Didn't feel great when I woke up today... bit bunged up, and spent most of the morning in bed. Determined to have another go at the CTC though, so dragged myself to the gym at about 4:30.

One of the ergs wasn't working... battery flat... again! Happened to the other one about two weeks ago. Complained about it, but just got fobbed off with a "we don't have any spare batteries at the moment". I mean, come on, it's not like they're a special kind... how hard is it to keep a few size D batteries lying around for when they're needed? Jeez.

Luckily it wasn't very busy. 2K warm up at just under 2:00 pace. Settled in for the 10K, bit slower than yesterday (about 1:50 split - 36:40 target). Going fine until 3.5K, then all of a sudden felt really sick, and started retching. Eased off and carried on to 4K, but it wasn't getting any better, so I quit again.

Felt a bit better after some water and a breather, but still a little bit iffy, so thought I'd better not give it another go. Gentle 2K warm down (7:53.2 - exact same time as the warm up), and that was it. Hope I'm not sickening for something... maybe it was too soon after (a late) lunch.

Metres: 8000
Alcohol: 0 (Sunday), 5 (Sat evening)

This morning was supposed to be the September CTC attempt. Arrived at the gym soon after 8am. 2K warm up at pretty much 2:00 felt okay... DF a bit low (gym machines need a clean) so upped it a bit (to about 140) before beginning the 10K.

Felt fine to start with: 7:13.5 first 2K, 7:16.5 second - on target for 36:15. Getting a bit warm (aircon in the gym always seems to be on a low setting first thing, until it gets busier), but nothing worse. Passed the 4K mark and then just stopped... no mental debate or anything - just handled down.

Annoyed with myself, I took a rest, then thought that if I just wasn't feeling like doing a long row I'd at least try and salvage something from the session, and have a go at my 500m PB. First 200m in 34.0s, then with the splits showing 1:23 and expected time still 1:24 (and my PB is only 1:27.1) I mentally quit again. Next few strokes weren't fully committed, and then I handled down. Arse.

2K warm down and I'd had enough. Felt fine physically, but mentally just didn't seem to be there at all today. No good explanation for this... some possible reasons (or maybe contributing factors):
1. Morning row... can't even remember when I've set a PB in the morning. Possibly my marathon PB in April, but that's slightly different (and I normally start erging later when at home, around 9:30-10:00).
2. Not quite enough sleep (averaging about 6-7 hours recently).
3. Not enough long hard rows recently - all those 4Ks may be good AT training, but they don't prepare you mentally for a middle or longer distance PB attempt.

Metres: 8272
Alcohol: 0 (so far)

No training today - resting ready for CTC attempt in the morning. Hectic day at work anyway, and realised just now that I barely drank any water all day, so likely to be a bit dehydrated. Not the best way to approach a PB attempt.

Watched the rugby this evening: thought England played pretty decently after a slightly subdued start. Quarter-finals looks like being the end of the road though - can't see us beating the Aussies again. Wish I was the size of Martin Corry - erging would be so much easier.

Metres: 0
Alcohol: 5 (could have been worse!)

So, I haven't done a CTC attempt for September (10k) yet, and time is fast running out. Saturday morning is looking like the best bet... the gym's normally quite quiet first thing, so I'm not going to get complaints about hogging one of the (only two) ergs, and as I didn't go tonight and not planning on going tomorrow either, I should be full of energy.

The dilemma is what to aim for however. I've been feeling so good this last week or so that I think I ought to be making it a PB attempt (currently 36:10.0) and hopefully sub-36, but I don't want to risk blowing up. This is going to be my only go at it, and I need to make sure of getting a sub-36:50 (I think) to break up our two LWTs in FS II and float another boat.

Will probably wait until Saturday morning and decide during the warm-up. At the moment, I'm inclined to play it slightly safe - start at 1:49s and see if there's anything extra after halfway.

Team meal at lunchtime to celebrate the latest release of the software didn't help the alcohol count for today, though that wasn't the only offender. Oops.

Metres: 0
Alcohol: 9

Hit the gym just after 6:30pm. Not so busy tonight, and no-one around thinking they're quick enough to try and race me, so I almost managed to do a session according to plan, which was a little 5 x 4K pyramid - planned pacing of 1:54, 1:52, 1:50, 1:50-something depending how I feel and 2:0-something warm down.

15:07.1 (1:53.4)
14:48.2 (1:51.0)
14:23.4 (1:47.9)
15:00.8 (1:52.6)
15:52.5 (1:59.1)

Rests about 5 minutes. Biceps felt a bit tight for the first two pieces, then loosened up. Thought I'd pushed a little too hard in the middle piece (sub 3:40 for each of the first 3K, just sub 3:30 in the 4th), and expected to feel a real lactic burn in the fourth, but felt really comfortable pulling 1:54s most of the way, with a half-decent 500m sprint finish. Now (an hour or so later) I barely even feel like I've done a session today, so I'm going to have to start pushing a lot harder. Sub-14 should be on the cards for the middle piece.

Metres: 20,000
Alcohol: 0

Having a chat to Thomas on the forum a little earlier, I was telling him about some of my plans for the next six months or so. My current contract should finish just before Christmas, and the first few months of next year are definitely going to be a break from work, and a whole lot of erging and chess.

