Headed over to Cardiff yesterday which is rocking with this evening's rugby international - and the WIRC were held today at the Channel View Centre - 20 ergs set up on their indoor football (soccer) pitch:
As my first race meeting I have nothing to compare this to, but it was a really well run event with a very friendly and encouraging atmosphere. 20min cycle for start times of the 2k races, they did a great job of essentially sticking to time, and there were plenty of warm up ergs.
I arrived in good time for weigh-in (71.35kg in shoes and hoodie), and to see a few of the races before mine, but given the first announcement I heard over the PA was asking people not to be sick in the urinals perhaps should have arrived a few minutes later!
But the main thing for me was how anxious I was - I honestly cannot remember the last time I was so nervous. I knew I was going to be 20 odd seconds off the winner and don’t think I would have cared if I came last, so I really think the anxiety was my concern about how much the race itself would hurt and how horrid I would feel afterwards (last 2k TT was just over 2 months ago). I’d drunk some coffee this morning but hadn’t been able to eat anything, and even though my final time wasn’t that much slower than indicated by a range of predictors like my sprint interval times and non-2k PBs, I do think I had used up a decent chunk of my nervous energy before the race start actually arrived.
My optimistic plan was to do 800m@1:46, 600m@1:45, 400m@1:44 and 200m@1:43, hoping that if I couldn’t stick with that I could hold 1:46 with enough faster strokes to at least go under 7:04.
I was pretty happy with how I started, didn’t get carried away and settled into 1:45/1:46 after only a half a dozen or so strokes, but I certainly did cop a bit of a whack from the reaction time - my average/500m was 2:5x.x after the first couple of strokes, and did seem to take a lot longer to get down towards 1:46 than I’d have liked. Felt okay going through 1000m, but didn’t manage to speed up to the extent I’d have liked, and did start to hurt. I didn’t even think to check the memory for the splits afterwards, I reckon the lowest I got the average was 1:45.7 or 1:45.8 which was with about 500m to go, but by that stage I was really struggling and started not even holding onto 1:46s, I think my final 500m was 1:48.x or 1:49.x, had no meaningful sprint, and really did suck pretty bad.
I was sitting between the guys who came 2nd and 3rd.
I was at least able to stand up and walk away from the erg at the end, but felt horrible afterwards for a fair while, and am still pretty whacked now several hour later.
But having said all that, as much as it hurt, as bad as I felt afterwards, and despite being slightly disappointed with the time, on the whole this was a really positive experience. As I mentioned earlier the atmosphere was really encouraging, I’m am very happy with the effort I invested even considering the fade at the end, I know I won’t be as anxious next time, it’s still the second fastest 2k I’ve ever done, and the cumulative effects of the consistent rowing I’ve done over the last 8 or so months has me about as healthy and fit as I’ve ever been.
It also helps to remember the best piece of advice I was given in the lead up to this (by G-dub) which was ‘pat yourself on the back and have a laugh for spending time in the [train] to go sit on a piece of stationary equipment for about 7 minute with other crazy people who are doing the same.’
I hung around and watched a few other races, saw a couple of British records beaten and a 6:08 in the Men's Open, probably the only other disappointing thing about the day was the number of empty ergs (up to 8 or 10 out of the 20 being used in couple of races) - would have been even more exciting and potentially with some faster times with a full field.
Really looking forward to BRIC now in a couple of weeks - bring it on!
The time is not good enough 
If anyone does watch that video I'm the bearded chap in the green shirt in the front row.
