2′ – Short Rest Intervals

October 3, 2018Leave a comment

Cool and wet this morning (and dark!). After working my way around a few boats on my way out, I had the river entirely to myself. There was a little bit of a head wind for the down river sections.

The plan was to focus on race rate and slightly higher than race pace / power. My pace target was to get as close to the 2:13.4 that I averaged for the 2′ interval session that I did last time. This session is a lot harder. The last minute lasts a loooong time in each interval.

I also wanted to really work on trying to get my releases to be clean and crisp.

The workout went very well. I was in control for all the reps. The high power readings at the end of the 5th and 11th reps are because I finished both of those reps going into the big s-turn and really leaning on the port oar (where my empower oarlock is).

I was working really hard in these reps, but my HR didn’t really max out.

Here’s a bit closer detail on pace and power. You can see the power is reasonably consistent across all the reps and the upstream and downstream paces vary with the current and wind.

It was a fair amount of hard rowing.

          Workout Summary - media/20181003-1200300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13144|74:02.0|02:49.0|117.4|24.2|148.7|176.0|07.3
W-|08088|36:08.0|02:14.1|169.3|26.3|160.9|176.0|08.5
R-|05066|37:55.0|03:44.6|067.9|22.2|137.0|176.0|06.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00112|00:31.9|02:21.8|125.3|19.0|125.5|130.0|11.1 - wu
02|00712|03:02.8|02:08.3|169.4|25.9|146.6|160.0|09.0 - downstream
03|00729|03:08.1|02:09.0|171.2|27.1|157.1|167.0|08.6
04|00704|03:02.4|02:09.5|175.5|26.3|159.3|167.0|08.8
05|00629|02:52.6|02:17.2|171.4|26.7|158.0|169.0|08.2 - upstream
06|00648|02:57.0|02:16.6|182.0|26.1|162.8|172.0|08.4
07|00632|02:55.0|02:18.4|163.2|26.7|166.5|174.0|08.1
08|00709|03:06.2|02:11.3|170.4|26.1|158.7|171.0|08.8 - downstream
09|00694|03:02.8|02:11.7|158.8|26.3|167.3|174.0|08.7
10|00673|02:57.0|02:11.5|173.0|26.0|167.7|174.0|08.8
11|00597|02:47.0|02:20.0|164.4|26.2|157.9|171.0|08.2 - upstream
12|00630|02:53.7|02:17.8|181.1|26.9|166.4|175.0|08.1
13|00617|02:52.0|02:19.3|159.1|26.8|169.2|176.0|08.0

So, I was happy with the workout. Happy enough that I did some comparisons.

First, I wanted to compare today to last week 20×2 session. Very similar stroke profiles. Looks like my peak and avg force was higher, which makes sense since my stroke rate was at least 1 spm lower.

Next I took all the hard sessions that I’ve done over the past month and did some box charts.

About a 4 sec improvement on pace
stroke rate all over the map
Power up about 15-20 watts
eff drive length about 2-3 deg longer
catch angle up about a degree.

Tomorrow: 70′ steady state at r20.

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.

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.

Tough week…spotty training

May 17, 2018Leave a comment

Last Friday was a wonderful workout. The joy that I got out of it carried me through a much less enjoyable set of days and activities since.

Saturday: Yardwork.

I was spreading mulch. I was curious about how hard this work is, so I wore a heart rate monitor. Here are the stats.

Duration: 5:07:56
Average HR: 97, Max HR 125 (so below UT2)
Calories: 2619

So, I guess you could think of it as a long lazy bike ride. But that’s not quite right because there is a strength component to it. Basically shovel work, pushing a wheelbarrow and a lot of squatting, bending and raking.

It really knocked me out. I was useless all night I was so tired.

Sunday: Yardwork

I did the bulk of it on Saturday, but there was one more flower bed to do, and then moving the excess mulch and some other tidying up. It was easier work and it only took about two hours. I didn’t bother with the HR monitor.

Monday: 80 minutes of speed play

I wish I could remember more about this session, but I can’t. From the data, it looks like it was a pretty nice session, I wish I could remember enjoying it. Oarlock still acting up.

