Stumbling into rowing season

March 9, 2020Leave a comment

I feel like I am training without purpose right now.

It’s been a month since I reviewed my training. It has been a busy month, but not so good for the state of my fitness.

From the beginning 9th of February:

28 days
Target 24 training days, actual 21 training days (but two of them were very short)
Target is 6 sessions a week. Actual was 5.1 sessions a week.
Travel in 3 of the 4 weeks
- 2 day trip to San Jose
- 1 week trip to Aruba
- 1 week trip to Texas and Costa Rica

With so much disruption, I dropped back to a maintenance mode, and did very few high intensity sessions.

Target High intensity days 12, actual 3

So, heres the daily activities…

Sunday – Feb 9 – No Training (not sure why)

Monday – Feb 10 – Short Stack – 3 x (13 x 30″/15″)/5′

Based on a tweet from Stephen Seiler. A pretty intense workout.

Blew the start of the 3rd to last interval. Paddled it out.

Findings about these workouts were posted in a youtube video. (link)

Tuesday – Feb 11 – 2 x 30′ / 2′ L4

Based on the HR, things are going in the wrong direction.

Wednesday – Feb 12 – No Training

6AM flight to San Francisco. Straight into meetings.

Thursday – Feb 13 – No Training

8AM flight home.

Friday – Feb 14 – 3 x 20’/2′ L4

High HR. Travel and lack of endurance minutes catching up with me.

Saturday – Feb 15 – WU + 2 x 20’/2′ L4

I started with the intent of doing a hard distance workout. So I did a 20 minute workout, but felt so awful that I abandoned those plans and just did 2 20 minute L4 pieces. HR was better than Friday, which was good to see.

Sunday – Feb 16 – No Training

My wife and I flew to Aruba for vacation!

Monday – Feb 17 – 5km beach run

Aruba is wonderful. The sand is nice and hard near the water. Perfect for running barefoot. I ran from our hotel, which is at the extreme north end of Palm Beach to the other end, where the Divi is. It’s about 2.5km each way. I ran one way and took breaks on the way back. The killer is the piers. You need to leave the hard sand and run up the beach through the soft dry sand and then back down.

Tuesday – Feb 18 – 30′ Stationary Bike / 20 minute swim

Legs a bit sore from beach running, so I started with a 30 minute easy stationary bike ride in the fitness center.

Then I headed down to the beach and went for a swim. I swam for about 20 minutes and did four complete lengths of the swimming area at our hotel. I later found out that was about 0.4 miles.

Wednesday – Feb 19 – 5km beach run and 30′ swim

The run was better than the first. I paced it a bit better (slower) and took fewer breaks on the way back to the hotel.

The swim was also better. This time, I had goggles and got into a very relaxed groove. The HR data was suspect though.

Thursday – Feb 20 – 5km run and 30 min Swim

Another nice beach run. Good pacing and pushed it a bit harder at the end.

Then another swim. Really enjoying this. Makes me wish I lived on a tropical island where I could do this every day!

Friday – Feb 21 – No Training

Flying home

Saturday – Feb 22 – 3 x 30′ / 2′ L4

Had technical issues with BoatCoach. There was a glitch and it lost my first 60 minutes of rowing. Here’s the last 30′

Here’s the whole thing as witnessed by my watch. Equally boring, but necessary base work.

Sunday – Feb 23 – 3 x 30′ / 2′ L4

More meters in the bank

Monday – Feb 24 – No Training

Flew to Austin, straight into meetings

Tuesday – Feb 25 – 30′ Inclined walk / 30′ row

The walk.

The row – felt terrible

Wednesday – Feb 26 – 30′ inclined walk

Needed to be quick. I was heading off to the airport to catch a 9am flight to Dallas

Thursday – Feb 27 – 30′ Inclined Walk

I had a morning flight to Costa Rica, so another quick stop in the fitness center.

Friday – Feb 28 – No Training

I was in Costa Rica for just the afternoon. I had dinner with the team there and then headed to the airport. I caught an 11:30pm flight to JFK, and then caught the shuttle flight to Boston, arriving around 10am. I had a set of meetings and then scooted home. My wife and I went down to the Cape that night.

Saturday – Feb 29 – 4 x 20′ steady state

Just coasting along on slides. Longer rest between #2 and #3 was me going and switching the laundry.

Sunday – Mar 1 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

Not a bad session, all things considered. On slides in Hopkinton.

Monday – Mar 2 – 8 x 500/3’30” L1

Holy cow! An L1 workout. Very gentle targets. Started with the thought of just doing better than 1:45. After 1, decided 1:44 was a better pace to aim at. The last one was good.

Tuesday – Mar 3 – 2 x 30′ / 2′ L4

Started OK, but I got tired and my HR was climbing freely in the second piece. Decided to just row it out at 18spm for the last 10 minutes.

Wednesday – Mar 4 – Short Interval Stack 3 x (13×30″/15″)/5′

An encore of the workout from February. Less ambitious power target this time, but better execution. I think I was also in worse shape, but man…It’s a great workout.

Thursday – Mar 5 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

I was sick of the high heart rates of some previous L4 workouts, so I dialed it back to an easier stroke sequence. That did the trick and this was a good, enjoyable workout.

Friday – Mar 6 – No Training

We went into Cambridge on Thursday night to celebrate my sons’ birthday. We got home late and I slept in a bit on Friday.

Saturday – Mar 7 – No Training

We went to go see my wife’s cousin’s daughter play in the Big East Women’s Hockey championship. I should have gotten up a bit early and gotten a row in, but I didn’t, and by the time we had got back home, there was a ton of other stuff to do. I felt bad about missing a weekend day though.

Sunday – March 8 – 3 x 30′ / 2′ Steady State

Looking for low heart rates and easy rowing. This session delivered. Got a bit greedy i the last 30 minutes and pushed the power. Nice flat HR though.

The good news is that today, I got back on the water. I’ll write that one up soon. But I’m going to just play it by ear for a week or two and then figure out an OTW training plan.

Erg Based Training is so simple!

November 17, 2019Leave a comment

I last posted on November 11th, right after I struggled with the Pyramid workout. Since then, I’ve had some OK workouts, some good workouts, but the main thing I’ve had is consistency. I been able to follow my plan at just about 100% conformance for the past three weeks.

Just in time for three weeks of travel and holidays! Let’s see how well I can maintain momentum through this.

Tuesday – November 12 – 4 x 20′ / 2′

At work, static erg. Nothing fancy. Just doing the meters. Working with a HR cap of 150.

