Bouncy 2 hour row

July 5, 2018Leave a comment

Tuesday: I went for another nice walk. This time a bit closer to low tide. Again, Itraced out the water’s edge.

Here is Monday and Tuesday’s walk superimposed.

Screen Shot 2018-07-04 at 12.57.42 PM

It was about a 5km walk. My wife and I went into Wellfleet for lunch and some exploring, so no row in the afternoon onTuesday.

Wednesday, July 4: 2 hour row

On the right morning, I would really like to row down to Rock Creek Harbor. Today was not the day. I would need nice flat conditions, no wind, or a light breeze from the east, and close to high tide. Today there was a wind from the northwest and nearly low tide. The coast off of Eastham is really a huge sand flat goes out a mile or more from shore. That means that when there is an onshore breeze, the chop really piles up, and I was essentially trying to row across it. It was slow, tough going.

But I get ahead of myself. I knew that today would be a reasonably busy day, and I wanted to do a long row. I knew that I would be rowing around low tide, but I figured it would work out OK.

I launched from the north beach on Loagy Bay and headed out following the deep water as near as I could tell. I rowed west until the big rock was on my beam, and then I turned south. These first two parts were great fun. Light wind, flat water. But as soon as I hit the shoals off of Eastham (at 28 mimutes in the time plot), things got a lot more difficult. The chop became much steeper and more irregular, the water was less than 2 feet deep. I don’t know if it was my imagination, but rowing in the shallow water made the boat feel heavier. It was certainly slower. On the plus side, every now and then I could see lobsters crawling along the sand. Some of them were big!

The goal for today was a 2 hour row, so I slogged along until I reached the 1 hour mark. When I turned around, I was hoping that the wind would be a bit behind me, but it seemed like it was still right on my beam, and I was still rowing beam on to the waves. I experimented with rating up and that seemed a bit more effective in these cross seas. I steered a bit farther off shore on the way north, at least at first. Ultimately I turned back to the northeast and this was a bit easier going with the waves on my stern quarter.

I kept going this way until I spotted the big rock. I had come a fair bit too far onshore, and I needed swing around and row out to the rock. I could see my oar blades stirring up the sand on the bottom. I swung around the rock and headed in to channel on the north side of the island. I managed to lose the channel and had to get out and walk to find the way to go to get back to the beach.

Screen Shot 2018-07-04 at 7.48.30 PM.png

          Workout Summary - media/20180704-1555230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20744|131:21.0|03:10.0|000.0|21.9|142.5|158.0|07.2
W-|19870|120:08.0|03:01.4|000.0|21.7|143.5|158.0|07.7
R-|00881|11:13.0|06:22.1|000.0|24.1|132.3|158.0|02.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|05138|27:15.0|02:39.1|000.0|20.3|137.4|151.0|09.3 nice water
02|05007|32:13.0|03:13.0|000.0|21.4|141.5|149.0|07.3 shallow choppy
03|05246|33:57.0|03:14.1|000.0|22.4|145.7|154.0|06.9 choppy way home
04|01958|11:56.0|03:02.8|000.0|23.1|148.2|154.0|07.1 after water break
05|00401|02:36.0|03:14.4|000.0|21.9|151.5|155.0|07.1 
06|01661|09:36.0|02:53.4|000.0|22.1|151.8|158.0|07.8
07|00458|02:35.0|02:49.2|000.0|20.5|141.3|149.0|08.6

Very tired after this.

Here are the last 4 rows that I have done to the south.

Blue: 90 minutes, hot, flat water (launched from stairs)
Green: 70′ row, launched from stairs.
Yellow: 80′ row, tough northerly wind
Red: Today, 120′ row, launched from beach, low tide, choppy

Screen Shot 2018-07-04 at 7.40.14 PM.png

Today’s row was about 20.5km, and 120 minutes. Rock Harbor is about 12km from the bottom of the stairs, so I think on the right day, I could totally make the run.

Great day! – Walking and rowing

July 3, 2018July 3, 2018Leave a comment

After I got up this morning and had breakfast, I decided to go for a walk. It was low tide, which is a blast because the sand flats are exposed and you can see all kinds of marine life.

I headed down the stairs from our deck and headed straight out to the water’s edge. Then turned south. My first goal was to walk to the rock that I nearly hit going down to Eastham.

Here it is about an hour after low tide. It’s hard to get a sense of scale, but the rock is about 8 feet tall and 16 feet long. It’s a big rock.

I then continued to walk along the edge of the water. The tide was coming in, so the shore was receding visibly as I walked. But I had never really walked all along the south edge of the sand flats before and I was eager to explore. I ultimately decided to try to find my way to the tidal creek that runs under the little bridge to our island.

