Monday: 72′ of Speedplay.

May 7, 2018Leave a comment

Sunday: Rest Day

By the time we got home yesterday, time was short and I decided that it would be better to take a rest day and row on Monday instead of squeezing in an erg session and letting a beautiful morning pass without rowing.

Monday: 72′ of Speedplay

After I finished my row on Friday, I spent some time making additional modifications to how I am rigged. The changes were…

Footstretcher an additional 1 cm to stern. Now it is a full 4cm astern of original position
Shortened inboard 1cm to 84cm. Now it is in 5 cm from 89cm originally
Lowered oarlocks an additional spacer. Now 2 spacers lower than original.

Then I left my boat for the weekend and rowed down on the cape. I did change my oars there to 84cm inboard to match, but I didn’t mess with the footstretcher or oarlock height.

Today was my first row with the new settings. The plan was for 80 minutes of speedplay. I had an 8:30 meeting, so I needed to be in my car at 7:45. That meant I needed to cut is short by just a few minutes.

The flow in the river seems to be a bit down. The weather was perfect. There was a bit of mist on the water when I launched, but it burnt off quickly. The temp was around 55F when i launched, but well above 60 by the time I finished. There was no wind when I started and just a light zephyr from the west by the time I was done. A great day to be on the river.

I launched and within a couple of strokes, I was at a nice steady state rate and pace. I held that through the twisty bits, and continued out into the nice straight section. I liked the changes to the rigging. With the oarlock height, I was able to get above the handles and I felt like my balance was better. I was able to row a lot more strokes without touching water on the recovery. At around 8 minutes I did my first power 20. When I finished, I looked around and was somewhat surprised to see a naked man staring back at me from the bank of the river. I guess he decided that some early morning skinny dipping was his training plan for the day and I interrupted him.

The rest of the workout passed far more uneventfully.

I need to change my OTW slack. These power bins are depressing me!

But the pace! A lot faster than recent sessions overall.

Workout Summary - media/20180507-1700240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14092|72:00.0|02:33.3|141.3|20.6|146.2|167.0|09.5
W-|13572|66:07.0|02:26.1|147.6|20.7|147.7|167.0|09.9
R-|00527|05:53.0|05:35.2|069.6|18.6|129.6|167.0|05.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00856|03:59.0|02:19.6|146.6|19.3|130.2|142.0|11.1 - little gap to maneuver
02|02990|14:00.0|02:20.5|150.9|19.9|144.3|163.0|10.7 - down
03|02892|14:34.0|02:31.1|147.1|20.4|147.6|166.0|09.7 - up
04|02887|13:37.0|02:21.5|152.3|20.8|150.9|167.0|10.2 - down
05|03947|19:57.0|02:31.6|142.7|21.8|151.4|167.0|09.1 - up

I assume that the difference is because of less wind, but I don’t that accounts for all of it.

Tomorrow: 2 x 30′ @ 22.

Whew. That’s hard work. 2 x 30 at r22

May 1, 20182 Comments

Not sure if this workout is supposed to be this hard. Maybe I’m trying to put too much into each stroke and I should lighten up. But, the low power and lousy splits suggest otherwise.

The weather was awesome. I wish it was about 10 degrees warmer, but it was sunny and there was very little wind. As soon as I got going I was warm enough.

          Workout Summary - media/20180501-1415230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14119|76:06.0|02:41.7|167.4|21.5|152.3|172.0|08.6
W-|11481|55:13.0|02:24.3|190.8|22.3|161.0|172.0|09.3
R-|02643|20:53.0|03:57.1|105.4|19.4|129.3|172.0|06.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02763|12:22.0|02:14.3|198.5|22.2|151.1|161.0|10.0
02|02934|14:40.0|02:29.9|194.1|22.5|162.3|168.0|08.9
03|02942|13:32.0|02:18.0|190.1|21.9|161.8|168.0|09.9
04|02842|14:39.0|02:34.7|181.7|22.4|167.2|172.0|08.7

So, since my river is about less than 15 minutes long, I ended up cheating a bit against the 2 x 30. It ended up closer to 2 x 28. As you can see from the HR, the middle turn was short enough that I didn’t get much recovery. Honestly, it was a real struggle to do that in the second interval. I really wanted a breather!

The power tells the story. I just got tired. Power declined from 199W all the way down to 182W. It would probably have been better for me to aim for a consistent 190W throughout the workout and done a better job with technique.

Quick comparison of the this session and the last time I did the same workout.

Last time I did this workout. I fired up into r22 right away and I carried it all the way back to the dock at the end. Today, I warmed for 5 minutes and cooled down for 5 minutes. I lopped that stuff of the chart as “rests”. Power is nearly identical. My HR response is way higher today. Not sure why. Maybe it’s biorhythms.

Tomorrow: A new session.

3 sets of
- 1′ on / 3′ off
- 1′ on / 3′ off
- 3′ on / 6′ off
Target rate: 28-32
Target pace: As good as I can do. Hopefully above 300w.

