Saturday: 6 x (5′ @ 28, 5′ @ 18) On the Water! In December!

December 2, 2017Leave a comment

What an unexpected treat. Joe texted me yesterday afternoon and asked if I wanted to go rowing this morning. The forecast was favorable. Very light wind, sunny and right around freezing. It sounded like a great idea to me. I asked him if he was up for the workout I had scheduled in the training plan for Saturday. Lucky for me, he was!

The plan:

40 to 60 minutes
5 minutes at r28 and Cat III pace (1:51 on the erg)
5 minutes at r18 and Cat VI pace (2:06 to 2:11 on the erg)
Stop only as needed to rehydrate

So, the first challenge is to translate this into a good OTW workout. I decided to focus on the rates. That translates well. The lake is a little more than 25 minutes from top to bottom, so we could fit in 5 – 5 minute segments each way. So, we would warm up to the north end of the lake, then row south to do 3 segments of r28 and 2 segments of r18, then spin to go north. I decided to let the spin be part of the next 5 minute r18 chunk. Then we would probably have enough lake to finish that 5 minutes at r18, and do 5 more segments to the north end of the lake. It worked out perfectly. We finished with about 200m of lake left. Then we cooled down coming back to the boat house.

There was a bit of wind from the north. Not enough to effect the set of the boat, but enough to slow down the northbound splits. The boat felt much heavier going that way, then going south. It took a couple of reps to get used to the rate that high, but by the third, I felt like we we rowing well together and the boat was moving.

After we turned north, I felt a big blister on my left hand blow up and by the time we were halfway up the lake, my left handle was a bloody mess. I sprayed bloody blister juice all over the rigger and the stern of the boat. The stickiness started to make it a bit tougher to cleanly feather, but it didn’t screw things up too much. I sure noticed it after we finished the main set and started the cool down. Both my hands were stinging badly. Oh well, that’s what you get when you only get out on the water once every couple of weeks.

It was totally worth it!

          Workout Summary - media/20171202-195851-Greg Smith 20171202 0913amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15751|84:49.0|02:41.6|000.0|23.7|152.2|179.0|07.8
W-|14706|74:13.0|02:31.4|000.0|23.3|153.7|179.0|08.6
R-|01052|10:36.0|05:02.3|000.0|21.3|116.8|179.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01951|09:45.0|02:29.9|000.0|19.0|144.3|149.0|10.5
02|01138|05:00.0|02:11.9|000.0|26.2|159.5|165.0|08.7
03|00925|05:00.0|02:42.1|000.0|19.9|148.3|166.0|09.3
04|01132|05:00.0|02:12.5|000.0|27.2|163.5|170.0|08.3
05|00943|05:00.0|02:39.1|000.0|19.3|153.1|170.0|09.8
06|01130|05:00.0|02:12.8|000.0|28.1|169.0|174.0|08.0
07|00608|03:24.0|02:47.7|000.0|19.7|139.6|145.0|09.1
08|01063|05:00.0|02:21.2|000.0|27.5|163.5|170.0|07.7
09|00838|05:00.0|02:59.1|000.0|19.8|149.3|171.0|08.5
10|01048|05:00.0|02:23.1|000.0|27.8|166.1|174.0|07.5
11|00785|05:00.0|03:11.0|000.0|19.6|147.0|174.0|08.0
12|01076|05:00.0|02:19.4|000.0|28.8|168.0|179.0|07.5
13|02068|11:04.4|02:40.6|000.0|23.2|143.9|159.0|08.0

Tomorrow:

4 x 20′ / 3′
Cat VI: r18 / 2:06-2:11

Saturday: 2 x 5 x (800m on / 200m paddle) / 5′ rest in the 2x

November 18, 2017Leave a comment

Out at Lake Quinsigamond. Very light breeze from the south. Cold as hell, about 25F, when we launched. Hazy sunshine. It warmed up to about 30F by the time we finished.

