Category: Training Journal

Friday: 5×500 – Still not my usual self

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Plan:

  1. 8×500
  2. rate > 30
  3. Pace <2:00

It did not work out that way.

Screen Shot 2015-06-05 at 9.57.29 AM Screen Shot 2015-06-05 at 9.56.55 AM

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_4480_|_22:40_|_2:31.8_|_469___|_20.7_|_09.6_|_144___|_warmup
04500_|_0500_|_01:57_|_1:57.0_|_062___|_31.8_|_08.1_|_166___|_Interval #1
05000_|_0500_|_03:21_|_3:21.0_|_058___|_17.3_|_08.6_|_132___|_rest
05500_|_0500_|_01:57_|_1:56.8_|_062___|_31.8_|_08.1_|_165___|_Interval #2
06000_|_0500_|_03:37_|_3:36.5_|_055___|_15.2_|_09.1_|_135___|_rest
06500_|_0500_|_01:57_|_1:57.2_|_061___|_31.2_|_08.2_|_165___|_Interval #3
07000_|_0500_|_04:10_|_4:09.6_|_059___|_14.2_|_08.5_|_132___|_rest
07500_|_0500_|_01:59_|_1:59.4_|_063___|_31.7_|_07.9_|_162___|_Interval #4
08000_|_0500_|_03:45_|_3:45.2_|_059___|_15.7_|_08.5_|_135___|_rest
08500_|_0500_|_01:58_|_1:58.2_|_062___|_31.5_|_08.1_|_165___|_Interval #5
09000_|_2640_|_14:54_|_2:49.2_|_298___|_20.0_|_08.9_|_144___|_cool down

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
04480_|_22:40_|_2:31.8_|_469___|_20.7_|_09.6_|_144___|_warmup
02500_|_09:49_|_1:57.7_|_310___|_31.6_|_08.1_|_165___|_Main set
02000_|_14:52_|_3:43.1_|_231___|_15.5_|_08.7_|_134___|_rest meters
02640_|_14:54_|_2:49.2_|_298___|_20.0_|_08.9_|_144___|_cool down
11620_|_02:15_|_2:40.7_|_1308___|_21.0_|_08.9_|_145___|_Total

Warmup:  King of the mountain, Top quarter, arms only, arms and body, half slide, legs only (about 30 strokes of that).  Then into the Rojabo style warmup 10 at 20, 10 off, 20 at 22, 20 off, 30 at 24, 30 off, 20 at 26, 20 off, 20 at 28, 30 off (to get under the bridge), 20 at 30, 20 off, 20 at max rate (34 ish).

Then I turned around, had a drink and tried to get myself psyched up.  I did all the intervals with standing starts to get more start practice.  I had in my mind that I would look at each interval as a 10 stroke start, 2 sets of 20 strokes at race pace, then 10 strokes of sprint at the end.  The first attempted interval, I nailed the start and the first 10 strokes.  Then I pushed into the first 20 stroke set. At the end of that set, the interval had started to bite, and I wimped out.  I wasn’t in distress.  It was more of a decision that I didn’t want enough to push hard.  So, I coasted to a stop.  I tried again, with the same result.

I paddled about 500m to get me past the Prospect street bridge, and decided on a new plan.  I would do the start ad settle to my race pace faster, after only 5 strokes.  Then I would focus on keeping my rate above 30 and trying to take nice clean strokes.  I would do my very best to ignore the pace and let it happen.  I would count up to 60 strokes and then look to see how much distance I had left. I would not try to sprint the end.  The training objective was to focus on improving my technique while rowing above 30 SPM.

This seemed to work pretty well.  I counted out the strokes of the interval and I seemed to be able to maintain a pace between 1:57 and 1:59 at r31 with reasonably good form.  I did not feel rushed and my catches were pretty clean.  The RIM analytics show some real issues to be worked out though.

Screen Shot 2015-06-05 at 10.17.15 AM

I’m OK with the profile of the drive.  At that rate, it seems most folks show some degree of the two bump phenomenon.  But you can see the bump at the finish.  I should try to clean that up.  And you can see that I am accelerating the boat as I recover up the slide.  That means that when I hit the end of the slide, I am checking the boat at the catch.  More stuff to work on.

After that happy interval, I paddled around the s-turn and set up for #2.  Basically the same deal.  Here are two strokes, one at the beginning and one at the end of the interval.  See how the first drive hump is more pronounced at the end?  I assume that is fatigue hurting my technique.

Screen Shot 2015-06-05 at 10.28.08 AM

Interval #3 was fine.  Basically the same as #2.  But I could feel the fatigue settling into my legs.

