Saturday: 6 x (5′ @ 28, 5′ @ 18) On the Water! In December!

December 2, 2017Leave a comment

What an unexpected treat. Joe texted me yesterday afternoon and asked if I wanted to go rowing this morning. The forecast was favorable. Very light wind, sunny and right around freezing. It sounded like a great idea to me. I asked him if he was up for the workout I had scheduled in the training plan for Saturday. Lucky for me, he was!

The plan:

40 to 60 minutes
5 minutes at r28 and Cat III pace (1:51 on the erg)
5 minutes at r18 and Cat VI pace (2:06 to 2:11 on the erg)
Stop only as needed to rehydrate

So, the first challenge is to translate this into a good OTW workout. I decided to focus on the rates. That translates well. The lake is a little more than 25 minutes from top to bottom, so we could fit in 5 – 5 minute segments each way. So, we would warm up to the north end of the lake, then row south to do 3 segments of r28 and 2 segments of r18, then spin to go north. I decided to let the spin be part of the next 5 minute r18 chunk. Then we would probably have enough lake to finish that 5 minutes at r18, and do 5 more segments to the north end of the lake. It worked out perfectly. We finished with about 200m of lake left. Then we cooled down coming back to the boat house.

There was a bit of wind from the north. Not enough to effect the set of the boat, but enough to slow down the northbound splits. The boat felt much heavier going that way, then going south. It took a couple of reps to get used to the rate that high, but by the third, I felt like we we rowing well together and the boat was moving.

After we turned north, I felt a big blister on my left hand blow up and by the time we were halfway up the lake, my left handle was a bloody mess. I sprayed bloody blister juice all over the rigger and the stern of the boat. The stickiness started to make it a bit tougher to cleanly feather, but it didn’t screw things up too much. I sure noticed it after we finished the main set and started the cool down. Both my hands were stinging badly. Oh well, that’s what you get when you only get out on the water once every couple of weeks.

It was totally worth it!

          Workout Summary - media/20171202-195851-Greg Smith 20171202 0913amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15751|84:49.0|02:41.6|000.0|23.7|152.2|179.0|07.8
W-|14706|74:13.0|02:31.4|000.0|23.3|153.7|179.0|08.6
R-|01052|10:36.0|05:02.3|000.0|21.3|116.8|179.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01951|09:45.0|02:29.9|000.0|19.0|144.3|149.0|10.5
02|01138|05:00.0|02:11.9|000.0|26.2|159.5|165.0|08.7
03|00925|05:00.0|02:42.1|000.0|19.9|148.3|166.0|09.3
04|01132|05:00.0|02:12.5|000.0|27.2|163.5|170.0|08.3
05|00943|05:00.0|02:39.1|000.0|19.3|153.1|170.0|09.8
06|01130|05:00.0|02:12.8|000.0|28.1|169.0|174.0|08.0
07|00608|03:24.0|02:47.7|000.0|19.7|139.6|145.0|09.1
08|01063|05:00.0|02:21.2|000.0|27.5|163.5|170.0|07.7
09|00838|05:00.0|02:59.1|000.0|19.8|149.3|171.0|08.5
10|01048|05:00.0|02:23.1|000.0|27.8|166.1|174.0|07.5
11|00785|05:00.0|03:11.0|000.0|19.6|147.0|174.0|08.0
12|01076|05:00.0|02:19.4|000.0|28.8|168.0|179.0|07.5
13|02068|11:04.4|02:40.6|000.0|23.2|143.9|159.0|08.0

Tomorrow:

4 x 20′ / 3′
Cat VI: r18 / 2:06-2:11

Friday: 45 minutes with bumps

December 1, 20172 Comments

I flew back from Dallas last night and got home around 12:30am. I slept in to about 7:30, and eventually made my way to work.

Around 12:30 I headed to the gym and discovered to my horror that the noon time fitness class was using the rower! So, I did my Physio homework while I waited for them to finish up. That there was some really ugly rowing, all with the damper set to 10. Why do people subject themselves to that kind of abuse?