       Workout Summary - media/20191112-1401180o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20011|01:27:59.9|02:11.9|160.6|19.7|137.7|150.0|11.6
W-|18981|01:19:52.4|02:06.2|173.5|20.2|139.1|150.0|11.8
R-|01034|00:08:00.0|03:52.1|033.7|14.6|124.7|150.0|11.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04773|20:00.0|02:05.7|174.0|19.9|129.7|138.0|12.0
01|04742|20:00.0|02:06.5|173.2|20.2|138.6|146.0|11.7
02|04747|20:00.0|02:06.4|173.2|20.2|143.4|149.0|11.8
03|04719|19:52.4|02:06.4|173.5|20.5|144.6|150.0|11.6

Good session.

Wednesday – 13 November – 5 x 1500/5′ L2

Always my favorite of the L2 workouts. Pace target was 1:51.0.

Started with a 2k warmup.

Then the main session. I chickened out about the 1:51 target and decided 1:52 would be better.

        Workout Summary - media/20191113-1341120o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10974|00:52:45.7|02:24.2|157.6|22.0|143.0|176.0|09.5
W-|07500|00:27:44.4|01:51.0|256.1|26.7|155.5|176.0|10.1
R-|03476|00:25:01.6|03:36.0|048.4|16.7|129.1|176.0|08.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01500|05:32.4|01:50.8|254.4|26.2|149.6|164.0|10.3
01|01500|05:35.5|01:51.8|253.5|26.6|154.6|167.0|10.1
02|01500|05:33.3|01:51.1|254.4|26.9|156.5|170.0|10.0
03|01500|05:33.1|01:51.0|255.9|26.9|158.1|172.0|10.1
04|01500|05:30.1|01:50.0|262.7|27.2|158.7|176.0|10.0

As it turned out, with a bit of a fast last, I was able to make the target after all.

Later Wednesday morning, I headed down to Washington DC to do a presentation at a conference.

Thursday – 14 November – steady state cross training in Washington

30′ inclined walk

10′ stationary bike (I was not enjoying it)

20′ on an ellipitcal

Friday – 15 November – 3 x 20′ / 1′

I was pressed for time, so I cut back from an 80 minuter session to 60′. I pushed the power target up a bit, mainly just to see what would happen. I was very happy with the result. My HR was higher, but plateaued pretty well.

        Workout Summary - media/20191115-1331160o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14840|01:03:00.4|02:07.4|175.2|19.9|142.0|157.0|11.8
W-|14481|00:60:00.0|02:04.3|182.0|20.0|141.9|157.0|12.0
R-|00363|00:03:00.5|04:08.7|038.8|17.5|143.6|157.0|07.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04829|20:00.0|02:04.2|181.7|20.1|131.1|144.0|12.0
01|04825|20:00.0|02:04.3|182.1|20.0|144.0|150.0|12.0
02|04826|20:00.0|02:04.3|182.2|20.0|150.5|157.0|12.1

That was really gratifying. I feel like my base fitness is starting to return.

Saturday – 16 November – 6K Threshold

I was nervous about this session all day. I was originally going to do it with company at the lake with some clubmates, but we ended up locked out of the storeroom where the ergs are kept. So I was able to procrastinate a bit longer. I finally got up the nerve to go do it. First, a 2K warmup.

Then there wasn’t anything else to do but to give it a try. I had put my 10K and my 30 minute sessions into the Free Spirits pace predictor and it spit out a 1:51.4 target. Holy hell, that felt fast. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. So, off I went trying to keep 1:51’s on the screen. That worked out OK through the first 2000, but I was starting to really feel it. My HR was well in control, but I had that vaguely drowning feeling you get when you’re on the edge. I played with pace and rate a bit to see if anything felt better and counted out blocks of 100 strokes. The section from 4000 to 5000 was the worst. I managed to get some control of myself by really trying to concentrate on stroke technique. Keeping my knees down during the first part of the recovery and limiting my layback. Then into the last 100 strokes, and it was just a matter of getting through it. I managed a small sprint in the last 500 meters.

Then a happy ending cool down.

I am very happy with that. I ranked it and for it’s currently 38th for the 50-59 heavies. Roughly the 90th percentile. It’s a full minute off my best 6K time, so lots of room for improvement, but a good hard row.

Sunday – 17 November – 3 x 30’/2′

Long and easy. Perfect for a sunday afternoon.

        Workout Summary - media/20191117-1926120o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|22004|01:36:00.0|02:10.9|167.2|19.8|136.9|147.0|11.6
W-|21455|01:30:00.0|02:05.8|175.3|19.9|137.9|147.0|12.0
R-|00553|00:06:00.0|05:25.7|046.4|18.1|121.5|147.0|08.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07137|30:00.0|02:06.1|173.3|19.5|134.3|141.0|12.2
01|07135|30:00.0|02:06.1|174.9|20.0|138.7|144.0|11.9
02|07183|30:00.0|02:05.3|177.8|20.3|140.7|147.0|11.8

I wanted to stay below a HR cap of 150, and started with a power target of 173W. I nudged it up in each 30′ segment by a couple of watts. More signs of progress.

Tomorrow: I fly out to Shanghai at 9am.

5 beds in 5 nights

September 1, 2019September 1, 2019Leave a comment

Monday – 8/26: 30′ Stationary cycle

I hadn’t planned on a workout on Monday, but I arrived at my hotel and had a appropriate gap in my schedule to squeeze in a quick workout. I headed down to the gym and hopped on a stationary bike.

Why the bike? Well, when I was packing on Sunday night I managed to give myself a nasty scratch on the top of my foot and it hurt to walk or run. The bike pedals were OK though.

I programmed a 1 minute on / 1 minute off interval workout.

Good fun. I slept in Orange County on Monday night.

Tuesday – 8/27: 50 minute steady state stationary bike

First thing in the morning when I woke up.

After this, I showered, hopped in the car and drove to San Diego, about 90 minutes away. I had breakfast with our team there, and had a couple of meetings. Then I drove to Agoura Hills which is north of LA. It was a very pleasant 3 hour drive.

Once I got to Agoura Hills, I had a meeting with some of our engineering team there. I had dinner alone and fell asleep around 9, in the hotel in Agoura Hills.

Wednesday – 8/28: 40 minute stationary bike

Again, first thing in the morning. Today was a medium intensity rolling hills workout.

Then back to our facility for more meetings. I headed out to the airport around noon and flew to Chicago, arriving at 9pm. I got to the hotel around 10pm and promptly fell asleep.

Thursday – 8/29: 30′ Stationary bike

Tired this morning. Took it easy. HR was high nonetheless.

