5.5km in about an hour.
It was windy as hell.
Sunday: More slidery – 4 x 20’/1′ speed play
The weather is awful. In the thirties and windy. It is starting to rain.
I am working out in my basement.
The plan:
- 4 x 20′ / 1′
- Cat VI – r18-r20, 2:02 – 2:06
- Every 10′ 20 strokes at r28
Long workout. Tried to focus on driving my heel down more quickly and hinging at the hips on recovery. It was ugly and unnatural. I guess that makes it good practice.
Workout Summary - media/20180415-1950280o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|19899|84:00.0|02:06.6|180.6|20.1|144.4|164.0|11.8 W-|19480|80:00.0|02:03.2|188.5|20.1|144.6|164.0|12.2 R-|00432|04:00.0|04:38.0|023.2|20.1|139.8|164.0|06.6 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|01202|05:00.0|02:04.8|177.2|18.7|121.0|133.0|12.8 01|00190|00:40.0|01:45.4|291.6|27.8|136.5|143.0|10.2 02|02244|09:20.0|02:04.8|180.3|19.1|138.5|149.0|12.6 03|00191|00:40.0|01:44.9|299.2|27.7|139.8|146.0|10.3 04|01047|04:20.0|02:04.2|183.4|19.2|143.9|152.0|12.6 05|01204|05:00.0|02:04.6|181.8|18.9|132.9|140.0|12.7 06|00188|00:40.0|01:46.3|288.8|27.1|141.9|146.0|10.4 07|02252|09:20.0|02:04.3|182.8|19.3|146.5|154.0|12.5 08|00193|00:40.0|01:43.5|307.4|28.8|149.5|154.0|10.0 09|01043|04:20.0|02:04.6|181.8|19.8|151.9|159.0|12.2 10|01197|05:00.0|02:05.3|178.2|19.2|139.3|146.0|12.5 11|00190|00:40.0|01:45.4|293.7|29.0|148.1|153.0|09.8 12|02238|09:20.0|02:05.1|179.7|19.6|149.5|158.0|12.2 13|00191|00:40.0|01:44.6|300.2|30.3|150.7|155.0|09.5 14|01043|04:20.0|02:04.6|181.4|20.1|153.9|160.0|12.0 15|01200|05:00.0|02:05.0|179.0|19.5|143.2|149.0|12.3 16|00190|00:40.0|01:45.4|294.5|28.9|150.2|155.0|09.8 17|02245|09:20.0|02:04.7|181.4|20.2|153.2|162.0|11.9 18|00194|00:40.0|01:43.0|313.2|32.2|154.3|159.0|09.0 19|01039|04:20.0|02:05.1|179.0|20.2|156.0|164.0|11.9
Tomorrow: Scheduled rest day. Hopefully I can go for a nice walk before we head back to Hopkinton.
Saturday: 4 x 12′ rate ladders – on slides
Down on the cape. Still too cold and windy for open water rowing. So I did this on slides.
It’s a new workout from Marlene.
- 4 x 12′ / 6′ rest
- each 12′
- 6′ Cat VI (r18-r20, 2:02 to 2:06)
- 4′ Cat IV (r24, 1:52)
- 2′ Cat III (r28, 1:48)
I had technical issues today. I managed to bring my OH1 heart rate monitor, but forgot the elastic strap. I tried to improvised a strap out of an old sock but made it too narrow and it fell out during the first rep. During the rest I went and cut a wider one from the other sock. That one works.
But when I got back to the erg, I discovered that I had misprogrammed the rest into the PM and the next interval had started a couple minutes ago. So, I aborted that one, and re programmed it. I put in a 5 minute rests just because I was a little pressed for time.
Afterwards, I used rowsandall to glue the two workouts back together. It was easier than writing the sentence about doing it.
The workout was very taxing. Maybe I was a little low energy. I don’t know, but the last six minutes of each interval were tough! I dialed back the pace a bit and stuck it out, but I was really struggling. I also let myself rate up a bit (25 for 24 and 30 for 28) in the last two intervals.
Workout Summary - media/df_20180414-225155.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|14139|66:25.0|02:20.9|169.4|21.0|141.4|180.0|10.1 W-|12360|48:00.0|01:56.5|223.6|22.8|146.2|180.0|11.4 R-|01784|18:25.0|05:09.6|028.2|16.5|128.8|180.0|06.2 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|01470|06:00.0|02:02.4|188.4|19.4|119.9|137.0|12.6 01|01072|04:00.0|01:51.9|249.3|24.2|102.8|111.0|11.1 02|00564|02:00.0|01:46.3|290.9|28.0|098.5|106.0|10.1 03|01460|06:00.0|02:03.3|188.2|19.5|142.7|154.0|12.5 04|01075|04:00.0|01:51.7|251.0|24.9|164.3|171.0|10.8 05|00560|02:00.0|01:47.1|284.8|28.5|175.3|177.0|09.8 06|01445|06:00.0|02:04.6|182.7|19.7|147.6|156.0|12.2 07|01063|04:00.0|01:52.9|242.8|24.5|166.2|175.0|10.8 08|00565|02:00.0|01:46.1|291.4|28.4|176.6|179.0|10.0 09|01453|06:00.0|02:03.9|184.3|20.0|148.9|157.0|12.1 10|01063|04:00.0|01:52.9|242.8|24.5|168.8|176.0|10.8 11|00568|02:00.0|01:45.6|296.4|30.2|177.4|180.0|09.4
I felt like I deserved a beer after that. So, I had two. We went to dinner at a great restaurant called CShore in Wellfleet.
