Wimping Out

Today was the day to do a season best in the half marathon.  I started out with a target pace of 2:09, which would have beat my current season best of 2:10 by one second/500m.  But while setting it up, decided to be more ambitious and use a pace boat of 2:07 instead.  Then, after the session started, I felt like I had a limitless supply of energy and decided to aim for around 2:06.  But after about 8,000 meters, the wimpy voice in my head asked me how much I wanted to do it that fast.  I didn't want it very much at all, so I backed way off on the effort and finished with a good afterglow but no season best.

In other words, I wimped out.  Or... to state it as I read it described in Matt Fitzgerald's book, "How Bad Do You Want It?" - I found a more comfortable level of discomfort than the one originally targeted in the first 7,000 meters.

Another try, maybe tomorrow?  As Alfred Hitchcock might say, "Suspense awaits until then!"

Will I try harder tomorrow?? Suspense, until then!

Here's today's results:

Today's finish screen.

Today's session report.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

Today's rowing was only done in thought and not in deed. What I decided to do was take another total rest day and row the half marathon which was mentioned yesterday... tomorrow. 

I looked up the report for the fastest half marathon I've done this season and it should be beatable but I was too lazy today. 

Here is the session report for what was NOT done today.  Instead, the session report shown below is for the half marathon which I rowed in June of 2015 and which I'll try to beat tomorrow:

There was NO ROWING today!  The above report is from June of 2015 and its what I will try to beat tomorrow.

A Kookaburra For A Hedgehog

Likeness of us drawn by Ruth

Yesterday instead of rowing, I waltzed off to the County Fair with Diane.  And today was a day to recover from the trip to the fair, so no rowing today either.

My favorite creatures at the fair this year  were a couple of visitors from Australia - two kookaburras.  A kookaburra is a bird with a unique call.  While we were standing next to their cage looking at them they were silent.  So I visited youtube on my phone, found a video recording of a kookaburra making its unique sounds, and played it.  When it started playing, the two kookaburras cocked their heads and looked at my hand which was holding the source of the kookaburra sounds they were hearing.  Then, they burst out in loud kookaburra singing of their own.

I did that several times and the kookaburras burst out in kookaburra song each time, over and over for a few minutes, to the delight of Diane and several other people who gathered around the kookaburra cage.

I'm not sure, but Diane's favorite creature might have been a little hedgehog, because once, while looking at a hedgehog, she exclaimed, "I want a hedgehog!"  I didn't respond with anything more than a smile.  But, thinking about it this morning, my tentative response is, "You can have a hedgehog if I can have a kookaburra."

Tomorrow I anticipate resuming rowing.  Since two days have passed without so much as a single stroke being pulled on the Concept 2 model D, perhaps tomorrow should be a half marathon?

A Rest Day

Today was intended to be a rest day but I wanted to continue to add meters to my daily average so the 10K was done with no sweat and the only targets were to complete the 10K and keep heart rate anywhere below heart zone 1.

Finish screen for today's lazy 10K

Today's session report.

An Okay Ten K Day

Hand sign for OK

Today's rowing was ok and neither especially slow nor especially fast while done once again at the target heart rate of 133 bpm.  Today was also the last day for the series of 10K's done at 133 bpm.  Tomorrow will be a rowing "rest day" with the target being to have no target except to keep heart rate below the lowest end of the lowest aerobic heart zone for me.  In other words, tomorrow will be very, very easy with a maximum heart rate of 132 bpm and anything lower than 132 will be ok... tomorrow.

I couldn't find any free photos of people rowing a 10K so this 10K run snapshot will have to suffice

Here's the data for today's ok 10K:

finish screen

session report

If Only Their Endurance Also Applied To Marriage

This morning I finished the rest of the book, "Iron War" by Matt Fitzgerald.  It was a disappointment in how the race ended, as I explained in a recent post.  The rest of the book was mostly a let-down also.  The book itself was well written, documented and researched but both of the two endurance athletes, Dave Scott and Mark Allen, each got a DNF in their respective marriages which ended in divorces.

An enduring marriage is worth more than all the triathlons in the world

Which goes to show that keeping one's marriage vows is a lot harder than running a triathlon. My hat is off to everyone who finishes in the marriage multi-athlon.

Of the two athletes, Dave Scott and Mark Allen and what I know of them from that book, I have a lot more respect for Dave Scott than for Mark Allen. All top athletes either must have been born with a gift of mental discipline or they must work to cultivate the will to endure the special kind of suffering which accompanies top performance .

Dave Scott seems to have been born with an aptitude for that mental discipline and taught himself from childhood to keep trying harder to push his body to its limits but Mark Allen had to cultivate an attitude which would endure the suffering.

Dave Scott just worked hard and kept on working.  The book mentions nothing about Dave Scott's spiritual beliefs.

But Mark Allen put his faith in paganism, "atavistic" rituals and shamanism ... anything but what Jesus revealed as the one and only Truth. Mark Allen prayed to pagan gods.  Yech!

As for my "athletic activity" today, there is no segue to that topic.  The first thing I did was have coffee and a sizable breakfast while finishing the reading of that book.  Then I sat on the rowing machine and changed out of slippers and into rowing shoes.  Then I felt sleepy and went back to bed to enjoy the nearby warmth of the sleeping figure of Diane.

Even though I'd had coffee, I went to sleep and continued sleeping until after Diane's usual time of rising.  Then I got up, dressed for rowing again and had a sizeable lunch.

The rowing was quite a bit slower than the previous few days, though the target heart rate was exactly the same at 133 bpm. Perhaps its not a good idea to eat a sizable lunch before rowing?

Today's finish screen

Today's session report.

Coffeeless, More Or Less

This illustration shows a person whose morning doesn't start until she's had coffee.

Some people think that the morning really hasn't begun until there's coffee.  But today I decided to break the habit of the few days previous and skip coffee and food until after rowing.  To see if it seemed to make any difference with the same target as the past few days, which has been to maintain a heart rate as near as possible to 133 bpm for 10K.

It made only one calorie difference, which is not statistically significant.  And the experience of rowing was no more or less enjoyable than if I'd had coffee first.   So there's no significant indication that coffee adds any kind of lightning bolt boost to rowing, either.

Whether it helps or not, I like to have coffee before doing a race.

It might be that my heart rate was slightly lower without coffee first.  But that is very debatable with my memories of past experience also. And - does it matter at all?

Was pulse rate lower without coffee first?  Does it matter?

At any rate, I'm having coffee now, in between bursts of typing this vital blog post.

That brown stuff could be a lot of different things but in this case it is coffee.

Today's session targeted 133 bpm for the distance of 10K.  I'm determined to do quite a few of these 10Ks @ 133 bpm before switching gears and trying 10Ks at something a little higher such as perhaps 142 bpm.

Today's finish screen

Today's session report