Sunday: Busy. No time to work out.
Monday: Did sunday’s session.
| M2 | 3 x 20′ / 2′ | MP, 10KP, HMP | 90.0% | (167) |
Power targets were:
I aimed for the lower end of the ranges. I ignored the HR cap.
Tomorrow: This session on the water
| M1 | 4 x 15′ / 4′ | 7′ @ 5KP, 8′ @ MP | 92.5% | (172) |
I will row it to power
In San Diego at Crossfit DelMar.
The plan was to start getting back into formal marathon training. I’ll admit I was a little worried about how it would go. I went to be reasonably early and slept OK. I felt pretty good in the morning.
Workout
I don’t even understand why this workout felt so good. It didn’t feel easy, but my heart rate was nice and low and there was no doubt about being able to handle it. I was able to increment up the power as I went through the repeats.
Tomorrow: I’m taking the red eye home tonight. I’m planning to go for a easy technique row on my way home from the airport. Probably a lot of SBR maybe a bit of bungee rowing.
Easy session to finish off the week.
Workout Summary - media/Import_29133954.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|14345|60:00.0|02:05.5|177.2|19.0|148.0|000.0|11.0 W-|14345|60:00.0|02:05.5|177.2|19.0|148.0|000.0|11.0 R-|00675|04:00.0|02:57.8|062.3|00.0|000.0|000.0|00.0 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|07173|30:00.0|02:05.5|177.2|19.0|000.0|0.0|00.0 01|07172|30:00.0|02:05.5|177.1|20.0|000.0|0.0|00.0
Comparison to mid-February
It’s been a long winter and I haven’t seen my friends from the rowing club since late fall. They have been doing erg sessions on Saturday mornings down at boathouse at the lake. I had intended to go last weekend, but I wasn’t feeling to great on Friday night and bailed out. I actually made it this weekend.
I did a normal marathon training session. I kept pushing the power from the last session and I felt OK throughout.
Good session. Comparison to the one on Tuesday.
More power / higher heart rates.
Today: 2×30’/2′ @ 175W
I am really grateful for a post over on RowingMusings that introduced me to an add on to Strava called StravistiX.
It is an online tool that essentially does a version of TRIMP (Training Impulse), a method to measure total training load that uses both the duration and the intensity of a session. Intensity is measured as a % of HRR. (HRR is the delta between your maxHR and your RestingHR).
StravistiX has implemented a flavor of this as a pretty seamless add-on to Strava. So, now I routinely upload each session to Strava, either directly, or as an export from rowsandall, and every week or so, I sync it to StravistiX.
This is the output I get.
So, you can see in one chart the story of my training since January 15th.
On Januray 16th, I was cleared to get back to training after my knee surgery. I’ve had a greater number of rest days than I normally plan (14 vs 8), mainly due to an insane business travel schedule.
Despite this, I have tried to keep on track with the Marathon training plan, and it seems to be paying off. By the measures here, I am in overload right now. I’m not sure if that is a bad thing or not. And it seems to think that my fitness is improving.
I’m planning on reviewing this weekly and probably posting something about monthly. Right now I’m doing it to learn. Eventually, I might use it to guide the intensity of the training sessions I have planned.
It’s workouts like today that really spark my curiosity about exercise physiology.
I’ve been having a great string of workouts, and I’ve been feeling pretty sharp.
I will admit that I was feeling tired when I got up this morning, but I got a good night’s sleep. But I was looking forward to a nice long, easy cruise.
The plan called for a 2×45’/4′ rest. I decided to substitute a half marathon at the same power just to change it up a bit.
What happened in the workout was very strange. My HR started low, and just kept going up. I didn’t feel like I was working extra hard, but my HR just never plateaued.
Just look at the difference between this and the 2×45′ session I did on Sunday.
So, what’s going on? A few theories
I’d love to understand this stuff better.
Plan:
| 6-Mar | M1 | 4 x 15′ / 4′ | 6′ @ 5KP, 9′ @ MP | 92.5% | (172) |
Target power
I did my session yesterday from 5pm to about 6:30pm and it was a long one. I felt lethargic this morning and I wasted time doing email to avoid going down to the gym. I finally got up the motivation and headed downstairs around 7:30am.
I started with a 4 minute warmup and I felt short of breath. I was worried that things might go very badly. They didn’t.
I settled into 250W and 25 spm for the 5kp bit and just counted strokes. I hit 150 strokes right at 6 minutes, and downshifted to 195W. My HR stayed nice and low during the 5kp and came back down quickly at mp.
The second interval was hard work, but I had no trouble. Same with the third. My HR was no where near the limit, so I decided to push the last one faster, up to 265W. This did the trick. It pushed my HR up to about 170bpm. It still settled nicely after the downshift.
Pretty great session.
The last time I did this was in late January. There is really no comparison. Today was way better.