The Plan:

Session: 2 x 5000m (alternate 800m on/ 200m easy)

Rest between: 5’

Rating/Pace: 800m “on” = Cat IV

For the #1 “on” SR 24

For the #2 “on” SR 26

Notes: Stay as close as you can to the target stroke rate

We launched around 8:30 and headed to the north end of the lake. The lake is about 6km long so we wanted to be able to do all five reps going south, and then spin during the rest and do 5 more heading north. We just rowed steady up to warm up. It felt a bit weird being in a boat after almost a month, but we settled in and started to take some good strokes.

          Workout Summary - media/20171118-203730-Greg Smith 20171118 0918amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15020|84:24.0|02:48.6|000.0|24.0|159.7|180.0|07.4
W-|08000|36:32.0|02:17.1|000.0|25.3|166.1|179.0|08.7
R-|07020|45:24.0|03:14.1|000.0|22.5|151.8|179.0|06.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00800|03:38.1|02:16.3|000.0|24.4|161.6|170.0|09.0
02|00800|03:45.2|02:20.7|000.0|24.3|165.5|174.0|08.8
03|00800|03:45.2|02:20.7|000.0|24.8|168.2|176.0|08.6
04|00800|03:43.3|02:19.5|000.0|24.3|168.3|176.0|08.8
05|00800|03:44.3|02:20.2|000.0|24.6|168.4|177.0|08.7
06|00800|03:37.7|02:16.1|000.0|25.9|158.4|168.0|08.5
07|00800|03:38.0|02:16.2|000.0|26.0|164.3|173.0|08.5
08|00800|03:33.8|02:13.6|000.0|26.0|168.0|176.0|08.6
09|00800|03:35.0|02:14.4|000.0|26.2|168.3|177.0|08.5
10|00800|03:32.5|02:12.8|000.0|26.5|169.7|179.0|08.5

The workout was tough. It would have been easier on the erg, I think. I was working very hard in the last couple pieces of each section. I really wanted the “easy” bits to last longer by the end.

I started out with pogies on and I took them off after the first half of the workout. It was a lot easier to control the finish without them on.

It was a wonderful thing to be out on the water with Joe. He is a great partner in the double. He steers, I row stroke and he follows whatever weird stuff I do in terms of rate. He also never complains about me splashing him, even when It’s 25 degrees out.

Not sure what is in store for tomorrow.

Threshold Tuesday

October 17, 20171 Comment

Weather: Really dark. Just the hint of a cresent moon on the eastern horizon, and lots of bright stars. Cold as hell. 32F. Wind 8-9mph from the NNW. This was a nasty headwind for my long piece and kicked up a bit of chop in places.

The plan: The original plan was a 4 x 2000m. But once I got going, I decided to change it up. When I setup the speedcoach, I didn’t have a field for distance. So, I decided to replace the 2k intervals with 9 minute intervals. Then when I was doing the first interval, I was feeling pretty good. The wind was behind me and I was in a section of the lake where the water was nice and flat, I decided to extend it to 10 minutes. I got to the south end of the lake and waited for the double that I had launched with. While I waited, I looked at the stars. Venus was very bright in the east, Orion was in the western sky, and I saw a shooting star.

My rest extended longer than the 5 minutes, and I decided that instead of continuing with the planned workout, I would just do the whole lake. This is a little bit longer than the HOCR course, so it would be a good way to see what power I can target for the race. Also, with the head wind, it would be a test of character! Could I keep it up while looking at miserably slow splits?

I set off and settled into a rhythm at 26 spm. I was annoyed to see that my HR monitor was stuck at 111bpm. After a couple of minutes, it got unstuck and slowly climbed up to the expected number around 171bpm. Then a couple minutes after that, the power and angle readings from the empower oarlock disappeared as well. I took this as a further test of character. Now, I had no power readings or heart rate readings to make me feel better about the miserably slow splits. I had no choice but to focus on rowing clean and just count strokes. It’s between 600 and 650 strokes to do the 5k. I counted every one of them.

I found that I would get sloppy and tired at r26, and decide to “take 10 for length”. My stroke rate would drop to r24/r25 and my pace would improve a bit. Then over the next couple of minutes, my rate would creep back up again and I would do it all again.

The section from 400 strokes to 500 was probably the toughest. The head wind was most noticeable, and the chop was at it’s worst. I was very tired and getting sloppy. It was a real confidence boost to persevere through it and once I got past 500 and the end was in sight, I was able to start cranking it up.

