Tuesday: 80′ L4 1x

August 8, 2017August 9, 2017Leave a comment

It was so nice getting back in my fluid that I stayed out extra long. I did over 18km in the session including warmup and cool down.

The plan was to do an L4 session, adapted for OTW

L4 format
10′ sections
- 4′ at 16 spm
- 3′ at 18 spm
- 2′ at 20 spm
- 1′ at 22 spm
Take 1′ breaks when I needed to turn, roughly every 14 minutes or so.
No HR limit
No target pace or power to just set a marker for future sessions.

Workout Summary - media/20170808-154104-Greg Smith 20170808 0642amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|18347|102:15.0|02:47.2|134.2|18.6|151.8|173.0|09.6
W-|15585|80:00.0|02:34.0|148.6|18.2|156.1|172.0|10.8
R-|02780|22:16.0|04:00.3|075.5|19.4|135.0|172.0|06.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00769|04:00.0|02:36.1|147.3|15.9|143.4|148.0|12.1
02|00592|03:00.0|02:32.2|170.2|17.6|150.6|154.0|11.2
03|00413|02:00.0|02:25.2|143.0|19.9|156.2|159.0|10.4
04|00218|01:00.0|02:17.3|202.4|21.7|161.7|163.0|10.1
05|00782|04:00.0|02:33.4|152.2|16.4|156.7|165.0|11.9
06|00592|03:00.0|02:32.1|152.6|17.8|150.0|156.0|11.1
07|00410|02:00.0|02:26.5|155.3|19.3|158.4|160.0|10.6
08|00209|01:00.0|02:23.3|172.1|21.4|162.7|164.0|09.8
09|00734|04:00.0|02:43.4|136.1|16.3|154.3|165.0|11.3
10|00383|02:00.0|02:36.8|154.6|17.3|155.2|158.0|11.0
11|00414|01:60.0|02:24.9|170.3|19.8|152.9|161.0|10.5
12|00211|01:00.0|02:22.0|183.1|21.5|161.6|164.0|09.8
13|00758|04:00.0|02:38.3|130.0|16.4|156.0|165.0|11.6
14|00590|03:00.0|02:32.4|148.5|17.5|155.7|158.0|11.2
15|00407|02:00.0|02:27.4|168.4|20.2|161.4|164.0|10.1
16|00214|01:00.0|02:20.4|191.6|21.9|139.1|156.0|09.8
17|00570|03:00.0|02:37.9|133.7|16.3|157.3|162.0|11.6
18|00572|03:00.0|02:37.4|138.4|17.9|156.2|158.0|10.6
19|00389|02:00.0|02:34.4|157.3|19.9|158.2|162.0|09.8
20|00204|01:00.0|02:27.0|160.7|21.6|164.0|166.0|09.4
21|00735|04:00.0|02:43.4|133.8|16.5|158.9|166.0|11.1
22|00587|03:00.0|02:33.3|138.9|18.3|151.3|158.0|10.7
23|00396|02:00.0|02:31.6|159.8|20.1|158.6|162.0|09.9
24|00202|01:00.0|02:28.6|179.2|21.6|162.7|164.0|09.3
25|00740|04:00.0|02:42.1|118.9|16.7|156.9|164.0|11.1
26|00582|03:00.0|02:34.6|141.1|17.9|157.8|160.0|10.8
27|00198|01:00.0|02:31.3|153.2|20.3|160.0|162.0|09.8
28|00198|01:00.0|02:31.5|153.9|19.6|146.5|152.0|10.1
29|00206|01:00.0|02:25.3|167.2|21.7|159.9|164.0|09.5
30|00730|04:00.0|02:44.5|117.8|16.4|155.6|165.0|11.1
31|00563|03:00.0|02:39.8|144.9|18.2|155.7|158.0|10.3
32|00398|02:00.0|02:30.8|151.8|19.8|162.1|166.0|10.1
33|00619|03:00.0|02:25.4|185.1|22.0|169.7|172.0|09.4

Average by stroke rate:

16: 2:39.8, 134W
18: 2:34.7, 149W
20: 2:28.8, 157W
22: 2:24.6, 179W

A few fun charts. The only insights I got from this was a gradual reduction of effective length as I got more tired. This was caused by my wash getting bigger.

Thursday: 14km steady state

June 15, 2017June 15, 2017Leave a comment

Weather: The kind of day that makes you think that rowing is the finest sport ever created. Temp was about 60F when I started and in the high 60s when I finished.

There was very little wind when I started, just enough to barely ripple the surface of the water. In the last 30 minutes or so, the wind built to a steady 3-5mph from the Southwest. This was a headwind that slowed me down in the last segment.

The sun was shining and sparkling in reflections off the water and the birds were singing. It was just a glorious morning to be out.

The plan for today was:

2 x 40′ / 4′

MP or slower

80.0%

(149)

To do this OTW, I changed it to

2 x 35′ / 2′
In each 35′ section there is a turn which takes about 30 seconds. Goal is to do it quick enough so my HR doesn’t go down.
HR cap at 155, since I can’t seem to stick to anything lower.
target power: MP (158-171W)

Workout Summary - media/20170615-161158-Greg Smith 20170615 0635amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13889|72:21.0|02:36.3|153.4|18.7|149.1|159.0|10.2
W-|13673|68:25.0|02:30.1|160.0|18.7|149.2|159.0|10.7
R-|00221|03:55.0|08:53.5|036.7|18.4|143.4|159.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04029|19:16.2|02:23.5|170.8|19.0|143.9|152.0|11.0
01|02847|14:25.8|02:32.0|162.7|18.5|150.3|155.0|10.7
02|02820|13:46.8|02:26.6|161.7|18.3|148.6|155.0|11.2
03|03977|20:57.0|02:38.0|147.0|18.9|153.8|159.0|10.1

Today, I was really trying to focus on two things

Keep my HR below 155
Keep my effective length above 83 degrees, especially as I got more tired.

I also wanted to maintain power and WPS through the workout.

I can’t complain about that workout.

Tomorrow:

3 x 20′ / 5′

7′ @ 5KP, 13′ @ MP

92.5%

(172)

This is kind of tough, because I will need to turn in the middle of the 13′ segments.

Friday: 14km steady state

June 2, 2017Leave a comment

Weather: Amazing. 60F, sunny, dry. Light wind (head wind heading up stream) Flat water.

There were 5 other singles out while I was rowing. I think that’s the highest number I’ve ever seen. It was nice to have company.

The plan:

The training plan called for 2×30′ mp with a HR cap below 70%HRR. I’ve never been able to respect a 70% HR cap, ever. So I decided 150 was OK (75%)
30 minute intervals are a pain on my stubby little river, so I did 20’/15’/15’/20′

The challenge for me today was to figure out how to row with marathon power at r20 and good length. Why is this a challenge? Well, because that combination requires me to row with a lighter stroke than I am used to. I tend to naturally row at a higher than mp power at r20, and that makes my HR shoot up too high. When I try to lighten up, instead I tend to shorten up, which, in theory, reduces how efficient I am.

I pronounce the session today to be useful and productive, even though it was a pretty constant struggle. It was an exercise in “mindful training” I was consciously thinking about every stroke, and the speedcoach was basically grading me on every stroke. I would finish and glance down during recovery and see stroke rate, effective length and stroke power. And then I would adjust for the next stroke. One of the things that I really noticed is that if I concentrated on trying to get a little more layback than I am used to doing, and kept my elbows nice and wide at the finish, I was getting about 5 extra degrees of effective length, and my finishes were cleaner.

The result of the struggle was that I ended up pushing up against the HR cap, and I was getting pretty tired. Bearing in mind that I have a long row planned for tomorrow, I decided to focus on technique for the last 20 minutes of the row by alternating 2 minutes of r20 and 2 minutes of SBR. This allowed me to focus on practicing strokes with more layback and getting the blades out of the water as cleanly as possible.

