Tuesday: 4×15’/4′ (7′ @ 5kp, 8′ @ mp)

June 13, 20171 Comment

Monday: I was tired and sore in the morning after my 3 hour row on Sunday. I took an unplanned rest day.

Tuesday: Hot! 75F at 6am. Humid. Light breeze, which increased from nothing to about 5mph over the course of the workout. This was a cross/head wind coming up river.

Plan:

4 x 15′ intervals
- 7′ at 5kp
- 8′ at mp
4 minute rests
Target power
- 5kp: 197-210W
- mp: 158-171W
Modifications:
- To fit river length, shorten the 8′ intervals as needed

This was a good workout. I was on the edge of failure in the last interval and the interval power came down in each rep, but I maintained good effective length throughout.

So, I should have spent 28 minutes at or above 5kp. Total was 26:20.

Interval detail shows that I missed the power targets (barely) in the last interval. I think these are a bit harsh because the power is dramatically under reported in the turns to port. (toward the oarlock side) The power is over reported on turns to starboard, but I don’t think it’s as drastic. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Workout Summary - media/20170613-135530-Greg Smith 20170613 0639amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14312|82:38.0|02:53.2|158.2|21.8|156.3|177.0|07.9
W-|11105|53:28.0|02:24.5|186.2|22.1|164.5|177.0|09.5
R-|03213|29:10.0|04:32.4|073.4|20.1|136.4|177.0|06.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01598|07:00.0|02:11.4|210.1|25.0|158.7|167.0|09.1
02|01184|05:36.0|02:21.9|177.4|19.2|158.4|166.0|11.0
03|01467|07:00.0|02:23.1|209.9|24.5|163.5|172.0|08.6
04|01382|07:07.8|02:34.8|166.1|19.4|164.1|172.0|10.0
05|01545|07:00.0|02:16.0|202.5|24.5|168.2|175.0|09.0
06|01190|05:42.0|02:23.7|167.0|19.6|168.4|174.0|10.7
07|01427|07:00.0|02:27.2|194.8|24.3|168.1|177.0|08.4
08|01312|07:03.0|02:41.2|156.9|19.6|166.4|177.0|09.5

After the last 7 minute piece at 5kp, I “handled down” for a moment and then started back up again. I kinda pushed the end of that bit really hard.

A few metrics for fun.

Power in the MP intervals. Reasonably consistent, except for the handle down at the beginning of the fourth one.
Power in the 5kp intervals, shows a slow fade as I fatigue
Power and WPS vs stroke rate. Shows a consistent WPS between r20 and r24. Also shows a bit tighter grouping of stroke rate at the higher rate too.
Drive length and effective length are both reasonably consistent across the whole row. I was really focused on that today and I think it was a good thing to do.

I was really spent after the last piece. I consumed an entire 1 liter bottle of water during the row. For the cool down, I rowed with feet out about 1km back to the dock. Maybe it was just fatigue and oxygen deprivation, but I felt like my finishes were beautiful!

Tomorrow: I have an appointment at 7 tomorrow morning, so i will have try to squeeze in an erg session sometime during the day.

4 x 20′ / 2′

MP, 10KP, HMP, MP

90.0%

(167)

Sunday: The voyage to the wreck of the James Longstreet

June 11, 2017June 11, 20176 Comments

The weather is beautiful. 70s, Sunny, brisk breeze from the Southwest, around 15 mph with gusts a bit stronger.

I am trying to do longer rows to get ready for the Blackburn Challenge and I have been trying to get experience rowing in bigger waves. Today’s breeze from the southwest provided a terrific opportunity to do that.

The mission for today was to row up to Wellfleet Harbor and then row all the way to the Red Bell Buoy marking the wreck of the James Longstreet. This was a freighter that was used as a practice naval target during World War 2. The wreck is now almost completely submerged, even at low tide, but the buoy provided a challenging target for today’s row.

Here’s the planned course.

I started at WP0001, which is locally known as kayak beach. I had printed out the chart along with course instructions.

