Wed & Thurs: Taper Triples

October 19, 2017Leave a comment

My long / hard workout on Tuesday was my last hard session before the HOCR. Yesterday and Today, I implements a very short taper. Not much need to do more because my prior training load was pretty light.

My traditional taper is guided by this paper. This is a 5 day taper, based on high intensity (115% VO2Max pace) intervals. They are intense, but short, about 75 seconds in the study and massively long 6 minute rests. Since I am making up for lost time, I decided to reduce the intensity of the intervals and make them a little longer, so that I would get additional technique practice at head race stroke rates and pressure. So, if you believe 2K pace is roughly VO2Max pace (and I do), then that would mean that I should do the intervals at about 250-275 watts. Instead, I planned to do them at closer to a 5K pace, which is maybe 40 watts lower, and extend them out to 120 seconds.

Also, I have been noticing that my rowing is pretty damn sloppy, especially my finishes. This has been making me unstable during the recovery, and messing up the whole next stroke. So, I thought the best way to use the rest time was to do some square blade rowing, so I did 2 minutes of square blade rowing and 2 minutes alternating square and feathered stroke by stroke.

So the plan was:

Wednesday: 4 x 2′
Thursday: 3 x 2′
Friday: practice row on the HOCR course. Keep it gentle. HR limit <150bpm
Saturday: race day!

Wednesday:

A beautiful morning. Clear, about 45F when I launched, but it warmed up fast and it was about 55F by the time I finished. There was a light breeze, but the water was silky flat almost all the time.

I was having such a good time that I did an extra interval at the end.

          Workout Summary - media/20171018-125059-Greg Smith 20171018 0650amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07993|45:25.0|02:50.5|143.6|20.7|146.0|176.0|08.5
W-|02159|09:39.0|02:14.1|230.6|24.7|159.3|175.0|09.1
R-|05840|35:47.0|03:03.8|112.4|19.2|141.0|175.0|06.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00453|02:00.0|02:12.4|238.1|24.6|157.1|166.0|09.2
02|00463|02:00.0|02:09.6|232.3|24.8|163.2|172.0|09.3
03|00450|02:00.0|02:13.5|239.1|25.1|163.1|172.0|09.0
04|00446|02:00.0|02:14.4|228.8|25.0|163.4|175.0|08.9
05|00347|01:39.0|02:22.8|211.3|23.7|147.7|166.0|08.9

230W felt like it was bit too much to be sustainable for the whole race. Maybe 220W would work though.

Thursday:

Today was a carbon copy of Wednesday. Clear, 45F, even less wind.

I enjoyed every minute of the session. I had a little bit of extra river in the last interval, so I extended it to 3 minutes.

          Workout Summary - media/20171019-164952-Greg Smith 20171019 0634amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|06402|36:25.0|02:50.7|142.0|20.5|138.0|172.0|08.6
W-|01583|07:00.0|02:12.7|247.0|24.8|156.9|172.0|09.1
R-|04823|29:25.0|03:03.0|108.7|19.0|131.4|172.0|08.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00448|02:00.0|02:13.9|252.9|23.9|152.8|161.0|09.4
02|00456|02:00.0|02:11.6|240.4|25.0|150.7|165.0|09.1
03|00679|03:00.0|02:12.6|247.4|25.4|163.7|172.0|08.9

247W felt good today. Definitely too hard to hold for the whole race, but 255W should be workable.

After my workout I had an evaluation with a Physical Therapist. He found some imbalances in my glute strength that are causing weird stuff to happen with other muscles in an effort to compensate and this is putting strain on my SI joints. He gave me some stretches and exercises that will help me fix the imbalance. I’m pretty happy with the outcome and delighted that the PT works on a lot of rowers, including the US national team.

Tomorrow: Afternoon, I will be bringing my boat down to the launch site and doing a practice row on the course.

Mechanics Monday

October 16, 2017Leave a comment

Weather: Blustery, about 60F.

