Month: November 2017

Saturday: 2 x 5 x (800m on / 200m paddle) / 5′ rest in the 2x

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Out at Lake Quinsigamond.  Very light breeze from the south.  Cold as hell, about 25F, when we launched.  Hazy sunshine.  It warmed up to about 30F by the time we finished.

The Plan:

Session: 2 x 5000m (alternate 800m on/ 200m easy)
Rest between: 5’
Rating/Pace: 800m “on” = Cat IV
For the #1 “on” SR 24
For the #2 “on” SR 26
Notes: Stay as close as you can to the target stroke rate

We launched around 8:30 and headed to the north end of the lake.  The lake is about 6km long so we wanted to be able to do all five reps going south, and then spin during the rest and do 5 more heading north.  We just rowed steady up to warm up.  It felt a bit weird being in a boat after almost a month, but we settled in and started to take some good strokes.

          Workout Summary - media/20171118-203730-Greg Smith 20171118 0918amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15020|84:24.0|02:48.6|000.0|24.0|159.7|180.0|07.4
W-|08000|36:32.0|02:17.1|000.0|25.3|166.1|179.0|08.7
R-|07020|45:24.0|03:14.1|000.0|22.5|151.8|179.0|06.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00800|03:38.1|02:16.3|000.0|24.4|161.6|170.0|09.0
02|00800|03:45.2|02:20.7|000.0|24.3|165.5|174.0|08.8
03|00800|03:45.2|02:20.7|000.0|24.8|168.2|176.0|08.6
04|00800|03:43.3|02:19.5|000.0|24.3|168.3|176.0|08.8
05|00800|03:44.3|02:20.2|000.0|24.6|168.4|177.0|08.7
06|00800|03:37.7|02:16.1|000.0|25.9|158.4|168.0|08.5
07|00800|03:38.0|02:16.2|000.0|26.0|164.3|173.0|08.5
08|00800|03:33.8|02:13.6|000.0|26.0|168.0|176.0|08.6
09|00800|03:35.0|02:14.4|000.0|26.2|168.3|177.0|08.5
10|00800|03:32.5|02:12.8|000.0|26.5|169.7|179.0|08.5

The workout was tough.  It would have been easier on the erg, I think.  I was working very hard in the last couple pieces of each section.  I really wanted the “easy” bits to last longer by the end.

I started out with pogies on and I took them off after the first half of the workout.  It was a lot easier to control the finish without them on.

It was a wonderful thing to be out on the water with Joe.  He is a great partner in the double.  He steers, I row stroke and he follows whatever weird stuff I do in terms of rate.  He also never complains about me splashing him, even when It’s 25 degrees out.

Not sure what is in store for tomorrow.

 

Friday: 5 x (1500m @ 22, 500m @ 24) / 2′

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Thursday:  No training.  Colonoscopy!  I guess we’ll call that a rest day?

Friday:  Since I didn’t sleep more than 2 hours on the night before my “procedure”, I decided that getting as much sleep as possible on Thursday night was the best thing to do.  So, I slept late and rushed off to work.  I went to the gym around 4 in the afternoon.

The Plan:

Session: 5 x 2000m
Rest between: 2’
Rating: For each piece alternate (1500m @ Cat V: SR 22/ 500m @ Cat IV: SR 24)
Training effect: Mix of 75% Cat V extensive endurance, 25% Cat IV intensive endurance
Pace targets:
  • Cat V: 2:01 to 2:05
  • Cat IV: 1:55
I didn’t do my full PT stretching and exercising routine, I just hopped on the machine.

That was very enjoyable.  Easy enough that I could spend a lot of brain power on trying to maintain my posture at the catch and finish.

