I am not a machine? 3 x 20′ + 2 x 1′

November 9, 2017November 9, 20171 Comment

In California. At Precision Crossfit in Agoura Hills. Once again, I was delighted by the experience dropping into a crossfit box. The ergs work, there are lots of people around, and everyone is really friendly.

I picked my erg and set it up off to the side so I wouldn’t get in the way. I didn’t have time for a full 80 minute session because I needed to be in a meeting by 8:15 and the box opened at 6am. So, I decided on 3 x 20′ + 2 x 1′.

I could tell almost from the first pull that today was not going to be a good day. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the erg, but it seemed to take a LOT of effort to pull 180W. Sitting on the erg, my HR was normal before I started, but it climbed fast, and it didn’t stop. I hung in with 180W through the first interval. I brought it down to 175W in the second interval, but it didn’t help. Then in the third, I decided to go as slowly as I needed to so I could keep my HR below 157bpm. Strangely enough this was 157W. 30W lower than I could hold at this HR yesterday.

Then I setup for the 2 x 1’/1′. This was equally ugly. I pushed the first minute hard, but this was still a lot more feeble than the hard minute I did a week ago (319m vs 330m). And I was pretty shattered. I tried to do the second rep, but I bailed out about halfway through. I paddled out the rest of that rep, took another minute rest, and then did a less aggressive minute (304m).

Bad days happen, my wife has a pretty nasty cold. In the past I have seen cases where I have lousy training results before I show any illness symptoms, so that might be it. It could also be jetlag, or some other mysterious reason.

Tomorrow, I fly back home during the day. I guess we’ll call it a rest day.

Edit: I just did a quick check of my training log. This is the first week after my the fitness tests, and it represented a strong shift toward long duration, low intensity work. The volume increase was pretty dramatic.

Maybe I’m just tired!

4 x 20′ / 1′ @ 186W

November 8, 2017Leave a comment

Back at base building. The mission today was to hold exactly 185W and measure lactate after 80 work minutes. I want to have a consistent training power that will yield 2.0 mmol/ml lactate readings at the end of a session.

It appears that lactate levels over time during endurance training can be different from person to person. What I have seen is that mine tend to stay at a reasonable constant level below 2.0mmol/ml for about 60 minutes, and then as I get fatigued, they start to rise. My Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) follows. I start to breath more heavily, and it feels like a lot more work in that last 20 minutes.

So, I aimed for 185W and I got 186W. In terms of my HR limits, it was right on. I measured lactate at the end…2.7mmol/ml. So, I need to back off the power, just a little bit.

I plan to aim at 180W for the next session and see what that gets me.

I’m at the airport now heading for LA. We’ll see if I can find a crossfit gym to drop into tomorrow, or else I will crosstrain in the fitness center.

Lactate Step Test

November 8, 2017November 8, 20173 Comments

Using the AIS Step Test Protocol

I estimated that my current 2k time would be around 7:00, or a 1:45 pace. The protocol provides the following step powers

Getting myself setup was a bit complicated.

HR sensor, connected to PM5
PM5 connected to painsled
headphones on, connected to iphone
Spotify set to my “8×500” playlist
Drag set to 130
Seat pad on erg
wet towel
dry towel
lancet tool
lactate meter battery OK
lay out 10 lactate test strips neatly
fan on
PM set to 4 minute intervals/1 minute rests, display to power

Then I did a baseline lactate test, just to make sure that I remembered the process.

wipe hands with dry towel
wipe sample finger with wet towel
dry sample finger
lance fingertip
pick up meter with non-sample hand
pick up strip with sample hand and insert strip
make sure meter has woken up
visually judge size of droplet
- If it is too small, put hand down low for 5 seconds
dab droplet with strip, starts 13 sec count down on meter
wipe finger
get a drink
get feet set for next interval
write down reading

When executed well, this whole process takes about 45 seconds. If there are any hiccups, it takes the whole 1 minute rest time.

The baseline was 1.4mmol/ml which is a perfectly reasonable reading.

Then I did the test. The steps start ridiculously easy. The key thing in my mind is to try to hit the power exactly on every stroke. I ended up bouncing a few watts up and down, but staying focused on the target kept me occupied while it was easy.

The target for the last step is “max”. I changed the display from watts to pace per 500. I wasn’t quite sure how hard I could hold for 4 minutes. I decided to try to make sure I did it faster than 1:45. As it turned out, I was able to accelerate in the last minute, so I probably could have pushed it a bit harder, but my HR was above 180 at the end so I was working pretty hard.

