July 5 to Aug 14

August 15, 2020Leave a comment

Looks like July was the just about the most training that I have done in a month. 31 and 1/2 hours of training in 22 sessions. I did a fair amount of cycling in July, culminating in a hard 3 hour effort on July 31st. I also really nailed a head race piece.

Since the end of July, I have backed off, and shifted back into more of a base building question. At the end of July, it looks like I have reached a fitness peak in Strava at 95.

Since that time, I’ve shifted gears to ease up and focus on base building. I read a little bit of Maffetone, and although I am not convinced of his whole low carb, lifestyle thing, and the 180-age formula seems like chicanery, I definitely see merit in the idea of specifically training to increase one’s aerobic threshold. It is basically the same idea of lactate based training. If you stay below 2.0 mmol, then you can be pretty sure that you are not crossing over to burning more CHO at the expense of fat metabolism.

My challenge in doing this type of base training has always been that I push it too hard. So, the maffetone book convinced me to back way off on intensity and way up on duration. I don’t know what will happen with it, but I’ve got nothing but time and it sure is an easy way to train. And when it comes to OTW, focusing on technique has to be a good thing too.

So, I have been trying to keep all sessions above an hour and stay below UT2 heart rates (137). Additionally, I’ve been trying to extend my warmups as well.

Here’s a quick recap of the past 5 weeks.

July 5 – 50′ Stationary bike, Avg HR 131

July 6 – 70′ Coastal row up to Wellfleet harbor.

July 7 – Bike ride to rock harbor, 1:18:00, 34km, Avg HR 133

July 8 – Bike Ride – Wellfleet coast loop, 34km, 1:22, Avg HR 139

July 9 – Rest day

July 10 – 90′ steady state on Lake Quinsigamond

The last bit was tough!

July 11 – 60′ BikeErg – Hardish

July 12 – 90′ BikeErg – a little slower

July 13 – Rate Ladders on Quinsig

July 14 – rest day

July 15 – 60′ steady state on slides

July 16 – 60′ steady state on slides

July 17 – Wormtown Chase GPS Challenge

What a great day! I laid down a beautiful row. I steered well. Paced myself well and dug deep at the end. And I was fast!

The conditions were great. flat water and a very slight breeze from the south, which was a tail wind for the last two thirds of the challenge.

Here’s my course. Nice and tight around the islands. I went a bit to far west coming up to the narrows, but not bad.

Then from the Narrows to the finish was two nice straight lines.

I was unexpectedly fast, I think the fastest I have ever done a head race in a boat.

Workout Summary - media/d6476edfd2-20200717-120557o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09969|00:53:00.9|02:39.5|143.3|22.9|148.0|179.0|08.2
W-|05201|00:23:07.7|02:13.4|189.5|25.8|167.9|179.0|08.7
R-|04769|00:29:53.3|03:08.0|107.5|20.7|132.6|179.0|07.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|05201|23:07.7|02:13.4|189.5|25.8|167.9|179.0|08.7

July 18 – Drills

Back on Quinsig, but just taking it easy and doing drills on the 5s

July 19 – Randall Foil Test

You can read all about it here: https://analytics.rowsandall.com/2020/07/19/randall-foils-vs-smoothies/

It was a hard day rowing.

July 20 – 60′ BikeErg

July 21 – Just a walk

July 22 – 65km bike ride

Avg HR 136. 28.8 km/h. Tiring ride.

July 23 – rest day

July 24 – Coastal row – almost to Rock Harbor

The row back was into the wind and waves and a pretty tough slog.

July 25 – Exploring the marshes – 60′ coastal row

July 26 – bike ride on the rail trail, 32km, 80′

July 27 – rest day

July 28 – rest day

July 29 – bike ride – Wellfleet coastal loop

40km, 96 minutes, avg speed 28.1 kph, avg hr 147! (hard work)

July 30 – More exploration of the marsh

Headed out for a row up to Wellfleet Harbor, but the wind and waves were unpleasant, so I turned back and explored the swamp again.

July 31 – Mammoth bike ride

All the way to the end of the rail trail, and I pushed hard too.

77km, 3 hours

I was destroyed for the rest of the day.

Aug 1 – Rest day

Aug 2 – Fun in the swamp – 80′

Still windy, so it’s a lot more fun to scoot around sheltered water.

Aug 3 – 60′ MAF test on slides

So the MAF test is basically a cardiac drift test. You row up to a HR limit (130), and then bleed off power to stay at the limit.

Over time, you can repeat the test and see both the avg power and the % drop off. A key part is a lengthy warmup.

Today’s results: 150W. 26W drop off.

       Workout Summary - media/31860ffd50-20200803-142318o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|18062|01:23:20.0|02:18.4|143.5|17.7|122.9|131.0|12.2
W-|13531|00:59:50.0|02:12.7|149.9|17.9|127.4|131.0|12.6
R-|04536|00:23:30.0|02:35.4|127.4|17.3|111.6|131.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01173|05:00.0|02:07.9|168.3|18.7|119.0|125.0|12.5
02|01159|05:00.0|02:09.5|160.7|18.1|125.8|127.0|12.8
03|01151|05:00.0|02:10.3|158.9|18.3|126.7|128.0|12.6
04|01145|05:00.0|02:11.0|155.7|18.3|126.9|129.0|12.5
05|01143|05:00.0|02:11.3|151.9|18.1|128.3|131.0|12.6
06|01126|05:00.0|02:13.2|147.9|18.0|128.5|130.0|12.5
07|01119|05:00.0|02:14.0|144.7|17.7|128.5|130.0|12.6
08|01117|05:00.0|02:14.3|144.1|17.8|128.5|131.0|12.6
09|01115|05:00.0|02:14.5|142.8|17.3|128.9|131.0|12.9
10|01108|05:00.0|02:15.4|140.9|17.2|129.2|130.0|12.9
11|01106|05:00.0|02:15.6|140.2|17.3|129.0|130.0|12.8
12|01069|04:50.0|02:15.7|141.7|18.0|129.2|131.0|12.3

Aug 4 – rest day – Crazy Work schedule

Aug 5 – rest day – more crazy work schedule

Aug 6 – 45′ BikeErg MAF Test

Same plan, but now on a bike. I had less time, so a 15 minute warmup and a 45 minute test.

