4 x 2K / 5′ OTW

September 25, 2018Leave a comment

I have been having trouble sleeping the past two nights. On Monday night, I slept from 10:30 to 1:00AM, and not at all there after. Last night, 10:30 to 2:00. So 6 hours of sleep over two nights. I sure hope I sleep through tonight.

As you might guess, I had no trouble getting up with my alarm this morning. I was watching the clock, waiting for it to click over to 5:15. Then I headed to river. It was cool and cloudy, mid-40s with a light wind that was a cross tail wind going downstream. It’s getting darker in the mornings now. It was quite dark when I arrived at the dock, but by the time I finished scrubbing the goose shit off the dock, it was reasonably light. I definitely need to replace the batteries in my safety light.

I also replaced the battery in my oarlock and it sprung back to life.

The plan for today:

4 x 2k
roughly 5 minute rests, but longer is OK
stroke rate: 25-26
target pace: 2:16
target power: 165W (same as last time)

I started with a nice formal warmup. Pick drill, then some legs only, then about a minute of full pressure at around 20 spm. Then paddle through the cut, have a quick drink of water, get myself lined up, get myself psyched up, wait for an even minute and go.

          Workout Summary - media/20180925-1255310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12338|74:51.0|03:02.0|106.9|23.8|141.8|177.0|06.9
W-|08116|37:06.0|02:17.2|158.2|25.4|162.5|177.0|08.6
R-|04228|37:45.0|04:27.9|056.6|22.2|121.6|177.0|05.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00213|00:59.4|02:19.2|129.9|20.2|125.9|135.0|10.6 - wu
02|01983|08:40.4|02:11.2|159.1|25.2|159.3|172.0|09.1
03|01993|09:20.7|02:20.7|164.3|26.0|166.4|175.0|08.2
04|01966|08:46.9|02:14.0|153.7|25.8|162.7|175.0|08.7
05|01961|09:18.9|02:22.5|158.5|25.4|165.1|177.0|08.3

The first interval was magical. I needed to maneuver around a couple of fours that were infringing in my lane about 500m into it, but otherwise it was like gliding on rails. We’ve had a lot of rain later (Thanks Florence) and the river is unusually high for this time of year. I think it was giving me about 5 splits downstream. Seeing the fast splits got me a bit excited, so I pushed the last 500m pretty hard.

What the stream flow giveth in piece #1, it took away in piece #2. 5 more watts, almost 10 seconds slower per 500. And it took 40 seconds longer! I was a little fatigued after that one.

I didn’t push the third piece as hard through the first 1000m. I was feeling a little rough around the edges. After I negotiated the s-curve. I pushed harder and finished it strong.

Now the last interval. Up river and into the light headwind. I was really tired, so I started off limiting my stroke rate to 25. I tried to work on holding form and I tried to ignore the pace. The last 1000m were pretty horrible. I felt like I was on the edge of blowing up, but my HR was basically pegged at 175 until the very end. Either it was lack of sleep, or an inability to really dive into the hurt locker, but it felt like the last 1000m was in the “red”.

After I finished, I rowed with feet out back to the dock (quite slowly). Good workout, a little depressed it wasn’t faster, but well executed.

Tomorrow: 75′ steady state, r20.

And we’re back to a regular progamming

September 24, 2018Leave a comment

Let’s see, where were we. Friday morning, I went for a run on sore legs. The rest of the day, I was mocked mercilessly by my coworkers because I was hobbling around like a very old man.

Around 3pm I left for the airport. I was supposed to hop on a 5:40 flight to Toronto, and then connect to Boston, getting me home by around 8pm eastern time on Friday night. Things did not work out that way. We left the gate about an hour late, and then once we got out to the runway, the pilot came on and announced that there was a maintenance problem and we were heading back to the gate. They unloaded us and gave us dinner vouchers, and gave us no clue about when we would leave.

I started working the phones. Given that I had already missed my connection and I had no idea when I would take off, I decided that I should start working on options. I found a flight that would leave at 10:50 to LAX and allow me to connect to the red eye to Boston, getting in around 8am. This seemed like a better option that getting stuck overnight in Tokyo or Toronto, so I reserved a seat and waited to hear what happened with my flight.

Around 8:30, they came on the PA and announced that the new boarding time for my flight was 10:30pm. Since that was so far away, I figured there had to be some uncertainty in it and I decided to go for the LA option. I got on board (last row in coach!), and settled in for a long and bumpy flight. My original flight ended up taking off at 12:44am. It arrived at 11:01 pm on Friday night. The next flight to Boston left at 2pm the next day, so I guess I made the right call. It was still 30 hours of travel and I felt totally destroyed when by the time I got home.

Sorry for the long story. Anyway, I didn’t feel like working out of Saturday.

Sunday – Sept 23: 10K Threshold on the dreaded Dynamic

Gotta back to it. First, a 2k warmup. Held 2:00-ish pace for 1000m, then paddled 500, then another 500 around 2:00.

I had failed last week with a target pace of 2:00. I had actually started a bit faster, at 1:58 and I decided that I could again try for 2:00, but be a bit more careful about staying on target. It was also a lot cooler. The piece went much better. I got a bit desperate with 2k to get and rated up a couple of pips which got me through the worst of it.

          Workout Summary - media/20180923-2055320o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:48.0|01:59.4|205.3|25.3|164.5|180.0|09.9
W-|10000|39:48.0|01:59.4|205.3|25.3|164.5|180.0|09.9
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|180.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:57.2|01:58.6|206.8|24.8|139.7|153.0|10.2
01|01000|03:59.2|01:59.6|204.6|25.0|155.4|158.0|10.0
02|01000|03:59.1|01:59.5|205.2|25.1|159.1|161.0|10.0
03|01000|03:59.3|01:59.7|204.1|25.1|162.5|163.0|10.0
04|01000|03:59.6|01:59.8|203.5|25.1|164.7|166.0|10.0
05|01000|03:59.8|01:59.9|203.1|25.1|167.1|169.0|10.0
06|01000|03:59.3|01:59.7|204.3|25.1|171.1|174.0|10.0
07|01000|04:00.3|02:00.2|201.8|25.2|172.6|174.0|09.9
08|01000|04:00.2|02:00.1|201.6|26.3|174.6|176.0|09.5
09|01000|03:54.5|01:57.3|218.1|26.4|177.8|180.0|09.7

So, mission accomplished. I will have to try this on a static erg soon to see what the pace difference is to the dynamic. I think it’s nearly 5 splits.

Monday – Sept 24: Drills on the fives

Back on the water after 9 days. Felt wobbly and awkward at first. And it was windy and choppy (Wind 10-15mph NE). Not ideal for drills, but really useful nonetheless.

Looks like the batteries on my oarlock died about 50 minutes into the session. The paces were pretty slow with a head wind going downstream and abnormally high flow going upstream.

By the end of the session, I felt much better. I was tapping down well and getting myself over the oars

Tomorrow: 4 x 2000 / 5′ (target pace: 2:16)

A solid week of training (It’s a Miracle!)

September 10, 20188 Comments

My last post updated things to Tuesday, 4 September. Since then, things have been going great! I knew I had some travel coming up this week, so I skipped rest days and just alternated hard and easy sessions. Here’s an overview.

You can see that I slid some sessions around. I was scheduled for my 5 x 1500 on Monday 9/3, but I couldn’t get on the water. Instead I did an easy steady state session on the dynamic, and moved the hard sessions out by a day. I am also taking liberties with the easy sessions. My coach suggested that I use these sessions to continue to work on drills and also to include some speed work because it has value in head races for overtaking and at the finish. It also pushes me to work technique at high rates, which is a good thing.

I’ll have a bit more to say about training progress overall, but first, the sessions.

Wednesday, 5 Sept: 75′ of drills on the 5s.

