And on it goes

May 18, 2020Leave a comment

Last posted on May 10th. Since then, nothing to exciting. I haven’t fallen off any roofs, or broken any bones this week, so that’s a plus.

I ended up taking two days off from training. No real reason, other than a limited desire to train.

Sunday – 5/10 – 2 x 30’/5′ With Bumps

A fun session. Row 4′ at r18 and 160W, then 1′ faster. The faster bits start r20, and go up by 2SPM in each one. So, a little bit of hard rowing with a lot of aerobic strokes.

Also a good chance to use rowsandall interval analysis

       Workout Summary - media/b9c94e1b23-20200510-201916o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15424|01:07:24.4|02:11.1|166.9|19.3|142.8|167.0|11.9
W-|14343|01:00:06.0|02:05.7|179.6|19.2|143.9|165.0|12.6
R-|01095|00:07:18.4|03:20.1|062.8|20.1|133.6|165.0|04.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00937|04:00.0|02:08.1|162.8|17.8|113.3|127.0|13.1
01|00236|01:00.0|02:07.3|175.6|19.2|129.4|131.0|12.3
02|00929|04:00.0|02:09.1|164.1|17.8|130.6|132.0|13.1
03|00248|01:00.0|02:01.1|199.0|21.4|136.8|141.0|11.6
04|00933|04:00.0|02:08.7|165.3|18.0|137.7|142.0|13.0
05|00259|01:00.0|01:55.8|225.3|23.8|141.1|148.0|10.9
06|00937|04:00.0|02:08.1|169.8|18.1|143.5|149.0|13.0
07|00271|01:00.0|01:50.8|249.8|25.9|146.0|153.0|10.5
08|00933|04:00.0|02:08.7|168.0|17.9|148.0|156.0|13.0
09|00276|01:00.0|01:48.5|263.8|27.4|148.7|156.0|10.1
10|00932|04:00.0|02:08.8|167.4|18.0|149.7|158.0|13.0
11|00282|01:00.0|01:46.5|283.9|29.3|150.9|159.0|09.6
12|00937|04:01.0|02:08.6|167.1|17.8|137.7|145.0|13.1
13|00239|01:00.0|02:05.8|181.4|19.6|145.9|147.0|12.2
14|00927|04:01.0|02:10.1|163.9|17.6|146.7|150.0|13.1
15|00253|01:00.0|01:58.7|204.7|22.0|146.8|151.0|11.5
16|00925|04:01.0|02:10.3|163.3|17.6|148.5|152.0|13.1
17|00260|01:00.0|01:55.3|226.7|23.7|150.1|155.0|11.0
18|00931|04:01.0|02:09.4|164.8|17.9|152.0|157.0|13.0
19|00266|01:00.0|01:52.8|241.2|25.4|152.8|159.0|10.5
20|00935|04:01.0|02:08.8|167.6|18.0|154.5|161.0|13.0
21|00272|01:00.0|01:50.1|261.2|27.6|154.2|160.0|09.9
22|00945|04:01.0|02:07.5|169.6|18.1|156.5|162.0|13.0
23|00282|01:00.0|01:46.5|289.9|29.9|158.0|165.0|09.4

Monday – 5/11 – 7.5km run

Tuesday – No Training

Wednesday – 5/13 – half and half

30′ stationary bike

2 dart games

Scores: 13840,14210

       Workout Summary - media/b10aaa2c46-20200513-121216o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07592|00:34:22.2|02:15.8|152.0|17.7|143.6|152.0|12.5
W-|07562|00:32:47.2|02:10.1|158.8|18.5|144.7|152.0|12.5
R-|00032|00:01:35.0|24:53.0|011.1|01.8|120.2|152.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03798|16:25.0|02:09.7|160.2|18.5|144.5|152.0|12.5
01|03764|16:22.2|02:10.5|157.5|18.5|144.9|151.0|12.4

Thursday – 5/14 – half and half

30′ on the bike

2 dart games – 14005, 14085 (I was not on my game at all!)

        Workout Summary - media/6e3758c812-20200514-122316o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07424|00:34:06.6|02:17.8|148.2|17.9|142.2|152.0|12.2
W-|07397|00:32:15.7|02:10.9|156.2|18.8|143.9|152.0|12.2
R-|00029|00:01:51.0|32:21.3|008.4|01.4|112.3|152.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03757|16:15.0|02:09.8|159.6|18.7|143.6|152.0|12.3
01|03640|16:00.7|02:12.0|152.7|18.9|144.2|150.0|12.0

Friday – 5/15 – 7.3km run

Down on the cape. Out and back on the road.

Saturday – 5/16 – No Training

I spend a couple hours fixing some shingles on the roof, and then the fencing around the house. Didn’t feel like training.

Sunday – 5/17 – 3 x 30′ / 2′ Steady State

I’ve been reading more about base training and I want to try to add more minutes at lower intensity.

        Workout Summary - media/11a6da4170-20200517-211416o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|21759|01:36:00.0|02:12.4|157.0|19.5|134.1|144.0|11.6
W-|20997|01:30:00.0|02:08.6|164.6|19.7|134.9|144.0|11.9
R-|00765|00:06:00.0|03:55.2|044.2|17.5|122.3|144.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07003|30:00.0|02:08.5|164.5|19.1|128.6|140.0|12.2
01|06995|30:00.0|02:08.7|164.4|19.8|137.2|144.0|11.8
02|06999|30:00.0|02:08.6|164.8|20.0|138.9|144.0|11.7

What is Low Intensity

April 17, 20205 Comments

I posted a workout on the facebook page for the Stuck At Home Rowing Club, and someone made the mistake of showing the slightest interest in what I was doing. Now I will make her regret it.

Q: What kind of low intensity pieces am I doing?

