Tag: L4

Friday PM: L4 HM

Leave a comment

I picked up my boat on my way home from work to bring to the lake out in worcester tomorrow morning, and got home around 7:30.  I was on the erg by about 8.

Plan:

  • Half Marathon
  • L4 format (but using distance)
  • power:  10W * stroke rate
  • HR cap: 155 (again, not even close)
  • paddle the first 97 meters to get to an even 21000, then do it in 2500m blocks
  • First 2500m build up from 160W
  • After that, push it a bit more than yesterday
    • 750m at 180W
    • 750m at 190W
    • 750m at 200W
    • 250m at 210W
  • take a 250 paddle every 5000m with a quick drink.

myimage11-18d

Again, a terrifically low HR through the whole workout, even though it was 5W higher effort, and on top of that it was my second session today.  Wow, I love working out at night.

The HR shows a little bit more ut1 than yesterday and a fair amount more time in power at.

For fun, here is the HR comparison of yesterday and today’s sessions. (Thanks rowsandall.com!)

bokeh_plot-48

So, even with higher effort, HR is the same in the first half of the workout.  The HR in the third 5000m block was brought lower by a longer than intended rest to deal with my low battery problem on the phone, and I am basically in the same place in the last 5000m block.

By the way, I am back on painsled.  The bug I saw yesterday is caused by using the ANT+ and BT at the same time on the PM5.  Today, I used the BT connection for the HR and it was a lot happier.

Tomorrow:  It looks like there are 5 people signed up including me.  Maybe a couple of doubles and a single?  Weather forecast is pretty good for this time of year, 40F, clear and 5 mph wind.

 

 

Thursday: HM L4

2 Comments

Wednesday:  Flew down to Dallas.  No time for any training.  Big dinner with the customer.  About 20 of us at the restaurant.  Too much beer, wine, tequila and steak.

Thursday:  Early start.  We needed to be at the office at 7:30, so no time for a workout in the am.  On my way to the office, I had a blowout on a tire on my rental car.  It turned into the highlight of my day.  Changing a tire on  the car in my business suit while 10 of my coworkers looked on offering me suggestions and making sure I did it correctly.

After the meeting, I headed off to the airport for my return home.  I got to Boston around 7:45pm and I was home by 8:30. By this time I was really looking forward to a nice relaxing endurance session.  I saw Sander’s distance based L4 and decided to copy that to keep my mind busy during the row.  I also wanted to squeeze it into a half marathon so I could keep up with the Crazy Bear Challenge.

So the workout plan was:

  • Set up for a HM (21097m)
  • paddle the first 97 meters to get to a even number
  • row the rest 4 x ( 5000m work and 250m paddle)
  • In each 5000m work section do 2 sets of
    • 1000 at 18
    • 750 at 19
    • 500 at 20
    • 250 at 21
  • Power: 10W x stroke rate
  • HR cap: 155 (I never got near it)
  • first 2500 meters start slow (16 spm instead of 18)

It was quite a challenge to keep track of the right elapsed distances for each of the rate changes.  That and a good adventure audiobook keep me very occupied and the time flew by.  I love working out at night.  I swear I’m 10 watts better.

The glitch i the third interval was the low battery warning coming up on my phone and me running to get my charger!  Ruined the split for that segment too.

Workout Summary - media/20161118-034816-concept2-result-27821242o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|21000|87:40.0|02:05.2|185.4|19.0|136.6|148.0|12.6
W-|20000|82:06.0|02:03.2|190.4|18.9|137.1|147.0|12.9
R-|01097|05:54.0|02:41.6|111.0|21.0|127.8|147.0|12.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
02|02500|10:30.7|02:06.1|173.2|17.0|128.2|134.0|14.0
03|02500|10:08.7|02:01.7|192.4|18.9|137.3|145.0|13.0
04|02500|10:08.0|02:01.6|192.4|19.0|136.3|144.0|13.0
05|02500|10:07.8|02:01.6|193.5|19.1|141.0|147.0|12.9
06|02500|10:47.2|02:09.4|193.2|19.5|135.2|143.0|11.9
07|02500|10:08.6|02:01.7|192.7|19.1|140.1|146.0|12.9
08|02500|10:07.1|02:01.4|193.4|19.2|136.9|145.0|12.8
09|02500|10:08.5|02:01.7|192.7|19.1|142.0|147.0|12.9

Another annoyance was needing to use ergdata instead of painsled.  The most recent update of painsled seems to have broken it for me.

