Sunday: 3 x 20′ dynamic

October 20, 2018Leave a comment

Nothing to special. Just trying to keep things going along. Rowed with a HR cap of 155.

          Workout Summary - media/20181014-2235320o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14375|63:00.0|02:11.5|159.7|20.1|142.8|155.0|11.4
W-|14034|60:00.0|02:08.3|165.9|20.0|142.8|155.0|11.7
R-|00343|03:00.0|04:22.0|036.4|20.9|142.3|155.0|07.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04705|20:00.0|02:07.5|168.4|20.1|131.5|145.0|11.7
01|04666|20:00.0|02:08.6|164.5|20.0|146.1|151.0|11.7
02|04663|20:00.0|02:08.7|164.6|20.0|151.0|155.0|11.6

Another week on the Head Race training plan

October 1, 2018Leave a comment

Last post was Sept 25th. Since then I’ve been consistently training, but struggled with insomnia for much of the week.

I was very sleep deprived when I got home on Saturday morning (9/22). I slept a few hours that morning. Then a solid block of 10 hours on Saturday night. But on Monday night, I fell asleep around 10:30, and woke up at 1:00am. I was unable to fall back asleep. Tuesday, a little better. I slept from 10:30 to 2:00am. Wednesday, I got maybe 5 hours. Thursday, I headed down to the cape in the evening, arriving there around 11. I had some things to do around the house, so I didn’t get to sleep until 12:30. My daughter and one of my son’s arrived at 3:00am. I took some work to get back to sleep and I got maybe 3 hours of sleep before I needed to get up for my first meeting. Finally, Friday night and Saturday night I seemed to get back to more normal sleep patterns. It sure effects mood and stamina when you don’t get enough sleep.

Despite the sleep issues, I was on the water Tues/Wed/Thur. I took a rest day on Friday. And then trained Sat/Sun/Mon.

Wednesday, Sept 26: 60′ Steady State

The plan was to row at about r20 and keep my HR below 150.

         Workout Summary - media/20180926-1900310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12157|65:34.0|02:41.8|116.0|19.0|144.9|158.0|09.7
W-|11571|58:23.0|02:31.4|123.0|19.0|146.5|158.0|10.5
R-|00590|07:11.0|06:05.5|058.6|19.5|132.3|158.0|05.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00008|00:01.5|01:32.6|131.6|18.5|091.0|91.0|17.5 --?
02|00009|00:01.5|01:19.8|149.0|19.0|091.0|91.0|19.8 --? 
03|01100|05:21.3|02:26.0|128.6|19.4|135.4|147.0|10.6 - blocked by boats
04|02754|13:05.3|02:22.6|127.1|19.3|147.7|153.0|10.9
05|02729|14:19.6|02:37.5|121.0|18.1|145.4|154.0|10.5
06|01942|09:26.1|02:25.8|120.8|18.4|146.9|155.0|11.2 - cut short for time
07|02615|13:54.7|02:39.6|123.0|19.5|150.5|158.0|09.7
08|00413|02:13.4|02:41.4|109.0|20.7|148.0|156.0|09.0

Thursday, Sept 27: 4 x (5 x 2′ / 1′)/2′ Short Intervals

Plan for Thursday was to use these short intervals to practice working at rates higher than head race rate. Try to keep my stroke light and work on the release.

Ran out of river in the last interval of the first set. I really torched the whole first set. A fair current behind me and a bit of a tail wind. It looks like I dialed back the power a bit on the upriver trip. Otherwise, pretty uneventful.

         Workout Summary - media/20180927-1230310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13891|80:10.0|02:53.1|116.6|24.1|147.6|174.0|07.2
W-|08479|37:42.0|02:13.4|171.7|27.3|157.2|174.0|08.2
R-|05430|42:29.0|03:54.8|067.6|21.3|139.0|174.0|06.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00460|01:58.5|02:08.7|167.9|26.3|140.2|154.0|08.9
02|00475|02:01.9|02:08.2|183.0|27.5|149.5|159.0|08.5
03|00490|02:04.9|02:07.5|163.7|27.4|155.4|166.0|08.6
04|00476|02:01.3|02:07.3|176.4|27.3|154.7|163.0|08.6
05|00267|01:07.4|02:06.4|194.7|28.4|153.9|161.0|08.4
06|00440|01:58.3|02:14.4|165.7|27.8|150.0|163.0|08.0
07|00428|01:56.1|02:15.5|168.9|27.8|158.4|170.0|08.0
08|00433|01:59.8|02:18.5|189.0|27.0|160.8|169.0|08.0
09|00425|01:55.5|02:15.9|170.5|27.5|163.1|172.0|08.0
10|00439|01:56.7|02:13.0|175.4|27.8|164.3|174.0|08.1
11|00437|01:59.9|02:17.2|168.7|26.5|152.1|168.0|08.3
12|00457|01:59.2|02:10.4|175.7|27.2|160.5|169.0|08.5
13|00427|01:54.9|02:14.5|148.9|27.1|160.7|170.0|08.2
14|00428|01:55.5|02:14.9|179.0|27.0|164.0|172.0|08.2
15|00454|01:55.9|02:07.8|186.5|28.4|162.8|172.0|08.3
16|00430|01:58.0|02:17.1|160.9|27.5|149.9|167.0|08.0
17|00423|01:56.4|02:17.7|161.0|27.2|159.8|169.0|08.0
18|00266|01:13.9|02:19.2|170.1|26.8|158.2|165.0|08.0
19|00420|01:55.8|02:17.8|158.3|27.4|162.5|172.0|08.0
20|00405|01:52.4|02:18.7|178.6|26.7|164.6|173.0|08.1

I was pretty happy with the result.