Around 1:00 I was able to hop on and do my planned session:

45′ continuous with bumps
Cat VI (rate: 18, pace 2:06)
Every 5 minutes 20 stroke burst at r32+

The only modification was to change the 20 stroke burst to be a 40 second burst. This worked out to 21 to 24 strokes depending on how well I rated up.

I thoroughly enjoyed this workout, although when you really sprint your guts out for the bump, it’s really hard to focus on holding the split when you slow back down. The first 30 seconds, I find very unpleasant.

          Workout Summary - media/20171201-1840300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11234|44:59.0|02:00.1|230.1|21.4|153.5|174.0|11.7
W-|11243|44:59.0|02:00.1|210.8|20.2|153.6|174.0|12.7
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|174.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01041|04:20.0|02:04.9|174.6|18.0|124.3|134.0|13.3
01|00213|00:40.0|01:34.1|400.7|31.0|139.3|150.0|10.3
02|01037|04:20.0|02:05.4|182.4|18.3|148.0|158.0|13.1
03|00213|00:40.0|01:34.0|406.5|31.5|148.6|159.0|10.1
04|01038|04:20.0|02:05.2|179.1|17.9|152.2|165.0|13.4
05|00211|00:40.0|01:34.6|404.6|31.7|150.4|160.0|10.0
06|01032|04:20.0|02:06.0|177.7|18.0|154.1|167.0|13.2
07|00212|00:40.0|01:34.5|398.1|32.5|151.0|161.0|09.8
08|01035|04:20.0|02:05.6|182.3|18.5|156.6|168.0|12.9
09|00209|00:40.0|01:35.6|388.6|31.9|153.4|162.0|09.8
10|01038|04:20.0|02:05.2|182.6|18.4|158.3|168.0|13.0
11|00212|00:40.0|01:34.2|416.4|33.0|156.3|164.0|09.7
12|01037|04:20.0|02:05.4|180.3|18.2|161.2|172.0|13.1
13|00214|00:40.0|01:33.4|418.1|33.5|158.9|166.0|09.6
14|01032|04:20.0|02:06.0|176.0|18.1|163.1|172.0|13.1
15|00214|00:40.0|01:33.4|411.2|33.3|158.2|166.0|09.7
16|01039|04:20.0|02:05.1|183.9|18.7|164.7|174.0|12.8
17|00218|00:40.0|01:32.0|461.8|36.4|163.6|172.0|09.0

So, compare this to a very similar workout on the dynamic. In that workout, I did take 2 1′ breaks and I also did some pause drills during the slow parts. That explains why my HR ended up going higher today. The rate is quite similar. The power is where things are remarkably different. I was putting up 100 more watts in the bursts today. And I was working on technique. I was really concentrating on getting my hands away fast and holding my knees down when I rated up.

Tomorrow: The weather looks good so I am going to go rowing. Tough workout though. 6 x (5′ @ 28, 5′ @ 18). I can’t wait!

Thursday: 4 x 20′ / 3′ at West Plano Crossfit

December 1, 2017December 1, 20175 Comments

Wednesday: Travel day to Texas. Flew down in the late morning, had a big prep meeting and a customer dinner. On the plus side, I got back to the hotel by 10pm and I was asleep by 11.

Thursday: I headed over to West Plano Crossfit at 5:30 in the morning. I was scheduled for a nice easy endurance session.

Plan:

3 x 20 / 3′
Cat VI (pace: 2:06, rate: 18)

Today was the day when I was going to try out my new iphone USB cable connection. I had some doubts, because the way you make the connection is to buy a cable from LiveRowing and then use it with other apps.

I plugged in the cable to my phone and then into the PM3. Then I discovered that the cable is too short to allow the phone to rest anywhere, so I need to have a phone cradle. For today, I grabbed a velcro wrist brace and strapped the phone to the monitor arm. I arranged so that I could just see the HR value, since that was the only thing that wasn’t on the PM3 screen.

I ran into a couple of other funny things. First, if the cable was connected, then my bluetooth headphones would connect but not play. But if I connected the headphones and then plugged in the cable, all was good. Finally, when I went to take a monitor picture when I finished, I noticed that the camera would not work with the cable plugged in.