Another great morning to row. This session is all about technique. It’s 4 minutes of steady state and then a minute of drills. The drills were

half slide
delayed feather
pause at body over
open hands on recovery

As you can see it was a low intensity session.

Thursday: 6 Sept: 12 x 3’/1′

With the nice easy workout on Tuesday, I should have been well rested and ready for action on Wednesday. These short interval / short rest sessions are supposed to give me a chance to get lots of minutes in at close to head race intensity, but include enough rest so that fatigue does not become a big factor until deep into the workout.

That’s not how it worked out in this session. I decided that I would take a little extra time at the ends of the river, so it was really broken up into sets of 3 reps. I managed through the first three, but when I turned and confronted the head wind, I overcooked the fourth rep. I started the fifth, as I was approaching the s-turn, and I felt kind funny, a little woozy maybe. Anyway, I pulled the plug and paddled through the turn. I lined up and did the 6th interval per plan, but it was a nasty experience. Notice that my HR is not extremely high, but my RPE was through the roof. I was gasping for breath and shaking.

I took a good long rest and a drink, then I turned around to do another set, now with a tail wind. I was a bit more conservative on pace for these and made it through the set of three. Another turn and another longer than proper rest and I steeled myself for the up wind set. I pounded out 2 reps, which took me up to the turn. I decided to paddle through the turn and take a longer rest. Then I did the 12th rep and finished strong.

The plan called for another set of three, but I was completely toasted. In really hard workouts, my right glute will start to hurt at the end of a session and it was really bad this time. I took my feet out of the shoes and gingerly paddled home. I stopped and stretched every couple minutes because I just couldn’t get comfortable in the seat.

Stunningly, no red in the plot.

          Workout Summary - media/20180906-1215320o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12579|79:38.0|03:09.9|092.8|21.6|144.0|178.0|07.3
W-|07379|33:52.0|02:17.7|150.5|24.7|159.6|178.0|08.8
R-|05211|45:47.0|04:23.6|050.1|19.4|132.4|178.0|06.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00694|03:03.9|02:12.5|151.4|24.2|145.9|160.0|09.4 - dwn
02|00676|03:02.1|02:14.6|148.9|25.4|155.6|166.0|08.8 - dwn
03|00691|03:03.2|02:12.5|159.0|23.9|161.5|172.0|09.5 - dwn
04|00637|02:57.3|02:19.3|156.0|25.7|159.5|171.0|08.4 - up
05|00252|01:10.6|02:20.4|157.8|24.6|157.9|163.0|08.7 - up (fail)
06|00630|02:57.0|02:20.5|146.3|23.6|160.1|173.0|09.0 - up
07|00681|03:03.4|02:14.7|150.1|25.2|154.6|168.0|08.8 - dwn
08|00663|03:02.2|02:17.4|134.6|24.7|164.9|174.0|08.9 - dwn
09|00641|02:54.3|02:15.9|149.3|24.4|168.1|177.0|09.1 - dwn
10|00597|02:52.4|02:24.4|146.8|25.1|158.7|171.0|08.3 - up
11|00586|02:47.6|02:23.0|155.2|25.1|167.1|178.0|08.4 - up
12|00631|02:58.1|02:21.1|155.8|24.9|160.7|175.0|08.5 - up

Friday, 7 Sept: 70′ steady state with bumps

In this session, I wanted to keep the overall intensity low to moderate, but I wanted to do 20 stroke bursts at as high of a stroke as I could while maintaining reasonably clean stroke work.

As I went along, I found it easier to get the rate up into the mid thirties. In one rep, I was really feeling it. I was finishing so clean that I was keeping my blades off the water on the very brief recoveries. I could feel the boat settle in the drive and pop in the recovery. I loved it! It’s fun to go fast.

         Workout Summary - media/20180907-1225290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13765|75:57.0|02:45.5|109.3|20.2|141.9|170.0|09.0
W-|01801|07:23.0|02:03.2|212.8|32.5|153.8|166.0|07.5
R-|11973|68:34.0|02:51.8|098.2|18.9|140.6|166.0|08.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00149|00:37.4|02:05.8|206.9|28.8|146.9|155.0|08.3
02|00156|00:41.3|02:12.2|203.3|28.9|150.7|158.0|07.8
03|00156|00:38.4|02:03.4|228.1|31.2|156.9|164.0|07.8
04|00167|00:40.7|02:02.1|205.3|30.8|150.8|157.0|08.0
05|00151|00:37.4|02:04.2|215.5|32.3|156.9|162.0|07.5
06|00137|00:33.5|02:02.5|242.6|34.3|154.6|162.0|07.1
07|00151|00:38.3|02:06.7|206.0|31.4|152.7|158.0|07.5
08|00136|00:33.4|02:03.0|185.8|34.1|156.5|163.0|07.1
09|00142|00:34.4|02:01.0|226.4|35.0|159.1|166.0|07.1
10|00136|00:31.4|01:55.4|237.2|36.3|148.5|158.0|07.2
11|00157|00:38.2|02:01.4|190.5|33.1|153.7|163.0|07.5
12|00165|00:39.6|02:00.1|212.7|34.8|158.1|166.0|07.2

Saturday: Attempted 10K Threshold

Down on the Cape. I was hoping to do my threshold session as a coastal row, but the weather was a bit windy, forcing me inside to do it on the erg (on slides). The plan wanted a 40′ threshold piece, so I decided on a 10K.

I started with the a 2K warm up.

Then into the main event. I thought I should be able to do it at a split of 1:58, so of course I set off at 1:57. Turns out, 2:00 would have been a better choice. I blew up just after 6K.

I took a few paddle strokes and then got going again at about a 2:02 pace. I sped up a bit towards the end, but it was a pretty ugly showing.

          Workout Summary - media/20180908-2250280o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:36.0|01:58.8|209.3|25.7|167.7|182.0|09.8
W-|10000|39:37.0|01:58.9|209.3|25.7|167.7|182.0|09.8
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|182.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:51.4|01:55.7|221.1|25.4|142.2|154.0|10.2
01|01000|03:53.6|01:56.8|219.8|25.7|160.0|162.0|10.0
02|01000|03:55.3|01:57.6|215.0|25.4|163.6|166.0|10.0
03|01000|03:55.2|01:57.6|215.5|25.6|167.0|169.0|10.0
04|01000|03:55.5|01:57.7|214.5|25.6|170.3|172.0|10.0
05|01000|03:56.8|01:58.4|211.2|25.9|172.6|174.0|09.8
06|01000|04:11.3|02:05.6|185.1|24.9|168.6|174.0|09.6 - boom!
07|01000|04:01.3|02:00.6|199.4|24.9|174.0|177.0|10.0
08|01000|04:02.4|02:01.2|196.7|25.1|177.2|179.0|09.9
09|01000|03:54.5|01:57.3|217.3|28.3|180.6|182.0|09.0

Good training effect anyway. I’m interested to see how this piece goes on a static erg to get an idea of how much I suffer on slides.

Sunday, 9 September: 3 x 20’/2′ dynamic

So nice and cool! I decided to observe a strict 150 bpm max HR because I wanted to recover from the nasty 10k attempt the day before. It turned out to be a really nice session. Unfortunately, the painsled session data got blown away somehow. But in any case, it was about a 2:08 pace, which is pretty good for a low HR cap on the dynamic.

It was one of those sessions where I felt better after I finished than when I started.

Monday, 10 September: 4 x 2k OTW

This is the real pinnacle of the weekly training plan. The long intervals. They end up being very close to head race pace and by the last one you are feeling the effects.

Today the weather was cool again, and there was a bit of a breeze. A headwind heading down river.

My plan for the session was to aim at 25 or 26 strokes per minute and try to work on smooth strokes and clean finishes. I am trying to lighten up the first part of the drive. I feel like it went very well today.