Plan:

repeat for roughly 60 minutes
- 2′ square blade rowing
- 2′ alternate square feathered
- 2′ feathered
  - rate: 25-26
  - pace: ~2:15 or better
Technique focus
- clean finishes. Avoid touching my chest with my hands
- blades off the water
- knees together at the catch

The point of the workout today was to use the SBR and alternating sections to work on all the technique elements, then use the 2 minutes at head race rate to “apply” what I was working on. I tried to focus on the technique at pressure, especially finishing early and keeping blades off the water.

The oarlock batteries ran out in the session. Gotta replace those tonight.

The power pie chart is wrong. The LT number is too big.

          Workout Summary - media/20171016-145520-Greg Smith 20171016 0846amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10247|56:52.0|02:46.5|174.3|22.4|142.9|169.0|08.0
W-|02800|12:24.0|02:12.8|222.4|26.3|156.6|169.0|08.6
R-|07451|44:28.0|02:59.0|157.0|20.9|137.7|169.0|07.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00450|02:00.0|02:13.3|226.2|25.1|148.1|158.0|09.0
02|00461|02:00.0|02:10.2|238.7|25.9|156.1|162.0|08.9
03|00441|02:00.0|02:16.1|222.1|26.3|157.3|165.0|08.4
04|00440|02:00.0|02:16.5|211.4|26.2|160.5|168.0|08.4
05|00462|02:00.0|02:09.9|222.8|27.2|153.1|167.0|08.5
06|00547|02:24.0|02:11.6|215.0|27.0|163.1|169.0|08.4

I really enjoyed this workout. It was quite a challenge to row with square blades with the blustery conditions, especially when I was heading up river with it as a headwind. It was delightful during the r26 chunks when I put together 2 or 3 clean strokes. Of course, I’d be happier if I could routine put together 700 clean stroke, but I need to be happy with any progress.

This session will form the basis of my taper. I will reduce the total rowing time and the number of 2 minute chunks of race pace rowing, but keep working on technique at race pace. I think it the only thing that I can improve over a week.

Tomorrow: My last hard session before the race. 4 x 2000 / 5′ rests at r26 and 2:15.

Sunday: 2 x 5.5K at race rate

October 15, 20172 Comments

Weather: Cloudy, warm (mid 60s), light to moderate breeze from the SSW, 5-8 mph with gusts a bit higher. This was a headwind going up river.

The Plan: Do two head race pieces at slightly lower than head race pressure to find the power level that I can hold reasonably for the HOCR. Also work on technique at race rate. Probably most importantly work on my confidence in rowing while in considerable discomfort.

2 x 5.5K
- Rate: 25-26
- quick turn at the halfway point
~ 10′ rest between pieces

I was extremely annoyed to find that I had forgotten my heart rate monitor at home. Oh well, this session would be managed by RPE.

I did some pick drill out to the start point, and then had a drink and got going. The pace dropped down below 2:10 and I felt pretty awesome. Of course, I was rowing in the part of the river where the current was most favorable, and the wind was behind me. Nevertheless, it got me off in a good way. I just counted strokes and tried to keep my mind on all the things I had to manage.

steering
keep knees together at the catch
nice clean finishes. Don’t let the handles hit my chest at the finish.
blades off the water on recovery
nice consistent blade depth during the drive.

Of course you can’t think all these thoughts at the same time, so I basically would use them to distract myself. I would try to turn to look every ten strokes, and if I felt like I was pushing past a sustainable effort, I would take the strokes between looks to focus on one area. It seemed to work. The hardest part of this session is the turn in the middle. Mentally, it is so hard to be right on the edge when you get to the halfway point, and then turn the boat quickly and get back up to speed. I wanted to stop so badly both times.

          Workout Summary - media/20171015-173937-Greg Smith 20171015 0933amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14949|82:41.0|02:46.0|158.8|24.0|0.0|000.0|07.5
W-|10994|52:07.0|02:22.2|192.1|25.2|000.0|000.0|08.4
R-|03960|30:34.0|03:51.6|081.2|21.1|000.0|000.0|06.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02767|12:27.0|02:15.0|198.2|24.9|000.0|0.0|08.9
02|02688|13:04.8|02:26.0|197.6|25.3|000.0|0.0|08.1
03|02762|12:46.2|02:18.7|180.1|25.1|000.0|0.0|08.6
04|02778|13:49.2|02:29.2|192.4|25.3|000.0|0.0|07.9

So, it looks like I can target a bit above 200W for the race, maybe 210W. You can see the effect of the fatigue fro the first piece in how my length and power just faded in the second one.

