14K of bliss (rate ladders and a hardish 1K)

May 11, 2016Leave a comment

The weather was just about perfect. Not a cloud in the sky. The temperature started around 50F, and by the time I finished, it was around 60F. Tee shirt weather!

There was a light, but building breeze from the west. This averaged around 5mph from the West, which was a head wind heading upstream.

My plan was to do the same workout as Monday. Rate Ladders.

3′ @ 18
2′ @ 20
1′ @ 22

The length of the river is not precisely right for these ladders, so I just turn around and get going in the other direction.

I am not happy with my boat speed, but I’m not quite sure what’s wrong. I guess I will just keep working on stroke technique. Breaking down the stroke into phases:

Recovery to Catch: Inconsistent in terms of my body position and reach. For some sections of my row today, I felt like I was doing really well getting my body over before I broke my knees and then smoothly moving to the catch position. I got that “glimpse out of the corner of my eye” feeling on some strokes.
Drive: I was working on building power through the stroke, so easing into the stroke a little bit. I was also trying to row lighter at r20 and r22.
Finish: Very messy. I am still a little crowded at the finish, mainly due to being about 10 pounds heavier than I should be. I was working on tapping down early enough and then feathering, but on many strokes, I was getting hung up trying to extract the oars cleanly.

I think I need to add some drills to try to work on specific parts of the stroke. The good thing is that the boat is setting reasonably well.

My workout took an unexpected turn on my first trip back up the river. I was coming through the s-turn and I saw the Brandeis boats lining up to go up river as well. Before I got to where they were, a pair of fours took off side by side with much splashing and squawking from the cox boxes. Behind them, two pairs (W2-) were turning around and lining up. I paddled around to the far side of these boats and then took off when they did. I wasn’t sure exactly what they were working on, but I decided that my plan was to get ahead of them and stay there. It turned out it wasn’t that hard to do. They were rating around a 26, and I was rating between 24 and 26 and opening up some distance with them. Over about 1100m, I managed to put 100m between us. Pride compels me to point out that the GPS derived pace over this piece was impacted by both current and head wind. That felt good. Then it was back to the regular workout.

Tomorrow: I think I will do a split session. About 20 minutes of drills, then some 2′ intervals and then another 20 minutes of drills.

Tuesday: May CTC

May 10, 20162 Comments

I had a meeting at 8am, so no time for OTW or even a workout before work. I had a hole in my schedule around lunchtime, so I ducked into the gym to take a crack at the May CTC.

Being simple minded, I decided to just use 1 minute rests, and target faster than 1:45 for the long intervals and 1:40 for the short intervals.

I was doing the session on slides.

First up was a fletcher warmup.

Then into the main event. I felt a little panicky after the first rep, but then settled into a reasonable groove. I was disappointed to see the wahoo tickr having the same problem with tracking my HR in the later reps. I has happy that I survived the session. It was very hard.

So, 13:40.8, an average pace of 1:42.6. The pace for the long intervals was 1:43.6. The pace for the short intervals was 1:38.9, so I beat my totally arbitrary targets. (and I felt good about that)

I think in peak form, I could probably maybe do this at 1:40, but for where I am right now, I am pretty pleased.

Tomorrow: OTW, Steady state. Probably rate ladders again.

Monday:14K OTW rate ladders

May 9, 2016Leave a comment

Partly cloud. Temps started in the mid-40s but climbed rapidly. By the time I finished, it was nearly 60F. Winds were light at first, but built through the session and for most of the time, the wind was out of the west at about 10mph with gusts to 15mph. It was a nasty headwind going up river.

The plan was steady state rate ladders. 3′ @ 18, 2′ @ 20, 1′ @ 22 over and over again. Breaks at the ends of the river, but just long enough to turn the boat around. I am still not happy with my boat speed, but I am setting the boat OK. The main issue is not being able to really get out over the footstretcher without hitting the stops on the slide. My finishes are still rough, but improving.

Today, rowing into the headwind was very heavy work. You can see the 20 second difference in pace and higher heart rates. The good thing about the river was that even with the wind, there was basically no chop. It just felt like I was dragging a bucket!

I worked a little bit harder than I should have for an ideal endurance session, but only a little bit.