Tuesday: 30r22 on the erg

So, the original plan was 2 x 30′ @ r22 on the water. I got up at 5:15, drove to the river, and as I always do, I double checked my work schedule to see when I needed to be in the office so that I could make sure that I got back to the dock in time. When I looked, to my horror, I saw that I had a dentist appointment back near my house at 7:30am. So, I drove home, took a shower, and went to the dentist instead of rowing.

It left me in a foul mood all day long. Add in the fact that I needed to deal with unpleasant HR related work matters and by the afternoon, I was a quivering wreck. I snuck off to the fitness center. If everything went right, I had just enough time to do my 2×30 on the erg and make it to my next meeting.

Everything did not go right, and when I finished the first rep, I saw that I didn’t have enough time to do another 30 minutes. This blew my momentum and instead doing 15 or 20 minutes, I just walked away.

The 30 minutes that I did were nice and hard though. I felt much better afterward.

Workout Summary - media/20180515-1930250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07719|32:00.0|02:04.4|205.9|20.5|156.6|170.0|11.7
W-|07708|30:00.0|01:56.8|219.6|21.9|155.7|170.0|11.7
R-|00012|02:00.0|86:46.3|000.0|00.0|170.0|170.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07708|30:00.0|01:56.8|219.6|21.9|155.7|170.0|11.7

Wednesday: Unintentional rest day

I intended to go do my speed session in the morning, but I slept terribly. When my alarm went off, I rolled over and slept two more hours.

I thought I might be able to go to the gym, or maybe even head down to the river in the afternoon, but work conspired to keep me busy all day long.

Thursday: 60 minutes of steady state (ish) rowing

I had two missions this morning. The first was 60 minutes of rowing. The other was to replace my empower oarlock. I’ve been trying to troubleshoot the dropped power values with NK for a couple of weeks. They finally came to the conclusion that the problem was interesting enough that they wanted the specimen in the lab. They sent me a unit to swap it out, and a label to return the prodigal oarlock to them.

It took a lot more time than I expected because I had trouble getting through the calibration. I would try it and it would take me through the steps and then curtly imform me that “Calibration Failed”. Ultimately, I diagnosed the problem. The oarlock senses angle by having a magnet assembly on the oarlock pin, and the oarlock is supposed to freely rotate above that. What happened to me is that the length of the pin was just a hair shorter than the height of the oarlock, magnet assembly and 3 spacers. The pin was shifting slightly when the oarlock swung. Ultimately, I sanded about 1/16″ off one of the spacers, and then I could crank down the pin bolt and the oarlock would swing nice and freely. Viola, calibration passed.

Then, after wasting some more time finding a restroom, I headed out for a row. I had just enough time for 60 minutes or rowing, but I wasn’t in the mood for speedplay today. I decided to just work on trying to row well.

I tried. Sometimes, I succeeded. Often, I did not. But it was totally absorbing.

And I ran into a tree! I was just starting. I left the dock, rowed into the turn. I cut close to the north bank coming into the last bit of the turn, and I usually swing wide while I build some speed into the straight bit. I alway look over my port shoulder because I can see the whole straight bit without turning too much. What I missed by doing that was a huge tree that had fallen into the river on the east bank. I saw it about 5 strokes later and checked down hard. I managed to take all the speed off the boat and gently coasted into a tangle of the upper branches.

It took me a little bit to calm down and then I backed my way out of the mess and swung around it.

The rest of the row was quite uneventful.

