In the midnight hour - the Wulf cried more more more - CTC retake 3by250 2r

Well to say I wasn't happy in my earlier go would be an understatement - I never got to grips with the right technique or felt connected with the erg - so once baby was fed changed and asleep (must stop calling her the baby as she's nearly 2 and a half and pushing me around the house) the dogs where walked and fed and the Mrs was settled I mentioned I might go out for a quick row and waited for the response - not entirely negative I set about getting changed lol out for a 2500m warm up with a burst in the which I never dipped under 1:20 so wasn't sure this was going to be a good idea, Settled myself and then off we went - I'd upped the drag to 170 (normally 140) and had two holes showing on the footstraps rather than the one. Decided to relatively low rate it and pulled on average 39 spm - I think most of the guys rate up over 40 for this but that doesn't suit me - and went for the long hard stroke. First one went through pretty well and knew the second was on for something similar, Unfortunately faded a little in the third but a lot happier with the performance but not satisfied with the result - I think a higher drag again would suit me more for this, Still it's all for fun yes???

No howl from the wulf today - just a snarl - March PaddyPower CTC 3by250m 2r

I've attempted this months CTC three previous times this month - normally when another session got cut short for one reason or another - each of the previous times I hit the firs rep at 1:16 ave and then gone into the second rep only to see myself drift to 1:18 - oh how I wished I'd stuck with on of them - so todays mission was to finish no matter what - no matter what the score (I'l often give up a training piece more because the score isnt what I want than any other reason which is a really really bad habit and one that's easy to get into and hard to get out of) so in that respect the session was a success - in terms of score it's a bit poor for me if I am honest but is all that was there on the day 

sneak in a thirty 30r20 70%HRR

Just managed to sneak in a 30r20 70% HRR on the new erg in the shed - hooked up wirelessly to boatcoach on my Sony Xperia which meant I could plug the phone in to charge it at the same time which is nice 

3by10r20 [2:30] - tough nut

Target was 1:44.1 or faster and I managed to crack it - first one came in nicely so followed it's pace for the second and third - about two minutes left on the final rep and I pushed on a little - sweat fest

Two consecutive days of dead-lifts and squats probably didn't help lol

 

More weights - more video - still shocking

So took more video of my deadlift - watched the video that Lloyd pointed me in the direction of and really did try to sort it out - but still can see huge problems - big one I notice is my back is curved :o(

Deadlift
45lb 10kg x2 + bar x10
1 by 134lb (60kg) + bar x10
2 by 254lb (115kg) + bar x10

Smith Machine bench
3by10 45lb x2

Smith Machine squats
1by10 bar only
10 by 35lb x2 +bar

10 by 60lb x2 +bar

10 by 70lb  x2 +bar

Just got this delivered in work so should get to do some lifting at home now :o)

Image Pro II heavy duty squat stands for standard or olympic bar / barbell - adjustable uprights - spotter catchers / safety bars - 180 kg weight load

40r20 70% HRR

Following on from this mornings weights (lots to learn) I went down at lunch for a 40 minute r20 70%HRR piece - certainly felt the tightness in the legs for the first 3 minutes then it eased off a little.

Weights with video of deadlift

Just grabbed a video of the last set of deadlift - nothing spectacular - just to check the form the total weight was 254lb or 115kg plus whatever that bar is - which is actually bent lol - must bring in my olympic bar and then will look to do cleans I think.

Deadlift
45lb 10kg x2 + bar x10
45lb 10kg 35lb x2 + bar x10
45lb 10kg 35lb 25lb  x2 + bar x5
45lb 10kg 35lb 25lb  x2 + bar x10 (the video)

and how it should be done (thanks Lloyd and Ross)

Smith Machine bench
3by10 35lb + 25lb x2

Kept the squats light in order to go deeper into them -

Smith Machine squats
1by10 bar only
3by10 35lb x2 +bar

2by20 r4 26/27SPM

Just felt a lot tougher than I would have liked - think I'm still tired from the night before last when the wee one had me up at 2am and 4am and then again at 4:30am. Did manage a row this morning before work - was supposed to be 60min r22 at sub 1:45 pace but as I set off it turned to r24 - then after 20 minutes a guy walked in and turned the temp up so it then turned into a HD FFS.