Today:
- 80 minutes with speed play
- rest, brief to rehydrate (I’ll stop for a minute every 20 minutes)
- 20 strokes at r28 every ten minutes. I’ll do them at 5 and 15.
- I’ll also aim for the slow end of the cat VI range and focus on hip hinge stuff.
Fri – Fri: Busy Week
I got back to my house from Japan around 8pm on Thursday night. I slept well on the plane and surprisingly well Thursday night. I slept until around 7:30am Friday morning.
Friday: 14k steady state – OTW 1x
It was cold and windy on Friday morning. Snow was in the forecast for later that day. The plan for the session was just to work on technique and get some steady state volume. Cat VI, r18-20.
I was a little bit irked that I forgot to start the speedcoach until I was about 800m into the row. The wind was coming southwest, so I had a tail wind and tail current heading towards waltham and a head wind and head current the other way. It made for a pretty dramatic difference in pace.
Workout Summary - media/20180406-1655240o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|13276|75:36.0|02:50.8|150.8|19.4|150.9|160.0|09.0 W-|12944|69:39.0|02:41.4|161.6|19.3|151.5|160.0|09.7 R-|00336|05:57.0|08:50.9|024.2|20.3|143.6|160.0|03.7 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|03251|15:40.0|02:24.6|159.8|18.5|146.6|154.0|11.2 - missing 800m 01|02896|16:43.0|02:53.2|163.6|18.3|151.8|157.0|09.5 02|02894|14:05.0|02:26.0|162.5|18.4|151.3|157.0|11.2 03|03904|23:11.0|02:58.2|161.0|21.3|154.6|160.0|07.9 - tried higher rate
My objective for the row was to achieve the best possible pace while respecting the HR cap at 155. What was interesting was the consistency of power between head wind and tail wind cases.
The pace was different by 30 seconds, but the power was matched within 4 watts across all four intervals.
Saturday: 2 x 15′ rate ladders on the Oartec DX
I had lots going on all day, and I didn’t have a chance to train until about 9pm. The scheduled session was the 3×15′ rate ladders. I was going to try to do them on the Oartec DX. I decided to cut it back to 2, and either I was having a bad day, or I discovered that I can’t do as well on the Oartec as I can on slides. I ended up HDing in both ladders and finishing with a HR with 5 beats of my max.
Workout Summary - media/20180408-0200250o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|09056|38:00.0|02:05.9|232.3|22.9|157.0|181.0|10.4 W-|07602|30:00.0|01:58.4|213.5|22.5|157.0|181.0|11.4 R-|01461|08:00.0|02:44.3|302.7|24.3|157.1|181.0|07.6 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|01235|05:00.0|02:01.5|193.4|19.6|133.0|146.0|12.6 01|01021|04:00.0|01:57.5|214.9|21.7|154.2|161.0|11.7 02|00800|03:00.0|01:52.5|246.1|24.2|165.3|172.0|11.0 03|00506|02:00.0|01:58.7|219.7|25.3|166.9|172.0|10.0 04|00290|01:00.0|01:43.4|312.1|28.7|172.8|176.0|10.1 05|01212|05:00.0|02:03.8|184.8|19.4|148.9|159.0|12.5 06|01007|04:00.0|01:59.2|206.3|22.1|165.9|169.0|11.4 07|00714|03:00.0|02:06.0|184.3|23.1|164.0|171.0|10.3 08|00533|02:00.0|01:52.6|244.8|26.4|173.2|177.0|10.1 09|00284|01:00.0|01:45.5|297.9|30.7|178.8|181.0|09.3
Sunday: 2 x 2k + 2 x 1k + 2 + 500 – OTW 1x
After the late night workout the day before, I decided to push my sunday workout a bit later in the day. I had brought my boat home with me hoping that I could get out to row on Quinsig, but it was too cold and windy both mornings.
I needed to get my boat back to Newton before I took off on my trip monday morning, so I decided to bring it back in the late afternoon and go for a row while I was there. Even when its windy, the river is narrow enough that it remains nice and rowable. Today, it was a bit tough because the wind was coming generally out of the west, which was a cross wind through the widest section. This kicked up enough chop to make it more technically challenging than I can handle easily at this stage of the season.