I know that I have plenty of rationalizations for the level of preparation for this race, but it is really bugging me. It is unlikely that I will ever win a big event like this, but I take a lot of pride in preparing well and building a plan that let’s me do my best in the event. I don’t feel like that is the case this year. I need to do some thinking about how to modify my training so I am better focused and end enjoy it more next year.

Tomorrow: Technique row. Probably 2′ segments of square blades, alternating square/feathered and race rate rowing. The intent will be to be able to row at r26 with good technique at less than race pace.

Back on the water

September 19, 2017September 20, 2017Leave a comment

Sunday, September 17th

We hung out down on the cape until mid-afternoon and then headed home. There was still no AC in the house. But around 8pm, I settled in for a sweaty erg session. Today, painsled decided to cooperate.

The same session as Saturday. 4 x 15′ / 2′ rest with stretching in the rests. HR limited at 155.

        Workout Summary - media/20170917-2005310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14605|68:01.0|02:19.7|145.9|21.6|141.6|156.0|09.9
W-|13735|60:00.0|02:11.0|155.6|21.4|143.0|156.0|10.7
R-|00874|08:01.0|04:35.5|041.6|22.8|123.3|156.0|06.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03481|15:00.0|02:09.3|161.5|21.3|132.8|142.0|10.9
01|03463|15:00.0|02:09.9|159.5|21.2|143.6|152.0|10.9
02|03412|15:00.0|02:11.9|152.7|21.3|146.1|155.0|10.7
03|03379|15:00.0|02:13.2|148.8|21.9|149.4|156.0|10.3

Monday, September 18th

Yet again I had to be home in the morning to let workmen in and get them setup. That killed any chance for a morning workout. I finally had a window around 5pm. I headed down to the fitness center. I’m worried about too much rowing, so I decided to start off on the treadmill with a 20 minute death march (15% grade, 3mph).

After that I was planning to jump on our brand new Model D indoor rowing machine. But someone beat me to it! While I waited, I jumped on a elliptical machine to get a few more aerobic minutes.

Now the rower was open and I hopped on. The PM5 picked up my HR monitor and linked with Painsled with no issues. I set up a time based interval session. 15 minute work and 2 minute rest. I intended to do 2 intervals.

        Workout Summary - media/20170918-1720320o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07324|34:00.0|02:19.3|160.0|19.2|149.3|158.0|11.2
W-|06991|30:00.0|02:08.7|164.2|19.1|150.1|158.0|12.2
R-|00335|04:00.0|05:58.0|079.4|19.1|133.8|158.0|05.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03562|15:00.0|02:06.3|172.6|19.5|151.0|158.0|12.2
01|03428|15:00.0|02:11.3|155.9|18.8|149.3|153.0|12.2

I was interested to see how it compared to the dynamic. Same stroke rate. I think about a 4 second pace differential, not as much as I would have thought going in.

Tuesday, September 19

I was so excited to get back on the water, I woke up before my alarm and just lay there imagining how awesome it would be.

Since this was my first early morning workout since my injury, I wanted to put in place my new protocol. I got up and went straight into my core routine (curl ups, side planks, bird dogs). Man, I am coming to loathe doing ab exercises. I stretched before and during and did some jumping jacks and stuff. Hopefully it was enough to squish some of the extra fluid out of my disks before I went rowing.

The drive to where I launch is about 30 minutes. I was on the water by 6:30. The weather was less than perfect. It was around 65F, with a fine misty drizzle and a bit of wind from the northeast, maybe about 7 mph. This was a headwind going downriver.

