Tuesday AM: Awful L4 HM

November 22, 2016Leave a comment

I suspect that I am still feeling the effects of the HM on Sunday night. This morning was another horrific session.

The plan:

Half Marathon
L4 format
power: 10W x stroke rate
HR Cap: 155
rate plan:
- start slow (16spm), and ramp up over first 10 minutes
- Then 7 x (1000m @ 18, 750m @ 19, 500m @ 20, 250m @ 21)
250m paddle every 5000m

Today the plan lasted only through the first 5000m. Then I needed to retreat to low rates to keep below the HR cap. It was slow and miserable work.

After Sander pointed out the higher drag factor (138) from the hard HM I did at home on Sunday, and the struggles I had yesterday at 118, I thought maybe a little higher drag factor would be better. I moved the level up one to give a drag factor of 128. It made no difference. There are so many variables, it’s hard to figure out what the problem is.

Different erg
warmer at work (68f vs 55f)
shirt at work, no shirt at home
morning for work, afternoon at home
insufficient recovery from hard hm on Sunday

I will just gut through this and then enjoy my day off on Thursday.

Ugh.

This afternoon, I will do a strength session.

Tomorrow morning I’ll do another low and slow HM at home.

Monday: Slow Slog HM

November 21, 2016Leave a comment

I was shattered the rest of the night yesterday evening. I felt absolutely empty. I felt very tired and I was in bed by 10:15, but I slept a bit fitfully. I have a pain in my shoulder blade which must be related to something in my neck because I get shooting pains when I turn my head especially to the right. This is causing me some troubles when I turn over in bed.

I woke up at 5:15 feeling sore and tired. I got to work and I was on the erg by about 6:30.

The plan:

Half Marathon
L4 format
power: 10W x stroke rate
rate plan:
- Start slow at 16spm, get up to working rate over the first 10 minutes
- Then 7 x
  - 1000m @ 18
  - 750m @ 19
  - 500m @ 20
  - 250m @21
HR Cap 155

The plan ended up lasting through the first 7500m minutes. After that, I was approaching the cap, and feeling pretty crappy. I did 2500 minutes at 17 to finish the block, and then rowed the last 10000m at 18. Even with this reduced load, I was still pushing up to the cap at the end. I have had rows where I felt like I was gliding along effortlessly, this was NOT one of those rows. It was slow and nasty work.

Workout Summary - media/20161121-135125-sled_2016-11-21T06-42-50ZEST.strokes.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|21000|90:09.0|02:08.8|177.9|18.4|143.8|158.0|12.7
W-|20000|82:27.0|02:03.7|185.0|18.3|145.3|158.0|13.3
R-|01097|08:05.0|03:41.1|077.0|19.2|122.4|158.0|13.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
02|02500|10:28.1|02:05.6|177.0|17.3|128.4|140.0|13.8 - slow start
03|02500|10:07.5|02:01.5|195.6|19.2|144.1|150.0|12.8 - target 190W
04|02500|10:06.4|02:01.3|195.8|19.2|142.7|155.0|12.9 - target 190W
05|02500|10:27.3|02:05.5|177.4|17.3|147.4|155.0|13.8 - target 170W
06|02500|10:17.6|02:03.5|185.3|18.5|144.5|150.0|13.1 - target 180W
07|02500|10:20.2|02:04.0|183.4|18.2|152.4|154.0|13.3 - target 180W
08|02500|10:19.2|02:03.8|183.9|18.4|147.9|154.0|13.1 - target 180W
09|02500|10:21.2|02:04.2|182.6|18.1|154.7|158.0|13.3 - target 180W

Tomorrow: AM: HM L4, PM: strength

Hard Half Marathon

November 21, 2016November 21, 20165 Comments

Continuing with the Crazy Bear Challenge. Today was a bit spicier.

Plan:

Half Marathon
Free Rate
Pace: 1:57.5
No HR Cap

Last weekend, I did a 1:58.5 and I was sure I could do better. I was thinking I’d aim to slice a second off the pace. I didn’t bother to warmup, I just sat on the machine and started going. I settled in at 1:55 and even though I was worried that I’d burn out, I just kept going and let the pace bleed off and the rate creep up over the row. I was never in any serious distress, but I sure felt pretty awful after I finished.

End result: 1:21:38.8 (1:56.1)

That’s good enough to be ranked 14 of 474 on the concept2 rankings of 50-60 hwts. So, I’m pretty happy with that.

