30 – Work wins

July 1, 2018July 1, 2018Leave a comment

I had been planning to race on July 8th at the Cromwell Cup. I’ve decided to scratch. My training has been too spotty, I’ve not done nearly enough race prep work, and I missed most of last week because of a work commitments and a quick business trip to Europe.

How do I feel about this? Lousy. What do I do now? I’m not sure.

But, I like rowing, and I like working on getting better at it. I sure like Head Races more than Sprint Races, but I’ve been unsuccessful executing training plans toward any objectives for the past two years. I’m on vacation now for the next. I’ll have some time for some nice coastal rowing and plenty of time to figure out what to do.

For now, here’s a recap of the past couple of months.

Sunday – 6/17:

We had not planned to go to the cape, but I remembered a couple of things I needed to do down at the house, so I drove there in the early afternoon. One the things I wanted to do was go for a row. It was a lovely day. Sunny, with light breezes (at least at first), and nice and warm.

I launched straight from my stairs, since I wanted to go south and it was nearly high tide. I was bummed that I forgot my heart rate monitor back in Hopkinton, so no HR data for the row. I was planning a 90′ row, so I wanted to keep my HR at a reasonable level throughout.

Here’s the chart of the whole row. I headed southeast until I got to the eastham shore. There was one interesting bit, which I will describe below. Then I turned and hugged the beach going south, and turned at the 45 minute mark. I stayed close on shore for the row north as well, and continued right across to the salt marshes on the southern coast of the island, then turned and followed the edge of the marsh back around to the steps.

I was very tired by the end and carrying the boat up the stairs was pretty daunting.

I had a bit of close call on the first leg down to the Eastham shore. You might notice that there is a asterisk on the chart, right on my course. That’s a rock. At low tide it sits on the sand flats. At high tide, it’s underwater. When I was rowing, it was just below water level. I knew it was out there, but couldn’t see it. I ended up hitting the top of the rock with my oar. The is no way I could have navigated well enough to get that close if I tried to. Here’s my course magnified on the satellite image. You can see the rock in the image.

Monday – June 18: Rest Day

Tuesday – June 19: Starts Practice.

Plan:

Race warm up
5 x 20-stroke starts
- Rest between: 3’
- Rating/Pace: SR 36-40 (or your most efficient rating)
- Notes: Steer straight, clean releases, same sequence as planned for your race
2 x 9’
- Rest between: 2′ easy rowing
- Rating/Pace: Cat V: SR 22
- Notes: Focus on your releases.

Back on the Charles in my Fluid. A lovely morning. I did my favorite warmup. It takes the whole way down river and showed me that I am in pretty lousy shape right now. But I was certainly warmed up by the time I finished it.

I turned around and started doing my starts. I felt pretty good. I decided to practice my shift down to “reasonable” stroke rates, so after 5 strokes, I was trying to get down to a nice r32 for the rest of the 20 stroke burst.

After I did 4 starts, I decided to do 40 strokes for the last one. The plot shows a hiccup in the middle but I don’t remember what happened.

Then I did the 2 x 9′ pieces. Hard, but uneventful.

          Workout Summary - media/20180620-1800250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10740|58:42.0|02:44.0|113.3|22.9|150.5|176.0|08.0
W-|01175|04:31.0|01:55.5|254.0|33.2|151.5|171.0|07.9
R-|09572|54:11.0|02:49.8|101.6|22.0|150.4|171.0|08.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00136|00:34.2|02:05.9|210.2|28.0|164.2|170.0|08.5
02|00123|00:29.8|02:01.1|220.8|30.3|157.0|164.0|08.2
03|00144|00:33.6|01:56.7|251.7|32.1|163.1|171.0|08.0
04|00112|00:25.6|01:53.9|279.1|35.2|134.2|155.0|07.5
05|00117|00:25.8|01:50.1|266.3|35.0|143.0|155.0|07.8
06|00120|00:26.0|01:48.5|263.8|34.4|138.7|146.0|08.0
07|00154|00:34.0|01:50.5|261.7|33.5|152.8|168.0|08.1
08|00269|01:02.4|01:55.9|271.2|35.7|150.8|165.0|07.2

Here’s the two 9′ pieces

3.4 m/s is a 2:27 pace. Ughh.

Wednesday – June 20: 4 x (2′ race pace / 1′ paddle / 2′ race pace) / 4′ rest

This is a tough workout, and I had failed miserably last time I attempted it. Today, I was determined to make it through, so I decided to start conservatively.

I started with a race warmup. I enjoyed it as much as I did on Tuesday. It was another perfect morning.

I turned around, had a drink, did a KOM drill, and practiced my first stroke of the start a couple of times.

Then I did my first piece, the start was good, and I shifted my rate down to a 26 immediately for the rest of the first 2′ chunk. That was hard enough. After the fleetingly short minute of paddling, I spooled it back up to 28 and counted out the strokes to 56. Well, that wasn’t so bad? Actually it was. Slow and painful.

I paddled around the s-turn and got into position to start my next interval. Again I had a drink of water, but instead of doing a couple of practice first strokes, I decided to just setup and go. I got into my start position, said “ready” to myself and squared the blades and buried them, then as the speedcoach hit an even minute, I started. Somehow, my starboard blade was funny, and as soon as I started the stroke, I realized I was in trouble. I tried to abort, but my blade had submarined and I flipped right over on top of it. It happened in the blink of an eye.

My feet came out fine and I popped up next to the boat. I got the boat back upright and made sure I had all my stuff. Then I executed a perfectly ugly re-entry. I flopped across the seat deck, swung my legs around, got back on the seat and took stock of my situation.

The boat was full of water, I was wet (but not that much wetter than I was before I took the dive), and I was pissed at myself. What the hell happened? What the hell should I do now. Part of me just quit. Quit the workout. Quit racing. Quit rowing altogether. That seemed a bit dramatic, so I decided that I should finish out the workout.

I splashed as much water out of the boat as I could and got myself psyched up to do another interval. This start was fine, but I pulled the plug almost immediately. I’m not sure why. I set up again and started again and held my rate to 26/27. I let the rate climb in the second minute. It was tough work.

I pulled the plug at the start of the third one, and restarted it again. This one was pretty good. I did the first half at 28 rising to 30 and the second half between 30 and 32. That’s a bit closer to what I want to be doing.

