The rest of my trip

June 28, 2019July 6, 2019Leave a comment

After my adventure on Sunday, I rushed back to my hotel, took a quick shower, packed up my stuff and headed to the train station. We took a train from Shanghai to the city of Hefei, about two and a half hours away by high speed rail.

Once we arrive, we had a nice dinner with some of the team leaders there, and I called it a night.

Monday, June 24 – Treadmill

There was a well equipped fitness center in the hotel in Hefei, but alas no rowing machines. I grabbed a treadmill and started to hike. Going gradually to see how well I could coax my smo2% up in a warmup. I definitely didn’t give it enough time and it peaked out much lower than other sessions.

Basically what I did was start walking slow and level. Then I increased the pace to about 3 mph. Then I increased the incline every minute to get me to 15%. Around the 5 minute mark, I did a 1 minute run on the incline, that’s the dip. Then I slowed it way back down, and had a drink. In retrospect, I should have done that a couple more times to open things up.

Then I just hiked up the 15% incline at about 3 mph. I saw orange, so I back off to 2.8 soon after starting. That worked fine until about 20 minutes in, where I needed to drop the pace a bit more. The last minute or two was in the orange, but my HR was still quite low.

When I got back to my room, it was sunny, clear and beautiful outside. My room had a great view.

I had a busy day at our design center in Hefei. I great group of engineers. In the afternoon, we headed to the train station and headed back in the direction of Shanghai, stopping in the city of Wuxi. I was schedule to have a business dinner with a customer. We went to a really good Japanese restaurant and had lots of beer and Sushi.

Tuesday, June 25 – Stationary Bike intervals with Humon

The fitness center was hot, and I was feeling pretty tired, and just a little hungover. I hopped on a stationary bike, and started pedaling. I did about 20 minutes of warmup, including a couple of sprinty bits. This warmup increased my smo2 from 63% to 70.9%.

Then I programmed in one of the preset “interval sessions”. I set it for a 40 minute session. This turned out to be another 10 minutes of warming up and then a one minute on / one minute off routine with 4 levels of intensity for a total of 14 reps.

As it turned out, I had not set the intensity high enough for this session, as you can see I was not getting into the red in most of the sprints.

But, it was interesting following my progress on the app. I met my colleague in the lobby and we grabbed a “didi” (basically the same as an Uber) to drive us to Shanghai, which was about a 90 minute ride.

When we got to Shanghai, I went straight to a lunch time meeting with one of our teams there, then headed over to another office and had another set of meetings. In the evening, I had a business dinner with a customer at an extremely good, very small Chinese restaurant. Then it was back to the Kerry hotel.

Wednesday, June 26 – 3 x 20′ Endurance Session on the erg

I grabbed the good erg, and set myself up to do a nice gentle warmup. I started with a pick drill, and then just gentle rowing. I was alarmed by the early appearance of some orange. I decided to experiment with a set of moderate power bursts. I did 10, 20, 30, and 40 strokes The 40 strokes I did a noticeably lower power. You can see the corresponding dips and recoveries in the SMO2%. I finished very close to where I started, 72% vs 69%. I’d have to say that this was not an entirely successful warmup. I suspect that it would have recovered to a much higher umber, but not in the 2 minute rest that I had programmed.

The rest of the session was pretty much terrible. I had a lot of trouble staying in the green and ended up just alternating r18 and r20 at 160W and 180W. Even with that light load, my SMO2% was low, and my HR was a bit high. I was a bit grumpy so I sprinted out the last 2 minutes, taking my SMO2% way down to a 61%.

It’s interesting that the Humon color algorithm is a much more sensitive indicator than HR. If my theory that I am not making good progress because I had been overcooking my steady state stuff, this will certainly put that theory to the test.

I went straight from my workout into some work calls, took a quick shower, and headed into the office for a couple of last meetings.

After lunch, I headed to the airport to fly to Taiwan, the last stop on my, way too long trip. I arrived at my Hotel, the Sheraton in Hsinchu around 8, had some dinner, and then I was on the phone in conferences until about 11pm.