A: Let’s start by defining low intensity. The terms Low Intensity and High Intensity are generally used in the context of a polarized training, so let’s start there. Polarized training applies the knowledge that there are different systems to power your muscles, depending on how hard you are working.

Here it is in graph form, from this article

So, on the bottom of the plot is how hard you are working as a percent of your maximum power output. Think of that as your VO2Max, or when your heart rate is very close to it’s maximum. As fast or faster than 2k race pace. On the vertical are two different things. The graph that starts high at low power output is the percentage of the energy expended that comes from metabolizing fat. The other curve, that starts low and climbs is how much power you get from carbohydrate (glucose/glycogen).

Where the cross over occurs can be moved by the kind of training that you do. If you do a lot of training below the cross over point, you can increase your ability to metabolize fat and essentially push the crossover gradually to higher and higher powers. The opposite can happen too, if your training focuses on more power and sprinting work, which stimulates the sensory nervous system, the cross over point can move down.

OK, so what does this have to do with polarized training?

Well, to get faster over typical 1K to 6K race distances, we need to have both power and endurance. But we need a way to organize the training so that we get the benefit of power development, while minimizing the how much we can move the cross over point to the right. Luckily, a lot of people have done a lot of good work to figure this out. One of them is Stephen Seiler, and wrote a great survey paper about it. It seems the an optimal approach is to put in about 80% of your training time at low intensity and 20% above. This has been shown to be a good ratio for elites who train a ton. and for recreational athletes (like me).

Great, so that why polarized training works, but what does low intensity mean?

Low intensity means that you are training at a power below your cross over point. There are a bunch of ways to figure out what that power is. The key concept is that it is much better to make the mistake of going too easy than going too hard. I have known this intellectually for 7 years and I still get it wrong all the time. I have such a stubborn belief that I have to push as hard as possible that I am always sabotaging myself. Don’t be an idiot like me. go easy and you will be miles ahead.

So, with that caveat, here are a few ways to test whether you are going slow enough.

RPE: Stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion. If you care, it’s a fancy scale from 1 to 17, but what it means is if you can’t speak in full sentences while you are exercising, then it isn’t low intensity.
Heart Rate: My favorite, but a pain in the neck. If you keep your workout below 75% of you maximum heart rate, you are doing it right. Some people think 70%. But to do this you need to get an idea what your max heart rate is, and that has it’s own complications, which I helpfully described here.
Lactate Measurement: Incontrovertible evidence, but a massive pain in the finger. You can measure directly whether you are using fat or carbs by measuring the by product of carb respiration (which is lactate) as it accumulates in your blood. If it is below 2mmol, then you’re doing it right. The challenge to this method is that you have to stab your finger and dab the blood on an expensive test strip that you plug into an expensive meter. I did this for a year or so, and still go back and do it ever once in a while, but it’s way to master rower nerd-core for daily use.
20-25 seconds slower than 2k pace. Right now, if I had the guts to do a 2k test, I would probably pull a 1:45 split. I do my steady state between 2:05 and 2:10. This isn’t a great method, but if you are doing your steady state 10 seconds slower than race pace, then it isn’t low intensity.

So, the main thing is to make sure that your low intensity workout is low intensity enough, what else matters.

Duration: More is better. And then even more. Miles make champions. Since going harder is counter productive, your main variable to get better is more time. If you are just getting started, then 30 minutes will be beneficial, and over time, the improvements will start to slow down and you will need to add more time to get more gains in endurance. I find that I can make very slow gains with 60 minute sessions and much better progress with 80, but having a life keeps me from being able to do that volume consistently.
Stroke rate: I read the wolverine plan years ago and it made a ton of sense to me. The basic idea is to keep the amount energy you put into a stroke about the same, and scale down the stroke rate to do low intensity training. If you think about it, that means that the drive phase of your stroke stays the same in duration whether you are racing or cruising, but you will take far fewer strokes per minute, so you go slower. To be fancy you can can call it Work per Stroke. So, I do my low intensity training at low rates, maybe 60% at 18 spm, 30% at 20spm, 10% at 22spm and above.
Breaks: 80 minutes is a looong time. I’ve read a bunch of stuff that recommends breaking up long rows into 20 to 30 minute chunks so that you can stretch, adjust and hydrate. So, I do almost all of my low intensity work in 20 minute work / 2 minute rest format. I will sometimes do a continuous half marathon to prove I can do it, but it is much more civilized to take short breaks and I think it helps to avoid back injuries.

Here are few example workouts

3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

3×30’/2′ steady state at 165W

And here’s an example of a workout that I pushed too hard and ended up in the “black hole”. To intense to build endurance and not intense enough to build power.

So, a long answer to a short question.

Good progress

November 30, 2019November 30, 2019Leave a comment

Tuesday – Nov 26 – 2 x 40′ / 2′ Steady State

Felt tired. At work in the fitness center. Needed to slow it down in the second 40 minutes.

       Workout Summary - media/20191126-1350330o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19217|01:24:00.0|02:11.1|165.6|19.5|144.7|154.0|11.7
W-|18973|01:20:00.0|02:06.5|172.9|20.2|144.9|154.0|11.8
R-|00246|00:04:00.0|08:07.8|018.1|06.3|140.7|154.0|16.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|09552|40:00.0|02:05.6|176.5|19.9|140.5|150.0|12.0
01|09421|40:00.0|02:07.4|169.4|20.4|149.4|154.0|11.5

Wednesday – Nov 27 – Waterfall

At home on slides.

Started with a 2k warmup. Got a little carried away.

So I did a 1K buffer to kind of get settled down.

Last time I did this workout, I managed a 1:53.6. So the target this time was 1:53.

I blew it away.

That’s a good improvement. I’ll be happy when this is back below 1:50

Thursday – Nov 28 – 60′ L4

At home on slide before we headed up to Vermont of Thanksgiving.

That felt kind of hard!

