Saturday: Windy outing in a 2x

April 17, 2016April 17, 20164 Comments

Out on Lake Quinsigamond with Bob in a double. Quite windy. Here’s the weather data from the station nearest the south end of the lake.

So, wind speed 10 to 15 mph from the NNE, which is a head wind heading up lake. The gusts were impressive, basically boat stoppers. Bob was in bow and he tried to hug the easter shore of the lake when we were heading north. This helped a bit and gave us flatter water to work with.

The north end of the lake was off limits because of racing. So we did a loop to the south end of the lake, and then a shorter loop just down through the narrows.

Because the conditions were a bit challenging, we basically just did it as a steady state row. We were out with a two quads. The only time we really pushed it was when we were going south on the first leg and were in a position to pass one of the quads. That was the boost in heart rate in the first section. The blank bit from 6000 to 7000 meters was while we were rowing up lake into the wind and my phone got splashed just right to fool Crewnerd into thinking I wanted to go to the setup screen.

The conditions were not ideal, but I had a good time. I enjoyed rowing with Bob and frankly, anytime I get to get on the water right now is a welcome change.

Saturday: 14km in a quad

April 9, 2016Leave a comment

Nice morning at the lake. Slight overcast, very little wind, around 35F. We had 6 rowers today, so we took out a quad and a double. I stroked the quad.

It was a good boat. I had some trouble with being in stroke. I was trying to hold the rate, but every once in a while, I could feel the other rowers take the catch while I was still squaring up my oars. I would try to just stick with the rate and let them get realigned, but a couple of times it got so bad that I clashed oars with the guy behind me. I suspect that I was varying the rate more than I perceived and they had trouble following the variation. Things got much better on the second lap of the lake when we did a couple of rate ladders and everyone was focusing on maintaining the rate more intently (including me!)

We did the south half of the lake twice.

We basically just rowed down lake, and then coming back up lake, we did a power pyramid 10-20-30-40-30-20-10, with 10 strokes paddle between power sets. Trying to hold the rate around 22.

Going back down lake, we did a rate pyramid 3’@20, 2’@22, 1’@24. Then another 3’@20, 2’@24, 1’@28. Going back up lake we repeated the same 10-20-30-40-30-20-10 pyramid, but let the rate go up for the last half.

This evening I fly off to Munich for a couple days.

Pyramid of Pain

January 30, 2016Leave a comment

Back to the lake. It beckoned to us. No ice at all and flat water. I wanted to row so badly. Oh well, we had to satisfy ourselves with the view out the window.

The plan for today

fletcher 20′ warmup
Sprint Pyramid
- 1’/2’/3’/4’/3’/2’/1′
- equal rests
- Pace target: 1:41
- Rate target: 30
2K cool down

I felt OK during the warmup. I pushed it too fast at first, and looking at the HR data later, it was a bit high. I did not like my erg at all. Sounded like grinding gears, and near the finish it felt like the connection to the flywheel was “mushy”. Not sure why, but it was definitely a sub-par erg. I blame it for my lousy performance.

The warmup. First 4 minutes should have been closer to 2:05. The second to 2:02.

The the main event.

The cool down

And the HR plot. I was working very hard for those crappy splits.

Tomorrow: 4×20’/1′

Saturday Sprints: 8 x 2′ / 3′ rest

January 23, 2016January 23, 20162 Comments

Plan:

Fletcher warmup (20′)
8 x 2′ / 3′ rest
- Pace target: 1:41
- Rate target: 30
2K cool down

What a great morning. 8 of us from our club met up at Regatta Point. They are letting us move our ergs into a conference room for sessions on Saturday mornings. I offered up my planned workout as a group session and I was stunned that 7 other folks were nuts enough to join in. I offered the group a couple of options, either row the 8 as a ladder (24/26/28/30/30/28/26/24), or all at about race rate. The cool thing about time intervals is that folks can do their own thing and stay in sync through the session. By the sixth, we were all pretty beaten up.

