Saturday Sprints: 8 x 2′ / 3′ rest

January 23, 2016January 23, 20162 Comments

Plan:

Fletcher warmup (20′)
8 x 2′ / 3′ rest
- Pace target: 1:41
- Rate target: 30
2K cool down

What a great morning. 8 of us from our club met up at Regatta Point. They are letting us move our ergs into a conference room for sessions on Saturday mornings. I offered up my planned workout as a group session and I was stunned that 7 other folks were nuts enough to join in. I offered the group a couple of options, either row the 8 as a ladder (24/26/28/30/30/28/26/24), or all at about race rate. The cool thing about time intervals is that folks can do their own thing and stay in sync through the session. By the sixth, we were all pretty beaten up.

I was in a bad way. I basically treated the session like my normal 8×500/3’30” rest. Of course, its about 20 seconds more rowing and 30 seconds less rest than that, so I dug myself in pretty deeply over the first half of the workout. I backed off a bit, but didn’t give in to the HD demons. I think I may have scared my neighbors a bit though.

I had some issues with my HR monitor, so all I have are monitor snaps

Warm up

Main set

I paddle the 7 3′ rests for a total of an additional 2773m over 21′.

Happy Ending Cool down

Tomorrow: Should be a rest day, but I’ll be traveling on Monday, so I will do a 4 x 20′ L4 and not row on Monday.

Friday: 4 x 20′ / 1′ L4 (and PM5 glitch)

January 22, 2016January 22, 20162 Comments

Plan:

4 x 20′
- 1′ rests
- 8 x 10′ segments – L4 format (2’@ 18, 2′ @ 19, 2′ @20, 2′ @ 19, 2’@ 18)
- 10W / stroke

I had a problem with the PM5 today. Notice in the picture how there is no HR for the last interval? So, I was rowing along with 2 minutes left in the last interval, so 78 minutes into a 80 minute row, and all the sudden, this pops up on my screen.

So, I kept rowing, trying to press the continue button at the catch on about each stroke. Each time, I would see the normal screen for a second, and the error screen would pop up. When I saw the normal screen flash, it seemed to be updating, so I just rowed 409 strokes blind to finish off the last interval. After I checked that it had counted down to zero, which involved continuously pressing the “continue” button and trying to get through the menus. Eventually, I gave up and yanked out the batteries, counted to 10 and plugged them back in. The PM came up normally and my row was even sitting there in memory, just like it should be. No painsled data though, but no great loss since it was just a normal steady state session. I would have been pretty annoyed if this had been a time trial or something. I’ve got a call into the Concept2 to try to understand what is going on.

Tomorrow: The plan calls for 8×500. I think I am going to change it to 8 x 2’/3′ rest. I managed to convince a few folks from my rowing club to erg together on Saturday morning, and doing it time based will let us start and finish together despite pace differences.

Thursday: 6 x 750 / 4′ rest

January 21, 2016Leave a comment

Plan:

Fletcher warmup
6 x 750m
- 4 min rest
- pace target: < 1:42
- rate target: 30
2K cool down

Warmup felt a bit tougher than on Tuesday, and the reps seemed to be a bit more taxing. But I managed to hold on to the splits and put in a faster last. Weird HR readings in the last 2 reps.

The last rep was at roughly my target pace for a 2K race. Holding it for the last 1250 meters is the challenge.

Warm up

Main Set

Cool down

Tomorrow: 4×20′ / 1′

Wednesday: Steady State + Pk Power

January 20, 2016Leave a comment

Plan:

3×20′
- L4 format
- 1′ rests
- 10 – 10′ segments
Peak power
- 10 x 10″ sprints
- 1′ rests
- Try to hit 700W

L4 Format

HR was a bit higher than I would have liked, but I felt good. I didn’t bother with a lactate test. I suspect t would have been right around a 2.0.

Then into peak power. Today, I decided to do only 10 (versus 15 on Monday). I’m still feeling my way along on these. I hit better power today throughout compared to Monday. (~680W vs ~640W). Still lower than what I could hit by rating way up on slides. I saw no significant decline in power across the 10 sprints. I guess I’m not hitting them hard enough yet. I’m getting a bit higher on rate, which is good practice.

After that, I did a quick 1K cool down and called it a day.

Tomorrow: 6 x 750 / 4′ rest. Pace target: 1:42

Tuesday: 4 x 1K / 5′ rest

January 20, 2016January 20, 20161 Comment

First short interval session of the mesocycle, and I was pretty excited. I guess the proper term in a fitness related blog post is something along the lines of “ready to get after it!!!”