         Workout Summary - media/20180910-1255340o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12201|71:36.0|02:56.1|111.7|23.6|140.5|174.0|07.2
W-|07930|35:55.0|02:15.9|164.8|26.0|160.4|174.0|08.5
R-|04276|35:40.0|04:10.3|058.3|21.2|120.5|174.0|06.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01966|09:02.4|02:18.0|164.8|25.5|156.5|167.0|08.5 - up
02|01987|08:54.2|02:14.4|166.3|26.0|160.6|171.0|08.6 - dwn
03|01969|08:59.0|02:16.9|163.3|26.7|162.0|174.0|08.2 - up
04|02008|08:59.9|02:14.4|164.8|25.9|162.5|173.0|08.6 - dwn

Notice the consistency of power between up and down wind pieces. That’s what I was hoping to do. As for the low HR, that’s pretty cool. It still felt really hard.

Comparing the stroke profiles to the last time I did this session. There isn’t a lot of difference, but the peak angle did move later by a couple of degrees.

After my row this morning, I drove straight to the airport. I showered at the Admiral’s Club and made my 10:30 flight with time to spare.

Now I am on a plane out to San Diego. I am planning to do a steady state session at DelMar crossfit tomorrow morning. Then I think my streak gets broken. I fly early morning up to San Jose and I have meetings all day, and a business dinner at night. I’m not sure if I will have time on Thursday before I fly home.

I track my overall training load in Strava and it was pretty depressing looking at it recently. But with the string of sessions I’ve put together, things are definitely picking up. I’m nearly to the level I was last January.

I should probably do a 20 minute test on a static erg to see where I stand.

It’s a pity that I have a trip to the Philippines and Japan coming up next week. That should screw things up pretty well.

Training Log – Aug 15 to Aug 27

August 28, 20182 Comments

Wednesday, August 15 – Brief HIIT session in the fitness center

I arrived in San Jose Tuesday afternoon, and headed straight to my meeting. I spent the rest of the afternoon in our office and than had a business dinner that night.

In the morning I had a window to do a quick workout in the hotel fitness center.

I did a brief warmup and then I did a HIIT session on the treadmill. It was 30 seconds of hard running on a 15% incline and then 4:30 of walking on the incline. I did 6 intervals. For some reason the data from the session did not get captured right. It was very hard work when it was going on, but not a whole lot of it.

Thursday, August 16 – Easy 50 minutes in the fitness center

I flew from San Jose to Austin on Wednesday morning, then had meetings in our office there in the afternoon. That evening we had a customer dinner. In the morning, I got up and went to the fitness center of the hotel.

First, I did 30 minutes of incline walking (15% grade, ~3mph) on the treadmill. Then I moved over to the stationary bike and did some rolling hills for another 20 minutes.

Not very impressive, and extremely boring. The rest of the day was a blur of meetings. I caught an evening flight back to Boston, arriving around midnight.

Friday, August 17 – No Training

I decided to get a some sleep on Friday morning instead of trying to squeeze a row in. I brought my workout clothes to work hoping that I could sneak off for a quick session during the day sometime. But all my time slots got booked up as the day went along.

Saturday, August 18 – 15 x 3′ / 1′

Saturday morning we had made arrangements for a tree service to come in and work on a bunch of trees that were damaged over the winter. These guys were amazing. They trimmed everything, stabilized some badly bent trees and even reshaped our shrubs. They got it all done by the middle of the day.

My wife and I were planning to go down to the cape later in the day, so I had time for an erg session on the dreaded dynamic. Today’s assignment was a 15 x 3’/1′.

This is a favorite session of mine, but I didn’t know how to pace it on the dynamic. I was guessing somewhere between 1:55 and 2:00. I decided to start at 2:00 and try to negative split until things got dicey.

Things got dicey after about the 5th rep. Then things got really dicey at the end and I blew up in the 14th rep. But, judging by the HR stats, it was a pretty tough session.

Too bad the paces were so slow.

         Workout Summary - media/20180818-1750260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13453|60:05.0|02:14.0|168.0|25.9|164.4|181.0|08.6
W-|11266|45:00.0|01:59.8|207.7|26.7|163.1|181.0|09.5
R-|02203|15:05.0|03:25.5|049.7|23.7|168.3|181.0|05.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00761|03:00.0|01:58.2|207.8|24.4|125.9|150.0|10.4
01|00762|03:00.0|01:58.1|213.3|25.4|148.2|158.0|10.0
02|00779|03:00.0|01:55.5|218.1|26.6|155.2|163.0|09.7
03|00780|03:00.0|01:55.4|227.3|26.8|159.2|168.0|09.7
04|00780|03:00.0|01:55.3|230.2|25.5|163.7|171.0|10.2
05|00746|03:00.0|02:00.7|208.0|24.5|161.9|169.0|10.2
06|00762|03:00.0|01:58.1|212.9|24.7|165.6|175.0|10.3
07|00756|03:00.0|01:59.0|218.1|26.7|169.1|177.0|09.4
08|00779|03:00.0|01:55.5|227.5|28.8|172.8|180.0|09.0
09|00751|03:00.0|01:59.8|203.9|26.4|170.9|179.0|09.5
10|00755|03:00.0|01:59.3|203.2|24.6|173.1|181.0|10.2
11|00711|03:00.0|02:06.5|184.7|29.9|173.6|181.0|07.9
12|00746|03:00.0|02:00.6|202.1|26.0|169.8|181.0|09.6
13|00666|03:00.0|02:15.2|159.0|30.5|173.0|179.0|07.3
14|00732|03:00.0|02:03.0|199.2|29.0|164.3|178.0|08.4

Sunday, August 19 – 3 x 20′ / 2′

I had hopes of going for an open water row, but it was a bit too windy. I settled for an easy steady state session. I had planned to do 4 x 20′, but my HR was high and I was having trouble holding a reasonable pace. I decided to cut it off after 3 intervals.

          Workout Summary - media/20180819-1745260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14696|66:00.0|02:14.7|151.1|20.2|144.8|157.0|11.0
W-|13912|60:00.0|02:09.4|161.5|20.0|145.8|157.0|11.6
R-|00788|06:00.0|03:48.7|046.6|22.5|135.2|157.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04724|20:00.0|02:07.0|170.3|20.1|137.2|148.0|11.7
01|04624|20:00.0|02:09.8|160.2|20.0|148.3|153.0|11.6
02|04564|20:00.0|02:11.4|154.1|19.8|151.8|157.0|11.5

Monday, August 20 – 4 x 2000 / 4′

We stayed down on the cape on Sunday night and I got up at 5 to make my way to work. It takes somewhere between 2:30 and 3:30 depending on traffic.

On this particular monday, the traffic wasn’t so bad, and I made it to work with enough time for a workout in the fitness center.

I am trying to organize my training a bit more and start focusing on a few potential head races, so I wanted to increase the intensity of my training weeks. Today’s session is basically my goto head racing training session. On the static erg, and my very best, I could do this session with an average pace around 1:45. I am not at my best. In fact, judging by my steady state pace, I would say that I am about 8 to 10 splits off my best form. So I decided to target 1:55 for this session and see how it went.

This was a really good session. I felt like the pace target was good and I was able to stick to it. It was pretty motivating.

Tuesday, August 21 – 70′ Drills on the fives – OTW 1x

Hooray! Back in my boat. Since it had been a while, I decided to do a technical session.

The session is really simple. 4 minutes of rowing, and then 1 minute of drills, rotating between these four

1/2 slide
delayed feather
pause at body over
open hands on recovery

It’s an engaging, challenging session that goes by really quickly.

Wednesday, August 22 – 12 x 3′ / 1′

The plan was for 15 x 3′, but I ran out of time, and frankly energy. This session is hard work! But, then again, it’s supposed to be. The whole point of this session is to put in a lot of strokes at head race pace and pressure. Right now that’s awfully slow, but that will change with a but of focused work.

The pace on these is a bit deceptive because a lot of the intervals happen through the big s-turn, which slows me down a bit.