Workout Summary - media/20180517-1845250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11172|60:37.0|02:42.8|118.6|18.4|139.4|172.0|10.0
W-|10461|53:10.0|02:32.5|126.6|18.2|140.3|172.0|10.8
R-|00718|07:27.0|05:11.5|060.9|19.6|132.4|172.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00584|02:54.0|02:28.9|126.5|16.9|097.3|115.0|11.9 - to the tree!
01|03335|15:51.0|02:22.6|132.8|18.4|141.7|151.0|11.4 - After the tree
02|02167|11:18.0|02:36.5|126.2|17.5|146.4|155.0|11.0 - up from the dam
03|00278|01:13.0|02:11.1|199.4|30.5|165.4|172.0|07.5 - fast minute
04|00284|01:29.0|02:36.5|120.4|17.4|141.7|153.0|11.0 - technique stuff
05|01439|07:15.0|02:31.1|119.4|18.4|140.9|155.0|10.8 - technique stuff
06|01504|08:18.0|02:45.6|117.3|17.7|138.3|149.0|10.3 - technique stuff
07|00870|04:52.7|02:48.2|118.2|18.2|143.5|152.0|09.8 - Back to the dock

I wanted to do some higher rate rowing just to see if the oarlock missed a beat. I did a hard minute and it worked great. The data is not glitchy at all!

After that, I shifted gears. I decided to do 2 minute intervals with 2 minutes of square blade rowing, 2 minutes of slow roll up and 2 minutes of r20. This was awesome practice, especially the slow roll up. This really allowed me to focus on the first part of the recovery and get my arms out and body angle right, and then slowly square the blades as I went from body over to the catch. A few strokes were perfect. Just a few. But the feeling was extraordinary. Finish cleanly, keep the blades off the water, cleanly square the blades in a smooth movement, and drop them in for the next stroke. Imagine if I could do that for all my strokes!

Tomorrow: I am still feeling pretty tapped out, so I think I will do a speedplay session instead of one of the more intense workouts.

Friday: Sublime Rate Ladders

May 11, 20181 Comment

Perhaps a gross overstatement, but I feel like today was a bit of break through.

The weather started perfect, but a gusty, but persistent breeze sprung up about halfway through. This was mostly a cross wind, but depending on the bends of the river sometimes slowed me down quite a bit.

The plan was

4 x 12′ rate ladders
- 6′ @ 18
- 4′ @ 24
- 2′ @ 28
6 minutes rest between

I decided to use the rests to do some KOM drills, and even tried a couple of slow motion starts.

The whole way as I drove to the river I kept telling myself to focus on technique instead of pace or power in this session. Make sure that in the r24 and r28 sections, I rowed with light pressure and good form. All of this self talk seemed to make an impression because for once, I actually seemed to follow it.

And the results were awesome. For brief moments today, I got the feeling of effortless speed. Sometimes it was during the r18 section when I eased in the catch more gently. Sometimes it was during the r24 section, though rarely because a lot of those were through the s-turn and it’s hard to reach a sublime state when you are putting all your pressure on one oar. And a few times, for a few strokes it happened at r28.

These fleeting moments made the whole row a delightful puzzle to solve. As soon as I noticed that feeling of flow, invariably the next stroke would feel like mud. Then I would be thinking through how to recapture it. I am certain it is related to how I take the catch, but balance during recovery is a huge part of it too. All I am hoping is that I can feel it again, and then extend it over more strokes.

To put this in some context. I can remember this feeling from a couple of seasons ago, maybe it was even three seasons ago. I am sure I never felt it last year. Looking back, it seems like I spent the whole season fighting the boat. I’d forgotten what this feels like.

A few details about the row. Each piece was 12 minutes long. The good section of the river is about 14 minutes of rowing, so that worked out very well. I only needed to make one adjustment on the fly. When I was doing the third piece, I was approaching the stone bridge when it was time to shift from r24 to r28. I decided to extend the r24 by a minute and do the full 2 minutes at r28 after the bridge in open water. Take that as an indication of how I was feeling. I don’t know that I have ever willingly extended an interval before.

Screen Shot 2018-05-11 at 5.34.22 PM.png

My problems with my oarlock are unimproved. Hopefully a HW swap will fix things up. NK is sending me a replacement to try.

Looking at the heart rate is another indication of goodness. I was up touching the anaerobic zone at the end of the 3rd and fourth intervals, and I fought no demons. I was far from comfortable, but I was able to purposely focus on technique during the last ten strokes of each of the pieces.

Tomorrow: Aerobic gardening!

Thursday: 3 x (1’/2′ + 1’/2′ + 2’/5′) at race pace

May 10, 2018Leave a comment

I felt tired this morning.