 

Wednesday: 8 x 500 / 2’30”

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Warmup: Fletcher

          Workout Summary - media/20171115-1315300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|04996|20:02.0|02:00.3|212.2|20.7|148.7|167.0|12.0
W-|05001|20:02.0|02:00.2|206.7|20.3|148.0|167.0|12.4
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|167.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00945|04:00.0|02:07.0|173.4|17.7|119.9|135.0|13.3
01|00990|04:00.0|02:01.2|196.5|20.0|142.7|147.0|12.4
02|00765|03:00.0|01:57.7|214.4|21.8|151.8|156.0|11.7
03|00268|01:00.0|01:52.1|245.5|23.8|157.9|160.0|11.3
04|00140|00:30.0|01:46.9|284.8|26.2|160.8|162.0|10.7
05|00478|02:00.0|02:05.5|184.9|18.8|160.8|164.0|12.7
06|00288|01:00.0|01:44.2|302.4|26.5|159.4|165.0|10.9
07|00483|02:00.0|02:04.3|189.4|18.5|163.3|166.0|13.1
08|00150|00:30.0|01:40.1|352.2|29.1|160.0|161.0|10.3
09|00494|02:02.5|02:03.9|198.4|18.9|163.9|167.0|12.8

The main event:  Target pace 1:45

I played it safe in the first 5.  It also took a bit of practice to rate up and keep my stroke smooth.  I tried to remember the posture stuff from yesterday, mainly tried to keep my knees down at the beginning of  the recovery.  In the last three I started to push harder with the end in sight.  I really pulled out the stops for the last one.

I’ve got a long way to go.  My training objective is to break my 2k PB of 6:36.  That means I’d have to hold that 1:39 split for 4x the distance I did today.  Its going to take a lot of work, but I’m excited by the possibility.

Cool down:

I’m very happy with the workout.  I think the safe pace target worked out well and being able to pull a “fast last” was awesome.  Next time for this, a target of 1:44.

Now, I get to enjoy a day of not eating.  I am going to get my first routine colonscopy tomorrow so they mandate no solid food for the full day before.

So, we’ll call tomorrow a “rest” day.  😦

 

 

Tuesday: 4 x 20′ / 1′

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You might be noticing a trend by now.  I’m looking at it as a rebuilding period.  In this period I have a few goals

  • Get competent medical advice about lower back pain and fix any issues with flexibility or imbalances.  This includes stretches and exercises
  • Get competent coaching to improve my rowing form for better efficiency and injury prevention.  This includes drills.
  • Rebuild my base aerobic fitness by doing lots of easy rowing

Today, I got to work on all three.

I started by doing my normal pre-rowing routine.

  • 10 SI exercises on  my left leg
  • foam roll my quads
  • use a lacrosse ball to get after trigger points around the front of my hips and pelvis
  • 2 x 40 sec glute bridges on an exercise ball
  • 4 x 10sec torso twists

After that, I did a couple of drills that were recommended to try to improve my posture at the finish.  Here are links to the drills.

Since I wanted to review it after, I taped my attempt at doing it and took a few easy strokes afterward trying to maintain the posture.

I found the drill to be very useful.  I was able to remember what the position felt like and try to hold it during the row.  By sitting the erg next to a mirror and looking at the hands back position, and then a proper finish position, I was get that picture in my mind and then look every once in a while during the row.

After that, I did my 4 x 20.  Today, I started off aiming at 175W, but HR was really high, so I backed off slightly to try to keep it under 150.  Remarkably, just a few watts was enough to do that.  I did a lactate test at the end, and it read 5.3, which I thought had to be a mistake.  I retook it and it was 3.0.  Still much higher than I would have expected, but at least plausible. Rowing while focusing so much on posture was a lot harder and felt very unnatural.  I imagine it will take weeks to start feeling natural.  I think next time I will stick at this 170W-175W range.

         Workout Summary - media/20171114-2005300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19314|84:00.0|02:10.5|169.2|18.2|145.2|153.0|12.6
W-|18926|80:00.0|02:06.8|171.8|18.2|145.2|153.0|13.0
R-|00392|04:00.0|05:05.7|096.1|19.6|144.4|153.0|02.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04753|20:00.0|02:06.2|174.3|17.8|141.2|148.0|13.3
01|04725|20:00.0|02:07.0|171.3|18.1|145.2|148.0|13.0
02|04730|20:00.0|02:06.8|171.7|18.2|145.7|151.0|13.0
03|04718|20:00.0|02:07.2|169.7|18.6|148.7|153.0|12.7 - 3.0

Lactate Log

Tomorrow:  I’m getting tired of all this base building, I need a little bit of intensity, so I think I will return to an old classic, 8×500.  Pace target around 1:45.

