Tag: concept2

4 x 20′ / 3′

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It was a fantastic workout.  I did it in the basement on the old rowing machine from work.  I brought it home to fix it on Friday.  A couple of new screws, and resetting the rower type in the PM5 was all that was required to have it working like new.

The plan:

  • 4 x 20′ / 3′
  • Cat VI (pace: 2:06-2:11, rate: 18)

Actual

My HR hardly every broke 140 and every stroke felt effortless.  I am really happy with how my base endurance seems to be improving with Roylerow training plan.  I am looking forward to the next round of tests (20′ and 75′) that are coming up in a couple weeks.

Tomorrow, I head off to San Francisco.  I’m there on Monday and Tuesday, and then I fly to Taiwan for meetings on Thursday and Friday.  I will get back on Saturday morning.  Depending on how the day goes tomorrow, I might try to get a workout done in the evening.  If I do, it will be a 4×12’/1’30” at r22 and 2:01 pace.

On a side note, I had another PM related problem in today’s workout.  It dropped the connection to my phone 70′ minutes into an 80 minute workout and started to throw error messages.  I’ve seen this before when the batteries get low, and swapping them after I finished seems to have fixed the problem.  It is crazy that the mechanics of the rowing machine are so robust that a machine that is probably 20 years old can be restored to working order with two screws and windex, but the electronics are so half baked that they can’t even let you know when the batteries are running low.  I hope that they can make improvements in the PM over time, because I think it is holding them back in the broader fitness market.

 

Friday: 45 minutes with bumps

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I flew back from Dallas last night and got home around 12:30am.  I slept in to about 7:30, and eventually made my way to work.

Around 12:30 I headed to the gym and discovered to my horror that the noon time fitness class was using the rower!  So, I did my Physio homework while I waited for them to finish up.  That there was some really ugly rowing, all with the damper set to 10.  Why do people subject themselves to that kind of abuse?

Around 1:00 I was able to hop on and do my planned session:

  • 45′ continuous with bumps
  • Cat VI (rate: 18, pace 2:06)
  • Every 5 minutes 20 stroke burst at r32+

The only modification was to change the 20 stroke burst to be a 40 second burst.  This worked out to 21 to 24 strokes depending on how well I rated up.

I thoroughly enjoyed this workout, although when you really sprint your guts out for the bump, it’s really hard to focus on holding the split when you slow back down.  The first 30 seconds, I find very unpleasant.

          Workout Summary - media/20171201-1840300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11234|44:59.0|02:00.1|230.1|21.4|153.5|174.0|11.7
W-|11243|44:59.0|02:00.1|210.8|20.2|153.6|174.0|12.7
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|174.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01041|04:20.0|02:04.9|174.6|18.0|124.3|134.0|13.3
01|00213|00:40.0|01:34.1|400.7|31.0|139.3|150.0|10.3
02|01037|04:20.0|02:05.4|182.4|18.3|148.0|158.0|13.1
03|00213|00:40.0|01:34.0|406.5|31.5|148.6|159.0|10.1
04|01038|04:20.0|02:05.2|179.1|17.9|152.2|165.0|13.4
05|00211|00:40.0|01:34.6|404.6|31.7|150.4|160.0|10.0
06|01032|04:20.0|02:06.0|177.7|18.0|154.1|167.0|13.2
07|00212|00:40.0|01:34.5|398.1|32.5|151.0|161.0|09.8
08|01035|04:20.0|02:05.6|182.3|18.5|156.6|168.0|12.9
09|00209|00:40.0|01:35.6|388.6|31.9|153.4|162.0|09.8
10|01038|04:20.0|02:05.2|182.6|18.4|158.3|168.0|13.0
11|00212|00:40.0|01:34.2|416.4|33.0|156.3|164.0|09.7
12|01037|04:20.0|02:05.4|180.3|18.2|161.2|172.0|13.1
13|00214|00:40.0|01:33.4|418.1|33.5|158.9|166.0|09.6
14|01032|04:20.0|02:06.0|176.0|18.1|163.1|172.0|13.1
15|00214|00:40.0|01:33.4|411.2|33.3|158.2|166.0|09.7
16|01039|04:20.0|02:05.1|183.9|18.7|164.7|174.0|12.8
17|00218|00:40.0|01:32.0|461.8|36.4|163.6|172.0|09.0