After that, I headed to our office north of Chicago and had a few meetings. I headed out to the airport around 4pm. I caught a 7pm flight home and arrived back at my house around 11pm. I slept in Hopkinton that night.

Friday – 8/30 : No training

I slept hard until 9am, when my wife helpfully woke me up so I could dash off and get onto my first call of the day.. The morning was a blur of calls. Then we got our stuff packed and around 1:30 we headed off to the cape, arriving around 4:00pm. I had another work call, and the we chilled out, had some dinner and crashed around 10:30.

That was my fifth bed of the week.

Saturday – 8/31: 11k coastal row

A glorious beautiful day! I relaxed all morning. In the early after noon, I loaded up the boat, and headed off for a row. There was a brisk 10-15mph breeze from the north, so I decided to row the marshes where I would be protected from the chop. It was a good call. At the very end, I came out into the bay a little bit and I was bashed around. That bit was not fun, but it only lasted a few minutes and I was back on the beach.

The tide was flowing out during the whole row, and the stream was quite strong at times.

        Workout Summary - media/20190831-2041020o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11661|01:11:55.0|03:05.0|000.0|20.5|146.2|163.0|07.9
W-|11138|01:05:24.4|02:56.2|000.0|20.0|146.7|163.0|08.5
R-|00530|00:06:31.2|06:09.0|000.0|25.1|140.5|163.0|04.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02673|16:15.2|03:02.4|000.0|18.9|136.4|156.0|08.7 against tide
02|01404|08:02.8|02:51.9|000.0|20.4|149.3|155.0|08.5 with tide
03|01915|12:12.5|03:11.2|000.0|19.7|148.0|158.0|07.9 against tide
04|03345|19:28.5|02:54.7|000.0|20.4|150.8|163.0|08.4 bit of both
05|00070|00:27.4|03:16.8|000.0|19.7|159.6|161.0|07.7 against tide
06|01671|08:33.4|02:33.6|000.0|21.2|152.1|161.0|09.2 with tide
07|00060|00:24.6|03:25.0|000.0|19.5|149.6|154.0|07.5 last little bit

Man, I love rowing! The time just flew by, sun was shining, the water was nice and flat (mostly), and was able to focus on trying to row clean.

Tomorrow: I hope I can do it all over again.

The past three weeks

May 27, 2019May 27, 2019Leave a comment

Last post on May 7th. I had just had a very good 4 x 2k session on the water.

Wednesday – May 8th – 30 min L4

I had a busy day ahead of me and in the morning, when I got to work, I ended up getting distracted with emails. I finally looked up and I only had about 45 minutes until my first meeting. I zipped down to the gym and did a quick 30 minute L4.

5 x 6′, where each 6′ was 3′ @ r18, 2′ @ r20, 1′ @ r22

       Workout Summary - media/577a150d295c4f34_38173149.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07313|30:00.0|02:03.1|187.8|19.0|150.0|000.0|12.5
W-|07313|30:00.0|02:03.1|187.8|19.0|150.0|000.0|12.5
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|000.0|00.0

Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01453|06:00.0|02:03.9|184.1|20.0|000.0|0.0|00.0
01|01465|06:00.0|02:02.9|188.7|19.0|000.0|0.0|00.0
02|01465|06:00.0|02:02.9|188.7|19.0|000.0|0.0|00.0
03|01462|06:00.0|02:03.1|187.5|19.0|000.0|0.0|00.0
04|01468|06:00.0|02:02.6|189.9|19.0|000.0|0.0|00.0

I was aiming at a slightly lighter stroke, so I made my targets

r18 – 170W
r20 – 190W
r22 – 210W

Thursday – May 9 – 8 x 2′ / 2′ L1 – On the Water

Back in Newton. I was not trying to set any records and I haven’t done much work at higher stroke rates. I did 4 intervals going down stream, then 4 coming back up. Each set, I aimed at r24, r26, r28, r30. The summary shows that I wasn’t all that great at hitting the stroke rates.

       Workout Summary - media/20190510-1638000o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08168|45:50.0|02:48.4|127.6|22.2|144.2|172.0|08.0
W-|03727|15:40.0|02:06.2|215.1|27.4|153.1|172.0|08.7
R-|04448|30:11.0|03:23.6|082.1|19.6|139.6|172.0|07.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00465|02:02.4|02:11.6|185.9|24.0|149.1|158.0|09.5
02|00498|02:07.6|02:08.1|207.2|26.3|151.0|164.0|08.9
03|00422|01:43.2|02:02.2|245.8|29.1|153.0|168.0|08.4
04|00457|01:50.4|02:00.7|254.9|30.3|153.6|170.0|08.2
05|00451|01:55.7|02:08.2|193.1|25.4|147.8|163.0|09.2
06|00485|02:04.5|02:08.3|192.5|27.1|154.5|168.0|08.6
07|00467|01:57.3|02:05.5|223.7|29.1|158.3|169.0|08.2
08|00481|01:59.4|02:04.2|226.6|28.6|157.8|172.0|08.4

Good workout though.

Friday – May 10 – No Training

Don’t remember why.

Saturday – May 11 – Threshold 10K (on slides)

Down on the cape. Started slow, and then pushed harder. Nice to get through one without a bobble in the middle.

Sunday – May 12 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

Down on the cape. On Slides

Nice and easy.

Monday – May 12 – 5 x 1500 L2

At work. Having all kinds of issues. The workout ended up in 3 different files. While doing the first interval, I discovered that I needed to go to the bathroom. It was remarkably unpleasant getting through the last 300m or so. I rushed off, too care of business, and then decided to try “rerow”, which I thought would just bring up a normal distance interval session. I was wrong. Since I had done one rep the first time, that what it did for the rerow. So, I needed to reprogram the P5 for the last 3 intervals. When I glued them together, the start time for the set of three intervals looks wrong. I didn’t wait 20 minutes between the 2nd and 3rd interval. I did however, you out too aggressively in the thrid interval and I needed to dial it back, which I did.

Tuesday – May 14 – No training

I was hoping for a quick row in the middle of the day, but work got in the way.

Wednesday – May 15 – Alternating 2′ SBR or Slow roll ups / 2′ Steady State

Back in my single in Newton. I would 2 minutes of square blades, then 2 minutes of steady state, then 2′ of slow roll ups, then 2′ of steady state. And then repeat.

Felt like a very productive session. Good to work on balance, and oar control.

Thursday – May 16 – OTW Steady State

Trying to continue to work on technique. Needed to keep it to an hour to get to work in time for my first meeting.

