After yesterday’s rowing session with our new acquisition, we celebrated with a trip to our local Harvester (we know how to party!) followed by a swift half (or four) just up the road at The Griffin.
As we were entering said boozer, we bumped into a friend which called for a quick Zwift chat followed by a quick rowing chat.
Waking, this morning, with little after effects from the Jaipur (it’s a beer) I decided on a bit of a pre-breakfast row.
I did a steady three kilometre row with a six hundred metre sprint shortly after the start.
That went well and I then went to the competition section and selected the five hundred metre race that I did a couple of days ago. With my improved figures, I was hoping that I’d perform somewhat better.
I was joined by five other rowers (judging by their best times it looked as though I’d been placed with rowers of a similar ability as my previous attempt)
I started strong and was soon in first place. If only I could keep this pace up !
Amazingly, I did, averaging 2:23 over the distance.
A cool down followed my victory before it was Sue’s turn.
Sue’s efforts were not as good as she was hoping and this did not make her a happy bunny.
Sue has been watching a few rowing videos by a guy who goes by the name of Dark Horse Rowing so decided to give one of his row-along workouts a go.
He broke down the stroke into its separate components with drill to reenforce each part. Sue did her best to follow (mainly she had to slow down) but she did feel that this helped.
Fuelled with enthusiasm, she did a steady four and a half kilometre row, taking it easy and working on her technique.
During Sue’s long row, we had discussed my earlier victory and decided that I had inadvertently sandbagged a win as I’d been ranked according to my results on the previous machine.
To see if my earlier win would change the calibre of competition, I jumped back on and repeated the five hundred metre race.
At the line up, everyone was in the 2:20s so this would be harder.
I started slowly but crept up alternating between first and second. It was really hard going and with only about a hundred metres left I was done and stopped rowing to catch my breath. A last minute spurt saw me finish the race in a close second.
My legs were aching and my heart was pounding. Had I done too much especially as I’d also pencilled in the last of my TDF themed climbs on Zwift for later. But that’s material for another blog.
Nice work Kev! Have you checked the drag factor on your new machine? It’s hidden in the menu, and can vary a lot between machines, depending on the amount if dust etc in the fan