Along the way I saw some really nice shore birds. I think the white one was an Egret and the pair was, I think, Willets.

I had a couple of false starts as I went into streams that turned into dead ends in the marsh. As I got further along, the sand turned to mud and at times I was buried to the middle of my calves, making slow progress. Ultimately I found the creek and it was about 6 inches deep with a nice sandy bottom. I was able to rise off all the muck.

As I got close to the bridge, I found a little tidal pool off to the side of the stream and there were 3 horseshoe crabs in it swimming around.

I made it to the bridge and walked back across the causeway, and then out to the Loagy Bay Beach. I then followed the north shore of the island back around to the house.

Here’s the whole path. It was just over 6km.

The last bit was really sunny and the southerly breeze was entirely blocked by the island. It was hot and the sand was soft. I was pretty sweaty by the time I got home about an hour a twenty minutes after I started.

We chilled out at the house for most of the day, and then around high tide, I decided to go for a row. I can launch from our stairs at high tide, so I did that and headed south. The wind was in the process of swinging from the SSE to the SSW as I went.

I followed the shore of the island on my way south to give a wide berth to that damn rock (and also because the marsh is fun to look at). Once I was well into the bay, I turned and followed the south shore out nd then turned to follow it.

That took about 20 minutes or so. I decided that I would row south and turn at the 40 minute mark. With a more direct course and a tail wind, I figured I would end up with a nice 70 minute row.

I watched my heart rate on the way south and tried to keep it around 150 or so. When I turned, I stopped and drank half a liter of water. Then I headed home. The tail wind was pleasant because it lightened up the load. But I missed the cooling breeze. The chop was pretty big, maybe 12″ and the boat wakes would interact with it in unpredictable ways. I experimented with different stroke rates and focused on clean finishes and keeping my blades clear of the wave tops. It’s a lot more press down than I am used to in my Fluid. The waves were pushing me around a bit and I had to do a lot of steering to stay on track. Now the goal was to head directly back to my launch point and not run into the rock.

Mission accomplished. I spotted the rock off on my starboard bow, about 100m away. I turned toward the island and back to the stairs. I stopped a bit offshore, got my feet out of the straps, and undid the nuts on the oarlocks. It can be a bit hectic with the waves bouncing the boat around at the bottom of the stairs. I paddled in like that and made a clean landing. I was just in time. The rocks around the base of the stairs were almost exposed and would have made landing a lot harder if I had pushed the time much further.

          Workout Summary - media/20180702-2150230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12609|78:13.0|03:06.1|000.0|22.1|147.9|162.0|07.3
W-|12169|69:46.0|02:52.0|000.0|21.0|149.9|162.0|08.3
R-|00442|08:28.0|09:34.7|000.0|31.6|131.8|162.0|00.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02113|12:32.1|02:57.9|000.0|20.2|142.9|153.0|08.3 - into current
02|04542|26:16.9|02:53.6|000.0|20.6|149.4|154.0|08.4 - with current at first
03|05513|30:57.0|02:48.4|000.0|21.6|153.2|162.0|08.3 - tail wind

As usual, the hardest work of the outing was carrying the boat back up the stairs.

A great day!

Hot as heck – 70′ coastal row

July 2, 2018Leave a comment

Yesterday was the hottest day I can remember having on the Cape. It was above 90 degrees from 11am to 4:30pm.

For most of the day, my wife and I hung out in the shade. Around high tide, we went for a swim. We have these big inflatable donuts. They are literally donuts with a bite taken out of them. We must have floated around for an hour.

It was nearly 5pm by the time it started to cool down. I headed over to the Loagy Bay beach to go for a row. The wind was out of the east and starting to build a bit. It was around 5mph when I launched and closer to 10mph when I finished.

After I launched, I headed out the 2.5km to my favorite buoy. This was fun and fast with the wind and tidal current behind me. But as I turned around the buoy, and tried to head north to Wellfleet inner harbor, I found it nearly impossible to row beam to the chop. The waves were a bit too big and irregular to be able to get good strokes in. I decided to turn NE and head back toward the beach on Indian Neck. This was a bumpy, splashy slog. I had to open the bailer a number of times to get the water out of the cockpit. As I got closer to the shore, the water flattened out and the rowing was a lot more pleasant. It was still slow because I was heading into the ebbing tide.

I traced a path along the beach and swung around the breakwater into the inner harbor. I was still rowing against the tide and wind, but the water was nice and flat. I made the turn around the end of the town jetty and rowed up along all the boats in their slips on the inside. I turned up at the end and had a drink of water.