It was a hard row, about an hour above AT. The last 4 minutes in AN. I might be able to squeeze a bit more out with a slower start, but I’m not sure. I’m still a ways off of my PB (1:19:55.4), that’s a 1:53.6 pace. Maybe after 25 more HMs?

Workout Summary - media/20161120-222121-sled_2016-11-20T15-12-43ZEST.strokes.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|21097|81:36.0|01:56.0|223.7|23.6|166.7|181.0|11.0
W-|21097|81:37.0|01:56.1|223.7|23.5|166.4|181.0|11.0
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|181.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01000|03:49.2|01:54.6|227.7|22.2|132.9|143.0|11.8
02|01000|03:51.2|01:55.6|226.5|22.4|147.9|152.0|11.6
03|01000|03:50.8|01:55.4|227.6|22.8|153.5|155.0|11.4
04|01000|03:50.6|01:55.3|228.3|22.9|156.5|158.0|11.3
05|01000|03:50.5|01:55.2|228.6|23.2|160.0|161.0|11.2
06|01000|03:50.8|01:55.4|227.7|23.4|162.3|164.0|11.1
07|01000|03:51.7|01:55.8|225.1|23.2|164.7|165.0|11.2
08|01000|03:51.5|01:55.8|225.6|23.4|165.3|167.0|11.1
09|01000|03:51.9|01:55.9|224.8|23.3|167.6|168.0|11.1
10|01000|03:52.2|01:56.1|223.3|23.4|168.1|170.0|11.0
11|01000|03:52.9|01:56.4|221.7|23.1|170.2|171.0|11.2
12|01000|03:53.1|01:56.5|221.1|23.4|170.9|171.0|11.0
13|01000|03:53.9|01:57.0|218.9|23.5|171.1|172.0|10.9
14|01000|03:54.0|01:57.0|218.1|23.7|171.8|172.0|10.8
15|01000|03:54.2|01:57.1|218.3|23.7|173.6|174.0|10.8
16|01000|03:54.2|01:57.1|217.5|23.6|173.7|174.0|10.8
17|01000|03:53.7|01:56.9|219.3|24.1|175.1|176.0|10.7
18|01000|03:54.7|01:57.3|216.7|24.0|175.8|176.0|10.6
19|01000|03:54.7|01:57.4|216.6|24.2|175.4|176.0|10.6
20|01000|03:52.4|01:56.2|223.2|24.7|177.3|178.0|10.5
21|01000|03:48.9|01:54.5|234.0|25.6|178.9|181.0|10.2
22|00097|00:20.2|01:44.2|304.6|29.5|181.0|181.0|09.8

With the tools on rowsandall.com, I can get a good look at how I traded rate for power as the row went on. You can see my weakest part, from about 7k down to 2k, where my strokes got shorter and the work per stroke went down.

Tomorrow: HM L4. Interested to see how much oomph I have after this workout.

Saturday: Last row of the season?

November 19, 2016November 19, 20164 Comments

It was beautiful out today. Clear skies and sunny. Upper 30s at the start, rising to around 45F by the time we finished. A light wind from the north was a gentle tail wind heading downlake and a head wind heading up lake. Enough to effect the pace a bit, but not enough to stir up any chop. I can’t imagine a better day for rowing.

I was in my single and Joe, Heri, Leanne and Pam were in the quad. I had a simple training plan.

Stay with the quad.

All I really wanted to do was row, and I was enjoying the company. They were going easy sometimes and then doing some power pieces. I just try to match pace with them. We headed downlake first, at a reasonably hard steady state pace for me. Then a bit easier heading up lake, although with the head wind, it felt almost as hard.

After the narrows, I could hear when Joe would call for a 10 or a 20 and I would increase the pressure to stay even with them. We took a brief break just north of the Route 9 bridge, and then continued to the north end of the lake. From the QRA boathouse, the quad picked up the rate and I matched to them.

We took another break and started to head home. Joe said that they were going to take it easy until 2/3 of the way home, and then do a hard 500m piece. Rowing downlake, I got a bit ahead of them and then slowed to a paddle around the start of the 500. I saw them take up the rate and I waited until they were about a length behind me and I did the same. Because they were at speed and I was still accelerating, they pulled a little bit ahead of me by the time I was about 20 strokes into it. I pushed up the rate and I started to claw them back so we were even at 40 strokes. We finished around stroke 55 for me, and I was maybe a quarter length up on them. It was fun doing it side by side like that.