Thursday, June 27 – Inclined walk

I was up at 5:30 and in the fitness center before 6. I headed to the treadmills and settled in for another boring slog.

The plan was the same as the last one, but I was going to try to take the warmup more slowly. Again, I got up to a healthy walking speed and then boosted the inline, but only a degree or two every minute. It was good to see my SMO2 climbing as I went. After twenty minutes I was at the right incline and then stopped to grab a drink and towel off. It was remarkably hot and humid. My SMO2 climbed really well in that rest period. From 63% at the start to over 72% after recovery.

In the session itself, I found that I was pretty tired and the time was going very slowly. Kept popping over into orange, and I would slow down a tenth or drop the incline by a degree each time. But you can see how many times that happened. It was not my best work.

After my workout, I started my business day. A couple of quick calls in my room. It was a misty morning, and the mountains near Hsinchu looked like classic asian landscape art to me.

To our office for prep meetings, then to a customer reception at lunch, then to another customer meeting, then back for another internal meeting, and finally a dinner meeting with a few of the managers. Around 8 I headed to airport and got on a work teleconference. This lasted my whole trip to the airport. I checked in, got settled in the China Airlines lounge and got on another work call. This lasted until it was almost time to board my 11:35 flight. This flight took me from Taipei to San Francisco. I arrived at 8pm, shuffled off to the Delta terminal and caught the 10:42pm red eye to Boston. I am currently over Nebraska with another 2:37 to go.

Once I get to Logan Airport, I am going to drive straight to the Cape. Hopefully arriving before 11 on Friday.

It’s been quite a trip. I had a rowing experience I will never forget. Visited places I have never been, and worked out every day that I was on the ground. I’m pretty happy with that.

12k of easy coastal rowing

June 2, 2019Leave a comment

Down on the cape. It was foggy when I woke up, but by 9am it was clearing up, the wind was light and the water was nice and flat.

I loaded up my boat and oars and headed to the little beach on the north side of the island.

I wasn’t feeling very ambitious so I just set off to the northwest at r18 and tried to keep my releases clean and blades off the water. My HR stayed weirdly low throughout the whole workout.

https://rowsandall.com/static/plots/20190602-1610530o20190602-161119.png

        Workout Summary - media/20190602-1610530o.csv --|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|11987|01:08:53.0|02:52.4|000.0|19.4|135.0|151.0|09.0 W-|11693|01:04:52.0|02:46.4|000.0|19.2|136.7|151.0|09.4 R-|00297|00:04:01.2|06:45.5|000.0|23.2|108.5|151.0|00.0 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|05184|28:42.8|02:46.2|000.0|18.3|135.1|144.0|09.9 02|05631|31:06.2|02:45.7|000.0|19.6|137.3|147.0|09.2 03|00878|05:03.0|02:52.6|000.0|21.3|142.0|151.0|08.1

A delightful row!

Tomorrow: a Humon Hex threshold test.

Tuesday: 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

February 5, 2019February 5, 2019Leave a comment

Just a really nice workout. On static, I was trying to hold:

16spm – 160W
18 spm – 180W
20 spm – 200W
22 spm – 220W

        Workout Summary - media/20190205-1325420o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15025|66:00.0|02:11.8|165.9|16.7|138.2|160.0|13.6
W-|14358|60:00.0|02:05.4|178.1|17.4|139.4|159.0|13.8
R-|00672|06:00.0|04:28.0|044.2|09.4|127.1|159.0|10.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02375|10:00.0|02:06.3|172.8|16.7|123.0|136.0|14.2
01|02385|10:00.0|02:05.8|176.2|17.3|136.5|141.0|13.8
02|02384|10:00.0|02:05.8|176.3|16.9|136.3|145.0|14.1
03|02407|10:00.0|02:04.6|181.1|17.7|148.0|154.0|13.6
04|02393|10:00.0|02:05.4|179.3|17.7|142.9|152.0|13.5
05|02414|10:00.0|02:04.3|183.0|18.2|149.4|159.0|13.3

Sure was more comfortable on a static erg.

