Saturday: 4 x 20′ / 1’r L4 “180s”

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We are running around this weekend getting ready to move our sons into their apartments for the coming school year.  So, I decided to skip the “real” rowing, and do an erg session on Saturday.  Done at home on a a static erg.

I wanted to ease back into it, so the plan was:

  1. 4 x 20′
  2. 1′ rests
  3. L4 format.  180 strokes per 10′ (4′ @ 16, 3′ @18, 2’@20, 1’@22)
  4. Target power 16 –> 160W, 18 –> 180W, 20 –> 200W, 22 –> 220W
  5. Target Heart Rate:  Less than 157, hopefully but no real cap though.

It was hot (mid-80s) and humid.

Screen Shot 2015-08-01 at 10.42.23 PM Screen Shot 2015-08-01 at 10.42.06 PM

With the power target, a “perfect 180” would be 180 strokes, 180W, which is 2:05.1 avg pace.

Output
Workout Summary – Aug 01, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_19327_|_80:00.0_|_02:04.2_|_182.8_|_18.1_|_142.9_|_ 70.1% _|_13.4_|_10.1
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_02420_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.0_|_183.7_|_18.2_|_111.9_|_ 48.2% _|_13.3_|_10.1
02_|_02416_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.1_|_182.9_|_18.2_|_138.2_|_ 66.8% _|_13.3_|_10.1
03_|_02415_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.2_|_182.6_|_18.0_|_139.1_|_ 67.4% _|_13.4_|_10.1
04_|_02415_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.2_|_182.6_|_18.0_|_146.4_|_ 72.6% _|_13.4_|_10.1
05_|_02417_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.1_|_183.1_|_18.2_|_145.6_|_ 72.1% _|_13.3_|_10.1
06_|_02415_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.2_|_182.6_|_18.0_|_152.9_|_ 77.2% _|_13.4_|_10.1
07_|_02413_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.3_|_182.2_|_18.0_|_151.7_|_ 76.4% _|_13.4_|_10.1
08_|_02414_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.3_|_182.4_|_18.1_|_157.6_|_ 80.6% _|_13.3_|_10.1

I was 7 strokes over for the whole workout.  And 137m over.  That’s about 0.9 seconds faster than target.
Target_____________Actual_____________delta____________
Strokes____Meters______Strokes____Meters______Strokes__meters___EndHR
0180___|___02399___|___0182___|___02420___|___02___|___21___|___144
0180___|___02399___|___0182___|___02416___|___02___|___18___|___146
0180___|___02399___|___0180___|___02415___|___00___|___16___|___153
0180___|___02399___|___0180___|___02415___|___00___|___16___|___155
0180___|___02399___|___0182___|___02417___|___02___|___19___|___157
0180___|___02399___|___0180___|___02415___|___00___|___17___|___161
0180___|___02399___|___0180___|___02413___|___00___|___14___|___163
0180___|___02399___|___0181___|___02414___|___01___|___16___|___164
1440___|___19190___|___1447___|___19327___|___07___|___137

I would have been happier if I had managed to keep my HR lower, especially in the last 20 minutes.  I think the heat and humidity caused enough dehydration to cause that, even though I took on a liter of water across the 3 drink breaks.

Today, we are doing a lot of moving, so I doubt I’ll have time for a session.

Tomorrow:  Back on the water for the first time in 9 days.  Plan is for a low intensity aerobic r18 session.

Friday: 40km bike ride through Truro and Welllfleet

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Another beautiful day!  Sunny, around 80F.  Nice breeze blowing.  Perfect beach day!

I wanted to go for a final bike ride for the trip, but I wasn’t in the mood for anything heroic.  So, I decided on a route that would take me through about 40km of winding back roads through Truro and Wellfleet.  These are smooth paved roads, with very little traffic.  But there is a lot of ups and downs.  I wanted to keep my avg speed over 25km/h, but not push it very hard.

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Here’s a link to my ride on Strava.

Tomorrow:  Back to reality.  Probably a erg session, and then back to OTW on Sunday.

Thursday: 7km walk on the beach

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Hot and humid.  I just decided to take it easy today and went for a walk on the beach.

I walk from the house we are renting this summer up to the house we rented last summer, which was right on the beach in North Truro.

It took an hour and 23 minutes to walk 6.85km, and I was pretty tired at the end of it.  I’m glad I decided against running. The sand was soft and I really wasn’t in the mood for a slog.

Screen Shot 2015-07-31 at 12.45.54 PM

Wednesday: 70km bike ride – Cape Cod Rail Trail

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I visited the nice people at the Ptown Bike Shop and they fixed my bike.  I had apparently bent my derailleur tab.  He also adjusted the brakes, pumped up the tires and sold me a new seat (much more comfortable.  Very happy with how this went.  I walked in and walked out with a fixed bike 30 minutes later.

So, today, I was set for an adventure.  We had invited a family that we have been friends with for decades to come down and visit us for a few days.  My friend John is an avid sportsman.  He canoes, runs, bikes, hikes and all that stuff.  He brought his bike with him and we did yesterday’s adventure up in the Provincelands together.  Today we decided to do the Cape Cod Rail Trail end to end and back.  This is about 22 miles (35km) of reasonably flat, generally shady, smooth paved bike path that meanders through the interior of Cape Cod.  Some of it is very pretty, but much of it looks a lot like the view out of a train window.  Backs of buildings and woods.