OK, so I did the test. What’s the point?

The main reason to do the test was to have a baseline to compare after training blocks are completed.

Beyond that, the curve can be used to estimate my current Lactate Threshold. There are multiple ways to extract this from the curve. The simplest is the power at which the lactate level exceeds 4.0mmol/ml. This gives an estimate of 243W (1:52.9). A more conservative method is to draw a best fit line for the sub-2.0mmol points and another for the steep part of the curve, and the point where they meet is the LT.

This method yields about 238. So, about 240 is a good guess. How does this compare with the 20′ test? The test measured 244W. So there!

The other useful output is a first cut at appropriate steady state training power. The goal here is to train at the highest power that results in a steady state lactate level at or below 2.0mmol/ml. From this test, training power should be between 180 and 205W.

Other testing I have done in the past shows that lactate tends to drift up slowly over a long steady state session, so something towards the bottom of this probably more appropriate.

4 x 20′ / 1′

November 6, 20176 Comments

Same plan as the past couple of days.

4 x 20′ / 1′ rest
rate: 19-21
power: 182W target
HR limit:
- 0-20′: 145
- 20′-40′: 150
- 40′-80′: 155

Last two days were in the afternoon in a nice cool basement down on the cape. Today was in the fitness center at work. I was a bit concerned since Monday morning workouts tend to be a bit worse than others.

Started with my PT exercises (you can follow the link to the full list)

I started with the most important corrective exercise, Isometric correction for SIJ. In this exercise you basically push you leg out while you hold it back with your arms. It pushes the head of the femur back in it’s socket to get things aligned. This addresses my big issue which is weak left glute. Because of this weakness, other muscles are firing when I bend over for the catch and this is pulling the joint out of alignment. After I do that, then I foam roller my quads and IT bands, do a diabolical thing called a hip flexor release which is bascially rolling around on a lacrosse ball looking for places that hurt. Then I do a glute exercise which is like a bridge on a exercise ball, and then an exercise to strength my obliques.

It takes about 5 minutes and I think it is helping a lot. I am noticing that it is way easier to keep my knees together at the catch, and my hips are rocking over in a much smoother way than before. I suspect that it might have something to do with the increase in steady power that I am getting, but there isn’t a lot of evidence supporting that, other than the fact that I started doing PT and my steady state power got better.

At any rate, it isn’t hurting anything, so I’m all for it.

The session went better than I hoped. I aimed at 182W, but 185W felt fine and my HR stayed nice and low, so I went with it. I kept going at that through 3 20′ pieces and then pushed a bit more in the fourth. holding 190 was a bit too much and I needed to back off to 185W to stay under the 155bpm cap. It was great that my HR came down nicely when I reduced the power from 190 to 185.

I thought it would interesting to look back over the summer to see if this feeling of getting better was actually accurate. It is. You can see power going up and down, and then recently getting much better and more consistent (narrower range). On the right, you can see avgHR around the same and the upper HR a bit lower, but a nice downward trend over the past few days.

Tomorrow: I it is time for a bit more intensity and a bit more testing. I think I will do a lactate step test using the AIS protocol.

The power levels for this test are supposed to be based on the prior years best 2k test. I will estimate 2k power based on the 1K and 20 minute tests from last week. Using the Free Spirits Pace Predictor, I get an estimated 2K time of 6:59.0. Using the CP Curve from Rowsandall, I get a range of 280W to 326W (1:47.7 to 1:42.4), right in the middle of that would be 1:45.

So, here are my targets…

The protocol is row for 4 minutes, take a minute to do a lactate, then do it a 6 more times.

4 x 20′ / 1′ + 2 x 1’/1′

November 6, 20173 Comments

Same session as yesterday. Same rules.

4 x 20′ / 1′ rests
rate: 19-20
power target: 180W
HR limit: 145 after 20′, 150 after 40′, 155 after 60′

I felt great in this session. My stroke felt stronger everything just felt easier. Not sure why, but I sure liked it.

       Workout Summary - media/20171105-1840300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19814|84:00.0|02:07.2|180.9|19.8|142.6|154.0|11.9
W-|19383|80:00.0|02:03.8|184.5|19.8|142.7|154.0|12.3
R-|00434|04:00.0|04:36.4|070.7|20.6|137.7|154.0|06.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04826|20:00.0|02:04.3|181.6|19.1|136.8|145.0|12.7
01|04825|20:00.0|02:04.3|182.0|19.6|142.9|147.0|12.3
02|04837|20:00.0|02:04.0|183.8|20.0|144.8|148.0|12.1
03|04894|20:00.0|02:02.6|190.5|20.4|146.2|154.0|12.0

I was under my HR limit after 40′, so I nudged the power up just a couple of watts. My HR stayed nice and low through the third piece. So, in the last piece, nudged it up more for the first 10 minutes of so, and my HR was still ice and low, so I decided to push even harder to see what it would take to get up to the 155 HR limit. I needed to hold about 195 watts to slowly get up to the limit by the end.