The last one, honestly, I was getting tired. I did a great start and the first 2 minutes were fine. The minute of paddling was very welcome. Then I went into the last 2 minutes. I made a minute, and then I got hit by a gust of headwind and that was it for me. I decided I was done.

I got my feet out of the shoes and rowed with feet out back to the dock.

          Workout Summary - media/20180620-1801080o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10513|57:34.0|02:44.3|116.6|22.9|151.7|179.0|08.0
W-|04047|17:03.0|02:06.5|195.2|28.0|162.5|178.0|08.5
R-|06480|40:31.0|03:07.6|083.5|20.7|147.2|178.0|08.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00108|00:28.0|02:10.2|181.5|23.5|162.3|165.0|09.8 - wu
02|00144|00:36.8|02:07.8|168.2|26.0|157.7|163.0|09.0 - wu
03|00159|00:38.5|02:01.3|210.9|27.8|155.6|162.0|08.9 - wu
04|00174|00:41.0|01:58.2|204.0|29.3|158.7|166.0|08.7 - wu
05|00143|00:31.5|01:49.8|270.9|34.1|160.8|169.0|08.0 - wu
06|00441|01:53.2|02:08.5|190.2|26.4|159.8|172.0|08.8 - 1
07|00432|01:49.2|02:06.2|184.6|27.4|169.3|176.0|08.7 - 1
08|00424|01:47.6|02:06.9|192.9|26.7|164.6|176.0|08.9 - 2 (after the flip)
09|00548|02:24.4|02:11.8|192.8|27.1|159.7|178.0|08.4 - 2
10|00437|01:49.5|02:05.3|195.5|29.5|160.7|174.0|08.1 - 3
11|00428|01:46.7|02:04.5|205.9|31.0|171.5|178.0|07.8 - 3
12|00415|01:47.5|02:09.4|188.3|27.9|157.7|171.0|08.3 - 4
13|00195|00:49.8|02:07.8|193.4|28.9|165.9|169.0|08.1 - 4 (abort)

So, points for persistence. But I have to say, it was a pretty discouraging workout.

Thursday – June 21: Drills on the fives.

Plan:

Session: 3 x 25′
- Rest between: 3’
- Rating/Pace: Alternate 4’ @ Cat VI pace; target SR 18-20/ 1’ of drills.
  - Half-slide and Quarter-slide rowing to work on drive suspension.
  - Delayed feather rowing to work on clean release then feather away.
  - Open fingers on the recovery to set posture, weight over the handles.
  - Pause arms/body away for rhythm out of bow and setting full angle.

This was going to be something new for me. I haven’t done some of these drills in a single before. After the hard session the day before, I was looking forward to something tame. Because my river is not 25 minutes long, I just rowed and did the drills every five minutes.

I had a blast! The drills were a mental and technical challenge. The half and quarter slide drill was very familiar and easy. Delayed feather was really good to work on release and balance. Open hands on recovery was frighteningly hard! When it worked it was great, but the moment on recovery when you regrip the oars is a moment of great uncertainty. Sometimes, I would smoothly regrip, square, and catch. Other times, I would not get a clean regrip and it had a very high pucker factor. It got easier as I went along. Finally, pause at body over is exactly the drill I need to do all the time to continually work on getting my posture right on recovery.

Friday – June 22: More Drills on the 5s

I had such fun with it on Thursday, that I did it again! I had less time because I had a customer visiting us first thing in the morning. I couldn’t risk being late for that.

It was just as much fun on the second day. This workout needs to be part of my weekly rotation all season long.

Saturday – June 23: 2 x 25′ / 5′ On Slides

Down on the cape. The weather was terrible. I ended up erging in the basement.

The plan:

2 x 25’
- Rest: 5’
- Rating/Pace: Cat VI; target SR 18-20.
- At every 5-minute mark include an Acceleration 15 raising the stroke rate 2 spm every 5 strokes.
- For example: 26-28-30, 28-30-32.

          Workout Summary - media/20180623-2140240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13097|55:59.0|02:08.2|176.3|21.2|151.1|168.0|11.0
W-|01781|06:45.0|01:53.9|258.2|26.4|151.5|164.0|09.9
R-|11325|49:14.0|02:10.4|165.0|20.5|151.0|164.0|10.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00004|00:03.1|06:48.1|140.6|00.0|079.0|79.0|00.0
05|00012|00:03.0|02:03.0|170.1|20.0|088.0|88.0|12.2
06|00271|01:00.3|01:51.2|258.2|24.8|144.7|153.0|10.9
07|00278|01:01.9|01:51.2|260.7|25.9|152.0|159.0|10.4
08|00253|00:55.7|01:50.1|266.9|25.9|156.0|162.0|10.5
09|00196|00:42.8|01:49.0|274.1|28.0|156.1|162.0|09.8
10|00197|00:44.4|01:52.3|247.6|26.6|154.4|157.0|10.0
11|00194|00:43.3|01:51.3|255.5|27.6|156.2|160.0|09.8
12|00189|00:41.7|01:50.6|261.5|27.4|159.1|163.0|09.9
13|00186|00:40.7|01:49.5|271.0|29.7|159.4|164.0|09.2

Sunday – June 24: 80′ Coastal Row

The weather was still a bit iffy, but I really wanted to row. I launched from the north beach and headed up toward wellfleet. There was a bit of wind (mainly from the West) and I headed a bit toward Great Island to get a bit more shelter and flatter water.

I ended up rowing around Chequesset Pond, which was lovely. Flat water, nice scenery. Then I headed over toward the inner harbor. The chop got worse as I got further away from the shelter of Great Island.

The row from the breakwater back to my launch point was difficult. The waves were basically on my beam and very irregular. I had trouble finding a good rhythym and keeping it. But as I entered the lee of the island, the water smoothed out and I felt reenergized. I raised the rate to 24 and punched out the last 3 minutes.

Screen Shot 2018-06-30 at 10.40.56 PM.png

Monday – June 25: Rest Day

We left the cape really late and didn’t get home until about 10. I tried to get up, but felt very tired and went back to bed.

Tuesday – June 26: Rest Day

I was leaving for the Netherlands in the evening, but I hoped to row in the morning. But I had another late night with work calls, and I ended up sleeping in again. I brought my workout stuff to work with me, hoping to sneak down to gym for a quick workout before I left, but I had a lot of loose ends to tie up before I left.

Wednesday – June 27: 10K push.