I was in a bad way. I basically treated the session like my normal 8×500/3’30” rest. Of course, its about 20 seconds more rowing and 30 seconds less rest than that, so I dug myself in pretty deeply over the first half of the workout. I backed off a bit, but didn’t give in to the HD demons. I think I may have scared my neighbors a bit though.

I had some issues with my HR monitor, so all I have are monitor snaps

Warm up

Main set

I paddle the 7 3′ rests for a total of an additional 2773m over 21′.

Happy Ending Cool down

Tomorrow: Should be a rest day, but I’ll be traveling on Monday, so I will do a 4 x 20′ L4 and not row on Monday.

Saturday: Lake Quinsigamond Snake Regatta

October 11, 201519 Comments

Weather: mid 50s, before I launched there was a 5 to 10 mph breeze from the north. This moderated and by the time I finished it was more like 3-5mph with a few stronger gusts. Very Sunny. The water as sparking. A perfect day for a row.

I was really looking forward to this race. My first race on “my lake”. The Snake Regatta is an even that is held every fall as a Collegiate head race. It is run over 4200m from south to north on the lake. This year, our club, Lake Quinsigamond Community Rowing (LQCR), and the other masters club on the lake, Quinsigamond Rowing Club (QRC) got together to sponsor a masters division in the race.

Since it was it’s first year, and we really only started to publicize it late this summer, it was small. There were 22 boats in all and 12 singles, most from our two clubs. But it is a great place to row and beautiful day for the event.

I am not sure how they picked bow numbers, but I was given bow number 179, which was the eighth boat to start. I knew some of the guys who started in front of me, and I decided to consider it a “target rich environment”. With the width of the course, and how straight it is, overtaking boats was straightforward.

Me and Bob launched from the regatta point docks, just north of the route 9 bridge and we joined the parade of boats heading down lake to the start. I worked on getting used to being back in the boat. I had not rowed since Monday, so I just focused on balance and reach and trying to clean up my finishes. Toward the bottom of the lake I did 2 sets of 20 strokes at faster than race pace to get the blood flowing.

Then I took off my overshirt, and revealed, for the very first time, an actual LQCR uniform shirt! The coach of the high school kids gave it to me before I launched so I could war club colors at the Head of Charles next week. I was so delighted, I can’t even describe it. I haven’t worn a sports uniform since I was in high school.

We just hung out in a clump chatting until they called us to get organized into bow number order. With this few boats, it was pretty simple. They started with bow 170, a 32 year old rower from community rowing in Brighton. He looked like a rower. Then 171 and 172 were scratches. 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178 (who was missing a bow number but they worked it out), then they called me to full pressure and I was off.

On the video, I am on the course at 2:50. I could feel the head wind making the boat feel a little heavy, but it felt good to row with full pressure and I probably pushed the pace a little too hard off the line. I found my line to hug the shore of the next island and counted strokes. I overtook a boat at 4:15, it looks like he made a mistake steering to the east side of the island and then needed to correct it. You can see him rowing across my bow then falling back.

Then I was past the first island and I had my sights on two things. First, don’t run into the beach, which juts out a bit. Second, the next boat that I was going after. I pass the beach at 5:40. Prior to that, you can see that this boat made the mistake I wanted to avoid. He needed to steer radically around the beach, right while I was closing the gap on him.

After the beach, the next challenge is the narrows. This is a spot that is wide enough to fit four boats with oar tips touching. They have it marked with a buoy so that boats going down lake are separated from the boats racing so there is just enough room for two boats side by side, but it’s tight. I looked over my shoulder and I saw two boats right ahead of me. I closed on one of the quickly and passed him right in the middle of the narrows. The other guy seemed to be rowing at something very close to my pace.