I am more than ever convinced that I need to start low and push up over a session. Some people are able to start hard, and then ease off. That never seems to work for me. I will stick with 182W as a starting power, and stick with that through the first 40 minutes. If I am well under the cap, I will push harder in the second half.

After I finished the main course, I had some dessert.

I went all out in the first one, but with low drag and tired legs. I expect that I could squeeze out a bit more distance if I did it fresh and set myself up for a proper sprint. Considering my best 500m was 1:28.4, I hope I can improve this as I go along.

Tomorrow: Another base builder session.

4×20’/1′

November 4, 2017Leave a comment

Base building now. Waiting until I get a plan from Marlene.

          Workout Summary - media/20171104-1805300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19507|84:00.0|02:09.2|176.7|19.4|145.5|154.0|12.0
W-|19192|80:00.0|02:05.1|179.0|19.4|145.4|154.0|12.4
R-|00319|04:00.0|06:16.0|070.0|19.1|141.5|154.0|05.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04787|20:00.0|02:05.3|177.2|19.0|137.4|146.0|12.6
01|04776|20:00.0|02:05.6|176.8|19.0|145.5|151.0|12.6
02|04805|20:00.0|02:04.9|180.2|19.8|148.0|153.0|12.2
03|04825|20:00.0|02:04.4|181.8|20.0|150.9|154.0|12.1

That went very well. Initial power target was 175W, but 177 felt good. I was under the HR limits at the end of 40 minutes so I decided to inch up the power a little. Then a bit more in the last 20 minutes. I felt relaxed and good through the session.

If at first you don’t succeed…

November 3, 2017November 3, 20176 Comments

After yesterday, I was nervous and frankly full of dread about doing the 20′ time trial today.

I saw yesterday that 1:50 was too aggressive as a target, so today, I backed off to 1:53.

I started with a very short 1k warmup.

Workout Summary - media/20171103-1135460o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|01000|03:56.0|01:58.3|210.9|22.2|129.3|147.0|11.4
W-|01000|03:56.0|01:58.5|207.5|21.9|128.3|147.0|11.7
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|00150|00:36.6|02:02.0|159.3|16.5|080.1|103.0|14.9
01|00100|00:22.2|01:51.2|236.9|23.9|113.6|121.0|11.3
02|00150|00:37.2|02:04.0|191.0|21.2|130.9|136.0|11.4
03|00100|00:22.5|01:52.7|249.7|25.3|137.9|139.0|10.5
04|00150|00:37.5|02:04.9|187.5|21.1|142.2|144.0|11.4
05|00100|00:22.1|01:50.6|247.7|25.3|141.2|142.0|10.7
06|00150|00:37.2|02:03.9|191.0|21.5|144.8|147.0|11.2
07|00100|00:21.6|01:47.8|265.2|25.3|145.0|146.0|11.0

Then onto the main event.

Pace target: 1:53
Rate target: 25

I promised myself to not quit on this test. If I needed to, I would slow down by a split or two, but I would keep going and just get it done. After all the point was to establish a baseline for the purpose of planning my training. If the test shows that I am weak here, then that is useful data. Useful data that really hurts to collect.

         Workout Summary - media/20171103-1135300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|05318|20:00.0|01:52.8|243.8|25.1|169.2|183.0|10.6
W-|05324|20:00.0|01:52.7|243.7|25.1|169.1|183.0|10.6
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|00537|02:00.0|01:51.6|239.1|23.2|134.8|157.0|11.6
01|00534|02:00.0|01:52.4|249.2|25.0|159.9|164.0|10.7
02|00535|02:00.0|01:52.2|247.5|25.0|165.6|167.0|10.7
03|00534|02:00.0|01:52.5|246.3|25.1|168.2|170.0|10.6
04|00533|02:00.0|01:52.6|245.2|25.1|170.5|171.0|10.6
05|00533|02:00.0|01:52.7|244.8|25.3|172.5|174.0|10.5
06|00531|02:00.0|01:53.0|242.4|25.2|176.3|179.0|10.5
07|00527|02:00.0|01:53.9|237.6|25.2|179.0|181.0|10.5
08|00526|02:00.0|01:54.2|235.0|25.5|181.9|182.0|10.3
09|00536|02:00.0|01:52.0|250.1|26.2|181.8|183.0|10.2