The trip out of the harbor was fun. With the wind and tide behind me, I was making good time. I passed a sailboat coming out the harbor, and then I turned to head south. I didn’t want to stay too close to the shore because there are commercial oyster beds off of Indian Neck, and with the falling tide, I wanted to stay well outside of them. On the chart you can see the point where I turn more southeasterly. I turned at the yellow float that marked the outside of the bed and followed the row of floats going to the southeast. The chop wasn’t so bad, and the wind was on my port bow, but I was rowing with the tidal current so I made reasonable progress.

Well, I made rapid progress until I reached the end of the marked beds and turned to the east. Now I was going right into the wind, chop and current and I slowed to a crawl. The boat felt like it was really roaring along, but there must have been a lot of current because the splits are glacial. I guess that’s a reason to get an EmPower oarlock and impeller for this boat. But I have to admit, I like the fact that the pace is so unpredictable when I row down here. I am less likely to kill myself trying to hit an exact split and more likely to just focus on trying to work on technique or just enjoy the sights.

          Workout Summary - media/20180702-0015230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12529|73:16.0|02:55.5|000.0|22.1|154.4|167.0|07.7
W-|12307|70:14.0|02:51.2|000.0|22.3|154.6|167.0|07.9
R-|00226|03:02.0|06:44.6|000.0|18.2|149.3|167.0|06.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02216|11:08.0|02:30.7|000.0|21.0|146.7|157.0|09.5 -tailwind
01|04994|29:44.0|02:58.6|000.0|22.4|154.9|167.0|07.5 -into current
02|04341|24:11.0|02:47.1|000.0|22.6|156.4|163.0|07.9 -with current
03|00756|05:11.0|03:25.6|000.0|22.9|161.1|166.0|06.4 -against wind/current

Today, I think another long row along the Eastham shore.

6/17 to 6/30 – Work wins

July 1, 2018July 1, 2018Leave a comment

I had been planning to race on July 8th at the Cromwell Cup. I’ve decided to scratch. My training has been too spotty, I’ve not done nearly enough race prep work, and I missed most of last week because of a work commitments and a quick business trip to Europe.

How do I feel about this? Lousy. What do I do now? I’m not sure.

But, I like rowing, and I like working on getting better at it. I sure like Head Races more than Sprint Races, but I’ve been unsuccessful executing training plans toward any objectives for the past two years. I’m on vacation now for the next. I’ll have some time for some nice coastal rowing and plenty of time to figure out what to do.

For now, here’s a recap of the past couple of months.

Sunday – 6/17:

We had not planned to go to the cape, but I remembered a couple of things I needed to do down at the house, so I drove there in the early afternoon. One the things I wanted to do was go for a row. It was a lovely day. Sunny, with light breezes (at least at first), and nice and warm.

I launched straight from my stairs, since I wanted to go south and it was nearly high tide. I was bummed that I forgot my heart rate monitor back in Hopkinton, so no HR data for the row. I was planning a 90′ row, so I wanted to keep my HR at a reasonable level throughout.

Here’s the chart of the whole row. I headed southeast until I got to the eastham shore. There was one interesting bit, which I will describe below. Then I turned and hugged the beach going south, and turned at the 45 minute mark. I stayed close on shore for the row north as well, and continued right across to the salt marshes on the southern coast of the island, then turned and followed the edge of the marsh back around to the steps.

I was very tired by the end and carrying the boat up the stairs was pretty daunting.

I had a bit of close call on the first leg down to the Eastham shore. You might notice that there is a asterisk on the chart, right on my course. That’s a rock. At low tide it sits on the sand flats. At high tide, it’s underwater. When I was rowing, it was just below water level. I knew it was out there, but couldn’t see it. I ended up hitting the top of the rock with my oar. The is no way I could have navigated well enough to get that close if I tried to. Here’s my course magnified on the satellite image. You can see the rock in the image.

Monday – June 18: Rest Day

Tuesday – June 19: Starts Practice.

Plan:

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.

Back on the Charles in my Fluid. A lovely morning. I did my favorite warmup. It takes the whole way down river and showed me that I am in pretty lousy shape right now. But I was certainly warmed up by the time I finished it.

I turned around and started doing my starts. I felt pretty good. I decided to practice my shift down to “reasonable” stroke rates, so after 5 strokes, I was trying to get down to a nice r32 for the rest of the 20 stroke burst.

After I did 4 starts, I decided to do 40 strokes for the last one. The plot shows a hiccup in the middle but I don’t remember what happened.

Then I did the 2 x 9′ pieces. Hard, but uneventful.