Friday, 28 Sept: No Training

Saturday, 29 Sept: 10km threshold on slides

On Saturday, I wanted to hand with the family. We got ourselves organized and went on a day trip down to Chatham. While we were there, we had a big lunch. I was still feeling kind of full when we got back to the house, but I figured that I better go do my thing on the erg in the basement.

The plan was for 40′ of threshold, so another 10K. It would be useful to compare to the one on slides to the one on the dynamic last weekend.

I started with a 2K warmup. It felt hard and I felt bloated.

Then I got going. Target pace was 1:59.

That was brutal. But frankly more pleasant than the dynamic.

Splits are pretty darned consistent. I got a bit scared of blowing up around 7k.

         Workout Summary - media/20180929-2250290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:31.0|01:58.6|209.6|25.5|165.9|183.0|09.9
W-|10000|39:31.0|01:58.6|209.6|25.5|165.9|183.0|09.9
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|183.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:53.5|01:56.7|214.5|25.3|137.1|154.0|10.2
01|01000|03:56.1|01:58.0|213.1|25.2|157.0|159.0|10.1
02|01000|03:56.8|01:58.4|211.0|25.4|160.9|162.0|10.0
03|01000|03:57.5|01:58.8|209.1|25.1|163.6|165.0|10.1
04|01000|03:57.6|01:58.8|209.0|25.3|166.1|167.0|10.0
05|01000|03:57.3|01:58.7|209.2|25.1|169.2|171.0|10.1
06|01000|03:57.6|01:58.8|208.6|26.0|172.2|174.0|09.7
07|01000|03:59.5|01:59.7|204.0|25.2|175.1|177.0|09.9
08|01000|04:00.7|02:00.4|200.7|25.1|177.0|178.0|10.0
09|01000|03:55.1|01:57.5|217.6|27.4|179.8|183.0|09.3

So, a very similar row to the dynamic. Weird how I prefer the feeling of slides so much more, but the performance is not that different. Here are a few different parameters compared between the two rows.

HR: A bit higher on slides. Basically I was willing to take a bit more pain.
Power: 5W more on slides
Stroke rate: nearly identical
Drive length: 3 cm longer on slides. Feels about right.
Peak force: Higher on slides. I was a bit surprised by this. Since the dynamic feels so much heavier, I expected higher peak force.
Avg force: As expected, about proportional to the watts difference

Sunday, September 30: 90′ bike ride.

My daughter and I went for a bike ride. The intent was to explore some of the sand roads, but as it turned out, the sand was too loose to make any progress on, so we headed to the roads and went north. It was just a nice easy ride.

Monday, 1 October: 5 x 1500 / 5′

Plan was to work on stroke rate around 26, and beat my last 5×1500 pace and power (2:16, 154W).

The downstream intervals were a blast. The river was flowing reasonably fast, and there was the lightest of tail winds. Anyway, after I went through the s-turn, and I had about 300 or 400 meters to go, I was rating up and pushing the pace. On the third and fifth interval, I was seeing the splits drop below 2:00 for the last 5 or so strokes. It turns out that I was working a little harder on the upstream segments, as measured by power. I struggle to use power in the boat because of the big turn in the middle.

          Workout Summary - media/20181001-1310300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13634|80:28.0|02:57.1|113.7|22.9|139.8|178.0|07.4
W-|07578|33:51.0|02:14.1|165.0|26.3|158.8|177.0|08.5
R-|06061|46:37.0|03:50.8|076.5|20.4|126.0|177.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00158|00:44.0|02:18.9|117.9|19.2|124.5|129.0|11.3- wu
02|01490|06:31.6|02:11.4|154.4|25.2|153.8|166.0|09.1
03|01438|06:40.9|02:19.4|170.5|26.4|160.0|172.0|08.1
04|01486|06:24.1|02:09.3|167.6|27.0|159.1|175.0|08.6
05|01440|06:45.0|02:20.6|170.1|26.9|163.0|173.0|07.9
06|01565|06:46.1|02:09.7|167.7|26.7|161.7|177.0|08.7

Tomorrow: 80′ of steady state. Drills on the 5s.

And we’re back to a regular progamming

September 24, 2018Leave a comment

Let’s see, where were we. Friday morning, I went for a run on sore legs. The rest of the day, I was mocked mercilessly by my coworkers because I was hobbling around like a very old man.

Around 3pm I left for the airport. I was supposed to hop on a 5:40 flight to Toronto, and then connect to Boston, getting me home by around 8pm eastern time on Friday night. Things did not work out that way. We left the gate about an hour late, and then once we got out to the runway, the pilot came on and announced that there was a maintenance problem and we were heading back to the gate. They unloaded us and gave us dinner vouchers, and gave us no clue about when we would leave.

I started working the phones. Given that I had already missed my connection and I had no idea when I would take off, I decided that I should start working on options. I found a flight that would leave at 10:50 to LAX and allow me to connect to the red eye to Boston, getting in around 8am. This seemed like a better option that getting stuck overnight in Tokyo or Toronto, so I reserved a seat and waited to hear what happened with my flight.

Around 8:30, they came on the PA and announced that the new boarding time for my flight was 10:30pm. Since that was so far away, I figured there had to be some uncertainty in it and I decided to go for the LA option. I got on board (last row in coach!), and settled in for a long and bumpy flight. My original flight ended up taking off at 12:44am. It arrived at 11:01 pm on Friday night. The next flight to Boston left at 2pm the next day, so I guess I made the right call. It was still 30 hours of travel and I felt totally destroyed when by the time I got home.