So, compare this to a very similar workout on the dynamic.  In that workout, I did take 2 1′ breaks and I also did some pause drills during the slow parts.  That explains why my HR ended up going higher today.  The rate is quite similar.  The power is where things are remarkably different.  I was putting up 100 more watts in the bursts today.  And I was working on technique.  I was really concentrating on getting my hands away fast and holding my knees down when I rated up.

12-1b12-1c12-1a

Tomorrow:  The weather looks good so I am going to go rowing.  Tough workout though.   6 x (5′ @ 28, 5′ @ 18).  I can’t wait!

Thursday: 4 x 20′ / 3′ at West Plano Crossfit

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Wednesday:  Travel day to Texas.  Flew down in the late morning, had a big prep meeting and a customer dinner.  On the plus side, I got back to the hotel by 10pm and I was asleep by 11.

Thursday:  I headed over to West Plano Crossfit at 5:30 in the morning.  I was scheduled for a nice easy endurance session.

Plan:

  • 3 x 20 / 3′
  • Cat VI (pace: 2:06, rate: 18)

Today was the day when I was going to try out my new iphone USB cable connection.  I had some doubts, because the way you make the connection is to buy a cable from LiveRowing and then use it with other apps.

I plugged in the cable to my phone and then into the PM3.  Then I discovered that the cable is too short to allow the phone to rest anywhere, so I need to have a phone cradle.  For today, I grabbed a velcro wrist brace and strapped the phone to the monitor arm.  I arranged so that I could just see the HR value, since that was the only thing that wasn’t on the PM3 screen.

I ran into a couple of other funny things.  First, if the cable was connected, then my bluetooth headphones would connect but not play.  But if I connected the headphones and then plugged in the cable, all was good.  Finally, when I went to take a monitor picture when I finished, I noticed that the camera would not work with the cable plugged in.

OK, with the head phones fixed, music on, cable plugged in, HR monitor turned on, I went to try to use painsled.  No luck.  It did not see the PM3 connected through the cable.  So then I tried ergdata.  Success!  It connected right away and even let me connect my HR monitor via my phone.  This is the way to get HR on a PM3 as far as I’m concerned.  You can’t see it on the screen, but at least you get all the pace, rate, power and HR data together.

So, off I go.  And I’m feeling great.  I go through 20 minutes and my HR is only up to about 142, and it feels easy.  So, I do another 20 minutes.  again, it’s pure delight.  I’m rowing easy, enjoying the music. hitting my numbers.  then the next rest and another 20 minutes, finishing up with a HR about 147.  One of the things that helped pass the time was the WOD (workout of the day) that the crossfitters were doing.  It was a AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) of some running, some dumbell snatches, then a 500m row, then somethings else.  But basically, every few minutes there would be this big rush to the rowers and they would flail wildly for a couple minutes and then run away.  It was very entertaining as I plodded along at my r18 and 2:06 pace.

Anyway, I finished the 3rd 20 minute piece and I felt fresh.  My HR was nice and stable around 147.  And since I got there so early, I had some time.  I decided to do a bonus 20 minutes and it was also pure bliss.  My HR stayed right at the plateau around 147-148 and I felt like I could have just kept going and going.  I guess that means that this is my “all day pace”.  I kind of spooked the Crossfit coach though, about 15 minutes into it, he wandered over and asked me if I was ever going to finish.  I told him I would be done in 4 minutes and 16 seconds and he seemed OK with that answer.  He was worried that I would want to go past the end of the second class that was going on now.

