I needed to drop off my car for service out in Shrewsbury for service at 7am.  So, I dropped a text to my friend Joe to see if he wanted to take out a double with me before I dropped off my car.  We met at the boathouse at 5:30am, and the eastern sky was just starting to lighten up.  It reminded me of last fall when we would do a couple sessions a week like this when we were getting ready for the HOCR.

It was cool, only about 50F and there was a lot of mist on the water.  There was a bit of wind blowing from the North, maybe 6 mph of so.  Just enough to make the boat feel heavier when we were rowing up lake.

My plan called for an L1 workout today.  An 8×500 sprint session.  I decided to dial it back a little bit and change it to more of a head race type session since I didn’t think it would be good to try to rate up too much.  It takes a few good practices together before you can really get the timing down well enough to sprint together.  I figured by cutting back the rests ad bringing down the stroke rate it would be a good threshold workout and it would fit into the trip up the lake.  That would leave us the trip from the boathouse down to the south end of the lake to warmup and get used to rowing together, and the trip from the north end of the lake back to the boathouse for cool down.

So, the Plan:

• 8 or 9 x 2′ / 1′ rest
• Target stroke rate: 26-28
• Heart Rate Limit: None
• Pace Target:  Who knows.  Maybe 2:15?

       Workout Summary - media/20170829-131818-Greg Smith 20170829 0546amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11696|62:17.0|02:39.8|000.0|24.2|149.1|173.0|07.8
W-|09238|43:52.0|02:22.5|000.0|24.7|153.0|173.0|08.6
R-|02471|18:24.0|03:43.5|000.0|22.1|132.5|173.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03364|16:00.0|02:22.7|000.0|22.3|143.9|162.0|09.4 - warmup
02|00414|02:00.0|02:25.0|000.0|25.1|144.7|158.0|08.2 - rep 1 - waked
03|00440|02:00.0|02:16.5|000.0|26.8|160.2|166.0|08.2 
04|00416|02:00.0|02:24.3|000.0|28.5|163.3|168.0|07.3 - waked
05|00437|02:00.0|02:17.4|000.0|27.6|162.9|171.0|07.9
06|00434|02:00.0|02:18.1|000.0|26.5|165.7|171.0|08.2
07|00445|02:00.0|02:14.9|000.0|26.7|163.1|171.0|08.3
08|00452|02:00.0|02:12.9|000.0|27.7|166.7|172.0|08.1
09|00451|02:00.0|02:13.1|000.0|27.4|166.3|173.0|08.2
10|00454|02:00.0|02:12.1|000.0|28.0|164.8|172.0|08.1
11|01932|09:52.7|02:33.4|000.0|23.9|151.3|160.0|08.2 - cool down

There was a ski boat out at the same time as us.  He nailed us in the middle of our first interval, and then again with 30 seconds left in the third interval.  We were free and clear after that.  With the head wind we were a bit slower than I thought we’d be, but I was also rowing a bit lighter than I normally would, trying to be careful of my back.

My back was really touchy this morning before we set off.  If I bent wrong, I got shooting pains in my hip and lower back.  I stretched a bit before we launched and worked my way out to full length during the warmup and it felt much better by the time we finished.

It was a great workout.  I really like rowing in the double.  I like stroking and not having to worry about steering and its nice to be out rowing with someone literally in the same boat.

Tomorrow:  The workout plan calls for an 80′ L4.  I am going to continue to substitute r20 endurance sessions for L4s for the foreseeable future to minimize risk of aggrevating my back injury.

For reference, here’s the link to the google sheet with my workout plan and daily summary.