Friday- Nov 29 – 10K threshold

Did this late in the day, around 7 pm.

2k warmup

Last time my pace was 1:57.2, so I wanted to target 1:56. I thought I might be able to go a little harder, so I tried to keep 1:55 on the screen. About halfway through, I started to push it a bit more. HR was remarkably low, but it felt really hard.

Then a 2k happy ending cool down.

Comparing this row to my 10K row on November 2, there is really good improvement.

Lower ending hr and slower HR rise over the piece
16W higher power
slightly higher stroke rate

This is my highest ranking this season at the 92nd percentile.

Today, a steady state session.

It’s been a month!

August 11, 2019Leave a comment

Sunday July 7 – Coastal Row

Last day of vacation. Managed to go for a nice row. It was so long ago, I don’t remember much. From the HR and pace, it must not have been too windy.

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 10.19.35 PM.png

Monday – July 8 – No Training

Flew out to San Francisco first thing in the morning. I managed to walk around the city to get to my hotel, and the to and from dinner. All together about 5km of walking.

Tuesday – July 9 – Inclined walk.

At the Courtyard Marriott in San Francisco. Reasonably tough.

Wednesday – July 10 – Easy Intervals on the treadmill

Never even got to Orange! Way to easy, but at least I made it to the gym.

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 10.36.42 PM.png

Thursday – July 11 – No training

I took the red eye home from San Francisco. It left late and arrived 6 on Thursday morning. I drive home and slept a bit when I got there. Then a bunch of work calls.

Friday – July 12 – No Training

Woke up not feeling great, but I had a big, all day meeting. After it finished I headed home, and then my wife and I went to the Cape.

Saturday – July 13 – No Training

Down on the cape. No feeling great. Basically, I caught a cold.

Sunday – July 14 – Coastal Row

I had a great night’s sleep and I felt better on Sunday. I decided a gentle row would be fun.

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 10.45.35 PM

Wonderful!

Monday – 15 July through Friday 19 July – No Training

Not a lot of sleep. Still feeling congested and unwell. Tough week at work with business review meetings occupying the days. I worked very late most days and tried to get as much sleep as I could. We went to the cape pretty late on Friday night. I was starting a week of vacation.

Saturday- July 20 – 4 x 15’/2′

Gentle workout to get back into the swing of things.

        Workout Summary - media/20190720-2300540o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15237|01:07:59.8|02:13.9|155.3|18.6|139.6|154.0|12.1
W-|14083|00:59:42.7|02:07.2|170.2|18.5|140.9|154.0|12.8
R-|01158|00:08:00.0|03:27.3|047.5|19.1|130.8|154.0|08.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03513|14:52.9|02:07.1|169.8|18.3|128.3|141.0|12.9
01|03502|14:49.8|02:07.0|170.5|18.1|140.8|149.0|13.1
02|03548|15:00.0|02:06.8|170.4|18.6|144.5|152.0|12.7
03|03520|15:00.0|02:07.8|170.2|19.1|149.9|154.0|12.3

Sunday – July 21 – No Training

I wish I remember I didn’t train. Hopefully it was something fun.

Monday – July 22 – Terrible 10K

Just couldn’t get my head into it. Tried to maintain a 2:00 pace, which should have been totally doable, but I bailed about halfway and limped the rest of the way.

Tuesday – July 23 – 3 x 20’/2′ using Humon

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 11.06.17 PM

Wednesday – July 24 – Walking and Kayaking

In the morning, I went for a walk. It ended up as quite an adventure. I was out at low tide and I decided to try to reach the bridge from the north side. I was doing well until I got deep into the marsh, and the sandy bottom turned to mud. Then the mud got deeper. By the time I was approaching the bridge, I was sinking in to my knees and I feared that I would die there. I didn’t.

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 11.08.15 PM.png

Then later in the day, me, my wife and my daughter kayaked around the island at high tide. We stopped in the middle to jump off the bridge.

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 11.08.51 PM.png

In this jump, my daughter’s apple watch came off. She didn’t notice it gone until we had paddled away. We decided to come back at low tide (which was close to midnioght). There we were, three of us with flashlights under the bridge, looking for a watch.

It took about 2 minutes. We found it! Intact and still in perfect working order. I guess it is waterproof!

Thursday – 25 July – 90′ bike ride.

Me and my daughter. A very pleasant ride. The way down south, we took the rail trail. Then on the way back we took the roads.

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 11.24.11 PM.png

Friday – 26 July – bike ride

In the morning, i went for a walk.

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 11.26.17 PM.png

Then later, my daughter and I went for another ride.

It was an out and back on the rail trail. I had an issue with recording the ride, so I only got the return part of the trip.

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 11.28.31 PM.png

Saturday – July 27 – 3 x20′ / 2′

Just getting a workout in.

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 11.35.55 PM

Sunday – July 28 – Slightly harder 90 minute bike ride

A bit hillier, going north from our house.

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 11.39.26 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 11.42.37 PM.png

Monday – July 29 – No Training

As usual, got to bed late on Sunday and slept instead of getting up to work out.

Tuesday – July 30 – Actual rowing in an actual boat on an actual river!

In Newton.

Using Humon.

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 11.48.01 PM.png

Wednesday – July 31 – 10 x 2′ / 2′ OTW

Need to start getting a little intensity.

