Cloudy, wind NE at 7-10mph.  This was a cross/head wind for the 5K piece.  It also kicked up some nasty chop for most of the row.  On the plus side, I wasn’t waked during the piece, only during the warmup.  Very sporting of them really.

Plan:

1.  5K hard
2. rate: r28
3. pace: better than last weekend’s 2:12.7
4. HR:  There is no cap on race simulations.
5. Technique:  Work on really reaching for the catch and keeping my finishes clean and avoid too much layback.

As I got my boat in the water, a couple guys from the club at the north end of the lake came by and asked  me if I wanted to do a race piece with them.  Damn right I did!  We rowed steady state down to the south end of the lake.  I tried to keep my HR basically in UT2 the whole way down, but finished with about 500m of head race pace just to get comfortable with the rate.

Then we turned, and futzed around a bit.  I asked the guy I was going to row with what his target pace was.  He said 2:15 in flat water, which seemed about right to me. I didn’t want the pressure of starting off side by side, so he let me go and he started right behind me.  It seemed like we were pretty even in pace, but over the first 1000m I started to put a little distance between us.  The wind was gusty and flukey, and the except in the lee of the islands, annoyingly choppy.

By the 2K mark, I was up about 30 seconds or so, and the row was basically pushing a bit faster when I got some flat water and slogging along when it was choppy or I got a bit gust of wind.  I was a lot slower than last weekend, but I think with the conditions, and the lower HR, this was actually a better row.

I ended up about a minute ahead of the guy I was rowing with.  It sure is easier to keep pushing hard when someone is chasing you!  I really wanted to stop or slow down around the rt 9 bridge, but pride kept me going.

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_3980_|_21:29_|_2:41.9_|_388___|_18.1_|_10.3_|_132___|_w
04000_|_5000_|_22:45_|_2:16.5_|_585___|_25.7_|_08.5_|_169___|_5K piece
09000_|_4720_|_25:15_|_2:40.4_|_502___|_19.9_|_09.4_|_137___|_r

1000m splits for the 5K.  Pretty flat paced.

04000_|_1000_|_04:36_|_2:18.2_|_114___|_24.7_|_08.8_|_157___|_m
05000_|_1000_|_04:31_|_2:15.7_|_119___|_26.3_|_08.4_|_168___|_m
06000_|_1000_|_04:33_|_2:16.5_|_116___|_25.5_|_08.6_|_171___|_m
07000_|_1000_|_04:31_|_2:15.7_|_119___|_26.3_|_08.4_|_173___|_m
08000_|_1000_|_04:33_|_2:16.5_|_117___|_25.7_|_08.5_|_176___|_m

After that, I did some square blades, some feet out and rowed with a quad from my club back to the dock.  Very good outing.