From the Narrows, it is about a kilometer of relatively unprotected water. This is the widest point of the lake. There was a little bit of head wind, but not much chop, and I could really focus in on this next boat. It was the guy with no bow number. His name was Bjorn and he came from Narraganset Rowing Club. A group of women from that club borrowed one of our eights for the race and they told me that he was a good rower. At any rate, here we were. I had made up the start interval on him, and it seemed like he thought I shouldn’t make up any more. From 8 minutes to 9:30, he basically holds me off, and then from 9:30 to 10:00 I manage to crawl up and establish a bit of overlap with him. Then we are stroke for stroke for the next 2 km. Right at the end of the first video, both of us overtake a 3rd boat. We are in our own little race at this point.

The second part of the video picks up right before we go under the bridge. Over the first minute, you can see his bow disappear from view, but he’s still there. I push really hard in this chunk because a couple of my friends from the club are watching from our docks and I hear them yelling. I usually have a significant crisis at the bridge because I know how much the second half hurts and how long the 1.6km from the bridge to the finish feels. I’m still counting strokes and when I get to 400, and I haven’t yet reached the gazebo, I fear that I am going to blow up. But my friend Bjorn is still right on my tail, maybe half a boat length back and showing no sign of slowing down.

I finally pass the gazebo and I know that it’s 60 strokes to the finish. I keep my rate and pressure for another 20 strokes and then I start to push for the finish. The last 40 strokes, I bring up the rate a touch, and the splits obligingly come down, and finally in the last 300m I start putting more distance between us.

I was really hurting at the end and paddled well clear of the course before turning. Bjorn and I congratulated each other and then paddled into the QRA docks. I stopped there for a few minutes and chatted with some friends from the club up there, and then paddled home to regatta point. At this point, I had no idea what the results were.

I packed up and headed home. About an hour later, Bob texted me a picture of the results.

I got a second place behind the guy who looked like a rower. Considering the 20 year age gap, I guess I’m OK losing to him by 16 seconds. Truth be told, I’m delighted with the whole race. I feel like the benign conditions let me really push myself as hard as possible, and having someone to race side by side with forced me to keep it together when it started to hurt.

Here’s the data:

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_3280_|_17:37_|_2:41.1_|_318___|_18.1_|_10.3_|_141___|_warmup
03360_|_4180_|_18:31_|_2:12.9_|_498___|_26.9_|_08.4_|_175___|_race
07540_|_2519_|_13:44_|_2:43.5_|_265___|_19.3_|_09.5_|_145___|_cooldown

500 meter splits
03360_|_0500_|_02:11_|_2:11.2_|_058___|_26.5_|_08.6_|_167___|_sp
03860_|_0500_|_02:14_|_2:13.8_|_059___|_26.5_|_08.5_|_171___|_sp
04360_|_0500_|_02:12_|_2:12.2_|_058___|_26.3_|_08.6_|_173___|_sp
04860_|_0500_|_02:15_|_2:14.6_|_059___|_26.3_|_08.5_|_175___|_sp
05360_|_0500_|_02:12_|_2:11.8_|_060___|_27.3_|_08.3_|_177___|_sp
05860_|_0500_|_02:15_|_2:14.7_|_060___|_26.7_|_08.3_|_178___|_sp
06360_|_0500_|_02:14_|_2:14.0_|_061___|_27.3_|_08.2_|_178___|_sp
06860_|_0500_|_02:13_|_2:12.9_|_061___|_27.5_|_08.2_|_177___|_sp
07360_|_0180_|_00:46_|_2:07.2_|_022___|_28.8_|_08.2_|_179___|_sp

Here are the videos

By the way, there is an excellent online tool to watch rowing videos called Rowvid. It let’s you use slow motion or speed things up so you can look at form an fast forward through the dull bits.

Sunday: Recovery / Endurance session…4 x 20 / 1′ rest with lactate

Sunday: Hard 5.8km on Quinsigamond

September 27, 20153 Comments

We got tho the lake this morning and the fog was so thick that you could not see the opposite shore 500m away. We don’t launch under those conditions. A pity too because there was no wind and the water was oily smooth. We waited about 30 minutes and it started to clear. There was still very little wind, and it was quite cool, maybe around 40F. The water was fabulous! The featured image is at 8:30, right when I was finishing my main piece.