Workout Summary - media/df_20200806-113556.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|27672|01:00:03.2|01:05.1|158.2|68.2|122.5|138.0|06.8
W-|21232|00:45:03.2|01:03.7|168.1|69.7|127.4|138.0|06.8
R-|06443|00:15:00.0|01:09.8|128.3|63.5|107.7|138.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02378|05:00.0|01:03.1|171.9|70.3|126.0|129.0|06.8
02|02376|05:00.0|01:03.1|173.1|70.4|128.0|138.0|06.8
03|02382|05:00.0|01:03.0|173.0|70.4|126.3|128.0|06.8
04|02323|05:00.0|01:04.6|161.6|68.9|128.3|130.0|06.7
05|02329|05:00.0|01:04.4|161.9|68.9|128.7|133.0|06.8
06|02333|05:00.0|01:04.3|163.5|69.1|126.5|130.0|06.8
07|02358|05:00.0|01:03.6|168.1|69.7|127.0|131.0|06.8
08|02356|05:00.0|01:03.7|168.1|69.7|127.8|129.0|06.8
09|02395|05:03.2|01:03.3|171.8|70.2|127.8|132.0|06.8

Average 172W, drop off 0W.

Aug 7 – 90′ Bike Erg – Sub UT2

Aug 8 – 4×20′ Sub-UT2 on slides

BoatCoach failed me today.

Aug 9 – Long Steady State (too hard)

As I launched, a friend from the club launched too. We rowed together and peer pressure pushed me faster than it should have. I was very worn out by the last 15 minutes.

Workout Summary - media/96a610e7d1-20200809-131602o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|17489|01:44:37.5|02:59.5|123.2|20.4|137.7|169.0|08.2
W-|15783|01:19:21.3|02:30.8|136.8|20.4|147.8|169.0|09.8
R-|01711|00:25:17.0|07:23.3|080.5|20.5|106.1|169.0|02.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01676|08:35.6|02:33.8|132.5|17.7|131.6|138.0|11.0
02|01513|07:32.1|02:29.4|145.4|20.0|142.6|151.0|10.0
03|05688|27:41.1|02:26.0|144.8|20.7|151.5|169.0|09.9
04|03606|18:51.9|02:37.0|130.1|19.7|150.4|156.0|09.7
05|00105|00:34.4|02:43.5|109.2|21.0|141.2|143.0|08.7
06|01667|08:28.2|02:32.4|122.8|21.7|151.2|161.0|09.1
07|00224|01:13.1|02:43.4|115.2|21.7|143.5|144.0|08.5
08|01305|06:24.9|02:27.5|143.0|22.7|148.7|169.0|08.9

Aug 10 – Drills on the fives

Definitely trying to taker the intensity down a notch.

Aug 11 – 70′ sub-ut2 BikeErg

Hot and Humid. Very slow.

Aug 12 – 90′ sub-ut2 BikeErg

Even hotter, humider and slower.

Aug 13 – Rest day

Aug 14 – 2 hours steady state on Quinsig

Just a wonderful morning to be rowing. Tried to keep it below ut2. Did OK until the last bit which was into a building head wind.

Charles River GPS Speed order

June 7, 2020Leave a comment

The coolest thing I have been a part of are GPS Speed Orders. This is a case of taking a couple of great ideas and putting them together.

The first great idea was from Greg Benning, who reached out to find out if there was a way to setup on the water competitions to take the place of all those cancelled regattas. The second great idea came from Sander Roosendaal, who has been working on a capability called Virtual Racing as part of the rowsandall platform.

We batted the idea back and forth via email and came up with the idea of “GPS Speed Orders”. These would be free challenges open to all single scullers. You just row the course with some kind of GPS devices, like a smartphone, fitness watch or Speedcoach, and then upload your data. The software one rowsandall measures your time to do the course, and that you went through all the required “gates” through the course. Then it ranks all the competitors, just like a head race. You can learn all about it here.

Sander did a ton of coding and enhancements to make it easier and more fun. Seven folks did a dry run during the last week of May and it worked out great! Check out the results here.

Now we have open up two new events, which will run the whole month of June. The first is over the same course on the Charles River. The other challenge is out in Worcester on Lake Quinsigamond. Even more exciting, I’ve started to get inquiries about setting up challenges in other venues in Pennsylvania, Seekonk Massachusetts. Let me know if you want to run a challenge over the course of your favorite race.

Thursday – May 28 – Charles River GPS Speed Order

I was so excited (and nervous) about doing this, that I had trouble sleeping the night before, just like a race. Knowing that I was going to post my result, made me work really hard. I knew that I was not in the same league as the other people that were rowing, but I wanted to do as well as I could.

As it turned out, I was satisfied with my boat speed, but not so happy with my steering. I made a lot of mistakes in my line, and the race software is incredibly helpful at showing that.