And then taped it in a ziplock bag to the deck beside the cockpit. This worked out well, but I need to work on legibility. I need to make the font bigger and come up with a way to identify waypoints, it was a bit hard to read when the spray was flying!

The actual track shows that I still have a lot to learn about steering in tidal currents.

The first part of the row was slow and careful as I tried to pick my way between the shoals at low tide. It wasn’t as bad as last time, but my oar blades were smooshing into the bottom on a lot of strokes.

I basically rowed straight to the green can, and then turned north to toward the inner harbor. This was delightful downwind rowing. There was a little bit of chop, and it was on my stern quarter. There were some nice surfs along the way.

I got to the end of the breakwater, turned, had a quick drink and started to row against the tide and wind. The first leg, down to a red buoy (WP0004), was good. The waves weren’t that big and I wasn’t really taking on much water. After the Buoy, when I turned to WP0005, I was heading straight into the wind and the building seas. The section from about 7km to 11km was the toughest, slowest, wettest and most challenging rowing of the day.

Once I had the next buoy in sight (WP0005), I turned to the south, and then the wind was on my bow quarter. This was a bit easier and my pace picked up a bit. But as I came out from behind Billingsgate Island, I started to experience the long rolling waves that had built up across all of Cape Cod Bay. These were long period waves, probably 2 feet high, with smaller chop breaking them up a bit. There was a definite pattern of a few big waves, then a lull, then some more big ones. It got a bit hairy as I approached WP0006, my farthest objective. The waves seemed to get steeper over the shallower water here. I was rowing to a compass course until I was able to see the buoy I was rowing for and then I turned straight to it. Here’s a little narrative about my objective from the Embassy Cruise Guide to New England.

I was quite glad to finally get around the buoy, and luckily I did not set off any unexploded bombs. Then I had a long ride back with the waves on my beam and the wind behind me.

This was a different type of challenge, but quite fun. My heading was not far enough downwind to surf the waves. The thing that took some experimenting was figuring out how to deal with radically different water heights beneath each oar. I found it easier with a slightly higher stroke rate.

Heading back, I navigated fine to WP0010, but after that, I maintained the right compass course, but I think the incoming tide pushed me quite a bit off course. I rowed the specified distance from WP0010 to WP0009, but when I looked around, I could find the buoy at all. I tried with and without sunglasses, and completely stopped the boat. Well, that’s not good.

By now, it was a couple of hours after low tide, so I decided to deviate from the planned course and cut the corner to go home. I was getting pretty tired and I had been out for over 2 hours. But this was some of the most fun rowing of the day. The wind and waves were on my port stern quarter, and the wave frequency was long enough that I could surf the front of a wave about every third stroke that I took. When I caught the wave right, the last 3 feet of the stern would be buried and there would be a great swooshing noise from the bow. It took some creative rowing to try to keep the waves from slewing the boat around through the process.

I navigated by eye around the north side of the island and pushed hard as I finished the last leg to Kayak beach. I could barely stand up when I got out of the boat, but I was grinning from ear to ear.

The pace and HR plot below shows how it was tough to row hard when I was going into the wind and waves. It was easier to push when I was surfing.

It was quite a workout. nearly 2 hours of UT1. Total time on the water was 160 minutes.

Workout Summary - media/20170611-171639-Greg Smith 20170611 0844amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|25496|159:57.0|03:08.2|000.0|21.3|148.7|169.0|07.5
W-|25496|159:57.0|03:08.2|000.0|21.3|148.7|169.0|07.5

Below are pace and rate charts. The one from on the left is from the speedcoach. The one on the right from Crewnerd. Speedcoach continues to have some trouble finding the stroke rate in rough seas. But the pace information is a bit smoother.

Tomorrow: Hopefully on the water in Newton.