Tomorrow: Hopefully, a 26km open water long row

Thursday: 4 x 15′ / 4′ (6′ @ 5kp, ~9′ @ mp)

June 1, 20172 Comments

Wednesday: Rest Day

Thursday:

Weather: Beautiful. We had a line of thunderstorms blow through last night and this morning was cool and dry. There was a little bit of a breeze, which was generally a headwind heading up stream.

Plan:

4 x 15′ / 4′

6′ @ 5KP, 9′ @ MP

92.5%

(172)

Power Targets:

5kp: 197 – 210
mp: 158 – 171

This session needed to be modified slightly. From end to end, the river takes 13 to 14 minutes to row. I had two alternatives. One was to turn and finish. The other was to cut the mp section short when I ran out of river. I decided to just cut them short.

Workout Summary - media/20170601-134451-Greg Smith 20170601 0644amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14243|82:31.0|02:53.8|161.4|22.2|148.5|175.0|07.8
W-|11306|54:07.0|02:23.6|191.4|22.1|162.2|175.0|09.6
R-|02945|28:24.0|04:49.4|068.0|20.3|118.2|175.0|07.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01407|06:00.0|02:07.9|239.5|26.8|160.4|168.0|08.7 - w/ curr & wind
02|01386|06:43.2|02:25.4|171.9|18.6|153.9|168.0|11.1 - w/ curr & wind
03|01317|06:00.0|02:16.7|223.5|25.8|166.7|173.0|08.5 - against
04|01509|07:52.8|02:36.7|160.8|19.0|159.6|172.0|10.1 - against
05|01345|06:00.0|02:13.8|226.9|25.7|166.7|172.0|08.7 - with
06|01467|07:13.2|02:27.7|154.6|18.9|159.9|172.0|10.7 - with
07|01277|06:00.0|02:21.0|211.8|25.7|167.2|175.0|08.3 - against
08|01598|08:18.0|02:35.8|169.7|19.5|164.3|175.0|09.9 - against

So, the average power for the 5kp sections was 225W vs the 197-210 range, so a bit on the high side. And the mp sections average was 164.25W vs the 158 to 171W, right in the band. You can see at the end of the last interval where I started trying to chase the split going into the head wind and the narrowest part of the river with the most current.

Ideally, the power pie would be 24 minutes in 5kp, 36 minutes in mp. You can see that basically all the 5kp target was rowed in a higher band. The mp rowing was all over the map.

The stroke metrics were somewhat illuminating (to me).

Tomorrow: steady state, technique focused, HR cap at 150.

Tuesday: 3 x 20′ (MP,10KP,HMP)

May 30, 2017May 31, 20174 Comments

Weather: Overcast, cool, humid. Light wind, headwind going upstream.

Felt very low energy in the morning. Got up anyway.

Plan:

3 x 20′ / 2′

MP, 10KP, HMP

90.0%

(167)

Power targets:

MP: 158-171
HMP: 171-184
10KP: 184-197

So, I had two different thoughts in my head. One was the memory of the awesome workout I did on Saturday where I pegged the watts above the top end of the band. The other was the empty legs feeling from the aborted workout Monday night.

For the first interval, aggressive Greg was dominant. I rowed it at an average power of 176W (including the s-turn, but not the spin). Or 6 watts above the top end of the power band.

Same thing in the second interval. I rowed the first five and a half minutes at 196W watts avg, spun the boat, rowed another 3 minutes at about the same power, hit the HR cap, tried to slow down, and then bailed on the interval. I rowed the rest of it out at sub marathon power.

Chastened, I rowed the final interval smack in the middle of the power band, but it was massively hard to do.

I annotated the summary plot with the turns, rests and failures.

The pie charts show elevated HR, and overly ambitious power.

There should be no 2kp and very little 5kp, basically just from starboard turning strokes. There should be around 20 minutes of 10kp, 20 minutes of hmp, and 20 minutes of MP. And then the balance sub-MP, about 15 minutes. Lousy pace discipline.

