Tag: dynamic

Sunday: 3 x 20′ / 3′ Cat VI – Dynamic, plus video

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Since I didn’t feel particularly bad yesterday, just really tired, I wasn’t sure if I was better today.  I went to bed at 11 and slept until 9.  When I woke up, I certainly didn’t feel like erging.  So, I hung out, wrote up my journal, did some grocery shopping and some chores around the house.  Finally, around 2, I decided that I should get it done.

The workout on the agenda for today is a regular old 3 or 4 x 20′ / 3′ at Cat VI.  That means rate at 18 and pace between 2:03 and 2:08.  I have been thinking about getting back on the dynamic erg for a while.  Since I am making changes in my stroke, I was wondering if it would be a less unpleasant experience with better technique.

I decided today was a good day to try it out.

Most folks rate up a bit on the dynamic, so I decided r20 was the target instead of r18.   And since I have had such struggles with it, I decided that a target above 2:05, maybe 2:07 might be a good idea.  In any case, I would go by a HR limit.  Keep it at or below 155.

And that’s what I did.  It seems that deleting and reloading painsled fixed my issues, it worked fine today.

          Workout Summary - media/20180128-2010330o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15008|69:00.0|02:17.9|167.8|20.0|147.9|157.0|10.9
W-|14229|60:00.0|02:06.5|173.1|19.9|148.6|157.0|11.9
R-|00782|09:00.0|05:45.3|083.5|19.9|135.5|157.0|05.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04784|20:00.0|02:05.4|176.6|20.0|143.5|151.0|12.0
01|04734|20:00.0|02:06.7|171.8|19.9|149.5|155.0|11.9
02|04712|20:00.0|02:07.3|170.9|20.0|152.9|157.0|11.8

It was a lot more work than on the static, but it felt a bit better better than before.  It was certainly easier to maintain proper form, at least I thought so.  After I finished, I set up to take a short video so I could see I was actually doing the right things.

I watched the video and yes, it looks like I was doing a pretty good job on recovery.  I was a bit more slumped than I should have been, but not so bad.

Here’s the video, judge for your self.

I was interested to compare doing steady state on the dynamic to the static.

  • Power:  About 5 watts lower
  • Rate: 2 beats higher.  Also note how much less consistent my rate is.
  • HR: About 5 beats higher
  • Drive length: 10 cm shorter on the dynamic.  I will have to do a video compare to figure out what’s going on there, but I suspect that I am compressing less at the catch on the dynamic and that’s probably a good thing.
  • Peak force:  just about the same
  • Average force: lower, which makes sense since I am doing less power at a higher rate
  • Peak/avg ratio: follows logically.

Tonight:  I am flying to Korea via Hong Kong.  My flight leaves at about 1:30 am.  I get to Korea Tuesday morning.  I’ll be there through Friday.  More crosstraining!

 

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.

 

 

Sunday: Back on the erg – 4 x 20′ / 3′ Cat VI

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Busy day.  I did a couple hours of raking and cleaning out the flower beds early this afternoon.  Then, around 5:30 I settled down for a long easy Cat VI workout.

The only tricky part was I was at home with my nemesis, the dynamic erg.  For those of you who have not followed the saga.  I have not been a fan of this piece of equipment, and I was convinced that it was defective in some way.  I am less convinced since I sat on a dynamic erg at the HOCR and it felt basically exactly the same.  Also, since then, I have received with less enthusiasm, pretty direct feedback about possible flaws in my technique that could explain why I can hammer out better times on the static erg, but not on my nemesis.

This situation gives me hope.  If I can get better on the dynamic, maybe that will translate better to the boat too.  So, it is time to embrace the suck.  No better session to embrace the suck with than a nice easy Cat VI workout.  The guidelines are simple.

  • 4 x 20′ / 3′ rest
  • rate: 18-20 (the lower the better)
  • pace: 2:06 to 2:11
  • HR limit: 145,150,155,155

On the static erg, I am doing these just about at the fast edge of the band.  On my nemesis, I figured I should go out slow, maybe 2:10 and see what happened.

I started and things felt good between 2:08 and 2:09.  Rate felt good between 20 and 21, so I had to work on keeping it at 20, with mixed success.