        Workout Summary - media/20190516-1555460o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10608|00:56:16.1|02:39.1|133.5|19.8|146.8|158.0|09.5
W-|09928|00:49:34.5|02:29.8|141.0|19.9|149.1|158.0|10.1
R-|00685|00:-197:29.8|-143:-24.7|71028479286579533185024.0|41576773771231976488960.0|310807103207674254196736.0|158.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03808|18:16.0|02:23.9|146.1|19.6|146.9|158.0|10.6
02|02834|14:36.6|02:34.7|138.0|19.4|151.2|156.0|10.0
03|01122|05:30.6|02:27.3|139.0|19.3|145.6|152.0|10.6
04|01317|06:42.9|02:32.9|141.3|21.4|150.2|156.0|09.2
05|00356|01:51.0|02:36.1|145.5|21.0|155.0|157.0|09.1
06|00491|02:37.4|02:40.3|122.8|21.5|152.8|156.0|08.7

Friday – May 17 – No Training

I was up until very late on Thursday night on conference calls. My company is impacted by some of the new developments in the trade dispute between the US and China. We were on the phone with our team there working out plans to deal with it. I slept in a bit on Friday morning.

Saturday – May 18 – Mulching

5 hours and 47 minutes of mulching. The process works like this.

Weed the bed, shovel out and excess soil along the edging
load wheelbarrow with mulch
dump and spread
repeat 2-3 until bed is finished
move to next bed, repeat 1-4

This requires about 5 cubic yards of mulch and about 8 hours of work.

On Saturday, I set out to get as much done as I could. It turns out to be good endurance exercise. Sub-UT2, but still quite taxing after you do it for hours.

The span from 2:10 to 3:20, I was working but the HR sensor in the watch was dirty from the mulch. You can tell that I was motivated to get done in the last hour or so. You can also see a clear 3-4 minute pattern for each load of mulch in that last section.

Sunday – May 19 – More Mulching, then an aborted L4.

Just finishing it off, less than 2 hours.

Then later in the afternoon, I thought I should do an erg session. I was wrong. I got 20 minutes in and decided to pack it in. I was sore and tired.

Monday – May 20 – 2 x 20′ / 2′ L4

At work. I was up until 2am on the phone with China. I slept in and then planned to go to the gym at lunch. I was pressed for time, so I only did a 4 minute session. HR was quite high. I think work stress is getting to me.

Tuesday – May 21 – Drills on the fives

A glorious day on the water. Continuing to work on technique. Today, I was doing 4 minutes of steady state, then a minute of drills. They were

pause at body over
open hands on recovery
half slide
square blades
slow roll ups

Wednesday – May 22 – No Training

I was up at 4:15 to head to the airport. I flew out to San Jose for an afternoon meeting and dinner. Then I caught the red eye home.

Thursday – May 23 – 40′ L4

I came home after the red eye and slept from about 8 to 10am. Then I was on calls just about the rest of the day. Around 5pm, I decided to do a quick session. I decided to just do a 40′ L4 without the break in the middle. It felt good.

Friday – May 24 – 5 x 4′ / 4′ L1(ish)

I’ve been thinking about coming up with a training plan that fits my current situation a bit better. With the situation in China and various other things going on, I am finding it challenging to put as much time into training. I am also spending more time on the erg this season (compared to water time) than in prior seasons. I attribute this to the time constraints, plus the fact that I am now equipped with slides at home instead of the dynamic, which I hated using enough to avoid sessions.

Anyway, I am toying with a 40 minute version of the WP. Basically, try to fit all the different types of sessions into a 40 minute block. Keep it time based.

So, today, I was aiming for a session that was a little more aerobic than the 4x1k, so I decided to slice the session up into 5 – 4 minute intervals with 4 minutes of rest. I would aim at holding splits below 1:50.

        Workout Summary - media/20190524-2140480o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09675|00:39:26.8|02:02.3|198.1|23.9|152.5|183.0|10.3
W-|05483|00:19:51.1|01:48.6|275.5|27.6|163.5|183.0|10.0
R-|04196|00:19:36.3|02:20.2|119.7|20.1|141.3|183.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01103|04:01.2|01:49.3|269.5|26.2|155.4|167.0|10.5
02|01111|04:03.3|01:49.5|273.2|26.7|160.9|174.0|10.2
03|01108|03:59.5|01:48.1|279.8|28.2|165.4|178.0|09.8
04|01056|03:49.2|01:48.6|273.8|28.0|166.0|180.0|09.9
05|01106|03:58.0|01:47.7|281.4|29.1|170.3|183.0|09.6

That was great! Good choice on pacing. I arranged it so I did the rest first, which was essentially a quick warmup. Then the interval. Easy programming a good change.

Saturday – May 25 – 40′ L4

Just like Thursday. A bit better HR response.

Sunday – May 26 – Caprentry plus 8 x 1’30″/3’30” L1

Down on the cape. Around noon, I set to work on replacing the stairs down to the water from our house on Cape Cod. This winter (like last winter), there was pack ice that ripped the stairs away. It ended up looking like this.

I started 2 weekends ago and managed to replace the frame for the bottom platform. This weekend, I wanted to get that planked and get the stairs back to the beach.

The challenging part of this was anchoring the stairs at the bottom. There used to be a pair of angle irons that I could bolt to, but the were destroyed last winter. I decided to put in a bottom landing, anchored to the bank using snow fencing posts. Snow fencing is put up on posts that you can drive into sand. The posts are about 8 feet long, and I have a heavy tool that slips over the top of the post, and can be lifted and dropped to drive the post down through sand. It looks like this.

So, I would drive 4 posts around a piece of 2×8 that would act as the landing for the stairs. I would drive them about 5 feet into the sand, which I figured would at least hold the stairs for the season. The finished product looked like this.

Hard to believe each of those posts goes down 5 feet! Driving the posts was hard! Each one took about 200 blows, which I did in sets of 20. My sons came and helped for the last 2, where we switched off to drive them in.

Once the base was in place, The rest was pretty easy, but it took about 3 hours.

Later in the evening, I decided to do an erg session.

Another adaptation of an L1. This one aiming to be slightly more intense than a 8 x 500 by shortening the work period.

Lots of missing strokes. Which messed up the summary. But the workout was great. Very challenging at the end. By using the flex plot and suppressing all strokes below 24 spm and all strokes with a WpS below 200, I could get an idea of the interval power. Here is is shown as an avg of 320. (1:43 pace)

I was happy with this session, especially since my upper body had gotten a good workout from the post driving.

Today, we are back in Hopkinton (It’s a three day weekend). I will do a 40 minute L4 later.

3/29 – 4/8 : Oh my back!

