Saturday: Hard Distance – 5.5K

July 16, 20163 Comments

Weather: Stunningly beautiful. Clear skies. mid 70s. Nearly flat calm when we started. At the very end, during the row back to the dock, the wind picked up from the North. By the time we were off the water, it was about 7mph.

Plan:

2 x 5.5K
5′ rest
rate target: 24
pace target: 2:15 to 2:20

There is a big waterskiing competition at the lake today and tomorrow, so we started a half hour earlier to try to avoid the traffic. I headed north on the lake first and slowly built a bit of pace. About halfway up the lake someone in a single turned in behind me. They kept looking over their shoulder and slowly ratcheting up the rate. I wasn’t sure what they were intending, but but it seemed like he had put a target on me. Of course, I wanted to stay ahead of them, so I ended up being very warmed up by the time I got to the end of the lake.

I had a drink of water and hung out for a little while, getting myself psyched up for a good hard row. This would be the first head race simulation of the season and would help set a marker for me to use for training over the next month or so. It couldn’t have been a better day for it. The wind and water would be giving me no excuses and the power boats were not out yet in any kind of numbers.

During head racing season, I will be doing these pieces at about 28 spm. But I need to work my way up to that. Today, I was looking to hold about 24 spm. As it turned out, even that was a tough ask. I was finding myself settling at a 23 and my HR was pretty high. I think I have to row a bit lighter if I want to get efficient at a higher rate.

The row was entirely uneventful. I passed three or four singles as I made my way down lake. I wore a hat with a mirror today and although it wasn’t hugely useful, it wasn’t terribly distracting either. That is another project for me this summer. To get used to using a mirror for head races. I counted strokes. 100 strokes would take me about 900m or so. So I figured that 600 strokes would take me the 5500m. I was kind of worried after the first 100 strokes. I felt pretty tired and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to complete the piece. Luckily, during the second 100 I had a single in my sights and chased him down. That was distracting enough that I was able to manage my breathing and ease up just enough to be sustainable. The third block of 100 strokes took me through the route 9 bridge, and coming out that, I spotted another single, which helped keep me on task as I passed him. The fourth set of 100 got me just about to the narrows. I was really feeling it at this point, but the end was getting a lot closer. I got past the islands, and into the part that always feels incredibly long. There is a stretch of open water from the last island to the mouth of the south cove. I hit 500 strokes about at the island, just another 100 to go. This stretch gave me a good chance to use the mirror to aim at the point at the entrance of the cove. I have to get used to using this thing when I am tired. This was my first chance and it worked out. I nailed the line and passed nice and close to the point

I had 30 strokes to go when I passed and it was time to push a little bit harder to the end. There wasn’t much to draw on though, I was tapped out. It felt great to see Crewnerd count up past 5500m, and I coasted to stop. There was no way that I had another piece like that in me today. I decided to just do some easy technical rowing to finish out the day. I had a bit of wait before some of the other folks arrived in the cove, and I was happy enough to just sit in the sun drink my water. I ultimately paddled up lake to intercept them and came back down lake with them. I paddled up lake with Bob. As we came out of the cove, the wind picked up pretty suddenly and made it a bit of a slog to get back to the dock.

If I want to do 2 of these pieces, which I do during this endurance block, then I have to use a more conservative pace target, like 2:20 to 2:25.

Workout Summary - media/20160716-161035-2016-07-16-0635.CSV
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13065|70:04.0|02:40.1|19.7|151.0|169.3|09.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02265| 12:38 |02:47.3|16.8|141.0|163.0|10.7
02|05533| 25:21 |02:17.4|23.3|170.0|183.0|09.4
03|05267| 32:05 |03:02.3|19.0|142.0|162.0|08.7

So, a 2:17 pace at 23 spm. I’m OK with that. Last year, my best head race was a 2:13.9 pace at 27 spm. I think with some decent training and losing some weight, I’m be at that pace or better by race time.

Tomorrow: Technical session on Quinsig. Start with some bungee rowing, then 500m blocks of SBR, alternating SBR/feathered and feathered.

Friday: 3 x 20′ / 1:30 rest w/ lactate

July 16, 20165 Comments

Thursday: As expected, no time to train. I took the redeye home from San Jose. I was not able to get any reasonable sleep on the plane. Highly unpleasant.

Friday: I arrived in Boston at 6am. Then drove home. Almost immediately, I turned around and drove my wife to the airport. She is off to visit my daughter in St. Louis. I was home again by around 11 am. My eyelids were drooping severely but I managed to stay awake to attend a work conference call at noon. After that, I took a 3 hour nap. My intent was to get up around 4, head out to Lake Quinsigamond and do a long and easy technique session. But, when I was packing my things, I got a text from a friend of mine telling me that there was a wakeboarding competition going on and the whole lake was a really treacherous place to be. Time to go with Plan B.

