Drills on the Fives

October 8, 2018Leave a comment

We came back from the cape last night, and I had a choice to make this morning.

I needed to be at work, showered and ready for a 8 am meeting, so I could either head straight to work and do a 60 to 80 minute steady state session on the erg, or I could do an shorter session on the water.

I decided to row on the water. Here’s why.

With a race this weekend, I want to taper down volume a bit anyway
Also because of the race, getting in a technique session this week would be good reinforcement for good mechanics
It’s too late to do much to improve my aerobic fitness, so doing just enough to maintain what I have is enough.

It was dark when I got to the boathouse. Very dark. And cool, around 55F. And there was a noticeable breeze blowing as a headwind when going down stream. Did I mention it was dark! With the overcast and the later sunrise, I couldn’t see across the lagoon when I arrived.

By the time I had swept the goose poop off the dock, and got my boat rigged and in the water, the sky was starting to lighten up. I felt irresponsible that I don’t have working lights though and I was glad that there was no one else on the river today. I’ve ordered a new pair of lights, hopefully they will be delivered today.

Today’s session was drills on the fives. 4 minutes of steady state, and then 1 minute of a drill. The drills were

Half slide: working on clean releases and blades off the water
delayed feather: Working on releasing on the square, and then feathering without touching water
Pause at body over: Working on keeping my knees downwith my body over and arms extended.
Open hands on recovery: Working on outward pressure against the oarlocks on recovery and clean catches after regripping the oars.

As usual, with this session, I felt like I was rowing better at the end than the beginning. Today, it was even more the case because the wind seemed to be dying down a during the session and the water was a bit flatter at the end.

I had time for one lap down to the dam and back. I was pretty surprised at how low my heart rate was today. My RPE felt like it was in line with this session, but my HR was a good 10 beats lower.

Here is a summary of the steady state bits. It cuts out the drills and the turns.

          Workout Summary - media/20181008-1700310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08689|46:43.0|02:41.3|116.3|20.0|130.7|143.0|09.3
W-|05153|25:33.0|02:28.8|131.8|20.6|134.5|143.0|09.8
R-|03548|21:11.0|02:59.2|097.6|19.4|126.1|143.0|10.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00365|01:51.0|02:32.1|129.4|18.9|119.8|126.0|10.4
02|00270|01:15.9|02:20.8|134.9|19.7|126.9|131.0|10.8
03|00529|02:39.0|02:30.3|117.0|20.4|135.1|141.0|09.8
04|00887|04:23.3|02:28.4|130.3|21.0|139.2|142.0|09.6
05|00782|03:49.9|02:27.1|136.6|20.4|138.1|143.0|10.0
06|00129|00:38.2|02:27.7|148.6|20.4|134.9|137.0|10.0
07|00256|01:17.2|02:31.1|121.2|20.2|130.0|135.0|09.8
08|00680|03:23.8|02:29.9|132.4|20.9|136.4|142.0|09.6
09|00744|03:44.2|02:30.7|127.1|21.1|137.4|141.0|09.4
10|00179|00:51.6|02:24.1|144.1|19.8|129.7|136.0|10.5
11|00098|00:29.2|02:28.8|142.7|20.4|127.1|131.0|09.9
12|00236|01:10.0|02:28.4|157.3|23.1|131.1|139.0|08.8

Tomorrow: Last hard workout…5 x 1500 / 5′ target pace 2:15.

T/F/S : A Threshold Sandwich

October 7, 2018Leave a comment

Thursday – Oct 4 : 70′ Steady State R20

          Workout Summary - media/20181004-1200310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13830|74:54.0|02:42.5|123.4|20.7|144.8|159.0|08.9
W-|13187|65:37.0|02:29.3|132.7|20.2|147.8|159.0|10.0
R-|00650|09:17.0|07:08.7|057.5|24.5|123.4|159.0|06.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
05|01254|05:57.9|02:22.7|130.0|19.9|132.2|144.0|10.6
06|02592|11:59.4|02:18.8|136.2|19.8|145.6|155.0|10.9
07|02839|14:42.0|02:35.3|134.2|20.0|149.8|159.0|09.7
08|02758|12:57.1|02:20.9|133.4|20.3|149.2|156.0|10.5
09|03037|16:11.7|02:40.0|129.7|20.2|151.6|157.0|09.3
10|00305|01:40.8|02:45.5|138.9|21.4|153.6|156.0|08.5
11|00370|01:59.1|02:40.8|125.1|23.1|154.6|159.0|08.1