Interval #4 was a struggle.  I eased up after the start and cruised through it not pushing quite as hard.  This shows in the acceleration curves.  More consistent from beginning and end of this one.

Screen Shot 2015-06-05 at 10.32.36 AM

Interval #5 was awful.  I wanted to keep the pace somewhat reasonable, but my legs were starting to feel really tired.  I tightened up and started rowing pretty badly.  I was feeling like I was going to blow up around the 40th stroke, and I looked at the speedcoach and saw that my HR was only around 172.  I know that I can row for about 15 minutes with my HR that high, so I basically told myself to harden the F**K up and row twenty more strokes and row them clean.  You can see it in the strokes.  This plot has a stroke from the beginning, one when I was panicking (stroke rate 34, but going slower), and then one in the last 10, where I got myself back in line.

Screen Shot 2015-06-05 at 10.38.23 AM

I was gassed at the end of interval #5, but I tried to get myself pumped up for #6.  I made it about 20 strokes before I bailed.  That was basically it for me.  I was toast.  I did 5 practice starts, and then rowed with feet out back to the dock.

I like the pace of the intervals.  1:57.7 is pretty fast for me, even if it was only 5.  I don’t like my mental state.  I have to get myself to a place where I slow down instead of quitting.  It’s a hard thing to do when I need to work on technique at high rates.

Tomorrow:  Quick, easy row on Quinsig and then hosting Learn to Row day at the club.

Thursday: Steady State and Starts

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Plan:

  1. Warmup:  King of the mountain, top quarter, 20 strokes or so of each: arms only, arms and body, half slide, full slide, legs only.
  2. 4 repeats of:
    1. 5 good starts.  Focus on balance and control.  Try to get good blade placement before each drive
    2. row the remaining 2500m at steady state pace and work on technique and balance.  HR cap at 155.
  3. Cool down:  Square blades and high pressure / low rate.

It was beautiful this morning.  Sunny, no wind, mid 50s.  It was good to do a structured warmup.  The legs only was a good thing to do.

Starts are getting a bit better.  At least I have an idea of how hard I can push the initial stroke without compromising my balance.  I also have a better idea of how fast I can push the stroke rate in the start.  It looks like about 35 is as high as I can go without rowing in severely and screwing up the finishes.  From here, it is just lots of practice to slowly improve the pressure on the first stroke and the tempo of the initial strokes.  I’ll try to take some video this weekend to see if I’m doing anything horribly wrong.

The steady state was nice.  I was pretty focused on trying to balance and row quietly.  I really wanted to push too hard and blow the HR cap, but I need to save that feeling for tomorrow.

Screen Shot 2015-06-04 at 1.12.41 PM Screen Shot 2015-06-04 at 1.12.59 PM

00020_|_0882_|_04:57_|_2:48.2_|_095___|_19.2_|_09.3_|_124___|_warmup
00902_|_0489_|_02:45_|_2:49.1_|_050___|_18.1_|_09.8_|_138___|_5 starts
01391_|_2331_|_11:03_|_2:22.3_|_223___|_20.2_|_10.5_|_155___|_steady state
03722_|_0448_|_02:31_|_2:48.9_|_047___|_18.6_|_09.5_|_143___|_5 starts
04170_|_2549_|_12:35_|_2:28.1_|_257___|_20.4_|_09.9_|_155___|_slow roll ups
06719_|_0513_|_02:49_|_2:45.0_|_053___|_18.8_|_09.7_|_144___|_5 starts
07232_|_2361_|_11:35_|_2:27.2_|_219___|_18.9_|_10.8_|_155___|_steady state
09460_|_0551_|_03:03_|_2:45.8_|_056___|_18.4_|_09.8_|_144___|_5 starts
10011_|_2612_|_12:53_|_2:27.9_|_266___|_20.7_|_09.8_|_153___|_steady state
12623_|_1162_|_06:38_|_2:51.3_|_127___|_19.1_|_09.1_|_138___|_cool down

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00882_|_04:57_|_2:48.2_|_095___|_19.2_|_09.3_|_124___|_warmup
09853_|_48:06_|_2:26.5_|_965___|_20.1_|_10.2_|_154___|_Main set
02001_|_11:09_|_2:47.1_|_206___|_18.5_|_09.7_|_142___|_20 Starts
01162_|_06:38_|_2:51.3_|_127___|_19.1_|_09.1_|_138___|_cool down
13898_|_10:49_|_2:32.9_|_1393___|_19.7_|_10.0_|_149___|_Total

I set up the speedcoach for stroke by stroke data.  Here are the details of the starts.  I think the best metric to judge the quality of the start is the pace in the third stroke.  If the pace is below 2:00 on the third stroke, then it was relatively well executed.  If it was slower, generally, I either wobbled on the first stroke, or had trouble getting clean catches on the 2nd or 3rd stroke.

