Living my best pandemic

June 28, 20201 Comment

Maybe this sounds hokey, but I’ve been feeling very, very fortunate lately. Thank goodness, my job has not been affected by the downturn, and no on in my family has caught COVID-19. At this point, I have gotten used to working from home and improved my ability to use remote work tools, and I am enjoying the temporary respite from both commuting and business travel. For sure, I miss seeing my friends at work, and I worry about losing touch with my customers and business colleagues, but the change has meant that I get more sleep, get more exercise and spend more time with people I care about.

So, it’s been a good month for training.

In the past 27 days:

3 rest days, sessions for the last 12 days in a row (I’ve been doing easy bike rides instead of taking full rest days lately)
24 workouts
- 13 days flat water rowing
- 3 days coastal rowing
- 3 runs
- 2 erg sessions
- 3 rides on my new BikeErg

Training Diary

Sunday – June 7 – No Training

I worked on the stairs down on the cape and didn’t have time for a workout. Nice day in the sun though.

Monday – June 8 – 15K on Lake Quinsigamond.

I am cartopping to the lake. I get up around 6, launch around 6:45 and row until 8:00 or 8:30 depending on whether or not I have a meeting at 9.

The club I row with is being good and safe. Masks on the dock, social distancing, time slots for launching to keep the docks from getting crowded. And the lake is just wonderful to row on.

Today was just some steady state. Down to the south end, all the way up to the north end, then back past the boathouse to the narrows, then finally back to the boathouse. Working with a HR cap of about 150. There was a bit of a headwind going North.

       Workout Summary - media/0407a4c8a1-20200608-125553o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15033|01:22:42.3|02:45.0|132.6|20.4|133.6|151.0|08.9
W-|14070|01:12:11.8|02:33.9|142.4|20.5|136.7|151.0|09.5
R-|00967|00:10:30.9|05:26.2|065.3|19.8|112.3|151.0|07.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03268|16:26.5|02:31.0|133.4|19.3|126.8|141.0|10.3
02|05758|30:04.8|02:36.7|148.5|20.8|140.1|151.0|09.2
03|03579|17:58.9|02:30.7|136.7|20.3|138.8|146.0|09.8
04|01466|07:41.6|02:37.4|151.0|22.1|139.9|147.0|08.6

Tuesday – June 9 – 15km steady state

Just beautiful. Flat water. A few waterskiers, but I didn’t mind the brief stops for that.

       Workout Summary - media/ee32ce273d-20200609-123554o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15020|01:21:27.1|02:42.7|133.4|21.0|135.9|154.0|08.8
W-|13893|01:09:05.2|02:29.2|150.0|20.3|140.5|154.0|09.9
R-|01131|00:12:22.2|05:28.2|041.2|24.9|109.7|154.0|06.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03194|15:48.1|02:28.4|147.4|19.5|132.8|143.0|10.3
02|05731|28:43.6|02:30.4|150.9|20.7|141.0|150.0|09.7
03|03562|17:39.1|02:28.7|148.9|20.0|145.3|154.0|10.1
04|01406|06:54.4|02:27.4|154.5|21.2|144.2|152.0|09.6

Wednesday – 10 June – Descent to Hell

This is a Push it / Don’t Pull it workout. It is decreasing length pieces from 6′ down to 30″ with 90″ rests. so, 6′, 5’30”, 5′, 4’30″…

It was brutal. I did pretty well through the first four, but then when I turned into the wind, I blew up in the fifth interval. From there, I hung in there OK.

This workout is a keeper. Definitely doing it again later.

        Workout Summary - media/658d149feb-20200610-123056o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13546|01:14:30.4|02:45.0|137.4|22.8|152.4|175.0|08.0
W-|07995|00:36:26.4|02:16.7|189.7|25.6|159.4|175.0|08.6
R-|05561|00:38:05.1|03:25.4|087.4|20.3|145.7|175.0|04.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01328|06:02.5|02:16.5|178.8|23.5|151.3|160.0|09.4
02|01200|05:33.2|02:18.9|171.6|24.0|156.7|166.0|09.0
03|01110|05:00.0|02:15.1|188.0|25.0|163.1|173.0|08.9
04|00989|04:26.3|02:14.6|192.4|25.4|165.2|175.0|08.8
05|00212|00:59.8|02:20.7|186.8|25.1|151.1|161.0|08.5
06|00346|01:37.8|02:21.2|190.1|25.8|162.7|167.0|08.2
07|00736|03:22.8|02:17.7|194.5|26.0|165.9|174.0|08.4
08|00516|02:20.9|02:16.5|201.7|26.8|162.1|174.0|08.2
09|00499|02:20.6|02:20.8|189.7|26.9|162.4|172.0|07.9
10|00410|01:51.6|02:15.9|211.0|28.5|162.7|174.0|07.8
11|00294|01:21.8|02:19.2|201.7|28.6|155.1|167.0|07.5
12|00216|00:55.5|02:08.3|221.1|30.1|154.2|164.0|07.8
13|00137|00:33.6|02:02.6|255.2|31.9|148.8|158.0|07.7

Thursday – June 11 – No Training

I earned a day off.

Friday – June 12 – Charles River GPS Speed Order

Another go at the speed order. My goal this time was to steer a better line. I ended up going out too hard and blowing up in the middle.

But my line was beautiful! Here it is compared to Carlo Zezza, who rowed a really tight and short line. (I’m the brown line)

From the start around magazine beach, I’m looking really good. I drifted out just a hair too much at the end (I was worried about cutting too close to the Riverside docks). I decided to use the cambridge arches, vs the center arches going up the powerhouse stretch.

I took a good line into weeks and made the turn from there to Anderson really well. This is where I ran out of energy and really slowed down. After Anderson, it looks like I took a good straight line to the apex of the eliot turn. And I did a good job hugging the curve for last turn as well.

I shaved 190m off the distance rowed from the prior attempt. And even though I rowed more slowly, I cut 30 seconds off my time.

4773m / 22:38 / 2:22.3
4583m / 22:08 / 2:23.9

Maybe for the July challenge, I can put steering and fitness together for a good row!

Saturday – June 13 – 12k on Lake Quinsigamond with Randall Foils

I’ve embarked on an experiment to see if Randall Foils help me row faster. I’ll be writing up some impressions of the Randall Foils eventually on https://analytics.rowsandall.com/

But in order to give them a fair test, I need to learn how to row with them and make sure that I understand how they feel. This row was the first step to try do that. Just a steady state row in choppy conditions to try to figure out how they work.

       Workout Summary - media/7f555d2212-20200613-133055o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12026|01:08:10.4|02:50.1|123.3|21.0|140.4|170.0|08.4
W-|11008|00:57:02.3|02:35.5|138.6|20.5|143.7|170.0|09.5
R-|01023|00:11:08.5|05:26.8|044.7|23.7|123.7|170.0|04.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01415|07:34.1|02:40.5|116.9|18.0|125.1|138.0|10.4
02|01925|09:53.4|02:34.1|130.9|19.1|137.7|145.0|10.2
03|05784|30:40.9|02:39.2|140.4|20.7|147.5|165.0|09.1
04|01884|08:53.9|02:21.7|159.7|23.4|153.0|170.0|09.1

Overall, I did not enjoy my first experience with the foils. They sure feel solid at the catch, but they increase the wind resistance of the oars, and smacking a wavetop with the foils was a pretty violent feeling. Also, they were a pain when coasting, and maneuvering. More to come.

Sunday – June 14 – No Training

We drove down to the cape on Saturday afternoon, and I slept in. I spent most of the day finishing up the stairs to the beach.

Monday – June 15 – 6 Darts Games

Just a nice easy base builder in the basement.

Tuesday - June 16 - Easy Coastal Row

Just a nice day for a row.

Wednesday – June 17 – Another longer coastal row

In this one, I went over into where the Herring River comes out into Wellfleet Harbor. Beautiful area over there.

No real useful data fro the row, because both crewnerd and the speedcoach managed to get mucked up. My phone was splashed seriously enough to think that I had swiped away from crewnerd. And I ran out of memory on the speedcoach during the row.

Thursday – June 18 – 7km run

I crossed the bridge and ran a loop around a woodsy neighborhood.

Friday – June 19 – Experimenting with foils

Pushed hard for about 2km, then took a break for about 1km, then finished hard.

