slow start, 5′ at 150W, 5′ at 175W, then 190W the rest of the way.
rate: 22 (on slides)
Tired legs from yesterday’s exhertions. Also a warmer room and wearing a shirt meant that I was a lot sweatier, and my HR was higher. I pulled the power down by 3 watts, and the lactates were 0.2 lower than Saturday, despite the higher RPE and HR.
This is a base building / transition week, so I’ll be sticking to endurance sessions. Tomorrow is 4 x 20’/1′. The plan calls for an afternoon session (30′ UT2), but I’m not sure if I can fit it in around work commitments.
Right before I went to go do this test, I read Sander’s post about how he might have had a PB if he went out less conservatively and had a “Contempt of Death”. I was very uncertain about what I could do today. On one hand, I haven’t done a lot of work on the erg, and I was pretty far away from PB pace on my 2K test. On the other hand, I’ve been working this distance all autumn.
So, I decided to set up three pace boats on RowPro.
One at 1:50, which was the slowest I really wanted to go
One at 1:49, which was about my PB pace from last season
One at 1:48, which was just a bit slower than what I thought was my PB Pace (1:47.9). In fact, I had misread my PB from my signature. Checking it now, I found out that it was in fact a 21:23, not 21:32 (1:46.9). A bummer, as it turns out.
I started with a 2K warmup with 3 bursts at 1:45 to 1:50.
Then in to the main event. With Sander’s words ringing in my head, I went out to see if I could hold 1:48. I felt pretty good through 1000. By the time I got to 2000, it was starting to hurt, but my HR was nice an low. I was just counting out each 1000m. It was generally about 95 to 98 strokes per 1000. It wasn’t very dramatic, but it was pretty nasty going with 2000 to go, and I eased up just a little bit for a few strokes. With 1000 left, I knew I was going to make it and started to push a bit more. In the end, I finished with a 1:47.5 and a 21:29.9. Not the PB that I thought it was at the time, but still a hell of a row.
During “test week”, I am doing 3 x 20′ steady state on the off days. I’m trying to home in on the right training power and also do something that I think will be easy to keep up with in future test weeks.
Today, it was chilly outside, so with open windows, it was quite cool, maybe mid-50s, and it was quite breezy, so I had a lot of air flow. I’ve noticed a very strong correlation between HR and temperature, so I expected my HR to stay low and it did. It also felt incredibly easy. I had intended to back off from 193W to 190W for todays session, but it just felt so incredibly easy, I couldn’t do it. I stuck with 193W.
As usual, I did the slow start. I’m more convinced every day that this makes a big difference
But lactates don’t lie. When I used this power on Thursday, I tested at 3.0mmol/l. Today, with my HR so low and a low RPE to match, I expected to test out well below 2.0, but that is not what happened. I tested out at 2.5mmol/l.
That’s a bit better than Thursday’s reading, but still above target. It just goes to show you how variable HR is as a guide for steady state training. If I was using HR as a guide, I would have pushed the pace much harder and my lactates would have probably been above 5.0 by the end.
There is a little nagging doubt in the back of mind that maybe this test was wrong. Maybe I contaminated it with a bit of sweat. But I’m pretty careful, and it isn’t that far off. I only have to be a little bit above target to start to accumulate lactate and over 60 minutes, the difference between 2.0 and 2.5 is very small.
So, I have to earn the right to train at 193W. I have to back off and get 3 tests below 2.0 before I push the pace up.
Here are my 60′ lactates
Later today I’ll be doing my 6K test. Target is sub 1:50 pace. SB last year was 1:49 pace. PB is 1:47.6 pace. I think a PB is out of reach, but if today is a good day, I might be able to match last season. I need to remember that this is just a marker for the beginning of winter training.
6:50.4…Not terrible, but not as good as I could have done. I had a little breakdown around 800 meters. I was fully prepared for “the wave”. When I do more speed work, I get used to the crisis moment that hits around then. Kind of a combination pain, chills, nausea, drowning feeling that passes over the course of about 10 strokes. Anyway, it hit me hard today and I paused before I really knew what was going on. I started going again almost immediately and finished without any more drama. Kind of a lame and it definitely cost me about 3 or 4 seconds off the time.
But as a marker for the start of the indoor season, it isn’t so bad. I ranked it for fun and it’s 18 out 778 in my age group (97th %-ile). I think with a month or so of base work, and then a couple months of sharpening, taking 3 seconds off my splits is entirely feasible. I’d like to build a plan to be within striking distance of my 2K PB by the crash-bs.
More deviations from the test week plan. As I drafted the plan, I had decided that between test days, I would do 2×20′ of steady state. Today I changed my mind for a couple reasons.