One fun comparison. I used the Trend Flex Plot to look at the power versus stroke rate for today’s L4 and Saturday’s, which was the same stroke sequence, but shifted up by 2 spm, and down by 10W. (Saturday on the left)

~~Tomorrow: Hard Distance – 30′. Last time I did this session, I managed a 1:53.8 pace. Tomorrow’s target pace 1:53.0~~

New plan! There is an online 10K race on rowsandall that opens up tomorrow. I’ll do that for my hard distance piece instead. Last time I did a 10K, my avg pace was 1:57.2, but I was holding 1:56 through a lot of it. I think I will aim at that. stroke rate 24.

12/24 – 12/26 – More online racing.

December 27, 2018Leave a comment

Monday – 12/24 : 10K online race

One of the contributors to rowsandall organized a Christmas 10k. I was a little bummed out because my only option for rowing it was the dynamic, and I knew that I would be a fair amount slower on the dynamic than on the static erg. But, I like the idea of doing the same session as other folks, and I don’t even mind getting beaten (especially when I have an excuse!)

So, I set the conservative target of “faster than 2:00”. I did a 2K warmup to get loose. Starting again with a pick drill.

Then the 10K. I had haunting memories of the 30r22, so I was in no mood to push it too hard. Even with that, I couldn’t have gone a lot faster. My heart rate was up near 180 at the end.

        Workout Summary - media/20181225-0821580o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:21.0|01:58.1|212.4|25.4|165.2|179.0|10.0
W-|10000|39:21.0|01:58.1|212.4|25.4|165.2|179.0|10.0
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|179.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:53.4|01:56.7|218.0|24.8|137.7|156.0|10.4
01|01000|03:55.3|01:57.7|214.5|24.6|158.4|160.0|10.4
02|01000|03:56.2|01:58.1|212.5|24.8|161.7|164.0|10.2
03|01000|03:57.3|01:58.6|209.6|24.9|163.1|165.0|10.2
04|01000|03:57.2|01:58.6|209.7|25.1|166.3|167.0|10.1
05|01000|03:56.9|01:58.5|210.4|25.1|168.0|170.0|10.1
06|01000|03:56.5|01:58.3|211.5|25.7|171.3|172.0|09.9
07|01000|03:58.5|01:59.3|206.5|25.4|172.5|175.0|09.9
08|01000|03:57.0|01:58.5|210.3|26.2|174.9|176.0|09.7
09|01000|03:53.1|01:56.5|221.3|26.9|177.3|179.0|09.6

That was good enough to earn me a last place!

But in terms of misery, it looks like I was in second place!

Tuesday – 25 December : 3 x 20′ / 2′ dynamic

Christmas day. Just putting up some meters. HR limited.

        Workout Summary - media/20181225-2221030o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15009|66:00.0|02:11.9|161.2|20.0|139.5|153.0|11.4
W-|14208|60:00.0|02:06.7|172.0|20.1|140.3|153.0|11.8
R-|00804|06:00.0|03:43.9|053.7|19.3|131.4|153.0|08.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04744|20:00.0|02:06.5|172.4|20.0|132.9|143.0|11.9
01|04727|20:00.0|02:06.9|171.3|20.1|141.5|147.0|11.8
02|04738|20:00.0|02:06.6|172.2|20.1|146.6|153.0|11.8

Wednesday – 26 December – 3 x 20’/2′ dynamic

I probably should have done a interval workout today, but I wasn’t in the mood. So I just did another endurance session.

        Workout Summary - media/20181226-2155350o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15013|66:00.0|02:11.9|164.0|20.4|139.0|150.0|11.2
W-|14265|60:00.0|02:06.2|174.0|20.2|140.2|150.0|11.8
R-|00750|06:00.0|03:59.8|063.9|22.7|126.8|150.0|08.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04780|20:00.0|02:05.5|176.6|20.2|132.9|143.0|11.8
01|04735|20:00.0|02:06.7|172.0|20.2|140.9|146.0|11.7
02|04750|20:00.0|02:06.3|173.4|20.1|146.9|150.0|11.8

Tomorrow: Interval session – 8 x 2’/2′

Monday: 3 x 20′ / 2′

December 17, 2018Leave a comment

Back at work. Static erg. Started around 2:30. Needed to slow to nearly 2:06 to keep under the HR cap.

