Living my best pandemic

June 28, 20201 Comment

Maybe this sounds hokey, but I’ve been feeling very, very fortunate lately. Thank goodness, my job has not been affected by the downturn, and no on in my family has caught COVID-19. At this point, I have gotten used to working from home and improved my ability to use remote work tools, and I am enjoying the temporary respite from both commuting and business travel. For sure, I miss seeing my friends at work, and I worry about losing touch with my customers and business colleagues, but the change has meant that I get more sleep, get more exercise and spend more time with people I care about.

So, it’s been a good month for training.

In the past 27 days:

3 rest days, sessions for the last 12 days in a row (I’ve been doing easy bike rides instead of taking full rest days lately)
24 workouts
- 13 days flat water rowing
- 3 days coastal rowing
- 3 runs
- 2 erg sessions
- 3 rides on my new BikeErg

Training Diary

Sunday – June 7 – No Training

I worked on the stairs down on the cape and didn’t have time for a workout. Nice day in the sun though.

Monday – June 8 – 15K on Lake Quinsigamond.

I am cartopping to the lake. I get up around 6, launch around 6:45 and row until 8:00 or 8:30 depending on whether or not I have a meeting at 9.

The club I row with is being good and safe. Masks on the dock, social distancing, time slots for launching to keep the docks from getting crowded. And the lake is just wonderful to row on.

Today was just some steady state. Down to the south end, all the way up to the north end, then back past the boathouse to the narrows, then finally back to the boathouse. Working with a HR cap of about 150. There was a bit of a headwind going North.

       Workout Summary - media/0407a4c8a1-20200608-125553o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15033|01:22:42.3|02:45.0|132.6|20.4|133.6|151.0|08.9
W-|14070|01:12:11.8|02:33.9|142.4|20.5|136.7|151.0|09.5
R-|00967|00:10:30.9|05:26.2|065.3|19.8|112.3|151.0|07.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03268|16:26.5|02:31.0|133.4|19.3|126.8|141.0|10.3
02|05758|30:04.8|02:36.7|148.5|20.8|140.1|151.0|09.2
03|03579|17:58.9|02:30.7|136.7|20.3|138.8|146.0|09.8
04|01466|07:41.6|02:37.4|151.0|22.1|139.9|147.0|08.6

Tuesday – June 9 – 15km steady state

Just beautiful. Flat water. A few waterskiers, but I didn’t mind the brief stops for that.

       Workout Summary - media/ee32ce273d-20200609-123554o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15020|01:21:27.1|02:42.7|133.4|21.0|135.9|154.0|08.8
W-|13893|01:09:05.2|02:29.2|150.0|20.3|140.5|154.0|09.9
R-|01131|00:12:22.2|05:28.2|041.2|24.9|109.7|154.0|06.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03194|15:48.1|02:28.4|147.4|19.5|132.8|143.0|10.3
02|05731|28:43.6|02:30.4|150.9|20.7|141.0|150.0|09.7
03|03562|17:39.1|02:28.7|148.9|20.0|145.3|154.0|10.1
04|01406|06:54.4|02:27.4|154.5|21.2|144.2|152.0|09.6

Wednesday – 10 June – Descent to Hell

This is a Push it / Don’t Pull it workout. It is decreasing length pieces from 6′ down to 30″ with 90″ rests. so, 6′, 5’30”, 5′, 4’30″…

It was brutal. I did pretty well through the first four, but then when I turned into the wind, I blew up in the fifth interval. From there, I hung in there OK.

This workout is a keeper. Definitely doing it again later.

        Workout Summary - media/658d149feb-20200610-123056o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13546|01:14:30.4|02:45.0|137.4|22.8|152.4|175.0|08.0
W-|07995|00:36:26.4|02:16.7|189.7|25.6|159.4|175.0|08.6
R-|05561|00:38:05.1|03:25.4|087.4|20.3|145.7|175.0|04.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01328|06:02.5|02:16.5|178.8|23.5|151.3|160.0|09.4
02|01200|05:33.2|02:18.9|171.6|24.0|156.7|166.0|09.0
03|01110|05:00.0|02:15.1|188.0|25.0|163.1|173.0|08.9
04|00989|04:26.3|02:14.6|192.4|25.4|165.2|175.0|08.8
05|00212|00:59.8|02:20.7|186.8|25.1|151.1|161.0|08.5
06|00346|01:37.8|02:21.2|190.1|25.8|162.7|167.0|08.2
07|00736|03:22.8|02:17.7|194.5|26.0|165.9|174.0|08.4
08|00516|02:20.9|02:16.5|201.7|26.8|162.1|174.0|08.2
09|00499|02:20.6|02:20.8|189.7|26.9|162.4|172.0|07.9
10|00410|01:51.6|02:15.9|211.0|28.5|162.7|174.0|07.8
11|00294|01:21.8|02:19.2|201.7|28.6|155.1|167.0|07.5
12|00216|00:55.5|02:08.3|221.1|30.1|154.2|164.0|07.8
13|00137|00:33.6|02:02.6|255.2|31.9|148.8|158.0|07.7

Thursday – June 11 – No Training

I earned a day off.

Friday – June 12 – Charles River GPS Speed Order

Another go at the speed order. My goal this time was to steer a better line. I ended up going out too hard and blowing up in the middle.

But my line was beautiful! Here it is compared to Carlo Zezza, who rowed a really tight and short line. (I’m the brown line)

From the start around magazine beach, I’m looking really good. I drifted out just a hair too much at the end (I was worried about cutting too close to the Riverside docks). I decided to use the cambridge arches, vs the center arches going up the powerhouse stretch.

I took a good line into weeks and made the turn from there to Anderson really well. This is where I ran out of energy and really slowed down. After Anderson, it looks like I took a good straight line to the apex of the eliot turn. And I did a good job hugging the curve for last turn as well.

I shaved 190m off the distance rowed from the prior attempt. And even though I rowed more slowly, I cut 30 seconds off my time.

4773m / 22:38 / 2:22.3
4583m / 22:08 / 2:23.9

Maybe for the July challenge, I can put steering and fitness together for a good row!

Saturday – June 13 – 12k on Lake Quinsigamond with Randall Foils

I’ve embarked on an experiment to see if Randall Foils help me row faster. I’ll be writing up some impressions of the Randall Foils eventually on https://analytics.rowsandall.com/

But in order to give them a fair test, I need to learn how to row with them and make sure that I understand how they feel. This row was the first step to try do that. Just a steady state row in choppy conditions to try to figure out how they work.

       Workout Summary - media/7f555d2212-20200613-133055o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12026|01:08:10.4|02:50.1|123.3|21.0|140.4|170.0|08.4
W-|11008|00:57:02.3|02:35.5|138.6|20.5|143.7|170.0|09.5
R-|01023|00:11:08.5|05:26.8|044.7|23.7|123.7|170.0|04.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01415|07:34.1|02:40.5|116.9|18.0|125.1|138.0|10.4
02|01925|09:53.4|02:34.1|130.9|19.1|137.7|145.0|10.2
03|05784|30:40.9|02:39.2|140.4|20.7|147.5|165.0|09.1
04|01884|08:53.9|02:21.7|159.7|23.4|153.0|170.0|09.1

Overall, I did not enjoy my first experience with the foils. They sure feel solid at the catch, but they increase the wind resistance of the oars, and smacking a wavetop with the foils was a pretty violent feeling. Also, they were a pain when coasting, and maneuvering. More to come.