OK, with the head phones fixed, music on, cable plugged in, HR monitor turned on, I went to try to use painsled. No luck. It did not see the PM3 connected through the cable. So then I tried ergdata. Success! It connected right away and even let me connect my HR monitor via my phone. This is the way to get HR on a PM3 as far as I’m concerned. You can’t see it on the screen, but at least you get all the pace, rate, power and HR data together.

So, off I go. And I’m feeling great. I go through 20 minutes and my HR is only up to about 142, and it feels easy. So, I do another 20 minutes. again, it’s pure delight. I’m rowing easy, enjoying the music. hitting my numbers. then the next rest and another 20 minutes, finishing up with a HR about 147. One of the things that helped pass the time was the WOD (workout of the day) that the crossfitters were doing. It was a AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) of some running, some dumbell snatches, then a 500m row, then somethings else. But basically, every few minutes there would be this big rush to the rowers and they would flail wildly for a couple minutes and then run away. It was very entertaining as I plodded along at my r18 and 2:06 pace.

Anyway, I finished the 3rd 20 minute piece and I felt fresh. My HR was nice and stable around 147. And since I got there so early, I had some time. I decided to do a bonus 20 minutes and it was also pure bliss. My HR stayed right at the plateau around 147-148 and I felt like I could have just kept going and going. I guess that means that this is my “all day pace”. I kind of spooked the Crossfit coach though, about 15 minutes into it, he wandered over and asked me if I was ever going to finish. I told him I would be done in 4 minutes and 16 seconds and he seemed OK with that answer. He was worried that I would want to go past the end of the second class that was going on now.

When I finished, I discovered a data disaster. While I had overcome significant challenges to get my setup working, I had neglected to check the date on the PM3. When I tried to sync my workout to the concept2 site, it told me grumpily that it was unwilling to upload my workout because the date was off by too much. A quick check now revealed that I had unwittingly done my workout 3 months in the future. The date was set to February 2018 on the PM3. So, now I have the most beautiful aerobic workout I have done in recent memory trapped on my phone and there is no way to extract the data.

I’m sorry, but this really pissed me off. I see that there are incredible benefits to using data to improve the effectiveness of training, but it seems like there are so many traps along the way, that only data lunatics are willing to subject themselves to the constant bullshit that these half assed implementations put us through. I mean, how hard would it have been for the person coding the sync function to offer an option to fix the date in the error handling code for the mismatch instead of just puking on the user? It’s the same deal with using the PM5. There are constant questions on the forum about hangups, drop outs, lost workouts and weird behavior. Everyone who wants to use data routinely farts around trying different stuff until they stumble upon something that works and then they protect the method like an ancient druid protecting the philosopher’s stone. Don’t even get me started on RowPro. If your neighbor downloads pornography while you row, you get tossed out of your happy group row into some isolated world of loneliness like you have stumbled into the “Upside Down” on Stranger Things. On the water, it’s even worse. There are a multitude of fragile, incomplete solutions that distract us from rowing. Not all the time, no, just enough so you never quite trust it.

Right now, I only feel good recommending data driven training approaches to people with a strong engineering background. I feel like pointing someone who isn’t used to being a beta victim toward using these crappy products is just going to make me look like an idiot.

It reminds of the single best quote about software engineering I’ve ever seen. If builders built buildings the way programmers write programmers, the first woodpecker would have destroyed civilization.

So, I feel great about the workout, but I am really pissed off at the way concept2 does the sync function on ergdata. I guess if their intent was to make sure that I always will waste some time before each row to check the bloody date, then they sure taught me the lesson. But if they wanted to look like the fine post-modern, connected fitness company I think they aspire to be, they sure missed the mark.

Sorry for the rant, I needed to get that off my chest.

And with that workout, I wrap up November. Total rowing time 28 hours and 5 minutes. Best in almost 2 years.

Tomorrow is a new month. I have a redo of my 20′ and 75′ tests coming up in a couple of weeks and some international travel to work around, and then there’s Christmas. Let’s see how I do for training hours with those challenges.