Sorry for the long story. Anyway, I didn’t feel like working out of Saturday.

Sunday – Sept 23: 10K Threshold on the dreaded Dynamic

Gotta back to it. First, a 2k warmup. Held 2:00-ish pace for 1000m, then paddled 500, then another 500 around 2:00.

I had failed last week with a target pace of 2:00. I had actually started a bit faster, at 1:58 and I decided that I could again try for 2:00, but be a bit more careful about staying on target. It was also a lot cooler. The piece went much better. I got a bit desperate with 2k to get and rated up a couple of pips which got me through the worst of it.

          Workout Summary - media/20180923-2055320o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:48.0|01:59.4|205.3|25.3|164.5|180.0|09.9
W-|10000|39:48.0|01:59.4|205.3|25.3|164.5|180.0|09.9
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|180.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:57.2|01:58.6|206.8|24.8|139.7|153.0|10.2
01|01000|03:59.2|01:59.6|204.6|25.0|155.4|158.0|10.0
02|01000|03:59.1|01:59.5|205.2|25.1|159.1|161.0|10.0
03|01000|03:59.3|01:59.7|204.1|25.1|162.5|163.0|10.0
04|01000|03:59.6|01:59.8|203.5|25.1|164.7|166.0|10.0
05|01000|03:59.8|01:59.9|203.1|25.1|167.1|169.0|10.0
06|01000|03:59.3|01:59.7|204.3|25.1|171.1|174.0|10.0
07|01000|04:00.3|02:00.2|201.8|25.2|172.6|174.0|09.9
08|01000|04:00.2|02:00.1|201.6|26.3|174.6|176.0|09.5
09|01000|03:54.5|01:57.3|218.1|26.4|177.8|180.0|09.7

So, mission accomplished. I will have to try this on a static erg soon to see what the pace difference is to the dynamic. I think it’s nearly 5 splits.

Monday – Sept 24: Drills on the fives

Back on the water after 9 days. Felt wobbly and awkward at first. And it was windy and choppy (Wind 10-15mph NE). Not ideal for drills, but really useful nonetheless.

Looks like the batteries on my oarlock died about 50 minutes into the session. The paces were pretty slow with a head wind going downstream and abnormally high flow going upstream.

By the end of the session, I felt much better. I was tapping down well and getting myself over the oars

Tomorrow: 4 x 2000 / 5′ (target pace: 2:16)

3 x 20′ / 2′ at crossfit Del Mar

September 11, 2018Leave a comment

On the road. Just a steady state session. On a static erg.

Sun: 70′ Coastal, Mon: 3 x 20′, Tues: 5 x 1500 OTW

September 4, 2018Leave a comment

Sunday: 70′ Coastal Row

Down on the Cape. Another glorious day. A bit hotter and a bit less breeze. I felt pretty worn out from the 36′ threshold piece (and the long cool down) on Saturday, and my hands were a bit beaten up too.

The goal for the day was just a nice steady state row. Try to keep the HR below 155 and “row good”. From that perspective, it was a great session. I rowed out to my favorite buoy, and then headed north to Wellfleet harbor. I rowed all the way around the town jetty and then turned around for the row back.

Except for nearly constant wakes for most of the way back south, it was pure delight.

The glitch around 30 minutes was the turn into the harbor. At 35 minutes, I needed to take a sharp turn to avoid a moored boat. I was rowing on an incoming tide, that why the pace changed so much at 16 minutes. That was when I went from fighting the tide to going with it into the harbor. From 42 minutes to 52 minutes, I was rowing out of the harbor. I had to stop a couple of times to open the bailer. Then from 55 minutes to the end, you can see the diminishing effect of the tide. At first, it was in front of me, and then as I went south along Indian Head, it gradually swings behind me as the tide pushes into loagy bay.

Monday: 3 x 20 / 2′ Dynamic

We drove home late in the day on Sunday, and on Monday I just took care of stuff. Shopping, laundry, getting organized for the work week. By the schedule, I was supposed to do a threshold session, but I preferred to do that on the water, and honestly, I was still a bit tired from my two coastal outings. I decided to swap sessions and just do steady state.

The intent is to stay below 155, no matter how sucky the pace gets. And it got sucky. It was hot as hell and humid too.

          Workout Summary - media/20180903-2155290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|23559|66:00.0|01:24.0|148.1|21.5|143.2|157.0|16.6
W-|13830|60:00.0|02:10.2|158.7|21.2|144.3|157.0|10.9
R-|09732|06:00.0|00:18.5|042.9|23.9|132.4|157.0|168.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04644|20:00.0|02:09.2|161.8|20.2|135.1|146.0|11.5
01|04604|20:00.0|02:10.3|158.5|21.2|146.5|153.0|10.9
02|04582|20:00.0|02:11.0|155.8|22.2|151.4|157.0|10.3

I left a big puddle.

Tuesday: 5 x 1500 / 4′ OTW 1x

On the Charles in Newton. Sunny, hot, nearly windless. A beautiful day for rowing.

The goal for today was to try to focus on a bit higher stroke rates and hopefully faster paces than the 4 x 2000 from last week. So, I was trying to stay between 26 and 28. It might have been a bit too ambitious, but I sure felt like I had had a good workout when I was done.

