I didn’t want to put too much stress on my knees, so I hit the fitness center at the hotel on Sunday morning. The goal was a low impact, easy workout.
20 minutes treadmill (15% grade, 3mph)
20 minutes elliptical (random program, level 15)
20 minutes stationary bike (random program, level 15)
Maybe too easy.
Plan called for a rest day, but I knew that training would be spotty after Thursday, so I did a easy endurance session.
2 x 30′ / 2′ rest (HR Capped at 155)
Should have been very easy, but it was not.
Heart rate climbed fast and didn’t settle. Comparing it to similar workouts. Here it is versus a 2 x 30 before I travelled last week.
Here it is versus the 3 x 20 I did on the dynamic. Pretty Similar.
Friday: Arrived home off the red eye at around 7:30am. Straight into conference calls. I had a 30 minute window so I decided to try out my new dynamic rowing machine.
I struggled a bit with getting everything set up. My main problem was that the PM5 was trying to connect to a hr monitor that I was not wearing instead of the one that I was. That took some time to get fixed.
I did a 5 minute row, then a 3 minute row, and then I got stuff set for a final 12 minute row. I did the first 9 minutes at 175W, and then the last 3 at 225W.
Saturday: No training. Doing errands and chores all day. No time.
Sunday: Just an easy session to get used to the new machine.
It was hard work. The break through that I made before I went on the road for a week seems to have disappeared. I’m back to where I was a couple of weeks ago.
I wanted to get an idea of how this compared to rowing on the model D, so I matched it up with one of the 2×30′ sessions that I did a couple of weekends ago on the cape. I was similarly fatigued and jetlagged then.
Here is all the parameters compared on a time scale.
I might do a second session this evening, maybe a first cut at the CTC.
So, my flight to Boston last night was cancelled because of winter storm “Niko”. A huge Nor’easter that is pummeling the northeastern United States.
(side note: One of the main online weather services in the US, weather.com has taken to naming major storms, not just hurricanes. I like it. It solves a referencing problem and it’s fun to talk about storms by name…back to the narrative)
So, I am stuck in San Diego until my rescheduled depart, tonight around 9pm. I had a conference call at 6am, so I was unable to go to Crossfit Del Mar today. I was relegated to using the hotel fitness center.
I decided to just do 60 minutes of aerobic maintenance.
The treadmill felt like hard work, the elliptical felt easier, but my HR was a bit higher.
Tomorrow: I arrive (hopefully) around 8 am. I plan to work from home and get in a marathon plan workout.
| M1 | 4 x 15′ / 4′ | 6′ @ 5KP, 9′ @ MP | 92.5% | (172) |
I’m in San Diego. I went over to Crossfit Del Mar, paid my drop in fee and grabbed an erg.
Plan: 2 x 30′ @ MP HR cap at 155
I ended up busting the cap in the last third of the 2nd piece.
I’m on the red eye tonight back to Boston. Hopefully, I will get in. There is snow in the forecast. Lot’s of snow.
I didn’t have much time this morning, so I did what I could.
Plan called for 2 x 45′ at marathon pace. I only had about 40 minutes because I had an early meeting I needed to get to, so I subbed in a 10k at the same pace.
These workouts are supposed to be done with a HR cap, and today was no exception. I decided to row against a cap of 150 (80% of HR max). Since I’ve had such great sessions the past couple of days, I decided to start off at 185W and see how long I could hold it before I needed to back off to stay under the cap. Turns out I made it the whole way. It was another good workout. If I was doing another 45 minutes, I would have had to back off, but still. It was better than the HR response I was seeing at 170W just a week ago.
A few stroke metrics, just for fun.
Pretty consistent.
I’m posting this from the BA lounge at Logan airport. I board for Narita, connecting to Korea in about 45 minutes.
Maybe the Sheraton in Seoul has an erg. (But I doubt it).
Wow! Very low HR and RPE.
Quick Comparison to this same workout on Saturday. Time of day was similar, nutrition state was similar (fasted), I got better sleep on Friday night, and the room was colder on Saturday. Despite two factors leaning in favor of lower HRs for the Saturday session, it was nearly 10 points different at the end. (Today’s session is in blue)
Tomorrow: A session straight from the mouth of hell.
| M1 | 3 x 25′ / 5′ | 8′ @ 5KP, 17′ @ MP | 92.5% | (172) |
Originally intended to row this with a HR cap at 150, but my HR was a bit high to start with and my RPE was pretty much the same as yesterday, but with HR about 5 beats higher.
Disappointed that my HR was so high, but it was a pretty low intensity session.
Here’s a comparison of Saturday and Sunday’s run.
I dragged my erg down to the cape so I wouldn’t miss any training days.
I just want to pile up endurance meters. So, on Saturday morning before breakfast, I just headed down to the unheated basement for some slow rowing.
I need to get serious about rebuilding my aerobic base. I’ve gotten into this hole many times before. My training gets disrupted (in this case because of my knee injury and the then surgery), and when I return, I use the same pre-disruption power levels. This ends up pushing my endurance workouts above their target zone.
The effect of this is that my ability to produce lactate increases and my ability to metabolize lactate decreases. This is a very bad thing if I am planning to compete in a 3 to 4 hour race. So, it’s time to reset my expectations and restart at a very low endurance training power.
I decided to try 170W, since my recent rows at 180W resulted in HRs way above my target. I wasn’t sure how well I’d do because I was working on zero sleep (I just got home on the red eye.) It turned out to be a lovely row.
Quantified Rowing 