Then an easy paddle back to the dock. After we landed, I took off my rigger and packed my boat into the back of the boathouse for the winter. 😦

Workout Summary - media/20161119-152227-79032o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11996|68:58.0|02:52.5|000.0|20.0|145.4|171.0|08.7
W-|10100|48:19.0|02:23.6|000.0|20.5|151.6|171.0|10.2
R-|01896|20:39.0|05:26.7|000.0|18.0|125.8|171.0|06.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
02|03300|15:18.7|02:19.2|000.0|20.4|153.2|167.0|10.6
03|03300|16:26.5|02:29.5|000.0|19.4|151.4|163.0|10.3
04|02000|09:29.1|02:22.3|000.0|21.7|155.2|170.0|09.7
05|01000|05:01.1|02:30.6|000.0|18.7|137.7|142.0|10.6
06|00500|02:04.6|02:04.6|000.0|28.1|159.4|171.0|08.6

I did some quick analysis of the row. Looking at pace versus stroke rate. These two plots show tail wind and head wind difference. Tail wind is on the left. Head wind is on the right.

Finally, here is a view of the last 500m piece. You can see my rate and pace increasing at the beginning.

Tomorrow: L3 half marathon. Aiming to do a bit better than the 1:23:33 from last week.

Friday PM: L4 HM

November 19, 2016Leave a comment

I picked up my boat on my way home from work to bring to the lake out in worcester tomorrow morning, and got home around 7:30. I was on the erg by about 8.

Plan:

Half Marathon
L4 format (but using distance)
power: 10W * stroke rate
HR cap: 155 (again, not even close)
paddle the first 97 meters to get to an even 21000, then do it in 2500m blocks
First 2500m build up from 160W
After that, push it a bit more than yesterday
- 750m at 180W
- 750m at 190W
- 750m at 200W
- 250m at 210W
take a 250 paddle every 5000m with a quick drink.

Again, a terrifically low HR through the whole workout, even though it was 5W higher effort, and on top of that it was my second session today. Wow, I love working out at night.

The HR shows a little bit more ut1 than yesterday and a fair amount more time in power at.

For fun, here is the HR comparison of yesterday and today’s sessions. (Thanks rowsandall.com!)

So, even with higher effort, HR is the same in the first half of the workout. The HR in the third 5000m block was brought lower by a longer than intended rest to deal with my low battery problem on the phone, and I am basically in the same place in the last 5000m block.

By the way, I am back on painsled. The bug I saw yesterday is caused by using the ANT+ and BT at the same time on the PM5. Today, I used the BT connection for the HR and it was a lot happier.

Tomorrow: It looks like there are 5 people signed up including me. Maybe a couple of doubles and a single? Weather forecast is pretty good for this time of year, 40F, clear and 5 mph wind.

Friday AM: Quick Strength session

November 18, 2016Leave a comment

I went to bed late last night. I finished my workout around 10:30 and I was pretty jazzed up. It wasn’t until 12:30 or so that I was settled into bed.

So, I slept in an extra hour to 6:15, and then fought the traffic to get to work. Once I was there, I had a pretty short window to workout.

So the plan was:

20 minute fletcher format warmup
Quick Strength workout
- Squats
- Standing Press
- Chin Ups
- Ab roll outs
- Push ups

As it turned out, I ran out of time before the push ups.

Workout Summary - media/20161118-181034-concept2-result-27823043o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|05115|20:00.0|01:57.3|222.8|21.0|151.4|169.0|12.2
W-|05119|20:00.0|01:57.2|215.9|20.5|150.8|169.0|12.6
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|169.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00991|04:00.0|02:01.1|185.3|17.9|129.6|139.0|13.9
02|01008|04:00.0|01:59.0|205.3|20.1|144.9|150.0|12.5
03|00777|03:00.0|01:55.8|222.5|21.9|152.7|155.0|11.8
04|00269|01:00.0|01:51.4|249.4|24.0|158.4|160.0|11.2
05|00141|00:30.0|01:46.4|285.2|25.8|161.8|164.0|10.9
06|00493|02:00.0|02:01.6|193.5|18.6|160.5|164.0|13.3
07|00299|01:00.0|01:40.5|336.0|28.0|162.4|167.0|10.7
08|00494|02:00.0|02:01.6|196.9|18.6|163.2|168.0|13.3
09|00157|00:30.0|01:35.7|393.4|31.2|163.5|168.0|10.1
10|00490|02:00.0|02:02.5|191.7|18.9|164.5|169.0|13.0

Then on to strength

Squats
135 x 6
185 x 6 x 3

Standing press
65 x 6
85 x 4 (too heavy)
80 x 5 x 2

Chin ups
3 unassisted (yay)
6 x 2 (red band on knee assisted)

Ab wheel roll out
8 (oh my lord did these hurt! My abs were still smarting from doing 3 sets of 10 on Tuesday)

ran out of time here.

