Holiday Challenge / Your December goals

[ArenT]

As per the thread title, just a chance to start a conversation/share any goals over the "holiday" (since for many people, it is actually lots of work, I used to work in the retail industry...) period, and people doing the C2 Holiday Challenge.

So:

1. What is your goal, 100km, 200km...
2. ...or if 200km is far too easy, what is your own custom goal(s)?

Myself:

- Should easily surpass the 200km C2 Holiday Challenge goal
- Aiming to break 500km in total for month of December as I'll have less work hours, so more time to train/rest. (That includes BikeErg, and I'm not talking about dividing that by 2 as per the Holiday Challenge meterage.)
- I'm aiming for 250km on RowErg, 250km on BikeErg, which in practice means about a ratio of 2:1 in time between the two.
- Throw in some SkiErg meters on top! (Maybe even Ski a full marathon, I've done a 1/2 but never a full).

Perhaps on December 24th, row a FULL MARATHON.

Anyone else fancy "joining" me on a full marathon that day, aiming for around 2:10 ish pace. Ian/Iain? I'm not sure how we can make it more virtual, as we're not all on PM5, we're not on EXR Rowing, etc., etc., but it would be nice if we could, for example, setup laptops and stream live video/webcam (with audio switched off, since it'll just be flywheel/music noise anyway), would be very motivational/less boring to row and sweat/suffer together.

I rowed 3:06:31 in 2013, so it'd be nice to get under that and closer to 3 hours. Anyway, pace is largely irrelevant, wouldn't be that much time difference between us all. I remember the biggest challenge when I last did a marathon was sore glutes, last 45 minutes or so felt like an eternity. I'm hoping that this time I have more rowing conditioning developed already. Distance is no doubt a piece of cake for Iain on the basis of his regular Saturday long epic sessions!

[Iain]

I have both kids home and various pre-Christmas chores to do Christmas Eve, so not sure what time I will have available. If I did a FM it would not be all out and I would struggle to get under 3:10 at the moment anyway, more likely 3:20 so that I don't need to take a day or 2 off. FM never "easy". I find carb drinks are a must and appropriate Vaseline (on rib cage) makes a big difference. Also proper nutrition as doing too long after meals can mean going through the wall.

Best of luck all with your various plans.

[Ian Bee]

It's a nice idea (though not necessarily at full pace), but I will be working Christmas eve - or as Mrs B reminds me "I will be logged in" so limited time for a FM.

[strider77]

My goal is to go over 500 000m on the holiday challenge, on this side of the pond I am vying for 3rd place FS with William Konarzewski as Cornel B and Dwayne K have left us in their wake !

[Iain]

Allan, as of now you are second to William although Dwaine hasn't posted his metres for a few days, James has started slower and is below Ian in the challenge. best of luck trying to best William, in the Fall Challenge he was posting 60k on many days!

[strider77]

Thanks Iain,

I don't think William has anything to worry about. I've got a lot of things happening before Christmas so won't be able to maintain this level. I also need to do the CTC which William doen't compete in.

[Mike Channin]

My goal is to hit the 200k mark and get a pin! Has been a bit of a struggle, having been off-form and nursing a fragile back for the last 2 months, but hopefully I'm going to make it.
I did just manage to complete the 2024 Challenge on Row the Distance (2024 miles this calendar year).
I'm hoping to manage a go at the CTC too.
I'm trying to hang on to my top 20 (just) position on the metre board (TM), but it's touch and go....
I have been toying with the idea of trying to crunch out a FM to get some meters down, but it's so hard to find time to fit in such a long single session, and definitely not on Christmas Eve. I'd love to manage a time around 3hrs, but I've not been under 3:09 for quite a few years now. Current form says I should be able to manage 3:08 or maybe less, but the FM is a tricky beast, and much can go awry between 21097m and 42195...

It's an interesting idea to arrange some kind of shared FM torture session. I did actually do an in-person one with Stan and Paul Sims, way back in 2006, which I have good memories of (probably blanked the painful part out, and concentrated on the smiling photo afterwards).

Come January, I will have weight to shift, and may just end up rowing another Crazy Bear (or two).

[fkoene]

Goal was to get that pin as well. Having less time to row than before, busy with other sports and such, still wanterd to get this one. Now I want to set a decent CTC score, but I'm relatively mild for myself as in what a decent score might be.