I didn’t say that benchmark shouldn’t be treated with focus. Of course it should! I just don’t believe, for a distance as short as 500m, that it’s necessary to taper off 2 days prior to the benchmark for most people. If you feel differently, that’s fine, but today’s template was meant to prepare people for this Saturday. If it were a 2000m benchmark row, I’d absolutely say that doubling the distance two days prior is a bad idea, but that isn’t the case. We regularly have endurance runs before running benchmarks because it helps prepare us.

Why exactly do you feel unready and what would you have the template makers do differently? Today wasn’t a benchmark so I’m sure you’ll row faster on Saturday.