Oh what a day [rowing, gardening]
Mar. 28th, 2020 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterSo, a break from teaching today.
Instead, I erged in the morning as part of the rowing club's virtual IceBreaker Challenge 5k race. Ordinarily this would be in-person, but clearly we can't do that at this moment. The switch to the virtual format made me realize that this was probably the ONE year when I could participate in both aspects of the IceBreaker Challenge. Ordinarily, it's runners on the Mohawk-Hudson bike-ped path vs. rowers on the Hudson River. But for the Virtual Challenge, I could do both!
So, erg first.
In the back of my mind, while mentally preparing for the erg portion, I had in mind an old goal. The last time I was in good shape to do 5k erg pieces was in 2013, when I was very serious about erg marathon training. At that time, I managed to pull a time that was just a hair over 20 minutes. This time, just given how winter training has generally gone for me (quite well!), I had to wonder whether I might be able to go sub-20. Recovery from this head cold has been slow, and some of my training pieces this week weren't great (fatigue could easily be a contributor), but sometimes you just have to hop on and see.
I decided that I would hold a 500m split of 1:58 for the first 1k, at least, then see how I felt and make minor adjustments from there. I was able to hold on to that pace through the first 1200m or so, at which point my lungs started informing me that this whole intense erging thing was still a bit much for them. So I backed off the pace for the next 1300m or so. By that point, the halfway mark, I started to think there was a chance I could finish in under 20 minutes; I had about 6 seconds to spare by the stage. So I just told myself to do my best to hold on to a 2-minute split.
Holding on to that pace felt like a second slow-burning but growing fire was being heaped on top of the already-burning fire of completing the piece. But I managed to hang on to it and finished with 2.1 seconds to spare and a final time of 19:57.1. Success!
This *almost* makes up for having missed CRASH-B's due to getting sick (although CRASH-B's would have been really dangerous from a COVID-19 standpoint in any case).
After that, I joined one of the new COVID-19 pasttimes that people have been taking up, gardening:
We shall see.
After that, I hopped on my bike and headed down to the boatyard, for the running stage.
Two of my teammates had been in touch the day before about coordinating our 5k's via video chat. I had been saving my dual-effort as a surprise, so it was fun to see their reactions when I showed them where I was.
It would have been a beautiful day to be out rowing.
In contrast to the erg piece, the run took me about 31.5 minutes. There were a lot of people out on the path, so I had to run through the grass to skirt around many of them.
I am probably going to be sore tomorrow from the running.
The running route was an out-and-back, and while I was on the return leg I spotted the run organizer and club member on her outbound leg, so I waited for her at the finish line and got this fun photo as well:
Altogether, a nice day to be outside.
There's rain in the forecast for tomorrow. I'll be heading in to work to check on the animals and clean dirty cricket bins. Plus the new usual drill: grading, lecture videos, chores around the house, etc.
Instead, I erged in the morning as part of the rowing club's virtual IceBreaker Challenge 5k race. Ordinarily this would be in-person, but clearly we can't do that at this moment. The switch to the virtual format made me realize that this was probably the ONE year when I could participate in both aspects of the IceBreaker Challenge. Ordinarily, it's runners on the Mohawk-Hudson bike-ped path vs. rowers on the Hudson River. But for the Virtual Challenge, I could do both!
So, erg first.
In the back of my mind, while mentally preparing for the erg portion, I had in mind an old goal. The last time I was in good shape to do 5k erg pieces was in 2013, when I was very serious about erg marathon training. At that time, I managed to pull a time that was just a hair over 20 minutes. This time, just given how winter training has generally gone for me (quite well!), I had to wonder whether I might be able to go sub-20. Recovery from this head cold has been slow, and some of my training pieces this week weren't great (fatigue could easily be a contributor), but sometimes you just have to hop on and see.
I decided that I would hold a 500m split of 1:58 for the first 1k, at least, then see how I felt and make minor adjustments from there. I was able to hold on to that pace through the first 1200m or so, at which point my lungs started informing me that this whole intense erging thing was still a bit much for them. So I backed off the pace for the next 1300m or so. By that point, the halfway mark, I started to think there was a chance I could finish in under 20 minutes; I had about 6 seconds to spare by the stage. So I just told myself to do my best to hold on to a 2-minute split.
Holding on to that pace felt like a second slow-burning but growing fire was being heaped on top of the already-burning fire of completing the piece. But I managed to hang on to it and finished with 2.1 seconds to spare and a final time of 19:57.1. Success!
This *almost* makes up for having missed CRASH-B's due to getting sick (although CRASH-B's would have been really dangerous from a COVID-19 standpoint in any case).
After that, I joined one of the new COVID-19 pasttimes that people have been taking up, gardening:
We shall see.
After that, I hopped on my bike and headed down to the boatyard, for the running stage.
Two of my teammates had been in touch the day before about coordinating our 5k's via video chat. I had been saving my dual-effort as a surprise, so it was fun to see their reactions when I showed them where I was.
It would have been a beautiful day to be out rowing.
In contrast to the erg piece, the run took me about 31.5 minutes. There were a lot of people out on the path, so I had to run through the grass to skirt around many of them.
I am probably going to be sore tomorrow from the running.
The running route was an out-and-back, and while I was on the return leg I spotted the run organizer and club member on her outbound leg, so I waited for her at the finish line and got this fun photo as well:
Altogether, a nice day to be outside.
There's rain in the forecast for tomorrow. I'll be heading in to work to check on the animals and clean dirty cricket bins. Plus the new usual drill: grading, lecture videos, chores around the house, etc.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-29 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-03-29 01:30 pm (UTC)I was realizing that I now have 2 data points for rowing vs. running. I don't remember the exact times off the top of my head, but I erged a marathon in just over 3 hours, and ran one in just under 5 hours (I think that was 4 hours, 56 minutes?). So for a 5k, my erg time is 2/3 my run time, for the marathon, it's 3/5 my run time. Those are pretty close margins, all things considered! (musing further, I bet I could pull up 10k and half-marathon times, too!).
I agree on the last photo - at the time I snapped it, it looked like it might not turn out, but I was so happy I got to be there for K's finish.
I also need to tell myself, "Shut up, self!" about calling my running times slow. I think the problem is that when I was running, I ran with a whole bunch of gazelles. During marathon training I managed to get down to 9-minute miles, but that's just about the limit for me. *shakes fist at gazelles*
One other fun bit from the run: I started out pretty conservatively, especially when you figure I'd already done the erg piece in the morning. But at the two-mile mark, my body started to remember what a good running stride could feel like. At that point, I had to figure I'd be fine making it to the finish. It felt good to hit a stride. As good as running can ever feel, LOL. Give me an erg or bicycle over running any day of the week!
no subject
Date: 2020-03-29 03:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-03-29 01:23 pm (UTC)Drilling the drainage holes in the bottom was...interesting. Ahem.
For a while I was making my own yogurt, up until I started having serious cross-contamination problems with the sourdough yeast. So that's one thing where I'm still buying a ton of plastic containers, sigh. At least this is a second life for them.
The lids are all headed to campus, where they will turn into food and water dishes for crickets.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-29 09:29 am (UTC)Waves.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-29 01:21 pm (UTC)