I was really happy that my balance wasn’t terrible. I felt comfortable almost immediately. The plan for the day was pretty simple:

steady state
r20
heart rate limit: 150. lower is better
no pace target
technique focus: keep knees together at the catch. rock hips over at the catch and keep spine straight. focus on isolating the back swing.

I was using the speed coach the whole workout but because I stopped right at the beginning to change what I looked at in one of the display fields, it stopped and I forgot to restart it. I didn’t realize what I had done until I went to upload the session and saw that it was for a total distance of 8 meters!

But, as an experienced speedcoach user, I have my backup. No heart rate, but at least I have the whole session on RIM.

        Workout Summary - media/20170919-193028-95635o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12766|70:59.0|02:46.8|000.0|20.0|0.0|000.0|09.0
W-|11801|58:39.0|02:29.1|000.0|20.3|000.0|000.0|09.9
R-|00973|12:20.0|06:20.4|000.0|17.5|000.0|000.0|03.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00821|04:07.2|02:30.6|000.0|19.8|000.0|0.0|10.1 - To the cut
02|03019|15:10.2|02:30.7|000.0|20.0|000.0|0.0|09.9 - To the dam headwind
03|02865|14:00.0|02:26.6|000.0|20.4|000.0|0.0|10.0 - Back to the cut Tail
04|02013|10:25.2|02:35.3|000.0|20.4|000.0|0.0|09.5 - to the bridge
05|02178|10:34.8|02:25.7|000.0|20.5|000.0|0.0|10.0 - back to the cut
06|00905|04:22.2|02:24.8|000.0|20.7|000.0|0.0|10.0 - Back to the dock

I think the paces are overly optimistic. I can see the jaggies on the map

(map provided by rowsandall using the latest and greatest navionics overlay!)

It’s more obvious in a close up of the s-turn.

I was so happy to be back on the water, I can’t even begin to describe how much better the rest of my day was. I was just walking around grinning.

Monday: 75′ Endurance Session 1x

August 28, 20173 Comments

Weather: Stellar! Wonderful! Sunny. Almost chilly. Around 55F at the start, mid 60s when I finished. No wind at the beginning. A little headwind for the last trip up the river.

Plan:

2 laps of the river, roughly 75′
One water break halfway through. Otherwise, just turn and go.
stroke rate: r20 (to reduce the pressure on my lower back)
pace target: I would like to say I didn’t have a target, but I really like seeing the pace be faster than 2:30.
Heart Rate Limit: 155 max. Try to keep it around 150.
Technique: I watch effective length and tried to keep it in the upper 70s

        Workout Summary - media/20170828-145353-Greg Smith 20170828 0641amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13983|74:31.0|02:39.9|141.8|20.0|145.4|156.0|09.4
W-|12631|63:30.0|02:30.8|151.7|20.1|146.0|155.0|09.9
R-|01357|11:01.0|04:03.9|088.6|19.8|142.1|155.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00913|04:42.0|02:34.4|149.0|21.0|127.4|142.0|09.3 - to start
01|02944|14:33.0|02:28.3|156.3|20.2|146.2|150.0|10.0 - to dam
02|02823|14:15.0|02:31.4|151.6|19.8|147.3|153.0|10.0 - back to cut
03|02751|13:43.8|02:29.7|149.7|19.9|146.4|153.0|10.1 - back to dam
04|03200|16:16.8|02:32.6|150.1|20.1|149.8|155.0|09.8 - back past cut

The challenge of this workout was to balance three things at the same time. Keep my stroke long, keep my stroke rate up at r20 and keep my HR below 155. SInce I have been doing most of my endurance work at r18, or even lower, I am very used to rowing with a lot of stroke pressure. With a higher stroke rate, there are two things that could happen. I could row shorter with the same stroke pressure, or stay the same length and reduce the peak force. I wanted to do the latter.

Mission accomplished….

A few other parametrics.

consistent power
consistent length. A little shorter in the last 15 minutes or so
wash got worse as I went along.

Friday: Easy hour on the water

August 25, 2017August 27, 2017Leave a comment

This was a busy week at work, and I my lower back continued to give me trouble. I had business dinners on Tuesday night and Thursday night, and I was preparing for an important meeting on Friday morning. I was hoping that I could help out both situations by taking a few days off rowing.