I wanted to take a lactate test at the normal 60′ minute point to check if a step up in steady power was justified.
I didn’t really see the harm as long as I made it a consistent change for future test weeks
I felt like rowing, dammit.
Plan:
3 x 20′ / 1′ rest
Rate: <20 spm
Pace: Slow start at 2:15 for 5′, then 2:10 for 5′, then target pace thereafter (2:02)
Lactate Reading after finishing was 3.0mmol/l vs target of <2.0.
So, 193W is a bit too much for right now. I will back off to 190W and monitor. When I get 3 readings under 2.0, I’ll push again.
It’s tough for me to remember that there is little downside to going too slow, but pushing too fast reduces the effectiveness of the training. That’s why lactate testing is such a useful tool for me.
So, I know that I was supposed to do a light day today, but looking at my work schedule, it didn’t look so good for a power test tomorrow. I also felt pretty fresh. I didn’t need to dig all that terribly deep for the 2 speed test. Finally, thinking about the 2K test, the idea of keeping up the intensity seemed to more closely mimic the kind of taper I like to do.
The challenge was the PM on the erg. I was doing this at work and it is a older model C with an old style PM. The kind that you can’t hook up to rowpro. So, I pulled my PM3 off of my erg at home with the idea of swapping it onto the erg at work for the day. I was stymied by the fact that the mounting bracket has been changed between PM models and the new one would not fit on the old bracket. Bummer.
So, I ended up setting my iphone on a upturned trashcan, leaning against a small dumbell and aiming at the PM. Then I laboriously transcribed the power reading from each stroke into excel. If you want to watch some really boring videos, I posted them to youtube.
Why are there two, you ask? Well, there’s a story behind that. Not much of a story, but a story nonetheless.
I did a nice gentle 20 minute warmup, and then got myself psyched up for the test. Apparently I did not get myself psyched up nearly enough, because I blew up big time 32 seconds into the test. I took the go all out advice to heart and I just totally lost it round the 30 second mark. I was on slides, so I was cranking at close to 50 SPM. I was rowing mostly with my eyes closed, and then opened them after about 25 strokes. When I saw I had only made it halfway, I suffered a bout of acute despondency and dropped the handle. Pity, it would have been a good test if I had the guts to keep going. As it was, I set a new PR for peak power. 770W vs my old mark of 701W. I also maintained with 10% of that value for 25 seconds, which shows that my “Anaerobic alactic critical duration” is reasonable. “Rowing Faster” says you want to be able to hold that for longer than 20 seconds. Of course for the other measures, average power and “Anaerobic lactic critical duration” were not measurable from this failed test.
I took a few minutes to get my head together and tried again. This time, I made it less than 20 seconds into the test and I didn’t bother to transcribe the results.
I had a chat with myself, and decided to make yet another attempt, even though I knew that the test results would not be fully valid. At least I would be able to get a completed test to score. Maybe I’ll loop back to this in a week or so.
The last attempt was fine. I definitely paced myself too much. I certainly had a lot less power in the initial burst. This one peaked at 726W. AACD was 18 seconds. ALCD was 60 seconds. Average Power for the minute was 606W. Maybe I was dogging it, but I was fairly shattered after I finished and the long 20 minute cool down was a struggle even at a 2:10 pace.
To summarize:
Peak Power: Target – 837W to 1023W, Actual: 770W
Average Power: Target – 674W to 814W, Actual: 606W
So, basically horrible compared to the benchmarks. By the way, I don’t know too many guys my age with a low pull of 1:12. Frankly, I don’t that many guys with a low pull of 1:12, so I am not sure how realistic these targets are.
The important thing is that it gives me something to compare against in future tests. I will feel better if I redo the test in a week and get a complete first shot test done.
Here are my curves
Here’s the HR plot for the whole disaster.
Tomorrow: 40 minute steady state sometime during the day. Then 2K trial on Friday.
The 2-speed test is a 2 x 1000m with 15 minutes of rest between intervals. The first interval is to be done roughly at LT pace, basically a 6K kind of pace. For me right now, around 1:50 or so. The second at V02Max pacing, basically 2K pace. That would be around 1:42, but faster is better. It’s supposed to be close to all out over the 1K distance.
I started with a 20 minute warmup. I’ve been starting off more slowly lately and I like the change. I used to do a Fletcher warmup, at the prescribed paces, but that starts at something like a 2:05 for me and then gets quite fast and frankly takes a lot of effort. Now I start at 2:15, and then gradually pick up the pace and then do a few bursts at target pace or faster. Then finish slowly.