I’m finding it hard to row to a target power. It seems to bounce around a lot from stroke to stroke. Perhaps that is an indication that my rowing is inconsistent. Perhaps, it is a characteristic of the measurement method. I wonder if there is a way to have the speed coach show a running avg of the power over a few strokes?

Alternatively, I could try to row to a specific work per stroke and stroke rate. That seems to be a bit let noisy on the display.

Workout Summary - media/20170530-172024-Greg Smith 20170530 0643amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13813|74:21.0|02:41.5|163.9|21.4|152.8|172.0|08.7
W-|11824|57:49.0|02:26.7|175.8|21.6|155.9|171.0|09.5
R-|01997|16:31.0|04:08.4|104.8|19.4|135.3|171.0|04.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02771|13:13.8|02:23.2|179.0|20.5|149.4|156.0|10.2 -1st mp
02|01431|07:04.8|02:28.4|172.5|20.3|155.2|159.0|10.0 -1st mp
03|01162|05:31.8|02:22.8|194.5|23.6|160.2|168.0|08.9 -2nd 10kp
04|00607|02:52.2|02:21.9|192.2|24.3|161.6|167.0|08.7 -2nd 10kp
05|00262|01:15.0|02:23.1|174.3|23.3|154.5|157.0|09.0 -2nd ease up
06|01664|08:13.2|02:28.2|154.9|19.2|147.5|160.0|10.6 -2nd post bail
07|03927|19:39.0|02:30.1|176.1|22.8|162.0|171.0|08.8 -3rd

I was wondering what the heck was wrong. Why was I so tired. I decided to do an experiment. My HR monitor didn’t work on my long row on Sunday. But, my guess was that I averaged about 150 for the 2 active hours of the row. I manually doctors the CSV file for the row to insert 150 for the active part of the row and reimported it to Stravistix. Turns out that a 2 hour workout at 150bpm is a TRIMP of 256. It pushed me into overload.

Then my aborted session and the Tuesday session kept me right on that line. I’m not sure that this is exactly right, but I do think that rest will do me more good than working out right now, so I decided to sleep instead of rowing on Wednesday morning.

In the Eddie Fletcher Marathon Plan, he says that you may need extra rest days and you should not hesitate to take them. Despite the fact that it I still have trouble believing that I can make more progress by doing nothing than by doing something, I should let the evidence and data guide my actions. The important thing to me right now is to be able to do quality sessions, and especially to be ready and eager for the open water long rows that I do about once a week. Those are the pinnacle sessions.

Wednesday: Rest Day

Thursday:

On the water

4 x 15′ / 4′

6′ @ 5KP, 9′ @ MP

92.5%

(172)

Power Targets:

5KP: 184-197
MP: 158-171

2 x 45’/4’30” (sub-mp)

May 25, 2017May 25, 2017Leave a comment

Weather: 55F, light rain, wind started about 2-5mph from the south and building to 5-10mph from the east by the time I finished.

Plan:

2 x 45′ / 4’30”

MP or slower

80.0%

(149)

Target power was ~160W, more important was the HR cap at 149.

I felt very tired this morning. The long and hard sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday have taken their toll. The marathon plan calls for 2 rest days a week, and I think you really need them. It’s a ton of volume in the heavy weeks.

So, I had limited aspirations in terms of how well or fast I would row. It was a good thing. My rowing was sloppy and slow. There was a bit of chop, but that did not entirely explain why my effective length was a good 5 degrees shorter today than yesterday.

In the end, between my inability to generate power, and the depressingly slow splits on the screen, I pushed a little bit beyond the HR limit. Not enough to ruin the training effect of the session, but I wish I could be more mature about it.