Friday – Oct 5: 2 x 3K Threshold

The goal for today was essentially a Head Race simulation. Stroke rate around 25. The goal was to try to keep the pace around 2:15, but it was not to be. There was a lot of wind which was basically a head wind for the downstream part of the row. That’s better than the alternative, it would have been very depressing rowing into a head wind and against the current during the second half of the session.

The wind was strong and gusty enough that I took some really bad strokes. Generally, striking a wave as I was squaring up and catching with one oar skewed. This was a bit scary at the time, but I was just trying to keep it going.

The hard bit for me is keeping my motivation through the turn. Today, with a brisk tail wind, it wasn’t so bad. I kept my mind of clean finishes.

          Workout Summary - media/20181005-1140300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08131|43:02.0|02:38.8|133.9|24.7|150.1|177.0|07.6
W-|05488|25:16.0|02:18.1|164.8|26.2|165.5|177.0|08.3
R-|02645|17:46.0|03:21.6|090.0|22.6|128.2|177.0|07.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02746|12:30.1|02:16.6|166.6|25.9|161.0|169.0|08.5
02|02742|12:46.1|02:19.7|163.1|26.5|169.9|177.0|08.1

So, slower than I would have liked, but considering the wind, I guess it is OK. I was happy about the sprint at the end.

Saturday, Oct 6: 13km Coastal Row

Today was absolutely beautiful. The temp was around 60F. There was a light wind from the northeast, which meant that the water was flat. The sun was sparkling on the water. It was amazing.

The only problem I had was a wonky heart rate monitor. I worked hard, but not too hard. I think my heart rate was in the high 140s to 150s.

The tide was running pretty fast today. It was going out, so it was with me at first, then as I turned toward the harbor, it was against me. Then I turned and rowed with it all the way out past my favorite buoy, then I was rowing right into it for the last section.

          Workout Summary - media/20181006-191253-Greg Smith 20181006 1249PMo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13357|75:56.0|02:50.6|000.0|20.7|147.0|147.0|08.5
W-|13359|75:56.0|02:50.5|000.0|20.7|147.0|147.0|08.5
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|147.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00037|01:18.7|17:35.0|000.0|21.3|147.0|147.0|01.3
01|05862|32:53.8|02:48.4|000.0|19.5|147.0|147.0|09.1
02|07059|38:07.7|02:42.0|000.0|21.5|147.0|147.0|08.6
03|00401|03:36.4|04:30.1|000.0|22.9|147.0|147.0|04.9

Tomorrow: If it’s a nice day, another coastal row. If not, a steady state erg session.

I’m racing next weekend. One complication is that I am going to Geneva on Tuesday night and returning on Thursday. So, it will be a unique kind of a taper.

4 x ( 3 x 3′ / 1′)/2′ – Short Rest Intervals

October 3, 2018Leave a comment

Cool and wet this morning (and dark!). After working my way around a few boats on my way out, I had the river entirely to myself. There was a little bit of a head wind for the down river sections.

The plan was to focus on race rate and slightly higher than race pace / power. My pace target was to get as close to the 2:13.4 that I averaged for the 2′ interval session that I did last time. This session is a lot harder. The last minute lasts a loooong time in each interval.

I also wanted to really work on trying to get my releases to be clean and crisp.

The workout went very well. I was in control for all the reps. The high power readings at the end of the 5th and 11th reps are because I finished both of those reps going into the big s-turn and really leaning on the port oar (where my empower oarlock is).

I was working really hard in these reps, but my HR didn’t really max out.

Here’s a bit closer detail on pace and power. You can see the power is reasonably consistent across all the reps and the upstream and downstream paces vary with the current and wind.