          Workout Summary - media/20180620-1800250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10740|58:42.0|02:44.0|113.3|22.9|150.5|176.0|08.0
W-|01175|04:31.0|01:55.5|254.0|33.2|151.5|171.0|07.9
R-|09572|54:11.0|02:49.8|101.6|22.0|150.4|171.0|08.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00136|00:34.2|02:05.9|210.2|28.0|164.2|170.0|08.5
02|00123|00:29.8|02:01.1|220.8|30.3|157.0|164.0|08.2
03|00144|00:33.6|01:56.7|251.7|32.1|163.1|171.0|08.0
04|00112|00:25.6|01:53.9|279.1|35.2|134.2|155.0|07.5
05|00117|00:25.8|01:50.1|266.3|35.0|143.0|155.0|07.8
06|00120|00:26.0|01:48.5|263.8|34.4|138.7|146.0|08.0
07|00154|00:34.0|01:50.5|261.7|33.5|152.8|168.0|08.1
08|00269|01:02.4|01:55.9|271.2|35.7|150.8|165.0|07.2

Here’s the two 9′ pieces

3.4 m/s is a 2:27 pace. Ughh.

Wednesday – June 20: 4 x (2′ race pace / 1′ paddle / 2′ race pace) / 4′ rest

This is a tough workout, and I had failed miserably last time I attempted it. Today, I was determined to make it through, so I decided to start conservatively.

I started with a race warmup. I enjoyed it as much as I did on Tuesday. It was another perfect morning.

I turned around, had a drink, did a KOM drill, and practiced my first stroke of the start a couple of times.

Then I did my first piece, the start was good, and I shifted my rate down to a 26 immediately for the rest of the first 2′ chunk. That was hard enough. After the fleetingly short minute of paddling, I spooled it back up to 28 and counted out the strokes to 56. Well, that wasn’t so bad? Actually it was. Slow and painful.

I paddled around the s-turn and got into position to start my next interval. Again I had a drink of water, but instead of doing a couple of practice first strokes, I decided to just setup and go. I got into my start position, said “ready” to myself and squared the blades and buried them, then as the speedcoach hit an even minute, I started. Somehow, my starboard blade was funny, and as soon as I started the stroke, I realized I was in trouble. I tried to abort, but my blade had submarined and I flipped right over on top of it. It happened in the blink of an eye.

My feet came out fine and I popped up next to the boat. I got the boat back upright and made sure I had all my stuff. Then I executed a perfectly ugly re-entry. I flopped across the seat deck, swung my legs around, got back on the seat and took stock of my situation.

The boat was full of water, I was wet (but not that much wetter than I was before I took the dive), and I was pissed at myself. What the hell happened? What the hell should I do now. Part of me just quit. Quit the workout. Quit racing. Quit rowing altogether. That seemed a bit dramatic, so I decided that I should finish out the workout.

I splashed as much water out of the boat as I could and got myself psyched up to do another interval. This start was fine, but I pulled the plug almost immediately. I’m not sure why. I set up again and started again and held my rate to 26/27. I let the rate climb in the second minute. It was tough work.

I pulled the plug at the start of the third one, and restarted it again. This one was pretty good. I did the first half at 28 rising to 30 and the second half between 30 and 32. That’s a bit closer to what I want to be doing.

The last one, honestly, I was getting tired. I did a great start and the first 2 minutes were fine. The minute of paddling was very welcome. Then I went into the last 2 minutes. I made a minute, and then I got hit by a gust of headwind and that was it for me. I decided I was done.

I got my feet out of the shoes and rowed with feet out back to the dock.

          Workout Summary - media/20180620-1801080o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10513|57:34.0|02:44.3|116.6|22.9|151.7|179.0|08.0
W-|04047|17:03.0|02:06.5|195.2|28.0|162.5|178.0|08.5
R-|06480|40:31.0|03:07.6|083.5|20.7|147.2|178.0|08.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00108|00:28.0|02:10.2|181.5|23.5|162.3|165.0|09.8 - wu
02|00144|00:36.8|02:07.8|168.2|26.0|157.7|163.0|09.0 - wu
03|00159|00:38.5|02:01.3|210.9|27.8|155.6|162.0|08.9 - wu
04|00174|00:41.0|01:58.2|204.0|29.3|158.7|166.0|08.7 - wu
05|00143|00:31.5|01:49.8|270.9|34.1|160.8|169.0|08.0 - wu
06|00441|01:53.2|02:08.5|190.2|26.4|159.8|172.0|08.8 - 1
07|00432|01:49.2|02:06.2|184.6|27.4|169.3|176.0|08.7 - 1
08|00424|01:47.6|02:06.9|192.9|26.7|164.6|176.0|08.9 - 2 (after the flip)
09|00548|02:24.4|02:11.8|192.8|27.1|159.7|178.0|08.4 - 2
10|00437|01:49.5|02:05.3|195.5|29.5|160.7|174.0|08.1 - 3
11|00428|01:46.7|02:04.5|205.9|31.0|171.5|178.0|07.8 - 3
12|00415|01:47.5|02:09.4|188.3|27.9|157.7|171.0|08.3 - 4
13|00195|00:49.8|02:07.8|193.4|28.9|165.9|169.0|08.1 - 4 (abort)

So, points for persistence. But I have to say, it was a pretty discouraging workout.

