Weather: Sunny, beautiful, bit of wind from the NW (6-8 mph) which was a head wind heading up river.  Felt a little stronger than what the forecast said it was.

Plan:

1. Steady State r18 to r20
2. HR cap at 155 (top of UT1)
3. Work on balance and reaching out at the catch.

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_0602_|_03:01_|_2:30.4_|_057___|_18.9_|_10.6_|_123___|_warmup
00622_|_1727_|_08:21_|_2:25.0_|_153___|_18.3_|_11.3_|_147___|_tail wind
02349_|_0135_|_00:53_|_3:15.6_|_012___|_13.6_|_11.3_|_114___|_phone call
02484_|_1307_|_06:13_|_2:22.8_|_114___|_18.3_|_11.5_|_146___|_tail wind
03791_|_0072_|_00:26_|_3:00.6_|_006___|_13.8_|_12.0_|_130___|_turn around
03863_|_2858_|_14:30_|_2:32.3_|_269___|_18.5_|_10.6_|_152___|_head wind
06721_|_0279_|_01:33_|_2:45.8_|_028___|_18.2_|_10.0_|_134___|_Slow roll up
07000_|_0500_|_02:40_|_2:40.2_|_052___|_19.5_|_09.6_|_140___|_Square blades
07500_|_0500_|_02:33_|_2:32.7_|_048___|_18.9_|_10.4_|_145___|_Steady state
08000_|_0500_|_02:36_|_2:35.8_|_051___|_19.6_|_09.8_|_144___|_Slow roll up
08500_|_0500_|_02:43_|_2:43.1_|_055___|_20.2_|_09.1_|_144___|_Square blades
09000_|_0500_|_02:23_|_2:23.4_|_047___|_19.7_|_10.6_|_147___|_Steady state
09500_|_0500_|_02:51_|_2:50.8_|_053___|_18.6_|_09.4_|_136___|_Slow roll up
10000_|_0500_|_02:52_|_2:52.2_|_058___|_20.2_|_08.6_|_140___|_Square blades
10500_|_0500_|_02:28_|_2:27.5_|_048___|_19.5_|_10.4_|_147___|_Steady state
11000_|_0500_|_02:52_|_2:51.6_|_057___|_19.9_|_08.8_|_144___|_Slow roll up
11500_|_0500_|_02:38_|_2:37.9_|_053___|_20.1_|_09.4_|_147___|_Square blades
12000_|_0500_|_02:26_|_2:25.7_|_050___|_20.6_|_10.0_|_155___|_Steady state
12500_|_0500_|_02:56_|_2:56.1_|_060___|_20.4_|_08.3_|_141___|_Slow roll up
13000_|_0500_|_02:53_|_2:53.0_|_061___|_21.2_|_08.2_|_137___|_Square blades
13500_|_0332_|_01:52_|_2:48.7_|_036___|_19.3_|_09.2_|_146___|_paddle to dock

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00602_|_03:01_|_2:30.4_|_057___|_18.9_|_10.6_|_123___|_warmup
07892_|_38:54_|_2:27.9_|_729___|_18.7_|_10.8_|_149___|_Steady State
02500_|_13:46_|_2:45.3_|_279___|_20.3_|_09.0_|_141___|_square blades
02279_|_12:47_|_2:48.2_|_249___|_19.5_|_09.2_|_140___|_slow roll up
00207_|_01:19_|_3:10.3_|_018___|_13.7_|_11.5_|_119___|_rest meters
00332_|_01:52_|_2:48.7_|_036___|_19.3_|_09.2_|_146___|_cool down
13812_|_11:39_|_2:35.6_|_1368___|_19.1_|_10.1_|_144___|_Total

So, I felt like a god rowing downriver, I was hitting 2:25 or better with a nice low HR.  My phone rang while I was going through the s-turn, and I stopped to answer the call.  Turns out it was a butt dial!  Still not sure who it was.  But anyway, after the interruption, it was delightful rowing from there to the Moody street dam.

I turned and immediately noticed that I had been rowing with a significant tail wind.  I guess I had not radically improved over night and I no longer was rowing like a god.  When I started up into the head wind, the same effort  that yielded 2:25 down river, now yielded about 2:35 going up river.  I slogged my way along.  In areas where the river was sheltered, I would be a bit faster.  In areas where there was less of a wind break, I would slow way down.  I tried to not work harder into the wind, but I still ended up pushing my HR above the UT1 band by the time I finished.

I decided to dial it back a notch.  The rest of the row, I did 500m of slow roll ups, 500m of square blades and 500m of steady state.  The objective for the slow roll ups was to keep the blades off the water and maintain balance while reaching for the catch.  The objective for the square blade rowing was to clean up my finishes.

Using RIM, I was watching the boat acceleration.  When I was rowing with square blades, if I got hung up at the finish, I could see a transient in the trace.  (See the purple line below).  If I finished clean, I would not (yellow line).  A clean finish also ended up with me being able to keep my blades clear on recovery.  The hang up would inevitably result in me touching a blade on recovery.  The key to clean finishes seemed to be to keep my elbows out at the finish.

Then in the steady state, I tried to row with the blades off the water and be very clean at the finish.  I also tried to get as much reach at the catch as I could and drop the oars in before I started to drive.  During the drive, I was trying to stay forward during the initial leg drive and open my back a little later.  Again, I watched the RIM display.

On strokes where I managed to isolate the leg drive, I had a plateau in the acceleration (yellow).  On strokes where my back opened early, I saw the drive hump (plum).  It might be fun to experiment with the “Sonification” feature to see if it provides a useful way to learn from  this feedback.

Tomorrow:  I think I will try the sprint workout that Sander posted.

3x(5×30″)/R8 (1) 30″/30″ @36spm, (2) 30″/45″ @ 38spm, (3) 30″/60″ @40spm

But I will tone it down to my abilities.  I will reduce the stroke rate by 4 since I can’t rate that high no matter what.  I will also do it by counting strokes instead of by time, so mine will be

3x(5 x 20 strokes)/R8 (1) 20/10 @ 32, (2) 20/15 @ 34, (3) 20/20 @ 36

3 x (5 x 30″ on / 30″ off) / 8m rest at r32/r34/r36

The stroke rates were originally 36/38/40 and I am not capable of that!

I will probably do the 30″ as just 20 counted strokes instead.  The rest will be 10 strokes, 15 strokes, and 20 strokes