened the foundations.

And that gives us more height to build towards.

10k, nearly...

Tonight was supposed to be easy.

Just enough work to keep the engine ticking over before a proper 30r20 tomorrow.

So the plan was simple:

40 minutes.

r20.

Keep it controlled.

No heroics.

The result:

40:00

9,998m

2:00.0/500m

r20

800 strokes

Avg HR 141

DF 138

14°C

~78% humidity

Two metres short of 10k.

Typical. 😆

But the number I’m actually happiest with is the 800 strokes.

Forty minutes at r20 should be 800 strokes.

And that’s exactly what it was.

No rate creep.

No surging.

No hiding behind an average.

Just proper control.

The other useful change tonight was the heart-rate strap.

I went back to an old Garmin Premium strap after the HRM-200 had spent the last few sessions inventing heart rates in the 70s while I was still rowing normally.

Tonight the trace finally looked believable again.

136

137

140

142

143

144

146

147

Exactly the sort of gradual rise I’d expect from a steady aerobic piece.

And then there are the slides.

Back on 20 September, one of my first proper 40-minute attempts on them produced:

8,689m

2:18.1/500m

around r22 overall

The rate was all over the place, the pace was all over the place, and I was basically learning how not to launch myself off the front of the rails.

Tonight:

9,998m

2:00.0/500m

r20

800 strokes

That’s a very different session.

The slides have gone from something I was trying to survive to something I can actually use properly for training.

That probably matters more than the missing two metres.

Almost 10k.

At r20.

Controlled.

Tomorrow we find out what that engine has got in a hard 30r20.

Through the midnight hour...

Last night I started at midnight.

Tonight I rowed through it.

23:40 to 00:20.

Apparently Midnight Mass is becoming a series. 😆

Tonight was supposed to be simple.

40 minutes.

r20.

Keep it aerobic.

Keep it controlled.

The result:

40:00

9,920m

2:00.9/500m

r20

DF 136

198W average

The first five minutes were a little slower, then the pace settled almost immediately into the 2:00–2:01 range and stayed there.

The stroke rate stayed where it was supposed to as well.

r20.

Every split.

That part I’m happy with.

The heart-rate monitor, less so.

It looked perfectly believable early on:

134

139

138

142

144

Then, while the pace and rate barely changed, it suddenly decided I was rowing at 72 and 74 bpm.

A few minutes later it was back up around 152.

So the average HR is useless again.

At this stage I’m seriously considering going back to the Garmin Premium strap for rowing, because the HRM-200 just doesn’t seem to like life on the erg.

Still, the useful numbers are all there.

The session was steady.

The rate stayed controlled.

The pace was actually a little quicker than the recent aerobic work without turning into a test.

Another session done.

Another forty minutes in the bank.

Sometimes the work has to fit around life.

Sometimes that means starting at midnight.

Sometimes it means finishing after it.

Either way, the work still gets done.

Midnight Row Mass

Midnight....

Probably not the most sensible time to start a 60-minute row.

But sometimes you just have to get the work done when you can.

I went looking for a suitable midnight theme afterwards and found this description of Midnight Mass:

Blind faith. Religious extremism. Guilt. Addiction.

Seems about right. 😆

Blind faith that all these steady metres are going somewhere.

A slightly worrying level of devotion to r20.

Guilt if the session gets skipped.

And addiction?

Well… I was sitting on a Concept2 at midnight.

Tonight was another straightforward engine session:

60:00

14,615m

2:03.2/500m

r20

DF 136

187W average

The aim was the same as before.

Hold the rate.

Keep the effort aerobic.

Don’t turn it into a test.

The first half moved along nicely around 2:02 pace before things naturally drifted a little later in the hour.

The HR strap also performed its now-traditional disappearing act, dropping to 80 bpm in one split while I was still rowing normally.

So that number can join the growing collection of Garmin fiction.

The useful data is elsewhere.

Every split at r20.

Another full hour completed.

And compared with the 60r20 last week — 14,600m at 2:03.3 — tonight was 15 metres further and fractionally quicker.