          Workout Summary - media/20180827-2250260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11919|65:02.0|02:43.7|117.9|23.7|156.9|177.0|07.7
W-|07790|35:39.0|02:17.3|155.9|25.3|163.8|177.0|08.6
R-|04142|29:24.0|03:33.0|071.9|21.8|148.4|177.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00167|00:47.4|02:22.3|123.0|20.3|143.0|147.0|10.4 - warmup burst
02|00663|02:59.6|02:15.4|147.2|25.0|154.9|163.0|08.8
03|00546|02:29.8|02:17.1|149.5|25.6|161.1|166.0|08.5 - downriver turn
04|00648|02:52.4|02:12.9|166.1|26.8|163.3|170.0|08.4
05|00644|02:58.4|02:18.5|154.1|26.5|165.8|172.0|08.2
06|00599|02:49.6|02:21.5|155.9|24.3|161.9|172.0|08.7 - upriver turn
07|00607|02:50.4|02:20.3|161.2|24.6|165.6|174.0|08.7
08|00644|02:54.4|02:15.4|152.2|25.1|167.0|176.0|08.8
09|00656|03:00.3|02:17.4|145.1|24.6|167.0|175.0|08.9 - down river turn
10|00648|02:54.8|02:14.8|163.8|24.7|168.0|177.0|09.0
11|00092|00:25.8|02:20.4|153.1|25.4|159.1|160.0|08.4 - hit the weeds!
12|00622|02:49.3|02:16.0|158.9|25.8|161.1|175.0|08.5
13|00636|02:55.9|02:18.4|161.0|26.9|166.8|174.0|08.1 - upriver turn
14|00616|02:51.7|02:19.3|165.2|25.5|169.6|177.0|08.5

The low point of the workout was interval number 10. I finished #9 going under the stone bridge and into the channel leading to the basin. With a one minute rest, it’s barely enough time to get the boat turned around. On this turn, I managed to get my point wrong for the next interval, and within 30 seconds, I managed to get way to close to the weeds along the bank and really entangled my starboard oar. It took me a couple of minutes to back my way out of the situation. I was lucky I didn’t flip.

The last three intervals passed without any additional drama. Well, except it started raining on interval 10, and by the time I finished it was pouring!

Thursday, August 23 – 70′ Steady State

One of the great things about doing a good job on a high intensity session is that you really feel like you’ve earned your right to a low intensity session for the next day. That’s the way I felt on Thursday. I just wanted to work on clean finishes and take it easy.

          Workout Summary - media/20180827-2251030o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13708|77:51.0|02:50.4|108.1|18.7|134.0|148.0|09.4
W-|13013|66:14.0|02:32.7|117.0|18.3|138.2|148.0|10.7
R-|00700|11:37.0|08:17.9|056.9|20.6|109.6|148.0|07.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03895|19:42.4|02:31.8|114.9|17.9|135.2|147.0|11.0
02|02753|14:10.1|02:34.4|117.1|17.7|139.6|148.0|11.0
03|02735|13:34.9|02:29.0|120.8|18.8|140.8|147.0|10.7
04|02800|14:21.1|02:33.8|118.4|18.6|139.8|146.0|10.5
05|00830|04:26.2|02:40.4|110.4|19.8|134.3|145.0|09.4

Easy peasy. delightfully low heart rate.

Friday, August 24 – no training

Well, isn’t that remarkable. Taking a rest day after 6 consecutive training days! Also, I had an extremely important meeting at 8am, so I got up at my normal 5:15 am, but headed straight to the office to do a little bit of last minute prep work.

Saturday, August 25 – remarkably crappy 10K

We stayed in Hopkinton this weekend. There was some yard work and other stuff that needed to get done. I wasn’t really in the mood to get on the dynamic, but I didn’t want to lose the little bit of momentum that I had built up. I was due for a more intense session, so I decided to try to do a threshold 10k. Again, I wasn’t sure what pace I could hold on the dynamic, so I started out at about a 1:57. That didn’t last long.

After multiple HDs, and some might slow rowing, I got a little motivated with about 4k to go. God, I hate the dynamic erg.

Sunday, August 26 – 16K steady state on the Charles River

On Friday, one of my friends from out in Worcester let me know that 4 of them were going to take 2 doubles down and launch them from Community Rowing so that they could row the course for the CRI Fall Classic before the event. He asked if I wanted to come along. I thought that was a great idea, and it was lucky for me that I was around this weekend. I picked up my boat in Newton and met them at 7:30.

We launched and headed downriver. It’s really a pretty magical place to row. There are lots of turns, but none of them are too sharp. Lots of bridges, but none of them are too narrow. Lots of traffic, but at that time of the morning, it is almost all scullers and everyone knows the traffic pattern.

We rowed from CRI down to the BU boat house, about 8000m. We had a couple of short stops on the way down as needed to stay together as a group. We got ourselves organized and headed back upriver. This is the first time I’ve been on the course since my lousy row in last years HOCR. It was good to row the course at steady state pressure and work on holding a line.

Each of the doubles had a close encounter with the ample vegetation that has invaded the charles this year. There is a thick bed of weeds around the magazine beach turn. People tend to hug that turn pretty closely in the race. I think this year a bit wider turn will be needed. Once we got up past the Weeks footbridge, we stopped again. This is the about where the start line for the CRI fall classic is. Then we took the rest of the way up as a single piece, and finished strong in front of the CRI boathouse. There was a bit of headwind in this section.

It was an incredibly fun outing.

          Workout Summary - media/20180826-1645260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|16467|98:39.0|02:59.7|100.1|21.6|147.0|176.0|07.7
W-|15053|77:18.0|02:34.1|115.3|21.3|154.4|175.0|09.2
R-|01422|21:20.0|07:30.2|045.2|22.8|120.3|175.0|03.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00767|04:03.9|02:38.9|098.4|17.7|134.7|148.0|10.7
02|03436|17:10.0|02:29.9|114.9|20.0|153.4|164.0|10.0
03|00966|05:03.0|02:36.9|109.1|20.6|145.6|152.0|09.3
04|02354|11:59.6|02:32.9|108.6|20.6|154.6|163.0|09.5
05|00917|04:38.5|02:31.9|131.2|22.5|155.7|169.0|08.8
06|00570|03:01.5|02:39.1|108.8|20.1|150.3|156.0|09.4
07|01080|05:17.7|02:27.1|121.2|22.4|155.5|169.0|09.1
08|03379|17:49.4|02:38.2|114.9|22.6|157.9|164.0|08.4
09|01584|08:15.4|02:36.3|128.3|23.4|163.8|175.0|08.2

Monday, August 27 – 4 x 2000 / 4′

On the water in Newton. Weather was perfect, maybe a bit hot, but sunny and calm. The goal this morning was to replicate the happy feelings I got from last monday’s 4x2k on the erg. I knew that this was gonna be tougher in the boat. Each rep would last almost 2 minutes longer and I had to focus on technique and steering. I decided for this session to try to hold the stroke rate around 24.

          Workout Summary - media/20180827-1650270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11324|67:03.0|02:57.6|112.6|22.6|147.3|180.0|07.5
W-|08138|37:59.0|02:20.0|147.0|24.7|162.4|180.0|08.7
R-|03192|29:04.0|04:33.3|067.7|19.8|127.7|180.0|06.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00284|01:24.6|02:29.2|114.6|19.9|130.0|135.0|10.1 - warmup
02|02004|09:11.9|02:17.7|145.6|24.5|154.5|167.0|08.9
03|01966|09:12.2|02:20.4|154.2|25.2|164.7|176.0|08.5
04|01950|08:55.1|02:17.2|148.4|25.0|166.6|180.0|08.7
05|01933|09:15.4|02:23.7|144.8|25.1|168.6|180.0|08.3

So, that was awesome. Slow, but awesome. I held it together through all the reps and managed to focus on technique with my heart going a mile a minute. It feel good to be back focusing on these simple sessions.

