Free Spirits Rowing

Cheers Dave

I will try to do one every other day in the week and 2 at weekends so next one Friday am for me then Sat and Sun yikes

Can´t keep up with you guys...

My 3rd done today: 1:26:44.4, not sure how many I will end up with...

All of this talk of half marathons has gotten me jealous. I looked at my typical steady state session and saw that it was about 20km, so I decided to just extend that a bit and do HMs instead.

For my standard endurance training session, I usually do 4x20'/1' rests, so I have just been setting up a hm on the monitor, and then keeping track of it in my head as I go along. I paddle through the rests, and end up with a bit extra at the end to paddle through as well. I've done three of them that way so far, plus one more focused effort (1:23:33).

As I thought about it, I decided that I could even adapt standard interval workouts this way. For example, for a 4x2000/5' rest workout. I could do
- 5097m warmup
- 4 x (2000 work / 1000 rest) (12000m)
- 4000 cool down
viola! a half marathon.

I'm thinking of it a polarized version of the crazy bear challenge. Maybe the Polar bear challenge?

Knocked out #6 today but this was a struggle. I tend to train on Saturday and Sunday but I can usually easily tailor the Sunday session to how I feel after the Saturday but with a HM I'm kinda stuck. Going slow has appeal but adds time to an already time intensive piece so I try and keep around 90 minutes. Two of these back to back really flattens my batteries!

Anyhoo - 6 done

#5 for me today. It was a tough one. Very close to my limits.

1:21:38.8 (1:56.1 pace)

It destroyed me. More than an hour with my HR above 165.

The depressing bit is that it's still almost 3 splits slower than my PB. Tomorrow I go back to slow and controlled HMs.

Good idea Greg-well done =D>


Well done Dave on # 6 =D>

Like you I am struggling managed to bang out #6 on Sunday but it was really hard work, I rowed it with my sometime rowing buddy and it nearly killed him !

Day off today and back on it tomorrow

First erg piece since October 25. First HM in a year. The house looks quite nice thanks to an extra week of Procrastinatory Cleaning. and an early start on holiday lights =D> and some gardening.

Pulled up a recent addition to Amazon Prime movies -- A Brilliant Young Mind -- about a math whiz kid.

And off I went. Thought about meters as little as possible. Noted the 10k to go mark with relief. Ahhhhh the 9,000s. The movie wasnt fully absorbing but not bad, and had an unusual soundtrack. Hadn't contemplated what it's like to do math in Chinese... that part was cool.

Final pace 2:26.6, ~1h43. More importantly, no blisters, no painful reminders of injuries past.

Don't think 30 is in the cards, but pleased to have gotten this one done.

Barb: Welcome to the fun. With Amazon Prime, you'll have a lot of distracting movies to keep you going. I agree with your thought about the PM ticking down to 999xm. Until then HMs seem endless, after that, the end is (distantly) in sight and getting closer.

I did #6 this morning and boy was it a slog.

Good to see you back in the swing Barb well done =D>

#7 this morning. Even worse than yesterday. I feel really drained. I suspect I am still feeling the after effects from Sunday's all out effort.

Hard to keep up with all the great rowing here!

Good job everybody: Strider, Barbara, Dave, Erik, Greg, and anybody else I've missed!



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CamiCrew wrote:Wow - there is a race for half marathons?!... I can't think of anywhere in the US that I'd find people racing an HM together, or at least not on my coast.

Barbara -- Last April, I contacted the guy who runs the Crossfit C2 competition in San Luis Obispo and asked if he was interested in creating a HM event this year.

His reply:

We have never done that before, so: Heck Yeah!!!
If you want to pull a HM, keep me posted, and we will set you up.
We hold the event the first full weekend in January.

I am far from being able to compete at that distance... but if you wanted to enter, I'd enter too, so you wouldn't be lonely.

Zoot that's the funniest thing I've heard all week. But I'm not doing it unless Greg flies over and enters it with us. Ha!

CamiCrew wrote:Zoot that's the funniest thing I've heard all week. But I'm not doing it unless Greg flies over and enters it with us. Ha!

CamiCrew wrote:Zoot that's the funniest thing I've heard all week. But I'm not doing it unless Greg flies over and enters it with us. Ha!

What if I flew over and did it with you ? - would that work?

