A whole boat load of 1′ intervals

June 11, 2016Leave a comment

Cloudy, calm, upper 50s. A little bit of a wind from the south picked up while I was rowing. About 3-4 mph by the tie we finished.

I was out in Worcester on Lake Quinsigamond with my clubmates today. We had 10 of us. We boated 2 quads and two singles. I had cartopped my wonderful, repaired fluid.

Last night I stopped at the hardware store on the way home and picked up some silicone sealant. I repaired the small leak behind the fin in the parking lot, and then continued my drive home. Today, the repair was set and there was no water in the stern when I finished. Tick that item off the list.

The plan was for 1′ intervals.

6 x 1′ on / 1′ off
4 sets with 5′ rest or so between sets
Target pace: 2:00
Target rate: 30 spm
Technique Objective: Smooth recovery, good catches, smooth acceleration, early finish.

We were on the water around 7:30 and the lake was beautifully flat. I did about 2000m of warming up going down lake and then set off on my first set. In the fourth interval I was waked by a waterskiing boat, but nothing too serious, it just made me miss a coulpe strokes. The fifth interval took me all the way down to the south end of the lake, so I had to spin and come back north to finish the first set. I then spun again and hung around until every one was down in the cove and ready to head north.

By the time I finished the 5th interval of the second set, I had just passed the narrows going north. During the rest between the 5th and 6th interval, I was passed at close range by another waterskiing boat. I paused the timer during the rest to let the wake pass me before I started the sixth, but I was working from a standing start and the water was still pretty messed up.

I was feeling some fatigue by this point and I paddled the 4′ rest pretty slowly continuing north. The first interval of the 3rd set brought me under the route 9 bridge. The next 5 intervals brought be all the way up to the Donahue Rowing Center. I finished my last interval in front of their docks with a number of people standing there watching the old guy gasping past at 30 spm. I tried to look as debonair as possible.

I paddle up to the north cove of the lake and spun around. After we had reassembled, I took off back home. There was another single that took off when I did, but he didn’t take the bait and turned into the DRC docks. My legs were pretty much done, so I let the rate sag a bit. I was waked again in the 4th interval, but I tried to make a good finish in the last 2. This brought me just past our docks, so I spun and went back in without much of a cool down. I crawled out of the boat. 34 minutes in the TR zone.

It would be nice if I was faster, but it I felt more comfortable at r30 than I expected. It would also be nice if I had my speedcoach. The pace lag on short intervals is awful on CrewNerd. If I don’t have my impeller mounted by next weekend, I might risk using the Dual GPS dongle to make it a bit better.

Workout Summary - media/20160611-215914-2016-06-11-0727.CSV
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09520|48:12.0|02:12.9|28.1|160.4|169.9|08.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01845| 10:38 |02:52.9|19.9|135.0|162.0|08.7
02|00252| 01:00 |01:57.5|30.4|160.0|169.0|08.4
03|00253| 01:00 |01:58.6|31.0|164.0|171.0|08.2
04|00252| 01:00 |01:58.6|30.1|165.0|172.0|08.4
05|00239| 01:00 |02:05.2|30.1|165.0|173.0|08.0
06|00252| 01:00 |01:58.7|29.1|169.0|176.0|08.7
07|00249| 01:00 |02:00.0|30.1|172.0|178.0|08.3
08|00602| 04:27 |03:41.9|20.2|133.0|162.0|06.7
09|00243| 01:00 |02:03.2|29.0|158.0|168.0|08.4
10|00256| 01:00 |01:57.1|31.0|168.0|175.0|08.3
11|00247| 01:00 |02:01.3|30.1|169.0|175.0|08.2
12|00239| 01:00 |02:04.9|30.2|171.0|176.0|08.0
13|00244| 01:00 |02:02.1|30.3|171.0|177.0|08.1
14|00237| 01:00 |02:04.9|30.4|162.0|171.0|07.9
15|00528| 03:23 |03:12.8|20.3|142.0|164.0|07.7
16|00242| 01:00 |02:02.1|31.5|159.0|170.0|07.8
17|00248| 01:00 |02:01.1|30.0|169.0|175.0|08.3
18|00248| 01:00 |02:00.7|30.1|170.0|175.0|08.3
19|00236| 01:00 |02:06.6|29.1|166.0|172.0|08.1
20|00245| 01:00 |02:01.9|30.2|166.0|174.0|08.2
21|00240| 01:00 |02:03.9|29.2|168.0|174.0|08.3
22|00563| 03:51 |03:22.0|18.7|144.0|165.0|07.9
23|00238| 01:00 |02:04.6|31.4|158.0|167.0|07.7
24|00236| 01:00 |02:05.5|30.4|166.0|170.0|07.9
25|00231| 01:00 |02:10.0|28.0|163.0|168.0|08.2
26|00224| 01:00 |02:13.7|29.0|160.0|170.0|07.7
27|00233| 01:00 |02:08.5|29.1|164.0|172.0|08.0
28|00233| 01:00 |02:08.4|30.1|167.0|174.0|07.8
29|00165| 01:53 |05:35.9|14.6|127.0|131.0|06.1

