Wed: 2 x 30′ @ 22

May 9, 2018Leave a comment

Tuesday: I was out late at a business dinner and didn’t get to bed until nearly midnight. I decided to sleep in instead of training.

Wednesday: A beautiful morning. About 52F with just about no wind. Bright sunshine and a cloudless sky.

The plan was 2 x 30′ @ r22. This is supposed to be a Cat V workout, but I have yet to find the right stroke pressure. Each time I have done it, I have pushed too hard and end up with heart rates way up in the TR zone.

Today, I wanted to work hard on technique, mostly on recovery. Maintain outward pressure on the handles, and get my body angle right before starting to slide the seat. I also spent a bit of energy trying to get better at my finishes. I have been leaving my oars in the water too long, laying back too far, and disturbing the set of the boat as I try to extract the oars and bump my hands into my torso. So, the past couple of sessions, I have been trying to consciously finish earlier. Really tap down as the handles approach my chest, and maintain a tall posture in the seat. It feels way different, I bet it looks exactly the same to an external observer!

Sander gave me some good advice after my Monday session. He suggested that I should focus on one aspect of the stroke for blocks of 5 strokes and then move on. I think that could be a very good way to be more mindful during these sessions. There are 660 strokes in each 30′ piece. It’s impossible to focus on everything in every one of them.

Moving on the to the subject of equipment. I am liking the new rigging settings, but it will take a little while to get used to the heavier load associated with the shorter inboard. I think that helped to contribute to my high HR and RPE today. My legs “want” a certain drive duration, but that drive duration is now trying to sweep through a bigger arc, which means I put on more pressure. I need to lighten up a bit.

When I turned on my speedcoach today, I discovered that the battery was nearly depleted. That was weird because I had charged it last Thursday night and I’ve only rowed about 4 hours since then. I wonder if the new FW is draining the battery faster? Anyway, the speedcoach shut down in the first half of the first 30′ piece, so I only have RIM data, and only have HR for the second piece.

The map view shows significant jagginess. I suspect that the pace values might be a bit too fast as a result. The row shows up as almost 14500m, when it is usually closer to 14300m.

This was originally two sessions in RIM, but I glued them together on rowsandall.

          Workout Summary - media/df_20180509-174756.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14483|74:55.0|02:35.2|000.0|20.8|84.5|173.0|09.3
W-|14250|68:54.0|02:25.1|000.0|21.5|082.9|173.0|09.6
R-|00238|06:01.0|12:37.7|000.0|13.2|103.0|173.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01095|05:40.0|02:35.3|000.0|17.8|000.0|0.0|10.8 - warmup
01|03060|13:37.0|02:13.5|000.0|22.2|000.0|0.0|10.1 - 1st downstream
02|02972|14:02.0|02:21.6|000.0|21.9|000.0|0.0|09.7 - 1st upstream
03|02953|13:06.0|02:13.1|000.0|22.0|161.0|169.0|10.2 - 2nd downstream
04|03006|14:34.0|02:25.4|000.0|22.4|168.4|173.0|09.2 - 2nd upstream
05|01164|07:56.0|03:24.5|000.0|19.6|145.3|173.0|07.5 - cd SBR feet out

Tomorrow:

3 sets of:
- 1’ on, 3’ active rest,
- 1’ on , 3’ active rest
- 2’ on, 5’ active rest
Rest between: Continuous, no rest between sets.
Complete one set and then repeat the series.
The active rest is relaxed, low intensity, easy rowing.
Stop only briefly to rehydrate.
Rating /pace: Race effort, 1k pace (your best right now) So, I’ll be aiming at r30.

Monday: 72′ of Speedplay.

May 7, 2018Leave a comment

Sunday: Rest Day

By the time we got home yesterday, time was short and I decided that it would be better to take a rest day and row on Monday instead of squeezing in an erg session and letting a beautiful morning pass without rowing.

Monday: 72′ of Speedplay

After I finished my row on Friday, I spent some time making additional modifications to how I am rigged. The changes were…

Footstretcher an additional 1 cm to stern. Now it is a full 4cm astern of original position
Shortened inboard 1cm to 84cm. Now it is in 5 cm from 89cm originally
Lowered oarlocks an additional spacer. Now 2 spacers lower than original.

Then I left my boat for the weekend and rowed down on the cape. I did change my oars there to 84cm inboard to match, but I didn’t mess with the footstretcher or oarlock height.

Today was my first row with the new settings. The plan was for 80 minutes of speedplay. I had an 8:30 meeting, so I needed to be in my car at 7:45. That meant I needed to cut is short by just a few minutes.

The flow in the river seems to be a bit down. The weather was perfect. There was a bit of mist on the water when I launched, but it burnt off quickly. The temp was around 55F when i launched, but well above 60 by the time I finished. There was no wind when I started and just a light zephyr from the west by the time I was done. A great day to be on the river.