This was pretty hard from beginning to end. I was very worried about halfway through and I started playing around a little bit with rate and pressure to try to find a comfortable groove. I was counting blocks of 125 strokes for each 5 minute section. My HR was above 95% of HRR with 6 minutes to go and I was pretty miserable in the last 5 minutes. I eased off a bit until I saw that I had 2 minutes to go, actually when I had counted to 75 strokes in the last section. Then I pushed again to try to finish strong while counting down the last 50 strokes.

So, I ended up a bit below target, but this was a good solid test. I think it reflects where I am right now.

After I caught my breath, I did a 3K cool down

          Workout Summary - media/20171103-1150290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|03000|13:09.0|02:11.6|156.5|19.8|151.3|163.0|11.5
W-|03000|13:10.0|02:11.7|154.4|19.7|151.4|163.0|11.6
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|163.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00500|01:58.0|01:58.0|201.6|21.8|136.7|156.0|11.7
01|00500|02:04.7|02:04.7|182.3|21.0|161.4|162.0|11.4
02|00500|02:09.1|02:09.1|162.7|20.2|159.8|163.0|11.5
03|00500|02:14.4|02:14.4|145.2|19.0|155.3|157.0|11.7
04|00500|02:19.9|02:19.9|129.0|18.5|149.9|152.0|11.6
05|00500|02:24.1|02:24.1|117.5|18.4|144.9|147.0|11.3

Tomorrow: Recovery session. If the weather is nice, I’m hoping for a open water row.

I’m compiling the results and I I’ll post the analysis in a little while

Well that didn’t go well

November 2, 2017November 2, 20173 Comments

Yesterday, was a rest day. I spent the day on appointments and errands

Dentist appointment: Which made me unhappy because I apparently have a cracked tooth and need a crown.
PT appointment: Which hurt like hell. I have two issues.
- My left glute is weak and this is causing a misalignment in my hips. This has caused a chain reaction of sorts resulting in my left quad being all tight and my legs presenting as different lengths.
- The very bottom part of my spine above and below my L5 is a bit out of alignment and the PT believes that I have impingement between vertebrae when I lean back at the finish. I need to work on rocking my pelvis forward in rowing and in real life.
- First he did some deep tissue massage to try to get my lower spine unkotted. That wasn’t so bad. Then he moved onto the left quadricep and tried to work out some adhesions that had formed between the different elements of the quad. He used a combination of deep tissue massage and active release in two different poistions. This hurt so much that I wept. After that, he showed me a couple more exercises to work on strengthing my glutes and obliques to try to support better pelvic posture. I limped out of the appointment.
From there, I headed off to the Apple store. I dropped my phone on a concrete floor on Sunday and cracked the screen. I discovered that the screen can be replaced reasonably easily. They said it would be done in about 90 minutes.
Next stop was a radiology center. In my hip X-Rays, the radiologist saw a “deformity” on one of my ribs on the right side and recommended a follow up x-ray of the area. So, I did that. I wonder what will come of it?
Then back to the Apple store to pick up my repaired phone.

Whew!

Thursday

The plan for today was a 20 minute test. I got a good night’s sleep and I headed into work. I was in the gym by about 6:45. I started with a 2k warmup.

Workout Summary - media/20171102-1125300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02000|07:59.0|01:59.8|213.3|21.7|143.5|161.0|11.6
W-|02000|07:59.0|01:59.8|205.9|21.2|142.3|161.0|12.0
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|161.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00300|01:15.4|02:05.7|159.1|16.1|111.8|127.0|14.8
01|00200|00:46.9|01:57.3|214.0|21.9|133.7|138.0|11.7
02|00300|01:16.8|02:08.1|173.1|19.5|141.8|143.0|12.0
03|00200|00:45.4|01:53.4|235.2|23.2|143.6|147.0|11.4
04|00300|01:16.6|02:07.7|171.3|20.0|149.8|151.0|11.8
05|00200|00:43.4|01:48.4|265.6|24.9|151.2|155.0|11.1
06|00300|01:15.0|02:05.0|188.3|21.3|156.9|158.0|11.3
07|00200|00:39.9|01:39.8|348.6|29.1|157.6|161.0|10.3

Then, I gathered my courage for a 20 minute time trial. Based on the rowsandall OTE CP Analysis, my projected power for a piece this length was between 245W and 285W (1:52.6 to 1:47.1). The wide band is the result of pretty funny looking CP curve.