I left Boston at around 8pm. Arrived in Heathrow around 7am, and Amsterdam around 11:30. Then we caught the train to Nijmegan, arriving around 1:30. A quick shower, and then into a prep meeting with my colleagues. This wrapped up around 5:00 and we decided to meet at 6:30 for dinner in the hotel.

With 90 minutes to burn and feeling pretty tired, I didn’t want to risk falling asleep, so I headed to the hotel gym. Which, as it turned out, was huge, and beautiful, and had 2 Conceot2 Model E rowing machines!

I grabbed a machine and decided to do a 10K push. I’d start slow and hopefully shave a second per 1000 meters off the pace.

The machines had PM4s, and I didn’t have my cable, so I did these old style. I used my HR monitor with the wahoo app on my phone and just saved HR.

Sadly, it ended up being just right. I finished with my HR very close to my HRMax and the highest HR I’ve seen all season. There’s no way to avoid the truth. I’m about 5 seconds off the paces that I could do when I was at my fittest.

Thursday – June 28: Aborted session

I had a meeting at 10AM, so I slept until around 7:30 and went back to the gym. The place was an oven. Those big windows that you see in the picture must be facing east because the ergs we in direct sunlight. It was right in my eyes. And it was hot as hell.

I was going to do a 3 x 15′ easy session, but I gave up after 15 minutes. My heart was just not in it. I think I dug a bit too deep the day before and it was a short turn around time, only about 13 hours between sessions.

Screen Shot 2018-07-01 at 10.42.04 AM.png

The meeting went well, and then we rushed to catch the train, and rushed to catch the flight to London. I did a work call from Heathrow, and then hopped on the flight back to Boston, arriving at 9pm. I was home by about 10:30.

Friday – June 29: 3 x 15′ /2′

I worked from home on Friday. My wife and I were heading into Cambridge to have dinner with our boys, and then continuing on to the Cape after that. I had calls scheduled from 10am to 5pm.

I got up with enough time for a quick erg session on the dreaded dynamic. The objective was to just clear the cobwebs from all the travel. So, I tried to keep the HR below 150.

Intervals sliced at a 2:15 pace.

          Workout Summary - media/20180629-1335230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11116|49:33.0|02:13.7|154.8|19.8|139.2|154.0|11.3
W-|10480|44:36.0|02:07.7|167.8|20.0|140.6|154.0|11.8
R-|00638|04:56.0|03:52.6|037.8|18.3|126.3|154.0|10.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03522|14:59.5|02:07.7|167.5|19.7|132.1|144.0|11.9
01|03479|14:49.0|02:07.8|167.7|19.9|142.2|149.0|11.8
02|03479|14:48.0|02:07.6|168.3|20.3|147.7|154.0|11.6

Saturday – Jun 30: 80′ Coastal Row

We got down to the Cape around 11pm. I did some errands in the morning and man it was HOT. Skies were blue and there wasn’t much breeze. I hung out around the house and relaxed most of the day.

Around 4pm, I decided to go for a row. The high tide was at 2pm, so I still had a couple of hours before beach access becomes more of a challenge. I decided to do another row down to Eastham along the shore.

The wind was still light, and what there was of it was coming from the WSW. The tide was ebbing, so the current was mainly behind me on the way out and I was going into it on the way home.

The chop was nasty at times. It was a combination of lots of power boat wakes across long distances and a little bit of wind. It made for very confused waves and challenging technical rowing.

I wanted a good UT1 workout, so I was aiming at HRs in the mid 150s.

Screen Shot 2018-07-01 at 11.16.24 AM.png

          Workout Summary - media/20180701-0110230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14372|85:39.0|02:58.8|000.0|22.7|153.0|164.0|07.4
W-|13904|79:55.0|02:52.4|000.0|21.6|153.4|163.0|08.1
R-|00471|05:44.0|06:06.2|000.0|38.4|147.0|163.0|01.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07260|39:55.0|02:44.9|000.0|20.8|151.1|157.0|08.8
01|06644|40:00.0|03:00.6|000.0|22.3|155.7|163.0|07.4

I was reasonably tired after that!

Saturday: 4 x (3′ @ 24 + 3′ @ 28) / 6′ on slides

May 19, 2018Leave a comment

We are down on the cape. We came down this weekend to get the house ready for next weekend when one of my sons and my daughter will be coming. My tasks for the weekend were

Replace the exterior sensor for my weather station. The storms this winter wore out the anemometer!
Put up shades in the guest rooms. We have been getting complaints that the early morning sun is a bit bright for our late sleepers
Get a start on the repair of the stairs to the beach. The ice this winter tore the bottom 16 feet of stairs away and pulled out the supports for landing at the top of that flight.

I managed to get through tasks 1 and 2, and replaced the supports for the landing, but then the rain started and I needed to give it up for the day. I’ll do a bit more tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon, I did my erg session. This is a tough session.

Session: 4 x 6’
Rest between: 6’
Rating/Pace:
- 3’ @Cat IV pace: target SR 24
- 3’ @ Cat III; target SR 28
Notes: Work on the rhythm of a strong leg drive combined with relaxation on the recovery. Follow through to the arms/body away position to complete each stroke and to set the body preparation for the next stroke before starting the slide. Hold your posture and head up as you fatigue.

I did it on slides in the basement. It was really hard! I was doing stuff like switching laundry during the long rests so the those chunks were really spotty.

I faded a lot more than I would have liked, but I have spent so little time on the erg, I have no idea what target paces would be right. I spent more time focusing on posture and sequencing on the recovery, but I was still working really hard.

Tomorrow: 80′ of speed play, on the erg since there will be a 25 mph wind out of the SW.

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.

Sunday: More slidery – 4 x 20’/1′ speed play

April 17, 2018Leave a comment

The weather is awful. In the thirties and windy. It is starting to rain.

I am working out in my basement.

The plan:

4 x 20′ / 1′
Cat VI – r18-r20, 2:02 – 2:06
Every 10′ 20 strokes at r28

Long workout. Tried to focus on driving my heel down more quickly and hinging at the hips on recovery. It was ugly and unnatural. I guess that makes it good practice.