        Workout Summary - media/20190805-1530540o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12648|01:15:55.9|03:00.1|099.8|22.1|136.8|176.0|07.6
W-|06011|00:26:10.4|02:10.6|180.0|26.5|147.6|176.0|08.7
R-|06655|00:49:47.2|03:44.4|057.6|19.7|131.2|176.0|05.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00178|00:49.7|02:19.7|126.5|21.7|124.9|131.0|09.9
02|00216|01:00.6|02:20.1|144.2|20.7|130.2|139.0|10.4
03|00296|01:19.0|02:13.6|174.1|24.3|135.2|151.0|09.3
04|00196|00:50.8|02:09.7|168.0|26.0|134.9|148.0|08.9
05|00201|00:50.8|02:06.3|202.4|27.2|141.3|154.0|08.7
06|00185|00:44.0|01:58.9|217.0|30.0|145.2|159.0|08.4
07|00463|02:01.7|02:11.5|172.7|26.1|144.4|162.0|08.7
08|00454|01:57.3|02:09.3|182.8|26.5|147.9|165.0|08.8
09|00444|01:56.6|02:11.4|174.2|26.7|146.8|166.0|08.6
10|00456|01:58.4|02:09.7|193.3|26.8|150.5|167.0|08.6
11|00490|02:07.6|02:10.2|166.9|25.4|149.3|166.0|09.1
12|00473|02:02.6|02:09.7|192.4|27.4|154.1|171.0|08.4
13|00451|01:55.4|02:08.0|186.0|26.9|153.7|170.0|08.7
14|00428|01:52.8|02:11.8|177.0|27.1|151.9|170.0|08.4
15|00452|01:58.4|02:10.9|179.2|27.3|157.3|172.0|08.4
16|00467|01:58.4|02:06.8|210.7|29.9|160.9|176.0|07.9
17|00162|00:46.3|02:22.8|158.1|26.0|133.5|145.0|08.1

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 11.51.36 PM

Thursday – August 1 – OTW endurance session using Humon

        Workout Summary - media/20190805-1532120o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12608|01:10:49.7|02:48.5|105.5|19.7|134.2|162.0|09.0
W-|09601|00:47:11.3|02:27.5|126.7|19.8|138.4|159.0|10.4
R-|03020|00:23:39.7|03:55.1|063.3|19.6|125.8|159.0|04.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00129|00:40.4|02:36.8|085.7|17.8|115.8|119.0|10.8
02|00184|00:55.2|02:30.1|115.6|18.5|119.3|125.0|10.8
03|00313|01:30.7|02:24.8|119.1|19.9|125.2|137.0|10.4
04|00235|01:06.8|02:22.1|145.1|21.5|130.6|139.0|09.8
05|00310|01:24.7|02:16.8|169.7|24.0|136.2|147.0|09.1
06|00214|00:56.8|02:12.8|163.3|25.3|131.7|146.0|08.9
07|00204|00:52.5|02:08.4|199.8|27.4|141.0|150.0|08.5
08|00228|00:58.0|02:07.1|182.7|27.0|140.9|156.0|08.7
09|00164|00:40.3|02:03.2|262.8|35.9|146.4|159.0|06.8
10|02858|14:28.3|02:31.9|114.1|18.3|138.9|147.0|10.8
11|01991|09:56.6|02:29.8|117.4|19.0|138.9|149.0|10.5
12|02150|10:47.0|02:30.5|121.1|18.6|141.2|147.0|10.7
13|00354|01:39.2|02:20.1|147.5|23.5|147.5|153.0|09.1
14|00267|01:14.8|02:19.9|146.7|22.4|139.9|151.0|09.6

Friday – August 2 – No Training

I had to work on a presentation first thing in the morning. We headed down to the cape after work.

Saturday – August 3 – 3 x 20’/2′ on slides

Nice and easy. kept an eye on Humon.

Screen Shot 2019-08-10 at 11.56.41 PM.png

        Workout Summary - media/20190803-2250520o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14676|01:05:59.9|02:14.9|150.6|19.4|140.9|156.0|11.5
W-|13797|00:59:30.2|02:09.4|162.0|19.3|141.9|156.0|12.0
R-|00882|00:06:00.0|03:24.0|047.4|20.4|131.3|156.0|09.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04631|20:00.0|02:09.5|162.5|19.7|133.7|146.0|11.8
01|04524|19:30.2|02:09.3|161.4|18.4|142.0|151.0|12.6
02|04641|20:00.0|02:09.3|161.9|19.7|150.0|156.0|11.8

Sunday – August 4 – 80′ bike ride

Went hard to Rock harbor

Screen Shot 2019-08-11 at 12.01.16 AM.png

Screen Shot 2019-08-11 at 12.00.14 AM.png

Screen Shot 2019-08-11 at 12.03.07 AM.png

Monday – August 5 – 3 x 2K / 5′ OTW

Starting Head race prep gotta do some long intervals.

Screen Shot 2019-08-11 at 12.05.32 AM.png

        Workout Summary - media/20190805-1533110o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10435|01:07:16.2|03:13.4|118.7|23.5|136.5|182.0|06.6
W-|05981|00:26:42.0|02:13.9|169.1|25.7|151.8|182.0|08.7
R-|04463|00:40:34.9|04:32.8|085.6|22.0|126.5|182.0|05.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00232|01:07.0|02:24.4|136.0|20.6|119.1|128.0|10.1
02|00198|00:56.4|02:22.6|124.5|20.3|117.5|128.0|10.4
03|00204|00:56.7|02:19.0|157.0|22.2|123.2|130.0|09.7
04|00283|01:14.0|02:10.6|194.8|25.1|130.7|145.0|09.2
05|00206|00:54.0|02:11.0|164.7|25.6|130.0|143.0|09.0
06|00180|00:42.8|01:59.2|239.2|30.6|132.8|148.0|08.2
07|00334|01:30.4|02:15.2|164.1|25.1|130.6|145.0|08.8 - impeller got fouled
08|02010|08:54.5|02:13.0|168.5|25.6|160.2|176.0|08.8
09|02037|09:03.1|02:13.3|173.6|27.3|166.7|182.0|08.3
10|00170|00:47.7|02:20.2|151.6|26.4|130.9|145.0|08.1
11|00126|00:35.4|02:19.9|164.7|25.3|141.0|146.0|08.5

Pretty happy with that for an initial session.

