12K in a borrowed boat

September 30, 2017Leave a comment

I was excited all day long yesterday. On Thursday night, when I got home, I saw a big object wrapped in bubble wrap on my front porch. My new rigger!

I didn’t have time to get it on my boat and adjusted Thursday night, so I erg’ed on Friday morning and planned to install the new rigger as soon as I got home from work on Friday evening.

After dinner, I went out to get it all set up. I got the old rigger off the boat, started to unwrap the new rigger, and I noticed something looked a bit odd about the port end of it.

That’s funny, I didn’t remember them having a bend in the end of it like that, and it looks kind of sloppy. So, I unwrapped the starboard end.

That’s the way it’s supposed to look. Dammit, the rigger got bent in shipping. I looked more closely at the bend on the port end. The aluminum tube was actually fractured on the inner side where the crease was. This is not repairable and there is no way I would try to row with it. My boat is still unusable and it’s 21 days to the HOCR.

So, I dispatched an email to Fluid with pictures and I am awaiting instructions on what to do. In the mean time, I need to get my ass back in a boat with some urgency. So, today, I headed out to Worcester and made arrangements to borrow a friends peinert. Until I have a boat, I will just have to wake up earlier, and schlepp out to Worcester to get out on the water.

The plan today was to take it easy. Just get comfortable in the boat, build up some more aerobic endurance minutes and keep my HR below 155.

The conditions were not ideal. It was grey and cool, in the mid 50s, with a gusty 6-10mph wind from the North. This was shooting straight down the lake, so there was a good amount of chop. And heading into it was a slow slog. I was very interested in trying to be good to my back, so I purposely rowed more lightly and at a higher rate for this easy of a workout.

I started off with a double heading south on the lake. After about 1000m, I noticed that they weren’t behind me anymore, so I headed back to check on them. They were off in the cove doing some drill work, so I resumed my trip down lake. As I got back to them a single came by heading south, so I took off in pursuit. My rules were simple. Respect the HR cap. Keep the rate between 20-22. And catch up with him. I did, and passed him as we went through the narrows.

I rowed into the cove at the south end of the lake, had a quick drink and then headed north into the wind. I upped the rate to around a 23 to try to avoid putting too much pressure on my back and tried to rationalize that the pitifully slow pace was due to the head wind and chop. As I came past the little island coming out of the cove, I caught sight of an 8 from our club heading south, so I spun and followed them into the cove. The double that I started with was also coming south too.

We all headed into the cove again, and I spun. The double spun quickly and took off north again. I watched them go and they looked pretty smooth. I decided to give chase using the same rules as before. Respect the HR cap, keep the rate above 22, and focus on keeping my damn knees together at the catch. The chop was a bit challenging at times, and the gusty headwind slowed me down. It was a relief when I was rowing in the lee of an island or outcrop. The most obvious example of that is the drop in pace around 47 minutes. I went from being in the wind shadow coming up to the narrows into a choppy, gusty mess as soon as I passed it. I was gaining on the double all the way up to the bridge, but they bailed and headed into the boathouse. I continued up lake.

After another 1000m or so, I decided I wasn’t really enjoying the slog. Also, I was concerned that everyone would head in to the dock and I’d be making them wait if I went all the way up lake. So, I spun it around and did the downwind slide back to boathouse.

All in all, a very nice outing. My back feels good. I liked the Peinert. It seems a bit tippier than my fluid, so that was good practice to keep the boat set.

Oh, and I used the Polar OH1 on my arm today. It worked great, even under a long sleeve shirt.

Tomorrow: Steady State erg session, 60-80 minutes in 20′ chunks

Tuesday: 9 x 2′ / 1′ in the double

August 29, 2017Leave a comment

I needed to drop off my car for service out in Shrewsbury for service at 7am. So, I dropped a text to my friend Joe to see if he wanted to take out a double with me before I dropped off my car. We met at the boathouse at 5:30am, and the eastern sky was just starting to lighten up. It reminded me of last fall when we would do a couple sessions a week like this when we were getting ready for the HOCR.

It was cool, only about 50F and there was a lot of mist on the water. There was a bit of wind blowing from the North, maybe 6 mph of so. Just enough to make the boat feel heavier when we were rowing up lake.

My plan called for an L1 workout today. An 8×500 sprint session. I decided to dial it back a little bit and change it to more of a head race type session since I didn’t think it would be good to try to rate up too much. It takes a few good practices together before you can really get the timing down well enough to sprint together. I figured by cutting back the rests ad bringing down the stroke rate it would be a good threshold workout and it would fit into the trip up the lake. That would leave us the trip from the boathouse down to the south end of the lake to warmup and get used to rowing together, and the trip from the north end of the lake back to the boathouse for cool down.

