Category: Training Journal

Sunday: 3 x 20′ L4

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We got home around noon.  I had a bunch of errands and other work around the house to do.  I finally had a window to erg around 5:30pm.  I just wanted a easy endurance session to keep things ticking over.

Plan:

  • 3 x 20′ / 1′ rest
  • L4 format, 10W x stroke rate
  • Ease into over the first 10 minutes, starting at 160W
  • Thereafter aim for ~190W (18/19/20/19/18)
  • HR Cap at ~150
  • Lactate test at the end.

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The workout felt good.  Nice low HR, and RPE was fine.  But when I tested Lactate at the end, it was 2.4mmol/l.  A bit too high.  Time to move the training power back to 185W.

 

Saturday: 16km Open Water Row

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We headed down to the cape after work on Friday and arrived around 8pm.  I’m still struggling a bit with Jet lag and I was asleep by 10pm.  I woke up around 4am, but managed to eventually get back to sleep and got up for good around 7:30.  When I got up, I looked out and it was absolutely stunning outside.  Temperature was around 55F, and there was just a little bit of wind, maybe 1-2mph.  Even better, it was nearly high tide, so launch and recovery would be easy.  I tossed my boat on top of my car and headed to the beach about 2 minutes away.

I launched and discovered that I had forgotten my seat!  Oh well, I paddled to the base of my stairs, ran up to my house, got my seat, and then I started my row.

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First, I headed straight up to Wellfleet harbor.  I noticed that my boat speed was pretty good (around 2:30-2:40).  Remember, I am in an Alden star.  I usually have to work pretty hard to go that fast.  Then it occurred to me that I was riding the incoming tide up the harbor.  After that, it was kind of fun to maintain the same pressure and watch the boat speed move around depending on the tidal current.

I rowed through Wellfleet harbor and around the town pier.  I rowed a way up into the old harbor.   I turned around when it started to get a bit narrow.  Then I headed south along the east shore of the harbor, turning again when I ran out of space.

Then I headed across toward the long spit that forms Wellfleet harbor.  At the north end of this is a tidal estuary called the Herring River.  I had never gone up there, so I paddled through with the tide and briefly saw a 2:20 pace when I was in the middle of the channel.

I did a big loop around and headed back south along the spit.  I rowed 2km south, and then cut across the bay.  The wind had picked up just a little and there was a cross chop that made rowing a bit more challenging.  Once I was over to Lt. Island, the water was flatter and I pushed along to the finish at the beach.

Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|16727|94:49.0|02:50.1|21.1|145.9|156.0|08.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|05048|28:00.0|02:46.4|20.2|139.4|147.0|08.9 - With the tide
02|05476|30:00.0|02:44.4|20.9|146.6|151.0|08.7 - harvbor & Herring River
03|05614|32:49.0|02:55.4|22.2|151.6|156.0|07.7 - Back against the tide

I felt great after the workout.  Energized and happy.  But within an hour or so, I felt pretty drained.  It was a long session.  I had trouble keeping my eyes open by 8pm and I was asleep before 10.

The featured image was the sunset on Saturday night.  It was close to low tide then.  I’m not sure the picture does justice to the incredible colors.

 

Friday: Head Race Piece in the 2x

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Thursday:  I got home from the airport around 11pm. I slept in and didn’t have a chance to workout.  Probably not a bad idea anyway.  I felt pretty beaten up by the flights.

Friday:

Weather:  Light wind from the NorthEast, about 3-5 mph.  A tailwind for the first 5K of the 6.5K piece.  It was completely dark at 5:30am.  It was around sunrise when we finished.

Plan:

  • Warmup to the north end of the lake
  • Head race piece from the north end of the lake, with a loop around the islands to practice turning under pressure
  • Rate: 24-25, Pace between 2:15 and 2:20
  • Cool down:  just back to the dock.

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I felt shaky at first.  It had been 2 weeks since I had been in a boat.  But by the time we got to the north end of the lake, I was fine.  In some ways, it might have been good.  I was a bit more deliberate in my stroke.  I was doing better getting my blades off the water, and I was more conscious about blade depth.

Since I had had been out of the boat for a while, and also since Joe was racing on Saturday, we decided to keep the rate a bit lower.  This worked out well.  Sad to say, we start to lose efficiency above about 25 spm.

Workout Summary – media/20161014-165601-77329o.csv
–|Total|-Total-|–Avg–|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
–|Dist-|-Time–|-Pace–|SPM-|-HR–|-HR–|-DPS
–|10880|62:16.0|02:51.7|23.1|147.7|173.0|07.5

Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
02|02000|10:29.3|02:37.3|21.0|144.6|158.0|09.1
03|06500|29:43.7|02:17.2|25.4|165.1|173.0|08.6
04|01780|13:06.0|03:40.8|20.1|132.1|173.0|06.8

The was the dawn after we put away the boat.  I pretty morning.

