8 – Feeling worn down

February 9, 2020February 9, 20202 Comments

I was supposed to be in Korea this week. I was going to be presenting at a conference in Seoul, but the conference was cancelled because of concern over the Coronavirus.

So that should have been a great thing from a rowing perspective, but it wasn’t. I feel down and unenergetic all week. I did all my sessions, but missed power targets and didn’t look forward to training.

Monday – 2/3 – 8 x 500/3’30” L1

OK, at least I had one good session. I totally slayed this session.

I started with a full fletcher warmup. I felt pretty good. Then into the session. Target was 1:41. I managed 1:40.1.

Well controlled, hard work.

Tuesday – 2/4 – 60′ L4

      Workout Summary - media/20200204-1336340o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15257|01:06:00.0|02:09.8|169.5|19.2|138.6|161.0|12.1
W-|14433|00:60:00.0|02:04.7|180.9|19.5|139.3|160.0|12.3
R-|00828|00:06:00.0|03:37.4|056.2|15.7|131.1|160.0|08.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04793|20:00.0|02:05.2|178.0|19.1|130.8|141.0|12.5
01|04809|20:00.0|02:04.8|180.5|19.5|140.6|151.0|12.3
02|04830|20:00.0|02:04.2|184.0|19.9|146.6|160.0|12.1

Wednesday – 4×2000/5′ L2

I had a customer dinner on Tuesday night and I ate a lot. I don’t know if that was the problem, or what, but I totally flamed out in this workout. It was ugly.

Target pace was 1:50. Maybe I pushed the first too hard at 1:48.7, but I don’t think so. The second rep was awful. Two major breakdowns. Then I reset expectations to 1:52 for the third and fourth and managed to do a bit better than that.

Disappointed in the workout. Glad I stuck it out though.

Thursday – 2/6 – 3×20’/2′ L4

Still feeling drained, so I just went really easy. Alternating 18/20 rate.

     Workout Summary - media/20200206-1621380o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15337|01:07:07.0|02:11.3|166.1|18.8|143.2|157.0|12.1
W-|14347|00:60:00.0|02:05.5|178.0|19.1|144.8|157.0|12.5
R-|00993|00:07:07.0|03:35.0|066.4|16.1|130.1|157.0|08.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|04783|20:00.0|02:05.4|178.1|19.0|136.4|147.0|12.6
02|04783|20:00.0|02:05.4|178.1|19.1|147.0|154.0|12.5
03|04781|20:00.0|02:05.5|177.7|19.3|151.0|157.0|12.4

Friday – 2/7 – 30′ Threshold L3

Still feeling less than great. But decided to keep trying. My goal was 1:54. I was secretly hoping that it would feel really easy and I could push the pace to 1:52 and get closer to 8000m. I was really proud when I broke 8000m for 30min. It was not be today,

I knew I was in trouble in the first 1000 meters. It was really hard to hold the target pace. I had my first breakdown around 8 minutes in. I wasn’t in massive distress, but I was uncomfortable and it just seemed like the amount of time stretched in front of me was impossible. I started to doubt myself and questioned why it was worth it to push so hard. This debate went on for a little bit and the quitter in my head won. I started up again, with the intent of targeting a slower split, but had trouble settling into it. Then I had a couple more breakdowns in quick succession. Finally, I got pissed at myself and resolved to just hold 1:55 and row. I almost made it I got to within 3 minutes of the end and had another attack of the demons. This one was quick and I got back it it to finish it out. End result for the full piece was 1:55.0. Without the drama, 1:54 was totally doable.

      Workout Summary - media/20200207-1331340o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11816|00:51:32.3|02:10.9|192.5|23.0|152.3|179.0|10.0
W-|11811|00:47:47.4|02:01.4|207.4|24.1|154.9|179.0|10.3
R-|00013|00:03:45.1|145:54.6|002.4|08.7|119.4|179.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02000|08:46.0|02:11.5|190.0|24.4|134.4|156.0|09.3
01|00532|02:00.0|01:52.7|245.9|25.2|130.2|151.0|10.6
02|00528|02:00.0|01:53.6|239.2|25.1|154.6|158.0|10.5
03|00530|02:00.0|01:53.1|240.8|25.2|159.6|160.0|10.5
04|00508|02:00.0|01:58.0|223.6|27.9|158.5|161.0|09.1
05|00500|02:00.0|02:00.0|216.1|25.4|157.7|160.0|09.8
06|00498|02:00.0|02:00.4|212.3|25.3|156.8|159.0|09.9
07|00517|02:00.0|01:56.1|225.3|24.5|160.1|162.0|10.5
08|00523|02:00.0|01:54.8|228.6|25.0|163.4|165.0|10.5
09|00523|02:00.0|01:54.7|232.7|25.3|166.4|168.0|10.3
10|00524|02:00.0|01:54.5|232.6|25.3|169.4|170.0|10.3
11|00525|02:00.0|01:54.2|234.6|25.4|171.3|172.0|10.3
12|00525|02:00.0|01:54.3|236.6|25.6|173.7|175.0|10.2
13|00527|02:00.0|01:53.8|235.4|26.0|174.9|175.0|10.2
14|00512|02:00.0|01:57.1|221.9|25.8|174.8|176.0|09.9
15|00538|02:00.0|01:51.6|253.3|26.9|175.8|179.0|10.0
16|02000|09:01.4|02:15.3|142.9|19.0|147.1|153.0|11.6

Saturday – 2/8 – 2 x 30’/2′ steady state

I was planning to do 90 minutes, but I felt really tired in the first 30 minute piece and very hungry for some reason. I decided to cut it back to 60 minutes and I’m glad I did.

First piece, I rowed at 20spm and targeted 180W. Second one 18spm and 170.

      Workout Summary - media/20200208-2311280o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14581|01:04:00.0|02:11.7|168.2|18.4|134.5|145.0|12.4
W-|14369|00:60:00.0|02:05.3|177.9|19.1|134.8|145.0|12.6
R-|00214|00:04:00.0|09:21.7|021.6|07.0|129.5|145.0|06.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07238|30:00.0|02:04.3|181.6|20.0|129.8|141.0|12.1
01|07131|30:00.0|02:06.2|174.3|18.2|139.8|145.0|13.1

So, a pretty lackluster week. But a lot of volume. I’ve done 10 days straight, including over 50km over two days last weekend. I’m going to keep rowing through Wed of next week when I take a quick trip to San Jose, and will need to miss 2 training days.

1/26 – 2/2: Just another week

February 3, 2020Leave a comment

Missed 2 days to travel, but otherwise a good week.