So, the Plan:

8 or 9 x 2′ / 1′ rest
Target stroke rate: 26-28
Heart Rate Limit: None
Pace Target: Who knows. Maybe 2:15?

       Workout Summary - media/20170829-131818-Greg Smith 20170829 0546amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11696|62:17.0|02:39.8|000.0|24.2|149.1|173.0|07.8
W-|09238|43:52.0|02:22.5|000.0|24.7|153.0|173.0|08.6
R-|02471|18:24.0|03:43.5|000.0|22.1|132.5|173.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03364|16:00.0|02:22.7|000.0|22.3|143.9|162.0|09.4 - warmup
02|00414|02:00.0|02:25.0|000.0|25.1|144.7|158.0|08.2 - rep 1 - waked
03|00440|02:00.0|02:16.5|000.0|26.8|160.2|166.0|08.2 
04|00416|02:00.0|02:24.3|000.0|28.5|163.3|168.0|07.3 - waked
05|00437|02:00.0|02:17.4|000.0|27.6|162.9|171.0|07.9
06|00434|02:00.0|02:18.1|000.0|26.5|165.7|171.0|08.2
07|00445|02:00.0|02:14.9|000.0|26.7|163.1|171.0|08.3
08|00452|02:00.0|02:12.9|000.0|27.7|166.7|172.0|08.1
09|00451|02:00.0|02:13.1|000.0|27.4|166.3|173.0|08.2
10|00454|02:00.0|02:12.1|000.0|28.0|164.8|172.0|08.1
11|01932|09:52.7|02:33.4|000.0|23.9|151.3|160.0|08.2 - cool down

There was a ski boat out at the same time as us. He nailed us in the middle of our first interval, and then again with 30 seconds left in the third interval. We were free and clear after that. With the head wind we were a bit slower than I thought we’d be, but I was also rowing a bit lighter than I normally would, trying to be careful of my back.

My back was really touchy this morning before we set off. If I bent wrong, I got shooting pains in my hip and lower back. I stretched a bit before we launched and worked my way out to full length during the warmup and it felt much better by the time we finished.

It was a great workout. I really like rowing in the double. I like stroking and not having to worry about steering and its nice to be out rowing with someone literally in the same boat.

Tomorrow: The workout plan calls for an 80′ L4. I am going to continue to substitute r20 endurance sessions for L4s for the foreseeable future to minimize risk of aggrevating my back injury.

For reference, here’s the link to the google sheet with my workout plan and daily summary.

Sunday: Failed L3 – A bit breezy on Lake Quinsigamond

August 20, 20172 Comments

Weather: Sunny, low 70s. Brisk wind from the NNW. Quite gusty. I launched at about 7:15. So, the wind got a little gentler as I rowed down to the south end, and then picked up again as I rowed north.

Plan:

I have been taking more rest days than planned recently, so I am behind on the training plan. So, even though I had a tough L2 yesterday, I decided to do an L3 session this morning. The lake is much better for hard distance because you can get nearly 6K in without turning around.

L3 – hard distance
5.5km from south end of the lake to the north end
stroke rate: 25
effective length target: > 75 deg
WPS target: > 450

I rowed to the south end of the lake as a long warmup. I did a couple of rate ladders. The whole way south, I debated just doing ladders for the whole workout instead of doing the L3. Clearly, my head was not really in the game today. My back was acting up as well. I was hoping it would settle down like it did yesterday, but I was getting a twinge on each stroke.

Anyway, I turned north and started up. I got about 20 strokes into it and a big splash sent the RIM app to some setup screen and I no longer had any stroke rate information. (I had the speedcoach set up to show pace, HR, Eff Len and work per stroke). I stopped and quit out of RIM and started Crewnerd which has a much more effective screen lock mechanism. Then I started up again.

I was trying to row clean against the gusty headwind and I was making very slow progress. I would do OK when I got into the wind shadow of islands or headlands, but in the gusts, I was having some trouble getting to my target length in the chop and with the wind pushing around my oars.

I plugged along, but by the 1500m mark, I was losing hope. I rowed through the narrows and eased up the pressure a bit. I just tried to row clean. I figured I could at least make it to the bridge and I was almost there when I was massively waked by a waterskiing boat towing a skier. The wakes hit me at the same time as a big gust of wind and it was a little bit too much for me to handle. I stopped rowing after about 2600, about 400m short of the bridge.