I launched at CRI, which is nearly 8km upstream from the start line, so I tried to row nice and easy down to basin. It was still a pretty good distance for this early in the season and I was feeling fatigued by the time I got to the Dewolfe boathouse.

I lined up and got going. I decided to try to keep it to around a r24 and concentrate on not running into anything.

Here is the whole race, with my track compared to Greg Benning, the winning of the Challenge (also winner of the MGM1x at the HOCR).

So, let’s zoom in and look at the things that I did wrong, shall we? I am Red, Mr Benning is Green.

Mistake #1: Started too far out from the Dewolfe dock, and not hugging the cambridge side of the arch in the BU bridge. This allow GB to be setup right on the bank coming out of from under the bridge and following the tightest line. I eventually clued in and jogged to the bank. I managed to do the right thing for maybe 200 meters.

Mistake #2: The curve tightens halfway around Magazine Beach, and I didn’t sense it right away. I continued out wide and did a big loop away from the docks at the Riverside Boat Club. I should have been right up on it.

Mistake #3: Having swung too wide away fro the RBC docks, I over corrected and ended up heading for the cambridge side arch on the Cambridge St Bridge. That arch is fine, but onkly if you’ve taken a really tight line out from riverside. This was just a waste.

The rest of the power house stretch was not very offensive, but not really arrow straight either

The approach to the Week’s footbridge was also pretty good. Not as tight as GB’s, OK.

Mistake #4: Compound error. The first mistake was not turning quickly enough coming out of Week’s so that I ended up with a big s-turn on the way to Anderson. The other was playing it safe on the Anderson bridge. The normal river traffic pattern allows rowers to use the cambridge arch of this bridge and you can see that GB used it effectively to cut the corner. I on the other hand swung way out in the central arch and made a tough corner even worse.

The eliot turn was just a shambles.

Mistake #5: Instead of getting a good point to the apex of the turn coming out of the Anderson Bridge, I followed the cambridge bank and realized it quite late, so I was going wide into the turn. Which led into

Mistake #6: I over corrected to get the right line, but panicked that I was too far into the downstream lane and faded back to the outside. All the steering slowed me down and the outside arc added a lot of distance.

The Eliot bridge was OK. I like my line there.

Mistake #7: The correct line for the end of the course is to get as close as you can to the Belmont Hill School docks, and then hug the Cambridge bank. In the fog of oxygen deprivation I was experiencing, I totally missed to turn and swung way wide. Again, I added a huge amount of distance.

How much distance you ask? GB rowed 4670 meters. I rowed 4773 meters. That’s a cool thirty seconds of extra rowing. Of course he beat me by three full minutes, so steering is only part of the difference. The bigger factor is that he is a MUCH better rower than I am.

       Workout Summary - media/dbc08d619a-20200528-141554o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15724|01:28:36.3|02:49.1|128.4|20.6|146.8|180.0|08.6
W-|04781|00:22:40.4|02:22.3|171.1|24.7|168.9|180.0|08.5
R-|10944|01:05:56.1|03:00.7|113.7|19.2|139.2|180.0|07.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|04781|22:40.4|02:22.3|171.1|24.7|168.9|180.0|08.5

/static/plots/dbc08d619a-20200528-141554.png

Another thing you can do is compare your results with other rowers. Here is a boat speed comparison of me, Greg Benning and Jeff Nelson. Jeff beat me by almost a minute.

You can see that GB has a huge boat speed differential, but Jeff and I were quite well matched. He 3.54m/s and me at 3.51m/s. The difference was that he managed to row the course in 4601 meters, versus my 4773 meters.

I was pretty tired by the time I finished. Rowing the 3 k back to CRI was a slog. But I was exhilarated. This was a blast. And I can’t wait to row it again, hopefully a few times to work on my steering.

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.

Stuck at Home

March 22, 2020May 24, 2020Leave a comment

Last post was on March 8th, and although COVID-19 was already affecting people in my company, and all over the news, I had no idea how quickly and completely everything would be turned upside down.

Today is March 22nd, so 14 days have elapsed, and I keep trying to focus on the positive. My family, my friends and my coworkers are all still healthy. I am proud of how my company is responding to the crisis. I see hope in the decreased rate of new cases in places like China. But, it has been a massive adjustment to my daily life.

I’ve been working remote since March 12th. Seven work days. My wife works in an elementary school, and has been out since March 16th.

Something funny, though. I was quite happy in the week of March 9th, because it was unseasonably warm, and I was able to row on the water three times. Since then, the weather has turned, and the club is shuttered due to COVID-19 so I’m not sure when I’ll row again. It was brilliant to get back on the water though, and I’m so glad I got the chance.

Since we’ve been locked in, my friend, Sander, and I have started a Facebook group, the Stuck at Home Rowing Club (SAHRC). It started innocently enough. We were thinking that a lot of people who were used to training with others might be looking for community and structure to take the place of now cancelled or postponed races and shuttered clubs. It kind of took off (on the scale of a tiny sport like rowing) and currently has 564 members. We post 6 workouts a week, which we select by polling members. We are currently running a contest to create a logo, and I’m just delighted by the whole thing. If you are interested, ask to join. We are letting in just about anyone who want to join.

In terms of training. Being locked in has allowed me to be a bit more consistent. On Tuesday, all I could manage was short walk after work. And Friday, I just never had a window without interruptions because of work issues related to COVID-19. If I am to be as honest with myself as possible, I am also staying up too late and not getting up early enough to reliably workout before work. I need to fix that next week.

