The past three weeks

Last post on May 7th.  I had just had a very good 4 x 2k session on the water.

Wednesday – May 8th – 30 min L4

I had a busy day ahead of me and in the morning, when I got to work, I ended up getting distracted with emails.  I finally looked up and I only had about 45 minutes until my first meeting.  I zipped down to the gym and did a quick 30 minute L4.

5 x 6′, where each 6′ was 3′ @ r18, 2′ @ r20, 1′ @ r22

       Workout Summary - media/577a150d295c4f34_38173149.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07313|30:00.0|02:03.1|187.8|19.0|150.0|000.0|12.5
W-|07313|30:00.0|02:03.1|187.8|19.0|150.0|000.0|12.5
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|000.0|00.0

Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01453|06:00.0|02:03.9|184.1|20.0|000.0|0.0|00.0
01|01465|06:00.0|02:02.9|188.7|19.0|000.0|0.0|00.0
02|01465|06:00.0|02:02.9|188.7|19.0|000.0|0.0|00.0
03|01462|06:00.0|02:03.1|187.5|19.0|000.0|0.0|00.0
04|01468|06:00.0|02:02.6|189.9|19.0|000.0|0.0|00.0

I was aiming at a slightly lighter stroke, so I made my targets

  • r18 – 170W
  • r20 – 190W
  • r22 – 210W

bokeh_plot - 2019-05-27T104925.807

Thursday – May 9 – 8 x 2′ / 2′ L1 – On the Water

Back in Newton.  I was not trying to set any records and I haven’t done much work at higher stroke rates.  I did 4 intervals going down stream, then 4 coming back up.  Each set, I aimed at r24, r26, r28, r30.  The summary shows that I wasn’t all that great at hitting the stroke rates.

       Workout Summary - media/20190510-1638000o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08168|45:50.0|02:48.4|127.6|22.2|144.2|172.0|08.0
W-|03727|15:40.0|02:06.2|215.1|27.4|153.1|172.0|08.7
R-|04448|30:11.0|03:23.6|082.1|19.6|139.6|172.0|07.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00465|02:02.4|02:11.6|185.9|24.0|149.1|158.0|09.5
02|00498|02:07.6|02:08.1|207.2|26.3|151.0|164.0|08.9
03|00422|01:43.2|02:02.2|245.8|29.1|153.0|168.0|08.4
04|00457|01:50.4|02:00.7|254.9|30.3|153.6|170.0|08.2
05|00451|01:55.7|02:08.2|193.1|25.4|147.8|163.0|09.2
06|00485|02:04.5|02:08.3|192.5|27.1|154.5|168.0|08.6
07|00467|01:57.3|02:05.5|223.7|29.1|158.3|169.0|08.2
08|00481|01:59.4|02:04.2|226.6|28.6|157.8|172.0|08.4

Good workout though.

Friday – May 10 – No Training

Don’t remember why.

Saturday – May 11 – Threshold 10K (on slides)

Down on the cape.  Started slow, and then pushed harder.  Nice to get through one without a bobble in the middle.

Sunday – May 12 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

Down on the cape.  On Slides

Nice and easy.

Monday – May 12 – 5 x 1500 L2

At work.  Having all kinds of issues.  The workout ended up in 3 different files.  While doing the first interval, I discovered that I needed to go to the bathroom.  It was remarkably unpleasant getting through the last 300m or so.  I rushed off, too care of business, and then decided to try “rerow”, which I thought would just bring up a normal distance interval session.  I was wrong.  Since I had done one rep the first time, that what it did for the rerow.  So, I needed to reprogram the P5 for the last 3 intervals.  When I glued them together, the start time for the set of three intervals looks wrong.  I didn’t wait 20 minutes between the 2nd and 3rd interval.  I did however, you out too aggressively in the thrid interval and I needed to dial it back, which I did.

bokeh_plot - 2019-05-27T111721.367

Tuesday – May 14 – No training

I was hoping for a quick row in the middle of the day, but work got in the way.

