Tuesday: 4 x 1K / 5′ rest

January 20, 2016January 20, 20161 Comment

First short interval session of the mesocycle, and I was pretty excited. I guess the proper term in a fitness related blog post is something along the lines of “ready to get after it!!!”

Plan:

Fletcher warmup – 20′ (slightly modified)
4 x 1K
- 5 minute active rest
- pace target: 1:44 (conservative with faster last, if possible)
- rate: ~30
2K “Happy Ending” cool down

Gotta say, it was nice rating up and taking some strokes around 2K race pace. 1:44 turned out to be a conservative choice. The intervals started to bite, after the halfway point. And as I got further into the intervals, I was digging a bit deeper, but it wasn’t a big struggle. I decided to throw caution to the wind, and try to really nail the last rep. I managed to do this one faster than a 1:40 pace, which was good to see. With 3 reps in my legs, I could hold a split that would deliver a 6:40 2K. I have a lot of work to do on sharpening, but I feel pretty good about this workout.

Then, I put started to injected high energy music into my ears, setup the interval session, and off I went. It looks like the tcx file cut off a bit before the end of the last interval.

The last interval was hard enough that I finally felt that lactic rush. I’d almost forgotten how intensely bad it feels. Put it all together and the session average is 1:42.7. A good target for the next time this rolls around. I will also use it for the 6×750 coming on Thursday.

I just went and looked back at February of 2014, when I was getting ready for the CRASH-Bs. I did the 4×1000 twice. Once on January 28th, and again on February 3rd. Here are the times.

So, these were obviously faster, but less disciplined than today. I was also digging deeper. Look at the HRs in each rep. This was also in the midst of a long term plan that included short sprints weekly, so my performance had begun to plateau. I think it is heartening to be less than 2 seconds off these times, with better CV data in my first sprint session.

After that, I did a 2K cool down, starting at 2:00 splits and slowing down every 500m.

Tomorrow: 3 x 20 / 1′ rest

Monday: 3 x 20′ L4 + PkPwr Sprints

January 18, 2016January 18, 20163 Comments

Very little sleep last night. Felt awful this morning. Let myself start slow in the L4.

After I finished my hour, I transitioned over to start doing a variation of the Peak Power Training from Ed McNeely. The session that Ed describes it to do 10 second sprints all out with 1 minute rests, and when your peak power in a sprint falls more than 10% below your best power, then you take a 5 minute rest and resume the 10 sec sprint and 1 minute rest sets with the same stoppage rule.

It’s been a while since I did my peak power test, and when I did it, it was on slides, so I didn’t have a stable baseline to measure my 10% drop from. As hard as I tried today, I could not break through 700W for my peak power, but on slides in November, I was above 750W on a few strokes.

It was challenge to setup the 10 second sprints, since the shortest interval time you can program on a PM is 20 seconds. I eventually did it as a “just row” with 10 second sprints and 50 second rests. Next time I will set it up as 1:10 intervals.

I was also not seeing much in the way of a declining output power over the intervals, so I guess I was not trying hard enough. I was also getting much better at them as I went along. I got my first stroke power from around 180 to above 250, and felt a lot smoother in the later reps. I’ll push the envelope more next time.

If nothing else, it was fun. Laying down 15 sprints with peak splits faster than 1:25 was a nice change from grinding out long hard intervals.

Tomorrow: A classic, the 4 x 1000 / 5′ rest. I will start this conservatively at 1:45 pace and see how things go.

Saturday: Hard 30′ (very hard)

January 17, 2016Leave a comment

No PB for me today. I tried, but by 10 minutes into it, I pretty much knew I couldn’t hang on to the required pace. I slowed down a bit and just hung on. It was a season best, but no where near what I think I should be able to do. It was my 7th straight training day, versus doing the 5K after a rest day. I’m not too bummed out about it and I’m looking forward to getting into my sprint and power mesocycle on Monday.

