Scouting the HOCR course again.  Beautiful weather.  High 70s, wind 8-10mph from the SE, which was a cross head wind heading down river and a cross tail wind heading up river.  I launched about 1pm and there was an astounding amount of traffic.  Kayak, SUPs, Sailboats, Motorboats.  The only people not on the river were rowers.  The whole 2 hours I was out, I saw 3 scullers, one of whom nearly ran me down.

The plan for today:

1. Steady state r18 to r22
2. Concentrate of technique since I’ve been out of the boat for 8 days
3. No pace target
4. Try to keep HR in the high UT1 zone

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_7980_|_40:00_|_2:30.4_|_798___|_20.0_|_10.0_|_154___|_headwind
08000_|_0100_|_00:39_|_3:15.5_|_010___|_15.3_|_10.0_|_137___|_water break
08100_|_2580_|_13:49_|_2:40.6_|_272___|_19.7_|_09.5_|_150___|_headwind choppy
10680_|_3920_|_21:50_|_2:47.2_|_428___|_19.6_|_09.2_|_134___|_very choppy
14600_|_4940_|_24:11_|_2:26.8_|_553___|_22.9_|_08.9_|_153___|_HOCR course
19540_|_2960_|_15:59_|_2:42.0_|_330___|_20.6_|_09.0_|_144___|_sbr sru

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks

19420_|_39:50_|_2:34.2_|_2051___|_20.5_|_09.5_|_149___|_Main set
00100_|_00:39_|_3:15.5_|_010___|_15.3_|_10.0_|_137___|_rest meters
02960_|_15:59_|_2:42.0_|_330___|_20.6_|_09.0_|_144___|_cool down
22480_|_56:28_|_2:35.4_|_2391___|_20.5_|_09.4_|_148___|_Total

The conditions were lovely on the upper 8K of the river and deplorable on the last 3K.  Almost unrowable.  There was a lot of chop from the wind, plus wakes from power boats and especially the “duck boats”, which are amphibious craft that are used for tours of Boston.  You go riding through the historic streets, and then plunge into the Charles and churn up the river to continue the tour.

I launched from the public ramp by CRI, and headed downriver, into a bit of a head wind.  I just plodded along covering the full HOCR course, and then stopped for a water break.  Then I continued downriver through the basin to the Museum of Science.  This was a big mistake.  The basin was close to unrowable with a confused chop and lots of sailboat and powerboat traffic.  At one point I just gave up and waited for the water to simmer down a little bit.  The water improved considerably when I was about 500m downstream from the start of the HOCR course.  From there to the end the only thing I had to worry about was traffic.  Kayaks seemed to have a death wish.  I would look and it would seem like I was going to avoid them, then look again and they had turned into my course.  One of the only single I saw today I saw when he came around a corner on a collision course with me on my side of the river.  Mind you, this was a point on the river that was nearly 400m wide.  We clashed blades and exchanged pleasantries.

I tried to row nice and light and let the rate drift up as I continued up the HOCR course, trying to cement in my head how far apart all the landmarks are.  Once I reached the finish of the course, I had a bit more water, and then did the last 3K up river alternating between 500m of square blades and 500m of slow roll ups.  I was trying and not succeeding to keep my blades off the water.

Note to self.  Next time row the HOCR course twice instead of going into the basin!