Rowing and Running: Parkrun and Outing
This is the first of the posts that I *would* have posted to the "other" blog in the old days, but am now posting here to clear clutter from stoat. But since it is here, I'll warble at more length in a semi-diary type fashion. Prepare for narcissism.
So to begin with, this is my heart rate. Nice, isn't it? I put up the graph because I managed to hit 200, briefly. We (M and I) tried afterwards to surf the web to find out what my rate ought to be, or something. But the advice seems to be: sprint hard and measure your heart rate and that *is* your max. So, OK, that is what mine is (according to Bob, that makes me 20).
This is the Garmin track.
Today was my fourth Parkrun, and a PB of 21:44 (how swiftly one slips into the lingo: PB = Personal Best). Oddly, having started with being obessed by running with the GPS watch, I'm now starting to back away from using it just a little. Because I've learnt that it can't quite cope with the corners in MCP (= Milton Country Park). So I sort of look at the pace at the end of long straights, where possible (in fact that isn't really true, because I can't resist lookng earlier, but it does me no good) when the pace has settled down. And so today I wasn't really sure quite where I stood with respect to my previous PB. I limped out of CSR towards the start, because I have some kind of - well, I don't know what, so I shall call it "groin strain" - a pain between the top of my left thigh and groin, that feels like something has been over-pulled. But by the time I was at the start line I was mostly OK, and during the race I didn't notice. But because of it I wasn't expecting to run well. The first 500 was very fast - oh, hold on, here is a pic:
with a peak below 3:00 mins / km and an average just below 4 (which, though fast for running, I would still consider rubbish for even a 30 min erg avg). After that I faded gently (odd: it felt like far more of a fade) before pulling back for the last km, helped by "Lionel" (I know he was called Lionel, because someone in the crowd shouted "come on Lionel", but I never saw his face) who was behind me; which gave me the heart to push for the line. And when I got there I was considerably surprised to discover that I'd managed 21:44, which is 47 secs better than my previous PB of 22:03 last week. So, onwards and downwards: my ultimate desire is less than 20 mins, but 21 is the next step.
Weather: lovely clear windy cold autumnal morning. A joy to be out in.
After picking up my kit from work, it was into town for the morning outing at 10 am, for which I was a fewminutes late. So running then rowing works.
We were: James T (cox), Paul H (stroke), Dave R, Me, William D, Andi R, Sarah C, Gary D, Michael S (bow) - not entirely sure about the order in the front. And the outing was good: first for a while, but remarkably well balanced (especially on stroke side, since it was, when down, down to bowside). I forgot my rowcoach and forgot James didn't have one, so we got no splits, but aha they are on the GPS, which I was watching as we went along. We had a few brief periods under 4 / km (note that there is a clear calibration difference between GPS and impeller).
Lock-and-a-reach, 12 km (track), then Tishka for breakfast: coffee, baklava, and eggs on tost for me.
So to begin with, this is my heart rate. Nice, isn't it? I put up the graph because I managed to hit 200, briefly. We (M and I) tried afterwards to surf the web to find out what my rate ought to be, or something. But the advice seems to be: sprint hard and measure your heart rate and that *is* your max. So, OK, that is what mine is (according to Bob, that makes me 20).
This is the Garmin track.
Today was my fourth Parkrun, and a PB of 21:44 (how swiftly one slips into the lingo: PB = Personal Best). Oddly, having started with being obessed by running with the GPS watch, I'm now starting to back away from using it just a little. Because I've learnt that it can't quite cope with the corners in MCP (= Milton Country Park). So I sort of look at the pace at the end of long straights, where possible (in fact that isn't really true, because I can't resist lookng earlier, but it does me no good) when the pace has settled down. And so today I wasn't really sure quite where I stood with respect to my previous PB. I limped out of CSR towards the start, because I have some kind of - well, I don't know what, so I shall call it "groin strain" - a pain between the top of my left thigh and groin, that feels like something has been over-pulled. But by the time I was at the start line I was mostly OK, and during the race I didn't notice. But because of it I wasn't expecting to run well. The first 500 was very fast - oh, hold on, here is a pic:
with a peak below 3:00 mins / km and an average just below 4 (which, though fast for running, I would still consider rubbish for even a 30 min erg avg). After that I faded gently (odd: it felt like far more of a fade) before pulling back for the last km, helped by "Lionel" (I know he was called Lionel, because someone in the crowd shouted "come on Lionel", but I never saw his face) who was behind me; which gave me the heart to push for the line. And when I got there I was considerably surprised to discover that I'd managed 21:44, which is 47 secs better than my previous PB of 22:03 last week. So, onwards and downwards: my ultimate desire is less than 20 mins, but 21 is the next step.
Weather: lovely clear windy cold autumnal morning. A joy to be out in.
After picking up my kit from work, it was into town for the morning outing at 10 am, for which I was a fewminutes late. So running then rowing works.
We were: James T (cox), Paul H (stroke), Dave R, Me, William D, Andi R, Sarah C, Gary D, Michael S (bow) - not entirely sure about the order in the front. And the outing was good: first for a while, but remarkably well balanced (especially on stroke side, since it was, when down, down to bowside). I forgot my rowcoach and forgot James didn't have one, so we got no splits, but aha they are on the GPS, which I was watching as we went along. We had a few brief periods under 4 / km (note that there is a clear calibration difference between GPS and impeller).
Lock-and-a-reach, 12 km (track), then Tishka for breakfast: coffee, baklava, and eggs on tost for me.