So, in the first set, the fourth and the sixth are OK.  In the second set, all of them were OK except for the second one. The third set was all OK.  On the fourth set, I blew the first 2, but the last 3 were OK.

Screen Shot 2015-06-04 at 1.19.37 PM Screen Shot 2015-06-04 at 1.19.50 PM Screen Shot 2015-06-04 at 1.20.10 PMScreen Shot 2015-06-04 at 1.34.54 PM

Tomorrow:  8×500 / 500m rest.  Standing starts.  r30 or higher for all reps.

Side note:  My right elbow has been bothering me.  I think it is bursitis or tennis elbow or something.  Time to buy a wrap and start popping the Ibuprofen.  If it doesn’t improve with these steps, I might need to lay off rowing for a few days.

Wednesday: 5×1000 – Low Motivation Day

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Plan:

  1. 5×1000
  2. 500m paddle
  3. rate 26,28,30,32,30
  4. No pace target, but I wanted to be fast.

It wasn’t to be.  I did my warmup and decided to do the first rep at 24, because I was feeling a bit sluggish.  I made it through that rep OK, and then did the next rep at 26.  That also went OK.  But when I turned and started the 3rd rep, at r28, I only made it about 100m when I just decided that I was up for the pain that was coming and bailed out.

I’m having trouble getting into the right mindset for the sprint racing.  My first race is in less than 3 weeks and I either need to get my shit together or decide to bail out on sprints for this season.  I don’t really want to do that, but I’m not sure how to improve my attitude about them.

Anyway, I paddle away from my failure and after about 800m, I saw a guy in one of those surfski type kayaks paddling furiously ahead of me.  That was enough to get me refocused in the moment, so I started to ramp up the ramp and pressure and did the rest of the way to the dam pretty hard.  By coincidence, it was about 1000m, so there was rep number 3 done.

Then I turned around, caught my breath and decided to do another one at r24.  That went fine and the pace got better and better as I went along.  Then I was almost done, so I decided to try to do the r28 rep that I had bailed on before as a final rep.  This was my best rep of the day, 2:04 pace and good rate throughout.

Screen Shot 2015-06-03 at 6.53.04 PM Screen Shot 2015-06-03 at 6.52.48 PM

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_3780_|_18:54_|_2:30.0_|_411___|_21.7_|_09.2_|_141___|_warmup
03800_|_1000_|_04:17_|_2:08.3_|_107___|_25.0_|_09.3_|_146___|_m
04800_|_0700_|_04:21_|_3:06.1_|_077___|_17.7_|_09.1_|_123___|_r
05500_|_1000_|_04:11_|_2:05.7_|_113___|_27.0_|_08.8_|_166___|_m
06500_|_1920_|_09:44_|_2:32.0_|_208___|_21.4_|_09.2_|_150___|_r
08420_|_1000_|_04:29_|_2:14.7_|_109___|_24.3_|_09.2_|_167___|_m
09420_|_0040_|_00:20_|_4:06.3_|_003___|_09.1_|_13.3_|_118___|_r
09460_|_1000_|_04:17_|_2:08.4_|_115___|_26.9_|_08.7_|_168___|_m
10460_|_0640_|_03:53_|_3:02.3_|_075___|_19.3_|_08.5_|_140___|_r
11100_|_1000_|_04:08_|_2:04.1_|_118___|_28.5_|_08.5_|_169___|_m
12100_|_1960_|_10:57_|_2:47.7_|_227___|_20.7_|_08.6_|_141___|_c

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
03780_|_18:54_|_2:30.0_|_411___|_21.7_|_09.2_|_141___|_warmup
05000_|_21:22_|_2:08.2_|_562___|_26.3_|_08.9_|_163___|_Main set
03300_|_18:17_|_2:46.3_|_363___|_19.8_|_09.1_|_141___|_rest meters
01960_|_10:57_|_2:47.7_|_227___|_20.7_|_08.6_|_141___|_cool down
14040_|_09:31_|_2:28.5_|_1563___|_22.5_|_09.0_|_148___|_Total

Tomorrow:  Steady State and some practice starts, maybe 20 or so.