          Workout Summary - media/20180904-1555280o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13603|84:03.0|03:05.4|109.2|23.1|148.0|181.0|07.0
W-|07736|35:12.0|02:16.5|152.5|26.9|166.4|181.0|08.2
R-|05872|48:51.0|04:09.6|077.9|20.3|134.8|181.0|07.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00228|01:05.5|02:23.5|129.9|21.0|140.4|143.0|09.9 wu strokes
02|01512|06:37.3|02:11.4|160.9|27.1|161.8|176.0|08.4
03|01486|06:46.8|02:16.9|159.7|26.6|166.9|179.0|08.2
04|01482|06:41.5|02:15.5|151.7|27.6|170.0|181.0|08.0
05|01522|07:06.4|02:20.0|151.0|27.1|168.7|181.0|07.9
06|01506|06:55.1|02:17.9|143.5|26.8|168.4|181.0|08.1

Pretty clear that I didn’t have much left over for the fifth rep.

Tomorrow: steady state technique day. drills on the 5s

More fun at NCFit – 3 x 20′ / 2′

August 30, 2018Leave a comment

Just a steady state session. HR limited. Target pace was 2:06.

I ended up pushing the pace a bit faster as I went along.

Now I’m off to work and then I catch the red eye home. Tomorrow I will either go for an easy open water row or do another 3 x 20 on the erg.

Norcal Crossfit – 20 x 2′ / 1′

August 30, 2018Leave a comment

Tuesday, August 28 – No Training

I flew out to San Jose on Monday night, and I was hoping to get a workout in on Tuesday morning, but I felt pretty lousy in the morning and decided to just shower and get into work early.

Wednesday, August 29 – 20 x 2′ / 1′

I was out of bed at 5:00AM and I drove over to Norcal Crossfit. I was on an erg by 5:30. The plan was to try out my new short interval workout. Today’s version was basically an easier version of the 15×3′ workout that I’ve done for a long time. That workout is 45 minutes of work and a total of 15 minutes of rest. This one is 40 minutes of work and 20 minutes of rest. The idea is to be able to push the pace a little harder and then match it the next time I do the 15×3′ version. I was on a static erg.

No denying that the workout was tough, but I didn’t have any doubt that I was going to make it. The erg had a weird startup glitch. It didn’t seem to register the first stroke that I took and then the second would show an incredibly low split. It made the average split start off really fast and then bleed down to the actual pace that I was doing. My initial thought on pacing was 1:53, but as it turned out 1:50 was a better idea.

I enjoyed the workout. I’m looking forward to doing it in my boat.

Tomorrow: Back to NCFit. A nice easy steady state 3 x 20′ session.

Training Log – Aug 15 to Aug 27

August 28, 20182 Comments

Wednesday, August 15 – Brief HIIT session in the fitness center

I arrived in San Jose Tuesday afternoon, and headed straight to my meeting. I spent the rest of the afternoon in our office and than had a business dinner that night.

In the morning I had a window to do a quick workout in the hotel fitness center.

I did a brief warmup and then I did a HIIT session on the treadmill. It was 30 seconds of hard running on a 15% incline and then 4:30 of walking on the incline. I did 6 intervals. For some reason the data from the session did not get captured right. It was very hard work when it was going on, but not a whole lot of it.

Thursday, August 16 – Easy 50 minutes in the fitness center

I flew from San Jose to Austin on Wednesday morning, then had meetings in our office there in the afternoon. That evening we had a customer dinner. In the morning, I got up and went to the fitness center of the hotel.

First, I did 30 minutes of incline walking (15% grade, ~3mph) on the treadmill. Then I moved over to the stationary bike and did some rolling hills for another 20 minutes.

Not very impressive, and extremely boring. The rest of the day was a blur of meetings. I caught an evening flight back to Boston, arriving around midnight.

Friday, August 17 – No Training

I decided to get a some sleep on Friday morning instead of trying to squeeze a row in. I brought my workout clothes to work hoping that I could sneak off for a quick session during the day sometime. But all my time slots got booked up as the day went along.

Saturday, August 18 – 15 x 3′ / 1′

Saturday morning we had made arrangements for a tree service to come in and work on a bunch of trees that were damaged over the winter. These guys were amazing. They trimmed everything, stabilized some badly bent trees and even reshaped our shrubs. They got it all done by the middle of the day.

My wife and I were planning to go down to the cape later in the day, so I had time for an erg session on the dreaded dynamic. Today’s assignment was a 15 x 3’/1′.

This is a favorite session of mine, but I didn’t know how to pace it on the dynamic. I was guessing somewhere between 1:55 and 2:00. I decided to start at 2:00 and try to negative split until things got dicey.

Things got dicey after about the 5th rep. Then things got really dicey at the end and I blew up in the 14th rep. But, judging by the HR stats, it was a pretty tough session.

Too bad the paces were so slow.