Plan:

Fletcher warmup – 20′ (slightly modified)
4 x 1K
- 5 minute active rest
- pace target: 1:44 (conservative with faster last, if possible)
- rate: ~30
2K “Happy Ending” cool down

Gotta say, it was nice rating up and taking some strokes around 2K race pace. 1:44 turned out to be a conservative choice. The intervals started to bite, after the halfway point. And as I got further into the intervals, I was digging a bit deeper, but it wasn’t a big struggle. I decided to throw caution to the wind, and try to really nail the last rep. I managed to do this one faster than a 1:40 pace, which was good to see. With 3 reps in my legs, I could hold a split that would deliver a 6:40 2K. I have a lot of work to do on sharpening, but I feel pretty good about this workout.

Then, I put started to injected high energy music into my ears, setup the interval session, and off I went. It looks like the tcx file cut off a bit before the end of the last interval.

The last interval was hard enough that I finally felt that lactic rush. I’d almost forgotten how intensely bad it feels. Put it all together and the session average is 1:42.7. A good target for the next time this rolls around. I will also use it for the 6×750 coming on Thursday.

I just went and looked back at February of 2014, when I was getting ready for the CRASH-Bs. I did the 4×1000 twice. Once on January 28th, and again on February 3rd. Here are the times.

So, these were obviously faster, but less disciplined than today. I was also digging deeper. Look at the HRs in each rep. This was also in the midst of a long term plan that included short sprints weekly, so my performance had begun to plateau. I think it is heartening to be less than 2 seconds off these times, with better CV data in my first sprint session.

After that, I did a 2K cool down, starting at 2:00 splits and slowing down every 500m.

Tomorrow: 3 x 20 / 1′ rest

Monday: 3 x 20′ L4 + PkPwr Sprints

January 18, 2016January 18, 20163 Comments

Very little sleep last night. Felt awful this morning. Let myself start slow in the L4.

After I finished my hour, I transitioned over to start doing a variation of the Peak Power Training from Ed McNeely. The session that Ed describes it to do 10 second sprints all out with 1 minute rests, and when your peak power in a sprint falls more than 10% below your best power, then you take a 5 minute rest and resume the 10 sec sprint and 1 minute rest sets with the same stoppage rule.

It’s been a while since I did my peak power test, and when I did it, it was on slides, so I didn’t have a stable baseline to measure my 10% drop from. As hard as I tried today, I could not break through 700W for my peak power, but on slides in November, I was above 750W on a few strokes.

It was challenge to setup the 10 second sprints, since the shortest interval time you can program on a PM is 20 seconds. I eventually did it as a “just row” with 10 second sprints and 50 second rests. Next time I will set it up as 1:10 intervals.

I was also not seeing much in the way of a declining output power over the intervals, so I guess I was not trying hard enough. I was also getting much better at them as I went along. I got my first stroke power from around 180 to above 250, and felt a lot smoother in the later reps. I’ll push the envelope more next time.

If nothing else, it was fun. Laying down 15 sprints with peak splits faster than 1:25 was a nice change from grinding out long hard intervals.

Tomorrow: A classic, the 4 x 1000 / 5′ rest. I will start this conservatively at 1:45 pace and see how things go.

Saturday: Hard 30′ (very hard)

January 17, 2016Leave a comment

No PB for me today. I tried, but by 10 minutes into it, I pretty much knew I couldn’t hang on to the required pace. I slowed down a bit and just hung on. It was a season best, but no where near what I think I should be able to do. It was my 7th straight training day, versus doing the 5K after a rest day. I’m not too bummed out about it and I’m looking forward to getting into my sprint and power mesocycle on Monday.

2K warmup

Workout Summary – Jan 16, 2016
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_02000_|_07:44.6_|_01:56.2_|_223.3_|_21.0_|_135.5_|_ 64.9% _|_12.3_|_10.6

The main event. Target split for a PB was 1:48.8. I fell behind target after 10 minutes and never got back.

Workout Summary – Jan 16, 2016
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_08133_|_30:00.0_|_01:50.7_|_258.2_|_25.5_|_171.6_|_ 90.5% _|_10.6_|_10.1
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_01387_|_05:00.0_|_01:48.2_|_276.6_|_25.4_|_156.7_|_ 79.9% _|_10.9_|_10.9
02_|_01379_|_05:00.0_|_01:48.8_|_272.0_|_25.6_|_170.2_|_ 89.5% _|_10.8_|_10.6
03_|_01356_|_05:00.0_|_01:50.6_|_258.6_|_25.4_|_172.1_|_ 90.8% _|_10.7_|_10.2
04_|_01337_|_05:00.0_|_01:52.2_|_247.8_|_25.0_|_174.0_|_ 92.2% _|_10.7_|_09.9
05_|_01329_|_05:00.0_|_01:52.9_|_243.5_|_25.2_|_177.0_|_ 94.4% _|_10.5_|_09.7
06_|_01345_|_05:00.0_|_01:51.5_|_252.2_|_26.4_|_179.7_|_ 96.2% _|_10.2_|_09.6

Then a 2K cool down.