Sunday – 1/26 – 4 x 30’/2′ Steady State:

Long and slow. Listening to the audio book version of Ron Chernow’s “Grant”. It’s 48 hours long, roughly 672km of steady state rowing so I guess I’m good for a while. Nice low HR, so I pushed the power up a bit in the last 30 minutes.

       Workout Summary - media/20200126-1841460o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|30000|02:08:00.0|02:08.0|172.1|19.3|140.0|154.0|12.1
W-|28759|02:00:00.0|02:05.2|178.7|19.3|140.7|154.0|12.4
R-|01245|00:08:00.0|03:12.8|072.6|19.3|130.6|154.0|08.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07150|30:00.0|02:05.9|175.5|19.2|133.3|141.0|12.4
01|07158|30:00.0|02:05.7|176.2|19.1|139.4|145.0|12.5
02|07170|30:00.0|02:05.5|177.4|19.0|141.3|147.0|12.6
03|07281|30:00.0|02:03.6|185.8|20.1|148.7|154.0|12.1

I’m very impressed with Boatcoach. No problems and I like the force curve thing. This is my force curve for steady state on slides.

Monday – 1/27 – Pyramid:

I had not successfully completed a pyramid workout since I started this workout plan in December. I picked what I thought was a reasonable target of 1:44. I was running short of time, so I did a short 2K warmup. I held on to 1:43 through the first 3 reps. I let myself drift up toward 1:44 in the 1000, and then really killed myself in each of the last three reps. One thing about this workout, the rests are so long, you can come back from going really hard to do it again in the next rep.

Tuesday – 1/28 – 3×20’/2′ L4

Flew out to San Diego on a 7:00 am departure. Had an afternoon of meetings, and then a customer dinner.

Wednesday – 1/29 – No training

Up at 5:00am to catch my return flight. Got home around 6pm.

Thursday – 1/30 – 3×20’/2′ L4

Back at it.

Friday – 1/31 – 10K Threshold

I was conflicted about doing this workout. I was worried about the effect of 2 missed sessions, but I figured it was good to just keep plugging, Besides, I didn’t have enough time for a long steady state session, might was well go hard.

I did a 2K warmup. Then I set off. Last 10K I had done was at 1:54.9 (on slides). I thought I might be able to pull off a target of 1:54. On another day, I think I might have. I made it just about 30 minutes and I had a breakdown. I paddled for about 15 seconds and then picked it back up. Slow at first, and then back on pace. I ended with a 1:54.8 pace, but i was disappointed that I wasn’t able to just slow down a little bit and work through the tough bit instead of blowing up,

Saturday – 3×30’/2′ – Steady State

More steady state, more Ulysses Grant.

        Workout Summary - media/20200201-1921280o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|22368|01:36:01.9|02:08.8|167.7|19.1|143.6|155.0|12.2
W-|21471|01:30:00.0|02:05.8|174.9|19.1|144.3|154.0|12.5
R-|00899|00:06:01.9|03:21.3|059.3|18.9|133.7|154.0|08.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07175|30:00.0|02:05.4|176.2|19.6|137.7|148.0|12.2
01|07154|30:00.0|02:05.8|174.9|19.4|146.4|153.0|12.3
02|07142|30:00.0|02:06.0|173.8|18.4|148.7|154.0|12.9

Sunday – 2/2 – 4×30′ / 2′ Steady State

      Workout Summary - media/20200202-1926410o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|29378|02:08:00.0|02:10.7|164.3|18.1|142.3|153.0|12.7
W-|28478|02:00:00.0|02:06.4|172.7|18.3|143.1|153.0|13.0
R-|00904|00:08:00.0|04:25.4|037.6|15.5|130.9|153.0|07.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07115|30:00.0|02:06.5|172.2|18.1|136.3|145.0|13.1
01|07114|30:00.0|02:06.5|172.1|18.3|144.1|148.0|13.0
02|07123|30:00.0|02:06.4|173.2|18.3|145.0|150.0|13.0
03|07125|30:00.0|02:06.3|173.4|18.3|147.0|153.0|13.0

1/12/20 – 1/25/20 –> Work wins!

January 26, 2020January 26, 20201 Comment

Well, I’ve lost a bit of momentum. The past couple of weeks, I’ve been focused pretty intently on work.

Here’s the damage

I’ve missed 3 training days in the past 8, and two of my workouts were less than stellar fitness center cross training sessions.

Sunday – 1/12/2020 – 4 x 30’/2′ Steady State

Glorious long steady state row on slides, listening to a good audio book.

       Workout Summary - media/20200112-1951170o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|29536|02:07:59.9|02:10.0|167.4|18.4|139.6|154.0|12.6
W-|28579|01:59:50.8|02:05.8|176.0|18.3|140.3|153.0|13.0
R-|00960|00:08:00.0|04:10.0|041.2|19.5|129.9|153.0|09.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07126|29:50.8|02:05.7|176.2|18.3|132.4|143.0|13.0
01|07147|30:00.0|02:05.9|175.5|18.3|138.2|144.0|13.0
02|07149|30:00.0|02:05.9|175.8|18.3|142.6|151.0|13.0
03|07156|30:00.0|02:05.8|176.5|18.3|147.9|153.0|13.1

Monday – 1/13/2020 – 4×1000/5′ L1

At workout. On a static erg. Feeling pretty good. Target pace 1:45.

Started with a quick warm up.

That was a bit over exuberant, so I paddled a 1000m

No avoiding it any longer.

Wow! That was great.

I am getting more comfortable at stroke rates around 30.

Tuesday – 1/14/2020 – 2×30’/2′ L4

Wednesday – 1/15/2020 – 5×1500/5′ L2

Pressed for time so I did the first 1500 as a warmup. My target was 1:48.

Leave off the warmup and that’s a 1:47.7 pace vs my 1:48 target. Tough work, but a big success.

Thursday – 1/16/2020 – No Training

Big day for quarterly business reviews. They started at 8am and I felt like should spend time prepping for the meetings.

Friday – 1/17/2020 – 15 x 3’/1′ L3

This is a very intense workout. Pretty grumpy that Painsled hung up on me. My target was 800m per interval, which I think is about a 1:52.5 pace.

Here’s the hear rate data from my apple watch (hooray for redundancy!)

And here are the old school monitor shots.

Actual: 1:50.7, and nearly a complete negative split. I certainly layed out a really strong last rep.

Saturday – 1/18/2020 – Ergsana

I went out to Worcester to row with my friends. There were two parts to the workout. First was an erg session, then about an hour of yoga. I have never done yoga before in my life and this was the seventh of eight sessions. I was definitely the slow learner of the session.