80′ of speedplay

April 30, 2018Leave a comment

Weather: cool and cloudy, around 43f. Light to moderate wind from the west (headwind in the upriver sections)

Plan:

80′
- r18 to r20 – cat VI rowing
- 2 x 20 strokes at r28 – cat II on each leg of the row
In between legs. 5 to 10 reps of KOM drill

Workout Summary - media/20180430-1345240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14038|78:45.0|02:48.3|164.6|19.8|144.9|174.0|09.0
W-|11668|58:10.0|02:29.6|184.9|20.3|153.1|174.0|09.9
R-|02375|20:35.0|04:20.0|107.5|18.4|121.8|174.0|07.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02687|12:08.0|02:15.5|184.5|20.2|148.5|166.0|10.9
02|02898|15:20.0|02:38.7|189.5|20.3|154.2|171.0|09.3
03|02847|13:08.0|02:18.4|183.7|20.0|152.9|170.0|10.8
04|03237|17:34.0|02:42.8|182.0|20.7|155.5|174.0|08.9

A very nice row. I felt a lot less tired than after previous outings like this. I also am feeling a bit smoother at r28. A lot of the strokes are fully clear of the water on recovery.

Tomorrow: 2 x 30′, Cat V, r22 Medium tempo workout. I need to fold each 30′ block into 2 chunks to fit it in the river, but I’ll make the turns in less than a minute.

Lost week – Taiwan

April 29, 20181 Comment

I left on Sunday morning to catch an early afternoon flight to Taiwan. I dropped my boat off in Newton on the way to the airport.

I was flying from Boston to Tokyo, then connecting to Taipei. I arrived around 8:30PM Monday night. I slept some on the two flights, but I was stiff and tired by the time I got to the airport.

Tuesday morning:

I got up around 5am and discovered that I had left my HR monitor at home. SO much for documented evidence of working out! Sad to say, it badly effected my motivation.

I headed to the gym. I set up the treadmill to do a 30 minute HIIT session. so, 4:20 sec of fast walk (3mph) on 15% grade. Then 40 seconds at 7mph on the same grade. repeat 6 times. By the last two sprints, I was nauseous at the end of the 40 seconds. I guess that meant I was doing it right.

The rest of the day was a blur of meetings, all of them internal with our team in Taiwan. I had dinner with a few of the folks that I travelled with and got back to the hotel around 9pm.

Wednesday:

Up at 5 again, and back in the gym. Today, it was 30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes on the stationary bike. In both cases, I used the built in HR monitor to try to keep my HR in the 137 to 155 range.

Then I was off to the customer site for 3 different meetings. Then we had a dinner for the full team supporting this major customer. They’ve been working night and day for years making it successful, so it was a good idea for us to say thank you.

I made it back to the hotel just in time for my 8:30 conference call. Unfortunately, that exactly when jet lag decided to strike and strike hard. I was having trouble holding my head up, and I kept hoping for the meeting to wrap up. I can remember looking at the clock around 8:50pm. The next thing I know, it’s five minutes after nine, my head is on the desk and there’s no one left on the call! I fell dead asleep. I reached out by email to apologize to the other folks that were on the call. I was pretty embarrassed.

Thursday:

I slept in until 6 because I had nothing on my agenda until my ride to the airport at 10am. I headed down to the gym without a specific plan. I did my full PT suite of exercises. I have been neglecting them lately and that’s a bad thing. I have to find a way to fit them in with OTW rowing. I don’t feel comfortable doing them on the ground at the docks where I keep my boat and I am always rushed when I get to work afterwards. I think I might start doing them on my way out of work at night.

Anyway, I did the PT exercises. Then I did a little bit of strength training.

I did a 3 circuits of

20 squats with 2 25lb dumbells
12 pull downs on a machine designed to mimic pull ups

The squats felt easy at the time, but it’s 3 days later and I’m still feeling sore.

Then I headed over to the treadmills and did 30 minutes of fast walking on a 15% grade.

After that, I headed to the airport for the long trip home. I got home around 8:00pm on Thursday night, thanks to time zones.

Friday: 80′ of OTW speedplay.

I slept surprisingly well on Thursday night, but not very long. The alarm woke me at 5:15am and I rolled out of bed. It was a beautiful morning, so I wanted to get back on the water. I headed to Newton and launched.

The plan:

80′ of speedplay
4 sessions of KOM

The instructions for the speedplay sessions are to do it continuous, but I really want to work on balance. I find that if I do KOM for more than a couple minutes at a time, I get all tight. So I decided to do a quick set each time I needed to turn the boat around.

The weather was lovely. Very little wind. There still a bit of current which make the splits all crazy and makes rowing a bit squirrelly in a couple of places, mainly where the river narrows down or splits and rejoins. It feel like the boat is wiggling underneath you or you are going around a corner on ice. As long as you are expecting it, it’s kind of fun, but it can be disconcerting if it takes you by surprise.

I started with about 5 sets of KOM, then headed down river. I’ve got my routine for the speed play workouts. I row steady state until I get to middle of the straight 1K. Then I do my power twenty. Then I continue to the middle of straight section in front of the watch factory and do another. I do the reverse on the way up river. It ends up with a bit more time between the twenties with the turn in there.

I am trying to keep the power above 300W on the power twenties and to keep the stroke rate between 28 and 30.

To get a better idea of the effect of the rigging changes, I wanted to look at the change in my catch, finish and length. These charts isolate just the r28 portions of four speed play rows. I made the adjustments in 3 steps. The first is the original settings. The next is with oars down one spacer, inboard shortened by 2cm, and footplate moved 1 cm. The third is another 2cm shorter inboard. Then the last is with the footplate moved the additional cm to stern.

