It’s been a while, so my memory is a bit hazy.

July 5:  36km Bike Ride

I don’t recollect why I decided to ride my bike instead of rowing.  I think I was a bit worn out from my long row on the day before.  I wanted to scout out a different route for when my daughter visited.

July 6 AM:  Another lovely walk

July 6 PM: 3 x 20′ with bumps

I guess the weather must not have been too good, so I did an erg session.

          Workout Summary - media/20180706-2035240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15255|66:00.0|02:09.8|169.3|20.9|144.8|169.0|11.1
W-|14380|60:00.0|02:05.2|180.5|20.6|145.6|169.0|11.8
R-|00884|06:00.0|03:24.0|057.3|23.9|135.9|169.0|07.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01212|05:00.0|02:03.8|181.8|19.7|119.0|131.0|12.3
01|00190|00:40.0|01:45.4|290.4|29.3|137.6|144.0|09.7
02|02252|09:20.0|02:04.3|182.7|19.9|143.4|151.0|12.1
03|00195|00:40.0|01:42.6|319.0|31.6|148.2|154.0|09.3
04|01041|04:20.0|02:04.9|181.0|19.6|151.5|160.0|12.2
05|01182|05:00.0|02:06.9|170.7|19.0|135.8|145.0|12.4
06|00192|00:40.0|01:44.1|305.5|30.4|148.8|155.0|09.5
07|02164|09:20.0|02:09.4|162.6|19.6|147.8|159.0|11.8
08|00189|00:40.0|01:46.0|288.3|30.3|148.4|151.0|09.3
09|01019|04:20.0|02:07.6|171.0|20.4|152.4|157.0|11.5
10|01168|05:00.0|02:08.4|166.5|19.2|141.1|150.0|12.2
11|00190|00:40.0|01:45.5|290.3|29.8|152.3|158.0|09.5
12|02168|09:20.0|02:09.1|163.7|20.1|153.1|162.0|11.5
13|00199|00:40.0|01:40.4|334.9|33.8|158.5|164.0|08.8
14|01020|04:20.0|02:07.4|170.6|20.8|161.5|169.0|11.3

July 7 AM: 3km walk at low tide

July 7 PM: Bouncy row up to Wellfleet

Something went a bit squirrely with the data, so no cool charts, but it was about 75 minutes of tough rowing in choppy conditions.  I kept the HR below 150.

July 8: Failed 10K push

We headed home on Saturday night and on Sunday, I did a quick row on  the dreaded dynamic.  My go to for this situation  in the 10K push.

It went terribly.  I started slow, but it did no good.  I flamed out at 2:00 pace.

          Workout Summary - media/20180708-2330230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|40:57.0|02:02.9|189.8|23.6|160.4|182.0|10.4
W-|10000|40:58.0|02:02.9|189.8|23.6|160.4|182.0|10.4
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|182.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|04:06.9|02:03.5|183.1|20.1|126.7|142.0|12.1
01|01000|04:07.0|02:03.5|185.8|21.2|148.1|152.0|11.4
02|01000|04:05.7|02:02.8|188.7|21.7|155.4|158.0|11.2
03|01000|04:02.7|02:01.3|195.7|23.2|161.2|165.0|10.6
04|01000|04:01.2|02:00.6|199.5|23.6|167.7|171.0|10.5
05|01000|04:13.8|02:06.9|177.3|24.0|163.9|171.0|09.8
06|01000|04:04.6|02:02.3|191.3|23.8|168.2|170.0|10.3
07|01000|04:11.3|02:05.6|180.4|24.7|170.7|173.0|09.7
08|01000|04:13.9|02:07.0|172.7|23.7|166.1|171.0|10.0
09|01000|03:50.9|01:55.5|227.4|29.9|177.0|182.0|08.7

July 9: Drills on the 5s

Back to normal, at least for a few days.  I was back on the river in my fluid.  I wanted to get comfortable in the boat again, so I went to my new favorite workout.  Drills on the 5s.

A minute of drills and 4 minutes of steady state.  The drills were delayed feather, half slide, pause at body over and open hands on recovery.  The greatest thing about this workout is that I feel like I row so much better at the end than I do at the beginning.

July 10:  4 x 1k

I’m not sure why I did this workout.  After my vacation and all the walking and endurance session, I think I wanted to get a bit of intensity into my training.

That being said.  Despite the splits being no where near where I wanted them to be, I was happy to push a bit harder than normal and I enjoyed session a lot.

I did this as a rate ladder.  r20, r22, r24, r26.  There was a head wind for the 2nd and fourth interval.

