Adding Speed, Part II

And still struggling. After blowing up on my planned interval session a week ago I managed a marginally better workout this week. I'd planned 4-5 800m pieces at a rate (a guess) faster than 5K race pace. I rowed 4, and got progressively slower despite a 2 minute recovery:

2:46.4
2:46.6
2:47.4
2:48.6

The total workout, with warm up and down, was 5.5K. The HR capped out at about 145 during the hard bits. I'll do better next week.

Yesterday it was sunny and warmer than is typical (mid-30s F) and Scott and I logged a 7 mile out-and-back on the roads. 30:33 on the out (HR 119), 28:42 (121) back. It was a good workout and gave me 79.3K on the week.

Foolishness

There is a Japanese expression that is translated roughly as "one who never climbs Mount Fuji is a fool, and one who climbs twice is twice the fool."

That's the way I'm feeling about the rowing marathon. I'll do it once but it'll be pretty easy to carry out a vow of "never again". That said, I woke up this morning pleasantly sore all over (how's that for masochism?). There's no part of my body that hurts as much as the legs the morning after a long run but since rowing works virtually every muscle in the body, there's no part that is immune either.

It's flirting with the freezing mark out there and predicted to rise above freezing. The sun is out. I'm looking forward to running outdoors for an hour or so later this morning.

Going Long

Well the good news is that I got through it: 25K in 1:38:56.7. That's my longest row ever and it caps off my longest rowing week in recent memory: 60K, almost 4 hours on the rower. With yesterday's 8K run and a planned 12K run tomorrow, I'll log a healthy 80K week.

The row was tough, though, in a way that long runs in the build up phase are--they just kind of gang up on you towards the end. The last half hour of this piece was a real challenge and my pace slowed significantly. The issues were not aerobic fitness, rather they were muscular. My power was sapped and the butt/low back pain was nasty (not unlike the leg pounding I've experienced in marathon training and racing).

I took 5K splits initially, and drank gatorade every 5K. I cut the last 5K in half and took a couple of pettau splits, I just needed to shorten my horizon at that point of the row.

1st 5K 19:35 116
2nd 5K 19:42 124
3rd 5K 19:35 126
4th 5K 19:47 126

then a 10:16 pettau (20:32 5K pace) at 123. I followed this with a 10:06 in 123. What a struggle!

Next week I'll add a pettau (27.5K total), and experiment with some bubble wrap on the seat to help with the butt pain. I need to find a bar with hard barstools, so I can train off the machine.

I'm looking forward to a day off from rowing and to my run in the morning. I hope that the weather is condusive to running outdoors.

Reflections

2007 didn't go quite as planned. I got reasonably fit in the middle of the year and then suffered from a malaise (both physical and spiritual in origin) that knocked me a bit off kilter. I'm feeling pretty good now though. I'm not quite ready to put my 2008 goals in writing but here are a few things I'm considering:

1. 3600 Kilometers (running and rowing) for the year. That's 300K per month. I feel that if I hit this goal, fitness will follow. I'm not completely sold on the fact that weight loss will follow, however.

2. Row an April marathon in 2:49:37. This was Mike McKenna's Boston Marathon qulaifying time at the Casco Bay Marathon in 1982. He needed to run 2:50 to get in, and he did. I ran 3:10:06 that year, with his help and advice. A 2:49:37 row would be a very tough but attainable goal.

3. Train for and run a road race a month, 5 to 10K in distance (inclusive) between May and November (inclusive).

4. Start a Portland-based running group modeled after Namban Rengo.

5. Learn to drink bad beer. This is a financially driven goal. There is a lot of cheap bad beer around. If I switched to drink primarily bad beer I would save money and, I believe, drink less, because of the reduced enjoyment. I would therefore lose weight because I've recently learned that beer actually contains calories. So there are incentives for this goal but it is drastic. I need to think about it more.

Training Like a Marathoner

After the holiday break (2 days) I hit the machine hard on Wednesday and Thursday. Specifically, I rowed 20K in 1:18:18 and then followed it up with a 15K row on Thursday in 58:33. I don't think I need to extend my midweek long row any longer than 20K. I also feel that if I can consistently follow up the next day with an hour row (15K or so), I'll be in good shape. I'd like to add some short intervals (30 seconds or so) to the one hour piece. Monday will be long interval day. Saturday is long row day (capping at a couple of 36K rows). The other days, like today, I run. Today was 8K on the treadmill, starting slowly but running most of the second half at 5:00 per K pace. 43:30 total.

So, tomorrow is the monster: 25k. No excuses. I'll report back after it is done.

Oh yeah, I completed the Holiday Challenge (200K between Thanksgiving and Christmas) and received my certificate.

A Holiday

It's Christmas eve day, also known as Sarah's birthday in our house. I'm going to take a 2 day holiday from running and rowing. I did manage 5K on the treadmill yesterday, which brought me to 67K (total) for the week. I'll be back in that range this week.

It was warm and rainy yesterday and we had quite a bit of snow meltage. The winter view looked a little different this morning.

The Long Row, Shortened

I bailed out of a planned 25K row after 15.5K. It was a really uncomfortable, slow slog from the get-go. My HR was higher than usual despite rowing slower than usual. My butt is abrazed again and my low back really hurt. The 5:00 alarm was really harsh after having lifted quite a few pints to my departed friend Mark the night (and into the morning) before. With my regular gyn closed I had to go to my back up gym, and they don't maintain the machines well.

So, enough whining (whining would've been really offensive to Mark). I'll run on the treadmill tomorrow to cap a decent workout week, and then get back to the back up gym for a Monday row.

1st pettau 10:08 HR 111
2nd 9:56 124
3rd 9:56 127
4th 9:56 129
5th 9:55 130
6th 10:13 125

and a final 500m in 2:00 to get to 50K for the week.