Here’s the day by day

Monday – March 9 – 12K on Lake Quinsigamond in a double

The weather was great, and I met Joe at 6 at the boathouse. The water level in the lake is controlled by a dam at the extreme south end, and it is always allowed to get quite low in the winter. So, getting the boat down on the dock is a little bit of a production involving two sets of slings and some fast foot work.

Since this was the first row of the year for me. We just played it by ear. A nice long build during the first leg to the south end of the lake. Then a bit of pyramid on the way back north. There was a building breeze from the south during the workout, so the last bit from the north end of the lake was a bit of a slog.

        Workout Summary - media/0c93b6017b-20200309-115105o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11593|01:05:53.3|02:50.5|000.0|21.8|134.8|165.0|08.1
W-|10471|00:51:43.3|02:28.2|000.0|21.5|141.4|165.0|09.4
R-|01126|00:14:10.4|06:17.7|000.0|22.7|111.1|165.0|03.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03308|16:17.8|02:27.8|000.0|20.4|129.3|164.0|09.9
02|05579|26:47.4|02:24.1|000.0|22.5|149.1|165.0|09.3
03|01585|08:38.1|02:43.5|000.0|20.5|140.2|151.0|08.9

It was great to be back on the water again.

Tuesday – 10 March – 12K on Lake Quinsigamond in a Quad

Joe and my adventure was great, and a couple more folks signed up for Tuesday morning, so we were able to take out a quad. I stroked, and they let me pick the workout. I decided to do a nice, easyish rate ladder session.

4′ @ 18, 3’@20, 2’@22, 1’@24

       Workout Summary - media/46a1d0dd94-20200310-135808o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11751|01:04:54.2|02:45.7|000.0|19.8|131.3|158.0|09.1
W-|10533|00:52:23.9|02:29.2|000.0|20.0|138.1|158.0|10.1
R-|01221|00:12:30.6|05:07.4|000.0|19.2|102.8|158.0|04.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03267|16:11.1|02:28.6|000.0|19.0|132.8|145.0|10.6
02|05527|27:18.2|02:28.2|000.0|20.5|141.7|158.0|09.9
03|01738|08:54.6|02:33.8|000.0|20.2|136.9|145.0|09.7

Wednesday – 11 March – Stock Interval Stack in the Double

It was a bit colder, but not so bad at all. Mid-30s. Joe and I met at 6. He asked me what I wanted to do for a session. I inquired if he was up for something different, knowing that the answer is always yes. I suggested we do one of the short interval stack workouts that Stephen Seiler posted a 2 part video about.

The session was 2 x (15 x 30″ on 15″ off) / 5′ rest between.

It was wonderful. We did the fast bits at r30. It feel so good to go fast. And doing it in such short intervals meant that we could focus a bit on technique, at least in the early reps. By the end of each set, I was definitely feeling it.

If I don’t get to row on the water for a while, this was a great workout to remember.

Thursday – 12 March – 2 x 30’/2′ L4

At home in the basement on slides. Isolation begins! I had a window in my schedule in the afternoon and took advantage to row.

Friday – 13 March – 2 x 30′ / L4

Another mid day row. Another L4. Slightly better HR response

Saturday – 14 March – 3 x 30′ steady state

On slides. Low intensity base builder.

Sunday – 15 March – 20 minute test (SAHRC Session)

We are recommending to SAHRC member to do a 20 minute test to get a reasonable threshold power estimate for other workouts. Today it was my turn to get it done.

Down on the cape. If we are going to be isolating, it might as well be someplace nice!

On slides, which is new. Previously I have done all testing on a static erg. Not happy with the result 230 W (1:55.0). High HR, fade at the end. Not so great, but a good marker for upcoming SAHRC workouts.

Monday – 16 March – 3 x 20′ rate ladders (SAHRC Steady State Session)

This was harder than I hoped it would be. Very close rate changes. Leaving out the rests didn’t help!

Tuesday – 17 March – 30 minute walk

On the cape. I had a busy and stressful day, with no breaks. When I quit around 6pm, I just needed to stretch my legs and get some fresh air.

Wednesday – 18 March – 40′ HR limit at 75 HR Max (SAHRC Steady State Session)

On the cape, On Slides. I managed to get up early to do the session. Good thing. My day was a tornado of COVID-19 task force meetings and other tasks. Oh, and it was my 57th birthday. Yay.

Thursday – 19 March – 8 x 2’/4′ (SAHRC Hard Session)

Back in Hopkinton. A slight variation on the classic 8x500m. Using time based intervals to make it better for a wider range of rowers to use. I did this at the end of the work day and I didn’t have time for a warmup, so I just dove right in. I took it easy on the first couple reps, then got into a good groove. I killed the last rep! That felt good.

Friday – 20 March – No Training

I had an 8am meeting and I was going strong for work stuff until about 7 at night. I never came up for breath.

Saturday – 21 March – 2 x 30′ L4 in the morning, strength in the afternoon (SAHRC Body weight session)

I felt crappy in the L4. High HR. I was originally wanting to do 3 x 30, but I decided I’d had enough after 2.

Then in the afternoon, I steeled myself to do the body weight session. It kicked my ass.

90200043_10216346755169320_3482641134667169792_n

I made it through the squats and the bulgarian Split squats, and the squat jumps. But after the first set of 10 burpee/split lunges, my knees, lungs, thighs and glutes all informed me that we were done with squatting. I did rally to do the 75 sit ups and planks.

Sunday – 22 March – easy HM with a hard 2k at the end.