       Workout Summary - media/20181217-1330360o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15208|66:00.0|02:10.2|171.4|19.4|141.9|153.0|11.9
W-|14493|60:00.0|02:04.2|182.7|19.8|143.2|153.0|12.2
R-|00717|06:00.0|04:11.0|058.3|14.8|129.6|153.0|11.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04887|20:00.0|02:02.8|188.6|20.1|134.9|146.0|12.2
01|04830|20:00.0|02:04.2|182.7|19.7|145.9|151.0|12.2
02|04776|20:00.0|02:05.6|176.9|19.7|148.7|153.0|12.1

Tomorrow: Strength Session.

Back to Basics

July 28, 2018Leave a comment

Well, June and June were not my best months.

I had a bad stretch at the end of May (5/27 to 6/4) where I did very little training. This was allergies, injuries, work travel and a busy holiday weekend.

The rest of June was pretty good and my fitness improved. Until the middle of July, when life just got too hectic for me to stick to a training plan. I haven’t been in my fluid since July 11th. Since then I’ve done some coastal rowing, some biking, but I also had a work induced 4 day training hiatus. By the time last Friday rolled around, my fitness had declined to its lowest point since early June and was nearly as bad as it was when I was struggling with my SI Joint issues last fall.

I decided that it was time to simplify and the weather, in a perverse way, cooperated. The whole week was humid, with scattered thunderstorms so I spent the whole time on the erg.

July 23 – Monday: 4 x 20′ / 2′

Back on a static erg, so I wasn’t sure what split I could hit. Turns out it was 2:05. It was a great, relaxing row. I rowed with the rule that I couldn’t go past 145 in the first 20 minutes, then 150 for the next, then 155 for the last 2.

          Workout Summary - media/20180723-2345260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20211|88:00.0|02:10.6|167.3|18.7|145.6|154.0|12.3
W-|19253|80:00.0|02:04.7|179.7|19.3|146.4|154.0|12.5
R-|00962|08:00.0|04:09.5|043.3|12.6|137.4|154.0|13.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04808|20:00.0|02:04.8|179.0|19.5|139.5|147.0|12.4
01|04798|20:00.0|02:05.0|178.6|19.2|147.2|152.0|12.5
02|04815|20:00.0|02:04.6|179.8|19.2|149.0|153.0|12.5
03|04831|20:00.0|02:04.2|181.2|19.4|150.0|154.0|12.4

Tuesday, July 24: 4 x 20’/2′

Same as Monday. Really enjoyable. Right intensity to get a good HR plateau. Looks like 180W is where I’m working from in a static erg.

          Workout Summary - media/20180724-2210270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20116|88:00.0|02:11.2|167.5|19.4|145.7|156.0|11.8
W-|19226|80:00.0|02:04.8|179.9|19.7|147.0|156.0|12.2
R-|00892|08:00.0|04:29.0|043.8|16.3|132.0|156.0|08.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04826|20:00.0|02:04.3|181.1|19.6|138.8|147.0|12.3
01|04791|20:00.0|02:05.2|178.8|19.6|146.2|151.0|12.2
02|04810|20:00.0|02:04.7|179.8|19.8|151.1|155.0|12.1
03|04799|20:00.0|02:05.0|179.9|19.8|152.1|156.0|12.1

Wednesday – July 25: 15×3’/1′

Time for a little intensity. So, my favorite L3 workout in the world. I set an arbitrary pace target of 1:55, and that turned out to be conservative.

Thursday, July 26 – Travel Day

Up at 5am to head to the airport. I was taking a really quick trip to the San Diego. Basically get there in time for a set of meetings and then catch the red eye home at 8:30 in the evening. No time for training.