Sunday: 80 minute Wolverine Plan L4

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Plan:  (on the erg)

  1. 8×10′
  2. 1′ rest every 20′
  3. 180 strokes per 10′ (4’@16, 3’@18,2’@20,1’@22)
  4. 170W at 16, 190W at 18, 210W at 20, 230W at 22

This turned out to be a bit to intense.  I dropped down by 10W in the second 20′, and then by another 10W beyond that to keep my HR in the aerobic zone.  Very humid.  Left a huge puddle on the floor (of sweat)

Screen Shot 2015-05-31 at 2.04.15 PM Screen Shot 2015-05-31 at 2.04.38 PM

In the last minute, I upped it to r24 and tried to see how hard I could pull.  I was above 300W by the end of the minute.

Output
Workout Summary – Jun 03, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_19430_|_84:00.0_|_02:09.7_|_160.4_|_17.6_|_145.4_|_ 71.9% _|_13.2_|_09.1
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_02458_|_10:00.0_|_02:02.0_|_192.6_|_17.9_|_114.5_|_ 50.0% _|_13.7_|_10.8
02_|_02459_|_10:00.0_|_02:02.0_|_192.7_|_18.1_|_147.4_|_ 73.3% _|_13.6_|_10.6
03_|_00059_|_01:00.0_|_08:31.3_|_002.6_|_05.0_|_144.2_|_ 71.1% _|_11.7_|_00.5
04_|_02411_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.4_|_181.7_|_18.2_|_144.2_|_ 71.1% _|_13.2_|_10.0
05_|_02295_|_10:00.0_|_02:10.7_|_156.8_|_17.9_|_145.6_|_ 72.1% _|_12.8_|_08.8
06_|_00058_|_01:00.0_|_08:33.0_|_002.6_|_05.0_|_146.8_|_ 72.9% _|_11.7_|_00.5
07_|_02369_|_10:00.0_|_02:06.6_|_172.4_|_18.0_|_146.8_|_ 72.9% _|_13.2_|_09.6
08_|_02371_|_10:00.0_|_02:06.5_|_172.8_|_18.1_|_153.6_|_ 77.7% _|_13.1_|_09.5
09_|_00043_|_01:00.0_|_11:45.4_|_001.0_|_03.0_|_153.3_|_ 77.5% _|_14.2_|_00.3
10_|_02241_|_10:00.0_|_02:13.8_|_146.0_|_17.2_|_147.7_|_ 73.5% _|_13.0_|_08.5
11_|_02388_|_10:00.0_|_02:05.6_|_176.6_|_18.6_|_159.8_|_ 82.1% _|_12.8_|_09.5
12_|_00276_|_01:00.0_|_01:48.5_|_273.8_|_24.0_|_170.6_|_ 89.8% _|_11.5_|_11.4

After Sunday’s workout, we headed down to NJ for my son’s graduation.  No training on Monday or Tuesday.

Saturday: 44 starts, 20km and a sore bum

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Today’s original plan was to do 250m pieces with standing starts.

I did the Rojabo warmup.  It’s a really good warmup for hard sessions.  I recommend to anyone who is looking for a structured warmup.  Here it is.

  • First 1000m or so.
    • Pick drill
    • Legs only
    • steady state
  • 10 strokes at r20 / 10 paddle
  • 20 strokes at r22 / 20 paddle
  • 30 strokes at r24 / 30 paddle
  • 20 strokes at r26 / 20 paddle
  • 20 strokes at r28 / 20 paddle
  • 20 strokes at r30 / 20 paddle
  • 20 strokes at max stroke rate / 20 paddle

When you’re done with that, you are completely warmed up and you’ve rowed at a higher rate than you are likely to row during the rest of the session, so it’s a good confidence builder.

After the warmup, I attempted my first start. It was terrible.  No balance, ugly finishes, just terrible blade work.  I decided to change my plan from 250m reps to just doing as many starts as I could stand.  I would pull out of the start if I really blew a stroke, or take it out to 10,15 or 20 strokes depending on how much room I had and how the piece was feeling.  I ended up doing 44 starts.  Some were “slomo” starts where I purposely slowed down every stroke to try to get some muscle memory going around the initial short slide strokes.  Some were less than full pressure.  Some were all out.

The key take aways from the whole thing were:

  • First stroke:  Think of it as prying the boat away from the start.  Apply leg pressure smoothly.  Don’t yank the handles.  Finish “too early”.  Basically tap down as soon as my arms start to break with a straight back.
  • Second stroke:  recover up the slide until my hands have just started to come apart as I am half way up the slide.  Very important:  Take a split second as I square the blades and place them in the water before I start the leg drive.  This is my major fault.  I am missing water and mis aligning my blades my starting the leg drive before my blades are well set.
  • Beyond the second stroke:  Get out to full slide over the next couple of strokes and keep layback to a minimum.  Keep the finishes clean and don’t rush the catches.  That’s what kills me.