Finish angle is about 2 degrees bigger.
Catch angle is about 3 degrees bigger
drive length is 3.5 degrees bigger
Effective length is about 2 degrees bigger.

Not much change. It feels a lot different though.

Saturday: I intended to go rowing, but i felt like crap all day long. I just sat around and did crossword puzzles. I did get up the motivation to do laundry and get groceries, but that was about all I was good for,

Sunday; Again, I was thinking about going rowing, but its raining and I’m lazy. I intend to do an easy session on the dynamic later just to keep things going.

Wed – Sun: A lot more rowing!

April 22, 20181 Comment

What a delight to have 5 days of rowing in a row! I was in town for the whole week this week and even though I had a busy work schedule, I managed to row every morning. I didn’t get much sleep, and I froze my ass off, but it was totally worth it!

Tuesday: 2 x 30′ (already posted about this one. It was pretty tough work)

Wednesday: 3 x (1′ + 1′ + 2′) – a delightfully short sprint oriented workout

Thursday: 60′ of speed play…I got rained and snowed on

Friday: 65′ of speed play…Nice morning, but still damn cold.

Saturday: 4 x 12′ rate ladders on Lake Quinsigamond

Sunday: Off to Taiwan.

The details:

Wednesday: 3 x (1′ + 1′ + 2′)

Here are my coach’s instructions….

3 sets of: 1’ on, 3’ active rest, 1’ on , 3’ active rest 2’ on, 5’ active rest
Rest between: Continuous, no rest between sets. Complete one set and then repeat the series. The active rest is relaxed, low intensity, easy rowing. Stop only briefly to rehydrate.
Rating /pace: Race effort, 1k pace (your best right now)

Notes: The emphasis is on high quality work and stroke efficiency. This speed workout aims to keep the lactic acid levels low by allowing enough recovery between pieces for it to clear. Do not cut the rest short. Feel fully recovered and psychologically ready to do the next piece. If the quality starts to drop dramatically, stop the workout.

Training effect: Cat II, repetitions, race pace technique.

Pretty clear instructions and it’s nice to have the notes to know what to focus on.

I did not need to cut the workout short, but I did suffer a bit in the sprints that were going into the head wind. I adjusted the active rest between sprints as necessary to have the right amount of straight river in front of me when I started each sprint.

There is a huge difference in pace due to wind and current. The first three were all downstream and wind aided. The next three were all upstream and into a building headwind. The third set I did two downstream and then did the last 2′ piece into the current and wind. I struggled with the cross/head wind in the last one.

Workout Summary - media/20180418-1415260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10409|58:41.0|02:49.2|156.4|21.7|144.7|177.0|08.2
W-|02817|11:47.0|02:05.5|295.9|29.1|160.9|177.0|08.2
R-|07601|46:54.0|03:05.2|121.4|19.8|140.6|177.0|07.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00261|01:00.0|01:55.1|305.2|28.6|153.9|160.0|09.1
02|00264|01:00.0|01:53.6|304.3|29.4|157.7|164.0|09.0
03|00464|01:47.0|01:55.4|303.9|28.2|161.5|170.0|09.2
04|00217|01:00.0|02:18.5|257.7|29.1|150.7|161.0|07.4
05|00230|01:00.0|02:10.5|355.5|30.3|161.7|172.0|07.6
06|00444|02:00.0|02:15.2|279.4|28.6|167.7|177.0|07.8
07|00254|01:00.0|01:58.3|309.8|29.4|153.8|167.0|08.6
08|00253|01:00.0|01:58.6|313.8|29.7|159.4|169.0|08.5
09|00432|02:00.0|02:18.9|269.8|29.2|167.4|174.0|07.4

I basically aimed to get the power above 300 and keep it there.

Thursday: 60′ of speed play

A unique experience for me. It was cold and grey when I got to the dock. I had brought stuff so I could do the session inside because there was rain in the forecast, but when I arrived, it was not raining. So I decided to give it a go. I’ve done this session on the erg, but not yet in the boat and I was looking forward to it.

Plan:

60’ with speed play
Rest: n/a only to rehydrate
Rating/Pace: Cat VI; target SR 18-20.
Once every 10 minutes take the stroke rate up to 28 spm for 20 strokes.

I modified the time between power 20s based on the river. I wanted to get two 20s into each direction that I row, so it was a little less than 10 minutes between them.

The wind was pretty strong and it started raining during my first trip down the river as I emerged from the s-turn. By the time I turned at the dam it was raining steadily. By the time I had gone back upstream, it was a “wintery mix”. Then it was all snow.

Workout Summary - media/20180419-1300370o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11314|60:52.0|02:41.4|162.5|20.2|144.4|166.0|09.2
W-|01237|05:15.0|02:07.3|293.6|28.6|153.8|164.0|08.3
R-|10085|55:37.0|02:45.5|150.1|19.4|143.5|164.0|08.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00181|00:45.0|02:04.0|246.4|25.7|150.5|154.0|09.4
02|00191|00:45.0|01:57.9|282.3|27.1|153.9|161.0|09.4
03|00166|00:45.0|02:15.5|260.4|28.5|151.2|160.0|07.8
04|00164|00:45.0|02:17.6|303.5|28.4|157.3|164.0|07.7
05|00194|00:45.0|01:56.1|318.4|29.3|154.8|161.0|08.8
06|00174|00:45.0|02:09.7|321.8|30.7|159.6|163.0|07.5
07|00168|00:45.0|02:14.1|322.5|30.4|149.3|159.0|07.4

Friday: 65′ of speed play

Friday is an optional rest day, or I can do another speed play session like Thursday’s. Since I knew I had travel coming up, I wanted to get as much time on the water as I could.

