Rep 38: 3:19.6 @ 1:38.8 - proving very tough

It has been getting harder recently - here is a post from freespiritsrowing.com:

Well, I am sitting here at the erg after a 2k warm up and now know one thing for sure. I am not mentally tough enough to do the 42. I said 40, 40's the target and 40 is what I will do.

I know this because as warming up I was pondering whether 42 was truly feasible. Given that I waled out here yawning and I could barely hold a 2:15 at a heart rate of 130 I think I have my answer. So, the rest of the time I was wondering how to get to Tuesday in the best possible shape for a PB given the state I am in right now. I have not really talked about the state my body is in because I'm such a hypochondriac that as soon as I admit it I'm done for. But now the floodgates have opened, lets see:

• My calves are sore and feel crampy all the time
• My shoulders are tight most of the time
• I am too tired to interact with the family properly
• I have not marked for a week (yay!)
• I dread coming out to row now - my metres are very low and I am very unlikely to reach my personal target of hitting 5 million lifetime before I am 40. I have about 24k to go on that.
• I am avoiding the booze at the moment!!!

All that has kept me going is donations. someone at work handed me a £10 note today, and it looks like my little form have raised £50 odd selling biscuits and popcorn the darlings. I have £100+ pledged so get ever nearer to the £1,000.
So, how to get to Tuesday in a position to row 1:34.9/3:09.8 (or better) for a 1k. Sadly I realise that the best thing to do is to do one tonight (38) one on Saturday morning (39) and save the last row for Tuesday 27th.

Then I rowed:

Small bonus on the metres front. So knackered yesterday I clearly forgot to upload the metres I rowed. So a bonus 5k.

The row was, er, not fun.

I have found starting off very hard in the last few days (strength waning?) so I lowered the drag to 118 (usually 125ish) and aimed to rate high (in the 30s). This was a good plan...for the firrst 500m. Getting to 500m was tough, and I was truly struggling at this point. The 1:39.9 pace boat started baring down on me. I was not sure I could hold it off since I had little to dig in with. I got there but not by much and could not have held on much longer.

Lifetime metres now 4,984,010 so I might make it after all with a slow stretch out tomorrow.

So, I am struggling. I need rest and more rest. No row tomorrow, one on Saturday morning and then a long rest before the final PB attempt on Tuesday night.

Metres today: 5,032