Tuesday – August 6 – OTW Endurance with Humon

Nice low HR. Good pace. Low HR, but more orange than I was hoping to see.

Screen Shot 2019-08-11 at 12.18.46 AM.png

        Workout Summary - media/20190807-1435540o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14245|01:18:21.6|02:45.0|109.9|20.9|130.8|169.0|08.7
W-|11626|00:57:19.8|02:27.9|129.2|21.0|134.9|165.0|09.7
R-|02629|00:21:02.9|04:00.2|057.3|20.9|119.7|165.0|06.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00513|02:38.6|02:34.6|099.5|18.9|115.3|127.0|10.3
02|00282|01:23.4|02:27.6|117.5|19.4|125.2|136.0|10.5
03|00250|01:10.2|02:20.6|151.3|21.2|128.4|140.0|10.0
04|00332|01:29.2|02:14.3|179.4|23.5|134.3|150.0|09.5
05|00231|01:01.9|02:13.8|167.7|25.2|137.3|150.0|08.9
06|00211|00:54.0|02:07.9|193.5|26.6|141.3|154.0|08.8
07|00180|00:43.3|02:00.5|242.3|30.3|143.1|154.0|08.2
08|00171|00:38.9|01:53.9|290.8|35.3|148.7|165.0|07.5
09|02930|14:45.9|02:31.2|120.9|19.6|134.9|144.0|10.1
10|02788|13:51.4|02:29.1|117.4|20.2|134.7|142.0|10.0
11|02978|15:03.9|02:31.7|124.3|20.9|137.4|147.0|09.5
12|00383|01:54.0|02:28.8|139.8|23.1|138.2|147.0|08.7
13|00376|01:45.1|02:19.6|158.1|25.1|141.7|157.0|08.6

Wednesday – August 7 – 3′ intervals OTW

Screen Shot 2019-08-11 at 12.08.28 AM

       Workout Summary - media/20190807-1501010o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12101|01:09:59.7|02:53.5|111.5|22.0|143.1|181.0|07.9
W-|06835|00:30:16.7|02:12.9|172.9|25.8|157.3|181.0|08.8
R-|05283|00:39:44.1|03:45.6|064.7|19.1|132.4|181.0|07.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00198|00:54.4|02:17.6|139.8|19.8|125.7|135.0|11.0 - wu @ 20
02|00319|01:25.6|02:14.0|157.2|21.7|136.3|149.0|10.3 - wu @ 22
03|00387|01:41.8|02:11.6|138.6|24.1|143.0|157.0|09.5 - wu @ 24
04|00208|00:52.5|02:06.1|187.7|25.3|142.5|151.0|09.4 - wu @ 26
05|00213|00:53.0|02:04.4|190.8|27.1|145.4|159.0|08.9 - wu @ 28
06|00164|00:36.0|01:49.7|292.4|34.9|146.8|164.0|07.8 - wu @ 35
07|00681|03:01.1|02:13.0|176.8|25.5|154.5|169.0|08.8
08|00683|03:03.6|02:14.4|177.1|25.5|163.9|172.0|08.8
09|00654|02:54.7|02:13.6|168.0|26.3|167.5|176.0|08.5
10|00418|01:51.4|02:13.4|196.7|26.8|164.2|173.0|08.4 - shortened
11|00692|03:04.3|02:13.2|157.6|25.4|155.9|170.0|08.9
12|00668|02:55.6|02:11.5|164.1|27.3|166.5|175.0|08.4
13|00633|02:54.0|02:17.5|172.9|26.1|161.4|174.0|08.3
14|00658|02:57.0|02:14.4|183.4|26.8|170.6|181.0|08.3
15|00259|01:11.7|02:18.2|170.7|25.9|143.3|162.0|08.4 - cool down

Thursday – August 8 – Drills on the fives

Screen Shot 2019-08-11 at 12.14.04 AM.png

Friday – August 9 – Hard 6K on Lake Quinsigamond

Very exciting. First Head Race length piece of the season. I cartopped my boat out to Worcester and met some club mates. The plan was to warmup to the south end of the lake. Then row at 25 SPM and full pressure to the north end of the lake. Then cool down back to the boathouse.

It went great!

Screen Shot 2019-08-11 at 12.24.17 AM.png

       Workout Summary - media/20190809-1200580o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12310|01:03:11.5|02:34.0|135.2|23.6|153.3|181.0|08.2
W-|10190|00:46:10.2|02:15.9|161.8|24.6|158.8|181.0|09.0
R-|02126|00:17:02.0|04:00.4|063.0|20.9|138.4|181.0|03.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00725|03:30.6|02:25.2|131.4|19.9|130.3|138.0|10.4
02|01028|04:48.6|02:20.4|145.4|21.4|142.3|153.0|10.0
03|00208|00:54.8|02:11.5|175.6|26.2|145.3|153.0|08.7
04|00206|00:52.2|02:06.6|189.6|27.5|149.3|156.0|08.6
05|00157|00:37.2|01:58.7|255.4|32.2|147.4|156.0|07.9
06|00350|01:30.9|02:10.0|205.6|26.3|145.6|163.0|08.8
07|05921|26:18.1|02:13.3|169.2|25.7|168.3|181.0|08.7 - main piece!!
08|01013|04:51.0|02:23.6|137.7|23.2|155.9|165.0|09.0
09|00582|02:46.8|02:23.2|142.6|23.7|156.3|163.0|08.8

Saturday – August 10 – No Training

After a full week of actual training, I decided it was time for a rest day!

3/15 – 3/17: L4 – 10K – L4

March 18, 2019March 24, 2019Leave a comment

Friday – March 15 – 3 x 16’/1′ L4 (static)

I got caught up writing an email to someone who wanted to know how rowsandall could help you utilize EmPower data more effectively. By the time I pushed send, I realized that I had left too little time for a normal 60 minute L4. I figured I had about 50′, so I cut back the rests to a minute, and the intervals to 16′.