Nothing dramatic.

Which is exactly the point.

The aerobic engine isn’t rebuilt in one heroic session.

It comes back through repetition.

Hour after hour.

Stroke after stroke.

Sometimes, apparently, starting at midnight.

Amen.

Back on the Erg

The last few days have been a bit of a write-off.

Fever, feeling freezing one minute and boiling the next, stomach issues, an ear infection thrown in for good measure — definitely not the ideal backdrop for training.

So rowing stopped.

No trying to make up missed sessions. No pretending I was fine.

Just recover.

The encouraging bit has been what’s happened to my resting heart rate.

For the first time in a long, long, long time, I’ve started seeing numbers in the 40s again.

Yesterday Garmin gave me 47 bpm.

This morning, after travelling up to Athlone last night, it was 49 bpm, with overnight HR around 51 and HRV slightly above my normal range.

More importantly, I woke up feeling almost normal.

Dangerous words.

There are three Concept2s in the gym at the Athlone Springs Hotel, so the obvious question was whether the engine was ready to turn over again.

Nothing clever.

60 minutes.

r20.

Keep it controlled.

The result:

60:00
14,476m
2:04.3/500m
r20
DF 136
182W average

The heart-rate monitor decided to play stupid games again, with obvious dropouts into numbers that simply didn’t match the pace or effort, so the reported 130 average can be ignored.

The believable sections had me building into the 130s and around 140 through the middle, with the final stages into the mid-to-high 140s.

Pretty much where I wanted to be.

The important part was that the rowing itself stayed steady.

Every split at r20.

No chasing pace.

No hard finish.

Just an hour back on the machine after a few days of being ill.

And compared with the last 60r20 before getting sick — 14,600m at 2:03.3 — today was only 124m down, about one second per 500m slower.

Different erg.

Different gym.

First row back after illness.

I’ll take that.

The best result this morning probably isn’t 14,476m anyway.

It’s feeling normal again.

It’s seeing a resting heart rate beginning with a 4.

And it’s getting through a controlled hour without needing to prove anything.

The engine is turning over again.

Engine Work at Midnight

Nearly midnight again.

Tonight wasn’t about pace.

It was about control.

60 minutes on the Model E, on slides, with two simple instructions:

Hold r20.

Keep the heart rate mostly in the aerobic band, around 134–145 bpm, without letting it run away.

The result:

60:00

14,600m

2:03.3/500m

r20

Avg HR 142

DF 130

The pace moved around a little, but that wasn’t the target.

The stroke rate was.

Every 7:30 split came back at r20.

And the heart rate stayed where it was supposed to for almost the whole hour — mostly in the high 130s and low-to-mid 140s, only nudging above the intended ceiling right at the end.

That matters more to me than the distance tonight.

This was one of those sessions where the work is in the discipline.

Don’t chase the monitor.

Don’t turn an aerobic row into a race.

Just sit on the rate, control the effort, and keep doing the work.

That’s the engine-building stuff.

Not dramatic.

Not glamorous.

But necessary.

And finished, as usual, just before midnight.

8by500 1:30 rest building the pyramid

I’ve been digging back through the old Q-Power training lately, trying to remember not just the sessions, but the thinking behind them.

James always had a reason for the work.

Build the engine first. Heart, lungs, blood volume, mitochondria, muscular endurance. Big aerobic base. Then sharpen the point with the faster work.

And one thing he used to say has been rattling around in my head again:

“The training effect only comes in from the last portion of a session, so above all finish them.”

That was very much the mindset going into today’s lunchtime session in work.

8 × 500m.

1:30 rest.

Rate capped at 28.

The plan was simple — start at 1:45 and knock half a second off each rep for as long as it stayed under control.

Targets:

1:45.0

1:44.5

1:44.0

1:43.5

1:43.0

1:42.5

1:42.0

Then best controlled.

Actual:

1:45.0

1:44.5

1:44.0

1:43.5

1:43.0

1:42.4

1:41.9

1:38.2

4,000m work in 13:42.5.