         Workout Summary - media/20171120-0000300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19668|92:00.0|02:20.3|157.4|20.3|140.9|153.0|10.5
W-|18693|80:00.0|02:08.4|165.1|20.1|142.5|153.0|11.6
R-|00978|12:00.0|06:08.2|065.0|22.7|124.1|153.0|01.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04673|20:00.0|02:08.4|164.4|19.9|136.9|145.0|11.7
01|04667|20:00.0|02:08.6|165.1|20.1|142.5|148.0|11.6
02|04675|20:00.0|02:08.3|165.4|20.3|144.4|149.0|11.5
03|04679|20:00.0|02:08.2|165.7|20.1|145.9|153.0|11.6

So, I think right now I have about a 2 split difference between dynamic and static, maybe 10-15 watts.

Monday’s session:

  • 4 x 12′ / 1’30”
  • Rate: 22
  • Pace: 2:01 – 2:05
  • HR Limit: 155

Back home: 3 x 20′ / 2′ dynamic

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I slept until around 9:30am, and had a nice relaxed morning.  My basic plan for the rest of the week, leading up to the race is:

  • Saturday:  60′ Steady state on the erg
  • Sunday: Head race piece OTW
  • Monday: Technical Session on the water, 80 minutes UT2
  • Tuesday: 4 x 2000 OTW
  • Wednesday: 60 minutes OTW, short intervals at race pace and rate, with generous rests.
  • Thursday: 45 minutes OTW, short intervals at race pace and rate with generous rests.
  • Friday:  Bring boat to launch area in the afternoon.  Practice run of the course, stick to UT2 pace.
  • Saturday: race day!

So today was steady state on the dynamic

  • 3 x 20′ / 2′
  • Target rate: 20
  • Target power: 165W
  • HR limit: 145, 150, 155

20171014-1800450o20171014-202804

20171014-1800450o20171014-202805

          Workout Summary - media/20171014-1800450o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14589|66:02.0|02:15.8|155.9|20.3|140.8|154.0|10.9
W-|14000|60:00.0|02:08.6|164.4|20.0|141.6|154.0|11.7
R-|00592|06:02.0|05:05.8|041.5|23.9|126.1|154.0|06.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04664|20:00.0|02:08.6|163.7|19.8|130.4|143.0|11.8
01|04666|20:00.0|02:08.6|164.8|20.0|144.8|151.0|11.7
02|04669|20:00.0|02:08.5|164.5|20.2|149.6|154.0|11.6

Tomorrow:  2 x 6K with 10′ rest.  Each 5K will have a turn at 3K.  No rest at the turn.

 

All about that base: 3 x 20′ / 2′ Dynamic

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Plan:

  • 3 x 20′ / 2′ rest
  • power: 160-170W
  • rate: 20ish
  • HR limit: 145/150/155 (1st/2nd/3rd piece)

10-1a

       Workout Summary - media/20171001-2001100o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14506|66:00.0|02:16.5|161.7|20.7|144.9|156.0|10.6
W-|13994|60:00.0|02:08.6|164.4|20.4|145.0|156.0|11.4
R-|00514|06:00.0|05:50.2|093.2|23.9|138.7|156.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04686|20:00.0|02:08.0|166.0|20.4|136.2|147.0|11.5
01|04676|20:00.0|02:08.3|165.9|20.1|147.7|155.0|11.6
02|04632|20:00.0|02:09.5|161.3|20.8|151.0|156.0|11.1

Tomorrow:  OTW 1x, Quinsig, 15×3’/1′, rate: 25

Back on the water

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Sunday, September 17th

We hung out down on the cape until mid-afternoon and then headed home.  There was still no AC in the house.  But around 8pm, I settled in for a sweaty erg session.  Today, painsled decided to cooperate.

The same session as Saturday.  4 x 15′ / 2′ rest with stretching in the rests.  HR limited at 155.

9-17A

        Workout Summary - media/20170917-2005310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14605|68:01.0|02:19.7|145.9|21.6|141.6|156.0|09.9
W-|13735|60:00.0|02:11.0|155.6|21.4|143.0|156.0|10.7
R-|00874|08:01.0|04:35.5|041.6|22.8|123.3|156.0|06.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03481|15:00.0|02:09.3|161.5|21.3|132.8|142.0|10.9
01|03463|15:00.0|02:09.9|159.5|21.2|143.6|152.0|10.9
02|03412|15:00.0|02:11.9|152.7|21.3|146.1|155.0|10.7
03|03379|15:00.0|02:13.2|148.8|21.9|149.4|156.0|10.3

Monday, September 18th

Yet again I had to be home in the morning to let workmen in and get them setup.  That killed any chance for a morning workout.  I finally had a window around 5pm.  I headed down to the fitness center.  I’m worried about too much rowing, so I decided to start off on the treadmill with a 20 minute death march (15% grade, 3mph).