Tomorrow:  Strength session in  the morning and another HM L4 in the evening.

Monday: 4×20′ L4 (embedded in an HM)

Leave a comment

So, as usual for a Sunday night, I had trouble sleeping.  But I woke up before the alarm at 5:15 and headed off to work.

My standard endurance workout these days is a 4 x 20 minute session which is usually about 20km including some paddling during the rests.  So, I thought I could continue my polarized training plan by adapting my normal endurance session by just doing a 1000m or so of cool down at the end. I was thinking that I could fit other more intense sessions into the basic HM format as well, since I have the tools I need to analyze the data afterward too.  Perhaps I could call it the Polar Bear Challenge?

So today’s Plan:

  1. 4 x 20′ / 1′ paddle
  2. L4 format
  3. Power target: 10W x stroke rate
  4. Slow start at 16spm (160W)
  5. Aim for mid 190s for average power
  6. HR limit at 155

myimage11-14c

Again, with the magic of rowsandall.com, I can reslice the data into 10 minute blocks to see how accurately I hit my targets.

Targets:

1 –       170 strokes, 170W
2 –       184 strokes, 184W
3-8 –  190 strokes, 190w

Workout Summary - media/20161114-135715-sled_2016-11-14T06-37-25ZEST.strokes.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|21097|88:00.0|02:05.1|18.8|140.4|155.0|12.8
W-|19564|80:00.0|02:02.7|18.8|140.4|155.0|13.0
R-|01538|08:00.0|02:36.0|14.1|116.9|155.0|13.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02390|10:00.0|02:05.5|17.1|123.8|135.0|14.0
02|02437|10:00.0|02:03.1|18.6|135.1|139.0|13.1
03|02459|10:00.0|02:02.0|19.1|135.2|145.0|12.9
04|02457|10:00.0|02:02.1|19.1|142.7|145.0|12.9
05|02459|10:00.0|02:02.0|19.2|141.9|150.0|12.8
06|02454|10:00.0|02:02.3|19.1|148.7|152.0|12.8
07|02452|10:00.0|02:02.4|19.2|145.1|152.0|12.8
08|02457|10:00.0|02:02.1|19.2|150.5|155.0|12.8

So, generally 1 or 2 strokes over and a bit high on watts.

A few stroke metrics.  Power versus rate,  peak and average force versus rate and drive length versus time.

Tomorrow:  40′ erg and strength training.

Friday: 4 x 20 L4

1 Comment

Thursday was a “rest day”.  Up at 5am to fly home. Driving home from the airport sucked, nearly 2 hours in traffic.

I decided a good night sleep was needed and made the call to work from home.  That made my morning a lot easier.  I woke up at 8:30, had breakfast and was in a meeting at 9.

I worked until around 3:30 and then decided it was time for some training.

Plan:

  • 4 x 20′ / 1′ rests
  • L4 format
  • Start slow, then push it a little harder than last weekend
  • 10W per stroke

Having a little issue with the interval editor, so no details on each 10 minute segment.

Lactate test at the end, after 80 minutes, 2.0mmol/l – right on the nose.

One other note.  It was nice and cold.  57F when I finished.

I think the key thing that I noticed is that my HR was following the power very closely.  I think that is the key for me, if I start to see more decoupling between HR and power, then I am pushing the session too hard.

By the way, I had a blast with the stroke sequence today.

Untitled11-11d.png

 

 

Tuesday: 3 x 20′ L4 at Fitness Evolution

Leave a comment

In San Jose.  My hotel had a deal with the gym across the road.  By some miracle, it had a half dozen well maintained Model D rowers with PM5s.

Plan was to do 4×20 L4, but once I got going, I found that I was working very hard to go very slowly.  I cut it short after an hour.

Here is the row versus time, with pie charts for HR and power.

Compare this to Sunday’s row.  Longer row, higher power, lower Heart rate.

Why the difference:

  • Time of day:  I do better in the afternoon.  Tuesday’s row was at 5:30am.
  • Rest:  I did not sleep well.  I spent 6 hours on a plane on Monday
  • Nutrition:  I had 2 beers the night before the Tuesday Row.  I think that hurts a bit.
  • Environment: Sunday was with a fan and the windows open.  It was 61F in the room when I finished.  Tuesday was in a corner of the club with no airflow.  I left big puddles.

It’s still an impressive difference.  Another reason to use RPE as the guiding principle for endurance intensity.

