Lovely morning.  I got to the lake at 5:35 and it was still pitch black out. There was just a hint of a breeze from no particular direction.  It was a bit chilly, around 40F and the stars were bright in the sky.

The Plan:  In the run up to HOCR, I am trying to make the most of the limited time left.  I am way behind my desired plan due to travel and then my back injury, but the progress I can make is limited by the amount of recovery that I need.  The basic of the plan is 3 hard sessions a week and 3 easy endurance session. The easy sessions are HR capped at 155 and 60 to 80 minutes.  The hard sessions are all targeted at head race paced rowing.  One is hard distance, basically a head race simulation.  Two is long intervals, basically L2 workouts.   Three is short interval/short rest.  The third type was what was on the menu today.

• The basic workout on the erg is 15 x 3′ / 1′
• On the water, I need more time than a minute to get the boat turned at the ends of the lake, so I planned to take an extra couple of minutes to turn the boat and get a quick drink.
• rate target: 24-26
• pace target:  better than 2:20, hopefully around 2:15
• HR limit: none

I got up extra early so that I could do my dreaded core routine and go to the bathroom before I went to the lake.  My hope is that the core routine will help get me a little warmed up before I get in the boat and help me avoid aggravating my lower back.

The workout was tough, but awesome.  The water was nice and flat.  There was a bit of a head wind coming into the cove at the south end of the lake.  Then the wind died, but returned as a head wind again as after I got north of the Rt 9 bridge.

In my best intervals, I was starting to feel the boat “snap” when I got into my back swing.  My finishes were a lot cleaner today than on Saturday, mostly because the water was flatter, but I’ll take it.  I felt much calmer in the boat.  It was visually confusing to row with it so dark.  There really wasn’t much light until I was halfway back up the lake going north, about 30 minutes into the row.  I am also having a bit of trouble with this boat wanting to drift around to the port unless I am extremely vigilant about keeping a point to steer from and bear down on my port foot in each stroke.  Tough to tell if it’s the boat or me.

I ended up doing 14 intervals.  4 down lake to the south end.  The first one I started at 22spm and gradually increased to 25.  The rest were between 24 and 25.  Then I turned and did 7 intervals up lake to the north end, then 3 more coming back to the boat house.  I was tired by then and decided that 14 was enough for this morning.

        Workout Summary - media/20171002-130422-Greg Smith 20171002 0545amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12272|66:19.0|02:42.1|000.0|23.5|160.4|176.0|07.9
W-|09279|42:00.0|02:15.8|000.0|24.9|163.2|176.0|08.9
R-|03008|21:19.0|03:32.6|000.0|19.5|153.5|176.0|06.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00652|03:00.0|02:18.1|000.0|21.7|151.3|161.0|10.0
02|00678|03:00.0|02:12.7|000.0|24.9|159.9|168.0|09.1
03|00678|03:00.0|02:12.7|000.0|25.3|162.2|170.0|08.9
04|00672|03:00.0|02:14.0|000.0|25.0|164.4|172.0|09.0
05|00682|03:00.0|02:12.0|000.0|25.2|157.5|172.0|09.0
06|00661|03:00.0|02:16.1|000.0|24.8|167.3|174.0|08.9
07|00654|03:00.0|02:17.6|000.0|24.5|166.1|173.0|08.9
08|00655|03:00.0|02:17.4|000.0|25.8|169.0|176.0|08.5
09|00642|03:00.0|02:20.1|000.0|24.7|166.4|175.0|08.7
10|00646|03:00.0|02:19.4|000.0|24.7|166.3|175.0|08.7
11|00658|03:00.0|02:16.8|000.0|24.9|166.8|175.0|08.8
12|00669|03:00.0|02:14.5|000.0|25.4|156.9|170.0|08.8
13|00662|03:00.0|02:16.0|000.0|25.1|165.1|173.0|08.8
14|00670|03:00.0|02:14.3|000.0|25.9|165.9|174.0|08.6

Tomorrow:  Steady State, 80 minutes, on quinsig.  HR limit 155.  I might do the technical SBR/alternating/r20 session.  I need to work on my technique.