Decided to stick with an easier stroke sequence today, but I still ended up working a bit too hard (judging by HR and RPE).
Today I did 6 repeats of 2′ @ 18, 2′ @ 19, 2′ @ 20, 2′ @ 19, 2′ @ 18. At 10W per stroke, this should yield about a 188W (2:03.0 pace). As I usually do, I ended up about 4W above that.
Tomorrow: Another go at the CTC, target pace 1:41.
Felt tired today. Scaled back stroke counts in the last 40 minutes, but HR was still high. I guess I dug pretty deep yesterday or I’m accumulating some fatigue.
Ergdata worked perfectly again!
Tomorrow: Same as today.
I received an updated painsled beta today and tried it for a quick 100m test piece. The fatal error has been fixed and two critical features for me have been added (csv format stroke file, and seamless dropbox export). If folks are looking for a PM5 to TCX solution, I think it’s worth a try. I’ll give a proper tryout and write something up after this week is over.
I haven’t done a speed session since my aborted 2K time trial 9 days ago. Since then I have missed a bunch of days training due to illness and travel. And even before that, my training was pretty disrupted for the two prior weeks. Basically, I blew my chance to peak.
That brings us to today. I did nice steady state sessions Saturday and Sunday, and today, it was back to my normal schedule. Up at 5:15AM, and working out in the gym first thing.
With too little sleep and a short turn around time after my session yesterday afternoon, there were a couple more excuse codes that I can draw on for today’s session.
Looking at some of the early CTC results, it looked like folks could do it at 2K pace or maybe 2K – 2. So, I was hoping that I could hold a 1:40 pace.
So, how did that work out for you Mr. Smith? Not well….Not well at all. But we’ll get there in time.
I started with a fletcher warmup, which showed alarmingly high heart rates
Then in to the main event. I went out trying to hold 1:40 in the first rep and it hurt. A lot. I was barely recovered by the start of the second rep, and blew up half way through. I reset to a target of 1:43, just to get a score into the CTC. The rest was uneventful, but quote taxing.
I was pretty well shattered after that. I did a 2K cool down and staggered to the locker room.
I think I will give this one another try later this week, maybe on Thursday. I think I can probably pull off a 1:41 or so given the right attitude.
Tomorrow: 3 x 20′ L4
I thought about doing 80 minutes, but decided to stop after 60. It was a lovely workout. Today, I did 3 – 20 minute segments. Each segment was
This seems a bit harder than other arrangements of the same stroke rates because you have 8′ at 200W or above in the middle of each section. Makes the time go by a bit faster too.
I used ergdata today with the PM5.
Tomorrow: I might give the CTC a try 9 x 300 / 30″ rest. I’ll start at a 1:40 and see where that takes me.
Yesterday was a blur. I got off the red eye at 6AM and I was bleary eyed and strung out. I went home and tumbled in bed and slept until nearly noon.
After that, it was a bunch of work phone calls, mainly trying to figure out a bunch of travel coming up in the next few weeks. There just wasn’t enough time to workout before my wife and I needed to pack up and head in to the city to celebrate my twin sons birthday (#23!). A very frustrating day and a workout would have definitely helped my mental outlook.
Today, nothing would stop me, and I had new toys to try out. I’ll put up a separate post, but today, I compares ergdata, ergstick, and painsled today, along with giving my new PM5 a maiden voyage. I was in data heaven. But we’ll get to that. First the workout.
Plan:
First 20 minutes, I used painsled. No luck. This was all I got from painsled.
I’ve emailed back and forth with the developer and apparently, this is not an error that any other users are seeing. Oh well.
Here’s the results using the old fashioned method. The stroke sequence was
Nice low HR.
Then over to ergstick for another 2×10′. This time, I did 2 of the 1×21, 3×20, 3×19, 3×18 sequences.
Ergstick provides a CSV output that I quickly adapted my ergdata worksheet to use. Here’s the result of that.
So, pretty easy stuff.
Finally, over to ergdata. And a carbon copy of the prior 20 minutes
And of course with ergdata, you can seamlessly sync to the logbook, so boom, here’s the summary.
What an enjoyable workout. Just about the perfect intensity.
Tomorrow: 4 x20′ – All on erg data.
At work on the model C with PM5 and ergdata.
Fletcher warmup. Felt hard this morning.
Then 2 quick 500s. Target pace was 1:38, r32. Got over excited in the last rep.
Then a normal 2K cool down.
So, a confluence of events have led me to decide to scratch from the Crash-Bs. The big thing is that I will be on a business trip all next week and there are a bunch of things I need to take care of this weekend. I can’t afford the time to spend most of Sunday at the arena.