Friday, July 27 – Rest Day

I got home from the airport at 7am. I went to bed and slept until 10:30. Then straight into a quick set of meetings and then my wife and I took off to go to the cape for the weekend. Her job was to collect our sons plus one significant other. Mine was to do the shopping: food, booze, and delicious seafood. I got to the house around 6:30 and made dinner, seafood pasta and a big salad. I enjoyed a couple of beers instead of training on a full stomach. I’m thinking it was a good decision, but I still feel a bit guilty for not rowing.

Bouncy 2 hour row

July 5, 2018Leave a comment

Tuesday: I went for another nice walk. This time a bit closer to low tide. Again, Itraced out the water’s edge.

Here is Monday and Tuesday’s walk superimposed.

Screen Shot 2018-07-04 at 12.57.42 PM

It was about a 5km walk. My wife and I went into Wellfleet for lunch and some exploring, so no row in the afternoon onTuesday.

Wednesday, July 4: 2 hour row

On the right morning, I would really like to row down to Rock Creek Harbor. Today was not the day. I would need nice flat conditions, no wind, or a light breeze from the east, and close to high tide. Today there was a wind from the northwest and nearly low tide. The coast off of Eastham is really a huge sand flat goes out a mile or more from shore. That means that when there is an onshore breeze, the chop really piles up, and I was essentially trying to row across it. It was slow, tough going.

But I get ahead of myself. I knew that today would be a reasonably busy day, and I wanted to do a long row. I knew that I would be rowing around low tide, but I figured it would work out OK.

I launched from the north beach on Loagy Bay and headed out following the deep water as near as I could tell. I rowed west until the big rock was on my beam, and then I turned south. These first two parts were great fun. Light wind, flat water. But as soon as I hit the shoals off of Eastham (at 28 mimutes in the time plot), things got a lot more difficult. The chop became much steeper and more irregular, the water was less than 2 feet deep. I don’t know if it was my imagination, but rowing in the shallow water made the boat feel heavier. It was certainly slower. On the plus side, every now and then I could see lobsters crawling along the sand. Some of them were big!

The goal for today was a 2 hour row, so I slogged along until I reached the 1 hour mark. When I turned around, I was hoping that the wind would be a bit behind me, but it seemed like it was still right on my beam, and I was still rowing beam on to the waves. I experimented with rating up and that seemed a bit more effective in these cross seas. I steered a bit farther off shore on the way north, at least at first. Ultimately I turned back to the northeast and this was a bit easier going with the waves on my stern quarter.

I kept going this way until I spotted the big rock. I had come a fair bit too far onshore, and I needed swing around and row out to the rock. I could see my oar blades stirring up the sand on the bottom. I swung around the rock and headed in to channel on the north side of the island. I managed to lose the channel and had to get out and walk to find the way to go to get back to the beach.

Screen Shot 2018-07-04 at 7.48.30 PM.png

          Workout Summary - media/20180704-1555230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20744|131:21.0|03:10.0|000.0|21.9|142.5|158.0|07.2
W-|19870|120:08.0|03:01.4|000.0|21.7|143.5|158.0|07.7
R-|00881|11:13.0|06:22.1|000.0|24.1|132.3|158.0|02.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|05138|27:15.0|02:39.1|000.0|20.3|137.4|151.0|09.3 nice water
02|05007|32:13.0|03:13.0|000.0|21.4|141.5|149.0|07.3 shallow choppy
03|05246|33:57.0|03:14.1|000.0|22.4|145.7|154.0|06.9 choppy way home
04|01958|11:56.0|03:02.8|000.0|23.1|148.2|154.0|07.1 after water break
05|00401|02:36.0|03:14.4|000.0|21.9|151.5|155.0|07.1 
06|01661|09:36.0|02:53.4|000.0|22.1|151.8|158.0|07.8
07|00458|02:35.0|02:49.2|000.0|20.5|141.3|149.0|08.6

Very tired after this.

Here are the last 4 rows that I have done to the south.

