This morning was a real disaster.  I planned  to get up at 4:45 and head out to Quisigamond for a head race piece.  That was blown up by not getting to bed on time.  It was midnight by the time I was finished packing for my trip and in bed.  I decided that a very early start was not the smartest idea (actually, my wife decided that and told me I was an idiot).  It turns out this was a little clairvoyant.  I got up after 6, and I was on my way to work at 6:30 when my phone rang.  It turns out that I was supposed to be in a teleconference at 6:30.  I saw it on my calendar, but I assumed it had to be some kind of an error.  Oops, I guess not.  Anyway, I did the call from my car, most of it pulled over so I could concentrate on the meeting.  By the time I got to work, I had to rush straight in to my first meeting at 8:30 in my workout clothes.

After that meeting, I had a 1 hour hole in my schedule, so I made my way to the fitness center.  I didn’t have a lot of time, but I had time for a quick warmup and a hard 6K piece.

Then on to the 6K.  I was feeling a bit confident after the good 5×1500 workout and the strong steady state session.  My prior hard distance sessions were

• 30′ at 1:56.2 on 9/23
• 10K at 1:56.0 on 9/29

So, based on my rough math, if I was able to do 10K at 1:56, I thought I should be able to easily do 6K at 1:54.  It turned out that that was a bit too much of an ask.

I didn’t exactly hit the wall, but I needed to ease off the gas pedal around the 4000m mark.  There was no way I was going to put the handle down, but I couldn’t hold the pace at 1:54.  I held on and played all the tricks I could with visualization and stroke counting, but in the end it was just enduring it.  With 1000m left I tried to pop up the rate, but I went too far too soon and needed to back off.

          Workout Summary - media/20171009-1416080o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|06000|22:54.0|01:54.5|233.0|25.3|170.9|183.0|10.3
W-|06000|22:54.0|01:54.5|232.9|25.3|171.0|183.0|10.3
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|183.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00500|01:51.3|01:51.3|239.3|24.3|135.5|157.0|11.1
01|00500|01:52.8|01:52.8|244.4|25.4|160.4|163.0|10.5
02|00500|01:52.9|01:52.9|242.8|25.4|165.9|168.0|10.5
03|00500|01:53.1|01:53.1|241.3|25.9|169.3|171.0|10.2
04|00500|01:53.5|01:53.5|239.8|25.8|172.0|173.0|10.2
05|00500|01:53.9|01:53.9|236.8|25.6|173.6|174.0|10.3
06|00500|01:54.9|01:54.9|231.2|25.0|176.7|178.0|10.4
07|00500|01:55.1|01:55.1|230.0|25.3|177.0|179.0|10.3
08|00500|01:56.7|01:56.7|220.3|24.9|178.2|179.0|10.3
09|00500|01:58.9|01:58.9|218.2|25.0|178.9|180.0|10.1
10|00500|01:56.3|01:56.3|222.3|25.4|180.9|182.0|10.2
11|00500|01:55.0|01:55.0|230.6|25.8|181.6|183.0|10.1

So, it hurt.  That’s kind of the point.

Now I am at the airport heading off to Europe for a 4 day trip.  The schedule is jam packed.  Stuttgart, Munich, Grenoble, Milan.  I am going to do my best to do some maintenance sessions to avoid losing any aerobic fitness, but I think I won’t be doing any rowing until next Saturday.  I also need to focus on trying to avoid coming back from this trip with a big sleep deficit.