Reps 33 and 34: I've gone a bit mad?

So, yesterday I rested. I was jaded and just couldn't envisage rowing.

I was still jaded this morning, calves and shoulders in particular were aching dully. At this time I pondered taking advice and not rowing at all.

But, a quiet afternoon ignited my desire to row. The aches had gone and I knew that if I was to succeed in my aim of beating 40 and going for 42k + 195m and a full marathon of sprinting I needed at least one a day for the next 9 days.

So, I warmed up properly and started with a 1:38.2 row to keep up my series of getting faster. Of course I broke this series two days ago, but it is nice to know I can still get faster. 3:16.3 is 6.4 seconds slower than my pb and is getting pretty fast.

I then warmed down, and whilst I did this I hatched a crazy plan. I want to do the Blue Moon on Tuesday but don't want to sprint 1,000m then row 5,000m twice. Why not sprint the first 1,000 of a 5,000? As I rowed the 2,500m recovery row I thought about this. And thought about it. And felt better with each stroke. And decided that doing a 1:40 first half of a 2,000m would be the ideal way to simulate the quick 5,000m row. Also, doing the extra sprint today would allow me a recovery day on Wednesday if needed.

So, off I set for a 2,000m, aiming to finish in sub seven with a 1:39.9 first half and 1:50.1 second half. Why sub-seven? Not sure. I think I just wanted to see how it felt. If I am going to do a 5,000 at pace I might as well make it fast?!

The row was good. The only problem was I forgot to set up 2 x 1,000m splits and instead ended up with 20 x 100m splits which took a bit of calculating at the end to check I had met the target of a sub 3:20 1k. I was pretty sure I had done it and the RowPro file confirmed a 3:19.4 @ 1:39.7.

At the gear change to 1:50 I found I had more than I expected. I never dropped below 1:50 and slowly built to 1:48s. The last 100m was at 1:45s. Awful to say it, but the latter part of the row felt like a hard warm down and I would say it was the easiest sub-seven row I have done. I am not losing weight at all on this regime, but I am certainly getting fitter, and I guess I will be trying for a sub 18 minute row on Tuesday. With a 3:20 first half, this means that the remaining 4,000m needs to be done in 14:40 @ 1:50. After today I reckon that is definitely possible. My PB would mean doing the rest of the row at 1:48. We'll see about that. The way I feel today (pretty euphoric, amazing what a rest does for you) that is not beyond me. No doubt I will eat humble pie.

But to be honest I would like to do a longer row. The sprints are fine but a change is as good as a rest and a long hard row at a less frenetic pace would be a relief.

Metres today: 9,500