I launched and within a couple of strokes, I was at a nice steady state rate and pace. I held that through the twisty bits, and continued out into the nice straight section. I liked the changes to the rigging. With the oarlock height, I was able to get above the handles and I felt like my balance was better. I was able to row a lot more strokes without touching water on the recovery. At around 8 minutes I did my first power 20. When I finished, I looked around and was somewhat surprised to see a naked man staring back at me from the bank of the river. I guess he decided that some early morning skinny dipping was his training plan for the day and I interrupted him.

The rest of the workout passed far more uneventfully.

I need to change my OTW slack. These power bins are depressing me!

But the pace! A lot faster than recent sessions overall.

Workout Summary - media/20180507-1700240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14092|72:00.0|02:33.3|141.3|20.6|146.2|167.0|09.5
W-|13572|66:07.0|02:26.1|147.6|20.7|147.7|167.0|09.9
R-|00527|05:53.0|05:35.2|069.6|18.6|129.6|167.0|05.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00856|03:59.0|02:19.6|146.6|19.3|130.2|142.0|11.1 - little gap to maneuver
02|02990|14:00.0|02:20.5|150.9|19.9|144.3|163.0|10.7 - down
03|02892|14:34.0|02:31.1|147.1|20.4|147.6|166.0|09.7 - up
04|02887|13:37.0|02:21.5|152.3|20.8|150.9|167.0|10.2 - down
05|03947|19:57.0|02:31.6|142.7|21.8|151.4|167.0|09.1 - up

I assume that the difference is because of less wind, but I don’t that accounts for all of it.

Tomorrow: 2 x 30′ @ 22.

All rowing, all the time

May 6, 2018May 6, 20182 Comments

May 2: 3 x (1’/3′ + 1’/3′ + 3’/6′) all at 1k race pace (or best effort)

May 3: 60′ speed play

May 4: 4 x (3′ @ 24 + 3′ @ 28) / 6′ active rest

Wed – May 2: 3 x (1’/3′ + 1’/3′ + 3’/6′) all at 1k race pace (or best effort)

On the charles. Nice weather. It’s finally warming up.

The workout plan was:

3 sets of: 1’ on, 3’ active rest, 1’ on , 3’ active rest 3’ on, 6’ active rest
Rest between: Continuous, no rest between sets.
Complete one set and then repeat the series. The active rest is relaxed, low intensity, easy rowing. Stop only briefly to rehydrate.
Rating /pace: Race effort, 1k pace (your best right now)
Training effect: Cat II-III mix, repetitions, race pace technique

My goal here was to try to work on the technique feedback that my coach gave me from the video. Her main suggestions were:

Keep outward pressure on the oarlocks throughout the whole stroke. She noticed that at the catch, I was dipping my shoulders and pushing the handles toward the stern. She wanted to focus on early body angle preparation and remember to keep outward pressure on the handles as I approached the catch. This feels more like pushing the handles outward, versus sternward.
Keep outward pressure on the oarlocks at the finish. Again, make sure that I am keeping the collar firmly against the oarlock as I approach the finish. My elbows are in the wrong position, which we are going to work on with a bit more rigging change.
This goes with the body prep comment. She told me to be very conscious of when I start to move the seat toward the stern. Work to be sure that my arms are extended and my body position is ready for the catch.
Sit up nice and tall in seat, avoid slumping back on my tailbone.

This workout was an interesting one to try some of this stuff out because all of the pressure rowing was r28 or higher. I found that concentrating on the technique at r28, I was able to go multiple strokes touching no water and with rock solid balance. Keeping my core engaged and my legs locked down during the initial recovery really kept the boat stable. Of course, it was more of a challenge to maintain the rate as I was focusing on the recovery in segments, but I got the hand of it.

A very fun workout.

One thing that was not fun. My EmPower oarlock was acting up. Out of about 1200 strokes in the workout, it did not report data for 289 of them. Many of them were strokes in the intervals when I was trying to row to a power target, which was a pain in the ass. All in all it was probably a good thing because I ended up focusing more on the technique and less on power.

Workout Summary - media/20180502-1715240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11254|68:00.0|03:01.3|137.3|21.6|140.8|179.0|07.7
W-|03634|15:00.0|02:03.8|279.8|28.7|159.7|178.0|08.4
R-|07628|53:00.0|03:28.4|097.0|19.5|135.5|178.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00260|01:00.0|01:55.5|262.7|27.3|147.2|156.0|09.5 - down
02|00237|01:00.0|02:06.5|302.2|29.4|152.3|162.0|08.1 - up
03|00763|03:00.0|01:57.9|282.0|28.4|162.1|169.0|09.0 - down
04|00227|01:00.0|02:12.2|308.1|28.9|149.9|163.0|07.9 - up
05|00263|01:00.0|01:54.0|309.2|29.8|153.8|166.0|08.8 - down
06|00658|03:00.0|02:16.7|261.4|28.2|166.5|177.0|07.8 - up
07|00254|01:00.0|01:58.3|274.3|29.7|151.5|164.0|08.5 - down
08|00225|01:00.0|02:13.1|316.4|29.3|155.0|166.0|07.7 - up
09|00747|03:00.0|02:00.5|265.0|28.8|166.4|178.0|08.6 - down

Thursday – 60 min speedplay.