The first 2k was great. Right on target, but I felt like I was digging a bit too deep. I failed in the second 2k. I came through the s-turn and got hit with the head wind and chop and I just didn’t have the drive to finish out the rep.
The same thing happened with the 1Ks. The downriver one was fine, but I bailed out on the up river one going into the headwind when I managed to take a crappy stroke and just kind of gave up on it.
In both cases, I took a couple of paddle strokes and then brought it back to target for the end of the rep.
The 500s were fun. Short enough that I wasn’t tempted to give up! The wind seemed to be rising throughout the workout. The biggest gusts seemed to happen as I came back up river in the last 500.
The summary shows the advantage and disadvantage of using power. You can see that the power is more consistent upwind vs down, but you can also see how the power is effected by steering. In the first 2000, the higher power from 1000 to 1200 meters is starboard turn going into the s-turn, and the power dip right after is the turn to port coming out of the turn.
Workout Summary - media/20180409-0040240o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|11862|75:16.0|03:10.4|167.9|23.1|148.0|178.0|06.8 W-|08857|41:50.0|02:21.7|218.2|24.4|159.8|178.0|08.8 R-|03015|33:26.0|05:32.7|104.9|21.4|133.3|178.0|00.5 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|00830|04:01.0|02:25.2|173.2|18.4|137.1|150.0|11.2 02|01961|08:36.0|02:11.6|231.7|23.9|165.2|176.0|09.5 03|02002|09:51.0|02:27.6|217.7|24.6|168.0|178.0|08.3 04|01050|04:33.0|02:10.0|248.9|26.5|166.5|177.0|08.7 05|01016|04:57.0|02:26.2|228.4|25.8|162.8|172.0|08.0 06|00501|02:10.0|02:09.7|265.7|28.5|158.3|174.0|08.1 07|00511|02:20.0|02:17.0|274.0|28.2|164.1|177.0|07.8 08|00617|03:23.0|02:44.4|152.2|23.5|142.8|156.0|07.8 09|00369|01:59.0|02:41.2|151.6|21.8|143.4|150.0|08.5
This workout put me into a bit of a contemplative mood. I can remember when bailing out on reps would have made me so angry with myself. in this workout, I was happy to be in the river, I felt a little bit like a quitter for not sticking with it, but it seemed like a good workout none the less. Then I start to second guess myself. Maybe that anger came out of a stringer drive to succeed? Is this a sign that I’m losing the desire to really compete and get to deliver my very best.
When I started, it seemed like trite little quotes like “Winners never quit, quitter never win” were always in my head. Over the past 10 years, I’ve put in enough sessions to know that sometimes you don’t hit your session objectives, and frankly, if you always do, then you are not pushing yourself enough. Now, I need to figure out a way to get the most out of the training time that I can afford to spend. It’s useful contemplation.
Monday: No Training
Up at 5am to get to the airport. Flew out to San Francisco for a couple of customer meetings. Got to the hotel around 8pm, had a quick dinner and crashed.
Tuesday: No Training
I had intended to get up at 5 and do a quick session in the hotel gym, but I felt very tired when the alarm went off and decided to sleep another hour. Caught a 8:25 flight from SFO back home. I got back to the house around 6:45pm.
Wednesday: 3 x 1500 + 3 x 500
I intended to do this session on the water, but when I woke up this morning, it was 26F and foggy outside. I didn’t know that was atmospherically possible! Wouldn’t the fog just freeze?
Anyway, those conditions, combined with the horrifying discovery that I had a 8:00am put an end to getting out on the water this morning. Instead, I found an hour in the middle of the day to workout and did the session on the erg.
Workout Summary - media/20180411-1725250o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|08789|38:00.0|02:09.8|192.7|20.7|156.9|178.0|11.2 W-|07500|27:58.0|01:51.9|251.7|23.3|154.8|178.0|11.6 R-|01293|10:02.0|03:52.8|028.1|13.4|162.9|178.0|09.4 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|01500|06:06.7|02:02.2|189.7|18.1|126.9|143.0|13.6 01|01500|05:35.0|01:51.7|251.0|23.6|153.7|163.0|11.4 02|01500|05:35.0|01:51.7|255.4|23.7|162.6|172.0|11.3 03|01500|05:32.9|01:51.0|256.2|24.4|168.6|176.0|11.1 04|00500|01:43.2|01:43.2|312.7|27.9|170.5|178.0|10.4 05|00500|01:43.1|01:43.1|320.9|27.7|163.2|177.0|10.5 06|00500|01:43.0|01:43.0|318.3|27.6|163.7|177.0|10.6
Pretty good workout.
Thursday: 14km Steady State OTW 1x
It was sunny and cold, just above freezing, with almost no wind. The water was glassy smooth.
The goal of this workout was steady state meters at low rate. HR limit at 155.