         Workout Summary - media/20180818-1750260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13453|60:05.0|02:14.0|168.0|25.9|164.4|181.0|08.6
W-|11266|45:00.0|01:59.8|207.7|26.7|163.1|181.0|09.5
R-|02203|15:05.0|03:25.5|049.7|23.7|168.3|181.0|05.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00761|03:00.0|01:58.2|207.8|24.4|125.9|150.0|10.4
01|00762|03:00.0|01:58.1|213.3|25.4|148.2|158.0|10.0
02|00779|03:00.0|01:55.5|218.1|26.6|155.2|163.0|09.7
03|00780|03:00.0|01:55.4|227.3|26.8|159.2|168.0|09.7
04|00780|03:00.0|01:55.3|230.2|25.5|163.7|171.0|10.2
05|00746|03:00.0|02:00.7|208.0|24.5|161.9|169.0|10.2
06|00762|03:00.0|01:58.1|212.9|24.7|165.6|175.0|10.3
07|00756|03:00.0|01:59.0|218.1|26.7|169.1|177.0|09.4
08|00779|03:00.0|01:55.5|227.5|28.8|172.8|180.0|09.0
09|00751|03:00.0|01:59.8|203.9|26.4|170.9|179.0|09.5
10|00755|03:00.0|01:59.3|203.2|24.6|173.1|181.0|10.2
11|00711|03:00.0|02:06.5|184.7|29.9|173.6|181.0|07.9
12|00746|03:00.0|02:00.6|202.1|26.0|169.8|181.0|09.6
13|00666|03:00.0|02:15.2|159.0|30.5|173.0|179.0|07.3
14|00732|03:00.0|02:03.0|199.2|29.0|164.3|178.0|08.4

Sunday, August 19 – 3 x 20′ / 2′

I had hopes of going for an open water row, but it was a bit too windy. I settled for an easy steady state session. I had planned to do 4 x 20′, but my HR was high and I was having trouble holding a reasonable pace. I decided to cut it off after 3 intervals.

          Workout Summary - media/20180819-1745260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14696|66:00.0|02:14.7|151.1|20.2|144.8|157.0|11.0
W-|13912|60:00.0|02:09.4|161.5|20.0|145.8|157.0|11.6
R-|00788|06:00.0|03:48.7|046.6|22.5|135.2|157.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04724|20:00.0|02:07.0|170.3|20.1|137.2|148.0|11.7
01|04624|20:00.0|02:09.8|160.2|20.0|148.3|153.0|11.6
02|04564|20:00.0|02:11.4|154.1|19.8|151.8|157.0|11.5

Monday, August 20 – 4 x 2000 / 4′

We stayed down on the cape on Sunday night and I got up at 5 to make my way to work. It takes somewhere between 2:30 and 3:30 depending on traffic.

On this particular monday, the traffic wasn’t so bad, and I made it to work with enough time for a workout in the fitness center.

I am trying to organize my training a bit more and start focusing on a few potential head races, so I wanted to increase the intensity of my training weeks. Today’s session is basically my goto head racing training session. On the static erg, and my very best, I could do this session with an average pace around 1:45. I am not at my best. In fact, judging by my steady state pace, I would say that I am about 8 to 10 splits off my best form. So I decided to target 1:55 for this session and see how it went.

This was a really good session. I felt like the pace target was good and I was able to stick to it. It was pretty motivating.

Tuesday, August 21 – 70′ Drills on the fives – OTW 1x

Hooray! Back in my boat. Since it had been a while, I decided to do a technical session.

The session is really simple. 4 minutes of rowing, and then 1 minute of drills, rotating between these four

1/2 slide
delayed feather
pause at body over
open hands on recovery

It’s an engaging, challenging session that goes by really quickly.

Wednesday, August 22 – 12 x 3′ / 1′

The plan was for 15 x 3′, but I ran out of time, and frankly energy. This session is hard work! But, then again, it’s supposed to be. The whole point of this session is to put in a lot of strokes at head race pace and pressure. Right now that’s awfully slow, but that will change with a but of focused work.

The pace on these is a bit deceptive because a lot of the intervals happen through the big s-turn, which slows me down a bit.

          Workout Summary - media/20180827-2250260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11919|65:02.0|02:43.7|117.9|23.7|156.9|177.0|07.7
W-|07790|35:39.0|02:17.3|155.9|25.3|163.8|177.0|08.6
R-|04142|29:24.0|03:33.0|071.9|21.8|148.4|177.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00167|00:47.4|02:22.3|123.0|20.3|143.0|147.0|10.4 - warmup burst
02|00663|02:59.6|02:15.4|147.2|25.0|154.9|163.0|08.8
03|00546|02:29.8|02:17.1|149.5|25.6|161.1|166.0|08.5 - downriver turn
04|00648|02:52.4|02:12.9|166.1|26.8|163.3|170.0|08.4
05|00644|02:58.4|02:18.5|154.1|26.5|165.8|172.0|08.2
06|00599|02:49.6|02:21.5|155.9|24.3|161.9|172.0|08.7 - upriver turn
07|00607|02:50.4|02:20.3|161.2|24.6|165.6|174.0|08.7
08|00644|02:54.4|02:15.4|152.2|25.1|167.0|176.0|08.8
09|00656|03:00.3|02:17.4|145.1|24.6|167.0|175.0|08.9 - down river turn
10|00648|02:54.8|02:14.8|163.8|24.7|168.0|177.0|09.0
11|00092|00:25.8|02:20.4|153.1|25.4|159.1|160.0|08.4 - hit the weeds!
12|00622|02:49.3|02:16.0|158.9|25.8|161.1|175.0|08.5
13|00636|02:55.9|02:18.4|161.0|26.9|166.8|174.0|08.1 - upriver turn
14|00616|02:51.7|02:19.3|165.2|25.5|169.6|177.0|08.5

The low point of the workout was interval number 10. I finished #9 going under the stone bridge and into the channel leading to the basin. With a one minute rest, it’s barely enough time to get the boat turned around. On this turn, I managed to get my point wrong for the next interval, and within 30 seconds, I managed to get way to close to the weeds along the bank and really entangled my starboard oar. It took me a couple of minutes to back my way out of the situation. I was lucky I didn’t flip.

The last three intervals passed without any additional drama. Well, except it started raining on interval 10, and by the time I finished it was pouring!