What to do now. My back hurt, I was tired, and I wasn’t having much fun. I decided to turn around and go find the double that was a ways behind me, and just row with them for a while. I rowed back to the narrows and saw them coming through. I turned and just rowed easy with them all the way up to the bridge. By then I was feeling a bit better. More importantly, I saw a double from the other club about 100m north of the bridge. Ah ha, a target. I brought the rate back up to 25 and tried to row a lightly and cleanly as I could with the head wind. I slowly reeled them in, and passed them about 1000m north of the bridge. Now, I was motivated to get to the end. But there were more challenges to confront. Another massive waking, and then a fishing boat trolling along very slowly right in my way. I basically needed to stop to get through that mess. But I spooled back up to my target rate and pushed through the last couple hundred strokes to the north end of the lake.

I was toast. I basically square bladed the whole way back to the club. The western edge of the lake was reasonably well sheltered from the wind and what there was of it was coming from behind, so it was nice easy rowing.

        Workout Summary - media/20170820-144123-Greg Smith 20170820 0715amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13568|80:52.0|02:58.8|140.2|21.8|143.8|176.0|07.7
W-|11728|62:16.0|02:39.3|150.4|21.5|144.9|176.0|08.9
R-|01847|18:35.0|05:02.1|066.3|20.5|127.2|176.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00700|04:00.0|02:51.5|120.6|16.7|113.2|129.0|10.5 - 4' @ 16
01|00598|03:00.0|02:30.5|145.3|17.8|132.3|139.0|11.2 - 3' @ 18
02|00402|02:00.0|02:29.2|152.3|20.1|141.7|144.0|10.0 - 2' @ 20
03|00204|01:00.0|02:26.8|172.9|22.0|146.2|148.0|09.3 - 1' @ 22
04|00770|04:00.0|02:35.8|127.1|16.8|139.1|148.0|11.5 - 4' @ 16
05|00600|03:00.0|02:29.9|145.7|18.4|142.6|145.0|10.9 - 3' @ 18
06|00203|01:00.0|02:27.9|168.6|20.0|146.5|150.0|10.1 - 1' @ 20
07|02648|13:07.8|02:28.8|191.9|25.3|160.3|171.0|08.0 - 1st hard piece
08|00701|03:58.8|02:50.3|135.9|19.1|138.0|143.0|09.2 - loop around
09|01659|08:28.2|02:33.1|176.8|24.2|156.1|169.0|08.1 - 2nd hard piece
10|01050|05:19.8|02:32.3|189.3|25.7|167.7|176.0|07.6 - bit after wake
11|02192|13:22.2|03:02.9|096.7|19.8|130.6|152.0|08.3 - SBR drills

A few stroke metrics

Tomorrow: Recovery session on the Charles. HR limit at 150.

I sure missed this. 14km 2x

August 6, 20171 Comment

I got home at 2:15am on Saturday morning. It was pure bliss getting back into my own bed. I slept like a log. I was stunned to see it was 11am when I finally woke up.

I spent the day just puttering around the house. I did some grocery shopping and laundry. I didn’t feel like training, so I didn’t. I got to bed around midnight. Even though I didn’t feel that sleepy, I fell asleep quickly and slept until 5. I woke up and I knew instantly that I was done sleeping. I tried to sleep a bit more, but a thought crept into my head. If I’m awake anyway, maybe I should head out to Worcester and go rowing. This seemed like a much better thing to do than to toss and turn in bed not sleeping.

So, I did. I got up, put my name on the sign up list, got my stuff together and headed out to Quinsigamond. When I got there, I was delighted to see Joe and Bob. Bob suggested we take out the Wintech. I thought that was a great idea. I haven’t been in a boat since July 16th. A nice stable double sounded perfect. I could let him steer and I could just focus on trying to remember how to row.

It came back quickly.

I didn’t have much of a plan. I ultimately decided that I should do some kind of an approximation of the L3 workout that was scheduled for Yesterday. But mostly, I was just really enjoying the feeling of being in the boat. The feeling of connection. The sound of the bubbles running along the hull.

We headed south and I fell into a groove at around 23 SPM. I just went with it. We had a bit of a tail wind and the pace was generally between 2:10 and 2:15. I was working pretty hard, and by the sound of Bob’s breathing, he was working pretty hard too. We got waked a couple of times by waterskiing boats, but generally it was just a nice hard row all the way down lake.

We turned to go north, and I suggested we take it down a bit and do some easy rate ladders. This plan didn’t last all that long though. As we were coming out of the cove at the south end of the lake, we saw the quad from our club going the other way, so we looped around the little island and followed them back into the cove.