Now, I am on a plane out to San Jose. I have a few days of meetings out here. I’m going to try to find an erg so I can maintain my forward progress.

What are my goals? (Really?)

August 14, 20183 Comments

I’ll get the the deep thoughts. But first, a quick rundown of the spotty training that I’ve been doing.

Saturday, July 28: 10K hard.

Well, it wasn’t supposed to be that hard. I just wanted to do 10K at around a 2:00 pace. 2:00 turned into 1:59, and I broke around the 7500m mark. I got it back together and finished at pace.

          Workout Summary - media/20180728-1350240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:40.0|01:59.0|207.8|24.8|159.9|183.0|10.2
W-|10000|39:40.0|01:59.0|207.8|24.8|159.9|183.0|10.2
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|183.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:56.2|01:58.1|210.0|23.8|126.2|142.0|10.7
01|01000|03:57.7|01:58.9|208.4|24.3|145.7|150.0|10.4
02|01000|03:57.5|01:58.8|208.7|24.7|152.7|154.0|10.2
03|01000|03:57.8|01:58.9|208.2|24.0|156.4|158.0|10.5
04|01000|03:57.3|01:58.6|209.7|24.8|160.7|162.0|10.2
05|01000|03:57.6|01:58.8|209.0|24.9|165.0|168.0|10.1
06|01000|03:57.7|01:58.8|208.5|24.9|169.3|173.0|10.1
07|01000|04:05.2|02:02.6|193.2|26.2|169.4|172.0|09.3
08|01000|03:58.6|01:59.3|205.8|24.9|173.7|176.0|10.1
09|01000|03:54.8|01:57.4|216.8|25.6|179.0|183.0|10.0

Sunday, July 29: 75km bike ride. Cape cod rail trail.

I was with my friend Jon and it was a great ride. Parts of it were reasonably fast, but overall it was low intensity. It did take nearly 3 hours, so it was a fair amount of work.

Later in the day, I decided to go kayaking. I was launching the kayak from the top of the seawall and i let it go a little too soon. I slid down the rocks and launched itself. It was heading out to sea without me in it. I rushed after it, lost my footing and stumbled on the rocks, scraping my left ankle pretty badly.

After swimming to go get the kayak, I jumped in and looked at my ankle. It was bleeding pretty freely, but there was no way I was going to be denied my voyage. I paddled for a about 40 minutes or so. Back at the house, I washed the scrape and put on a bandage. As it turned out, I should have taken the wound a bit more seriously.

Monday, July 30: 3 x 20′ / 2′ on Slides

Down on the cape, in the basement. A bit too windy for a real row. Just bopping along. My ankle was throbbing in pain after I finished from my sock rubbing on the scrape.

         Workout Summary - media/20180731-0125260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15048|66:00.0|02:11.6|158.8|20.3|144.2|163.0|11.2
W-|14069|60:00.0|02:07.9|167.0|20.0|144.8|157.0|11.7
R-|00982|06:00.0|03:03.3|077.1|23.7|138.9|157.0|08.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04712|20:00.0|02:07.3|169.1|19.9|136.3|145.0|11.9
01|04685|20:00.0|02:08.1|166.7|20.0|146.4|152.0|11.7
02|04671|20:00.0|02:08.4|165.2|20.1|151.6|157.0|11.6

Tuesday, July 31: No Training

I needed to drive from the Cape to work. It took nearly 3 hours, from 5am to 8am. Then I was in meetings all day and into the evening.

Wednesday, Aug 1: No Training

I had an 8am meeting, and I didn’t get to sleep until after midnight, so I blew off rowing in the morning, intending to row in the afternoon. As it turned out I was at work until 8pm, so no rowing.

Thursday, Aug 2: 8km steady state OTW

Pressed for time, because of an early meeting, but I really wanted to do something! First time in my Fluid since July 11th. I was very rusty. But it was very nice to be back rowing. I really enjoy the feeling and the concentration it requires.

Friday, Aug 3: No Training

My wife and I headed down to New York City. We had tickets for the Saturday performance of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a play on Broadway.

Saturday, Aug 4: No Training

In NYC.

Sunday, Aug 5: No Training

Came home from NYC. Had a bunch of work stuff to do once we got back. Starting to get very frustrated at not having time to workout.

Monday, Aug 6: No Training

Staying up late on Sunday, resulted in getting up late on Monday, resulted in not rowing.

Tuesday, Aug 7: 14km steady state OTW

In Newton. focused on technique, at r18.

Wednesday, Aug 8: 14km steady state OTW

In Newton. today I was working on rowing with a lighter touch at r20.

Thursday, Aug 9: 14km steady state OTW

In Newton, same as Wednesday. Just trying to get back some form and basic aerobic fitness. My ankle was not healing right. It was swelling up, and was red and hot around the area. It also felt tingly in the area. I decided to get it looked at by a professional. After a very long wait, the doctor pronounced it infected, gave me a tetanus shot, had the nurse clean and debride the wound (which hurt, a lot), bandaged it up, and sent me on my way with a prescription for an oral antibiotic and instructions to change the dressing twice a day.

Friday: Aug 10: 8km technique work OTW

In Newton. After so much spotty training, having 3 days in a row was pretty cool, but I was sore and tired on Friday morning. I decided to focus on technique, especially balance by alternating 2 minutes of square blade rowing with 2 minutes of r20 steady state.

After the workout I had a jam packed day until around 2pm. Then I left to go home and then head to the cape.

Saturday, Aug 11: No Training

My wife’s sister, her husband and two teenagers arrived in the morning for a visit. The day was a blur of swimming, eating, drinking and talking.

Sunday, Aug 12: 3 x 20’/2′ on slides

At the cape. We had a nice day, we kayaked around the island. Jumped off the bridge at high tide, went out for a giant feast of fried seafood, and then went minature golfing. We got home around 8pm, and I had to make a choice. Have a beer, or go workout. I chose the latter. I did an hour of steady state on slides.

The rules of this workout are:

r20
HR limits
- 1st rep: 145
- 2nd rep: 150
- 3rd rep: 155

          Workout Summary - media/20180813-0140260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15003|66:00.0|02:12.0|161.2|20.5|142.4|156.0|11.1
W-|14232|60:00.0|02:06.5|172.8|20.3|142.9|156.0|11.7
R-|00774|06:00.0|03:52.5|045.2|22.9|136.5|156.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04804|20:00.0|02:04.9|179.1|20.3|136.4|146.0|11.8
01|04711|20:00.0|02:07.4|169.2|20.4|141.6|152.0|11.6
02|04717|20:00.0|02:07.2|170.0|20.1|150.9|156.0|11.7

Monday, Aug 13: 3 x 20′ / 2′

On Saturday, I felt like my ankle was getting much better. I decided to leave off the dressing to let it get some air and scab up. Then on Sunday, I think water immersion was a bad thing. It hurt a little in the evening and then in middle of the night, it hurt enough to wake me up and keep from getting back to sleep. I finally gave up and redressed the wound. The ointment and the pressure did the trick and the pain calmed down after a little while and I got back to sleep. I decided to stay out of the water on Monday.

Monday afternoon my sister-in-law and her family went off for a nature walk. My wife and I stayed home and that gave me a window for an erg session. Same rules as the Sunday session. I needed to slow down a bit more in the 2nd and third interval to respect the HR cap.

          Workout Summary - media/20180813-2135260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15016|66:00.0|02:11.9|160.3|20.3|144.2|157.0|11.2
W-|14160|60:00.0|02:07.1|170.3|20.2|144.7|157.0|11.7
R-|00861|06:00.0|03:29.2|060.3|21.0|138.6|157.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04787|20:00.0|02:05.3|177.4|20.2|136.0|146.0|11.8
01|04694|20:00.0|02:07.8|167.5|20.1|146.4|151.0|11.7
02|04680|20:00.0|02:08.2|166.1|20.3|151.8|157.0|11.5

Tuesday, August 14: No Training – Travel

This morning at 3:45am, I got up, showered and headed out for the airport from the cape. It’s about a 2:15 drive and I had a 7:13am departure.