Sunday – June 14 – No Training

We drove down to the cape on Saturday afternoon, and I slept in. I spent most of the day finishing up the stairs to the beach.

Monday – June 15 – 6 Darts Games

Just a nice easy base builder in the basement.

Tuesday - June 16 - Easy Coastal Row

Just a nice day for a row.

Wednesday – June 17 – Another longer coastal row

In this one, I went over into where the Herring River comes out into Wellfleet Harbor. Beautiful area over there.

No real useful data fro the row, because both crewnerd and the speedcoach managed to get mucked up. My phone was splashed seriously enough to think that I had swiped away from crewnerd. And I ran out of memory on the speedcoach during the row.

Thursday – June 18 – 7km run

I crossed the bridge and ran a loop around a woodsy neighborhood.

Friday – June 19 – Experimenting with foils

Pushed hard for about 2km, then took a break for about 1km, then finished hard.

        Workout Summary - media/c535caef77-20200619-120554o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10712|00:58:38.1|02:44.2|133.3|21.7|147.2|182.0|08.4
W-|09723|00:47:31.7|02:26.6|154.4|21.9|152.7|182.0|09.4
R-|00994|00:11:06.7|05:35.2|043.0|20.8|123.5|182.0|06.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00185|00:58.4|02:37.9|128.4|18.7|112.1|123.0|10.2
02|03159|15:50.8|02:30.5|145.3|19.7|143.9|156.0|10.1
03|02114|10:01.0|02:22.1|171.2|23.9|157.4|168.0|08.8
04|02857|13:08.5|02:18.0|175.3|24.3|168.6|182.0|08.9 - Nice!
05|01408|07:33.0|02:40.9|118.1|20.4|142.6|153.0|09.2

Saturday – June 20 – Rate Ladders with Foils

Trying to work specific stroke rates with the foils. I think it works a bit better to try to row lighter and rate up.

Sunday – June 21 – 40 minute BikeErg

Unfortunately Boatcoach quit after 20 minutes. But it was lovely. Nice easy cross training session.

Monday – June 22 – Steady State

Still rowing with foils. This was supposed to be a nice easy steady state session, but as luck would have it, a sculler ended up right next to me as I pulled out from the dock, and his steady state pace was a bit quicker than mine. I just refused to let him go and pushed too hard.

I got to talk to him at the south end of the lake. Nice guy, student at University of Delaware. Getting back in shape in case there is rowing this fall.

       Workout Summary - media/f2e1dce094-20200622-122554o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11848|01:08:44.6|02:54.1|121.9|20.1|143.7|166.0|08.6
W-|11293|00:56:39.9|02:30.5|141.2|19.5|150.3|166.0|10.2
R-|00559|00:12:05.0|10:48.9|031.5|23.0|112.3|166.0|03.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03533|17:10.2|02:25.8|144.5|19.0|148.0|163.0|10.8
02|05723|29:16.4|02:33.5|142.7|19.7|155.9|166.0|09.9
03|02037|10:13.3|02:30.5|131.4|19.8|138.3|162.0|10.0

There was a bit of wind blowing from North to South.

Tuesday – June 23 – Lake Quinsigamond Speed Order

When I rowed on Saturday, I met a nice guy from Western Mass who came to row the GPS Speed Order on the lake. He handily beat my team and my course standard score. I found that highly motivating. I decided to give the course another go.

I started with a nice long warmup to the south end of the lake, and then set off. There was a very light tail wind (about 2mph) and I was seeing splits between 2:15 and 2:20, which was encouraging. My HR was high, but I didn’t feel distressed. The last 2k was kind of difficult, but I would fiddle around with rate and pressure a little bit to try to distract myself.

I was very happy with the end result. No where near my competitor on raw time, but I edged him out on course standard score.

I also shaved nearly 30 seconds off my previous time. (22:37). Boom.

Wednesday – June 24 – 40 minute BikeErg

I like the bike erg! It’s a great change of pace and a good way to get some low intensity aerobic minutes in. I started watching Ford v. Ferrari, which was highly entertaining.

Thursday – June 25 – Steady State (without Foils)

It felt so good to row without foils! Still not sure if they make me faster. They certainly do not slow me down, but I do not like rowing with them.

Nice, reasonable speedy steady state session. I was able to keep on the fast side of 2:30 for most of it.

       Workout Summary - media/7a3eb7d12d-20200625-202055o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11945|01:03:09.1|02:38.6|134.6|20.6|139.8|159.0|09.2
W-|10644|00:52:28.8|02:27.9|146.4|20.4|143.4|159.0|09.9
R-|01309|00:10:41.0|04:04.7|076.8|21.1|122.2|159.0|06.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00278|01:24.8|02:32.8|127.8|19.0|116.4|121.0|10.3
02|01974|09:34.9|02:25.7|149.8|20.4|136.4|147.0|10.1
03|00534|02:35.4|02:25.6|158.6|20.9|137.7|149.0|09.9
04|01306|06:27.5|02:28.3|145.2|20.5|138.5|147.0|09.9
05|04446|22:00.1|02:28.5|148.8|20.5|148.4|159.0|09.9
06|01891|09:21.6|02:28.5|137.6|20.3|147.8|153.0|10.0
07|00216|01:04.5|02:29.1|143.8|22.3|144.3|146.0|09.0

Friday – June 26 – 45 minute BikeErg

I had an 8 am meeting, so not enough time to go to the lake and get in a row. I slept in an extra half hour, and did a short session on the Bike. Watched more of Ford v Ferrari. Still really fun.

Saturday – June 27 – 80′ Coastal Row

It was warm and windy today. I thought it would be fun to go bash into some waves. I was right!

I launched at 12:15, so right as the wind was building up past 15mph. It peaked around 1pm when I was up near Wellfleet inner harbor, and moderated back down to 15 on the way back.

You can tell that the water is rough when the speedcoach starts having all those spikes on the stroke rate.

It was just past low tide when I launched, so I had to take a short leg to the northwest to stay clear of the shoals, then I turned SW and headed to the red buoy. The wind was blowing from the SSW, so on my port bow. The waves were very steep over the shallow water as I got close to the buoy, and I was filling the footwell every ten or so strokes. I opened the bailer and left it that way the rest of the row.

I turned at the buoy and had a downwind ride with the tide all the way to the harbor. The waves hissing and sizzling under the boat as I went. I turned into the harbor and grabbed a quick drink. I knew the next bit was going to be the tough part.

I headed back out, and as soon as I cleared the breakwater, I started getting slammed by 12 to 18 waves. They seem pretty big when your boat sits 3 inches above the water line. I pounded my way out and picked a point on the shore to focus on. I concentrated on just controlling my oars and reacting to the waves. I paid a lot of attention to my heart rate. With the waves and headwind, it was easy to push too hard.

The footwell was filled most of the time. By the time the bailer reduced the water level, another wave would run the length of the boat and fill it again.

Finally, I came into the lee of the Island and the water flattened out. The last bit of rowing on flat water was a nice change to adventure through the waves.

Great fun!

5/29 – 6/6 – Having some fun now

June 7, 2020June 7, 2020Leave a comment

Friday – 5/29 – rest day

I was murdered by the GPS Speed Order. I took the day off.