All Intervals
   05817| 24:00 |02:03.8|29.8|

Tomorrow: 4 x 20’/1′ rest on the erg, nice and easy.

Thursday: 8 x 2′ / 2′ rest

April 21, 20164 Comments

On slides

Target pace 1:48 (I wish it could be faster, but I’m trying to be realistic)

Started off with a Fletcher warmup. HR was a bit high.

Then on to the main event. I had a brief, little break down during the first rep. Basically, it started to bite a little and I needed to do a gut check to decide if I was willing to “go there” today. I was.

Annoying HR dropouts from the Wahoo TIKR again. It only happens when I do short intervals. I have no idea why. I kind of enjoyed the last rep.

After that I did a 2K cool down.

Tomorrow: 3 x 20 / 1′ rest (static)

Friday: 8 x 500 / 3′ rest

March 25, 20161 Comment

Training plan called for short intervals, so I defaulted to the classic…8×500/3′ rest. I decided that it was OK to work against a pace target of 1:45. This is a pretty tame since I was able to post a 1:40.8 for a 6×750/4’rest session at the end of January.

I haven’t done much sprint work and my training volume in February and March has been way down. For November, December and January, I was averaging almost 100km a week. Since the beginning of February, my weekly average is 43km. Now, I have done my best to supplement that with cross training, but there is not way to make up for that kind of a “time on erg” deficit. Anyway, so much for my excuse codes for a slow target.

Warm up was a standard fletcher. It felt hard.

Then in to the main event. I focused on trying to hit 30 SPM and get my heels down fast. I’ve noticed that I have been rowing on my tip toes when I rate up and that will be bad news in the boat. This pace was hard, but doable, and I managed a fair bit better than target. I did the first one at 1:44, and knew I could go harder. Same thing in the second where I did 1:43. The rest were in the 1:42.x range, with a nice faster last. There were some annoying drop outs in the HR data. Looking at the Strava data, I see exactly the same thing, so it’s the strap, not the PM5. I only seem to see it on these short interval sessions. I wonder if the fast HR increases are confusing the algorithm in the strap.

I was pretty much toast after that. I did a 2K cool down.

I decided to pass on doing a weight session tonight. Not enough time and I’m still suffering DOMS from the last session.

Tomorrow: OTW!

4 x 1k / 5′ rest (and data problem sorted for the erg)

February 23, 2016February 23, 20169 Comments

To try to decide if I would race this sunday, I decided to do the universal predictor workout, the 4 x 1K / 5′ rest.

In the past, I have generally been able to race at a pace about 1 second faster than this workout. I decided to go out hard and see if I could hold a 1:41 pace.

I pushed the first rep a bit too hard and paid the price in the later reps, but it all worked out OK.

Here’s the HR plot. It shows that I have certainly worked harder in this workout in the past, but boy the reps hurt a lot. I guess my lactate tolerance has been negatively impacted by a lack of speed work over the past few weeks.

I decided to try the Concept2 ErgData app, and it worked flawlessly! Here’s what you get in the online log if you upload from ergdata to your logbook.