I woke up this morning, paralyzed from the waist down. My core muscles were sore, but not so bad. My thighs were another story. Going down stairs was miserable. Bending over to pick things up made me feel like I was eighty. I had to lie on my back with my legs in the air to put on my socks. I guess this body weight stuff is probably a good idea, but I have to say, I am not enjoying the day after!

I wanted something long and easy. After all, I have time to kill. So I dialed up a half marathon and started rowing, aiming at a 2:10 pace. 2:08 felt a bit better, so I went with that. After about an hour, I needed to ease up a bit to limit HR drift. With 2k to go, and a projected time of 1:30:30, I decided I wanted to finish below 1:30:00. So I increased the rate, brought the pace down to around a 1:58/1:59 and finished it off.

Mission accomplished 1:29:40.

I have another busy week of isolating coming up. A blur of webex meetings, instant messages, conference calls and emails. At least I have rowing to keep me somewhat sane.

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.

Septum Mirabilis

September 22, 20191 Comment

Since last Saturday, I rowed my single 6 days in a row! It’s a miracle. I think the first time all season.

Sunday – Sept 15 – 16km on the Lower Charles

I met my friends from Worcester at the public docks at CRI in Brighton. I brought my single. They brought a single, double, quad and believe it or not a triple. Our club bought a couple of lightly used Swift Triples. These boats are going to be great. Having the option of using a triple when we have an odd number of rowers, or if we want to balance lineups will be awesome.

We launched around 7:30. The goal was to scout the river for the people that we going to do the CRI Fall Classic the following weekend. My goal was to have some fun and maybe do a threshold piece.

I succeeded at having fun, but by the time, I tried to settle in for a 5k threshold piece, I was already pretty tired and gave it up halfway through.

We made our way down river, and ultimately got to the beginning of the powerhouse stretch. I asked the other boats if they wanted to do a race pace 1K, since this is the best place to do it. They acquiesced and off we went. I felt pretty good for the first 500 or so, but I rapidly ran out of oomph.

We continued down to the basin, and waited for everyone to regroup. From there, we headed upriver to the area where they marshall the start of the CRI Fall Classic. We regrouped again and then we took off. they continued to just scout the course, but I wanted to do my threshold piece, so I got pretty far ahead of the group. I made it around 2500 meters, then the combination of river traffic, a bit of headwind and lack of training got to me and I pulled up instead of trying to pass a big group of boats as the river was narrowing. I put on a few bursts of speed the rest of the way, but I was really tired out.

        Workout Summary - media/20190915-1631070o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15880|02:00:44.3|03:48.1|107.2|21.8|137.1|178.0|06.0
W-|10841|00:53:27.1|02:27.9|148.1|23.0|153.6|178.0|08.9
R-|05056|01:07:18.7|06:39.4|074.7|20.9|123.9|178.0|02.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00403|02:04.8|02:34.9|139.7|19.1|134.3|140.0|10.1
02|00541|02:39.8|02:27.8|137.1|20.6|140.1|147.0|09.9
03|00578|02:57.5|02:33.5|138.1|19.6|141.9|147.0|10.0
04|00205|01:03.4|02:34.4|106.2|19.9|137.7|142.0|09.8
05|00206|01:02.6|02:32.2|143.7|20.2|139.7|144.0|09.8
06|00182|00:56.4|02:34.5|111.6|19.1|139.9|143.0|10.2
07|00576|02:49.0|02:26.7|160.0|22.3|155.9|162.0|09.2
08|00742|03:46.4|02:32.6|126.2|20.1|143.2|150.0|09.8
09|00876|03:46.4|02:09.2|209.0|27.6|164.6|176.0|08.4 - most of a 1k
10|00632|03:07.9|02:28.7|126.3|21.4|150.7|157.0|09.4
11|00695|03:34.6|02:34.3|152.1|22.6|144.6|154.0|08.6
12|00316|01:38.2|02:35.2|142.7|21.4|153.0|156.0|09.1
13|00398|02:04.9|02:37.1|121.7|20.2|141.2|147.0|09.5
14|00604|03:03.4|02:31.9|127.5|21.2|150.7|157.0|09.3
15|02561|12:10.2|02:22.5|164.9|26.1|167.9|178.0|08.1 -- a bit of hard rowing.
16|00462|02:21.7|02:33.5|125.7|24.6|164.6|169.0|08.0
17|00241|01:10.3|02:25.9|182.3|27.3|170.4|174.0|07.5
18|00409|02:04.4|02:32.2|141.5|24.0|160.3|167.0|08.2
19|00214|01:05.2|02:32.1|133.0|23.9|144.3|155.0|08.3

An incredibly enjoyable outing.

Monday – 16 Sept – Drills on the 5s

After Sunday’s exertions, I took it easy on Monday.

So, I did a technical session, with 4 minutes of steady state and 1 minute of these drills.

open hands on recovery
half slide
delayed feather
square blades
pause at body over

By the way, the weather was perfect!

Tuesday – 17 Sept – 4 x 2k/4′

Another perfect morning. A scary workout. I decided to go easy on myself and rate limit it. r22, r24, r26, r26.

It was a great workout. I felt good throughout.

The summary shows where I am. Now that my impeller is calibrated. When I was in good racing shape, I was knocking these out around 2:15 or faster. It is what it is.