Wednesday – May 15 – Alternating 2′ SBR or Slow roll ups / 2′ Steady State

Back in my single in Newton.  I would 2 minutes of square blades, then 2 minutes of steady state, then 2′ of slow roll ups, then 2′ of steady state.  And then repeat.

Felt like a very productive session.  Good to work on balance, and oar control.

Thursday – May 16 – OTW Steady State

Trying to continue to work on technique.  Needed to keep it to an hour to get to work in time for my first meeting.

        Workout Summary - media/20190516-1555460o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10608|00:56:16.1|02:39.1|133.5|19.8|146.8|158.0|09.5
W-|09928|00:49:34.5|02:29.8|141.0|19.9|149.1|158.0|10.1
R-|00685|00:-197:29.8|-143:-24.7|71028479286579533185024.0|41576773771231976488960.0|310807103207674254196736.0|158.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03808|18:16.0|02:23.9|146.1|19.6|146.9|158.0|10.6
02|02834|14:36.6|02:34.7|138.0|19.4|151.2|156.0|10.0
03|01122|05:30.6|02:27.3|139.0|19.3|145.6|152.0|10.6
04|01317|06:42.9|02:32.9|141.3|21.4|150.2|156.0|09.2
05|00356|01:51.0|02:36.1|145.5|21.0|155.0|157.0|09.1
06|00491|02:37.4|02:40.3|122.8|21.5|152.8|156.0|08.7

Friday – May 17 – No Training

I was up until very late on Thursday night on conference calls.  My company is impacted by some of the new developments in the trade dispute between the US and China.  We were on the phone with our team there working out plans to deal with it.  I slept in a bit on Friday morning.

Saturday – May 18 – Mulching

5 hours and 47 minutes of mulching.  The process works like this.

  1.  Weed the bed, shovel out and excess soil along the edging
  2. load wheelbarrow with mulch
  3. dump and spread
  4. repeat 2-3 until bed is finished
  5. move to next bed, repeat 1-4

This requires about 5 cubic yards of mulch and about 8 hours of work.

On Saturday, I set out to get as much done as I could.  It turns out to be good endurance exercise.  Sub-UT2, but still quite taxing after you do it for hours.

Screen Shot 2019-05-27 at 12.08.22 PM

The span from 2:10 to 3:20, I was working but the HR sensor in the watch was dirty from the mulch.  You can tell that I was motivated to get done in the last hour or so.  You can also see a clear 3-4 minute pattern for each load of mulch in that last section.

Sunday – May 19 – More Mulching, then an aborted L4.

Just finishing it off, less than 2 hours.

Screen Shot 2019-05-27 at 12.15.33 PM

Then later in the afternoon, I thought I should do an erg session.  I was wrong.  I got 20 minutes in and decided to pack it in.  I was sore and tired.

Monday – May 20 – 2 x 20′ / 2′ L4

At work.  I was up until 2am on the phone with China.  I slept in and then planned to go to the gym at lunch.  I was pressed for time, so I only did a 4 minute session.  HR was quite high.  I think work stress is getting to me.

Tuesday – May 21 – Drills on the fives

A glorious day on the water.  Continuing to work on technique.  Today, I was doing 4 minutes of steady state, then a minute of drills.  They were

  • pause at body over
  • open hands on recovery
  • half slide
  • square blades
  • slow roll ups

Wednesday – May 22 – No Training

I was up at 4:15 to head to the airport.  I flew out to San Jose for an afternoon meeting and dinner.  Then I caught the red eye home.

Thursday – May 23 – 40′ L4

I came home after the red eye and slept from about 8 to 10am.  Then I was on calls just about the rest of the day.  Around 5pm, I decided to do a quick session.  I decided to just do a 40′ L4 without the break in  the middle.  It felt good.

Friday – May 24 – 5 x 4′ / 4′ L1(ish)

I’ve been thinking about coming up with a training plan that fits my current situation a bit better.  With the situation in China and various other things going on, I am finding it challenging to put as much time into training.  I am also spending more time on the erg this season (compared to water time) than in prior seasons.  I attribute this to the time constraints, plus the fact that I am now equipped with slides at home instead of the dynamic, which I hated using enough to avoid sessions.