          Workout Summary - media/20180415-1950280o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19899|84:00.0|02:06.6|180.6|20.1|144.4|164.0|11.8
W-|19480|80:00.0|02:03.2|188.5|20.1|144.6|164.0|12.2
R-|00432|04:00.0|04:38.0|023.2|20.1|139.8|164.0|06.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01202|05:00.0|02:04.8|177.2|18.7|121.0|133.0|12.8
01|00190|00:40.0|01:45.4|291.6|27.8|136.5|143.0|10.2
02|02244|09:20.0|02:04.8|180.3|19.1|138.5|149.0|12.6
03|00191|00:40.0|01:44.9|299.2|27.7|139.8|146.0|10.3
04|01047|04:20.0|02:04.2|183.4|19.2|143.9|152.0|12.6
05|01204|05:00.0|02:04.6|181.8|18.9|132.9|140.0|12.7
06|00188|00:40.0|01:46.3|288.8|27.1|141.9|146.0|10.4
07|02252|09:20.0|02:04.3|182.8|19.3|146.5|154.0|12.5
08|00193|00:40.0|01:43.5|307.4|28.8|149.5|154.0|10.0
09|01043|04:20.0|02:04.6|181.8|19.8|151.9|159.0|12.2
10|01197|05:00.0|02:05.3|178.2|19.2|139.3|146.0|12.5
11|00190|00:40.0|01:45.4|293.7|29.0|148.1|153.0|09.8
12|02238|09:20.0|02:05.1|179.7|19.6|149.5|158.0|12.2
13|00191|00:40.0|01:44.6|300.2|30.3|150.7|155.0|09.5
14|01043|04:20.0|02:04.6|181.4|20.1|153.9|160.0|12.0
15|01200|05:00.0|02:05.0|179.0|19.5|143.2|149.0|12.3
16|00190|00:40.0|01:45.4|294.5|28.9|150.2|155.0|09.8
17|02245|09:20.0|02:04.7|181.4|20.2|153.2|162.0|11.9
18|00194|00:40.0|01:43.0|313.2|32.2|154.3|159.0|09.0
19|01039|04:20.0|02:05.1|179.0|20.2|156.0|164.0|11.9

Tomorrow: Scheduled rest day. Hopefully I can go for a nice walk before we head back to Hopkinton.

Saturday: 4 x 12′ rate ladders – on slides

April 15, 2018Leave a comment

Down on the cape. Still too cold and windy for open water rowing. So I did this on slides.

It’s a new workout from Marlene.

4 x 12′ / 6′ rest
each 12′
- 6′ Cat VI (r18-r20, 2:02 to 2:06)
- 4′ Cat IV (r24, 1:52)
- 2′ Cat III (r28, 1:48)

I had technical issues today. I managed to bring my OH1 heart rate monitor, but forgot the elastic strap. I tried to improvised a strap out of an old sock but made it too narrow and it fell out during the first rep. During the rest I went and cut a wider one from the other sock. That one works.

But when I got back to the erg, I discovered that I had misprogrammed the rest into the PM and the next interval had started a couple minutes ago. So, I aborted that one, and re programmed it. I put in a 5 minute rests just because I was a little pressed for time.

Afterwards, I used rowsandall to glue the two workouts back together. It was easier than writing the sentence about doing it.

The workout was very taxing. Maybe I was a little low energy. I don’t know, but the last six minutes of each interval were tough! I dialed back the pace a bit and stuck it out, but I was really struggling. I also let myself rate up a bit (25 for 24 and 30 for 28) in the last two intervals.

         Workout Summary - media/df_20180414-225155.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14139|66:25.0|02:20.9|169.4|21.0|141.4|180.0|10.1
W-|12360|48:00.0|01:56.5|223.6|22.8|146.2|180.0|11.4
R-|01784|18:25.0|05:09.6|028.2|16.5|128.8|180.0|06.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01470|06:00.0|02:02.4|188.4|19.4|119.9|137.0|12.6
01|01072|04:00.0|01:51.9|249.3|24.2|102.8|111.0|11.1
02|00564|02:00.0|01:46.3|290.9|28.0|098.5|106.0|10.1
03|01460|06:00.0|02:03.3|188.2|19.5|142.7|154.0|12.5
04|01075|04:00.0|01:51.7|251.0|24.9|164.3|171.0|10.8
05|00560|02:00.0|01:47.1|284.8|28.5|175.3|177.0|09.8
06|01445|06:00.0|02:04.6|182.7|19.7|147.6|156.0|12.2
07|01063|04:00.0|01:52.9|242.8|24.5|166.2|175.0|10.8
08|00565|02:00.0|01:46.1|291.4|28.4|176.6|179.0|10.0
09|01453|06:00.0|02:03.9|184.3|20.0|148.9|157.0|12.1
10|01063|04:00.0|01:52.9|242.8|24.5|168.8|176.0|10.8
11|00568|02:00.0|01:45.6|296.4|30.2|177.4|180.0|09.4

I felt like I deserved a beer after that. So, I had two. We went to dinner at a great restaurant called CShore in Wellfleet.

Today:

80 minutes with speed play
rest, brief to rehydrate (I’ll stop for a minute every 20 minutes)
20 strokes at r28 every ten minutes. I’ll do them at 5 and 15.
I’ll also aim for the slow end of the cat VI range and focus on hip hinge stuff.

Fri – Fri: Busy Week

April 14, 2018April 14, 2018Leave a comment

I got back to my house from Japan around 8pm on Thursday night. I slept well on the plane and surprisingly well Thursday night. I slept until around 7:30am Friday morning.

Friday: 14k steady state – OTW 1x

It was cold and windy on Friday morning. Snow was in the forecast for later that day. The plan for the session was just to work on technique and get some steady state volume. Cat VI, r18-20.

I was a little bit irked that I forgot to start the speedcoach until I was about 800m into the row. The wind was coming southwest, so I had a tail wind and tail current heading towards waltham and a head wind and head current the other way. It made for a pretty dramatic difference in pace.

          Workout Summary - media/20180406-1655240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13276|75:36.0|02:50.8|150.8|19.4|150.9|160.0|09.0
W-|12944|69:39.0|02:41.4|161.6|19.3|151.5|160.0|09.7
R-|00336|05:57.0|08:50.9|024.2|20.3|143.6|160.0|03.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03251|15:40.0|02:24.6|159.8|18.5|146.6|154.0|11.2 - missing 800m
01|02896|16:43.0|02:53.2|163.6|18.3|151.8|157.0|09.5
02|02894|14:05.0|02:26.0|162.5|18.4|151.3|157.0|11.2
03|03904|23:11.0|02:58.2|161.0|21.3|154.6|160.0|07.9 - tried higher rate

My objective for the row was to achieve the best possible pace while respecting the HR cap at 155. What was interesting was the consistency of power between head wind and tail wind cases.

