Tag: speedcoach

Thursday: Steady State OTW

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On the water, down in Newton in my single.

The featured image is an aerial view that I found of the old watch factory in Waltham.  The little bridge is just over 2km from the start of the rowable section of the river, and about 900m from the end at the Moody street dam.  Going down river, which is from the bottom of the picture to the top, you need to go through the span of the bridge right against the right hand shore, so you need to turn right at the corner of the straight wall to line up with the bridge.  Also notice that the bridge crosses the river at an angle so you need to turn aggressively in the other direction as soon as you have your line to the bridge.  It adds a bit of fun to workouts and keeps my head on a swivel!

Weather:  Cool and Breezy.  Wind was NNE between 5 and 10mph with gusts to 15mph.  This was a head wind going downriver and a tail wind coming up river.  It was forecast to be overcast, but it was actually mostly clear.  A lovely fall day, really.

Plan:

  • 4 lengths of the river
  • Short stops for a drink of water at the end of each chunk.
  • Rate: r20
  • Pace: better than 2:30
  • HR Cap: 155
  • Technique: Work on balance, try to get blades off the water on recovery.  Work on getting a good reach at the catch and staying forward through the initial drive.

Screen Shot 2016-09-29 at 1.09.44 PM.png

Today I decided that I would be careful enough and get data to recalibrate my speedcoach.  Instead of using the built in routine, I decided to just match start times and durations of the four moving segments between speedcoach and RIM, and then use the formula helpfully provided in the speedcoach manual.

Here is the Speedcoach data….

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00009_|_1094_|_06:15_|_2:51.5_|_117___|_18.7_|_09.4_|_121___|_warmup
01103_|_2779_|_14:32_|_2:36.8_|_294___|_20.2_|_09.5_|_148___|_m
03882_|_0099_|_00:38_|_3:09.9_|_011___|_17.6_|_09.0_|_136___|_r
03981_|_2643_|_13:24_|_2:32.0_|_272___|_20.3_|_09.7_|_150___|_m
06624_|_0134_|_00:58_|_3:36.4_|_013___|_13.4_|_10.3_|_133___|_r
06758_|_2727_|_14:37_|_2:40.7_|_296___|_20.3_|_09.2_|_151___|_m
09485_|_0086_|_00:36_|_3:29.3_|_008___|_13.3_|_10.8_|_123___|_r
09571_|_2672_|_13:35_|_2:32.6_|_274___|_20.2_|_09.8_|_150___|_m
12243_|_1097_|_06:10_|_2:48.4_|_125___|_20.3_|_08.8_|_141___|_c

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
01094_|_06:15_|_2:51.5_|_117___|_18.7_|_09.4_|_121___|_warmup
10821_|_56:07_|_2:35.6_|_1136___|_20.2_|_09.5_|_150___|_Main set
00319_|_02:12_|_3:26.3_|_032___|_14.6_|_10.0_|_131___|_rest meters
01097_|_06:10_|_2:48.4_|_125___|_20.3_|_08.8_|_141___|_cool down
13331_|_10:44_|_2:39.2_|_1410___|_19.9_|_09.5_|_146___|_Total

The important bit is the time and distance for the main set

10821m in 56:07 sec.

Here is the RIM data

| Tstart_ | Dist_ | Time_ | _Pace_ | SPM_ | avgHR | _DPS___ | Remarks
| 00:00.0 | 01243 | 08:14 | 3:18.7 | 15.6 | 113.6 | 09.7 | warming up
| 07:44.0 | 02884 | 14:35 | 2:31.7 | 20.3 | 147.8 | 09.7 |
| 22:19.0 | 00167 | 01:20 | 3:59.5 | 20.3 | 138.5 | 06.2 |
| 23:39.0 | 02737 | 13:20 | 2:26.1 | 20.4 | 150.5 | 10.1 |
| 36:59.0 | 00150 | 02:02 | 6:46.7 | 18.6 | 132.9 | 04.0 |
| 39:01.0 | 02808 | 14:35 | 2:35.8 | 20.3 | 150.9 | 09.5 |
| 53:36.0 | 00140 | 01:48 | 6:25.7 | 19.4 | 137.1 | 04.0 |
| 55:24.0 | 02797 | 13:36 | 2:25.9 | 20.3 | 149.6 | 10.1 |
| 09:00.0 | 01198 | 06:34 | 2:44.4 | 21.3 | 142.4 | 08.6 |

| Tstart_ | Dist_ | Time_ | _Pace_ | SPM_ | avgHR | _DPS___ | Remarks
| 00:00.0 | 01243 | 08:14 | 3:18.7 | 15.6 | 113.6 | 09.7 | warmup
| 00:00.0 | 11226 | 56:06 | 2:29.9 | 20.3 | 149.7 | 09.8 | Mainset
| 00:00.0 | 00457 | 05:10 | 5:39.2 | 19.3 | 135.8 | 04.6 | rests
| 00:00.0 | 01198 | 06:34 | 2:44.4 | 21.3 | 142.4 | 08.6 | cool down

From RIM, 11226 in 56:07

The formula is

new cal factor = (old cal factor * true distance) / displayed distance

(0.962 * 11226) / 10821 = 0.998 (my new cal factor)

Look at that, I’ve gained 5 seconds of boat speed without working any harder!

Other than this, the workout was entirely unremarkable.  My hands are a mess.  I have blisters on my index fingers, and a bad one under the callous at the base of my ring finger.  Today didn’t make them any worse, but my hands hurt a bit during the row.  I must be gripping differently in the double and causing some trouble.

The wind was enough to be noticeable, but there wasn’t any chop (I love this river!)  So, I set the pace by using the HR limit.  If I got up to the limit, I would back off the pressure a bit to bring it back in line.

Tomorrow:  Back to Quinsig.  Another attempt at the grand hook workout.  6km with a big turn starting at about the 5km mark.  Great practice for head racing!

screen-shot-2016-09-21-at-1-53-57-pm

 

 

Tuesday: Speedcoach Calibration and 14K of steady state

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Weather:  Crystal clear.  Very Sunny.  Cool and breezy.  Wind NW 2 to 5 mph.

The main objective today was to get the new impeller mounted for my speedcoach.  Once it was mounted, it needed to be calibrated.  So, I popped it in the water and headed out.  I usually row in the early morning, but today, I had some things to do at home in the morning.  So, I launched around 1:00 in the afternoon.  Since it was such a nice day there were a lot of kayaks, pedal boats, canoes and various other water craft out enjoying the day as well.  Even though I was looking around constantly, I still had to back down hard a few times when a boat zigged instead of zagging, or I missed them in my scans.  Despite this, it was a glorious day to be out rowing.

Plan:

  • Do 2x 1000m at r24 in opposite directions to calibrate the speedcoach.
  • 80 minutes of steady state

Leaving the dock, I started RIM and reset the speedcoach.  After I warmed up and got to the start of the straight part of the river, I realized that I really should be using Crewnerd for a autostart 1000m piece for speedcoach cal.  So, I flipped over and started up crewnerd, losing the first 1200m of rowing.

The 1000s went fine.  The first one was with the light wind and was done at an average pace of 2:11.4.  The second was upwind and the pace was 2:13.3.  I was winded but I didn’t push them all that hard.  After that, I did the river twice from the start to the moody street dam.  At first I was feeling like I was really struggling to hit any reasonable split.  But eventually, I started to row a bit better and sped up.  The main difference was focusing on getting way into compression at the catch.

Tomorrow:  Some more steady state.  80′ at r20.