I’m still working out exactly how to train for my long open water race.  I’m also trying to get myself back in the swing of things after a pretty chaotic past month.  I’m keeping the sessions a bit shorter and a bit higher intensity, not for any really good reason, but because I think I want to push a bit harder right now.

I did my last erg marathon on December 26th, 2013.  Just over 3 years ago.  I was in terrific shape at that time and I did it with an average pace of 1:59.1.  I don’t see a reason why I can train back to that level of fitness over the next six months, so I have been doing some shorter rows at around a 2:00 pace, since that is likely where my marathon pace will be once I am in the training plan for real.  On Thursday, I did 20 minutes at that pace.  Today, I did 30.  Both times I did an L4 style warmup and similar cooldown.

As was the case on Friday, I was disappointed at how high my HR went, but I was pleased that I did seem to plateau in the last 10 minutes around 165.

Looks a bit like a “Black Hole” workout, but with the minuscule volume I’m doing right now, I don’t think that will be a problem.

On Thursday, my drive length was 1.43, today it was 1.45, which is identical to my pre-injury drive length.  I proclaim myself cured.

Here are the individual sections.  I did a rate ladder from 16 to 19 to warmup up, then the 30 minutes (in 6 – 5 minute splits), and then a rate ladder cool down.

Workout Summary - media/20170107-2235100o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12368|51:01.0|02:03.8|189.9|20.1|153.3|166.0|12.0
W-|12250|50:01.0|02:02.5|191.5|19.6|152.7|166.0|12.6
R-|00260|02:00.0|03:51.0|069.4|30.0|142.2|166.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00936|04:00.0|02:08.2|163.9|16.2|119.6|135.0|14.5 - warmup
01|00714|03:00.0|02:06.0|174.5|17.2|136.3|139.0|13.8
02|00485|02:00.0|02:03.6|185.4|18.0|141.3|145.0|13.5
03|00248|01:00.0|02:00.8|197.9|19.1|144.0|147.0|13.0
04|01251|05:00.0|01:59.9|204.9|20.6|146.8|154.0|12.1 - main set
05|01251|05:00.0|01:59.9|203.3|20.8|155.5|159.0|12.0
06|01258|05:00.0|01:59.2|206.5|21.6|160.1|163.0|11.7
07|01258|05:00.0|01:59.3|206.4|21.8|163.4|164.0|11.5
08|01256|05:00.0|01:59.5|205.1|21.8|164.4|166.0|11.5
09|01252|05:00.0|01:59.8|203.7|21.6|165.7|166.0|11.6
11|00239|01:00.0|02:05.4|202.3|19.2|144.8|149.0|12.5 - cool down
12|00484|02:00.0|02:03.9|185.3|18.0|158.4|161.0|13.5
13|00698|03:00.0|02:08.9|163.8|16.1|157.3|160.0|14.4
14|00919|04:01.9|02:11.7|154.0|16.0|151.9|158.0|14.2

Here’s a quick comparison of the Thursday 20 minutes to the 30 minutes today.  Today’s session is on the left and Thursday is on the right.  On Thursday, see how I hit 167 after 20 minutes and the slope is pretty linear.  Today, I plateaued around the 15 minute mark and drifted up slowly from there.  I like that a bit better.

I’ll probably keep doing these sessions at or around 2:00 pace for the next week or so.