Again on the Charles. I had an 8 am meeting, so I bolted out of bed at 5:15, and I was on the river by 6am. That gave me just enough time to do 60 minutes, put away my boat, get to work, and shower before my meeting.

The workout is pretty standard by now, but on Thursday, I was still trying to obsess on the technique notes. Also, the annoying empower issues were continuing. This session 272 strokes were missed.

But none of that changed the fact that the weather was perfect! No wind. Really warm. A little overcast, but still a glorious morning to be out.

Friday – May 4: 4 x (3′ @ 24 + 3′ @ 28) / 6′ active rest

On Lake Quinsigamond. Overcast. Very little wind. Perfect water. Scattered showers. We needed to stick to the south end of the lake because boats were out practicing on the 2k course for this weekends big event, the New England Rowing Championship (“The NERCs”).

After 5 days of workouts, I was feeling a bit spent. The workout plan has an optional speedplay session on Friday, or a rest day. But since I knew I was heading down to the cape, I switched things to do the more intense Saturday session on Friday.

I knew that I would have to lighten up the r28 sections to make it through 12 minutes total of it. I was also more interested in continuing to work on technique at race rates.

Here are my coaches notes for the session.

Session: 4 x 6’
Rest between: 6’
Rating/Pace: 3’ @Cat IV pace: target SR 24 + 3’ @ Cat III; target SR 28

Notes: Work on the rhythm of a strong leg drive combined with relaxation on the recovery. Follow through to the arms/body away position to complete each stroke and to set the body preparation for the next stroke before starting the slide. Hold your posture and head up as you fatigue.

I can’t say that I was completely relaxed on the recovery. I had a lot on my mind…keep the knees down. Set the body. Keep my shoulders down. Keep outward pressure on the handles. Don’t over reach at the catch.

But, at least I had something to keep my mind off how hard the 3′ chunks were.

Before this outing, I updated my empower firmware to 2.18 and changed the battery in the empower oarlock. This seemed to calm things down. Only about 8 missed strokes. Of course I recorded a lot fewer strokes because I forgot to push start after fiddling with some settings. I was also having HR monitor troubles.

Here’s the whole thing on RIM

I had a bit of a moment on the third interval. About a minute into the r28 section of that one, it really started to bite, and I got that drowning feeling. It remarkable how quickly you can work your way through a chain of logic. It’s been a long week, I don’t race until July, I shouldn’t have started so hard, etc, etc. And before you know it, you’ve stopped rowing. Well, I stopped rowing. After about 10 seconds I started again and finished out the segment without any further drama.

Here’s the last ladder on NK. Notice the weird crap going on with the HRM.

Workout Summary - media/20180504-1325270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11616|61:59.0|02:40.1|000.0|21.5|0.0|000.0|08.7
W-|10525|51:36.0|02:27.1|000.0|22.4|000.0|000.0|09.2
R-|01105|10:23.0|04:42.3|000.0|17.1|000.0|000.0|07.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00943|05:30.0|02:54.9|000.0|17.8|000.0|0.0|09.6
01|00671|03:00.0|02:14.1|000.0|23.9|000.0|0.0|09.4 - r24
02|00704|03:00.0|02:07.9|000.0|27.7|000.0|0.0|08.5 - r28
03|01110|05:55.0|02:39.8|000.0|18.4|000.0|0.0|10.2
04|00675|03:00.0|02:13.3|000.0|24.2|000.0|0.0|09.3 - r24
05|00711|03:00.0|02:06.6|000.0|27.9|000.0|0.0|08.5 - r28
06|00549|03:10.0|02:53.1|000.0|18.4|000.0|0.0|09.4
07|00658|03:00.0|02:16.8|000.0|24.0|000.0|0.0|09.1 - r24
08|00633|03:00.0|02:22.2|000.0|27.5|000.0|0.0|07.7 - r28 (fail)
09|00607|03:26.0|02:49.8|000.0|19.1|000.0|0.0|09.3
10|00661|03:00.0|02:16.2|000.0|24.2|000.0|0.0|09.1 - r24
11|00708|03:00.0|02:07.1|000.0|28.5|000.0|0.0|08.3 - r28
12|01531|08:00.0|02:36.8|000.0|20.0|000.0|0.0|09.5
13|00365|01:35.0|02:10.2|000.0|24.2|000.0|0.0|09.5