There was a pretty good wind blowing today, a tailwind going down stream.  So the first set of starts were into a head wind.  The second set were with a tail wind (they were fun!), and the third slogging back into the headwind.  By the third set, my legs were shot.

After the third set, I deliberated an decided to row another 8K steady state.  I’ll be missing 3 days on the water because of my son’s graduation, so I thought I should get the strokes in.  It ended up being about 4K too far.  I was really tired for the last row upriver into the head wind.

Here’s the whole row.  The warmup to 4K.  Three sets of about 15 starts each.  2 with head wind, 1 with tail wind.  Then another 8K of steady state, slow roll ups and square blade rowing.  The wind built through the session.

Screen Shot 2015-05-30 at 12.31.28 PM Screen Shot 2015-05-30 at 12.31.48 PM

The last two 20 stroke bits of the warm up were tail wind assisted and a real blast.  It might be the first time I’ve ever seen a 1:39 on the speedcoach.

Screen Shot 2015-05-30 at 12.33.54 PM

Then the starts.  First set, with head wind.  You can see where I aborted the bad ones and extended the good ones.

Screen Shot 2015-05-30 at 12.32.06 PM

Second set.  Tail wind.  Fast splits.  Still screwing up a lot of them.  The longer paddles are getting past things like the turns and bridges to a clear shot.

Screen Shot 2015-05-30 at 12.32.15 PM

Third set.  Getting a bit weary.  Into the head wind, which was worst for the first 5 or so.  Concentration was waning a bit.

Screen Shot 2015-05-30 at 12.32.49 PM

So, tomorrow morning it’s off to New Jersey.  I might have time for an erg session before we depart.  If I do, it will likely be a 3×20′ steady state session.

Friday: 4×20’/1’r on the erg

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Back from Dallas.  Home around 1pm.  Got straight on the erg for an easy session.

Target: r19, 195W

Screen Shot 2015-05-29 at 3.25.33 PM Screen Shot 2015-05-29 at 3.25.51 PM

Output
Workout Summary – May 29, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_20252_|_84:00.0_|_02:04.4_|_181.7_|_19.3_|_132.5_|_ 62.8% _|_12.5_|_09.4

Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_04953_|_20:00.0_|_02:01.1_|_196.8_|_19.6_|_095.5_|_ 36.6% _|_12.7_|_10.1
02_|_00059_|_01:00.0_|_08:24.4_|_002.7_|_05.0_|_131.8_|_ 62.3% _|_11.9_|_00.5
03_|_04949_|_20:00.0_|_02:01.2_|_196.4_|_19.5_|_139.5_|_ 67.8% _|_12.7_|_10.1
04_|_00070_|_01:00.0_|_07:08.5_|_004.4_|_06.0_|_133.7_|_ 63.6% _|_11.7_|_00.7
05_|_04950_|_20:00.0_|_02:01.2_|_196.6_|_20.2_|_143.5_|_ 70.6% _|_12.3_|_09.7
06_|_00070_|_01:00.0_|_07:06.7_|_004.5_|_06.0_|_139.8_|_ 68.0% _|_11.7_|_00.8
07_|_05200_|_21:00.0_|_02:01.1_|_196.8_|_19.9_|_150.0_|_ 75.2% _|_12.5_|_09.9

Felt like stroking a bit lighter today, so the rate was closer to r20.  It was a bit humid and hot, so despite starting with a really nice low HR through the first couple pieces, it started to climb and kept going in the last 2.  Very easy session though.

I’m getting annoyed about how intermittent the HR monitor is at the beginning of the sessions.

On the road again…Exploring inclined treadmill sessions

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Tueday;  No training. Flew out of Boston at 6AM (eastern time).  Finally got to my hotel around 8 PM (pacific time) and I was pretty much done in.

Wednesday:  Up at 4:15AM and off to the hotel fitness center.  I did a 1 hour session on the treadmill.  The first 20 minutes at 15deg incline and 3.5mph.  The second 20 minutes at 5deg incline and 5mph.  The third 20 minutes at 15deg and 3.0mph.  The intent of the workout was all aerobic maintenance.

