New Personal Record - 2k Test

This morning was another 2k test (see previous post). I broke my previous personal record of 6:42.4 by 0.8 seconds. This time, I came with a perfectly tweaked race plan, and executed it better than I expected. Here's the plan:

2000m	01:43.0		500m	01:40.0
1500m	01:42.0		400m	01:38.0
1000m	01:40.0		300m	01:36.0
500m	01:37.0		200m	01:36.0
avg split	01:40.5		100m	01:35.0
total time	06:42.0		500m avg	01:37.0

Again, it's broken down into 500 meter sections, and on the right, the last 500 meters is broken down into 100 meter sections. Here's what I actually did:

2000m	01:42.9		500m	01:40.0
1500m	01:41.8		400m	01:38.0
1000m	01:40.5		300m	01:36.0
500m	01:36.4		200m	01:34.0
avg split	01:40.4		100m	01:34.0
total time	06:41.6		500m avg	01:36.4

I owe my performance on the last 500 meters to a very impassioned rower and the future VP of the team--Derek Miller. He was sitting next to me, and we finished at almost exactly the same time. I wouldn't have been able to pull out a 1:36.4 average in the last 500 meters without that kind of competition.

My season goal is to go sub 6:40.0. As Aleks Malorodov pointed out, there's a major mental barrier at 6:40.0. Apparently he broke through it, because he pulled under 6:40 today.

If you're curious, my workout schedule looks like this: I work out 6 days a week. Every other day is on the rowing machine, where I do 6x500m with 2 min rest, and on the other days I lift weights. That's it. It seems to be working.

FYI for Non-Rowers: We measure speed in rowing by minutes and seconds per 500 meters. It's as if you took miles per hour, and inverted it. So a lower time is better than higher. For a 2,000 meter test like this, you can multiply the average split by 4, and you will get the total time (because 4 x 500 = 2,000). So, it's a convenient unit of measure for speed.