We stopped and chatted for a few minutes and then we both started up again. Bob said he would feel ore comfortable ahead of them than behind them, and the rest, as they say, is history. I brought the rate back up to about a 24 and decided that we would “do the lake”. This is a nice 5+km piece. Basically a perfect head race distance.

Now I didn’t push it as hard as a full on head race simulation, but I wanted it to be a good threshold L3 training piece. Now the wind was ahead of us and it was building. We launched at about 7:10 and we would have started up lake around 7:40.

The row was close to uneventful. One or two wakings, but generally we just clicked along. The wind got a bit gusty once we were north of the Rt 9 bridge, but the water was flat. Bob asked for a hard twenty at the end, and then tacked on another 10 for fun. We were both puffing hard by the time we finished.

Then we turned around and took it easy almost all the way back. Bob asked for 50 hard strokes at the end. It was a good way to finish.

Today made it easy to remember why I really like this sport. Pushing hard is easy on a crisp, sunny morning like today.

Tomorrow: Schedule calls for a rest day, but I did that yesterday. I think I will try to do an L4 OTW in Newton.

Saturday: 20km on Quinsig

June 3, 20172 Comments

One must be adaptable. My original plan was to do a long open water row this morning, but we decided to stay home instead of going to the cape this weekend. So, I texted Joe and asked him if he wanted to do a long row in the double this morning at 6.

He was willing, so that was the plan. The weather this morning was beautiful. A bit chilly, in the upper 40s. There was no wind when we arrived, but a light breeze picked up by the time we launched. It was shifty, coming sometimes from the NE, sometimes from the SE, and sometimes it was non-existent. This was mostly a cross wind. It was sunny and clear and the water was nice and flat.

We took out the Wintech double that we bought from Saugatuck. I really like the boat. It’s easy to set and much lighter than the old Vespoli we had been rowing last year.

I didn’t have much of a plan, beyond 90 minutes of UT1. We rowed to the south end of the lake. That was mostly just us getting in sync and watching the scenery. I stepped up the stroke rate over the last 1500m or so to spice things up.

Once we spun the boat, I asked if Joe was up for some easy rate ladders. He was, and off we went. The plan was 6 minute ladders. 3 minutes at r20, 2 minutes at r22, and 1 minute at r24. Repeat until you run out of lake.

It took us 4 and half ladders to get to the north end of the lake. I checked if we had the time and energy to go all the way back to the south end of the lake. We did 🙂

Going back south, it took almost 5 complete ladders. We got waked right at the end, which was a bummer. By then we were getting short on time so we spun the boat and headed back north to the boat house. We did two more ladders, which brought us to about 1k south of the bridge. Joe said we should row past the docks since there was a crowd gathering for learn to row day. The plan would be to row at r20 until we got to the bridge, and then I would bring the rate up to 28 or so and we would demonstrate the beauty and grace of our rowing to assembled throng.

That was the plan. I’m not sure how beautiful or graceful it was, but there was a lot of water in the footwell and Joe looked very wet by the time we finished. :-O I guess I really need work on my catches to reduce my backsplash!

After that we helped out with our humble part of National Learn To Row Day. We had a couple dozen folks show up. So we taught the basics of the stroke on a dozen ergs, got the to sign away all their rights, and then took them out in a couple of eights for a quick row.

All in all, a fantastic morning.

Tomorrow: rest day.

Mulching, rowing and wimping out

May 8, 2017Leave a comment

Saturday: In the driveway was a pile of 5 cubic yards of dark pine mulch. It was raining and about 60F. I procrastinated until about 11am, and then I finally got my ass outside to spread it. The process is simple and labor intensive.

Use an edger to clean up the edge of the bed
dig out the dirt and mulch that has settled into the edges
Get all the weeds out of the bed
Spread mulch

It sounds simple, but I spent from 11am to 3pm, and then from 3:30 to 7:00pm doing it and I didn’t quite finish. By the time I was done, I could barely lift my arms, and getting up from a sitting position was a struggle. I’d call that 7 and a half hours of strength/endurance training.

Sunday: I was tired and sore when I woke up, but I really wanted to go rowing with my friends out in Worcester. The morning was grey, around 50F, and windy. The wind was blowing from the SSW between 10 and 15 mph. It felt like the gusts were higher than that.

We had 6 of us rowing, two people wanted to take singles, so I doubled up with Bob in our “new” wintech double. I was eager to give it a real tryout.