        Workout Summary - media/20190917-1607180o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11117|01:05:23.0|02:56.4|127.2|22.6|145.5|176.0|07.5
W-|07957|00:36:49.3|02:18.8|173.5|24.6|160.3|176.0|08.8
R-|03166|00:28:33.9|04:30.7|067.6|20.0|126.4|176.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00118|00:35.0|02:27.7|143.5|20.6|129.2|132.0|09.9
02|01952|09:06.7|02:20.1|165.8|22.5|152.1|165.0|09.5
03|01989|09:07.0|02:17.5|178.1|24.4|161.9|174.0|08.9
04|01923|08:50.5|02:18.0|178.1|25.9|164.6|176.0|08.4
05|01975|09:10.1|02:19.3|174.3|25.9|164.8|176.0|08.3

Wednesday – 18 Sept – Steady State

Working on piling up the meters and rowing clean. Did the session with Humon to keep me honest about intensity, Halfway through, I decided to pop up to r22 and row lighter. It seemed to work quite well. I needed to cut it about 10 minutes short because I needed to get to work for an early meeting.

        Workout Summary - media/20190920-1546120o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11969|01:08:32.5|02:51.8|125.2|21.0|133.6|157.0|08.3
W-|10145|00:51:16.7|02:31.6|143.6|20.8|140.0|155.0|09.5
R-|01833|00:17:16.6|04:42.8|070.6|21.4|114.6|155.0|06.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00209|01:07.2|02:40.5|142.5|19.5|126.2|131.0|09.6
02|02722|14:16.9|02:37.4|141.3|19.7|137.5|148.0|09.7
03|02679|13:21.8|02:29.6|138.1|19.8|137.4|148.0|10.1
04|00589|03:04.4|02:36.5|131.6|22.3|136.4|144.0|08.6
05|01314|06:41.6|02:32.9|150.2|22.2|146.8|154.0|08.8
06|02005|09:46.0|02:26.2|149.3|21.5|145.9|155.0|09.6
07|00341|01:33.8|02:17.6|182.7|26.3|139.4|153.0|08.3 - nice ending
08|00286|01:25.0|02:28.7|132.2|22.6|135.2|143.0|08.9

Thursday – 19 Sept – 3′ on / 1′ off

Again using rate limiting to manage intensity. (22,24,26,28) The annoying thing is that I must have bumped the speedcoach I got my drink of water after the first set, because that’s where the data ends!

Here’s the heart rate from my apple watch

And here’s the view from Humon.

Another really good workout.

Friday – 20 Sept – Steady State

Just like wednesday. Using Humon to keep me honest and trying to get the best speed with the least effort. The key seems to be a nice, clean, early tap down.

That and maintaining good body posture through the leg drive. When I open up my back early, I work much harder and go slower.

      Workout Summary - media/20190920-1557290o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13521|01:15:46.3|02:48.1|127.4|20.4|138.0|164.0|08.8
W-|11593|00:57:48.7|02:29.6|147.9|20.3|144.6|161.0|09.9
R-|01935|00:17:58.2|04:38.7|061.4|20.6|116.7|161.0|03.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00150|00:46.3|02:34.1|134.2|19.4|117.4|125.0|10.0
02|02746|13:45.0|02:30.2|144.0|19.6|138.1|148.0|10.2
03|02584|12:52.8|02:29.5|150.0|19.9|146.2|154.0|10.1
04|02698|13:25.5|02:29.3|146.0|20.1|147.3|155.0|10.0
05|02717|13:46.1|02:32.0|144.7|20.1|148.4|155.0|09.8
06|00358|01:35.0|02:12.8|211.5|27.7|146.9|161.0|08.2
07|00340|01:38.0|02:24.1|151.4|25.1|141.9|153.0|08.3

When I got back to the dock, I turned around and it was just so pretty that I had to take a picture.

I felt great, and headed off to work. In the evening, we drove down to the cape.

Saturday – 21 Sept – No Training

Our house has a huge deck surrounding 3 sides of the house. Today’s mission was cleaning it with the pressure washer so that I can seal it tomorrow. It took me 5 hours. The Apple watch tells me that it was about 15000 steps. I am tired and sunburnt, buy the deck looks fantastic!

Treading water (but no actual swimming)

September 14, 2019Leave a comment

Last post was on Sept 3rd, quite a while ago. That covered my row on Sept 2.

Tuesday – Sept 3 – Drills on the fives

Back in my single, back in Newton. Feeling a bit unfamiliar. Best way to cure that…Drills!

The plan is simple, row for 4 minutes and then do 1 minute of drills.

square blade
late feather
open palms on recovery
half slide rowing
pause at body over

It was a nice morning, and there some other boats out. Even if I’m not really prepping for an event, it’s still nice to be out and working on getting better.

        Workout Summary - media/20190904-1621000o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13861|01:16:02.4|02:44.6|000.0|19.8|142.8|164.0|09.2
W-|08194|00:39:47.2|02:25.7|000.0|20.0|147.2|162.0|10.3
R-|05685|00:36:16.6|03:11.4|000.0|19.6|138.0|162.0|09.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00084|00:25.1|02:29.4|000.0|19.2|124.5|126.0|10.5
02|00318|01:31.2|02:23.2|000.0|19.0|135.2|141.0|11.0
03|00189|00:54.2|02:23.5|000.0|19.8|132.9|137.0|10.6
04|00850|04:03.6|02:23.2|000.0|19.6|146.0|153.0|10.7
05|00840|04:06.4|02:26.7|000.0|19.5|147.8|151.0|10.5
06|00341|01:38.0|02:23.7|000.0|19.5|149.5|153.0|10.7
07|00832|04:04.2|02:26.7|000.0|19.6|145.4|149.0|10.5
08|00735|03:37.2|02:27.7|000.0|19.5|149.0|153.0|10.4
09|00487|02:22.0|02:25.8|000.0|20.2|148.5|153.0|10.2
10|00237|01:10.9|02:29.8|000.0|19.4|141.8|147.0|10.3
11|00179|00:52.8|02:27.3|000.0|19.2|141.6|143.0|10.6
12|00535|02:37.2|02:26.8|000.0|19.8|150.6|155.0|10.3
13|00576|02:45.6|02:23.7|000.0|20.7|152.9|159.0|10.1
14|00736|03:34.7|02:25.9|000.0|20.1|148.8|156.0|10.2
15|00311|01:31.9|02:27.7|000.0|20.2|149.0|152.0|10.0
16|00343|01:40.6|02:26.8|000.0|20.3|156.2|157.0|10.1
17|00128|00:38.0|02:28.2|000.0|20.6|145.7|148.0|09.8
18|00072|00:22.6|02:36.7|000.0|21.2|131.3|133.0|09.0
19|00400|01:51.0|02:18.9|000.0|23.1|151.1|162.0|09.3