It was a fair amount of hard rowing.

          Workout Summary - media/20181003-1200300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13144|74:02.0|02:49.0|117.4|24.2|148.7|176.0|07.3
W-|08088|36:08.0|02:14.1|169.3|26.3|160.9|176.0|08.5
R-|05066|37:55.0|03:44.6|067.9|22.2|137.0|176.0|06.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00112|00:31.9|02:21.8|125.3|19.0|125.5|130.0|11.1 - wu
02|00712|03:02.8|02:08.3|169.4|25.9|146.6|160.0|09.0 - downstream
03|00729|03:08.1|02:09.0|171.2|27.1|157.1|167.0|08.6
04|00704|03:02.4|02:09.5|175.5|26.3|159.3|167.0|08.8
05|00629|02:52.6|02:17.2|171.4|26.7|158.0|169.0|08.2 - upstream
06|00648|02:57.0|02:16.6|182.0|26.1|162.8|172.0|08.4
07|00632|02:55.0|02:18.4|163.2|26.7|166.5|174.0|08.1
08|00709|03:06.2|02:11.3|170.4|26.1|158.7|171.0|08.8 - downstream
09|00694|03:02.8|02:11.7|158.8|26.3|167.3|174.0|08.7
10|00673|02:57.0|02:11.5|173.0|26.0|167.7|174.0|08.8
11|00597|02:47.0|02:20.0|164.4|26.2|157.9|171.0|08.2 - upstream
12|00630|02:53.7|02:17.8|181.1|26.9|166.4|175.0|08.1
13|00617|02:52.0|02:19.3|159.1|26.8|169.2|176.0|08.0

So, I was happy with the workout. Happy enough that I did some comparisons.

First, I wanted to compare today to last week 20×2 session. Very similar stroke profiles. Looks like my peak and avg force was higher, which makes sense since my stroke rate was at least 1 spm lower.

Next I took all the hard sessions that I’ve done over the past month and did some box charts.

About a 4 sec improvement on pace
stroke rate all over the map
Power up about 15-20 watts
eff drive length about 2-3 deg longer
catch angle up about a degree.

Tomorrow: 70′ steady state at r20.

Drills on the fives

October 2, 2018Leave a comment

Misty and cool, very little wind. The river is still very high and there is a fair amount of flow.

The plan for this morning was a low intensity session, working on technique. I almost rolled over and went back to sleep. I felt very tired both muscle fatigue and just sleepy. The session felt like it was a lot of work.

The drills were:

delayed feather
half slide
pause at body over
open hands on recovery

          Workout Summary - media/Greg Smith 20181002 0639AM.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|-Avg--|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|-SPM--|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13802|75:38.9|02:44.4|128.0| 19.5 |135.0|154.0|10.1

It’s getting more and more dark when I launch. There were a bunch of boats out today, my head was on a swivel to make sure that I didn’t run into anyone. They were pretty much cleared out by the second lap.

I love this session. I feel like my balance in the boat is so much better at the end than when I start. The time also goes by really quickly.

Another week on the Head Race training plan

October 1, 2018Leave a comment

Last post was Sept 25th. Since then I’ve been consistently training, but struggled with insomnia for much of the week.

I was very sleep deprived when I got home on Saturday morning (9/22). I slept a few hours that morning. Then a solid block of 10 hours on Saturday night. But on Monday night, I fell asleep around 10:30, and woke up at 1:00am. I was unable to fall back asleep. Tuesday, a little better. I slept from 10:30 to 2:00am. Wednesday, I got maybe 5 hours. Thursday, I headed down to the cape in the evening, arriving there around 11. I had some things to do around the house, so I didn’t get to sleep until 12:30. My daughter and one of my son’s arrived at 3:00am. I took some work to get back to sleep and I got maybe 3 hours of sleep before I needed to get up for my first meeting. Finally, Friday night and Saturday night I seemed to get back to more normal sleep patterns. It sure effects mood and stamina when you don’t get enough sleep.