Anyway, I am toying with a 40 minute version of the WP.  Basically, try to fit all the different types of sessions into a 40 minute block.  Keep it time based.

So, today, I was aiming for a session that was a little more aerobic than the 4x1k, so I decided to slice the session up into 5 – 4 minute intervals with 4 minutes of rest.  I would aim at holding splits below 1:50.

        Workout Summary - media/20190524-2140480o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09675|00:39:26.8|02:02.3|198.1|23.9|152.5|183.0|10.3
W-|05483|00:19:51.1|01:48.6|275.5|27.6|163.5|183.0|10.0
R-|04196|00:19:36.3|02:20.2|119.7|20.1|141.3|183.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01103|04:01.2|01:49.3|269.5|26.2|155.4|167.0|10.5
02|01111|04:03.3|01:49.5|273.2|26.7|160.9|174.0|10.2
03|01108|03:59.5|01:48.1|279.8|28.2|165.4|178.0|09.8
04|01056|03:49.2|01:48.6|273.8|28.0|166.0|180.0|09.9
05|01106|03:58.0|01:47.7|281.4|29.1|170.3|183.0|09.6

That was great!  Good choice on pacing.  I arranged it so I did the rest first, which was essentially a quick warmup.  Then the interval.  Easy programming a good change.

Saturday – May 25 – 40′ L4

Just like Thursday.  A bit better HR response.

Sunday – May 26 – Caprentry plus 8 x 1’30″/3’30” L1

Down on the cape.  Around noon, I set to work on replacing the stairs down to the water from our house on Cape Cod.  This winter (like last winter), there was pack ice that ripped the stairs away.  It ended up looking like this.

2019-03-31 11.51.15.jpg

I started 2 weekends ago and managed to replace the frame for the bottom platform.  This weekend, I wanted to get that planked and get the stairs back to the beach.

2019-05-26 15.24.36

The challenging part of this was anchoring the stairs at the bottom.  There used to be a pair of angle irons that I could bolt to, but the were destroyed last winter.  I decided to put in a bottom landing, anchored to the bank using snow fencing posts.  Snow fencing is put up on posts that you can drive into sand.  The posts are about 8 feet long, and I have a heavy tool that slips over the top of the post, and can be lifted and dropped to drive the post down through sand.  It looks like this.

post driver

 

So, I would drive 4 posts around a piece of 2×8 that would act as the landing for the stairs.  I would drive them about 5 feet into the sand, which I figured would at least hold the stairs for the season.  The finished product looked like this.

2019-05-26 15.25.03

Hard to believe each of those posts goes down 5 feet!  Driving the posts was hard!  Each one took about 200 blows, which I did in sets of 20.  My sons came and helped for the last 2, where we switched off to drive them in.

Once the base was in place, The rest was pretty easy, but it took about 3 hours.

Later in the evening, I decided to do an erg session.

Another adaptation of an L1.  This one aiming to be slightly more intense than a 8 x 500 by shortening the work period.

Lots of missing strokes.  Which messed up the summary.  But the workout was great.  Very challenging at the end.  By using the flex plot and suppressing all strokes below 24 spm and all strokes with a WpS below 200, I could get an idea of the interval power.  Here is is shown as an avg of 320.  (1:43 pace)

bokeh_plot - 2019-05-27T124945.115

I was happy with this session, especially since my upper body had gotten a good workout from the post driving.

Today, we are back in Hopkinton (It’s a three day weekend). I will do a 40 minute L4 later.

 

Oh my hands – May 5 to May 7

Well, really just my right hand.

Because of travel, there was a period of 8 days between 25 April and 4 May where I did no OTW rowing.  Over that period of times, my hands got all soft.  Then on Saturday, I hop into my Aero and go for a 18k row that takes about an hour and forty five minutes.  This was 1887 strokes, and there was enough chop that my hands and the handles were wet.  The chop also makes it impossible to maintain the light fingertip grip that we all aspire to.  By the time I was on the last leg back to the beach, my hands were really hurting.  Over the rest of the day they were a weepy blistered mess.