Nothing of note happened except during the first trip down the river at about 10 minutes the speedcoach complained that it was low on memory. I pushed a few button to see if I could delete a couple of old sessions. You can’t. So, I decided to just keep going and hope that I didn’t run out. I didn’t.
I did the first three legs at r18, but decided to up the rate to r20 in the last leg and lighten up enough to still stay under the HR cap. I was pushing right up to it at the end.
Workout Summary - media/20180412-1515250o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|14050|76:45.0|02:43.9|158.6|18.9|145.5|161.0|09.7 W-|13518|68:30.0|02:32.0|167.1|18.8|147.4|161.0|10.5 R-|00536|08:15.0|07:41.6|088.2|20.2|130.4|161.0|01.1 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|02197|10:42.0|02:26.1|170.0|18.4|136.8|146.0|11.2 02|01637|07:51.0|02:23.9|170.7|18.6|142.9|150.0|11.2 03|02870|15:00.0|02:36.8|166.6|18.3|147.4|155.0|10.4 04|02857|14:03.0|02:27.5|167.5|18.3|147.8|156.0|11.1 05|03956|20:54.0|02:38.5|164.5|19.7|154.1|161.0|09.6
6 more watts than the prior last steady state session and a lower HR.
Nice consistent power despite the pace difference.
Friday: 60′ Speed Play
Thursday afternoon, I received an email back from my coach based on her review of the video that I had sent her. It seems like I have lots of “opportunities to get faster”.
Her first thought was I need to change my rigging.
- Reduce the amount of inboard (I reduced the inboard from 88 to 86.25 cm)
- Lower my oarlocks to get my CG a little bit above the oar handles, so I am more “over the work”. (I moved them down 1 spacer)
- Move the footboard to stern to get my hips a bit further through the pin. (I moved it 1 cm)
She also had comments on my posture and
-
Adjust the way you are sitting so you can hinge.
-
Get connected to the boat, structural posture- King of the Mountain Drill
-
Keep glutes and lats engaged all the time on the drive, drive through heels after the cross over. This supports the posture.
-
Keep your weight into the rigger at all times, work the handles around the pin all the time, stay on the path of the handle.
That’s a lot to process. She also provided my training plan for April/May. There is a new type of session in this program…Speed Play.
- 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 session to fit in the KOM drill. I did about 2 minutes of the drill each time I turned on the river. It was a bit windy. Because of the time I took doing the rigging, I needed to cut a couple of km out of the session by turning at the old stone bridge instead of going all the way back to the dam.
The King of the Mountain drill was challenging. It was a little windy so the boat was getting pushed around and I had trouble holding the blades clear. I was really tensed up in the first set, a little better after that. I think it makes sense to break it up into small chunks like that.
During the row, I really enjoyed the 20 stroke fast bits. I decided to target r30 for those and focus on stroke mechanics. Get my blades clear on recovery. Get my heels down on the drive. Keep hinging at the hips. Usually when I rate up like that I just pull like a dog. Today, I tried for a bit more finesse. I doubt it would have looked any different to a bystander.
Workout Summary - media/20180413-1305250o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|12436|73:07.0|02:56.4|153.6|21.6|143.4|174.0|07.9 W-|12436|73:07.0|02:56.4|153.6|21.6|143.4|174.0|07.9 R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|174.0|00.0 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|12436|73:07.5|02:56.4|153.6|21.6|143.4|174.0|07.9
Here is a comparison of the stroke profile for the r30 strokes and the steady state strokes (around r20).
So, I am not losing length. Actually, I’m about 4 degrees longer at r30. And the slip and wash both look good. The peak force angle is a bit earlier (28 deg vs 33deg). I think that correlates to the early hump in the acceleration curve that shows up at speed.
Mostly in the row, I was trying to focus on maintaining outward pressure on the oarlocks during recovery and sit up taller. When I did it right and managed to finish cleanly, I felt rock solid as I travelled up the slide with the blades clear of the water. However, it was really hard to keep everything in focus every stroke. I’d focus on finishes and forget to keep pressure out, or do OK on both of those, but slump in the seat.
But, seeing the difference in my erg form by focusing on keeping my knees down and hinging at my hips makes me feel like this is struggle is worth it. It would be great if I could put together a thousand of those beautiful clean strokes in one session.
Friday afternoon, Jill and I headed down to the cape, where we are now. I’ll be erging this weekend. Today’s session.
- 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.
Better than nothing. A run and a walk
Wednesday: I headed into the office at 7am so I could learn my part in the Shinto ritual to dedicate our new building. It wasn’t that tough to learn. I needed to take a bamboo branch from the priest and place it on the altar. But it had to be done “just so”, with the right numbers of and right kind of bowing. Frankly, I was pretty nervous about messing up. Were taking this blessing stuff seriously. Our last building was destroyed by an earthequake, we want to cover all of our bases.