Tonight: Another L4 HM

Tomorrow: Last row on the lake in worcester

As I mentioned yesterday. I had some fun changing a tire while all of my coworkers watched. Turns out they took pictures too!

Thursday: HM L4

November 18, 20162 Comments

Wednesday: Flew down to Dallas. No time for any training. Big dinner with the customer. About 20 of us at the restaurant. Too much beer, wine, tequila and steak.

Thursday: Early start. We needed to be at the office at 7:30, so no time for a workout in the am. On my way to the office, I had a blowout on a tire on my rental car. It turned into the highlight of my day. Changing a tire on the car in my business suit while 10 of my coworkers looked on offering me suggestions and making sure I did it correctly.

After the meeting, I headed off to the airport for my return home. I got to Boston around 7:45pm and I was home by 8:30. By this time I was really looking forward to a nice relaxing endurance session. I saw Sander’s distance based L4 and decided to copy that to keep my mind busy during the row. I also wanted to squeeze it into a half marathon so I could keep up with the Crazy Bear Challenge.

So the workout plan was:

Set up for a HM (21097m)
paddle the first 97 meters to get to a even number
row the rest 4 x ( 5000m work and 250m paddle)
In each 5000m work section do 2 sets of
- 1000 at 18
- 750 at 19
- 500 at 20
- 250 at 21
Power: 10W x stroke rate
HR cap: 155 (I never got near it)
first 2500 meters start slow (16 spm instead of 18)

It was quite a challenge to keep track of the right elapsed distances for each of the rate changes. That and a good adventure audiobook keep me very occupied and the time flew by. I love working out at night. I swear I’m 10 watts better.

The glitch i the third interval was the low battery warning coming up on my phone and me running to get my charger! Ruined the split for that segment too.

Workout Summary - media/20161118-034816-concept2-result-27821242o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|21000|87:40.0|02:05.2|185.4|19.0|136.6|148.0|12.6
W-|20000|82:06.0|02:03.2|190.4|18.9|137.1|147.0|12.9
R-|01097|05:54.0|02:41.6|111.0|21.0|127.8|147.0|12.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
02|02500|10:30.7|02:06.1|173.2|17.0|128.2|134.0|14.0
03|02500|10:08.7|02:01.7|192.4|18.9|137.3|145.0|13.0
04|02500|10:08.0|02:01.6|192.4|19.0|136.3|144.0|13.0
05|02500|10:07.8|02:01.6|193.5|19.1|141.0|147.0|12.9
06|02500|10:47.2|02:09.4|193.2|19.5|135.2|143.0|11.9
07|02500|10:08.6|02:01.7|192.7|19.1|140.1|146.0|12.9
08|02500|10:07.1|02:01.4|193.4|19.2|136.9|145.0|12.8
09|02500|10:08.5|02:01.7|192.7|19.1|142.0|147.0|12.9

Another annoyance was needing to use ergdata instead of painsled. The most recent update of painsled seems to have broken it for me.

Tomorrow: Strength session in the morning and another HM L4 in the evening.

Tuesday: 10K easy plus strength trainig

November 15, 2016Leave a comment

At work in the fitness center.

First, some erging to warmup and keep the aerobic base. Goal is to run this right at the top of the UT2 band. I want enough training stimulus to maintain blood volume but not enough to take away from the strength work coming next.

