Category: Training Journal

Tues PM: 3×20’/1’r with Lactate

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Last week, I was on vacation.  I did a little cross training the first 3 days (Tues, Wed, Thur).  Essentially a 5km barefott run on the beach, then about 1.5km of swimming, both at a relatively leisurely pace.  Then I managed to catch a stomach bug and I was out of action from last Thursday until yesterday.

Yesterday morning, I was planning on an AM workout, but woke up with a headache and decided to try to get rid of it with a bit more sleep.  By the late afternoon, I was much improved, so I decided to dip my toe back in with a gentle steady state session.

Tuesday PM: 3×20’/1′ r on slides

I am going to try to do a lactate test after the first 20′ of my steady state sessions to try to build a reasonable database and get a better understanding of the appropriate training intensity.  Since all of my recent lactate tests have been on a static erg, and I had the 8 day break, I was pretty clueless about the right initial power to use.  I was going to target 180, but it felt so easy that I changed on the fly to 185, and when I got to the 15 minute mark, I was averaging 186W.  I decided that cutting back enough to bring the average down to 185 over the last 5 minutes might lead to erroneously low reading, so I just stuck with 186.  Lactate reading 2.3…Too high.  but not far off.  Interestingly, my HR was very low.  The lowest I have recorded for any of my recent lactate tests.  Again showing the very weak correlation between HR and Lactate levels.I rowed the rest of the session at 183 and my HR stayed remarkably low.

2015-02-25_9-19-40

2/24/2015 3×20’/1’r on slides
Time meters SPM watts pace Strokes DPS Lac
0:20:00.0 4860 20 186.0 02:03.5 400 12.15 2.3
0:20:00.0 4834 20 183.0 02:04.1 400 12.09
0:20:00.0 4834 20 183.0 02:04.1 400 12.09
1:00:00.0 14528 20.0 184.0 02:03.9 1200 12.11

Feb 14 CTC

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Got back home at 11PM last night. The whole place is just buried in snow. I’ve never seen snow like this.

A serious ice dam situation had developed while I was in europe and we were getting water into the house. A couple of place in the kitchen ceiling have big water stains and my wife spent a lot of time putting down towels and buckets while I was jetting around europe. So today, the first job was to go get some rock salt. The next job was to clear the snow off our north facing roof. So, I trudged with the extension ladder through the 4 feet of snow on the ground the back of the house and put my snow rake to use. I cleared all the snow up to about 5 feet from the peak of the roof, and then put rock salt on the huge ice dams. Hopefully that will soften them enough so I can remove most of them tomorrow. Then it was on to the foot paths around the house. They only had about 14 inches or so to clear, but it was still a lot of hard work. All in all it took about 2 hours and I was pretty tired after it all.

So, I waited a few hours before going to do an abbreviated erg session. I just wanted to do the Feb 14 CTC. I never knew Carol, but she has certainly made impression on this community, and I wanted to make sure that Free Spirits floated as many boats as we could.

So, a 20 minute warmup. Instead of the usual fletcher, I just did 20 minutes at 195 steady state, so that I could do a lactate test after missing a week of erg sessions. Result: 1.8mmol/l If I were going to train next week, I would shoot for that on slides. But, instead, if the weather allows the escape, I’ll be in Aruba where running and swimming will be the preferred cross training. I’ll do another lactate test next weekend when I return.

Warmup / lactate test
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_04939_|_20:00.0_|_02:01.5_|_195.3_|_19.0_|_134.4_|_ 64.1% _|_13.0_|_10.3

Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI
01_|_03706_|_15:00.0_|_02:01.4_|_195.4_|_18.9_|_132.5_|_ 62.8% _|_13.0_|_10.3
02_|_01234_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.6_|_194.8_|_19.0_|_139.9_|_ 68.0% _|_13.0_|_10.3

Then in to the CTC. Simple. Row 1402m. With no speed sessions this week, I wasn;t really sure what pace to row. I figured around 1:42. But of course, with high hopes and adrenaline, I went off faster. I knew by 200m, that the 1:40 pace I was holding was no going to work. I wasn’t sure if I had done too much damage with it. I slowed down to around a 1:44, with a 1:45 popping up now and again. By the time there was 500m left, I had recovered my wind and my pride and started to pull down the splits. My rate is still way too low though. I really need to work on that.

Workout Summary – Feb 14, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_01402_|_04:46.5_|_01:42.2_|_328.3_|_28.3_|_160.0_|_ 82.3% _|_10.4_|_11.6
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_00200_|_00:40.1_|_01:40.1_|_348.6_|_28.5_|_132.2_|_ 62.6% _|_10.5_|_12.2
02_|_00200_|_00:40.9_|_01:42.3_|_326.7_|_27.9_|_157.9_|_ 80.8% _|_10.5_|_11.7
03_|_00200_|_00:41.3_|_01:43.3_|_317.2_|_27.6_|_161.9_|_ 83.6% _|_10.5_|_11.5
04_|_00200_|_00:41.9_|_01:44.7_|_304.7_|_27.2_|_163.9_|_ 85.1% _|_10.5_|_11.2
05_|_00200_|_00:41.6_|_01:44.1_|_310.5_|_28.8_|_166.6_|_ 86.9% _|_10.0_|_10.8
06_|_00200_|_00:40.8_|_01:42.0_|_330.0_|_27.9_|_168.3_|_ 88.2% _|_10.5_|_11.8
07_|_00202_|_00:39.8_|_01:38.6_|_365.3_|_30.1_|_169.2_|_ 88.8% _|_10.1_|_12.1

I’m pretty disappointed. Maybe with a proper warmup I could have done better. I really would have like to have been around 1:40. Oh well.