The blessing was at 10, then a lunch reception for the architects and construction company along with the local government officials. In the afternoon a few internal meetings.
We headed back to the hotel where our big party was to be that evening around 3:30pm, and got there at 4:45. I didn’t have to be at the reception until 6. I put on my running shoes and went for a run.
The hotel is located in Kumamoto, right along a river with paths along the banks, so I just started running along the near side of the river. I crossed to the other side when the path on my side was blocked by construction, then I kept going until I ran out of path. Then I turned around and headed back.
As always, I intended it to be a gentle jog. As always, I push the pace too much and my HR gets high, but since I only had about 40 minutes, that was OK. The Strava data is missing the first 3 minutes because I set up the run wrong and wasting tracking gps, it took me a bit of time to notice it.
It was humid and I was very sweaty when I finished. In fact I was still sweating at 6:00 when I showed up at the dinner in my suit and tie. The dinner was a blast. The was another first for me, another ceremony for good luck. This one involves Saki barrels. The top lid of saki barrel is obviously a circle, a shape that has good positive vibes about it. So, the ceremony is for a group of people to gather around a Saki barrel and bash in the lid with wooden mallets, then a toast is drunk out of nifty little wooden saki boxes. To make things more civilized, this is done symbolically. The saki barrel has just a trace of saki at the bottom, and the lid is conveniently pre-broken. So the celebrants just need to tap the top and it all crashes in. There were speeches and dance troupes and plaques and many toasts. A very nice evening.
Thursday: Up early for a 7am breakfast meeting with a customer. After that, a trip into to the office. A meeting with the full team at 10:30, and then off to the airport at 11:30. The flight from Kumamoto to Haneda was uneventful, as was the cab ride from Haneda to Narita. I ended up with about 2 and a half hour wait in Narita. I headed to the lounge and ate a belated lunch. I still had a lot of time to kill, so I put my stuff in a locker and went to walk the terminal.
If you haven’t been to Narita, it’s a great airport. Terminal 2 is huge and it’s good for walking. I used the gmaps pedometer to measure how far I went…nearly 4 km. It took me about 45 minutes. I was a bit sweaty when I finished, but it was time to gather my stuff and head to the gate. I boarded just a couple minutes later.
I started feeling pretty sleepy as we climbed out, so as soon as the seatbelt light went out, I went to washroom, changed into my pajamas (oh yeah, I brought pajamas!) went back to my seat, and conked out for 7 hours of surprisingly good sleep.
That brings us to the present. So, I happy. I thought I would get no exercise at all, but I managed to get a little something done.
Tomorrow: OTW, 1x, I think I will do a Cat VI endurance session. Hopefully 80 minutes or so.
Off to Japan
Friday night, my wife and I decided on the spur of the moment to see if we could organize Easter on the Cape. We called our sons, who live in Cambridge to find out if they we up for an adventure and they were! So, my wife and I headed down to the Cape on Friday night. We arrived pretty late, around 10pm.
Saturday morning, I headed out early (ish) and went to the French Bakery. I bought all sorts of good stuff for later and headed back to the house.
A bit later, I needed to head out to go pick up my boys. They were taking the commuter rail about halfway to the house, but I still had about an hour of driving each way to get them.
I also had to contend with the tides. I left quite a bit early so I didn’t get trapped. That gave me time to stop at the fish market and supermarket for the rest of our feast.
I was back at the house by around 2pm and we hung out for a while. Around 5 I decided to go do my scheduled erg session.
The plan was:
- 3 x 15′ rate ladders / 4′ rest
- 5′ at r20 (2:04)
- 4′ at r22 (1:58 to 2:00)
- 3′ at r24 (1:52 to 1:54)
- 2′ at r26 (1:48)
- 1′ at r28 (1:45)
This was done on slides. I was a bit dubious because this was my 8 straight day working out, but it turned out to be a good session.
Workout Summary - media/20180331-2220260o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|12940|57:00.0|02:12.1|183.7|21.7|146.1|177.0|10.5 W-|11614|45:00.0|01:56.2|224.6|22.6|149.3|177.0|11.5 R-|01334|12:00.0|04:29.8|030.3|18.4|133.8|177.0|05.7 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|01223|05:00.0|02:02.6|187.3|20.2|125.1|136.0|12.1 01|01003|04:00.0|01:59.6|204.4|21.8|141.3|145.0|11.5 02|00796|03:00.0|01:53.0|241.9|24.0|150.6|155.0|11.1 03|00555|02:00.0|01:48.1|275.9|26.1|160.0|162.0|10.6 04|00287|01:00.0|01:44.4|308.3|28.1|163.7|165.0|10.2 05|01215|05:00.0|02:03.4|186.6|19.3|133.9|144.0|12.6 06|01011|04:00.0|01:58.6|209.1|21.8|149.0|155.0|11.6 07|00801|03:00.0|01:52.4|245.9|24.0|159.1|164.0|11.1 08|00556|02:00.0|01:47.9|278.3|25.8|168.1|171.0|10.8 09|00288|01:00.0|01:44.3|307.8|28.0|172.7|174.0|10.3 10|01217|05:00.0|02:03.2|188.8|19.7|140.8|151.0|12.4 11|01017|04:00.0|01:58.0|213.1|22.0|157.3|161.0|11.6 12|00796|03:00.0|01:53.1|241.5|24.0|163.8|169.0|11.1 13|00556|02:00.0|01:47.9|277.6|26.4|170.7|174.0|10.5 14|00291|01:00.0|01:43.0|318.9|30.5|175.9|177.0|09.6
Turned out better than prior attempts.