Thursday – June 21: Drills on the fives.

Plan:

Session: 3 x 25′
- Rest between: 3’
- Rating/Pace: Alternate 4’ @ Cat VI pace; target SR 18-20/ 1’ of drills.
  - Half-slide and Quarter-slide rowing to work on drive suspension.
  - Delayed feather rowing to work on clean release then feather away.
  - Open fingers on the recovery to set posture, weight over the handles.
  - Pause arms/body away for rhythm out of bow and setting full angle.

This was going to be something new for me. I haven’t done some of these drills in a single before. After the hard session the day before, I was looking forward to something tame. Because my river is not 25 minutes long, I just rowed and did the drills every five minutes.

I had a blast! The drills were a mental and technical challenge. The half and quarter slide drill was very familiar and easy. Delayed feather was really good to work on release and balance. Open hands on recovery was frighteningly hard! When it worked it was great, but the moment on recovery when you regrip the oars is a moment of great uncertainty. Sometimes, I would smoothly regrip, square, and catch. Other times, I would not get a clean regrip and it had a very high pucker factor. It got easier as I went along. Finally, pause at body over is exactly the drill I need to do all the time to continually work on getting my posture right on recovery.

Friday – June 22: More Drills on the 5s

I had such fun with it on Thursday, that I did it again! I had less time because I had a customer visiting us first thing in the morning. I couldn’t risk being late for that.

It was just as much fun on the second day. This workout needs to be part of my weekly rotation all season long.

Saturday – June 23: 2 x 25′ / 5′ On Slides

Down on the cape. The weather was terrible. I ended up erging in the basement.

The plan:

2 x 25’
- Rest: 5’
- Rating/Pace: Cat VI; target SR 18-20.
- At every 5-minute mark include an Acceleration 15 raising the stroke rate 2 spm every 5 strokes.
- For example: 26-28-30, 28-30-32.

          Workout Summary - media/20180623-2140240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13097|55:59.0|02:08.2|176.3|21.2|151.1|168.0|11.0
W-|01781|06:45.0|01:53.9|258.2|26.4|151.5|164.0|09.9
R-|11325|49:14.0|02:10.4|165.0|20.5|151.0|164.0|10.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00004|00:03.1|06:48.1|140.6|00.0|079.0|79.0|00.0
05|00012|00:03.0|02:03.0|170.1|20.0|088.0|88.0|12.2
06|00271|01:00.3|01:51.2|258.2|24.8|144.7|153.0|10.9
07|00278|01:01.9|01:51.2|260.7|25.9|152.0|159.0|10.4
08|00253|00:55.7|01:50.1|266.9|25.9|156.0|162.0|10.5
09|00196|00:42.8|01:49.0|274.1|28.0|156.1|162.0|09.8
10|00197|00:44.4|01:52.3|247.6|26.6|154.4|157.0|10.0
11|00194|00:43.3|01:51.3|255.5|27.6|156.2|160.0|09.8
12|00189|00:41.7|01:50.6|261.5|27.4|159.1|163.0|09.9
13|00186|00:40.7|01:49.5|271.0|29.7|159.4|164.0|09.2

Sunday – June 24: 80′ Coastal Row

The weather was still a bit iffy, but I really wanted to row. I launched from the north beach and headed up toward wellfleet. There was a bit of wind (mainly from the West) and I headed a bit toward Great Island to get a bit more shelter and flatter water.

I ended up rowing around Chequesset Pond, which was lovely. Flat water, nice scenery. Then I headed over toward the inner harbor. The chop got worse as I got further away from the shelter of Great Island.

The row from the breakwater back to my launch point was difficult. The waves were basically on my beam and very irregular. I had trouble finding a good rhythym and keeping it. But as I entered the lee of the island, the water smoothed out and I felt reenergized. I raised the rate to 24 and punched out the last 3 minutes.

Screen Shot 2018-06-30 at 10.40.56 PM.png

Monday – June 25: Rest Day

We left the cape really late and didn’t get home until about 10. I tried to get up, but felt very tired and went back to bed.

Tuesday – June 26: Rest Day

I was leaving for the Netherlands in the evening, but I hoped to row in the morning. But I had another late night with work calls, and I ended up sleeping in again. I brought my workout stuff to work with me, hoping to sneak down to gym for a quick workout before I left, but I had a lot of loose ends to tie up before I left.