I last rowed on Tuesday morning. A tough interval session. My back was killing me afterward. Tuesday I had a full day of meetings with a group from a customer, and we had dinner Tuesday night with them. Wednesday we had a group from a different customer visiting first thing in the morning, plus a big internal meeting that I was hosting. I ended up working quite late. On Thursday, more meetings and then a business dinner that kept me out until almost 11. On Friday, I was presenting in an important meeting at 9am, so I want to get to work early to dry run my materials a couple of times before I was up. It paid off, the meeting went well, and I felt a huge sense of relief after it was over. I finished up what I needed to get done by about 3:30 and decided to go for a nice easy row on my way to relax a little.

The plan:

60 minutes
Heart rate limit: 150
Stroke rate target: 20 (This is a significant shift for me. I have been rowing with much higher stroke power and lower rate)
No pace target.

        Workout Summary - media/20170827-150206-Greg Smith 20170825 0437pmo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10795|58:28.0|02:42.5|136.5|18.6|140.7|152.0|09.9
W-|10315|55:25.0|02:41.2|139.0|18.2|140.7|152.0|10.2
R-|00485|03:03.0|03:09.1|111.8|22.8|141.6|152.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00908|05:00.0|02:45.2|144.2|18.7|127.1|141.0|09.7 - to start
01|03047|15:58.2|02:37.2|152.2|18.2|142.8|148.0|10.5 - to dam
02|02780|14:22.8|02:35.2|140.9|17.7|139.5|147.0|10.9 - back to start
03|01122|06:31.8|02:54.6|128.8|17.6|142.6|148.0|09.8 - 7 min out 
04|01333|07:25.2|02:47.0|128.3|18.1|144.4|152.0|09.9 - 7 min back
05|01125|06:07.1|02:43.1|119.5|19.8|142.7|150.0|09.3 - back to dock

The summary looks a bit weird for the pace on intervals 3 and 4. The eyeball average for the pace looks a bit faster than the summary.

I got distracted during the row and I completely forgot to keep my rate up, so I reverted to my normal r18 kind of rowing. But I did row a bit slower than a similar session from Monday. I was also rowing a lot shorter (as measured by effective length). I dug into the metrics

You can see that everything is a bit smaller for Friday’s row. That’s me being careful with my back.

Tuesday: OTW Pyramid

August 22, 2017August 24, 2017Leave a comment

Weather: Perfect.

Plan:

L1 Pyramid workout
250m/500m/750m/1000m/750m/500m/250m
Roughly 1’30” of rest per 250m rowed
stroke rate target: 28-32
pace target: Not really sure, maybe around 2:00
Technique: Work on improving efficiency at high stroke rates. Try to maintain length and form. Especially keep finishes clean.

I was not feeling good about this workout. My back hurt and I debated whether it was wise to risk to row with it hurting. I’ve had mixed results, some days rowing doesn’t seem to cause any problems and other days, I feel much worse afterwards. (More about that later). I decided to give it a try and bail out if I felt too compromised.

I did a short warm up while heading through the twisty bits to the start of the good section of the river. Since I am training for head races, I eased into each interval with a rolling start, not a racing start (also a bit easier on my back).

I did the intervals by distance. This was a bit of a challenge because I wanted the 4 fields on the speedcoach for pace, HR, effective length and work per stroke. I used RIM for distance and stroke rate on the boat acceleration screen. Analyzing the data later, it looks like there is some innaccuracy in how RIM starts measuring meters because even though I rowed through the full distance by the display, the data on the speedcoach shows I cheated each interval by up to 50 meters. I think I’ll go by time delimited intervals from now on when I’m on the water.

I pounded out the first interval and, frankly, it felt awful. Well, it’s more complicated than that. I really enjoyed the feeling of getting up to speed and seeing the speedcoach dip down into the 1:50s on pace. I love the gurgling noise the boat makes when I’m going fast. I also like the skinny smoothies at higher rates. I felt more stable, and under control above 30 SPM with the longer oars and I felt like the softer shafts made the drive smoother. So, that was what dominated my thinking for the first 20 strokes. Then it hit me. The last 10 strokes really hurt. Whoops. I guess I need to be a little more conservative.