2K warmup

Workout Summary – Jan 16, 2016
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_02000_|_07:44.6_|_01:56.2_|_223.3_|_21.0_|_135.5_|_ 64.9% _|_12.3_|_10.6

The main event. Target split for a PB was 1:48.8. I fell behind target after 10 minutes and never got back.

Workout Summary – Jan 16, 2016
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_08133_|_30:00.0_|_01:50.7_|_258.2_|_25.5_|_171.6_|_ 90.5% _|_10.6_|_10.1
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_01387_|_05:00.0_|_01:48.2_|_276.6_|_25.4_|_156.7_|_ 79.9% _|_10.9_|_10.9
02_|_01379_|_05:00.0_|_01:48.8_|_272.0_|_25.6_|_170.2_|_ 89.5% _|_10.8_|_10.6
03_|_01356_|_05:00.0_|_01:50.6_|_258.6_|_25.4_|_172.1_|_ 90.8% _|_10.7_|_10.2
04_|_01337_|_05:00.0_|_01:52.2_|_247.8_|_25.0_|_174.0_|_ 92.2% _|_10.7_|_09.9
05_|_01329_|_05:00.0_|_01:52.9_|_243.5_|_25.2_|_177.0_|_ 94.4% _|_10.5_|_09.7
06_|_01345_|_05:00.0_|_01:51.5_|_252.2_|_26.4_|_179.7_|_ 96.2% _|_10.2_|_09.6

Then a 2K cool down.

Workout Summary – Jan 16, 2016
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_02000_|_08:28.4_|_02:07.1_|_170.4_|_19.9_|_149.3_|_ 74.6% _|_11.8_|_08.5

Probably take a rest day tomorrow.

Friday: 3 x 20’/1′ rest – L4 (better)

January 15, 20162 Comments

A little sore form yesterday and I was worried that it could be another miserable session. Decided before I started to make it 3×20 instead of 4×20 because I have strenuous plans for tomorrow and I was a bit pressed for time today.

Tomorrow: Plan calls for a hard 5K. But since I did that last weekend, I think I will substitute a 30 minute piece. I might have a shot at a PB. My current PB is 8266. If I put my recent 5K and 60 minute results with the very handy Free Spirits Pace Predictor it says that I should be able to do 8272m for 30 minutes, a whopping 6 meter improvement. Since these rows are harrowingly hard, it is really good to have something more tangible to shoot for.

4 x 8′ / 4′ rest – solid

January 14, 2016January 14, 20162 Comments

Plan:

4 x 8′
4′ active rest with a stop for a quick drink
Pace target: <1:48.8 (from last time on January 3rd)
Rate: 27-28

8′ warmup up, with 3 – 10 stroke bursts at faster than target pace (strapless)

Then into the main event. Rep 1 was tough, but never in doubt, I finished with 2211 meters (1:48.5), so I kept that as my target for all the reps. Rep 2 was HARD. I was ahead of target through 100 strokes, fell behind through the next 100, and made up the lost ground in the last 20. I wondered if I could do it again for rep #3, but felt OK by the end of the rest. Same story for rep #3, but an even bigger ask to try to make up the lost ground in the last 20 strokes. I was sure that I couldn’t hold the last rep, and through most of the rest, I was thinking I would see if I could hit 1:50 for it instead. But at the end the rest, I decided to try to hit target for the first 100 strokes and see how I did. At the 100 stroke point, I was really struggling, so I dropped back to about a 1:50 and tried to hold on. I was seeing some 1:51s, and feeling the HD-demons peering over my shoulder, but I just kept pushing. With 20 strokes to go, my projected finish was around 2180. A push at the end got me to 2203 (1:48.8). Session average was 1:48.6.

4′ rest was about 2 minutes of gasping and 2 minutes of light paddling, then an 8 minute cool down starting at 2:00 splits and slowing down from there.

I wish I could have laid down a faster time on this workout, but I am proud of my execution. I was really hurting in the last rep and I pulled back from the edge just enough to make it instead of bailing out.