10km
10W x stroke rate
HR cap at 145

Workout Summary - media/20161115-140421-sled_2016-11-15T06-49-38ZEST.strokes.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|40:43.0|02:02.2|19.0|141.8|149.0|12.9
W-|10000|40:43.0|02:02.2|18.9|141.9|149.0|13.0
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|00.0|000.0|149.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01000|04:00.2|02:00.1|19.1|124.0|134.0|13.1
02|01000|03:59.8|01:59.9|20.1|138.3|142.0|12.5
03|01000|04:01.6|02:00.8|19.8|143.1|145.0|12.6
04|01000|04:03.3|02:01.7|19.2|143.3|145.0|12.9
05|01000|04:03.9|02:02.0|19.1|144.5|146.0|12.9
06|01000|04:04.3|02:02.1|19.0|145.1|148.0|12.9
07|01000|04:07.0|02:03.5|18.4|145.1|148.0|13.2
08|01000|04:08.3|02:04.1|18.1|144.2|146.0|13.4
09|01000|04:08.1|02:04.1|17.9|145.1|147.0|13.5
10|01000|04:07.3|02:03.7|18.8|145.5|149.0|12.9

I started at 190w and it felt pretty easy, so I upped it to 200w and rowed until I hit the HR cap. Then I backed off to 190(ish) and played with pace and rate to try to keep my HR between 144 and 146. It was good sweaty, easy fun.

Then I took about 10 minutes, went and grabbed my exercise bands and ab wheel and changed my shirt. Now it was time for some strength work.

(weight in pounds)

Squats

45 x5

135 x6

185 x5 x5 x5

185 was a good weight. I could have probably squeezed out another rep in each set. I think I’ll push this slowly up to 3×8 at 185, and then up the weight.

Chin ups (red band on knee)

3 x 5

Next time I will do the first set unassisted

Standing press

45 x5

65 x6

75 x5 x6 x5

I need to work on form for this exercise. I think I am arching my back too much. Surprisingly hard for such light weights.

AB wheel roll outs (from knees)

3 x8

Oh my. These were hard! My calves were cramping up.

Push-ups

3 x10

I was very disappointed with how weak I felt in the push ups. Might have been from the standing press, but I felt like I had no “pop”

Tomorrow: Early flight to Texas. Probably a rest day.

What the hell? Sets don’t matter?

November 14, 20164 Comments

Just saw this paper.

Journal of Applied Physiology

Seems to indicate that similar gains in strength as measured by increases in 1 rep max were acheieved with 2 groups, one of which did a single set at 80% 1RM to failure and a group that did 3 sets to failure. I need to spend more time reading the paper, but I wanted to share it with others to see if others wanted to read it as well.

Here’s the money plot:

Monday: 4×20′ L4 (embedded in an HM)

November 14, 2016Leave a comment

So, as usual for a Sunday night, I had trouble sleeping. But I woke up before the alarm at 5:15 and headed off to work.

My standard endurance workout these days is a 4 x 20 minute session which is usually about 20km including some paddling during the rests. So, I thought I could continue my polarized training plan by adapting my normal endurance session by just doing a 1000m or so of cool down at the end. I was thinking that I could fit other more intense sessions into the basic HM format as well, since I have the tools I need to analyze the data afterward too. Perhaps I could call it the Polar Bear Challenge?

So today’s Plan:

4 x 20′ / 1′ paddle
L4 format
Power target: 10W x stroke rate
Slow start at 16spm (160W)
Aim for mid 190s for average power
HR limit at 155

Again, with the magic of rowsandall.com, I can reslice the data into 10 minute blocks to see how accurately I hit my targets.

Targets:

1 – 170 strokes, 170W
2 – 184 strokes, 184W
3-8 – 190 strokes, 190w

Workout Summary - media/20161114-135715-sled_2016-11-14T06-37-25ZEST.strokes.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|21097|88:00.0|02:05.1|18.8|140.4|155.0|12.8
W-|19564|80:00.0|02:02.7|18.8|140.4|155.0|13.0
R-|01538|08:00.0|02:36.0|14.1|116.9|155.0|13.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02390|10:00.0|02:05.5|17.1|123.8|135.0|14.0
02|02437|10:00.0|02:03.1|18.6|135.1|139.0|13.1
03|02459|10:00.0|02:02.0|19.1|135.2|145.0|12.9
04|02457|10:00.0|02:02.1|19.1|142.7|145.0|12.9
05|02459|10:00.0|02:02.0|19.2|141.9|150.0|12.8
06|02454|10:00.0|02:02.3|19.1|148.7|152.0|12.8
07|02452|10:00.0|02:02.4|19.2|145.1|152.0|12.8
08|02457|10:00.0|02:02.1|19.2|150.5|155.0|12.8

So, generally 1 or 2 strokes over and a bit high on watts.

A few stroke metrics. Power versus rate, peak and average force versus rate and drive length versus time.

Tomorrow: 40′ erg and strength training.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve