New Personal Best! Brag About That New Pb!

gliderguy · Post by **gliderguy** » March 30th, 2008, 5:09 pm

I'm not too worried about bragging. I don't think anyone really cares much about my times. It's just kind of fun to get a little acknowledgement of progress made... particularly for a newbie !

With that in mind

500m 1:35.9

IIRC that's about 1.5 seconds faster than before. This was at a drag factor of 155 which is the highest I've used. I think I need to take another crack at 2k.

Carl Henrik · Post by **Carl Henrik** » March 31st, 2008, 8:57 am

I think we all know that bragging on this thread or other where appropriate is a good thing. It's fun and motivating for all.

If the guy in the link doesn't want bragging in his blog comments that's another thing. He is the dog there as he puts it. Not here. As for his race strategy I can only stretch myself to see it suitable for getting people with some specific mindset or work ethic through a 2k. Since the strategy doesn't promote maximum erg performance from a physiological viewpoint I recommend not adapting the strategy nor any mindset for which the strategy would be optimal assuming you want to erg to your potential.

ps
Boats don't make notes

Also congrats michaelB. 1k PB attempts tend to come few and years apart here too...

niall · Post by **niall** » April 9th, 2008, 8:21 am

Well, for a change I've got something to shout about, a HM PB!!!.

I didn't have any chance to do any rowing before work or at lunchtime so I decided to get my 20K daily allocation done in one fell swoop and do a HM. In terms of target, I was looking at around 2:04 pace as I really didn't see I was in any way close to PB form.

I set off quite quickly but this was intentional as I wanted to build up some contingency (yeh, I know, not the ideal "race plan") and then settle into 2:05 in the middle and hopefully finish well.

Was very pleased with the first split of 1:59.5 so then took the foot off the peddle a bit. Was probably getting a little too comfortable in this middle section and lost concentration and focus on the stroke. As a result the stroke got sloppy. Around the halfway mark my shoulder started hurting and this resulted in further slowness (2:07-2:10 pace)

. I even comtemplated stopping at 10K and making the session a 2x10K row to give my shoulder a rest. As I'd set out to do a HM though I decided stopping wasn't an option and I would just do it!! Approaching the 50mins mark the average pace had dropped to around 2:04 so I dug in and started to focus more to see if I could get it below 2:04 for the hour. Went through the hour with an average of 2:03.7 and was pleased with that. Having dug in the stroke felt fluid, strong and surprisingly easy. I was pulling 2:00-2:02 but it didn't feel that fast. So decided to try and maintain this pace through to the end.

With 4K to go my legs were really struggling so I had to back off to 2:03-2:04 pace. Even at this point there was no thought of a PB (to be honest I thought my PB was faster and all I wanted to do now was do the fastest HM I could). Having given my legs a bit of a rest, thoughts of a good solid finish returned with 2K to go so I engaged the legs more and dropped the pace to 2:01-2:02. Not wanting to kick home too early and die, I left it until 250m to go to really push it. So with 250m to go I upped the rate to about r28-r30 and watched the pace quicken...1:57....1:55...1:53...1:50...1:48...1:48...1:47...and I'm home!! I checked the monitor and saw the reading 1:26:29.1 / 2:02.9. I suddenly thought that was close to my PB w=so scrambled to my PC to check my logbooks. Sure enough my previous fastest HM was in October 2004 and I'd beaten it by 15secs (0.4secs/500m). FANTASTIC!!

Here's the detail:

(Previous PB info is in red)

21097m
1:26:29.1 (2:02.9) r24 1:26:44.0 (2:03.3) r26
Splits:
1:59.5 r24 2:01.9 r24
2:05.0 r24 2:03.4 r25
2:07.1 r24 2:03.6 r26
2:01.7 r26 2:04.5 r27
2:01.4 r26 2:04.5 r28

Not only is it a PB by 15 seconds but my previous PB was done at r26 (this one was r24) so much better power per stroke. What I'm most thrilled about is that when I did my previous HM PB, this was a period when I did PBs at 2K (7:08.9), 5K (18:48), 10K (38:46) and 60mins (15100m). While I don't think I'm ready to attack these PBs, I think it's a great platform to launch from. Just thinking that I could improve on these PBs from 2004 gets me very excited. And who said you're passed your best once you get into your 40s!!