Since it was shorter, I pushed the intensity up a bit.

During this workout, my heart rate sensor didn’t work. But you can clearly see that there is HR data in the plot above. What strange, black magic did I use to make that happen? Well, I’ll tell you. I got an apple watch for christmas and I wear it during workouts. I use the Apple watch as a general fitness tracker, but it keeps a full record of HR during exercise. I found a cool little app for the iPhone called RunGap. It has the ability to read the workout data saved by the apple watch and export it to Strava.

Now the fun begins. Rowsandall has the ability to import workouts from Strava, so now I had two different versions of the workout. One from the PM5 on the erg via painsled (with no HR data) and one from the apple watch (with none of the erg data). How can I turn that into one workout? I’m so glad you asked. There is a feature in the workout editor called “Sensor Fusion”. This feature lets you pick columns of data from a second workout and fuse them into the workout file for the first workout. The resulting Fused Workout is saved as a separate workout. So I did that and viola, I have a complete picture of the session. This works for other data sources too. Anyway, it’s a cool feature and it helped me out on this workout.

Saturday – March 16 – 10K L3 on slides

I thought I would be able to hold a 1:55 pace. I figured that I was wrong around the 5k mark. I broke form for a second and then wound back up to about a 1:56/1:57 pace.

Even that was brutal. I spent the last 4 minutes above 95% HRR.

The glitch at the beginning was me fiddling with my magic watch. By the time I got it squared away, I was looking at a avg split of 2:10. I think I might of pushed a bit too hard to get back to a 1:55 avg over the next 2000 meters. I paid the price later.

        Workout Summary - media/20190316-2356090o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09999|38:26.0|01:55.3|227.7|24.9|166.6|180.0|10.4
W-|10000|38:27.0|01:55.4|227.7|24.9|166.6|180.0|10.5
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|180.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:46.3|01:53.1|233.8|23.1|136.1|150.0|11.5
01|01000|03:48.0|01:54.0|236.2|24.2|155.7|159.0|10.9
02|01000|03:47.8|01:53.9|236.8|24.3|162.3|164.0|10.8
03|01000|03:48.5|01:54.2|235.0|25.1|166.8|169.0|10.5
04|01000|03:48.8|01:54.4|233.6|25.0|170.6|172.0|10.5
05|00973|03:50.5|01:58.5|213.8|24.3|168.7|172.0|10.4
06|01027|03:59.0|01:56.3|222.0|25.3|172.9|175.0|10.2
07|01000|03:53.8|01:56.9|218.9|25.6|175.0|176.0|10.0
08|01000|03:53.6|01:56.8|219.6|25.7|177.1|179.0|10.0
09|01000|03:50.9|01:55.5|228.6|26.1|179.3|180.0|10.0

I had a bit of cough the rest of the day. But I was happy with the workout. I did a slow 2K cooldown afterwards and felt a bit better once I had finished that.

Sunday – March 17 – 4 x 20′ / 2′ L4 on slides

I was leaving my options open on this workout. If I was feeling tired, I would cut it off at 3 pieces, but it was one of those amazing workouts where each stroke felt easy and my heart rate stayed incredibly low.

        Workout Summary - media/20190317-2015390o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20230|87:59.0|02:10.5|170.1|19.4|135.2|157.0|11.8
W-|19327|80:00.0|02:04.2|182.4|19.7|135.6|156.0|12.3
R-|00909|08:00.0|04:24.0|046.1|17.0|131.2|156.0|11.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02367|10:00.0|02:06.8|173.5|18.7|124.2|134.0|12.6
01|02402|10:00.0|02:04.9|179.6|19.1|131.9|136.0|12.5
02|02252|09:23.5|02:05.1|179.2|19.2|129.1|135.0|12.5
03|02560|10:36.5|02:04.3|182.6|19.9|137.9|145.0|12.1
04|02439|10:00.0|02:03.0|182.6|19.7|135.6|145.0|12.4
05|02426|10:00.0|02:03.7|185.8|20.1|139.8|151.0|12.1
06|02436|10:00.0|02:03.2|186.3|19.9|137.3|151.0|12.2
07|02445|10:00.0|02:02.7|189.9|20.5|148.6|156.0|11.9

Now I am over the middle of Greenland on my way to Shanghai. It will be a bit of a challenge to maintain a good workout schedule, but at least the place I’m going to has a great gym with 2 Model D ergs in it. We’ll see how well I can maintain fitness.

Yesterday before I left, I brought my boat back to it’s rack in Newton. Hoepfully when I get home, it will be time to start OTW!

Tuesday: Something new. Minimalist Intervals

January 24, 2018January 24, 20183 Comments

Yesterday, I was up at 3:30am, on a flight at 6, then in meetings to 6 and dinner until 9:30, add in the time zone change and it was a 21 hour day on 2 hours of sleep. I was pretty tired.

Tuesday: I had to be at a meeting by 8 so I didn’t have a ton of time. On the flight out, I spent some time reading this book.

Now, I was suspicious of this book right from the title, but the author is at McMaster University and he has published some well regarded research into HIT, so I thought I would give it a chance. The book is based on a really good paper from 2012.

Physiological adaptations to low-volume, high-intensity interval training in health and disease

The thing that I am struggling to comprehend is that this research is showing a measurable effect on endurance. My understanding before was that low intensity duration built endurance and HIT improved lactate tolerance, strength and power. This seems to say that doing intervals above VO2Max power has a beneficial effect on endurance, which is just plain weird.

But, anyway, it seemed like good chance to give this nasty hard interval stuff a try. So, I decided to do the same workout that they used in the 2012 study for the HIT group.