But the erg session was fun. I have never done any of the games that are built into the concept2 PM5. It was very fun doing them as a group because for each game you could compete both on points, and on other things like distance covered.

First up was the fish game. As far as I could tell, this game rewarded what I will charitably call unconventional technique. You needed to make constant adjustments to stroke rate and stroke power to eat little fishes and avoid big fishes. But, it definitely rewarded pushing yourself because the harder you go, the more of the screen you can cover to eat them fishies.

Each fish game is 4 minutes long and I found myself finishing each at about a 1:50 pace. Since there was a lot of speeding up and slowing down, this was more challenging that you might imagine. My scores ranged from 1170 to 1440. I pretty much stunk at the game play, but after 4 games, I was pretty bushed.

After that, we tried the darts game. This game was my jam. It rewarded consistency, and I have done an awful lot of steady state rowing. With the darts game, a “dart” comes on the screen at the left and at some point begins to drop down. You must judge the trajectory of the dart and decide when to pull and how hard. The drive sends the dart climbing and the rate of climb is rated to how hard you pull. If you get it right, the dart lands in the center of the dartboard and you get 50 points. A game is 300 darts, so a maximum of 15000 points.

You get 5 strokes to set a rhythm and I guess I was a bit amped up because I set out at a stroke rate of 24. But I was also in a groove. I was nailing the bullseye on most of my strokes. But I couldn’t ease up. If I did, then the darts started to go low. the game was incredibly reinforcing. I kept digging deeper and deeper, and finished with 1:52.2 average over 3225 meters. (13785 points in the game) I also finished with a heart rate of 182. Doing a 12 minute piece after the 4x4min was a pretty big ask.

Sunday – 1/19/2020 – No Training

I flew out to California in the afternoon and arrived quite late. I discovered there was a Furry Convention at my hotel.

Well, that was not what I expected!

Monday – 1/20/2020 – 2 x 30′ in the fitness center

30 minutes on the treadmill and 30 minutes on a recumbent stationary bike.

A cool thing is I discovered that the apple watch would link up magically to the exercise gear. There is a little note on the screen of the treadmill or bike that says “Connects to Apple Watch”, and you just put the watch close to the screen and a little bowtie symbol shows up.

After that, what ever the machine is recording shows up in the watch.

30 minutes at max incline on the treadmill at 3mph. Then rolling hills on the stationary bike.

I had meetings all day, and then a business dinner in the evening. Back at the hotel at a reasonable hour and right to bed.

Tuesday – 1/21/2020 – 9km run

I had a very important meeting in the morning and then a bunch of other meetings until mid afternoon. We headed back to our hotel, now entirely devoid of furries and I decided to go for a run.

I decided to follow Guadalupe Park, and discovered there are a LOT of homeless people in San Jose. There is so much wealth in silicon valley, but it has squeezed people on the margins out of their homes and into tents. Profoundly depressing.

It was also a lot of running for someone who doesn’t run. I was sore for days afterward.

After a shower, I headed to meet up with my work friends. We watched some basketball (and I drank a couple of beers), then we met some other work folks for an excellent greek dinner.

Another good night’s sleep.

Wednesday – 1/22/2020 – 2×30′ fitness center

Feeling quite sore and not quite motivated.

30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes on the bike. Both magically connected to the apple watch!

Short intervals on the elliptical, Rolling hills on the bike

Pretty tame.

Meetings during the day and a business dinner that night with the unit of our company in San Jose. They had a fantastic year, beating all targets and launching an important new product. This was the dinner to congratulate them.

Thursday – 1/23/2020 – No Training

Up at 5am to drive to the airport. Arrived in Boston around 5pm.

Friday – 1/24/2020 – 3×20’/2′ L4

At work in the fitness center. HR a little high.

Saturday – 1/25/2020 – More Darts games and Boatcoach!

After Painsled betrayed me for my 15×3 workout, I decided that I wanted to check out boatcoach. For rowing apps , there are three serious choices. Ergdata, which is cheap and reliable, but it does a terrible job handling interval based workouts. It doesn’t record the rest times reliably and that messes up analysis in rowsandall. Painsled is proving to be more and more annoying because of dropped strokes and workout hangups. And then there is boatcoach. Every one that uses boatcoach raves about it. The only problem is that it runs only on Android, and until today, I was an iOS only kinda guy. I broke down and bought a small Android Tablet. A Samsung Tab (Model A).

I went and downloaded boatcoach. That was easy. Then I tried to get it hooked up to the erg. This required a bit of fumbling around, but eventually I mastered that. Then I took my inaugural row. A “Just Row” of 501 meters.

That out of the way, I was thinking that the darts game would be an excellent way to pass the time for steady state workouts. 300 strokes at 20spm would be a 15 minute piece and the game definitely rewarded good steady rowing. So, I set it up and off I went. My goal was 14000 points, and to keep my HR below 150. I had time for 4 games.

       Workout Summary - media/20200125-2122030o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15131|01:04:40.2|02:08.2|182.3|19.6|139.4|152.0|12.0
W-|15131|01:04:40.4|02:08.2|182.3|19.6|139.4|152.0|11.9
R-|00000|00:00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|152.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03739|15:01.2|02:00.5|201.0|20.3|137.2|152.0|12.2
01|00211|01:37.5|03:51.0|091.7|11.8|131.8|151.0|11.0 - abort!
02|03724|15:25.7|02:04.3|187.5|19.8|143.2|149.0|12.2
03|00281|02:36.3|04:38.1|076.9|09.6|110.1|131.0|11.2 - abort!
04|03634|15:05.6|02:04.6|184.8|20.3|141.7|147.0|11.9
05|03542|14:54.1|02:06.2|183.8|20.4|141.1|149.0|11.6

I got worse at the game each time! First time, I score 14485, 515 away from a perfect score. The second try was close at 14335, but then I seemed to lose the hang of it at the start of the third and it took almost 10 strokes to get into a consistent groove. The same thing happened in the last game.

It was a fun and absolutely “in the zone” steady state workout.

Oh, and boatcoach worked perfectly! One cool feature of boatcoach and rowsandall. You can look at your force curves!

For a workout like this, it could be useful to look at how tight you can get the q25 to q75 band.

Tomorrow – I think I will do a long, slow steady state session.

12/30/2019 to 1/12/2020

January 12, 2020January 12, 2020Leave a comment

Another couple of weeks have gone by and I’ve done some good training. I’m back in the groove, with no business travel and limited crises at work. It’s been good.