The finish point is right in front of the QRA docks. I paddled from there up to the north end of the lake and met up with the double again. I did the section going south with my feet out of the shoes focusing on finishes.

You can see the problems with the HR and power numbers in this plot.

Here is a close up plot of the pace and stroke rate, since that’s the only stuff that was accurate through that piece.

          Workout Summary - media/20171017-182015-Greg Smith 20171017 0540amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11792|73:14.0|03:06.3|192.8|24.0|161.0|173.0|06.7
W-|09136|44:08.0|02:24.9|209.7|24.7|166.1|173.0|08.4
R-|02660|29:06.0|05:28.3|139.7|20.7|147.7|173.0|03.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02240|10:00.0|02:14.0|222.8|25.3|164.3|173.0|08.8
02|05115|25:13.2|02:27.9|206.5|25.7|165.0|171.0|07.9
03|01782|08:55.2|02:30.2|204.0|21.4|171.0|171.0|09.3

So, after this workout, I was delighted to see an email from rowsandall.com saying that I had had a “breakthrough workout”. This is a workout that is significantly better than the power profile that you have built up over time.

Here is the before/after view of the profile.

The difference is all in the long workouts. There is a chance that the power meter malfunction is driving the long flat plateau, but based on the pace through the piece, I think that power did not fade all that much. Using this data and the predictor functionality, rowandall thinks that I can target 211W for my race. I think I can probably target 220W.

After the issues today, I hope that the speedcoach works in the race.

Tomorrow: Another session of 2′ SBR/2’Alt/2′ 26spm. This time 4 reps.

Sunday: 2 x 5.5K at race rate

October 15, 20172 Comments

Weather: Cloudy, warm (mid 60s), light to moderate breeze from the SSW, 5-8 mph with gusts a bit higher. This was a headwind going up river.

The Plan: Do two head race pieces at slightly lower than head race pressure to find the power level that I can hold reasonably for the HOCR. Also work on technique at race rate. Probably most importantly work on my confidence in rowing while in considerable discomfort.

2 x 5.5K
- Rate: 25-26
- quick turn at the halfway point
~ 10′ rest between pieces

I was extremely annoyed to find that I had forgotten my heart rate monitor at home. Oh well, this session would be managed by RPE.

I did some pick drill out to the start point, and then had a drink and got going. The pace dropped down below 2:10 and I felt pretty awesome. Of course, I was rowing in the part of the river where the current was most favorable, and the wind was behind me. Nevertheless, it got me off in a good way. I just counted strokes and tried to keep my mind on all the things I had to manage.

steering
keep knees together at the catch
nice clean finishes. Don’t let the handles hit my chest at the finish.
blades off the water on recovery
nice consistent blade depth during the drive.

Of course you can’t think all these thoughts at the same time, so I basically would use them to distract myself. I would try to turn to look every ten strokes, and if I felt like I was pushing past a sustainable effort, I would take the strokes between looks to focus on one area. It seemed to work. The hardest part of this session is the turn in the middle. Mentally, it is so hard to be right on the edge when you get to the halfway point, and then turn the boat quickly and get back up to speed. I wanted to stop so badly both times.

          Workout Summary - media/20171015-173937-Greg Smith 20171015 0933amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14949|82:41.0|02:46.0|158.8|24.0|0.0|000.0|07.5
W-|10994|52:07.0|02:22.2|192.1|25.2|000.0|000.0|08.4
R-|03960|30:34.0|03:51.6|081.2|21.1|000.0|000.0|06.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02767|12:27.0|02:15.0|198.2|24.9|000.0|0.0|08.9
02|02688|13:04.8|02:26.0|197.6|25.3|000.0|0.0|08.1
03|02762|12:46.2|02:18.7|180.1|25.1|000.0|0.0|08.6
04|02778|13:49.2|02:29.2|192.4|25.3|000.0|0.0|07.9

So, it looks like I can target a bit above 200W for the race, maybe 210W. You can see the effect of the fatigue fro the first piece in how my length and power just faded in the second one.