Saturday – 5/30 – beach run

This was a very hard slog. My HR was through the roof and I was incredibly slow. Halfway through, I was convinced that I was coming down with COVID-19, my lungs just didn’t seem to be working.

It was still a very nice day to be out though.

Sunday – 5/31 – 6 darts games

New high score! 14775! Higher HR drift though 5.7%

Monday – 6/1 – 5km run

Just a short run. Limited time before my first meeting. Kept it easy.

Tuesday – 6/2 – Lake Quinsigamond GPS Speed Order

Our club has been given permission to open, and we have developed our procedures to keep everyone safe. Singles and Doubles only. Doubles have to be people living in the same house. We have 10 minute windows for launching from the dock to keep people from congregating. Also, temp check, mandatory masks on the dock and sign in. I’m really pleased that the club is being this careful.

I have setup a GPS Speed Order on Lake Quinsigamond to try to lure some of my worcester rowing buddies to get out and do a little competing. The challenge is running all of June, and I wanted to get an early marker in.

So, I launched and headed down to the south end of the lake, doing a reasonable warmup on the way.

I turned around and planned to cover the course at r24, which seems to be about the limit of my fitness right now.

The row was pretty uneventful. I felt good up through the islands and past the narrows. I started to get kinda tired in the long span from the narrows to the bridge. About 500m short of the bridge, I got waked by a waterski boat, and managed to catch a nasty crab as I tried to row through it. It basically stopped me dead and it took a lot out of me to get back going.

The row from the bridge to the gazebo was endless, as it always is. In my mind, the gazebo is halfway, but actually it is much closer to the finish at the DRC docks. I counted strokes from the Gazebo to the finish and it was about 60.

You can explore my race by going here.

        Workout Summary - media/7f8779b0f6-20200602-142054o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11658|01:04:33.7|02:46.1|131.0|21.2|144.6|178.0|08.5
W-|04855|00:22:36.7|02:19.7|175.6|24.1|166.1|178.0|08.9
R-|06804|00:41:57.0|03:05.0|107.0|19.6|133.0|178.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|04855|22:36.7|02:19.7|175.6|24.1|166.1|178.0|08.9

So, a nice improvement on pace from the Charles River GPS Speed Order.

In terms of course, a much easier course to row than the Charles River GPS Speed Order, and I rowed it better. But there is still room for improvement.

I like my course from the start past the little island and toward Drake Island. But I held that course too long. As soon as I was on a line between Drake Island and the point of land with Smith Lane, I should have set my point right on that point. That would have put me on a straight line for the Narrows, and I would have avoided the s-curve.

Same deal after the Narrows.

I have been taught to take a couple of port strokes at the narrows to get out of the way of boats coming down lake to the Narrows. I think I took it way too far. I could have just taken a point to the Island off the beach and that would have taken me straight to the bridge.

I also did an s-turn thingy after the bridge.

I need to figure out a good point south of the bridge to pick up and focus on to keep from drifting to middle. By the map, it’s the last house before the little marina south of the bridge, but I don’t know exactly what that looks like.

It was another really fun row. Highly motivated to keep plugging. Fun to play with the results afterwards.

Wednesday – 6/3 – Steady State – Lake Quinsigamond

I wanted a nice long row, and that’s what I got.

There was a bit of a wind from the south which sped things up on the way up the lake and slowed me down on the way down.

I was having such a good time that I added a bit extra. Instead of just doing the normal 12K loop of the lake, I kept going back down to the narrows and back again.

        Workout Summary - media/a83f56f61b-20200603-133055o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14871|01:19:48.6|02:41.0|130.9|19.6|141.4|155.0|09.5
W-|13938|01:10:27.4|02:31.6|140.0|19.3|144.2|155.0|10.2
R-|00938|00:09:21.6|04:59.4|062.2|21.7|119.9|155.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03420|17:21.8|02:32.3|140.5|18.9|137.1|146.0|10.4
02|05664|28:02.7|02:28.5|142.5|19.7|148.1|155.0|10.3
03|03554|18:28.1|02:35.9|136.9|19.5|146.3|153.0|09.9
04|01300|06:34.8|02:31.8|136.7|18.5|140.3|150.0|10.7

I am delighted to be back on the water.

Thursday – 6/4 – Drills on the 5s

Between the GPS speed order on Tuesday and the long session on Wednesday, I woke up sore and tired. I decided to do a technical session and keep it light.

So, I did 4 minutes of rowing at about r20, and then one minute of drills

On the square
Slow roll ups
Delayed Feather
Pause at body over
Open hands on recovery

I was really feeling the effort in the steady state sections and looked forward to the drills as a bit of a break. I think I have ramped up volume significantly and I was feeling it.

Friday – 6/5 – quick run

Well a short run, done slowly. I was planning to go rowing on Friday morning, but ended up staying up too late. So I scrubbed out of my launch window, and slept in instead. This might have been intelligently listening to my body, or just laziness.

I think I needed the sleep. I got up in time for my first meeting of the day and then at lunch time, I snuck out for a short run, just 2 miles around my neighborhood.

Saturday – 6/6 – 6 Darts Games

Down on the cape, but too windy for a coastal row. So, it was time for Darts! Chasing after high scores. My best is 14775. Today, I came close, but didn’t beat it. 3.98% drift.

After that, me and my son spent about 4 hours working on rebuilding our stairs down to the beach which have been destroyed for the third season in a row. Very sore and tired now.

Tomorrow: I think I will go for a run, or a coastal row, if the weather is nice.

Back on the Water – Huzzah!

May 24, 20201 Comment

Another week on social isolation. I’m getting better at it. A few very exciting developments.

First, I retrieved my boat from winter storage, rigged it up and went for my first row of the season, not counting that amazing week in early March when we managed to get on the water three days (3/9, 3/10, 3/11) before the pandemic hit.

Second, I am working with Sander and some Boston based rowers to try to figure out a way to have some competitive fun with rowing when all regattas and events are cancelled. Take a look at the instructions for the first event.

Want Some Hot Singles Action? – The GPS Speed Orders

It will be a “Speed Order” challenge over the same course that the Head of the Charles follows. Through the miracle of GPS and rowsandall, people can run the course in their single anytime next week and upload their rowing data to compete.

I’m hoping that this will turn into a full season of challenges on the Charles, and spread to other venues. If anyone is interested in running a GPS Speed Order on your favorite course, get in touch and I’ll get you set up.

And it was a good week of training. I am enjoying running more than I expected, and I am now able to row for longer periods without a lot of shoulder pain.

Monday – 5/18 – 5.7km run on Lt Island

We decided to stay an extra day on the Cape and on Monday morning, I headed out for a slow run. Some parts of it were on the beach, and that was slow, hard work. Other parts of it were on sandy roads and I have no excuse, but I was still slow.

Tuesday – 5/19 – Quick row

It was an exciting morning. I headed out to the Lake and met Joe who let me in the boathouse and helped me load up my boat. I brought it home and only had enough time for a quick and easy row before my 8am meeting.