        Workout Summary - media/c535caef77-20200619-120554o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10712|00:58:38.1|02:44.2|133.3|21.7|147.2|182.0|08.4
W-|09723|00:47:31.7|02:26.6|154.4|21.9|152.7|182.0|09.4
R-|00994|00:11:06.7|05:35.2|043.0|20.8|123.5|182.0|06.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00185|00:58.4|02:37.9|128.4|18.7|112.1|123.0|10.2
02|03159|15:50.8|02:30.5|145.3|19.7|143.9|156.0|10.1
03|02114|10:01.0|02:22.1|171.2|23.9|157.4|168.0|08.8
04|02857|13:08.5|02:18.0|175.3|24.3|168.6|182.0|08.9 - Nice!
05|01408|07:33.0|02:40.9|118.1|20.4|142.6|153.0|09.2

Saturday – June 20 – Rate Ladders with Foils

Trying to work specific stroke rates with the foils. I think it works a bit better to try to row lighter and rate up.

Sunday – June 21 – 40 minute BikeErg

Unfortunately Boatcoach quit after 20 minutes. But it was lovely. Nice easy cross training session.

Monday – June 22 – Steady State

Still rowing with foils. This was supposed to be a nice easy steady state session, but as luck would have it, a sculler ended up right next to me as I pulled out from the dock, and his steady state pace was a bit quicker than mine. I just refused to let him go and pushed too hard.

I got to talk to him at the south end of the lake. Nice guy, student at University of Delaware. Getting back in shape in case there is rowing this fall.

       Workout Summary - media/f2e1dce094-20200622-122554o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11848|01:08:44.6|02:54.1|121.9|20.1|143.7|166.0|08.6
W-|11293|00:56:39.9|02:30.5|141.2|19.5|150.3|166.0|10.2
R-|00559|00:12:05.0|10:48.9|031.5|23.0|112.3|166.0|03.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03533|17:10.2|02:25.8|144.5|19.0|148.0|163.0|10.8
02|05723|29:16.4|02:33.5|142.7|19.7|155.9|166.0|09.9
03|02037|10:13.3|02:30.5|131.4|19.8|138.3|162.0|10.0

There was a bit of wind blowing from North to South.

Tuesday – June 23 – Lake Quinsigamond Speed Order

When I rowed on Saturday, I met a nice guy from Western Mass who came to row the GPS Speed Order on the lake. He handily beat my team and my course standard score. I found that highly motivating. I decided to give the course another go.

I started with a nice long warmup to the south end of the lake, and then set off. There was a very light tail wind (about 2mph) and I was seeing splits between 2:15 and 2:20, which was encouraging. My HR was high, but I didn’t feel distressed. The last 2k was kind of difficult, but I would fiddle around with rate and pressure a little bit to try to distract myself.

I was very happy with the end result. No where near my competitor on raw time, but I edged him out on course standard score.

I also shaved nearly 30 seconds off my previous time. (22:37). Boom.

Wednesday – June 24 – 40 minute BikeErg

I like the bike erg! It’s a great change of pace and a good way to get some low intensity aerobic minutes in. I started watching Ford v. Ferrari, which was highly entertaining.

Thursday – June 25 – Steady State (without Foils)

It felt so good to row without foils! Still not sure if they make me faster. They certainly do not slow me down, but I do not like rowing with them.

Nice, reasonable speedy steady state session. I was able to keep on the fast side of 2:30 for most of it.

       Workout Summary - media/7a3eb7d12d-20200625-202055o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11945|01:03:09.1|02:38.6|134.6|20.6|139.8|159.0|09.2
W-|10644|00:52:28.8|02:27.9|146.4|20.4|143.4|159.0|09.9
R-|01309|00:10:41.0|04:04.7|076.8|21.1|122.2|159.0|06.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00278|01:24.8|02:32.8|127.8|19.0|116.4|121.0|10.3
02|01974|09:34.9|02:25.7|149.8|20.4|136.4|147.0|10.1
03|00534|02:35.4|02:25.6|158.6|20.9|137.7|149.0|09.9
04|01306|06:27.5|02:28.3|145.2|20.5|138.5|147.0|09.9
05|04446|22:00.1|02:28.5|148.8|20.5|148.4|159.0|09.9
06|01891|09:21.6|02:28.5|137.6|20.3|147.8|153.0|10.0
07|00216|01:04.5|02:29.1|143.8|22.3|144.3|146.0|09.0

Friday – June 26 – 45 minute BikeErg

I had an 8 am meeting, so not enough time to go to the lake and get in a row. I slept in an extra half hour, and did a short session on the Bike. Watched more of Ford v Ferrari. Still really fun.

Saturday – June 27 – 80′ Coastal Row

It was warm and windy today. I thought it would be fun to go bash into some waves. I was right!

I launched at 12:15, so right as the wind was building up past 15mph. It peaked around 1pm when I was up near Wellfleet inner harbor, and moderated back down to 15 on the way back.

You can tell that the water is rough when the speedcoach starts having all those spikes on the stroke rate.

It was just past low tide when I launched, so I had to take a short leg to the northwest to stay clear of the shoals, then I turned SW and headed to the red buoy. The wind was blowing from the SSW, so on my port bow. The waves were very steep over the shallow water as I got close to the buoy, and I was filling the footwell every ten or so strokes. I opened the bailer and left it that way the rest of the row.

I turned at the buoy and had a downwind ride with the tide all the way to the harbor. The waves hissing and sizzling under the boat as I went. I turned into the harbor and grabbed a quick drink. I knew the next bit was going to be the tough part.

I headed back out, and as soon as I cleared the breakwater, I started getting slammed by 12 to 18 waves. They seem pretty big when your boat sits 3 inches above the water line. I pounded my way out and picked a point on the shore to focus on. I concentrated on just controlling my oars and reacting to the waves. I paid a lot of attention to my heart rate. With the waves and headwind, it was easy to push too hard.

The footwell was filled most of the time. By the time the bailer reduced the water level, another wave would run the length of the boat and fill it again.

Finally, I came into the lee of the Island and the water flattened out. The last bit of rowing on flat water was a nice change to adventure through the waves.

Great fun!

5/29 – 6/6 – Having some fun now

June 7, 2020June 7, 2020Leave a comment

Friday – 5/29 – rest day

I was murdered by the GPS Speed Order. I took the day off.

Saturday – 5/30 – beach run

This was a very hard slog. My HR was through the roof and I was incredibly slow. Halfway through, I was convinced that I was coming down with COVID-19, my lungs just didn’t seem to be working.

It was still a very nice day to be out though.

Sunday – 5/31 – 6 darts games

New high score! 14775! Higher HR drift though 5.7%

Monday – 6/1 – 5km run

Just a short run. Limited time before my first meeting. Kept it easy.

Tuesday – 6/2 – Lake Quinsigamond GPS Speed Order

Our club has been given permission to open, and we have developed our procedures to keep everyone safe. Singles and Doubles only. Doubles have to be people living in the same house. We have 10 minute windows for launching from the dock to keep people from congregating. Also, temp check, mandatory masks on the dock and sign in. I’m really pleased that the club is being this careful.

I have setup a GPS Speed Order on Lake Quinsigamond to try to lure some of my worcester rowing buddies to get out and do a little competing. The challenge is running all of June, and I wanted to get an early marker in.

So, I launched and headed down to the south end of the lake, doing a reasonable warmup on the way.

I turned around and planned to cover the course at r24, which seems to be about the limit of my fitness right now.

The row was pretty uneventful. I felt good up through the islands and past the narrows. I started to get kinda tired in the long span from the narrows to the bridge. About 500m short of the bridge, I got waked by a waterski boat, and managed to catch a nasty crab as I tried to row through it. It basically stopped me dead and it took a lot out of me to get back going.

The row from the bridge to the gazebo was endless, as it always is. In my mind, the gazebo is halfway, but actually it is much closer to the finish at the DRC docks. I counted strokes from the Gazebo to the finish and it was about 60.

You can explore my race by going here.