Monday – 12/30 – 4×2000/5′

I had spent the christmas vacation just rebuilding my aerobic base with lots of base work. I wanted to ease into doing the hard stuff. So, even though this was a hard session, I rate limited it to try to make it a bit more doable. It didn’t work, I still blew up in the last rep.

I started with a 2k warmup at 2:00 pace, then the main session.

Note: this session is on slides. I think you’ll see a trend develop.

Tueaday – 12/31 – 3 x 20’/2′ L4

On the cape, on slides. Nothing to report.

Wednesday – 1/1/2020 – 3 x 20’/2′ L4

A little hungover, but not a bad session. Session done at home after we returned from the cape.

Thursday – 1/2 – 10K push – L3

Back at work! Again, trying to ease into the harder stuff. Change 10K hard into a 10K push, starting at 2:05 and ending at 1:56.

First a 2k warmup.

Then…

       Workout Summary - media/20200102-1336170o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|00:39:44.3|01:59.2|206.8|22.8|151.4|177.0|11.1
W-|10000|00:39:44.9|01:59.2|206.8|22.8|151.4|177.0|11.1
R-|00000|00:00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|177.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|04:07.8|02:03.9|181.8|20.5|122.3|134.0|11.8 - 5
01|01000|04:06.6|02:03.3|187.0|21.4|138.5|142.0|11.4 - 4
02|01000|04:04.9|02:02.5|190.4|21.7|144.3|146.0|11.3 - 3
03|01000|04:02.7|02:01.3|195.8|22.1|147.5|149.0|11.2 - 2
04|01000|04:00.8|02:00.4|200.5|22.4|150.5|152.0|11.1 - 1
05|01000|03:58.2|01:59.1|207.0|23.0|154.2|156.0|10.9 - 0
06|01000|03:56.6|01:58.3|211.4|23.2|157.5|160.0|11.0 - 9
07|01000|03:54.2|01:57.1|218.0|23.8|162.5|166.0|10.8 - 8
08|01000|03:51.0|01:55.5|226.8|24.3|167.2|171.0|10.7 - 7
09|01000|03:42.2|01:51.1|255.6|25.9|173.5|177.0|10.4 - 6

That went well. Next push starts at 2:04.

Friday – 1/3 – 3×20’/2′ L4

Tired, high HR for this one.

Saturday – 1/4 – Rest day

first rest day in 14 days, although I stopped one workout after 30 minutes.

Sunday – 1/5 – 3 x 30/2′ steady state

And I had a problem with painsled so the data did not get captured. Steady state at 18 spm and ~170W.

Monday – 1/6 – 8 x 500 / 3’30” L1

At work, static erg.

2k warmup with lots of little bursts

Then… Target of 1:44. Actual 1:42. <– pretty happy about that

Tuesday – 1/7 – 2 x 30’/2′ steady state

Not in the mood for L4s right now. On a static erg, I can just about hold 180W at 18 spm.

       Workout Summary - media/20200107-1351170o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15018|01:04:00.0|02:07.8|172.0|18.1|141.0|156.0|12.9
W-|14389|00:60:00.0|02:05.1|178.7|18.4|141.3|156.0|13.1
R-|00631|00:04:00.0|03:10.3|071.3|14.7|135.8|156.0|10.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07179|30:00.0|02:05.4|177.4|18.3|135.1|146.0|13.1
01|07210|30:00.0|02:04.8|180.1|18.4|147.6|156.0|13.0

Wednesday – 1/8 – 3×30’/2′ steady state

I’m into a good audio book right now, so the steady state rows are fun and easy. I had extra time on Wed morning so I tacked on an extra 30 minutes. Right about 176W.

       Workout Summary - media/20200108-1406210o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|22239|01:36:00.0|02:09.5|168.5|17.7|140.8|153.0|13.1
W-|21473|01:30:00.0|02:05.7|176.2|18.0|141.2|153.0|13.3
R-|00770|00:06:00.0|03:53.9|052.2|12.7|136.2|153.0|12.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07164|30:00.0|02:05.6|176.2|17.9|133.5|142.0|13.4
01|07156|30:00.0|02:05.8|176.2|18.0|142.9|151.0|13.3
02|07153|30:00.0|02:05.8|176.2|18.1|147.0|153.0|13.1

Thursday – 1/9 – Waterfall L2

Warmup

Then the main session. I was really worried about this session because the 4×2000 was so bad. But I decided to just go for it. I set a aggressive target of 1:51, which was about what I had done back a few weeks ago. I smashed it!

Incredibly gratifying. So, this one was on a static erg.

Friday – 1/10 – 2 x 30′ / 2′ steady state

Saturday – 1/11 – Hard 5K

Start with a 20′ fletcher warmup.

The warmup was unexpectedly hard. It didn’t bode well for the 5K. Since I had gotten the 1:49.4 for the waterfall, I thought that a 1:51 would be in reach for the 5K. That dream lasted 1K. I reset my sights on 1:52. That lasted to about 2500m, when I reset for 1:54. I kind of lost it around 3750m, but brought myself back in focus to just try to finish the piece out. I suspect if I had set out at 1:53, I would have been able to accelerate in the second half and done better.

So the interesting thing to me is the big difference in performance between the waterfall workout and this one. Here are the differences.

waterfall	5K
Static	Slides
Morning	Afternoon
2k warmup	5k warmup
3 days after rest	5 days after rest day
room 20C	room 18C

Looking at it, it seems like the biggest differences are static versus slides and length of warmup.

So, I looked at the previous time when I did the waterfall workout, and discovered it was on slides. Here’s the plot. (ignore the HR in the second rep, the sensor went screwy)

And here’s a direct comparison. The first one on 11/25, was done when I was in better shape as measured by the Strava fitness and freshness metric.

So, I think that I am about 11W more efficient on a static erg than I am on slides. In pace terms. 1:51.0 on slides vs 1:49.4 on static. If I can figure out why this is, and how to fix it, I might be able to go faster in a boat.

Tough December.

December 30, 2019December 30, 2019Leave a comment

At the end of November, Strava told me that I was in the best shape I had been for 2 years. In January of 2018, I reached a 99. On 12/1/2019, I peaked at 95.

Then came December

September: 28 training hours
October: 29 training hours
November: 31 Training hours
December: 20 Training hours, and 10 of those hours are in the past 10 days. 7.5 hours between 12/2 and 12/20.

What happened? Well, I needed to prioritize work over training.

Week of 12/2: trip to Taiwan. I struggled with a packed schedule and jet lag going in both directions. I had a couple of lackluster workouts while I was there, but missed 2 days around each end of the trip.

Week of 12/9: Full day offsite management meeting with dinner on Tuesday. Then 2 day conference on wed and thursday.