I got to the airport exactly an hour before my plane took off, and by the time I got to the gate, my flight was boarding. I didn’t even have enough time to grab a coffee at the airport. I guess I’m lucky I didn’t run into more traffic.

I’m heading out to San Jose today for a couple of customer meetings, and then tomorrow I head to Austin for more customer meetings on Wednesday night and Thursday. I head home on Thursday night. I’m hoping I can get fitness center sessions in on Wed and Thursday mornings.

Whew! I’m glad I took the time to write this out. It pretty clear that I have to re-evaluate my goals. One of the most important training principles is consistency, and right now I am not succeeding at being consistent. I am trying to do too many things to be able to sustain the same training load that I was carrying a couple of years ago. All of these things are, arguably, more important than competitive rowing.

My job has gotten harder. There a big organization that is relying on me for strategic leadership and we have some serious issues to confront and solve. I worked thirty years to get to this job and I want to be successful.
My relationship with my wife and family. Some people have spouses with a common interest in sports. I do not. Time that I take for rowing is time that I take away from being a good partner. That’s fine, up to a point. But, especially since we got the cape house, there is a lot of logistics that we need to work on together. I love being there, but the travel time and visitors have reduced the amount of free time that I have to train.
My health. I have learned that I perform better in my job and I am a better person to be around if I am getting at least an hour of exercise a day. With my families history of heart disease, I think it is also critical to make sure I don’t drop dead at an early age. So, it’s a big deal to maintain some sort of structured training plan. But I have also lost the habit of doing my PT exercises and I’ve noticed that my hip is starting to hurt again. I’m making some bad choices right now.

I tried numerous times in my adult life to lose weight, and never succeeded until I took up rowing. I think the main difference was that the purpose of exercising changed from “getting exercise” to “getting faster”, and the online community for indoor rowing provided a way to measure my progress and hold myself accountable for my training. I need to continue to train “publically” and try to be honest about how I’m doing. I think the primary change has to be in the ambition of my goals and structure of my training.

So, here’s what I’m thinking:

Keep racing, just a little bit. Maybe one or two small races in the fall.
5 sessions a week, not 6. If I have extra time, I can add a sixth.
Simple workout plan, basically a variation of the Pete Plan
- 2 “hard” sessions a week. Aiming at <=60 minute work plus rest in each.
- 2 endurance sessions. As much duration as have time for
- 1 Technique session 60-80 min.
Regular testing. This is the hardest one to do because I hate to see the results. But I think I need to at least do one 6km test per month.
Daily PT exercises. Instead of doing these at the start of a session, change to do them at night after dinner.

Side Video

July 23, 20182 Comments

These are video snippets from a session done on July 11, 2018.

Things I know

I’m overweight
My aerobic fitness isn’t as good as I want it to be.
I still break my knees too early

The first 5 videos are of drills that I did:

Delayed Feather:

King of the Mountain:

Half Slide:

Open Hands on Recovery

Pause at Body over

Then a couple of steady state rowing

3 minutes of r20

A quick rate ladder from r18 to r24

Gentle comments welcome!

6/8 to 6/16 – Pretty Hectic

June 17, 2018June 17, 2018Leave a comment

Thursday 6 / 7 – in CA, red eye home.

After my fantastic row in San Diego on Thursday morning, I flew up to San Jose. I had a meeting in the afternoon and a business dinner that evening. I flew home on the Red Eye.

Friday 6 / 8 – rest day after the red eye

I got in around 6 and was home by 7:30. I needed to hop right in the shower and head up to the office for a 10 am meeting. After that meeting, I had another, and another, and so on until around 5pm. I headed home and my wife and I packed up and headed for the cape. The forecast was sunny and warm for the whole weekend.

We got down there in the evening and settled in. I was really tired and slept like a log.

Saturday 6 / 9 – 12km coastal steady state

I slept in until about 9, and then I went out to get delicious croissants for breakfast. After lazing around for a while, we went out and bought some flowers to put in near the path to our door, came home and planted. Around 5pm, it was really beautiful and there wasn’t all that much wind, so I decided to go for a row.

I launched from the north beach, as usual, and headed up toward wellfleet harbor. I didn’t notice much at the time, but the tide was with me and so was a little bit of breeze. My splits heading north to the harbor were quite fast for my tubby little aero.

After I turned around and headed out of the harbor against the tide and the breeze, it was payback time. The splits were slow and the boat felt heavier. Although it was just supposed to be a gentle evening row, the slow splits pushed me into putting in more effort. Although my HR was a bit too, high, I was really enjoying myself. On the way back, I rowed straight out to my favorite buoy and then turned due east to get back to the beach. I did the last 3 minutes or so at a hard 24.

Another really enjoyable row.

          Workout Summary - media/20180610-0135230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12363|70:25.0|02:50.9|000.0|19.5|153.6|176.0|09.0
W-|11720|65:02.0|02:46.5|000.0|19.4|155.5|176.0|09.3
R-|00648|05:23.0|04:09.4|000.0|20.0|130.3|176.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|04707|25:19.0|02:41.4|000.0|18.8|152.6|157.0|09.9
02|04849|28:50.0|02:58.4|000.0|19.3|155.4|165.0|08.7
03|01491|07:45.0|02:35.9|000.0|19.8|158.9|164.0|09.7
04|00673|03:08.8|02:20.3|000.0|23.9|170.8|176.0|09.0

Sunday – 6 / 10 – 14km coastal steady state

I was up around 8 and I decided to go for a row before the wind started to build. It turns out I didn’t quite succeed at that.

I launched from the north beach and looped around the island to go south toward Eastham. The forecast was for the wind to be from the east, so I figured if I hugged the shore, I would be sheltered and have reasonable smooth water.

As I went, I felt the wind building a bit, but it seemed my plan was working. The water was nice and smooth, and although I would be buffeted by some of the gusts, it was a nice ride. I wanted to be done in about 70 minutes, so I rowed for 35 and turned around. It was then that I noticed that the wind was really coming more from the NE or even the NNE and I had a long slog into to get home.

I rowed in as close to the beach as I could get, and slowly made my way up the Eastham shore. I was not looking forward to leaving the lee of this shore when I got up to point where I needed to cut over to the west side of Lt Island. When I got there, it was really tough rowing. The waves were on my starboard bow, and they were throwing me around a bit. I made quick decision to turn east and row straight upwind so I would be going right into the waves. This was slow, but much better rowing. The boat was nice and stable and I just kept pushing along.

I was looking over my shoulder every ten strokes or so, and it made me nervous every time seeing these well define rolling waves with white caps on them.

Eventually, the salt marsh on the inner side of the island finally started to get closer, and then, before I knew, I was right on the edge of the marsh. The wind was blocked by the island, the water flattened out, and I turned to follow the shore. Now the wind was behind me, so was the tide, and the water was flat. I torn along the south edge of the island until I came out of the wind shadow along the westward side.

Then it was a short final slog into the wind to the beach.

It was interesting, I felt like I was working hard, but my heart rate was nice and low. The sun was out, the sky was blue and it was the perfect temperature. When I landed, I was so glad that I had gone out. Coastal rowing is a very different experience from flat water rowing, but a total blast.

Workout Summary - media/20180610-1540220o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13642|83:41.0|03:04.0|000.0|19.7|141.7|155.0|08.3
W-|13644|83:41.0|03:04.0|000.0|19.7|141.7|155.0|08.3
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|155.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00118|02:07.0|08:59.9|000.0|21.2|095.2|106.0|02.6 - getting set
01|06345|34:21.0|02:42.4|000.0|18.8|136.2|145.0|09.8 - downwind
02|04307|29:22.0|03:24.5|000.0|19.9|147.7|155.0|07.4 - up wind
03|01537|08:47.0|02:51.5|000.0|21.0|146.6|152.0|08.3 - sheltered
04|01337|09:04.1|03:23.4|000.0|21.0|148.7|153.0|07.0 - upwind

I was pretty worn out for the rest of the day though.