        Workout Summary - media/7f8779b0f6-20200602-142054o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11658|01:04:33.7|02:46.1|131.0|21.2|144.6|178.0|08.5
W-|04855|00:22:36.7|02:19.7|175.6|24.1|166.1|178.0|08.9
R-|06804|00:41:57.0|03:05.0|107.0|19.6|133.0|178.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|04855|22:36.7|02:19.7|175.6|24.1|166.1|178.0|08.9

So, a nice improvement on pace from the Charles River GPS Speed Order.

In terms of course, a much easier course to row than the Charles River GPS Speed Order, and I rowed it better. But there is still room for improvement.

I like my course from the start past the little island and toward Drake Island. But I held that course too long. As soon as I was on a line between Drake Island and the point of land with Smith Lane, I should have set my point right on that point. That would have put me on a straight line for the Narrows, and I would have avoided the s-curve.

Same deal after the Narrows.

I have been taught to take a couple of port strokes at the narrows to get out of the way of boats coming down lake to the Narrows. I think I took it way too far. I could have just taken a point to the Island off the beach and that would have taken me straight to the bridge.

I also did an s-turn thingy after the bridge.

I need to figure out a good point south of the bridge to pick up and focus on to keep from drifting to middle. By the map, it’s the last house before the little marina south of the bridge, but I don’t know exactly what that looks like.

It was another really fun row. Highly motivated to keep plugging. Fun to play with the results afterwards.

Wednesday – 6/3 – Steady State – Lake Quinsigamond

I wanted a nice long row, and that’s what I got.

There was a bit of a wind from the south which sped things up on the way up the lake and slowed me down on the way down.

I was having such a good time that I added a bit extra. Instead of just doing the normal 12K loop of the lake, I kept going back down to the narrows and back again.

        Workout Summary - media/a83f56f61b-20200603-133055o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14871|01:19:48.6|02:41.0|130.9|19.6|141.4|155.0|09.5
W-|13938|01:10:27.4|02:31.6|140.0|19.3|144.2|155.0|10.2
R-|00938|00:09:21.6|04:59.4|062.2|21.7|119.9|155.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03420|17:21.8|02:32.3|140.5|18.9|137.1|146.0|10.4
02|05664|28:02.7|02:28.5|142.5|19.7|148.1|155.0|10.3
03|03554|18:28.1|02:35.9|136.9|19.5|146.3|153.0|09.9
04|01300|06:34.8|02:31.8|136.7|18.5|140.3|150.0|10.7

I am delighted to be back on the water.

Thursday – 6/4 – Drills on the 5s

Between the GPS speed order on Tuesday and the long session on Wednesday, I woke up sore and tired. I decided to do a technical session and keep it light.

So, I did 4 minutes of rowing at about r20, and then one minute of drills

On the square
Slow roll ups
Delayed Feather
Pause at body over
Open hands on recovery

I was really feeling the effort in the steady state sections and looked forward to the drills as a bit of a break. I think I have ramped up volume significantly and I was feeling it.

Friday – 6/5 – quick run

Well a short run, done slowly. I was planning to go rowing on Friday morning, but ended up staying up too late. So I scrubbed out of my launch window, and slept in instead. This might have been intelligently listening to my body, or just laziness.

I think I needed the sleep. I got up in time for my first meeting of the day and then at lunch time, I snuck out for a short run, just 2 miles around my neighborhood.

Saturday – 6/6 – 6 Darts Games

Down on the cape, but too windy for a coastal row. So, it was time for Darts! Chasing after high scores. My best is 14775. Today, I came close, but didn’t beat it. 3.98% drift.

After that, me and my son spent about 4 hours working on rebuilding our stairs down to the beach which have been destroyed for the third season in a row. Very sore and tired now.

Tomorrow: I think I will go for a run, or a coastal row, if the weather is nice.

Back on the Water – Huzzah!

May 24, 20201 Comment

Another week on social isolation. I’m getting better at it. A few very exciting developments.

First, I retrieved my boat from winter storage, rigged it up and went for my first row of the season, not counting that amazing week in early March when we managed to get on the water three days (3/9, 3/10, 3/11) before the pandemic hit.

Second, I am working with Sander and some Boston based rowers to try to figure out a way to have some competitive fun with rowing when all regattas and events are cancelled. Take a look at the instructions for the first event.

Want Some Hot Singles Action? – The GPS Speed Orders

It will be a “Speed Order” challenge over the same course that the Head of the Charles follows. Through the miracle of GPS and rowsandall, people can run the course in their single anytime next week and upload their rowing data to compete.

I’m hoping that this will turn into a full season of challenges on the Charles, and spread to other venues. If anyone is interested in running a GPS Speed Order on your favorite course, get in touch and I’ll get you set up.

And it was a good week of training. I am enjoying running more than I expected, and I am now able to row for longer periods without a lot of shoulder pain.

Monday – 5/18 – 5.7km run on Lt Island

We decided to stay an extra day on the Cape and on Monday morning, I headed out for a slow run. Some parts of it were on the beach, and that was slow, hard work. Other parts of it were on sandy roads and I have no excuse, but I was still slow.

Tuesday – 5/19 – Quick row

It was an exciting morning. I headed out to the Lake and met Joe who let me in the boathouse and helped me load up my boat. I brought it home and only had enough time for a quick and easy row before my 8am meeting.

        Workout Summary - media/4eb43c721c-20200519-122216o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09670|00:42:00.0|02:10.3|165.3|18.9|129.7|140.0|12.2
W-|09461|00:40:00.0|02:06.8|171.3|19.2|130.3|140.0|12.3
R-|00210|00:02:00.0|04:45.7|045.6|11.9|119.0|140.0|08.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|09461|40:00.0|02:06.8|171.3|19.2|130.3|140.0|12.3

Wednesday – 5/20 – 45′ Bike / 2 dart games

Sticking to base work. Still limiting total rowing time. I was watching the movie John Wick, and I noticed that my HR was going way up when there was any kind of physical conflict in the movie.

Then down to the basement for a couple of dart games.

        Workout Summary - media/09b2b54c05-20200520-161816o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07468|00:33:09.4|02:13.2|159.3|18.4|143.3|151.0|12.3
W-|07441|00:31:51.4|02:08.4|165.2|19.0|144.0|151.0|12.3
R-|00028|00:01:18.0|23:32.0|013.9|02.0|125.8|151.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03813|16:20.0|02:08.5|164.7|18.6|143.4|151.0|12.5
01|03628|15:31.4|02:08.4|165.7|19.5|144.7|151.0|12.0

Getting better at keeping my effort down in the dart games and good results for these two 14375, and 14305. Still not challenging Sanders 14625 though.

Thursday – 5/21 – Fast (for me) run – 6.3km

This was basically the same course as I ran on May 8th at an average pace of 6:01. Today, I shaved that down to 5:57, but worked a bit harder. I had a really wonderful time, especially the last mile or so.

Friday – 5/22 – 12k on Lake Quinsigamond

It’s so exciting going for the first row of the year in my single. There’s an element of fear. Do I still remember how to row? Do I still remember how to get in an out of the boat? How cold is the water? And this year, I had the extra anxiety of wondering if my shoulder would be OK for carrying the boat and rowing.

I got to the lake right around 7am. I launched without any issue and headed down lake. I didn’t bother with a pick drill or anything, I just started rowing easy, and kept that up basically the whole outing. There was a bit of breeze blowing from the SW, which was only bothersome during the row back to the boathouse from the north end of the lake.

The good news. I remember how to row. The boat was setting well. To be honest about it, my shoulder is not great. But if I limited how far I extended to the catch, took the catch smoothly and lightened up my stroke a bit, I was able to row pain free.

There were a couple of waterskiers out and I got waked a bunch of times. I generally just stopped rowing for a few seconds to let the wakes pass. This early in the season, I didn’t really see the point in trying to finesse my way through the waves.