Plan B

4 x 20′
1:30 rest
Power target: 10W x stroke rate
HR cap: around 150
Lactate target: 2.0

It was massively hot and humid. Around 95F and 70% RH. Rowing at 190 watts felt pretty easy for the first 10 minutes. Then the room warmed up, I started sweating, and it started to feel like a lot of work. By the end of the first 20 minutes, my HR was still OK, only around 144, but my RPE was really high. I was breathing hard, and my first lactate reading was 3.3mmol/l. Way too high.

So, my intent was to dial it back to 170W from 190W and just take it easy. After the rest, and a big drink of water, I started again. It felt like really hard work, and I seriously considered just bagging the whole thing. I even coasted to a stop about 2 minutes into it, but I thought better of it and decided that I should at least finish this 20′ piece. I felt a lot more comfortable at 170W, but it was still a pretty sweaty affair. After this one, I tested out a 2.8mmol/l. Still too high. But my RPE was right on. My breathing was easy, and my ending HR was again around 145.

Well, I had come this far. I had another drink, and decided to just paddle through one more 20′ piece. This one I started off thinking I’d target 150W, but ended up pushing that up to 160. Still very slow. After this, my lactates were 2.6mmol/l. RPE right on target, but HR had climbed up to be close to 150 by the end.

The session seems to add some weight to a few thoughts that I have been pondering.

My aerobic fitness is not so good right now. I need more low intensity minutes working on my ability to metabolize fat. My high lactate numbers show that I am crossing over to CHO respiration at pretty low levels.
The effect of heat and humidity on endurance training is pretty profound. I think it could as much as 10 or 20 watts impact in terms of what power you can hold and maintain a <2.0mmol/l lactate.
I haven’t seen any research to back this up, but I feel like there is some hysteresis in the crossover between fat and CHO metabolism. Something like this. I feel like I have to go way down in power to “shut off” CHO metabolism once it has been started. I think this is another reason why some folks have found lower ultimate lactate readings if they start with a few minutes at a very low warmup power before they slowly increase to their target.

I think this is fascinating because it brings a physiological angle into a age old debate around how to do HR capped training. The question that I have seen asked over and over again is this…If you are training to a specific HR cap, is it better to start faster than what you think you can hold for the whole piece, and then start to bleed off pace once you are in the training HR zone and approaching the cap, or is it better to hold a constant training power and adjust that power so that you are around the cap at the very end of the workout?

I have seen recommendations about this from very credible people that are entirely opposite of each other. One conclusion that one might draw from that is doesn’t matter much in terms of training effect. But, on an individual basis, if you are trying to specifically train fat burning endurance, it probably makes a lot more sense to slowly build power, or hold it constant versus bleeding off pace. Anyway, its food for thought.

Wednesday: 80′ of UT2

July 14, 2016Leave a comment

Still in San Francisco. I headed down to the fitness center around 7am. The training plan called for a 4×20’/1′ with a HR cap at 150. What I ended up doing was.

30′ on the elliptical
30′ on the stationary bike
20′ on the treadmill at 15% incline
HR cap of 150. (I got no where near it)

My HR was remarkably low today. Maybe it was fatigue in my legs from the two treadmill sessions that was holding me back, but this felt like a lot more work than the HR indicated. I flirted with the idea of doing 3 x 30′, but I was running out of time and cut the last chunk down to 20 minutes

I am going to be trying to err on the side of going too slow for my long sessions versus pushing the pace, and HR up against the high side of the limits. I’ll get plenty of intensity on my hard distance days, I really just want to pile up easy meters on the other days. This will be a challenge for me.

Tomorrow: The plan calls for another hard 60′ session, but I don’t think I’ll be able to fit a session in. I need to drive down from San Francisco to San Jose and get there for a 9am meeting. I also have a customer dinner tonight that I won’t get back from until around midnight. It’s likely that sleeping with win over exercising tomorrow morning.

Then tomorrow night, I fly back home on the redeye. I’m hoping to do a good technique session on Friday afternoon.

Tuesday: 60′ Threshold

July 13, 2016Leave a comment

Again in the fitness center.

Plan:

10km
Treadmill at 2% grade
Pace at 9.0 km/h

The idea was to mimic a hard 60′ erg session. Typical my HR will rise slowly through these types of workouts and finish up in the low 170s. I was having all kinds of HR sensor troubles today. Not sure why. I thought it was just a contact issue since it seemed to get better when I would reposition the strap on my chest, but eventually, around 55′, the whole wahoo fitness app crashed on me. When I restarted it, it seemed like the readings were much better behaved, so maybe the app was just in a unhappy state before it died. I think the high HRs recorded are accurate and the low ones are erroneous. The red line is my best guess as to what the HR was actually doing.