 

Sunday: Easy 4 x 20′ L4

Leave a comment

I like late afternoon workouts.  I seem to be much better.

Today, I started around 4:30 at home after we returned from Cape Cod.

Plan:

  • 4×20′
  • L4 format
  • power target: 10W x spm
  • Slow start to warmup
  • HR limit: 155 (never got even close to that)
  • Lactate test at the end

Completely routine until about 12 minutes to go from  the end.  My phone rang, and the number that came up was my Dad.  I thought that I would call him back as soon as I finished.  But as soon as it stopped ringing, he called again. Now I was worried, so I stopped and picked up.  No emergency, thank goodness.  Then I picked up where I left off and finished.

#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02393|10:00.0|02:05.4|17.3|126.8|136.0|13.8
02|02442|10:00.0|02:02.8|18.6|133.0|136.0|13.2
03|02448|10:00.0|02:02.5|18.8|133.4|139.0|13.0
04|02456|10:00.0|02:02.1|18.9|134.3|138.0|13.0
06|02464|10:00.0|02:01.8|18.9|134.2|138.0|13.1
07|02139|08:42.0|02:02.0|19.0|131.9|138.0|12.9
08|02262|09:09.7|02:01.5|18.9|130.8|137.0|13.0

I tested lactate when I finished….1.2mmol/l

Last time I did this workout, it was over 2.

 

Tuesday: 4 x 20′ / 1′ rest L4 (and stroke metrics)

4 Comments

Standard session.

10W * stroke rate as the target power

10 minute blocks

Plan:

Untitled11-1c.png

Results:  About 0.7 sec fast on pace, and just about right on strokes (+4 for the whole workout)

Workout Summary - media/20161101-131736-sled_2016-11-01T06-47-09ZEDT.strokes.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19719|83:09.0|02:06.5|18.5|144.9|162.0|12.8
W-|19482|80:00.0|02:03.2|18.4|144.8|162.0|13.2
R-|00242|03:09.0|06:30.6|17.1|128.3|162.0|09.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02382|10:00.0|02:05.9|17.0|123.7|138.0|14.0
02|02437|10:00.0|02:03.1|18.4|139.9|145.0|13.2
03|02429|10:00.0|02:03.5|18.4|139.2|145.0|13.2
04|02448|10:00.0|02:02.5|18.7|145.6|149.0|13.1
05|02447|10:00.0|02:02.6|18.8|146.0|153.0|13.0
06|02451|10:00.0|02:02.4|18.9|152.5|156.0|13.0
07|02448|10:00.0|02:02.6|18.9|153.4|159.0|13.0
08|02439|10:00.0|02:03.0|18.5|158.4|162.0|13.2

In terms of effort, it felt great through the first 40 minutes, but when I added in the little 2 minute chunks at 200W, it seemed to really bury me.  My HR climbed pretty hard in the last 30 minutes of the workout.  This is a bit harder than I want to be working in these sessions.  Next time, I will go back to just alternating 18s and 19s.

Since I have the enormous power of rowsandall.com at my finger tips, I decidedto do a bit deeper analysis of the row.  This was an L4 workout so the power and stroke rate is closely prescribed.  Here’s a view of the power versus strokes rate.

bokeh_plot-10

You can see that even though my averages were about right, that there is considerable variation in the power from stroke to stroke.  I wonder if greater consistency in applied power at each stroke rate would be a sign of better efficiency?

Here’s a view of Drive Length versus stroke rate. bokeh_plot-11

I would have thought that drive length would increase at lower stroke rates, but that is NOT what happened.  You can see that my stroke actually gets shorter as the stroke rate decreases.  I am also surprised at the variation from stroke to stroke, nearly 10 cm difference.  Maybe a more repeatable stroke would be more efficient?

Now a look at peak and average force

bokeh_plot-12

I haven’t really sorted this one out.  There is definitely a negative correlation between peak force and stroke rate, and a less pronounce relationship with average force.  The spread is the thing that has me fascinated.

Finally, work per stroke.  Basically “SPI”.  This by the design of the workout should be pretty flat.

bokeh_plot-13

And it is.  The interesting thing to me on this plot is that my consistency gets better as the rate increases.

I posted these for three reasons.

  1.  It’s the beginning of erg season and I need a new way to keep myself entertained.
  2. I would like to find ways to get faster that I have not yet explored
  3. I would like to capture a baseline for the beginning of the season.  Then in March, I can do this same workout and compare the graphs at the end of the season.

