Friday: 80′ of speedplay

May 19, 2018Leave a comment

Weather: cloudy and blustery. The wind was coming out of the north and the gusts were over 15mph. This was a pretty nasty headwind in the straightest bits of the river. There was even some chop at the ends of the straight sections.

I was eager to try to practice rowing well in under less than perfect conditions. I wasnt sure how well I could rate up with the wind and chop. In general, I was able to, but I had a couple of very messy moments when I bashed a wave at the wrong moment. I found that clean, early finishes were incredibly important to maintaining any kind of consistency in these conditions. It felt great when I would finish well and keep my oars clear of the waves and get a nice catch in. Much more stable and confident in those strokes.

Horrifyingly low power numbers. (But gratifyingly consistent data!)

         Workout Summary - media/20180518-1310290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14060|75:11.0|02:40.4|124.6|20.9|144.7|174.0|09.0
W-|13522|68:16.0|02:31.5|131.5|20.8|146.3|174.0|09.6
R-|00550|06:55.0|06:17.3|056.8|21.8|128.5|174.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00503|02:36.0|02:35.0|135.5|18.7|114.0|132.0|10.3
01|01294|06:26.0|02:29.2|134.0|19.3|138.1|146.0|10.4
02|00191|00:50.0|02:10.8|183.9|25.2|150.9|158.0|09.1 - 1st burst into the wind
03|01568|07:53.0|02:30.8|131.9|19.3|147.7|159.0|10.3
04|00225|01:00.0|02:13.1|205.7|27.3|158.7|167.0|08.2 - 2nd big gusts!
05|00843|04:18.0|02:33.0|111.6|17.8|132.9|140.0|11.0
06|00253|01:04.0|02:06.6|195.2|27.9|152.3|161.0|08.5 - upstream/downwind
07|00770|03:57.0|02:33.9|121.2|19.8|148.5|161.0|09.8
08|00255|01:03.0|02:03.7|202.3|28.7|162.1|167.0|08.4 - upstream/downwind
09|00753|03:50.0|02:32.8|116.5|18.6|153.1|168.0|10.6 
10|00808|04:11.0|02:35.4|131.6|19.6|145.5|156.0|09.9
11|00190|00:48.0|02:06.3|212.4|29.7|162.4|168.0|08.0 - near disaster at the end of this one
12|00772|04:10.0|02:42.0|110.5|20.7|152.4|174.0|09.0
13|00230|01:00.0|02:10.3|207.1|28.8|158.6|168.0|08.0 - wicked gusty
14|00857|04:42.0|02:44.6|120.7|20.4|153.6|169.0|08.9
15|00912|04:43.0|02:35.2|111.2|19.5|138.2|145.0|09.9
16|00227|00:57.0|02:05.6|197.3|29.7|156.8|164.0|08.1 - upstream/downwind
17|00783|04:03.0|02:35.1|123.1|20.7|151.3|165.0|09.4
18|00248|01:04.0|02:09.0|195.9|29.0|158.8|164.0|08.0 - wind seemed to shift to a crosswind here
19|01020|05:28.0|02:40.7|111.4|20.2|148.3|166.0|09.2
20|00141|00:36.0|02:07.5|218.4|29.6|147.4|158.0|08.0 - last one!
21|00679|03:37.2|02:40.0|116.9|22.0|149.7|163.0|08.5

Tomorrow: We are down on the cape now and it looks windy and nasty for tomorrow, so I will do my rate ladders on the erg.

Monday: 72′ of Speedplay.

May 7, 2018Leave a comment

Sunday: Rest Day

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

Monday: 72′ of Speedplay

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

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

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

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

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

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

The rest of the workout passed far more uneventfully.

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

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

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

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

Tomorrow: 2 x 30′ @ 22.

80′ of speedplay

April 30, 2018Leave a comment

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

Plan:

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

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

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

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

Lost week – Taiwan

April 29, 20181 Comment

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

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

Tuesday morning:

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

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

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

Wednesday:

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

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

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

Thursday:

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

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

I did a 3 circuits of

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

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

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

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

Friday: 80′ of OTW speedplay.

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

The plan:

80′ of speedplay
4 sessions of KOM

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not much change. It feels a lot different though.

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

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

Sunday: More slidery – 4 x 20’/1′ speed play

April 17, 2018Leave a comment

The weather is awful. In the thirties and windy. It is starting to rain.

I am working out in my basement.

The plan:

4 x 20′ / 1′
Cat VI – r18-r20, 2:02 – 2:06
Every 10′ 20 strokes at r28

Long workout. Tried to focus on driving my heel down more quickly and hinging at the hips on recovery. It was ugly and unnatural. I guess that makes it good practice.

          Workout Summary - media/20180415-1950280o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|19899|84:00.0|02:06.6|180.6|20.1|144.4|164.0|11.8
W-|19480|80:00.0|02:03.2|188.5|20.1|144.6|164.0|12.2
R-|00432|04:00.0|04:38.0|023.2|20.1|139.8|164.0|06.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01202|05:00.0|02:04.8|177.2|18.7|121.0|133.0|12.8
01|00190|00:40.0|01:45.4|291.6|27.8|136.5|143.0|10.2
02|02244|09:20.0|02:04.8|180.3|19.1|138.5|149.0|12.6
03|00191|00:40.0|01:44.9|299.2|27.7|139.8|146.0|10.3
04|01047|04:20.0|02:04.2|183.4|19.2|143.9|152.0|12.6
05|01204|05:00.0|02:04.6|181.8|18.9|132.9|140.0|12.7
06|00188|00:40.0|01:46.3|288.8|27.1|141.9|146.0|10.4
07|02252|09:20.0|02:04.3|182.8|19.3|146.5|154.0|12.5
08|00193|00:40.0|01:43.5|307.4|28.8|149.5|154.0|10.0
09|01043|04:20.0|02:04.6|181.8|19.8|151.9|159.0|12.2
10|01197|05:00.0|02:05.3|178.2|19.2|139.3|146.0|12.5
11|00190|00:40.0|01:45.4|293.7|29.0|148.1|153.0|09.8
12|02238|09:20.0|02:05.1|179.7|19.6|149.5|158.0|12.2
13|00191|00:40.0|01:44.6|300.2|30.3|150.7|155.0|09.5
14|01043|04:20.0|02:04.6|181.4|20.1|153.9|160.0|12.0
15|01200|05:00.0|02:05.0|179.0|19.5|143.2|149.0|12.3
16|00190|00:40.0|01:45.4|294.5|28.9|150.2|155.0|09.8
17|02245|09:20.0|02:04.7|181.4|20.2|153.2|162.0|11.9
18|00194|00:40.0|01:43.0|313.2|32.2|154.3|159.0|09.0
19|01039|04:20.0|02:05.1|179.0|20.2|156.0|164.0|11.9

Tomorrow: Scheduled rest day. Hopefully I can go for a nice walk before we head back to Hopkinton.

Fri – Fri: Busy Week

April 14, 2018April 14, 2018Leave a comment

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

Friday: 14k steady state – OTW 1x

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday: No Training

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

Tuesday: No Training

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

Wednesday: 3 x 1500 + 3 x 500

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

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

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

Pretty good workout.

Thursday: 14km Steady State OTW 1x

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nice consistent power despite the pace difference.

Friday: 60′ Speed Play

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

Her first thought was I need to change my rigging.

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

She also had comments on my posture and

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: speed play