I was starting to really struggle in the last 15 minutes, and at 60′, with about 1000m to go, I needed to back off the pace. I slowed down to 8mph and that took a lot of the pressure off.

The training effect was basically what I was looking for. Push HR up into the TR zone in the last third of the workout and work on just grinding it out.

Tomorrow: Long and slow. I will probably do a fitness center triathlon. 4 x 20′ / 1′ rests with a HR cap of 150.

Monday: 40′ UT2

July 12, 2016Leave a comment

I was planning a rest day, but after I checked into my hotel, I had a little extra time. So, I popped down to the fitness center for a quick session. I just wanted to work out the kinks from flying all day, really.

Plan:

40′
Inclined walk on treadmill (15% grade)
Start at about 3.5mph and slow down as required to stay below 145 HR cap

I finished at about 2.9mph.

Head Racing Training Plan – 2016

July 11, 2016July 11, 20163 Comments

Edit: Updated with some reflections on current fitness

With the Cromwell Cup behind me, it’s time to take stock and figure out how to best prepare for head racing season. So here goes.

I did not have a good training plan for the spring. With work demands, and the damaged boat, I ended up winging it. This took away my ability to measure and adjust. Even with my travel schedule, I need a plan. I will have to be flexible, but try to hit the basic quantity of sessions.
It’s obvious from the pictures of the race that I am heavier this year than last, probably at least 10 pounds. I need to start weighing myself and managing my calorie intake again. I would like to be doing head races at 185 pounds. This is a challenge with restaurant meals and work related social events, but I think with a weight target in mind, I should be able to get this done.
I have seen over and over again that I make good progress when my endurance sessions are longer than 60 minutes and I do not when they are shorter. I go backward if I try to substitute higher intensity shorter sessions for long ones in the right HR zone.
My heart was not really in it for sprint racing. I was dreading the intense sessions and opting for shorter intervals, and lower stroke rates. I am not sure if I really want to do much sprint racing in the future, but that is not a decision for now. What I do need to do is to make sure that I am enjoying what I am doing. If things are going well, then you face hard sessions with determination and feel a lot of satisfaction when you hit your goals. Not having enough consistency in training makes it harder to set good goals and makes it much more likely to over-reach and fail in these sessions.

So putting that together in a plan for the fall. First, I am motivated. I am excited for head racing and excited to do some long ocean rows. That’s the most important thing. I am going to be facing familiar competitors in these races, so I will be able to measure my progress compared to last season. That should provide a ton of motivation. Second, I think I can allocate time to do the longer sessions, but I’ll adjust as necessary. I think the idea of getting good long sessions in on Sundays will be beneficial. As for diet, it’s all about having a concrete goal and holding myself to it. As soon as I get home from this trip, I’ll start weigh ins. So, with an improved attitude, here’s the plan for the fall.

Last year, I defined my first training plan focused on head races. You can see it here. It was a progressive plan, like The Pete Plan, or the Wolverine Plan, but focused on improving performance for head race length events. Overall, the plan worked great. With the exception of the Textile River Regatta, which was marred by awful weather and lousy water, it was a really good racing season. No injuries, no over training, and my best performances.

After last year’s head racing season, I embarked on my first experiment with periodization. I set up 3 mesocycles. First was a block of endurance training, then into long intervals, then finally into short intervals. This went great through the first 2 mesocycles, and I was able to set some PRs at long distance events. But it kind of fell apart in the short interval section due to work related travel and life just generally getting in the way.

I’m thinking of combining these two plans for this fall season. I have a bunch of races that I would like to do. The first event is on 17 September. The last in 5 November. I would like peak around the beginning of October and hold that peak through October. So, between now and the beginning of October, I have 12 weeks. I think I will break it up into two blocks. The first block will be 7 weeks long and focus on endurance training.

Endurance Block

6 sessions weekly
- 2 steady state or technique sessions HR capped at 150, or <2.0 mmol/l lactate
- 1 long and easy erg session at least 2 hours.
- 3 hard distance sessions (30 to 60 min continuous or >10′ intervals with very short rests)

This will be followed by a block that will last through the rest of the season that irrors what I did last year. This will keep the long steady state sessions, but change the high intensity sessions.

Head Race Prep Block

6 Sessions weekly
- 2 steady state or technique sessions HR capped at 150, or <2.0 mmol/l lactate
- 1 long and easy erg session at least 2 hours.
- 1 short rest interval session. This is high rep, short duration intervals with short rests. Designed to be executed at head race pace or slightly faster, these will work on technique and lactate tolerance
- 1 long interval session. Basically WP L2 sessions. These are to be done at head race pace and include distances from 1500m to 3000m and usually 5 minute rests.
- 1 head race simulation per week. 5 to 6K as fast as possible, and rate between 28 and 30. These work on aerobic fitness, lactate tolerance and mental toughness.

