The last session I posted was December 29th.  It’s been busy month since then with some good training, heavy work commitments and recently a few, not terribly serious injuries.

Here’s a synopsis

The result was that by the 27th of January my fitness was at the lowest level it has been for a couple of years, and it’s time to get back on track.

Sunday – Dec 30 – Rest Day

I had a lot of logistics to deal with on Sunday.  We were hosting a New Year’s Eve party down at our house in Wellfleet.  I had to buy delicious local delicacies on the way and do a bit of house cleaning once we were there.  No time for training.

Monday – Dec 31 – Awful Half Marathon on Slides

Our party guests were arriving in the early afternoon, so I got up at a reasonable hour and jumped on the erg.  I was feeling guilty about missing a workout on Sunday, so I didn’t want to compound my sins by missing another day.  I was so excited to row on something other than the miserable dynamic, I decided to do a half marathon.

It started out fine, but things started to go down hill around the one hour mark.  To be indelicate, I’ve been having some issues with my ass.  Especially my left cheek.  The area around my sitz bone gets sore after about 30 minutes of rowing and it seems to get worse as I go along.  I thought it was because my trusty seat pad had gotten squooshed down and wasn’t doing it’s job.  So I replaced it with a new one (2 layers of concept2 foam pads with the cutouts removed).  This was the first session with the new setup and I think I misdiagnosed the cause of my problem because the pain was much worse with the new pad.  I decided that the edge of the cutout must be doing something bad, so at the one hour mark, I dropped a layer.  It helped a little, but over within another 8 minutes or so, I was hurting again and tried to sit further forward to get my sitz bone on the pad and out of the hole.  That bought me another 10 minutes.  I adjusted again and then gritted my teeth through the rest of the workout.  I may have to spring for one of those insanely expensive finnish butt pads before I really injure myself.

I am also seeing a lot of data drop outs.  I wonder if there is some issue with painsled?

Tuesday – Jan 1 – January CTC (on slides)

I haven’t been very consistent at doing the CTCs in the past couple of years.  I used to do every one, but since I started rowing on the water, I don’t usually do them during the OTW season, and I’ve even gotten spotty in the off season.  I think it’s mostly a pride thing.  I used to do better than I do now, and that bugs me.  This month’s CTC seemed fun though, so it seemed like a good option when I was feeling a bit hung over and bloated from a great new years eve party.

The CTC was 20′ at r20.  I wasn’t sure how to pace it so I basically just started rowing.  I was on slides.  I was able to bring the split down into the mid 1:50s and hold them them.

I ended up with 5129m (1:57.0), which puts me in Free Spirits boat 2.  I need another 7 meters to get into boat 1.  I might have to give that a try.  I think without a hangover and on a static erg, I might be able to do a fair bit better than that.

After that I did a 209 minute L4 and it was delightful!

Wednesday – Jan 2 – No Training

Un planned rest day.  I had t o drop my car off at the shop in the morning and I didn’t have a window to go work out during the day.

Thursday – Jan 3 – 60′ L4

I had so much fun doing the 20 minute L4 that I decided to do one for today’s endurance session.  This on on a static erg.  So here I would try to go for my “usual” power levels, which are very easy to remember

• 16 – 160W
• 18 – 180W
• 20 – 200W
• 22 – 220W

I did very easy progress of sequences.  For L4 aficionados, it was a 168/172/172/176/176/180.  Here it is in graphical form.