Average: 1:42.8/500m.

That last rep was the interesting one.

1:38.2.

At r27.

No frantic rate. No hanging on.

Just more speed there when I asked for it.

The heart-rate monitor decided to contribute some fiction along the way, so that data can go in the bin.

The rowing data is enough.

And, more importantly, the session was finished properly.

That’s probably the bit Q would care about most.

Another marker laid down.

Another session in the bank.

Huginn and Muninn can keep watch.

Thought. Memory.

Remember the work.

Use it.

Move forward.

Iron in the legs

Last night I was back on the static Model E.

No heroics. No test. Just 40 minutes at r20, laying timber into the hull.

The result:

9,855m
40:00
2:01.8/500m
r20
DF 138
Avg HR 137

The interesting part was how smooth it felt.

On 5 March I covered 9,556m in the same 40 minutes at an average HR of 137.

Last night: 299m further.

Same heart rate.

More speed.

Maybe the slides are teaching something after all.

They punish bad timing. They expose rushed movement. They make you earn every clean stroke.

Then you return to the fixed erg and the machine feels quieter beneath you.

I finished exactly at midnight.

Yogurt. Banana.

No battle last night.

Just sharpening the axe, tightening the shield straps and putting another layer of iron into the legs.

The battles can wait.

For now, the warrior prepares.

Two by Four — dance monkey

Back to the office gym.

Same static Model D.

Same 4 × 2,000m @ r24, 3:00 rest.

The previous benchmark was 1:55.1 average.

Today:

1:54.8 → 1:53.8 → 1:52.8 → 1:50.7

8,000m in 30:08.8

1:53.0/500m average

That is 33.1 seconds quicker than the last attempt.

The first rep felt almost suspiciously easy. Smooth, fluid, no wrestling with slides or vintage machinery — just a modern static Model D doing exactly what it was told.

Then, during rep three, Dance Monkey came on.

Which, given the direction this session was heading, felt oddly appropriate.

By that point the whole thing had started to feel a little less like structured training and a little more like Welcome to the Madhouse.

Rep three landed at 1:52.8.

Rep four went to 1:50.7.

Garmin caught the final two reps properly: peak HR 166 bpm, no time in Zone 5, and the rate stayed where it was supposed to.

So the evidence is fairly clear:

More pace. Same rate. Better control.

The frame is built.

Now we raise the roof.

And apparently we dance while doing it.

4 Minutes Hard, Then a Season Best 30

At lunchtime today I finally got the 4-minute piece done on the Model A on slides.

I’d skipped it last night, so there was no real excuse this time.

The plan was simple enough: small warm-up, hit the 4 minutes properly, recover, then grind through a reasonably tough 30r20 afterwards.

The Model A is still taking a little getting used to on slides. The whole thing feels different to a modern RowErg — older, heavier, more mechanical — and I’m still learning how it behaves when the pace changes.

But the 4-minute piece went better than expected.

I’d been thinking somewhere around 1,160m would be a decent target.

I ended up with:

4:00 — 1,180m

1:41.7/500m average

333W average

30spm average

The pacing built nicely too.

30 sec — 1:47.1

1:00 — 1:45.6

1:30 — 1:44.1

2:00 — 1:44.8

2:30 — 1:43.4

3:00 — 1:41.3

3:30 — 1:39.3

4:00 — 1:29.2

So the last 30 seconds turned into a proper sprint.

One strange thing I noticed as the pace dropped towards 1:30 was that the drag suddenly seemed to increase.

I’m not sure whether that’s simply the Model A flywheel behaving differently at higher speed, but it definitely felt like the machine loaded up more as I accelerated.

The other issue was the seat.

There was a bit of bum-shuffling going on because the rollers didn’t feel quite right underneath me, which is not exactly ideal when you’re trying to sprint.

Still, 1,180m was safely over the target and a decent way to get the session started.

After a short recovery and a quick seat adjustment, I got ready for the second part.

The 30r20.

Or at least that was the intention.