On Sunday, the weather sucked, so I wasn’t tempted to go back out on the water, but I did a hard 10K (with limited success, more to come  on that later) on slides.  My hands were perfectly OK with that.

On Monday, they were still pretty beat up, but I ignored that and did a nice technical session in the boat.  A lot of the drills put pressure on my blistery bits, and ripped open some blisters under old callouses.

I wasn’t sure if my hands were up for it, but the weather this morning was beautiful!, So, I went for it.  I had a great session, and I didn’t have any real grip issues to deal with, but boy, it stings.  Especially in the shower!

Enough complaining.  On to the training.

Sunday – May 5 – Hard 10K on slides.

Started with a 2k warmup.  Pick drill followed by a few bursts at possible paces for the 10k piece

Then the real thing.  I was a bit scarred from the 10k session that I bailed on last weekend, so I specifically tried to give myself permission to target a pace of 2:00.  Of course, as soon as I started and it felt easy, I immediately changed my mind and stuck on 1:57.  This lasted for about 6 or 7K and my HR was up at 177.  I couldn’t handle the idea of rowing the last 12 minutes “in the red”, so I tried to back off, and then a dropped a few strokes and slowly brought myself back to around a 2:00 target.  By the time I had 1000m to go, I was pissed at myself and I rowed it hard.

       Workout Summary - media/Import_38138690.csv.gz
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:31.0|01:58.6|207.5|25.0|166.5|182.0|10.1
W-|10000|39:32.0|01:58.6|207.5|25.0|166.5|182.0|10.1
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|03:54.5|01:57.2|212.8|24.6|141.9|155.0|10.4
01|01000|03:54.8|01:57.4|213.9|25.0|157.4|160.0|10.2
02|01000|03:54.9|01:57.5|213.1|24.8|163.2|164.0|10.3
03|01000|03:56.3|01:58.1|209.8|24.8|165.7|167.0|10.2
04|01000|03:57.4|01:58.7|206.9|24.5|168.4|171.0|10.3
05|01000|03:55.8|01:57.9|211.0|25.4|171.0|174.0|10.0
06|01000|03:57.1|01:58.5|208.0|25.2|174.8|177.0|10.1
07|01000|04:07.7|02:03.8|184.3|24.7|169.4|176.0|09.8
08|01000|04:00.1|02:00.0|200.1|25.0|173.7|177.0|10.0
09|01000|03:53.7|01:56.8|216.6|25.7|179.7|182.0|10.0

So, what do we make of this?  First, it was probably an effective workout from a physiological point of view.  I had 27 minutes in the TR and AN HR zones.  But in terms of grit, this one was a fail.  Also from a discipline perspective, also a fail.  I should have rowed it conservatively and gotten a good marker for the next session.

Monday – 6 May – Drills on the 5s – 60′ session

As is usual, I spelt pretty poorly on Sunday night.  The weather was OK.  It was grey and there was a pretty steady wind from the north.  Temps were in the 50s.

I thought under the circumstances that a session focused on technique would be a good idea.  So, back to a favorite, drills on the 5s.  Row steady state for 4 minuutes then do a minute of a drill.  The drills were

  • half slide
  • slow roll ups
  • open hands on recovery
  • pause at body over
  • on the square

The drills were useful and the format of the workout makes time pass very quickly.  A lovely session.

Tuesday – 7 May – 4 x 2k on the water

Time to do some heavy lifting!  I was out late last night at a business dinner, but I managed to get my ass out of bed on time.  I was a bit worried about how well I’d do in the session.  I’m not sure if this was a cause or effect, but I felt a bit wrong in the intestinal department.

Anyway, the weather was awesome!  Bright and Sunny about 50F with a light wind from the SW.  So, I paddled out to the start of the 2k section, had a drink and went for it.  The training objectives for this session were:

  • Stroke rate: 25-27
  • Target pace 2:15 to 2:20
  • Focus on crisp releases.  Really tap down.
  • With increased fatigue focus on maintaining rate, lighting up pressure and maintaining good form, especially at the release

Gotta say, it was pretty magical!  I had a bit of tail wind behind me on the first interval, so the splits were nice and fast and the strokes felt light.  That really boosted my confidence.  I was extra careful to try to avoid chasing the same split on the upwind interval.  As it worked out I matched my avg power pretty well between upwind and downwind intervals.

