High HR, High Lactate. Need to slow down.
Tomorrow: Was scheduled for threshold session, but I am changing the plan to do 2 HIT sessions per week and 4 LIT to get the 80/20 ratio back in balance.
Month: December 2015
Tuesday: 8 x 750 / 1′ rest – December CTC
Ouch.
This is a tough session. I’ve done a 15×3’/1′ which obviously is done at a much slower pace. This one has a nasty combination of fast pacing and short rests, so you are digging yourself into a hole pretty quickly. I’ve been doing a lot of distance and threshold work lately, so this was a bit of a shock to the system. I was on slides. Not sure if it helped or hurt. Well, I know it hurt, it hurt a lot. I just don’t know if it would hurt more or less off of slides.
Monday: easy 80 – 4 x 20′ / 1′ rest
I did not sleep well last night. I often have troubles on Sunday nights because I sleep in a bit on the weekend, but last night it was more related to the Half Marathon in the afternoon. I was totally wiped, but had trouble getting restful sleep. I guess it’s related to muscle soreness but I think there is another element to it.
I’m curious if other people have trouble sleeping the night after a really hard session?
This morning, it hurt to get out of bed. I was sore all over. My ass was particularly tender, but my shoulders and legs were stiff too. I decided that recovery was what I needed today, and so I decided on a very gentle session.
Plan:
- 4 x 20′ / 1′ rest
- first 20′, 5′ @ 150W, 5′ @ 160W, 5′ @ 170W, 5′ @ 180W
- after that, gentle pace variations between 170 and 190W
- HR cap at 145 (top of UT2)
Mission accomplished. I did 2′ chunks of 170W/190W for the second 20′. Then in third I did 2′ chunks at 170/180/190/180/170/170/180/190/180/170. At the end of the 3rd piece I measured lacate –> 1.9 mmol/l. Surprisingly high for the low RPE and low HR.
I liked that one so I did it again in the 4th piece.
Measured lactate –> 1.8mmol/l
Tomorrow: I think I will probably take a shot at this months CTC.
It is 8 x 750 / 1′ rest. This is similar to the 3’/1′ session that did last week, but fewer reps and a bit shorter. I think I will start off at 1:47 pace and see where that gets me.
Sunday: HM Threshold – Personal Best Time
Saturday: I intended to work out, but I couldn’t fit it into the schedule of Christmas shopping, and work around the house. So I took a rest day. Turns out, it was a good decision.
Sunday: Took care of putting together a draft presentation for our corporate goal review session next week and then got down to business on the erg.
Plan: Half Marathon, Threshold pace. Last weekend I was within a few seconds of my PB, so I thought I might be able to manage a new one today. My old PB was 1:20:39 (1:54.6 pace). I set up a pace boat at 1:54.5 on RowPro to give me something to focus on.
I started with a 1K warmup. Just to make the start of the HM a bit less of a shock to the system.
Workout Summary – Dec 06, 2015 – Warm up
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_01000_|_04:01.2_|_02:00.6_|_199.6_|_19.9_|_122.1_|_ 55.4% _|_12.5_|_10.0
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI
01_|_00500_|_02:04.7_|_02:04.7_|_180.6_|_18.3_|_110.6_|_ 47.2% _|_13.2_|_09.9
02_|_00500_|_01:56.5_|_01:56.5_|_221.4_|_21.6_|_133.0_|_ 63.2% _|_11.9_|_10.2
Then into the main event.