Workout Summary – Jan 16, 2016
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_02000_|_08:28.4_|_02:07.1_|_170.4_|_19.9_|_149.3_|_ 74.6% _|_11.8_|_08.5

Probably take a rest day tomorrow.

Friday: 3 x 20’/1′ rest – L4 (better)

January 15, 20162 Comments

A little sore form yesterday and I was worried that it could be another miserable session. Decided before I started to make it 3×20 instead of 4×20 because I have strenuous plans for tomorrow and I was a bit pressed for time today.

Tomorrow: Plan calls for a hard 5K. But since I did that last weekend, I think I will substitute a 30 minute piece. I might have a shot at a PB. My current PB is 8266. If I put my recent 5K and 60 minute results with the very handy Free Spirits Pace Predictor it says that I should be able to do 8272m for 30 minutes, a whopping 6 meter improvement. Since these rows are harrowingly hard, it is really good to have something more tangible to shoot for.

4 x 8′ / 4′ rest – solid

January 14, 2016January 14, 20162 Comments

Plan:

4 x 8′
4′ active rest with a stop for a quick drink
Pace target: <1:48.8 (from last time on January 3rd)
Rate: 27-28

8′ warmup up, with 3 – 10 stroke bursts at faster than target pace (strapless)

Then into the main event. Rep 1 was tough, but never in doubt, I finished with 2211 meters (1:48.5), so I kept that as my target for all the reps. Rep 2 was HARD. I was ahead of target through 100 strokes, fell behind through the next 100, and made up the lost ground in the last 20. I wondered if I could do it again for rep #3, but felt OK by the end of the rest. Same story for rep #3, but an even bigger ask to try to make up the lost ground in the last 20 strokes. I was sure that I couldn’t hold the last rep, and through most of the rest, I was thinking I would see if I could hit 1:50 for it instead. But at the end the rest, I decided to try to hit target for the first 100 strokes and see how I did. At the 100 stroke point, I was really struggling, so I dropped back to about a 1:50 and tried to hold on. I was seeing some 1:51s, and feeling the HD-demons peering over my shoulder, but I just kept pushing. With 20 strokes to go, my projected finish was around 2180. A push at the end got me to 2203 (1:48.8). Session average was 1:48.6.

4′ rest was about 2 minutes of gasping and 2 minutes of light paddling, then an 8 minute cool down starting at 2:00 splits and slowing down from there.

I wish I could have laid down a faster time on this workout, but I am proud of my execution. I was really hurting in the last rep and I pulled back from the edge just enough to make it instead of bailing out.

Tomorrow: 4 x 20′ / 1′ rest

Wednesday: 3 x 20′ / 1′ rest L4

January 13, 2016January 14, 20162 Comments

I have a lot on my mind right now for work, and I was not very focused on today’s session. I’m not sure if that is all it was, or if there is something else going on, but it was a very difficult row.

I was planning a 4×20′ session, but high HR and very high lactate after 60 minutes (2.9mmol/l), so I aborted at that point.

In the first 20 minute section, I had two interruptions due to technical issues with the podcast I was listening to. There is an intermittent connection to my headphones that is being interpreted by the iphone as a button press which summons up Siri. Very annoying, probably time for a new set of headphones. Amazing how quickly sweat corrodes things!

The workout plan was:

Here’s the view from Strava. You can see the two stops in the first 20 minutes.

And the PM summary.

Tomorrow: 4 x 8′ / 4′ rest

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: erg

Saturday Sprints: 8 x 2′ / 3′ rest

Friday: 4 x 20′ / 1′ L4 (and PM5 glitch)

Thursday: 6 x 750 / 4′ rest

Wednesday: Steady State + Pk Power

Tuesday: 4 x 1K / 5′ rest

Monday: 3 x 20′ L4 + PkPwr Sprints

Saturday: Hard 30′ (very hard)

Friday: 3 x 20’/1′ rest – L4 (better)

4 x 8′ / 4′ rest – solid

Wednesday: 3 x 20′ / 1′ rest L4