Back on the PP 8 x 500m (and gardening report!)

Again unsure how to pace this. The last two (1:38.1 and 1:38.5) were done when not fit. I decided to aim for 1:38.0 and see. Here are my notes as the pieces pan out (from my log at ergscores.com:

8 x 500m (3:30 rest)

Time	Comments
1:37.9	r28 Hmm, felt quite hard. HR monitor not working :(
1:37.9	r28 This training stuff is hard! No HR again, swapped belt for MBH's
1:37.8	r27/26 - strangely easier (warmed up?). According to ELM I should be going faster - 1:37 - aim for that on last three?
1:37.8	r28 - OK, still not pushing for the end. Fast start, stride for 300 then hit the pace for last 100m. One more at 1:37.8 then accelerate?
1:37.5	r28 - start had to be longer, slipped in 5 fast strokes at the end to lower the time. Uncertain of next target - legs beginning to wobble.
1:36.8	r30 - longer start (12 strokes to 100m) shorter stride (250m) and faster finish. Finally went for home (from 150m) rather than sticking to race pace.
1:36.7	r30+ Same long start, held on to stride for longer, pushed home from 100 to go. Hard. Aim for sub 1:35 on last.
1:34.5	Kept rate high. Hard. Held on really.

Overall the split was 1:37.1 which is pretty good considering the first few reps. Pleased with that.

A monster day gardening yesterday.

First: Scarifying (see below for the mower attachments (interesting I know) and the lawn before and after). Amazing how much moss came out! About a cubic metre and when I went back at the end of the day I could have got the same out again!














Before (more moss than grass)


After (more mud than grass)


Second: The preliminary work for the raised beds (due 2009?) starts. We needed to move a rose so that we could move a tree. To do this we needed to make space for the rose by moving a grass. This all makes sense to us! Here are the before and after photos. N.B. The trousers I am wearing for my builder's bottom are pre rowing weight loss. Very very loose and baggy!

Before: note the lawn stripes from testing the scarifier and the pile of moss from just 20m of scarifying!


The growing bed (also note that the climbing frame in the background grew during the day too - I was very busy). What this photo just misses is the digging over and pruning that MBH did during the afternoon.


By the end of the day the rose was dug in with some compost and heavily watered. Hopefully we won't now get a massive Indian summer that will kill it.

Metres today: 7,000