Tomorrow: I have an early meeting, so I plan to do a session around noontime. I’m thinking that I might take a shot at this month’s CTC.

Sunday: 3 hours of yard work

May 9, 2016Leave a comment

Finishing up the mulching. Worked from about 9:30 to 12:30. I was stiff at first, but loosened up with the first 30 minutes or so. The labor was dominated by a huge flower bed on front of our house that required 24 wheelbarrows of mulch to cover.

I didn’t wear a strap, but by my rule of thumb, this was 3 hours of sub-UT2 exercise and burnt 1800 calories.

Saturday: 5 hours of yard work

May 9, 2016May 9, 20163 Comments

I was wondering how to think about yard work as a form of exercise. What I was doing this weekend was preparing our flower beds for summer. This entails raking the bed, edging, weeding, and then spreading mulch. It is pretty demanding work, it works the core mostly, but arms get it pretty good too.

I decided to wear a heart rate monitor to get an idea of how much aerobic benefit there is. I did two “sessions”. The first was an hour and forty three minutes. The I needed to run an errand and grab a drink. Then I did another 3 hours and 12 minutes.

My average HR for the first session was 104bpm, so well below the threshold for UT work, but a bit more than 2x my resting HR. And my peak HR was only 125. Over the first hour and 43 minutes, I burnt 957 calories. More than I expected.

The second session wiped me out. About the same average HR at 102bpm. A slightly higher peak at 131. Total calories burnt over the 3 hours and 12 minutes was 1905. By the end, I was having trouble getting up from my knees if I crouched down.

By the evening, I was basically paralyzed with stiffness in my back.

A good days work. And now I know that yard work is basically 600 calories an hour.

Friday: OTW – 1x – 4 x ( 7 x 1′ / 1′ rest) x 3′ rest

May 6, 2016May 6, 20162 Comments

Cool, cloudy, Wind was flukey, from the WSW. Generally about 5mph, but with gusts up to 10mph.

I was originally intending to just do a steady state session, but I was in the mood to try to work on full pressure and rate technique. I wasn’t in the mood to kill myself, so I decided to do 1 minute intervals at about 26 t0 28 spm. I can do about 7 of these in in a row on my river, and then I would need to turn around. I took a bit more rest on the turn arounds.

It was basically a head wind rowing downriver (1st and 3rd set) and a tail wind rowing upriver (2nd and 4th). Since this is GPS based data, the upriver paces were probably about a couple seconds slower than actual. And the downriver ones a couple seconds faster, basically enough to counteract the wind.

I moved the footstretcher one notch to the bow and I was much more comfortable at the finish. My blade work was really mess though. I guess that would be expected for my second real outing in this boat. The slide doesn’t really have quite enough travel to the stern to me. Whenever I really got out to full extension at the catch, I was running into the stops on the slide. Things did get better as I went along and in the last set of intervals, I was getting good clearance on recovery and felt a lot smoother with the application of power during the drive.

This weekend, my focus is on yard work. Time to get all the flower beds in shape for the summer. So basically 4 hours of low intensity exercise per day. I might wear a HR strap to get an idea of what kind of aerobic benefit it has.

Thursday: 3 x 20′ / 1′ L4

May 5, 2016Leave a comment

Wednesday: after getting home around 12:30, I skipped the gym in the morning. I was hoping to sneak in a workout later in the day, but things got pretty hectic and it was 6:30PM by the time I looked at my watch. So, it turned into a rest day. But, I was due. I had managed to get sessions in every day for the past 7 days.

Today: In the gym, normal steady state session. On slides. Repeating sequences of 4/3/2/1 at 18/19/20/21 spm. On a static erg, I do these at 10W * stroke rate. On slides, I scale back by 10 watts, so 18spm is 170W, and so on.

My legs were hurting a bit from my 10K run on Tuesday. But it didn’t seem to effect anything.

Tomorrow: OTW, steady state and technique.

Tuesday: 10km run in Marina Del Rey

May 4, 2016May 4, 20162 Comments

A beautiful morning. Much too beautiful to be in the fitness center, especially when this is outside.

I decided to go for a run. I don’t run much and I am a very slow runner. I wanted to try to keep this at a reasonable low intensity. I did OK through the first 2/3 or so, but as I got closer to the end, I pushed harder, and when I saw that I could do a full 10K, I knew I had to.