Week of 12/16: Early morning meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. Quick trip to California on Thursday, with a return on Friday.

Since then, I’ve been on vacation and trying to just do mostly steady state work.

When this happens, all I can do is to take stock and figure out where to go from here.

I think when I get back to work, I will do a set of fitness tests to get a baseline and then resume the wolverine plan variant that I was using.

Monday – 12/2: no training – flying to Taiwan

Tuesday – 12/3: no training – arrived in Taiwan late evening

Wednesday – 12/4: 40 minute steady state row. Felt very sluggish. Didn’t like the erg. shock cord tension was very low and it felt mushy. Not sure why.

Thursday – 12/5: No training – conference calls

Friday – 12/6: 3×20′ on the crappy erg.

Saturday – 12/7: No Training

I got in around midnight and home around 1:30AM. I slept late the next morning and felt terrible all day long.

Sunday – 12/8: 3 x 30’/2′ L4

Long and easy.

Monday – 12/9: 4 x 1000/5′

Back at it! Start with a fletcher warmup. It was a rude shock to the system.

Then the fun part. I wanted to hit 1:45 for all the reps, but I had a bit of a breakdown in the third interval. I backed off on the fourth.

Bummer

Tuesday – 12/10: No Training

Management Offiste meeting

Wednesday – 12/11: No Training

I was catching up on email and really got into a creative groove. I wrote two articles for our internal corporate blog. I looked up and discovered that I had just enough time to shower before my first meeting of the day.

Mid day, I went in to the Massachusetts Conference for Women. My company is a sponsor of the event and we send about 90 people. It was the first time I attended and it’s an impressive conference with a great line up of speakers.

Thursday – 12/12: No Training

Back to Boston for the rest of the conference.

Friday – 12/13: 3×20’/2′ L4

Just a nice steady state L4 session.

That evening, we went down to the cape and I sleep like a deadman. It was such a great night’s sleep that I have thought of it fondly ever since.

Saturday – 12/14: 3×30’/2′ L4

Down on the cape.

Sunday – 12/15: Half Marathon L3

Target power 190W. Lost a bit of steam around the 60 minute mark. I was tired.

Monday – 12/16: No Training

No idea why.

Tuesday – 12/17: 60 minute L4

I had a 7:30 meeting, so I ended up sneaking down to the gym before lunch.

Wednesday – 12/18: No Training

8am meeting and no chance to train during the day. We had a corporate holiday party Wednesday night.

Thursday – 12/19: No Training

Woke up at 3:45 to catch a 6:10AM flight to California. Had a couple of customer meetings, including a nice dinner.

Friday – 12/20: No Training

Woke up at 5AM so I could get to the airport in time to join a 6AM conference call. Flew home, arrived around 7pm.

Saturday – 12/21: 3×30’/2′ L4

Feeling the decline in fitness.

Sunday: 12/22 – 4 x 20′ / 2′ L4

Still a struggle.

Monday – 12/ 23: 60′ L3

This was brutal. I really thought I could hold a 1:58. Turns out I couldn’t.

Tuesday – 12/24: 3×20’/2′ L4

My mind is really on christmas, but I am enjoying the audio book I’m listening to. So, I’m just piling up steady state meters.

Wednesday – 12/25: 3×20’/2′ L4

Merry Christmas! I went and rowed while dinner was cooking. Same session, worse heart rate. I suspect that this is from the 2 beers on Christmas Eve.

Thursday – 12/26: 3×20/2′ L4

Same again. Even worse. Starting to wonder if I’m coming down with something.

Friday – 12/27: 30 minute aborted session

I was planning a 3×30 L4, but I felt tired and listless and bored, so I quit after 30 minutes.

Saturday – 12/28: 16 x 250 / 2′ L1

Time to shake things up. A bit of sprinting. And a session with no prior precedent so no chance to fail against inflated expectations.

Start with the obligatory fletcher warmup.

Then the fun part. Doing this on slides was very interesting. I allowed the flywheel to stop for each of the reps to do a standing start. And I worked on trying to take a few strokes to get to full. It was good to work on keeping my layback minimized and keeping the rate high and stroke light. Some of the reps, I slowed down a fair amount after the first ten strokes. Buy the end, I was spent!

Sunday – 12/29: 4×20’/2′ L4

Very sedate today. HR was quite high.

Tomorrow, we head off to the cape for our new year’s extravaganza! Hopefully, I can squeeze in an L2 session in the afternoon.

Good progress

November 30, 2019November 30, 2019Leave a comment

Tuesday – Nov 26 – 2 x 40′ / 2′ Steady State

Felt tired. At work in the fitness center. Needed to slow it down in the second 40 minutes.

       Workout Summary - media/20191126-1350330o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19217|01:24:00.0|02:11.1|165.6|19.5|144.7|154.0|11.7
W-|18973|01:20:00.0|02:06.5|172.9|20.2|144.9|154.0|11.8
R-|00246|00:04:00.0|08:07.8|018.1|06.3|140.7|154.0|16.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|09552|40:00.0|02:05.6|176.5|19.9|140.5|150.0|12.0
01|09421|40:00.0|02:07.4|169.4|20.4|149.4|154.0|11.5

Wednesday – Nov 27 – Waterfall

At home on slides.

Started with a 2k warmup. Got a little carried away.

So I did a 1K buffer to kind of get settled down.

Last time I did this workout, I managed a 1:53.6. So the target this time was 1:53.

I blew it away.

That’s a good improvement. I’ll be happy when this is back below 1:50

Thursday – Nov 28 – 60′ L4

At home on slide before we headed up to Vermont of Thanksgiving.

That felt kind of hard!

Friday- Nov 29 – 10K threshold

Did this late in the day, around 7 pm.

2k warmup

Last time my pace was 1:57.2, so I wanted to target 1:56. I thought I might be able to go a little harder, so I tried to keep 1:55 on the screen. About halfway through, I started to push it a bit more. HR was remarkably low, but it felt really hard.

Then a 2k happy ending cool down.

Comparing this row to my 10K row on November 2, there is really good improvement.

Lower ending hr and slower HR rise over the piece
16W higher power
slightly higher stroke rate

This is my highest ranking this season at the 92nd percentile.

Today, a steady state session.

Shanghai Diversion

November 24, 2019November 24, 2019Leave a comment

Monday – Nov 18 – No Training

Flew to Shanghai via Montreal, arrived Tuesday evening

Tuesday – Nov 19 – No Training

Got to my hotel around 6:30 pm. I was asleep by 7:00.