Monday – 6 / 11 – Steady State and drills

By the plan, this was supposed to be a rest day, but everything has been so disrupted, that I just decided to do a nice steady state session and work on some basics.

I started with a complete pick drill, did some legs only rowing. I also did at least 10 reps of the KOM drill at the start and at each turn.

         Workout Summary - media/20180611-1745210o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13950|78:43.0|02:49.3|110.8|20.0|145.4|163.0|08.8
W-|13286|65:57.0|02:28.9|124.6|19.9|151.6|163.0|10.1
R-|00669|12:47.0|09:33.3|040.2|20.7|113.3|163.0|05.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03725|18:03.3|02:25.4|127.4|20.5|145.6|158.0|10.0
02|02878|14:17.8|02:29.0|126.0|19.3|154.2|163.0|10.5
03|02841|13:59.9|02:27.8|124.3|19.5|153.1|159.0|10.4
04|03437|17:30.0|02:32.7|122.2|20.0|155.0|163.0|09.8
05|00405|02:06.0|02:35.5|111.2|21.8|148.6|155.0|08.9

Nice fast splits for the first 3 segments. I felt great too.

Tuesday – 6 / 12 – Starts

The plan is as follows:

Race warm up
5 x 20-stroke starts
- Rest between: 3’
- Rating/Pace: SR 36-40 (or your most efficient rating)
- Notes: Steer straight, clean releases, same sequence as planned for your race.
2 x 9’
- Rest between: 2’’ easy rowing
- Rating/Pace: Cat V: SR 22
- Notes: Focus on your releases.

As it turns out, I deviated a bit from the plan. I ended up doing more starts than planned, and a bit less of the steady state rowing. I think I also skimped a bit on the warmup.

The conditions were far from perfect. There was a reasonably strong breeze. You can see the first 2 starts are downwind, then 2 upwind, then two down, then two up. The last two starts, I extended out to thirty strokes and settled to race rate, around 32 after 10 strokes.

I did about 11 minutes or so of steady state rowing at the end.

6 / 13 – Rest Day

I couldn’t get out of bed at 5:15. I tried, and failed.

6 / 14 – A horribly bad workout.

It was supposed to be this.

4 x (2’ with your start sequence, paddle 1’ then, 2’ 1k base pace)
Rest between: 4’
Rating/Pace: 1k base pace

But I just couldn’t put together a good 2′ piece to save my soul. I don’t know what the hell was wrong with me, but I was ready to withdraw from the Cromwell Cup, quit racing and never sprint again. I was a quintessential drama queen!

Ultimately, I gave up on the workout and tried to one minute on / one minute off. That seemed to work a bit better, but I think I have to push through this problem next week.

          Workout Summary - media/20180614-1735190o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09028|63:34.0|03:31.3|123.6|24.4|132.4|176.0|05.8
W-|03686|15:44.0|02:08.1|195.9|28.1|143.3|174.0|08.6
R-|05358|47:51.0|04:28.0|099.9|23.2|128.8|174.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00895|04:13.6|02:21.7|127.9|18.9|143.7|158.0|11.2
02|00075|00:18.2|02:02.0|244.1|32.9|113.0|117.0|07.5
03|00213|00:52.8|02:04.0|211.4|29.4|121.1|131.0|08.2
04|00234|00:57.2|02:02.3|226.2|32.4|156.7|168.0|07.6
05|00129|00:29.5|01:54.1|238.4|32.6|117.6|124.0|08.1
06|00224|00:52.0|01:56.1|239.2|32.2|132.4|137.0|08.0
07|00165|00:39.4|01:59.2|215.0|33.5|158.1|161.0|07.5
08|00184|00:43.0|01:56.6|246.3|34.9|158.9|168.0|07.4
09|00070|00:16.2|01:55.7|247.0|33.3|138.2|139.0|07.8
10|00256|01:00.8|01:58.5|231.3|31.6|128.4|136.0|08.0
11|00237|01:01.9|02:10.7|185.1|30.1|135.5|143.0|07.6
12|00147|00:39.6|02:14.5|228.1|30.2|126.5|132.0|07.4
13|00207|00:54.1|02:10.7|201.7|29.9|160.6|170.0|07.7
14|00218|00:56.2|02:08.6|200.4|30.9|167.7|174.0|07.5
15|00208|00:54.0|02:09.6|219.3|31.1|164.5|172.0|07.4
16|00223|00:55.7|02:04.9|231.1|31.2|136.6|147.0|07.7

One thing I’ve noticed. With the technical changes that Marlene has had me working on, I can row cleanly at high rates. Up above 32. And I can move the boat very fast. But I burn out very fast too. I have to find the pace and pressure I can sustain over four minutes.

This workout left me grumpy all day long.

6 / 15 – Steady State and drills

I had an 8 am meeting so I got on the water early, and I only had an hour.

It was a bit windy and I was pretty slow.

Saturday – 6 / 16 -Random fun on Lake Quinsigamond

I went out with a mixed double. We are reasonable well matched in speed.

We rowed low rate, but good pressure to the south end of the lake, then did some drills for a bit of the way back north. Then a bit more steady state. Finally when we got to the north end of the lake, we decided to play leapfrog. That was a blast. They would take off and when they were clear ahead, they would call “clear”. That was my cue to speed up and their cue to paddle. When I got clear ahead, I’d call “clear” and it was their turn.

We did that for about 2km. Then we steady stated our way back to the dock.

The only problem with the session was my speedcoach running out of memory and not recording all my leapfrog strokes.

Here’s the data from RIM.

Whew! Now I’m all caught up!

6/4 – 6/6: Finally back rowing!

June 11, 2018June 11, 2018Leave a comment

Monday – 6/4 – Drills and Steady State

By Monday morning, I had normal range of movement and very little pain in my back. I decided to do an easy session to test it out a little bit.

I have a new workout plan, but based on the long layoff that I had, I decided to take a week and focus mostly on steady state and drills to get back into the program and avoid risking injury or disappointment.

Today, the plan was to row for an hour and at each turn, stop and do about 10 reps of the King of the Mountain drill. The longer than normal breaks between segments is me doing the drills. Weird HR dropout during the second interval.

It was a grey and windy morning. I was slow and my power values were really low. I am wondering (hoping) if I have a calibration issue.

Workout Summary - media/20180604-1615230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12342|72:16.0|02:55.7|115.3|18.7|128.4|162.0|09.1
W-|11692|59:12.0|02:31.9|124.9|18.3|134.5|162.0|10.8
R-|00657|13:04.0|09:56.8|071.9|20.3|100.5|162.0|02.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00782|03:58.0|02:32.2|120.0|18.6|109.6|139.0|10.6
02|02900|14:39.0|02:31.5|126.9|18.0|144.8|150.0|11.0
03|02780|14:23.0|02:35.2|118.0|17.3|105.0|152.0|11.2
04|02067|10:27.0|02:31.7|124.3|17.7|143.2|152.0|11.2
05|03163|15:45.0|02:29.4|130.8|19.8|152.4|162.0|10.1

Told you it was slow!

Tuesday – 6/5: Steady state and drills

Basically the same session as monday. Pushed the pace a little bit harder. Same deal, 10 reps of the KOM drill x 4 sets. They are getting a bit easier as I do more of them. The wind sprung up a bit in the last rep. Headwind, of course!