When I finished, I discovered a data disaster.  While I had overcome significant challenges to get my setup working, I had neglected to check the date on the PM3.  When I tried to sync my workout to the concept2 site, it told me grumpily that it was unwilling to upload my workout because the date was off by too much.  A quick check now revealed that I had unwittingly done my workout 3 months in the future.  The date was set to February 2018 on  the PM3.  So, now I have the most beautiful aerobic workout I have done in recent memory trapped on my phone and there is no way to extract the data.

I’m sorry, but this really pissed me off.  I see that there are incredible benefits to using data to improve the effectiveness of training, but it seems like there are so many traps along the way, that only data lunatics are willing to subject themselves to the constant bullshit that these half assed implementations put us through.  I mean, how hard would it have been for the person coding the sync function to offer an option to fix the date in the error handling code for the mismatch instead of just puking on the user?  It’s the same deal with using the PM5.  There are constant questions on the forum about hangups, drop outs, lost workouts and weird behavior.  Everyone who wants to use data routinely farts around trying different stuff until they stumble upon something that works and then they protect the method like an ancient druid protecting the philosopher’s stone.  Don’t even get me started on RowPro.  If your neighbor downloads pornography while you row, you get tossed out of your happy group row into some isolated world of loneliness like you have stumbled into the “Upside Down” on Stranger Things.  On the water, it’s even worse.  There are a multitude of fragile, incomplete solutions that distract us from rowing.  Not all the time, no, just enough so you never quite trust it.

Right now, I only feel good recommending data driven training approaches to people with a strong engineering background.  I feel like pointing someone who isn’t used to being a beta victim toward using these crappy products is just going to make me look like an idiot.

It reminds of the single best quote about software engineering I’ve ever seen.  If builders built buildings the way programmers write programmers, the first woodpecker would have destroyed civilization.

So, I feel great about the workout, but I am really pissed off at the way concept2 does the sync function on ergdata.  I guess if their intent was to make sure that I always will waste some time before each row to check the bloody date, then they sure taught me the lesson.  But if they wanted to look like the fine post-modern, connected fitness company I think they aspire to be, they sure missed the mark.

Sorry for the rant, I needed to get that off my chest.

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And with that workout, I wrap up November.  Total rowing time 28 hours and 5 minutes.  Best in almost 2 years.

foo2

Tomorrow is a new month.  I have a redo of my 20′ and 75′ tests coming up in a couple of weeks and some international travel to work around, and then there’s Christmas.  Let’s see how I do for training hours with those challenges.

Tomorrow:

  • 45′ continuous with bumps
  • Cat VI (rate: 18, pace 2:06)
  • Every 5 minutes 20 stroke burst at r32

 

 

Tuesday: 5 x 2000 / 2′ (1500 @ 22, 500 @24)

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Tuesday was a bit of a jumble.  I had to be at an offsite meeting at 8am to give some opening remarks, so no morning workout.  Then by 9am, I was on my way the office.  I couple of meetings brought me to around 12:45pm, when I headed off to the gym to do my planned session.

  • 5 x 2000m / 2′ rest
    • 1500m: r22, 2:01
    • 500m: r24, 1:55

Before that, I did the ever expanding set of corrective exercises from the PT.  These are starting to be a real time sink.  I hope the benefit is worth the training time that I am devoting to it.  The exercises have 3 purposes.  First to correct the imbalance between my hips and glutes.  Second to work a bunch of adhesions out of my quads and IT bands and improve hip flexibility.  Third to strength the helper muscles in abdomen to improve my ability to rock over and hold a strong position at the catch and finish with a very stable back.  I guess this is the perfect time of year to work on these issues, but I find it to be maddening drudgery.  I have to look at it as if it was a standard medical prescription and take my medicine.

I noticed that I felt more fatigued from my PT exercises , and I wondering if I was either coming down with the cold that was going through my family last week at Thanksgiving, or just worn out from my battles with the dynamic erg.  At any rate, I thought the erg session would be a struggle, and it was.  This is the same session that I did on 11/17 and 11/21.  The one on 11/21 was remarkably good.  This was a lot more like the one on the 17th.  High heart rates, but otherwise entirely manageable.