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4 x 1.8km Threshold on Treadmill

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Ooof.  Hard work.

I hit the fitness center at 6am on the dot.  My legs and back are still sore from the weights, but loosened up during my warmup.

Plan:

  • 20 minute warmup with 3 – 2 minute chunks at 5:30 pace
  • 4 x 10′ (2.5% grade, 5:30/km pace)
  • 5′ recoveries (2.5% grade, 12:00/km pace)

I made it through the first two intervals at my target pace, but I needed to to dig really deep to finish  the second one.  I gave myself a break and took the pace down to 6:00/km for the last two intervals. This took just enough of the edge off so I could complete the workout.  HR monitor started to act up again in the last two intervals.

I’m really tired now.

Tonight I fly out around 5pm.  I am flying through Dallas and get home to Boston at 11pm Boston time.  I can’t wait to get home.

Tuesday: 2 x 30′ fitness center

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I was planning a 3 x 30′ session this morning, but I just got bored and tired and then I stopped.

  • 30′ inclined march (15% grade, 5 km/h)
  • 30′ on some weird version of an cross trainer.

I walked over to a stationary bike, and got on and started pedaling.  But my thighs hurt a bit, and I was feeling pretty unmotivated.  I decided 60 minutes was enough for today.

Now, my whole body hurts with DOMS from the puny weights I was lifting.  I imagine it will hurt even worse tomorrow.

Tomorrow:  Threshold run on the treadmill – 4 x 10′

I have a couple more meetings tomorrow and then fly out of Korea in the early evening.  I am so tired of being on the road.  I can’t wait to get home.

 

Monday: 40′ elliptical, a little strength training

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Back in the fitness center at the JW Marriott in Seoul.  I slept well, and a long time too, maybe 8 hours.  But I woke up sore and tired.  Looking back over the past week, I’m not too surprised.  My volume is a lot higher than normal.  I think it’s OK to push a bit past normal for these two weeks to try to get a little bit of supercompensation when I taper back for the HOCR.  I’ll be forced into a rest day when I travel back over Wednesday/Thursday.

Today, I thought it would be good to do a little strength work, especially for rowing related moves.  But I wanted to do a little aerobic work first.*  So, here is the plan

Plan:

  • 40′ elliptical (easy intervals)
  • Front Squats
  • seated rows

The work on the elliptical felt pretty damn hard, but my HR was pretty low.  I guess that is accumulated fatigue.

As for strength, I had no idea what to expect.  The fitness center was admirably equipped.  There was not one, but two, squat racks.  Not Smith machines, but actual squat racks.  So, I decided that doing some front squats would be a good idea.  Why Front Squats?  Well since I haven’t done any lifting for the longest time, I didn’t want to do back squats and be tempted to go too heavy and mess myself up.  By doing front squats, I was much more limited in what I could lift.

I warmed up with 12 reps of just the bar (20kg).  I was surprised that I was feeling it in my thighs just from the warm up set.  Then I loaded two 10kg plates and embarked on my first set.  I managed 8 reps with good form, but my thighs were complaining.  Wow!  I think I need to do some remedial strength work!  I did 2 more sets of 8 reps.

Then I went over to a cable pull station and got myself set up to be able to do seated rows.  I set it up so that I got tension with the bard over my toes, and I essentially did the body/arms part of the stroke with as much acceleration as I could.  I loaded the full stack (45kg) and managed 2 sets of 20 and 1 set of 15.

After that I thought about doing some more, but I was pretty torched, so I had a drik of water, and called it a day.

Tomorrow:  The fitness center triathlon (again).

Sunday: Intervals, they’re good for the Seoul

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Sorry, couldn’t resist the pun.

Check out what I saw in the hotel fitness center.  Yes, indeed, that is a mechanical horse.  In fact, I saw someone riding it.  This was not a wild bucking ride like the mechanical bulls in a bar, more like the little horsies you see in small arcades.  Imagine, they had two of these things, about 40 treadmills, 20 ellipitcals, countless stair steppers, free weights, weight machines…BUT NOT A SINGLE ROWER!  Arghhhhhh!  What the hell is wrong with these people!

Sorry, back to the workout.

Plan:

  • 5 minute warmup
  • On the treadmill
  • 14 x 500m at 5:30/km and 2.5% grade
  • 1′ rest at 8’/km and 2.5% grade

At first I thought I might have made things too easy.  By the end I was pretty sure I hadn’t.  It was a struggle to get through the last few reps.  The HR monitor was problematic today.  It kept sliding down and was getting some bad readings at the beginning, and dropouts at other times.

Tomorrow:  40′ endurance plus strength.  I have all these weights here, I might as well use them.