First of all, to see 2008 in with a bang, I'm going to try and outdo Mike Channin, and do 50K a day for more than seven days running, the aim being to go for an entire fortnight. No firm party plans for New Year yet, but no guarantees that something won't come along either... so this might have to start a little later than January 1st, depending on how much alcohol gets consumed.

Following that, I'll be off to Gibraltar at the end of January for a big chess tournament (the Gibtelecom Masters). The venue is the Caleta Hotel, and, as I already discovered when surfing to check out the most important details, their website lists their leisure facilities, including the fact that their gym has C2s, so I'm not going to miss out on training!

I'm also planning to do a 24-hour erg, probably in mid to late February. This will be for charity (even I'm not mad enough to do one of these just for the hell of it), and I'll be aiming for at least 240km. This is going to take some serious organization however, and I'll need to find some interested people as a support team. Somewhere between now and then, I need to find time to do another 100km row, to see whether I can break 7 hours, and to give me a better idea of what I might be able to achieve in the 24-hour row.

Nice (though only supermarket, not the real thing) Indian meal tonight with lots of naan bread and extra bits and pieces - about 2000 calories. Gym tomorrow evening.

Metres: 0
Alcohol: 5 (the remainder of that Wolf Blass yellow label Chardonnay from Sunday)

Gym this evening after work. Busy as usual for a weekday evening (and Mondays seem to be particularly bad), so having to keep my pieces to 4K maximum to stay within or around the 15 minute rule.

Warm up piece, 4K. Too fast as usual - started at about 1:54. And of course, I'm 1K in and a really big guy sits down next to me, obviously spoiling for a race. Sets up for 1500m and off he goes... rubbish technique, but by sheer size alone he's pulling 1:51s, and looking like he might even manage to keep it around that.

Never one to decline a challenge, I drop my split to 1:46. He tries to respond, but 1:50 seems to be about his limit. I stick at it until he's got maybe 300m left, then open up and show him what sub 1:30 looks like. He doesn't even try for the sprint on seeing that, and hurriedly departs after finishing with about a 1:53 average. I'm down to about 1K by this point, and just ease off a little to the finish with 1:47s. 14:20.6 (1:47.6). Hmm... some "warm-up"!

Little breather and water break, and I decide to try and test my stroke power a little in the second piece - 3K r24. Really don't enjoy this one, but 11:17.3 (1:52.9) is quite okay by my standards, and wasn't maximal. Can feel my forearms tightening up after this one though, so take a little loosener - 3K in 11:24.9 (1:54.1) with the first 2K probably done at about 1:57 pace.

Switched back to 4K again for the next piece and upped the pace a little: 15:04.0 (1:53.0). Another hard 3K: 11:09.3 (1:51.6), and finally a 3K warm down: 12:14.5 (2:02.4). All in all, a decent set of pieces, and didn't feel any effects from Saturday's row.

Metres: 20,000
Alcohol: 0 (good!)

I've been totally useless when it comes to blogging so far. My main problem being that I've only blogged when I think I have a statement to make rather than just making it a diary. So today I've decided to relaunch my blog, with the firm intention of trying to make it a daily event to write something, even on days when I don't train. Let's see how long that lasts!

So, the reason for the restart: I noticed on the C2 site today (Sunday) that my entry for BIRC has been received, so my race debut is scheduled for exactly eight weeks time. Gulp! My recent(ish) 6:44.5 (at probably 95% effort and 90% health) should however give me reasonable grounds for optimism that I can break 6:40 (which I've put as my expected time) on the day, and maybe even get close to my 6:36.3 PB.

No erging today. My 10 x 5000m yesterday was quite enough for the weekend, and while I felt okay and could have erged, my biceps and quads were a little sore, and I'd a dull ache on the inside of my left knee (old injury - dodgy ligament - hard sessions tend to have this effect).

One thing I thought I should do is analyse my strengths and weaknesses as an erger, as they stand at the moment:

Positives:
1. Excellent CV fitness. If the metres I did in the last year have given me anything, then this is it. Sub 1:57 FM and 1:52 HM paces show that.

Negatives:
1. Poor upper body strength. It's embarrassing just how few press-ups I can do. I hate doing weights, especially in the gym. This is something I'm going to need to work on at some point, both weights and high DF, low SPM erg sessions, but probably not before BIRC.
2. No organised training regime. I just do whatever I feel like (or what I can manage given the time constraints available) once I get to the gym, without either being aware of what kind of training I should be doing, or worrying about it overmuch.
3. Minimal technical knowledge. I've only received specific erging coaching once in my life (from Thomas W-P) and never really read anything on it. I've only just started reading the C2 forums on this subject.
4. A liking for too much alcohol. I know it affects performance, both short and long-term, but I like a glass of wine or three. So to try and shame myself into drinking less, I'm going to record in the blog how much I drink as well as what training I do.

Hmm... lots of negatives there, and not many positives.

Metres: 0
Alcohol: 8 (2 bottles of San Miguel during the rugby, 1/2 bottle of Wolf Blass yellow label Chardonnay with dinner)