The weather was even colder than Thursday, around 32F. But at least it was dry and the sun came out. The temperature was in the 40s by the time I finished.

I felt much better in this workout than the one on Thursday. Better, more consistent power in the bursts.

Workout Summary - media/20180420-1350290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12492|67:43.0|02:42.6|157.5|19.5|147.8|170.0|09.5
W-|01136|04:40.0|02:03.3|304.6|28.8|158.6|168.0|08.4
R-|11363|63:03.0|02:46.5|146.7|18.8|147.0|168.0|08.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00167|00:40.0|01:59.7|317.7|27.6|152.8|157.0|09.1
02|00170|00:40.0|01:57.6|313.1|27.9|155.9|161.0|09.2
03|00154|00:40.0|02:09.9|294.5|28.2|159.7|164.0|08.2
04|00150|00:40.0|02:13.1|300.6|28.4|160.3|165.0|07.9
05|00172|00:40.0|01:56.3|303.0|30.3|160.4|166.0|08.5
06|00172|00:40.0|01:56.6|315.2|29.9|163.3|168.0|08.6
07|00151|00:40.0|02:12.5|288.0|29.7|158.0|164.0|07.6

Saturday: 4 x 12′ rate ladders on Lake Quinsigamond

Saturday was a big day for our little club. We were going to christen our new lightweight double. We have some very good women rowers and they have been using a mid-heavyweight double which is way less than ideal for them. We picked this boat up used from Saugatuck and had it repainted locally (fire engine red!).

I brought my boat out. Today was going to be ideal for a few purposes. I wanted to see my rowing friends. I wanted to have a nice long lake for this workout. And since Saturday mornings are a lot less time compressed, I figure it would be a good time to do some side video with the rigging changes to see if it looks any different.

Marlene had suggested that I move further to stern, and I had moved the footplate a cm last week. On Saturday, I moved it another cm to the stern. It felt fine during the row.

I started out with some king of the mountain. I was really tight and tippy on Saturday, maybe it was having an audience as everyone else was getting ready to row. Anyway, I have to do this drill more because I suck at it!

Then it was time for the planned workout.

4 x 12’
Rest between: 6’
Rating/Pace:
- 6’ @ Cat VI; target 18-20
- 4’ @ Cat IV; target SR 24
- 2’ @ Cat III; target SR 28.

The first ladder heading down lake was delightful. The water was smooth and the wind was light. I felt strong and fast. But by the end of the 12′, I was pretty gassed. I think I pushed a bit too hard.

The next one was uplake and into a building headwind. That was less fun. Notice in the plot a transient right at 25 minutes? That’s were I ran into a “No Wake Zone” bouy. I noticed it right before I hit it, so I had enough time to brace and avoid flipping, but not far enough to stop or turn. It freaked me out a bit.

Then back down lake again and finally another one uplake. by this time I was worn out and the lake was pretty choppy. The wind was from the northwest as near as I could tell, so coming down lake I was sheltered by the western shore. Going uplake along the eastern side of the lake, I was exposed to the wind and chop.

I was totally spent the rest of the day.

4-21a

Once I get settled in Taiwan, I’ll post the videos.

Tuesday: 2 x 30′ at r22 OTW

April 18, 2018Leave a comment

On the water in my single. On the upper charles in Newton. The temp was in the low 40s and there was a reasonably strong breeze blowing from the west. This was a headwind heading up river.

The river was incredibly high after the big storm this weekend. The current was noticeably strong, especially at narrow points in the river.

I adjusted inboard to 85cm. I liked the extra room that it gave me at the finish, and increased my finish angle a few degrees. It did feel a bit heavier. I’m wondering if I will have issues rating up. I think I will try to move the foot stretcher another cm to stern to give me a bit more angle at the catch.

Plan:

2 x 30’
Rest between: n/a only to rehydrate
Rating/Pace: Cat V pace; target SR 22.

Screen Shot 2018-04-17 at 7.50.00 PM.png

The pace variations is almost entirely driven by the wind and current. The fastest pace was in the little stretch right after the stone bridge for both downstream segments.

This was pretty hard work.

Tomorrow:

3 x (1’ on / 3’ active rest + 1’ on / 3’ active rest + 2’ on / 5’ active rest)
Complete one set and then repeat the series.
The active rest is relaxed, low intensity, easy rowing.
Stop only briefly to rehydrate.
Rating /pace: Race effort, 1k pace (your best right now) – I will target r28 to r30, basically like the fast parts of the speed play.

Fri – Fri: Busy Week

April 14, 2018April 14, 2018Leave a comment

I got back to my house from Japan around 8pm on Thursday night. I slept well on the plane and surprisingly well Thursday night. I slept until around 7:30am Friday morning.

Friday: 14k steady state – OTW 1x

It was cold and windy on Friday morning. Snow was in the forecast for later that day. The plan for the session was just to work on technique and get some steady state volume. Cat VI, r18-20.

I was a little bit irked that I forgot to start the speedcoach until I was about 800m into the row. The wind was coming southwest, so I had a tail wind and tail current heading towards waltham and a head wind and head current the other way. It made for a pretty dramatic difference in pace.