I didn’t have much of a plan for the workout, so we just rowed down to the south end of the lake, into the wind. We had a lot of starts and stops at the beginning as I tried to get the speedcoach working and Bob got his Garmin Fenix running right, but after the first 1000m or so, we got into a rythym. It was slow going into the wind, but the boat felt good. I was enjoying myself a lot.

When we turned around at the south end of the lake, I asked Bob if he would be OK doing some rate ladders. I ended up messing with some of the durations as we went, but it was good to row with specific rate targets. I think we got better synchronized as the row went on.

After we got the north end of the lake, we noticed that the wind had picked up even more. The row back to the boathouse was very slow and heavy going. I was glad that I was in a double. It would have been a bit hair raising in my single with that much wind and chop.

I tried to reconstruct the ladders as best I could.

Workout Summary - media/20170508-150701-SpdCoach 2182533 20170507 0744amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10759|55:03.0|02:33.5|000.0|23.0|154.3|176.0|08.5
W-|10500|52:03.0|02:28.7|000.0|23.0|155.2|176.0|08.8
R-|00268|03:00.0|05:35.9|000.0|20.1|119.5|176.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00004|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|09.5|086.0|86.0|00.0
01|00682|03:15.0|02:23.0|000.0|22.3|141.1|149.0|09.4
02|01967|09:45.0|02:28.7|000.0|23.8|152.7|166.0|08.5
03|00651|03:00.0|02:18.2|000.0|20.7|142.9|153.0|10.5
04|00432|02:00.0|02:19.0|000.0|21.6|156.1|158.0|10.0
05|00218|01:00.0|02:17.8|000.0|23.0|159.1|161.0|09.5
06|00228|01:00.0|02:11.4|000.0|24.9|161.7|162.0|09.2
07|00860|04:00.0|02:19.6|000.0|22.8|163.0|169.0|09.4
08|00643|03:00.0|02:19.9|000.0|22.2|159.4|161.0|09.6
09|00438|02:00.0|02:17.1|000.0|24.7|163.9|167.0|08.8
10|00229|01:00.0|02:11.2|000.0|26.1|168.5|170.0|08.8
11|00812|04:00.0|02:27.8|000.0|21.1|161.7|169.0|09.6
12|00421|02:00.0|02:22.4|000.0|22.8|160.8|163.0|09.3
13|00702|03:15.0|02:18.8|000.0|27.0|168.2|176.0|08.0
14|01751|10:00.0|02:51.3|000.0|22.1|148.9|159.0|07.9
15|00462|02:48.2|03:02.0|000.0|24.1|157.4|167.0|06.9

It was hard work, but a pretty short session.

It was great to see my friends and I really like the wintech double.

After I got home, I spent another couple hours finishing up the mulching. Not nearly as strenuous as Saturday’s labors but still.

Monday: I felt awful last night. I thought I might be coming down with something. Or maybe I was just worn out from my busy weekend. I felt like I might be getting a fever. Nevertheless, I set out my stuff to go rowing this morning, and I was out the door before 5:30 to get to the river.

As I was driving there, it started to rain. And I notice that the temperature was only around 42F. I made an executive decision. I decided to blow of “real” rowing and just go do a quick erg session at work before my first meeting at 9am. I had some prep to do and I felt my stress level go down as soon as I decided.

I didn’t have any shoes, so I rowed in socks. I don’t much like that since my heels tend to slip out, but it would do for the short session I had in mind.

I just did a easy 10K push. I started with a target of 2:09, and sped up by a second for every 1000m. This was easy to keep track of because the pace was the same as the leading digit of the distance to go. 9xxx –> 2:09, 8xxx –> 2:08, 7xxx –> 2:07, etc.

It was also really easy rowing at the beginning and only started to feel tougher with about 3000m to go.

I enjoyed that session too.

Tomorrow: I will try to get back on the marathon plan. I haven’y yet done any of these workouts on the water. So tomorrow will be.

4 x 15′ / 4′

6′ @ 5KP, 9′ @ MP

92.5%

(172)

Now, I don’t really know exactly how to pace this, so I will try to row it to power. So that would make my targets 225 to 240 for 5KP and 180 to 195 for MP. I’m interested to see how it works.

The other challenge that I have is river length. I can just about squeeze in 15 minutes, but the longer intervals in the plan will require me to spin to get them done.

Saturday: Last row of the season?

November 19, 2016November 19, 20164 Comments

It was beautiful out today. Clear skies and sunny. Upper 30s at the start, rising to around 45F by the time we finished. A light wind from the north was a gentle tail wind heading downlake and a head wind heading up lake. Enough to effect the pace a bit, but not enough to stir up any chop. I can’t imagine a better day for rowing.

