Day: March 14, 2018

Tough Session: 3 x 1500/1′ + 3 x 500/2′

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Went to bed a bit late, but slept well (if only for about 5 hours).  Up at 5:15 to head to work.

Plan:

  • 3 x 1500m / 1’
    • Rating: Cat IV pace; target SR 23-24 (Pace: 1:52)
  • 3 x 500m / 2’ easy
    • Rating: Cat II pace: target SR 28-30 (Pace: 1:45)
  • Notes: Stay on the target paces, no faster, no slower.

I added a 2K at Cat VI pace to warmup.

I figured I would be OK since the pace for my 20′ test was faster than what was required for the 3×1500.  But I was a bit worried about the short turnaround from the peak power session at 5pm last night to this session at 7:30am today.  I wasn’t sore this morning, but my legs felt “empty”.

The first two reps were OK, but really taxing.  I was counting strokes the whole way.  The third rep, I basically chickened out.  I think I could have made it, but I was really struggling, and I knew that I had the 3×500 yet to go.  I HD’ed briefly in  the middle and started up again at a slightly slower pace.  Stopping once really took the wind out of my sails so when it started stinging again near the end, I just paddled it out.

The 500s were far more humane, even though they were a lot faster.  I was having trouble holding the stroke rate above 28 because I was really focusing on trying to sequence the recovery correctly.  The last of the 500s was pretty brutal, but I was not in the mood to bail on any more intervals.

          Workout Summary - media/20180314-1230360o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08981|40:38.0|02:15.7|182.8|21.6|156.4|177.0|10.2
W-|08000|30:36.0|01:54.8|235.5|23.0|155.4|177.0|11.5
R-|00985|10:01.0|05:05.4|022.0|17.2|159.3|177.0|08.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02000|08:19.0|02:04.7|179.3|18.2|133.5|146.0|13.2 - wu
01|01500|05:37.8|01:52.6|248.6|23.8|157.6|170.0|11.2
02|01500|05:33.5|01:51.2|254.1|24.0|167.2|175.0|11.2
03|01500|05:55.4|01:58.5|216.2|24.0|169.0|177.0|10.5 - HD!
04|00500|01:43.4|01:43.4|316.2|27.8|160.4|174.0|10.4
05|00500|01:44.0|01:44.0|310.8|27.1|160.5|174.0|10.6
06|00500|01:43.6|01:43.6|313.7|27.9|159.3|171.0|10.4

Next time, I think I can get this one on target.

Tomorrow:  I am flying off to San Francisco first thing in the morning.  I have meetings in  the afternoon and a dinner.  Then I head home Friday morning.  I will take a rest day tomorrow and try to a quick session in the hotel fitness center before I fly home.

 

Snow Day: Peak Power

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I was working from home yesterday.  We had a massive snow storm.  About 17″ in Hopkinton.

Here’s the snow totals for the area.

Screen Shot 2018-03-14 at 6.36.34 AM

Despite the snow, I had a full schedule.  I was on calls constantly from 9 am to 4:30pm.  Then I had a bit of a break, then on the phone again from 6pm to 7:30.

During the break I had enough to squeeze in an abbreviated workout.

The planned session:

  • Easy warm up 5-10’
  • Peak Power Test
    • Set your erg on watts. Set drag factor at 200. Then test your 10-second peak power.
    • Note your peak watts then subtract 10%, write that number down so you know what to aim for the workout
  • Peak Power Training:
    • 1 set of 10 x 10-seconds, 1’ rest between.
    • Repeat 10-second all out sprints, full slide with 1’ rest between. Each sprint should begin from a start position at the top of the slide.. Secure the handle during the 1’ rest so the flywheel slows down.
    • If the peak watts falls below 90% of your peak power value for two 10- second sprints stop the set..
  • Session: 2 x 20’ / 1’
    • Rating/Pace: Cat VI; target SR 18-20, regular drag factor (Pace: 2:03 to 2:08)

Because of time constraints, I used the first sprint as my peak power test benchmark.  I also did not have time for the 2×20 afterward, so I just did a 10 minute cool down.

Here’s the whole thing.  During the warmup, I did 4 little 5 stroke bursts with the wheel spinning.  During the peak power session, I let the wheel stop between each and set the drag to max (DF = 171, I guess I need to do a little cleaning).

I had set up the session as 100m/1′ intervals.  100m takes about 13 strokes at these rates.  For the first couple of intervals, I held the power through the full 100m.  After that, I trailed off after 10 seconds because I wanted to retain  the intent of the workout.  It was basically 10 or 11 strokes.  I ended up at about 55 strokes per minute, and I wasn’t shortening the stroke much.  For the bursts my drive length was 1.21m vs 1.29m when rowing with full power at r24.

The peak power session was a bit strange to do on the dynamic.  I was expecting it to be terrible.  I’ve had trouble with interval sessions on the dynamic and I’ve struggle to rate up.  But with the drag set to max and such a short interval, I could really hammer it.  The load comes on so fast at the catch compared to the static erg that I was able to get higher power than I have seen in years.

My all time low pull split was 1:16.9, which is 770W.  My first burst peaked at 786W (1:16.6).  So I guess I have a new low pull PB. The first interval is also a clear PB for my fastest 100m ever.  I don’t remember the display, but my old mark was 17.6 seconds and I think both the first and second were faster than that.

I guess I have found the one thing that the dynamic is good for.

Here’s a plot of the peak power bursts plotted versus strokes

foo.png

You can see that the power really didn’t fade all that much.  I guess that means that I should have been able to get a higher peak power initially.  Here it is plotted against the 10% limit.

foo.png

I’m interested to try the same session on slides and on a static machine to get a comparison.

Today:  A bit tougher session

  • 3 x 1500m / 1’
    • Rating: Cat IV pace; target SR 23-24 (Pace: 1:52)
  • 3 x 500m / 2’ easy
    • Rating: Cat II pace: target SR 28-30 (Pace: 1:45)
  • Notes: Stay on the target paces, no faster, no slower.