Wednesday – 4 Sept: 2′ on / 1′ off increasing rates

This was a hard and fun session. There was a reasonable headwind going upriver. I ran out of oomph in the last set, which I did the first three downriver and then turned to come back. I bailed on the r28 rep, and then basically did 1′ and 1′ off of r28 instead for a few reps, just to get a bit more time at rate.

       Workout Summary - media/20190904-1621460o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11736|01:07:54.1|02:53.6|112.8|22.1|144.4|179.0|07.8
W-|06742|00:30:02.8|02:13.7|174.3|23.9|153.6|178.0|09.5
R-|05008|00:37:52.6|03:46.9|064.0|20.7|137.1|178.0|07.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00112|00:33.0|02:27.7|128.7|19.8|127.0|129.0|10.3
02|00415|01:57.0|02:21.1|130.8|20.0|135.0|145.0|10.6
03|00430|01:57.0|02:16.0|165.5|22.4|139.2|152.0|09.8
04|00473|02:03.4|02:10.5|159.0|24.2|149.0|160.0|09.5
05|00477|02:02.5|02:08.3|182.3|26.0|155.0|166.0|09.0
06|00246|01:00.4|02:02.8|222.8|27.9|152.2|161.0|08.8
07|00411|01:55.7|02:20.7|151.6|20.2|142.1|159.0|10.6
08|00459|02:04.6|02:15.8|171.3|22.1|157.1|167.0|10.0
09|00441|01:57.9|02:13.7|201.0|23.8|160.6|172.0|09.4
10|00476|02:04.8|02:11.1|183.0|25.4|164.8|175.0|09.0
11|00456|01:55.9|02:07.2|217.0|28.0|168.8|178.0|08.4
12|00418|01:56.1|02:18.9|134.6|19.6|145.1|160.0|11.0
13|00447|02:00.2|02:14.4|164.5|21.5|155.3|166.0|10.4
14|00442|01:56.4|02:11.6|149.9|24.1|161.5|171.0|09.5
15|00433|01:56.0|02:13.9|210.9|26.4|164.9|176.0|08.5
16|00147|00:39.9|02:16.1|179.1|28.6|162.0|164.0|07.7
17|00226|01:01.1|02:15.1|192.7|27.5|154.8|167.0|08.1
18|00234|01:00.9|02:10.1|213.8|27.6|158.6|167.0|08.4

Thursday – Sept 5 – crappy static 10K

I had a conference call that went until after 10pm, so I slept in instead of getting up to row. Later in the day, I went to the gym for a quick session. I decided to do a threshold piece, and 10K has been giving me a lot of trouble lately. I might as well work on that. I set a target to just keep the pace under 2:00, and if you looked at the monitor picture, you’d conclude that it wasn’t so bad.

Sure, a little bobble in the middle, but no big deal. Here’s the summary plot though.

3 HD’s! I am in a tough place right now. My stroke power is great, but my aerobic capacity is not anywhere near it was. So I go too hard, under rate, and get discouraged. I also don’t have a hard training objective, or trackable plan so, it is easy to start playing mind games when it gets a little scary in the middle of a long row. Finally, ergs are boring. I think I have to do a better job at rowing to stroke rate and pace goals. I have to stop over cooking the beginnings of these rows.

Friday – Sept 6 – No training

I was working from home on Friday, so I didn’t go off to row in the morning. I planned to do an erg session, but I didn’t have a gap in my schedule to go do it.

Saturday – 7 Sept – Aborted 10K

We stayed in Hopkinton this weekend, and so I planned to do an erg session in the afternoon. I was so pissed off about the 10K row that I thought I would try again (today on slides).

I didn’t warm up on Thursday, so I did a nice 2K warmup.

Then I decided to be very careful and stick to the 2:00 pace. I made it less than 2k before I gave up. I was having some stomach issues and I really needed to stop the row.

That was massively depressing. I really seem to be struggling.

Sunday – 8 Sept – 3 x 30′ / 2′

I was feeling very spooked about how badly things had been going. I decided to step back and do a very consistent, low intensity session and go extra long.

It was a good call. I was relaxed, enjoyed some good podcasts, and felt much better afterwards.