The seat adjustment definitely helped, but this time another little problem showed up.

I kept finding myself hitting the front stop on the slides.

That’s something I’ve done before on slides, but it seemed more noticeable during this session. I think the lower rate exposes my technique more because there’s more time on the recovery and I’m still not completely adapted to keeping the whole machine balanced underneath me.

The annoying part was that every time I hit the front, the monitor seemed to count another stroke.

So although I was counting 20 strokes per minute myself, the PM kept recording a higher rate.

I tried dropping to 19 to compensate, but that didn’t really solve anything, so eventually I just stuck with my own count of 20 and concentrated on trying to stop crashing into the front.

Despite all that, the actual row went better than expected.

30:00 — 7,575m

1:58.8/500m average

209W average

And then I realised something afterwards.

That’s a season best for 30 minutes.

My previous best this season was 7,568m, so this sneaked past it by just 7 metres.

Seven metres isn’t exactly a demolition job, but a season best is a season best.

And this one came after already doing a hard 4-minute piece, on a Model A, on slides, while still trying to iron out the technique.

I’ll definitely take that.

The PM5 recorded 634 strokes, which works out at just over 21spm, but I’m fairly confident that the extra counts were coming from the slide impacts rather than me actually rowing at that rate.

The split progression was solid too.

3:45 — 2:01.6

7:30 — 1:59.0

11:15 — 1:59.1

15:00 — 1:59.3

18:45 — 1:59.4

22:30 — 1:59.0

26:15 — 1:58.6

30:00 — 1:54.2

So after a cautious start, it settled into the 1:59 range for most of the piece and then finished strongly.

Heart rate climbed progressively through the session as well, with the later splits getting into the 160s, which was pretty much what I expected after already doing the hard 4-minute piece beforehand.

The interesting part is that the two efforts showed two very different sides of the Model A on slides.

At higher rate, the 4-minute piece actually felt fairly natural once I got going.

At r20, the technique problems became much more obvious.

The lesson is probably that I need to stop trying to control the slides by rate alone and focus more on the recovery — hands away, body over, then let the knees come up smoothly without rushing myself into the front stop.

Still, as a double session, I’m more than happy with it.

4 minutes — 1,180m at 1:41.7

30 minutes — 7,575m at 1:58.8

And a season best by 7 metres.

On a Model A.

On slides.

After a seat adjustment, a few bumps off the front stops, and a bit more learning about how this old machine wants to be rowed.

Not perfect.

But definitely progress.

10k on the Model A ... Sliding All the Way to 35 Million Lifetime Rowing Metres

There are sensible ways to mark a lifetime rowing milestone.

And then there’s putting a Concept2 Model A on slides, doing a 10k on it late at night, and using that to push through 35 million lifetime RowErg metres.

That was tonight’s plan.

Well, eventually.

The Model A itself has a bit of history.

Pamela spotted it on Facebook Marketplace before we flew out to Florida for a family holiday to Disney World. I contacted the seller from Ireland, explained we’d be arriving a couple of weeks later, and she very kindly agreed to hold it for me until we got there.

From the photos, I already knew it wasn’t going to be a pristine collector’s piece. The original seat was missing, with a flat wooden board fitted in its place, and it was obviously going to need a bit of work.

I’d even started planning how to dismantle it for collection.

Then we arrived, picked up our Jeep Wagoneer, and discovered the entire thing fitted in the back in one piece.

So much for that plan. 😆

Getting it home to Ireland was another matter, though, and eventually the Model A was broken down enough to travel back on the passenger flight as carry-on luggage.

Fast-forward to now and the same machine was sitting in the BigShed on a set of Concept2 slides.

Naturally.

A Little MacGyvering

Before the row, there were a few practical issues to sort out.

The monitor attachment needed a bit of improvisation.

The chain-to-handle connection needed some attention too.

And the Model A foot setup is obviously very different to a modern RowErg. The fixed wooden foot blocks meant I had to alter things slightly and, in the end, I went with

Once all that was sorted, I did a short warm-up to get a feel for it.