The last segment was particularly fun. As I coasted to a stop at the south end of the lake. I noticed another single with a shirtless young dude in it. I turned around to the north, and he just sat there. When I started to row, he started with me and matched me stroke for stroke. I noticed he was a bit rough in terms of technique. I imagine he was a college kid who wanted to branch out into sculling. Anyway, we were side by side while I was getting ready to get into the interval, then I rated up to 24 and started moving. He hung with me for a a little bit and then started dropping back. He was sticking to a lower rate, and I’m sure he wasn’t paying any attention to me, but I was relishing the view of him dropping further behind. This was all it took for me to make it through the last ladder with no hint of slowing down or giving up. Seems like I need a training partner!

Later in the day, my wife and I headed to the cape.

Saturday: May 5 – 60′ of coastal rowing

Screen Shot 2018-05-05 at 8.08.50 PM.png Down in Wellfleet. It was a windy night last night and breezy in the morning, but by 3pm, it was calm and about 65F with hazy sunshine. It was a great day for my first coastal row of the season.

The tide was still coming in, but close to slack. I wanted to row for about an hour, and I just wanted to do steady state. I wanted to keep working on proper technique in recovery. knees down, outwards pressure, consistent body angle, don’t overextend. It was great to practice this in the Aero, because it is so stable.

Workout Summary - media/20180505-2230240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10598|60:30.0|02:51.3|000.0|19.6|151.7|160.0|08.9
W-|10536|59:00.0|02:48.0|000.0|19.5|151.7|160.0|09.2
R-|00064|01:30.0|11:42.9|000.0|26.1|151.8|160.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|05282|29:00.0|02:44.7|000.0|19.3|148.2|157.0|09.4
01|05254|30:00.0|02:51.3|000.0|19.6|155.1|160.0|08.9

I was having a great time.

Tomorrow: The weather is supposed to go downhill, so I think I will probably do an erg session. 80′ speedplay.

Whew. That’s hard work. 2 x 30 at r22

May 1, 20182 Comments

Not sure if this workout is supposed to be this hard. Maybe I’m trying to put too much into each stroke and I should lighten up. But, the low power and lousy splits suggest otherwise.

The weather was awesome. I wish it was about 10 degrees warmer, but it was sunny and there was very little wind. As soon as I got going I was warm enough.

          Workout Summary - media/20180501-1415230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14119|76:06.0|02:41.7|167.4|21.5|152.3|172.0|08.6
W-|11481|55:13.0|02:24.3|190.8|22.3|161.0|172.0|09.3
R-|02643|20:53.0|03:57.1|105.4|19.4|129.3|172.0|06.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02763|12:22.0|02:14.3|198.5|22.2|151.1|161.0|10.0
02|02934|14:40.0|02:29.9|194.1|22.5|162.3|168.0|08.9
03|02942|13:32.0|02:18.0|190.1|21.9|161.8|168.0|09.9
04|02842|14:39.0|02:34.7|181.7|22.4|167.2|172.0|08.7

So, since my river is about less than 15 minutes long, I ended up cheating a bit against the 2 x 30. It ended up closer to 2 x 28. As you can see from the HR, the middle turn was short enough that I didn’t get much recovery. Honestly, it was a real struggle to do that in the second interval. I really wanted a breather!

The power tells the story. I just got tired. Power declined from 199W all the way down to 182W. It would probably have been better for me to aim for a consistent 190W throughout the workout and done a better job with technique.

Quick comparison of the this session and the last time I did the same workout.

Last time I did this workout. I fired up into r22 right away and I carried it all the way back to the dock at the end. Today, I warmed for 5 minutes and cooled down for 5 minutes. I lopped that stuff of the chart as “rests”. Power is nearly identical. My HR response is way higher today. Not sure why. Maybe it’s biorhythms.

Tomorrow: A new session.

3 sets of
- 1′ on / 3′ off
- 1′ on / 3′ off
- 3′ on / 6′ off
Target rate: 28-32
Target pace: As good as I can do. Hopefully above 300w.

80′ of speedplay

April 30, 2018Leave a comment

Weather: cool and cloudy, around 43f. Light to moderate wind from the west (headwind in the upriver sections)

Plan:

80′
- r18 to r20 – cat VI rowing
- 2 x 20 strokes at r28 – cat II on each leg of the row
In between legs. 5 to 10 reps of KOM drill

Workout Summary - media/20180430-1345240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14038|78:45.0|02:48.3|164.6|19.8|144.9|174.0|09.0
W-|11668|58:10.0|02:29.6|184.9|20.3|153.1|174.0|09.9
R-|02375|20:35.0|04:20.0|107.5|18.4|121.8|174.0|07.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02687|12:08.0|02:15.5|184.5|20.2|148.5|166.0|10.9
02|02898|15:20.0|02:38.7|189.5|20.3|154.2|171.0|09.3
03|02847|13:08.0|02:18.4|183.7|20.0|152.9|170.0|10.8
04|03237|17:34.0|02:42.8|182.0|20.7|155.5|174.0|08.9

A very nice row. I felt a lot less tired than after previous outings like this. I also am feeling a bit smoother at r28. A lot of the strokes are fully clear of the water on recovery.