          Workout Summary - media/20180605-1425220o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13918|77:24.0|02:46.9|118.7|18.9|143.7|165.0|09.5
W-|13421|67:18.0|02:30.4|128.9|18.5|148.9|163.0|10.8
R-|00501|10:06.0|10:05.7|051.1|21.7|109.4|163.0|07.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03825|18:41.0|02:26.5|128.0|18.0|141.3|152.0|11.4
02|02889|14:49.0|02:33.8|128.4|17.6|147.6|155.0|11.1
03|02837|13:47.0|02:25.7|128.5|18.4|150.5|157.0|11.2
04|03869|20:01.0|02:35.2|130.4|19.7|155.7|163.0|09.8

Wednesday – 6/6: Starts

I had a 9:30 flight to San Diego, so I had a short time window for a row. I decided to do a quick session just to start working on my starts. I started with 5 stroke sets, and then as I got more comfortable, and my “hit rate” improved, I extended them to 10 strokes.

There was a bit of wind and a little bit of chop, but on my sheltered river, I can’t say it caused any of my problems.

The last start was pretty good. 15 strokes at 1:48 pace and 37 spm.

I made my flight with plenty of time.

Catching up. 5/24 to 6/3

June 10, 20181 Comment

Over the 11 days, I rowed 1 day, biked one day, had a good walk one day and didn’t train for 8 days. It was a pretty bad spell including allergies and injuries.

Thursday – May 24: 61′ Steady State

I arrived home from California late in the day on May 23rd. The next morning, I was back on the water down in Newton. It was windy and choppy, and I was a mess. Slow and sloppy.

Friday – May 25: Rest – Sick

Thursday night, I felt awful. Stuffy nose, sore throat, a bit of a fever.

I worked from home on Friday morning. I was worried enough about my throat that I went and got a strep test. The diagnosis was allergies causing congestion, post nasal drip and throat irritation. They told me to go buy some flownase and sent me on my way.

Then in the early afternoon, I headed down to the cape. My wife was following me down later with one of my sons, his girlfriends and my daughter who was flying in from St Louis late in the evening.

I had a long list of things to do. Work on the stairs to the beach. Get a bunch of delicious food. Rent a bike for my daughter and do a bit of cleaning. I made very good progress on the stairs, and I made a large number of trips up and down the 80 steps, often carrying loads of wood. By the time the tide came in, I was really worn out. But I had managed to get all the stair treads in, leaving just the railings to do on Saturday.

So, I got some exercise, but no proper training

Saturday – May 26: 50km bike ride

My daughter wanted to go for a ride, so we planned an excursion to the Cape Cod Rail Trail. I was a bit worried about my health. If I had a cold, the ride would knock me flat. If I was just suffering with allergies, it should actually make things better.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1603514609/embed/8b62620dc4f0ae56e28b1b8323692095a734d5b9

It was two and a half hours of riding, but at a nice easy pace. I guess it was allergies!

After we got home, my son, his girlfriend and I finished the stairs. I think they turned out great!

I slept well.

Sunday – May 27: rest

The weather was pretty lousy, so we went up to Provincetown for lunch, hung out, did puzzles, played games and relaxed.

Monday – May 28: A brisk walk around the island

The weather was still crappy. Cold and grey. My daughter and I originally planned to go for another bike ride, but we didn’t have good cold weather clothes, so we opted to just go for a walk around the island.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1603515324/embed/e08141cd9fb397c13ddac4e921803367eb37d9fc

Later in the day, we put my son, his girlfriend and my daughter on the ferry to Boston, we cleaned up the house, had some dinner and left around 11.

Tuesday – May 29: Rest – Travel Day

Flew out to San Diego for a business dinner. It was a long day, I got back to the hotel around 10pm, and I had an early flight.

Wednesday – May 30: Rest – Travel day

I was up at 4:30 to get to the airport to catch my 6:30 flight to San Jose. I had meetings from 10am to 7pm. After that, I headed to the the airport to catch the red eye home.

Thursday – May 31: Rest

My original plan was to go straight from the airport to the river and go for a row on the way to work. But the flight home was miserable, and I discovered that a meeting had been scheduled for 8:30, leaving me no time to train.

I ended up getting home around 8:00pm. During the day, my back started to really stiffen up, By the time I got home, it was painful to try to stand up after sitting and I ended up walking with a bit of a stoop. Based on how quickly it cleared up, I assume it was a pinched sciatic nerve which calmed itself down with ibuprofen after a few days.

Friday – June 1st: Rest – Back Injury

I was in too much pain to train. So I didn’t.

Saturday – June 2: Rest – Back Injury

Back pain starting to ease, but I wasn’t going to chance aggravating it.

Sunday – June 3: Rest – Back Injury

Almost pain free. Decided to train on Monday.

Friday: 80′ of speedplay

May 19, 2018Leave a comment

Weather: cloudy and blustery. The wind was coming out of the north and the gusts were over 15mph. This was a pretty nasty headwind in the straightest bits of the river. There was even some chop at the ends of the straight sections.

I was eager to try to practice rowing well in under less than perfect conditions. I wasnt sure how well I could rate up with the wind and chop. In general, I was able to, but I had a couple of very messy moments when I bashed a wave at the wrong moment. I found that clean, early finishes were incredibly important to maintaining any kind of consistency in these conditions. It felt great when I would finish well and keep my oars clear of the waves and get a nice catch in. Much more stable and confident in those strokes.

Horrifyingly low power numbers. (But gratifyingly consistent data!)

         Workout Summary - media/20180518-1310290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14060|75:11.0|02:40.4|124.6|20.9|144.7|174.0|09.0
W-|13522|68:16.0|02:31.5|131.5|20.8|146.3|174.0|09.6
R-|00550|06:55.0|06:17.3|056.8|21.8|128.5|174.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00503|02:36.0|02:35.0|135.5|18.7|114.0|132.0|10.3
01|01294|06:26.0|02:29.2|134.0|19.3|138.1|146.0|10.4
02|00191|00:50.0|02:10.8|183.9|25.2|150.9|158.0|09.1 - 1st burst into the wind
03|01568|07:53.0|02:30.8|131.9|19.3|147.7|159.0|10.3
04|00225|01:00.0|02:13.1|205.7|27.3|158.7|167.0|08.2 - 2nd big gusts!
05|00843|04:18.0|02:33.0|111.6|17.8|132.9|140.0|11.0
06|00253|01:04.0|02:06.6|195.2|27.9|152.3|161.0|08.5 - upstream/downwind
07|00770|03:57.0|02:33.9|121.2|19.8|148.5|161.0|09.8
08|00255|01:03.0|02:03.7|202.3|28.7|162.1|167.0|08.4 - upstream/downwind
09|00753|03:50.0|02:32.8|116.5|18.6|153.1|168.0|10.6 
10|00808|04:11.0|02:35.4|131.6|19.6|145.5|156.0|09.9
11|00190|00:48.0|02:06.3|212.4|29.7|162.4|168.0|08.0 - near disaster at the end of this one
12|00772|04:10.0|02:42.0|110.5|20.7|152.4|174.0|09.0
13|00230|01:00.0|02:10.3|207.1|28.8|158.6|168.0|08.0 - wicked gusty
14|00857|04:42.0|02:44.6|120.7|20.4|153.6|169.0|08.9
15|00912|04:43.0|02:35.2|111.2|19.5|138.2|145.0|09.9
16|00227|00:57.0|02:05.6|197.3|29.7|156.8|164.0|08.1 - upstream/downwind
17|00783|04:03.0|02:35.1|123.1|20.7|151.3|165.0|09.4
18|00248|01:04.0|02:09.0|195.9|29.0|158.8|164.0|08.0 - wind seemed to shift to a crosswind here
19|01020|05:28.0|02:40.7|111.4|20.2|148.3|166.0|09.2
20|00141|00:36.0|02:07.5|218.4|29.6|147.4|158.0|08.0 - last one!
21|00679|03:37.2|02:40.0|116.9|22.0|149.7|163.0|08.5

Tomorrow: We are down on the cape now and it looks windy and nasty for tomorrow, so I will do my rate ladders on the erg.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

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