Wednesday – Nov 20 – 3 x 30′ Fitness Center

Slept hard until 1:30 in the morning when I popped awake. After trying to get back to sleep for a while, I gave up and did some email and other work. I headed to the gym around 5:30. I had a lot of time on my hands, so I did 30′ treadmill (15% grade, 3mph), 30′ stationary bike, 30′ elliptical.

I had a bunch of meetings during the day and a customer dinner that night. I learned all about Moutai, a chinese spirit made from Sorghum. At 53% alcohol, it packs quite a kick.

Shanghai Thursday – Nov 20 – 2 x 30′ Fitness Center

I woke up with my alarm at 5:30 and after checking email, I headed back to the fitness center. 30′ treadmill (varying grade, 5 mph), 30′ bike. I started a third 30′ piece, but decided I had had enough for the day and quit about 5 minutes in.

I headed to the airport to catch a 12:35 departure. This flight was awesome. A Boeing 787 direct from Shanghai to Boston. Just under 15 hours and no connections. It was fantastic. I arrived at 1:30pm on Thursday.

Hopkinton Thursday – Nov 21 – 2 x 30′ / 2′

Not a typo. Because of the flight back, I had an extra long Thursday and a window to do another workout. This on on slides in my basement, Steady state at 175W. Heart Rate a bit elevated, probably because of the long flight.

        Workout Summary - media/20191121-2111150o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14478|01:02:10.2|02:08.8|169.7|19.8|144.9|155.0|11.7
W-|14239|00:59:55.1|02:06.2|175.0|19.8|145.4|155.0|12.0
R-|00242|00:31:37.8|65:29.2|042.6|21.2|153.6|155.0|00.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07155|29:45.0|02:04.7|176.6|19.7|140.3|153.0|12.2
01|07084|30:10.1|02:07.8|173.4|19.8|150.4|155.0|11.8

Friday – Nov 22 – 15 x 3′ / 1′

At work in the fitness center on a static erg. Because of the 6K that I did at 1:51.7, I decided that I could use 1:51 as a target for this workout. And then I pushed faster than that for the first few reps and totally burned myself out. I massively struggled through the rest of the workout. So, 6 good ones, then a HD in the 7th, a good 8th, more trouble in the ninth, a couple good ones, then trouble in 12th, two more good ones and the last was a shambles. Best to forget all about this one.

I think next time, I use a target of 1:54 or so.

Saturday – Nov 23 – 2 x 40’/2′ L4

There has been a thread going on Facebook about the Wolverine Plan, so I was inspired to go back to one of my favorite L4 workouts. Back in the good old days, I would do this on a static erg with the watts target equal to the SPM x 10 (r16 = 160W, r18 = 180W). On slides, I move the stroke rate up by 2, so r18 = 160W, r20 = 180W.

        Workout Summary - media/20191123-2201170o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19709|01:24:00.2|02:07.9|171.1|19.6|136.9|158.0|12.0
W-|19090|01:20:00.0|02:05.7|176.2|19.4|136.9|157.0|12.3
R-|00635|00:04:00.6|03:09.6|069.1|23.9|137.1|157.0|07.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00472|02:00.0|02:07.1|164.3|18.1|095.2|117.0|13.1
01|00482|02:00.0|02:04.6|180.8|19.9|121.8|124.0|12.1
02|00464|02:00.0|02:09.4|161.9|18.4|123.7|126.0|12.6
03|00482|02:00.0|02:04.4|178.0|19.1|127.2|129.0|12.6
04|00466|02:00.0|02:08.7|166.6|17.7|127.9|131.0|13.2
05|00482|02:00.0|02:04.5|180.6|19.9|129.5|134.0|12.1
06|00466|02:00.0|02:08.9|164.2|18.3|130.7|134.0|12.7
07|00483|02:00.0|02:04.2|182.2|19.8|131.7|134.0|12.2
08|00437|01:52.1|02:08.4|165.6|18.1|131.9|133.0|12.9
09|00514|02:07.9|02:04.4|182.4|19.9|133.3|136.0|12.1
10|00466|02:00.0|02:08.6|164.7|18.1|132.8|135.0|12.9
11|00483|02:00.0|02:04.2|182.1|19.9|133.8|135.0|12.1
12|00499|02:00.0|02:00.2|201.3|22.0|139.4|142.0|11.3
13|00483|02:00.0|02:04.3|179.5|20.0|140.4|142.0|12.1
14|00465|02:00.0|02:09.1|163.6|18.2|136.5|138.0|12.8
15|00925|04:00.0|02:09.7|160.6|18.0|132.6|135.0|12.8
16|00724|03:00.0|02:04.4|181.4|20.1|135.1|144.0|12.0
17|00501|02:00.0|01:59.7|206.5|21.2|143.0|145.0|11.8
18|00258|01:00.0|01:56.3|223.4|23.8|148.3|150.0|10.9
19|00464|02:00.0|02:09.2|160.9|17.8|125.2|132.0|13.0
20|00483|02:00.0|02:04.3|181.6|19.9|135.3|138.0|12.1
21|00466|02:00.0|02:08.7|164.5|18.5|139.4|141.0|12.6
22|00482|02:00.0|02:04.5|180.8|20.0|139.5|143.0|12.0
23|00464|02:00.0|02:09.3|163.4|18.3|140.8|143.0|12.7
24|00483|02:00.0|02:04.2|182.3|20.0|140.6|144.0|12.1
25|00464|02:00.0|02:09.3|163.4|18.2|141.8|144.0|12.8
26|00312|01:17.3|02:04.0|183.0|20.4|140.7|144.0|11.8
27|00634|02:42.7|02:08.2|163.7|18.4|143.6|146.0|12.7
28|00481|02:00.0|02:04.7|180.5|20.1|143.0|145.0|12.0
29|00463|02:00.0|02:09.5|161.3|18.1|141.4|145.0|12.8
30|00344|01:25.5|02:04.3|181.4|20.1|142.4|145.0|12.0
31|00637|02:34.5|02:01.2|195.7|21.7|147.8|152.0|11.4
32|00389|01:36.7|02:04.3|182.6|20.0|149.5|152.0|12.1
33|00558|02:23.3|02:08.4|165.4|18.7|146.3|150.0|12.5
34|00928|04:00.0|02:09.3|161.4|18.1|142.6|144.0|12.8
35|00726|03:00.0|02:03.9|183.5|20.1|146.7|150.0|12.0
36|00501|02:00.0|01:59.7|203.3|22.1|150.9|154.0|11.4
37|00258|01:00.0|01:56.5|222.2|23.9|155.9|157.0|10.8

Not quite flat on the work per stroke.

