March ctc - Bob Spenger memorial row, 5142m from a standing start

[plummy]

Good to hear you are still fighting the fight to get fit again Stan.

19:51.8 Peter - hmm,. I was thinking of not bothering to have another go at this as I was actually quite happy with my time and don't appear to be able to manage more than one quick row a week. Last week it was a 40:09 10k and this Tuesday I fought my way to 7554m for a 30 mins. Given it's 2400m less than 7554 I wonder if I could take the necessary 3.5s/500 off. We'll see I guess

[jolo]

Well done Paul, Stan and Peter. Great efforts =D>

Peter it looks like you may still have a little more in the tank And a whole week left..

[strider77]

Well done Stan and Paul =D> =D>

Peter that is very impressive-well done =D>

I am going to have my one and only go tonight-I am not expecting anywhere near yourself or Dave though

Have been mainly doing long and slow to get some metres in.

[Ian Bee]

After an enforced absence (internet failure and gym equipment oddness....):

Time Meters /500m Watts Cal/Hr s/m 21:00.1 5,142m 2:02.5 190 953 26 4:28.9 1,100m 2:02.2 192 960 25 4:30.3 2,200m 2:02.8 189 950 25 4:30.2 3,300m 2:02.8 189 950 26 4:30.1 4,400m 2:02.7 189 950 26 3:00.7 5,142m 2:01.7 194 967 28

Had I only known one tenth was all it would have taken.....

[strider77]

Well done Ian =D>

Struggled a bit with this, could not match you Peter I am afraid

19:53.6-1:56.1-31

1,100m-1:57.6-30
2,200m-1:57.8-30
3,300m-1:56.4-31
4,400m-1:55.2-32
5,142m-1:52.1-34-Bit of a rally in the last 500

[Grobi]

Ian, one tenth or not, that's still a nice improvement, well done!

Ouch, that was close Alan But don't worry, you still beat Dave (who will be having another go immediately when he reads this).
The stroke rate in the last sector looks quite painful

I just noticed that there are eleven (!) spots between us, although we're only 2.3 seconds apart. The time span between 19:50 and 19:55 seems to be particularly popular in this ctc

[plummy]

How right you were Peter. Well, Tuesday IS training day

That hurt - 19:50.0 (rounded up from 19:49.9 on the PM). Had to back off a tad in the 4th rep again to about 1:57 but was ahead of the curve before that and managed a slight recovery sprint at the end.
The improvements are baby steps - but satisfying ones!

[danfennell]

This was tough (bordering on awful) from start to finish. No way I'm giving it another try.




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[Liefcat]

Well done, Dan Impressive sprint finish

[Tako]

Impressive indeed! Well done!

[Grobi]

No way I'm giving it another try.

I don't think that's necessary anyway, that's already very impressive

Had my sixth go at this last night. I didn't really want to torture myself once again, but Alan (2.3 seconds) and Dave (4.1 seconds) were really close behind me. Don't get me wrong guys, I like you, but I also like my privacy, especially on the ctc table And there was also Joe who was 6.5 seconds (and one boat) ahead of me. Hmmmm.....

Plan was to start out around last time's average (1:55.8 ) for the first three 1100m-sectors, then one second quicker and a decent finish sprint in the final 500m. This is how it went:

1100m / 1:56.0 / 28
2200m / 1:56.0 / 28
3300m / 1:55.7 / 28
4400m / 1:54.6 / 28
5142m / 1:51.3 / 30

Total: 19:42.6 / 1:54.9 / 28

Splits and stroke rate may make it look easy, but I can assure you it wasn't! First 3300m were already tough but I followed my plan to speed up one second in the fourth sector regardlessly. And that's where things were starting to get ugly. With around 4k done I was at 1:55.8 pace, so I "just" had to keep going like that to beat my own time. To beat Joe's time of 19:44.2 I had to match a 1:55.2 pace. Can I get there in the remaining 1100m? Or should I call it a day and enjoy the sunset on the terrace? The room was filled with little green monsters (aka handle down demons) who were whispering in my ear to opt for the latter option. On the other hand I saw a 19:45 as predicted finishing time after a couple of hard strokes. So Joe's time isn't completely out of reach, let's go for it! In the meantime remaining meters were below 1000, that always gives me a little boost motivation wise. Counting down every 250m now with the overall split slightly dropping down to 1:55.5, three more tenths to find. With 500m to go I started counting every 100m, time to open the hurt box! 200m to go, counting strokes now, twenty big ones, still not there, three more - done!