          Workout Summary - media/20180406-1655240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13276|75:36.0|02:50.8|150.8|19.4|150.9|160.0|09.0
W-|12944|69:39.0|02:41.4|161.6|19.3|151.5|160.0|09.7
R-|00336|05:57.0|08:50.9|024.2|20.3|143.6|160.0|03.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03251|15:40.0|02:24.6|159.8|18.5|146.6|154.0|11.2 - missing 800m
01|02896|16:43.0|02:53.2|163.6|18.3|151.8|157.0|09.5
02|02894|14:05.0|02:26.0|162.5|18.4|151.3|157.0|11.2
03|03904|23:11.0|02:58.2|161.0|21.3|154.6|160.0|07.9 - tried higher rate

My objective for the row was to achieve the best possible pace while respecting the HR cap at 155. What was interesting was the consistency of power between head wind and tail wind cases.

The pace was different by 30 seconds, but the power was matched within 4 watts across all four intervals.

Saturday: 2 x 15′ rate ladders on the Oartec DX

I had lots going on all day, and I didn’t have a chance to train until about 9pm. The scheduled session was the 3×15′ rate ladders. I was going to try to do them on the Oartec DX. I decided to cut it back to 2, and either I was having a bad day, or I discovered that I can’t do as well on the Oartec as I can on slides. I ended up HDing in both ladders and finishing with a HR with 5 beats of my max.

Workout Summary - media/20180408-0200250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09056|38:00.0|02:05.9|232.3|22.9|157.0|181.0|10.4
W-|07602|30:00.0|01:58.4|213.5|22.5|157.0|181.0|11.4
R-|01461|08:00.0|02:44.3|302.7|24.3|157.1|181.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01235|05:00.0|02:01.5|193.4|19.6|133.0|146.0|12.6
01|01021|04:00.0|01:57.5|214.9|21.7|154.2|161.0|11.7
02|00800|03:00.0|01:52.5|246.1|24.2|165.3|172.0|11.0
03|00506|02:00.0|01:58.7|219.7|25.3|166.9|172.0|10.0
04|00290|01:00.0|01:43.4|312.1|28.7|172.8|176.0|10.1
05|01212|05:00.0|02:03.8|184.8|19.4|148.9|159.0|12.5
06|01007|04:00.0|01:59.2|206.3|22.1|165.9|169.0|11.4
07|00714|03:00.0|02:06.0|184.3|23.1|164.0|171.0|10.3
08|00533|02:00.0|01:52.6|244.8|26.4|173.2|177.0|10.1
09|00284|01:00.0|01:45.5|297.9|30.7|178.8|181.0|09.3

Sunday: 2 x 2k + 2 x 1k + 2 + 500 – OTW 1x

After the late night workout the day before, I decided to push my sunday workout a bit later in the day. I had brought my boat home with me hoping that I could get out to row on Quinsig, but it was too cold and windy both mornings.

I needed to get my boat back to Newton before I took off on my trip monday morning, so I decided to bring it back in the late afternoon and go for a row while I was there. Even when its windy, the river is narrow enough that it remains nice and rowable. Today, it was a bit tough because the wind was coming generally out of the west, which was a cross wind through the widest section. This kicked up enough chop to make it more technically challenging than I can handle easily at this stage of the season.

The first 2k was great. Right on target, but I felt like I was digging a bit too deep. I failed in the second 2k. I came through the s-turn and got hit with the head wind and chop and I just didn’t have the drive to finish out the rep.

The same thing happened with the 1Ks. The downriver one was fine, but I bailed out on the up river one going into the headwind when I managed to take a crappy stroke and just kind of gave up on it.

In both cases, I took a couple of paddle strokes and then brought it back to target for the end of the rep.

The 500s were fun. Short enough that I wasn’t tempted to give up! The wind seemed to be rising throughout the workout. The biggest gusts seemed to happen as I came back up river in the last 500.

The summary shows the advantage and disadvantage of using power. You can see that the power is more consistent upwind vs down, but you can also see how the power is effected by steering. In the first 2000, the higher power from 1000 to 1200 meters is starboard turn going into the s-turn, and the power dip right after is the turn to port coming out of the turn.

         Workout Summary - media/20180409-0040240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11862|75:16.0|03:10.4|167.9|23.1|148.0|178.0|06.8
W-|08857|41:50.0|02:21.7|218.2|24.4|159.8|178.0|08.8
R-|03015|33:26.0|05:32.7|104.9|21.4|133.3|178.0|00.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00830|04:01.0|02:25.2|173.2|18.4|137.1|150.0|11.2
02|01961|08:36.0|02:11.6|231.7|23.9|165.2|176.0|09.5
03|02002|09:51.0|02:27.6|217.7|24.6|168.0|178.0|08.3
04|01050|04:33.0|02:10.0|248.9|26.5|166.5|177.0|08.7
05|01016|04:57.0|02:26.2|228.4|25.8|162.8|172.0|08.0
06|00501|02:10.0|02:09.7|265.7|28.5|158.3|174.0|08.1
07|00511|02:20.0|02:17.0|274.0|28.2|164.1|177.0|07.8
08|00617|03:23.0|02:44.4|152.2|23.5|142.8|156.0|07.8
09|00369|01:59.0|02:41.2|151.6|21.8|143.4|150.0|08.5

This workout put me into a bit of a contemplative mood. I can remember when bailing out on reps would have made me so angry with myself. in this workout, I was happy to be in the river, I felt a little bit like a quitter for not sticking with it, but it seemed like a good workout none the less. Then I start to second guess myself. Maybe that anger came out of a stringer drive to succeed? Is this a sign that I’m losing the desire to really compete and get to deliver my very best.

