This one pushed me to my limit.  Two weeks ago, I did the version of this where I did 6′ at 5KP and 9′ at MP, and it was a pretty easy ride.  Swapping those two was brutal.

It’s a bit of a bummer, because I have rowed longer than this at a much faster pace then the 5KP, but it is what it is, and I can work with it.

The first rep was pretty manageable, but I definitely felt like I was working hard.  This step down format is a pretty fiendish way to do an interval.  I was struggling to get to the end of the 9 minute block, and my central governor really wanted me to stop at that point.  Instead, you slow down.  But you don’t slow down enough to feel much better.  My heart rate slowly drifted down and my RPE was amazingly high for a 2:03 pace.

I reprogrammed my power zones in rowsandall to reflect my marathon target paces.

So for this workout, the goal was 36 minutes at 5KP and 24 minutes at MP.  The power pie chart shows exactly that break down.  So it will be a useful way to track this type of workout on the erg, and even when I am on the water.

Pics of the PM.  I set it up as a variable interval session so I could grab the warmup along with the main set in one set of data.

Workout Summary - media/20170130-1315200o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19032|82:01.0|02:09.3|187.5|23.0|159.5|179.0|10.1
W-|16257|64:00.0|01:58.1|213.6|23.3|165.0|179.0|11.0
R-|02782|18:01.0|03:14.4|064.8|21.5|134.5|179.0|08.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01018|04:00.0|01:57.9|212.8|22.2|132.4|148.0|11.4
01|02351|09:00.0|01:54.8|231.5|24.1|157.9|166.0|10.8
02|01464|06:00.0|02:02.9|188.7|20.8|160.5|166.0|11.7
03|02355|09:00.0|01:54.6|232.9|24.6|164.7|175.0|10.6
04|01464|06:00.0|02:03.0|188.3|21.1|170.2|175.0|11.6
05|02347|09:00.0|01:55.0|230.0|24.7|169.0|177.0|10.6
06|01462|06:00.0|02:03.1|187.7|21.9|173.7|178.0|11.1
07|02335|09:00.0|01:55.6|228.5|24.9|170.1|179.0|10.4
08|01460|06:00.0|02:03.3|187.1|22.0|174.5|179.0|11.1

I did a bunch of flex plots.  Drive length is good and consistent across rates and as I geot more tired.  It’s cool to see the effect of fatigue on stroke rhythm.  You can see my trading off higher rate to try to hold on to the power and the force I could generate declined.  The work per stroke versus stroke rate shows an increase with stroke rate.  I think that is mainly because the lower power stuff was tacked onto the end of the higher power stuff, so I was really spent and barely hanging on during those sections.  I usually see a flatter work per stroke than that.

Last week I did a version of this workout but with 6′ at 5KP and 9′ at MP.  I was interested to compare them.    The first plot is power and you can see that I was hitting the same target.  You can see that I was rating a touch higher, and I think that’s a good thing.  Finally in the HR comparison, you can see that I was struggling more with this workout more than the other one.  My HR was higher at 6′ in interval #1 today than it was last time.  I think accumulated fatigue and time of day are the main factors there.

Tomorrow:

3 x 30′ / 3′

Pace: MP, 10KP, MP

HR cap: 90.0% (167)

Pretty incomprehensible title, huh?  This week I am experimenting with the week #1 workouts from the Eddie Fletcher Marathon Training Plan.

There are some very interesting concepts in the plan, and some intriguing workouts that I have never done before, so I decided to make a guess about my current capabilities, try a few workouts and then adjust as I need to when I start the plan in earnest.

Today’s workout was 4 x (6′ @ 5kp + 9′ @ mp)/4′ rest.  What that means…

• 4 intervals each of them 15′ long
• 4 minutes of rest between interval
• the first 6 minutes of each interval is rowed at your current 5k pace
• the last 9 minutes of each interval are rowed at you current projected marathon pace

The training plan does not explain exactly what the logic is for this, but having done it, I have a pretty good idea.  By starting at a 5k pace, you are working above your MLSS (Maximum Lactate Steady State) pace, which means that you are accumulating lactate.  By the time you finish 6 minutes at that pace, your heart rate is up, and you are feeling a bit like you would be much further into a marathon length row.  When you slow down to marathon pace, you are no longer building up your lactate levels, but the level of effort is such that you don’t clear much of it either, and your heart rate slowly (very slowly drifts down).  This workout seems like a very clever way to simulate rowing in the last hour of a marathon.

I just took a guess about pacing.  Based on the 4×4′ CTC, I figured that my 2k pace is around a 1:45.  For this workout plan, you use 4 basic paces, which are just percentages of your 2k power.  I did a quick table for mine.

The plan was very clear that you should start at the low end of the power range and work your way up.  The plan also includes HR limits for the workout.  The limit for this one was 92.5% of HRMax, which for me is 172bpm.

Of course that is exactly what I didn’t do.  In typical fashion, I looked at the top end of the range as the absolute minimum that I should see on the monitor, and I completely ignored the HR limit.  And I enjoyed it.

That made it a very hard workout.  I started with a 1k warmup, since the first chunk would be at 5k pace.  I worked my way up to 240 watts over the first 400m and then held it for the last 600.

Then into the workout.

Workout Summary - media/20170118-145925-sled_2017-01-17T07-10-05ZEST.strokes.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|17233|76:00.0|02:12.3|196.7|23.6|159.6|177.0|09.6
W-|15317|60:00.0|01:57.5|218.1|23.9|164.1|177.0|10.7
R-|01922|16:00.0|04:09.7|057.0|20.9|138.6|177.0|02.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01611|06:00.0|01:51.7|248.7|25.2|151.1|165.0|10.6
01|02238|09:00.0|02:00.6|199.5|22.3|159.9|165.0|11.2
02|01597|06:00.0|01:52.7|246.8|25.4|159.8|172.0|10.5
03|02235|09:00.0|02:00.8|198.7|22.9|166.3|172.0|10.9
04|01569|06:00.0|01:54.7|244.4|25.6|160.3|176.0|10.2
05|02236|09:00.0|02:00.7|199.3|23.1|170.8|177.0|10.8
06|01590|06:00.0|01:53.2|245.0|25.8|165.9|177.0|10.3
07|02240|09:00.0|02:00.5|200.2|23.4|172.1|177.0|10.6

The results were quite consistent, but I had to go very deep into the well for it.  The last 9 minutes at marathon pace were excruciating.

Since this workout is at higher stroke rates and pressure, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the metrics to compare the sections done at 200W to the sections done are 245W.

Drive was consistent across the two powers, so was force ratio.  Force ratio looks like it got more erratic in the last interval (the spread around 0.8 looks broader).  I was expecting to see a bigger change in stroke rhythm between rowing at 22-23 for the 200W and rowing at 24-25 for the 245W, but it stayed around 31%.  At this point, I don’t understand that metric to know if that is good or bad or indifferent.

So, next time I do this workout, I’m aiming for the bottom of the ranges, 225w and 180W.