The pace was different by 30 seconds, but the power was matched within 4 watts across all four intervals.

Saturday: 2 x 15′ rate ladders on the Oartec DX

I had lots going on all day, and I didn’t have a chance to train until about 9pm. The scheduled session was the 3×15′ rate ladders. I was going to try to do them on the Oartec DX. I decided to cut it back to 2, and either I was having a bad day, or I discovered that I can’t do as well on the Oartec as I can on slides. I ended up HDing in both ladders and finishing with a HR with 5 beats of my max.

Workout Summary - media/20180408-0200250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09056|38:00.0|02:05.9|232.3|22.9|157.0|181.0|10.4
W-|07602|30:00.0|01:58.4|213.5|22.5|157.0|181.0|11.4
R-|01461|08:00.0|02:44.3|302.7|24.3|157.1|181.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01235|05:00.0|02:01.5|193.4|19.6|133.0|146.0|12.6
01|01021|04:00.0|01:57.5|214.9|21.7|154.2|161.0|11.7
02|00800|03:00.0|01:52.5|246.1|24.2|165.3|172.0|11.0
03|00506|02:00.0|01:58.7|219.7|25.3|166.9|172.0|10.0
04|00290|01:00.0|01:43.4|312.1|28.7|172.8|176.0|10.1
05|01212|05:00.0|02:03.8|184.8|19.4|148.9|159.0|12.5
06|01007|04:00.0|01:59.2|206.3|22.1|165.9|169.0|11.4
07|00714|03:00.0|02:06.0|184.3|23.1|164.0|171.0|10.3
08|00533|02:00.0|01:52.6|244.8|26.4|173.2|177.0|10.1
09|00284|01:00.0|01:45.5|297.9|30.7|178.8|181.0|09.3

Sunday: 2 x 2k + 2 x 1k + 2 + 500 – OTW 1x

After the late night workout the day before, I decided to push my sunday workout a bit later in the day. I had brought my boat home with me hoping that I could get out to row on Quinsig, but it was too cold and windy both mornings.

I needed to get my boat back to Newton before I took off on my trip monday morning, so I decided to bring it back in the late afternoon and go for a row while I was there. Even when its windy, the river is narrow enough that it remains nice and rowable. Today, it was a bit tough because the wind was coming generally out of the west, which was a cross wind through the widest section. This kicked up enough chop to make it more technically challenging than I can handle easily at this stage of the season.

The first 2k was great. Right on target, but I felt like I was digging a bit too deep. I failed in the second 2k. I came through the s-turn and got hit with the head wind and chop and I just didn’t have the drive to finish out the rep.

The same thing happened with the 1Ks. The downriver one was fine, but I bailed out on the up river one going into the headwind when I managed to take a crappy stroke and just kind of gave up on it.

In both cases, I took a couple of paddle strokes and then brought it back to target for the end of the rep.

The 500s were fun. Short enough that I wasn’t tempted to give up! The wind seemed to be rising throughout the workout. The biggest gusts seemed to happen as I came back up river in the last 500.

The summary shows the advantage and disadvantage of using power. You can see that the power is more consistent upwind vs down, but you can also see how the power is effected by steering. In the first 2000, the higher power from 1000 to 1200 meters is starboard turn going into the s-turn, and the power dip right after is the turn to port coming out of the turn.

         Workout Summary - media/20180409-0040240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11862|75:16.0|03:10.4|167.9|23.1|148.0|178.0|06.8
W-|08857|41:50.0|02:21.7|218.2|24.4|159.8|178.0|08.8
R-|03015|33:26.0|05:32.7|104.9|21.4|133.3|178.0|00.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00830|04:01.0|02:25.2|173.2|18.4|137.1|150.0|11.2
02|01961|08:36.0|02:11.6|231.7|23.9|165.2|176.0|09.5
03|02002|09:51.0|02:27.6|217.7|24.6|168.0|178.0|08.3
04|01050|04:33.0|02:10.0|248.9|26.5|166.5|177.0|08.7
05|01016|04:57.0|02:26.2|228.4|25.8|162.8|172.0|08.0
06|00501|02:10.0|02:09.7|265.7|28.5|158.3|174.0|08.1
07|00511|02:20.0|02:17.0|274.0|28.2|164.1|177.0|07.8
08|00617|03:23.0|02:44.4|152.2|23.5|142.8|156.0|07.8
09|00369|01:59.0|02:41.2|151.6|21.8|143.4|150.0|08.5

This workout put me into a bit of a contemplative mood. I can remember when bailing out on reps would have made me so angry with myself. in this workout, I was happy to be in the river, I felt a little bit like a quitter for not sticking with it, but it seemed like a good workout none the less. Then I start to second guess myself. Maybe that anger came out of a stringer drive to succeed? Is this a sign that I’m losing the desire to really compete and get to deliver my very best.

When I started, it seemed like trite little quotes like “Winners never quit, quitter never win” were always in my head. Over the past 10 years, I’ve put in enough sessions to know that sometimes you don’t hit your session objectives, and frankly, if you always do, then you are not pushing yourself enough. Now, I need to figure out a way to get the most out of the training time that I can afford to spend. It’s useful contemplation.

Monday: No Training

Up at 5am to get to the airport. Flew out to San Francisco for a couple of customer meetings. Got to the hotel around 8pm, had a quick dinner and crashed.

Tuesday: No Training

I had intended to get up at 5 and do a quick session in the hotel gym, but I felt very tired when the alarm went off and decided to sleep another hour. Caught a 8:25 flight from SFO back home. I got back to the house around 6:45pm.

Wednesday: 3 x 1500 + 3 x 500

I intended to do this session on the water, but when I woke up this morning, it was 26F and foggy outside. I didn’t know that was atmospherically possible! Wouldn’t the fog just freeze?

Anyway, those conditions, combined with the horrifying discovery that I had a 8:00am put an end to getting out on the water this morning. Instead, I found an hour in the middle of the day to workout and did the session on the erg.