- lower HR
- higher power
- good drive length on slides
Then it was time for the “Parade of Deliciousness”, all accompanied by prosecco
- Appetizer: bruscetta with Mac’s Seafood boursin
- First course: Sauted Maine shrimp and Cape Cod sea scallops with roasted aspargus.
- Second Course: roast ham with baked sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes
- Green Salad
- Assorted desserts
After that I was paralyzed.
Sunday: We got a reasonably early start for us, we were out of the house by 11:00AM. We needed to beat the tide, and get my sons to the train before 12:30. That got us home by about 1:30pm. The workout for Sunday was 2 hours of yardwork clearing the trees and branches that had come down in the string of 3 Nor-easters that we had in March. It was reasonably hard work and I didn’t have time for an erg session.
Monday: 9am flight to Chicago, then the long flight to Narita, then a 80 minuute car ride from Narita to Haneda, then a 2 hour flight to Kumamoto, then a 40 minute cab ride to the hotel. I arrived at the hotel at 9:30pm, Tuesday night (having lost a day to travel) about 26 hours after leaving my house in Hopkinton. I felt like I had been beaten up by thugs.. So, no training on Monday or Tuesday.
Wednesday: Up at 5AM, and right into emails. Off to the office at 7am. Today, I am helping to dedicate our new building in Kumamoto. Our old building was destroyed by the earthquakes there in April of 2016. I just finished participating in the Shinto dedication ceremony. A remarkable experience that involved a whole lot of bowing. Now we have a luncheon to thank the architects and construction company, later on we have a big dinner for our local team and a customers. It’s a pretty big deal for us. SO no training again.
Thursday: I have a breakfast meeting with a customer at 7am, then a “coffee meeting” with our local team, and then I’m off to the airport to catch a flight around noon. The return path is a one stop better…
Hotel –> Kumamoto –> Haneda –> Narita –> Boston –> Home.
So, no training again. That’s four days without training. Arghh. Just when I was getting in the groove.
Hopefully, I can get a good session in on Friday.
Friday: Horror Films. Video Feedback
One of the primary reasons that I wanted to get expert coaching was to make improvements in my rowing technique. I figure that there are three elements to achieving good boat speed.
- Lose weight. (5 kg is worth a second of pace at least just in reduced displaement)
- Improve fitness
- Improve technique
I know how to do number 1 and 2. Those items are determined by the amount of time I have to train, work commitments, willpower and desire.
Technique is tougher. I know good rowing when I see it, and I can see that there are things wrong with my rowing, but I want some expert guidance to figure out what needs to be fixed first and by what means.
Since I am using a remote coaching arrangement with Marlene Royle, that means that I have to record video and share it. I did this over the winter and I think I made some good progress on improvement the mechanics of my stroke, especially the recovery.
Now I am back on the water, and before I get too set in my ways, I wanted to take some video in the boat and start fixing stuff.
I have seen all kinds of arrangements to take video. If you are lucky enough to have a live, local coach, it’s very simple. They film you from the launch. Without a coach, you have to figure a way to mount a GoPro or some other camera on the boat. The easiest is to mount it on the stern deck, but then you don’t get to see a lot of the body work in the stroke. To get that you need a side view.
To get a side view, I picked up a trick from Larry Tait. He figured out how to mount an old rigger backstay to the end of his rigger, and then put his gopro on the end of the backstay. This gets the camera about 6 feet out to side, and with the wide field of view, that’s more than enough to see the whole stroke.
I described it a bit more detail and included pictures of the setup here.
So, I set myself up and went out for a row. I had about an hour, so I decided to do a bit of a free form session. I would do 6 minute easy rate ladders consisting of 3′ @ r18, 2′ @ r20 and 1′ @ r22. To spice it up a bit, I decided to throw in a few practice starts, just to see if I remembered how to do them and to see how good my balance was at the catch.
Here’s the whole session
And here’s the video….
The first video is the first rate ladder. During the 2′ at r20 I was making my way through the s-turn.
After the first 2 ladders, I reached the dam in Waltham. I did a set of four starts after I turned around. A couple of them were OK.
