Tag: marathon training

Thursday: 2 x 30′ / 2′ rest (HR Capped)

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In Taiwan at the Ambassador Hotel in Hsinchu.  I arrived this morning at 6am, and was at the hotel by 7:15.  I unpacked, called home, and the got into my gym clothes. I was planning another fitness center snooze-fest.

I made a delightful discovery.  In the fitness center, there was an old Model D with PM2.

On top of that rower, there was a person.  The person was rowing. Slowly.  Underhand.  I got on the treadmill closest to the erg and started to do some inclined marching.  I figured he couldn’t go on too long like that.  He didn’t  I hopped off the treadmill at the six minute mark and jumped on the erg.

New plan:  2 x 30′ / 2′ with a HR cap at 155.

This turned out to be a challenge.  Between jet lag, fatigue, immobility, and dehydration, my HR climbed steadily and even when I slowed way down, it stayed high.

Despite that I enjoyed the session thoroughly.

Tomorrow morning:  First crack at the CTC, at R24, just to get the hang of it.

 

Thursday: 4 x 15′ / 4′ rest (6′ @ 5kp, 9′ @ mp)

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Replay of Monday’s workout.  Sticking to the same power targets.

M1 4 x 15′ / 4′ 6′ @ 5KP, 9′ @ MP 92.5% (172)

5kp target: 235W

mp target: 190W

Lot’s of technology troubles today.  Painsled kept hanging up the PM5.  It froze during my first 15′ section requiring me to remove the batteries in the PM5 to reset everything, then it happened again in the second interval, requiring the same process to get going again.  I finally gave up and used ergdata for the last 2 intervals, and it worked fine.  No fun metrics though.

Warmup (4 minutes) and the first interval.  It froze at 17 minutes, about 11 minutes into the 1st interval.

2-16b

Workout Summary - media/20170217-0100220o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|04298|17:36.0|02:02.9|206.0|22.5|149.0|162.0|10.8
W-|03990|15:36.0|01:57.4|218.1|22.6|151.0|162.0|11.3
R-|00310|02:00.0|03:13.4|072.6|21.0|127.5|162.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01025|04:00.0|01:57.1|219.0|22.2|136.2|151.0|11.6
01|01582|06:00.0|01:53.8|239.6|24.1|156.1|162.0|10.9
02|01383|05:36.5|02:01.7|194.5|21.3|156.0|162.0|11.6

The the second interval.  This one packed up around 9 minutes in.

2-16e

Workout Summary - media/20170217-0100250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02391|09:11.0|01:55.3|229.4|23.4|159.5|169.0|11.1
W-|02391|09:11.0|01:55.3|228.0|23.3|159.6|169.0|11.2
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|169.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01603|06:00.0|01:52.3|245.1|24.2|157.7|168.0|11.0
01|00788|03:11.3|02:01.4|195.9|21.6|163.3|169.0|11.4

Then I gave up and used ergdata.  This got the last two intervals.  I noticed that I was not approaching the HR cap in the third interval, so I pushed the fourth harder and I managed to push up to the 172 cap.

2-16f

Workout Summary - media/Import_28881412.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08494|38:00.0|02:14.2|194.3|22.9|159.5|173.0|09.8
W-|07663|30:00.0|01:57.4|212.2|23.1|163.6|173.0|11.1
R-|00834|08:00.0|04:47.8|064.6|21.4|136.8|173.0|01.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01610|06:00.0|01:51.8|242.6|24.7|160.3|171.0|10.9
01|02222|09:00.0|02:01.5|194.0|21.6|164.6|171.0|11.4
02|01601|06:00.0|01:52.5|244.1|25.1|164.7|173.0|10.6
03|02230|09:00.0|02:01.1|189.0|22.1|164.2|172.0|11.2

Of course, I had my backup systems working, so I at least got HR data for the whole row in Wahoo on my iphone.

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2-16a

I was really pleased with the workout (despite the technical difficulties).  I worked hard, but I felt much stronger than on Tuesday.  About 6 or 7 watts better with the same HR.

I bet I could have gotten into a groove, if I didn’t disappear on travel on Friday.

 

Wednesday: 2 x 30′ / 2′ rest (HR capped)

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Plan called for a rest day, but I knew that training would be spotty after Thursday, so I did a easy endurance session.

2 x 30′ / 2′ rest (HR Capped at 155)

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Should have been very easy, but it was not.