Workout Summary - media/20180411-1725250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08789|38:00.0|02:09.8|192.7|20.7|156.9|178.0|11.2
W-|07500|27:58.0|01:51.9|251.7|23.3|154.8|178.0|11.6
R-|01293|10:02.0|03:52.8|028.1|13.4|162.9|178.0|09.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01500|06:06.7|02:02.2|189.7|18.1|126.9|143.0|13.6
01|01500|05:35.0|01:51.7|251.0|23.6|153.7|163.0|11.4
02|01500|05:35.0|01:51.7|255.4|23.7|162.6|172.0|11.3
03|01500|05:32.9|01:51.0|256.2|24.4|168.6|176.0|11.1
04|00500|01:43.2|01:43.2|312.7|27.9|170.5|178.0|10.4
05|00500|01:43.1|01:43.1|320.9|27.7|163.2|177.0|10.5
06|00500|01:43.0|01:43.0|318.3|27.6|163.7|177.0|10.6

Pretty good workout.

Thursday: 14km Steady State OTW 1x

It was sunny and cold, just above freezing, with almost no wind. The water was glassy smooth.

The goal of this workout was steady state meters at low rate. HR limit at 155.

Nothing of note happened except during the first trip down the river at about 10 minutes the speedcoach complained that it was low on memory. I pushed a few button to see if I could delete a couple of old sessions. You can’t. So, I decided to just keep going and hope that I didn’t run out. I didn’t.

I did the first three legs at r18, but decided to up the rate to r20 in the last leg and lighten up enough to still stay under the HR cap. I was pushing right up to it at the end.

          Workout Summary - media/20180412-1515250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14050|76:45.0|02:43.9|158.6|18.9|145.5|161.0|09.7
W-|13518|68:30.0|02:32.0|167.1|18.8|147.4|161.0|10.5
R-|00536|08:15.0|07:41.6|088.2|20.2|130.4|161.0|01.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02197|10:42.0|02:26.1|170.0|18.4|136.8|146.0|11.2
02|01637|07:51.0|02:23.9|170.7|18.6|142.9|150.0|11.2
03|02870|15:00.0|02:36.8|166.6|18.3|147.4|155.0|10.4
04|02857|14:03.0|02:27.5|167.5|18.3|147.8|156.0|11.1
05|03956|20:54.0|02:38.5|164.5|19.7|154.1|161.0|09.6

6 more watts than the prior last steady state session and a lower HR.

Nice consistent power despite the pace difference.

Friday: 60′ Speed Play

Thursday afternoon, I received an email back from my coach based on her review of the video that I had sent her. It seems like I have lots of “opportunities to get faster”.

Her first thought was I need to change my rigging.

Reduce the amount of inboard (I reduced the inboard from 88 to 86.25 cm)
Lower my oarlocks to get my CG a little bit above the oar handles, so I am more “over the work”. (I moved them down 1 spacer)
Move the footboard to stern to get my hips a bit further through the pin. (I moved it 1 cm)

She also had comments on my posture and

Adjust the way you are sitting so you can hinge.
Get connected to the boat, structural posture- King of the Mountain Drill
Keep glutes and lats engaged all the time on the drive, drive through heels after the cross over. This supports the posture.
Keep your weight into the rigger at all times, work the handles around the pin all the time, stay on the path of the handle.

That’s a lot to process. She also provided my training plan for April/May. There is a new type of session in this program…Speed Play.

60’ with speed play
Rest: n/a only to rehydrate
Rating/Pace: Cat VI; target SR 18-20.
Once every 10 minutes take the stroke rate up to 28 spm for 20 strokes.

I modified the session to fit in the KOM drill. I did about 2 minutes of the drill each time I turned on the river. It was a bit windy. Because of the time I took doing the rigging, I needed to cut a couple of km out of the session by turning at the old stone bridge instead of going all the way back to the dam.

The King of the Mountain drill was challenging. It was a little windy so the boat was getting pushed around and I had trouble holding the blades clear. I was really tensed up in the first set, a little better after that. I think it makes sense to break it up into small chunks like that.

During the row, I really enjoyed the 20 stroke fast bits. I decided to target r30 for those and focus on stroke mechanics. Get my blades clear on recovery. Get my heels down on the drive. Keep hinging at the hips. Usually when I rate up like that I just pull like a dog. Today, I tried for a bit more finesse. I doubt it would have looked any different to a bystander.

          Workout Summary - media/20180413-1305250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12436|73:07.0|02:56.4|153.6|21.6|143.4|174.0|07.9
W-|12436|73:07.0|02:56.4|153.6|21.6|143.4|174.0|07.9
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|174.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|12436|73:07.5|02:56.4|153.6|21.6|143.4|174.0|07.9

Here is a comparison of the stroke profile for the r30 strokes and the steady state strokes (around r20).

So, I am not losing length. Actually, I’m about 4 degrees longer at r30. And the slip and wash both look good. The peak force angle is a bit earlier (28 deg vs 33deg). I think that correlates to the early hump in the acceleration curve that shows up at speed.

Mostly in the row, I was trying to focus on maintaining outward pressure on the oarlocks during recovery and sit up taller. When I did it right and managed to finish cleanly, I felt rock solid as I travelled up the slide with the blades clear of the water. However, it was really hard to keep everything in focus every stroke. I’d focus on finishes and forget to keep pressure out, or do OK on both of those, but slump in the seat.

But, seeing the difference in my erg form by focusing on keeping my knees down and hinging at my hips makes me feel like this is struggle is worth it. It would be great if I could put together a thousand of those beautiful clean strokes in one session.

Friday afternoon, Jill and I headed down to the cape, where we are now. I’ll be erging this weekend. Today’s session.

4 x 12’
Rest between: 6’
Rating/Pace:
- 6’ @ Cat VI; target 18-20
- 4’ @ Cat IV; target SR 24
- 2’ @ Cat III; target SR 28.

Off to Japan

April 4, 2018Leave a comment

Friday night, my wife and I decided on the spur of the moment to see if we could organize Easter on the Cape. We called our sons, who live in Cambridge to find out if they we up for an adventure and they were! So, my wife and I headed down to the Cape on Friday night. We arrived pretty late, around 10pm.

Saturday morning, I headed out early (ish) and went to the French Bakery. I bought all sorts of good stuff for later and headed back to the house.

A bit later, I needed to head out to go pick up my boys. They were taking the commuter rail about halfway to the house, but I still had about an hour of driving each way to get them.

I also had to contend with the tides. I left quite a bit early so I didn’t get trapped. That gave me time to stop at the fish market and supermarket for the rest of our feast.

I was back at the house by around 2pm and we hung out for a while. Around 5 I decided to go do my scheduled erg session.