Despite the sleep issues, I was on the water Tues/Wed/Thur. I took a rest day on Friday. And then trained Sat/Sun/Mon.

Wednesday, Sept 26: 60′ Steady State

The plan was to row at about r20 and keep my HR below 150.

         Workout Summary - media/20180926-1900310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12157|65:34.0|02:41.8|116.0|19.0|144.9|158.0|09.7
W-|11571|58:23.0|02:31.4|123.0|19.0|146.5|158.0|10.5
R-|00590|07:11.0|06:05.5|058.6|19.5|132.3|158.0|05.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00008|00:01.5|01:32.6|131.6|18.5|091.0|91.0|17.5 --?
02|00009|00:01.5|01:19.8|149.0|19.0|091.0|91.0|19.8 --? 
03|01100|05:21.3|02:26.0|128.6|19.4|135.4|147.0|10.6 - blocked by boats
04|02754|13:05.3|02:22.6|127.1|19.3|147.7|153.0|10.9
05|02729|14:19.6|02:37.5|121.0|18.1|145.4|154.0|10.5
06|01942|09:26.1|02:25.8|120.8|18.4|146.9|155.0|11.2 - cut short for time
07|02615|13:54.7|02:39.6|123.0|19.5|150.5|158.0|09.7
08|00413|02:13.4|02:41.4|109.0|20.7|148.0|156.0|09.0

Thursday, Sept 27: 4 x (5 x 2′ / 1′)/2′ Short Intervals

Plan for Thursday was to use these short intervals to practice working at rates higher than head race rate. Try to keep my stroke light and work on the release.

Ran out of river in the last interval of the first set. I really torched the whole first set. A fair current behind me and a bit of a tail wind. It looks like I dialed back the power a bit on the upriver trip. Otherwise, pretty uneventful.

         Workout Summary - media/20180927-1230310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13891|80:10.0|02:53.1|116.6|24.1|147.6|174.0|07.2
W-|08479|37:42.0|02:13.4|171.7|27.3|157.2|174.0|08.2
R-|05430|42:29.0|03:54.8|067.6|21.3|139.0|174.0|06.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00460|01:58.5|02:08.7|167.9|26.3|140.2|154.0|08.9
02|00475|02:01.9|02:08.2|183.0|27.5|149.5|159.0|08.5
03|00490|02:04.9|02:07.5|163.7|27.4|155.4|166.0|08.6
04|00476|02:01.3|02:07.3|176.4|27.3|154.7|163.0|08.6
05|00267|01:07.4|02:06.4|194.7|28.4|153.9|161.0|08.4
06|00440|01:58.3|02:14.4|165.7|27.8|150.0|163.0|08.0
07|00428|01:56.1|02:15.5|168.9|27.8|158.4|170.0|08.0
08|00433|01:59.8|02:18.5|189.0|27.0|160.8|169.0|08.0
09|00425|01:55.5|02:15.9|170.5|27.5|163.1|172.0|08.0
10|00439|01:56.7|02:13.0|175.4|27.8|164.3|174.0|08.1
11|00437|01:59.9|02:17.2|168.7|26.5|152.1|168.0|08.3
12|00457|01:59.2|02:10.4|175.7|27.2|160.5|169.0|08.5
13|00427|01:54.9|02:14.5|148.9|27.1|160.7|170.0|08.2
14|00428|01:55.5|02:14.9|179.0|27.0|164.0|172.0|08.2
15|00454|01:55.9|02:07.8|186.5|28.4|162.8|172.0|08.3
16|00430|01:58.0|02:17.1|160.9|27.5|149.9|167.0|08.0
17|00423|01:56.4|02:17.7|161.0|27.2|159.8|169.0|08.0
18|00266|01:13.9|02:19.2|170.1|26.8|158.2|165.0|08.0
19|00420|01:55.8|02:17.8|158.3|27.4|162.5|172.0|08.0
20|00405|01:52.4|02:18.7|178.6|26.7|164.6|173.0|08.1

I was pretty happy with the result.