The plan for today was another head race simulation. My last before the racing starts next weekend up in Lowell.

Plan:

5.5km hard
rate: r28
pace: better than 2:12.7 (my previous best pace)
As always work on good reach at the catch, smooth drive and early finish.

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_3040_|_15:15_|_2:30.5_|_280___|_18.4_|_10.9_|_135___|_w
03060_|_5800_|_25:33_|_2:12.2_|_674___|_26.4_|_08.6_|_168___|_m
08860_|_2780_|_15:00_|_2:41.9_|_301___|_20.1_|_09.2_|_138___|_r

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
03040_|_15:15_|_2:30.5_|_280___|_18.4_|_10.9_|_135___|_warmup
05800_|_25:33_|_2:12.2_|_674___|_26.4_|_08.6_|_168___|_Main set
02780_|_15:00_|_2:41.9_|_301___|_20.1_|_09.2_|_138___|_rest meters
11620_|_55:49_|_2:24.1_|_1255___|_22.5_|_09.3_|_151___|_Total

In the warmup to the south end of the lake, I tried to keep the intensity low. I was rowing with another guy in a single and we basically matched pace. As I got closer to the end, I cranked up to target pace and just got loose and ready for the piece. I was pressed for time after our fog delay, so I took a minimal rest, drank a little water and set off on the main piece.

Less than 500m into the piece, I was hit by a massive wake from a waterskiing boat. It stopped me dead in the water for a couple of strokes. But, I got back in the groove and was pleased to see that I could hold under a 2:10 without going crazy. It felt like a nice pressure. About 400m later, I was hit with another wake. This one was smaller and I could keep rowing through it, but at half slide and with blades on the water.

Over the next 1500m, I started to feel the effects of my fast start, and the splits started to climb into the 2:10 to 2:15 range. I just focused on mechanics. Reach far and finish clean. Reach far and finish clean. This got me to the narrows where I was waked one more time. Again not so bad, but it cost me a few strokes at full pressure.

From there to the bridge was pretty painful. I was hurting and just trying to keep it together. There was a stretch where I was struggling with a cross chop from the wakes bouncing off the shore lines and coming back in unpredictable ways. At steady state pressure these would have been no big deal, but I was tired enough that they really made it hard to stay in a smooth rhythm. I was glad to get under the bridge and know that I had about 2K left.

I lifted the rate after the bridge. I wasn’t hitting the target rate in the south end of the lake, but now I was. I was also desperately counting strokes, trying to make sure that I didn’t get ahead of myself and trying to stay in the moment, just focusing on mechanics and technique. I hit all the milestones at the right stroke counts and I knew that I would finish up right at about 700 strokes for the whole piece. I started a final push with about 400m to go and finished with a 2:00 split on the speedcoach.

I was gassed. I panted for a half a minute then paddled up to the top of the lake. I had a drink, took my feet out and then paddled back toward our dock. I did about 1000m of steady rowing, then 500m of slow roll ups, then 500m of square blades and that was about it.

Even with the 3 wakings, I managed to beat my previous best pace by half a second (2:12.2 vs 2:12.7). Excluding the one big wake, the pace was 2:10.8. Even better, the average HR for this piece was 168 versus 176 for the piece where I did 2:12.7. I’m happy with that and I think I’ll have a beer.

Tomorrow: Steady State. Training plan calls for rate ladders. I plan to do them

1000 @ 16, 1000 @ 18, rest of the distance @ 20

I will also row with a HR cap at 150.

Sunday: Head Race Simulation – Hard 5K on Quinsig

September 21, 2015September 27, 20151 Comment

Cloudy, wind NE at 7-10mph. This was a cross/head wind for the 5K piece. It also kicked up some nasty chop for most of the row. On the plus side, I wasn’t waked during the piece, only during the warmup. Very sporting of them really.

Plan:

5K hard
rate: r28
pace: better than last weekend’s 2:12.7
HR: There is no cap on race simulations.
Technique: Work on really reaching for the catch and keeping my finishes clean and avoid too much layback.