I started with a 2000m warmup, basically starting around 2:15 and speeding up to do the last 500m at my target 2:01 pace.

Then into the intervals.  I still want to pull a bit faster at r22 than a 2:01 pace, so I really needed to focus on light strokes, limited layback, and fast hands away to keep from either pulling 1:59s at r22, or 2:01s at r21.  This was actually a really good way to keep my brain engaged in the technique notes that I’ve been getting from Marlene.

As I said above, my HR was high, but I felt good through the session and pleasantly tired, but not beaten up at the end.

I finished with a 2000 happy ending cool down.

 

          Workout Summary - media/20171128-1920330o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15954|70:39.0|02:12.9|180.5|21.0|149.1|169.0|10.8
W-|10000|39:46.0|01:59.3|206.6|22.2|153.7|169.0|11.3
R-|05957|24:51.0|02:05.2|127.6|18.7|140.0|169.0|15.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01500|06:03.7|02:01.2|199.4|21.5|146.6|155.0|11.5
02|00500|01:54.4|01:54.4|235.6|23.8|158.0|161.0|11.0
03|01500|06:02.8|02:00.9|198.3|21.8|149.4|158.0|11.4
04|00500|01:54.4|01:54.4|232.7|23.7|159.9|161.0|11.1
05|01500|06:02.7|02:00.9|199.0|21.8|152.7|160.0|11.4
06|00500|01:54.0|01:54.0|234.2|23.8|162.6|167.0|11.0
07|01500|06:03.5|02:01.2|195.7|21.7|152.7|161.0|11.4
08|00500|01:54.4|01:54.4|232.5|24.2|164.8|169.0|10.8
09|01500|06:02.8|02:00.9|197.6|21.6|154.2|161.0|11.5
10|00500|01:53.8|01:53.8|235.5|24.2|165.1|167.0|10.9

Wednesday is a planned rest day.  I’m flying down to Texas for a couple of meetings.  I’m going to try to find a crossfit box for a workout tomorrow morning. The planned session is a nice easy endurance workout.

  • 3 x 20′ / 3′
  • Cat VI (r18, 2:06)

I’m pretty pleased with how things are going lately.  November is going to be my highest monthly training time in almost 2 years. Here is training time per month going back to May of 2013.  The last time a set a PB was January of 2016.  Do you notice something different in the graph before January of 2016 and after?  I sure do.

foo.png

By a strange coincidence, I got a promotion just about 2 years ago and the amount of travel and work hours ramped up at that time.  If I look closely at the months with low training totals, some of them correlate to months with a ton of travel (Feb-17, July-17), but other correlate with injuries (12-16 – knee surgery, 9-17 – back injury).

So, my conclusion is that I can probably manage about 30 training hours a month.  This would include rowing hours plus aerobic cross training.  It does not include PT stretches and exercises.  If I am traveling heavily, there will be more cross training hours and fewer rowing hours, and most likely a couple of extra “no training” days.

I think one adjustment that makes sense to is approach my schedule to do longer “easy” sessions when I have a time window to do it, and even extend them from 80 minutes to up to 2 hours, if I have the time.  I think there is a strong correlation between total training time and results.

 

Monday: 4 x 12′ / 1’30”

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Plan:

  • 4 x 12′ / 1’30″
  • rate: 22
  • pace: 2:01 to 2:05
  • HR limit: 157

The main point of this workout is precision.  Hitting exactly the target split at exactly the target rate.  In addition, it’s a good chance for me to work on recovery sequence (keeping my knees down)

I did the workout in the fitness center at work around 11 am.  This was about 18 hours after yesterday’s awful 60′ session.  I sure felt sore this morning and I suspect that I was not sufficiently recovered even by my late morning start.

My HR was a higher today than last week, but was only a little high relative to the HR limit.  It plateaued pretty much around 157-159.