So, instead, I think I will do 2K test on my own tomorrow afternoon at home. I’m a little bummed out, but I think it’s the right call.
Based on the 4 x 1K on Tuesday and these 500s in the taper, I think I am good for something around a 6:40. I think I will target a 1:40 split at r30 and see if I can speed up at all through the last 1000m.
I will try to stick to a reasonable workout schedule next week on the road, but I will be in 4 cities in 4 days. Then the following week, I will do assessment tests (1 min, 6K, 2-speed) to see where I stand. Then I will transition to a base aerobic block. Next major events are in Late June and early July. These are 1K OTW sprints, so I will follow the same basic periodized progression to them. Base, then distance threshold, then 6 to 12′ intervals, then sprint and peak power training. I will map out the plan next week while I sit on planes.
Working from home, so PM3 and Rowpro today.
Fletcher Warmup
Then 3 x 500 / 500m rest. Target was 1:38 and r31. I ran a bit hot.
Workout Summary – Feb 26, 2016
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_02500_|_10:49.1_|_02:09.8_|_160.0_|_25.1_|_153.9_|_ 77.9% _|_09.2_|_06.4
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI
01_|_00500_|_01:36.3_|_01:36.3_|_391.6_|_30.5_|_160.6_|_ 82.7% _|_10.2_|_12.8
02_|_00500_|_02:58.2_|_02:58.2_|_061.9_|_21.2_|_145.0_|_ 71.6% _|_07.9_|_02.9
03_|_00500_|_01:36.9_|_01:36.9_|_384.9_|_31.0_|_158.9_|_ 81.5% _|_10.0_|_12.4
04_|_00500_|_03:00.4_|_03:00.4_|_059.7_|_19.6_|_148.6_|_ 74.2% _|_08.5_|_03.0
05_|_00500_|_01:37.3_|_01:37.3_|_379.9_|_30.8_|_160.0_|_ 82.3% _|_10.0_|_12.3
Then a very quick 1000m cool down. I needed to go pickup my car from the shop.
Using my usual taper plan, based on the paper that I reference in this post, is to start the taper 5 days ahead and do:
Since I am a bit off kilter, I did a full on interval session yesterday, mainly to help decide if I would race at all, and so I am starting to taper 4 days before, instead of 5. So I will just follow the normal progress 4,3,2, then just do a warmup on Saturday. Each day’s session also includes a standard 20 minute Fletcher warmup, and a 2K cool down. The intent is that the warmup should be totally automatic on race day so there is no temptation to overdo it in the arena.
Here’s the HR perspective of the whole session…
The other thing that I’ve gotten sorted is the ability to play around with ergdata exports from the concept2 online log book. I modified a spreadsheet that I use with speedcoach data for OTW stuff and here is the view of the interval session.
I think I will end up using ergdata for erg sessions and RIM to log OTW sessions. If ergstick ends up providing a common way to log both OTE an OTW, I might go that way.
To try to decide if I would race this sunday, I decided to do the universal predictor workout, the 4 x 1K / 5′ rest.
In the past, I have generally been able to race at a pace about 1 second faster than this workout. I decided to go out hard and see if I could hold a 1:41 pace.
I pushed the first rep a bit too hard and paid the price in the later reps, but it all worked out OK.
Here’s the HR plot. It shows that I have certainly worked harder in this workout in the past, but boy the reps hurt a lot. I guess my lactate tolerance has been negatively impacted by a lack of speed work over the past few weeks.
I decided to try the Concept2 ErgData app, and it worked flawlessly! Here’s what you get in the online log if you upload from ergdata to your logbook.
So, details on each rep, plus a stroke rate and pace graph for each rep. Even better, there is a very simple csv export that I can adapt to my excel tools to track HR. There are rumors that the log book will be enhanced to include HR on the graph.
Now I just need to convince C2 to open up the ability to upload workouts from speedcoach, crewnerd or RIM and I can really simplify my life.
So, this workout today predicts somewhere around 6:40 to 6:45. Not the performance I was hoping for, but not horribly shabby. I think I will race. I think I’d regret not going.
Tomorrow: Start of the taper. Fletcher warmup and 4×500 at race pace.
I should have done a speed session, but I was tired and I decided to do it tomorrow on my erg at home, which (a bit obsessively), I think is “faster” than the one at work.
When I get a little time, I might write down a little bit about what is making work insane right now. It’s a great opportunity, but all consuming.
Today was another L4. 20′ minute segments.
All at 10W * stroke rate. HR started in good shape, but I tired out in the last 20 minute mountain.
Quantified Rowing 