Friday, 28 Sept: No Training

Saturday, 29 Sept: 10km threshold on slides

On Saturday, I wanted to hand with the family. We got ourselves organized and went on a day trip down to Chatham. While we were there, we had a big lunch. I was still feeling kind of full when we got back to the house, but I figured that I better go do my thing on the erg in the basement.

The plan was for 40′ of threshold, so another 10K. It would be useful to compare to the one on slides to the one on the dynamic last weekend.

I started with a 2K warmup. It felt hard and I felt bloated.

Then I got going. Target pace was 1:59.

That was brutal. But frankly more pleasant than the dynamic.

Splits are pretty darned consistent. I got a bit scared of blowing up around 7k.

         Workout Summary - media/20180929-2250290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:31.0|01:58.6|209.6|25.5|165.9|183.0|09.9
W-|10000|39:31.0|01:58.6|209.6|25.5|165.9|183.0|09.9
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|183.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:53.5|01:56.7|214.5|25.3|137.1|154.0|10.2
01|01000|03:56.1|01:58.0|213.1|25.2|157.0|159.0|10.1
02|01000|03:56.8|01:58.4|211.0|25.4|160.9|162.0|10.0
03|01000|03:57.5|01:58.8|209.1|25.1|163.6|165.0|10.1
04|01000|03:57.6|01:58.8|209.0|25.3|166.1|167.0|10.0
05|01000|03:57.3|01:58.7|209.2|25.1|169.2|171.0|10.1
06|01000|03:57.6|01:58.8|208.6|26.0|172.2|174.0|09.7
07|01000|03:59.5|01:59.7|204.0|25.2|175.1|177.0|09.9
08|01000|04:00.7|02:00.4|200.7|25.1|177.0|178.0|10.0
09|01000|03:55.1|01:57.5|217.6|27.4|179.8|183.0|09.3

So, a very similar row to the dynamic. Weird how I prefer the feeling of slides so much more, but the performance is not that different. Here are a few different parameters compared between the two rows.

HR: A bit higher on slides. Basically I was willing to take a bit more pain.
Power: 5W more on slides
Stroke rate: nearly identical
Drive length: 3 cm longer on slides. Feels about right.
Peak force: Higher on slides. I was a bit surprised by this. Since the dynamic feels so much heavier, I expected higher peak force.
Avg force: As expected, about proportional to the watts difference

Sunday, September 30: 90′ bike ride.

My daughter and I went for a bike ride. The intent was to explore some of the sand roads, but as it turned out, the sand was too loose to make any progress on, so we headed to the roads and went north. It was just a nice easy ride.

Monday, 1 October: 5 x 1500 / 5′

Plan was to work on stroke rate around 26, and beat my last 5×1500 pace and power (2:16, 154W).

The downstream intervals were a blast. The river was flowing reasonably fast, and there was the lightest of tail winds. Anyway, after I went through the s-turn, and I had about 300 or 400 meters to go, I was rating up and pushing the pace. On the third and fifth interval, I was seeing the splits drop below 2:00 for the last 5 or so strokes. It turns out that I was working a little harder on the upstream segments, as measured by power. I struggle to use power in the boat because of the big turn in the middle.

          Workout Summary - media/20181001-1310300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13634|80:28.0|02:57.1|113.7|22.9|139.8|178.0|07.4
W-|07578|33:51.0|02:14.1|165.0|26.3|158.8|177.0|08.5
R-|06061|46:37.0|03:50.8|076.5|20.4|126.0|177.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00158|00:44.0|02:18.9|117.9|19.2|124.5|129.0|11.3- wu
02|01490|06:31.6|02:11.4|154.4|25.2|153.8|166.0|09.1
03|01438|06:40.9|02:19.4|170.5|26.4|160.0|172.0|08.1
04|01486|06:24.1|02:09.3|167.6|27.0|159.1|175.0|08.6
05|01440|06:45.0|02:20.6|170.1|26.9|163.0|173.0|07.9
06|01565|06:46.1|02:09.7|167.7|26.7|161.7|177.0|08.7

Tomorrow: 80′ of steady state. Drills on the 5s.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Month: October 2018