It definitely felt different.

Older, heavier, more mechanical.

And as for drag factor, well… unlike a modern erg, it’s not exactly a matter of moving a lever and choosing what you want.

You get what the machine gives you.

For the record, the PM5 showed DF 172.

That’s lively enough.

The 10k

Once I settled into the rhythm, though, it actually went pretty well.

10,000m — 39:49.5

1:59.5/500m average

205W average

26 spm average

The first couple of splits were deliberately a bit cautious while I worked out how the machine wanted to be rowed.

Then the pace gradually came down.

Splits

1,250m — 5:07.3 — 2:02.9

2,500m — 5:02.5 — 2:01.0

3,750m — 4:59.0 — 1:59.6

5,000m — 4:59.4 — 1:59.7

6,250m — 4:57.7 — 1:59.0

7,500m — 4:57.9 — 1:59.1

8,750m — 4:57.0 — 1:58.8

10,000m — 4:48.7 — 1:55.4

So it turned into a decent progression, and there was still enough there to finish strongly.

Considering the machine, the setup and the fact I was learning how it felt as I went, I’ll take that.

Another Late One

And yes, this was another late-night row.

By the time I was done, it was basically midnight.

That seems to be becoming a bit of a theme lately.

Work full-time, family first, then fit the rowing in where it fits.

Sometimes that means rowing when sensible people are already thinking about bed.

And, fittingly enough, I’m only actually getting this blog uploaded the following morning. Partly because it was late, and partly because the photos needed a bit of cleaning up before I could use them.

The BigShed is very much a working shed rather than a photography studio, so I tidied the backgrounds on a few of the Model A shots to get rid of some of the surrounding clutter. The machine itself in those images is mostly faithful to the original setup — Model A, slides, wooden foot blocks, PM5 arrangement, chain and all — but the pictures have been cleaned up a little for the blog.

Consider it the Model A after a quick virtual tidy of the shed. 😆

35 Million

The really nice part was what the 10k did to the lifetime total.

It pushed me through:

35,000,000 lifetime RowErg metres.

That’s one of those numbers that is easy to glance at and move on from, but when I actually stop and think about it, it represents a huge amount of time on an erg over the years.

Different machines.

Different sheds.

Different stages of life.

Fast stuff, slow stuff, races, training, comebacks, bad ideas, good ideas, and probably quite a few metres I’d rather forget.

And somehow this milestone arrived on an old Model A, riding on slides, with a PM5 attached by whatever means necessary, loose foot straps, wooden foot blocks and a bit of late-night stubbornness.

Quite fitting, really.

From a Facebook Marketplace advert in Florida...

to the back of a Jeep Wagoneer...

to a passenger flight back to Ireland...

to the BigShed...

to slides...

to a 10k...

and finally to:

35 million lifetime rowing metres.

Not a bad little journey for an old rowing machine.

And not a bad way to get there.

Full Marathon — Ten Years Later, Still Stupid Enough

Then start more like this:

I’m not entirely sure when “maybe I’ll do the 4-minute piece later” turned into “I’ll row a full marathon tonight.”

But apparently it did.

So at 10pm, once work was done, family stuff was sorted and the house was settling down, I got onto the slides in the BigShed and started rowing.

Three hours later:

42,195m — 3:00:19.4

2:08.2/500m

166W average

24 spm

And yes — 19.4 seconds over three hours.

That one is going to annoy me.

The target had become sub-3, but this wasn’t exactly a carefully prepared marathon attempt. There had been no marathon-specific training. Over the previous few days I’d been bouncing around different distances on the slides — 2k, 1k, 500m, one minute, 5k, 6k, half marathon — and then apparently decided the logical next step was 42,195 metres.

At 10 o’clock at night.

Because apparently sensible decisions are overrated.

The First Half Was the Easy Bit

The early running was actually pretty comfortable.

I was sitting mainly around 2:05–2:08 pace, taking drinks from the CamelBak and picking at sweets and flapjack as I went.