       Workout Summary - media/20190103-1325340o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14506|66:00.0|02:16.5|162.9|16.0|137.1|157.0|13.8
W-|14358|60:00.0|02:05.4|178.1|17.3|138.1|156.0|13.9
R-|00164|06:00.0|18:19.0|011.1|02.1|127.2|156.0|45.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00476|02:00.0|02:06.1|169.0|15.9|105.0|124.0|15.0
01|00485|02:00.0|02:03.8|183.4|17.8|128.2|131.0|13.6
02|00465|02:00.0|02:09.1|163.2|16.3|129.6|131.0|14.3
03|00483|02:00.0|02:04.1|182.7|18.0|131.6|134.0|13.4
04|00467|02:00.0|02:08.5|165.3|16.1|133.1|134.0|14.5
05|00484|02:00.0|02:03.9|183.5|17.8|135.0|137.0|13.6
06|00468|02:00.0|02:08.3|166.1|15.9|136.3|137.0|14.7
07|00483|02:00.0|02:04.2|182.3|17.9|136.1|138.0|13.5
08|00468|02:00.0|02:08.2|167.3|16.1|137.3|138.0|14.5
09|00484|02:00.0|02:04.1|183.4|17.9|138.8|141.0|13.5
10|00482|02:00.0|02:04.6|184.3|17.2|121.7|137.0|14.0
11|00467|02:00.0|02:08.6|165.3|16.3|136.3|137.0|14.3
12|00484|02:00.0|02:04.1|182.2|17.8|137.1|140.0|13.6
13|00468|02:00.0|02:08.3|166.2|16.2|139.3|141.0|14.5
14|00483|02:00.0|02:04.2|182.2|18.1|138.8|140.0|13.4
15|00467|02:00.0|02:08.5|165.3|16.0|140.4|141.0|14.6
16|00483|02:00.0|02:04.2|182.5|18.1|140.7|142.0|13.4
17|00501|02:00.0|01:59.7|203.7|20.0|147.2|150.0|12.5
18|00484|02:00.0|02:03.9|184.9|17.8|149.3|150.0|13.6
19|00468|02:00.0|02:08.1|166.8|16.1|146.4|148.0|14.6
20|00459|02:00.0|02:10.8|163.3|14.9|123.4|135.0|15.4
21|00483|02:00.0|02:04.3|181.0|17.9|140.4|143.0|13.5
22|00500|02:00.0|01:59.9|202.5|19.9|146.1|150.0|12.6
23|00485|02:00.0|02:03.6|185.5|17.9|149.6|151.0|13.6
24|00468|02:00.0|02:08.1|166.7|16.3|146.6|148.0|14.4
25|00929|04:00.0|02:09.2|162.4|16.2|142.9|145.0|14.3
26|00725|03:00.0|02:04.1|182.9|18.1|145.5|148.0|13.3
27|00500|02:00.0|02:00.0|202.4|20.0|149.1|151.0|12.5
28|00259|01:00.0|01:55.9|223.0|21.6|152.9|156.0|12.0

Friday – Jan 4 – 100m rowsandall regatta

Good fun!  I won and I managed  to set a PR for the 100m (15.8!)  And a new low pull number as well (1:16.1).

Saturday – Jan 5 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4 – on the dynamic

Really fun!  I was trying to figure out the right power level / stroke rate combos for the dynamic.  I ended up with 150W for r18 and 170W for r20.

        Workout Summary - media/20190105-2220350o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14639|66:00.0|02:15.3|154.8|18.6|144.0|158.0|11.9
W-|14066|60:00.0|02:08.0|167.2|18.5|145.6|157.0|12.7
R-|00577|06:00.0|05:11.8|030.6|19.2|128.9|157.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04674|20:00.0|02:08.4|165.3|17.4|136.0|148.0|13.4
01|04736|20:00.0|02:06.7|172.6|19.1|149.9|157.0|12.4
02|04656|20:00.0|02:08.9|163.7|19.1|150.7|157.0|12.2

Sunday – Jan 6 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4 – dynamic

I had so much fun on Saturday that I did it again with a different stroke sequence.  Still trying to find the right intensity level for these so that they end up in the right HR zone.

        Workout Summary - media/20190113-2115380o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13486|66:00.0|02:26.8|146.3|17.1|140.6|163.0|11.9
W-|12745|54:00.0|02:07.1|170.5|19.5|145.7|162.0|12.1
R-|00745|12:00.0|08:03.3|037.5|06.5|117.6|162.0|08.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04694|20:00.0|02:07.8|166.6|19.1|140.4|151.0|12.3
01|03306|14:00.0|02:07.0|171.0|19.4|145.4|154.0|12.2
02|04745|20:00.0|02:06.4|174.0|19.9|151.2|162.0|11.9

So, the power levels were.