 

Sunday & Monday: 4 x 20′ / 1′

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Sunday:

On the cape in the basement, around 10AM

Same session as Saturday.  Much different result.  Higher HR, higher Lactate (3.3).  I felt much more tired.  The main difference is that Saturday’s workout was after a rest day, Sunday’s workout was only 18 hours after Saturday’s, so I need  to move my training power a bit lower to stay in the right range.

          Workout Summary - media/20171112-1540290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19480|84:00.0|02:09.4|177.8|18.7|141.5|157.0|12.4
W-|19206|80:00.0|02:05.0|179.9|18.7|141.3|157.0|12.9
R-|00279|04:00.0|07:10.4|079.5|19.4|139.4|157.0|02.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|-lac
00|01113|05:00.0|02:14.8|141.2|16.2|110.5|120.0|13.8
01|01164|05:00.0|02:08.9|163.3|17.2|126.0|129.0|13.5
02|02421|10:00.0|02:03.9|183.9|18.9|135.0|138.0|12.8
03|04846|20:00.0|02:03.8|184.9|18.8|139.0|147.0|12.9
04|04835|20:00.0|02:04.1|183.5|19.0|147.2|154.0|12.7
05|04828|20:00.0|02:04.3|183.0|19.1|152.2|157.0|12.6 - 3.3

Here is a comparison of HR for Saturday vs Sunday.  I started at lower power, so the HR starts off lower, but it never plateaus!

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Monday

In the fitness center at work.

I spoke to Marlene last night, and she has sent me the details of my fitness assessment.  The gist of the assessment was:

  • My 1K is my strongest score
  • My peak power is OK, but could be improved
  • My anaerobic and aerobic thresholds are relatively weak.

She sent along her recommendations for training paces.

  • Cat VI – 2:06 – 2:11
  • Cat V – 2:01 – 2:05
  • Cat IV – 1:55
  • Cat III – faster than 1:51
  • Cat II – faster than 1:47

Today’s session was supposed to be a Cat VI session.  I was instructed to row no faster than the fast end of the band, so, of course, that is what I aimed for.

         Workout Summary - media/20171113-1345290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19416|84:00.0|02:09.8|171.4|18.6|136.6|145.0|12.4
W-|19026|80:00.0|02:06.1|174.6|18.7|136.8|145.0|12.7
R-|00393|04:00.0|05:05.4|079.9|18.8|133.7|145.0|02.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|-lac
00|04768|20:00.0|02:05.8|174.6|18.6|128.5|136.0|12.8
01|04751|20:00.0|02:06.3|175.2|18.8|136.8|143.0|12.7
02|04755|20:00.0|02:06.2|174.8|18.5|140.4|144.0|12.8
03|04753|20:00.0|02:06.2|173.8|18.7|141.4|145.0|12.7- 1.8

 

Lactate Log

4 x 20′ / 2′ and 2 x 1′ / 1′

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The goal for today was to fine tune my aerobic training power.  Despite the lousy workout on Thursday, I thought 180W was about right.

In the basement in the house on the cape.  Nice and cool.

I settled in to a groove at 183W.  My HR did about what is should do.  At the end of the first interval, my lactates were a bit high 2.3mmol/l.  I really wanted to see something way below 2.0.  But I was interested in seeing what would happen from this point forward at this power.  So I kept going at 183W through the second interval.  Still my HR was fine and I was feeling good.  At the end of that one, 2.8.  Way too high, but science compelled me to keep going at the same power.  In the third interval, things suddenly felt a little easier.  I’m not sure why, but my HR stabilized and it was easy to hit the power.  At the end of this one, my lactates were 1.4.  Well, that was unexpected.  So, 20 more minutes at 183W and now it was 1.6.

During the row, I tried to focus on fast hands away, and keeping my knees down during the first part of the recovery.  I’d do that for a little while and then my mind would wander and I’d fall back into to old habits.

Conclusions?  183W is about right, but I think I need to get back to the habits that I was doing when I started doing lactate based training.  Which are:

  1. Train in a fasted state.  Today I trained soon after lunch.  There is research that says that if you have eaten recently, especially carbs, that it impedes fat metabolism.
  2. Warm up.  When I started doing this before, I found that my HR would rise more slowly and my lactates would be lower at the end of workout if I started at a low power and ramped it up over the first 10 minutes to the target power.