Tomorrow: 2 x 30′, Cat V, r22 Medium tempo workout. I need to fold each 30′ block into 2 chunks to fit it in the river, but I’ll make the turns in less than a minute.

Sunday: 4 x 20′ / 2′ Dynamic

April 30, 2018Leave a comment

Crappy weather and I was too lazy to go to Newton to row. Around 3, I decided to do an easy cruise of a session on the dynamic. The goal would be to work on getting my heels down and keeping them there. Hopefully also keep reminding myself to sit up tall in the seat and hinge at the hips.

Allowing for how much I loathe the dynamic, it was a lovely session. I was relaxed and comfortable throughout.

          Workout Summary - media/20180429-2110250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20019|88:00.0|02:11.9|161.4|19.6|142.3|154.0|11.6
W-|18976|80:00.0|02:06.5|173.1|19.6|143.5|154.0|12.1
R-|01046|08:00.0|03:49.5|044.3|20.1|129.9|154.0|06.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04725|20:00.0|02:07.0|170.6|18.6|133.2|144.0|12.7
01|04736|20:00.0|02:06.7|172.1|19.9|144.5|152.0|11.9
02|04743|20:00.0|02:06.5|173.2|19.9|147.6|152.0|11.9
03|04771|20:00.0|02:05.8|176.4|20.0|148.8|154.0|11.9

Tomorrow: 80′ of speed play down in Newton on the Charles.

Lost week – Taiwan

April 29, 20181 Comment

I left on Sunday morning to catch an early afternoon flight to Taiwan. I dropped my boat off in Newton on the way to the airport.

I was flying from Boston to Tokyo, then connecting to Taipei. I arrived around 8:30PM Monday night. I slept some on the two flights, but I was stiff and tired by the time I got to the airport.

Tuesday morning:

I got up around 5am and discovered that I had left my HR monitor at home. SO much for documented evidence of working out! Sad to say, it badly effected my motivation.

I headed to the gym. I set up the treadmill to do a 30 minute HIIT session. so, 4:20 sec of fast walk (3mph) on 15% grade. Then 40 seconds at 7mph on the same grade. repeat 6 times. By the last two sprints, I was nauseous at the end of the 40 seconds. I guess that meant I was doing it right.

The rest of the day was a blur of meetings, all of them internal with our team in Taiwan. I had dinner with a few of the folks that I travelled with and got back to the hotel around 9pm.

Wednesday:

Up at 5 again, and back in the gym. Today, it was 30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes on the stationary bike. In both cases, I used the built in HR monitor to try to keep my HR in the 137 to 155 range.

Then I was off to the customer site for 3 different meetings. Then we had a dinner for the full team supporting this major customer. They’ve been working night and day for years making it successful, so it was a good idea for us to say thank you.

I made it back to the hotel just in time for my 8:30 conference call. Unfortunately, that exactly when jet lag decided to strike and strike hard. I was having trouble holding my head up, and I kept hoping for the meeting to wrap up. I can remember looking at the clock around 8:50pm. The next thing I know, it’s five minutes after nine, my head is on the desk and there’s no one left on the call! I fell dead asleep. I reached out by email to apologize to the other folks that were on the call. I was pretty embarrassed.

Thursday:

I slept in until 6 because I had nothing on my agenda until my ride to the airport at 10am. I headed down to the gym without a specific plan. I did my full PT suite of exercises. I have been neglecting them lately and that’s a bad thing. I have to find a way to fit them in with OTW rowing. I don’t feel comfortable doing them on the ground at the docks where I keep my boat and I am always rushed when I get to work afterwards. I think I might start doing them on my way out of work at night.

Anyway, I did the PT exercises. Then I did a little bit of strength training.

I did a 3 circuits of

20 squats with 2 25lb dumbells
12 pull downs on a machine designed to mimic pull ups

The squats felt easy at the time, but it’s 3 days later and I’m still feeling sore.

Then I headed over to the treadmills and did 30 minutes of fast walking on a 15% grade.

After that, I headed to the airport for the long trip home. I got home around 8:00pm on Thursday night, thanks to time zones.

Friday: 80′ of OTW speedplay.

I slept surprisingly well on Thursday night, but not very long. The alarm woke me at 5:15am and I rolled out of bed. It was a beautiful morning, so I wanted to get back on the water. I headed to Newton and launched.