Really happy with my time as you can imagine. When I entered it into the ctc table I noticed that Dave had just beaten my previous time. Sorry Dave you couldn't enjoy your triumph for much longer

[plummy]

Peter - you can go off people you know

Great effort and if it felt anything like as tough as mine did last night, you earned that little lead....grrrr

Well, tomorrow IS Thursday - and training day

[Caratacus]

Dan, that's a nice effort but I kind of hoped you would be faster so I wouldn't have to go again
As it was, your time was tantalisingly within reach so I set aside my planned long slow relaxing row for another assault on the CTC. I don't have your kind of sprint finish in me so had to pick a pace and just live with it for the duration. Turned out ok, was hard but no major demons

[danfennell]

Super job Felton! =D> Glad I provided some inspiration.

My plan was to go a little faster too. The only thing that stood in the way was the 5142m.

Just "one of those days". Felt pretty good in warmup but as soon as I started I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. If there were more days left I probably would have backed off and just salvaged a training row.

[Tako]

Thanks Felton and Dan! With these Impressive results you killed my desire to give the C2CTC another try! Although I have to be honest that it wasn't very strong to start with as my legs feel pretty tired at the end of the 10k Mud Challenge. Planned to do the 25th 10k today.
I will stick to my slow long rows until the world Erg challenge ends. Then hunt the C2CTC and IRL in April before going for Easter vacation.
Then I will try the Pete plan after Madchester to see whether I can close the gap again, because since Felton is fit again I have quite a gap to close.

Peter, thanks for the exiting write up. I had to catch my breath while reading through it

[jolo]

And there was also Joe who was 6.5 seconds (and one boat) ahead of me. Hmmmm..... Total: 19:42.6 / 1:54.9 / 28

I knew you could do it!! Great effort =D>

Having another go Friday......is there anymore left? [-o< Thank you for the challenge this is fun again

[strider77]

Grobi wrote:-
Had my sixth go at this last night. I didn't really want to torture myself once again, but Alan (2.3 seconds) and Dave (4.1 seconds) were really close behind me. Don't get me wrong guys, I like you, but I also like my privacy, especially on the ctc table And there was also Joe who was 6.5 seconds (and one boat) ahead of me. Hmmmm.....

Too good for me Peter very well done- =D>

Great effort from Dave too-you both beat me fair and square this month =D> =D>

Sprints next month however ........

[Wolfmiester]

Brilliant stuff guys (and girls), superb to see you all rising to the challenges laid down =D> =D>

[jolo]

Well done everyone this month. A lot of great efforts. =D>

Had my 3rd go at ctc this morning. Goal was to beat my previous pace of 1:55.2 and maybe Peter's 1:55.0 and if everything went perfect thought I might be able to go <1:54.

During the warmup legs felt dead and my heart rate was spiking. It looked like sub 1:54 probably wasn't going to happen today, figured I better start slow and just concentrate on hitting 1:55's with a final sprint.

1028m / 1:55.6 / 25
2056m / 1:55.0 / 26
3084m / 1:55.2 / 26
4112m / 1:55.1 / 26
5142m / 1:52.2 / 28
total 19:39.0 / 1:54.6 / 26

This hurt just as much as the last time, had to suck it up, close my eyes and sprinted the last 600m for a 5.8 seconds improvement.

[Grobi]

That's a mighty effort Joe, well done! I knew you could beat my time and with all the pain you went through to do so you very well earned it =D>

[plummy]

Well done Joe - this challenge has been a good battle between some close rivals

[Draggon]

While not in the same league as a lot of you animals, I did drop another CTC entry into the hat after PB'ing on the 5k today. Then I went on to PB the 6k by a few seconds and, quite hilariously, PB'ed the 30 Minute row by.... wait for it.... one (1) meter!

I didn't remember what my 30 Min PB was, just knew I was in the neighborhood and running out of gas!

[jolo]

Draggon that's a lot of pb's =D> Congratulations and nice job on he ctc!

[Draggon]

Draggon that's a lot of pb's =D> Congratulations and nice job on he ctc!

Thanks! And to be clear, this was all during the course of a single 30 Minute RowPro session rather than multiple rows. I'm not that much of a glutton for punishment!

[kevboab]

Like Draggon, I am not even close to any of you guys however I started the month @ 22:29.1 and finished the month @ 21:28.6. I wasn't gonna bother having another go at this but i'm glad I did. Took a dip about 2K in when I was sorely tempted to rap it but glad I pushed on to shave a minute off my time. The long rows of mud season seem to have paid off. It doesn't get any easier though that's for sure.