As I got my boat in the water, a couple guys from the club at the north end of the lake came by and asked me if I wanted to do a race piece with them. Damn right I did! We rowed steady state down to the south end of the lake. I tried to keep my HR basically in UT2 the whole way down, but finished with about 500m of head race pace just to get comfortable with the rate.

Then we turned, and futzed around a bit. I asked the guy I was going to row with what his target pace was. He said 2:15 in flat water, which seemed about right to me. I didn’t want the pressure of starting off side by side, so he let me go and he started right behind me. It seemed like we were pretty even in pace, but over the first 1000m I started to put a little distance between us. The wind was gusty and flukey, and the except in the lee of the islands, annoyingly choppy.

By the 2K mark, I was up about 30 seconds or so, and the row was basically pushing a bit faster when I got some flat water and slogging along when it was choppy or I got a bit gust of wind. I was a lot slower than last weekend, but I think with the conditions, and the lower HR, this was actually a better row.

I ended up about a minute ahead of the guy I was rowing with. It sure is easier to keep pushing hard when someone is chasing you! I really wanted to stop or slow down around the rt 9 bridge, but pride kept me going.

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_3980_|_21:29_|_2:41.9_|_388___|_18.1_|_10.3_|_132___|_w
04000_|_5000_|_22:45_|_2:16.5_|_585___|_25.7_|_08.5_|_169___|_5K piece
09000_|_4720_|_25:15_|_2:40.4_|_502___|_19.9_|_09.4_|_137___|_r

1000m splits for the 5K. Pretty flat paced.

04000_|_1000_|_04:36_|_2:18.2_|_114___|_24.7_|_08.8_|_157___|_m
05000_|_1000_|_04:31_|_2:15.7_|_119___|_26.3_|_08.4_|_168___|_m
06000_|_1000_|_04:33_|_2:16.5_|_116___|_25.5_|_08.6_|_171___|_m
07000_|_1000_|_04:31_|_2:15.7_|_119___|_26.3_|_08.4_|_173___|_m
08000_|_1000_|_04:33_|_2:16.5_|_117___|_25.7_|_08.5_|_176___|_m

After that, I did some square blades, some feet out and rowed with a quad from my club back to the dock. Very good outing.

Sunday: Hard Distance on Quinsig

September 13, 20153 Comments

Cloudy, cool (60F), very light breeze from the east. This was a light cross wind and not a factor.

Plan:

Long warmup, keep HR reasonable low
Head race simulation, 5K from bottom of lake to the QRA docks (rate target: 26, Pace target: faster than 2:15)
feet out cool down

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_0240_|_01:19_|_2:44.6_|_023___|_17.5_|_10.4_|_113___|_drills
00260_|_3440_|_16:47_|_2:26.4_|_306___|_18.2_|_11.2_|_144___|_warmup
03700_|_0180_|_01:01_|_2:49.4_|_015___|_14.8_|_12.0_|_123___|_turn
03880_|_4940_|_21:51_|_2:12.7_|_561___|_25.7_|_08.8_|_176___|_4.9km hard
08820_|_2640_|_14:12_|_2:41.3_|_271___|_19.1_|_09.7_|_140___|_cool down feet out

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
03680_|_18:06_|_2:27.6_|_329___|_18.2_|_11.2_|_141___|_warmup
04940_|_21:51_|_2:12.7_|_561___|_25.7_|_08.8_|_176___|_Main set
00180_|_01:01_|_2:49.4_|_015___|_14.8_|_12.0_|_123___|_rest meters
02640_|_14:12_|_2:41.3_|_271___|_19.1_|_09.7_|_140___|_cool down
11440_|_55:10_|_2:24.7_|_1176___|_21.3_|_09.7_|_154___|_Total

I was lucky today in so many ways. First, the water was perfect. Second, the temperature was perfect. Third, I was training with a mixed double. They said that they were going to be aiming at 2:20 splits, so I gave the 40 second head start and then gave chase. I caught up with them a bit north of the route 9 bridge, and we were side by side for about 1000m. I pushed really hard in the first 2000m and I was pretty gassed, but I didn’t want to let them go. With about 1000m left, I started pushing harder again and got a couple of boatlengths ahead of them by the end.