Wednesday – June 27: 10K push.

I left Boston at around 8pm. Arrived in Heathrow around 7am, and Amsterdam around 11:30. Then we caught the train to Nijmegan, arriving around 1:30. A quick shower, and then into a prep meeting with my colleagues. This wrapped up around 5:00 and we decided to meet at 6:30 for dinner in the hotel.

With 90 minutes to burn and feeling pretty tired, I didn’t want to risk falling asleep, so I headed to the hotel gym. Which, as it turned out, was huge, and beautiful, and had 2 Conceot2 Model E rowing machines!

I grabbed a machine and decided to do a 10K push. I’d start slow and hopefully shave a second per 1000 meters off the pace.

The machines had PM4s, and I didn’t have my cable, so I did these old style. I used my HR monitor with the wahoo app on my phone and just saved HR.

Sadly, it ended up being just right. I finished with my HR very close to my HRMax and the highest HR I’ve seen all season. There’s no way to avoid the truth. I’m about 5 seconds off the paces that I could do when I was at my fittest.

Thursday – June 28: Aborted session

I had a meeting at 10AM, so I slept until around 7:30 and went back to the gym. The place was an oven. Those big windows that you see in the picture must be facing east because the ergs we in direct sunlight. It was right in my eyes. And it was hot as hell.

I was going to do a 3 x 15′ easy session, but I gave up after 15 minutes. My heart was just not in it. I think I dug a bit too deep the day before and it was a short turn around time, only about 13 hours between sessions.

Screen Shot 2018-07-01 at 10.42.04 AM.png

The meeting went well, and then we rushed to catch the train, and rushed to catch the flight to London. I did a work call from Heathrow, and then hopped on the flight back to Boston, arriving at 9pm. I was home by about 10:30.

Friday – June 29: 3 x 15′ /2′

I worked from home on Friday. My wife and I were heading into Cambridge to have dinner with our boys, and then continuing on to the Cape after that. I had calls scheduled from 10am to 5pm.

I got up with enough time for a quick erg session on the dreaded dynamic. The objective was to just clear the cobwebs from all the travel. So, I tried to keep the HR below 150.

Intervals sliced at a 2:15 pace.

          Workout Summary - media/20180629-1335230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11116|49:33.0|02:13.7|154.8|19.8|139.2|154.0|11.3
W-|10480|44:36.0|02:07.7|167.8|20.0|140.6|154.0|11.8
R-|00638|04:56.0|03:52.6|037.8|18.3|126.3|154.0|10.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03522|14:59.5|02:07.7|167.5|19.7|132.1|144.0|11.9
01|03479|14:49.0|02:07.8|167.7|19.9|142.2|149.0|11.8
02|03479|14:48.0|02:07.6|168.3|20.3|147.7|154.0|11.6

Saturday – Jun 30: 80′ Coastal Row

We got down to the Cape around 11pm. I did some errands in the morning and man it was HOT. Skies were blue and there wasn’t much breeze. I hung out around the house and relaxed most of the day.

Around 4pm, I decided to go for a row. The high tide was at 2pm, so I still had a couple of hours before beach access becomes more of a challenge. I decided to do another row down to Eastham along the shore.

The wind was still light, and what there was of it was coming from the WSW. The tide was ebbing, so the current was mainly behind me on the way out and I was going into it on the way home.

The chop was nasty at times. It was a combination of lots of power boat wakes across long distances and a little bit of wind. It made for very confused waves and challenging technical rowing.

I wanted a good UT1 workout, so I was aiming at HRs in the mid 150s.

Screen Shot 2018-07-01 at 11.16.24 AM.png

          Workout Summary - media/20180701-0110230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14372|85:39.0|02:58.8|000.0|22.7|153.0|164.0|07.4
W-|13904|79:55.0|02:52.4|000.0|21.6|153.4|163.0|08.1
R-|00471|05:44.0|06:06.2|000.0|38.4|147.0|163.0|01.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07260|39:55.0|02:44.9|000.0|20.8|151.1|157.0|08.8
01|06644|40:00.0|03:00.6|000.0|22.3|155.7|163.0|07.4

I was reasonably tired after that!

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!

All rowing, all the time

May 6, 2018May 6, 20182 Comments

May 2: 3 x (1’/3′ + 1’/3′ + 3’/6′) all at 1k race pace (or best effort)

May 3: 60′ speed play

May 4: 4 x (3′ @ 24 + 3′ @ 28) / 6′ active rest

Wed – May 2: 3 x (1’/3′ + 1’/3′ + 3’/6′) all at 1k race pace (or best effort)

On the charles. Nice weather. It’s finally warming up.