I was in my single and Joe, Heri, Leanne and Pam were in the quad. I had a simple training plan.

Stay with the quad.

All I really wanted to do was row, and I was enjoying the company. They were going easy sometimes and then doing some power pieces. I just try to match pace with them. We headed downlake first, at a reasonably hard steady state pace for me. Then a bit easier heading up lake, although with the head wind, it felt almost as hard.

After the narrows, I could hear when Joe would call for a 10 or a 20 and I would increase the pressure to stay even with them. We took a brief break just north of the Route 9 bridge, and then continued to the north end of the lake. From the QRA boathouse, the quad picked up the rate and I matched to them.

We took another break and started to head home. Joe said that they were going to take it easy until 2/3 of the way home, and then do a hard 500m piece. Rowing downlake, I got a bit ahead of them and then slowed to a paddle around the start of the 500. I saw them take up the rate and I waited until they were about a length behind me and I did the same. Because they were at speed and I was still accelerating, they pulled a little bit ahead of me by the time I was about 20 strokes into it. I pushed up the rate and I started to claw them back so we were even at 40 strokes. We finished around stroke 55 for me, and I was maybe a quarter length up on them. It was fun doing it side by side like that.

Then an easy paddle back to the dock. After we landed, I took off my rigger and packed my boat into the back of the boathouse for the winter. 😦

Workout Summary - media/20161119-152227-79032o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11996|68:58.0|02:52.5|000.0|20.0|145.4|171.0|08.7
W-|10100|48:19.0|02:23.6|000.0|20.5|151.6|171.0|10.2
R-|01896|20:39.0|05:26.7|000.0|18.0|125.8|171.0|06.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
02|03300|15:18.7|02:19.2|000.0|20.4|153.2|167.0|10.6
03|03300|16:26.5|02:29.5|000.0|19.4|151.4|163.0|10.3
04|02000|09:29.1|02:22.3|000.0|21.7|155.2|170.0|09.7
05|01000|05:01.1|02:30.6|000.0|18.7|137.7|142.0|10.6
06|00500|02:04.6|02:04.6|000.0|28.1|159.4|171.0|08.6

I did some quick analysis of the row. Looking at pace versus stroke rate. These two plots show tail wind and head wind difference. Tail wind is on the left. Head wind is on the right.

Finally, here is a view of the last 500m piece. You can see my rate and pace increasing at the beginning.

Tomorrow: L3 half marathon. Aiming to do a bit better than the 1:23:33 from last week.

Wednesday: 3 x 500 Taper (in 2x)

October 19, 20164 Comments

On Lake Quinsigamond in the Vespoli double with Joe.

Weather: Wicked dark! Warm, around 65F. Wind from the SW around 10mph, but it felt like it was lighter in middle and kicked up a bit again at the end.

Plan:

Long Rojabo style warmup
3 x 500
- Pace: ~2:00
- Rate: 28-30
Long rests with square blade drills
Long cool down with some more sets of 20 to work on technique

No Heart Rate data. I assume the battery in the H7 gave up the ghost.

The intervals were basically at a 2:00 pace. I feel like that’s pretty good boat speed for us.

Workout Summary - media/20161019-125836-77588o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07192|43:07.0|02:59.9|22.0|0.0|0.0|07.6
W-|01503|06:01.0|02:00.4|29.0|000.0|0.0|08.6
R-|09690|61:51.0|03:11.5|03.8|000.0|0.0|06.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
02|00502|02:00.4|01:59.9|29.1|0.0|0.0|08.6
03|00503|02:01.2|02:00.6|28.4|0.0|0.0|08.8
04|00499|02:00.3|02:00.7|29.7|0.0|0.0|08.4

I stuck the GoPro camera on the stern today to get a look at how well we were rowing together. It was way too dark to see much for the first 45 minutes of the outing, but it was light enough during the last 10 minutes or so during our row back to the boathouse at the end. We did four sets of 20 strokes on / 20 strokes off you can see in the rate plot above. They were at 28, 24, 26, and 24 spm.

So, it looks like you will have to sneak over to youtube to see the video, I can’t seem to embed it anymore. Here’s the link.

Monday: 4 x ( 5 x 2′ / 30″ rest) / 3′ rest in 2x

October 17, 2016Leave a comment

Weather: Incredible. Very little wind. Flat water. Temperature above 60F!!!! A full moon out, so visibility was great even though the sun didn’t come up until we were done.