The study was done with stationary bikes, but it seemed any mode would work: treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike or erg. Today, I went to the fitness center and the elliptical was open so I jumped on that. I just programmed a 30 minute manual session and started going at about a level 14. After 4:25, I cranked the “level” up to 23-24 (out of 25) and pushed as hard as I could. At this level, I could barely move the pedals at first and it was pretty tough to make it through 30 seconds at the intensity. The HR increase was so sharp that the monitor seemed to lag a bit. Next time I torture myself, I will try to use the OH1 and Polar H7 to compare.

Here’s the HR response. The first one I only got the level up to 22 and I think it was a bit too easy. The second one I got all the way to 25 and pushed so hard I nearly threw up. I kind of settled on 24 after that and it was just manageable to get to the full 30 seconds (plus whatever extra I got by turning up the level early.

Since I am always pressed for time on the road, and I seem to be trading off workout time versus sleep time, I think that this kind of short interval work might be a good travel solution. If I am reading the paper correctly, it may do a better job maintaining my endurance than the shorter LIT sessions I typically do on the road. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens. If I have time and an erg I will stick to the “real” training plan, but otherwise, I think I will tryout this HIIT style sessions on the road.

Tomorrow: Another HIIT session before I fly down to LA for more meetings.

A bit better. An easy 40 minutes

December 24, 2017Leave a comment

Around 6pm, I decided I really wanted to exercise a bit more. So, I jumped on the erg, dialed up 40 minutes and started rowing.

The thought was to just pile on some Cat VI meters. And that’s what I did.

Workout Summary - media/20171223-2300300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09554|40:00.0|02:05.6|176.4|18.4|144.6|154.0|13.0
W-|09555|40:00.0|02:05.6|176.4|18.4|144.6|154.0|13.0
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|154.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02394|10:00.0|02:05.3|176.7|18.4|133.1|143.0|13.0
01|02386|10:00.0|02:05.7|176.1|18.6|144.4|146.0|12.8
02|02387|10:00.0|02:05.7|176.4|18.3|148.6|151.0|13.1
03|02387|10:00.0|02:05.7|176.4|18.4|152.4|154.0|13.0

I felt a bit better after that. Tomorrow, more of the same. 4 x 20′ / 3′ – Cat VI.

Monday / Tuesday: Rowing on the road

December 6, 20172 Comments

I’m writing this from the United Lounge in SFO while I wait to board my flight to Taipei. It departs at 12:05 and I’m looking forward to spending as much time on the flight as possible asleep.

Monday:

I left for California first thing Monday morning. Before I left, I scouted potential Crossfit boxes to drop into while I was in the San Jose area. I struck out on the first three that I contacted. I guess that Crossfit is popular enough in the Bay Area that they don’t have the capacity to support drop ins. The fourth place I tried, NorCal Crossfit in Santa Clara seemed happy to have me drop in and row. Their policy was the first day was free and the second day was $30, which seemed pretty fair.

NorCal Crossfit is big! With high ceilings and lots of floor space. They could support a class of 20 people in the central area and additional smaller classes in other areas at the same time. Everyone was really nice and they had an area with about 20 model D rowers all set up and nicely maintained.

I fly in the morning, then had meetings all afternoon, finishing up around 5:30pm. Then I headed to NorCal Crossfit. I was dehydrated, tired and hungry, but I was looking forward to a workout.

The plan was:

4 x 12′ / 1’30”
Cat V: Pace – 2:01, rate: 22

I started off trying to use ergdata with a usb cable to the PM3. That worked for about 8 minutes. Then I started to get “Are you finished rowing” messages flashing up on the phone, and I would ignore. They would go away in a few strokes and everything was fine. However, in a minute or two, the ergdata screen stopped updating, but the PM3 kept happily counting down. This is starting to piss me off.

The excitement of rowing in a new gym with all the activity around me caused me to row with a bit too much vigor in this first interval. Instead of the target 2:01, I ended up with a 1:58.6 avg pace. Bad Greg!

So, determined to get my data, I changed machines. The second machine I sat on, wouldn’t link up at all, and the third hung up about 3 and a half minutes into the second interval.

By this point I had done enough experimentation on the USB connection, I decided to default to the good old days. I connected my HR sensor to the wahoo app, which always works and did 3 more 12′ intervals that way.

My heart rate was through the roof, even though I slowed down considerably. At least I was able to get it to plateau around 160.

It was a pretty short workout so I am not overly worried about it being a black hole session.

Tuesday:

Back at NorCal Crossfit. Today, I had no desire to screw around with ergdata and usb cables. I just went with the tried and true manual method.

The Plan:

5 x 2000m / 2′ rest
- 1500m: r22, 2:01
- 500m: r24, 1:55

I’ve done this workout a few times before and I’ve enjoyed it every time. Today, I set it up as a variable interval session on the PM4 of the rower I picked so I could see an accurate avg pace for each segment. This was an elaborate 11 segment workout that I managed to get exactly right the first time I tried. It sure made me wish that there was a way to define workouts in an app and download them to the PM. Maybe someday.

Anyway, the workout went great. HR was a bit high, but was generally reasonable for the lack of sleep and large amount of caffeine that I had consumed during the day. I tried to behave during all the reps until the last 500, when I got a bit crossfit happy. I maintained the 24 spm rate, but pushed the pace below 1:50. It was a very satisfying way to finish.

That’s a bit hard to deal with, so here it is in spreadsheet form.

So, now I am flying to Taipei. I will arrive around 6am local time. I’m planning to go to the hotel, check in, take a quick nap and then head to the office for some meetings. Then to a customer event in the afternoon and evening. I lose Wednesday to time zones and Thursday is a rest day.