• 18 – 150
• 20 – 170
• 22 – 190
• 24 – 210

Monday – Jan 7 – 30′ Threshold – static

planned a hard session.  30′ free rate, with 2k warmup and cool down.

warm up – pick drip and then 20 stroke bursts at target pace.

The main event.  Went pretty well!  Little bit of a bobble at the end.  I would love to get back to doing over 8000m for these.  I have a ways to go (92 meters).

Here’s the whole workout.

Tuesday – Jan 8 – No Training 

Traveled to Dallas for a business dinner.  No time to train.

Wednesday – Jan 9 – 30′ Max Incline March

In Dallas at the Airport Hyatt before I flew to San Diego

Thursday – Jan 10 – 5km run

In San Diego, I had conference calls all morning in my hotel, and then I went for a run.  My hotel was in a nice location.

I had HR monitor issues, so I recorded the run on my apple watch.  Turns out, the apple watch does not believe in data freedom!

After my run, I packed up my stuff and flew home.

Friday – January 11 – No Training

I arrived home around 12:30am, and decided to not get up early to train.  I had a jam packed morning of meetings, then I headed out in the afternoon so we could head down to the Cape for the weekend.

Saturday – January 12 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4 on slides

Down on the cape.  I was struggling with a pain in the ass.  I have developed some irritation in my left ischial tuberosity (also known as the sitz bones).  It was getting worse and I was experimenting with different padding options, but none seemed to be helping.  I think a main cause may be sitting for long periods in airline seats.  Anyway, I enjoyed the rowing, but my butt was getting worse and worse.

On slides my power levels were.

• 16 – 140
• 18 – 160
• 20 – 180
• 22 – 200

So, 10W better than dynamic for roughly the same intensity.

Sunday – January 13 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4 dynamic

Back in Hopkinton.  Still enjoying L4s, still suffering debilitating butt pain.

Monday – January 14 – The Half Marathon from hell

There was a rowsandall challenge race that I needed to get a result in for.  It was a half marathon.  I had high hopes that I could do reasonably well, and I set off way too fast. I blew up halfway through.  I was also having very severe IT issues (Ischial Tuberosity) and tried to readjust my seat padding a bunch of times.  It was horrible.  Terribly horrible.

This was very disappointing.  When I caved in the middle of the piece, my HR was a bit high, but not remarkably so.  I had started to try to slow down a bit to try to rein things in, but the pain in my butt made it really hard to get any kind of momentum.  Every stroke hurt.   I decided that I need to do something about the IT pain.

Tuesday – January 15 – Mini Strength Session

I had very limited time because I had an 8 oclock meeting.  Also, my knee hurt so I wanted to avoid erging.  I did a quick strength session.  

• crucnches
• side planks
• swiss ball twists with med ball
• good mornings
• inclined rows in the smith frame
• cable pull downs
• seated press

My knee really stiffened up through the day and get sore.  It became painful to walk down stairs, basically the bending my knee under pressure caused serious pain at the base of my kneecap.  

Wednesday – January 16 – No Training – Knee injury

I woke up with my knee very stiff and it was painful to walk, especially down stairs.  Going up stairs hurt too.  I hobbled through the day and by the evening I was taking ibuprofen.  Even with that, it was so sore that I couldn’t fall asleep.  I got up and iced it for 30 minutes, which helped a lot.

Thursday – January 17 – No Training – Knee injury

Still very sore in the morning.  I wore an ace bandage and took ibuprofen and that seemed to help stabilize things.  I iced it again before bed and slept fine.

Friday – January 18 – Strength training

Basically the same routine as Wednesday.  Avoided doing anything that would put stress on my knee

Saturday – January 19 – No Training

There was a big storm that was closing in on Boston for Sunday.  I needed to be in San Jose for a meeting first thing on Monday morning, so I changed my flight arrangements and left on Saturday so I would be stuck.  I arrived in San Jose around 10pm.

Sunday – January 20 – Fitness Center strength and Max Incline March

Basic core and strength session, and then added on a 40 minutes on the treadmill.

