Weather:  Sunny, low 70s.  Brisk wind from the NNW.  Quite gusty.  I launched at about 7:15.  So, the wind got a little gentler as I rowed down to the south end, and then picked up again as I rowed north.

Plan:

I have been taking more rest days than planned recently, so I am behind on the training plan.  So, even though I had a tough L2 yesterday, I decided to do an L3 session this morning.  The lake is much better for hard distance because you can get nearly 6K in without turning around.

• L3 – hard distance
• 5.5km from south end of the lake to the north end
• stroke rate: 25
• effective length target: > 75 deg
• WPS target: > 450

I rowed to the south end of the lake as a long warmup.  I did a couple of rate ladders.  The whole way south, I debated just doing ladders for the whole workout instead of doing the L3.  Clearly, my head was not really in the game today.  My back was acting up as well.  I was hoping it would settle down like it did yesterday, but I was getting a twinge on each stroke.

Anyway, I turned north and started up.  I got about 20 strokes into it and a big splash sent the RIM app to some setup screen and I no longer had any stroke rate information.  (I had the speedcoach set up to show pace, HR, Eff Len and work per stroke).  I stopped and quit out of RIM and started Crewnerd which has a much more effective screen lock mechanism.  Then I started up again.

I was trying to row clean against the gusty headwind and I was making very slow progress.  I would do OK when I got into the wind shadow of islands or headlands, but in the gusts, I was having some trouble getting to my target length in the chop and with the wind pushing around my oars.

I plugged along, but by the 1500m mark, I was losing hope.  I rowed through the narrows and eased up the pressure a bit.  I just tried to row clean.  I figured I could at least make it to the bridge and I was almost there when I was massively waked by a waterskiing boat towing a skier.  The wakes hit me at the same time as a big gust of wind and it was a little bit too much for me to handle.  I stopped rowing after about 2600, about 400m short of the bridge.

What to do now.  My back hurt, I was tired, and I wasn’t having much fun.  I decided to turn around and go find the double that was a ways behind me, and just row with them for a while.  I rowed back to the narrows and saw them coming through.  I turned and just rowed easy with them all the way up to the bridge.  By then I was feeling a bit better.  More importantly, I saw a double from the other club about 100m north of the bridge.  Ah ha, a target.  I brought the rate back up to 25 and tried to row a lightly and cleanly as I could with the head wind.  I slowly reeled them in, and passed them about 1000m north of the bridge.  Now, I was motivated to get to the end.  But there were more challenges to confront.  Another massive waking, and then a fishing boat trolling along very slowly right in my way.  I basically needed to stop to get through that mess.  But I spooled back up to my target rate and pushed through the last couple hundred strokes to the north end of the lake.

I was toast.  I basically square bladed the whole way back to the club.  The western edge of the lake was reasonably well sheltered from the wind and what there was of it was coming from behind, so it was nice easy rowing.

        Workout Summary - media/20170820-144123-Greg Smith 20170820 0715amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13568|80:52.0|02:58.8|140.2|21.8|143.8|176.0|07.7
W-|11728|62:16.0|02:39.3|150.4|21.5|144.9|176.0|08.9
R-|01847|18:35.0|05:02.1|066.3|20.5|127.2|176.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00700|04:00.0|02:51.5|120.6|16.7|113.2|129.0|10.5 - 4' @ 16
01|00598|03:00.0|02:30.5|145.3|17.8|132.3|139.0|11.2 - 3' @ 18
02|00402|02:00.0|02:29.2|152.3|20.1|141.7|144.0|10.0 - 2' @ 20
03|00204|01:00.0|02:26.8|172.9|22.0|146.2|148.0|09.3 - 1' @ 22
04|00770|04:00.0|02:35.8|127.1|16.8|139.1|148.0|11.5 - 4' @ 16
05|00600|03:00.0|02:29.9|145.7|18.4|142.6|145.0|10.9 - 3' @ 18
06|00203|01:00.0|02:27.9|168.6|20.0|146.5|150.0|10.1 - 1' @ 20
07|02648|13:07.8|02:28.8|191.9|25.3|160.3|171.0|08.0 - 1st hard piece
08|00701|03:58.8|02:50.3|135.9|19.1|138.0|143.0|09.2 - loop around
09|01659|08:28.2|02:33.1|176.8|24.2|156.1|169.0|08.1 - 2nd hard piece
10|01050|05:19.8|02:32.3|189.3|25.7|167.7|176.0|07.6 - bit after wake
11|02192|13:22.2|03:02.9|096.7|19.8|130.6|152.0|08.3 - SBR drills

A few stroke metrics

Tomorrow:  Recovery session on the Charles.  HR limit at 150.