After a couple more ladders, and a few more starts, I did one last short ladder, just 10 strokes at each rate from r18 up to r28.
Looking at the video, I see a whole bunch of issues.
- Sad to say, I’m heavier and balder than I was the last time I did side video in the boat. :-(.
- I am not sitting erect enough in the boat, my hips are rocked too far back throughout the stroke.
- I am not completing my rock over on recovery before I start to slide.
- Blade depth looks OK to me, although it looks like my hands are arcing up right after the catch and then leveling out. The last ladder looks worse in terms of “rowing over the barrel”.
- As you can see, I struggle a bit with balance. I lightly skim my blades on recovery.
- Some strokes have a pretty pronounced pause at the finish.
And here, or pure entertainment value is my worst start of the day. I caught a crab and nearly flipped
The look on my face as it happened was priceless.
The great thing about rowing is that it keeps you humble!
14K OTW – Steady State and Technique
Big day today. Back in my Fluid, back on the upper Charles River.
It took me a little to get my boat reassembled, and I took my time. The last thing I wanted to was to screw something up and flip when the air temp was 35F and the water was around 45F.
The despite it being a bit cold. The weather was beautiful. There was very little wind and it was nice and sunny. It had warmed up to the mid forties by the time I had finished.
The water was nice and flat and I was able to just focus on trying to remember how to row.
The plan was pretty simple:
- 4K to the dam just rowing steady state to reacclimate
- 3K back upstream working on technique
- 500m Square blades
- 500m alternating SBR and feathered
- 500m trying to row feathered without touching water
- repeat
- Same thing 3K down stream
- 4K back to the dock rowing steady state to see if I made any progress
It’s funny, the first few outings in the spring, my heart rate is quite high and my boat speed is quite slow. After a couple weeks in the boat, I seem to get back in the groove. Today was much the same. In addition, there was a reasonable amount of current flowing, so I was about 5 sec faster downstream and 5 sec slower upstream on pace.
Workout Summary - media/20180329-1335260o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|13974|80:00.0|02:51.8|134.7|18.2|146.8|162.0|09.6 W-|12923|68:20.0|02:38.7|142.9|18.6|147.8|161.0|10.2 R-|01058|11:40.0|05:31.2|086.8|16.0|141.2|161.0|03.1 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|00889|04:34.2|02:34.3|144.2|17.0|131.5|146.0|11.4 to the cut 01|02735|13:15.0|02:25.3|157.2|18.4|154.1|158.0|11.2 downstream ss 02|02815|15:54.0|02:49.5|136.3|17.5|148.1|161.0|10.1 drills 03|02768|14:43.2|02:39.5|133.5|18.6|143.7|155.0|10.1 drills 04|02881|15:22.2|02:40.1|145.0|19.4|151.0|157.0|09.7 upstream ss 05|00835|04:31.8|02:42.7|146.4|21.2|147.2|160.0|08.7 cut back to dock
I’m nursing a nice set of blisters on both hands, and I’m sore in lots of places. And I’m happier than I’ve been in months!
Tomorrow: Low Intensity day. OTW 1x. Depending on time and fatigue, somewhere between 60 and 80 minutes of rowing. Main intent is to get in some ss meters, but I want to do some side video to see where I am from a technique perspective. So that means I will probably throw in a few short rate ladders.
Back on the Water! – 3 x 1500 + 3 x 500 in a 2x
A couple of days ago, I looked at the weather forecast for the week and decided that it was time to get back on the water. I sent a text to my friend Joe and asked if he wanted to go out any morning this week. I needed to retrieve my boat from winter storage on in Worcester, and I thought it would be great to get a first row in out there with Joe at the same time.
He suggested Wednesday morning. I was a bit worried this morning when I woke up and heard sleet on the windows, but I’m glad that we weren’t deterred. The weather cleared up and the water was amazing! There was basically no wind and the lake was glassy smooth.
One of Joe’s finest qualities is that he is willing to do just about any kind of training session. So, today, I just brought the session that Marlene has scheduled for Wednesday’s
The Plan:
- 3 x 1500m / 1′ rest
- Cat IV, r24
- 3 x 500m / 2′ rest
- Cat II, r28
To work with the constraints of the lake, we did a nice long warmup down to the south end of the lake. Then we did the 3 1500s going north. Instead of 1 minute rests, we just paddled 200m between intervals. It looks like that was actually about 1:20 of rest. And between the 1500s and the 500s, we took a longer break so that we could get up to the north end of the lake.
I was really pleased with how the outing went. Even in the warmup, I felt like we were in synch and rowing pretty cleanly.
The 1500s at r24 were really enjoyable. They started to bite a bit at the end of each, but the rowing was good.
The 500s were a bit more hectic, and by then my hands were pretty torn up, so I wasn’t as happy with how I was rowing. But for r28 in a first outing, I’m not gonna get too grumpy about it.