        Workout Summary - media/3d93653fd3-20200522-134050o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11673|01:05:42.5|02:48.9|125.3|20.4|138.9|156.0|08.7
W-|10124|00:52:25.4|02:35.3|134.5|19.7|142.0|156.0|09.8
R-|01558|00:13:18.0|04:16.0|089.1|23.2|126.8|156.0|03.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01201|06:13.8|02:35.6|135.1|18.1|133.8|143.0|10.6
02|00504|02:38.5|02:37.1|135.1|18.9|135.0|142.0|10.1
03|01003|05:10.3|02:34.7|138.8|19.1|143.1|149.0|10.2
04|00257|01:21.4|02:38.2|126.9|19.1|137.3|142.0|09.9
05|01981|10:16.7|02:35.7|131.3|19.3|138.1|148.0|10.0
06|01860|09:31.6|02:33.6|134.5|19.9|146.0|152.0|09.8
07|00452|02:22.3|02:37.3|124.9|20.3|141.8|146.0|09.4
08|01049|05:18.3|02:31.8|140.8|20.6|148.2|156.0|09.6
09|00933|04:52.4|02:36.7|132.3|20.7|141.8|151.0|09.2
10|00883|04:40.1|02:38.6|137.7|20.8|150.3|154.0|09.1

Saturday – 5/23 – 3 x 30’/2′ on slides

Down on the Cape. We drove down on Friday evening and lazed around Saturday morning. In the early afternoon, I headed down to the basement for some easy rowing. The goal was to do the full 90 minutes below a HR of 145. I needed to ease up on the pace a bit in the last 30 minutes to respect the cap. I also found it easier (and easier on my shoulder) to row at r20. With the higher rate, I tried to increase power just a few watts.

        Workout Summary - media/479e44f499-20200523-183516o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|22012|01:36:00.0|02:10.8|164.4|19.7|136.8|147.0|11.7
W-|21304|01:30:00.0|02:06.7|171.9|20.0|137.4|147.0|11.8
R-|00712|00:06:00.0|04:12.7|052.8|14.3|127.8|147.0|08.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07126|30:00.0|02:06.3|173.3|20.1|129.1|137.0|11.8
01|07102|30:00.0|02:06.7|172.0|20.0|139.4|145.0|11.8
02|07076|30:00.0|02:07.2|170.3|20.0|143.7|147.0|11.8

Sunday – 5/24 – Run to Bob’s Sub and Cone

Still down on the cape. The weather was beautiful, but cool. Good for running. I stuck to the roads today, but running here just feels harder. Maybe it’s the little but steep ups and downs. But it was a nice run.

After I got home, I had showered and I was just looking out the window when I saw a young fox, just napping at the end of our walkway. I must have disturbed him when I snapped his picture through the screen.

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

Wormtown Chase

November 3, 2019November 3, 2019Leave a comment

Wormtown is apparently the nickname for Worcester Massachusetts.

I got curious and googled to try to figure out why. Here you go.

I was delighted to find out that it was bestowed in the late 70s by a punk rock DJ because the punk rock music scene in Worcester was so dead, that it was decomposing. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that the DJ’s name was L.B. Worm.

Anyway, this was the inaugural running of the Wormtown Chase. For the past two years, the QRA has been generous enough to include masters events in the running of the Snale Race, a collegiate head race on Lake Quinsigamond. This year, they wanted to do something new and different. So instead of tagging on to the Snake Race, there would be another Regatta for schools and masters, and a new course!

The course was the draw. Instead of straight boring shot up the lake, This race was going to feature a giant 180 degree turn around a couple of small islands.

Here’s the course map.

I looked to see who my competition would be,

Screen Shot 2019-11-02 at 6.28.13 PM.png

OK, so I know Dave Baker. He’s a great guy, the inventor of the Shox Box and someone who was really nice to me when I first started rowing. I remember seeing him on the lake when I was out maybe my second or third time in a single and he asked how it was going. I said, “Well, I haven’t flipped yet”. His reply made me feel so much better. It was basically to the effect “flipping happens”. I was really kind of hung up on the idea that flipping would mark me as a noob, and be incredibly embarassing. Dave saying that it was just kinda a normal part of rowing was really an awesome thing for me in that moment. I’ve been in a bunch of races and I’m normally faster than he is. But he had been rumored to have been training up in Lowell, so I’d better not get cocky.

The other guy. He’s a mystery to me. So, the sleuthing begins. I check to see if he rowed in the HOCR this year. Nope. Then I checked the Textile. Ah ha! There he is. He finished a respectable fourth. I knew the guy that won, and he was 5% slower.

Now, here’s how obsessive I can get. I then went to the HOCR results and checked the textile winners time and place. Then I compared it to guys that I am typically close to. Last year, I beat a guy by less than 1% in the snake race, and the Textile winner beat him by 10% in the HOCR. Oh crap. This guy, Dan was faster than me. Probably 5% faster than me.

So, going into the race, I was thinking that I probably couldn’t beat him, but if I got within 5% of his time, I could feel like I had performed up to expectations.

The start order was Dan, then me, then Dave.

When I got to the lake in around 7am, it was beautiful. There was no wind, it was warm and the skies were clear. But as we got closer to the 9am start time, the wind began to build, and build, and build some more. By the time my race rolled around at 10:50, it was blowing straight out of the north between 12 to 15 mph. Ooof. It was going to be a long and slow race. I hope all that coastal rowing pays off.

The start line was only about 1500m south of our docks, and there was no place to do a warm up on the water, so I went into the boathouse and did a fletcher warmup on the erg. I pushed it hard because I was doing it about 45 minutes before my race.

Then I launched, and with the brisk tail wind, I was down to the start area way too quickly, and so I sat around. Dan came rowing up and then he went ahead of me. No sign of Dave. I waited a bit longer, and I saw that, even though our start time was still a few minutes away, Dan was heading down to the line. I didn’t realize it until he was a good 200m away. Damn, I was hoping to be close enough to try to hang onto him, maybe even push him a bit through the turn. I picked it up and headed to the line.

The chop was tough. I was rowing short downwind, and I felt tentative at the catch. I tried to find a rhythm and crossed the line going kind of slow. With the chop, I didn’t do as much looking around to perfect my course, and I ended up a bit further off the first island than I wanted. I was watching the speedcoach and disappointed to see 2;20, even going downwind. I noticed with some annoyance that the power readings were “—“. I guess changing the battery before the race would have been a good idea. Especially with the wind.

I handled the start of the turn well, and it felt great to get into the lee of island. I lined up to skirt nice and close to the southern point, and hit that turn just right. Of course, that is also when the wind hit me broadside, and the chop too. I took a couple of pretty sloppy strokes, but focused on pushing hard on starboard, with very little pressure on port. I looked around, but in the daylight, it was really hard to pick the point of the third island out against the shore line. There was fall foliage on both the island and the shore, and I really struggled until I was kind got close enough to make it out. Luckily because of the practice, I ended up on a good line, and hit the eastern point at a good angle and nice and close to the island.

Now I was into the head wind, and I was kind of freaked out about how high my heart rate was. I thought I was going to blow up. I tried to calm down and just row clean, but the wind was a big challenge. I tried lower rates and more power. I tried rating up and rowing light. That felt a bit better. But the splits were soul crushingly slow. I was hovering on the wrong side of 2:30. All I could hope was that other folks were equally slow.

I continued to battle along. I never saw the rower in front of me, and Dave started far enough behind me that it was tough to judge distance to him. I just slogged akong.

There was a funnel effect under the route 9 bridge and there were a few strokes where it was tough to even swing my oars back to the catch for the next stroke.

It took forever to get up to the gazebo, but once I was there, the water seemed to smooth out a bit and the wind seemed to drop a bit. I pushed up a bit harder. Then a wonderful thing happened. I passed the last girls novice four of the event that started before ours. They were cheering as they rowed along. I’m sure it was for themselves, but I imagined it was for me and I rowed a bit harder and smoother to the finish.

My arms and legs were cramping up and I limped back to the dock. Here’s the map.

Screen Shot 2019-11-02 at 7.06.56 PM

Here’s the turn. Looks pretty good actually. I went a bit wider around the point than I needed to, but the turn around that south point was better than I feared.

Screen Shot 2019-11-02 at 7.07.39 PM

Here’s a comparison between the practice turns (blue) and the race turn (red).

Screen Shot 2019-11-02 at 7.09.51 PM

As for heart rate. It was the hardest I havce ever worked in a race.

As for splits, it was bad as it looked in the boat.