After that I was planning to jump on our brand new Model D indoor rowing machine.  But someone beat me to it!  While I waited, I jumped on a elliptical machine to get a few more aerobic minutes.

Screen Shot 2017-09-19 at 4.44.05 PM.png

Now the rower was open and I hopped on.  The PM5 picked up my HR monitor and linked with Painsled with no issues.  I set up a time based interval session.  15 minute work and 2 minute rest.  I intended to do 2 intervals.

8-18a.png

        Workout Summary - media/20170918-1720320o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07324|34:00.0|02:19.3|160.0|19.2|149.3|158.0|11.2
W-|06991|30:00.0|02:08.7|164.2|19.1|150.1|158.0|12.2
R-|00335|04:00.0|05:58.0|079.4|19.1|133.8|158.0|05.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03562|15:00.0|02:06.3|172.6|19.5|151.0|158.0|12.2
01|03428|15:00.0|02:11.3|155.9|18.8|149.3|153.0|12.2

I was interested to see how it compared to the dynamic.  Same stroke rate.  I think about a 4 second pace differential, not as much as I would have thought going in.

Tuesday, September 19

I was so excited to get back on the water, I woke up before my alarm and just lay there imagining how awesome it would be.

Since this was my first early morning workout since my injury, I wanted to put in place my new protocol.  I got up and went straight into my core routine (curl ups, side planks, bird dogs).  Man, I am coming to loathe doing ab exercises.  I stretched before and during and did some jumping jacks and stuff.  Hopefully it was enough to squish some of the extra fluid out of my disks before I went rowing.

The drive to where I launch is about 30 minutes.  I was on the water by 6:30.  The weather was less than perfect.  It was around 65F, with a fine misty drizzle and a bit of wind from the northeast, maybe about 7 mph.  This was a headwind going downriver.

I was really happy that my balance wasn’t terrible.  I felt comfortable almost immediately.  The plan for the day was pretty simple:

  • steady state
  • r20
  • heart rate limit: 150.  lower is better
  • no pace target
  • technique focus:  keep knees together at the catch.  rock hips over at the catch and keep spine straight.  focus on isolating the back swing.

I was using the speed coach the whole workout but because I stopped right at the beginning to change what I looked at in one of the display fields, it stopped and I forgot to restart it.  I didn’t realize what I had done until I went to upload the session and saw that it was for a total distance of 8 meters!

But, as an experienced speedcoach user, I have my backup.  No heart rate, but at least I have the whole session on RIM.

8-19a

        Workout Summary - media/20170919-193028-95635o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12766|70:59.0|02:46.8|000.0|20.0|0.0|000.0|09.0
W-|11801|58:39.0|02:29.1|000.0|20.3|000.0|000.0|09.9
R-|00973|12:20.0|06:20.4|000.0|17.5|000.0|000.0|03.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00821|04:07.2|02:30.6|000.0|19.8|000.0|0.0|10.1 - To the cut
02|03019|15:10.2|02:30.7|000.0|20.0|000.0|0.0|09.9 - To the dam headwind
03|02865|14:00.0|02:26.6|000.0|20.4|000.0|0.0|10.0 - Back to the cut Tail
04|02013|10:25.2|02:35.3|000.0|20.4|000.0|0.0|09.5 - to the bridge
05|02178|10:34.8|02:25.7|000.0|20.5|000.0|0.0|10.0 - back to the cut
06|00905|04:22.2|02:24.8|000.0|20.7|000.0|0.0|10.0 - Back to the dock

I think the paces are overly optimistic.  I can see the jaggies on the map

(map provided by rowsandall using the latest and greatest navionics overlay!)

Screen Shot 2017-09-20 at 9.12.32 AM

It’s more obvious in a close up of the s-turn.

Screen Shot 2017-09-20 at 9.12.58 AM

I was so happy to be back on the water, I can’t even begin to describe how much better the rest of my day was.  I was just walking around grinning.