Weather was cool and misty. A light breeze from the North was on and off.

The plan:

3 sets of:
- 1’ on, 3’ active rest,
- 1’ on , 3’ active rest
- 2’ on, 5’ active rest
Rest between: Continuous, no rest between sets.
Complete one set and then repeat the series.
The active rest is relaxed, low intensity, easy rowing.
Stop only briefly to rehydrate.
Rating /pace: Race effort, 1k pace (your best right now)
Notes: The emphasis is on high quality work and stroke efficiency. This speed workout aims to keep the lactic acid levels low by allowing enough recovery between pieces for it to clear. Do not cut the rest short. Feel fully recovered and psychologically ready to do the next piece. If the quality starts to drop dramatically, stop the workout.

Well, I blew that. I misremembered the duration of the rests, so instead of 3 minutes between the 1′ work intervals, I took 2 minute rests.

I was actually having a good time with the workout. Well, to be more accurate, I was enjoying the 1 minute blasts. 30 strokes. Focusing on clean early finishes, outward pressure on the oarlocks, early body prep and rowing with the blades off the water. I would get into the zone where I would have 4 or 5 strokes in a row that just felt great. I always love seeing a 1:xx pace on the speedcoach and there is something about the fluidesign hull. It gets super stable when you’re going fast. It’s like riding on rails.

Interesting that comment about quality dropping. I was doing well all the way through until the last interval. And man did the quality drop like a stone. I was breathing like a freight train and losing form pretty badly as I made the slight turn at the little island at about 1 minute. Then a bit of phlegm started rattling around in the back of my throat. With 10 strokes to go, it got stuck in my throat and I couldn’t breath. I thought I was going to puke, flip or die. Maybe all three, just to maximize the drama of my demise.

I guess I need to lighten up a bit! I just hate being slow,

I did all the intervals in the big straight bit of the river.

Screen Shot 2018-05-10 at 9.24.05 AM.png

          Workout Summary - media/20180510-1240240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09490|66:54.0|03:31.5|096.2|20.5|140.8|177.0|06.9
W-|02984|12:00.0|02:00.6|230.5|29.5|160.4|177.0|08.4
R-|06517|49:54.0|03:49.7|066.8|18.6|135.8|177.0|07.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00258|01:00.0|01:56.3|250.5|28.2|154.3|163.0|09.1 - down
02|00244|01:00.0|02:03.1|268.2|29.5|156.3|167.0|08.3 - up
03|00510|02:00.0|01:57.6|249.6|29.4|163.6|173.0|08.7 - down
04|00246|01:00.0|02:02.2|236.7|29.1|152.1|166.0|08.4 - up
05|00250|01:00.0|01:59.8|241.5|29.4|158.1|169.0|08.5 - down
06|00480|02:00.0|02:04.9|209.2|29.8|167.2|177.0|08.1 - up
07|00251|01:00.0|01:59.3|143.5|29.7|154.4|163.0|08.5 - down
08|00248|01:00.0|02:00.7|237.2|30.1|159.0|169.0|08.2 - up
09|00496|02:00.0|02:01.0|235.6|29.9|164.4|175.0|08.3 - down

Again the power measurements were crap. There were 237 missed power readings out of about 1200 strokes. Worse, it seems that the missed readings tend to happen when I executed a work interval, so I had no real time feedback in the boat. I’m in contact with NK and they are helping me figure out what’s going wrong. Really strong technical support, I have to say!

Tomorrow: I need to move my Saturday workout to Friday again.

4 x 12’
Rest between: 6’
Rating/Pace:
- 6’ @ Cat VI; target 18-20
- 4’ @ Cat IV; target SR 24
- 2’ @ Cat III; target SR 28.
Notes: Use a strong leg drive to define your transitions from one rating to another. Stay focused on a relaxed recovery rhythm as the stroke rate rises.

This weekend is an extensive endurance cross training opportunity. I have 5 yards of Mulch to spread. So all the flower beds need to be raked, re-edged, and then the mulch spread on them. It usually takes about 6-8 hours of reasonably hard work to get done.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: Charles River