I’m off on holiday tomorrow, and recently I’ve been disappointed with my shape. I mentioned it in an earlier blog, after all the hard work in the gym and the kitchen, I’d hoped I would look different from how I do.
I can see my arms and shoulders are bigger and more muscular, but it’s my midriff that still looks much the same. Certainly when I stand in front of the mirror and jump up and down, I’m jiggling in areas I’d hoped would jiggle less. It’s harder to shift the jiggly bits as you get older.
Even though I can now fit into clothes that were way too tight six months ago, I still feel it isn’t quite enough. But honestly, I’m so far from where I was when I started this. And that’s what really matters.
Today I decided to do a 2K test. Just out of curiosity more than anything.
The last month or so has mainly been strength training, with rowing as a warm-up and finisher. My main efforts have been rowing-focused weights. And very enjoyable it has been too.
So today I strapped in, told ChatGPT what the plan was, and asked for a warm-up and pacing notes.
The warm-up was thorough and took nearly 20 minutes. Then the test began.
I was more controlled in the first 250 metres than last time, I could feel the practice of not going out too hard paying off, and it felt great.
500 metres came and went, and I was still pulling well, still on target pace.
At 1,000 metres, a voice in my head said, loudly, “You know what, you’re not going to make it. Might as well stop here at 1,000. Who’s going to know?”
Well. I will. Me. The person who’s been turning up every day while you’ve been skiving off and lazing around. So shut up and let me get on with it.
And I did get on with it.
1,500 metres came and went. The pace was slowing, still okay, but definitely fading. Then with 300 to go, another voice came in. A more confident one, almost alien. It said, “Keep going. You can do a 7:15. Let’s go!”
At that point there wasn’t much left. My form was slipping. So I brought it back in line, dug in, and finished at 7:20.8.
Two and a half seconds faster than last time.
It wasn’t the ten-plus second leap I achieved in the previous test, but I’m still delighted with it.
The learning from this training block is that weights alone won’t get me to the sub-7 2K, and neither will just rowing. The next block needs to be a mix of both disciplines.
Holiday starts tomorrow. There’s a gym close by to help me stay grounded and present.
Thanks for reading.
This is The Sub-7 Experiment.
The Sub-7 Experiment 