Workout Summary – Dec 06, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_21097_|_79:55.4_|_01:53.7_|_238.4_|_24.8_|_165.9_|_ 86.5% _|_10.6_|_09.6
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI
01_|_01000_|_03:47.7_|_01:53.8_|_237.3_|_23.7_|_138.1_|_ 66.7% _|_11.1_|_10.0
02_|_01000_|_03:47.5_|_01:53.7_|_237.9_|_23.7_|_153.2_|_ 77.5% _|_11.1_|_10.0
03_|_01000_|_03:47.8_|_01:53.9_|_236.8_|_24.2_|_157.1_|_ 80.2% _|_10.9_|_09.8
04_|_01000_|_03:47.6_|_01:53.8_|_237.4_|_24.2_|_158.9_|_ 81.5% _|_10.9_|_09.8
05_|_01000_|_03:47.8_|_01:53.9_|_236.8_|_24.5_|_159.9_|_ 82.2% _|_10.8_|_09.7
06_|_01000_|_03:47.0_|_01:53.5_|_239.4_|_24.3_|_161.7_|_ 83.4% _|_10.9_|_09.8
07_|_01000_|_03:47.0_|_01:53.5_|_239.4_|_24.6_|_163.8_|_ 85.0% _|_10.8_|_09.7
08_|_01000_|_03:47.3_|_01:53.6_|_238.5_|_24.3_|_164.9_|_ 85.8% _|_10.9_|_09.8
09_|_01000_|_03:47.5_|_01:53.7_|_237.8_|_24.5_|_166.0_|_ 86.5% _|_10.8_|_09.7
10_|_01000_|_03:47.6_|_01:53.8_|_237.6_|_24.8_|_166.8_|_ 87.1% _|_10.6_|_09.6
11_|_01000_|_03:47.3_|_01:53.6_|_238.5_|_24.6_|_168.5_|_ 88.3% _|_10.8_|_09.7
12_|_01000_|_03:47.4_|_01:53.7_|_238.0_|_24.8_|_169.4_|_ 89.0% _|_10.6_|_09.6
13_|_01000_|_03:48.3_|_01:54.2_|_235.2_|_24.4_|_169.4_|_ 88.9% _|_10.8_|_09.6
14_|_01000_|_03:47.9_|_01:53.9_|_236.6_|_25.0_|_170.4_|_ 89.7% _|_10.5_|_09.5
15_|_01000_|_03:48.6_|_01:54.3_|_234.5_|_24.9_|_170.6_|_ 89.8% _|_10.5_|_09.4
16_|_01000_|_03:47.9_|_01:54.0_|_236.4_|_25.0_|_171.8_|_ 90.6% _|_10.5_|_09.5
17_|_01000_|_03:48.0_|_01:54.0_|_236.3_|_25.3_|_172.1_|_ 90.9% _|_10.4_|_09.4
18_|_01000_|_03:49.1_|_01:54.5_|_232.9_|_25.1_|_172.1_|_ 90.9% _|_10.4_|_09.3
19_|_01000_|_03:48.1_|_01:54.1_|_235.8_|_25.2_|_173.3_|_ 91.7% _|_10.4_|_09.3
20_|_01000_|_03:47.2_|_01:53.6_|_238.8_|_25.9_|_174.4_|_ 92.5% _|_10.2_|_09.2
21_|_01000_|_03:40.8_|_01:50.4_|_260.1_|_26.9_|_177.2_|_ 94.5% _|_10.1_|_09.7
22_|_00097_|_00:20.1_|_01:43.5_|_315.9_|_29.9_|_178.1_|_ 95.1% _|_09.7_|_10.6
I managed to hold a very tight range on my pace. I sped up and slowed down a little bit and played with rate a bit, speeding it up as the time ground on. Mainly I just counted out the strokes in 1000m blocks. I was generally at 95 to 97 strokes per block. Once I got to about 3000m left, I saw that I might have a chance to go under 80 minutes. Now that is a milestone in my mind like sub-7 2K, 8K for 30 minutes and 16K for 60 minutes, so I decided to go for it. I started to push with about 2K to go, but backed off to my cruising pace. I threw everything at it with 1000 meters to go and it was great seeing the projected finish dipping below 1:20:00. Once it was, I closed my eyes and gunned it for the end.
I shouted so loud when I finished that my wife came running. I breathlessly told her that I had set a PB. She smiled indulgently, gave a little chuckle, and retreated. It can’t be easy to be married to an idiot.
After a couple minutes, I did a 2K happy ending cooldown.