I know that I have plenty of rationalizations for the level of preparation for this race, but it is really bugging me. It is unlikely that I will ever win a big event like this, but I take a lot of pride in preparing well and building a plan that let’s me do my best in the event. I don’t feel like that is the case this year. I need to do some thinking about how to modify my training so I am better focused and end enjoy it more next year.

Tomorrow: Technique row. Probably 2′ segments of square blades, alternating square/feathered and race rate rowing. The intent will be to be able to row at r26 with good technique at less than race pace.

5 x 1500 / 5′ on Quinsig

October 6, 20173 Comments

An extraordinary morning. We launched around 5:40am. The sun wouldn’t be up for another hour, but it was crystal clear and there was a beautiful full moon out so it was way easier to see where we were going. There was a very light breeze from the west, which is basically a cross wind. It was light enough that the water was just barely rippled. It was an extraordinary feeling rowing in the dark on perfectly flat water. I felt like I was flying.

I got the replacement rigger for my fluid on Wednesday, and I spent a hour or so getting it installed yesterday. It took a bit of work to get the rigging right and I was sure that it was right. I always worry that I might have missed something.

The plan:

5 x 1500 / 5′ rest
- rate: 25-28
- pace: 2:15
- HR limit: none
- Technique: knees together at the catch, limit layback, crisp finishes

I started out with about 1.5K of drills.

arms only
arms abd back
quarter slide
pause at finish
pause at half slide on recovery

From there, I did about 500m of steady pressure at about r20.

Through this, I was annoyed to see that technology was failing me today.

My speedcoach battery was down to one bar
My HR sensor seemed to be stuck at 96 bpm
My EmPower oarlock wasn’t registering any power or angle readings

I didn’t want to take the time and effort to try to figure out what was wrong, I decided to just do the workout using pace and rate.

I started the first interval right after I got through the narrows. I was pleased to see the pace drop down to about 2:15 and hang there. The setup of the boat felt good. I was well set, and it felt like the boat was accelerating nicely. After about 60 strokes which was about 500m, I started to notice that it was hard work. But, the level of effort felt very sustainable. I continued through another 60 strokes, two thirds done, and I felt even more strongly that the effort level was pretty close to right for a head race. I finished right as I passed into the cove at the south end of the lake.

I paddled the rest of the way into the cove and turned around. I hung out and waited for the quad that launched behind me to get there. I noticed that I was right on 4000m, so I took off for the next interval, heading north. This one was a little faster. I guess the cross wind was a bit against me in first one and behind me in this one. This one stung a bit more, but at the end, I was counting down remaining strokes, I could have kept going.

After the second interval, I rowed a quick loop to make sure that I would have enough lake at the end. As I looped around, I had to dodge a eight coming north. I think I spooked the cox a bit. But this was pretty good because it gave me something to chase for the third interval.

I started this interval about 500m south of the narrows. I could see the white light on the stern of the 8 and it looked like I was gaining on them. I passed through the narrows and took a line towards the eastern shore so I would give the 8 enough room. The rest of the interval, I continued to gain on them and I was about even with them when I hit the end of the interval.

I paddled to the north side of the route 9 bridge and started the fourth interval. My legs were a bit more tired now, and I noticed that I was rating a bit higher. I also noticed that 28 felt good. I didn’t feel rushed or sloppy. That made me happy. I was feeling some distress by the end of this interval. I’m not sure how much further I would have liked to go beyond the end of this one. The last 200m of this interval took me right in front of the docks of the QRA. I ended up closer to them that I like to go because I wasn’t paying close enough attention to my line. But I got to watch about 40 rowers watching me as I did my last 100m. It was certainly incentive to keep my finishes clean and not look as gassed as I actually was.

I paddled to the north end of the lake and turned around. I ended up paddling an extra 100m to get lined up right and started the interval heading south. It was the fifth interval, so my legs were pretty empty, but I was still able to get down to the target pace. When I got to the last 500m, I started to bring the rate up and counted through the last 60 strokes. I was glad it was over, but it wasn’t a near death experience.

After this, I looped back to go find the quad. When I found them, I turned again, and we did a quick 500 piece back toward the dock.

This was a really fantastic workout.