I am not planning any big tapers in this plan, just a short one before the HOCR (if I get in through the lottery).

The plan is subject to change based mainly on work travel and work load. Depending on my schedule in the fall, I might decide to skip one or more of the races. The main thing I want to do is to have a basic plan down so I’m not inventing it as I go along.

Date	Day	Workout Type	mode	Planned Workout	Notes
Meso Cycle #1 – Endurance
7/11/16	Mon	Rest	rest		Travel
7/12/16	Tue	Hard Distance	erg	60′ @ 1:57	Travel
7/13/16	Wed	Steady State	erg	4 x 20′ / 1′ (hr cap at 150)	Travel
7/14/16	Thu	Hard Distance	erg	60′ @ 1:57	Travel
7/15/16	Fri	Technique UT2/UT1	otw	Bungee Row first half, Steady state r20 second half
7/16/16	Sat	Hard Distance	otw	2 x 5.5K r26
7/17/16	Sun	Technique UT2/UT1	otw	Square Blades / Slow Roll Up / r20 2 minutes each, repeated
7/18/16	Mon	Rest	rest
7/19/16	Tue	Hard Distance	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r24 (HR limit 170)
7/20/16	Wed	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
7/21/16	Thu	Hard Distance	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r24 (HR limit 170)
7/22/16	Fri	Technique UT2/UT1	otw	Bungee Row first half, Steady state r20 second half
7/23/16	Sat	Hard Distance	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r24 (HR limit 170)	Travel
7/24/16	Sun	Rest	rest		Travel
7/25/16	Mon	Cross Training (UT)	xt	4 x 20′ fitness center	Travel
7/26/16	Tue	Cross Training (TR)	xt	10K run	Travel
7/27/16	Wed	Cross Training (UT)	xt	4 x 20′ fitness center	Travel
7/28/16	Thu	Cross Training (TR)	xt	10K run	Travel
7/29/16	Fri	Cross Training (UT)	xt	4 x 20′ fitness center	Travel
7/30/16	Sat	Technique UT2/UT1	otw	2 x 5.5K r26
7/31/16	Sun	long and easy	erg	4 x 30′ / 1.5′ rest (lactate)
8/1/16	Mon	Rest	rest
8/2/16	Tue	Hard Distance	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r24 (HR limit 170)
8/3/16	Wed	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
8/4/16	Thu	Hard Distance	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r24 (HR limit 170)
8/5/16	Fri	Technique UT2/UT1	otw	Square Blades / Slow Roll Up / r20 2 minutes each, repeated
8/6/16	Sat	Hard Distance	otw	2 x 5.5K r26
8/7/16	Sun	long and easy	erg	4 x 30′ / 1.5′ rest (lactate)
8/8/16	Mon	Technique UT2/UT1	otw	Bungee Row first half, Steady state r20 second half
8/9/16	Tue	Hard Distance	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r24 (HR limit 170)
8/10/16	Wed	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
8/11/16	Thu	Hard Distance	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r24 (HR limit 170)
8/12/16	Fri	rest	rest
8/13/16	Sat	long and easy	owr	120′ open water (HR Cap at 150)	cape
8/14/16	Sun	Hard Distance	owr	60′ open water (HR cap 177)	cape
8/15/16	Mon	long and easy	owr	120′ open water (HR Cap at 150)	cape
8/16/16	Tue	Hard Distance	owr	60′ open water (HR cap 177)	cape
8/17/16	Wed	long and easy	owr	120′ open water (HR Cap at 150)	cape
8/18/16	Thu	Hard Distance	owr	60′ open water (HR cap 177)	cape
8/19/16	Fri	long and easy	owr	120′ open water (HR Cap at 150)	cape
8/20/16	Sat	Hard Distance	owr	60′ open water (HR cap 177)	cape
8/21/16	Sun	rest	rest		cape
8/22/16	Mon	Hard Distance	owr	60′ open water (HR cap 177)	cape
8/23/16	Tue	long and easy	owr	120′ open water (HR Cap at 150)	cape
8/24/16	Wed	Hard Distance	owr	60′ open water (HR cap 177)	cape
8/25/16	Thu	long and easy	owr	120′ open water (HR Cap at 150)	cape
8/26/16	Fri	Hard Distance	owr	60′ open water (HR cap 177)	cape
8/27/16	Sat	long and easy	owr	120′ open water (HR Cap at 150)	cape
8/28/16	Sun	Hard Distance	owr	60′ open water (HR cap 177)	cape
8/29/16	Mon	Rest	rest
Meso Cycle #2 – Long Intervals
8/30/16	Tue	Long Intervals	otw	3000 / 2500 / 2000 5′ rest
8/31/16	Wed	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