Workout Summary – Dec 06, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_02000_|_08:30.4_|_02:07.6_|_168.5_|_19.4_|_146.6_|_ 72.7% _|_12.1_|_08.7
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI
01_|_00500_|_01:59.7_|_01:59.7_|_204.2_|_21.6_|_142.0_|_ 69.5% _|_11.6_|_09.5
02_|_00500_|_02:05.4_|_02:05.4_|_177.3_|_20.1_|_151.9_|_ 76.5% _|_11.9_|_08.8
03_|_00500_|_02:09.7_|_02:09.7_|_160.3_|_19.0_|_148.3_|_ 74.0% _|_12.2_|_08.5
04_|_00500_|_02:15.5_|_02:15.5_|_140.6_|_17.3_|_143.8_|_ 70.8% _|_12.8_|_08.1
Tomorrow: 4 x 20 / 1′ at 185W.
Friday: 3 x 20′ / 1′ rest tired
I skipped my 30 minute recovery session last night because a meeting went late. This morning, my legs still felt heavy and my arms were sore, I guess from working at higher rates.
Anyway, the plan was for a 4 x 20′ at 190W (on slides), but I had a suspicion from the start that it was not going to be smooth sailing. I was right. My HR climbed fast, and it felt like really hard work. My HR drift was 5% from 40′ to 60′.
When I finished 60 minutes, I did a lactate test and scored a 2.8mmol/l. Compare that to 1.7 for the same training power on Wednesday. I even did the test again to confirm the reading and the second test was 2.4mmol/l.
With that, I decided that another 20 minutes would do more harm than good and called it a day.
Tomorrow: HM at Threshold
Thursday: 14 x 3′ / 1′ rest varying rates
I’ve noticed that I seem to do better off of slides for middle distance pieces. For endurance sessions, at the same training power, I seem to have about the same HR and lactate. And for sprints, I think I actually do a bit better on slides because I can rate up much higher. But for the middle distances, I am having trouble finding a nice efficient stroke rate. Basically, I have trouble getting into the groove.
So, today, I decided to do a bit of an experiment. I replaced a planned 2 x 30′ threshold session with a 15 x 3′ / 1′ workout. I’ve been doing this workout for a while. It is one of the “L3” workouts from the Wolverine Plan. And the pace for it comes around the pace for a 30 min TT. I thought that this would be a good session to experiment with different rates on slides.
So, I decided that I would try to aim for a pace faster than 1:55, and start at 23 spm. Then I would click up the stroke rate by 1 spm for each interval. I decided to play it by ear in terms of how high I would push the rate, and then I could come back down the other side.
I did a couple of 3′ segments at a slower pace as a warmup and then went into the main set. At 23 SPM, I settled in at 1:53 and it didn’t sting too bad. As I increased stroke rate, it was hard to avoid going faster. I could tell that I was pushing the pace unsustainably fast as the rate increased. The format of the workout gave me a chance to try to out some changes in stroke dynamics.
As I got to the higher rates, I needed to concentrate on having really fast hands on the recovery. If I did that, then I could take the drive a bit slower and maintain the pace. But it was really murder on my arms. By the tenth rep, I found it hard to keep my arms out with good form while I paddled in the rests.
From today’s experiment, it looks like for a 30′ Threshold, on slides, I should be rating between 28 and 30. But I rarely rate that high either in a boat or on an erg. I need to practice at these rates more often to make it work.
And through this experiment, I think I am starting to get an idea about the root cause of why my boat speed is not as good as my static erg speed. I have deeply ingrained muscle memory to pause at the finish.
It’s gotten a bit better over time, but I do not flow smoothly from the drive through the finish to the recovery. Instead I pause, then from a stop, I accelerate through the recovery to the catch, and then hit the catch hard. I am beginning to think that getting to the point where my middle distances are better on slides than on static might unlock some boat speed.
So, back to the workout. I pushed all the way up to 33, and started back down. I did the 32 spm segment which was my 12 interval, but I was toast after that. I felt barely recovered at the end of the minute rest, and blew up a minute into the 31 spm rep. I paddled that one out. Then did two more reps at 31 and 30 spm and decided that I had done enough damage for today. I did a quick 3 minute cool down and headed off to the showers.
And because it was that kind of a morning, I discovered that I had forgotten my towel at home and needed to dry off after my shower using paper towels.