Why does it look like this? Well, that’s because the data extracted from erg pieces (red dots) is based on 3 strong results (75′, 1km, LP). The plateau from 50 seconds to 200 seconds is the data from the 1K test. The low end was set by the peak power test. The upper end was set by the 75′ test.

Just from recent experience, it seemed that 1:47 was way to big of an ask. I thought that 1:50 might work, but was risky. I decided to start there and slow down if needed.

I got myself setup and got going. I held 1:50 through the first 1250m, but I was in a lot of respiratory distress, and my HR was a bit higher than I was hoping to see. I basically lost hope and stopped.

Workout Summary - media/20171102-1125450o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|01580|06:00.0|01:53.9|259.1|25.1|158.3|172.0|10.5
W-|01505|05:30.0|01:49.7|262.0|25.2|157.6|172.0|10.8
R-|00076|00:30.0|03:16.1|200.8|23.1|172.0|172.0|06.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01505|05:30.0|01:49.7|262.0|25.2|157.6|172.0|10.8

Humph. That was disappointing. I sat around for a little while trying to figure out what happened. I had a bit of DOMS in my quads from the PT appointment, but that didn’t bother me much. My HR was definitely a bit high and I was struggling, but slowing down didn’t seem to work. I think part of my problem was just an unwillingness to endure the discomfort today.

After mulling it over for a few minutes, I decided to give it another try, but this time at 1:52. This didn’t go any better. I lasted about the same amount of time, and gave up when it started to hurt.

         Workout Summary - media/20171102-1126000o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|01211|04:33.0|01:52.7|244.6|24.8|155.4|173.0|10.7
W-|01212|04:33.0|01:52.7|244.6|24.8|155.4|173.0|10.8
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|173.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01212|04:33.0|01:52.7|244.6|24.8|155.4|173.0|10.8

After that, I gave up and just did a cool down.

I wanted to compare these failures to the reasonably successful 6K session that I did on October 9th. The orange trace was the first attempt. You can see I started at about 265W and faded a bit toward 250W through the first 5 minutes. The HR response was much higher today than in the 6K test. It seems pretty clear that that the fatigue from the first attempt was effecting the HR for the second attempt.

So, now I try again tomorrow. target is 250W.

Tuesday: 1K Test

October 31, 20172 Comments

Monday: The test protocol called for a rest day, and that was a good thing. I was in meetings from 7am to 7pm.

Tuesday: Today’s goal was a 1K test.

This test measures your VO2 max. Row 1000 meters at racing pace at your absolute best effort. Record your average watts. Stroke rates may range from 26-28 up to above 34. Also note in your data the average 500-meter split, total time, and stroke rate for future reference. Make sure to warm up properly and do a cool down row for at least 15 minutes easy after the test to help recovery.

So, scary words…absolute best effort. The question is what is my pace or power target. The CP pace predictor said that I should target about 300W. This is about a 1:45 pace. I felt pretty sure that I could do better than that. Looking at the test results so far.

Peak power: 1:18.6 vs 1:16.9 PR in 2015 ( 721W vs 770W – 94% of PR)
75′ test: 1:59.2 vs 1:53.6 HM PR in 2016 ( 206.7W vs 238W – 87% of PR)

So, it I thought it would be reasonable to look at targeting something like 90% of 1K PR watts. That PR dates from 2014 and was 3:10.5, 1:35.2 pace, 406W. 90% of that would be 365W which translates to 1:38.6 pace. That, frankly was a little bit scary for me. So I decided to start off around 1:41 and see if I had the oomph to speed up in the second half.

So, that was my plan. I started off with an aggressive Fletcher warmup.

          Workout Summary - media/20171031-1140300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|05011|19:59.0|01:59.7|213.7|21.0|157.4|175.0|11.9
W-|05013|19:59.0|01:59.7|212.2|20.9|156.7|175.0|12.0
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|175.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00940|03:54.0|02:04.5|176.7|17.9|129.7|146.0|13.4
01|00995|04:01.0|02:01.1|196.8|19.9|151.1|156.0|12.4
02|01040|04:01.5|01:56.1|223.9|22.3|161.3|166.0|11.6
03|01036|03:58.5|01:55.1|250.0|23.2|168.9|175.0|11.3
04|01001|04:04.9|02:02.3|212.7|21.2|171.5|175.0|11.6

This was a bit disconcerting. It seemed like my HR was a bit too high, and I was breathing hard. I decided this was nerves. I waited a bit more than 5 minutes after finishing to get set up for my 1K.