April 8, 2019Leave a comment

Friday – 3/29 – 4 x 1500/random rests:

I had a great row on Thursday 3/28. I was planning on heading out to Lake Quinsigamond to demonstrate Quiske, and hopefully go for a row.

As it turned out, I didn’t get out on the water. But, I was working at home, so I could try the experiment that I wanted to do on the erg.

I have been corresponding with the developer of PainSled. I really like the painSled app. It is simple and generally pretty reliable, but recently, it seems to be dropping strokes. The app eventually catches up, but the missing strokes mean that summaries and plots look ugly.

The developer thought that the setup that I was using might be causing the problems.

So, I designed an experiment to test the theory. The experiment had 6 parts. I would row 1500 meter pieces.

Playing music (spotify streaming using wireless earbuds), stroke scope enabled
Playing music (spotify streaming using wireless earbuds), stroke scope disabled
No music, earbuds disconnected, stroke scope enabled
No music, earbuds disconnected, stroke scope disabled
ergdata, no music, no earbuds
playing music, BT earbuds

The experiment design was better than the execution. I had a number of interruptions, but despite that, I got some pretty compelling data.

I reviewed the raw exports from painsled. Painsled provides a column with stroke count data, so simply by looking for data records where the stroke count increments by more than 1. Here is a snippet from the spreadsheet which calculates the missing strokes. Notice the line 3 from the bottom where it missed 14 strokes!

The ergdata log file was a bit more challenging to analyze. It does not log the stroke count. So, for this one, I used the distance column. For this workout, my distance per stroke should be between 10 and 15 meters.

You can see all the strokes are in the right range, except for one. I had an interruption in the middle of this piece. Notice the time jumps from 89.6 sec to 338 sec. I needed to go deal with a tradesman who was fixing our garage door. The fan spun down clicking up some additional meters. Otherwise, there were no missing strokes.

So, here is the summary of the results.

So, I got a good workout, and I think I showed with reasonable certainty that the problems are not related to other stuff connected to the phone.

Before I worked out I noticed that my back was a little stiff. In the hours after my workout, my back got progressively tighter and sorer. The symptoms were exactly the same as the late summer of 2017. I had bilateral pain, very low on my back, and it hurt most when changing positions. For example, standing up hurt like hell. It also was impossible to bend over and lift my leg to, say, put on my pants without bracing with one hand.

At that time, I was diagnosed with some minor osteo-arthritis in my SI joints which were exacerbated by some nasty adhesions and imbalances in the muscles of my hips and thighs.

By Friday night, I was hobbling around like 90 year old man. My amateur treatment plan was.

Rest and ibuprofen for a few days
Stretching and foam rolling, with light non-rowing aerobic training
When I was reasonably pain free, start back rowing, avoiding intense pieces for a week or so.

Saturday – 3/30 – No training

My wife and I went down to the cape and had a nice day just hanging out. The highlight of the day was making some tasty Fajitas. Back still mighty sore!

Sunday – 3/31 – No Training

We headed home late in the afternoon. Back getting a little looser, but it still hurt a lot.

Monday – 4/1 – No Training

One more day of rest. Improving daily.

Tuesday – 4/2 – 20 minute treadmill, 10 minute bike

stretches, foam rolling, ab lifts

20 minutes treadmill: 15% incline, 2.9 mph

10 minutes stationary bike, level 14, rolling hills

Wednesday – 4/3 – 20 minutes treadmill, 20 minutes bike

stretches, foam rolling, ab lifts

20 minutes treadmill: 15% incline, 2.9 mph

20 minutes stationary bike, level 14, rolling hills

Thursday – 4/4 – No Training

I had to drop my car off at the shop and didn’t have a window to train.

Friday – 4/5 – 20 minutes treadmill, 20 minute row

stretches, foam rollings, ab lifts

20 minutes treadmill: 15% incline, 2.9 mph

20 minutes on the rower. Heart rate quite high as one might expect. Back felt fine before and after.

Saturday – 3 x 20’/2′ on slides

More experimentation with painsled. I was wondering if the problem was being caused by the painsled app trying to find a BLE HR monitor and not succeeding. So I decided to try disabling that. It didn’t make a difference. But on the plus side, my back held up great!

Sunday – 4/7 – 3 x 20’/2′ on slides

Same workout as Saturday. I was a little more tired and that caused a higher heart rate. The back is still feeling good.

I headed to the airport around 6pm to catch a 8pm flight to Europe.

Monday – 4/8 – No Training

I arrived around noon and was at my hotel at 1pm. I needed to be in the office by 2:30, no time for a workout.

Working hard – 2/28 to 3/9

March 10, 2019March 12, 2019Leave a comment

Thursday – Feb 28 – Inclined march / recumbent cycle

30 minutes each

Treadmill on 15% grade. 3.2 mph

Recumbent cycle. Random on level 15.

Friday – March 1 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4 on slides

I love doing these on slides.

       Workout Summary - media/20190301-1855360o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15349|65:59.0|02:09.0|166.8|18.9|142.4|164.0|12.3
W-|14321|59:21.0|02:04.3|179.2|19.3|143.3|163.0|12.5
R-|01033|06:00.0|02:54.3|057.1|16.2|135.0|163.0|09.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02355|09:44.7|02:04.2|175.0|18.8|126.4|137.0|12.8
01|02302|09:36.7|02:05.3|178.0|19.0|140.1|145.0|12.6
02|02423|10:00.0|02:03.8|177.9|19.1|140.9|147.0|12.7
03|02407|10:00.0|02:04.6|180.6|19.5|151.0|156.0|12.3
04|02410|10:00.0|02:04.5|181.7|19.5|147.8|157.0|12.4
05|02423|10:00.0|02:03.8|181.8|19.5|153.3|163.0|12.4

Saturday – March 2 – 4 x 18 / 2′ L4 on Slides

Even more fun. 6′ ladders. 18/20/22.