Then I did a 5K “cool down”. I had intended to start at 2:00 pace and slow down gradually. But I found myself pulling 1:50. I made it nearly 500m before I slowed way down. But for the next 500, I pulled it back to 1:52. Then 1:54 and so on until I was pulling 2:08 for the last 500. The beginning was a little cathartic. The ending was nice and gentle.

Workout Summary – Feb 14, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_05000_|_19:47.9_|_01:58.8_|_208.8_|_21.7_|_159.1_|_ 81.6% _|_11.7_|_09.6
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_00500_|_01:56.0_|_01:56.0_|_224.2_|_23.3_|_139.4_|_ 67.7% _|_11.1_|_09.6
02_|_00500_|_01:51.8_|_01:51.8_|_250.4_|_23.6_|_156.6_|_ 79.9% _|_11.4_|_10.6
03_|_00500_|_01:53.3_|_01:53.3_|_240.5_|_23.8_|_164.8_|_ 85.7% _|_11.1_|_10.1
04_|_00500_|_01:55.0_|_01:55.0_|_229.9_|_22.9_|_166.0_|_ 86.6% _|_11.4_|_10.0
05_|_00500_|_01:57.1_|_01:57.1_|_218.2_|_23.1_|_165.8_|_ 86.4% _|_11.1_|_09.5
06_|_00500_|_01:58.7_|_01:58.7_|_209.2_|_22.2_|_164.6_|_ 85.5% _|_11.4_|_09.4
07_|_00500_|_02:00.5_|_02:00.5_|_199.9_|_21.4_|_163.0_|_ 84.4% _|_11.6_|_09.3
08_|_00500_|_02:02.7_|_02:02.7_|_189.5_|_19.6_|_160.1_|_ 82.3% _|_12.5_|_09.7
09_|_00500_|_02:05.3_|_02:05.3_|_178.0_|_19.2_|_157.2_|_ 80.2% _|_12.5_|_09.3
10_|_00500_|_02:07.5_|_02:07.5_|_169.0_|_18.4_|_152.6_|_ 77.0% _|_12.8_|_09.2

Tomorrow: 4×20’/1′ with lactate test after 20′ I will work at 195 for the first 20 minutes.

60′ treadmill (mostly UT1)

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Now I’m in Milan at the Hotel “For You”.  Pitiful little fitness center in the basement. 2 treadmills and a recumbent station bike (which was broken).  I was hoping to avoid running today, but I very much wanted to work off some of last night’s dinner.

So, 60 minutes on the treadmill doing a gentle hill profile from 0% to 6% grade and from 7.5km/h to 10km/h.

I was having a bit of trouble keeping my HR strap in place.  That’s what the blue bit is about.

Short Intervals on a treadmill – 15x(2’fast/1’slow)

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Still travelling.  Stuck in the hotel fitness center.

Today was short interval day. I experimented with doing them on the treadmill. The machine had a setting that enabled you to toggle between 2 speeds with button on the touch screen. I set it up on a 5 degree incline, with the slow at 4mph and the fast at 7 mph. Then I manually timed 2 minute intervals and 1 minute rests.

The plot shows a false start, where I tried to do 8mph as the fast, but it was too much for me, so I reset the machine. Then once I got going, for no reason at all, the treadmill crashed and rebooted after 7 intervals. That is the longer rest between the 7th and 8th interval. I reset for another 24 minutes (8 intervals). By the end I was really feeling the effects.

It was a pretty intense workout. The rests were quite short. But, then again, so were the intervals.

Tomorrow: During the day, I am heading by car up to Stuttgart, having some meetings there, and then flying in the evening to Milan. I’m not sure what facilities the hotel will have. In any case, it will be some kind of recovery session.

70′ in the fitness center

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I’m currently in Munich on business.  In the hotel, the machines in the fitness center are from a company called LifeFitness. There is a stationary bike, a couple of treadmills and a couple of elliptical machines. They all have a cool virtual reality feature. They have the ability to select courses.

I did this yesterday and had a lovely run through Aukland, New Zealand, and then ellipticalled through Yosemite. Today, I rode my bike through Paris and Reims, and then ellipticalled through the Sierra Nevada. On the treadmill, the intensity was good because you could pick your pace and average incline. On the elliptical and the stationary bike it seems that the level settings are a bit too easy. I kept increasing the level, but then the machine would reset it back down at every “scene” transition. It’s a real pity because I was really enjoying the scenery, I would have liked to have gotten a better workout while doing it.

At any rate, it was 70′ of base work, more useful than sitting around and surfing the web.

Tomorrow: I think I will do some interval work on the treadmill. Not sure how well that will go, but I’ll give it a try. Maybe a 8×500 if I can figure out how to program the machine to do that.