4 x 15′ / 4′

7′ @ 5KP, 8′ @ MP

92.5%

(172)

Saturday: No race

June 10, 2017Leave a comment

Sometimes life gets in the way

Thursday: 3 x 20’/2′ (mp, 10kp, hmp)

June 8, 2017June 9, 20172 Comments

On Wednesday night I had a business dinner that went quite late, and I had an early meeting on Thursday, so no chance for an OTW session.

But, I managed to get stuff finished up by 5 and I had some time to do the session on the erg.

Plan: Push it hard to see how I’m doing.

3 x 20′ / 2′ rest
Target power
- 1st: mp (80 to 195). Target 200W
- 2nd: 10kp (210 to 225). Target 230W
- 3rd: hmp (195 to 210). Target 215W
Nominal HR cap at 167. But I planned to ignore that.

Well, I survived. I went significantly over the cap. The last 20 minutes were brutal. The 20 minutes at 230W were pretty damn brutal too.

Workout Summary - media/20170608-2225210o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|16044|66:00.0|02:03.4|208.4|22.3|160.0|177.0|10.9
W-|15367|60:00.0|01:57.1|218.1|22.3|160.3|177.0|11.5
R-|00681|06:00.0|04:24.5|050.3|21.2|142.3|177.0|07.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|05007|20:00.0|01:59.8|202.9|20.3|145.7|155.0|12.3
01|05238|20:00.0|01:54.6|233.2|23.5|165.1|173.0|11.1
02|05123|20:00.0|01:57.1|218.1|23.0|170.2|177.0|11.1

So, I actually pushed another 3 watts beyond the targets. I sure paid for it though.

It was good to dig the deep hole and keep plugging. Whenever I race, I worry about blowing up and embarrassing myself. These sessions where you slow down, but don’t give up are a pretty good way to show some grit for that kind of situation.

I will probably do a 20 minute warmup only a little later today.

Race plan for Saturday. The race is 2 laps of a 4km closed course.

Aim at a rate of about 22-24 depending on wind and wave conditions
Focus on steering and rowing clean
Try to keep HR below 170 in the first lap. That’ll be an early sign that I’m pushing too hard.
I have very little idea what kind of pace I can sustain. Probably about a 2:30 pace, but that’s a total guess.

El “Dy”ablo – 10K hard

June 7, 2017June 7, 20174 Comments

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:

3 x 20′ / 2′

MP, 10KP, HMP

90.0%

(167)

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)

Monday: 4 x 15′ / 4′ (6′ @ 5kp, 9′ @ mp) – cut short due to time

June 5, 2017June 5, 2017Leave a comment

Weather: Lousy. Low 50sF. Steady rain.

I decided that it would be best to do my session inside, so I drove to work and headed to the fitness center.

Plan:

4×15′ / 4′ rest
6′ at 5kp, 9′ at mp
- 5kp target: 250W
- mp target: 203W

I was very happy with how this workout went when I did it last weekend, and I was a little worried that it was a fluke. Today would test the theory by trying to hold the same power.

To make a long story short. It was fine. Roughly the same HR response, Basically the same RPE. I ran out of time after the last 6 minute segment, so I dug deep and pushed hard through the end of that segment. I paddled for a couple minutes into the last interval to cool down.

I have to say that I like being able to stop a workout without finishing it. In the rowpro days, I would have lost all my precious data if I had done that.

One other side note. I have done about 5 or 6 sessions with the polar H7 and the PM5 on 3 different ergs and I haven’t had any issues with hangups or crashes. I might give painsled another try with the H7. I think my problems were related to the Tickr.

Otherwise, not much to report.

Here is the workout compared to the one two weekends ago.

I’m heading to the airport in the afternoon for a quick trip to San Jose. I will be coming back on the Tuesday night red eye.

Tomorrow: rest day.

Sunday: 2 x 30′ / 2′

June 4, 20171 Comment

I hate the dynamic erg. I never have a good workout on it. It is unpleasant to row and very noisy. I think it’s time to sell it and buy a model D.

You might guess that todays workout was not so good. You’d be right.