Workout Summary - media/Import_29062564.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|18451|75:48.0|02:03.3|197.9|22.6|146.5|170.0|10.8 W-|16220|63:48.0|01:58.0|214.6|22.7|151.0|170.0|11.2 R-|02237|12:00.0|02:41.0|088.7|21.0|119.7|170.0|00.0 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|01045|04:00.0|01:54.8|220.5|22.7|127.1|143.0|11.5 01|01488|06:00.0|02:00.9|224.8|24.5|145.2|157.0|10.1 02|02245|09:00.0|02:00.3|201.1|21.4|147.9|159.0|11.7 03|01566|06:00.0|01:55.0|232.9|24.5|147.5|161.0|10.6 04|02237|09:00.0|02:00.7|197.4|21.4|152.7|162.0|11.6 05|01603|06:00.0|01:52.3|243.6|24.6|153.4|164.0|10.9 06|02229|09:00.0|02:01.1|195.7|21.0|155.4|165.0|11.8 07|01629|06:00.0|01:50.5|257.4|25.4|159.4|170.0|10.7 08|02177|08:48.3|02:01.3|193.9|21.5|157.8|169.0|11.5
Tomorrow:
| 7-Mar | M2 | 3 x 20′ / 2′ | MP, 10KP, HMP | 90.0% | (167) |
target power:
The plan called for:
| 5-Mar | W8-D | M3 | 2 x 30′ / 3′ | MP or slower | 80.0% | (149) |
But I have been missing endurance sessions and cheating down the durations, so I decided to go long.
| 5-Mar | W8-D | M3 | 2 x 45′ / 4′ | MP or slower | 80.0% | (149) |
I did this session at home on the dynamic. Still not sure how I feel about it. I feel like I am slower, and it sure is “grindy-er”. It makes a lot of noise and it does not feel smooth. I still wonder if something is wrong with it. I have to find another dynamic somewhere to compare.
The workout was uneventful. My HR shot up a bit quicker than it should have, but plateaued around 150 for the first piece and 155 for the second.
Workout Summary - media/Import_29058623.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|22116|93:59.0|02:07.5|167.1|20.2|145.8|157.0|11.6 W-|21468|90:00.0|02:05.8|173.3|20.2|147.6|157.0|11.8 R-|00648|03:59.0|03:04.6|057.2|20.5|114.3|157.0|00.0 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|10728|45:00.0|02:05.8|173.8|19.9|142.9|151.0|12.0 01|10740|45:00.7|02:05.7|172.7|20.5|152.3|157.0|11.7
I did this same session on a static erg back on January 27th. Here’s a comparison
The plan for today was the monumental
| M1 | 3 x 25′ / 5′ | 8′ @ 5KP, 17′ @ MP | 92.5% | (172) |
Unfortunately, I didn’t have 100 minutes, I decided to shorten the 17′ to 12′ and the rests from 5′ to 4′.
| M1 | 3 x 20′ / 4′ | 8′ @ 5KP, 12′ @ MP | 92.5% | (172) |
For power, I decided to push the top end of each range. 240W for 5kp and 195W for mp
I felt good. My HR pushed up through the cap in the last piece, but I wasn’t in distress. I’m pretty happy about that after all the sessions I’ve missed.
I compared this to my most recent 4×15, which was at the end of a good run of workouts. The power was bit higher today and the reps were more consistent. HR was higher too.
Then I compared it to the 3×25′ workout that I did on Feb 5, about a month ago. The extra 5 minutes at mp should accumulate more fatigue, but also provides a longer time between the hard bits. I did the one in February at about 10w lower power, and the HR was generally lower.
Today: I will do a workout from Sander’s club.
Back to the routine. I’ve missed a couple weeks in the marathon training schedule, but I’ve got plenty of time before the race in july. I’ll pick up from where I left off.
I was scheduled for a rest day today, but I wanted to do monday’s long and slow session. This was supposed to be 2 x 45′ / 4’30” rest, but I didn’t have 2 hours. Instead I did.
| W6-B | M3 | 2 x 40′ / 4′ | MP or slower | 80.0% | (149) |
Before I started, I updated the PM5 firmware to try to fix my Painsled hangups. It worked fine for the first 70 minutes, but hung up in the last 10 minutes. That kind of made me a bit mad. I think I am going to stick to ergdata unless I specifically trying to fix this issue.
The session was nothing too exciting. I was happy that my HR took as long as it did to rise during the first 40 minutes and I was happy that it plateaued around 150. I guess for now 175 is a good training power for these long pieces.
Here’s the portion that I got on painsled
Workout Summary - media/20170301-1705200o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|17893|76:39.0|02:08.5|169.5|19.2|138.1|153.0|12.2 W-|17322|72:39.0|02:05.8|175.6|19.1|139.5|153.0|12.5 R-|00573|04:00.0|03:29.5|049.7|20.3|109.7|153.0|00.0 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|09533|40:00.0|02:05.9|175.3|19.0|134.7|146.0|12.6 01|07790|32:39.2|02:05.8|176.0|19.3|145.4|153.0|12.4
Tomorrow:
| M1 | 3 x 25′ / 5′ | 8′ @ 5KP, 17′ @ MP | 92.5% | (172) |
Quantified Rowing 