The layout of Marina Del Rey is a series of fingerlike peninsulas, most of which have a foot path around the outside. I basically ran from my hotel to the first one of these fingers and then traced the outsides of them all the way back looking at all the boats along the way.

Here’s my pace and HR for the outing. I ended up doing 10K in just about 58 minutes, or just slightly faster than 6′ per km. I told you I was slow!

Now I am flying back home and I get in around midnight. I will try to grab a quick session on the erg sometime during the day tomorrow, and hopefully get back on the water Thursday morning.

2015/2016 Season Retrospective

May 4, 2016May 4, 20162 Comments

I have no idea why Concept2 runs the season from May 1st to April 30th, but that’s what they do. And with the end of another season, its the time for a look back.

I have some mixed feelings about the season. I couldn’t be happier about my OTW results from last summer and fall. However, after a very promising start to the indoor season, the wheels really came off in February, and I never really got back to where I wanted to be. So, I am going into this OTW season with a lower state of fitness than last year.

For the full year, my total meters are almost identical to last year. But with a higher amount of erg meters and less OTW meters. You can blame the unplanned rapid rearrangement of my boat by a tree for that.

But under the hood, there is an important difference in the way that these two seasons ended.

Last year I finished strong with big meters in March and April. This year, not so much. So, I am leaving this season in a lower state of fitness than last.

A closer look at this season on a weekly level shows how spotty things have been since January.

Why? In a word, life happened. A couple of bouts of manflu, a promotion, some vacation, and a ton of business travel have disrupted my training plans. I don’t see this as a failure, because I wouldn’t change any of the choices I made, but I do need to think through realistic competitive goals and a reasonable, flexible training plan to get me to achieve them.

I am just about 1% lower total meters and 1% lower total training time for 2015/2016. My average distance for days rowed is up slightly, which is driven by more erg sessions and fewer OTW sessions (erg sessions tend to be about 20% more meters)

: 2014 / 2015

: 2015 / 2016

Bt I don’t want that to diminish the good stuff from this season. I was really happy with how the OTW season went.

Festival Sprints: 1K and 2K sprints. Tough racing in lousy conditions. Improved on last years results, but not as much as I wanted to.

Cromwell cup: 1k sprint in amazing conditions on a fun course. Finished second by a fraction of a second in my age bracket in a great race. Thrilled with the outcome. The guy that beat me ended up finishing 6th in the nationals.

Masters National Head Race Championships: A 6K head race. In Lowell on the Merrimac in lousy conditions with a small field. Finished third, about where I should have, but I was hoping to do better.

Quinsigamond Snake Race: a 4K head race. Picture perfect conditions. It was a small field so all the singles were raced in a single flight. I placed second. More importantly, I had a duel on my hands for nearly the whole race. The guy that started one or two places ahead of me was just a hair slower than I was and over the first 1K of the race I slowly closed the gap and we raced side by side for the next 2000 meters. I’d push, then he’d push, it was back and forth. In the last 1000 meters, I finally managed to achieve some separation, but it was the most exciting head race experience I have ever had. (tiring too)

Head of the Charles: A 5K head race. The big one! I started 36th in a field of 59 boats in my age class. It was generally head wind conditions and pretty nasty through the first 1000m. There were parts of the race where I gave away time by not steering the best line, but looking at the heart rate, I certainly put everything I had into the race. I’ll remember the last 1000m for the rest of my life. I was chasing down the guy in front of me and hearing the announcing calling out my name and bow number as I was surging. We hit the finish line at nearly the same instant (I think he had me by a bow ball), but the feeling of achievement was so intense.

Merrimack Chase: This was a 4K head race at the beginning of November. It was windy, but not nearly as cold as past years. The conditions were choppy through the first 1000m but got a lot better. I had bow #1 of my class so I had no one to chase. I managed to put in a good race and won my age bracket. A great way to finish off the season.

I finished the OTW season is really good shape for middle distance rowing, and started to use a new training plan based on block periodization. I started with working on endurance and through November and December, I was hitting targets and even setting some new personal bests.

I set PBs for the 5000m, 60′ and Half Marathon. In some cases improving PBs that were 3 or more years old.

