Wednesday: 8 x 500 / 2’30”

November 15, 20174 Comments

Warmup: Fletcher

          Workout Summary - media/20171115-1315300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|04996|20:02.0|02:00.3|212.2|20.7|148.7|167.0|12.0
W-|05001|20:02.0|02:00.2|206.7|20.3|148.0|167.0|12.4
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|167.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00945|04:00.0|02:07.0|173.4|17.7|119.9|135.0|13.3
01|00990|04:00.0|02:01.2|196.5|20.0|142.7|147.0|12.4
02|00765|03:00.0|01:57.7|214.4|21.8|151.8|156.0|11.7
03|00268|01:00.0|01:52.1|245.5|23.8|157.9|160.0|11.3
04|00140|00:30.0|01:46.9|284.8|26.2|160.8|162.0|10.7
05|00478|02:00.0|02:05.5|184.9|18.8|160.8|164.0|12.7
06|00288|01:00.0|01:44.2|302.4|26.5|159.4|165.0|10.9
07|00483|02:00.0|02:04.3|189.4|18.5|163.3|166.0|13.1
08|00150|00:30.0|01:40.1|352.2|29.1|160.0|161.0|10.3
09|00494|02:02.5|02:03.9|198.4|18.9|163.9|167.0|12.8

The main event: Target pace 1:45

I played it safe in the first 5. It also took a bit of practice to rate up and keep my stroke smooth. I tried to remember the posture stuff from yesterday, mainly tried to keep my knees down at the beginning of the recovery. In the last three I started to push harder with the end in sight. I really pulled out the stops for the last one.

I’ve got a long way to go. My training objective is to break my 2k PB of 6:36. That means I’d have to hold that 1:39 split for 4x the distance I did today. Its going to take a lot of work, but I’m excited by the possibility.

Cool down:

I’m very happy with the workout. I think the safe pace target worked out well and being able to pull a “fast last” was awesome. Next time for this, a target of 1:44.

Now, I get to enjoy a day of not eating. I am going to get my first routine colonscopy tomorrow so they mandate no solid food for the full day before.

So, we’ll call tomorrow a “rest” day. 😦

Tuesday: 4 x 20′ / 1′

November 14, 20175 Comments

You might be noticing a trend by now. I’m looking at it as a rebuilding period. In this period I have a few goals

Get competent medical advice about lower back pain and fix any issues with flexibility or imbalances. This includes stretches and exercises
Get competent coaching to improve my rowing form for better efficiency and injury prevention. This includes drills.
Rebuild my base aerobic fitness by doing lots of easy rowing

Today, I got to work on all three.

I started by doing my normal pre-rowing routine.

10 SI exercises on my left leg
foam roll my quads
use a lacrosse ball to get after trigger points around the front of my hips and pelvis
2 x 40 sec glute bridges on an exercise ball
4 x 10sec torso twists

After that, I did a couple of drills that were recommended to try to improve my posture at the finish. Here are links to the drills.

Since I wanted to review it after, I taped my attempt at doing it and took a few easy strokes afterward trying to maintain the posture.

I found the drill to be very useful. I was able to remember what the position felt like and try to hold it during the row. By sitting the erg next to a mirror and looking at the hands back position, and then a proper finish position, I was get that picture in my mind and then look every once in a while during the row.

After that, I did my 4 x 20. Today, I started off aiming at 175W, but HR was really high, so I backed off slightly to try to keep it under 150. Remarkably, just a few watts was enough to do that. I did a lactate test at the end, and it read 5.3, which I thought had to be a mistake. I retook it and it was 3.0. Still much higher than I would have expected, but at least plausible. Rowing while focusing so much on posture was a lot harder and felt very unnatural. I imagine it will take weeks to start feeling natural. I think next time I will stick at this 170W-175W range.

         Workout Summary - media/20171114-2005300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19314|84:00.0|02:10.5|169.2|18.2|145.2|153.0|12.6
W-|18926|80:00.0|02:06.8|171.8|18.2|145.2|153.0|13.0
R-|00392|04:00.0|05:05.7|096.1|19.6|144.4|153.0|02.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04753|20:00.0|02:06.2|174.3|17.8|141.2|148.0|13.3
01|04725|20:00.0|02:07.0|171.3|18.1|145.2|148.0|13.0
02|04730|20:00.0|02:06.8|171.7|18.2|145.7|151.0|13.0
03|04718|20:00.0|02:07.2|169.7|18.6|148.7|153.0|12.7 - 3.0

Lactate Log

Tomorrow: I’m getting tired of all this base building, I need a little bit of intensity, so I think I will return to an old classic, 8×500. Pace target around 1:45.