The plan was:

3 x 15′ rate ladders / 4′ rest
- 5′ at r20 (2:04)
- 4′ at r22 (1:58 to 2:00)
- 3′ at r24 (1:52 to 1:54)
- 2′ at r26 (1:48)
- 1′ at r28 (1:45)

This was done on slides. I was a bit dubious because this was my 8 straight day working out, but it turned out to be a good session.

         Workout Summary - media/20180331-2220260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12940|57:00.0|02:12.1|183.7|21.7|146.1|177.0|10.5
W-|11614|45:00.0|01:56.2|224.6|22.6|149.3|177.0|11.5
R-|01334|12:00.0|04:29.8|030.3|18.4|133.8|177.0|05.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01223|05:00.0|02:02.6|187.3|20.2|125.1|136.0|12.1
01|01003|04:00.0|01:59.6|204.4|21.8|141.3|145.0|11.5
02|00796|03:00.0|01:53.0|241.9|24.0|150.6|155.0|11.1
03|00555|02:00.0|01:48.1|275.9|26.1|160.0|162.0|10.6
04|00287|01:00.0|01:44.4|308.3|28.1|163.7|165.0|10.2
05|01215|05:00.0|02:03.4|186.6|19.3|133.9|144.0|12.6
06|01011|04:00.0|01:58.6|209.1|21.8|149.0|155.0|11.6
07|00801|03:00.0|01:52.4|245.9|24.0|159.1|164.0|11.1
08|00556|02:00.0|01:47.9|278.3|25.8|168.1|171.0|10.8
09|00288|01:00.0|01:44.3|307.8|28.0|172.7|174.0|10.3
10|01217|05:00.0|02:03.2|188.8|19.7|140.8|151.0|12.4
11|01017|04:00.0|01:58.0|213.1|22.0|157.3|161.0|11.6
12|00796|03:00.0|01:53.1|241.5|24.0|163.8|169.0|11.1
13|00556|02:00.0|01:47.9|277.6|26.4|170.7|174.0|10.5
14|00291|01:00.0|01:43.0|318.9|30.5|175.9|177.0|09.6

Turned out better than prior attempts.

lower HR
higher power
good drive length on slides

Then it was time for the “Parade of Deliciousness”, all accompanied by prosecco

Appetizer: bruscetta with Mac’s Seafood boursin
First course: Sauted Maine shrimp and Cape Cod sea scallops with roasted aspargus.
Second Course: roast ham with baked sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes
Green Salad
Assorted desserts

After that I was paralyzed.

Sunday: We got a reasonably early start for us, we were out of the house by 11:00AM. We needed to beat the tide, and get my sons to the train before 12:30. That got us home by about 1:30pm. The workout for Sunday was 2 hours of yardwork clearing the trees and branches that had come down in the string of 3 Nor-easters that we had in March. It was reasonably hard work and I didn’t have time for an erg session.

Monday: 9am flight to Chicago, then the long flight to Narita, then a 80 minuute car ride from Narita to Haneda, then a 2 hour flight to Kumamoto, then a 40 minute cab ride to the hotel. I arrived at the hotel at 9:30pm, Tuesday night (having lost a day to travel) about 26 hours after leaving my house in Hopkinton. I felt like I had been beaten up by thugs.. So, no training on Monday or Tuesday.

Wednesday: Up at 5AM, and right into emails. Off to the office at 7am. Today, I am helping to dedicate our new building in Kumamoto. Our old building was destroyed by the earthquakes there in April of 2016. I just finished participating in the Shinto dedication ceremony. A remarkable experience that involved a whole lot of bowing. Now we have a luncheon to thank the architects and construction company, later on we have a big dinner for our local team and a customers. It’s a pretty big deal for us. SO no training again.

Thursday: I have a breakfast meeting with a customer at 7am, then a “coffee meeting” with our local team, and then I’m off to the airport to catch a flight around noon. The return path is a one stop better…

Hotel –> Kumamoto –> Haneda –> Narita –> Boston –> Home.

So, no training again. That’s four days without training. Arghh. Just when I was getting in the groove.

Hopefully, I can get a good session in on Friday.

More Power! – Peak Power Session

March 27, 2018Leave a comment

Plan:

PT Suite
10 minute warmup with 5 stroke power bursts at nominal drag factor
10 x 10sec / 1′ rest peak power training on max drag
2 x 20′ / 1′ Cat VI (r18-r20, 2:03 to 2:08, HR cap at 155)

I did my PT exercises. My back was a bit sore from the kettlebell swings I did yesterday, but it loosened up nicely.

The warmup was uneventful. I tried to work on getting the rate up nice and high, but I wasn’t too successful. But I managed to work up the beginning of a sweat, so mission accomplished.

For the Main set, I tied my shoes extra tight, moved the foot stretcher up one hole, and cranked the damper to 10. Then I programmed the PM to 20 second intervals with 50 second rests. That’s as close as I can get to the desired setup with the constraints of the PM5. SO, I rowed the first 10 seconds of each interval hard, and then eased up for 10 seconds, and then let the flywheel coast down during the 50 second rest.

The protocol is to do a rep, see what power you manage to get, and then do reps until you reach 10, or your power drops below 90% of the your initial value.

Today, I saw no real drop off, which I suspect means that I am not trying hard enough.

Here’s the summary plot. I think the only useful information on it is the drag factor. 187, maybe it’s time to clean the erg?

It is way more instructive to look at this on a flex plot.

So you can see all the reps have peak power between 675 and 710W. 710W is 1:19.0. My all time best low pull on a static erg was back in 2015 at 1:16.9 (769W).

It is telling that my best power was achieved in the last two reps. You can see how many reps it took me to get the rate up to near 45 SPM. the early reps I was trying too hard to just over power each stroke. By the end, I was more focused on getting my ass back to the catch.

You can see this in the work per stroke, which is actually declining as the power is going up.

What I found really fascinating was comparing this workout to the same session done on the Concept2 Dynamic. I did this a couple weeks ago.

First is a comparison of the power. I was able to achieve much higher peak power on the dynamic, maxing out at 795W. What’s up with that?

The short answer is that you can rate up like crazy on a dynamic erg. I was consistently able to rate between 55 and 60 spm, versus the 40 to 45 spm on the static erg.

Take a peek at the work per stroke on the prior workout. It is really consistent and 200 joules lower than what I was pulling on the static erg.

You can see this in the peak force too. On the dynamic, I pulling around 1100N. On the static, peak force was around 1400.

