Rowing With Grace

Workout date: 1/2/15

(To all those who were hoping the second post would be shorter...my bad.)

I don't think I am spoiling anything by saying that two of my best chances of getting on the white board this year are the 500M row and the 2000M row.  After all, it's not like I am magically going to be able to deadlift 600 lbs or snatch 300 lbs by the end of the year.  Luckily for me, the anniversary gift I received last year was a rower (I'm not much of a flowers or jewelry kind of guy).  The tough part is that my house is undergoing some massive renovations, which has led to some interesting living conditions.  For example, we recently got a new laundry room, but that is also serving as our kitchen for at least another month.  My sister and brother-in-law came to stay with us on New Year's Eve, which required me to move all of the boxes from the guest room with a bed to the guest room that no longer has a bed.  As I've told some people, we're essentially living in a life-sized game of Jenga, hoping that the guys renovating the house don't pull the wrong piece.

With cramped quarters for the time being and much of our stuff in boxes, it was tough to find a place to row.  But with the work on our bedroom essentially complete, we decided to put the rower next to the bed with greater intentions than just awkwardly walking around it in the morning.  Now having done many a 500M row, some 2,000M rows, and one 5,000M row last year, I decided that I should kick things off by doing something different: a 10,000M row.  (Yes, I'm the guy who looks at the beer list and then orders "that one, because I've never had it before.")  I'm also not much of a morning person, so you can imagine how delighted my body was when it realized that I was actually going through with rowing 10,000 meters at 7am.

My time for the 5,000M row on 4/28/13 was 21:53.  Given that was at the gym and not at 7am, along with the fact that I would be rowing double that distance, my goal was 45:00-47:00.  Then I did the math (nerd alert) and discovered that a 2:15 split for 500M would get me to 45:00, while a 2:20 split would get me to 46:40, so I adjusted my goal to 45:00-46:30.  Here is a brief summary of how it went with the amount of meters to go noted:

10,000 - Let's do this!  My dog, Indy, is mildly curious as to a) why I am awake and b) what I am doing on this new monstrosity that I have brought into the bedroom.

9,850 - Indy has already become disinterested, snorting in disapproval and laying back down to sleep.  I find myself instantly jealous.

7,000 - So far, so good.  Have maintained a pace in the 2:13-2:16 range.  May have been 1 or 2 strokes where the monitor jumped up to near 2:20, but that was more of a mental lapse than fatigue.  My body has begun pulling an Ndamukong Suh (numb feet).

5,500 - Starting to see 2:20 pop up a little more often.  Each time it does, I try to give a burst of energy to get back down in the teens.  Suddenly realizing that grip is going to be much more of an issue than planned.  My left foot has taken Indy's cue and gone back to sleep.

5,000 - Passed the halfway mark at 22:43.  Hope to maintain a pace that will keep me under 46:00.

4,000 - I seem to have established a routine where I row 1,500 meters pretty well and then begin fatiguing.  Staying under 2:20 has become a lot of work.  Regularly adjusting my hands while I pull the handle as my weak grip has officially started to betray me.  Just trying to get to 1,000 meters left where my brain will shut off and the second wind will kick in. 

2,000 - Clock reads 36:39.  Can I pull together the last 2,000 meters in 8:20?  Probably not, but I kick it up a notch and go for broke, hoping that I won't fall apart before the end.

1,000 - Second wind!  I start rowing much faster, although it's fair to say that my pulls probably have become much less efficient, as the 500M split hasn't dropped dramatically lower.  It's clear I won't break 45:00, but 45:30 is still in play.

Finish

Pretty happy that my second 5,000M split (22:49) was nearly as fast as the first 5,000M, although it took everything I had at the end to make it close.  Per usual, there was much sweat to be cleaned up after I was done, along with sitting and not moving, while slowly drinking a bottle of water.

<Went to job, tried not to focus on how badly I wanted the weekend to be here>

Was able to make it to the 6:30 WOD.  Today's workout was 3 rounds for time of 500M row (which I imagined would be a picnic compared to what I did this morning) and 10 Clean and Jerks (RX weight of 185/125).  I always struggle with choosing a weight for workouts like this.  On the one hand, I am infamous for underscaling (30 Clean and Jerks at 185?  I can do that!), which leads to finishing approximately 5 minutes after the next class begins.  But the other side of the coin is that I believe the only way to push myself to the next level is to take on scary weights.  (Note: I never choose a weight that I believe has the potential to injure me.  I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid.)

In situations like this, I tend to look at what other folks have done earlier in the day and go from there.  Over time, I've figured out who does what well and where I fall along that spectrum.  And generally I'll choose someone who I think is a little better than me at this particular workout.  After a quick glance at the board, I decide on Justin today.  Justin is a little bit better than me at rowing and a little bit better than me at Olympic lifts.  (Note: He's a lotta bit better than me at most everything else.)  Justin used 165 for the Clean and Jerks and posted a time of 16:56.  My goal will be to stay under 18:00 using the same weight...

...that was until I ran into Coach Paul.  He asked me what weight I was using and I told him 165.  He slowly shook his head and said "that's gonna take you 25 minutes".  Damn.  I didn't think I'd be quite that bad (although 20 minutes was definitely possible), so I bargained for 155.  Another shake of the head.  I told him 135 seemed too light for this workout.  Paul's compromise was 150, but that if I went over 16 minutes, I had to listen to everything he said from now on.  Feeling oddly confident (and maybe a little pissed that he thought I would suck at this workout), I asked him what happens if I break 13 minutes.  Another shake of the head.  "At best, you'll be in the 13's."  Game on!

I finished my first round just past the 4 minute mark, but I was a little slow when I hopped back on the rower.  Coach Keith (thanks for reading yesterday's blog post!) pushed me through round 2, reminding me that this was the middle round, the round when I always slow down.  Still, I was beyond 8:30 when I got back to the rower for the last round.  The third row was on the slow side again (it was like I had rowed 10,000 meters earlier in the day or something), but I got back over to the bar at close to the 11:15 mark.  I tried to go as fast as I could, but after 6 reps, I really wanted to squat down and catch my breath like I normally do.  I looked at the clock and had about 40 seconds to break 13 minutes.  Got back to the bar, did 4 ugly clean and jerks, and finished with a time of 12:55.  I was one happy sweaty mess.

(For reference, on 6/18/13, I did "Heavy Grace" using 145 pounds and it took me 14:08.  So I suck less now than I once did.)

Time to eat, handicap some horse races, and go into a coma.