So, I backed off a bit for the 500m. That went OK. The 750m was basically the same deal. I was now struggling a bit with intestinal issues that hit pretty hard after I finished each piece. The back was feeling OK though. I was not looking forward to the 1000m.

For the first 2 intervals, I had rowed back to the start after each and rowed them downstream, but for the 1000, I rowed it in the other direction. There wasn’t much current, but there was a light breeze blowing down river and it surprised me how much slower I was going on the 1000m in the other direction. But I made it through it and it was pretty clear sailing for the rest of it.

I didn’t realized how tired I was getting, but I had a bad case of tunnel vision in the last 250m and nearly ran myself into the riverbank with some very poor steering. I had to do one of those full stops where you jam both oars in and reverse feather to avoid it.

I rowed back to the dock with feet out and tried to work on perfect finishes.

When you look at it on a pie chart it looks a lot easier than it felt.

You can see how the intervals all got shaved down a bit. Very disappointing for a completist like myself. i probably would have been close to the 2:00 target if I hadn’t been working against the head wind in the 1000m piece.

        Workout Summary - media/20170822-151706-Greg Smith 20170822 0636amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10478|69:33.0|03:19.2|130.5|23.7|138.4|176.0|06.3
W-|03780|15:34.0|02:03.7|267.5|29.4|158.8|176.0|08.2
R-|06699|53:59.0|04:01.8|069.6|21.1|129.5|176.0|07.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00233|00:55.6|01:59.3|278.9|29.9|149.0|159.0|08.4
02|00475|01:55.1|02:01.2|274.7|30.0|152.8|165.0|08.2
03|00701|02:54.6|02:04.5|274.4|28.4|158.3|172.0|08.5
04|00962|04:09.7|02:09.8|251.3|28.8|163.9|175.0|08.0
05|00704|02:56.3|02:05.2|248.8|28.8|160.9|174.0|08.3
06|00464|01:49.3|01:57.8|289.5|30.8|160.3|176.0|08.3
07|00241|00:54.2|01:52.5|308.9|33.0|150.3|167.0|08.1

I did a lot of metrics charts.

power and wps: pretty consistent through the workout.
stroke rate and pace: I tried to hold 28 for the 750s and 1000. I tried to push it up to 30 or higher for the 500s and 250s
peak force: I think it’s interesting that I was most consistent in the last 500m interval. I bet that’s a good thing. The prior 750 looks much sloppier.
length: Very happy that my effective length was consistent as I got more tired.

The bads news was that I could barely stand up after I got back to the dock. My lower back was VERY irritated. Well to be more precise about it, the area at the top of my left glute, right around where my pelvis is. It is not very painful once I find a reasonable position, but bending over and getting up from sitting cause me problems.

Since then, I’ve been on a diet of ibuprofen and rest. I skipped yesterday’s L4 and today’s L2. I’m not sure how long this will take to heal, but I think I will avoid rowing for a few days. I’ll give the stationary bike a go to see if I can at least save a bit of aerobic fitness.

Monday: Exactly one hour

August 21, 2017Leave a comment

Well, vacation is over. This morning at 5:15, my alarm went off. The alarm was loud enough to wake up my wife, but not me, so she nudged me awake. I was so tired that I felt nauseous, so I just shut it off and rolled over to go back to sleep.

But my brain had other ideas. There were so many different voices in my head. “Get up, do the session” “You need more sleep” “When’s my first meeting” “Do I have any free time blocks to go catch a quick workout on the erg?” “Should I even be rowing with my sore back?” After 9 minutes of this jabbering, I gave up, got up, and stumbled through my morning routine. The bathroom phase of the routine took a bit longer than normal. There is nothing worse than trying to row when you need to poop (sorry, but it’s true)

By the time I got on the road, I knew that my workout would be time limited. Luckily, traffic wasn’t too bad and i was on the water by 7:03am. I knew I needed to be on the road by 8:15 to my 9:00am meeting on time (allowing a generous 12 minutes to shower and change). So, that provided a window exactly one hour long for my row.

