Free Spirits Rowing

Hi everybody,

team The Diamonds have decided on the February ctc:

„The Diamonds have concluded their poll and decided on the February CTC:

All the 60's
Row 12 x 60 secs - 60 secs rest between each.
With 5 making up a boat that makes 60 x 60 secs in total.

First rep from a standing start, others as you like.“

Certainly looks like fun

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Any ideas on pacing? 10 x is around 1k pace, but personally I find each extra interval makes a big difference as the rest is insufficient to recover and I badly underestimated this with the 1' rest this month!

Just found Monday morning session.

Hi Iain,

Good question and as Plummy had a go yesterday hopefully he'll have the answer. My current guesstimates are...

1. A recent 6x1.5mins r1 was @1:38.3. As it's the end of each interval that's tough and with the benefit of rolling starts I wonder if reducing to 1min and doubling the intervals might be similar.

2. I looked at some of the times this month and noticed a guy called Adam Eshborn posted a pace of 1:39.6 which is close to my 1k time. Last month his pace was 1:42.5 compared to my 1:40.4. If I apply that difference of 2.1 to this months challenge then I should aim for 1:37.5.

There are loads of reasons why these could be totally wrong but I'm currently thinking 1-2s faster than 1k. My best recent 1k is 1:39.5 so maybe I'll aim for 1:38.

PS I reserve the right to rapidly backtrack if it turns out I'm being wildly optimistic!

I used a 20 x 300m I did a few weeks ago as a guide when I managed 1:51.4 average, basically assuming I "ought" to be able to go a tad quicker than that. Worked out to be true.
My mistake was to start with 271, 272, 273, 274 on the first 4 reps so my OCD head decided (even though I knew it was a bit insane) to try and go 1m quicker for every rep. Didn't quite manage that as I jumped 2m on rep 7 and 2m more on 9. Last rep was my best at 285m - there was NOTHING in the tank at the end.

Of course, June's CTC. How could I forget! Your pace @1:48.6 is an impressive 2.8s faster . Not sure I can match that improvement which would mean 1:36.7. As always the only real way to find out is to give it a go which hopefully I will do this week.

Here we go again. I got home from a tricky day and decided to take things out on the erg. No point doing the C2CTC yet I thought, not until Plummy has put in a time to chase. How wrong was I. The gauntlet was already tossed and laying in front of me.

I had intended to use a derivative of my current 2k time as a marker, but no need now. I saw Iain's comment about 1k pace below, but that sounded very optimistic to me. Maybe 2k - 5? That would have been 1:47. Off I set in pursuit of Mr Plumb at a pace of 1:46.8.

Time Meters Pace Watts S/M HR
1:00.0 286m 1:44.8 303 32 163 - Fell straight in to the "This is going to be easier than I imagined" trap. Why don't I learn?
1:00.0 285m 1:45.2 300 30 170 - Already slowing down, but if I can keep it here I am doing ok.
1:00.0 283m 1:46.0 294 30 173 - Ah, yes I remember now. It always feels easy at the start. The voices in my head have now started.
1:00.0 281m 1:46.7 288 31 173
1:00.0 278m 1:47.9 279 30 172 - Starting to feel a bit resigned. Managing to keep HR steady but losing pace each interval
1:00.0 276m 1:48.6 273 30 173
1:00.0 278m 1:47.9 279 31 176 - HR rising and Plummy disappearing over the horizon. My average must be drifting up rapidly now.
1:00.0 284m 1:45.6 297 31 180 - HR up and up. I'm not going to finish at this rate. Just chill and accept that at least you will put a time in
1:00.0 283m 1:46.0 294 31 181
1:00.0 276m 1:48.6 273 31 177 - NO!!!! Red Hot Chilli Peppers decide to play a ballad at this point on my rowing sound track. Doomed
1:00.0 281m 1:46.7 288 31 181
1:00.0 282m 1:46.3 291 31 182 - Sigh. Oh well, nothing in the tank for the last interval.