        Workout Summary - media/4eb43c721c-20200519-122216o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09670|00:42:00.0|02:10.3|165.3|18.9|129.7|140.0|12.2
W-|09461|00:40:00.0|02:06.8|171.3|19.2|130.3|140.0|12.3
R-|00210|00:02:00.0|04:45.7|045.6|11.9|119.0|140.0|08.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|09461|40:00.0|02:06.8|171.3|19.2|130.3|140.0|12.3

Wednesday – 5/20 – 45′ Bike / 2 dart games

Sticking to base work. Still limiting total rowing time. I was watching the movie John Wick, and I noticed that my HR was going way up when there was any kind of physical conflict in the movie.

Then down to the basement for a couple of dart games.

        Workout Summary - media/09b2b54c05-20200520-161816o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07468|00:33:09.4|02:13.2|159.3|18.4|143.3|151.0|12.3
W-|07441|00:31:51.4|02:08.4|165.2|19.0|144.0|151.0|12.3
R-|00028|00:01:18.0|23:32.0|013.9|02.0|125.8|151.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03813|16:20.0|02:08.5|164.7|18.6|143.4|151.0|12.5
01|03628|15:31.4|02:08.4|165.7|19.5|144.7|151.0|12.0

Getting better at keeping my effort down in the dart games and good results for these two 14375, and 14305. Still not challenging Sanders 14625 though.

Thursday – 5/21 – Fast (for me) run – 6.3km

This was basically the same course as I ran on May 8th at an average pace of 6:01. Today, I shaved that down to 5:57, but worked a bit harder. I had a really wonderful time, especially the last mile or so.

Friday – 5/22 – 12k on Lake Quinsigamond

It’s so exciting going for the first row of the year in my single. There’s an element of fear. Do I still remember how to row? Do I still remember how to get in an out of the boat? How cold is the water? And this year, I had the extra anxiety of wondering if my shoulder would be OK for carrying the boat and rowing.

I got to the lake right around 7am. I launched without any issue and headed down lake. I didn’t bother with a pick drill or anything, I just started rowing easy, and kept that up basically the whole outing. There was a bit of breeze blowing from the SW, which was only bothersome during the row back to the boathouse from the north end of the lake.

The good news. I remember how to row. The boat was setting well. To be honest about it, my shoulder is not great. But if I limited how far I extended to the catch, took the catch smoothly and lightened up my stroke a bit, I was able to row pain free.

There were a couple of waterskiers out and I got waked a bunch of times. I generally just stopped rowing for a few seconds to let the wakes pass. This early in the season, I didn’t really see the point in trying to finesse my way through the waves.

        Workout Summary - media/3d93653fd3-20200522-134050o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11673|01:05:42.5|02:48.9|125.3|20.4|138.9|156.0|08.7
W-|10124|00:52:25.4|02:35.3|134.5|19.7|142.0|156.0|09.8
R-|01558|00:13:18.0|04:16.0|089.1|23.2|126.8|156.0|03.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01201|06:13.8|02:35.6|135.1|18.1|133.8|143.0|10.6
02|00504|02:38.5|02:37.1|135.1|18.9|135.0|142.0|10.1
03|01003|05:10.3|02:34.7|138.8|19.1|143.1|149.0|10.2
04|00257|01:21.4|02:38.2|126.9|19.1|137.3|142.0|09.9
05|01981|10:16.7|02:35.7|131.3|19.3|138.1|148.0|10.0
06|01860|09:31.6|02:33.6|134.5|19.9|146.0|152.0|09.8
07|00452|02:22.3|02:37.3|124.9|20.3|141.8|146.0|09.4
08|01049|05:18.3|02:31.8|140.8|20.6|148.2|156.0|09.6
09|00933|04:52.4|02:36.7|132.3|20.7|141.8|151.0|09.2
10|00883|04:40.1|02:38.6|137.7|20.8|150.3|154.0|09.1

Saturday – 5/23 – 3 x 30’/2′ on slides

Down on the Cape. We drove down on Friday evening and lazed around Saturday morning. In the early afternoon, I headed down to the basement for some easy rowing. The goal was to do the full 90 minutes below a HR of 145. I needed to ease up on the pace a bit in the last 30 minutes to respect the cap. I also found it easier (and easier on my shoulder) to row at r20. With the higher rate, I tried to increase power just a few watts.

        Workout Summary - media/479e44f499-20200523-183516o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|22012|01:36:00.0|02:10.8|164.4|19.7|136.8|147.0|11.7
W-|21304|01:30:00.0|02:06.7|171.9|20.0|137.4|147.0|11.8
R-|00712|00:06:00.0|04:12.7|052.8|14.3|127.8|147.0|08.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07126|30:00.0|02:06.3|173.3|20.1|129.1|137.0|11.8
01|07102|30:00.0|02:06.7|172.0|20.0|139.4|145.0|11.8
02|07076|30:00.0|02:07.2|170.3|20.0|143.7|147.0|11.8

Sunday – 5/24 – Run to Bob’s Sub and Cone

Still down on the cape. The weather was beautiful, but cool. Good for running. I stuck to the roads today, but running here just feels harder. Maybe it’s the little but steep ups and downs. But it was a nice run.

After I got home, I had showered and I was just looking out the window when I saw a young fox, just napping at the end of our walkway. I must have disturbed him when I snapped his picture through the screen.

And on it goes

May 18, 2020Leave a comment

Last posted on May 10th. Since then, nothing to exciting. I haven’t fallen off any roofs, or broken any bones this week, so that’s a plus.

I ended up taking two days off from training. No real reason, other than a limited desire to train.

Sunday – 5/10 – 2 x 30’/5′ With Bumps

A fun session. Row 4′ at r18 and 160W, then 1′ faster. The faster bits start r20, and go up by 2SPM in each one. So, a little bit of hard rowing with a lot of aerobic strokes.

Also a good chance to use rowsandall interval analysis

       Workout Summary - media/b9c94e1b23-20200510-201916o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15424|01:07:24.4|02:11.1|166.9|19.3|142.8|167.0|11.9
W-|14343|01:00:06.0|02:05.7|179.6|19.2|143.9|165.0|12.6
R-|01095|00:07:18.4|03:20.1|062.8|20.1|133.6|165.0|04.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00937|04:00.0|02:08.1|162.8|17.8|113.3|127.0|13.1
01|00236|01:00.0|02:07.3|175.6|19.2|129.4|131.0|12.3
02|00929|04:00.0|02:09.1|164.1|17.8|130.6|132.0|13.1
03|00248|01:00.0|02:01.1|199.0|21.4|136.8|141.0|11.6
04|00933|04:00.0|02:08.7|165.3|18.0|137.7|142.0|13.0
05|00259|01:00.0|01:55.8|225.3|23.8|141.1|148.0|10.9
06|00937|04:00.0|02:08.1|169.8|18.1|143.5|149.0|13.0
07|00271|01:00.0|01:50.8|249.8|25.9|146.0|153.0|10.5
08|00933|04:00.0|02:08.7|168.0|17.9|148.0|156.0|13.0
09|00276|01:00.0|01:48.5|263.8|27.4|148.7|156.0|10.1
10|00932|04:00.0|02:08.8|167.4|18.0|149.7|158.0|13.0
11|00282|01:00.0|01:46.5|283.9|29.3|150.9|159.0|09.6
12|00937|04:01.0|02:08.6|167.1|17.8|137.7|145.0|13.1
13|00239|01:00.0|02:05.8|181.4|19.6|145.9|147.0|12.2
14|00927|04:01.0|02:10.1|163.9|17.6|146.7|150.0|13.1
15|00253|01:00.0|01:58.7|204.7|22.0|146.8|151.0|11.5
16|00925|04:01.0|02:10.3|163.3|17.6|148.5|152.0|13.1
17|00260|01:00.0|01:55.3|226.7|23.7|150.1|155.0|11.0
18|00931|04:01.0|02:09.4|164.8|17.9|152.0|157.0|13.0
19|00266|01:00.0|01:52.8|241.2|25.4|152.8|159.0|10.5
20|00935|04:01.0|02:08.8|167.6|18.0|154.5|161.0|13.0
21|00272|01:00.0|01:50.1|261.2|27.6|154.2|160.0|09.9
22|00945|04:01.0|02:07.5|169.6|18.1|156.5|162.0|13.0
23|00282|01:00.0|01:46.5|289.9|29.9|158.0|165.0|09.4