When I started, it seemed like trite little quotes like “Winners never quit, quitter never win” were always in my head. Over the past 10 years, I’ve put in enough sessions to know that sometimes you don’t hit your session objectives, and frankly, if you always do, then you are not pushing yourself enough. Now, I need to figure out a way to get the most out of the training time that I can afford to spend. It’s useful contemplation.

Monday: No Training

Up at 5am to get to the airport. Flew out to San Francisco for a couple of customer meetings. Got to the hotel around 8pm, had a quick dinner and crashed.

Tuesday: No Training

I had intended to get up at 5 and do a quick session in the hotel gym, but I felt very tired when the alarm went off and decided to sleep another hour. Caught a 8:25 flight from SFO back home. I got back to the house around 6:45pm.

Wednesday: 3 x 1500 + 3 x 500

I intended to do this session on the water, but when I woke up this morning, it was 26F and foggy outside. I didn’t know that was atmospherically possible! Wouldn’t the fog just freeze?

Anyway, those conditions, combined with the horrifying discovery that I had a 8:00am put an end to getting out on the water this morning. Instead, I found an hour in the middle of the day to workout and did the session on the erg.

Workout Summary - media/20180411-1725250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08789|38:00.0|02:09.8|192.7|20.7|156.9|178.0|11.2
W-|07500|27:58.0|01:51.9|251.7|23.3|154.8|178.0|11.6
R-|01293|10:02.0|03:52.8|028.1|13.4|162.9|178.0|09.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01500|06:06.7|02:02.2|189.7|18.1|126.9|143.0|13.6
01|01500|05:35.0|01:51.7|251.0|23.6|153.7|163.0|11.4
02|01500|05:35.0|01:51.7|255.4|23.7|162.6|172.0|11.3
03|01500|05:32.9|01:51.0|256.2|24.4|168.6|176.0|11.1
04|00500|01:43.2|01:43.2|312.7|27.9|170.5|178.0|10.4
05|00500|01:43.1|01:43.1|320.9|27.7|163.2|177.0|10.5
06|00500|01:43.0|01:43.0|318.3|27.6|163.7|177.0|10.6

Pretty good workout.

Thursday: 14km Steady State OTW 1x

It was sunny and cold, just above freezing, with almost no wind. The water was glassy smooth.

The goal of this workout was steady state meters at low rate. HR limit at 155.

Nothing of note happened except during the first trip down the river at about 10 minutes the speedcoach complained that it was low on memory. I pushed a few button to see if I could delete a couple of old sessions. You can’t. So, I decided to just keep going and hope that I didn’t run out. I didn’t.

I did the first three legs at r18, but decided to up the rate to r20 in the last leg and lighten up enough to still stay under the HR cap. I was pushing right up to it at the end.

          Workout Summary - media/20180412-1515250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14050|76:45.0|02:43.9|158.6|18.9|145.5|161.0|09.7
W-|13518|68:30.0|02:32.0|167.1|18.8|147.4|161.0|10.5
R-|00536|08:15.0|07:41.6|088.2|20.2|130.4|161.0|01.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02197|10:42.0|02:26.1|170.0|18.4|136.8|146.0|11.2
02|01637|07:51.0|02:23.9|170.7|18.6|142.9|150.0|11.2
03|02870|15:00.0|02:36.8|166.6|18.3|147.4|155.0|10.4
04|02857|14:03.0|02:27.5|167.5|18.3|147.8|156.0|11.1
05|03956|20:54.0|02:38.5|164.5|19.7|154.1|161.0|09.6

6 more watts than the prior last steady state session and a lower HR.

Nice consistent power despite the pace difference.

Friday: 60′ Speed Play

Thursday afternoon, I received an email back from my coach based on her review of the video that I had sent her. It seems like I have lots of “opportunities to get faster”.

Her first thought was I need to change my rigging.

Reduce the amount of inboard (I reduced the inboard from 88 to 86.25 cm)
Lower my oarlocks to get my CG a little bit above the oar handles, so I am more “over the work”. (I moved them down 1 spacer)
Move the footboard to stern to get my hips a bit further through the pin. (I moved it 1 cm)

She also had comments on my posture and

Adjust the way you are sitting so you can hinge.
Get connected to the boat, structural posture- King of the Mountain Drill
Keep glutes and lats engaged all the time on the drive, drive through heels after the cross over. This supports the posture.
Keep your weight into the rigger at all times, work the handles around the pin all the time, stay on the path of the handle.

That’s a lot to process. She also provided my training plan for April/May. There is a new type of session in this program…Speed Play.

60’ with speed play
Rest: n/a only to rehydrate
Rating/Pace: Cat VI; target SR 18-20.
Once every 10 minutes take the stroke rate up to 28 spm for 20 strokes.

I modified the session to fit in the KOM drill. I did about 2 minutes of the drill each time I turned on the river. It was a bit windy. Because of the time I took doing the rigging, I needed to cut a couple of km out of the session by turning at the old stone bridge instead of going all the way back to the dam.