Thursday, August 23 – 70′ Steady State

One of the great things about doing a good job on a high intensity session is that you really feel like you’ve earned your right to a low intensity session for the next day. That’s the way I felt on Thursday. I just wanted to work on clean finishes and take it easy.

          Workout Summary - media/20180827-2251030o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13708|77:51.0|02:50.4|108.1|18.7|134.0|148.0|09.4
W-|13013|66:14.0|02:32.7|117.0|18.3|138.2|148.0|10.7
R-|00700|11:37.0|08:17.9|056.9|20.6|109.6|148.0|07.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03895|19:42.4|02:31.8|114.9|17.9|135.2|147.0|11.0
02|02753|14:10.1|02:34.4|117.1|17.7|139.6|148.0|11.0
03|02735|13:34.9|02:29.0|120.8|18.8|140.8|147.0|10.7
04|02800|14:21.1|02:33.8|118.4|18.6|139.8|146.0|10.5
05|00830|04:26.2|02:40.4|110.4|19.8|134.3|145.0|09.4

Easy peasy. delightfully low heart rate.

Friday, August 24 – no training

Well, isn’t that remarkable. Taking a rest day after 6 consecutive training days! Also, I had an extremely important meeting at 8am, so I got up at my normal 5:15 am, but headed straight to the office to do a little bit of last minute prep work.

Saturday, August 25 – remarkably crappy 10K

We stayed in Hopkinton this weekend. There was some yard work and other stuff that needed to get done. I wasn’t really in the mood to get on the dynamic, but I didn’t want to lose the little bit of momentum that I had built up. I was due for a more intense session, so I decided to try to do a threshold 10k. Again, I wasn’t sure what pace I could hold on the dynamic, so I started out at about a 1:57. That didn’t last long.

After multiple HDs, and some might slow rowing, I got a little motivated with about 4k to go. God, I hate the dynamic erg.

Sunday, August 26 – 16K steady state on the Charles River

On Friday, one of my friends from out in Worcester let me know that 4 of them were going to take 2 doubles down and launch them from Community Rowing so that they could row the course for the CRI Fall Classic before the event. He asked if I wanted to come along. I thought that was a great idea, and it was lucky for me that I was around this weekend. I picked up my boat in Newton and met them at 7:30.

We launched and headed downriver. It’s really a pretty magical place to row. There are lots of turns, but none of them are too sharp. Lots of bridges, but none of them are too narrow. Lots of traffic, but at that time of the morning, it is almost all scullers and everyone knows the traffic pattern.

We rowed from CRI down to the BU boat house, about 8000m. We had a couple of short stops on the way down as needed to stay together as a group. We got ourselves organized and headed back upriver. This is the first time I’ve been on the course since my lousy row in last years HOCR. It was good to row the course at steady state pressure and work on holding a line.

Each of the doubles had a close encounter with the ample vegetation that has invaded the charles this year. There is a thick bed of weeds around the magazine beach turn. People tend to hug that turn pretty closely in the race. I think this year a bit wider turn will be needed. Once we got up past the Weeks footbridge, we stopped again. This is the about where the start line for the CRI fall classic is. Then we took the rest of the way up as a single piece, and finished strong in front of the CRI boathouse. There was a bit of headwind in this section.

It was an incredibly fun outing.

          Workout Summary - media/20180826-1645260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|16467|98:39.0|02:59.7|100.1|21.6|147.0|176.0|07.7
W-|15053|77:18.0|02:34.1|115.3|21.3|154.4|175.0|09.2
R-|01422|21:20.0|07:30.2|045.2|22.8|120.3|175.0|03.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00767|04:03.9|02:38.9|098.4|17.7|134.7|148.0|10.7
02|03436|17:10.0|02:29.9|114.9|20.0|153.4|164.0|10.0
03|00966|05:03.0|02:36.9|109.1|20.6|145.6|152.0|09.3
04|02354|11:59.6|02:32.9|108.6|20.6|154.6|163.0|09.5
05|00917|04:38.5|02:31.9|131.2|22.5|155.7|169.0|08.8
06|00570|03:01.5|02:39.1|108.8|20.1|150.3|156.0|09.4
07|01080|05:17.7|02:27.1|121.2|22.4|155.5|169.0|09.1
08|03379|17:49.4|02:38.2|114.9|22.6|157.9|164.0|08.4
09|01584|08:15.4|02:36.3|128.3|23.4|163.8|175.0|08.2

Monday, August 27 – 4 x 2000 / 4′

On the water in Newton. Weather was perfect, maybe a bit hot, but sunny and calm. The goal this morning was to replicate the happy feelings I got from last monday’s 4x2k on the erg. I knew that this was gonna be tougher in the boat. Each rep would last almost 2 minutes longer and I had to focus on technique and steering. I decided for this session to try to hold the stroke rate around 24.

          Workout Summary - media/20180827-1650270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11324|67:03.0|02:57.6|112.6|22.6|147.3|180.0|07.5
W-|08138|37:59.0|02:20.0|147.0|24.7|162.4|180.0|08.7
R-|03192|29:04.0|04:33.3|067.7|19.8|127.7|180.0|06.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00284|01:24.6|02:29.2|114.6|19.9|130.0|135.0|10.1 - warmup
02|02004|09:11.9|02:17.7|145.6|24.5|154.5|167.0|08.9
03|01966|09:12.2|02:20.4|154.2|25.2|164.7|176.0|08.5
04|01950|08:55.1|02:17.2|148.4|25.0|166.6|180.0|08.7
05|01933|09:15.4|02:23.7|144.8|25.1|168.6|180.0|08.3

So, that was awesome. Slow, but awesome. I held it together through all the reps and managed to focus on technique with my heart going a mile a minute. It feel good to be back focusing on these simple sessions.

