RePost: Not the Crash B’s but I will Take It!

My Finishing Time!

While I have done the Crash B’s(World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston) the past ten years, this year I missed registration deadline. Darn It! I could have braved this winter storm and traveled to Boston to race in the Bullpen but that would have meant registering onsite at 7:30 and waiting until 12 to erg, then the two hour ride home in the snow storm. This event has been an off season training goal to compliment my other off season workouts. For me, paddling is year around, so the Concept 2 allows some high intensity interval work and a way to measure where I am in my training compared to previous years. The Erg tells no lies! So after paddling yesterday for seven miles with two 1.5 mile intervals, I got up today and gave it a go in my Basement. I warmed up for 1o minutes on the erg, got off, had a sip of water, and got in game mode! This year I have spent less time on the erg, but the times I have been on it felt really good. My goal was to break 7:30. I am happy to report I did a 7:29.9! That time and heart rate tells me, my winter training is going well. Over the past years if I clocked a 7:25-7:35 two weeks before the Crash B’s, I felt confident I could do my normal 7.18-7:21 at the Crash B’s which I have done the last five years with a personal best of 7:07 years ago.

What was different about today was normally at the Crash’Bs, the temperature is a 70 degrees while my basement is 55 degrees. For the past few years, Chris Chappell has been my coxswain, but this morning my dog Daisy was present. My dry mouth was non-existent, unlike at the Crash’B’s where my mouth goes dry around the 1500m mark. My HR was actually lower than most 2K Time Trials which says I am in better shape and also I was tired from yesterday. However, my recovery time was good since I ran three miles on the treadmill after a five minute break from the tt while watching the 2010 Surf ski Champs from Rambo’s Video Locker.

While I missed the excitement of the Crash B’s and seeing my buds there, I will take it. Looking forward to the upcoming SurfskiRacing.com racing season and more!

My Heart Rate via my Suunto Ambit. See link below if you are not familiar with Movescount, the tracking software Suunto uses. Chris has one also and uses his a lot more then I do. I tend to use my Polar HR monitor while on the erg since my PM3 syncs with it while the PM4(more recent) syncs with Suunto.