Greg I feel your pain my Sunday row was like that

Thanks for the kind comments Zoot

#8 a little quicker this time got into a rhythm after 10k reached in a slow 42:10 and it flowed for a nice change in the second half

1:28:14.3-2:05.4-25 using DF125

Great going everyone. I had been thinking about doing this, but maybe next year? I'll try to get at least one or two done before the challenge ends.

plummy wrote:What if I flew over and did it with you? - would that work?

Uhhhhh Zoot now we're in deep weeds. Come on over Dave, that part sounds fantastic!

Alan you're sailing through, great job!

Paul glad to see you enjoying Alvor.

Cheers! Long holiday weekend ahead for us. Working today but should be able to sneak in another HM.

CamiCrew wrote:

plummy wrote:What if I flew over and did it with you? - would that work?

Uhhhhh Zoot now we're in deep weeds. Come on over Dave, that part sounds fantastic!

I'm in if you guys are in!

Couldn't resist joining the Crazy Bear challenge
Just finished my 4th since the start of the challenge. My 6th ever.
Today I even managed to improve my PB to 1:26:57,3 (2:03.6)

Hi! This is awesome. I am very much enjoying doing this with a bunch of other folks.
Tako: glad you're joining in.
Zoot: I don't think I can swing a transcontinental jaunt to grind away for an hour and a half. But I have to admit it's a bit tempting. I might accidentally need to go see a customer out in San Diego that week.
Paul: Come on in the rowing is fine!

Today was a bit of an adventure. I wanted to squeeze a sprint workout into a HM, so this is what I did.

• Fletcher warmup. 20 minutes, usually comes in just over 5000m. This gets me to ~16070m.
  paddle until I get to 15750
  8 x 750m/750m rest. so, 15×750 is 11250 (leaving off the last rest), which takes me down to 4500m
  paddle down to 4000m
  happy ending cool down. 1000m at 2:00, then 2:05, then 2:10, then 2:15

The sprints were brutal. My legs were very empty from lifting weights yesterday. But that's HM number 7. When I was doing the cool down, I noticed that I could arrange it to finish exactly at 1:30:00. I missed it by a tenth.

I'm taking tomorrow off.

Thanks Barbara, I am not sure sailing through is the right expression my butt does not agree with you

Glad you can join us Tako well done on the PB =D>

Well done Greg =D>

Did #9 today a bit slower but getting into a sort of rhythm not sure I could do it the way you do Greg ?

21,097m -1:29:43.6-2:07.5-25 using DF 120

Although physically very tough it's a great group of supportive rowers to help get through the "grind" of knocking these out.

We are by now likely at a collective 400 x HMs and we are only into the 15th day. Last year the total was 767 so 1000+ is well on the cards.

HM#2 done last night before dinner - watched a movie and found myself distracted throughout by phone calls & texting regarding the upcoming dinner plan... muddled through at a slower than target 1h47 @ 2:33.1.

Went to sign up for HM#3 online this morning and realized the row I thought was coming up in an hour was starting in 9 minutes. Skipped the coffee, swapped PJs for erg shorts, top, shoes, fumbled to get headset & iPod connected. RowPro then froze so I had to reboot -- skated in to the session with exactly 1 min to the start.

Very enjoyable row with Annette, Eva, and Annabel (her 1st HM i think). We four stuck together for a 1h44 @ 2:28.8

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0
(for easy reference )

Glad you joined in Tako!

Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating!

Well done, everyone! =D> =D> =D>

Tako -- good to see you joining the fun! And congratulations on your new PB!
Greg -- mighty-fine workouts and a nice twist on 'bi-polar' training.
Alan -- looks like you're settling into nice rhythm.
Barb -- 2 HM in 2 days! I think you'll do very well come Jan 7th!

You all look like you're having so much fun; I want to play too!

Started off at a 2:23 pace, but stopped after 1 hour. Yesterday was a very hard lower-body weight session, followed by 1/2 hr on the treadmill. The 2:23 pace seemed right, except I felt very sluggish and my elbow was slightly tender. I decided to stop early and see how I feel the next two days. If all goes well, I'll try the HM again on Sunday afternoon. (The 60-min ended up as a SB, 12,584m)

After reading Alan's post, I realized my df was still at 130. I usually use 115 for-120 for longer rows. I'm sure that didn't help my legs any.

Cheers,

You are really a bunch of Crazy (Polar) Bears. It's fun to read this. I know there is a HM and FM erg race somewhere in the South of the Netherlands if anyone is interested. At least there used to be one.