Anyone had any SEASON's bests recently?

[spidermac]

Plummy 8s improvement on 1k - very impressive a return to form.
Alan that looks VERY painful!!!

[strider77]

Thanks Plummy and Spider, still trying to calibrate my pacemaker ! The Fall Challenge gave me a "Base" to work from, onwards and upwards !

[plummy]

I've got a lot of holidays to use up so I'm off today, tomorrow and Monday. As its the works xmas do tonight time won't be on my side so I decided to have a row in the middle of the day for a change. I tend to set for 5k and almost always fail (took me 3 separate goes on Tuesday just to get to 5k total because my cardio is so bad) but today I went off steadier and used every distraction antic I could think of to not quit and managed to take 17.1s off my previous SB - so now 22:12.0 (hardly anything to write home about but at least it's some level of progress). Started at 22spm, then 3 lots of 1k at 23 spm and the last 1k at 24spm.

[plummy]

Yet again failed to get to 5km with a HD but felt I was at least well warmed up to attack my "softer than a soft thing" 500m SB. It was more protection and fear of hurting my back that's stopped me pushing the pace but that recent minute plus the fact that my 1k pace was a 5s faster split than my 500m made me thing that this must be in the bag bar injury. Turned out to be the case so 2:05.5 became 1:53.3 now. Next stop <1:50...

[Iain]

That's a huge chunk Plummy although still some way from 1:50. What rating did you use?

[plummy]

That's a huge chunk Plummy although still some way from 1:50. What rating did you use?

Thanks Iain. Had to go and look that up - it was 31spm average.

[strider77]

Well done on your 500m SB Dave, more to come I suspect !!

[plummy]

For the Jan CTC I did a short (500m) warm up for a change as I think just jumping on the machine has been my downfall for quite some time. Managed to take another 7s off my SB, down to 22:05.0 ( @ 23SPM average ). Looking back, this is only 11s slower than my best since May 2023!

[Mike Channin]

ALWAYS warm up. Especially as you get older. All of my on-the-machine injuries in the last 10 years have been the result of not warming up (except one, where I somehow pulled something at 2k to go on a HM).

I confess that I tend to do relatively light warm-ups compared to some, but I will still make sure the muscles are turning and warmed up, and most definitely before attempting anything fast/maximal, as would be needed for an SB (which brings us back to the topic!)

Warming up is probably a subject worthy of its own thread!

I'd also extoll the virtues of cooling down by some light paddling _after_ a major session too - definitely improves recovery.

[Mike Channin]

Today’s FM counts as a token SB, as my only previous entry this season was a slow one. That said, there have been plenty of seasons where I didn’t do a marathon at all..

42,195 3:13:47.5 2:17.7

[strider77]

Well rowed Mike !

[Ian Bee]

Nice one Mike

[Iain]

The idea of adding in an FM after consecutive HMs for so long is incredibly impressive

[Mike Channin]

The idea of adding in an FM after consecutive HMs for so long is incredibly impressive

Or possibly just a bit stupid.
There was method in the madness, in that I get the Continuous Crazy Bear finished a day earlier!
And it keeps the Meterboard interesting and helps the January Revolutions Team Challenge too.
(And there's not many days where I'm the one who logged the most distance on the Meterboard either!)
Anyway, I think I got away with it, so onward and upward.

I _did_ get off and think that the idea of getting back on and repeating it three hours later was not something I could have faced, let alone doing this for ~ 4 days. You're still WAY ahead in the bravery/stupidity stakes from my point of view

[Iain]

Not intending on doing more than at most HM in one go for that very reason!

[Mike Channin]

Got a SB yesterday on the 5k.

[Mike Channin]

SB on the HM. Wasn't expecting this - target was first 15k @2:00, but once I realised it was on, I wasn't going to let it go.

[Ian Bee]

Well done Mike - particularly on the last c400m!

[plummy]

Lovely HM - great work Mike!

[Mike Channin]

Lovely HM - great work Mike!

Thank you, sir! How are you doing at the moment? Hope your long-term injuries are improving...

Another SB today - target was my (weak) 15,261m hour; form predictor from the HM said it was on, and the TLDR is that it was, and I managed it with 15,383m. Done as the first hour of the daily HM, so I had 5.7k to cool down afterwards... (Details on the CB thread)

[plummy]

New (still not fast...but faster) SB for 500m. Was 1:53.3 and now 1:50.0. Despite my desperate attempt to get to 1:49.x and the PM initially showing 1:49.9 the bugger rounded up to 1:50.0. Oh well, progress of sorts.
I probably should have tried this on fresher legs rather than 3rd day in a row of training.