Now, I am on a plane out to San Jose. I have a few days of meetings out here. I’m going to try to find an erg so I can maintain my forward progress.

What are my goals? (Really?)

August 14, 20183 Comments

I’ll get the the deep thoughts. But first, a quick rundown of the spotty training that I’ve been doing.

Saturday, July 28: 10K hard.

Well, it wasn’t supposed to be that hard. I just wanted to do 10K at around a 2:00 pace. 2:00 turned into 1:59, and I broke around the 7500m mark. I got it back together and finished at pace.

          Workout Summary - media/20180728-1350240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:40.0|01:59.0|207.8|24.8|159.9|183.0|10.2
W-|10000|39:40.0|01:59.0|207.8|24.8|159.9|183.0|10.2
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|183.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:56.2|01:58.1|210.0|23.8|126.2|142.0|10.7
01|01000|03:57.7|01:58.9|208.4|24.3|145.7|150.0|10.4
02|01000|03:57.5|01:58.8|208.7|24.7|152.7|154.0|10.2
03|01000|03:57.8|01:58.9|208.2|24.0|156.4|158.0|10.5
04|01000|03:57.3|01:58.6|209.7|24.8|160.7|162.0|10.2
05|01000|03:57.6|01:58.8|209.0|24.9|165.0|168.0|10.1
06|01000|03:57.7|01:58.8|208.5|24.9|169.3|173.0|10.1
07|01000|04:05.2|02:02.6|193.2|26.2|169.4|172.0|09.3
08|01000|03:58.6|01:59.3|205.8|24.9|173.7|176.0|10.1
09|01000|03:54.8|01:57.4|216.8|25.6|179.0|183.0|10.0

Sunday, July 29: 75km bike ride. Cape cod rail trail.

I was with my friend Jon and it was a great ride. Parts of it were reasonably fast, but overall it was low intensity. It did take nearly 3 hours, so it was a fair amount of work.

Later in the day, I decided to go kayaking. I was launching the kayak from the top of the seawall and i let it go a little too soon. I slid down the rocks and launched itself. It was heading out to sea without me in it. I rushed after it, lost my footing and stumbled on the rocks, scraping my left ankle pretty badly.

After swimming to go get the kayak, I jumped in and looked at my ankle. It was bleeding pretty freely, but there was no way I was going to be denied my voyage. I paddled for a about 40 minutes or so. Back at the house, I washed the scrape and put on a bandage. As it turned out, I should have taken the wound a bit more seriously.

Monday, July 30: 3 x 20′ / 2′ on Slides

Down on the cape, in the basement. A bit too windy for a real row. Just bopping along. My ankle was throbbing in pain after I finished from my sock rubbing on the scrape.

         Workout Summary - media/20180731-0125260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15048|66:00.0|02:11.6|158.8|20.3|144.2|163.0|11.2
W-|14069|60:00.0|02:07.9|167.0|20.0|144.8|157.0|11.7
R-|00982|06:00.0|03:03.3|077.1|23.7|138.9|157.0|08.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04712|20:00.0|02:07.3|169.1|19.9|136.3|145.0|11.9
01|04685|20:00.0|02:08.1|166.7|20.0|146.4|152.0|11.7
02|04671|20:00.0|02:08.4|165.2|20.1|151.6|157.0|11.6

Tuesday, July 31: No Training

I needed to drive from the Cape to work. It took nearly 3 hours, from 5am to 8am. Then I was in meetings all day and into the evening.

Wednesday, Aug 1: No Training

I had an 8am meeting, and I didn’t get to sleep until after midnight, so I blew off rowing in the morning, intending to row in the afternoon. As it turned out I was at work until 8pm, so no rowing.

Thursday, Aug 2: 8km steady state OTW

Pressed for time, because of an early meeting, but I really wanted to do something! First time in my Fluid since July 11th. I was very rusty. But it was very nice to be back rowing. I really enjoy the feeling and the concentration it requires.

Friday, Aug 3: No Training

My wife and I headed down to New York City. We had tickets for the Saturday performance of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a play on Broadway.

Saturday, Aug 4: No Training

In NYC.

Sunday, Aug 5: No Training

Came home from NYC. Had a bunch of work stuff to do once we got back. Starting to get very frustrated at not having time to workout.

Monday, Aug 6: No Training

Staying up late on Sunday, resulted in getting up late on Monday, resulted in not rowing.

Tuesday, Aug 7: 14km steady state OTW

In Newton. focused on technique, at r18.

Wednesday, Aug 8: 14km steady state OTW

In Newton. today I was working on rowing with a lighter touch at r20.

Thursday, Aug 9: 14km steady state OTW

In Newton, same as Wednesday. Just trying to get back some form and basic aerobic fitness. My ankle was not healing right. It was swelling up, and was red and hot around the area. It also felt tingly in the area. I decided to get it looked at by a professional. After a very long wait, the doctor pronounced it infected, gave me a tetanus shot, had the nurse clean and debride the wound (which hurt, a lot), bandaged it up, and sent me on my way with a prescription for an oral antibiotic and instructions to change the dressing twice a day.

Friday: Aug 10: 8km technique work OTW

In Newton. After so much spotty training, having 3 days in a row was pretty cool, but I was sore and tired on Friday morning. I decided to focus on technique, especially balance by alternating 2 minutes of square blade rowing with 2 minutes of r20 steady state.