Blue: 90 minutes, hot, flat water (launched from stairs)
Green: 70′ row, launched from stairs.
Yellow: 80′ row, tough northerly wind
Red: Today, 120′ row, launched from beach, low tide, choppy

Screen Shot 2018-07-04 at 7.40.14 PM.png

Today’s row was about 20.5km, and 120 minutes. Rock Harbor is about 12km from the bottom of the stairs, so I think on the right day, I could totally make the run.

Great day! – Walking and rowing

July 3, 2018July 3, 2018Leave a comment

After I got up this morning and had breakfast, I decided to go for a walk. It was low tide, which is a blast because the sand flats are exposed and you can see all kinds of marine life.

I headed down the stairs from our deck and headed straight out to the water’s edge. Then turned south. My first goal was to walk to the rock that I nearly hit going down to Eastham.

Here it is about an hour after low tide. It’s hard to get a sense of scale, but the rock is about 8 feet tall and 16 feet long. It’s a big rock.

I then continued to walk along the edge of the water. The tide was coming in, so the shore was receding visibly as I walked. But I had never really walked all along the south edge of the sand flats before and I was eager to explore. I ultimately decided to try to find my way to the tidal creek that runs under the little bridge to our island.

Along the way I saw some really nice shore birds. I think the white one was an Egret and the pair was, I think, Willets.

I had a couple of false starts as I went into streams that turned into dead ends in the marsh. As I got further along, the sand turned to mud and at times I was buried to the middle of my calves, making slow progress. Ultimately I found the creek and it was about 6 inches deep with a nice sandy bottom. I was able to rise off all the muck.

As I got close to the bridge, I found a little tidal pool off to the side of the stream and there were 3 horseshoe crabs in it swimming around.

I made it to the bridge and walked back across the causeway, and then out to the Loagy Bay Beach. I then followed the north shore of the island back around to the house.

Here’s the whole path. It was just over 6km.

The last bit was really sunny and the southerly breeze was entirely blocked by the island. It was hot and the sand was soft. I was pretty sweaty by the time I got home about an hour a twenty minutes after I started.

We chilled out at the house for most of the day, and then around high tide, I decided to go for a row. I can launch from our stairs at high tide, so I did that and headed south. The wind was in the process of swinging from the SSE to the SSW as I went.

I followed the shore of the island on my way south to give a wide berth to that damn rock (and also because the marsh is fun to look at). Once I was well into the bay, I turned and followed the south shore out nd then turned to follow it.

That took about 20 minutes or so. I decided that I would row south and turn at the 40 minute mark. With a more direct course and a tail wind, I figured I would end up with a nice 70 minute row.

I watched my heart rate on the way south and tried to keep it around 150 or so. When I turned, I stopped and drank half a liter of water. Then I headed home. The tail wind was pleasant because it lightened up the load. But I missed the cooling breeze. The chop was pretty big, maybe 12″ and the boat wakes would interact with it in unpredictable ways. I experimented with different stroke rates and focused on clean finishes and keeping my blades clear of the wave tops. It’s a lot more press down than I am used to in my Fluid. The waves were pushing me around a bit and I had to do a lot of steering to stay on track. Now the goal was to head directly back to my launch point and not run into the rock.

Mission accomplished. I spotted the rock off on my starboard bow, about 100m away. I turned toward the island and back to the stairs. I stopped a bit offshore, got my feet out of the straps, and undid the nuts on the oarlocks. It can be a bit hectic with the waves bouncing the boat around at the bottom of the stairs. I paddled in like that and made a clean landing. I was just in time. The rocks around the base of the stairs were almost exposed and would have made landing a lot harder if I had pushed the time much further.

          Workout Summary - media/20180702-2150230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12609|78:13.0|03:06.1|000.0|22.1|147.9|162.0|07.3
W-|12169|69:46.0|02:52.0|000.0|21.0|149.9|162.0|08.3
R-|00442|08:28.0|09:34.7|000.0|31.6|131.8|162.0|00.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02113|12:32.1|02:57.9|000.0|20.2|142.9|153.0|08.3 - into current
02|04542|26:16.9|02:53.6|000.0|20.6|149.4|154.0|08.4 - with current at first
03|05513|30:57.0|02:48.4|000.0|21.6|153.2|162.0|08.3 - tail wind

As usual, the hardest work of the outing was carrying the boat back up the stairs.