The workout plan was:

3 sets of: 1’ on, 3’ active rest, 1’ on , 3’ active rest 3’ on, 6’ 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)
Training effect: Cat II-III mix, repetitions, race pace technique

My goal here was to try to work on the technique feedback that my coach gave me from the video. Her main suggestions were:

Keep outward pressure on the oarlocks throughout the whole stroke. She noticed that at the catch, I was dipping my shoulders and pushing the handles toward the stern. She wanted to focus on early body angle preparation and remember to keep outward pressure on the handles as I approached the catch. This feels more like pushing the handles outward, versus sternward.
Keep outward pressure on the oarlocks at the finish. Again, make sure that I am keeping the collar firmly against the oarlock as I approach the finish. My elbows are in the wrong position, which we are going to work on with a bit more rigging change.
This goes with the body prep comment. She told me to be very conscious of when I start to move the seat toward the stern. Work to be sure that my arms are extended and my body position is ready for the catch.
Sit up nice and tall in seat, avoid slumping back on my tailbone.

This workout was an interesting one to try some of this stuff out because all of the pressure rowing was r28 or higher. I found that concentrating on the technique at r28, I was able to go multiple strokes touching no water and with rock solid balance. Keeping my core engaged and my legs locked down during the initial recovery really kept the boat stable. Of course, it was more of a challenge to maintain the rate as I was focusing on the recovery in segments, but I got the hand of it.

A very fun workout.

One thing that was not fun. My EmPower oarlock was acting up. Out of about 1200 strokes in the workout, it did not report data for 289 of them. Many of them were strokes in the intervals when I was trying to row to a power target, which was a pain in the ass. All in all it was probably a good thing because I ended up focusing more on the technique and less on power.

Workout Summary - media/20180502-1715240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11254|68:00.0|03:01.3|137.3|21.6|140.8|179.0|07.7
W-|03634|15:00.0|02:03.8|279.8|28.7|159.7|178.0|08.4
R-|07628|53:00.0|03:28.4|097.0|19.5|135.5|178.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00260|01:00.0|01:55.5|262.7|27.3|147.2|156.0|09.5 - down
02|00237|01:00.0|02:06.5|302.2|29.4|152.3|162.0|08.1 - up
03|00763|03:00.0|01:57.9|282.0|28.4|162.1|169.0|09.0 - down
04|00227|01:00.0|02:12.2|308.1|28.9|149.9|163.0|07.9 - up
05|00263|01:00.0|01:54.0|309.2|29.8|153.8|166.0|08.8 - down
06|00658|03:00.0|02:16.7|261.4|28.2|166.5|177.0|07.8 - up
07|00254|01:00.0|01:58.3|274.3|29.7|151.5|164.0|08.5 - down
08|00225|01:00.0|02:13.1|316.4|29.3|155.0|166.0|07.7 - up
09|00747|03:00.0|02:00.5|265.0|28.8|166.4|178.0|08.6 - down

Thursday – 60 min speedplay.

Again on the Charles. I had an 8 am meeting, so I bolted out of bed at 5:15, and I was on the river by 6am. That gave me just enough time to do 60 minutes, put away my boat, get to work, and shower before my meeting.

The workout is pretty standard by now, but on Thursday, I was still trying to obsess on the technique notes. Also, the annoying empower issues were continuing. This session 272 strokes were missed.

But none of that changed the fact that the weather was perfect! No wind. Really warm. A little overcast, but still a glorious morning to be out.

Friday – May 4: 4 x (3′ @ 24 + 3′ @ 28) / 6′ active rest

On Lake Quinsigamond. Overcast. Very little wind. Perfect water. Scattered showers. We needed to stick to the south end of the lake because boats were out practicing on the 2k course for this weekends big event, the New England Rowing Championship (“The NERCs”).

After 5 days of workouts, I was feeling a bit spent. The workout plan has an optional speedplay session on Friday, or a rest day. But since I knew I was heading down to the cape, I switched things to do the more intense Saturday session on Friday.

I knew that I would have to lighten up the r28 sections to make it through 12 minutes total of it. I was also more interested in continuing to work on technique at race rates.

Here are my coaches notes for the session.

Session: 4 x 6’
Rest between: 6’
Rating/Pace: 3’ @Cat IV pace: target SR 24 + 3’ @ Cat III; target SR 28

Notes: Work on the rhythm of a strong leg drive combined with relaxation on the recovery. Follow through to the arms/body away position to complete each stroke and to set the body preparation for the next stroke before starting the slide. Hold your posture and head up as you fatigue.

