Monday night:  Flew out to San Jose.  Arrived around 11.  Asleep around 1am

Tuesday:  Rest Day.  Meetings all day.  Caught the red eye home from San Jose.

Wednesday:  Arrived at the airport around 5:15am.  My original plan was to stop in Newton, do a session on the water, and then continue on to work.  But, I felt pretty beat up from the flight and I decided to go home and get some sleep instead.  I was in bed by 6:30 and I slept until 10.  I had breakfast, did some email, and decided I had time for a quick erg session.

I have a race this Saturday.  It’s open water, and 8K long.  I’m just getting used to the Aero, and I’m not sure what kind of pace I can hold over 8km.  Two weeks ago, in my first row, my “tide adjusted” pace was around 2:55/500.  That was basically at a marathon pace, so I think 2:45 might work.  8km at 2:45 would take 44 minutes.  So, basically, it’s not that different than a hard 10K on the erg.

So, I haven’t really done any hard distance work, so it seemed like a good idea to do a “dry run” to remind myself that its possible to row above 165bpm for a long time, even though it isn’t very pleasant.

I was at home, and I was using the dynamic.  So I had no idea what pace would work.  I decided to be conservative and take off at a 2:00 pace, and then speed up once I got calibrated.  Based on the 4×15 type sessions I’m doing I figure I am good for 1:55 pace over 10K on a static erg right now.

But on the dynamic, it was impossible for me to hold a 2:00 pace beyond 5km.  By that point, my HR was already up around 175 (93% HRR) and I was really struggling.  I upped the rate and eased the pace to try to get back in firmer control of the row, just the way i would if I went out too fast in a race.  I really didn’t want to give myself permission to give up.  That is not the way to prep for a race.

So, I struggled my way through the back half of the session and managed the tiniest of sprints at the very end.  I spent 6 minutes above my anaerobic threshold.  It hurt.  It hurt more that I was only rowing at a 2:00 pace.

So, I am trying to figure out just how much harder it is for me to row the dynamic.  On clue could come from the session that I did on Monday.  That was a 4×15′ where the first 6′ was at 250W (roughly a 1:50 pace).  I compared my HR response over the first 6 minutes of that row and the first 6 minutes of this row.

They are very close to superimposed.  So, my guess is that I am 40W “better” on the static than the dynamic, that’s 23% different.  For comparison, between  the static erg and my fluid, the difference is closer to 11%.

So, I still hate that devil machine.  (El Dy-ablo)

Tomorrow:

On the water.  I’ll do each interval to the proper distance and do quick turns when required.

target power:

• MP: 158-171  (Stroke rate 20)
• 10KP: 184-197 (stroke rate 24)
• HMP: 171-184 (stroke rate 22)