Monday – 5/11 – 7.5km run

Tuesday – No Training

Wednesday – 5/13 – half and half

30′ stationary bike

2 dart games

Scores: 13840,14210

       Workout Summary - media/b10aaa2c46-20200513-121216o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07592|00:34:22.2|02:15.8|152.0|17.7|143.6|152.0|12.5
W-|07562|00:32:47.2|02:10.1|158.8|18.5|144.7|152.0|12.5
R-|00032|00:01:35.0|24:53.0|011.1|01.8|120.2|152.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03798|16:25.0|02:09.7|160.2|18.5|144.5|152.0|12.5
01|03764|16:22.2|02:10.5|157.5|18.5|144.9|151.0|12.4

Thursday – 5/14 – half and half

30′ on the bike

2 dart games – 14005, 14085 (I was not on my game at all!)

        Workout Summary - media/6e3758c812-20200514-122316o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07424|00:34:06.6|02:17.8|148.2|17.9|142.2|152.0|12.2
W-|07397|00:32:15.7|02:10.9|156.2|18.8|143.9|152.0|12.2
R-|00029|00:01:51.0|32:21.3|008.4|01.4|112.3|152.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03757|16:15.0|02:09.8|159.6|18.7|143.6|152.0|12.3
01|03640|16:00.7|02:12.0|152.7|18.9|144.2|150.0|12.0

Friday – 5/15 – 7.3km run

Down on the cape. Out and back on the road.

Saturday – 5/16 – No Training

I spend a couple hours fixing some shingles on the roof, and then the fencing around the house. Didn’t feel like training.

Sunday – 5/17 – 3 x 30′ / 2′ Steady State

I’ve been reading more about base training and I want to try to add more minutes at lower intensity.

        Workout Summary - media/11a6da4170-20200517-211416o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|21759|01:36:00.0|02:12.4|157.0|19.5|134.1|144.0|11.6
W-|20997|01:30:00.0|02:08.6|164.6|19.7|134.9|144.0|11.9
R-|00765|00:06:00.0|03:55.2|044.2|17.5|122.3|144.0|07.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07003|30:00.0|02:08.5|164.5|19.1|128.6|140.0|12.2
01|06995|30:00.0|02:08.7|164.4|19.8|137.2|144.0|11.8
02|06999|30:00.0|02:08.6|164.8|20.0|138.9|144.0|11.7

Steady Diet of Steady State

May 10, 2020May 10, 2020Leave a comment

Since my last post, on Sunday, I’ve settled into a pretty reasonable routine.

The rowing that I did last Sunday was heartening because I was basically pain free for low intensity, although definitely not willing to push the intensity up.

Monday – 5/4 – 3 x 20’/2′ Steady state

Still down on the Cape. I pushed my luck a bit harder, by jumping back to an easy, but normal steady state session. Three 20 minute intervals, all at a target of 160W. I decided to let the stroke rate creep up a bit to limit the stroke pressure in the second and third interval.

       Workout Summary - media/fd448bed6b-20200504-115316o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14539|01:06:00.0|02:16.2|151.9|18.6|137.8|155.0|11.8
W-|13984|01:00:00.0|02:08.7|164.1|19.2|138.9|155.0|12.1
R-|00557|00:06:00.0|05:23.2|029.6|12.8|127.0|155.0|06.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04665|20:00.0|02:08.6|163.9|18.2|127.2|139.0|12.8
01|04667|20:00.0|02:08.6|164.9|19.7|140.9|149.0|11.8
02|04652|20:00.0|02:09.0|163.4|19.8|148.5|155.0|11.8

I think that might have been a bit too much for my shoulder. I was stiff and sore later Monday night and worse on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday – 5/5 – 6.4km run

I got new shoes. My old Nikes had lost all their springiness. Today was the first voyage of the new Brookes. I was slow, but expected to be.

Wednesday – 5/6 – 30′ Bike / 2 dart games

Watching Giada in Capri making italian food while I rode the bike.

Then I wandered down to the basement and played two dart games.

       Workout Summary - media/199d0c346e-20200506-124216o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07431|00:33:49.2|02:16.5|156.8|18.0|146.0|159.0|12.2
W-|07400|00:31:36.2|02:08.1|167.2|19.2|148.2|159.0|12.2
R-|00033|00:02:13.0|33:28.1|008.2|00.9|114.6|159.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03775|15:52.0|02:06.1|175.1|19.2|148.8|159.0|12.4
01|03625|15:44.2|02:10.2|159.2|19.2|147.6|152.0|12.0

Thursday – 5/7 – 30′ bike and 2 dart games

Sounds familiar? Get used to it. I think it will be my diet for a while.

Watched Giada again. And pushed the pace on the bike a bit more.

Then two more dart games. I’m slowly getting the hang of doing them easier. I scored really well in the first one 14275, which is not far from my all time best of 14485. The second one was much more of a challenge as I was trying to stick at 18 spm and keep it light.

        Workout Summary - media/afe45eb54c-20200507-193516o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07526|00:33:29.5|02:13.5|157.8|18.2|150.2|160.0|12.3
W-|07498|00:32:14.5|02:09.0|163.4|18.9|150.7|160.0|12.3
R-|00029|00:01:15.0|21:31.8|014.1|01.7|139.1|160.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03729|15:45.0|02:06.7|172.0|19.4|151.6|160.0|12.2
01|03769|16:29.5|02:11.3|155.2|18.4|149.8|154.0|12.4

Friday – 5/8 – 6.4km run

After I got back from my run on Tuesday, Strava helpfully pointed out that I had run the same course 3 years ago, and did it about 3 minutes faster. That provided a bit of motivation for me to push a little harder this morning. It was cold, about 45F, so I was in tights, hat, and fleece top. And my new sneakers!

I cut almost three minutes off my time.

Cool thing I just discovered. The rowsandall compare feature works for runs too!

I worked a lot harder too!

Saturday – 5/9 – 30′ bike and 2 dart games

Upped the resistance to 13, and that gave me an extra tenth mile.

Then two dart games. I was not in the groove today. 13910 and 13825.

        Workout Summary - media/937839d9b9-20200509-220216o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07700|00:34:51.2|02:15.8|150.7|17.5|149.1|158.0|12.6
W-|07673|00:33:27.2|02:10.8|156.6|18.1|149.9|158.0|12.6
R-|00027|00:01:24.0|25:45.1|010.4|01.7|129.2|158.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03866|16:40.0|02:09.3|161.9|18.2|151.0|158.0|12.7
01|03807|16:47.2|02:12.3|151.4|18.0|148.8|153.0|12.6

Tomorrow: Probably more of the same bike/rower split.