The plan:

60 minute recovery / endurance session
stroke rate target: 18 spm
target effective length: 80deg
target WPS: >450
HR limit: 150

My plan was to row until the elapsed time was 29:30, then turn around and retrace my path. This ended up being about 1/3 of the way back to the start from the dam in Waltham, right before the s-turn.

My heart rate was stubbornly low today. I’m coming to think that this is related to very hard efforts the day before. After about 15 minutes, I got up into the UT2 range, and I was able to hold my heart rate right at the top of the ut2 range with very small changes in stroke pressure. It was only in the last quarter when I felt a bit of time pressure did I push hard enough to get into the meat of the ut1 range.

Of course, I wish the splits were faster, but this was a good workout. It was nice to be on glassy flat water, and I felt like I could take long, smooth strokes. I am not enjoying the back issues though. Most strokes felt fine, but some strokes, especially when I was turning, or not well balanced at the catch provided not very subtle form feedback through my frayed nerve endings. I’m worried that this could get worse before it gets better.

        Workout Summary - media/20170821-193402-Greg Smith 20170821 0703amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11157|59:12.0|02:39.2|142.1|17.8|139.0|152.0|10.6
W-|10839|56:02.0|02:35.1|145.8|17.7|138.8|152.0|10.9
R-|00322|03:10.0|04:55.8|080.6|20.9|137.3|152.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01095|06:00.0|02:44.3|128.9|16.9|112.7|124.0|10.8 - slow turny bit
01|02932|14:47.2|02:31.3|149.7|17.7|136.1|144.0|11.2 - down to dam
02|01393|07:12.0|02:35.0|151.1|17.7|141.8|146.0|10.9 - back to 29:30
03|01395|06:52.8|02:28.0|157.6|17.5|141.2|146.0|11.6 - back to dam
04|03078|16:04.8|02:36.7|146.6|17.8|145.4|151.0|10.7 - back to start
05|00946|05:05.5|02:41.5|128.5|18.6|149.0|152.0|10.0 - slow turny bit

So, how much difference does nice flat water make? Here is a comparison of the stroke profile for work strokes yesterday and today.

So, with slick flat water I get higher peak and average force, an extra degree on the catch, a degree on slip, 3 degrees on the finish. Together it ends up increasing my effective length by about 7 or 8 degrees. That’s about 10% more length! The peak force angle also moved about 4 degrees to the bow. I guess more work in choppy water would be a good idea!

Here are some more stroke metrics. Nothing really weird in the data. The averages here do not exactly match the stroke profile because I pruned all strokes with WPS below 350J to get the turning strokes out.

Tomorrow: The plan calls for an L1 session. The Pyramid! OTW in my fluid. Stroke rate target is 30 SPM.

Saturday: L2 Waterfall 1x

August 19, 20171 Comment

Friday: We came back from the Cape Thursday evening. Friday, I had an appointment with the eye doctor, and I had a lot of running around to do to take care of some car maintenance. I never got around to working out. Part of it was dreading a session on the dynamic erg. I need to get rid of that thing.

So, it was a rest day.

Saturday: We were up late, so I decided to sleep in a little instead of rowing out in Worcester. I got up around 8:30 and decided to go row in Newton in my neglected Fluid.

It was a hot, humid morning. Overcast with very little wind.

Plan:

L2 – Waterfall (3000, 2500, 2000)
~5′ rest
Stroke rate target: 25 spm
Pace target: 2:15

I was bummed out that I couldn’t find my speedcoach in my rowing bag. I’m wondering if I forgot it down the cape.

So, I just had RIM in the boat. So, basically, just a way to see the start and end of each interval, the stroke rate, and a very rough idea of pace.