I'm ecstatic!!!!

Bob S. · Post by **Bob S.** » April 9th, 2008, 11:20 am

niall wrote:Well, for a change I've got something to shout about, a HM PB!!!.

Congratulations, Niall! And thanks for a great report.

Bob S.

DavidA · Post by **DavidA** » April 9th, 2008, 3:31 pm

Niall,
Congratulations on a terrific PB!

When I have gotten better times they are also often 'out of the blue' like that.

David

johnlvs2run · Post by **johnlvs2run** » April 9th, 2008, 6:50 pm

Congratulations, Niall.

Your story is motivating to me.

Carl Henrik wrote:I think we all know that bragging on this thread or other where appropriate is a good thing. It's fun and motivating for all.

If the guy in the link doesn't want bragging in his blog comments that's another thing.

I agree. Any good coach would be happy with people's accomplishments.

Sounds like some sad person who has no business being in coaching.

PaulG · Post by **PaulG** » April 13th, 2008, 10:10 am

OK, so 7:29 PB in the 2K by a 51 YO male may not be noteworthy, but my previous PB was 7:43. That's a 14 second drop in 3.5 months. It's amazing what hard work will accomplish. Next stop will be a sub 7:15, but I suspect the next 15 seconds will come a lot harder.

That 5k time has to come down also.

BrianStaff · Post by **BrianStaff** » April 18th, 2008, 1:32 pm

8 weeks today since I first sat on an ERG. I'm about to go out of town for 5 days so I thought I'd go for 2000m PB.
Well, I did it - 8'14.5" which beat my previous by 22 seconds. I know that's not a great time by the standards on this forum, but it's BIG step forward for me at 63, who has done very little exercise for 8 years.

I was trying to beat my 16 yr old daughter who pulled 8' 00.3" on just her 3rd attempt a week ago. I guess I'll just have to kiss that goal goodbye, as she is likely to improve at a much quicker rate than me now.

Ah well!

Brian

RowtheRockies · Post by **RowtheRockies** » April 18th, 2008, 3:12 pm

Brian,

Very nice improvement on your 2K!

Rich

yahooyellow · Post by **yahooyellow** » April 19th, 2008, 1:06 pm

took the pr on the 2k down 12 seconds, just pulled a 6:40.5

PaulG · Post by **PaulG** » April 19th, 2008, 5:41 pm

Just broke 20 mins at 5K with a 19:50.2 effort. Again, nothing especially noteworthy about that for a 51 YO male, but a few months ago I was at 20:33.6. Prior to that I didn't think it was possible for me to break 20 minutes. These are the rewarding times when you are erging because in the early phases of training you can show rapid improvement. Now it's on to 19:30 and my 10k time looks pretty soft.

TabbRows · Post by **TabbRows** » April 26th, 2008, 1:29 pm

1st Marathon! 3:05:16 !!!

2:11.7, 153w, 22 spm average. No HR as chest strap on blitz

Reasonably even splits on a 5K basis, 2:11.6-2:12.2 holding 21-23 spm.
Last 2,195 in 9:21.3.

Nothing fancy, just steady pacing with tap water every 20 min. and 1/2-3/4 packet of GU gel every 40 min. Took sip of water at 3:00:00 and picked it up overe the last 1200 or so. 2:05-2:07 25spm. surprised I still had that in me!!

Fellow OTW crew member pulling along side me did 3:15:55!! We've got the starboard side covered!

Eddie Fletcher's MT Program works!!!

Carl Henrik · Post by **Carl Henrik** » April 28th, 2008, 4:41 pm

Today I did a 500m pb attempt, looking for a ranking top spot.

There is actually no standard set for what is required for a lwt ranking piece.

The weigh in
I planned to film my weigh in as proof of weight. It proved difficult though as holding the mobile weight tipped total weight just over the 75kg mark. Luckily two club rowers came in from the water so I did a witnessed weigh in just below 75kg.

After 1.5 hours of rest I warmed up and set a Low Pull PB as lwt of 1:13

The target time
Current ranking top spot was 1:24.2 which seemed a little too fast. My goal was to better my PB of 1:24.9 and based on training to realistically do 1:24.7 or better.

The race:
I don't remember the first pulls since I was fully focused on driving hard and then rushing back, on body control and performing rather than on monitoring. I think the start went ok though. I got down rather far, to 1:16s and 1:17s, and stayed there one stroke too many I think.