Heart rate climbed fast and didn’t settle.  Comparing it to similar workouts.  Here it is versus a 2 x 30 before I travelled last week.

Here it is versus the 3 x 20 I did on the dynamic.  Pretty Similar.

 

Tuesday: 3 x 20′ / 2′ rest (MP / 10KP / H

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I’ve missed quite a few entries.  Last week was quite crazy at work, and I left on Friday for a quick vacation.  Now, it’s Tuesday and I’m on my way from Aruba to Taiwan for work.

But the one thing I was able to do last week was do some rowing.  My fitness is not where I wanted it to be because of last week’s travel, but at least I am getting the sessions in.

Tuesday’s plan called for:

M2 3 x 20′ / 2′ MP, 10KP, HMP 90.0% (167)

Power ranges for MP, 10KP, and HMP are:

1-17j

And I did so well before my trip that I decided to aim for 5W higher, so:

MP target : 190W

10KP target: 220W

HMP target: 205W

This, and the time spent cross training last week made the workout a bit more challenging.

2-14l

Comparing this to the last time I did this workout shows how much harder I was working for the 5 watts

 

Monday: 4 x 15′ / 4′ rest (6′ @ 5kp, 9′ @ mp)

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It was snowing during the day on Sunday and the forecast was that the storm was going to last all night long and into the morning.  So, I figured that I would be stuck in the house.  But by 11:30PM, it was pretty clear that the storm was clearing out sooner and the snow totals were going to be smaller than predicted earlier.  So, I set my alarm for 6:15 and headed to work.

I did this session in the deserted fitness center at work.

Plan:

  • 4 x 15′ / 4′ rest
  • 6′ @ 5kp (225W to 240W) / 9′ @ mp (180W to 195W)
  • HR Cap at 92.5% HRMax (172)

This was pretty tough work, but I successfully completed this and even hit the last interval a bit harder.

2-13a

Stroke metrics.  Always fun to look at.

Finally, I compared this workout to the same session done on January 20th.  Today I had higher HR’s.

I think the HR difference is mainly due to lack of sleep and time of day.

Sunday: 3 x 20′ / 1′ rest (dynamic)

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Friday:  Arrived home off the red eye at around 7:30am.  Straight into conference calls.  I had a 30 minute window so I decided to try out my new dynamic rowing machine.

I struggled a bit with getting everything set up.  My main problem was that the PM5 was trying to connect to a hr monitor that I was not wearing instead of the one that I was.  That took some time to get fixed.

I did a 5 minute row, then a 3 minute row, and then I got stuff set for a final 12 minute row.  I did the first 9 minutes at 175W, and then the last 3 at 225W.

Saturday:  No training.  Doing errands and chores all day.  No time.

Sunday: Just an easy session to get used to the new machine.

  • 3 x 20′ / 1′ rest
  • 175 W
  • No rate restriction
  • HR cap at 155

It was hard work.  The break through that I made before I went on the road for a week seems to have disappeared.  I’m back to where I was a couple of weeks ago.

I wanted to get an idea of how this compared to rowing on the model D, so I matched it up with one of the 2×30′ sessions that I did a couple of weekends ago on the cape.  I was similarly fatigued and jetlagged then.

Here is all the parameters compared on a time scale.

  • Slightly higher power today.
  • About 1 spm higher rate is where I settled today.  I think 1 to 2 spm higher on the dynamic is probably about right.
  • HR response nearly identical
  • Peak and average force about the same, but the force ratio is lower on the dynamic (less efficient?)
  • Drive length.  Started shorter on dynamic, but eventually came close.  I was surprised about this, I expected it to be consistently shorter without my bodies momentum carrying me into the catch.
  • Work per stroke decreasing through the row.
  • Drive speed, a much more noticeable difference.  Significantly higher on the dynamic.

I might do a second session this evening, maybe a first cut at the CTC.

Tuesday: 3 x 20′ / 2′ rest (MP,10KP,HMP)

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Still in Korea.  I’m writing this in the KAL Lounge prior to my flight to Tokyo, and then on to LA.

I had a conference call at 2am local time this morning, I slept from 10pm to about 1:45, so almost 4 hours (plus almost 30 minutes in the car on the way home from the restaurant).  After the call, I did some email and called some other folks to get some work going while I am on my flights.  I wrapped this stuff up around 5:00 or so, and decided to head down to the gym.