[strider77]

Nice HM and hour Season's Bests Mike, that last split of 1:36.2 on the HM was insane

Well done on the 500m Season's Best Dave that's quite an improvement

[Mike Channin]

Yesterday was my (54th) birthday, so I had another go at cracking the sub 3hr FM for the first time since 2012.
I had a pace-test partial attempt last week, and came up short. The pace test went really well up to 28k (managing to steady-state at 2:07 while still staying comfortably in recovery HR zone), but by 30k I was shot and had to stop for a drink/seat-pad and then row in at a more conservative pace, coming in just under 3:04.
Given how the previous attempt had gone, and how far from the end I'd been, I didn't expect this one to be much better. (I'd usually say you need to reach 80% on the pace test to have a reasonable chance of toughing it out on the attempt, but it gets harder with the long stuff, as things like soreness, hydration and energy supply can also derail you.)
I considered not bothering, and just rowing out a conservative FM, but then decided 'where's the fun in that?', and elected to have a go just to see how far off I was.
One thing I had done differently was made a more concerted effort to make sure I ate plenty the day before.

Set off, and the HR was maybe a touch higher than the previous attempt, but this made sense as I was feeling nervous and was also tending to micro-analyse the little aches and discomforts, knowing that these gradually build up over the distance until they can become barriers to continuing. I think I was up to nearly 40mins in before I properly got into the 'flow' and the HR dropped back and the distance started to fly past more easily. Reached half way and things were still going well. Got near the 28k point and finally got a clear sign that this was actually going better and I was going to get past 30k. I had a super stretch target of somewhere in 2:57.x (more on this later), and realised I was going to have to push harder to have any chance of that, so I upped the pace to see how it went. Immediately I could feel the difference and went through a minor crisis of confidence that I was pushing my luck and likely to fail the sub-3hr, but carried on and hoped I'd have time to adjust if I did run out of steam.

The whole of the run in was a progressive increase, watching the predicted time coming down from 2:58.x into the 2:57s, and then dropping gradually. All the time I was trying to feel how much reserve I had, and very aware that I was risking a burn-out. But then you think, 'Well, I don't want to have to repeat all of this effort again, just to be back here, so let's push on and see if I can hang on'. All the same, it was kind-of nerve-wracking as I had no idea if it was all going to go wrong... HR was climbing noticeably, and I remember trying to ignore the idea when I saw it hitting 170..

I knew my super-stretch target was low 2:57.x but not exactly where (which is a sign of how little confidence I had in needing to know - I hadn't bothered to check as I didn't expect it to matter).
Was having to really open up, and there was a very interesting point in the last 1k where I was pulling down into the 1:57s and below and I could feel that my quads were very close to cramping up, and I had to adapt the stroke slightly to take the pressure off. Managed a pretty reasonable sprint for the end, and then it was all over.

Looked up and I had just missed getting under 2:57 (no surprise as I was miles off (20s+) until quite close to the end) - 2:57:03.2
Managed to crawl through a much needed cool-down to clear out some of the fatigue.
But it was done, clear SB by nearly 7 minutes, and the fastest I'd been since 2012 (and the second fastest since 2006). Yay!

[Ian Bee]

Excellent work Mike - clearly shows your CV engine is in top condition.

[Mike Channin]

Now, about that super-stretch target. I've been admiring the achievements of some of our legendary Free Spirits, and my plan was to see if I could emulate some of their achievements at my age.
It started with me looking at the Nonathlon and wondering how much harder it has got over the years, and noting that the amazing Paul Victory was a 53H in 2006, when I was setting most of my PBs. So my first targets were to see if I could match any of his times (and long-story short, his times are amazing, and I'm generally a long way off them). I'd also then noticed that my meter-board nemesis, Alan, had a good set of similar PBs again set in his 50's, that gave me a second set to aim at. (For the record, Paul V. has even better PB's set in his early 60's, but that's a level that I doubt that I can reach).

Anyway, I knew both PV and Alan had sub 3hr FMs, and I knew one of them was low 2:57, but not where.
So, when I checked later, I found it was Alan's time, and it was 2:57:03.3.

Yes, check that again. After nearly three hours of rowing, and pretty much turning myself inside out on the final hour's push, I'd managed to achieve my target by the smallest possible margin - 0.1s!!!
Now, the GREAT thing about this, is that you then realise that every single ounce of pain that you went through was absolutely necessary because otherwise I'd have fallen short.
So managing to match one of my heroes meant the piece was all the better, and makes up for the fact I'm sat on a pile of cushions today. (The consequences of pushing hard for an hour when your butt is already suffering from 2 hours in the saddle is not ideal...)

(This is probably where Alan tells me it's a typo and he was faster)