Monday – January 21- Fitness center triathlon

20 minutes Max Incline march

20 minutes stationary bike

20 minutes elliptical

Tuesday – January 22 – No Training

Our board meeting started at 8am and I was nervous as hell.  I got in really early and made sure that everything was ready.  

The meetings went well, and then I had an additional 2 customer meetings in the afternoon and a team dinner in the evening.  Finally, I headed to the airport to catch my flight to Korea, leaving at 11:30pm.

Long Day

Wednesday – January 23 – Did not exist for me

I departed at 11:30 on Tuesday night, flew across the date line and arrived in Seoul at 5:00AM on Thursday morning.  So does it count as a rest day if the day didn’t happen?

Thursday – January 24 – Fitness Center Strength Training

I arrived in Korea at 5, I was at my hotel before 7.  I went straight to the fiteness center.  Did a full strength training session.  I even did some squats to test out my knee.  It seemed to hold up pretty well.  I also did some good mornings and I tweaked my lower back.  I didn’t notice it at the time, but it was sore the next day.  I also did 30 minutes on the treadmill.

After that I went to semicon Korea and did my presentation.  At the end of the day, I had a customer dinner.  I was pretty tired by the time I was back at the hotel and slept well

Friday – January 25 – Fitness Center

30 minutes inclined march

5 minutes on a stair stepper, then I saw an elliptical open up and bagged that.

20 minutes on the elliptical

I had internal meetings and a meeting with a key supplier and headed to the airport to catch an 8:30 flight home.  I managed to leave in such a rush that I left my suitcase in my korean colleague’s car.  My bag is still in Asia, coming home tomorrow with a coworker that was staying on after I left.  

Saturday – January 26 – No Training

I arrived home at about 2 am on Saturday morning, and I slept until 10 am the next morning.  Even after I got up, I was in rough shape.  my back hurt, my butt hurt and I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.  I basically just did stuff around the house.

Sunday – January 27 – 2 x 20′ / 2′ dynamic

It had been 12 days since I had been on a rowing machine.  I was still achy, but I wanted to ease back into, so I figure a nice gentle 40 minute endurance session.

That was surprisingly hard work.

Monday – January 29 -2 x 20′ / 2′ static plus 20 max incline walk

I was going to do 3 x 20′ on the rower, but my butt started to hurt, so I decided to do the last 20 minutes on the treadmill.

       Workout Summary - media/20190128-1255580o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10084|43:14.0|02:08.7|167.9|17.4|142.6|153.0|13.4
W-|09781|41:14.0|02:06.5|172.9|17.7|143.2|153.0|13.4
R-|00313|02:00.0|03:11.6|064.0|12.3|128.6|153.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00489|02:00.0|02:02.7|183.4|17.4|110.8|127.0|14.1
01|00486|02:00.0|02:03.4|186.5|18.7|132.8|135.0|13.0
02|00485|02:00.0|02:03.7|184.7|18.3|138.2|140.0|13.3
03|00477|02:00.0|02:05.8|180.8|17.8|139.3|141.0|13.4
04|00483|02:00.0|02:04.2|182.5|17.9|141.5|145.0|13.5
05|00481|02:00.0|02:04.8|180.8|17.9|144.4|146.0|13.4
06|00478|02:00.0|02:05.6|176.4|17.7|145.1|146.0|13.5
07|00479|02:00.0|02:05.4|177.1|17.9|145.6|147.0|13.4
08|00477|02:00.0|02:05.8|176.2|18.1|146.9|148.0|13.2
09|00476|02:00.0|02:06.1|174.7|18.1|146.7|148.0|13.2
10|00472|02:00.0|02:07.2|173.6|17.3|132.3|143.0|13.6
11|00472|02:00.0|02:07.2|170.1|17.9|143.0|144.0|13.2
12|00473|02:00.0|02:06.8|171.4|17.9|145.6|149.0|13.2
13|00473|02:00.0|02:06.8|171.6|17.7|147.3|148.0|13.3
14|00474|02:00.0|02:06.6|172.3|17.8|148.9|150.0|13.3
15|00473|02:00.0|02:06.7|172.4|18.0|150.2|152.0|13.2
16|00473|02:00.0|02:07.0|170.6|17.8|151.4|153.0|13.2
17|00472|02:00.0|02:07.2|170.5|17.8|150.7|152.0|13.3
18|00472|02:00.0|02:07.1|170.5|17.6|151.7|152.0|13.4
19|00717|03:15.0|02:15.9|135.8|15.1|148.8|153.0|14.7

Here’s the death march

Tuesday – January 30 – 4 x 1000 / 4′ static

Even though I am not 100%, I think the best course of action is to add a measured dose of higher intensity to the mix.  

