From Andy Pearce:

Week 15, one low, many, many highs!

Another heavy week of rowing, with 100km exactly for Anita, 102km for me.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday comprised of 2 x 30', a 10km Concept2.co.uk Challenge Series piece, and 4 x 20'.

Monday was uneventful, with Anita doing two nice calm intervals, and I did a neg-split (Faster second interval than first) as the first interval was a bit boring. I also used both my gel seat pad and normal foam seat pad together for the first time, and it really seemed to work well. I usually would start getting uncomfortable during the 2nd interval, but didn't on Monday, so that can only be good for the longer rows.

Tuesday was the 10k Challenge Series piece. Anita went first, started well, then started suffering a bit at what was 5 seconds above PB pace, but ended really strongly, coming home in 44:38.3, or 1:52 better than her previous PB!!!! She is amazingly strong, as this was only at 23spm, and is now starting to realise how rowing fit she's becoming.

Next up, me :) My previous PB was 38:23, but on the back of good 5k and 6344m times in the Challenge Series I was looking at going sub 37 minutes. I started off nice and strong, at 1:49/500m average, then as I went past half way still felt good, held it to 1500m left, then started to up the intensity, finishing in 36:27, or a 1:49.4 average, a PB by 1:56, or 5.8s/500m!!, or in the top 6% of all the 10k times registered on the Concept2 logbook for Heavyweight Men 30-39 years old this year. That felt really, really good! I'm still 19st 11lb (126kg) at 6ft 0.5in (184cm), but I now fit Large T-Shirts!!! All I can say is Muscle weighs a lot more than fat :)

Wednesday was 4 x 20', Anita did 3 very strong low stroke rate 2:19's, before doing a 2:24 cool down, I did 1:59, 1:55, 1:59, 1:55, keeping the last 5 minutes of the last interval at 1:45 (7 minute 2k pace) - Tuesday's amazing result has really flicked a switch on for me, I now know I can be one of the best in my age group doing this, and it's what I'm going to work towards from now on!!!!

Thursday is always a rest day (We have to run the gauntlet in the local Tesco's, though it was relatively quiet; thank heaven for small mercies :)) so onto Friday.

4 x 15' was planned, but both Anita and I we're feeling a bit queasy in the stomach department, so in the middle of the 2nd interval I had to handle-down and end the session. I knew what we had to do on Saturday, and didn't want to jeopardise it.

Saturday - 3hrs 30'!! 5 Intervals, 30', 1hr, 30', 1hr, 30'. Anita was very strong, and although she didn't know it she did her second PB of the week!!! On the second 1hr interval (Between 2hr and 3hr total time) Anita rowed 12809m, or a PB by 302m!!!! Absolutely amazing yet again, averaging 2:24.6 for the 3:30 rowing time, or 2:38.4 including the 20' rest, totalling 43556m. She now isn't as scared of doing 100k, as she knows it's doable, and all the conditioning we are doing over the next 2 months will make it even more achievable.

I ended up with 52203m, for a rowing time average of 2:00.6, or 2:11.2 including rests. This is the longest we have both rowed in one session. My session was again a fight against numb-bum, and is something I will need to factor in to all the long rows from now on, as it can really affect my focus, and to do what we are going to do requires considerable focus :)

To round the week off Anita did 12843m this morning (Sunday 15th Jan) to take her to 100km exactly for the week; she now wants to do over 100km per week until and including the 100km itself on March 17th - That's 1000km each :) Have a good week everybody!

Cheers

Anita & Andy

www.justgiving.com/Anita-Wells