Tomorrow:

45′ continuous with bumps
Cat VI (rate: 18, pace 2:06)
Every 5 minutes 20 stroke burst at r32

Saturday: 4 x (5′ Cat III + 5′ Cat VI)

November 26, 2017Leave a comment

I spent a couple of hours outside putting up the Christmas lights. Then around 4pm, I suited up and headed back to the dreaded dynamic erg for a hard workout. I was very worried about pacing for this one.

The plan:

2 x 20′ / 1′
Each 20 broken into 2 sections, 10′ each
- 5′ at Cat III (28 spm, 1:51 pace)
- 5′ at Cat VI (18 spm, 2:06 to 2:11 pace)

My paces are derived from testing that I did on the static erg, and it seemed like I was a couple seconds slower for the Cat VI stuff. But then yesterday, when I was doing the 20 stroke bumps, it felt much, much harder. Like 5 to 10 seconds off what I could do on a static.

I decided to try to hold the original targets. It was a very hard.

I started with a 5 minute warmup. This was a minute easy, then a minute at r24, then a minute easy, then a minute at r28. The minute at r28 was a bit scary because I discovered that it was far from easy to hold a 1:51 split. It was actually quite hard. Oh well.

Then I pushed on into the workout. The first one was OK, but I was annoyed that my HR sensor seemed to be lagging. It finally got with the program about 2 minutes into the first interval and was fine after that. But I was really tired by the end of it. I shifted down to the r18 and 2:10ish pace and recovered well. But the second one came around pretty soon and I found myself counting strokes with my eyes closed to try to get through it. I slowed down, just a little about halfway through and that helped me keep the wheels on.

I gasped my way through the 5 minutes at Cat VI, and then had a quick drink. My legs were shot, but I gave it a go. I told myself that 1:52 or 1:53 would be good enough and again counted strokes with my eyes closed. The slower pace seemed to help. The Cat VI section flew by and it was time for another 5′ sojourn in hell. Now my legs were pretty useless, and even 1:53 was hard to hold. But I counted strokes and got through it. It really felt like I was rowing through mud (despite a very reasonable 128 drag factor).

After I finished the main set, I did a happy ending 2k cool down.

This is a bit depressing. The workout should have 20 minutes of Cat III, but I had less than 12.

Over time, I am supposed to extend this workout from 4x to 6x the 10 minute sequence. I hope I can do it next time on a static erg. I’m very interested to see the difference in outcomes.

Sunday: The plan is an hour of power at r22. Cat V pace.

Friday: 20 stroke bumps

November 26, 2017November 26, 2017Leave a comment

Thursday: Rest day. Thanksgiving. We went up to Woodstock, Vermont and spent the day with my wife’s relatives. We had two cars full. My wife and I, our three adult children, and two significant others. Good food and good company.

Friday: We spent the night up in Vermont and had a nice brunch at the Woodstock Inn on Friday morning. Then we packed back into our cars and drove home. In the late afternoon, I settled in for an erg session.

The Plan:

3 x 15′ / 1′
Cat VI Pace: 2:06 to 2:11, r18-20
Every 5′ – 20 strokes at r32 (Cat I)
Also, insert 5 strokes of a pause at rocked over on recovery every 5 minutes or so.

My technique objective was to work on correcting my problems with breaking my knees too early and also maintain the right back posture. I did the pause drill as the first 5 strokes of each 5 minutes to get myself setup right, then rowed continuously until there was 2:50 seconds left in the 5 minute segment, then I would do 40 seconds of rowing at r32. This ended up being about 23 or 24 strokes. Then I would finish out the last 2:10 seconds at r18. After three sets of that, I took a quick swig of water and did the pause drill during the rest of the break.

It was a very enjoyable workout. I was happy to see my HR coming back down nicely at the Cat VI pace.

One thing I did not enjoy was doing this workout on the dynamic erg. When I crank up to a 32 rate on the static erg (or on slides), the pace tumbles easily down to 1:35 or below. On the dynamic, I was pulling as hard as I could at 32 and it was a massive struggle to get down below 1:45.

After I finished the main set I did a 2k happy ending cool down.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: Cat VI