This was the first time that I tried the whole maximum incline thing.  I think this is a good cross training session.  By increasing the angle and decreasing the speed, it is much lower impact, and I can manage my HR quite easily with speed changes.  Because it was unfamiliar, it was pretty tough,, even with a lowish HR.

Screen Shot 2015-05-28 at 10.55.51 AM

After the workout, I went straight to the airport to fly to Dallas.  Went right into meetings, then from there to a customer dinner.  Two beers, some wine and a very nice port was consumed over a 4 hour dinner, along with a extravagantly large bone-in sirloin.  I finally got back to the hotel around 11.

Thursday:  Up at 5:15 to get in a workout.  Discovered that the fitness center opened at 6.  Damn.  Went back to bed for half an hour, and then went back around 6:15.  I was feeling a bit bloated from last night’s festivities and in no mood to work hard.

I started on a bike because the treadmills were being used.  Then after 3 minutes, one opened up and I jumped to it.  I did 10 minutes at 15deg/3.5mph and saw that the next treadmill had a working TV, so I jumped again.  I did another 10 minutes at 10deg/3.5.  Then I went to 5deg/5mph, but after a couple minutes, I decided I wasn’t in the mood to jog, so I cranked the incline back up to 15degrees and played with the speed between 3.0 and 3.5mph to keep my HR right below the top of the UT2 zone.

I ended up doing about 50 minutes of exercise over 60 minutes in the gym

It felt like a lot more work than the HR would indicate.

Screen Shot 2015-05-28 at 10.56.49 AM

Tomorrow:  I fly home at 7AM, arrive before lunch.  I have some meetings in the afternoon, so my plan to sneak off and row has been destroyed.  I will try to get in a erg session though.

Training is going to continue to be sporadic into next week.  I have another graduation coming up this Sunday through Tuesday, so I will probably miss multiple days.  After that, it will be time to settle down and make a plan for three weeks of sprint specific sessions to get my starts in shape and get ready for the Festival Sprints.

Monday: Double on Quinsigamond

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I had a lot of fun yesterday.  Because of spring racing, the lake has been unavailable most weekends in the month of may, so I have mainly been rowing on my little stretch of the Charles.  Lovely water, but the same thing all the time was starting to get a bit old.  But it was great to back among other folks that love to row and to have some company on the water.

This morning, I decided to go row out in worcester again today.  Today we had seven of us.  We boated a straight four, me and Joe in a double, and Deb in a single.  She had said that she wanted to get some video for coaching and feedback, so, I rigged a single up with the gopro on the bowstay out to the side.  That video is slowly uploading as I write.

It has been about a month since Joe and I rowed together in the double, and I always enjoy it.  Today’s joy was somewhat impacted by the world’s most uncomfortable seat.  My ass was really sore by the time we turned around at the south end of the lake, and for the rest of the row, it was basically agonizing as soon as I took pressure off and paddled.  At full pressure, it was fine, but paddling was hellish.  I have to remember to use a pad if I’m going to row in that boat again.  It was awful!

But, the row wasn’t awful.  In fact, it was a blast.

2015-05-25 14.09.25

We launched about 5 minutes or so after the four and single did and after a little bit of warming up, we spent the trip down the lake trying to catch up with them.  We caught the single with about 1000m to go.  We didn’t quite catch the four, but it was close.  I quite enjoyed the last 500m or so.

Then we turned north and worked on slow roll ups for about 1000m, and then just rowed steady state up to the narrows.  Then we did a 10/20/30/20 stroke pyramid.  We were waked a couple times during this, but it’s much less of a disruption in the double than in  the 1x.  After we went under the bridge, we paused for me to try to find a more comfortable alignment on the seat (which failed).  We then did 10 strokes on / 10 strokes off the rest of the way up the lake, finishing with a 20 at the north end of the lake.

From there it was back to the dock.  For some reason, Crewnerd stopped recording about 500m from the end, and missed what was no doubt the fastest piece we did of the day ;-).

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No useful stroke rate data from CrewNerd today because I forgot my hard mount and just left my phone sliding around in the foot well.

Tomorrow I am back on the road.  First to San Francisco, then on Wednesday morning to Dallas.  I get back to Boston during the day on Friday.  I think I might try to do a nice Friday afternoon row on my way home from the airport.

Sunday: Cross Wind on Lake Quinsigamond

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Conditions: flukey 5-10mph WSW wind.  cross/head wind going down lake, cross/tail wind going up lake.  Sunny, really beautiful.  The kind of day where the sun glittered on the waves.

I had no plan.  I probably should have gone easy, but I was out with a quad and a straight four, I had to work semi hard just to stay with them, so decided to work a bit harder and keep them behind me.