Sunday & Monday: 4 x 20′ / 1′

November 13, 2017November 13, 20172 Comments

Sunday:

On the cape in the basement, around 10AM

Same session as Saturday. Much different result. Higher HR, higher Lactate (3.3). I felt much more tired. The main difference is that Saturday’s workout was after a rest day, Sunday’s workout was only 18 hours after Saturday’s, so I need to move my training power a bit lower to stay in the right range.

          Workout Summary - media/20171112-1540290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19480|84:00.0|02:09.4|177.8|18.7|141.5|157.0|12.4
W-|19206|80:00.0|02:05.0|179.9|18.7|141.3|157.0|12.9
R-|00279|04:00.0|07:10.4|079.5|19.4|139.4|157.0|02.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|-lac
00|01113|05:00.0|02:14.8|141.2|16.2|110.5|120.0|13.8
01|01164|05:00.0|02:08.9|163.3|17.2|126.0|129.0|13.5
02|02421|10:00.0|02:03.9|183.9|18.9|135.0|138.0|12.8
03|04846|20:00.0|02:03.8|184.9|18.8|139.0|147.0|12.9
04|04835|20:00.0|02:04.1|183.5|19.0|147.2|154.0|12.7
05|04828|20:00.0|02:04.3|183.0|19.1|152.2|157.0|12.6 - 3.3

Here is a comparison of HR for Saturday vs Sunday. I started at lower power, so the HR starts off lower, but it never plateaus!

Monday

In the fitness center at work.

I spoke to Marlene last night, and she has sent me the details of my fitness assessment. The gist of the assessment was:

My 1K is my strongest score
My peak power is OK, but could be improved
My anaerobic and aerobic thresholds are relatively weak.

She sent along her recommendations for training paces.

Cat VI – 2:06 – 2:11
Cat V – 2:01 – 2:05
Cat IV – 1:55
Cat III – faster than 1:51
Cat II – faster than 1:47

Today’s session was supposed to be a Cat VI session. I was instructed to row no faster than the fast end of the band, so, of course, that is what I aimed for.

         Workout Summary - media/20171113-1345290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19416|84:00.0|02:09.8|171.4|18.6|136.6|145.0|12.4
W-|19026|80:00.0|02:06.1|174.6|18.7|136.8|145.0|12.7
R-|00393|04:00.0|05:05.4|079.9|18.8|133.7|145.0|02.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|-lac
00|04768|20:00.0|02:05.8|174.6|18.6|128.5|136.0|12.8
01|04751|20:00.0|02:06.3|175.2|18.8|136.8|143.0|12.7
02|04755|20:00.0|02:06.2|174.8|18.5|140.4|144.0|12.8
03|04753|20:00.0|02:06.2|173.8|18.7|141.4|145.0|12.7- 1.8

Lactate Log

4 x 20′ / 2′ and 2 x 1′ / 1′

November 12, 2017Leave a comment

The goal for today was to fine tune my aerobic training power. Despite the lousy workout on Thursday, I thought 180W was about right.

In the basement in the house on the cape. Nice and cool.

I settled in to a groove at 183W. My HR did about what is should do. At the end of the first interval, my lactates were a bit high 2.3mmol/l. I really wanted to see something way below 2.0. But I was interested in seeing what would happen from this point forward at this power. So I kept going at 183W through the second interval. Still my HR was fine and I was feeling good. At the end of that one, 2.8. Way too high, but science compelled me to keep going at the same power. In the third interval, things suddenly felt a little easier. I’m not sure why, but my HR stabilized and it was easy to hit the power. At the end of this one, my lactates were 1.4. Well, that was unexpected. So, 20 more minutes at 183W and now it was 1.6.

During the row, I tried to focus on fast hands away, and keeping my knees down during the first part of the recovery. I’d do that for a little while and then my mind would wander and I’d fall back into to old habits.

Conclusions? 183W is about right, but I think I need to get back to the habits that I was doing when I started doing lactate based training. Which are:

Train in a fasted state. Today I trained soon after lunch. There is research that says that if you have eaten recently, especially carbs, that it impedes fat metabolism.
Warm up. When I started doing this before, I found that my HR would rise more slowly and my lactates would be lower at the end of workout if I started at a low power and ramped it up over the first 10 minutes to the target power.