Today: Planning to do a long and slow 3×30.

Erg Based Training is so simple!

November 17, 2019Leave a comment

I last posted on November 11th, right after I struggled with the Pyramid workout. Since then, I’ve had some OK workouts, some good workouts, but the main thing I’ve had is consistency. I been able to follow my plan at just about 100% conformance for the past three weeks.

Just in time for three weeks of travel and holidays! Let’s see how well I can maintain momentum through this.

Tuesday – November 12 – 4 x 20′ / 2′

At work, static erg. Nothing fancy. Just doing the meters. Working with a HR cap of 150.

       Workout Summary - media/20191112-1401180o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20011|01:27:59.9|02:11.9|160.6|19.7|137.7|150.0|11.6
W-|18981|01:19:52.4|02:06.2|173.5|20.2|139.1|150.0|11.8
R-|01034|00:08:00.0|03:52.1|033.7|14.6|124.7|150.0|11.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04773|20:00.0|02:05.7|174.0|19.9|129.7|138.0|12.0
01|04742|20:00.0|02:06.5|173.2|20.2|138.6|146.0|11.7
02|04747|20:00.0|02:06.4|173.2|20.2|143.4|149.0|11.8
03|04719|19:52.4|02:06.4|173.5|20.5|144.6|150.0|11.6

Good session.

Wednesday – 13 November – 5 x 1500/5′ L2

Always my favorite of the L2 workouts. Pace target was 1:51.0.

Started with a 2k warmup.

Then the main session. I chickened out about the 1:51 target and decided 1:52 would be better.

        Workout Summary - media/20191113-1341120o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10974|00:52:45.7|02:24.2|157.6|22.0|143.0|176.0|09.5
W-|07500|00:27:44.4|01:51.0|256.1|26.7|155.5|176.0|10.1
R-|03476|00:25:01.6|03:36.0|048.4|16.7|129.1|176.0|08.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01500|05:32.4|01:50.8|254.4|26.2|149.6|164.0|10.3
01|01500|05:35.5|01:51.8|253.5|26.6|154.6|167.0|10.1
02|01500|05:33.3|01:51.1|254.4|26.9|156.5|170.0|10.0
03|01500|05:33.1|01:51.0|255.9|26.9|158.1|172.0|10.1
04|01500|05:30.1|01:50.0|262.7|27.2|158.7|176.0|10.0

As it turned out, with a bit of a fast last, I was able to make the target after all.

Later Wednesday morning, I headed down to Washington DC to do a presentation at a conference.

Thursday – 14 November – steady state cross training in Washington

30′ inclined walk

10′ stationary bike (I was not enjoying it)

20′ on an ellipitcal

Friday – 15 November – 3 x 20′ / 1′

I was pressed for time, so I cut back from an 80 minuter session to 60′. I pushed the power target up a bit, mainly just to see what would happen. I was very happy with the result. My HR was higher, but plateaued pretty well.

        Workout Summary - media/20191115-1331160o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14840|01:03:00.4|02:07.4|175.2|19.9|142.0|157.0|11.8
W-|14481|00:60:00.0|02:04.3|182.0|20.0|141.9|157.0|12.0
R-|00363|00:03:00.5|04:08.7|038.8|17.5|143.6|157.0|07.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04829|20:00.0|02:04.2|181.7|20.1|131.1|144.0|12.0
01|04825|20:00.0|02:04.3|182.1|20.0|144.0|150.0|12.0
02|04826|20:00.0|02:04.3|182.2|20.0|150.5|157.0|12.1

That was really gratifying. I feel like my base fitness is starting to return.

Saturday – 16 November – 6K Threshold

I was nervous about this session all day. I was originally going to do it with company at the lake with some clubmates, but we ended up locked out of the storeroom where the ergs are kept. So I was able to procrastinate a bit longer. I finally got up the nerve to go do it. First, a 2K warmup.

Then there wasn’t anything else to do but to give it a try. I had put my 10K and my 30 minute sessions into the Free Spirits pace predictor and it spit out a 1:51.4 target. Holy hell, that felt fast. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. So, off I went trying to keep 1:51’s on the screen. That worked out OK through the first 2000, but I was starting to really feel it. My HR was well in control, but I had that vaguely drowning feeling you get when you’re on the edge. I played with pace and rate a bit to see if anything felt better and counted out blocks of 100 strokes. The section from 4000 to 5000 was the worst. I managed to get some control of myself by really trying to concentrate on stroke technique. Keeping my knees down during the first part of the recovery and limiting my layback. Then into the last 100 strokes, and it was just a matter of getting through it. I managed a small sprint in the last 500 meters.

Then a happy ending cool down.

I am very happy with that. I ranked it and for it’s currently 38th for the 50-59 heavies. Roughly the 90th percentile. It’s a full minute off my best 6K time, so lots of room for improvement, but a good hard row.

Sunday – 17 November – 3 x 30’/2′

Long and easy. Perfect for a sunday afternoon.

        Workout Summary - media/20191117-1926120o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|22004|01:36:00.0|02:10.9|167.2|19.8|136.9|147.0|11.6
W-|21455|01:30:00.0|02:05.8|175.3|19.9|137.9|147.0|12.0
R-|00553|00:06:00.0|05:25.7|046.4|18.1|121.5|147.0|08.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07137|30:00.0|02:06.1|173.3|19.5|134.3|141.0|12.2
01|07135|30:00.0|02:06.1|174.9|20.0|138.7|144.0|11.9
02|07183|30:00.0|02:05.3|177.8|20.3|140.7|147.0|11.8

I wanted to stay below a HR cap of 150, and started with a power target of 173W. I nudged it up in each 30′ segment by a couple of watts. More signs of progress.

Tomorrow: I fly out to Shanghai at 9am.

So far so good

November 10, 2019Leave a comment

Tuesday – Nov 5 – 3 x 20′ / 1′

In the fitness center at work, static erg. b A bit short on time because I had to get to some offsite training by 8:15am. Original plan was 4×20, I had to shorten it to 3×20.

Started at 165W and increased as I went along.

Wednesday – November 6 – 4 x 2000/5′

This is an intimidating session. I had a reasonably good idea for the pace target because of the waterfall from last week: 1:53.0

The first rep was a warmup. The average pace for the 4 work reps was 1:51.6. The first two were no problem, the third was tough and I was struggling to hold pace in the last one after the first 500m of it. I’m really happy to complete it cleanly. 1:51.5 target for the first 3 next time, with hopefully a faster last.

Thursday – 7 November – rest day

I wasn’t planning a rest day, but when I got to work I wanted to work on requirement definition for the “secret new feature” on rowsandall.com. And then I discovered that I had a 8 am meeting. So, there wasn’t enough time for a row.