        Workout Summary - media/20170819-160532-93720o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13579|77:47.0|02:51.9|000.0|21.4|149.6|182.0|08.2
W-|07500|32:56.0|02:11.8|000.0|25.4|168.9|182.0|09.0
R-|06079|44:51.0|03:41.4|000.0|18.0|132.8|182.0|09.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03000|13:23.7|02:13.9|000.0|25.1|165.6|178.0|08.9 - down
02|02500|10:54.8|02:11.0|000.0|24.9|170.9|181.0|09.2 - upstream
03|02000|08:38.0|02:09.5|000.0|26.6|171.8|182.0|08.7 - down

I was very surprised by the paces. The display on RIM was showing between 2:15 and 2:20 most of the time. But, I’ve always felt the live display was a bit on the slow side. But looking closely at the GPS data, there is a lot of location jitter. I am wondering if that is causing the distance logged to be further than actual distance, and thus showing a faster pace.

This was a tough, tough workout. I felt like I emptied the tanks on each interval and I needed a bit more than 5 minutes rest after each. It ended up being closer to 7 minutes, I think.

I steered a reasonable line. In the 2500m interval, I saw a kayaker over my starboard shoulder and it looked like I would clear her easily. Then, while my back was literally turned, she decided to cross in front of me and misjudged the distance. I clipped her stern with my oar. That’s the pace and rate glitch right around 7000m. She’s lucky I didn’t smack her in the head. I try to keep a good watch, but when I’m 20 strokes from the end of a 2500m interval and my heart rate is around 180, I get tunnel vision. I need to be more careful.

Tomorrow: Hopefully head out to Quinsigamond.

Wednesday: 8 x 2′ / 2′ 1x

August 9, 20171 Comment

A beautiful morning. Sunny, warm, dry, hardly any wind.

Plan:

Long warmup to re-acclimate to higher stroke rates
8 x 2′ / 2′ rest
Stroke rate target: 26 (head race rate)
Pace target: better than 2:15 (a pretty easy target for this workout)
Do work sections in line down the river, do not avoid turns
Technique work after

The basic thing I was trying to do today was to row at Head race rates and slightly higher than head race pressure to start getting my head wrapped around what I need to accomplish over the next 9 weeks before the HOCR.

I was really happy with how the workout went. I am liking the new smoothies at higher stroke rates. I feel like the softer shafts are helping me manage the drive better and the extra length is providing more stability on recovery.

Workout Summary - media/20170809-133817-Greg Smith 20170809 0633amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13815|81:42.0|02:57.4|149.0|21.7|146.5|180.0|07.8
W-|03748|16:00.0|02:08.1|252.0|26.7|160.2|180.0|08.8
R-|10077|63:42.0|03:09.6|112.1|19.9|141.5|180.0|08.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00456|02:00.0|02:11.7|247.1|26.7|154.4|167.0|08.5 - vs current
02|00455|02:00.0|02:11.9|242.6|26.6|158.9|170.0|08.6
03|00458|02:00.0|02:11.1|228.0|27.0|161.3|172.0|08.5
04|00460|02:00.0|02:10.3|259.7|25.8|160.6|173.0|08.9
05|00479|02:00.0|02:05.2|236.8|26.7|161.3|175.0|09.0 - w/ current
06|00470|02:00.0|02:07.7|267.6|26.5|160.0|176.0|08.9
07|00478|02:00.0|02:05.5|258.7|26.3|159.1|177.0|09.1
08|00493|02:00.0|02:01.8|275.8|28.3|165.6|180.0|08.7

A few metrics plots. I held things very consistent throughout. Lifted stroke rates on purpose in the last interval and allowed it to creep up in the turns.

Tomorrow: I have an 8am meeting, so no OTW. I will try to squeeze in an erg session during the day, but it might not happen.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: Charles River

Wed & Thurs: Taper Triples

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Mechanics Monday

Sunday: 2 x 5.5K at race rate

Back on the water

Monday: 75′ Endurance Session 1x

Friday: Easy hour on the water

Tuesday: OTW Pyramid

Monday: Exactly one hour

Saturday: L2 Waterfall 1x

Wednesday: 8 x 2′ / 2′ 1x