Friday – 5/29 – rest day

I was murdered by the GPS Speed Order. I took the day off.

Saturday – 5/30 – beach run

This was a very hard slog. My HR was through the roof and I was incredibly slow. Halfway through, I was convinced that I was coming down with COVID-19, my lungs just didn’t seem to be working.

It was still a very nice day to be out though.

Sunday – 5/31 – 6 darts games

New high score! 14775! Higher HR drift though 5.7%

Monday – 6/1 – 5km run

Just a short run. Limited time before my first meeting. Kept it easy.

Tuesday – 6/2 – Lake Quinsigamond GPS Speed Order

Our club has been given permission to open, and we have developed our procedures to keep everyone safe. Singles and Doubles only. Doubles have to be people living in the same house. We have 10 minute windows for launching from the dock to keep people from congregating. Also, temp check, mandatory masks on the dock and sign in. I’m really pleased that the club is being this careful.

I have setup a GPS Speed Order on Lake Quinsigamond to try to lure some of my worcester rowing buddies to get out and do a little competing. The challenge is running all of June, and I wanted to get an early marker in.

So, I launched and headed down to the south end of the lake, doing a reasonable warmup on the way.

I turned around and planned to cover the course at r24, which seems to be about the limit of my fitness right now.

The row was pretty uneventful. I felt good up through the islands and past the narrows. I started to get kinda tired in the long span from the narrows to the bridge. About 500m short of the bridge, I got waked by a waterski boat, and managed to catch a nasty crab as I tried to row through it. It basically stopped me dead and it took a lot out of me to get back going.

The row from the bridge to the gazebo was endless, as it always is. In my mind, the gazebo is halfway, but actually it is much closer to the finish at the DRC docks. I counted strokes from the Gazebo to the finish and it was about 60.

You can explore my race by going here.

        Workout Summary - media/7f8779b0f6-20200602-142054o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11658|01:04:33.7|02:46.1|131.0|21.2|144.6|178.0|08.5
W-|04855|00:22:36.7|02:19.7|175.6|24.1|166.1|178.0|08.9
R-|06804|00:41:57.0|03:05.0|107.0|19.6|133.0|178.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|04855|22:36.7|02:19.7|175.6|24.1|166.1|178.0|08.9

So, a nice improvement on pace from the Charles River GPS Speed Order.

In terms of course, a much easier course to row than the Charles River GPS Speed Order, and I rowed it better. But there is still room for improvement.

I like my course from the start past the little island and toward Drake Island. But I held that course too long. As soon as I was on a line between Drake Island and the point of land with Smith Lane, I should have set my point right on that point. That would have put me on a straight line for the Narrows, and I would have avoided the s-curve.

Same deal after the Narrows.

I have been taught to take a couple of port strokes at the narrows to get out of the way of boats coming down lake to the Narrows. I think I took it way too far. I could have just taken a point to the Island off the beach and that would have taken me straight to the bridge.

I also did an s-turn thingy after the bridge.

I need to figure out a good point south of the bridge to pick up and focus on to keep from drifting to middle. By the map, it’s the last house before the little marina south of the bridge, but I don’t know exactly what that looks like.

It was another really fun row. Highly motivated to keep plugging. Fun to play with the results afterwards.

Wednesday – 6/3 – Steady State – Lake Quinsigamond

I wanted a nice long row, and that’s what I got.

There was a bit of a wind from the south which sped things up on the way up the lake and slowed me down on the way down.

I was having such a good time that I added a bit extra. Instead of just doing the normal 12K loop of the lake, I kept going back down to the narrows and back again.

        Workout Summary - media/a83f56f61b-20200603-133055o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14871|01:19:48.6|02:41.0|130.9|19.6|141.4|155.0|09.5
W-|13938|01:10:27.4|02:31.6|140.0|19.3|144.2|155.0|10.2
R-|00938|00:09:21.6|04:59.4|062.2|21.7|119.9|155.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03420|17:21.8|02:32.3|140.5|18.9|137.1|146.0|10.4
02|05664|28:02.7|02:28.5|142.5|19.7|148.1|155.0|10.3
03|03554|18:28.1|02:35.9|136.9|19.5|146.3|153.0|09.9
04|01300|06:34.8|02:31.8|136.7|18.5|140.3|150.0|10.7

I am delighted to be back on the water.

Thursday – 6/4 – Drills on the 5s

Between the GPS speed order on Tuesday and the long session on Wednesday, I woke up sore and tired. I decided to do a technical session and keep it light.

So, I did 4 minutes of rowing at about r20, and then one minute of drills

• On the square
• Slow roll ups
• Delayed Feather
• Pause at body over
• Open hands on recovery

I was really feeling the effort in the steady state sections and looked forward to the drills as a bit of a break. I think I have ramped up volume significantly and I was feeling it.

Friday – 6/5 – quick run

Well a short run, done slowly. I was planning to go rowing on Friday morning, but ended up staying up too late. So I scrubbed out of my launch window, and slept in instead. This might have been intelligently listening to my body, or just laziness.

I think I needed the sleep. I got up in time for my first meeting of the day and then at lunch time, I snuck out for a short run, just 2 miles around my neighborhood.

Saturday – 6/6 – 6 Darts Games

Down on the cape, but too windy for a coastal row. So, it was time for Darts! Chasing after high scores. My best is 14775. Today, I came close, but didn’t beat it. 3.98% drift.

After that, me and my son spent about 4 hours working on rebuilding our stairs down to the beach which have been destroyed for the third season in a row. Very sore and tired now.

Tomorrow: I think I will go for a run, or a coastal row, if the weather is nice.