9/1/16	Thu	Short Rest Intervals	otw	4 x (5 x 2′ on / 30″ paddle) / 2′ rest
9/2/16	Fri	Technique UT2/UT1	otw	Square Blades / Slow Roll Up / r20 2 minutes each, repeated
9/3/16	Sat	Hard Distance	otw	5.5K r30
9/4/16	Sun	long and easy	erg	4 x 30′ / 1.5′ rest (lactate)
9/5/16	Mon	Rest
9/6/16	Tue	Long Intervals	otw	5 x 2000 / 5′ rest r28
9/7/16	Wed	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
9/8/16	Thu	Short Rest Intervals	otw	5 x 20@32/10 off / 5 x 20@34/15 off / 5 x 20@36/20 off, 8′ between sets
9/9/16	Fri	Technique UT2/UT1	otw	Bungee Row first half, Steady state r20 second half
9/10/16	Sat	Hard Distance	otw	5.5K r30
9/11/16	Sun	long and easy	erg	4 x 30′ / 1.5′ rest (lactate)
9/12/16	Mon	Rest
9/13/16	Tue	Long Intervals	otw	4 x 2500 / 5′ rest r24
9/14/16	Wed	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
9/15/16	Thu	Short Rest Intervals	otw	4 x (3 x 3′ on / 1′ paddle) / 2′ rest
9/16/16	Fri	warmup only	erg	warm up only
9/17/16	Sat	CRI Fall Classic	race
9/18/16	Sun	long and easy	erg	4 x 30′ / 1.5′ rest (lactate)
9/19/16	Mon	Rest
9/20/16	Tue	Long Intervals	otw	5 x 1500 / 5′ rest r26
9/21/16	Wed	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
9/22/16	Thu	Short Rest Intervals	otw	4 x (5 x 2′ on / 30″ paddle) / 2′ rest
9/23/16	Fri	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
9/24/16	Sat	Hard Distance	otw	5.5K r30
9/25/16	Sun	long and easy	erg	4 x 30′ / 1.5′ rest (lactate)
9/26/16	Mon	Rest
9/27/16	Tue	Long Intervals	otw	3000 / 2500 / 2000 5′ rest
9/28/16	Wed	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
9/29/16	Thu	Short Rest Intervals	otw	5 x 20@32/10 off / 5 x 20@34/15 off / 5 x 20@36/20 off, 8′ between sets
9/30/16	Fri	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
10/1/16	Sat	warmup only	erg	warm up only
10/2/16	Sun	Textile	race
10/3/16	Mon	rest
10/4/16	Tue	Long Intervals	otw	5 x 2000 / 5′ rest r28
10/5/16	Wed	Steady State	otw	4 x 3000 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit at 80% HRR)
10/6/16	Thu	Short Rest Intervals	otw	12 x 500 / 1’30” rest (sr 22,24,26,28,30,32,32,30,28,26,24,22)
10/7/16	Fri	Technique UT2/UT1	otw	Bungee Row first half, Steady state r20 second half
10/8/16	Sat	warmup only	erg	warm up only
10/9/16	Sun	Snake Race	race
10/10/16	Mon	rest	rest
10/11/16	Tue	Long Intervals	otw	4 x 2500 / 5′ rest r24
10/12/16	Wed	Steady State	otw	4 x 3000 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit at 80% HRR)
10/13/16	Thu	Short Rest Intervals	otw	4 x (3 x 3′ on / 1′ paddle) / 2′ rest
10/14/16	Fri	Steady State	otw	Square Blades / Slow Roll Up / r20 2 minutes each, repeated
10/15/16	Sat	Hard Distance	otw	5.5K r30
10/16/16	Sun	long and easy	erg	4 x 30′ / 1.5′ rest (lactate)
10/17/16	Mon	Rest	rest
10/18/16	Tue	taper	otw	4 x 500
10/19/16	Wed	taper	otw	3 x 500
10/20/16	Thu	taper	otw	2 x 500
10/21/16	Fri	taper	otw	row the course
10/22/16	Sat	HOCR	otw	race
10/23/16	Sun	HOCR	otw	race
10/24/16	Mon	Rest	rest
10/25/16	Tue	Long Intervals	otw	5 x 1500 / 5′ rest r26
10/26/16	Wed	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
10/27/16	Thu	Short Rest Intervals	otw	4 x (5 x 2′ on / 30″ paddle) / 2′ rest
10/28/16	Fri	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
10/29/16	Sat	Hard Distance	otw	5.5K r30
10/30/16	Sun	long and easy	erg	4 x 30′ / 1.5′ rest (lactate)
10/31/16	Mon	rest	rest
11/1/16	Tue	Long Intervals	otw	3000 / 2500 / 2000 5′ rest
11/2/16	Wed	Steady State	otw	4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
11/3/16	Thu	Short Rest Intervals	otw	5 x 20@32/10 off / 5 x 20@34/15 off / 5 x 20@36/20 off, 8′ between sets
11/4/16	Fri	Short Technique UT2	otw	Bungee Row first half, Steady state r20 second half
11/5/16	Sat	Merrimack Chase	otw

Sunday: Cromwell Cup

July 10, 201611 Comments

Weather: misty rain. Temp around 65F. Light winds. Flat water, except for some launch wakes.