After the workout I had a jam packed day until around 2pm. Then I left to go home and then head to the cape.

Saturday, Aug 11: No Training

My wife’s sister, her husband and two teenagers arrived in the morning for a visit. The day was a blur of swimming, eating, drinking and talking.

Sunday, Aug 12: 3 x 20’/2′ on slides

At the cape. We had a nice day, we kayaked around the island. Jumped off the bridge at high tide, went out for a giant feast of fried seafood, and then went minature golfing. We got home around 8pm, and I had to make a choice. Have a beer, or go workout. I chose the latter. I did an hour of steady state on slides.

The rules of this workout are:

r20
HR limits
- 1st rep: 145
- 2nd rep: 150
- 3rd rep: 155

          Workout Summary - media/20180813-0140260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15003|66:00.0|02:12.0|161.2|20.5|142.4|156.0|11.1
W-|14232|60:00.0|02:06.5|172.8|20.3|142.9|156.0|11.7
R-|00774|06:00.0|03:52.5|045.2|22.9|136.5|156.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04804|20:00.0|02:04.9|179.1|20.3|136.4|146.0|11.8
01|04711|20:00.0|02:07.4|169.2|20.4|141.6|152.0|11.6
02|04717|20:00.0|02:07.2|170.0|20.1|150.9|156.0|11.7

Monday, Aug 13: 3 x 20′ / 2′

On Saturday, I felt like my ankle was getting much better. I decided to leave off the dressing to let it get some air and scab up. Then on Sunday, I think water immersion was a bad thing. It hurt a little in the evening and then in middle of the night, it hurt enough to wake me up and keep from getting back to sleep. I finally gave up and redressed the wound. The ointment and the pressure did the trick and the pain calmed down after a little while and I got back to sleep. I decided to stay out of the water on Monday.

Monday afternoon my sister-in-law and her family went off for a nature walk. My wife and I stayed home and that gave me a window for an erg session. Same rules as the Sunday session. I needed to slow down a bit more in the 2nd and third interval to respect the HR cap.

          Workout Summary - media/20180813-2135260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15016|66:00.0|02:11.9|160.3|20.3|144.2|157.0|11.2
W-|14160|60:00.0|02:07.1|170.3|20.2|144.7|157.0|11.7
R-|00861|06:00.0|03:29.2|060.3|21.0|138.6|157.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04787|20:00.0|02:05.3|177.4|20.2|136.0|146.0|11.8
01|04694|20:00.0|02:07.8|167.5|20.1|146.4|151.0|11.7
02|04680|20:00.0|02:08.2|166.1|20.3|151.8|157.0|11.5

Tuesday, August 14: No Training – Travel

This morning at 3:45am, I got up, showered and headed out for the airport from the cape. It’s about a 2:15 drive and I had a 7:13am departure.

I got to the airport exactly an hour before my plane took off, and by the time I got to the gate, my flight was boarding. I didn’t even have enough time to grab a coffee at the airport. I guess I’m lucky I didn’t run into more traffic.

I’m heading out to San Jose today for a couple of customer meetings, and then tomorrow I head to Austin for more customer meetings on Wednesday night and Thursday. I head home on Thursday night. I’m hoping I can get fitness center sessions in on Wed and Thursday mornings.

Whew! I’m glad I took the time to write this out. It pretty clear that I have to re-evaluate my goals. One of the most important training principles is consistency, and right now I am not succeeding at being consistent. I am trying to do too many things to be able to sustain the same training load that I was carrying a couple of years ago. All of these things are, arguably, more important than competitive rowing.

My job has gotten harder. There a big organization that is relying on me for strategic leadership and we have some serious issues to confront and solve. I worked thirty years to get to this job and I want to be successful.
My relationship with my wife and family. Some people have spouses with a common interest in sports. I do not. Time that I take for rowing is time that I take away from being a good partner. That’s fine, up to a point. But, especially since we got the cape house, there is a lot of logistics that we need to work on together. I love being there, but the travel time and visitors have reduced the amount of free time that I have to train.
My health. I have learned that I perform better in my job and I am a better person to be around if I am getting at least an hour of exercise a day. With my families history of heart disease, I think it is also critical to make sure I don’t drop dead at an early age. So, it’s a big deal to maintain some sort of structured training plan. But I have also lost the habit of doing my PT exercises and I’ve noticed that my hip is starting to hurt again. I’m making some bad choices right now.

I tried numerous times in my adult life to lose weight, and never succeeded until I took up rowing. I think the main difference was that the purpose of exercising changed from “getting exercise” to “getting faster”, and the online community for indoor rowing provided a way to measure my progress and hold myself accountable for my training. I need to continue to train “publically” and try to be honest about how I’m doing. I think the primary change has to be in the ambition of my goals and structure of my training.

So, here’s what I’m thinking:

Keep racing, just a little bit. Maybe one or two small races in the fall.
5 sessions a week, not 6. If I have extra time, I can add a sixth.
Simple workout plan, basically a variation of the Pete Plan
- 2 “hard” sessions a week. Aiming at <=60 minute work plus rest in each.
- 2 endurance sessions. As much duration as have time for
- 1 Technique session 60-80 min.
Regular testing. This is the hardest one to do because I hate to see the results. But I think I need to at least do one 6km test per month.
Daily PT exercises. Instead of doing these at the start of a session, change to do them at night after dinner.

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.

Quantified Rowing

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Tag: erg