Doing 45 minute intervals involved a lot of turns. 2 in the first one and 3 in the second one. There was also a lot of twisty turny stuff at the beginning of the first and the end of the last interval. I tried to make the turns as quick as possible. I managed to keep all of them below a minute, except for the first one. I need to spend a little extra time to do some “masculine rearrangement”. Which turned out to be a bit of a challenge to do with one hand, in a sitting position. (Sorry, TMI, I know)

Workout Summary - media/20170525-152322-SpdCoach 2182533 20170525 0634amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|18107|98:10.0|02:42.7|144.7|18.3|146.0|162.0|10.1
W-|17013|87:56.0|02:35.1|153.9|18.3|147.0|162.0|10.6
R-|01101|10:14.0|04:39.0|063.4|18.7|135.1|162.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03906|19:55.2|02:33.0|163.7|18.2|139.0|148.0|10.8 - #1
02|02833|14:27.0|02:33.0|157.2|18.2|145.9|156.0|10.8 - #1
03|01829|09:30.0|02:35.8|154.9|18.2|148.8|155.0|10.6 - #1
04|00427|02:13.8|02:36.7|167.6|18.2|137.4|149.0|10.5 - #2
05|02871|14:48.0|02:34.6|149.4|18.0|149.5|154.0|10.7 - #2
06|02009|10:31.8|02:37.3|152.0|18.7|150.7|156.0|10.2 - #2
07|03137|16:31.1|02:38.0|141.7|18.3|153.3|162.0|10.4 - #2

The summary here include all the weaker turning strokes. When I prune strokes with a WPS below 400J, the session avg was 161W, right on target.

The usual collection of metrics.

You can see me lightening up in terms of power and WPS in the second interval as I tried to stick to the cap. Finish and wash were much worse today than at 22 and 22 yesterday. I think part of that was rowing at 18 spm. Part of it was being really tired.

You can get a better idea of how bad my form was today by comparing it to other sessions.

stroke rate, lower than recent sessions.
Drive length a little bit shorter
Eff Drive Length shorter
Work per stroke, shockingly consistent
Finish. Terrible
Wash: a smidge worse
Catch: consistent
Slip: slightly worse (I suspect both slip and wash are strongly related to stroke rate)

Tomorrow: rest day (I need it) And I go pick up my new Maas Aero so I can try it out over the long weekend!

Side Note: Stravistix seems to agree that it’s time for a rest day! But on the plus, my fitness is definitely going in the right direction.

Wednesday: 3×30’/3′ (mp,10kp,mp) – A whole lotta rowing

May 24, 20172 Comments

Weather: Overcast, 55F, no wind, humid (The Dew Point was 54F!). Nearly perfect for rowing.

Plan:

3 x 30′ / 3′

MP, 10KP, MP

90.0%

(167)

OTW Power Targets:

MP: 155 to 165W
10KP: 180W to 190W

The main problem of this session is doing 30 minute intervals on a stretch of river that is about 15 minutes long. Each of the intervals had one or two turns in it. I tried to do these turns as quickly as I could. I was generally back to full pressure strokes within 40-50 seconds of my last stroke in the other direction. And the turn itself was reasonably aerobic (or stressful), so my HR stayed high through it. I tried to extend each of the 30 minute intervals to account for the time lost in the turns, but it seems I shaved a little time off of each of them, based on the collected data.

It was basically 3 complete laps of the river.

The first interval took me down to the damn and most of the way back. I paddled the 3 minute rest upstream and then turned about 500m from the start.

The second interval took me downstream. This interval was at higher stroke rate (22) and higher power. I turned at about 12 minutes, then rowed upstream for 14 minutes, turned again and finished the last 5 minutes or so going downstream again. I finished in the middle of the s-turn. I doubled back to before the s-turn during the rest and spun to go back downstream. The turns were hard to pull off when I was going faster and breathing harder.

The third interval took me down to the dam in about 9 minutes. Then I turned and rowed all the way back up past the boat house for another 20 minutes.