       Workout Summary - media/20190302-2045370o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|18333|79:59.0|02:10.9|165.9|19.3|139.4|158.0|11.8
W-|17193|71:51.0|02:05.4|178.9|19.3|140.1|158.0|12.4
R-|01147|08:00.0|03:29.3|051.1|19.4|133.1|158.0|08.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01450|06:00.0|02:04.1|180.9|19.0|119.0|134.0|12.7
01|01422|06:00.0|02:06.6|180.9|19.2|133.1|140.0|12.3
02|01440|06:00.0|02:05.0|179.4|19.3|140.0|144.0|12.5
03|01432|06:00.0|02:05.7|179.1|19.4|130.8|141.0|12.3
04|01407|05:52.4|02:05.2|178.7|19.3|141.1|148.0|12.4
05|01470|06:07.6|02:05.0|178.8|19.4|145.3|151.0|12.3
06|01432|06:00.0|02:05.7|179.7|19.6|136.9|150.0|12.2
07|01437|06:00.0|02:05.2|178.3|19.4|146.5|150.0|12.4
08|01400|05:51.6|02:05.6|177.0|19.3|147.6|153.0|12.4
09|01429|06:00.0|02:05.9|177.5|19.3|139.1|151.0|12.3
10|01436|06:00.0|02:05.3|177.8|19.3|149.6|156.0|12.4
11|01436|06:00.0|02:05.3|178.3|19.5|152.0|158.0|12.3

Sunday – March 3 – No Training

I flew out to San Jose (again) for another customer meeting on Monday.

Monday – March 4 – Fitness Center

30 minutes inclined march. Felt tired. Needed to slow it to 2.8 mph (from 3.0) and HR was still quite high.

Recumbent cycle. random. level 15

Tuesday – March 5 – No Training

I caught a flight at 6 am, got home around 7pm.

Wednesday – March 6 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4 (static)

Not as lovely as doing it on slide, but still pretty relaxed.

       Workout Summary - media/20190306-1345400o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15207|66:00.0|02:10.2|169.4|17.0|139.1|159.0|13.6
W-|14468|60:00.0|02:04.4|181.9|17.4|139.9|159.0|13.9
R-|00744|06:00.0|04:02.0|044.7|12.9|131.1|159.0|09.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02395|10:00.0|02:05.3|177.3|16.8|124.1|136.0|14.2
01|02404|10:00.0|02:04.8|180.4|17.1|138.6|142.0|14.1
02|02401|10:00.0|02:04.9|179.1|17.2|136.3|144.0|14.0
03|02419|10:00.0|02:04.0|184.0|17.6|147.8|153.0|13.7
04|02416|10:00.0|02:04.2|183.6|17.4|144.2|152.0|13.9
05|02433|10:00.0|02:03.3|187.3|18.2|148.4|159.0|13.4

Thursday – March 7 – 4 x 1000m / 5′ L1 (static)

Back to the real workouts. Here’s my L1 History

30 Jan – 4 x 1k – 1:47.7 (static)
4 Feb – Pyramid – 1:42.0 (static)
11 Feb – 8 x 500 – 1:39.7 (static)

So, there’s a 4 week gap in doing an L1 because of vacation and business travel. That’s not very good. So, what should I aim for on the 4x1k? It’s the hardest of the L1 workouts, and I am usually slower on it. I decided to aim for 1:45 and see if I could push it faster as I went.

I started with a 2k warmup. Hitting sub-1:45 felt really good. I was aiming at r28 and the strokes felt nice and light.

Then the fun began.

Boom! I was thrilled. Negative splits. An average of 1:43.8 and a nice faster last. I felt in control in every rep. I got a bit of a lactate rush after each interval, kind of a wave of nausea and shiver, but I felt OK after about a minute of the rest. I walked around in a happy haze all day after this.

Friday – March 8 – 3 x 18′ / 2′ L4 (static)

A little pressed for time because I had an 8:30 meeting to get to.

6′ rate ladders. 16/18/20.

An absolute joy.

Saturday – March 9 – Waterfall L2 (slides)

My L2 History:

1 Feb – Waterfall – 1:52.4 (static)
9 Feb – 4 x 2k – 1:51.6 (slides)
15 Feb – 5 x 1500 – 1:49.2 (static)

So another gap of almost a month. Today, I was doing the waterfall on slides. I decided to try for the ambitious target of 1:50. The waterfall tends to be a bit slower than the 4 x 2k, and the slides tends to be slower than static for me, but I guess I was feeling a bit cocky after the 4x1k. It didn’t go that great, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The warmup. 2k with bursts at sub-1:50 trying to get the feel for 1:50 and r28 on slides. It felt a bit heavy.

Then the main event. I managed to hold the target split for the first rep, but it was massively hard. I got about 500m into the second rep and I knew I was cooked. I broke form for a stroke and retargetted at about 1:54 for a little bit to get back in control, then through the last 500m, I sped up a little. The last rep was another struggle, but I managed to hold on to a 1:52 split and managed a tiny sprint at the end. It was hard fought and it was not as fast as I wanted, but it was a good, tough session.

Not horrible, I ended up with a 1:51.9 pace. And every single rep ended with my HR above 95% of HRR.

Tomorrow: I owe myself an L3. I’ll see how I feel, and maybe I’ll do a 15×3’/1′

Aruba!

February 24, 2019February 24, 2019Leave a comment

I last posted on Feb 13. That was the day I visited the SDRC and went out in a quad.

Thursday, February 14 – No Training

I flew home on the red eye, and arrived in the early morning. I went home and slept for a few hours, and then dashed around to get ready for valentines day and my wife’s birthday, which was on Friday the 15th.

Friday, February 15 – 5 x 1500 / 4′ – L2

Despite the travel, I wanted to maintain some momentum on the training plan, and Friday is L2 day, so I did the scheduled session.

What about pace? I did the waterfall in 1:52.4 on a static erg. I did the 4x2K on slides at 1:51.6. The 1500s are usually a bit quicker than the 2000s, and I’m quicker on static, so I thought a 1:50 pace was doable.

It was. I started with a 1500 warmup rep. Then I just tried to stay on or below a 1:50 pace.

        Workout Summary - media/20190215-1255390o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11995|57:29.0|02:23.8|163.9|20.3|144.6|177.0|10.3
W-|07500|27:22.0|01:49.5|268.2|26.2|162.6|177.0|10.5
R-|04496|26:05.0|02:54.1|058.1|14.3|129.9|177.0|10.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01500|05:30.5|01:50.2|265.4|26.0|155.9|168.0|10.5
02|01500|05:28.3|01:49.4|267.1|25.8|161.0|170.0|10.6
03|01500|05:27.9|01:49.3|268.3|26.4|163.4|173.0|10.4
04|01500|05:28.7|01:49.6|268.6|26.5|165.4|175.0|10.3
05|01500|05:26.7|01:48.9|271.5|26.2|167.7|177.0|10.5

On the PM, that’s a 1:49.2. On rowsandall, a less happy 1:49.5.

Saturday – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4 (on slides)

After years of complaining, I decided to do something about my home erging situation. I decided to get a model D and set of slides instead of being stuck erging on the dynamic.