Plan:

warm up to north end of lake. A couple of power 10s and a power 20.
4 sets of (5 x 2′ on / 30″ paddle)
Each set done as a ladder 24/26/28/26/24
2 to 3 minutes of rest between sets
cool down back to boat house

| Tstart_ | Dist_ | Time_ | _Pace_ | SPM_ | avgHR | _DPS___ | Remarks
| 00:00.0 | 02417 | 14:29 | 2:59.8 | 18.4 | 124.3 | 09.1 | warming up
| 14:29.0 | 00453 | 02:00 | 2:12.5 | 24.2 | 148.7 | 09.3 |
| 16:29.0 | 00094 | 00:30 | 2:39.6 | 22.6 | 155.8 | 08.3 |
| 16:59.0 | 00462 | 02:00 | 2:09.9 | 26.5 | 159.4 | 08.7 |
| 18:59.0 | 00093 | 00:30 | 2:41.3 | 23.5 | 159.5 | 07.9 |
| 19:29.0 | 00459 | 02:00 | 2:10.7 | 27.7 | 161.0 | 08.3 |
| 21:29.0 | 00083 | 00:30 | 3:00.7 | 22.1 | 160.6 | 07.5 |
| 21:59.0 | 00441 | 02:00 | 2:16.1 | 26.2 | 158.3 | 08.4 |
| 23:59.0 | 00087 | 00:30 | 2:52.4 | 22.9 | 159.6 | 07.6 |
| 24:29.0 | 00444 | 02:00 | 2:15.1 | 24.4 | 158.2 | 09.1 |
| 26:29.0 | 00175 | 02:00 | 5:42.9 | 15.6 | 125.6 | 05.6 |
| 28:29.0 | 00450 | 02:01 | 2:14.4 | 24.4 | 147.4 | 09.1 |
| 30:30.0 | 00084 | 00:29 | 2:52.6 | 22.9 | 155.8 | 07.6 |
| 30:59.0 | 00449 | 02:00 | 2:13.6 | 26.4 | 158.7 | 08.5 |
| 32:59.0 | 00087 | 00:30 | 2:52.4 | 23.2 | 162.3 | 07.5 |
| 33:29.0 | 00462 | 02:00 | 2:09.9 | 27.9 | 162.8 | 08.3 |
| 35:29.0 | 00083 | 00:30 | 3:00.7 | 23.5 | 164.9 | 07.1 |
| 35:59.0 | 00448 | 02:00 | 2:13.9 | 26.1 | 164.1 | 08.6 |
| 37:59.0 | 00083 | 00:30 | 3:00.7 | 23.7 | 164.8 | 07.0 |
| 38:29.0 | 00439 | 02:00 | 2:16.7 | 24.7 | 162.3 | 08.9 |
| 40:29.0 | 00359 | 04:00 | 5:34.3 | 15.1 | 119.7 | 05.9 |
| 44:29.0 | 00451 | 02:00 | 2:13.0 | 24.5 | 143.9 | 09.2 |
| 46:29.0 | 00085 | 00:30 | 2:56.5 | 23.1 | 153.8 | 07.4 |
| 46:59.0 | 00452 | 02:00 | 2:12.7 | 26.7 | 157.0 | 08.5 |
| 48:59.0 | 00085 | 00:30 | 2:56.5 | 24.5 | 161.0 | 06.9 |
| 49:29.0 | 00461 | 02:00 | 2:10.2 | 28.5 | 161.9 | 08.1 |
| 51:29.0 | 00083 | 00:30 | 3:00.7 | 24.4 | 164.9 | 06.8 |
| 51:59.0 | 00442 | 02:00 | 2:15.7 | 26.6 | 161.3 | 08.3 |
| 53:59.0 | 00085 | 00:30 | 2:56.5 | 24.0 | 161.8 | 07.1 |
| 54:29.0 | 00457 | 02:00 | 2:11.3 | 24.8 | 162.1 | 09.2 |
| 56:29.0 | 00258 | 03:00 | 5:48.8 | 23.9 | 128.0 | 03.6 |
| 59:29.0 | 00438 | 02:00 | 2:17.0 | 26.3 | 147.0 | 08.3 |
| 01:29.0 | 00095 | 00:30 | 2:37.9 | 24.5 | 156.2 | 07.8 |
| 01:59.0 | 00471 | 02:00 | 2:07.4 | 28.4 | 161.5 | 08.3 |
| 03:59.0 | 00084 | 00:30 | 2:58.6 | 25.1 | 165.1 | 06.7 |
| 04:29.0 | 00465 | 02:00 | 2:09.0 | 30.1 | 165.7 | 07.7 |
| 06:29.0 | 00082 | 00:30 | 3:02.9 | 22.9 | 168.0 | 07.2 |
| 06:59.0 | 00454 | 02:00 | 2:12.2 | 28.0 | 165.6 | 08.1 |
| 08:59.0 | 00077 | 00:30 | 3:14.8 | 24.2 | 168.2 | 06.4 |
| 09:29.0 | 00448 | 02:00 | 2:13.9 | 26.5 | 165.5 | 08.5 |
| 11:29.0 | 01353 | 09:48 | 3:37.3 | 19.4 | 128.1 | 07.1 |