For some reason, the HR monitor lagged significantly. Not sure why. I’ve seen that with the Wahoo, but I hadn’t yet for the Polar OH1.

As for the row, it basically went to plan. I focused on just hitting 30 spm and 1:41 at first and counted strokes. I felt good at 250 and I pushed a bit. At 500, it was stinging, but I started to feel ambitious and I pushed the rate up a bit and managed to work the splits down so 1:38 and 1:39 were dancing on the screen. I did pretty well, because I thought the world was ending around the 750m mark. But I kept counting my strokes and knew that I had about 30 to go. I just closed my eyes and counted down. With 5 to go I opened my eyes and finished it off. 3:18.9. 356W. Not so bad. I guess the stretch target wasn’t far off.

I was pretty well shattered by that. It took a couple of attempts to get going with a cool down and an hour to stop sweating. Now I have a nasty erg cough and a glimmer of pride. This workout ranked in the 93rd percentile (31st of 429 for my age bracket).

Tomorrow: Scheduled rest day.

Thursday: 20′ Test. Gotta figure a pace for that one too!

Sunday: 75′ Aerobic Threshold Test

October 29, 2017October 29, 20174 Comments

Second Royle Row Test.

Day 2: 75-Minute Row:

This test measures your aerobic threshold. Row for 75 minutes, at the end, record your average watts. Also note in your data the average 500-meter split, total distance rowed, and stroke rate for future reference. Suggested stroke rate between 18-24. Aim for a pace that you can maintain for the duration. This is equivalent to your best steady state pace. Do not stop during the test. You may want to set a water bottle close by if you need to drink during the 75 minutes.

I got up around 9 and was on the rower by 9:30. I dutifully set the drag factor for 130. My critical power curves predicted that I should be able to hold around 190W (2:02.5). Pride, and the knowledge that my PB for a half marathon was at 1:53.6 pace caused me to target something a bit better. I decided to start at a 1:58 pace and see how things went.

I held the 1:58 through the first 25 minutes. By then, my HR was edging up close to 160 and I had another 50 minutes of rowing to go. I decided to ease up to 1:59. I held that basically to the halfway point. At halfway, I eased further to a 2:00 target and just kept counting strokes. I was hovering between 22 and 23 SPM, so I would count strokes in 5 minute chunks. It was between 111 and 113 strokes in each one.

At 55 minutes, I was getting really ragged. My stroke rate was bouncing around a bit more and I was having trouble staying focused. I started seeing a lot of 2:01s and 2:02s on the screen, but I was getting close enough to the end to know that I wasn’t going to give up. I just kept counting strokes. Once I got to 10 minutes to go, I felt confident enough to start pushing back to my target, and with five minutes to go, I knew I was going to be able to finish with a bit of a kick.

40 minutes in TR and AN. I was totally destroyed when I finished. I am bummed out about how far I am from my best at these long distances, but I’m happy to have made with a sub-2:00 pace at least.

          Workout Summary - media/20171029-161526-sled_2017-10-29T09-40-16ZEDT.strokes.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|18873|75:00.0|01:59.2|206.7|22.5|162.6|181.0|11.2
W-|18878|75:00.0|01:59.2|206.7|22.5|162.4|181.0|11.2
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|181.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01905|07:30.0|01:58.1|210.9|22.1|130.0|145.0|11.5
01|01911|07:30.0|01:57.8|214.2|22.4|148.1|151.0|11.4
02|01904|07:30.0|01:58.2|212.2|22.3|153.8|159.0|11.4
03|01893|07:30.0|01:58.8|208.6|22.1|159.9|162.0|11.4
04|01889|07:30.0|01:59.1|207.1|22.1|164.5|167.0|11.4
05|01883|07:30.0|01:59.5|205.3|22.1|168.9|170.0|11.3
06|01878|07:30.0|01:59.8|203.3|22.3|171.6|173.0|11.2
07|01862|07:30.0|02:00.8|198.5|22.4|173.4|175.0|11.1
08|01860|07:30.0|02:01.0|197.6|22.8|175.6|178.0|10.9
09|01892|07:30.0|01:58.9|209.3|24.3|178.7|181.0|10.4

Tomorrow: Rest Day. Then on Tuesday is the 1K test.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Category: Training Journal