        Workout Summary - media/20171006-131833-96782o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14147|84:53.0|03:00.0|000.0|22.1|0.0|000.0|07.5
W-|08293|36:57.0|02:13.7|000.0|26.5|000.0|000.0|08.5
R-|05855|47:56.0|04:05.7|000.0|18.2|000.0|000.0|05.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01547|06:58.0|02:15.1|000.0|24.6|000.0|0.0|09.0 - down lake
02|01543|06:54.9|02:14.5|000.0|26.0|000.0|0.0|08.6 - up lake
03|01541|06:50.0|02:13.0|000.0|27.1|000.0|0.0|08.3 - chasing the 8
04|01540|06:52.2|02:13.8|000.0|27.1|000.0|0.0|08.3 - past QRA
05|01547|06:45.9|02:11.2|000.0|27.9|000.0|0.0|08.2 - heading south
06|00575|02:36.0|02:15.7|000.0|25.5|000.0|0.0|08.7 - bonus piece!

Tomorrow: Steady State coastal row.

Steady State on a foggy morning

October 3, 2017Leave a comment

Pitch black and foggy when we launched. It was chilly, in the mid-40s and the wind was light and variable.

The plan:

Steady state
- R20
HR limit: 155
Maybe work in some SBR

I was using Bob’s Peinert again, and Joe and Kelsey were in the double. They launched a few minutes before me and disappeared into the mist going south.

I launched and the fog seemed to close in around me. I suddenly felt a very strong desire to row with someone else. Part of me wanted to just drop the hammer and catch up with them, but I also wanted to keep the intensity set to low today, so I held the rate at 20 or below. The visibility improved and declined as I rowed down lake, and as I went I found that I was feeling really good in the boat. I was set well, and my catches and finishes were nice and clean. I never caught up with them, but I seemed to close the gap a bit by the time we hit the south end of the lake.

They were nice enough to wait for me, and we set off going north side by side. The plan was to turn south at the bridge because the fog looked a lot worse at the north end of the lake. We next to each other almost all the way up to the narrows, when I pushed the pace a bit to go through ahead of them. After that, they slowed down a bit and I kept the pace up. I waited for them at the bridge and we made the decision to continue north because the fog was clearing a bit.

The rest of the way to the north end of the lake was really nice rowing. There was a bit of headwind, and it was blowing the mist in tendrils past us as we went. When I looked across to Joe and Kelsey, it was an impressive sight. The mist blowing past them made it look like they were going extremely fast. I wish I had a camera and a free hand!

I was rowing along nice and easy, and I noticed that they were starting to pull ahead of me. So, I upped the pressure to stay next to them. Then they pushed it further, and I upped the rate by a stroke or two. I found out later that Joe decided that I needed a bit more work in this workout so they pushed me harder. That’s the pace and HR bump in the last half of the 3rd piece.

After we got to the north end, we turned to go home and I did alternating chunks of steady state and SBR. Then when I got to the dock, I did a minute at a little higher than head race pace and rate, to try to apply the technique work I did to full pressure strokes.

Workout Summary - media/20171003-130528-Greg Smith 20171003 0541amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11883|66:54.0|02:48.9|000.0|19.5|142.8|158.0|09.1
W-|10453|52:39.0|02:31.1|000.0|19.3|145.7|158.0|10.3
R-|01434|14:15.0|04:58.1|000.0|20.0|122.3|158.0|04.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03246|16:00.0|02:27.9|000.0|19.0|146.9|155.0|10.7
02|03042|15:30.0|02:32.9|000.0|18.9|148.3|154.0|10.4
03|02244|11:15.0|02:30.4|000.0|20.2|148.8|158.0|09.9
04|01691|08:54.0|02:37.9|000.0|18.7|135.1|141.0|10.2
05|00231|01:00.0|02:10.1|000.0|26.5|144.6|155.0|08.7

Tomorrow: I fly out to California first thing in the morning. I am hoping to do a cross training session Wednesday night at the hotel. Thursday, I’ll be flying home and I’ll take a rest day. Friday, I hope to do a 5×1500 on the water.