But hold on, to my surprise I averaged 1:46.8, exactly the same as Plummy! I banged in the distance to see who would pip the other on the leader board, only to realise I had been chasing the wrong time! I had mixed up the digits in my head. Plummy was 1:48.6, not 1:46.8.

Plummy. I toss back the gauntlet. There's plenty of the month left sir. There are only 5 strokes between us (roughly!)

By the way, in terms of pace I ended up 6 seconds faster than my 2k pace, if that helps.

ha ha, very well done Jon!

It hurts. This might well be my one and only attempt on this one. I was hoping for a 1:40 pace and I finished more than a second faster so what more is there to wish for , with the IRL 2K also on my list...
Everey rep at least 300 meters and the last one the fastest along with the third one, quite happy with it.

Jon, Great rowing and a great write up
Jason, That looks like a rather impressive pace for a rate capped 22 spm effort
Fred, You are setting the bar rather high

Thanks Max. . Decided to go again after 8 hours of overtime. Must have been trying hard my throat is burning.

ouch, didn't like that.
Thought I'd be able to give Fred a run for his money but after only 3 reps at 1:39 I slowed right down.
Finished with 3544 @ 1:41.5 ave.
Will probably leave it there. Well done Fred .
Nice on Jase @R23/24

Had a go today. Haven't done any erg training in the last year so not sure what to expect.

3308m / 1:48.8 Better than expected. Lungs were killing me but everything else felt good.

fantastic rows so far...my legst felt fresh this morning...so I decided for a go. Couldn't hold my desired pace of 1:36.5 over the whole piece...but happy with it as I didn't rowed any anaerobic workouts the past few weeks.

the splits:

Some great rows so far, well done everybody for getting a score done for the team!

had my first go at this last night. My back is fine again but nevertheless I decided to start gently and see how it feels, before deciding on speeding up or not. This is how it went:

First rep felt fine so I decided to increase my pace gradually from rep to rep. Not really fast compared to some other rows here but it was kind of fun (fun in a way only rowers understand ). Might have another go

Second go at hthis for me last night with the simple goal to beat every rep of last time's try. This is how it went:

Really pleased with this, not only because of an improvement by 34m or 1.1 second in pace, also my back was holding up nicely. Enjoying my short lived seat in FS III for now

great row Peter...congrats for doing this month ctc twice...I won't do it another time...

Peter, Great improvement and good to see 6 boats afloat this month.

This month's challenge sounded like it would be tough and it didn't disappoint. I wondered if it was possible to match Claudius's 1:37.3 but that thought did not last long! The first 2 intervals were tough and then I messed up the start to the third. Decided to slow down slightly and managed to get some decent consistency over the middle intervals. My legs were starting to go with 4 left so it was a case of avoiding blowing up and seeing what was left at the end. Just managed 1:38.0 which was the pace I targeted at the start of the month. So pretty happy with that .

So good to see so many boats full of Free Spirits floating

As for me I had a go on the 29th, but aborted after 5th rep feeling very dizzy for like 5 secs. Got a call today from the hospital that there was an incident with NSVT for about 10 secs, but the ICD quickly took over control with burstpace (like a policecar taking over a fleeing car). Will have a new Echo done in the near future - no CTCs for me until then... Good thing that the ICD was working and that I didn´t faint (otherwise I would have gotten a 3 months ban from driving)

Liefcat wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2020 11:58 am So good to see so many boats full of Free Spirits floating

As for me I had a go on the 29th, but aborted after 5th rep feeling very dizzy for like 5 secs. Got a call today from the hospital that there was an incident with NSVT for about 10 secs, but the ICD quickly took over control with burstpace (like a policecar taking over a fleeing car). Will have a new Echo done in the near future - no CTCs for me until then... Good thing that the ICD was working and that I didn´t faint (otherwise I would have gotten a 3 months ban from driving)

Yikes. Hope the break from the CTCs helps with a speedy recovery.

Thx, Jon!

Yes, I think and feel that the non-ctc mode is best for me at the moment! Might get back on the train in April... But we'll see...

Sounds like a plan Eric, stay healthy!