Friday – 8 November – 3 x 20’/1′

Another day with early meetings, but I went right to the gym and got to work. Today, I started at 170W and pushed it a bit while trying to keep my HR below 145 through the first 40 minutes. I loosened the cap in the last 20 minutes to 150.

Saturday – 9 November – Hard 30′

At home on slides. I was nervous about this session because of all the 10Ks that I bailed out on over the summer. But based on the 1:57.2 10K that I did last week, a reasonable target for this piece was 1:56. In my head, I really wanted to hold 1:55, but I was afraid that would be a stretch.

I started with a 2000m warmup.

Here’s the main piece. Looks pretty boring. It wasn’t. I was making very small adjustments to stroke rate to try to hold 1:55. And I counted strokes for each 1000m of the piece. The hardest bit was probably from 5000 to 6000m. Still pretty far from the end, but deep into the hole. When I got to 2 minutes left, I was sure I was going to make it and I rated up to try to get over 7850. I did…7855m. That’s a 1:54.5 pace. I have to shave 2 seconds off that to get back above 8K for 30 minutes. I think that’s doable.

        Workout Summary - media/20191109-2211370o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07856|00:30:00.0|01:54.6|232.8|25.8|165.5|179.0|10.1
W-|07860|00:30:00.0|01:54.5|232.8|25.8|165.5|179.0|10.2
R-|00000|00:00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|179.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01049|04:00.0|01:54.4|228.5|24.6|141.1|158.0|10.6
01|01044|04:00.0|01:54.9|230.3|25.1|160.5|162.0|10.4
02|01046|04:00.0|01:54.7|231.8|25.4|164.4|167.0|10.3
03|01044|04:00.0|01:54.9|230.6|25.6|167.4|168.0|10.2
04|01048|04:00.0|01:54.5|233.4|25.8|170.6|172.0|10.2
05|01043|04:00.0|01:55.1|229.9|26.0|172.9|174.0|10.0
06|01044|04:00.0|01:55.0|230.7|26.5|175.4|177.0|09.8
07|00542|02:00.0|01:50.8|261.7|29.6|178.2|179.0|09.2

Then a 2K happy ending cool down.

Tomorrow: Long row — 3 x 30’/2′

The next phase

November 3, 2019November 3, 20191 Comment

Sunday – October 26 – Slow roll

I felt like rowing on Sunday, so I headed into the basement to do an easy session. I wanted to long and slow, so I plugged in a HM and off I went.

Something went badly with Painsled, and it only recorded the first 400m of the row. But I didn’t know that at the time.

Monday – 28 October – 8 x 500/3:30

Not sure what to do for a training plan, but when in doubt I might as well just follow my own version of the Pete plan. So, time for a sprint session.

Started with a fletcher warmup

Then into the session. I aimed at 1:45 split.

Not bad.

Tuesday – 29 October – Fartek on Quinsig in a double

I saw that the weather forecast for Tuesday morning was looking pretty good. Misty, calm and warm. I met Joe at 5:30 and we headed out with no particular plan.

We warmed up headed down to the south end of the lake. Then started north. After we passed the islands, I told Joe that I was game for anything, and he suggested that we do a pyramid up to the bridge. Once we were there, we dropped into a 2k piece at a sub-threshold pace. On the way back to the dock, we were side by side with a women’s eight and we wanted to stay there, so we worked a bit harder than we would have.

All in all, a very pleasant morning.

Wednesday – October 30 – Waterfall

Target was a 1:55 pace.

The first 2000 was the warmup. I ended up an average pace of 1:53.6.

Hard but doable. I’m liking this.

Thursday – 31 October – 4 x 20’/2′

The plan was to row at 165W and that’s what I did. I think that’s my training power for now, until I earn the right to go faster.

This was interesting. My heart rate started nice and low, but it did not plateau the way it should. It just kept rising. I think that means that my aerobic base is not as good as it should be. Basically that my easy sessions have been too hard and I have not been building ability to metabolize fat. I need to be careful and limit intensity of my endurance sessions

       Workout Summary - media/20191031-1246090o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19386|01:28:00.0|02:16.2|152.1|17.5|133.4|150.0|12.6
W-|18668|01:20:00.0|02:08.6|164.9|17.9|134.2|150.0|13.0
R-|00723|00:08:00.0|05:31.8|024.1|12.9|125.4|150.0|16.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04637|20:00.0|02:09.4|161.3|17.9|123.2|133.0|13.0
01|04680|20:00.0|02:08.2|166.6|18.1|132.6|138.0|12.9
02|04679|20:00.0|02:08.2|166.3|17.9|137.4|145.0|13.0
03|04673|20:00.0|02:08.4|165.6|17.8|143.6|150.0|13.1

Friday – 1 November – No Training

Scheduled rest day

Saturday – 2 November – 10K threshold

On slides. Started with a 2k warmup.

Then into the 10K piece, target pace 1:58.

I’d say that was pretty consistent. I was reasonably comfortable through the first 30 minutes and it was pretty tough going from there to the end. I never felt in distress though.

        Workout Summary - media/20191102-1906560o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|00:39:03.0|01:57.2|216.0|24.7|162.0|180.0|10.4
W-|10000|00:39:03.5|01:57.2|216.0|24.7|162.0|180.0|10.4
R-|00000|00:00:00.0|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|03:49.6|01:54.8|215.0|24.0|134.8|148.0|10.9
01|01000|03:55.0|01:57.5|215.9|24.3|151.4|154.0|10.5
02|01000|03:55.3|01:57.7|215.1|24.1|155.5|158.0|10.6
03|01000|03:55.2|01:57.6|215.2|23.9|159.0|161.0|10.7
04|01000|03:54.8|01:57.4|216.1|24.6|162.4|165.0|10.4
05|01000|03:54.9|01:57.4|216.2|24.7|165.3|167.0|10.3
06|01000|03:55.7|01:57.8|214.1|24.6|167.8|171.0|10.4
07|01000|03:55.7|01:57.8|213.9|24.9|171.7|175.0|10.2
08|01000|03:56.0|01:58.0|213.1|25.2|174.1|175.0|10.1
09|01000|03:51.5|01:55.8|225.8|26.7|177.5|180.0|09.7

Look at those even splits. Nice.

Here’s a comparison of today’s row with the one that I did on 12 October.

3 more watts today
Slightly lower HR
half an spm higher rate (which is good)

So, I’m happy with that. A little bit of progress over the past month.

Tomorrow: 4 x 20 at 165W

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: L3