12K in a borrowed boat

September 30, 2017Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back on the water

September 19, 2017September 20, 2017Leave a comment

Sunday, September 17th

We hung out down on the cape until mid-afternoon and then headed home. There was still no AC in the house. But around 8pm, I settled in for a sweaty erg session. Today, painsled decided to cooperate.

The same session as Saturday. 4 x 15′ / 2′ rest with stretching in the rests. HR limited at 155.

        Workout Summary - media/20170917-2005310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14605|68:01.0|02:19.7|145.9|21.6|141.6|156.0|09.9
W-|13735|60:00.0|02:11.0|155.6|21.4|143.0|156.0|10.7
R-|00874|08:01.0|04:35.5|041.6|22.8|123.3|156.0|06.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03481|15:00.0|02:09.3|161.5|21.3|132.8|142.0|10.9
01|03463|15:00.0|02:09.9|159.5|21.2|143.6|152.0|10.9
02|03412|15:00.0|02:11.9|152.7|21.3|146.1|155.0|10.7
03|03379|15:00.0|02:13.2|148.8|21.9|149.4|156.0|10.3

Monday, September 18th

Yet again I had to be home in the morning to let workmen in and get them setup. That killed any chance for a morning workout. I finally had a window around 5pm. I headed down to the fitness center. I’m worried about too much rowing, so I decided to start off on the treadmill with a 20 minute death march (15% grade, 3mph).

After that I was planning to jump on our brand new Model D indoor rowing machine. But someone beat me to it! While I waited, I jumped on a elliptical machine to get a few more aerobic minutes.

Now the rower was open and I hopped on. The PM5 picked up my HR monitor and linked with Painsled with no issues. I set up a time based interval session. 15 minute work and 2 minute rest. I intended to do 2 intervals.

        Workout Summary - media/20170918-1720320o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07324|34:00.0|02:19.3|160.0|19.2|149.3|158.0|11.2
W-|06991|30:00.0|02:08.7|164.2|19.1|150.1|158.0|12.2
R-|00335|04:00.0|05:58.0|079.4|19.1|133.8|158.0|05.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03562|15:00.0|02:06.3|172.6|19.5|151.0|158.0|12.2
01|03428|15:00.0|02:11.3|155.9|18.8|149.3|153.0|12.2

I was interested to see how it compared to the dynamic. Same stroke rate. I think about a 4 second pace differential, not as much as I would have thought going in.

Tuesday, September 19

I was so excited to get back on the water, I woke up before my alarm and just lay there imagining how awesome it would be.

Since this was my first early morning workout since my injury, I wanted to put in place my new protocol. I got up and went straight into my core routine (curl ups, side planks, bird dogs). Man, I am coming to loathe doing ab exercises. I stretched before and during and did some jumping jacks and stuff. Hopefully it was enough to squish some of the extra fluid out of my disks before I went rowing.

The drive to where I launch is about 30 minutes. I was on the water by 6:30. The weather was less than perfect. It was around 65F, with a fine misty drizzle and a bit of wind from the northeast, maybe about 7 mph. This was a headwind going downriver.

I was really happy that my balance wasn’t terrible. I felt comfortable almost immediately. The plan for the day was pretty simple:

steady state
r20
heart rate limit: 150. lower is better
no pace target
technique focus: keep knees together at the catch. rock hips over at the catch and keep spine straight. focus on isolating the back swing.

I was using the speed coach the whole workout but because I stopped right at the beginning to change what I looked at in one of the display fields, it stopped and I forgot to restart it. I didn’t realize what I had done until I went to upload the session and saw that it was for a total distance of 8 meters!

But, as an experienced speedcoach user, I have my backup. No heart rate, but at least I have the whole session on RIM.