Tomorrow: 4 x 20′ / 1′ rest

Wednesday: 3 x 20′ / 1′ rest L4

January 13, 2016January 14, 20162 Comments

I have a lot on my mind right now for work, and I was not very focused on today’s session. I’m not sure if that is all it was, or if there is something else going on, but it was a very difficult row.

I was planning a 4×20′ session, but high HR and very high lactate after 60 minutes (2.9mmol/l), so I aborted at that point.

In the first 20 minute section, I had two interruptions due to technical issues with the podcast I was listening to. There is an intermittent connection to my headphones that is being interpreted by the iphone as a button press which summons up Siri. Very annoying, probably time for a new set of headphones. Amazing how quickly sweat corrodes things!

The workout plan was:

Here’s the view from Strava. You can see the two stops in the first 20 minutes.

And the PM summary.

Tomorrow: 4 x 8′ / 4′ rest

Tuesday: 3 x 10′ / 5′ rest – Tough!

January 12, 2016Leave a comment

Felt a whole lot better today. Good thing too, because I had a bitch of session on the agenda.

Plan:

3 x 10′ intervals
5′ active rest
pace target: <1:50 (Last time, my paces were 1:49.2, 1:50.8 and 1:51.4, in that order for a painful, painful session with a 1:50.5 avg)
rate target: 26-28

Still challenged by the painsled tool flow. So here’s the monitor pic. The first rep was the warmup, and the last 3 were the work intervals. I rowed through the rests with about 15 seconds for a drink in each. I rowed through the last rest as a quick cool down.

Pretty easy to work out that average…1:49.3. Surprisingly, it felt just as hard as the 5K at 1:46.4. Not sure why that is.

Here’s the view from Strava. You can at least see the bursts in the warmup and the cool down profile. Tough to get anything else from the picture though. Not sure what the deal is with the speed. I would have expected the power and speed to look identical, but they don’t.

Tomorrow: 4 x 20′ L4

Monday: 3 x 20′ / 1′ rest L4

January 12, 20161 Comment

Still working out the kinks of using Painsled. The capture of information works great, and export to both Trainingpeaks and Strava works at a basic level, but I haven’t had time to make my spreadsheets work with the CSV export from the tool.

On Monday morning, I felt awful. I didn’t sleep well and it was a short turn around time from my Sunday afternoon workout. So, I didn’t have high expectations for the row.

It turned out just as unpleasant as I was expecting.

Here’s the view from Strava after importing the TCX file from Painsled. All the data is there, but I really like the way it’s presented from excel a lot better. Easier to see where I am in HR zones, the pace is in useful units, the cadence scale is right and the rests are displayed correctly. But at least it’s a picture! I have sent feedback into the developer of Painsled about some TCX funniness and requesting a denser CSV format. Once I get past this busy patch at work, I will start to deal with the ugly CSV format myself.

Sunday: 4×20’/1′ rest – Humid slog

January 10, 20162 Comments

A few aches and pains from yesterday’s exertions, but nothing too impressive. Around 2:30 in the afternoon I sat down for run of the mill steady state session. Another in a long series of 4 x 20′ L4 sessions.

It was almost 60F outside and raining. In my erg room, with the windows open and the fan going, it was 72F and 85% humidity. I left a sizable puddle under the erg today.

The workout was close to standard. I planned to do 195 stroke sequences all the way through, but I felt a bit over matched in the third 20′ piece and backed off to 192 stroke sets. This exchanged a minute at 21spm for a minute at 18spm. It is surprising how much of a difference that can make in how things feel, even though it was less than a half a stroke difference over 20 minutes and only 2.5 watts different output.

Here is the stroke plan:

And the HR plots

I measured lactates at 60 minutes and the reading was 1.6 mmol/l. Which is good to see. I need to work a lot harder to get a 2.0mmol/l reading now than at the end of the OTW season. Anyway, after seeing that nice reading, I reverted back to the 195 sequences for the last 20 minutes.