        Workout Summary - media/20190908-2135590o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|21997|01:34:41.3|02:09.1|166.7|19.3|140.6|157.0|12.0
W-|20623|01:26:46.5|02:06.2|174.1|19.1|142.2|157.0|12.4
R-|01379|00:07:55.2|02:52.3|084.8|21.7|123.5|157.0|09.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|06551|27:36.3|02:06.4|173.4|19.2|133.5|144.0|12.4
02|07045|29:41.7|02:06.5|173.2|18.9|142.9|149.0|12.5
03|07028|29:28.5|02:05.8|175.8|19.3|149.6|157.0|12.4

Monday – 9 Sept – Steady state OTW with Humon

--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13655|01:16:06.2|02:47.2|120.6|20.1|133.4|158.0|08.9
W-|11821|00:58:46.1|02:29.1|138.2|19.5|139.6|158.0|10.4
R-|01839|00:17:20.7|04:43.0|061.2|21.9|112.4|158.0|06.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00152|00:45.6|02:29.8|130.5|19.7|130.3|133.0|10.1
02|02793|14:09.2|02:32.0|129.3|17.9|135.9|141.0|11.0
03|02716|13:46.6|02:32.2|131.8|18.3|135.3|148.0|10.8
04|02721|13:22.5|02:27.5|144.3|20.5|143.4|158.0|09.9
05|02777|13:39.0|02:27.5|142.8|20.1|144.9|154.0|10.1
06|00290|01:19.2|02:16.6|172.4|25.7|141.7|153.0|08.5
07|00372|01:44.0|02:19.8|155.5|25.4|137.5|154.0|08.4

Paces are slower because I used the data from the 2′ on 1′ off workout to do an analysis comparing gps and impeller data for up river and down river segments. My calibration was off by about 3 seconds per 500m. Bummer. I’m slower than I thought I was. 😞

On the plus side, this session was just delightful from beginning to end. I rowed it with Humon and tried to dance on the edge between green and orange. I found that I am working a lot more efficiently at r20 than r18.

Tuesday – 10 Sept – No Training

I was out late because of a work celebration. One of my coworkers was celebrating their 40th work anniversary. So, I slept in on Tuesday morning. I intended to go to the gym, but too many interruptions and too much work to do.

Wednesday – 11 Sept – Steady State OTW with Humon

Same session as monday. tried to stick to r20. I decided to do some higher rate work in the warmup to see if it hurt or helped later on.

At the end of my warmup, as I approached the dam in Waltham, I passed a sculler going the other way. I’ve talked to him a number of times, a nice guy in his seventies. Anyway, I got to the end, turned my boat, had a drink and then set off after him. I knew it was just a steady state session, but the knowledge that there was a boat out there ahead of me was stuck in my head. I maintained my rate, but there might have been a little extra pressure in my stroke. I caught up with him as we went through the s-turn. He pushed a bit harder as I passed to mark time with me. He’s going to be in the HOCR in a couple weeks (lucky guy) and he’s out most morning now training.

After I finished that leg, I spun around and followed him into the cove, which is now “protected” by a set of booms. I had no trouble navigating the gap in the booms to get in the cove, and I had a nice chat with him as he docked. But when I went to leave the cove, there was a reasonably strong tail wind and I got pushed into the booms. It took me a lot of backing and forthing to extricate myself and at times I was really worried that I was going to end up going for a swim. I think I’ll avoid the cove until those booms are gone.

     Workout Summary - media/20190914-1451000o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12637|01:17:24.7|03:03.8|111.0|21.5|136.9|172.0|07.6
W-|07963|00:39:33.5|02:29.0|148.4|21.4|147.6|169.0|09.5
R-|04688|00:37:52.4|04:02.4|071.9|21.6|125.8|169.0|06.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00217|01:03.5|02:26.3|130.4|19.9|121.7|136.0|10.3
02|00212|00:59.6|02:20.8|156.8|22.0|128.8|140.0|09.7
03|00219|01:01.2|02:19.7|171.4|23.5|131.0|141.0|09.1
04|00207|00:56.4|02:16.2|129.4|25.4|138.8|150.0|08.7
05|00204|00:51.1|02:05.4|222.4|28.2|144.1|157.0|08.5
06|00205|00:49.8|02:01.5|249.2|31.3|146.8|163.0|07.9
07|00201|00:46.2|01:54.8|277.3|34.9|154.5|169.0|07.5
08|00791|04:04.0|02:34.2|134.5|20.1|146.4|154.0|09.7
09|01195|06:11.6|02:35.5|142.5|20.3|158.9|166.0|09.5
10|00391|02:00.6|02:34.1|151.9|19.9|158.2|162.0|09.8
11|00084|00:26.4|02:36.2|153.0|22.5|127.7|131.0|08.5
12|01680|08:22.2|02:29.4|130.9|20.0|144.4|151.0|10.0
13|01434|07:29.5|02:36.8|136.8|20.4|149.6|155.0|09.4
14|00427|02:12.8|02:35.5|144.9|19.8|153.0|154.0|09.8
15|00339|01:35.6|02:20.9|179.1|25.0|146.0|161.0|08.5
16|00156|00:43.0|02:18.3|200.7|26.6|140.9|153.0|08.2

Thursday – 12 Sept – 3 x 20′ / 2′

Another late night. We had dinner with a customer, and we had meetings setup to start early Thursday morning. I decided to not row before the meeting so I could be on time and not sweaty when we got started. Later in the day, after the meeting was over, I went to the gym and did a steady state session. R19, 170w.

Weird misbehavior of the HR monitor at the start of the second piece.

Friday – 13 Sept – 10 x 3’/1′ Threshold

Another early meeting, so not enough time to row OTW. I only had time for an abbreviated session. I usually do 15×3′, but I cut back the number to fit the time and pushed a little harder. It was a good session. I was really happy with it.

Pretty remarkable smo2 swings…68% to 54%. I still don’t really understand what it means when the algorithm goes from red back to orange or green in the depths of a hard interval.

This was a very satisfying workout. I felt better all day afterwards.

Today: Steady state on the erg.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: OTW