Sunday PM: Bonus Session 3×20′ steady state -ish

I have to fly out early tomorrow morning to California, and I doubt I will have any time to fit in a workout.  So, I thought it would be a good idea to do a second session today.

Nothing to taxing, but some more meters in the bank.

As usual, I started with a 20 minute lactate test.  As usual for a Sunday, it felt easier than on any other day.  Target was 193W, but I was having trouble getting it down below 195W.  And my HR was nicely controlled and stayed below 140 throughout the piece.

Power: 195.1W, Rate: 19.4spm, AvgHR: 137.4bpm, Lactate: 1.4mmol/l

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Output
Workout Summary – Apr 12, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_04938_|_20:00.0_|_02:01.5_|_195.1_|_19.4_|_132.8_|_ 62.9% _|_12.8_|_10.1
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_01236_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.4_|_195.7_|_19.4_|_123.0_|_ 56.0% _|_12.7_|_10.1
02_|_01235_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.5_|_195.3_|_19.4_|_133.9_|_ 63.8% _|_12.7_|_10.1
03_|_01235_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.4_|_195.4_|_19.4_|_136.7_|_ 65.8% _|_12.7_|_10.1
04_|_01232_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.8_|_193.9_|_19.2_|_137.4_|_ 66.3% _|_12.8_|_10.1

So, then I setup for 2 more 20 minute pieces.  I row these using rowpro, and I have gotten in the habit of just setting them up as a single continuous row.  I started doing it that way because it is the way you have to do it for online rows, but it just works better for the spreadsheet to do it this way.  For a 2×20’/1’rest, I set up a continuous row of 42′ and then set up the splits to be 21 minutes long.  That way, the avg power for the split is accurate throughout.  I row down from 42′ to 22′, then I grab a drink of water and a quick wipe of the towel.  I start paddling with a few seconds to go before the 21 minute mark, and then I’m into the second piece.  I row that down from 21′ down to 1′, and then I have to decide what I want to do with that last minute.  Sometimes I just row it out at the target pace.  Other times, I paddle it as a quick cool down.  Most often, I do a quick 1′ at higher rate and pressure for a bit of fun at the end of the row.

You can do the same thing for 3×20′ (63′) or 4×20′ (84′).

Today, I dutifully did my next 20 minutes at 195W target power.  My HR monitor was dropping in and out, but I had enough readings to see that my HR was staying nice and low.  I also felt terrific.  So, during the 1 minute break, I decided to row the last 21′ harder.  I did the first 5′ at r22 and 220W, then 5′ at r21/210W, then 5′ at r20/200W, then 5′ at r19/190W.  That left 1 minute to go.  I bumped it up to r24 and tried to take long hard strokes.  I was able to hold about 275W (1:48) at r24 comfortably.

This was a great way to make the time pass quickly and to get a bit more intensity.  Through the whole thing, my HR never went above UT1.  There is something magic about Sundays.

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Output
Workout Summary – Apr 12, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_10339_|_42:00.0_|_02:01.9_|_193.4_|_19.6_|_138.2_|_ 66.8% _|_12.5_|_09.8
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_04952_|_20:00.0_|_02:01.2_|_196.7_|_19.3_|_131.1_|_ 61.8% _|_12.9_|_10.2
02_|_00060_|_01:00.0_|_08:22.1_|_002.8_|_05.0_|_128.2_|_ 59.7% _|_12.0_|_00.6
03_|_01297_|_05:00.0_|_01:55.7_|_226.1_|_22.0_|_137.7_|_ 66.5% _|_11.8_|_10.3
04_|_01273_|_05:00.0_|_01:57.9_|_213.8_|_21.2_|_147.5_|_ 73.4% _|_12.0_|_10.1
05_|_01250_|_05:00.0_|_02:00.0_|_202.5_|_20.0_|_146.9_|_ 73.0% _|_12.5_|_10.1
06_|_01231_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.8_|_193.6_|_19.0_|_145.3_|_ 71.8% _|_13.0_|_10.2
07_|_00277_|_01:00.0_|_01:48.1_|_276.9_|_24.0_|_150.7_|_ 75.7% _|_11.6_|_11.5

Tomorrow:  7am flight to LAX.  Probably no training.

7K in a double on Lake Quinsigamond

Beautiful day for a row.  Around 40F, and a light wind from the west.  The water was perfect.  We had 8 people this morning so we boated a quad, and two doubles.  I was in one of the doubles with Joe.  Joe is the guy who taught me how to row and is the backbone of our club.  Right now, he is nursing a shoulder injury, so we took it pretty easy today.

At this point, the lake is mostly ice free.  There is still some icy spots at the south end of the lake.  We headed down lake and turned around one of the islands, then headed north until the Gazebo.  There were a bunch of 8+s out getting ready for some racing.

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Most of the row was nice steady state at around a 20 rate.  I was doing my best to keep my legs down until my body position was right for the catch.  I was also working a little bit on trying to keep from going too deep at the catch.  This was pretty sloppy though.

When we turned around the island, we took a short break to try out the drill that I posted.  We took turns trying it, with the other just setting the boat.  That’s the great thing about a double.  You can work on things like this without risking a swim!

Forgot my Heart Rate Monitor, so the graph isn’t nearly as pretty.

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Based on feedback from Sander I decided to get the XGPS160 bluetooth unit to use with CrewNerd.  It worked flawlessly.  With it the Crewnerd pace display responds instantly to changes in boat speed, and you can turn the smoothing all the way down without seeing erratic displays.  So, instead of a Speedcoach GPS II for $400 that provides a 5hz update rate, I have a $149 unit that supports 10Hz updates, and has a better display with my iPhone6.  I think I like the idea of bluetooth enabled accessories and the the iphone as a hub.  Now, if someone releases bluetooth force gauges and impeller, you’d have everything you need to be fully instrumented in the boat!

I had to make some modifications to my spreadsheet, since it is now generating 10x more data.  But that took only a few minutes.