So, details on each rep, plus a stroke rate and pace graph for each rep. Even better, there is a very simple csv export that I can adapt to my excel tools to track HR. There are rumors that the log book will be enhanced to include HR on the graph.

Now I just need to convince C2 to open up the ability to upload workouts from speedcoach, crewnerd or RIM and I can really simplify my life.

So, this workout today predicts somewhere around 6:40 to 6:45. Not the performance I was hoping for, but not horribly shabby. I think I will race. I think I’d regret not going.

Tomorrow: Start of the taper. Fletcher warmup and 4×500 at race pace.

Wednesday: 16 x 250 / 1:30 rest

February 12, 2016February 12, 2016Leave a comment

Work is crazy busy. Didn’t have the resolve to face an intense sprint session but I know I need to keep working on race pace. This seemed like a good way to accomplish something.

Fletcher warmup…

Main set

Target faster than 1:39. Nice faster last… 4001m of active rests.

2K cool down

Monday: 4 x 1000 / 5′ rest

February 1, 2016Leave a comment

Plan:

Fletcher warmup
4 x 1000
- 5′ rest
- pace target: 1:40
- rate: 30 spm
2K cool down

I felt like crap today. The fletcher warmup was really hard, especially at first. Within about 20 pulls, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hit my targets. It really just turned into a game of survival. I had terrible post rep shivers after the first interval and slowed in the second. I had a mini-HD in the third rep while I was experimenting with using high rates. The fourth rep, I hatched a plan to do the first 250m at 1:44, the second at 1:43, the third at 1:42, the fourth at 1:41. I stuck to the plan through the first 500m, and accelerated from there. The last 250m was very difficult.

My heart rates were lower than in past sessions, but the RPE was higher. I was knocked out after each rep. The session average was 1:42.3, which is way off the 1:40.4 from last week, but a touch better than the 1:42.7 from two weeks ago.

The warmup.

The main set

The cool down

Tonight I fly to Munich. Training this week will be problematic. I spend Tuesday night in Munich, then drive to Stuttgart. Fly to Milan on Wednesday evening and sleep there Wednesday night. Then I fly from Milan to Amsterdam and sleep there on Thursday night. Finally, I return to the US on Friday night. So, 4 nights, 3 different hotels and a coach seat. I’m thinking that I will focus on maintenance of my aerobic base with 60 minute low intensity sessions where I can squeeze them in.

Pyramid of Pain

January 30, 2016Leave a comment

Back to the lake. It beckoned to us. No ice at all and flat water. I wanted to row so badly. Oh well, we had to satisfy ourselves with the view out the window.

The plan for today

fletcher 20′ warmup
Sprint Pyramid
- 1’/2’/3’/4’/3’/2’/1′
- equal rests
- Pace target: 1:41
- Rate target: 30
2K cool down

I felt OK during the warmup. I pushed it too fast at first, and looking at the HR data later, it was a bit high. I did not like my erg at all. Sounded like grinding gears, and near the finish it felt like the connection to the flywheel was “mushy”. Not sure why, but it was definitely a sub-par erg. I blame it for my lousy performance.

The warmup. First 4 minutes should have been closer to 2:05. The second to 2:02.

The the main event.

The cool down

And the HR plot. I was working very hard for those crappy splits.

Tomorrow: 4×20’/1′

6 x 750 / 4′ rest (post red eye)

January 28, 20161 Comment

Plan:

Arrive in Boston at 6AM from LAX
Drive to work
Change into workout clothes
Fletcher 20′ warm up
6 x 750 / 4′ rest
- Pace Target: <1:41 (last time 1:41.1, thanks to a blistering last interval)
- Rate: 30
2K cool down

Low expectations would be an adequate description of my attitude going into this session. I felt tired and a bit queasy after the flight. I must have slept a fair amount, I don’t remember taking off and I don’t remember much from the flight itself, but I didn’t feel very rested.

The warmup was awful. I thought it would be pretty humiliating to HD in the warmup, so I kept going. The speedy bits actually were not so bad toward the end.

