Up at 5:15.  Felt pretty tired.  Ramping back up to normal training volumes is a bit of a shock to my system, I guess.

Downstairs and straight into the core workout.  I still hate it, but doing the 10 jumping jacks between each set of each exercise breaks it up and makes it a bit more tolerable.  It takes about 12 minutes, and I just start to break a sweat by the end.

Then I drove to the river.  On the way, there was a bit more drizzle than yesterday, but it seemed OK.  When I got there, I grabbed my broom to sweep the goose poop off the dock.  While I walked to the dock, I noticed 2 things.  First, it was raining harder.  It was still very fine mist, but at a higher volume.  Kinda like a shower in a cheap motel.  And the wind was pretty strong, around 10mph with gusts to 20.  There is a tropical storm about 150 miles offshore and the wind field is overspreading eastern Massachusetts.

Anyway, just the walk to the dock was enough to convince me slogging into a headwind with a soaking rain would not provide a magically rewarding fitness experience.  So I walked back to the car, drove to work and headed to the fitness center.

The Plan:

• 15′ warmup – treadmill death march (15% grade, 3mph)
• 3 x 15′ static erg
  • 20 spm
  • 2:08
  • HR limit: 155 (hopefully lower)
  • Work on knees together

 

Workout Summary - media/20170920-1231170o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11018|51:00.0|02:18.9|160.6|19.5|143.5|154.0|11.1
W-|10548|45:00.0|02:08.0|166.5|19.6|144.3|154.0|12.0
R-|00473|06:00.0|06:20.5|057.3|17.9|125.7|154.0|06.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03518|15:00.0|02:07.9|166.0|19.2|139.3|147.0|12.2
01|03517|15:00.0|02:08.0|166.4|19.7|144.8|152.0|11.9
02|03514|15:00.0|02:08.1|167.1|19.8|148.8|154.0|11.8

So far, my back is holding up well.  I still feel a bit of pain first thing in the morning and I get some warning twinges if I take a bad stroke, but it is tolerating the increased volume without any more pain or stiffness.

It’s time to take stock of where I am and what to do now.  The first and most pressing decision is what to do about the HOCR, which is on the morning October 21st.  32 days from now.   Seeing where I am now, versus where I was last time I rowed the HOCR, I would certainly do a lot worse.  Back then, my 2.0 mmol power was around 185W on the erg.  Right now, I would bet that it’s around 165W.  So, my guess is that I would be about 5 sec/500 slower than last time.  So, tack another 50 seconds on my finish time.  So, I’d go from a 22:15 to a 23:15, dropping from 25th place to 37th place (out of 58).

I wouldn’t be delighted with that, but its better than DFL.  I sure love rowing in this race.  I think I want to do it, even though I would not be at my best.  The question is: What is the best way to prepare for it?  I’m obviously not going to improve my aerobic fitness much over 32 days.  I will get some of that fitness back quickly just by regaining some blood volume.  But the main focus has to be on head race pace rowing.  Actually the main focus has to be on injury prevention.  After that I can focus on head race prep.

So, the mini plan is.

2 UT2 sessions per week 60 to 80 minutes of work per session.  Interval based.  No longer than 15 minutes continuous on the erg with stretching

1 UT1 session per week 60 minutes of work hopefully on the water

1 head race simulation per week.  Starting at r24 and moving up in rate.

1 long interval session per week.  basically 4×2000 type stuff with nice long rests

1 short interval/short rest per week.  concentrate on technique at r26 and r28

Daily core exercises (ugh)

In all sessions work on keeping knees together, limiting layback, and keeping my spine straight.

Tomorrow:  Hopefully back on the water.  Long intervals.  4 x 2k.  Should be a disaster.