November proved to be my toughest month since joining Q Power. The list is endless of the ups and downs I had which finished with 2 races as we came to the end of the peak. Looking back through my training diary I noticed the following in the last 4 weeks:-
- 27 scheduled training sessions
- 18 sessions completed
- 12 sessions completed as scheduled
- 6 sessions altered
- 9 sessions missed
Since the Welsh champs 10 days ago I have had a light few days last week, a bit of a social and a few days away from training completely which had been a blessing as it allowed me to forget about rowing for a few days and focus my energy else where – my job! (Although really I am never not thinking about rowing and racing!).
So back into todays session (an altered one at that) I was under instructions to row a 30 minute piece at 75% but with a 1 minute 110% final minute (I need to educate Mr Q that there is no such thing as 110% but there we go).
Took a gentle progressive 2km warm up as the garage temperature was around 5 degrees then cracked on with what turned out to be a lovely row. Nice taking the rate up to 20 which just eased the pressure slightly and felt some nice fluid technique. Went of reasonably hard just shy of 30r20 real time pace and then slowly bled off the pace to keep the HR capped at 75%
As the final minute approached my HR started playing games as the adrenaline was getting me excited and when it hit 1 minute I went flat out keeping the rate around 40. Legs locked in the final strokes and was nice to see HR at 191 on my Suunto (max is 193) which I have not seen in a while.
A steady 2km cool down before finishing up and shutting down ready for tomorrow.
This next phase leading up to the Worlds in Feb 2013 is all about focus and training. Time to forget about racing for a short while and look at quality i.e. not the split! I will pick up this week as per programme and then into next week and back on schedule.
30 minute rate 20
HR capped 75%
ave/500m 1.51.9 (final minute 1.22.6)
‘Success is a journey not a destination’