Each interval got harder, but I always felt in control.  It was a really good session.  Good physiologically, and mentally to get it done per plan.

        Workout Summary - media/20190507-1405480o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12258|72:17.0|02:56.9|124.6|23.6|145.3|177.0|07.2
W-|08104|37:30.0|02:18.9|177.1|26.3|164.3|177.0|08.2
R-|04160|34:47.0|04:10.8|068.1|20.7|124.7|177.0|07.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00238|01:04.0|02:14.4|157.6|22.4|139.1|145.0|09.9
02|01985|08:33.7|02:09.4|179.4|25.8|158.2|171.0|09.0
03|01962|09:33.9|02:26.3|181.7|26.2|167.9|177.0|07.8
04|01960|08:33.8|02:11.0|171.6|26.8|164.8|175.0|08.5
05|01958|09:45.2|02:29.4|177.5|26.8|168.7|177.0|07.5

Note: the pace shown here appears to be the GPS based pace, so the downstream intervals are unnaturally fast and the upstream ones are slow.  Calculating pace for them using the excel data yields 2:12.8, 2:17.9, 2:14.5, 2:19.9.

So, I was interested to see if this focus on clean releases has any effect.  So, I compared a 4x2k from the very beginning of the season to today.  My guess is that my aerobic fitness was a bit better and my form more ragged.  First comparison…

Power:  I was 4.5 watts higher power last time.   2.5% lower power today.

bokeh_plot - 2019-05-07T174855.325

Now boat speed:  Whoa!  1% faster today, on 2.5% lower power.

bokeh_plot - 2019-05-07T174838.721

So, what changed in my stroke.  Since I was working on finishes, let’s look at finish angle.  I was finishing about 4 degrees shorter today.

bokeh_plot - 2019-05-07T175035.690

Was that impacting effective length?

bokeh_plot - 2019-05-07T174914.131

Oh yeah.  I was more than 5 degrees shorter today.

I wonder what was going on with my peak force angle.  I was specifically trying to hold body position and row lightly today.  Would I see any difference with that?

Yep!  My peak force angle move more to stern and was more consistent.

bokeh_plot - 2019-05-07T174946.982

Here is a statistical summary for each workout.  The standard deviation for the peak force angle changed from 3.3 deg to 2.6 deg.

So, this certainly taught me a lesson.  The speedcoach is a tool, it doesn’t make sense to just focus singlemindedly on improving one parameter.  In my mind I had equated more length, with more power and therefore more speed.  Today’s results mean that I should have to be very careful to measure the change in boat speed with technique changes iin addition to just using the oarlock to provide data on the stroke mechanics.

 

April 16 to May 4 – Hectic

Tuesday – April 16 – L4 session – Aborted after 20 minutes.

Just not feeling it.  I had an early meeting and not a lot of time, but mostly I was just tired.

Wed – April 12 – 75′ Steady State OTW

I think it was a nice row.  It was a long time ago, so I’m not sure.

        Workout Summary - media/20190418-1830420o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13921|73:53.0|02:39.2|127.8|18.4|151.7|164.0|10.2
W-|12179|62:00.0|02:32.8|136.4|18.0|154.1|163.0|10.9
R-|01751|11:53.0|03:23.8|083.5|20.3|139.1|163.0|10.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00344|01:38.4|02:23.1|141.1|18.2|139.5|145.0|11.5
02|02883|13:44.9|02:23.1|142.2|18.8|152.3|157.0|11.2
03|02848|15:02.3|02:38.4|136.2|17.6|154.3|160.0|10.7
04|02061|10:14.3|02:29.1|137.5|17.4|153.6|159.0|11.6
05|00621|02:55.1|02:20.9|150.0|18.1|156.1|162.0|11.7
06|01413|07:39.1|02:42.5|127.8|17.7|154.7|160.0|10.4
07|01229|06:37.4|02:41.6|127.6|17.6|158.5|160.0|10.5
08|00342|01:50.5|02:41.7|141.5|19.0|154.5|159.0|09.7
09|00438|02:18.8|02:38.3|126.1|19.9|158.8|163.0|09.5

Screen Shot 2019-05-04 at 9.03.59 PM

Then I was in meetings from 9am to 8pm.

