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.

 

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