 

Saturday: Fitness Center Drudgery

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Well, it’s Saturday morning now.  I’ve been on the road for 5 full days and I am getting tired of it.  Yesterday was another day of customer and internal meetings and I finished off with a dinner with the guy who is responsible for sales in this region.  After that, it was back to my hotel to join a couple of conference calls.  This lasted until after 2AM.

I slept from around 3 to around 7, and then headed down the the gym.  On tap for today, another fitness center triathlon.  Today, I was determined to keep it nice and easy so that I would have no excuses in another threshold session tomorrow.

Plan:

  • 30 minutes inclined march (15% grade, 3mph)
  • 30 minutes bike (“foothills” program, level 14)
  • 30 minutes elliptical (“around the world” program, level 17)

I was working out a bit later and its pretty obvious that they turn off the AC at night because it was much cooler and dryer in the fitness center at 8am than it is at 5am.  This was reflected in much lower HR and RPE for all three chunks of the workout.

For example, both yesterday and today started with a 30′ inclined march at 15% grade and 3mph.  Yesterday, my HR at 30 minutes was 151bpm.  Today, 143 bpm.

This afternoon, I am heading to the airport for a shortish flight to Korea.  I hang out there on Sunday, and then have 3 days of internal and customer meetings before I fly out on Wednesday afternoon.  It can’t come soon enough.

Tomorrow:  I think a 20 x 2 minutes on/1 minute off interval session on the treadmill.

 

Friday: 3 x 30’Sweatfest

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I remain in Taiwan.  I’m in the city of Hsinchu, which was a pretty grimy place, but is rapidly changing into a pretty cosmopolitan, energtic place.  There is ton of public art in Taiwan, and many public buildings have sculptures outside.  The featured image is probably my favorite.  It’s a sculpture outside the Hsinchu cultural center.  To give you an idea of scale, the magnifying glass is probably about 6 feet in diameter.  You can walk right through it.

Plan:

  • 30′ Inclined march on the treadmill (15% grade, 3mph)
  • 30′ run (1% grade, 5.7mph)
  • 30′ Elliptical (“Cascades”, level 14)

That wasn’t too bad.  The time seemed to pass a bit faster today.  During the first 30 minutes I listened to the NPR Politics Podcast.  They were talking about the Vice Presidential Debate.  After that I listened to the Original Cast Album of the musical Hamilton, which was great.

My biggest issue was that my shorts got so heavy with sweat that they started falling down during my run.  I needed to hoist them up every minute or so to keep from losing the around my ankles.

My HR monitor seemed to be acting up.  Popping up to higher heart rates and then dropping back down.  In general, my HR seemed to be running a bit hot today, but in terms of RPE, the workout was solidly aerobic.  I think I will change the battery in the strap just in case that’s the problem.

Here’s a measure of the humidity.

2016-10-07-06-56-43

That’s the elliptical machine after finished using it.  And, yep, that is a genuine puddle in front of the pedal.  That is sweat that ran down my leg, through my sneaker and collected there in last 30 minutes of my workout.  I think that rates an “ewww!”

 

Thursday: 30′ Threshold Run

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Yesterday I went up to Taipei for a meeting.  One of the best developments in Taiwan was the construction of a High Speed Rail line from the north end of the island to the south along the west coast.  Most of the population of Taiwan is along the western coast, the east coast is rural and wild.  It used to be miserable to get from one city to another on the clogged highways, now it is a modern marvel.  We hopped on a train in Hsinchu and we were in Taipei in less than 30 minutes.  Fantastic!

I had a couple of other meetings in the afternoon, and then I begged off of dinner with the local team.  Since I had woken up before 4AM, I was tired, and frankly, I was also weary of being with people.  I needed a little time by myself to think and recharge.

I guess I was pretty tired because I fell asleep before 8 and woke up around 4AM.  I had time for a hella long workout if I wanted, but I decided to stick to my plan for a hard threshold session.

Plan:

  • 10′ warmup on the treadmill.  Gradually speeding up.  Last 2 minutes faster than target pace.
  • 30′ Threshold run on the treadmill.  2% incline, 10km/h
  • Adjust speed as necessary to push HR well into TR through second half of the run.
  • cool down

I actually kind of enjoyed that.  I cranked up my sprinting playlist on Spotify, and generally ran to the beat.  I held 10km/hr until I had 5 minutes left.  Then I sped up just a little bit, about 0.2km/h and held that until I had 2 minutes left.  OK, 500m left, time for a last push.  I pushed the speed up another 0.4km/h and finished strong.

Not to make excuses for myself, but just an acknowledgement of reality.  I know that my running speed is slow (damn slow).  I will never win a road race, nor do I aspire to.  I enjoy a run ever now and then, and it is a hell of good way to exercise.

Today, I have a full day of internal and customer meetings, and a big team dinner.  Tomorrow morning, I’m planning another fitness center triathlon.

3×30′ HR cap at 150.