I was in an OlymSport, which was rigged way too low.  At the finish, if I pushed my hands all the way down  to my legs with the blades square, the bottoms of the blades were not quite clear of the surface of the water.  Needless to say, I ended up dragging my blades way too much today.  Also with the cross wind, I lost my confidence to really reach out to full extension at the catch, so I lost a bit there too.

Nevertheless, it was a nice hard fartlek workout.  Basically, a quick warmup, then r22 at full pressure for about 2700m to the south end of the lake.  I was trying to catch the other boats that took off ahead of me as I was trying to get my foot position right.  I caught the four, but not the quad before I ran out of lake.

Then we turned north.  I had planned to do a hard 5K, but I wasn’t feeling the love, so I just took off at about r24 and enough pressure to start to put a little distance between me and the other boats.  I rowed this way for about 3200m up to the Rt. 9 bridge.  There some bits where I slowed a bit when the cross wind was getting feisty, but mostly I was just plugging along.

When I went under the bridge, the CrewNerd app always loses the GPS signal and the splits get really slow for about 50m, then it re-acquires the signal and the position data “catches up”, so the pace gets really fast for about 50m.  I got kind of happy when I saw the pace dip under 2:10 and I decided to row out the rest of the lake at a reasonable head race pace.  So, the rate went up to r26 and I concentrated on trying to take clean strokes.  I counted tens as I went and had a good look around after each ten since there was a bit of traffic on the lake.  I held on all the way up to the north end of the lake, about another 2300m.  My HR monitor was not working, but I suspect my HR was in the mid-170s by the time I finished.  I was pushing pretty hard.

Then I did a quick spin and rowed back to the quad and four, and turned to row with them back to the top of the lake again.  Then a final turn back to home and a reasonably hard row back to the dock.

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Start_|_Dist_|__Time_|_Split Pace_|_Strokes_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_Remarks
00000_|_0440_|_05:32_|_6:17.3_____|_045_____|_08.1_|_09.8_|_warmup
00440_|_2300_|_10:54_|_2:22.2_____|_237_____|_21.7_|_09.7_|_down lake
02740_|_1260_|_09:02_|_3:35.1_____|_136_____|_15.1_|_09.3_|_rest
04000_|_3200_|_15:26_|_2:24.7_____|_352_____|_22.8_|_09.1_|_up to bridge
07200_|_2334_|_10:31_|_2:15.2_____|_270_____|_25.7_|_08.6_|_bridge to north end
09534_|_1076_|_08:24_|_3:54.2_____|_130_____|_15.5_|_08.3_|_rest
10610_|_1627_|_07:49_|_2:24.1_____|_181_____|_23.2_|_09.0_|_back to dock
12237_|_0468_|_08:42_|_9:17.7_____|_054_____|_06.2_|_08.7_|_

Distance__|_Time__|_Pace__|_Strokes_|_SPM_|_DPS_|_Remarks
0440_____|_05:32_|_6:17.3_|_045_____|_08.1_|_09.8_|_warmup
9461_____|_44:40_|_2:21.6_|_1040____|_23.3_|_09.1_|_Main set
0468_____|_08:42_|_9:17.7_|_054_____|_06.2_|_08.7_|_Cool down
2336_____|_17:26_|_3:43.9_|_266_____|_15.3_|_08.8_|_rest meters
12705____|_16:20_|_3:00.2_|_1405____|_18.4_|_09.0_|_Total

So, I would have liked to be faster, but in a crappy boat with a cross wind, I was OK with how things turned out.  And it was really nice to row with other people for a change

Tomorrow:  Back to Quinsig.  There’s a peinert there that I’d like to try out.  I think I might do some 1000m intervals at different rates.  Or I might just do some technique rowing.

Saturday: May Cross Team Challenge

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I turned off my alarm last night and decided that if I woke up, I would go rowing.  If I didn’t, I wouldn’t.  I slept until around 9 AM, so I skipped the trip to the river.

With everything that is going on right now, I am having trouble getting really psyched up to workout.  Maybe I am I just going through a phase or something.  But, I am not my normal eager self.  I think the best thing to do is to tone it down, work on technique and try to have some fun.

Today, after running around, buying a new grill, beer and groceries, I headed home and assembled the grill, finished mulching the garden and moved the remaining mulch off to the edge of the yard.  I discovered that I had a good hour before I need to get ready for some dinner guests we were having.  Just enough time for a quick session on the erg.