No warm up - no time just straight into it - sweat fest! Target was 1:44.5 or faster so that's good :o)

 Hmm Protein delivery - 400 servings! lol

No lunch - no warm up - no cool down - 12by2:30 r20 1r

So due to meeting in work from 12 till 1:30 I got no lunch. So as I was due to collect the wee girl from crèche at 5:00 I worked out if I cut out the warm up and cool down I could still get the session in - went quite well as it goes

Warp engines back online? 60r20 70 HRR

Well that went better than expected as I went down to the gym - bit of a headache today and although I was in early enough to row before work I ended up at my desk instead this morning which gave me a bot more time at lunch. Thought about a 30r20 TT before going down but with the headache and current "life" stresses decided that was a bad idea so went with the r20 70% HRR work - again due to having some spare time I decided on stretching it to 60 minutes but if it was going pear shaped to drop to 30.

And what do you know - it looks like my "engine" has come back on line - at my peak I was able to dip under 1:50 pace for this - and although this is quite a way of that it's still the strongest HRR row I have had in 2015 - I have only just managed this pace for 30 minutes recently. Just went so fluidly and felt relaxed throughout - onwards and upwards!

In fact the actual average HR for the row was only 136 - which is closer to 65%

Earn your split - 2by20min r20

Got some weights in this morning

Deadlift 160lb + bar 

Deadlift 210lb + bar 

Deadlift 254lb (115kg) + bar 

By 10 

Bench Smith Bar only 

Bench Smith 90lb + Bar 

Bench Smith 90lb + Bar 

Bench Smith 90lb + Bar 

By 10

Squat Smith 90lb + bar

Squat Smith 90lb + bar

Squat Smith 90lb + bar

By 10

Lunchtime session was 2by20min r20 - rest 5min - the target was recent season best 30r20 +1.5  so that was 1:43.6 plus 1.5 to give me a target of 1:45.1 or under (for the pair)

The first one was tough but doable - managed to push along sub 1:45 pace and came in with 1:44.4 average but I was blowing - few minor issues I have at the moment are - "new handle blisters" from the new erg handle (picture further down) always get these when I'm breaking in a new erg also skin loss on backside due to shorts and sweat rubbing away a couple of patches of skin down there. also the weight session this am wasn't exactly leaving my legs fresh lol finally still coughing up some green stuff - I'm not feeling well but still haven't cleared the gunk. One thing I was thinking through this is about earning that split - it's all well and good firing off to a fast start paddle the middle and blast the end but I don't feel you really a) earn your split and b) it doesn't build any mental strength - I know Sam Blythe is big on grinding that middle third out and it certainly helped both of us last time we locked horns.

So then the second rep - once I'd cleaned out some more green stuff I was ready to go - knowing that hitting the split from the first rep would be a big ask for now I settled myself into aiming at 1:45/46 splits and see what we could do for the grind - I'd also calculated that if I wanted to hit my overall split target I couldn't let the average be over 1:45.8 - and that's where the grind came from in this one. It was pretty nasty for the majority of it and wanted to HD all over the place - but managed to earn my split although as I think the video shows at the bottom I was a bit wet! (here's to you Lloyd - inspiration for the video)

 New erg issues lol

19 million lifetime meters - tick 33r19 70% HRR

Well I needed to cover 8,632m to tick of 19 million meters - it's the 19 March - so what else am I going to do but load it on the erg and r19 it at 70% HRR - check :o) bit warm in the kitchen (I'm baby sitting) so splits a little high - even got the PM to round up to spot on tirty tree minutes ;o)

2by20 r5 - turned into 1by20 r4 1by10

This morning I was hoping to get 2by20[5] but unable to do the second 20 minutes due to time so cut it to 10 minutes and shortened rest by a minute - target was current season best for 30min TT which is 1:41.5 so that gave me 1:44.5