Workout Summary - media/20180328-1600330o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|11668|63:58.0|02:44.5|000.0|22.7|151.3|176.0|08.0 W-|09319|44:36.0|02:23.6|000.0|23.9|156.6|176.0|08.8 R-|02349|19:22.0|04:07.4|000.0|19.9|139.0|176.0|04.6 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|03319|16:42.9|02:31.1|000.0|21.4|146.2|172.0|09.3 02|01500|07:07.3|02:22.4|000.0|24.6|157.8|169.0|08.6 03|01500|07:02.0|02:20.7|000.0|24.4|164.6|175.0|08.7 04|01500|07:01.1|02:20.4|000.0|24.8|167.4|176.0|08.6 05|00500|02:13.4|02:13.4|000.0|28.4|154.5|168.0|07.9 06|00500|02:14.6|02:14.6|000.0|28.0|166.0|175.0|08.0 07|00500|02:15.3|02:15.3|000.0|28.1|164.7|175.0|07.9
Tomorrow: OTW in my single. Cat VI session r18-20 total rowing time ~ 60 minutes.
More Power! – Peak Power Session
Plan:
- PT Suite
- 10 minute warmup with 5 stroke power bursts at nominal drag factor
- 10 x 10sec / 1′ rest peak power training on max drag
- 2 x 20′ / 1′ Cat VI (r18-r20, 2:03 to 2:08, HR cap at 155)
I did my PT exercises. My back was a bit sore from the kettlebell swings I did yesterday, but it loosened up nicely.
The warmup was uneventful. I tried to work on getting the rate up nice and high, but I wasn’t too successful. But I managed to work up the beginning of a sweat, so mission accomplished.
For the Main set, I tied my shoes extra tight, moved the foot stretcher up one hole, and cranked the damper to 10. Then I programmed the PM to 20 second intervals with 50 second rests. That’s as close as I can get to the desired setup with the constraints of the PM5. SO, I rowed the first 10 seconds of each interval hard, and then eased up for 10 seconds, and then let the flywheel coast down during the 50 second rest.
The protocol is to do a rep, see what power you manage to get, and then do reps until you reach 10, or your power drops below 90% of the your initial value.
Today, I saw no real drop off, which I suspect means that I am not trying hard enough.
Here’s the summary plot. I think the only useful information on it is the drag factor. 187, maybe it’s time to clean the erg?
It is way more instructive to look at this on a flex plot.
So you can see all the reps have peak power between 675 and 710W. 710W is 1:19.0. My all time best low pull on a static erg was back in 2015 at 1:16.9 (769W).
It is telling that my best power was achieved in the last two reps. You can see how many reps it took me to get the rate up to near 45 SPM. the early reps I was trying too hard to just over power each stroke. By the end, I was more focused on getting my ass back to the catch.
You can see this in the work per stroke, which is actually declining as the power is going up.
What I found really fascinating was comparing this workout to the same session done on the Concept2 Dynamic. I did this a couple weeks ago.
First is a comparison of the power. I was able to achieve much higher peak power on the dynamic, maxing out at 795W. What’s up with that?
The short answer is that you can rate up like crazy on a dynamic erg. I was consistently able to rate between 55 and 60 spm, versus the 40 to 45 spm on the static erg.
Take a peek at the work per stroke on the prior workout. It is really consistent and 200 joules lower than what I was pulling on the static erg.
You can see this in the peak force too. On the dynamic, I pulling around 1100N. On the static, peak force was around 1400.
What the hell does all of that mean? I guess it depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the session. If the point of the session is to get as many reps at the highest possible handle force, then it make more sense to do the session on the static erg. If the point is to work on neuromuscular coordination to be able to effectively apply force at high rates, the dynamic is a better choices. If you are trying to impress your friends with insanely fast splits, definitely go with the dynamic!
This is a very interesting session to highlight the differences between unique erg types. I think I’d like to do this session on the Oartec and the C2 on slides to see what happens. I think they will probably fall in the middle between these two extremes.
After that, I did the 2 x 20′ Cat VI. Apparently there wasn’t much left in my legs or body, because it was massively hard work. my HR shot up to the limit very quickly and so I rated up to 20 and lightened up the pace to try to hold my HR right at 155. It was an extremely long 41 minutes.
Tomorrow: The forecast is for temperatures of 31F and freezing rain, so I’m going rowing! I’m going to meet my friend Joe to take out the double for my first outing of the season. I will also pick up my boat so I can get it back down to the Charles on Thursday morning.
The planned session should be a bit of fun. I think Joe will enjoy it.
- Nice long warmup, working on technique from the boat house to the south cove.
- 3 x 1500m / 1′ rest (This should take up from the south cove to the north end of the lake)
- r24
- 3 x 500m / 2′ rest (This will take us from the north end of the lake to the boat house)
- r28
I have a lot of organizing to do tonight to get all my goodies packed and charged.
Quantified Rowing 