        Workout Summary - media/20191026-1541100o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08488|00:60:20.5|03:33.3|034.8|23.5|149.3|184.0|06.0
W-|06368|00:33:03.0|02:35.7|034.0|24.6|169.3|184.0|07.9
R-|02127|00:24:24.3|05:44.2|035.6|22.2|125.9|184.0|08.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00248|01:24.0|02:49.2|102.8|19.3|142.3|147.0|09.2
02|05380|27:22.1|02:32.6|031.0|25.2|175.7|184.0|07.8
03|00058|00:20.5|02:58.3|031.0|20.6|132.3|133.0|08.2
04|00101|00:36.0|02:57.5|031.0|19.8|133.5|134.0|08.5
05|00468|02:42.0|02:53.1|031.0|23.1|138.4|143.0|07.5
06|00114|00:38.4|02:48.9|031.0|21.7|139.6|140.0|08.2

2:32.6. In a race. At 25 spm. Wow! That’s slow.

Here are 500m splits in the race.

        Workout Summary - media/20191026-1541100o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08494|01:02:35.6|03:41.1|034.7|23.0|148.5|184.0|05.9
W-|05250|00:26:45.0|02:32.9|031.0|25.2|176.4|184.0|07.8
R-|03245|00:35:51.0|05:31.4|037.4|21.3|127.6|184.0|05.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00500|02:19.9|02:19.9|031.0|25.1|160.3|165.0|08.5
02|00500|02:21.8|02:21.8|031.0|25.9|170.3|174.0|08.2
03|00500|02:27.6|02:27.6|031.0|25.9|173.6|176.0|07.9
04|00500|02:31.7|02:31.7|031.0|25.1|176.4|179.0|07.9
05|00500|02:33.9|02:33.9|031.0|24.6|177.9|179.0|07.9
06|00500|02:42.3|02:42.3|031.0|24.2|178.9|181.0|07.7
07|00500|02:38.1|02:38.1|031.0|24.9|179.6|181.0|07.6
08|00500|02:40.9|02:40.9|031.0|24.6|180.8|182.0|07.6
09|00500|02:37.8|02:37.8|031.0|25.6|180.1|182.0|07.4
10|00500|02:38.2|02:38.2|031.0|25.6|181.5|184.0|07.4
11|00250|01:12.8|02:25.7|031.0|26.6|181.2|184.0|07.7

I couldn’t believe how slow I was, but it seemed like I held my distance with Dave. I had real hope that I had made up ground on Dan. When I looked at the results, as I expected, I had finished second.

Screen Shot 2019-11-02 at 7.01.36 PM.png

A quick bit of math revealed that I was 3.4% behind the winner. So, I was happy with that. I wanted to be within 5%. I met Dan after the race. He seems like a great guy. Former college rower, just getting back in the sport. We talked a bit and he lives quite near where I keep my boat. I tried to convince him that the place where I row would be a good spot for him too.

But beyond meeting a nice person, now I have a most valuable tool. A target. I want to be able to beat this guy next year. To do that I need to get faster. I feel more energized than I have in two years.

After the race, I hung out with my friends for the club for a while, then I packed up my boat for the winter and stashed in the back of the racks. I hope there’s some more good rowing days, but with the colder weather, rowing bigger boats seems like a better idea.

Race week prep

November 2, 2019November 2, 2019Leave a comment

Monday – Oct 21 – 5 x 1000 / 5′

My original thought was to do a 4 x 2000, but I didn’t think I had the oomph for that workout. I decided to go easy on myself and swapped in a 5 x 1000. It was still a reasonably tough session. I ran out of lake for the 4th interval.

Looking at the paces, all I can hope is that there was a nasty headwind for the first 4 reps!

       Workout Summary - media/20191021-1156050o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11506|01:07:10.1|02:55.1|125.2|22.7|148.1|177.0|07.5
W-|08049|00:39:35.4|02:27.6|164.7|24.3|157.3|177.0|08.5
R-|03462|00:27:35.4|03:59.0|068.6|20.5|135.0|177.0|06.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02669|13:32.1|02:32.1|139.3|20.0|145.3|158.0|09.9
02|01272|06:11.8|02:26.1|179.9|25.5|161.7|174.0|08.1 - 1
03|01011|04:49.1|02:22.9|187.5|26.8|167.2|177.0|07.8 - 2
04|00972|04:51.8|02:30.1|177.1|26.1|167.7|177.0|07.7 - 3
05|00805|03:56.0|02:26.6|184.6|27.5|167.1|177.0|07.5 - 4
06|00292|01:31.3|02:36.6|124.5|22.3|135.4|145.0|08.6 
07|01027|04:43.3|02:17.9|177.8|28.4|164.3|173.0|07.7 - 5

I like rowing out in Worcester a lot. But it adds about 40 minutes of driving to my morning.

Tuesday – 22 Oct – San Diego

Early flight to San Diego. I had a spare hour after I checked into my hotel, so I went to the fitness center. 20 minutes on the treadmill and 20 minutes on the recumbent bike.

Wednesday – 23 October – No Training

I had early conference calls and then a 9:45 am flight back to Boston. No chance to get to the gym.

Thursday – 24 October – The turn

The race that I did on Saturday features a big sweeping 180 degree turn around two islands. I know the lake reasonably well, but I have never really taken this turn in a single. I wanted to fix that on Thursday morning.

It was a nice morning to row. Of course, it was totally dark when I launched, but there is enough light along the shores to pick out your course, and there is pretty good discipline among the rowers to use a bow light and stern light. I was counting on this on Thursday morning because the turn cuts across the preferred uplake travel lane. I really didn’t want to run into anyone.

My plan was to basically to do 2 x 1500, but do them around the islands to practice the turn.

        Workout Summary - media/20191025-1236080o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08103|00:45:25.7|02:48.2|128.1|22.1|143.1|168.0|08.1
W-|05586|00:26:23.2|02:21.7|167.2|23.6|153.7|168.0|09.1
R-|02523|00:19:02.8|03:46.4|073.9|20.1|128.4|168.0|06.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01316|06:35.1|02:30.1|149.8|18.6|144.3|154.0|10.7
02|01205|05:31.4|02:17.5|171.1|24.9|158.4|168.0|08.7 - turn 1
03|01450|06:37.5|02:17.1|173.8|26.7|160.5|168.0|08.2 - turn 2
04|00208|01:03.0|02:31.4|148.8|21.9|125.7|140.0|09.1 
05|01407|06:36.2|02:20.8|177.7|24.5|156.8|168.0|08.7 - the 4+

Here’s the whole row. The turn is down at the south end.

Here’s the view of the whole turn. The start of the race is by the beach in the upper left corner. Then you row down past the first small island, turn around the second, and then around the outside of the third. You row up past a projecting point, and then up to the narrows. Fun thin I learned about the point in this row. They put a big white buoy off of it. My plan had been to hug up really close to it to try to minimize distance. I just missed it on my first go round, and got it caught on my oar the second time around. I didn’t do that in the race, so I guess the practice paid off.

Here’s a close up of the turn, The key thing I was trying to figure out was how to minimize the distance rowed without unnecessarily slowing down. The key was how to handle the southern tip of the bigger island. Starting the turn too late at that point results in swinging wide. That’s what happened in my second go. In the first one, I felt like I was too far away from the first island and western point of the second when I started my turn. So, on try number two, I hugged the first island, and hit the western point just right, but I took one stroke too many at the south point and swung wide.

I’m very glad I tried out the turn.

I finished my turns, and took a bit of a breather for a drink. A coxed four came up lake and we ended up nearly side by side. I increased pressure to stay ahead of them through the narrows, and then basically matched them for pace up through the bridge. It was good sub-threshold rowing.

What a blast!

Friday – 25 – No Training

I was planning to do just a 20 minute warmup on the erg, but a busy schedule a work messed that up for me.

Getting ready for my last race of the season

October 20, 2019Leave a comment

A great week of training.

Sunday – Oct 13 – 90′ Coastal row

Long and slow. A really beautiful day! Might have been my last coastal row of the year, if so, it was a great way to finish up.

I launched about 2 hours before high tide and I didn’t have much of a plan beyond rowing at low intensity for about 90 minutes. I started off with the tide, and then turned to head out into the bay. I hugged the shore for a little bit, and then headed out, picking a house on the top of a hill as my point. I decided to row on that heading until I had a straight shot up to Wellfleet harbor, through the buoyed channel. I thought it would be fun to ride the current.

It was. I just paddled along, enjoying the sunshine and watching the boats and birds. I turned in the harbor and paddled through the anchorage, around the jetty, and then up along the boat slips. I had a nice drink of water, turned around and headed for home.