        Workout Summary - media/20170919-193028-95635o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12766|70:59.0|02:46.8|000.0|20.0|0.0|000.0|09.0
W-|11801|58:39.0|02:29.1|000.0|20.3|000.0|000.0|09.9
R-|00973|12:20.0|06:20.4|000.0|17.5|000.0|000.0|03.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00821|04:07.2|02:30.6|000.0|19.8|000.0|0.0|10.1 - To the cut
02|03019|15:10.2|02:30.7|000.0|20.0|000.0|0.0|09.9 - To the dam headwind
03|02865|14:00.0|02:26.6|000.0|20.4|000.0|0.0|10.0 - Back to the cut Tail
04|02013|10:25.2|02:35.3|000.0|20.4|000.0|0.0|09.5 - to the bridge
05|02178|10:34.8|02:25.7|000.0|20.5|000.0|0.0|10.0 - back to the cut
06|00905|04:22.2|02:24.8|000.0|20.7|000.0|0.0|10.0 - Back to the dock

I think the paces are overly optimistic. I can see the jaggies on the map

(map provided by rowsandall using the latest and greatest navionics overlay!)

It’s more obvious in a close up of the s-turn.

I was so happy to be back on the water, I can’t even begin to describe how much better the rest of my day was. I was just walking around grinning.

Tuesday: OTW Pyramid

August 22, 2017August 24, 2017Leave a comment

Weather: Perfect.

Plan:

L1 Pyramid workout
250m/500m/750m/1000m/750m/500m/250m
Roughly 1’30” of rest per 250m rowed
stroke rate target: 28-32
pace target: Not really sure, maybe around 2:00
Technique: Work on improving efficiency at high stroke rates. Try to maintain length and form. Especially keep finishes clean.

I was not feeling good about this workout. My back hurt and I debated whether it was wise to risk to row with it hurting. I’ve had mixed results, some days rowing doesn’t seem to cause any problems and other days, I feel much worse afterwards. (More about that later). I decided to give it a try and bail out if I felt too compromised.

I did a short warm up while heading through the twisty bits to the start of the good section of the river. Since I am training for head races, I eased into each interval with a rolling start, not a racing start (also a bit easier on my back).

I did the intervals by distance. This was a bit of a challenge because I wanted the 4 fields on the speedcoach for pace, HR, effective length and work per stroke. I used RIM for distance and stroke rate on the boat acceleration screen. Analyzing the data later, it looks like there is some innaccuracy in how RIM starts measuring meters because even though I rowed through the full distance by the display, the data on the speedcoach shows I cheated each interval by up to 50 meters. I think I’ll go by time delimited intervals from now on when I’m on the water.

I pounded out the first interval and, frankly, it felt awful. Well, it’s more complicated than that. I really enjoyed the feeling of getting up to speed and seeing the speedcoach dip down into the 1:50s on pace. I love the gurgling noise the boat makes when I’m going fast. I also like the skinny smoothies at higher rates. I felt more stable, and under control above 30 SPM with the longer oars and I felt like the softer shafts made the drive smoother. So, that was what dominated my thinking for the first 20 strokes. Then it hit me. The last 10 strokes really hurt. Whoops. I guess I need to be a little more conservative.

So, I backed off a bit for the 500m. That went OK. The 750m was basically the same deal. I was now struggling a bit with intestinal issues that hit pretty hard after I finished each piece. The back was feeling OK though. I was not looking forward to the 1000m.

For the first 2 intervals, I had rowed back to the start after each and rowed them downstream, but for the 1000, I rowed it in the other direction. There wasn’t much current, but there was a light breeze blowing down river and it surprised me how much slower I was going on the 1000m in the other direction. But I made it through it and it was pretty clear sailing for the rest of it.

I didn’t realized how tired I was getting, but I had a bad case of tunnel vision in the last 250m and nearly ran myself into the riverbank with some very poor steering. I had to do one of those full stops where you jam both oars in and reverse feather to avoid it.

I rowed back to the dock with feet out and tried to work on perfect finishes.

When you look at it on a pie chart it looks a lot easier than it felt.

You can see how the intervals all got shaved down a bit. Very disappointing for a completist like myself. i probably would have been close to the 2:00 target if I hadn’t been working against the head wind in the 1000m piece.

