Weather:  Cloudy, cool.  A bit more wind this morning.  About 4mph from E, but swinging randomly around from NE to SE.

Plan:  Day 2 of the taper

• warmup
• practice starts
• 3 x 500
  • pace target 1:55-1:57
  • rate target: 30-32
• cool down technique work

Here are zoom views:

• Zoom1: 4 practice starts
• Zoom2: rep #1
• zoom3: rep #2
• zoom4: rep #3 (headwind gust right around 6800m)

I think I must have been feeling a bit tired today.  I felt sluggish in the boat and it took a ton of effort to hit paces that I was doing yesterday.  My balance was also off a little bit.   Maybe the light wind upset my balance and timing a bit?

My first practice start was horrific.  My initial stroke was off balance, and that screwed up my next two strokes.  I was working on getting the boat set right and not able to really put power into the little half slide strokes.  It wasn’t until the fourth stroke that I was really laying down some power.    The next 3 starts were much better.

I blew the start of the first 500, but recovered well.  I took my time settling down to pace, and paid a pretty steep price.  I was in real pain during the last 20 strokes, and I was a mess for a minute after I finished.  The good news, a 1:56.1 pace, even with the lousy start.  Even Crewnerd liked this one…1:54.8 on crewnerd.

I paddled through the s-turn, and got setup at the downstream end of the 1K straight section.  Today, I remember to setup Crewnerd correctly.  This start was better, but still not all that dynamic.  I settled more aggressively and tried to stick to 30spm to try to save myself from the mild discomfort I had experienced in rep #1.  I needed to do a bit of steering in the last 20 strokes, but all in all a pretty good rep.  1:56.9 on speedcoach, 1:59.0 on CrewNerd.

More paddling around, and then the final rep.  When I spun at the uptream end of the 1K, I noticed that the wind was a bit fresher, and for this part of the river, right on my bow.  Resigning myself to a slower rep, I got set for the start, and pretty much nailed this one.  I settled to 30, and was even seeing some 29s.  The boat felt a fair amount heavier, and the pace was hovering around 2:00.  Then around the 40th stroke, I noticed the water flattened, and the pace pick up a bit.  I was in a lull.  But then the inevitable gust happened after that and it slowed me right back down again.  At this point there were about 15 strokes left, and I really didn’t want to have the pace be over 2:00, so I pushed the rate and pressure up.  On Speedcoach, the average pace was 1:59.6.  On Crewnerd, it came out 2:08.6??????   I assume that I must have accidentally triggered the timer at the start before I actually went.

After all that, I rowed with square blades most of the way back to the dock.

Tomorrow: 2 x 500.