It is all in the mind...

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Thomas W-P
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It is all in the mind...

Post by Thomas W-P »

I learned a lot about my body on the 5km the other day, and if I transfer that sort of pain to 10km - looking at Paul's times I should be capable of going sub-38 minutes which is well over a minute better than my current time. We'll see. I certainly am fitter and certainly have not tried a long distance for a long time.
Last edited by Thomas W-P on Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Mike Channin »

Hmmm, LOTS of Nonathlon points, then? I sense a 'ringer'!

Seriously, probably best to try something intermediate first (say 30 seconds quicker), just in case it goes wrong. You can always come back and do it again when you have a better idea how it feels.

So, are you saying you're not necessarily fitter - just better at suffering the pain then? A good deal of this sport is definitely in the mind. I've suffered a world of hurt on some of my PBs lately...
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Post by Thomas W-P »

I think it is a bit of both. But I feel that I learned that my body can go longer in more pain than I thought. It is a LOT in the mind for sure.

So, I am not looking forward to it, but I can see I should be able to take chunks out of my longer PBs if I can hack it.

As I say, the 5km taught me a lot. We'll see what I can do on the long ones after BIRC I reckon.
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Paul Victory
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All in the mind?

Post by Paul Victory »

I think that you need to reach to certain level of fitness first. Once you've reached that point, further progress is mainly mind over matter.

A couple of months back, I was definitely in that space. I kept churning out season's bests, even when I wasn't feeling great. I used to just dig in and keep going.

Then I got injured and lost a lot of fitness. I'm currently working my way back, but I'm definitely not fully fit yet; I'd say I'm about 3 to 5 seconds off pace. At present, it's all about getting the conditioning back. Hopefully, in a while it will be back to mind over matter.

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Post by Mike Channin »

Good luck with the comeback Paul - keep letting us know how it's going. Also, have a look at Thomas's Nonathlon challenge on ELM FS Fun - good for when you're back to fitness.

Are you going to BIRC, BTW?
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Post by Paul Victory »

Thanks Mike

I'm not planning to go to the BIRC, but I am hoping to make the IIRC (UCD is only about 4 miles from where I live). Any chance you might come over for it?

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Post by johnglynn »

Mental strength is a huge part of rowing (and I'm guessing all endurance sports ) .
I keep surprising myself how much "pain" (rarely lactic acid based) I can put up with, I keep thinking I've hit my "pain"/time limit and then I increase it again (Of course the "pain"/time is subjective so I could be fooling myself :) ) .

I'm getting tougher and tougher, it's a gradual process though . But keep pushing yourself hard and you'll get tougher and tougher .
Best of luck in your PB attempts and the BIRC .

Best of luck with the recovery Paul, hope your back to normal (or better then normal :) ) pace by the IIRC
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Post by plummy »

Nope - it's all definitely in my back!

Being a good son, I help my dad break up 100 sq ft of 8-10" thick concrete with a sledge hammer over the weekend. Saturday was fine, Sunday "ping" pulled something in my side - still very sore now.

Tried a VERY easy few K last night and although I covered it I think a couple more days off is the solution.

Looks like a slip down the meter board is on the cards (and I'd just got myself in to my highest position)
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All in the mind? Or just sheer lunacy?

Post by Paul Victory »

Having never done more than a half marathon (and only two of those), I decided to try a two hour row tonight.

I deliberately set off at what I thought would be a really comfortable pace (around 2:07/2:08) and stayed around this pace. I have a bit of a head cold right now and this may be one of the reasons why I found it quite a struggle from about forty minutes on.

I figured I was going to struggle to complete two hours and decided to concentrate on completing the next ten minute split. I made it past an hour and then decided I would aim to complete 90 minutes, as this would be my longest ever row.

Having got there, I managed to keep going for the remainder of the two hours, although I struggled (but just about managed) to stay under 2:10 pace. I covered a total distance of 28,251 metres and was like a wet rag when I finished.

I'm not sure I was wise to keep going as I am now feeling totally wrecked and can hardly walk. I hope I haven't done any serious damage, but can't see myself getting back on the erg for a day or two at least.

My question is, should I have bailed when I began to feel really bad or will the experience of keeping going when the going was tough stand to me the next time I feel like giving up?

I would be interested to hear from others who have had similar experiences and whether with hindsight you were glad you kept going or wished you had stopped before doing any damage.

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Post by Stan »

Paul - I have never regretted keeping going when I have wanted to quit - there is a lot of satisfaction in that. On the other hand on those occasions when I have quit I have literally ended up hating myself for it. Well done on the 2 hours - I know how that feels. Perhaps you would like to try 3 hours and join us for the marathon next week. :twisted: :twisted:
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Post by Paul Victory »

Thanks for the encouragement Stan and well done on passing the four million metre mark. I'm just closing in on my first million and hope to get there next week.

I'm feeling a lot better today. Took the dog for a walk and the aches and pains have largely disappeared, My cold also seems to be a lot better - maybe I sweated it out in last night's session.

I agree with your point about hating myself if I give up. That was one of the main things that kept me going.

I'm not sure I'd be able for a marathon next weekend (I'd hate to start one and not finish it), but I'll see how I'm feeling coming up to the weekend. It's a bank holiday in Ireland on Monday 30th, so I guess I'll have plenty of time to recover if I'm feeling tired afterwards. It might also be a good way to complete my first million metres. (As you can see, I'm starting to convince myself that I should go for it).

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Post by johnglynn »

Best of luck Paul if you go for the Marathon

On the rowing extremely hard/long and feeling terrible afterwards, I've done this a good few times, and I have felt very bad afterwards, but after a few days, weeks I'm faster then I was before.

With the overload principal (where your muscles etc improve by overloading them) I think almost always the weak point is the mind . Except for the very elite (olympic grade)

Recovery is very important though, you should not really row any 30K's in the week before the Marathon, and in the 2 days before your attempt, have very light rows (or maybe even no row the day before) , this will allow your muscles to have bigger glycogen reserves which will mean you hit "The Wall" later, or don't hit it at all.

Note this comes from someone who has yet to complete a Marathon yet :roll: .

By the way your rowing your first 1 million meters and you've 8306 Nonatlon points :shock: , I've done about 3 million and am now much much faster then when I hit would have hit my first million . Excellent job
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