Thursday – April 18 – L3 10K push

I didn’t get a lot of sleep and I had an early meeting.  So, instead of OTW, I setup to do a 10K L3 on the erg in the fitness center at work.  I guess my head is just not in it right now.

I failed at the halfway point and basically took a couple of thousand meters off, then worked hard in the last 2.5K.

        Workout Summary - media/Import_37936047.csv.gz
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:31.0|01:58.6|209.5|22.7|153.3|178.0|11.2
W-|10000|39:31.0|01:58.6|209.5|22.7|153.3|178.0|11.2
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|178.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:59.8|01:59.9|196.6|22.3|122.7|136.0|11.2
01|01000|03:59.8|01:59.9|201.0|21.2|141.7|144.0|11.8
02|01000|03:57.2|01:58.6|207.6|21.6|149.2|154.0|11.7
03|01000|03:54.2|01:57.1|215.8|22.3|156.1|160.0|11.5
04|01000|03:54.2|01:57.1|215.2|22.1|161.0|162.0|11.6
05|01000|04:14.4|02:07.2|178.5|23.3|150.6|164.0|10.1
06|01000|03:59.6|01:59.8|201.4|23.1|154.8|159.0|10.9
07|01000|04:01.6|02:00.8|201.8|22.2|157.7|163.0|11.2
08|01000|03:49.2|01:54.6|229.4|23.8|167.2|172.0|11.0
09|01000|03:41.4|01:50.7|254.1|25.2|174.2|178.0|10.7

Friday – April 19 – No Training

I was out late at a business dinner and had a 8am meeting.  I decided to sleep instead of trying to get up at 5.

Saturday – April 20 – 4 x 20’/2′ L4 on Slides

Still love rowing on slides!  Especially the long slow stuff.  This was a great, relaxing session.  Good way to clear my head after a long week of reviews.  The last 30 minutes or so pushed a bit above the target aerobic zone, but there is zero risk of overtraining right now!

Sunday – April 21 – 10K L3

I was tired of failing on sessions, and I wanted to just pull a good consistent piece without any dropped strokes or other lameness.

Mission accomplished.  Good hard finish too.

        Workout Summary - media/63841bce186c4b73_37970283.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|38:54.0|01:56.7|218.3|25.1|161.0|183.0|10.2
W-|10000|38:54.0|01:56.7|218.3|25.1|161.0|183.0|10.2
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|04:00.8|02:00.4|205.6|25.8|123.7|145.0|09.7
01|01000|03:54.2|01:57.1|215.6|23.8|148.6|152.0|10.8
02|01000|03:52.7|01:56.4|219.7|24.4|155.2|158.0|10.6
03|01000|03:53.1|01:56.5|218.2|24.1|159.3|161.0|10.7
04|01000|03:52.7|01:56.4|219.8|24.8|163.1|165.0|10.4
05|01000|03:52.9|01:56.5|219.2|25.0|166.1|168.0|10.3
06|01000|03:53.9|01:56.9|216.4|25.1|168.9|170.0|10.2
07|01000|03:53.0|01:56.5|218.7|25.4|172.1|174.0|10.1
08|01000|03:53.5|01:56.7|217.2|25.8|175.0|177.0|10.0
09|01000|03:48.0|01:54.0|233.1|27.4|179.4|183.0|09.6

Monday – April 22 – Steady State

There was a little wind, but I was rowing really well.  Just a great session.  I was working on trying to avoid washing out and taping down cleanly.