Workout Summary - media/20170524-145648-SpdCoach 2182533 20170524 0639amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|18927|94:58.0|02:30.5|174.1|21.3|153.0|169.0|09.4
W-|18001|88:03.0|02:26.7|178.5|21.0|153.7|169.0|09.8
R-|00932|06:55.0|03:43.1|109.1|23.9|140.2|169.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03838|18:30.0|02:24.6|177.0|20.4|142.2|148.0|10.2
02|02290|11:30.0|02:30.7|167.9|19.9|148.3|152.0|10.0
03|02444|11:25.2|02:20.2|191.9|22.4|155.8|161.0|09.5
04|02545|12:15.0|02:24.4|188.6|22.6|162.7|169.0|09.2
05|00962|04:30.0|02:20.3|206.5|22.5|163.6|166.0|09.5
06|01784|08:40.2|02:25.8|171.1|20.1|152.5|158.0|10.2
07|04138|21:12.7|02:33.8|169.4|20.3|158.7|166.0|09.6

I think that I should decrease my OTW slack factor. Right now I have it at 15% and in today’s session, I was consistently above the band. The middle interval was 100% above 10kp, evenly split between 5kp and 2kp. The two mp intervals were similarly above the target zone. I think that today’s power should be in the middle of the zones.

Todays powers:

10kp : 191.9, 188.6,206.5 –> 192.8W (weighted avg)
mp : 177,167.9,171.1,169.4 –> 171.7W (weighted avg)

Changing my slack to 13% brings the 10kp roughly in line. I am still overachieving a bit on mp.

The power pie chart was generated with the 13% slack number.

Here’s a collection of stroke metric plots.

Power is noisy but pretty consistent through the session. Pace is all over the place.
Drive Length and Effective length is consistent over time and stroke rate

And here are box plot of my sessions so far this spring. I excluded all open water and technique sessions. The main thing that jumps out at me is how little change over time I have seen.

Tomorrow: On the water. Another long session. This one a bit easier.

2 x 45′ / 4’30”

MP or slower

80.0%

(149)

Power target: 160W to 170W.

Friday: 75′ of steady state

May 19, 2017Leave a comment

weather: warm, around 70F and humid. light wind 5-7 mph from the WSW. This was a headwind heading up river.

Plan was 2 x 40′ / 4′ @ mp. MP is 155 to 170W OTW.

My river is not 40 minutes long, so I did this as all the way downstream, quick turn, all the way upstream. Then the rest, then repeat. I could get about 36 minutes in each rep this way. Close enough. This was supposed to be a HR capped session at 150. I changed my mind and tried to row to a 155 cap, which worked until almost the end.

Workout Summary - media/20170519-151239-SpdCoach 2182533 20170519 0633amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13837|71:44.0|02:35.5|153.4|18.9|152.6|163.0|10.2
W-|13591|69:47.0|02:34.1|155.3|18.8|152.6|163.0|10.3
R-|00249|01:56.0|03:53.5|084.3|19.6|150.5|163.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03991|18:55.8|02:22.3|169.7|19.0|145.8|156.0|11.1
01|02813|14:54.0|02:38.9|156.4|18.6|154.7|158.0|10.1
02|02846|13:58.8|02:27.4|153.9|18.5|153.5|158.0|11.0
03|03941|21:59.3|02:47.4|143.1|19.1|156.6|163.0|09.4

So, power was OK at the start, but by the third interval, I had to ease up to stay under the cap. I guess that means that the 15% “OTW Slack” derating is a bout right for me.

The paces for the speedcoach impeller are still a bit slow. Here’s the GPS pace.

Workout Summary - media/20170519-173116-87736o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14818|75:16.0|02:32.4|000.0|18.9|0.0|000.0|10.4
W-|14558|71:20.0|02:27.0|000.0|18.8|000.0|000.0|10.8
R-|00261|03:56.0|07:32.1|000.0|17.9|000.0|000.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04115|18:57.0|02:18.1|000.0|19.0|000.0|0.0|11.4
01|03023|15:13.8|02:31.1|000.0|18.6|000.0|0.0|10.7
02|02932|14:10.8|02:25.1|000.0|18.6|000.0|0.0|11.1
03|04488|22:59.0|02:33.6|000.0|19.0|000.0|0.0|10.3

4.2, 7.8, 2.3, and totally out of whack for the last interval. I’m sticking with the idea that the speedcoach is reading about 4 seconds slow.