| Tstart_ | Dist_ | Time_ | _Pace_ | SPM_ | avgHR | _DPS___ | Remarks
| 00:00.0 | 02417 | 14:29 | 2:59.8 | 18.4 | 124.3 | 09.1 | warmup
| 00:00.0 | 02162 | 16:59 | 3:55.7 | 20.7 | 141.5 | 06.2 | rests
| 00:00.0 | 01353 | 09:48 | 3:37.3 | 19.4 | 128.1 | 07.1 | cool down
| 00:00.0 | 02694 | 12:01 | 2:13.8 | 24.5 | 153.8 | 09.2 | r24
| 00:00.0 | 03580 | 16:00 | 2:14.1 | 26.4 | 158.9 | 08.5 | r26
| 00:00.0 | 02307 | 10:00 | 2:10.0 | 28.1 | 162.6 | 08.2 | r28
| 00:00.0 | 00465 | 02:00 | 2:09.0 | 30.1 | 165.7 | 07.7 | r30

That was exhausting, but pretty darn fun. HR was notably low for the RPE of the workout. I guess I was never really on the edge. And the boat speed was better. We’ve done this workout twice before. The first time our avg pace was 2:14.1. The second time it was windier and the avg pace was 2:15.5. Today, on very nice water, and with a lower HR, the avg pace was 2:12.7. Gotta say, I’m pretty happy with that.

It’s interesting how we were faster at r24 than we were at r26. Part of that is that the r24s were the first and last rep of each set, so we were fresher in the first and more motivated in the last, but I also think that we are just cleaner at r24. I think for racing we should probably be working between these two rates.

Tomorrow: Back in my single for a taper session 4 x 500 at r28. With long rests and some technique drills.

Friday: Head Race Piece in the 2x

October 15, 2016October 16, 20162 Comments

Thursday: I got home from the airport around 11pm. I slept in and didn’t have a chance to workout. Probably not a bad idea anyway. I felt pretty beaten up by the flights.

Friday:

Weather: Light wind from the NorthEast, about 3-5 mph. A tailwind for the first 5K of the 6.5K piece. It was completely dark at 5:30am. It was around sunrise when we finished.

Plan:

Warmup to the north end of the lake
Head race piece from the north end of the lake, with a loop around the islands to practice turning under pressure
Rate: 24-25, Pace between 2:15 and 2:20
Cool down: just back to the dock.

I felt shaky at first. It had been 2 weeks since I had been in a boat. But by the time we got to the north end of the lake, I was fine. In some ways, it might have been good. I was a bit more deliberate in my stroke. I was doing better getting my blades off the water, and I was more conscious about blade depth.

Since I had had been out of the boat for a while, and also since Joe was racing on Saturday, we decided to keep the rate a bit lower. This worked out well. Sad to say, we start to lose efficiency above about 25 spm.

Workout Summary – media/20161014-165601-77329o.csv
–|Total|-Total-|–Avg–|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
–|Dist-|-Time–|-Pace–|SPM-|-HR–|-HR–|-DPS
–|10880|62:16.0|02:51.7|23.1|147.7|173.0|07.5

Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
02|02000|10:29.3|02:37.3|21.0|144.6|158.0|09.1
03|06500|29:43.7|02:17.2|25.4|165.1|173.0|08.6
04|01780|13:06.0|03:40.8|20.1|132.1|173.0|06.8

The was the dawn after we put away the boat. I pretty morning.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: Lake Quinsigamond

12K in a borrowed boat

Tuesday: 9 x 2′ / 1′ in the double

Sunday: Failed L3 – A bit breezy on Lake Quinsigamond

I sure missed this. 14km 2x

Saturday: 20km on Quinsig

Mulching, rowing and wimping out

Saturday: Last row of the season?

Wednesday: 3 x 500 Taper (in 2x)

Monday: 4 x ( 5 x 2′ / 30″ rest) / 3′ rest in 2x

Friday: Head Race Piece in the 2x