The setup worked well. CamelBak beside the erg meant I could drink without properly stopping, and the food was close enough to grab quickly.

Then, somewhere after halfway, the marathon started behaving like a marathon.

The upper back became progressively more sore. Not painful, just deeply tired from repeating the same movement for hours.

The hands started heading toward blisters.

The mat got soaked.

Then the slide trays got soaked.

Then everything got soaked.

By that stage it looked less like an indoor rowing setup and more like someone had tipped a bucket of water over the floor.

The Strange 2:14 Split

There’s one ugly-looking section in the splits:

2:14.2/500m

That wasn’t me blowing up.

I actually jumped off the erg to sort out the shed door and close it properly to keep the noise in.

Because when you’re rowing a marathon around midnight, apparently being considerate to everybody sleeping nearby is still part of the pacing strategy.

The Difficult Bit

The middle-to-late section was where things became uncomfortable.

There were patches around 2:10–2:14, the hands were getting sore, and my upper back had absolutely had enough.

By then, the sensible option would probably have been to stop.

Instead, I kept going.

And if I’m honest, I think it was a combination of stupidness, sheer bloody-mindedness and one little boy’s question in the morning that got me through.

I kept thinking about Adam waking up and asking:

“Did you finish it?”

I really didn’t want the answer to be no.

Somehow, There Was Still a Finish

The surprising bit was that I managed to pick the pace back up again.

The final 5,270m came out at roughly 2:04.9 pace.

After nearly three hours.

That probably pleased me more than anything else about the session.

I hadn’t completely emptied the tank halfway through. There was still enough left to actually finish the thing rather than simply survive it.

Almost Ten Years

Only afterwards did I properly look back at the last time I rowed a full marathon.

19 December 2016.

Almost ten years ago.

That one was:

42,195m — 2:36:24.2

1:51.2/500m

255W average

Obviously a completely different level of performance.

But it was also a different time, a different version of me, and a very different training background.

This one came nearly a decade later, on slides, with no specific marathon preparation, after a normal working day, starting at 10pm because family life comes first.

So I’m not particularly interested in pretending the two performances are comparable.

The interesting bit is that ten years later I was still stupid enough to sit down and do another one.

Done

42,195 metres.

3:00:19.4.

Nineteen seconds away from sub-3.

Hands battered.

Upper back cooked.

Mat soaked.

Slide trays soaked.

Finished just after 1am.

Would I do it again?

Probably.

Which is perhaps the stupidest part of all.

Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable, Again

There are some distances I’ve never particularly liked on the erg.

The 5k and 6k sit firmly in that category.

They’re too long to bluff your way through on power, but short enough that there’s nowhere to hide aerobically. You spend most of the piece knowing exactly how uncomfortable it is, with far too much time left to think about it.

Historically, they’ve never been my strongest events either. Compared with some of my better performances over 2k, 30 minutes, 60 minutes and the longer distances, my 5k and particularly my 6k have always felt a little underwhelming.

So naturally, I decided to do both.

5,000m

The plan beforehand was somewhere around 1:55–1:57 pace, without turning it into an all-out effort.

It came out at:

5,000m — 19:00.0

1:54.0/500m

236W

r28 average

HR 152 average

DF 135

The pacing was remarkably steady, basically sitting around 1:54 for the whole piece before squeezing the final section down to about 1:52.4.

The annoying bit?

The finish screen initially flashed 18:59.

For one glorious moment I thought I’d sneaked under 19 minutes.

Then it rounded up to 19:00.0.

Grr.

Rage Against the Machine provided the soundtrack, which probably explains why the original “controlled 5k” plan quietly disappeared somewhere around halfway.

6,000m

After a decent recovery, I got back on for the 6k.

This one really was supposed to be the controlled piece. Sit around 1:58–2:00, keep the rate sensible, and just get the distance done.

For most of it, that’s exactly what happened.

6,000m — 23:27.8

1:57.3/500m

217W

r26 average

DF 135

The first 5,250m stayed pretty close to 1:58 pace.