I want to keep doing the Cross Team Challenges.  I feel bad that I am active for 6 months of the year or so with my virtual rowing team, the Free Spirits, and then I essentially disappear during the OTW season.  I’m hoping that doing the CTCs will keep me a bit better connected than last season.

I started off with a 20 minute steady state row as a warm up.  I was pleased that I could hold 195 with my HR staying nice and low.  I was expecting to have slid a ways down the lactate ladder without any erging.  I guess I haven’t lost much aerobic base so far on the water.

(Note HR monitor decided to not work for the first 5 minutes or so)

Screen Shot 2015-05-23 at 11.25.03 PM Screen Shot 2015-05-23 at 11.25.39 PM

Output
Workout Summary – May 23, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_04947_|_20:00.0_|_02:01.3_|_196.1_|_19.1_|_100.7_|_ 40.2% _|_12.9_|_10.3
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_01232_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.7_|_194.1_|_19.4_|_000.0_|_- 31.2% _|_12.7_|_10.0
02_|_01237_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.3_|_196.2_|_19.6_|_127.9_|_ 59.5% _|_12.6_|_10.0
03_|_01240_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.0_|_197.7_|_18.6_|_137.9_|_ 66.6% _|_13.3_|_10.6
04_|_01237_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.2_|_196.4_|_18.8_|_139.9_|_ 68.0% _|_13.2_|_10.4

Then it was in to the main event.  I set up rowpro for a 6 x 2′ / 4′ rest.  I decided to work my way up from r26, to r28, then r30.  I wasn;t sure if I would push it up higher,  When I am in good sprint shape on the erg, 2 minutes at r34 would be no problem, but currently that is not the case.  I ended up feeling pretty good halfway through the r30 piece and rated up to drive that one home.  Then I dropped the rate to r28, then r26.  IN the last one, I decided to see how I could do at higher rate, so I started at r34 and managed to hold it for a minute, and then I pulled the plug.  I probably could have made it, but it was highly unpleasant, so I didn’t.  (See comment above about lack of motivation).

The 3rd rep was pretty good for right now though.  RowPro gave me 632m (1:35.0 avg).  When I analyzed it in Danburpee’s spreadsheet, it gave me 634, but I plugged 632 into the CTC website.

Screen Shot 2015-05-23 at 11.35.24 PM Screen Shot 2015-05-23 at 11.35.07 PM

Output
Workout Summary – May 23, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_08212_|_36:00.0_|_02:11.5_|_153.8_|_21.6_|_151.0_|_ 75.9% _|_10.6_|_07.1
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_00581_|_02:00.0_|_01:43.3_|_317.5_|_26.0_|_142.3_|_ 69.7% _|_11.2_|_12.2
02_|_00770_|_04:02.4_|_02:37.3_|_089.9_|_17.6_|_136.3_|_ 65.5% _|_10.8_|_05.1
03_|_00611_|_02:00.0_|_01:38.1_|_370.2_|_28.0_|_157.9_|_ 80.8% _|_10.9_|_13.2
04_|_00717_|_04:00.0_|_02:47.5_|_074.5_|_18.3_|_137.6_|_ 66.4% _|_09.8_|_04.1
05_|_00634_|_02:00.0_|_01:34.6_|_413.8_|_31.5_|_161.6_|_ 83.4% _|_10.1_|_13.1
06_|_00742_|_04:03.6_|_02:44.2_|_079.1_|_17.7_|_141.4_|_ 69.1% _|_10.3_|_04.5
07_|_00591_|_02:00.0_|_01:41.5_|_335.0_|_28.0_|_159.7_|_ 82.1% _|_10.6_|_12.0
08_|_00737_|_04:00.0_|_02:42.7_|_081.2_|_18.0_|_148.4_|_ 74.1% _|_10.2_|_04.5
09_|_00577_|_02:00.0_|_01:43.9_|_311.6_|_25.5_|_159.1_|_ 81.6% _|_11.3_|_12.2
10_|_00728_|_04:00.0_|_02:44.9_|_078.1_|_17.0_|_149.0_|_ 74.5% _|_10.7_|_04.6
11_|_00549_|_02:00.0_|_01:49.3_|_268.0_|_27.5_|_161.7_|_ 83.5% _|_10.0_|_09.7
12_|_00974_|_03:54.0_|_02:00.2_|_201.6_|_22.6_|_162.1_|_ 83.8% _|_11.1_|_08.9

Tomorrow:  I am planning to head off the Lake Quinsigamond to row with some friends.  I’m hoping that will improve my attitude a bit.  If I end up in a single, I imagine I will do a hard 5K, plus other rowing for form.