        Workout Summary - media/20190427-2356270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14002|74:56.0|02:40.6|129.8|18.7|142.2|163.0|10.0
W-|12783|63:52.0|02:29.9|139.2|18.2|145.8|162.0|11.0
R-|01228|11:04.0|04:30.5|075.7|21.5|121.3|162.0|10.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00137|00:39.5|02:24.3|163.0|18.0|120.0|124.0|11.6
02|00376|01:46.0|02:21.0|135.9|18.7|128.1|139.0|11.4
03|02913|13:57.9|02:23.8|138.2|17.9|143.2|149.0|11.7
04|02841|14:51.6|02:36.9|135.1|17.4|144.2|151.0|11.0
05|02847|13:37.5|02:23.6|140.6|18.1|148.3|155.0|11.5
06|02908|15:09.2|02:36.3|138.8|18.4|149.6|157.0|10.4
07|00346|01:47.2|02:35.0|145.6|20.7|147.5|155.0|09.3
08|00075|00:24.2|02:41.1|115.4|22.4|148.8|151.0|08.3
09|00341|01:39.5|02:26.1|170.9|22.2|154.2|162.0|09.3

Tuesday – April 23 – No training

Slept in.  It was raining like crazy

Wednesday – April 24 – 75′ Steady State OTW

I arrived at the river on Wednesday morning and this is what I saw.

2019-04-24 06.23.442019-04-24 06.23.53

Yep, That’s the dock under water.  I guess it was a lot of rain on Tuesday!  So, I took off my socks, and waded my boat out to the end of the float and went for a row.

There was a ton of debris in the river.  I ran into a submerged branch, but luckily not hard enough to rip off my fin.  I also just avoided a floating stump, and saw lots of other stuff.  My head was on a swivel.

But again, I felt nice and fast at first.  Turns out I had a nice gentle tail wind.  It was a lot slower going upstream.

    Workout Summary - media/20190427-2355420o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14011|76:33.0|02:43.9|128.9|19.9|148.4|171.0|09.2
W-|13090|65:49.0|02:30.9|139.4|19.2|151.7|171.0|10.4
R-|00929|10:43.0|05:46.6|064.3|24.0|128.5|171.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00885|04:12.2|02:22.5|138.2|18.5|131.6|147.0|11.3
02|02830|13:01.9|02:18.1|138.3|19.8|148.2|160.0|11.0
03|02836|15:23.0|02:42.7|137.5|18.3|151.7|162.0|10.1
04|02855|13:20.4|02:20.2|138.7|18.8|155.8|163.0|11.4
05|02904|15:55.1|02:44.4|135.5|18.8|155.2|162.0|09.7
06|00344|01:47.4|02:35.9|157.5|22.3|152.0|165.0|08.6
07|00063|00:21.5|02:49.8|161.8|25.4|160.1|163.0|07.0
08|00371|01:48.1|02:25.6|185.1|25.4|160.7|171.0|08.1

Thursday – April 24 – 75′ Steady State OTW

More wading through the flood.  More steady state, working on balance and the release.  EmPower Oarlock decided to not work.  A bit slower today.  Everything felt a bit heavy.

 

        Workout Summary - media/20190427-2025470o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13938|76:15.0|02:44.1|000.0|18.8|148.5|163.0|09.7
W-|12610|64:13.0|02:32.8|000.0|18.2|152.5|163.0|10.8
R-|01336|12:03.0|04:30.7|000.0|21.9|126.8|163.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00371|01:43.1|02:19.1|000.0|18.0|130.5|137.0|12.0
02|02901|13:31.1|02:19.8|000.0|18.0|146.6|156.0|11.9
03|02792|15:08.3|02:42.7|000.0|17.7|151.8|159.0|10.4
04|02844|13:32.7|02:22.9|000.0|18.4|156.0|163.0|11.4
05|02951|16:11.1|02:44.5|000.0|18.1|157.8|163.0|10.1
06|00342|01:54.8|02:47.6|000.0|18.8|150.3|156.0|09.5
07|00409|02:12.2|02:41.7|000.0|20.8|152.0|161.0|08.9

Friday – 10 x 1’/1′ L1 Static Erg

Another present from our friend Eric Murray.

Started with a Fletcher warmup and really pushed it hard.