          Workout Summary - media/20171127-1720300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12865|54:03.0|02:06.1|188.5|21.5|149.5|160.0|11.1
W-|11917|48:00.0|02:00.8|198.1|21.7|150.0|160.0|11.4
R-|00953|06:03.0|03:10.8|081.6|19.5|144.2|160.0|09.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02999|12:00.0|02:00.0|201.4|21.7|140.4|154.0|11.5
01|02973|12:00.0|02:01.1|197.0|21.6|150.7|157.0|11.5
02|02974|12:00.0|02:01.1|197.1|21.8|153.6|160.0|11.4
03|02971|12:00.0|02:01.2|197.0|21.8|155.1|160.0|11.4

Comparison of HR to last time.

11-27a.png

I like this workout.  It’s pretty short and not too taxing.

Tomorrow:

  • 5 x 2000m / 2′
    • 1500m at r22 and 2:01
    • 500m at r24 and 1:55

This is a redo of the workout I did last Tuesday.

Sunday: Hour of not much power

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God I hate this damn machine.  Still at home on the dynamic.

Plan:

  • 60 minutes
  • Rate: 22
  • Pace: ~2:00 or better

Should have been a piece of cake.

Started with a 5 minute warmup.

  • 1 minute of pause at arms away and body over
  • 1 minute at target pace
  • 1 minute of pause at arms away
  • 1 minute at target pace
  • 1 minute of pause at arms away

Then in to the main event.  60 minutes.  I set up a nice playlist on Pandora and got going.  After about 5 minutes, my music stopped playing.  I tried to fix it while rowing, but with no success.  After a couple minutes of trying to hold the pace while fiddling, I ripped off the headphones and flung them across the room and kept going.  It was the longest 50 minutes of my life.

As I suspected, holding a 2:00 split on the dynamic was too much for me and I had to slow down.  I crossed the 30 minute mark right at 7500 meters, but by then i was seeing a lot more 2:01s and 2:02s.  My HR was going pretty good, but plateaued in the low 170s for the second half of the row.  When the music stopped, it also blew away my painsled session, so the only evidence of my pain is the PM picture.

Tomorrow:  Scheduled rest day, but since I have business travel later in the week, I will do Tuesday’s session.

  • 4 x 12′ / 1″30″
  • rate: 22
  • pace: 2:01 to 2:05
  • HR limit: 157

Saturday: 4 x (5′ Cat III + 5′ Cat VI)

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I spent a couple of hours outside putting up the Christmas lights.  Then around 4pm, I suited up and headed back to the dreaded dynamic erg for a hard workout.  I was very worried about pacing for this one.

The plan:

  • 2 x 20′ / 1′
  • Each 20 broken into 2 sections, 10′ each
    • 5′ at Cat III (28 spm, 1:51 pace)
    • 5′ at Cat VI (18 spm, 2:06 to 2:11 pace)

My paces are derived from testing that I did on the static erg, and it seemed like I was a couple seconds slower for the Cat VI stuff.  But then yesterday, when I was doing the 20 stroke bumps, it felt much, much harder.  Like 5 to 10 seconds off what I could do on a static.

I decided to try to hold the original targets.  It was a very hard.

I started with a 5 minute warmup.  This was a minute easy, then a minute at r24, then a minute easy, then a minute at r28.  The minute at r28 was a bit scary because I discovered that it was far from easy to hold a 1:51 split.  It was actually quite hard.  Oh well.

Then I pushed on into the workout.  The first one was OK, but I was annoyed that my HR sensor seemed to be lagging.  It finally got with the program about 2 minutes into the first interval and was fine after that.  But I was really tired by the end of it.  I shifted down to the r18 and 2:10ish pace and recovered well.  But the second one came around pretty soon and I found myself counting strokes with my eyes closed to try to get through it.  I slowed down, just a little about halfway through and that helped me keep the wheels on.