The objective today was to do another marathon training session, this one is 3 – 20 minute intervals at different intensities.  I decided to do them on the elliptical to avoid too much stress on my knees.  I also didn’t really feel like doing this session on the bike.

Since the power ranges on the erg are not applicable, I did this session to heart rate.  The HR cap is 167, so I wanted to stay under 150 for the MP piece, get my HR up in the mid 160s for the 10KP piece, and then choose a level between those two for the HMP.

This turned out to be level 17 (of 25) for the MP section, level 21 for the 10KP and level 19 for the HMP.  The 10KP felt very heavy, like I was working in molasses, but it sure was hard work.  My HR ended up a little below target, but not too far off.

The last 20 minutes felt like forever.  I guess that’s the whole point.

I will now fly east, so I’m going to land at LAX about the same local time that I’m leaving behind in Seoul.  I will probably hit the hotel fitness center Wednesday morning, but I might get ambitious and drop in at a local crossfit to use an erg for a 2×30′ MP session.

 

Monday: 4 x 15′ / 4′ (6’/9′ step down) on Treadmill

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Well, that was a very difficult workout.

I wanted to mimic the intensity of this workout, but I didn’t have an erg at my disposal, so I decided to do it on the treadmill at max incline.  I really want to avoid “real” running for now because I don’t want to cause inflammation in my newly repaired knee.

But even a slow jog at 15% grade is enough to really be really taxing.  The question was how much was enough.

I decided that I would work from HR.  I wanted the 6′ sections to bring me up into the range of 165-172 bpm, and the 9′ sections to bring me back down into the 150-160 range.  I used the first interval to experiment.  In the first 6′ interval, I started at 4.5 mph and within a minute, I knew that was way to aggressive.  I backed off to 4mph and even that was a genuine struggle.  My HR monitor picked the wrong day to act up.  You can see in the plots that there were dropouts and lags.  It might be time for a new battery.  The 9′ sections were fine at about 3.1 mph

By the last interval, I was really tired.  I slowed down to about 3.8 on the fast bit and ended up dropping the 9′ pace to around 2.8mph.  Pitifully slow, but effective.

I think that was pretty effective.  Sure was less fun on a treadmill than on the erg though.  I’m rower not a runner, that’s for sure.

Tuesday:  I’ll hit the gym to do my regularly scheduled workout.  I’ll do it by HR on the elliptical.  For MP, I will aim at having my HR around 150 by the end of 20′, for the 10KP, I will aim at 167 by the end, and for the HMP, I will split the difference.

3 x 20′ / 2′ MP, 10KP, HMP 90.0% (167)

Friday: 10K @ MP

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I didn’t have much time this morning, so I did what I could.

Plan called for 2 x 45′ at marathon pace.  I only had about 40 minutes because I had an early meeting I needed to get to, so I subbed in a 10k at the same pace.

These workouts are supposed to be done with a HR cap, and today was no exception.  I decided  to row against a cap of 150 (80% of HR max).  Since I’ve had such great sessions the past couple of days, I decided to start off at 185W and see how long I could hold it before I needed to back off to stay under the cap.  Turns out I made it  the whole way.  It was another good workout.  If I was doing another 45 minutes, I would have had to back off, but still.  It was better than the HR response I was seeing at 170W just a week ago.

2-3f

A few stroke metrics, just for fun.

Pretty consistent.

I’m posting this from the BA lounge at Logan airport.  I board for Narita, connecting to Korea in about 45 minutes.

Maybe the Sheraton in Seoul has an erg.  (But I doubt it).

 

Training for the Blackburn Challenge

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There is a 20+ mile open water race in Massachusetts called  the Blackburn Challenge.  I would like to enter it and do reasonably well.

The time to complete the race is between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 hours, and so it is roughly similar  to 50k on the erg.  I thought that the best way to prep for that was to use an existing Marathon training plan.

There are two that I know of.

I analyzed both of the plans and they both seemed reasonable.  There were some cool things in the indoor sports services plan, but the Eddie Fletcher plan came with some impressive personal endorsements, and it was considerably simpler.

It is basically a 12 week plan, but I will run through it twice in a row, hopefully resetting my targets between sets.

I did a detailed day by day spreadsheet to track progress.  I figure the easiest way to let people look at it is to make it public on Google Sheets.

Blackburn Training Plan

So far, so good.  But I’m about to lose a week, so who knows how much damage that will do.