Temp: 70f, Humidity 55%
I think I’ll do a slow 30 minutes tonight to try to facilitate recovery and a 4 x 20′ tomorrow morning.
Wednesday PM: 4 x 20′ / 1′ rest
Tuesday night I was so tired I could barely get up off the couch and go to bed. When the alarm went off at 5:15AM on Wednesday morning, I still felt half dead. I turned off the alarm and slept another 2 and half hours. So, no time for a morning session, but I think this was a much better choice. I think that I am still adjusting to the higher volume (>100km a week for the past 3 weeks).
I finished up around 5pm and headed off to the gym for a session in the afternoon.
Plan: Standard 4 x 20′ / 1′ rest at 190W, with a slow start and lactate test at 60′
It felt hard, and my HR was high, but lactates were A-OK at 60′ –> 1.7mmol/l
I needed to stop to fiddle with my ipod in the last 20′ segment and pushed the pace a little bit to try to recover some of the lost meters. I also let my rate creep up a bit more just to see how it felt.
My least favorite thing to think about: Nutrition
Sander posted a comment on yesterday’s post that referred to a very good article on nutrition from world rowing. I really appreciated the advice, and wanted to make sure I could refer to it in the future, so I’m linking to it here.
I have made slight changes to the way that I eat to try to improve performance. The biggest was doing endurance sessions in a fasted state because of some stuff I read that high blood sugar levels would lead to preferential use of CHO metabolism versus fat metabolism. Essentially it would push the cross over point between CHO and Fat metabolism to a lower training power, and potentially higher lactate levels for a specific power.
Beyond that, I try to eat a reasonably healthy diet, but I really like some stuff that is bad for me. Sweets, red meat, salt all the bad stuff.
I’ve read some material about very low carbohydrate diets and “Fat Fueled athletes”, but they seem to be a bit too much of a lifestyle commitment for me.
This is an area that is rich in controversy and replete with opinions, both informed and uninformed. But this article seems simple and reasonable.
Tuesday AM: 30r22, PM: 2 x 5k threshold
Discovered that I had an 8 am meeting, so I needed to cut this morning’s workout short. I just did a 30r22. I am really beginning to feel the increase in volume. It was hard work this morning.
Temp: 68F, Humidity: 41%
Then after work, I headed down to the gym to do my proper session. The plan was for 4 x 5K / 5′ rest. It occurred to me that this would take a lot of time. Figure 19 minutes for each 5K, so that’s 76 minutes, plus 20 minutes of rest, plus a warm up and cool down. That’s like 2 hours!
So the first change was cutting back the rests to 2 minutes. I was also pretty sure that I would cut off this little adventure after 3 reps instead of 4. Who the hell designed this workout anyway? (oh yeah, that’s me.)
I decided to target a 1:55 split. I did a quick 1000m warmup speeding up from 2:10 to 2:05, 2:00, and 1:55 in 250m chunks.
Then it was into the first rep. I had trouble hitting 1:55. It was like trying to stay on a balance beam. I would end up at 1:53 or 1:57. Of course I decided to stick with 1:53. By the time I got through 4000m, I knew that I was in deep trouble for the next rep.
I sure was! I started off trying to ht 1:55 again, but within the first 2000m, I gave up the ghost. I slowed down to 2:00, then sped back up, then kind of settled around a 1:57 pace and miserably ground out the rest of the meters. It was awful.
After that I was done. I did a cool down in the last 5K. Starting at 1:55 for the first 1000m, then slowing down to 2:00, then 2:05. It wasn’t until I was rowing at 2:10 pace that my HR started to come back down to a normal kind of rate.
What went wrong?
- Too aggressive pace, should be 1:56 or slower
- Slides. I think I am less efficient on slides for middle distance work. I either need to slow down and work out the kinks or get the erg off the slides.
- Big volume increase with 4 sessions in the past 48 hours.
- Probably pushing the 30r22 too fast. They are meant to be low intensity recovery sessions. I’ll do them at 180W.
Tomorrow: 30r22 at 180W in the morning, 3 x 20′ at 185W in the afternoon
Quantified Rowing 