The King of the Mountain drill was challenging. It was a little windy so the boat was getting pushed around and I had trouble holding the blades clear. I was really tensed up in the first set, a little better after that. I think it makes sense to break it up into small chunks like that.

During the row, I really enjoyed the 20 stroke fast bits. I decided to target r30 for those and focus on stroke mechanics. Get my blades clear on recovery. Get my heels down on the drive. Keep hinging at the hips. Usually when I rate up like that I just pull like a dog. Today, I tried for a bit more finesse. I doubt it would have looked any different to a bystander.

          Workout Summary - media/20180413-1305250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12436|73:07.0|02:56.4|153.6|21.6|143.4|174.0|07.9
W-|12436|73:07.0|02:56.4|153.6|21.6|143.4|174.0|07.9
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|174.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|12436|73:07.5|02:56.4|153.6|21.6|143.4|174.0|07.9

Here is a comparison of the stroke profile for the r30 strokes and the steady state strokes (around r20).

So, I am not losing length. Actually, I’m about 4 degrees longer at r30. And the slip and wash both look good. The peak force angle is a bit earlier (28 deg vs 33deg). I think that correlates to the early hump in the acceleration curve that shows up at speed.

Mostly in the row, I was trying to focus on maintaining outward pressure on the oarlocks during recovery and sit up taller. When I did it right and managed to finish cleanly, I felt rock solid as I travelled up the slide with the blades clear of the water. However, it was really hard to keep everything in focus every stroke. I’d focus on finishes and forget to keep pressure out, or do OK on both of those, but slump in the seat.

But, seeing the difference in my erg form by focusing on keeping my knees down and hinging at my hips makes me feel like this is struggle is worth it. It would be great if I could put together a thousand of those beautiful clean strokes in one session.

Friday afternoon, Jill and I headed down to the cape, where we are now. I’ll be erging this weekend. Today’s session.

4 x 12’
Rest between: 6’
Rating/Pace:
- 6’ @ Cat VI; target 18-20
- 4’ @ Cat IV; target SR 24
- 2’ @ Cat III; target SR 28.

Friday: Horror Films. Video Feedback

April 3, 20181 Comment

One of the primary reasons that I wanted to get expert coaching was to make improvements in my rowing technique. I figure that there are three elements to achieving good boat speed.

Lose weight. (5 kg is worth a second of pace at least just in reduced displaement)
Improve fitness
Improve technique

I know how to do number 1 and 2. Those items are determined by the amount of time I have to train, work commitments, willpower and desire.

Technique is tougher. I know good rowing when I see it, and I can see that there are things wrong with my rowing, but I want some expert guidance to figure out what needs to be fixed first and by what means.

Since I am using a remote coaching arrangement with Marlene Royle, that means that I have to record video and share it. I did this over the winter and I think I made some good progress on improvement the mechanics of my stroke, especially the recovery.

Now I am back on the water, and before I get too set in my ways, I wanted to take some video in the boat and start fixing stuff.

I have seen all kinds of arrangements to take video. If you are lucky enough to have a live, local coach, it’s very simple. They film you from the launch. Without a coach, you have to figure a way to mount a GoPro or some other camera on the boat. The easiest is to mount it on the stern deck, but then you don’t get to see a lot of the body work in the stroke. To get that you need a side view.

To get a side view, I picked up a trick from Larry Tait. He figured out how to mount an old rigger backstay to the end of his rigger, and then put his gopro on the end of the backstay. This gets the camera about 6 feet out to side, and with the wide field of view, that’s more than enough to see the whole stroke.

I described it a bit more detail and included pictures of the setup here.

So, I set myself up and went out for a row. I had about an hour, so I decided to do a bit of a free form session. I would do 6 minute easy rate ladders consisting of 3′ @ r18, 2′ @ r20 and 1′ @ r22. To spice it up a bit, I decided to throw in a few practice starts, just to see if I remembered how to do them and to see how good my balance was at the catch.

Here’s the whole session

And here’s the video….

The first video is the first rate ladder. During the 2′ at r20 I was making my way through the s-turn.

After the first 2 ladders, I reached the dam in Waltham. I did a set of four starts after I turned around. A couple of them were OK.

After a couple more ladders, and a few more starts, I did one last short ladder, just 10 strokes at each rate from r18 up to r28.

Looking at the video, I see a whole bunch of issues.

Sad to say, I’m heavier and balder than I was the last time I did side video in the boat. :-(.
I am not sitting erect enough in the boat, my hips are rocked too far back throughout the stroke.
I am not completing my rock over on recovery before I start to slide.
Blade depth looks OK to me, although it looks like my hands are arcing up right after the catch and then leveling out. The last ladder looks worse in terms of “rowing over the barrel”.
As you can see, I struggle a bit with balance. I lightly skim my blades on recovery.
Some strokes have a pretty pronounced pause at the finish.

And here, or pure entertainment value is my worst start of the day. I caught a crab and nearly flipped

The look on my face as it happened was priceless.

The great thing about rowing is that it keeps you humble!

14K OTW – Steady State and Technique

March 29, 2018Leave a comment

Big day today. Back in my Fluid, back on the upper Charles River.

It took me a little to get my boat reassembled, and I took my time. The last thing I wanted to was to screw something up and flip when the air temp was 35F and the water was around 45F.