Workout Summary – Jan 10, 2016
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Max-_|_–Max–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_19798_|_80:00.0_|_02:01.2_|_196.5_|_19.6_|_153.0_|_ 77.3% _|_12.7_|_10.0
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_MaxHR_|_Max%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_02479_|_10:00.0_|_02:01.0_|_197.4_|_19.6_|_138.0_|_ 66.7% _|_12.6_|_10.1
02_|_02479_|_10:00.0_|_02:01.0_|_197.4_|_19.8_|_144.0_|_ 70.9% _|_12.5_|_10.0
03_|_02480_|_10:00.0_|_02:01.0_|_197.8_|_19.7_|_147.0_|_ 73.0% _|_12.6_|_10.0
04_|_02478_|_10:00.0_|_02:01.1_|_197.2_|_19.6_|_152.0_|_ 76.6% _|_12.6_|_10.1
05_|_02467_|_10:00.0_|_02:01.6_|_194.7_|_19.2_|_147.0_|_ 73.0% _|_12.9_|_10.1
06_|_02463_|_10:00.0_|_02:01.8_|_193.7_|_19.3_|_150.0_|_ 75.2% _|_12.8_|_10.0_|_1.6
07_|_02475_|_10:00.0_|_02:01.2_|_196.6_|_19.7_|_150.0_|_ 75.2% _|_12.6_|_10.0
08_|_02477_|_10:00.0_|_02:01.1_|_197.0_|_19.6_|_153.0_|_ 77.3% _|_12.6_|_10.1

Not a bad workout. I overstroked by 11 strokes across the whole workout and ended up 125 ahead. I noticed during the row that it was work to try to keep my rate down, and I rarely saw my rate below target.

Target_____________Actual_____________delta____________
Strokes____Meters______Strokes____Meters______Strokes__meters___EndHR
0195___|___02460___|___0196___|___02479___|___01___|___19___|___132
0195___|___02460___|___0198___|___02479___|___03___|___18___|___136
0195___|___02460___|___0197___|___02480___|___02___|___20___|___140
0195___|___02460___|___0196___|___02478___|___01___|___18___|___140
0192___|___02456___|___0192___|___02467___|___00___|___11___|___142
0192___|___02456___|___0193___|___02463___|___01___|___07___|___141
0195___|___02460___|___0197___|___02475___|___02___|___15___|___144
0195___|___02460___|___0196___|___02477___|___01___|___17___|___148
1554___|___19673___|___1565___|___19798___|___11___|___125___|___000

Tomorrow morning: Same thing. With the PM5 and painsled!

Saturday: 5K PB

January 10, 20165 Comments

I was out late with a customer late on Thursday night, and so I decided to sleep in and take rest day Friday. I was due. I had worked out 7 days straight prior to Friday.

Saturday’s objective was a 5K threshold piece. I really wanted to go for a good time, maybe even a PB, but my workouts during the week had been disappointingly difficult. Nonetheless, with a rest day, and doing the row in the afternoon instead of first thing, I thought I might give it a shot.

My previous PB was 17:46.1 (1:46.6 pace) set in 2014, during my magical first experience with lactate based training.

Today, I did a 2K warmup. Nothing fancy, but I did do it strapless. Makes strapping in feel good. As soon as I finished and setup my 5k piece, rowpro decided to crash. Getting it back involved rebooting the PC, so I did another 500m or so to keep warm while the hard disk grinded away.

I started rowpro again with the PC isolated from the network and all was well.

Into the main event. I decided to set out at a 1:46 pace and evaluate at the end of each 1000m split. In the first 1000m, I tried to get comfortable with a stroke rate. I tried to rate up and row a little lighter around 500, but my splits dropped too much and I knew I would torch myself, so I dropped it back. Through 1000m, I felt OK, but not that OK, I decided to let the split drift up to 1:47, and counted out the next 100 strokes. At 2000m, I was started hurt pretty bad, but I decided to keep trying to hold the 1:47 for the next 100 strokes. That was a long 100 strokes!