It was really good that I was chasing them. If I was on my own, I think I would have bailed at the bridge. The last 2000m were a real challenge. My HR was above 95% HRR the whole second half of the row.

After we finished, we rowed up to the top of the lake, and did a few drills and had a drink. Then we had a nice gentle row with feet out back to the docks at Regatta Point.

I’m very happy with the time, a 2:12.7 pace. I don’t think I’ve come anywhere near that before, even in times with a tail wind. Flat water makes a huge difference.

Tomorrow: Back on my little stretch of the Charles River. The plan calls for

Rate Ladder 4 x (1000 @ 18, 1000 @ 20, 500 @ 22, 250 @ 24) / 2′ rest

I think I might shift the rates down by 2 and row with a hard cap at 150, based on the lactate results from Saturday.

Saturday: 5.5km Threshold on Quinsig

August 17, 2015Leave a comment

Since I had my boat on my car from my Charles River adventure, I decided to bring it out to Worcester to do my weekly hard distance piece in my own boat. I think I will do it again this week. It was much better rowing in my own boat. And just as importantly, it takes away one set of excuses for going slow.

The plan was:

Warmup: 3.5km of bungee rowing working on stroke sequence
5.5km at r26. Aim at better than 2:15 pace.
drills and stuff back to the dock.

The bungee row was great. I took it pretty easy and just tried to work on not opening my back early. There were various interruptions, but it was a nice change in warmup routine.

Then I turned and got myself ready for the piece. I was aiming at keeping the pace between 2:10 and 2:15. And this actually felt pretty good through the first 1000m or so. Then, I got hit by the first wake. As I recovered from the wake, the pace on the speedcoach did not budge. Weeds! I just maintained the stroke rate and tried to ignore the erroneous pace readings. After about 15 or so strokes, the pace popped back to a reasonable number.

I was starting to feel a bit overcooked, so I eased up the pressure a little bit as I approached the narrows. Right after the narrows, I was hit by two wakes in reasonably close succession. At this point I was about 500m from the Rt 9 Bridge, so I just tried to settle into a sustainable pace and rate. This hovered around 2:15. Sometimes a bit slower, sometimes a bit faster. Generally dependent upon the water state. There was a bit of slop from all the boats and even though it wasn’t seriously disruptie, it kept me from getting really good balance.

I passed under the bridge and at that point I know there is a bit more than 2k left to go, so I tried to up the pressure a bit. My HR started to creep up to the top of my TR band, but I didn’t feel like I was in much distress. Around 1000m left to go, I got waked again. This time was closer and bigger than the others and it took a couple strokes to try to get back on track. Now, I was past the Gazebo and getting closer to the Donahue Rowing Center, and since I knew there would be people there, I had some motivation to try to look better than I felt. I tried to row clean and hard and the pace sped up a little bit as I approached the rt 290 bridge. Last Saturday, I stopped at the bridge. Today, I wanted to push a bit further, so I rowed under the bridge plus another 40 strokes. That put me close enough to the north end of the lake that I needed to check it down to keep from running into the docks.

Including all disruptions, including the weeds, my pace was 2:19.8. But if you cut out the weed section, the avg pace was 2:14.7, including being waked 4 times. I want to be much better than that, but I’m pleased with making some progress.

After that I did a bit of feet out rowing, and then strapped back in and did 500m of square blades, then 500m of slow roll ups, then 500m of square, then to finish it all off, I did 500m of r28 full pressure rowing. It felt very good. Well balanced, good stroke mechanics.

A good day on the water.