The despite it being a bit cold. The weather was beautiful. There was very little wind and it was nice and sunny. It had warmed up to the mid forties by the time I had finished.

The water was nice and flat and I was able to just focus on trying to remember how to row.

The plan was pretty simple:

4K to the dam just rowing steady state to reacclimate
3K back upstream working on technique
- 500m Square blades
- 500m alternating SBR and feathered
- 500m trying to row feathered without touching water
- repeat
Same thing 3K down stream
4K back to the dock rowing steady state to see if I made any progress

It’s funny, the first few outings in the spring, my heart rate is quite high and my boat speed is quite slow. After a couple weeks in the boat, I seem to get back in the groove. Today was much the same. In addition, there was a reasonable amount of current flowing, so I was about 5 sec faster downstream and 5 sec slower upstream on pace.

Workout Summary - media/20180329-1335260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13974|80:00.0|02:51.8|134.7|18.2|146.8|162.0|09.6
W-|12923|68:20.0|02:38.7|142.9|18.6|147.8|161.0|10.2
R-|01058|11:40.0|05:31.2|086.8|16.0|141.2|161.0|03.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00889|04:34.2|02:34.3|144.2|17.0|131.5|146.0|11.4 to the cut
01|02735|13:15.0|02:25.3|157.2|18.4|154.1|158.0|11.2 downstream ss
02|02815|15:54.0|02:49.5|136.3|17.5|148.1|161.0|10.1 drills
03|02768|14:43.2|02:39.5|133.5|18.6|143.7|155.0|10.1 drills
04|02881|15:22.2|02:40.1|145.0|19.4|151.0|157.0|09.7 upstream ss
05|00835|04:31.8|02:42.7|146.4|21.2|147.2|160.0|08.7 cut back to dock

I’m nursing a nice set of blisters on both hands, and I’m sore in lots of places. And I’m happier than I’ve been in months!

Tomorrow: Low Intensity day. OTW 1x. Depending on time and fatigue, somewhere between 60 and 80 minutes of rowing. Main intent is to get in some ss meters, but I want to do some side video to see where I am from a technique perspective. So that means I will probably throw in a few short rate ladders.

Back on the Water! – 3 x 1500 + 3 x 500 in a 2x

March 28, 2018March 29, 2018Leave a comment

A couple of days ago, I looked at the weather forecast for the week and decided that it was time to get back on the water. I sent a text to my friend Joe and asked if he wanted to go out any morning this week. I needed to retrieve my boat from winter storage on in Worcester, and I thought it would be great to get a first row in out there with Joe at the same time.

He suggested Wednesday morning. I was a bit worried this morning when I woke up and heard sleet on the windows, but I’m glad that we weren’t deterred. The weather cleared up and the water was amazing! There was basically no wind and the lake was glassy smooth.

One of Joe’s finest qualities is that he is willing to do just about any kind of training session. So, today, I just brought the session that Marlene has scheduled for Wednesday’s

The Plan:

3 x 1500m / 1′ rest
- Cat IV, r24
3 x 500m / 2′ rest
- Cat II, r28

To work with the constraints of the lake, we did a nice long warmup down to the south end of the lake. Then we did the 3 1500s going north. Instead of 1 minute rests, we just paddled 200m between intervals. It looks like that was actually about 1:20 of rest. And between the 1500s and the 500s, we took a longer break so that we could get up to the north end of the lake.

I was really pleased with how the outing went. Even in the warmup, I felt like we were in synch and rowing pretty cleanly.

The 1500s at r24 were really enjoyable. They started to bite a bit at the end of each, but the rowing was good.

The 500s were a bit more hectic, and by then my hands were pretty torn up, so I wasn’t as happy with how I was rowing. But for r28 in a first outing, I’m not gonna get too grumpy about it.

         Workout Summary - media/20180328-1600330o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11668|63:58.0|02:44.5|000.0|22.7|151.3|176.0|08.0
W-|09319|44:36.0|02:23.6|000.0|23.9|156.6|176.0|08.8
R-|02349|19:22.0|04:07.4|000.0|19.9|139.0|176.0|04.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03319|16:42.9|02:31.1|000.0|21.4|146.2|172.0|09.3
02|01500|07:07.3|02:22.4|000.0|24.6|157.8|169.0|08.6
03|01500|07:02.0|02:20.7|000.0|24.4|164.6|175.0|08.7
04|01500|07:01.1|02:20.4|000.0|24.8|167.4|176.0|08.6
05|00500|02:13.4|02:13.4|000.0|28.4|154.5|168.0|07.9
06|00500|02:14.6|02:14.6|000.0|28.0|166.0|175.0|08.0
07|00500|02:15.3|02:15.3|000.0|28.1|164.7|175.0|07.9

Tomorrow: OTW in my single. Cat VI session r18-20 total rowing time ~ 60 minutes.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: OTW

Monday: 72′ of Speedplay.

Whew. That’s hard work. 2 x 30 at r22

80′ of speedplay

Lost week – Taiwan

Wed – Sun: A lot more rowing!

Wednesday: 3 x (1′ + 1′ + 2′)

Tuesday: 2 x 30′ at r22 OTW

Fri – Fri: Busy Week

Friday: Horror Films. Video Feedback

14K OTW – Steady State and Technique

Back on the Water! – 3 x 1500 + 3 x 500 in a 2x