Great Video & Presentation: Optimizing endurance training adaptation – Stephen Seiler

December 4, 2017December 4, 2017Leave a comment

Link to the video on the Oxford Brooks Video Portal

One of the articles that has had the biggest effect on how I train is a survey article by Stephen Seiler. Published in 2009, I found it in 2012 and it was the first peer reviewed article that I had seen which laid out the case for polarized training, and even included some findings for recreational athletes.

I had seen research that showed that polarized training, with split of 80% low intensity (LIT) and 20% high intensity (HIT) was optimal for elite athletes who train >10 hours a week. But what about schmucks like me, who train for fun and have jobs and lives. The key question for me was whether the ratio between LIT and HIT should change if the amount of training is lower? The article directly addresses that question…

This was hugely influential for me and I took the advice to heart. I tried to keep the intensity of my endurance workouts low, and the duration as long as I had time for.

The next bit of Seiler wisdom that I found helpful was a study about individualization of training. I have previously written about it here. The great thing about this study was reinforcing just how big the differences in response was between different athletes for the same training stimulus. He cited a study that was comparing different approaches to block periodization. There was a slight, statistical advantage to one approach, but the variation of response between athletes in each training group was much larger. His conclusion was that the same approach will not work for everyone. This is a pretty important lesson to learn since there are a lot of people who will cite their own results (or a national team’s results) as “proof” that a certain approach works.

So much of what works and doesn’t work has to do with how well a training approach matches your basic physiology and current training state. If you have tons of slow twitch muscles and do better at long distances, then you are likely to have different training needs than if you a fast twitch sprinter. In my own training, it has become apparent over time that I need a LOT of low intensity rowing to make improvements in my endurance. Others can by with a lot less.

So, it is with that background that I watched the video linked at the beginning of this post. I am inclined to pay attention to stuff that he presents because it seems to be well researched, and because it has resulted in good results for me.

This video reviews a fair amount of stuff that he has done before, but introduces a couple of useful conceptual frameworks to understand training.

The first is Seiler’s Hierarchy. Here is a link to an article explaining it. This set’s up a pyramid to illustrate the priority of different elements of training on race day performance.

At the base of the pyramid is training volume. As he puts it, there is a lot of peer reviewed research that shows a strong correlation between training volume and race performance. Miles do make champions.

The next level of the pyramid is High Intensity Training. The point here is that you need more than just the long slow stuff to actually improve. In addition, you need training that is hard enough to push your heart rate to 90% of your max, or higher to deliver adaptation. So, within that framework, I guess it is safe to safe that “No Pain / No Gain”. He discusses potential ways to do High Intensity Training and cites a study comparing 4 minute, 8 minute, and 16 minute intervals. He didn’t show this in the video, but it summarizes the finding of that study.

He made the point that there might be a sweet spot around the 90% HR level and that workouts that maximized the time at or around the 90% level might be more effective than shorter workouts that achieve higher heart rates, but for shorter durations.

The third level of the Pyramid is Training intensity distribution. This is where polarization comes in. He presented findings from rowing, skiing and running that showed that elite athletes generally spend their time training at much slower or faster paces than the actual race pace. This is where 80/20 comes from.

These three tiers represent the solid base of a training plan. Beyond that, you get into areas that are likely to have an impact, but the effect is less and the research is less solid. In the linked presentation, but not the video, he goes into detail about the study on block periodization studies. This research compared three block periodization strategies.

Then they looked at the results for the athletes that participated.

So, basically, all three worked great for some athletes and didn’t work at all for some athletes. This is the basis of his talk about individualization. You need to track what you’re doing and if you aren’t making progress, you should try something different with regard to periodization. There is good evidence that doing the same thing for longer than 8-10 weeks will result in diminished improvement, but it doesn’t matter as much what change you make.

The remaining levels of the pyramid are essentially the icing on the cake. They have been shown to have some benefit on race performance, but can’t be used to substitute for having a good base.

The other useful concept in the video was a discussion of dose/response curves. He described the similarity between training and medication. Basically, you have two effects as you increase the dosage of something on the subject. There is a desired effect, and there are side effects. The desired effects of training are increases in maximum power, VO2Max, Lactate Threshold, and aerobic endurance. The side effects of too much training are injury, illness and in my case an angry spouse.

Each curve is basically s-shaped. You need to get to some minimum dose before you start to see the desired effect, then that effect increases with increasing dose. At some level, the desired effect levels off, even with higher doses. The key to finding the right dose is figure out a level where the desired effect is maximized, but the side effect is still low. This is a good concept to keep in mind to ward off the “more is better” mindset. It is also useful to keep in mind around polarized training. The intent of long slow training is different than that of intense HIT. Each has it’s own dose / response curve, but they can effect each other. A way to think of this is that the desired effect curve is specific to the exercise intensity, but the side effect curve is driven by sum of all the training.

The challenge is that it’s pretty tough to know where the knees of the desired response and side effect curves are in practice. That’s where we end up relying on rules of thumb. Examples of these rules:

You need to accumulate time above 90% HRMax to get a good response to HIT
That the side effects of LIT volume are driven mostly by the specific type of sport being trained. They are lower for running and higher for non-impact sports like rowing
That decreased Heart Rate Variability is a sign of over training

These are all pretty squishy and that’s where training planning gets tougher.

60′ L4

August 2, 20171 Comment

60′ L4

168/172/176/180/168/172

8-2a

Tough sweaty work.

Then I packed up and headed to the airport and flew to Tokyo. I’m posting this from the back of a Tesla on the way to my hotel (in car wifi is pretty cool!)

Tomorrow: We’ll have to see what kind of a gym the hotel has.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Category: Uncategorized

And on it goes

What is Low Intensity

Good progress

It’s been a month!

3/15 – 3/17: L4 – 10K – L4

Tuesday: Something new. Minimalist Intervals

A bit better. An easy 40 minutes

Monday / Tuesday: Rowing on the road

Great Video & Presentation: Optimizing endurance training adaptation – Stephen Seiler

60′ L4