The plan:

80′ of speedplay
4 sessions of KOM

The instructions for the speedplay sessions are to do it continuous, but I really want to work on balance. I find that if I do KOM for more than a couple minutes at a time, I get all tight. So I decided to do a quick set each time I needed to turn the boat around.

The weather was lovely. Very little wind. There still a bit of current which make the splits all crazy and makes rowing a bit squirrelly in a couple of places, mainly where the river narrows down or splits and rejoins. It feel like the boat is wiggling underneath you or you are going around a corner on ice. As long as you are expecting it, it’s kind of fun, but it can be disconcerting if it takes you by surprise.

I started with about 5 sets of KOM, then headed down river. I’ve got my routine for the speed play workouts. I row steady state until I get to middle of the straight 1K. Then I do my power twenty. Then I continue to the middle of straight section in front of the watch factory and do another. I do the reverse on the way up river. It ends up with a bit more time between the twenties with the turn in there.

I am trying to keep the power above 300W on the power twenties and to keep the stroke rate between 28 and 30.

To get a better idea of the effect of the rigging changes, I wanted to look at the change in my catch, finish and length. These charts isolate just the r28 portions of four speed play rows. I made the adjustments in 3 steps. The first is the original settings. The next is with oars down one spacer, inboard shortened by 2cm, and footplate moved 1 cm. The third is another 2cm shorter inboard. Then the last is with the footplate moved the additional cm to stern.

Finish angle is about 2 degrees bigger.
Catch angle is about 3 degrees bigger
drive length is 3.5 degrees bigger
Effective length is about 2 degrees bigger.

Not much change. It feels a lot different though.

Saturday: I intended to go rowing, but i felt like crap all day long. I just sat around and did crossword puzzles. I did get up the motivation to do laundry and get groceries, but that was about all I was good for,

Sunday; Again, I was thinking about going rowing, but its raining and I’m lazy. I intend to do an easy session on the dynamic later just to keep things going.

Videos! KOM Drill and Rate Ladders

April 29, 2018April 29, 20181 Comment

It seems like so long ago, but it was just last Saturday. When I went out to Lake Quinsigamond for a outing with my pals at the Worcester Boat Club.

I set up for side video to see how I was doing with the feedback that my coach had provided. For reference, here is the before video.

The things that I needed to work on.

Rigging:
- Decrease inboard to reduce the amount of overlap at the crossover and give me more room at the finish. (I went from 89cm to 85cm)
- Move foot board to stern to give me more distance through the pin for my hips. (I moved it 2cm to the stern)
- Move the oarlocks down one spacer so that my hands would be lower during the drive.
Technique:
- Get my heels down quicker in the drive and keep my heels down during recovery
- Maintain outward pressure on the handles during recovery to get the blades off the water and stay more stable.
- concentrate on hinging at the hips and keep my back straight.

She recommended that I include the King of the Mountain Drill into my routine. I’ve do it in a couple of workouts so far. You can tell from the video that I need to do it more.

Here’s what it is supposed to look like. Link to Video

Here’s my version.

I don’t know what my problem was, but I was really tense during the drill. I feel like I did a better job the first time I tried it.

Then it was into the work out. The assignment was 4 x 12′ rate ladders. I include 2 videos here. The first is the last couple of minutes of the r18 section, 4′ at r24 and 2′ at r28. This one was done with basically no wind.

So, what do I see. I know it’s tough to make things out because of the position of the sun.

The rigging changes are good, and maybe should go even further. My finishes look a lot better.
I am doing a little better in the way my body is hinging, but not much.
I seem to go deep at the catch and then come to a good depth in the last 2/3 of the drive.
My balance still sucks.

Here’s the second ladder. Again the end of the r18 bit and all of the 24 and 28. The sun is now behind the camera so the video quality is better. The rowing is a bit worse. There was a bit of head/cross wind and I went a bit too hard in the first one so I was starting to fatigue.

I look a kinda slumpy in this one. I need to really work on sitting up straight in the boat.

Finally, because I can’t help myself. Here’s another blooper. When I started my second ladder, I managed to lose track of where a buoy was in front of me. By the time I saw it again, I was too close to cleanly steer away from it, so I just braced for impact.

Not my proudest moment. I guess I should have worn the sunglasses.

Wed – Sun: A lot more rowing!

April 22, 20181 Comment

What a delight to have 5 days of rowing in a row! I was in town for the whole week this week and even though I had a busy work schedule, I managed to row every morning. I didn’t get much sleep, and I froze my ass off, but it was totally worth it!

Tuesday: 2 x 30′ (already posted about this one. It was pretty tough work)

Wednesday: 3 x (1′ + 1′ + 2′) – a delightfully short sprint oriented workout

Thursday: 60′ of speed play…I got rained and snowed on

Friday: 65′ of speed play…Nice morning, but still damn cold.