I got to Riverside around 6am. I unloaded and parked my car close by. I was all settled in time for the 6:20 racers meeting. Then I waited around to launch. My start was at 8:43, so I launched just after 8AM, and made my way up river to the warmup area above the start. I did a version of my normal warmup with increasing rates, and then did some starts. The first couple were pretty horrid, but I settled down and eventually shook off the nervousness. Then it was pretty much OK.

Were called to the line 5 minutes before our start and lined up across the river. No bouys marking lanes or the start line. There was just a tent on the shore and a person with a megaphone calling alignment. As soon as she called it aligned, the starter on the launch behind us called out. “This is the start. Ready. Attention. Row!” I’m very glad that I setup at the catch when alignment was called, because there was no screwing around on this one.

My start was clean, but uninspired. I was in lane 2, which share the center span of the two bridges with lane 3. I was side by side with the guy in lane 3 through the first bridge and there was only about 5 m between us. It was exciting stuff, but he was faster than I was and I was flying and dying trying to stay side by side with him. After the first bridge, I settled in at about r30 and just tried to hold on to some semblance of technique. The launch was aggressively calling steering commands to all of us, and I found it a bit disruptive. I lost stroke count a couple of times because I was trying to listen, steer, watch the pace, count and row cleanly. But the main thing was that I had gone out too hard and I was paying the price now.

The second bridge is only about 300m away from the first, but I felt like time was passing in slow motion. That’s what happens to me when I don’t have a good stroke count to keep me centered. I went under the second bridge, finally, and looked at Crewnerd. Crewnerd told me I had 350m left to go. In my head, I translated that to another forty strokes. Two sets of 20. I can do that. I started pushing the pace again and got through 20 strokes. At this point, I got some more steering suggestions. I had drifted over into lane 1, by the docks of the Riverside Boathouse. I took a couple of hard port strokes, and then counted out the remaining 20 strokes to the finish, but no beep! I kept on going for a couple more strokes and the finish horn finally went off. I was massively disappointed with my time, 4:01.3. I finished 3rd in my 4 person race.

Here are the results of the other heat.

After the finish, I rowed down to the BU bridge for a cool down, and that was it for the day.

Here’s the whole row. The race was from LAP002 to LAP003.

Here’s a zoomed view of my course. You can see that my steering was way less than ideal. I started off going toward lane 1, eventually got my point on the bridge and went through it side by side with the guy in lane 3. After that bridge, I veered away from him, but it looks like my course was reasonably straight toward the second bridge. Coming out of the second bridge, I started veering toward lane3, and was pointed back by the launch following us. I guess I must have overcorrected because you can see how I drifted out into lane 1. The guy in lane 1 was well behind at this point, so there was no interference, but I added some extra distance and slowed myself down to steer at the end.

Here’s pace, spm and heart rate.

Here’s a zoomed view of the race.

I covered an extra 10-20 meters over the 1k due to my lousy steering. The slow down at the end was me steering back to lane 2 away from the dock.

00010_|_3489_|_22:34_|_3:14.0_|_381___|_16.9_|_09.2_|_142___|_warmup

03498_|_1012_|_04:00_|_1:58.6_|_126___|_31.5_|_08.0_|_173___|_race

04510_|_1416_|_09:38_|_3:24.2_|_153___|_15.9_|_09.3_|_134___|_cooldown

So, what am I to make of this race.

The pace that I managed was what I should have been expecting based on the prep work I had been doing. I was doing an all out 500m at a 1:55 pace, so a 1K should have been between 1:58 and 1:59.
My steering was bad. I think that was mainly because I have been trying to make up for a lack of good specific preparation by trying to push very close to my limits. Last year, I was very disciplined about looking every ten strokes and it was a better race.
With regard to race specific training. Between my travel schedule, my lack of a boat until a month ago, and not having a good specific training plan, I was not well prepared for this race. I did enough training on starts, but I did not do enough heavy lifting. I needed more 4x1Ks, 6x750s and 8 x 500s.
My base fitness isn’t as good as it has been either. My 2mmol power is around 185w right now on the erg. I think last year it would have been about 10 watts higher. That’s about 4 seconds on pace, and I think it made a big difference in the second half of the race.

Based on all of that, I did as well as I should have expected. And I’m fine with that. Honestly, I’m not completely fine with it, but I understand it, and I will use it to define my training from here on out.