Then into the main event. I set up Rowpro for variable intervals so that I wouldn’t have an extra 15 minute rest after my last interval. I it up as follows
Variable Intervals (Distance, no rest)
1000m Hard
900s stop (you put the time in the distance box, don’t ask me why, but it works)
Lactate readings were taken at 1′ and 3′ after each interval. The readings were:
Post LT Interval: 1′ – 5.6mmol/l, 3′ – 4.5mmol/l
Post VO2Max Interval: 1′ – 10.7mmol/l, 3′ – 10.7mmol/l
This results in the following chart:
Future tests will show changes in aerobic fitness through displacement in the x-axis. Changes in anaerobic fitness will show in changes in the slope of the line.
After that, I did a 2K happy ending, starting at 1:50 and slowing down by 5 seconds each 250m.
So, that’s that. I was happy that I could hold sub-1:40 for the second 1K. I think that bodes well for being able to do something around 1:43 or better for the 2K test.
The rest of the test week is as follows
Wednesday: easy day: 40′ steady state
Thursday: 1 minute power test, then probably the November CTC
slow start 5′ @ 2:15, 5′ @ 2:10, then 2:03 the rest of the way
rate: 19-21 (on slides)
lactate test at 60 minutes
Nothing unusual in the HR chart. I increased speed by about half a second for the last 20 minutes to see if I could hold the higher power without my HR running away.
In the first interval, you can see the steps at 2:15 and 2:10, then the rise after the step to 2:03. I was actually pulling around 2:02.7. Then for the last 20 minutes, I pushed to 2:02.
So, this is the third lactate in a row at or below 1.6mmol/l for a power between 185 and 190. I’m going to target 2:02 (193W) for a few workouts to see how that goes.
Tomorrow: I will be starting a series of assessments to get a baseline before starting my winter training plan.
Weather: Broken clouds. Warm, nearly 60 degrees. Windy. It looks like some kind of a front went through during my race. It was a WNW wind at about 10mph, with gusts up to 23mph. This is a pure head wind through the first 2 km of the course. The water as nasty.
Here is the weather underground almanac for today from a station right on the Andover side of the river in the middle of the course. The cursor is about 5 minutes after my start.
I was pleased with the race result.
I finished first among the Master D/E group. And finished close to top guys in the Masters C group. I know those guys and they are good scullers.
Looking at the map of my course, I am not all that happy with my line. I messed up my approach to the bridge and it added about 30 meters to my course, or nearly 10 seconds to my time. And I did not hug the big turn nearly close enough, that probably added another 30 to 50 meters of length to my course. Having said that, I steered it bette rthan the guy behind me. I think he could have beat me if he followed my line, but he went way wide around the turn.
Since the wind was from the WNW, the first half of the course until you were completely through the turn was straight into it, and the chop was pretty nasty, so the pace was really slow. Once around the corner, it was a lot smoother and much less wind. Still a few gusts to contend with, but much nicer water. The splits reflect that
In the last 1000m I was coming up behind one of the boats from the Master C group. I wanted to take the line along the buoys on the western shore, but he didn’t really give me a good line and I ended up nearly hitting one of the course buoys. That pissed me off enough that I cut across his stern and spinted my guts out to the finish. I nearly caught him at the line. I can thank him for probably a 10 second better thime than I would have other wise had. 🙂
Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_4320_|_24:38_|_2:51.1_|_456___|_18.5_|_09.5_|_141___|_warmup
Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_0340_|_03:17_|_4:49.3_|_038___|_11.6_|_08.9_|_126___|_in the chute
00360_|_4700_|_21:34_|_2:17.7_|_594___|_27.5_|_07.9_|_175___|_Race!
05060_|_1480_|_09:36_|_3:14.6_|_160___|_16.7_|_09.3_|_124___|_back to the dock
Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00340_|_03:17_|_4:49.3_|_038___|_11.6_|_08.9_|_126___|_warmup
04700_|_21:34_|_2:17.7_|_594___|_27.5_|_07.9_|_175___|_Main set
01480_|_09:36_|_3:14.6_|_160___|_16.7_|_09.3_|_124___|_rest meters
06520_|_34:27_|_2:38.5_|_792___|_23.0_|_08.2_|_156___|_Total
Early meeting, so I missed a beautiful morning on the river. I looked at the glassy smooth water as I drove past.
Plan: Taper day 2.
20 minute warmup
2 x 2′ / 5′ rest
rate: >30
pace: faster than 2K race pace (1:40ish)
on slides
Cool down
It was mercifully brief, but each interval really stung. I pushed a lot faster than 2k race pace and let the rate really climb on the theory that the whole point is to provide sufficient stimulus to avoid any fitness loss during the taper. No evidence that this is the right thing to do, but it made me feel like I was giving it my all.
Tomorrow: Back on the river. A nice warmup, a single 500m interval, and an easy cool down focusing on technique. Then load up the boat for the race.
Quantified Rowing 