A few stroke metrics

power versus pace. The bimodality is head wind versus tail wind.
pace and power versus distance. Shows the slow decline in power as I slowed down for the cap and a much more precipitous drop for the pace as the headwind increased.
Power and effective length versus distance. I tried hard to work on maintaining long strokes and just lighten the stroke pressure to slow down. This was very hard to do. you can see my stroke getting shorter at the end when I was trying to row with a long, but light stroke.

I’m off to the cape tonight. Hopefully, the weather will be good for a long row tomorrow.

Video with EmPower Data from yesterday’s row

May 17, 2017May 18, 20173 Comments

Tuesday: 4×15’/4′ (7′ @ 5KP, 8′ @ MP) Marathon Training OTW

May 17, 2017May 17, 20177 Comments

Weather: Lovely. Sunny. Temperature was around 60F. There was a moderate 5-10mph breeze from the WNW. This was a cross/tail wind heading down river and the cross/head wind going upriver. (But since I was going to row to power, that didn’t matter!)

Plan: This was the first time I would be doing one of the Fletcher Marathon Plan sessions on water. I figured I would need to be a little flexible to make it work.

4 x 15′ / 4′ rest
In each 15′ interval
- 7′ @ 5KP (which is 220 to 235W on the erg)
- 8′ @ MP (which is 180 to 195W)

As for adaptations.

I have about 3000m of river that I can row at high pressure. This takes me a little bit less than 15 minutes. I decided to keep the 7′ at 5KP and then just stop short of 8′ if I ran out of river. This would be more of problem downstream than upstream, both because of current and also the headwind.
Power: I decided to try to row to my erg power specs. I suspected that this would be really hard, and it was. After I rowed, I listened to a great podcast about rowing with power meters which said the average difference between erg and OTW powers was in the range of 13% to 16%. Interesting tidbit. If I had know that, the targets would have been substantially reduced.

Rate: I have somewhat arbitrarily decided to match rate to these powers as follows
- 5KP: 24-26
- 10KP: 22-24
- HMP: 20-22
- MP: 19-21

So, how’d did it go? It was a really tough, but awesome workout. I dug very deep to get it done and I definitely faded in the later reps, but I stayed focused and got it done. From a TRIMP perspective, it was the hardest workout I’ve done since the end of January (HR based TRIMP of 195)

Here’s the interval summary from rowsandall

Workout Summary - media/20170516-135626-SpdCoach 2182533 20170516 0639amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14847|77:09.0|02:35.9|169.6|21.9|159.7|177.0|08.8
W-|11373|53:49.0|02:22.0|194.5|22.6|167.7|177.0|09.4
R-|03482|23:20.0|03:21.1|093.3|19.1|137.4|177.0|07.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00005|00:00.0|00:00.0|087.0|17.0|085.0|85.0|00.0
01|01613|07:00.0|02:10.2|224.6|24.3|164.0|170.0|09.5 - 255-240W
02|01258|05:51.0|02:19.5|190.8|20.1|165.0|170.0|10.7 - 180-195W
03|01454|06:48.0|02:20.3|215.7|24.8|168.0|176.0|08.6
04|01371|07:00.0|02:33.2|170.4|20.4|169.4|176.0|09.6
05|01508|06:52.2|02:16.7|204.3|25.5|167.9|176.0|08.6
06|01356|06:22.2|02:21.0|178.5|20.1|169.4|176.0|10.6
07|01445|06:55.2|02:23.7|202.0|25.1|167.9|177.0|08.3
08|01364|07:01.2|02:34.3|168.3|20.2|169.7|177.0|09.6

So, I tried hard, but I couldn’t hit the erg based targets. But I was ahead of the 15% derated targets. For now, I will aim at the top end of the OTW target range.