Saturday: 4 x 12′ rate ladders on Lake Quinsigamond

Sunday: Off to Taiwan.

The details:

Wednesday: 3 x (1′ + 1′ + 2′)

Here are my coach’s instructions….

3 sets of: 1’ on, 3’ active rest, 1’ on , 3’ active rest 2’ on, 5’ active rest
Rest between: Continuous, no rest between sets. Complete one set and then repeat the series. The active rest is relaxed, low intensity, easy rowing. Stop only briefly to rehydrate.
Rating /pace: Race effort, 1k pace (your best right now)

Notes: The emphasis is on high quality work and stroke efficiency. This speed workout aims to keep the lactic acid levels low by allowing enough recovery between pieces for it to clear. Do not cut the rest short. Feel fully recovered and psychologically ready to do the next piece. If the quality starts to drop dramatically, stop the workout.

Training effect: Cat II, repetitions, race pace technique.

Pretty clear instructions and it’s nice to have the notes to know what to focus on.

I did not need to cut the workout short, but I did suffer a bit in the sprints that were going into the head wind. I adjusted the active rest between sprints as necessary to have the right amount of straight river in front of me when I started each sprint.

There is a huge difference in pace due to wind and current. The first three were all downstream and wind aided. The next three were all upstream and into a building headwind. The third set I did two downstream and then did the last 2′ piece into the current and wind. I struggled with the cross/head wind in the last one.

Workout Summary - media/20180418-1415260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10409|58:41.0|02:49.2|156.4|21.7|144.7|177.0|08.2
W-|02817|11:47.0|02:05.5|295.9|29.1|160.9|177.0|08.2
R-|07601|46:54.0|03:05.2|121.4|19.8|140.6|177.0|07.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00261|01:00.0|01:55.1|305.2|28.6|153.9|160.0|09.1
02|00264|01:00.0|01:53.6|304.3|29.4|157.7|164.0|09.0
03|00464|01:47.0|01:55.4|303.9|28.2|161.5|170.0|09.2
04|00217|01:00.0|02:18.5|257.7|29.1|150.7|161.0|07.4
05|00230|01:00.0|02:10.5|355.5|30.3|161.7|172.0|07.6
06|00444|02:00.0|02:15.2|279.4|28.6|167.7|177.0|07.8
07|00254|01:00.0|01:58.3|309.8|29.4|153.8|167.0|08.6
08|00253|01:00.0|01:58.6|313.8|29.7|159.4|169.0|08.5
09|00432|02:00.0|02:18.9|269.8|29.2|167.4|174.0|07.4

I basically aimed to get the power above 300 and keep it there.

Thursday: 60′ of speed play

A unique experience for me. It was cold and grey when I got to the dock. I had brought stuff so I could do the session inside because there was rain in the forecast, but when I arrived, it was not raining. So I decided to give it a go. I’ve done this session on the erg, but not yet in the boat and I was looking forward to it.

Plan:

60’ with speed play
Rest: n/a only to rehydrate
Rating/Pace: Cat VI; target SR 18-20.
Once every 10 minutes take the stroke rate up to 28 spm for 20 strokes.

I modified the time between power 20s based on the river. I wanted to get two 20s into each direction that I row, so it was a little less than 10 minutes between them.

The wind was pretty strong and it started raining during my first trip down the river as I emerged from the s-turn. By the time I turned at the dam it was raining steadily. By the time I had gone back upstream, it was a “wintery mix”. Then it was all snow.

Workout Summary - media/20180419-1300370o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11314|60:52.0|02:41.4|162.5|20.2|144.4|166.0|09.2
W-|01237|05:15.0|02:07.3|293.6|28.6|153.8|164.0|08.3
R-|10085|55:37.0|02:45.5|150.1|19.4|143.5|164.0|08.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00181|00:45.0|02:04.0|246.4|25.7|150.5|154.0|09.4
02|00191|00:45.0|01:57.9|282.3|27.1|153.9|161.0|09.4
03|00166|00:45.0|02:15.5|260.4|28.5|151.2|160.0|07.8
04|00164|00:45.0|02:17.6|303.5|28.4|157.3|164.0|07.7
05|00194|00:45.0|01:56.1|318.4|29.3|154.8|161.0|08.8
06|00174|00:45.0|02:09.7|321.8|30.7|159.6|163.0|07.5
07|00168|00:45.0|02:14.1|322.5|30.4|149.3|159.0|07.4

Friday: 65′ of speed play

Friday is an optional rest day, or I can do another speed play session like Thursday’s. Since I knew I had travel coming up, I wanted to get as much time on the water as I could.

The weather was even colder than Thursday, around 32F. But at least it was dry and the sun came out. The temperature was in the 40s by the time I finished.