Saturday was my maiden voyage. I set up the erg on slides in the basement on some interlocking foam pad squares. I was a bit worried when I set them up because they were squishier than I expected. My concern was that the erg would sink in a bit. It was a valid concern. When I was rowing, the erg was drifting to the back end of the slides and would bump every once in a while. I checked the alignment and it looked ok, so I just kept going.

The workout itself was fine. HR a little bit high.

        Workout Summary - media/20190217-0145360o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14953|65:59.0|02:12.4|166.3|18.8|145.0|168.0|12.0
W-|14362|59:53.0|02:05.1|178.8|19.5|146.4|168.0|12.3
R-|00594|06:00.0|05:02.9|043.5|12.5|131.9|168.0|08.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02346|09:43.5|02:04.3|176.8|18.9|131.9|144.0|12.8
01|02424|10:09.7|02:05.7|177.0|19.2|142.6|147.0|12.4
02|02383|10:00.0|02:05.9|175.9|19.2|143.9|149.0|12.4
03|02397|10:00.0|02:05.2|179.2|19.7|152.5|157.0|12.1
04|02394|10:00.0|02:05.3|179.2|19.8|149.9|160.0|12.1
05|02418|10:00.0|02:04.1|184.7|20.1|156.9|168.0|12.0

Even with the banging, it was a lot more pleasant than rowing on the dynamic.

Sunday – No Training – Flying to Aruba

Monday – 5km Barefoot beach run

It was slow. I was hot. But it was glorious. All data collected by my apple watch, and then exported to Strava using RunGap.

Tuesday – 20 minute treadmill march / 30 minute run on the beach.

Treadmill, 15% grade, 3 mph.

Then out to the beach for another run. I wanted to go easy, so I walked through the soft sand around the ends of each of the piers.

We were staying at the ritz, and as you run along the beach, the major milestones are the piers.

First is the fishing pier

Then comes Pelican Pier

Then Peit’s Pier.

Then finally, the best pier…DePalm Pier. Home of Bugaloe’s the best place to drink a Balashi and watch the sun go down.

After DePalm pier, there is a longer stretch of beach until Palm beach terminates at the breakwater at the Divi Resort.

Then you turn around and run home.

Wednesday – The vacation tri. 20 min treadmill. 20 min stationary bike. 20 min swim.

Treadmill – 20 minutes, 15% grade, 3 mph

Stationary bike – 20 minutes, random resistance

Then I walked out to the beach, set my apple watch to record a swim and went for it.

It turned out that the swimming area at the hotel is a bit too shallow. My hands would brush the sand or grass on the bottom at times, which was disconcerting. Since I don’t swim very much, I had issues with technique, style and pacing. I was OK heading in one direction where I was breathing on the downwind side, the sun was on my non-breathing side and I was able to watch the rope line. Going the other way was a lot harder. The wind would blow spray in my face, and I had trouble navigating without seeing the rope line clearly.

None the less it was a blast! And the apple watch worked great! One cool feature is that the watch locks itself for swimming, and when you spin the digital crown to unlock, it actually expels water from the speaker.

I am so glad that I went swimming.

Here’s what the RunGap application shows you about a swimming workout.

The apple activity app takes this a step further and tells you what stroke you were using. I mostly did freestyle and a little bit of breast stroke to keep my bearings.

Thursday – Outdoor run and swim.

It was our last full day, and I didn’t want to spend any of it in the fitness center. So, I decided to go for a run, and then a swim.

The run was nice. I found a comfortable pace and cruised the beach.

And the swim was awesome too.

I did about the same distance, but mixed freestyle and side stroke. And I found out the the apple watch doesn’t know the difference between sidestroke and breast stroke.

Friday – No Training – Travel back home

Saturday – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

Easy session to get back into rowing. I decided to test my foam compression theory of why the slides were banging. I put a piece of 1/2″ plywood under the back end of the back slide. Problem solved. The slides stayed very nicely centered.

It makes sense. With a rower on the erg, more of the weigh is on the back slide than the front. If the slide is on a surface that is compressible, it will sink more than the front slide. As soon as the back is lower than the front, then you get a little bit of gravity pulling the whole system to the back end of the slides.

Long term, the solution is a floor surface that doesn’t compress.

The workout was a bit harder than I would have hoped, but I guess for the first erg session in a week, not so bad.

        Workout Summary - media/20190223-1825390o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15241|66:00.0|02:09.9|166.3|18.8|146.6|167.0|12.3
W-|14403|60:00.0|02:05.0|178.2|19.1|147.5|167.0|12.6
R-|00840|06:00.0|03:34.3|046.7|16.4|137.2|167.0|09.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02389|10:00.0|02:05.6|173.2|18.4|130.4|143.0|13.0
01|02392|10:00.0|02:05.4|177.6|19.1|146.4|151.0|12.5
02|02392|10:00.0|02:05.4|176.5|18.9|146.5|153.0|12.7
03|02398|10:00.0|02:05.1|178.7|19.3|155.4|161.0|12.4
04|02412|10:00.0|02:04.4|180.8|19.3|150.6|159.0|12.5
05|02420|10:00.0|02:04.0|182.6|19.5|156.0|167.0|12.4

So this L4 uses

r18/160w
r20/180w
r22/200w
r24/220w

The stroke sequences were 188/192/192/196/196/200. From the SPM in the summary, you can see I understroked each section. The power for each section should have been 168/172/172/176/176/180. So, I was a bit over on power. I’d like to get this to be more precise.

Today, I will do another L4.

On the road

November 11, 2018Leave a comment

Monday: No Training

Since I was flying out in the evening, I needed to go to town hall and get an absentee ballot for the elections on Tuesday. Mission accomplished, but no time for training.

I flew to the airport on Monday afternoon. Arriving in LA around 8pm.

Tuesday: Quick cross training in the hotel gym

Core:

head shoulder raises: 10x10sec
arm leg extensions: 10 x 10 sec each side
plank on swiss ball: 4 x 30 sec
side plank: each side 3 x 30 sec
push ups: 2 x 12, 1 x 8 (pooped out)

plus 30 minutes on the elliptical (all the treadmills were taken.

Wednesday: Core / strength / inclined march

Core: same as Tuesday

Strength:

Goblet squats with 40 lb DB: 3 x 20
lat pull down: 3 x 12
one leg squats: body weight 3 x 12
one arm rows, 40lb DB: each arm: 3 x 12

30 minute inclined march on treadmill.

Then a busy day of meetings, followed by a real treat. We went to see the LA Lakers play the Timberwolves. I got to see LeBron James play basketball live. It was quite a show.

Got back to the hotel around midnight.

Thursday: No Training

Up at 4am. Out the door at 4:30 to get to the airport for my 6:30am flight. Very tired. Flew home, got to the airport around 3pm.