          Workout Summary - media/20171111-2245290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19813|88:00.0|02:13.2|178.7|19.1|141.1|149.0|11.8
W-|19306|80:00.0|02:04.3|182.8|19.0|141.8|149.0|12.7
R-|00512|08:00.0|07:49.0|064.3|20.2|120.8|149.0|03.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|-lac
00|04836|20:00.0|02:04.1|182.7|18.9|136.6|144.0|12.8 - 2.3
01|04822|20:00.0|02:04.4|183.7|19.2|143.0|149.0|12.6 - 2.8
02|04816|20:00.0|02:04.6|181.5|19.0|143.8|148.0|12.7 - 1.4
03|04833|20:00.0|02:04.2|183.1|19.0|143.9|148.0|12.7 - 1.6

 

Then, after finishing that, I did a couple of 1 minute intervals.  Not as good as the first ones, but a nice little blast to finish things off.

Tomorrow:  Same thing, but in a fasted state and with the warmup.  I’ll do a lactate test just at the end.

More musings on Lactate

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Comparison of two lactate tests.

11-10a

Roughly similar, but lower readings for the powers below the aerobic threshold.  I think that’s a good thing.  4mmol power is about 5W higher now, also good.  HRs are right on top of each other which is just plain weird.

So I see this as a very hopeful sign.  I went from this baseline to setting most of my distance PBs using lactate based training.  There’s no reason I can’t do it again.

 

I am not a machine? 3 x 20′ + 2 x 1′

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In California.  At Precision Crossfit in Agoura Hills.  Once again, I was delighted by the experience dropping into a crossfit box.  The ergs work, there are lots of people around, and everyone is really friendly.

I picked my erg and set it up off  to the side so I wouldn’t get in the way.  I didn’t have time for a full 80 minute session because I needed to be in a meeting by 8:15 and the box opened at 6am.  So, I decided on 3 x 20′ + 2 x 1′.

I could tell almost from the first pull that today was not going to be a good day.  There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the erg, but it seemed to take a LOT of effort to pull 180W.  Sitting on the erg, my HR was normal before I started, but it climbed fast, and it didn’t stop.  I hung in with 180W through the first interval.  I brought it down to 175W in the second interval, but it didn’t help.  Then in the third, I decided to go as slowly as I needed to so I could keep my HR below 157bpm.  Strangely enough this was 157W.  30W lower than I could hold at this HR yesterday.

Then I setup for the 2 x 1’/1′.  This was equally ugly.  I pushed the first minute hard, but this was still a lot more feeble than the hard minute I did a week ago (319m vs 330m).  And I was pretty shattered.  I tried to do the second rep, but I bailed out about halfway through.  I paddled out the rest of that rep, took another minute rest, and then did a less aggressive minute (304m).

11-9a.png

11-9b

Bad days happen, my wife has a pretty nasty cold.  In the past I have seen cases where I have lousy training results before I show any illness symptoms, so that might be it.  It could also be jetlag, or some other mysterious reason.

Tomorrow, I fly back home during the day.  I guess we’ll call it a rest day.

Edit:  I just did a quick check of my training log.  This is the first week after my the fitness tests, and it represented a strong shift toward long duration, low intensity work.  The volume increase was pretty dramatic.

foo.png

Maybe I’m just tired!

4 x 20′ / 1′ @ 186W

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Back at base building.  The mission today was to hold exactly 185W and measure lactate after 80 work minutes.  I want to have a consistent training power that will yield 2.0 mmol/ml lactate readings at the end of a session.

It appears that lactate levels over time during endurance training can be different from person to person.  What I have seen is that mine tend to stay at a reasonable constant level below 2.0mmol/ml for about 60 minutes, and then as I get fatigued, they start to rise.  My Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) follows.  I start to breath more heavily, and it feels like a lot more work in that last 20 minutes.

So, I aimed for 185W and I got 186W.  In terms of my HR limits, it was right on.  I measured lactate at the end…2.7mmol/ml.  So, I need  to back off the power, just a little bit.

I plan to aim at 180W for the next session and see what that gets me.

I’m at the airport now heading for LA.  We’ll see if I can find a crossfit gym to drop into tomorrow, or else I will crosstrain in the fitness center.