John and I tend to push each other.  And today was no exception.  He rode lead on the way out, and I rode lead on the ay back.  So, I was pretty fresh halfway through and he was a bit toasted.  By the end, I was completely destroyed.  The last 5 miles were very hard.  The other challenge for the bike path is that, although it is flat, it is crossed by many, many streets.  Each crossing requires you to slow down, look both ways for traffic and then proceed.  There is also a significant amount of slower traffic on the path.  The result of all of this is a fair amount of speeding up and slowing down, which makes it a bit harder.

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Here is my heart rate and speed.  (I was drafting along happily in the first half and out front for the second.)

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If you feel like exploring my ride any further.  You can look at it on Strava.

Sunday: 60km bike ride

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We’re happily ensconced in our vacation house in Truro.  I got up this morning and decided to do a nice long bike ride.  I usually go north to Provincetown and the bike trails through the national seashore up there.  Today, I decided to go south and ride down to the Cape Cod Rail Trail.  This is a paved, wide bike trail that starts way down in Dennis, and continues for 22 miles up to Eastham.  Our house is in Truro, about 10 miles north of the Eastham end.

To get there I took mostly back roads with very little traffic, but a portion was on the main highway, Route 6.  This has a lot of traffic, but wide shoulders.

Here’s my path:

Screen Shot 2015-07-26 at 1.02.47 PM

Here are some stats for my ride on Strava.

I averaged about 25 km/h for the ride.  I covered about 60km in 2:28.  I have to admit that I ran out of gas around the 2 hour mark.  I also made an error in navigation at the end.  I though a dirt road was good enough to ride on, but it had a lot of loose sand and I I had to walk my bike about a quarter of a mile.

Then when I was less than 2 minutes from home disaster struck.  I was turning into the the road that our house is on.  It is a sharp turn and I hit a patch of sand and the bike came right out from under me.  I have a bunch of road rash on my right forearm, hip and knee.  Stings like hell.

Here is speed and elevation.  The HR data is wrong.  I was working way harder than that.

Screen Shot 2015-07-26 at 1.06.33 PM

Tomorrow:  I think a run on the beach.  Maybe a walk on the beach.  Maybe lying on the beach.

Saturday: 60′ L4

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We were leaving for the the cape today, so I just did a quick L4 on the erg.

6 x 10′

Each 10′ piece was

  • 4′ @ 16 spm, 160W
  • 3′ @ 18 spm, 180W
  • 2′ @ 20 spm, 200W
  • 1′ @ 22 spm, 220W

Screen Shot 2015-07-25 at 10.27.51 PM Screen Shot 2015-07-25 at 10.27.34 PM

Output
Workout Summary – Jul 25, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_14485_|_60:00.0_|_02:04.3_|_182.4_|_18.0_|_141.7_|_ 69.3% _|_13.4_|_10.1
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_02411_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.4_|_181.7_|_18.0_|_125.3_|_ 57.7% _|_13.4_|_10.1
02_|_02420_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.0_|_183.7_|_18.1_|_136.3_|_ 65.5% _|_13.4_|_10.2
03_|_02415_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.2_|_182.6_|_17.9_|_141.6_|_ 69.2% _|_13.5_|_10.2
04_|_02415_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.2_|_182.5_|_18.1_|_146.6_|_ 72.8% _|_13.3_|_10.1
05_|_02409_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.5_|_181.3_|_18.1_|_148.6_|_ 74.2% _|_13.3_|_10.0
06_|_02415_|_10:00.0_|_02:04.2_|_182.6_|_18.0_|_151.9_|_ 76.5% _|_13.4_|_10.1

Target_____________Actual_____________delta____________
Strokes____Meters______Strokes____Meters______Strokes__meters___EndHR
0180___|___02399___|___0180___|___02411___|___00___|___12___|___142
0180___|___02399___|___0181___|___02420___|___01___|___21___|___145
0180___|___02399___|___0179___|___02415___|___-01___|___16___|___152
0180___|___02399___|___0181___|___02415___|___01___|___16___|___155
0180___|___02399___|___0181___|___02409___|___01___|___10___|___156
0180___|___02399___|___0180___|___02415___|___00___|___16___|___160
1080___|___14392___|___1082___|___14485___|___02___|___93___|___000

Pretty accurate on the stroke counts.  A bit high on the meters.

Tomorrow:  A nice bike ride, I think.

4×20’/1′ rest on the erg

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over slept this morning, so no time for a row. Went to the gym at work around 4:30 to pound some steady state meters. 
20:00.0, 4897m, 190.2w, r21

20:00.0, 4896m, 190.2w, r21

20:00.0, 4897m, 190.2w, r20

20:00.0, 4897m, 190.2w, r20

Forgot my hr strap at home so no stats. Felt about right though. 

Catch Angle Analysis from video

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Yesterday, I got a buddy of mine to take video of me as I rowed under a convenient bridge so I could get a better idea of what my catch angle it.  Here are the videos

From the second video, I grabbed a frame and drew some angles:

catch angle meas

This makes it look like my catch angle is about 45 degrees.  I’m not an expert, but references that I have seen say that I should be trying to get to a catch angle closer to 65 degrees.  This measurement is not all that accurate, but I think that I should probably do some experimentation with decreasing my span.  The only problem is that I have already cranked my oars down as short as they can go and I will need to decrease inboard when I reduce span.  (Maybe it’s time to buy some shorter oars?)