Now I set my sights on head racing season. Here’s a preliminary race schedule.

Sept 17: CRI Fall classic (5K)
Oct 2: Textile River Regatta (6K)
Oct 9: Quinsigmond Snake Race (4K)
Oct 22: Head of the Charles (5K) (If I get in the lottery)
Nov 5: Merrimack Chase (5K)

I need to put together a more formal training plan, but for now, I will be focusing on aerobic base. Lot’s of 2mmol rowing. It’s also time for some video and RIM feedback.

Friday: 2 x 500- still tapering

July 9, 20162 Comments

Weather: cloudy, windy around 7 mph, with gusts above 15mph. A cross wind.

I slept in this morning. Late this afternoon, I went to go for a short row and pick up my boat for this weekend’s race.

Plan:

Warmup
practice starts
2 x 500
- pace target: 1:55 to 1:57
- rate target: 30-32
cool down

I felt tired and frankly a little weird. My heart rate was really high even right after I left the dock. The wind was also a bother. A pretty stiff cross wind was kicking up some chop and also at times shifted around to be a nasty headwind.

The warmup was slow and I felt sluggish throughout. I was also paranoid because there were quite a few other boaters out. Kayaks, canoes, fishing boats. All randomly puttering along blissfully unaware that the river has a traffic pattern at all.

The past few days, I’ve been doing exactly the same warmup, but today, my heartrate was a good 10 to 15 beats higher throughout for about the same effort. Maybe too much caffeine or something.

After the warmup, I paddled to the end of the basin, turned and setup Crewnerd as instructed by Sander. Sounds on, speech on, autostart off, and then I set up the workout for practice starts. This is a 15 second countdown, 15 strokes, 1 minute rest. I planned 4 reps. With the speech on, Crewnerd gives you a tone warning at 15 seconds, then it says “ready” at 2 seconds to go, “attention” at 1 second, and “go” at zero. It works well and gives it a little more realism.

I played the first start conservatively, working on stability and crisp blade work. The next three I pushed harder. Each time, the same sequence. Comfortable at the catch at about 3/4 slide. Smooth push to get the boat moving. Early finish, blades high, barely feather, half slide, get blades in, finish early. Try to get the rate up around 45 for the first 5 short strokes. Then lengthen out to full slide in strokes six and seven, keep the rate high up through stroke 10. Then settle down to 32 and let the pace drift up toward 1:55 by stroke 15. I think these starts were good and solid. I was happy with them. None were perfect, but none were botched.

The last start put me about 20m away from the bridge, and I drifted under it and got myself lined up for the first 500. Again with autostart off, a 15 second countdown and speechified starting commands. It was basically flat calm as I started, but when I got out to around stroke 15, I was hit with a pretty strong gust of head wind, and it persisted through about 10 strokes, then eased a bit, and then slammed me again. This interval was right by the watch factory and I think the wind was swirling around the building. By the fortieth stroke, I was clear of the building and the wind calmed right down. I pushed the pace back down and really hammered the last 25 strokes. I paid the price after I finished.

I then paddled through the s-turn, and setup at the end of the straight section. The wind was still blowing, and here it was a cross/head wind. It felt like it was around 6-8mph and pretty constant. There wasn’t much chop where I started, but the river opens up to the port side of the boat after about 100m and there is enough room to build up a little bit of wave action. Nothing impressive by lake standards, but enough to make it tough to get out to full compression and maintain good balance. My start was good, and I just slogged my way through the breeze. Steering in sprints is always a challenge. I try to get a good look in about every ten strokes. In this piece, when I looked around at the 10th stroke, I saw a fishing boat to my port, safely clear. At 20, I looked again, and they appeared to be puttering along on a course that was converging with mine. I then steered to starboard to give myself some room. At thirty strokes, they seemed to have adjusted their course to try to get in my way. I steered more and snuck a look in at 35 strokes. They were right off my port bow, but clear by about 20m or so. I picked it up and pushed past them and it really started to hurt. So at 50 strokes, I pulled back and tried to set a rate and pressure that I could have sustained longer. This was a good way to finish, because I didn’t feel so bad after this rep.

I paddled with square blades most of the way back to the dock.

I decided to take a full rest day today and recharge my batteries for the race tomorrow.

The race tomorrow.

I’m in lane 2. This lane shares the center arch of the bridges. Scott Hornney is the guy who beat me by a little in last year’s Cromwell cup, and by a lot in a couple of head races. He’s a good rower, and pulled a 6:27 at last year’s CRASH-Bs! I have no expectation of beating him. Thomas Beretich was in the Cromwell Cup last year and he was a bit slower than I was. I don’t think that I’ve raced against James Ball before.