So, I might have to set more modest goals for the coming season. Maybe reduce the number of races I enter, and try to improve technique and diet to compensate for lower training volumes. I also need to do more research for the optimal approach when time is limited. There is a lot of contradictory advice out there to be sorted through.

Anyway, it was an exciting and rewarding year. And there are some new challenges to keep me interested in this coming season.

Monday: 14K Steady State OTW

May 2, 2016May 2, 20163 Comments

Rowing out of Boating in Boston in Newton. In a borrowed boat. An older Peinert Elite, which was a delight to row. Light, responsive, stiff and as near as I can tell, a bit easier to set than my Fluid.

Conditions were cool, drizzly, and completely overcast. There was a light (1-5mph) wind from the ESE, which was a cross head wind going downriver and tail wind coming back up river. The river level was high, but the current seemed pretty weak.

The goal today was to get used to the boat, and work on technique. I tried to respect a HR cap around 155, at the upper end of my endurance zone. I also tried to keep the stroke rate below 20 so I could work on careful recoveries.

The boat was rigged for someone with slightly longer legs than I have, so it was challenging to finish cleanly, I didn’t have much clearance for my hands and I kept bumping into my stomach. The temporary solution is to move the footstretcher one click to the bow. The better, more permanent solution would be to lose 10 pounds!

Actually, I was not unhappy with the setup of the boat. It was good to try to get control of the finishes like this and I also spent a lot of strokes trying to be very careful about blade depth. Overall, it was a good outing and I was happy that I had not regressed further from the long layoff.

More importantly, it was amazing to be back on my stretch of the river. There were two boats from Brandeis out with a launch. The ducks and geese were watching suspiciously and I counted about 5 swans, all at a respectful distance. It really is a beautiful section of the Charles to row on.

From my launch point, I rowed downriver. There is about 1000m of twists and turns, culminating in a cut through an island to the beginning of the “good rowing”. From there, there is a nice wide, straight 1000m section. Then into an S-turn that spans about 300 meters. Then another straight section around 800m long. This one runs in front of the old watch factory in Waltham that is now condos. Past the watch factory, you squeeze through the eastern arch of stone bridge and then 600 or so meters across the basin to the Moody street Dam and Bridge in downtown Waltham. All together it is almost exactly 4000 meters from where I launch to the end.

Today, when I cam back upstream, I followed the same path for about 2500m, and then cut over into a long cove. This cove is always some of the nice rowing. It i s sheltered on 3 sides and very straight. Later in the season it gets weed choked, but in the spring, it is clear water nearly to the end. Today, I rowed until the speedcoach clicked over 7000m.

Then back down stream all the way to the dam, and then a final leg back home. On this leg, coming out of the s-turn, I decided to see how things worked at a little higher rate. It pushed it up to a 24 and focused on trying to keep my finishes clean. It worked out pretty well, but after about 800m or so, my hands were hurting, and when I took a bad stroke, I decided to call it quits there. I rowed with square blades for about 1000m, and then tried to row the last 300m or so to the dock as cleanly as I possibly could. This was entirely for vanity’s sake since I knew the guy who I was borrowing the boat from would be hot seating in after me and I wanted to look my best.

He met me at the dock, we swapped oars, chatted a bit, and then he set out for his row. I’m sure there is no way he can know how grateful I am. Getting back in a single on this peaceful river was so incredibly invigorating.

From there I rushed to the airport, zipped through security and had a quick shower in the American Airlines club and got on my plane. I’m on my way to LA, returning tomorrow evening. But, I have to say, I am feeling happier than I have in weeks.

=========WORK DATA=================

Total Time : 75:2

Total Distance : 14109 m

Average Pace : 2:39.2

Average HR : 147 Beats/min

Average SPM : 19.5 /min

Max HR : 169 Beats/min

Max SPM : 33.8 /min

===================================

Workout Summary – 2016-05-02-0628.CSV

–|Total|-Total-|–Avg–|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg

–|Dist-|-Time–|-Pace–|SPM-|-HR–|-HR–|-DPS

–|14109|75:02.0|02:39.2|19.5|147.0|169.0|09.7

Workout Details

01|14109| 1:15:02 |02:39.1|19.5|147.0|169.0|09.7

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Month: May 2016