I gasped my way through the 5 minutes at Cat VI, and then had a quick drink.  My legs were shot, but I gave it a go.  I told myself that 1:52 or 1:53 would be good enough and again counted strokes with my eyes closed.  The slower pace seemed to help.  The Cat VI section flew by and it was time for another 5′ sojourn in hell.  Now my legs were pretty useless, and even 1:53 was hard to hold.  But I counted strokes and got through it.  It really felt like I was rowing through mud (despite a very reasonable 128 drag factor).

After I finished the main set, I did a happy ending 2k cool down.

This is a bit depressing. The workout should have 20 minutes of Cat III, but I had less than 12.

Over time, I am supposed to extend this workout from 4x to 6x the 10 minute sequence.  I hope I can do it next time on a static erg.  I’m very interested to see the difference in outcomes.

Sunday:  The plan is an hour of power at r22.  Cat V pace.

Friday: 20 stroke bumps

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Thursday:  Rest day.  Thanksgiving.  We went up to Woodstock, Vermont and spent the day with my wife’s relatives.  We had two cars full.  My wife and I, our three adult children, and two significant others.  Good food and good company.

Friday:  We spent the night up in Vermont and had a nice brunch at the Woodstock Inn on Friday morning.  Then we packed back into our cars and drove home.  In the late afternoon, I settled in for an erg session.

The Plan:

  • 3 x 15′ / 1′
  • Cat VI Pace: 2:06 to 2:11, r18-20
  • Every 5′ – 20 strokes at r32  (Cat I)
  • Also, insert 5 strokes of a pause at rocked over on recovery every 5 minutes or so.

My technique objective was to work on correcting my problems with breaking my knees too early and also maintain the right back posture.  I did the pause drill as the first 5 strokes of each 5 minutes to get myself setup right, then rowed continuously until there was 2:50 seconds left in the 5 minute segment, then I would do 40 seconds of rowing at r32.  This ended up being about 23 or 24 strokes.  Then I would finish out the last 2:10 seconds at r18.  After three sets of that, I took a quick swig of water and did the pause drill during the rest of the break.

It was a very enjoyable workout.  I was happy to see my HR coming back down nicely at the Cat VI pace.

One thing I did not enjoy was doing this workout on the dynamic erg.  When I crank up to a 32 rate on the static erg (or on slides), the pace tumbles easily down to 1:35 or below.  On the dynamic, I was pulling as hard as I could at 32 and it was a massive struggle to get down below 1:45.

After I finished the main set I did a 2k happy ending cool down.

 

Wednesday: 3 x 20′ / 3′ Cat VI

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Easy session.  Good thing too.  I’m feeling a bit tired.  Lot’s of rowing over the past 6 days.  But I am really excited.  I feel like I am making progress on my stroke, and with the exercises that the PT has given me.

Today, I was doing the session at home, in the mid-afternoon.  The plan was:

  • 3 x 20′ / 3′
  • Cat VI
  • Pace 2:06-2:11
  • rate: 18-20
  • HR limit: 145,150,150

My hr was high today, and ended up marginally higher than the limits as I went along.

          Workout Summary - media/20171122-2120290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15020|69:00.0|02:17.8|152.1|20.0|142.7|154.0|10.9
W-|13977|60:00.0|02:08.8|163.9|19.6|144.5|154.0|11.9
R-|01046|09:00.0|04:18.1|056.6|23.5|128.3|154.0|03.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04676|20:00.0|02:08.3|165.2|19.1|138.7|146.0|12.3
01|04652|20:00.0|02:09.0|163.6|19.7|146.0|152.0|11.8
02|04650|20:00.0|02:09.0|162.8|20.1|148.9|154.0|11.6

Tomorrow:  Rest day!  Happy Thanksgiving.

On Friday the plan is:

  • 3 x 15′ / 1′
  • Every 5′ – 20 strokes at r32
  • Otherwise: Cat VI: 2:06 to 2:11, r18-20
  • Also, Insert 5 strokes of pause at hands away to try to work on keeping knees down on recovery in the first minute after the fast strokes.

Basically, I will do this as 4:20 at Cat VI pacing and then 40 seconds at r32 or higher.   I’ll be at home on the dynamic for  this session.