          Workout Summary - media/20180710-1931010o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07251|44:02.0|03:02.2|103.6|21.0|142.2|183.0|07.9
W-|03588|15:59.0|02:13.7|165.7|23.0|163.1|182.0|09.8
R-|03668|28:03.0|03:49.4|068.3|19.8|130.3|182.0|06.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00862|03:54.1|02:15.7|143.9|19.5|150.0|161.0|11.4
02|00912|04:08.6|02:16.3|167.9|22.2|162.8|175.0|09.9
03|00947|04:03.6|02:08.7|170.1|24.1|167.7|179.0|09.7
04|00867|03:53.4|02:14.6|180.6|26.4|171.6|182.0|08.4

July 11: Drills on the 5s 

An easier session after the 4x1k of the day before.  I pushed the steady state a bit harder because I was doing some side video (i’ll post that next).  The batteries in the oarlock died in the last chunk of the row.  No great loss.

That evening, I headed down to the cape.  My daughter was coming into town for vacation.

July 12:  35km bike ride

Nice and easy with my daughter.  I pushed the pace a little at the end because I had a work call that I needed to get back for.

July 13: Rest Day

We were stymied by the tide, so we ended up going kayaking around the island.

July 14: 40km bike ride

We drove up to Truro and then biked up and around the provincelands at the tip of cape cod.  It’s beautiful scenery, but the ride through north Truro is a bit of a slog.  It’s flat but it feels like the wind is in your face no matter what direction it is coming from.

July 15-July 19:  No Training at all

On Sunday, we got everyone back on the ferry and then we had the house to ourselves again.  We just hung out and relaxed for the rest of the day.  We decided to sleep over on Sunday night.

On Monday morning, I had the long drive from the house on the cape to work.  I set out at about 5:15 and I didn’t get to work until about 8:15.  I was all stressed out because this week is our quarterly business reviews.  The business is going well, but there are a lot of specific things that could certainly be going better, and I had a lot of high tension meetings throughout the week that I needed to handle well.  I had no time to train on Monday.  I got home quite late, and didn’t get to sleep until after midnight.

I had meetings starting at 8am on Tuesday, which were scheduled to go straight through until 8pm that night.  Again, no time for training.

Same thing on Wednesday.  Meetings started at 8am and finished at 7pm.

Thursday was basically another intense day of meetings. Still no time to train.

July 20:  Slow 10K

On Friday, I headed into work early so I could do some final prep for meetings with my boss at 9 and 10.  The 10 O’Clock meeting went until 1pm.  After that, I had a couple more meetings, which finally wrapped up around 4:00.  I had a bit of email  to finish up and then I headed down to the gym to finally do a bit of exercise after a 5 day layoff.  I’ve taken less time for injuries and illness than this!

I just dialed up a 10K on a static erg and did a slow and easy row.

Even though it was slow (2:06.6, 172W avg), it was still too intense.  I decided that I need to back of the intensity and rebuild some endurance, so that what I’ll be doing for a little while.

It was good to be back rowing again though.

July 21: 3 x 20’/2′ on the dynamic

After my tough week, I wanted to sleep in.  Late in the afternoon, I jumped on the dreaded dynamic to do a 3×20′ session.  The only guideline was HR limit of 155.

          Workout Summary - media/20180721-2045250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15032|66:01.0|02:11.8|158.6|20.8|143.7|166.0|11.0
W-|15034|66:01.0|02:11.7|158.6|20.8|143.7|166.0|11.1
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|166.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04684|20:00.0|02:08.1|166.1|19.9|133.3|147.0|11.8
01|00255|02:00.0|03:55.0|052.5|21.8|125.2|148.0|05.8
02|04665|20:00.0|02:08.6|164.7|20.2|147.3|154.0|11.5
03|00291|02:00.0|03:25.8|051.9|26.6|134.7|152.0|05.5
04|04642|20:00.0|02:09.2|162.4|20.8|151.4|157.0|11.2
05|00495|02:01.5|02:02.7|195.4|27.9|163.1|166.0|08.8

I stuck to the cap, except for the last 2 minutes.  I really wanted to get the total distance over 15km, so I sped up to do that.

Looks like 165 is a much better power level for me to work right now. (sad really).

July 22: 4 x 20’/2′ on Slides

Basically more of the same.  I dropped my wife off at the airport, she’s visiting some family down in texas.  After that, I continued on to the cape so I could do a bit of cleaning, and hopefully rowing.

When I got there, rowing was definitely not an option.  The wind was blowing about 25mph from the southwest and there was intermittent rain.  Time for an erg session.

I thought I’d be able to hold the 165W from Saturday’s session, but my HR had other ideas.  To stay below the 155 cap, I had to keep slowing down throughout the whole session.

Today, by the end, I was only pulling about 155w.  Well, it is what it is.  I know the drill.  Stick with the HR limit.  Put in the minutes and the power level will slowly rise.  That’s what I need to do for the next few weeks.  Add in one or two threshold sessions per week and there you have it, a basic training plan.