Then the main event.

2019-04-26 07.43.042019-04-26 07.43.10

That was remarkably tough.  I was so not recovered in the last three intervals.

Saturday – April 27 – L4 4 x 20′ / 2′ on slides

Hectic weekend, getting ready for a trip out to St Louis.  Had a nice relaxing L4 down in the basement.

Sunday – April 28 – Aborted L3 Session

We were taking off for St. Louis in the afternoon, but I thought I would sneak in a quick 10K.  I made it 500m and gave up.  Then I felt bad and started again.  This time I made it 1500m and gave up.  I just walked away.  I never do that.

Monday – April 29 – 30′ inclined march

In St. Louis for my daughter’s PhD defense.  I bopped down to the fitness center for a quick session before the festivities began.  Nothing special.  Just trying to keep things ticking over.

bokeh_plot - 2019-05-04T220454.260

Heart rate recorded on the apple watch, sent to RunGap, then to strava, then to rowsandall.  Seamless! 😉

The PhD defense was astoundingly good.  I am a very proud father and my daughter is a doctor!

Tuesday – April 30 – 30′ Inclined march

Same deal.  quick session just to break a sweat before our flight home.

bokeh_plot - 2019-05-04T220841.517

Wednesday – May – 3 x 20′ L4 on slides

I had a dermatologist appointment in  the morning.  I was inspected all over and it appears that I don’t have skin cancer.  I do have a bit of eczema on my face, but that is not a big deal.  After the appointment, I dashed home and did a easy session before heading to the airport.

Then I showered and hit the road.  I flew to Miami and then to Costa Rica.  I was visiting our office down there.  I arrived around 7pm local time and I was dead tired.  I was asleep by 10.

Thursday – May 2 – 30′ minute inclined march

More of the same ticking over.  Lower HR than in St. Louis

bokeh_plot - 2019-05-04T221452.485

Then I headed to the office.  Tours and meetings went from 8:30am to 7pm.  Then we had a reception in the evening for an employee who was one of our first employees in the office, who had decided to move on.  I got to bed around 11 and needed to be up at 4:30am to catch my flight.

Friday – 3 May – No training

I caught a 7am flight out of Costa Rica, and arrived home around 7pm.  My wife and I had some dinner and hopped in the car to drive down to the cape.

Saturday – 4 May – 18K coastal row in Wellfleet.

It was a cool (about 50F) and cloudy day today, but the wind was quite light.  I was excited to do my first coastal row of the season.  I wanted to do a long and easy tour of the harbor.  The first 2/3 was just like that, but the end was a bit tough.

Screen Shot 2019-05-04 at 10.20.16 PM.png

I launched from the loagy bay beach and rowed up to Wellfleet Harbor.  The water was nice and flat and the breeze was behind me.  It was nearly high tide so there wasn’t much current that I noticed.  I rounded the breakwater at the harbor entrance and rowed around the town pier and up into the area of the boat slips.  I stopped for a drink and got ready for part 2.

I rowed back out of the harbor a headed west all the way across to the harbor at the north end of Great Island.  I rowed around the outside edge of the harbor and admired the shore birds.

As I rowed out of the sheltered harbor, I noticed that the wind had picked up a bit and since it was from the east, there was quite a bit of chop.  I headed close to due south and had the chop on my beam.  I had a fair amount of trouble holding the course and my left hand really blistered up as I was using almost constant starboard pressure to keep my bow from getting blow to the west.  I decided to row 2km south and then turn east for home.

The last bit going east was the hardest.  I was rowing straight into the easterly breeze and the tide was flowing out against me.  My splits slowed way down at the same effort I had been putting in all along.  As I approached the island, the chop calmed down quite a bit.  But I was pretty worn out after an hour and forty minutes of reasonably hard rowing.

It was a glorious row!  My hands are destroyed, but that’s OK.  I am so glad to be back out on the ocean.  The time passed so quickly, even when it was tougher rowing.  I just had a blast.

Tomorrow:  Maybe another coastal row, maybe an erg session.  It will depend on the schedule and how my hands feel.