There were two real crisis points in the row. The first was around 3000m when I saw my HR cross over to the anaerobic zone. I have held my HR up in the red for 2000 meters before, but it is something that is really nasty to experience, and I needed to do a gut check to see if I was willing to go there. I gave myself permission to let the splits drift up to 1:48 and if I didn’t get the PB, that would be OK. I did want to stay as far under 18 minutes as I could, though. Another very long 100 stroke counted out (well actually, each 1000m was about 96 strokes).

When I got to 4000, my average split had drifted up to 1:46.7. I will often lose hope when I slip behind my target, but today, I just plugged along. I drifted even further up seeing more 1:48s. By the time I got to 500 left, my average was up to 1:46.8. I tried to rate up to start sprinting, but I almos instantly regretted it and almost stopped. I saw one stroke at 1:50, and then one at 1:56, and I got myself back under control and just tried to hold the 1:48s. When I got down to 200m left, I did start to sprint while I counted down the last 20 strokes. I held 1:40 splits for 100m, and really cranked up for the last ten strokes sprinting it home at 1:36.

All this I figured out after the fact because I had my eyes closed for just about the whole last 200m. When I opened them, I had 10m left, and my avg split was down to 1:46.5. As I pulled the last stroke, it flipped to a 1:46.4. I was done, and I had a new PB, 17:44.3, a 1.8 second improvement over the one from just about 2 years ago (17:46.1).

Tough row.

Workout Summary – Jan 09, 2016
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Max-_|_–Max–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_05000_|_17:44.3_|_01:46.4_|_290.3_|_27.1_|_184.0_|_ 99.3% _|_10.4_|_10.7
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_MaxHR_|_Max%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI
01_|_00500_|_01:45.5_|_01:45.5_|_298.0_|_26.7_|_159.0_|_ 81.6% _|_10.6_|_11.1
02_|_00500_|_01:45.7_|_01:45.7_|_296.7_|_26.7_|_166.0_|_ 86.5% _|_10.6_|_11.1
03_|_00500_|_01:46.9_|_01:46.9_|_286.4_|_26.4_|_168.0_|_ 87.9% _|_10.6_|_10.9
04_|_00500_|_01:46.6_|_01:46.6_|_288.7_|_27.0_|_172.0_|_ 90.8% _|_10.4_|_10.7
05_|_00500_|_01:47.1_|_01:47.1_|_285.2_|_26.9_|_175.0_|_ 92.9% _|_10.4_|_10.6
06_|_00500_|_01:46.9_|_01:46.9_|_286.2_|_26.9_|_177.0_|_ 94.3% _|_10.4_|_10.6
07_|_00500_|_01:47.3_|_01:47.3_|_283.6_|_27.4_|_179.0_|_ 95.7% _|_10.2_|_10.3
08_|_00500_|_01:47.5_|_01:47.5_|_281.4_|_26.8_|_180.0_|_ 96.5% _|_10.4_|_10.5
09_|_00500_|_01:47.3_|_01:47.3_|_282.9_|_26.8_|_181.0_|_ 97.2% _|_10.4_|_10.5
10_|_00500_|_01:43.4_|_01:43.4_|_316.5_|_29.0_|_184.0_|_ 99.3% _|_10.0_|_10.9

After that, I did what felt like the world’s longest cool down. Another 5K, starting at 1:55 and slowing down by 3 seconds every 500m.

Tomorrow: 4 x 20′ / 1′ rest L4

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: concept2

Tuesday: 4 x 1K / 5′ rest

Monday: 3 x 20′ L4 + PkPwr Sprints

Saturday: Hard 30′ (very hard)

Friday: 3 x 20’/1′ rest – L4 (better)

4 x 8′ / 4′ rest – solid

Wednesday: 3 x 20′ / 1′ rest L4

Tuesday: 3 x 10′ / 5′ rest – Tough!

Monday: 3 x 20′ / 1′ rest L4

Sunday: 4×20’/1′ rest – Humid slog

Saturday: 5K PB