So, time to bust out a classic.  The 4 x 1k.  I set an easy target pace, 1:50.  At my best, I was pounding out this session close to 1:40 pace.  But I have to keep myself from thinking like that.  It just leads  to frustration and injury.  

The workout went well.  I did a reasonable warmup and got into it.

Warmup

Main Event

        Workout Summary - media/20190129-1346270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|06302|30:24.0|02:24.8|161.8|20.2|149.4|178.0|10.3
W-|04000|14:21.0|01:47.7|279.7|26.4|159.4|178.0|10.5
R-|02304|16:03.0|03:29.1|056.3|14.6|140.4|178.0|10.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:34.7|01:47.3|279.5|25.7|151.9|168.0|10.9
01|01000|03:35.3|01:47.7|281.4|26.5|159.9|172.0|10.5
02|01000|03:34.9|01:47.4|281.4|27.0|162.6|176.0|10.3
03|01000|03:36.6|01:48.3|276.6|26.5|163.3|178.0|10.5

So, I managed to do a bit better than target, but I was pretty tired in the last rep.  To go faster I need to work on higher stroke rates.

Cool down.

Wednesday – January 30 – 10K Threshold

I ended up being pressed for time, so I decided to swap in my hard distance session that should have come on Thursday to Wednesday.  

I was too optimistic in pacing and paid for it late in the session.

        Workout Summary - media/20190130-1340380o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:03.0|01:57.2|218.1|23.0|153.6|184.0|11.1
W-|10000|39:04.0|01:57.2|218.1|23.0|153.6|184.0|11.1
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|184.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:56.3|01:58.1|215.3|21.7|082.4|120.0|11.7
01|01000|03:53.4|01:56.7|220.2|22.8|083.1|156.0|11.3
02|01000|03:52.8|01:56.4|221.8|23.0|158.9|163.0|11.2
03|01000|03:52.4|01:56.2|223.0|23.2|165.4|168.0|11.1
04|01000|03:52.4|01:56.2|223.2|23.0|169.1|172.0|11.2
05|01000|03:52.2|01:56.1|223.4|22.9|172.8|176.0|11.3
06|01000|03:55.9|01:58.0|214.4|23.4|174.2|177.0|10.9
07|01000|03:59.5|01:59.8|204.7|23.1|174.1|177.0|10.8
08|01000|03:55.5|01:57.8|214.1|23.1|177.0|180.0|11.0
09|01000|03:53.6|01:56.8|221.6|24.2|179.0|184.0|10.6

I think focusing on strength training has improved my power, but I have not re-calibrated myself to the new me.  I find it hard to row slower than certain splits at a rate and end up pushing a bit too hard on the long pieces.  

This was definitely good training effect.  My butt still hurts, but I think I have found a seat pad arrangement that is not aggravating it further.

Thursday – January 31 – 3 x 20′ / 2′

A lovely relaxing row.  Butt pain still there, but much less intense.

        Workout Summary - media/20190131-1330410o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15144|66:00.0|02:10.8|165.7|17.7|142.6|154.0|13.0
W-|14319|60:00.0|02:05.7|176.1|17.9|143.2|154.0|13.3
R-|00828|06:00.0|03:37.9|061.3|15.2|136.2|154.0|09.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04779|20:00.0|02:05.5|176.2|17.9|136.9|147.0|13.4
01|04770|20:00.0|02:05.8|176.0|18.0|145.2|150.0|13.3
02|04770|20:00.0|02:05.8|176.2|18.0|147.5|154.0|13.3

Tomorrow – Long Intervals,  The waterfall.  Target pace 1:55.