I’m using the impeller on the speedcoach to try to avoid stream effects on the live pace display. I’ve tried to calibrate the impeller input, but based on a comparison of the speedcoach and GPS data today, I think my cal factor might be a bit slow.

Workout Summary - media/20170517-123357-87478o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15674|81:34.0|02:36.1|000.0|21.4|0.0|000.0|09.0
W-|11886|54:28.0|02:17.5|000.0|22.7|000.0|000.0|09.7
R-|03793|27:06.0|03:34.4|000.0|18.5|000.0|000.0|08.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01645|07:00.0|02:07.7|000.0|24.4|000.0|0.0|09.6
02|01325|06:00.0|02:15.8|000.0|20.2|000.0|0.0|11.0
03|01594|07:00.0|02:11.7|000.0|25.0|000.0|0.0|09.1
04|01478|07:18.0|02:28.2|000.0|20.5|000.0|0.0|09.9
05|01570|07:00.0|02:13.7|000.0|25.5|000.0|0.0|08.8
06|01314|06:10.2|02:20.9|000.0|20.2|000.0|0.0|10.5
07|01529|07:00.0|02:17.3|000.0|25.2|000.0|0.0|08.7
08|01431|07:00.0|02:26.7|000.0|20.2|000.0|0.0|10.1

I compared the paces.

So, based on this data, I think my impeller is reading about 4.5 seconds slow.

This row gave me a treasure trove of data to look at the state of my rowing technique. Here is a gallery of the plots that I did.

Power and pace vs stroke rate: pace is bimodal due to headwind. Power is not. Pretty wide spread because of the way I started faster and faded
Effective length vs stroke rate: Slightly longer at r24 than at r20. This is pretty consistent with what I’ve read in Kleshnev and other places
Wash: Wash got a little bit worse as I got more tired, but I think it is pretty good. I guess my finishes are in OK shape.
Slip: Lower slip values at r24. This is where the better length is coming from. I am attacking the catch with more enthusiasm at the higher stroke rate. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I need to figure out if it is resulting in a more fficient generation of boat speed relative to the effort (power). That will be a longer term project.
Catch: consistent. A little degradation in the last interval. Certainly more variation from stroke to stroke.
Finish: Better and more consistent at r24. You can see how I was really struggling at the beginning of each of the r20 sections. I dug a deep hole with the higher power segments, and when I gear shifted I struggled to take full strokes.
Effective length vs time: You can see the effect of me gasping for breath at the beginning of the MP sections, especially in the later intervals
Work per stroke vs time: I filtered the data to do two plots. One for r24 and the other for r20. Very clear reduction in r24 WPS over the workout. I was rowing to lower power and slightly higher rate. This is physiological, not technique. In the r20 sections, you can see me digging out of the lactate hole through each of them and finishing stronger.

Now I am flying out to LAX. I will take today as a rest day. Tomorrow morning, I have two possible plans. If I stay over I’m planning to visit Crossfit Anaerobic in Irvine and do this session…

4 x 20′ / 2′

MP, 10KP, HMP, MP

90.0%

(167)

I might take the red eye home. If I do that, I have my rowing gear in my car and my plan would be to stop and row on my way home from the airport. The plan would then be to do a version of this OTW. Each section would probably be closer to 15 minutes.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: 1x

Tuesday: 80′ L4 1x

Thursday: 14km steady state

Friday: 14km steady state

Thursday: 4 x 15′ / 4′ (6′ @ 5kp, ~9′ @ mp)

Tuesday: 3 x 20′ (MP,10KP,HMP)

2 x 45’/4’30” (sub-mp)

Wednesday: 3×30’/3′ (mp,10kp,mp) – A whole lotta rowing

Friday: 75′ of steady state

Video with EmPower Data from yesterday’s row

Tuesday: 4×15’/4′ (7′ @ 5KP, 8′ @ MP) Marathon Training OTW