A great day!

Sunday: 4 x 20′ / 2′ Dynamic

April 30, 2018Leave a comment

Crappy weather and I was too lazy to go to Newton to row. Around 3, I decided to do an easy cruise of a session on the dynamic. The goal would be to work on getting my heels down and keeping them there. Hopefully also keep reminding myself to sit up tall in the seat and hinge at the hips.

Allowing for how much I loathe the dynamic, it was a lovely session. I was relaxed and comfortable throughout.

          Workout Summary - media/20180429-2110250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20019|88:00.0|02:11.9|161.4|19.6|142.3|154.0|11.6
W-|18976|80:00.0|02:06.5|173.1|19.6|143.5|154.0|12.1
R-|01046|08:00.0|03:49.5|044.3|20.1|129.9|154.0|06.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04725|20:00.0|02:07.0|170.6|18.6|133.2|144.0|12.7
01|04736|20:00.0|02:06.7|172.1|19.9|144.5|152.0|11.9
02|04743|20:00.0|02:06.5|173.2|19.9|147.6|152.0|11.9
03|04771|20:00.0|02:05.8|176.4|20.0|148.8|154.0|11.9

Tomorrow: 80′ of speed play down in Newton on the Charles.

14K OTW – Steady State and Technique

March 29, 2018Leave a comment

Big day today. Back in my Fluid, back on the upper Charles River.

It took me a little to get my boat reassembled, and I took my time. The last thing I wanted to was to screw something up and flip when the air temp was 35F and the water was around 45F.

The despite it being a bit cold. The weather was beautiful. There was very little wind and it was nice and sunny. It had warmed up to the mid forties by the time I had finished.

The water was nice and flat and I was able to just focus on trying to remember how to row.

The plan was pretty simple:

4K to the dam just rowing steady state to reacclimate
3K back upstream working on technique
- 500m Square blades
- 500m alternating SBR and feathered
- 500m trying to row feathered without touching water
- repeat
Same thing 3K down stream
4K back to the dock rowing steady state to see if I made any progress

It’s funny, the first few outings in the spring, my heart rate is quite high and my boat speed is quite slow. After a couple weeks in the boat, I seem to get back in the groove. Today was much the same. In addition, there was a reasonable amount of current flowing, so I was about 5 sec faster downstream and 5 sec slower upstream on pace.

Workout Summary - media/20180329-1335260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13974|80:00.0|02:51.8|134.7|18.2|146.8|162.0|09.6
W-|12923|68:20.0|02:38.7|142.9|18.6|147.8|161.0|10.2
R-|01058|11:40.0|05:31.2|086.8|16.0|141.2|161.0|03.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00889|04:34.2|02:34.3|144.2|17.0|131.5|146.0|11.4 to the cut
01|02735|13:15.0|02:25.3|157.2|18.4|154.1|158.0|11.2 downstream ss
02|02815|15:54.0|02:49.5|136.3|17.5|148.1|161.0|10.1 drills
03|02768|14:43.2|02:39.5|133.5|18.6|143.7|155.0|10.1 drills
04|02881|15:22.2|02:40.1|145.0|19.4|151.0|157.0|09.7 upstream ss
05|00835|04:31.8|02:42.7|146.4|21.2|147.2|160.0|08.7 cut back to dock

I’m nursing a nice set of blisters on both hands, and I’m sore in lots of places. And I’m happier than I’ve been in months!

Tomorrow: Low Intensity day. OTW 1x. Depending on time and fatigue, somewhere between 60 and 80 minutes of rowing. Main intent is to get in some ss meters, but I want to do some side video to see where I am from a technique perspective. So that means I will probably throw in a few short rate ladders.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: endurance