I can’t say that I was completely relaxed on the recovery. I had a lot on my mind…keep the knees down. Set the body. Keep my shoulders down. Keep outward pressure on the handles. Don’t over reach at the catch.

But, at least I had something to keep my mind off how hard the 3′ chunks were.

Before this outing, I updated my empower firmware to 2.18 and changed the battery in the empower oarlock. This seemed to calm things down. Only about 8 missed strokes. Of course I recorded a lot fewer strokes because I forgot to push start after fiddling with some settings. I was also having HR monitor troubles.

Here’s the whole thing on RIM

I had a bit of a moment on the third interval. About a minute into the r28 section of that one, it really started to bite, and I got that drowning feeling. It remarkable how quickly you can work your way through a chain of logic. It’s been a long week, I don’t race until July, I shouldn’t have started so hard, etc, etc. And before you know it, you’ve stopped rowing. Well, I stopped rowing. After about 10 seconds I started again and finished out the segment without any further drama.

Here’s the last ladder on NK. Notice the weird crap going on with the HRM.

Workout Summary - media/20180504-1325270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11616|61:59.0|02:40.1|000.0|21.5|0.0|000.0|08.7
W-|10525|51:36.0|02:27.1|000.0|22.4|000.0|000.0|09.2
R-|01105|10:23.0|04:42.3|000.0|17.1|000.0|000.0|07.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00943|05:30.0|02:54.9|000.0|17.8|000.0|0.0|09.6
01|00671|03:00.0|02:14.1|000.0|23.9|000.0|0.0|09.4 - r24
02|00704|03:00.0|02:07.9|000.0|27.7|000.0|0.0|08.5 - r28
03|01110|05:55.0|02:39.8|000.0|18.4|000.0|0.0|10.2
04|00675|03:00.0|02:13.3|000.0|24.2|000.0|0.0|09.3 - r24
05|00711|03:00.0|02:06.6|000.0|27.9|000.0|0.0|08.5 - r28
06|00549|03:10.0|02:53.1|000.0|18.4|000.0|0.0|09.4
07|00658|03:00.0|02:16.8|000.0|24.0|000.0|0.0|09.1 - r24
08|00633|03:00.0|02:22.2|000.0|27.5|000.0|0.0|07.7 - r28 (fail)
09|00607|03:26.0|02:49.8|000.0|19.1|000.0|0.0|09.3
10|00661|03:00.0|02:16.2|000.0|24.2|000.0|0.0|09.1 - r24
11|00708|03:00.0|02:07.1|000.0|28.5|000.0|0.0|08.3 - r28
12|01531|08:00.0|02:36.8|000.0|20.0|000.0|0.0|09.5
13|00365|01:35.0|02:10.2|000.0|24.2|000.0|0.0|09.5

The last segment was particularly fun. As I coasted to a stop at the south end of the lake. I noticed another single with a shirtless young dude in it. I turned around to the north, and he just sat there. When I started to row, he started with me and matched me stroke for stroke. I noticed he was a bit rough in terms of technique. I imagine he was a college kid who wanted to branch out into sculling. Anyway, we were side by side while I was getting ready to get into the interval, then I rated up to 24 and started moving. He hung with me for a a little bit and then started dropping back. He was sticking to a lower rate, and I’m sure he wasn’t paying any attention to me, but I was relishing the view of him dropping further behind. This was all it took for me to make it through the last ladder with no hint of slowing down or giving up. Seems like I need a training partner!

Later in the day, my wife and I headed to the cape.

Saturday: May 5 – 60′ of coastal rowing

Screen Shot 2018-05-05 at 8.08.50 PM.png Down in Wellfleet. It was a windy night last night and breezy in the morning, but by 3pm, it was calm and about 65F with hazy sunshine. It was a great day for my first coastal row of the season.

The tide was still coming in, but close to slack. I wanted to row for about an hour, and I just wanted to do steady state. I wanted to keep working on proper technique in recovery. knees down, outwards pressure, consistent body angle, don’t overextend. It was great to practice this in the Aero, because it is so stable.

Workout Summary - media/20180505-2230240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10598|60:30.0|02:51.3|000.0|19.6|151.7|160.0|08.9
W-|10536|59:00.0|02:48.0|000.0|19.5|151.7|160.0|09.2
R-|00064|01:30.0|11:42.9|000.0|26.1|151.8|160.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|05282|29:00.0|02:44.7|000.0|19.3|148.2|157.0|09.4
01|05254|30:00.0|02:51.3|000.0|19.6|155.1|160.0|08.9

I was having a great time.

Tomorrow: The weather is supposed to go downhill, so I think I will probably do an erg session. 80′ speedplay.

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Tag: coastal