Tuesday 24.6: Row intervals for 10k

Tuesday. Row intervals for 10k

After a tough barbell day it was a good option to leave the weights wait and concentrate on endurance work. Concept2 was the name of the game this Tuesday. I rowed my ass off and called it a day, then went home to host my in-laws that were coming to visit us.

Intervals. For 10.000m

• 500m hard, 100m easy
• 400m hard, 100m easy
• 300m hard, 100m easy
• 200m hard, 100m easy
• 100m hard, 100m easy
• That is 2k. Rest 2min and repeat for a total of 5 rounds

I'll give credits to Gustavo Marquez (gmarx on Instagram) from NorCal Crossfit. He posted this one on Instagram and it was originally created by Chris Hinshaw, endurance coach for these bad ass guys in California. I occasionally take a look at Hinshaw's interval workouts and they have proven great each and every time. Today was no exception. It was a long one, total of 10.000 meters.

The point was to have 5 similar 2k rounds, with exact 2min rest between rounds. The 2.000m round was divided in a descending ladder of sprints from 500m to 100m hard sprint with 100m recovery between sprints. It was difficult to know what a "hard" would be in numbers so I went by feeling all the way. I tried to go at around 1.40 in the beginning and then it slowly slid to 1.45 and I was able to keep it sub 1.50 all the way. That was my goal in the end not to let it slip at 1.50 or worse. It got mental at some point but I made it.

The easy part was definitely easy, I just kept the rower moving but didn't make any real effort to keep up a pace. It was such a short distance - 100m - so I really took it for recovery purposes, the pace was mostly at around 2.20-2.35. I needed that slow pace to restore my energy tank.

To my surprise the most challenging part of these distances was not the first one - 500m - but more likely the 400m and 300m sprints. 500m portion always came after a rest period so it was a more like a smooth sail, at least compared to the following 400-300m sets. Then 200-100m sets were so short that they were mentally much easier and my pace was faster than in the longer distances.

It felt bad after 2-3 sets so it was pretty traditional feeling in any metcon. Once you hit the middle of the workout it usually sucks in a way and you got to dig yourself up somehow from the dark place. My pal Joni came to say hi at around 5k and I remember hoping it would be more towards 7-8k already. This was a great one. I hope these guys keep on posting workouts to Instagram for inspiration. I have huge respect for them!