Back to your regular programming

May 3, 2020Leave a comment

It’s May! Hopefully the weather will get better, and we’ll be able to row outside soon, This Friday, my wife packed up and headed down to the cape for the weekend.

We arrived Friday evening, and stopped to pick up a “hands free” pizza on the way.

Saturday – May 2 – 6km run

On Saturday, we lazed around and relaxed. In the afternoon, I decided to go for a run. I guess I should put quotes around “run”, since it was notably slow, but really enjoyable, I clambered down to the beach and ran around the island to north side. I just made it before the tide washed over the beach at the northwest corner. Running on sand was quite a challenge. It’s much softer sand than in Aruba.

After I turned at the northeast corner, I walked a bit, and then I was on harder packed sandy roads. I ran all the way to bridge on the causeway, then turned and ran down the main road on the island and all the way around to the little beach on the southwest corner. Then I turned into the wind and did the last slog home back on soft sand again.

It was a moderately hard workout, but not that long.

Sunday – 3 May – 3 x 15′ / 2′ steady state

It was 15 days ago when I took the fall off the ladder. The scrapes have healed, my elbow is mostly better. There is still something wrong with my thumb; it really does not like lateral pressure. My shoulder is OK, but still has limited range of motion.

I was thinking that it would be a good time to see whether the damage that I’ve done would keep me from rowing.

I dialed up 2000m for a warmup.

I started off with a pick drill. 20 strokes just arms. I felt a bit of a twinge from my elbow if I extended it completely. Well then, we will just use that as a reminder to keep soft arms. By the end of the 20 strokes, I was able to take them without any pain. Good.

Then arms and body. Now I became aware of a new limitation. If I indulged my bad habit of reaching too far at the catch, my shoulder would remind me not to do that. A few strokes and I managed to get into a groove that was working.

Then into full strokes. Now the final bit of coaching from my shoulder. Don’t take the catch too hard. It was as if Robby Manson was there telling me to hang and bang. If I hit the catch too hard, my shoulder would definitely twinge.

So, the end result is that my elbow and shoulder are conspiring to make me row better.

After 15 days off, the rest of the 2000m felt like a very long way to row, but I was doing well. Mostly pain free and maintaining reasonable power.

After I finished that, I decided to do another 45 minutes or so of easy rowing. So, 3 x15’/2′ at 160W. I let the stroke rate climb up from 18 to 20 over the three pieces to keep my strokes nice and light.

So, what to do now? I think I will stick to easy stuff on the erg for now and go running a couple of times a week for the more intense sessions. I don’t want to push it too fast. Mostly, I want to get stronger for the return of OTW, hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

A little running, more spinning

May 2, 2020Leave a comment

I posted last weekend, and that post covered over a month. Gotta say, it was kind of a pain to write it all down, but I was glad I did after the fact. I find it really useful to review my training after the fact and look at the volume, intensity and the other stuff that was going on. But it’s much easier to do on a weekly cadence.

Sunday – 26 April – 60′ Stationary Bike

Feeling a bit peppy, after my run on Saturday. Pushed a bit harder.

Monday – 27 April – 60′ Stationary Bike

Early morning. Feeling kind of creaky. Took it a bit easier. Watching Giada make italian desserts.

Tuesday – 28 April – 44′ minute run

The pace says it was slow endurance work. The heart rate says it was a tempo run. Two laps around my neighborhood.

Wednesday – April 29 – No Training – Rest Day

I had worked out the prior 8 days. I woke up at 6 feeling very tired, rolled over and slept another 2 hours.

Thursday – April 30 – 60′ Stationary Bike

Slightly resistance (12), slightly higher cadence (around 80) than the Sunday ride. Watching the documentary on the Apollo program.

Low heart rates. Maybe because of the rest day?

Friday – 1 May – 60′ Stationary Bike

Tried to go even further on resistance 12. Managed to tack on another tenth mile, but with a bit more effort required. Watching the end of the Apollo documentary and some more Giada.

And that brings us up to the present. The plan for the weekend is to go for a run tomorrow, and maybe give rowing a gentle try on Sunday.

Stumbling into rowing season

March 9, 2020Leave a comment

I feel like I am training without purpose right now.

It’s been a month since I reviewed my training. It has been a busy month, but not so good for the state of my fitness.

From the beginning 9th of February:

28 days
Target 24 training days, actual 21 training days (but two of them were very short)
Target is 6 sessions a week. Actual was 5.1 sessions a week.
Travel in 3 of the 4 weeks
- 2 day trip to San Jose
- 1 week trip to Aruba
- 1 week trip to Texas and Costa Rica

With so much disruption, I dropped back to a maintenance mode, and did very few high intensity sessions.

Target High intensity days 12, actual 3

So, heres the daily activities…

Sunday – Feb 9 – No Training (not sure why)

Monday – Feb 10 – Short Stack – 3 x (13 x 30″/15″)/5′

Based on a tweet from Stephen Seiler. A pretty intense workout.

Blew the start of the 3rd to last interval. Paddled it out.

Findings about these workouts were posted in a youtube video. (link)

Tuesday – Feb 11 – 2 x 30′ / 2′ L4

Based on the HR, things are going in the wrong direction.

Wednesday – Feb 12 – No Training

6AM flight to San Francisco. Straight into meetings.

Thursday – Feb 13 – No Training

8AM flight home.

Friday – Feb 14 – 3 x 20’/2′ L4

High HR. Travel and lack of endurance minutes catching up with me.

Saturday – Feb 15 – WU + 2 x 20’/2′ L4

I started with the intent of doing a hard distance workout. So I did a 20 minute workout, but felt so awful that I abandoned those plans and just did 2 20 minute L4 pieces. HR was better than Friday, which was good to see.

Sunday – Feb 16 – No Training

My wife and I flew to Aruba for vacation!

Monday – Feb 17 – 5km beach run

Aruba is wonderful. The sand is nice and hard near the water. Perfect for running barefoot. I ran from our hotel, which is at the extreme north end of Palm Beach to the other end, where the Divi is. It’s about 2.5km each way. I ran one way and took breaks on the way back. The killer is the piers. You need to leave the hard sand and run up the beach through the soft dry sand and then back down.

Tuesday – Feb 18 – 30′ Stationary Bike / 20 minute swim

Legs a bit sore from beach running, so I started with a 30 minute easy stationary bike ride in the fitness center.

Then I headed down to the beach and went for a swim. I swam for about 20 minutes and did four complete lengths of the swimming area at our hotel. I later found out that was about 0.4 miles.

Wednesday – Feb 19 – 5km beach run and 30′ swim

The run was better than the first. I paced it a bit better (slower) and took fewer breaks on the way back to the hotel.

The swim was also better. This time, I had goggles and got into a very relaxed groove. The HR data was suspect though.

Thursday – Feb 20 – 5km run and 30 min Swim

Another nice beach run. Good pacing and pushed it a bit harder at the end.

Then another swim. Really enjoying this. Makes me wish I lived on a tropical island where I could do this every day!

