First workout of mesocycle #2. The target of this mesocycle is long interval work. Here’s the definition of the workout types from the Seiler lecture. I just finished the yellow block. Now I am going into the orange block.
In the Seiler Lecture, these were just 4 x 8min intervals. Since I am easily bored and want a bit more variety in my life, I will be going through different middle distance intervals, like the Wolverine Plan L2s and also including some middle distance time trials, generally on Saturday’s.
So today was the “waterfall”, a classic L2 workout. 3K / 2.5K / 2K with 5 minute rests between. Since I haven’t been doing much work at paces faster than 1:50, I wasn’t sure how it would go. My default starting point for L2 workouts is usually 1:50 pace, but since my long distance work has been going pretty well, I thought I could push it a bit. So I picked a pace target of 1:48.
This turned out to be right at my limit right now. I was hurting at the end of the second and third interval, but I held onto the pace and counted out the strokes.
(note on the workout setup: I did this workout in RowPro by defining a variable interval session. It included
- 2000 moderate warmup
- 100 second stop
- 3000 hard
- 1000 easy
- 2500 hard
- 1000 easy
- 2000 hard
- 100 second stop
- 2000 easy (cool down)
This produces a stroke file that is essentially on continuous 13500m row. This stroke file can be parsed by the amazing danburpee workbook)
Workout Summary – Dec 22, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_13500_|_53:14.9_|_01:58.3_|_211.2_|_23.3_|_154.5_|_ 78.3% _|_10.9_|_09.1
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI
01_|_02000_|_08:02.9_|_02:00.7_|_198.9_|_20.7_|_128.9_|_ 60.2% _|_12.0_|_09.6
02_|_03000_|_10:47.0_|_01:47.8_|_279.2_|_26.0_|_161.6_|_ 83.4% _|_10.7_|_10.8
03_|_01000_|_04:46.6_|_02:23.3_|_118.9_|_19.9_|_129.9_|_ 60.9% _|_10.5_|_06.0
04_|_02500_|_08:59.0_|_01:47.8_|_279.4_|_26.6_|_169.7_|_ 89.2% _|_10.5_|_10.5
05_|_01000_|_04:59.0_|_02:29.5_|_104.8_|_18.7_|_138.0_|_ 66.7% _|_10.8_|_05.6
06_|_02000_|_07:10.6_|_01:47.7_|_280.5_|_27.3_|_172.2_|_ 90.9% _|_10.2_|_10.3
07_|_02000_|_08:29.8_|_02:07.4_|_169.1_|_20.2_|_148.6_|_ 74.2% _|_11.6_|_08.4
_____________|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_DPS-
Intervals____|_07500_|_26:56.6_|_1:47.8__|_279.7_|_26.5_|_167.1_|_10.5
Other Meters_|_06000_|_26:18.3_|_2:11.5__|_118.3_|_20.0_|_137.2_|_11.4
So, I hit the target and I worked hard. Mission accomplished.
Tomorrow: 4 x 20′ / 1′ rest
Quantified Rowing 
What do you think of the workout classification in Olbrecht’s book and how he builds up the year? He seems to favor doing short intensive bursts (Anaerobe Capacity) first, to develop the capacity to generate Lactate, then move on to longer intervals (Aerobe Power) a few weeks before the race, to develop the ability to work long at high lactate levels.
It is different than what I am used to. My thinking goes more in the direction of what you are doing.
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I didn’t really study that closely enough. I was very influenced by the Seiler lecture that described an experiment where three different block periodized plans were used. The key finding was certain athletes responded well to each of the programs and others did not. The recommendation was for coaches and athletes to experiment to find the program that provided the best for them.
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I haven’t read the book (perhaps I should) so I find this point interesting, in reading studies around training duration for polarised training plans most seem to go in the direction of recommending multiple short duration intervals in order to reduce the amount of recovery time between pieces (for example 30 seconds on, 15 seconds off) – Interestingly despite these short workouts the athletes doing them don’t seem to be at a disadvantage for the longer tests
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259556129_Short_intervals_induce_superior_training_adaptations_compared_with_long_intervals_in_cyclists_-_An_effort-matched_approach
The being said, I am sure there are some psychological advantages of doing longer “race style” pieces like 500m’s, 1000m’s but studies like this seems to suggest for the majority short sessions like this improve the VO2max the most
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One more thing to add – One of the things I see Joe Friel repeat often is that the ideal with a Periodised training plan is that the ultimate aim as you get closer to your A race is that your workouts become more similar to the race that you are aiming to do – so in the context of racing a 2k I would see that as meaning at the furthest away of the event you would be doing the “ideal” workout as mentioned above – 80%+ of sub 2mmol and 20%- of short VO2max workouts as shown above, then as you close into the competition the aerobic workouts would become shorter and the VO2 max workouts would change into something like 1000m pieces and the like
http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2010/04/kiss-periodization.html
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