          Workout Summary - media/20171111-2245290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19813|88:00.0|02:13.2|178.7|19.1|141.1|149.0|11.8
W-|19306|80:00.0|02:04.3|182.8|19.0|141.8|149.0|12.7
R-|00512|08:00.0|07:49.0|064.3|20.2|120.8|149.0|03.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|-lac
00|04836|20:00.0|02:04.1|182.7|18.9|136.6|144.0|12.8 - 2.3
01|04822|20:00.0|02:04.4|183.7|19.2|143.0|149.0|12.6 - 2.8
02|04816|20:00.0|02:04.6|181.5|19.0|143.8|148.0|12.7 - 1.4
03|04833|20:00.0|02:04.2|183.1|19.0|143.9|148.0|12.7 - 1.6

Then, after finishing that, I did a couple of 1 minute intervals. Not as good as the first ones, but a nice little blast to finish things off.

Tomorrow: Same thing, but in a fasted state and with the warmup. I’ll do a lactate test just at the end.

I am not a machine? 3 x 20′ + 2 x 1′

November 9, 2017November 9, 20171 Comment

In California. At Precision Crossfit in Agoura Hills. Once again, I was delighted by the experience dropping into a crossfit box. The ergs work, there are lots of people around, and everyone is really friendly.

I picked my erg and set it up off to the side so I wouldn’t get in the way. I didn’t have time for a full 80 minute session because I needed to be in a meeting by 8:15 and the box opened at 6am. So, I decided on 3 x 20′ + 2 x 1′.

I could tell almost from the first pull that today was not going to be a good day. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the erg, but it seemed to take a LOT of effort to pull 180W. Sitting on the erg, my HR was normal before I started, but it climbed fast, and it didn’t stop. I hung in with 180W through the first interval. I brought it down to 175W in the second interval, but it didn’t help. Then in the third, I decided to go as slowly as I needed to so I could keep my HR below 157bpm. Strangely enough this was 157W. 30W lower than I could hold at this HR yesterday.

Then I setup for the 2 x 1’/1′. This was equally ugly. I pushed the first minute hard, but this was still a lot more feeble than the hard minute I did a week ago (319m vs 330m). And I was pretty shattered. I tried to do the second rep, but I bailed out about halfway through. I paddled out the rest of that rep, took another minute rest, and then did a less aggressive minute (304m).

Bad days happen, my wife has a pretty nasty cold. In the past I have seen cases where I have lousy training results before I show any illness symptoms, so that might be it. It could also be jetlag, or some other mysterious reason.

Tomorrow, I fly back home during the day. I guess we’ll call it a rest day.

Edit: I just did a quick check of my training log. This is the first week after my the fitness tests, and it represented a strong shift toward long duration, low intensity work. The volume increase was pretty dramatic.

Maybe I’m just tired!

4 x 20′ / 1′ @ 186W

November 8, 2017Leave a comment

Back at base building. The mission today was to hold exactly 185W and measure lactate after 80 work minutes. I want to have a consistent training power that will yield 2.0 mmol/ml lactate readings at the end of a session.

It appears that lactate levels over time during endurance training can be different from person to person. What I have seen is that mine tend to stay at a reasonable constant level below 2.0mmol/ml for about 60 minutes, and then as I get fatigued, they start to rise. My Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) follows. I start to breath more heavily, and it feels like a lot more work in that last 20 minutes.

So, I aimed for 185W and I got 186W. In terms of my HR limits, it was right on. I measured lactate at the end…2.7mmol/ml. So, I need to back off the power, just a little bit.

I plan to aim at 180W for the next session and see what that gets me.

I’m at the airport now heading for LA. We’ll see if I can find a crossfit gym to drop into tomorrow, or else I will crosstrain in the fitness center.

Erg Video

November 8, 20179 Comments

It’s been a while since I took side video, either on the erg or in a boat. I had a little time yesterday, so I decided to do it.

To keep it reasonably short, I did 30 seconds each at 8 different rates from 18 to 32spm.