This afternoon, I am flying off to San Diego.  Tomorrow will be a fitness center session, then another endurance session on Thursday morning after I get off the red eye.

Hopefully during the flight today I can figure out what my next objectives are and begin to lay down a training plan.

Sunday: 3 x 20′ L4 w/lactate (morning)

2 Comments

The rest of Saturday was a blur.  We went out shopping, and had a little dinner, then came home and I did laundry, packed and did some paperwork.  Then we watched the season premier of Saturday Night Live.  It is intriguing that it requires nothing more than to repeat exactly what Donald Trump says to effectively parody him.  But enough of that.  On to the training.

I got up around 8:30 and hopped on the erg at 9 for a steady state session

Plan:

  • Just like yesterday
  • 3 x 20′
  • 1′ rests
  • L4 format
  • target power 185
  • HR cap at 150
  • Measure lactate at the end

20:00   4813    181W 18
40:00   4894   190W 19
60:00   4861    186W 19

Basically the same session as yesterday.  I did a different sequence from 40′ to 50′ but otherwise exactly the same.  It felt harder, but the HR stats are very close.

Lactate level was 1.8mmol/l, so 0.4 higher than yesterday.  From yesterday’s results, it would be logical to increase training power a bit.  From today, it’s pretty close to the limit.  I guess I stick with ~185W for now.

For fun I compared yesterday’s session with today’s.  Looks like I had a slightly higher HR in general yesterday.

myimage10-1e.png

I am posting this from the plane.  I’m flying to Taipei and I’ll arrive Monday night local time.  I will be in Asia for through next Thursday, or about 12 days.  It’s a long trip.  I’m going to be trying to follow my training plan roughly but I am sure this is going to impact performance for the HOCR.  I think the most important things to focus on are:

  • Limit drinking
  • get enough sleep
  • avoid getting sick
  • maintain aerobic base.

Saturday: 3 x 20′ L4 w/ lactate

Leave a comment

I ran out of energy in a big way Friday night and crashed around 10pm.  I slept until almost 9am, and then started a day of chores and errands.

Around 3pm, I headed off to do an easy erg session.

Plan:

  • 3 x 20′
  • 1′ rests
  • L4 format
  • start at low power and ramp up to 185avg

I measured lactate at the end…1.4mmol/l.  Nice.  Of course this was an afternoon session.

 

Tuesday: 4 x 20′ L4

1 Comment

It was pouring rain this morning.  I decided to do an erg session instead of heading out to the river.  It’s funny.  I think last year, I probably would have scoffed at the elements and gone out anyway, but this year, I seem to feel a little different.  Less driven perhaps.  More normal perhaps.  Who knows.

So, I got to the gym at work around 7AM and settled in for an endurance workout.

Plan:

  • 4 x 20′
  • 1′ rests
  • L4 format
  • ramp power up from 160W during the first 10 minutes
  • Target power 185W avg
  • HR cap: 155

myimage9-27b

After the sublime 40′ session last night, I was wondering what it would feel like today.  I started even more conservatively than yesterday, with 4′ at 16, then 3′ at 17, etc up to 1′ at 19.  Then I went into 10 minutes of flipping between 18 and 19.  Despite the fact that I was rowing about 12W lower power through the first 20 minutes, my HR response was almost the same as yesterday.  During the second 20 minutes, my session yesterday was 6W higher, but had a marginally lower HR.  My RPE definitely matched the HR data.  I felt like I was working a lot harder for it today.

Here is a graphical comparison (courtesy of rowsandall.com).  The red trace was yesterday, and the blue trace today.

myimage9-27c

I am intrigued by the difference.  I would love to tease apart the causes.  Potential contributors:

  • Incomplete recovery (about 14 hours from yesterday’s session to today’s)
  • Closed to fasted state this morning (just a coffee with some skim milk) vs 3 hours after lunch yesterday
  • Time of day (I always seem to do better in afternoon sessions)
  • Humidity (it was about the same temp, but higher humidity this morning)
  • Socks yesterday, sneakers today

It would take a while to really exercise all of these variables.  But I think this points to a potential issue in many training approaches.  At least for me, I don’t think it is valid to use a power @ 2mmol/l guideline that was measured in the afternoon for morning sessions or visa versa.  Unless I can explain the causes for the difference.

Tomorrow:  Back on Quinsig for another 4 x ( 5 x 2′ / 30″ paddle) / 3′ rest