Weather: Cold (35-40F). Thick mist rising off the warm lake water. Light wind from the north, maybe 5mph. Damn near pitch black when we launched. Between the mist and the darkness, it was a tough day to be steering the boat. I felt bad for Joe, he was looking around almost every stroke, trying to pick out dim bow lights in the gloom.
Plan:
- Warm up to north end of the lake including a few power 10s and 20s
- 5.8km from North end of the lake to the south end, finishing with a broad turn back to finish around the beach.
- Cool down and drills back to the boathouse
It started off well enough. It was cold and damp when we launched and as soon as we got out onto the lake, we noticed the light breeze from the north. It was enough to make something bigger than ripples, but smaller than waves.
We did 2 10s and one 20 on the way up to the north end of the lake and spun around to head south again. We got up to speed over about 5 strokes and then settled into a nice rhythm at 26 spm. The boat was moving pretty well. We about 1500 meters into the piece, when I hear a big THWANG! from my port oarlock. I look out and the backstay is flapping around and there is no bolt on the top of the pin holding the oarlock in place. We paddle in to the dock from there and scrounge up some spacers and a new bolt to get it all repaired. On the map below, the red arrow is the scene of the crime.
So, now we need a new plan. I thought it would make sense to go from the route 9 bridge down to the islands, do the same broad turn, and then take it all the way back up the lake back to the bridge. I figure that this would be almost 6km, so a pretty good approximation of the original plan.
Off we go. We paddle to the bridge and then take it up to r26. Again, the boat is moving pretty well. We surge down lake, and along the way, Joe points out a big inflatable boat-like object drifting unoccupied on the other side of the lake. Well, that’s another thing to keep our eyes open for, now isn’t it. We continue down through the narrows, and past the first island. Joe lines us up for the beginning of the turn and we blast along the south shore of the big island. We are in pea soup fog at this point, and about to cross the uplake channel, so Joe start’s shouting “Look Ahead!” as loud as he can, just in case there is a boat hidden in the murk. As fortune would have it, there wasn’t and we zipped across the lane and around the outside of the smaller island and finished the turn. We were just settling back in for the rest of the journey up lake, when THWANG!, Joe’s port back stay is flapping in the breeze and he has no top bolt on his oarlock anymore. We assessed the situation, Joe grabbed the spacers off the top of the pin, so we didn’t lose them overboard, and we picked back up the pace once again. I imagine that it would have been a bit nerve wracking for Joe, because one bad finish and his oarlock would have sailed off the top of the pin, but he rowed clean and no disasters happened. In fact, after he spotted the drifting inflatable, and the fog cleared a bit, we managed some of the cleanest and fastest rowing we did during the whole session.
In the map below, the arrow shows where the second backstay let go.
We fixed the backstay when we got to the dock, and I checked the tightness of the top bolts on all of the oarlocks. (Something I obviously should have done when I fixed the first one!, Doooh!) There was some good rowing, but all in all, a hugely unsatisfying session.
Here’s HR, pace and rate for the warmup and the first piece.
|Start|Dist_|Time_|_Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|DPS_|Remarks
|00010|02310|15:04|03:15.7| 17.7 | 126 |08.6|warmup
|02320|01576|07:02|02:13.9| 25.5 | 154 |08.8|rep #1
|03896|00533|07:02|06:35.9| 22.3 | 112 |03.4|busted backstay
|Start|Dist_|Time_|_Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|DPS_|Remarks
|00000|02310|15:04|03:15.7| 17.7 | 126 |08.6|warmup
|00000|01576|07:02|02:13.9| 25.5 | 154 |08.8|main set
|00000|00533|07:02|06:35.9| 22.3 | 112 |03.4|rests
I felt like we were faster than the shown average, so I did some 250 splits. We had two slow downs
|02320|00247|01:05|02:11.6| 26.0 | 136 |08.8|
|02567|00251|01:06|02:11.5| 25.3 | 152 |09.0|
|02818|00250|01:08|02:16.0| 25.5 | 155 |08.7| <—slow down
|03068|00249|01:06|02:12.5| 25.5 | 158 |08.9|
|03317|00252|01:07|02:12.9| 25.5 | 159 |08.9|
|03569|00250|01:08|02:16.0| 25.6 | 160 |08.6| <—Slow down
Here’s the same for the second half.
|Start|Dist_|Time_|_Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|DPS_|Remarks
|00009|00321|03:32|05:30.2| 07.7 | 090 |11.8|warmup
|00330|03449|15:39|02:16.1| 26.2 | 157 |08.4|rep #2
|03779|00118|00:49|03:27.6| 24.1 | 150 |06.0|busted backstay
|03897|01623|07:13|02:13.4| 27.1 | 161 |08.3|rep #3
|05520|00287|03:06|05:24.0| 20.4 | 124 |04.5|rest
|Start|Dist_|Time_|_Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|DPS_|Remarks
|00000|00321|03:32|05:30.2| 07.7 | 090 |11.8|warmup
|00000|05072|22:52|02:15.3| 26.5 | 158 |08.4|main set
|00000|00405|03:55|04:50.1| 21.2 | 130 |04.9|rests
Again, I felt like we were faster, so I looked at the splits.
This is the chunk from the bridge, down around the islands and starting back north.
|00348|00500|02:14|02:14.0| 25.6 | 142 |08.7|
|00848|00501|02:17|02:16.7| 25.6 | 152 |08.6|<— Not sure what slowed us down here.
|01349|00497|02:15|02:15.8| 25.8 | 156 |08.6|
|01846|00504|02:16|02:14.9| 26.4 | 159 |08.4|
|02350|00500|02:16|02:16.0| 26.4 | 162 |08.4|
|02850|00496|02:17|02:18.1| 27.2 | 165 |08.0| <—Main part of the turn
|03346|00391|01:47|02:16.8| 26.4 | 164 |08.3|
|03850|00497|02:18|02:18.8| 26.2 | 152 |08.2|<—trying to see if it worked with no bolt
|04347|00502|02:13|02:12.5| 27.2 | 162 |08.3|
|04849|00500|02:12|02:12.0| 27.2 | 166 |08.3|
|05349|00171|00:44|02:08.7| 28.5 | 169 |08.2|<—big 20 to finish
So, the plan was for 5800m of threshold, we got 6500m of threshold, but in 3 pieces with long rests.
Tomorrow: The weather is supposed to be terrible, so I think I will do a 4×20 steady state session on the erg at work.
Quantified Rowing 