The plan was

2 x 30′ at mp or slower
2 minutes rest
HR cap at 150

Just and easy session. On a static erg, I would probably crank the first interval out at 180W and the second at 175W and it would be nice and easy. On the dynamic, it was awful. It felt like I was rowing through weeds the whole time. I cranked the drag down to 1 (DF = 82 for the purists) and it still felt heavy. I’m done with it.

Workout Summary - media/Import_29874956.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14297|62:45.0|02:11.7|151.4|20.8|149.2|160.0|11.0
W-|13870|60:00.0|02:09.8|158.6|20.5|149.9|160.0|11.3
R-|00429|02:45.0|03:12.2|047.8|23.6|134.6|160.0|05.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07092|30:00.0|02:06.9|168.7|19.3|145.9|154.0|12.2
01|06777|30:00.0|02:12.8|148.6|21.7|154.0|160.0|10.4

Tomorrow:

4 x 15′ / 4′

6′ @ 5KP, 9′ @ MP

92.5%

(172)

I’ll do the usual shortening of the 9′ segments.

power targets

5kp: 197-210
mp: 158-171

Today I registered for my first coastal race. The Provincetown Regatta, next Saturday. It’s a little race. 8k long, two laps of an M shaped 4k long course.

I am training through this race. I am doing it mainly to get an event under my belt before the Blackburn and to meet some Cape Cod based rowers.

You can check out the race on regatta central

Provincetown Regatta

Saturday: 20km on Quinsig

June 3, 20172 Comments

One must be adaptable. My original plan was to do a long open water row this morning, but we decided to stay home instead of going to the cape this weekend. So, I texted Joe and asked him if he wanted to do a long row in the double this morning at 6.

He was willing, so that was the plan. The weather this morning was beautiful. A bit chilly, in the upper 40s. There was no wind when we arrived, but a light breeze picked up by the time we launched. It was shifty, coming sometimes from the NE, sometimes from the SE, and sometimes it was non-existent. This was mostly a cross wind. It was sunny and clear and the water was nice and flat.

We took out the Wintech double that we bought from Saugatuck. I really like the boat. It’s easy to set and much lighter than the old Vespoli we had been rowing last year.

I didn’t have much of a plan, beyond 90 minutes of UT1. We rowed to the south end of the lake. That was mostly just us getting in sync and watching the scenery. I stepped up the stroke rate over the last 1500m or so to spice things up.

Once we spun the boat, I asked if Joe was up for some easy rate ladders. He was, and off we went. The plan was 6 minute ladders. 3 minutes at r20, 2 minutes at r22, and 1 minute at r24. Repeat until you run out of lake.

It took us 4 and half ladders to get to the north end of the lake. I checked if we had the time and energy to go all the way back to the south end of the lake. We did 🙂

Going back south, it took almost 5 complete ladders. We got waked right at the end, which was a bummer. By then we were getting short on time so we spun the boat and headed back north to the boat house. We did two more ladders, which brought us to about 1k south of the bridge. Joe said we should row past the docks since there was a crowd gathering for learn to row day. The plan would be to row at r20 until we got to the bridge, and then I would bring the rate up to 28 or so and we would demonstrate the beauty and grace of our rowing to assembled throng.

That was the plan. I’m not sure how beautiful or graceful it was, but there was a lot of water in the footwell and Joe looked very wet by the time we finished. :-O I guess I really need work on my catches to reduce my backsplash!

After that we helped out with our humble part of National Learn To Row Day. We had a couple dozen folks show up. So we taught the basics of the stroke on a dozen ergs, got the to sign away all their rights, and then took them out in a couple of eights for a quick row.

All in all, a fantastic morning.

Tomorrow: rest day.

Friday: 14km steady state

June 2, 2017Leave a comment

Weather: Amazing. 60F, sunny, dry. Light wind (head wind heading up stream) Flat water.

There were 5 other singles out while I was rowing. I think that’s the highest number I’ve ever seen. It was nice to have company.