        Workout Summary - media/20170822-151706-Greg Smith 20170822 0636amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10478|69:33.0|03:19.2|130.5|23.7|138.4|176.0|06.3
W-|03780|15:34.0|02:03.7|267.5|29.4|158.8|176.0|08.2
R-|06699|53:59.0|04:01.8|069.6|21.1|129.5|176.0|07.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00233|00:55.6|01:59.3|278.9|29.9|149.0|159.0|08.4
02|00475|01:55.1|02:01.2|274.7|30.0|152.8|165.0|08.2
03|00701|02:54.6|02:04.5|274.4|28.4|158.3|172.0|08.5
04|00962|04:09.7|02:09.8|251.3|28.8|163.9|175.0|08.0
05|00704|02:56.3|02:05.2|248.8|28.8|160.9|174.0|08.3
06|00464|01:49.3|01:57.8|289.5|30.8|160.3|176.0|08.3
07|00241|00:54.2|01:52.5|308.9|33.0|150.3|167.0|08.1

I did a lot of metrics charts.

power and wps: pretty consistent through the workout.
stroke rate and pace: I tried to hold 28 for the 750s and 1000. I tried to push it up to 30 or higher for the 500s and 250s
peak force: I think it’s interesting that I was most consistent in the last 500m interval. I bet that’s a good thing. The prior 750 looks much sloppier.
length: Very happy that my effective length was consistent as I got more tired.

The bads news was that I could barely stand up after I got back to the dock. My lower back was VERY irritated. Well to be more precise about it, the area at the top of my left glute, right around where my pelvis is. It is not very painful once I find a reasonable position, but bending over and getting up from sitting cause me problems.

Since then, I’ve been on a diet of ibuprofen and rest. I skipped yesterday’s L4 and today’s L2. I’m not sure how long this will take to heal, but I think I will avoid rowing for a few days. I’ll give the stationary bike a go to see if I can at least save a bit of aerobic fitness.

Wednesday: 8 x 2′ / 2′ 1x

August 9, 20171 Comment

A beautiful morning. Sunny, warm, dry, hardly any wind.

Plan:

Long warmup to re-acclimate to higher stroke rates
8 x 2′ / 2′ rest
Stroke rate target: 26 (head race rate)
Pace target: better than 2:15 (a pretty easy target for this workout)
Do work sections in line down the river, do not avoid turns
Technique work after

The basic thing I was trying to do today was to row at Head race rates and slightly higher than head race pressure to start getting my head wrapped around what I need to accomplish over the next 9 weeks before the HOCR.

I was really happy with how the workout went. I am liking the new smoothies at higher stroke rates. I feel like the softer shafts are helping me manage the drive better and the extra length is providing more stability on recovery.

Workout Summary - media/20170809-133817-Greg Smith 20170809 0633amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13815|81:42.0|02:57.4|149.0|21.7|146.5|180.0|07.8
W-|03748|16:00.0|02:08.1|252.0|26.7|160.2|180.0|08.8
R-|10077|63:42.0|03:09.6|112.1|19.9|141.5|180.0|08.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00456|02:00.0|02:11.7|247.1|26.7|154.4|167.0|08.5 - vs current
02|00455|02:00.0|02:11.9|242.6|26.6|158.9|170.0|08.6
03|00458|02:00.0|02:11.1|228.0|27.0|161.3|172.0|08.5
04|00460|02:00.0|02:10.3|259.7|25.8|160.6|173.0|08.9
05|00479|02:00.0|02:05.2|236.8|26.7|161.3|175.0|09.0 - w/ current
06|00470|02:00.0|02:07.7|267.6|26.5|160.0|176.0|08.9
07|00478|02:00.0|02:05.5|258.7|26.3|159.1|177.0|09.1
08|00493|02:00.0|02:01.8|275.8|28.3|165.6|180.0|08.7

A few metrics plots. I held things very consistent throughout. Lifted stroke rates on purpose in the last interval and allowed it to creep up in the turns.

Tomorrow: I have an 8am meeting, so no OTW. I will try to squeeze in an erg session during the day, but it might not happen.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: OTW

Saturday: 6 x (5′ @ 28, 5′ @ 18) On the Water! In December!

Saturday: 2 x 5 x (800m on / 200m paddle) / 5′ rest in the 2x

Threshold Tuesday

Sunday: 2 x 5.5K at race rate

5 x 1500 / 5′ on Quinsig

Steady State on a foggy morning

12K in a borrowed boat

Back on the water

Tuesday: OTW Pyramid

Wednesday: 8 x 2′ / 2′ 1x