Some less than impressive 500m intervals

Some days your head is just not in the game.  Today was one of those days.

I can’t blame the weather.  It was about 40F, clear with a light easterly breeze (<5mph)

The plan was:

  1. 8x500m / 500m rest
  2. Pace target: 2:00 to 2:05
  3. Rate target: >30
  4. focus on rowing with an erect posture and avoiding too much lean back.

Within this disaster of a workout, there were actually a couple of good things that happened.

First, the warmup went very well.  Sounds stupid, but the warmup that I do is essentially a rate ladder and I felt like I was in control and rowing really well in each one of the bursts.

Second, I was able to row in control at a higher rate than I have been able to before, at or above about 32 SPM for all the intervals.  Last season, I had a lot of trouble with setting the boat and generating power at rates higher than 30SPM.  I want to be able to work on that, and get to the point where I can race sprints at a 33 or 34 and head races around 28.

But those were just two tiny pearls in giant rotten oyster of a workout.  When the going got tough, about half way through each of the intervals, I just had an overwhelming desire to quit.  I ended up quitting on two intervals.  In two of the other intervals, I was waked by the launch out with the Brandeis Crew.  I was reasonably happy with the first 2 intervals, but even they have an annoying fade in the second half.

After 5 intervals, I decided to give up, so I did one more and called it a day.

I’m going to have to come back to this one next week.  I will probably extend out to 10 intervals and set a stroke rate target for each one.  (26,26,28,28,30,30,32,32,34,34)

2015-04-22_14-51-03 2015-04-22_14-50-36

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_5630_|_28:54_|_2:34.0_|_563___|_19.5_|_10.0_|_146___|_warmup
05650_|_0500_|_01:58_|_1:57.9_|_065___|_33.1_|_07.7_|_166___|_Interval #1
06150_|_0350_|_02:23_|_3:24.0_|_039___|_16.4_|_09.0_|_144___|_rest
06500_|_0500_|_01:59_|_1:59.4_|_065___|_32.7_|_07.7_|_167___|_Interval #2
07000_|_0500_|_03:09_|_3:08.7_|_059___|_18.8_|_08.5_|_145___|_rest
07500_|_0280_|_01:08_|_2:01.6_|_036___|_31.7_|_07.8_|_161___|_Interval #3 (fail)
07780_|_0220_|_01:21_|_3:03.9_|_022___|_16.3_|_10.0_|_156___|_rest
08000_|_0500_|_02:02_|_2:02.4_|_065___|_31.9_|_07.7_|_163___|_Interval #4
08500_|_0500_|_03:17_|_3:16.8_|_064___|_19.5_|_07.8_|_148___|_rest
09000_|_0180_|_00:44_|_2:02.2_|_022___|_30.0_|_08.2_|_159___|_Interval #5 (fail)
09180_|_0320_|_01:52_|_2:55.2_|_036___|_19.3_|_08.9_|_151___|_rest
09500_|_0500_|_02:04_|_2:04.1_|_066___|_31.9_|_07.6_|_169___|_Interval #6
10000_|_1360_|_07:23_|_2:42.8_|_154___|_20.9_|_08.8_|_152___|_cool down

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
05630_|_28:54_|_2:34.0_|_563___|_19.5_|_10.0_|_146___|_warmup
02460_|_09:56_|_2:01.1_|_319___|_32.1_|_07.7_|_165___|_Main set
01890_|_12:01_|_3:10.8_|_220___|_18.3_|_08.6_|_148___|_rest meters
01360_|_07:23_|_2:42.8_|_154___|_20.9_|_08.8_|_152___|_cool down
11340_|_58:14_|_2:34.1_|_1256___|_21.6_|_09.0_|_150___|_Total

I got even more bummed out about this workout when I looked at my training journal for last June and saw that I did a 10×500/500r workout with an avg pace of 1:58.8 and 30.7SPM.

I have some work to do to get back there.

Tomorrow:  14K Steady State

3 thoughts on “Some less than impressive 500m intervals”

  1. sanderroosendaal says:
    Reply

    Not sure why you think this is a failure. You were 2 seconds of split faster than I was on Monday. You were doing higher stroke rates. See this blog for reference: https://rowsandall.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/first-otw-8×500-are-my-hard-days-too-easy/

    It takes some time to get used to the higher sprint race stroke rates. Actually your feeling that you wanted to quit is a good thing. Get accustomed to the high stroke rates and you will see that in a few weeks you will be able to repeat this workout feeling much better.

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