What the hell does all of that mean? I guess it depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the session. If the point of the session is to get as many reps at the highest possible handle force, then it make more sense to do the session on the static erg. If the point is to work on neuromuscular coordination to be able to effectively apply force at high rates, the dynamic is a better choices. If you are trying to impress your friends with insanely fast splits, definitely go with the dynamic!

This is a very interesting session to highlight the differences between unique erg types. I think I’d like to do this session on the Oartec and the C2 on slides to see what happens. I think they will probably fall in the middle between these two extremes.

After that, I did the 2 x 20′ Cat VI. Apparently there wasn’t much left in my legs or body, because it was massively hard work. my HR shot up to the limit very quickly and so I rated up to 20 and lightened up the pace to try to hold my HR right at 155. It was an extremely long 41 minutes.

Tomorrow: The forecast is for temperatures of 31F and freezing rain, so I’m going rowing! I’m going to meet my friend Joe to take out the double for my first outing of the season. I will also pick up my boat so I can get it back down to the Charles on Thursday morning.

The planned session should be a bit of fun. I think Joe will enjoy it.

Nice long warmup, working on technique from the boat house to the south cove.
3 x 1500m / 1′ rest (This should take up from the south cove to the north end of the lake)
- r24
3 x 500m / 2′ rest (This will take us from the north end of the lake to the boat house)
- r28

I have a lot of organizing to do tonight to get all my goodies packed and charged.

Ambition Should be made of sterner stuff

March 26, 2018March 26, 2018Leave a comment

Yesterday, I did my session around 5pm and it was a hard one. This morning, after a rather lousy night’s sleep,, I was up at 5:15 and off to work.

I headed to the fitness center at 7 and this was my plan:

Full PT exercise suite (I haven’t done it for a couple weeks and I’m noticing that my back hurts and my legs are starting to splay at the catch again.)
Then 3 x 20′ / 3′ with one arm KB swings during the rests. (15 each side during each rest)
- Cat VI: r18, 2:03-2:08

I did my PT exercises and then the first set of KB swings. Then I setup on the rowed and did the first 20 minutes. Between the session last night and the first of KB swings, my legs felt empty and it was hard work from the start.

I finished the first 20’s and then did another set of the KB swings. Which brought my HR up to 165, and then sat down for the next 20 minutes. This was pretty hard work. I slowed down to keep my HR below 155.

I finished rep 2 and did another set of KB swings, then started rep #3 on the erg. I was struggling along for about 6 minutes and then decided that I had had enough for today. I’m disappointed that I didn’t finish the session, but I think the idea of doing the KB swings is a good one. I need to do more strength work.

          Workout Summary - media/20180326-1225310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11202|53:30.0|02:23.3|153.5|15.8|147.3|156.0|13.2
W-|11036|46:30.0|02:06.4|174.1|17.8|148.2|156.0|13.3
R-|00168|07:00.0|20:53.5|016.3|02.7|141.3|156.0|03.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04820|20:00.0|02:04.5|180.9|18.0|144.7|152.0|13.4
01|04749|20:00.0|02:06.3|173.8|17.9|152.0|156.0|13.2
02|01467|06:30.0|02:12.9|154.2|17.1|147.4|154.0|13.2

Tomorrow:

10 minute warmup
Peak Power training (10 x 10″ / 1′ rests) max drag
2 x 20’/1′ Cat VI (r18,2:03-2:08)

Sunday: 2 x 2k / 2 x 1k / 2 x 500 – On the Oartech DX

March 26, 2018March 26, 20185 Comments

Last Thursday night, I picked up an Oartech DX rowing machine from the Riverside Boat Club in Cambridge. The local rep for Oartech offer to let me try for a few sessions if I agreed to write up what I thought of it.

Those impressions are coming soon. Right now, I just want to jot down the details on the session I did yesterday afternoon.

My wife and I got home from the Cape around 3. I did some chores and errands and finally sat down to work out around 5.

The session:

2 x 2000m / 2’
- Rating: Cat V pace; target SR 22 (1:58 – 2:02)
2 x 1000m, rest 3’ easy
- Rating: Cat IV pace: target SR 24-26 (1:52)
2 x 500m, rest 2’ easy
- Rating: Cat III pace: target SR 26-28 (1:48)

I added another 2K (r18-20, 2:03-2:08) to the beginning as a warmup.

         Workout Summary - media/df_20180325-231815.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11170|50:57.0|02:16.9|222.2|21.9|150.3|176.0|10.0
W-|09000|34:52.0|01:56.3|224.4|22.0|151.7|176.0|11.8
R-|02174|16:04.0|03:41.9|217.3|21.7|147.1|176.0|06.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02000|08:14.4|02:03.6|184.4|18.4|130.8|144.0|13.2
01|02000|07:51.0|01:57.7|214.7|22.1|152.8|163.0|11.5
02|02000|07:50.6|01:57.6|215.2|21.8|158.9|169.0|11.7
03|01000|03:42.0|01:51.0|255.8|24.2|163.2|176.0|11.2
04|01000|03:42.5|01:51.3|254.5|24.0|163.5|176.0|11.2
05|00500|01:47.8|01:47.8|284.3|26.3|154.6|171.0|10.6
06|00500|01:44.6|01:44.6|307.3|26.4|161.7|175.0|10.9

So, I managed to hit all targets, but it was hard work! I compared it to the two prior times I did this workout, both on the static erg.

The power was basically identical in all sessions.
My heart rate was higher today. I think this is mostly a machine difference, not a difference in how I was feeling.
The drive length was basically identical between static and the Oartech DX. I was expecting a slightly shorter drive length.

Here is power and WPS versus stroke rate. I was working hard to stick to the stroke rates and so it is showing an increase for the higher rates.

Plan for Monday:

Combined strength / endurance
3 x 20′
Between each 20′ do 20 KB swings and pull ups.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: erg

6/17 to 6/30 – Work wins

Saturday: 4 x (3′ @ 24 + 3′ @ 28) / 6′ on slides

Sunday: 4 x 20′ / 2′ Dynamic

Sunday: More slidery – 4 x 20’/1′ speed play

Saturday: 4 x 12′ rate ladders – on slides

Fri – Fri: Busy Week

Off to Japan

More Power! – Peak Power Session

Ambition Should be made of sterner stuff

Sunday: 2 x 2k / 2 x 1k / 2 x 500 – On the Oartech DX