The main set. I decided to try to go out at a 1:40 pace. I was ahead of the target through the first 500m of the first interval and I started to feel less than ideal. I slowed a bit and let the pace drift up. Rep 2, I decided to stick to my 1:41 plan. It still sucked. I decided that 1:42 might be a wiser choice. It was. The next rep went a bit better. I got cocky. I decided to try to focus on rate and stick with 30 and see what happened. Well, I was faster, but I wanted to die at the end of the rep. So, Rep 5 was just about surviving at 1:42. Then rep 6, I actually tried to lay down a faster last, but with 250m to go, I nearly lost gastro-intestinal control and I barely made to the end in one piece.

End result: 1:40.8. Way too much drama for a 0.3 sec improvement. But I didn’t bail on any reps. I was annoyed by the intermittent and laggy HR data on the PM5. I’m not sure if it’s the PM5 or the strap. I suspect the former, since I’ve never seen this with the strap connected by BT to my phone.

Finally, I struggled through a 2K cool down

Tomorrow: 3 x 20′ / 1′ plus peak power

Tuesday: 4 x 1K / 5′ rest – Progress

January 26, 2016January 26, 20167 Comments

Plan:

Fletcher Warmup
4x1K / 5′ rest
- Pace: <1:42
- Rate: 30
2K cool down

This morning I paid a visit to the good folks at Crossfit Del Mar. $20 for a day pass and I had my choice of any of the well used and nicely maintained Model Ds to choose from. The people were nice and the crashing of weights certainly provided a good distraction. I could tell this place was well run by just how good the form was on all the folks in the class doing a cool power clean/jerk combo. They must be serious about coaching proper form on these lifts.

The workout was tough. I was out last night for dinner with a customer. It ended early, but still a gigantic steak and couple of glasses of wine probably didn’t help.

The warm up felt sluggish and hard.

The main event was interesting. I felt awful in the first rep. I went out hard an I was looking at sub 1:40 pace about halfway through, but I felt like I needed to ease up. I bled off a bit of pace and cruised to the finish. I was still more than a second ahead of target for the rep, but I felt significantly more damaged than I did last week after rep number 1.

For rep 2, I chatted with myself and reminded me that the target was 1:42, and that’s OK. I big improvement over a week. So, this time I settled more quickly and played around a bit with rate keeping the pace dancing between 1:40 and 1:41. I was looking at 1:41 with about 20 strokes to go, and I pushed the finish a bit. Aww crap, I finished it faster than rep #1. I felt honor bound to try for a negative split session. Actually, I felt a little better after rep #2 than rep #1. And 5 minute rests are luxuriously long.

So, into rep 3. I knew I wanted something faster than 1:40.7, but I was reluctant to push it too hard. I basically cruised along around 1:41 and goosed the last 20 strokes. 1:40.4

Now the finale. I busted out of the gate pushing 1:38s. That lasted about 10 strokes. I drifted to 1:39s. By the time I was 30 strokes in, I was in survival mode. I was not going to let the rep go, but I was in deep trouble, I dropped back to 1:41s for nearly 500m and the avg pace climbed up to 1:40.5 or so. With about 30 strokes left, I started pushing really hard and I saw the avg start dropping. With 10 left, I saw the avg dip below 1:40, and kept pushing. I finished with 2 strokes at 1:35.

So, a 1:40.4 avg pace for the workout. That’s 0.6 faster than when I did this workout before the 2014 crash-bs and with a lot less drama, and that year I went 6:37.6.

I did a 2K cool down and headed back to my hotel walking a bit taller.

Here is the HR profile for the workout. Lower HR than I expected to see.

Tomorrow: 3×20 plus peak power at anaerobic crossfit in Newport Beach.

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.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: L1

A whole boat load of 1′ intervals

Thursday: 8 x 2′ / 2′ rest

Friday: 8 x 500 / 3′ rest

Tomorrow: OTW!

4 x 1k / 5′ rest (and data problem sorted for the erg)

Wednesday: 16 x 250 / 1:30 rest

Monday: 4 x 1000 / 5′ rest

Pyramid of Pain

6 x 750 / 4′ rest (post red eye)

Tuesday: 4 x 1K / 5′ rest – Progress

Saturday Sprints: 8 x 2′ / 3′ rest