I tried to restrain myself to 1:22s and 1:23s but did not fully succeed as my gradual intensity reduction set me at 1:20s and 1:21:s. I reinitiated a decreasing process but this time it got me too far, to 1:25s and 1:24s. I struggled a bit to get it to 1:24:s and eventually a few 1:23s as well.

The PM4 memory said 43 spm for first 100m so rate was probably around 48-50 for the starting burst since I rememeber seeing 39s as I settled down.

After that I kept 39 spm all through the race, seeing 1:24s steadily up until 300m. I was worried I would soon fade rapidly as I did not feel very strong when I passed the 200m mark. Doing "only" 1:24s between the 200 to 300 mark probably saved me though. The body felt "responsive" all the way through to 60 meters left where it rather quickly started to "say no". Especially the legs were refusing to accept my neuorological commands and my strokes dropped to 1:27 and even a 1:28 at the end. I also forgot to try to go for higher rate the last 100m instead I just tried to maintain pressure.

Result
1:24.4 in one field of the display and 1:24.5 in the other. The PM memory said 1:24.5 though so that's the official time.

Discussion
In hindsight I speculate the race was not ideal considering that I used a rate lower than at my last pb (39 vs 40 spm) and my legs also were the body part to feel most taxed. A slightly shorter leg drive and higher spm would probably have distributed the effort better. That and a little better control of pace at the start and rate at the finish would be realistic and beneficial. All in all I'm quite pleased with this PB though. Half a second off a 500 PB is substantial. Like 2 secs off a 2k, or even slightly more.

michaelb · Post by **michaelb** » April 28th, 2008, 5:13 pm

That is a great row, Carl, wow. Did you adjust the drag at all or was this your normal drag (and what is that?). I am at a loss as to how best to pace a 500. It seems like you started really fast, tried to hold back in the middle, and then faded at the end (which coincidently seems to be how I have paced my 500s). It is hard to balance how much to hold back and how fast to go out, but it seems like you were pretty wiped out at the end, so maybe you got that pretty close to right?

In these short rows, the start can really be critical. Not to take anything at all away from your row, but the top spot 1:24.2 appears to be a race result, which would suggest that person could go even faster if they did this on their own. You are at the top of your age group ranking so take a lot of pride at least in that.

Carl Henrik · Post by **Carl Henrik** » April 28th, 2008, 6:24 pm

Thanks Michael!

I adjusted my drag for this one. I used a higher damper setting than my longer rows >= 1k. I have been using a high DS or DF for 500m specific trainings though to get habituated. My last PB was also on high DS.

I didn't care about the specific DF though, I just wanted something high, but saved some. The 500m is quick and dirty in many ways. I used DS 9. I did my 1:13 on this 9 during warm up to get used to the feel. The aerobic part of the warm up was on a 4 though.

There has been many reasons for high DS for short sprints discussed and I actually did some estimations that showed that during short rows there is actually a decent sized fraction of your total energy ouput remaining in the fly wheel rotation. With a high DF this lost energy fraction will be less. For very short rows a tenth of a second or more can be gained for sure due to this reason alone.

A noticeable "die" at the end of short sprints is also not as bad as during longer distances, it could even be considered good. The die actually gives back of the energy you previously invested in flywheel speed. This energy you did not get paid for in dissipation/pace until the die. And since a larger part of total work is returned in short rows than in long ones the strategy will be relatively more efficient over short distances.

These are just some "erg internal" reasons why I strategized and set it up as i did, but I feel these are not enough recognized, if at all.

"It is hard to balance how much to hold back and how fast to go out, but it seems like you were pretty wiped out at the end, so maybe you got that pretty close to right?"
Yes, it is hard, and I think I got a reasonable die but like I discussed I think I could have grown a larger oxygen debt in my hip and back by shortening the slide, and I also could have had a more smooth and efficient 50-150m passage.

As for race results, RACE don't necessarily make you slower if you know to time the start. In my experience you can start pulling before the "go" and the software wont detect it any quicker than if you do a time trial on just the PM. Instead, the race atmosphere, and a coach behind you, might make you quicker

Anyhow, 1:24.2 is a very good time. And it seems to be legit...even though it does say he comes from bluff ...