Friday – Feb 21 – No Training

Flying home

Saturday – Feb 22 – 3 x 30′ / 2′ L4

Had technical issues with BoatCoach. There was a glitch and it lost my first 60 minutes of rowing. Here’s the last 30′

Here’s the whole thing as witnessed by my watch. Equally boring, but necessary base work.

Sunday – Feb 23 – 3 x 30′ / 2′ L4

More meters in the bank

Monday – Feb 24 – No Training

Flew to Austin, straight into meetings

Tuesday – Feb 25 – 30′ Inclined walk / 30′ row

The walk.

The row – felt terrible

Wednesday – Feb 26 – 30′ inclined walk

Needed to be quick. I was heading off to the airport to catch a 9am flight to Dallas

Thursday – Feb 27 – 30′ Inclined Walk

I had a morning flight to Costa Rica, so another quick stop in the fitness center.

Friday – Feb 28 – No Training

I was in Costa Rica for just the afternoon. I had dinner with the team there and then headed to the airport. I caught an 11:30pm flight to JFK, and then caught the shuttle flight to Boston, arriving around 10am. I had a set of meetings and then scooted home. My wife and I went down to the Cape that night.

Saturday – Feb 29 – 4 x 20′ steady state

Just coasting along on slides. Longer rest between #2 and #3 was me going and switching the laundry.

Sunday – Mar 1 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

Not a bad session, all things considered. On slides in Hopkinton.

Monday – Mar 2 – 8 x 500/3’30” L1

Holy cow! An L1 workout. Very gentle targets. Started with the thought of just doing better than 1:45. After 1, decided 1:44 was a better pace to aim at. The last one was good.

Tuesday – Mar 3 – 2 x 30′ / 2′ L4

Started OK, but I got tired and my HR was climbing freely in the second piece. Decided to just row it out at 18spm for the last 10 minutes.

Wednesday – Mar 4 – Short Interval Stack 3 x (13×30″/15″)/5′

An encore of the workout from February. Less ambitious power target this time, but better execution. I think I was also in worse shape, but man…It’s a great workout.

Thursday – Mar 5 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

I was sick of the high heart rates of some previous L4 workouts, so I dialed it back to an easier stroke sequence. That did the trick and this was a good, enjoyable workout.

Friday – Mar 6 – No Training

We went into Cambridge on Thursday night to celebrate my sons’ birthday. We got home late and I slept in a bit on Friday.

Saturday – Mar 7 – No Training

We went to go see my wife’s cousin’s daughter play in the Big East Women’s Hockey championship. I should have gotten up a bit early and gotten a row in, but I didn’t, and by the time we had got back home, there was a ton of other stuff to do. I felt bad about missing a weekend day though.

Sunday – March 8 – 3 x 30′ / 2′ Steady State

Looking for low heart rates and easy rowing. This session delivered. Got a bit greedy i the last 30 minutes and pushed the power. Nice flat HR though.

The good news is that today, I got back on the water. I’ll write that one up soon. But I’m going to just play it by ear for a week or two and then figure out an OTW training plan.

June 3 – 8: Trying out Humon

June 16, 2019June 16, 2019Leave a comment

Monday – June 3: Humon Threshold Test and a few intervals

I bought a new toy. A Humon Hex. A muscle oxygen sensor. I straps to your thigh and shines a light into your quadriceps. The color of the reflected light can be used to determine the amount of oxygen in your muscle. It advertised the ability to help you monitor lactate threshold in real time and suggested that it could help optimize both steady state and interval training.

The app supports 3 exercise types; running, cycling and rowing. It also supports 3 sessions types; steady state, intervals and a threshold test. Sadly, a rowing threshold test is not yet supported, but I decided to just try it in cycling mode to see what happened.

The app is pretty slick. I ran it on iPhone, but you can also use it with Android. It pairs with the Humon Hex sensor and optionally a BLE HR monitor. I’ve had mixed results trying to get the HR monitor to pair with it, but the Humon Hex sensor has been absolutely reliable in making and keeping the connection to the phone.

If you pick a Threshold test, it tells you what power to row, and counts down to your next power level while showing your smO2 percentage on the screen. The instructions are pretty simple. Start at 30W, and increase by 30W every 3 minutes. Stop when you can’t do it anymore. The app then tells you what your lactate threshold power is. (Aka your FTP).

I sat down and gave it a go.

Here are the results from the online data site.

So, weird thing happened. I was pushing through and I reach the 20 minute mark and go into the “red”. I keep pushing, because that’s what they say I should do, and within a minute or so, the display goes green again. That’s pretty weird. It tells me I’m at “Steady State”, and I feel like I’m close to exploding. Well, no algorithm is perfect right? Maybe it’s the difference between rowing and cycling? Here’s the painsled view of the same session. (I had the HR connected to Humon, not painsled for this session)

I must have done something wrong, because it didn’t give me an FTP value.

You can see I did a hard minute after I rested up to watch what would happen with the Humon. This time it went red and stayed red for that.

I still had some time and I wanted a bit more exercise, so I just put the rower on just row and set up the humon app to guide me through intervals. The theory is that you go until you are in the red zone and the % plateaus. Then you rest until the % goes back to green.

You can see in the last interval, where I dug pretty deep, that Humon flipped me back to green. An interesting quirk. I found this an interesting way to do intervals

Tuesday – June 4: Another attempt at the threshold test

I violated a rule about testing. Generally, you want to take an easy day between tests, but I didn’t think that I pushed all that hard in the prior day’s test and I really wanted to try it out again.

This time, I managed to get the app setup right and it actually told me what it thought my FTP was.

I flaked out at about the same power as Monday. The test estimated my FTP at 224W. This actually seems pretty sensible. In October of 2017, I measured it with a 20′ test at 244W and with a lactate step test at 238W. I was in better shape then. I also think I pushed the test a bit harder then.

Again, this was an insufficient amount of rowing, so I decided to do some more of the fun Humon intervals.

Today, I aimed at doing longer intervals at lower power just to watch and learn what the app did. It did take a bit longer to get to red and longer to plateau.

Wednesday, June 5 – 5 mile run in Alexandria VA

I was Alexandria for an offsite strategy meeting. I got up early and went for a run. Our hotel was right on the shore of the Potomac across from Washington. There was a nice path along the river so it seemed like a good chance to try out the Humon Hex running.

I am the world’s slowest runner, but it seemed like a fun idea to try to run keeping it in the green zone. I always tend to push too hard on runs and this might help me with my pacing.

All was well until I got to the 50 minute mark. At that point, the velcro on the Humon strap decided that it liked grabbing onto the inside of my shorts more than the other velcro. The huge variations and spikes after that in the plot are where I needed to stop and adjust and try to get it to stay. I think if I run, I need to keep the sensor under the leg of my underwear.

After that, we were in meetings from 8am to 6:30pm. Then we went to a team dinner. I got back at my hotel around 10pm, pretty tired.

Thursday – June 6 – Walk around the National Mall

Part of the offsite meeting was a group walk around the National Mall. We met at the ungodly hour of 5:30Am in the lobby of our hotel and took a 15 bus ride. We were let off at the Jefferson Memorial. We walked through the FDR memorial, then to the WWII memorial, and finally to the Lincoln Memorial. A nice 2.5mile walk.

Then another long day of meetings and another dinner. I had too much to drink and I felt awful for the next 3 days. I just can’t drink like I could when I was younger.

