5k PB without reserve gas tank

The 5k isn’t a distance I row frequently. I live in a country where all the endurance tests are a 6k. There is always more reason to do a 6k, and the 5k seems too close to do a separate attempt. One could then also do a 7k or a 4k or a 3245m row and keep records of personal best times.

But the 5k is on the list of nonathlon events, so once a winter I row it. And because it is this month’s Cross Team Challenge, I had to do it in January. And because I will be out of town for business for the rest of the week, I had to do it today.

I wasn’t sure about the strategy. My PB was 18:26 and I feel I can go faster. On the other hand, I spent a lot of time snow shoveling and speed skating over the weekend, so I guess my reserves are quite depleted. I decided to aim for a PB anyway, and the plan was to negative split to something between 18:16 and 18:26.

I set up pace boats at 1:50 pace (18:20), 1:51 (18:30) and a final, slow one at 1:52 pace (18:40) to have something to keep behind me in case I would go bust. That’s how certain I was.

Ended up rowing a length behind the fast pace boat, a length ahead of the second one. Tried to create light between me and the 1:51 boat and not lose too much on the 1:50 one. The plan was to then push on the gas in  the last 1500m and get the average down to close to 1:50, row right through and finish a bow ball in front of him.

Reality was different. With 1500m to go I started to push, then with 1000m to go I couldn’t hold 1:49 and started to see the occasional 1:52. I decided to back down a bit and just stay ahead of the 1:51 pace boat. With 500m to go the predicted end time was oscillating between 18:25 and 18:26. That gave me enough energy to push at least a bit and get 18:24 on the predicted end time.

Workout Summary - Jan 26, 2016
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|05000|18:24.9|01:50.5|259.5|27.0|175.7|183.0|10.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments
01|00500|01:50.7|01:50.7|257.9|26.6|151.7|169.0|10.2|
02|00500|01:51.0|01:51.0|256.1|26.0|170.1|172.0|10.4|
03|00500|01:50.6|01:50.6|258.9|26.6|174.2|176.0|10.2|
04|00500|01:50.6|01:50.6|258.5|26.6|176.3|178.0|10.2|
05|00500|01:50.0|01:50.0|262.6|26.7|178.5|181.0|10.2|
06|00500|01:50.4|01:50.4|259.9|26.6|179.8|181.0|10.2|
07|00500|01:50.3|01:50.3|261.1|27.2|180.5|181.0|10.0|
08|00500|01:49.7|01:49.7|265.3|27.4|181.2|182.0|10.0|
09|00500|01:51.0|01:51.0|256.2|27.6|181.8|183.0|09.8|
10|00500|01:50.6|01:50.6|258.7|28.8|181.6|183.0|09.4|


In the first graph you can see very well the short pace dips around 11 and 13 minutes. That is a sign of trouble.

Happy with the result. Still believe I can go faster when well rested, but I will leave it at this attempt.

Romana registered me for a 2k erg race coming Saturday. I will be up against our club’s fastest Masters rower. He rowed a 6:20.5 2k in December and wants to repeat it now that he is 50, to set a new Czech record for the 50-59 category. I will be flying home on Friday after a week in Brussels, so we’ll see what the 2k brings me.