Then apparently Rage Against the Machine, Linkin Park and the Red Hot Chili Peppers collectively decided that sensible pacing was no longer required.

The final 750m came down to around 1:50.8 pace.

So much for the gentle finish.

Getting Comfortable Again

What I’m enjoying at the moment is getting reacquainted with that uncomfortable middle ground.

The really short stuff is obvious: go hard, hang on, stop.

The long rows are almost meditative once you settle into them.

But 5k and 6k are different.

They force you to sit with discomfort for long enough that you can’t just ignore it. You have to accept it, control it, and keep rowing anyway.

That’s something I used to be much better at.

And maybe that’s what this little run of different distances on the slides is really doing — not just rebuilding fitness, but rebuilding the ability to be uncomfortable without immediately wanting to back away from it.

Today was 11,000m of proper work across the two pieces.

5k — 19:00.0

6k — 23:27.8

Not spectacular by old standards.

But definitely a step in the right direction.

Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, again.

Reset Button

jumped on the slides at lunchtime with a fairly simple plan: keep the half marathon controlled, sit somewhere around 2:06 pace, and let the stroke rate settle in the low-to-mid 20s.

It ended up coming out a bit quicker than that.

21,097m — 1:27:34.6

2:04.5/500m average

181W average

24 spm average

The pacing was pleasingly steady. Most of the row sat around 2:04–2:05, and I let it come down a little over the final section, with the last chunk averaging about 2:02.4 pace.

What I was happiest with, though, was the heart rate.

Garmin gave me 141 bpm average and 155 max, and the detailed trace was exactly the sort of thing I like to see on a longer row: a quick rise at the start, then a long, gradual climb rather than anything running away from me.

The 10-minute averages were:

124 → 135 → 138 → 142 → 143 → 145 → 146 → 148 → 150

Garmin also had 69% of the row in Zone 2, 15% in Zone 1, 11% in Zone 3, and nothing in Zone 4.

That is probably the bit I find most interesting.

For me, these longer rows often feel like they hit a kind of reset button on the heart rate.

After a run of shorter, harder pieces — 2k, 1k, 500m, one minute — everything can start to feel a little sharp and frantic. Then I sit down for 60–90 minutes, keep the pace sensible, settle into a rhythm, and the whole system seems to calm down again.

I’m not claiming there’s some grand scientific explanation behind that. It’s just something I’ve noticed repeatedly over the years, and today’s HR trace was a pretty good example of it.

I also had the CamelBak set up beside me and took a few pulls around each 5k marker, which worked well. No need to stop, no messing about, just enough to keep things comfortable.

Judging by the state of the seat afterwards, the hydration was probably justified. 😆

So, not a dramatic session.

Just a long, steady half marathon on the slides, a nicely controlled heart-rate trace, and one of those rows that leaves everything feeling a little more settled again.

Testing the Gears

Tonight was less about one big session and more about trying a few different pieces on the slides.

I’m getting more comfortable with them now, so the idea was to see how they felt across a range of distances, rates and power rather than just sitting in steady-state territory.

First up was 1,000m, which came out at 3:21.9 / 1:40.9 pace. The legs felt a bit heavy and the breathing was definitely working, but the pace stayed pretty even and I finished slightly quicker than I started.

After a recovery, I moved down to 500m and hit 1:30.1. That one should probably have sneaked under 1:30 — I had time for one more stroke at the end and somehow just sat there watching the screen instead. Brain fade at exactly the wrong moment.

Then came 1 minute, finishing with 348m at 1:26.2 pace. By that stage the earlier pieces were catching up with me, but there was still enough left to lift the final 20 seconds.

So tonight ended up as:

1,000m — 3:21.9

500m — 1:30.1

1 minute — 348m

A very different session from the longer r20–22 work I’ve been doing lately, and probably exactly what I needed — a chance to feel how the slides behave at higher rates, shorter pieces and different levels of effort.

And by the end of it, yes, I was definitely feeling my age. 😆

Plenty more combinations to try, but that was enough for one night.