When I reached the buoy at the entrance of the harbor, I turned to the south, picked another house on the shore and kept it as my point the whole row back down to Lt Island. Looking at the map, you can see how straight this section was. It was also getting very close to high tide by this point, so there wasn’t much current pushing me around.

        Workout Summary - media/20191013-1856250o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15361|01:29:43.5|02:55.2|000.0|21.0|137.4|156.0|08.1
W-|14880|01:24:52.9|02:51.1|000.0|20.9|137.9|156.0|08.4
R-|00486|00:04:51.0|04:59.2|000.0|22.9|128.5|156.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
08|00922|05:09.0|02:47.6|000.0|19.6|122.4|134.0|09.1
09|07850|43:57.3|02:48.0|000.0|20.1|137.7|152.0|08.9
10|05996|34:04.7|02:50.5|000.0|22.3|142.7|156.0|07.9

Monday – 14 October – Technique work on Quinsig

I needed a nice easy row on Monday. I basically did steady state, square blades, and slow roll ups in 2 minute chunks. I managed to stop my speedcoach with my water bottle after the first 4K of my row (Arghhh!), so I tried to reconstruct the data using the speed and position data from CrewNerd and hear rate from my watch.

The heart rate readings were a bit erratic, but it was a very easy row.

Tuesday – 15 October – 2K/1.5K/2K/1.5K

I was short on time, and I was not really in the mood for a hard workout. But this is a critical prep week for the race coming up on the 26th, so I stuck with the plan, sort of. The plan was for a 4 x 2K. As it turned out, I shortened the 2nd and 4th intervals. The second, I got confused on stroke counts and basically just gave up. On the fourth, I started a bit too close to the boathouse, and I was running out of time to get to the office in time for my first meeting.

The first interval felt great. I felt fast and crisp. After that, it was not much fun.

       Workout Summary - media/20191015-1551110o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10612|00:56:45.6|02:40.5|139.0|23.7|154.7|176.0|07.9
W-|07024|00:32:24.4|02:18.4|181.7|26.1|166.6|176.0|08.3
R-|03592|00:24:21.5|03:23.5|082.3|20.5|138.8|176.0|06.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02013|09:04.5|02:15.2|187.5|25.3|163.3|171.0|08.8 - tail
02|01556|07:11.4|02:18.6|186.5|26.6|168.3|175.0|08.1 - head 
03|02009|09:29.6|02:21.8|178.6|26.0|169.7|176.0|08.1 - head
04|01445|06:38.9|02:18.0|172.8|26.8|164.9|172.0|08.1 - tail

Wednesday – 16 October – Steady State – Quinsig

Really foggy and dark. Felt very alone, especially during the first half of the row before sunrise. Pushed a bit too hard because I was trying to keep the split below 2:30. I didn’t succeed. For some reason, my HR sensor dropped connection for a few minutes towards the end of the trip up the lake.

        Workout Summary - media/20191016-1156080o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11835|01:07:51.2|02:52.0|128.2|21.8|142.0|167.0|08.0
W-|10727|00:54:04.8|02:31.2|144.9|19.6|147.2|166.0|10.1
R-|01111|00:13:46.6|06:12.1|062.4|30.7|121.9|166.0|04.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02926|14:45.5|02:31.3|147.9|18.6|148.2|158.0|10.7
02|05657|28:34.4|02:31.5|141.9|19.7|143.4|166.0|10.1
03|02145|10:44.9|02:30.3|148.9|20.7|155.8|166.0|09.6

Thursday – 17 October – 15 x 3′ / 1′ Threshold

There was a massive Nor’easter that blew through New England on Thursday. I decided to sleep in and grab a quick workout in the fitness center at work.

Because I am not in the kind of shape I want to be right now, I took the easy way out in the workout and started slow (2:00 splits), and took a second in each interval, until I was around a 1:52 pace.

Then I slowed a bit in the last 3 as well.

Friday – 18 October – Steady State

On Quinsig. The forecast said that there would still be a bit of wind left over from the storm, but it would be coming from the west, so it would be a cross wind and the lake is pretty narrow. I saw that some other folks had signed up, so I decided to give it a try. When I got to the lake, I discovered that they had all cancelled on me, but the conditions were actually really nice. Light cross wind, and nice flat water.

I really just wanted to row, and it was a great morning to do that. Again, I pushed a bit too hard chasing splits.

        Workout Summary - media/20191018-1101070o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11841|01:03:42.5|02:41.4|135.5|20.9|150.9|167.0|08.9
W-|10982|00:55:04.8|02:30.5|149.7|20.5|155.0|167.0|09.8
R-|00864|00:08:38.0|04:59.8|045.3|23.5|124.6|167.0|04.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03246|16:02.7|02:28.3|150.6|19.4|151.1|163.0|10.4
02|05678|28:44.5|02:31.9|150.2|20.8|157.7|166.0|09.5
03|02058|10:17.6|02:30.0|146.8|21.3|153.6|167.0|09.4

A little faster than Wednesday, but not very impressive.

Saturday – 19 October – Bad 10K

I needed some sleep, so I did not attempt to get out on the water on Saturday. Around noon, I set myself up to do my weekly long threshold piece. It did not go well.

I did a 2K warmup, and my HR was sky high. It also felt like very hard work.

I started the 10K once, but decided that I needed better music and quit after about 500m. I started again and tried to hold 1:59 splits.

For some reason, Painsled stopped recording after about 20 minutes. But that was enough time to see the point where I knew I was not going to be able to hold my split.

But this close to a race, there is no way that I am going to quit on a training piece, so I just slowed down and watched my HR go up and up. Here’s the HR data from my watch. My MaxHR is about 185. Even though I was rowing at a sedate 2:02 pace, my HR was with 5% of my max for the last 5 minutes.

Not sure what was wrong with me. It might be training load, This was my 12th workout day in a row. Anyway, I’m coming into a taper week, so I’m not gonna worry about it.

Sunday – 20 October – Drills on the fives on Quinsig

Really cold this morning, only about 34F when I launched and the dew droplets had frozen into ice on docks. There was a little bit of wind from the North, but it was barely enough to kick up a ripple. There was a power boat out, and they managed to wake me about 4 times. None too severely, but enough to make balance drills a lot tougher.

There was also a ton of debris in the water. Clumps of leaves, sticks, a soccer ball, multiple floating fenders, and a few mostly submerged thick branches. Generally not too much of a problem, but it slowed me down at times.

I was doing 4 minutes of hardish steady state, then a minute of drills

Square blades
Delayed feather
Pause at body over
Open hands on recovery

A lovely morning.

     Workout Summary - media/20191020-1246050o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11464|01:01:14.3|02:40.3|135.7|20.5|148.1|169.0|09.1
W-|08730|00:43:17.8|02:28.8|154.1|21.2|148.7|169.0|09.6
R-|02752|00:17:57.9|03:15.9|091.4|18.9|146.4|169.0|04.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00008|00:01.3|01:22.3|188.0|09.5|115.0|115.0|38.4
02|00006|00:01.3|01:50.2|161.0|22.0|117.0|117.0|12.4
03|00007|00:02.8|03:32.1|111.0|21.0|117.0|117.0|06.7
04|00008|00:03.0|03:02.9|156.0|20.0|117.0|117.0|08.2
05|00009|00:03.2|02:52.0|124.0|19.5|116.0|116.0|08.9
06|00009|00:02.8|02:37.3|139.0|21.0|116.0|116.0|09.1
07|00954|04:47.7|02:30.8|143.4|19.1|137.3|145.0|10.4
08|00786|03:58.3|02:31.6|146.1|18.8|147.4|151.0|10.5
09|00864|04:13.4|02:26.6|151.2|20.3|151.9|156.0|10.1
10|00286|01:22.1|02:23.5|160.6|21.8|150.7|154.0|09.6
11|00193|00:58.6|02:31.9|153.3|21.5|131.8|140.0|09.2
12|00744|03:48.7|02:33.7|150.1|20.4|149.4|153.0|09.6
13|00764|03:46.5|02:28.3|161.8|22.2|153.2|160.0|09.1
14|00652|03:16.6|02:30.9|157.5|22.2|147.7|159.0|09.0
15|00761|03:51.4|02:32.0|150.9|21.3|152.7|155.0|09.3
16|00387|01:59.6|02:34.6|146.7|21.0|150.3|153.0|09.2
17|00184|00:56.6|02:33.6|148.6|21.3|149.4|152.0|09.2
18|00404|01:55.3|02:22.7|183.0|24.5|156.9|162.0|08.6
19|00217|01:06.0|02:31.9|120.0|21.6|131.6|142.0|09.1
20|00841|04:07.2|02:27.0|148.9|21.1|149.9|154.0|09.7
21|00646|02:55.4|02:15.7|188.1|25.9|159.8|169.0|08.5

Tomorrow: 4 x 2K on Quinsig, then in the afternoon, I head out to California.