The plan:

The training plan called for 2×30′ mp with a HR cap below 70%HRR. I’ve never been able to respect a 70% HR cap, ever. So I decided 150 was OK (75%)
30 minute intervals are a pain on my stubby little river, so I did 20’/15’/15’/20′

The challenge for me today was to figure out how to row with marathon power at r20 and good length. Why is this a challenge? Well, because that combination requires me to row with a lighter stroke than I am used to. I tend to naturally row at a higher than mp power at r20, and that makes my HR shoot up too high. When I try to lighten up, instead I tend to shorten up, which, in theory, reduces how efficient I am.

I pronounce the session today to be useful and productive, even though it was a pretty constant struggle. It was an exercise in “mindful training” I was consciously thinking about every stroke, and the speedcoach was basically grading me on every stroke. I would finish and glance down during recovery and see stroke rate, effective length and stroke power. And then I would adjust for the next stroke. One of the things that I really noticed is that if I concentrated on trying to get a little more layback than I am used to doing, and kept my elbows nice and wide at the finish, I was getting about 5 extra degrees of effective length, and my finishes were cleaner.

The result of the struggle was that I ended up pushing up against the HR cap, and I was getting pretty tired. Bearing in mind that I have a long row planned for tomorrow, I decided to focus on technique for the last 20 minutes of the row by alternating 2 minutes of r20 and 2 minutes of SBR. This allowed me to focus on practicing strokes with more layback and getting the blades out of the water as cleanly as possible.

Tomorrow: Hopefully, a 26km open water long row

Thursday: 4 x 15′ / 4′ (6′ @ 5kp, ~9′ @ mp)

June 1, 20172 Comments

Wednesday: Rest Day

Thursday:

Weather: Beautiful. We had a line of thunderstorms blow through last night and this morning was cool and dry. There was a little bit of a breeze, which was generally a headwind heading up stream.

Plan:

4 x 15′ / 4′

6′ @ 5KP, 9′ @ MP

92.5%

(172)

Power Targets:

5kp: 197 – 210
mp: 158 – 171

This session needed to be modified slightly. From end to end, the river takes 13 to 14 minutes to row. I had two alternatives. One was to turn and finish. The other was to cut the mp section short when I ran out of river. I decided to just cut them short.

Workout Summary - media/20170601-134451-Greg Smith 20170601 0644amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14243|82:31.0|02:53.8|161.4|22.2|148.5|175.0|07.8
W-|11306|54:07.0|02:23.6|191.4|22.1|162.2|175.0|09.6
R-|02945|28:24.0|04:49.4|068.0|20.3|118.2|175.0|07.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01407|06:00.0|02:07.9|239.5|26.8|160.4|168.0|08.7 - w/ curr & wind
02|01386|06:43.2|02:25.4|171.9|18.6|153.9|168.0|11.1 - w/ curr & wind
03|01317|06:00.0|02:16.7|223.5|25.8|166.7|173.0|08.5 - against
04|01509|07:52.8|02:36.7|160.8|19.0|159.6|172.0|10.1 - against
05|01345|06:00.0|02:13.8|226.9|25.7|166.7|172.0|08.7 - with
06|01467|07:13.2|02:27.7|154.6|18.9|159.9|172.0|10.7 - with
07|01277|06:00.0|02:21.0|211.8|25.7|167.2|175.0|08.3 - against
08|01598|08:18.0|02:35.8|169.7|19.5|164.3|175.0|09.9 - against

So, the average power for the 5kp sections was 225W vs the 197-210 range, so a bit on the high side. And the mp sections average was 164.25W vs the 158 to 171W, right in the band. You can see at the end of the last interval where I started trying to chase the split going into the head wind and the narrowest part of the river with the most current.

Ideally, the power pie would be 24 minutes in 5kp, 36 minutes in mp. You can see that basically all the 5kp target was rowed in a higher band. The mp rowing was all over the map.

The stroke metrics were somewhat illuminating (to me).