This year there might be a new twist. It looks like they are using the US Rowing age based handicaps. So, I get a 2.5 second of advantage against Thomas and Scott, and 3.7 vs James. That’s an intriguing twist, and one that I plan to ignore. I like racing on raw time.

The race meeting is at 6:20, so I plan to get there around 6 to unload and park. Then it will be a couple hours of waiting for (hopefully) less than 4 minutes of rowing. I’m very excited.

Thursday: 3 x 500 taper

July 7, 20163 Comments

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.

Wednesday: 4 x 500 – Race Taper

July 6, 2016July 6, 20165 Comments

Weather: Sunny and Hot 75F, 75% RH. Light breeze 1-2mph from the NW. This was basically a cross wind, although it was at it’s strongest and a bit of a head wind during the final rep.

I have used the same taper plan for racing for the past couple of years and I really like it. It’s documented here. It’s very simple. The theory is to maintain intensity, and reduce volume as you approach the race. Today, I did 4 – 500m intervals, tomorrow I’ll do 3, then 2 on Friday, one on Saturday, and race on Sunday. The approach was shown in the linked study to improve the time to exhaustion at 1500m running pace by 22% (from 250 seconds to 320 seconds) when compared to taking rest days and 14% compared to a low intensity taper. I like it because it gives me the chance to keep practicing starts and work on race pacing.

So today’s plan:

Long Rojabo style warmup finishing with 20 strokes at faster than race pace.
A few practice starts
4 x 500m intervals
- 1:55 pace
- 30-32 spm
Long rests
Cool down

Here’s a map view of the whole session. The river level is quite low and the water is getting really murky. There are a lot of floating weeds, but I didn’t have any issues with them today.

The warmup was uneventful. I was hitting some sweet paces, and I felt like I was rowing clean. I was having some intestinal troubles. These continued through the whole session. I hate that.

After the warmup, I did 4 practice starts. None of the four were disastrous, none of them were great either. The last one was the best one.

Then into the intervals. I pushed the first one really hard, and really smashed into the lactate wall at about 50 strokes, the last 15 really hurt. I had massive shivers after I finished. On CrewNerd, it was a 1:57 pace, upstream. On the speedcoach, it was a 1:54.1. That was definitely a bit too fast.

I was an idiot on the second interval. I got all set up, did my start and settle, and then looked at the iphone. That’s when I noticed that I didn’t set up a 500 interval and I didn’t know where I was. I bailed out around 250m. It was a pretty good 1:55 pace though.

I took a couple minutes to get my breath back and then setup CrewNerd for another 500m. Off I went, and I was determined to get a good start and settle aggressively to my target rate at 30 spm. This one was another 1:57 on CrewNerd, but 1:55.8 on Speedcoach (still upstream, but less current here). The lactate wave was less debilitating in this interval. In think this is a better pace target for me.

Then I paddled around, had a drink, spun and setup for interval number 3. This one was downstream, and what wind there was, was a bit of a tail wind. I had high hopes. This one was a disappointing 1:59 on CrewNerd because I stopped about a stroke too soon. On Speedcoach it was a 1:57.5. Good rate discipline.

I setup for the fourth interval, now heading up river. The breeze was a little fresher and was a headwind about 30 degrees off the bow. I got a good start, and then settled. The boat felt heavier even though the headwind was light, only about 2mph. The settle took my pace above 2:00. I tried to focus on holding the rate and taking long strokes. Around the 40 stroke point, I noticed that I was a bit off course and needed to do some steering. I counted out to 60 strokes and looked at the iphone to see how much distance I had left, expecting to see about 30 meters or so. Instead, I saw 112 meters and the display was not updating. The frigging thing had frozen! I took another 2 strokes and guessed that I had finished the 500m. Turns out I was off by about 30m. This interval was at 2:00.5 pace. Part of it was head wind. Part of it was fatigue. It was close to a maximal effort.

It looks like Crewnerd kept working in the background, despite the display being frozen. And once I brought up a Just Row and started it, the display was live again. I was pretty irked. This kind of freeze had not happened to me unless I was using the Dual GPS before. I am edging closer and closer the buying a Speedcoach GPS.

After the last interval, I pulled my feet out of the shoes and rowed back to the dock concentrating on trying to get perfect finishes.

Tomorrow: Same thing, but 3 intervals.

Finally, apropos to nothing, but while I was driving to the lake on Saturday morning, the sun was rising behind me and the shadow of my boat on my car was kind of cool.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Month: July 2016

Saturday: Hard Distance – 5.5K

Friday: 3 x 20′ / 1:30 rest w/ lactate

Wednesday: 80′ of UT2

Tuesday: 60′ Threshold

Monday: 40′ UT2

Head Racing Training Plan – 2016

Sunday: Cromwell Cup

Friday: 2 x 500- still tapering

Thursday: 3 x 500 taper

Wednesday: 4 x 500 – Race Taper