Friday – June 7 – Nothing

I had an early morning flight back to Boston, felt horrible all day, and couldn’t wait to get to bed that night.

Saturday – June 8 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

At home, on slides. Still feeling subpar. Today’s adventure was to see what a typical L4 looked like from a Humon perspective. Here’s the rowsandall view.

And here is the same thing from Humon.

So, it appears that from a Humon perspective, I am doing my steady state work at too high an intensity. I am OK seeing the orange, but red means that my lactate is going above 4.0mmol. It’s good the see that it recovers in the lower stroke rate sections, but I think I should probably back off the intensity more.

The Canals of Milan

April 14, 2019Leave a comment

Tough week to maintain any training momentum.

Tuesday – 4/9 – 8km run

I was staying Cernusco, a suburb of Milan. On Monday night, I got back to my room around 10pm, and set an alarm for 5:30. I planned to go to the gym, but discovered it opened at 7, too late for me since I had to be in the office at 8am.

I decided to go for a run, without a lot of research about a route. I knew that there was a canal nearby to run along, but I wasn’t sure how to get to it.

My hotel was right near the “C” of “Cernusco”. So first, ran north and saw that that I was crossing over the canal, but I couldn’t see a path from the overpass down to canal level, so I continued over, then ran around the outside of a park. I intended to go into the park, but that seemed to be locked up for the night as well (it was still dark). I turned back south and ran back over the canal, and saw that there were pedestrian stairs down to a train station. I jogged down the stairs, and along the train tracks to the station. I had hoped to use the pedestrian bridge over the tracks to get the the canal side, but there were turnstiles going into the station. I kept running along, and then found an overpass. That’s the curved path going to the north. That went right to the side of the canal, and I was home free.

I was running slowly, really slowly, like 10-11 minute mile pace. But I was really enjoying myself. Running along the canal was wonderful. It was cool, the sun was starting to come up. There were dog walkers and other runners out. Along the canal were farms, and old houses, and across the canal a huge classic building. I later found out it was the hospital. A very classy looking hospital.

I managed to run slowly enough that I was having fun. I got to a park and across the canal was a sports complex. Then, I saw the coolest thing. A stretch of the canal had been outfitted with Olympic white water kayak gates. They must have the ability to increase the flow in the canal, because there was no impressive whitewater, just the gates.

A little past this, I noticed the time. I’d been going for a bit more than 30 minutes. I noticed my shoe was untied, so I stopped, retied it and turned around to go home.

The run home was just as nice. I ran all the way back to the same overpass, and then continued south on the same road to the main route that would take me back to my hotel. I was starting to get pretty tired by this point, and I didn’t like running along the morning rush hour, but when I finally got back to my hotel, I was just delighted. I ran for nearly an hour. The longest run I’ve done in years and it felt really good. Almost all of it was good aerobic HR, then at the end, I picked up a bit.

I need to run more often.

Then I had some less than happy meetings with our customer, some meetings back at our office, and then we went into Milan for dinner, along the canals.

I didn’t even know that Milan had canals! Apparently they were covered over in the late 19th century and then uncovered in the late 20th century to beautify the city.

A little background on Milan’s canals

Wednesday – 4/10 – No Training

Up at 5:30am, cab to the airport at 6:15. Flight from Milan to Frankfurt. Then Frankfurt to Boston. Arrived around 4pm.

Thursday – 4/11 – No Training

I was bone tired by the time I got to bed on Wednesday night. I had a red eye flight on Sunday night, jet lag sleep issues on Monday night and a late bedtime and early start on Wednesday. I figure I got 12 hours of sleep over the 3 nights. So, I slept in instead of getting up to train.

Friday – 4/12 – No Training

I had a doctors appt on Friday morning. So, no time to train

Saturday – 4/13 – 3 x 20’/2′

Finally, I had a chance to train! Back to basics. I felt terrible. High heart rate. No rhythm. But it felt great to work up a sweat. I felt like a new person after I was done.

Compare this to the same thing a couple weeks ago. Except that session was a more challenging stroke count!

Amazing how quickly I can lose fitness!

Sunday – 4/14 – 15km OTW 1x

The weather forecast was for partly sunny skies, no wind and temps in the high 50s. I was very excited to get back on the water. I headed down to Newton and launched around 8am.

Since I’ve only been on the water twice so far this season, and hadn’t been out since the 28th of March, I felt that the right thing to do today was to just do some r18 steady state rowing and maybe try to focus on technique. The key things I wanted to work on were:

draw my hands in higher on my chest at the release to try to stop washing out.
work on getting my blades farther off the water on recovery
Work on hinging at my hips and maintaining body position forward during the leg drive.
Work on keeping my knees close to each other at the catch. I think letting my legs splay out at the catch is the primary thing that is irritating my SI joint issues.

So it was a lot to think about and my success level was mixed at best. But boy was it awesome to be out on the water!

I started off and headed up river to go take a peek at the Lasalle Boathouse. Looked the same as always. Then I spun around and headed down river, all the way to the dam. Then back upriver to turn in the cove. Back down to the dam again. By then I had been going for about 70 minutes and I was pretty tired. I decided to alternate 40 strokes of drills and 40 strokes of steady state for the trip back to the dock. I did the following drills

square blades
pause at arms away (This was good practice to work on the whole body position thing
half slide
slow roll up

While I was on the way back down river, my phone died. Not sure why it tapped out the battery so quickly this morning, but once it was kaput, I had didn’t have a stroke rate. (I used the speedcoach for pace, HR, Power and Eff Length. I use RIM for boat acceleration curves and SPM). I kind of enjoyed not having the SPM for a while.

       Workout Summary - media/20190414-1705430o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15408|86:19.0|02:48.1|116.5|18.5|144.1|162.0|09.6
W-|12506|63:49.0|02:33.1|128.1|18.2|148.4|162.0|10.8
R-|02917|22:31.0|03:51.7|083.4|19.3|132.1|162.0|05.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00334|01:51.6|02:46.9|106.7|18.7|128.7|136.0|09.6
02|00927|04:21.4|02:21.0|143.9|18.8|137.9|147.0|11.3
03|00472|02:18.4|02:26.5|121.6|18.2|145.8|149.0|11.3
04|00152|00:46.9|02:34.6|110.2|17.8|132.0|135.0|10.9
05|02646|12:55.0|02:26.4|131.3|17.8|149.8|158.0|11.5
06|02424|13:03.7|02:41.7|123.4|17.3|150.4|156.0|10.7
07|00260|01:19.8|02:33.5|139.5|18.0|150.3|154.0|10.9
08|02775|13:56.1|02:30.6|128.1|17.8|151.4|159.0|11.2
09|00450|02:25.4|02:41.4|122.7|18.5|142.7|152.0|10.0
10|00435|02:13.4|02:33.3|155.6|19.4|151.9|159.0|10.1
11|00815|04:16.6|02:37.5|127.3|19.6|156.3|162.0|09.7
12|00162|00:51.9|02:40.5|095.0|19.6|144.8|150.0|09.5
13|00272|01:28.8|02:43.2|127.3|19.6|141.8|151.0|09.4
14|00381|02:00.4|02:37.9|124.5|22.4|147.1|156.0|08.5

Now my hands are pretty torn up, but I feel great!

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Tag: running