Friday: Core / 3 x 20′ / 2′

I had hoped to catch up on my sleep, but I didn’t get to bed until about midnight, so only about 5 hours. Up at 5:15 and off to work.

Same core routine plus swiss ball side rotations (10 x 5 sec both sides)

I felt very tired during this piece. HR was crazy high. I needed to slow down a lot to keep it under the cap.

Saturday: Core / 3 x 20’/2′

By the plan, I should have don a hard distance piece, but I decided that with all the disruption and travel that I’d take it easier and just work on some aerobic base.

I started with my basic core routine:

head shoulder raises: 10x10sec
arm/leg raises: 10 x 10 sec both sides
front plank: 4 x 30sec
side planks: 3 x 30sec each side
push ups: 3 x 13 (ooh, I added a rep!)

Then I headed to the basement and did the session on slides. I wasn’t any faster but it sure felt nice and smooth to be on the slides.

Tomorrow: Maybe I will do a HM with a bit of tempo to it.

I just got word that the fires in California have come very close to our facility in Agoura Hills. Like right across the road from it.

Here’s the extent of the fire. The scale bar at the bottom, is 4 miles long, so the fire is basically 20 miles across.

Our facility in in the yellow rectangle. Here is the zoomed view of the box. Our building is in the red oval.

I was just there! I hope everyone stays safe out there.

Lost week – Taiwan

April 29, 20181 Comment

I left on Sunday morning to catch an early afternoon flight to Taiwan. I dropped my boat off in Newton on the way to the airport.

I was flying from Boston to Tokyo, then connecting to Taipei. I arrived around 8:30PM Monday night. I slept some on the two flights, but I was stiff and tired by the time I got to the airport.

Tuesday morning:

I got up around 5am and discovered that I had left my HR monitor at home. SO much for documented evidence of working out! Sad to say, it badly effected my motivation.

I headed to the gym. I set up the treadmill to do a 30 minute HIIT session. so, 4:20 sec of fast walk (3mph) on 15% grade. Then 40 seconds at 7mph on the same grade. repeat 6 times. By the last two sprints, I was nauseous at the end of the 40 seconds. I guess that meant I was doing it right.

The rest of the day was a blur of meetings, all of them internal with our team in Taiwan. I had dinner with a few of the folks that I travelled with and got back to the hotel around 9pm.

Wednesday:

Up at 5 again, and back in the gym. Today, it was 30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes on the stationary bike. In both cases, I used the built in HR monitor to try to keep my HR in the 137 to 155 range.

Then I was off to the customer site for 3 different meetings. Then we had a dinner for the full team supporting this major customer. They’ve been working night and day for years making it successful, so it was a good idea for us to say thank you.

I made it back to the hotel just in time for my 8:30 conference call. Unfortunately, that exactly when jet lag decided to strike and strike hard. I was having trouble holding my head up, and I kept hoping for the meeting to wrap up. I can remember looking at the clock around 8:50pm. The next thing I know, it’s five minutes after nine, my head is on the desk and there’s no one left on the call! I fell dead asleep. I reached out by email to apologize to the other folks that were on the call. I was pretty embarrassed.

Thursday:

I slept in until 6 because I had nothing on my agenda until my ride to the airport at 10am. I headed down to the gym without a specific plan. I did my full PT suite of exercises. I have been neglecting them lately and that’s a bad thing. I have to find a way to fit them in with OTW rowing. I don’t feel comfortable doing them on the ground at the docks where I keep my boat and I am always rushed when I get to work afterwards. I think I might start doing them on my way out of work at night.

Anyway, I did the PT exercises. Then I did a little bit of strength training.

I did a 3 circuits of

20 squats with 2 25lb dumbells
12 pull downs on a machine designed to mimic pull ups

The squats felt easy at the time, but it’s 3 days later and I’m still feeling sore.

Then I headed over to the treadmills and did 30 minutes of fast walking on a 15% grade.

After that, I headed to the airport for the long trip home. I got home around 8:00pm on Thursday night, thanks to time zones.

Friday: 80′ of OTW speedplay.

I slept surprisingly well on Thursday night, but not very long. The alarm woke me at 5:15am and I rolled out of bed. It was a beautiful morning, so I wanted to get back on the water. I headed to Newton and launched.

The plan:

80′ of speedplay
4 sessions of KOM

The instructions for the speedplay sessions are to do it continuous, but I really want to work on balance. I find that if I do KOM for more than a couple minutes at a time, I get all tight. So I decided to do a quick set each time I needed to turn the boat around.

The weather was lovely. Very little wind. There still a bit of current which make the splits all crazy and makes rowing a bit squirrelly in a couple of places, mainly where the river narrows down or splits and rejoins. It feel like the boat is wiggling underneath you or you are going around a corner on ice. As long as you are expecting it, it’s kind of fun, but it can be disconcerting if it takes you by surprise.

I started with about 5 sets of KOM, then headed down river. I’ve got my routine for the speed play workouts. I row steady state until I get to middle of the straight 1K. Then I do my power twenty. Then I continue to the middle of straight section in front of the watch factory and do another. I do the reverse on the way up river. It ends up with a bit more time between the twenties with the turn in there.

I am trying to keep the power above 300W on the power twenties and to keep the stroke rate between 28 and 30.

To get a better idea of the effect of the rigging changes, I wanted to look at the change in my catch, finish and length. These charts isolate just the r28 portions of four speed play rows. I made the adjustments in 3 steps. The first is the original settings. The next is with oars down one spacer, inboard shortened by 2cm, and footplate moved 1 cm. The third is another 2cm shorter inboard. Then the last is with the footplate moved the additional cm to stern.

Finish angle is about 2 degrees bigger.
Catch angle is about 3 degrees bigger
drive length is 3.5 degrees bigger
Effective length is about 2 degrees bigger.

Not much change. It feels a lot different though.

Saturday: I intended to go rowing, but i felt like crap all day long. I just sat around and did crossword puzzles. I did get up the motivation to do laundry and get groceries, but that was about all I was good for,

Sunday; Again, I was thinking about going rowing, but its raining and I’m lazy. I intend to do an easy session on the dynamic later just to keep things going.

Monday: A Nice walk around the island

April 17, 2018April 17, 2018Leave a comment

5.5km in about an hour.

It was windy as hell.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: Cross Training

Stumbling into rowing season

Erg Based Training is so simple!

5 beds in 5 nights

The past three weeks

3/29 – 4/8 : Oh my back!

Working hard – 2/28 to 3/9

Aruba!

On the road

Lost week – Taiwan

Monday: A Nice walk around the island