Plan:

1. Warmup:  King of the mountain, top quarter, 20 strokes or so of each: arms only, arms and body, half slide, full slide, legs only.
2. 4 repeats of:
   1. 5 good starts.  Focus on balance and control.  Try to get good blade placement before each drive
   2. row the remaining 2500m at steady state pace and work on technique and balance.  HR cap at 155.
3. Cool down:  Square blades and high pressure / low rate.

It was beautiful this morning.  Sunny, no wind, mid 50s.  It was good to do a structured warmup.  The legs only was a good thing to do.

Starts are getting a bit better.  At least I have an idea of how hard I can push the initial stroke without compromising my balance.  I also have a better idea of how fast I can push the stroke rate in the start.  It looks like about 35 is as high as I can go without rowing in severely and screwing up the finishes.  From here, it is just lots of practice to slowly improve the pressure on the first stroke and the tempo of the initial strokes.  I’ll try to take some video this weekend to see if I’m doing anything horribly wrong.

The steady state was nice.  I was pretty focused on trying to balance and row quietly.  I really wanted to push too hard and blow the HR cap, but I need to save that feeling for tomorrow.

00020_|_0882_|_04:57_|_2:48.2_|_095___|_19.2_|_09.3_|_124___|_warmup
00902_|_0489_|_02:45_|_2:49.1_|_050___|_18.1_|_09.8_|_138___|_5 starts
01391_|_2331_|_11:03_|_2:22.3_|_223___|_20.2_|_10.5_|_155___|_steady state
03722_|_0448_|_02:31_|_2:48.9_|_047___|_18.6_|_09.5_|_143___|_5 starts
04170_|_2549_|_12:35_|_2:28.1_|_257___|_20.4_|_09.9_|_155___|_slow roll ups
06719_|_0513_|_02:49_|_2:45.0_|_053___|_18.8_|_09.7_|_144___|_5 starts
07232_|_2361_|_11:35_|_2:27.2_|_219___|_18.9_|_10.8_|_155___|_steady state
09460_|_0551_|_03:03_|_2:45.8_|_056___|_18.4_|_09.8_|_144___|_5 starts
10011_|_2612_|_12:53_|_2:27.9_|_266___|_20.7_|_09.8_|_153___|_steady state
12623_|_1162_|_06:38_|_2:51.3_|_127___|_19.1_|_09.1_|_138___|_cool down

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00882_|_04:57_|_2:48.2_|_095___|_19.2_|_09.3_|_124___|_warmup
09853_|_48:06_|_2:26.5_|_965___|_20.1_|_10.2_|_154___|_Main set
02001_|_11:09_|_2:47.1_|_206___|_18.5_|_09.7_|_142___|_20 Starts
01162_|_06:38_|_2:51.3_|_127___|_19.1_|_09.1_|_138___|_cool down
13898_|_10:49_|_2:32.9_|_1393___|_19.7_|_10.0_|_149___|_Total

I set up the speedcoach for stroke by stroke data.  Here are the details of the starts.  I think the best metric to judge the quality of the start is the pace in the third stroke.  If the pace is below 2:00 on the third stroke, then it was relatively well executed.  If it was slower, generally, I either wobbled on the first stroke, or had trouble getting clean catches on the 2nd or 3rd stroke.

So, in the first set, the fourth and the sixth are OK.  In the second set, all of them were OK except for the second one. The third set was all OK.  On the fourth set, I blew the first 2, but the last 3 were OK.

Tomorrow:  8×500 / 500m rest.  Standing starts.  r30 or higher for all reps.

Side note:  My right elbow has been bothering me.  I think it is bursitis or tennis elbow or something.  Time to buy a wrap and start popping the Ibuprofen.  If it doesn’t improve with these steps, I might need to lay off rowing for a few days.