Sunday: Windy 12km on Lake Quinsigamond in a 2x

November 4, 2018Leave a comment

I met Joe at 8. We were expecting 5 total rowers, but everyone besides Joe and I cancelled out. So, we hopped in the double.

I was glad to get out on the water for a bunch of reasons.

It sure beats erging, and I’ll be doing a lot of that over the next 5 months.
There are all sorts of changes afoot with the rowing club and I wanted to hear the details
I had a new version of the Quiske app that I wanted to try out.

The weather was a little iffy. It was in the low 40s, but there was a brisk wind blowing from the NW. It was about 10mph on average, but quite gusty, up to 20mph.

When the wind is from the NW, the worcester side of the lake is quite pleasant. You are in the wind shadow from the shore and you get flat water and gentle tail wind. But the trip north up the shrewsbury shore is a real slog. The wind hits the shoreline and is funneled to the south. There is a pretty good chop and each headland acts as a funnel for the wind and the waves.

Look at those horribly slow splits! We were hovering around 3:00 splits for most of the way up the lake. Each of the big dips was around one of those headlands.

Because I was in the double, I didn’t have my oarlock, but I was curious how much power was required to push into the headwind, so I used one of the advanced features on rowsandall. There is a physics model to estimate power from pace for a few boat types, including the 2x. The model includes the ability to correct for wind. It’s very cool. It imports the minute by minute wind data from the nearest weather station, and then applies it to the GPS data from your row and figures out whether it was a head wind, cross wind or tail wind and then calculates a corrected pace. I think today’s breeze might have overwhelmed it. It says in the toughest bits, we were hitting 300W.

This in turn is used to calculate the corrected pace chart.

I think it might have been a bit generous on the pace estimate, but I sure felt better about the our slow slog into the wind after I looked at it.

The Quiske pod worked great. When I started I had it mounted wrong way around so it must have thought I was rowing in the Upside Down (little Stranger Things reference for you there). Once we got to the south end of the lake, I fixed it and was able to see my oar path for about 4K up the lake before my phone ran out of juice.

It’s remarkable how quickly the Quiske folks are improving the iOS app. It’s already at a state where it can be used to help diagnose and work on elements of technique and they are rapidly working out all the kinks. I’ll be writing up a more detailed review sometime in the next few weeks.

Tomorrow: I think it will be basically be a rest day.

Free form week

October 29, 2018Leave a comment

I’m between plans right nw, so I am just sort of making up as I go along.

Tuesday: Steady State OTW

Back on the Charles. Mostly messing around with the Quiske pod.

        Workout Summary - media/20181028-1930330o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13791|76:57.0|02:47.4|127.7|19.0|135.3|159.0|09.4
W-|10694|53:15.0|02:29.4|146.9|19.1|141.8|159.0|10.6
R-|03110|23:43.0|03:48.8|084.4|18.8|120.6|159.0|09.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00250|01:09.0|02:18.0|151.8|19.9|125.7|135.0|10.9
02|01050|05:14.4|02:29.7|133.3|18.2|134.6|142.0|11.0
03|00861|04:10.5|02:25.5|142.5|19.5|137.7|146.0|10.6
04|00611|02:46.3|02:16.0|182.8|21.2|145.0|159.0|10.4
05|02779|14:13.7|02:33.6|143.5|18.1|143.4|153.0|10.8
06|02704|13:21.1|02:28.1|146.6|18.3|144.0|153.0|11.1
07|00808|04:01.3|02:29.3|156.1|20.4|142.9|151.0|09.9
08|00348|01:45.0|02:31.1|133.9|20.6|146.6|150.0|09.7
09|00787|03:55.8|02:29.9|167.4|20.9|151.3|156.0|09.6
10|00071|00:23.1|02:43.6|135.8|20.9|122.7|125.0|08.8
11|00062|00:20.3|02:45.0|128.0|20.6|116.6|117.0|08.8
12|00364|01:54.8|02:37.6|122.9|21.4|131.9|138.0|08.9

Wednesday: No Training – Drs appointment

My weight is still too high (209lbs). Blood pressure is good 120/80 (with meds)

Thursday: Strength Training

I’d like to incorporate strength work into my offseason training so I started today.

hip equalization
foam roll quads
swiss ball twists with med ball
front plank 3 x 30sec
side plank 3 x 30sec each side
Front Squats. Bare bar, bar + 20, bar + 50…3 x 12
Good mornings. bare bar, bar + 50…3 x 12
inclined row on smith machine, 3 x 12

Friday: 3 x 20’/2′

OK, I was pretty close to paralyzed from the weight work on Thursday. But I did a slow 3 x 20 on the erg. No matter how much I slowed down, I could not keep my HR from going through the roof.

       Workout Summary - media/20181026-1240330o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15026|66:00.0|02:11.8|164.2|19.3|148.1|162.0|11.8
W-|14330|60:00.0|02:05.6|176.7|19.6|149.2|162.0|12.2
R-|00698|06:00.0|04:17.8|038.8|16.8|138.0|162.0|09.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04870|20:00.0|02:03.2|186.8|19.7|138.9|153.0|12.4
01|04789|20:00.0|02:05.3|177.9|19.9|153.0|161.0|12.0
02|04671|20:00.0|02:08.4|165.5|19.2|155.6|162.0|12.2

Saturday: Wicked Slow 10K push on the dynamic.

I thought I could be any more sore than I was on Friday. I was wrong. Putting on my underwear was torture. I staggered through grocery shopping and various household chores. Late in the day, I decided to do a short erg to try to loosen things up.

I started very slow. I intended to start at 2:15, but I just couldn’t bring myself to row that slowly. I ended up starting at 2:12, and shaving a second each 1000m. I did a little push at the end to 2:00.

        Workout Summary - media/20181027-2225340o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|42:25.0|02:07.2|169.9|21.5|143.6|171.0|11.0
W-|10000|42:25.0|02:07.3|169.9|21.5|143.6|171.0|11.0
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|171.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|04:24.1|02:12.1|149.6|18.1|112.1|123.0|12.5
01|01000|04:21.9|02:10.9|155.6|19.5|127.4|130.0|11.8
02|01000|04:19.2|02:09.6|160.7|20.1|135.2|139.0|11.5
03|01000|04:18.2|02:09.1|162.8|20.3|139.9|143.0|11.4
04|01000|04:16.8|02:08.4|165.1|21.3|142.1|146.0|11.0
05|01000|04:15.3|02:07.7|168.3|21.2|147.5|151.0|11.1
06|01000|04:12.8|02:06.4|173.0|22.1|151.4|155.0|10.7
07|01000|04:10.5|02:05.3|177.8|23.5|156.2|158.0|10.2
08|01000|04:08.4|02:04.2|182.5|23.5|160.5|163.0|10.3
09|01000|03:58.3|01:59.1|207.5|25.9|167.5|171.0|09.7

Sunday: 12km in a double with Joe

Technical issues with the speedcoach. For some reason, it did not save the session, even though I was sure that I had started it. Luckily, Joe was wearing his Garmin Fenix.

It was nice to get out. The water was really flat and there was very little wind. We rowed 20-22 spm to the south end of the lake. Then we did 2 rate ladders.

750m @ 22
500m @ 24
250m @ 26

Then we did a last ladder. In this one, Joe called for a power 10 and power 20 in each section. We then held the r26 to the end of the lake alternating about 10 power strokes with 10 lighter strokes. Then more steady state back to the boathouse.

Snake Race

October 14, 20181 Comment

It’s been a busy week. My last journal entry was on Oct 9 when I did a terrific 5 x 1500.