         Workout Summary - media/20171108-1200290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|01136|04:30.0|01:58.8|275.2|24.9|157.3|177.0|10.1
W-|01099|04:00.0|01:49.2|268.6|24.4|154.3|176.0|11.7
R-|00042|00:30.0|05:56.3|133.4|15.3|176.7|176.0|05.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00124|00:30.0|02:01.2|172.7|14.5|124.0|131.0|17.1
01|00123|00:30.0|02:02.2|187.9|20.3|137.8|143.0|12.1
02|00130|00:30.0|01:55.6|221.0|22.4|147.5|150.0|11.6
03|00133|00:30.0|01:52.4|243.8|23.7|153.2|157.0|11.3
04|00139|00:30.0|01:47.8|275.8|25.5|160.8|164.0|10.9
05|00145|00:30.0|01:43.6|311.1|27.8|166.6|170.0|10.4
06|00150|00:30.0|01:40.3|344.6|29.7|170.9|172.0|10.1
07|00156|00:30.0|01:36.3|391.7|31.7|173.5|176.0|09.8

The first strokes are taken at about 30 seconds in. So to specific stroke rates start at these times.

18: 0:30
20: 1:00
22: 1:30
24: 2:00
26: 2:30
28: 3:00
30: 3:30
32: 4:00

What do I see?

To my untrained eye, the drive looks OK. The recovery less so. I am breaking my knees too early on the recovery and my body is swinging way too late. This is going to be a bitch to try to change. It’s a pretty ingrained habit.
It looks like I am overcompressing at the catch. My legs are not separating as much as they were, but they are not solidly together at the catch. I think earlier body prep would help with this.

Lactate Step Test

November 8, 2017November 8, 20173 Comments

Using the AIS Step Test Protocol

I estimated that my current 2k time would be around 7:00, or a 1:45 pace. The protocol provides the following step powers

Getting myself setup was a bit complicated.

HR sensor, connected to PM5
PM5 connected to painsled
headphones on, connected to iphone
Spotify set to my “8×500” playlist
Drag set to 130
Seat pad on erg
wet towel
dry towel
lancet tool
lactate meter battery OK
lay out 10 lactate test strips neatly
fan on
PM set to 4 minute intervals/1 minute rests, display to power

Then I did a baseline lactate test, just to make sure that I remembered the process.

wipe hands with dry towel
wipe sample finger with wet towel
dry sample finger
lance fingertip
pick up meter with non-sample hand
pick up strip with sample hand and insert strip
make sure meter has woken up
visually judge size of droplet
- If it is too small, put hand down low for 5 seconds
dab droplet with strip, starts 13 sec count down on meter
wipe finger
get a drink
get feet set for next interval
write down reading

When executed well, this whole process takes about 45 seconds. If there are any hiccups, it takes the whole 1 minute rest time.

The baseline was 1.4mmol/ml which is a perfectly reasonable reading.

Then I did the test. The steps start ridiculously easy. The key thing in my mind is to try to hit the power exactly on every stroke. I ended up bouncing a few watts up and down, but staying focused on the target kept me occupied while it was easy.

The target for the last step is “max”. I changed the display from watts to pace per 500. I wasn’t quite sure how hard I could hold for 4 minutes. I decided to try to make sure I did it faster than 1:45. As it turned out, I was able to accelerate in the last minute, so I probably could have pushed it a bit harder, but my HR was above 180 at the end so I was working pretty hard.

OK, so I did the test. What’s the point?

The main reason to do the test was to have a baseline to compare after training blocks are completed.

Beyond that, the curve can be used to estimate my current Lactate Threshold. There are multiple ways to extract this from the curve. The simplest is the power at which the lactate level exceeds 4.0mmol/ml. This gives an estimate of 243W (1:52.9). A more conservative method is to draw a best fit line for the sub-2.0mmol points and another for the steep part of the curve, and the point where they meet is the LT.

This method yields about 238. So, about 240 is a good guess. How does this compare with the 20′ test? The test measured 244W. So there!

The other useful output is a first cut at appropriate steady state training power. The goal here is to train at the highest power that results in a steady state lactate level at or below 2.0mmol/ml. From this test, training power should be between 180 and 205W.

Other testing I have done in the past shows that lactate tends to drift up slowly over a long steady state session, so something towards the bottom of this probably more appropriate.

4 x 20′ / 1′

November 6, 20176 Comments

Same plan as the past couple of days.