I felt much better in this workout than the one on Thursday. Better, more consistent power in the bursts.

Workout Summary - media/20180420-1350290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12492|67:43.0|02:42.6|157.5|19.5|147.8|170.0|09.5
W-|01136|04:40.0|02:03.3|304.6|28.8|158.6|168.0|08.4
R-|11363|63:03.0|02:46.5|146.7|18.8|147.0|168.0|08.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00167|00:40.0|01:59.7|317.7|27.6|152.8|157.0|09.1
02|00170|00:40.0|01:57.6|313.1|27.9|155.9|161.0|09.2
03|00154|00:40.0|02:09.9|294.5|28.2|159.7|164.0|08.2
04|00150|00:40.0|02:13.1|300.6|28.4|160.3|165.0|07.9
05|00172|00:40.0|01:56.3|303.0|30.3|160.4|166.0|08.5
06|00172|00:40.0|01:56.6|315.2|29.9|163.3|168.0|08.6
07|00151|00:40.0|02:12.5|288.0|29.7|158.0|164.0|07.6

Saturday: 4 x 12′ rate ladders on Lake Quinsigamond

Saturday was a big day for our little club. We were going to christen our new lightweight double. We have some very good women rowers and they have been using a mid-heavyweight double which is way less than ideal for them. We picked this boat up used from Saugatuck and had it repainted locally (fire engine red!).

I brought my boat out. Today was going to be ideal for a few purposes. I wanted to see my rowing friends. I wanted to have a nice long lake for this workout. And since Saturday mornings are a lot less time compressed, I figure it would be a good time to do some side video with the rigging changes to see if it looks any different.

Marlene had suggested that I move further to stern, and I had moved the footplate a cm last week. On Saturday, I moved it another cm to the stern. It felt fine during the row.

I started out with some king of the mountain. I was really tight and tippy on Saturday, maybe it was having an audience as everyone else was getting ready to row. Anyway, I have to do this drill more because I suck at it!

Then it was time for the planned workout.

4 x 12’
Rest between: 6’
Rating/Pace:
- 6’ @ Cat VI; target 18-20
- 4’ @ Cat IV; target SR 24
- 2’ @ Cat III; target SR 28.

The first ladder heading down lake was delightful. The water was smooth and the wind was light. I felt strong and fast. But by the end of the 12′, I was pretty gassed. I think I pushed a bit too hard.

The next one was uplake and into a building headwind. That was less fun. Notice in the plot a transient right at 25 minutes? That’s were I ran into a “No Wake Zone” bouy. I noticed it right before I hit it, so I had enough time to brace and avoid flipping, but not far enough to stop or turn. It freaked me out a bit.

Then back down lake again and finally another one uplake. by this time I was worn out and the lake was pretty choppy. The wind was from the northwest as near as I could tell, so coming down lake I was sheltered by the western shore. Going uplake along the eastern side of the lake, I was exposed to the wind and chop.

I was totally spent the rest of the day.

4-21a

Once I get settled in Taiwan, I’ll post the videos.

Tuesday: 2 x 30′ at r22 OTW

April 18, 2018Leave a comment

On the water in my single. On the upper charles in Newton. The temp was in the low 40s and there was a reasonably strong breeze blowing from the west. This was a headwind heading up river.

The river was incredibly high after the big storm this weekend. The current was noticeably strong, especially at narrow points in the river.

I adjusted inboard to 85cm. I liked the extra room that it gave me at the finish, and increased my finish angle a few degrees. It did feel a bit heavier. I’m wondering if I will have issues rating up. I think I will try to move the foot stretcher another cm to stern to give me a bit more angle at the catch.

Plan:

2 x 30’
Rest between: n/a only to rehydrate
Rating/Pace: Cat V pace; target SR 22.

Screen Shot 2018-04-17 at 7.50.00 PM.png

The pace variations is almost entirely driven by the wind and current. The fastest pace was in the little stretch right after the stone bridge for both downstream segments.

This was pretty hard work.

Tomorrow:

3 x (1’ on / 3’ active rest + 1’ on / 3’ active rest + 2’ on / 5’ active rest)
Complete one set and then repeat the series.
The active rest is relaxed, low intensity, easy rowing.
Stop only briefly to rehydrate.
Rating /pace: Race effort, 1k pace (your best right now) – I will target r28 to r30, basically like the fast parts of the speed play.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Wed: 2 x 30′ @ 22

Monday: 72′ of Speedplay.

All rowing, all the time

Whew. That’s hard work. 2 x 30 at r22

80′ of speedplay

Sunday: 4 x 20′ / 2′ Dynamic

Lost week – Taiwan

Videos! KOM Drill and Rate Ladders

Wed – Sun: A lot more rowing!

Wednesday: 3 x (1′ + 1′ + 2′)

Tuesday: 2 x 30′ at r22 OTW