The rest of the 9th was a blur. I worked out, then a day full of meetings, then rushed off to go a wake (One of our best friends lost his brother to a sudden illness), then ate dinner, then to the airport to catch a ten o’clock flight to Geneva.

I slept really well on the flight. I probably got 5 hours of sleep. We landed in Zurich and then connected to Geneva, finally getting in around 2pm. I had meetings all afternoon, and then we went to dinner. I finally got back to the hotel around 10:30pm and had hoped to get right to bed. Unfortunately a time critical work issue came up and I spent the next 90 minutes on the phone.

My plan had been to do a short workout in the morning before my 10am flight home, but I decided that sleep was more important. I slept until 7:30, had a nice breakfast, called an Uber and went to the airport. The flight home was very uneventful. I did work most of the way, took a short nap, and then I was home. The worst part of the whole thing was the traffic home from the airport.

Friday – Oct 12: Drills and a little bit of race pace

My usual taper is to do a shrinking number of 500m pieces over the week before a race, and then just do a warmup on the day before. This time, I had two complete rest days but lots of inert travel time. I decided that it would be best to do some work on the day before the race to try to make sure that the race pace strokes felt OK.

I also wanted to do a lot of drill work. I find it quite calming, and it really engages my brain in the session. So the plan for the day was to do about 20 minutes of light rowing and drills, then a couple of 2′ race pace pieces, then more drills.

The summary shows the 4 – 1 minute pieces and 2 60 stroke pieces. Plus a little bonus sprint to the dock at the end. Notice the difference in power between the first 4 and the last three. The last three are against the current, so it takes a lot more watts to get the same splits.

          Workout Summary - media/20181012-1145320o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08125|49:34.0|03:03.1|097.9|22.1|127.3|164.0|07.4
W-|02106|09:14.0|02:11.7|178.9|25.4|146.2|163.0|09.0
R-|06029|40:20.0|03:20.8|079.4|21.4|123.0|163.0|04.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00217|00:56.6|02:10.2|146.6|22.2|140.2|148.0|10.4 
02|00178|00:45.8|02:08.7|177.7|26.1|139.9|148.0|08.9
03|00226|00:58.2|02:08.6|199.4|26.9|145.8|155.0|08.7
04|00217|00:56.1|02:09.4|151.2|25.6|148.4|157.0|09.1
05|00119|00:31.7|02:13.1|141.7|20.9|138.7|140.0|10.8
06|00513|02:16.8|02:13.4|186.9|25.8|150.5|162.0|08.7
07|00499|02:13.0|02:13.4|190.0|25.6|149.5|163.0|08.8
08|00137|00:36.5|02:13.5|202.6|27.7|139.4|149.0|08.1

Pretty easy session, only 18 minutes above a <ut2 level.

Then I loaded my boat on my car and went to work.

Saturday – 13 October: The Snake Race

This may be my only race of the season, and I hadn’t raced since my disappointing outing at last year’s Head of the Charles. I was nervous as hell before I launched, even though this was a low stakes local race. My competition was.

The rowers from Anchorage and Community scratched. As for the rest.

Maldari is a good rower from Lawrence, he’s beaten me and I’ve beaten him in other events, we are about the same speed.
Kisarale is a rower from Uganda. He’s 38, but he was in the 2015 Olympic qualifying regatta for Africa in the 2x. I’d never met him, but I suspected he was a lot faster than I am.
Haddon is a rower in my club. He was rowing this as a tune up for next weekend when he will be in the HOCR.
Krupnick was a 1st boat varsity rower at WPI and graduated in 2017. He was going to be MUCH faster than me.
Byrnes is in the other main club on the lake. I am usually faster
Sturges. Same story
Sontgerath was the guy that I wanted to beat. I had beaten him in the HOCR in 2015 and then returned the favor last year, beating me pretty badly. This may sound silly or immature, but I saw the race as between him and me.

The way the bow numbers were handed out, I was starting second to last, and Sontgerath was starting last behind me. So, it was simple, I just needed to keep my eye on him and maintain the spacing.

Bob and I launched around 8:30 for a 9am start. We warmed up going down to the start. For some reason, my speedcoach decided to stop soon after launching and I didn’t notice it until I was getting ready for the start. So, most of the warmup is missing.

It was cold and rainy, around 48F. There was a light and variable wind that seemed to be from the northwest, which is a cross/head wind. I only noticed it a couple of times during the race when I felt like I was working harder and the splits slowed down. I was quite glad to have the power meter.

Anyway, we were all at the start, and so the officials decided to move the start time up a few minutes so we wouldn’t just sit there getting cold and wet in the rain. We were called up to the start in order and off we went. The starting line was at the southern end of larger island, right about even with the label “Pinecrest”. My first target was Sturges. I saw him off my starboard side. You go up the western shore of the lake, and soon after the start is a beach that juts out. I decided that I could pass him to the shore side and still have enough room to steer out from the beach. It worked out fine and I was well clear of him by the time I steered a bit out from shore for the beach. The guy who started in from of Sturges was Kisarale, but when I looked around I saw no sign of him. I did see Byrnes, so he became my next target. He was also off my starboard side, and we had the narrows coming up. I just held my line and we slowly moved toward the buoy line that marked the starboard side of the course. I passed him right around the narrows and when I looked around I could spot anyone close enough to focus on.

Now it was time to just row. This is about where the video picks up. There is bit more than 1km from the narrows to the bridge. I was starting to feel the pain, so I started counting strokes. I got to about 130 when I got to the bridge. The whole time I was keeping my eyes on Heri (Sontgerath). At times, he seemed like he was closing the distance, and other times it seemed like I was stretching it out. Frankly, I didn’t even really remember how far back he was at the start, so I had no clue if I was ahead or not.

From the bridge to the end should be about another 200 strokes. Which I counted off as I went. It seemed like it took a lifetime to get from the bridge to the Gazebo. I thought it was almost another 1000m from the gazebo to the finish and so I just settled in and tried to avoid blowing up while I started scanning for the finish. I saw it, but in retrospect, I wish I had seen it sooner. I started my sprint later than I should have. But I finished strong. I thought the finish was going to be marked with white buoys. It was marked by a pair of oranges, which I thought represented the start of a finish chute. I continued my kick for another 100m beyond the finish to a white buoy.

That extra kick brought be me up to be close enough to chat with Maldari. Apparetly, he was trying to keep his seperation with me, like I was trying to with Heri. We had a nice chat about boats and stuff as we paddled to the docks. They I cooled down from the QRA docks to our club at regatta point.

The results

Third place, but first place amongst the old guys. I walked around 10 feet tall the rest of the day.

Here’s a video of the last 9 minutes of the race. The first 10 minutes were basically useless because of water on the lens.

Looking at the video, as always there is a lot of stuff that I need to work on. The most obvious is that I have re-established my habit of digging way too deep and rowing over a barrel. I also need to work on making the body and arms part of the stroke more powerful.

          Workout Summary - media/20181013-1355320o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08201|58:05.0|03:32.5|097.1|21.0|140.9|179.0|06.7
W-|05624|25:27.0|02:15.8|169.3|25.2|166.3|179.0|08.8
R-|02583|32:38.0|06:19.2|040.9|17.7|121.2|179.0|03.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00240|01:03.0|02:11.0|155.2|26.5|154.7|164.0|08.6
02|04363|19:36.7|02:14.9|176.1|25.8|170.7|179.0|08.6 - the race.
03|00632|02:55.2|02:18.6|151.6|22.6|150.2|159.0|09.6
04|00142|00:40.4|02:22.2|143.5|22.3|155.9|157.0|09.4
05|00247|01:12.0|02:25.8|128.4|21.6|148.8|151.0|09.5

My pace was 2:14.9 this year. I did this race in 2015 in similar conditions and my pace was a 2:12.9. Here is a link. 2015 was my best year at the HOCR. Comparing the two races, I pushed hard in 2015, with the last 5 minutes above 178 bpm. My rowing looks very similar. I am probably about 15 lbs heavier now. I am ever the optimist and when you put all that together, I come to the conclusion that I can get back to and even exceed where I was in 2015. As always, it comes down to weight, technique and fitness.

Well, enough for now. I think I will go do some easy rowing on the dreaded dynamic.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: Lake Quinsigamond