4 x 20′ / 1′ rest
rate: 19-21
power: 182W target
HR limit:
- 0-20′: 145
- 20′-40′: 150
- 40′-80′: 155

Last two days were in the afternoon in a nice cool basement down on the cape. Today was in the fitness center at work. I was a bit concerned since Monday morning workouts tend to be a bit worse than others.

Started with my PT exercises (you can follow the link to the full list)

I started with the most important corrective exercise, Isometric correction for SIJ. In this exercise you basically push you leg out while you hold it back with your arms. It pushes the head of the femur back in it’s socket to get things aligned. This addresses my big issue which is weak left glute. Because of this weakness, other muscles are firing when I bend over for the catch and this is pulling the joint out of alignment. After I do that, then I foam roller my quads and IT bands, do a diabolical thing called a hip flexor release which is bascially rolling around on a lacrosse ball looking for places that hurt. Then I do a glute exercise which is like a bridge on a exercise ball, and then an exercise to strength my obliques.

It takes about 5 minutes and I think it is helping a lot. I am noticing that it is way easier to keep my knees together at the catch, and my hips are rocking over in a much smoother way than before. I suspect that it might have something to do with the increase in steady power that I am getting, but there isn’t a lot of evidence supporting that, other than the fact that I started doing PT and my steady state power got better.

At any rate, it isn’t hurting anything, so I’m all for it.

The session went better than I hoped. I aimed at 182W, but 185W felt fine and my HR stayed nice and low, so I went with it. I kept going at that through 3 20′ pieces and then pushed a bit more in the fourth. holding 190 was a bit too much and I needed to back off to 185W to stay under the 155bpm cap. It was great that my HR came down nicely when I reduced the power from 190 to 185.

I thought it would interesting to look back over the summer to see if this feeling of getting better was actually accurate. It is. You can see power going up and down, and then recently getting much better and more consistent (narrower range). On the right, you can see avgHR around the same and the upper HR a bit lower, but a nice downward trend over the past few days.

Tomorrow: I it is time for a bit more intensity and a bit more testing. I think I will do a lactate step test using the AIS protocol.

The power levels for this test are supposed to be based on the prior years best 2k test. I will estimate 2k power based on the 1K and 20 minute tests from last week. Using the Free Spirits Pace Predictor, I get an estimated 2K time of 6:59.0. Using the CP Curve from Rowsandall, I get a range of 280W to 326W (1:47.7 to 1:42.4), right in the middle of that would be 1:45.

So, here are my targets…

The protocol is row for 4 minutes, take a minute to do a lactate, then do it a 6 more times.

4 x 20′ / 1′ + 2 x 1’/1′

November 6, 20173 Comments

Same session as yesterday. Same rules.

4 x 20′ / 1′ rests
rate: 19-20
power target: 180W
HR limit: 145 after 20′, 150 after 40′, 155 after 60′

I felt great in this session. My stroke felt stronger everything just felt easier. Not sure why, but I sure liked it.

       Workout Summary - media/20171105-1840300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19814|84:00.0|02:07.2|180.9|19.8|142.6|154.0|11.9
W-|19383|80:00.0|02:03.8|184.5|19.8|142.7|154.0|12.3
R-|00434|04:00.0|04:36.4|070.7|20.6|137.7|154.0|06.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04826|20:00.0|02:04.3|181.6|19.1|136.8|145.0|12.7
01|04825|20:00.0|02:04.3|182.0|19.6|142.9|147.0|12.3
02|04837|20:00.0|02:04.0|183.8|20.0|144.8|148.0|12.1
03|04894|20:00.0|02:02.6|190.5|20.4|146.2|154.0|12.0

I was under my HR limit after 40′, so I nudged the power up just a couple of watts. My HR stayed nice and low through the third piece. So, in the last piece, nudged it up more for the first 10 minutes of so, and my HR was still ice and low, so I decided to push even harder to see what it would take to get up to the 155 HR limit. I needed to hold about 195 watts to slowly get up to the limit by the end.

I am more than ever convinced that I need to start low and push up over a session. Some people are able to start hard, and then ease off. That never seems to work for me. I will stick with 182W as a starting power, and stick with that through the first 40 minutes. If I am well under the cap, I will push harder in the second half.

After I finished the main course, I had some dessert.

I went all out in the first one, but with low drag and tired legs. I expect that I could squeeze out a bit more distance if I did it fresh and set myself up for a proper sprint. Considering my best 500m was 1:28.4, I hope I can improve this as I go along.

Tomorrow: Another base builder session.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: erg