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_3480_|_21:24_|_3:04.5_|_341___|_15.9_|_10.2_|_130___|_warmup
03500_|_1440_|_06:17_|_2:11.0_|_165___|_26.2_|_08.7_|_159___|_start of piece
04940_|_0120_|_01:29_|_6:09.2_|_037___|_25.1_|_03.2_|_167___|_weeds!
05060_|_4040_|_18:19_|_2:16.1_|_478___|_26.1_|_08.5_|_174___|_rest of piece
09100_|_2400_|_14:54_|_3:06.4_|_261___|_17.5_|_09.2_|_132___|_feet out, sbr, sru
11540_|_0440_|_01:51_|_2:06.1_|_051___|_27.6_|_08.6_|_163___|_500m hard
11980_|_0180_|_01:17_|_3:34.4_|_021___|_16.3_|_08.6_|_135___|_back to dock

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
03480_|_21:24_|_3:04.5_|_341___|_15.9_|_10.2_|_130___|_warmup
05480_|_24:37_|_2:14.7_|_643___|_26.1_|_08.5_|_170___|_Main set
02520_|_16:23_|_3:15.1_|_298___|_18.2_|_08.5_|_135___|_rest meters
00440_|_01:51_|_2:06.1_|_051___|_27.6_|_08.6_|_163___|_500m @ r28
00180_|_01:17_|_3:34.4_|_021___|_16.3_|_08.6_|_135___|_cool down

Monday: Double on Quinsigamond

May 25, 20153 Comments

I had a lot of fun yesterday. Because of spring racing, the lake has been unavailable most weekends in the month of may, so I have mainly been rowing on my little stretch of the Charles. Lovely water, but the same thing all the time was starting to get a bit old. But it was great to back among other folks that love to row and to have some company on the water.

This morning, I decided to go row out in worcester again today. Today we had seven of us. We boated a straight four, me and Joe in a double, and Deb in a single. She had said that she wanted to get some video for coaching and feedback, so, I rigged a single up with the gopro on the bowstay out to the side. That video is slowly uploading as I write.

It has been about a month since Joe and I rowed together in the double, and I always enjoy it. Today’s joy was somewhat impacted by the world’s most uncomfortable seat. My ass was really sore by the time we turned around at the south end of the lake, and for the rest of the row, it was basically agonizing as soon as I took pressure off and paddled. At full pressure, it was fine, but paddling was hellish. I have to remember to use a pad if I’m going to row in that boat again. It was awful!

But, the row wasn’t awful. In fact, it was a blast.

We launched about 5 minutes or so after the four and single did and after a little bit of warming up, we spent the trip down the lake trying to catch up with them. We caught the single with about 1000m to go. We didn’t quite catch the four, but it was close. I quite enjoyed the last 500m or so.

Then we turned north and worked on slow roll ups for about 1000m, and then just rowed steady state up to the narrows. Then we did a 10/20/30/20 stroke pyramid. We were waked a couple times during this, but it’s much less of a disruption in the double than in the 1x. After we went under the bridge, we paused for me to try to find a more comfortable alignment on the seat (which failed). We then did 10 strokes on / 10 strokes off the rest of the way up the lake, finishing with a 20 at the north end of the lake.

From there it was back to the dock. For some reason, Crewnerd stopped recording about 500m from the end, and missed what was no doubt the fastest piece we did of the day ;-).

No useful stroke rate data from CrewNerd today because I forgot my hard mount and just left my phone sliding around in the foot well.

Tomorrow I am back on the road. First to San Francisco, then on Wednesday morning to Dallas. I get back to Boston during the day on Friday. I think I might try to do a nice Friday afternoon row on my way home from the airport.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: Quinsigamond

Saturday: Windy outing in a 2x

Saturday: 14km in a quad

Pyramid of Pain

Saturday Sprints: 8 x 2′ / 3′ rest

Saturday: Lake Quinsigamond Snake Regatta

Sunday: Hard 5.8km on Quinsigamond

Sunday: Head Race Simulation – Hard 5K on Quinsig

Sunday: Hard Distance on Quinsig

Saturday: 5.5km Threshold on Quinsig

Monday: Double on Quinsigamond