Norcal Crossfit – 20 x 2′ / 1′

August 30, 2018Leave a comment

Tuesday, August 28 – No Training

I flew out to San Jose on Monday night, and I was hoping to get a workout in on Tuesday morning, but I felt pretty lousy in the morning and decided to just shower and get into work early.

Wednesday, August 29 – 20 x 2′ / 1′

I was out of bed at 5:00AM and I drove over to Norcal Crossfit. I was on an erg by 5:30. The plan was to try out my new short interval workout. Today’s version was basically an easier version of the 15×3′ workout that I’ve done for a long time. That workout is 45 minutes of work and a total of 15 minutes of rest. This one is 40 minutes of work and 20 minutes of rest. The idea is to be able to push the pace a little harder and then match it the next time I do the 15×3′ version. I was on a static erg.

No denying that the workout was tough, but I didn’t have any doubt that I was going to make it. The erg had a weird startup glitch. It didn’t seem to register the first stroke that I took and then the second would show an incredibly low split. It made the average split start off really fast and then bleed down to the actual pace that I was doing. My initial thought on pacing was 1:53, but as it turned out 1:50 was a better idea.

I enjoyed the workout. I’m looking forward to doing it in my boat.

Tomorrow: Back to NCFit. A nice easy steady state 3 x 20′ session.

Training Log – Aug 15 to Aug 27

August 28, 20182 Comments

Wednesday, August 15 – Brief HIIT session in the fitness center

I arrived in San Jose Tuesday afternoon, and headed straight to my meeting. I spent the rest of the afternoon in our office and than had a business dinner that night.

In the morning I had a window to do a quick workout in the hotel fitness center.

I did a brief warmup and then I did a HIIT session on the treadmill. It was 30 seconds of hard running on a 15% incline and then 4:30 of walking on the incline. I did 6 intervals. For some reason the data from the session did not get captured right. It was very hard work when it was going on, but not a whole lot of it.

Thursday, August 16 – Easy 50 minutes in the fitness center

I flew from San Jose to Austin on Wednesday morning, then had meetings in our office there in the afternoon. That evening we had a customer dinner. In the morning, I got up and went to the fitness center of the hotel.

First, I did 30 minutes of incline walking (15% grade, ~3mph) on the treadmill. Then I moved over to the stationary bike and did some rolling hills for another 20 minutes.

Not very impressive, and extremely boring. The rest of the day was a blur of meetings. I caught an evening flight back to Boston, arriving around midnight.

Friday, August 17 – No Training

I decided to get a some sleep on Friday morning instead of trying to squeeze a row in. I brought my workout clothes to work hoping that I could sneak off for a quick session during the day sometime. But all my time slots got booked up as the day went along.

Saturday, August 18 – 15 x 3′ / 1′

Saturday morning we had made arrangements for a tree service to come in and work on a bunch of trees that were damaged over the winter. These guys were amazing. They trimmed everything, stabilized some badly bent trees and even reshaped our shrubs. They got it all done by the middle of the day.

My wife and I were planning to go down to the cape later in the day, so I had time for an erg session on the dreaded dynamic. Today’s assignment was a 15 x 3’/1′.

This is a favorite session of mine, but I didn’t know how to pace it on the dynamic. I was guessing somewhere between 1:55 and 2:00. I decided to start at 2:00 and try to negative split until things got dicey.

Things got dicey after about the 5th rep. Then things got really dicey at the end and I blew up in the 14th rep. But, judging by the HR stats, it was a pretty tough session.

Too bad the paces were so slow.

         Workout Summary - media/20180818-1750260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13453|60:05.0|02:14.0|168.0|25.9|164.4|181.0|08.6
W-|11266|45:00.0|01:59.8|207.7|26.7|163.1|181.0|09.5
R-|02203|15:05.0|03:25.5|049.7|23.7|168.3|181.0|05.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00761|03:00.0|01:58.2|207.8|24.4|125.9|150.0|10.4
01|00762|03:00.0|01:58.1|213.3|25.4|148.2|158.0|10.0
02|00779|03:00.0|01:55.5|218.1|26.6|155.2|163.0|09.7
03|00780|03:00.0|01:55.4|227.3|26.8|159.2|168.0|09.7
04|00780|03:00.0|01:55.3|230.2|25.5|163.7|171.0|10.2
05|00746|03:00.0|02:00.7|208.0|24.5|161.9|169.0|10.2
06|00762|03:00.0|01:58.1|212.9|24.7|165.6|175.0|10.3
07|00756|03:00.0|01:59.0|218.1|26.7|169.1|177.0|09.4
08|00779|03:00.0|01:55.5|227.5|28.8|172.8|180.0|09.0
09|00751|03:00.0|01:59.8|203.9|26.4|170.9|179.0|09.5
10|00755|03:00.0|01:59.3|203.2|24.6|173.1|181.0|10.2
11|00711|03:00.0|02:06.5|184.7|29.9|173.6|181.0|07.9
12|00746|03:00.0|02:00.6|202.1|26.0|169.8|181.0|09.6
13|00666|03:00.0|02:15.2|159.0|30.5|173.0|179.0|07.3
14|00732|03:00.0|02:03.0|199.2|29.0|164.3|178.0|08.4

Sunday, August 19 – 3 x 20′ / 2′

I had hopes of going for an open water row, but it was a bit too windy. I settled for an easy steady state session. I had planned to do 4 x 20′, but my HR was high and I was having trouble holding a reasonable pace. I decided to cut it off after 3 intervals.

          Workout Summary - media/20180819-1745260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14696|66:00.0|02:14.7|151.1|20.2|144.8|157.0|11.0
W-|13912|60:00.0|02:09.4|161.5|20.0|145.8|157.0|11.6
R-|00788|06:00.0|03:48.7|046.6|22.5|135.2|157.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04724|20:00.0|02:07.0|170.3|20.1|137.2|148.0|11.7
01|04624|20:00.0|02:09.8|160.2|20.0|148.3|153.0|11.6
02|04564|20:00.0|02:11.4|154.1|19.8|151.8|157.0|11.5

Monday, August 20 – 4 x 2000 / 4′

We stayed down on the cape on Sunday night and I got up at 5 to make my way to work. It takes somewhere between 2:30 and 3:30 depending on traffic.

On this particular monday, the traffic wasn’t so bad, and I made it to work with enough time for a workout in the fitness center.

I am trying to organize my training a bit more and start focusing on a few potential head races, so I wanted to increase the intensity of my training weeks. Today’s session is basically my goto head racing training session. On the static erg, and my very best, I could do this session with an average pace around 1:45. I am not at my best. In fact, judging by my steady state pace, I would say that I am about 8 to 10 splits off my best form. So I decided to target 1:55 for this session and see how it went.

This was a really good session. I felt like the pace target was good and I was able to stick to it. It was pretty motivating.

Tuesday, August 21 – 70′ Drills on the fives – OTW 1x

Hooray! Back in my boat. Since it had been a while, I decided to do a technical session.

The session is really simple. 4 minutes of rowing, and then 1 minute of drills, rotating between these four

1/2 slide
delayed feather
pause at body over
open hands on recovery

It’s an engaging, challenging session that goes by really quickly.

Wednesday, August 22 – 12 x 3′ / 1′

The plan was for 15 x 3′, but I ran out of time, and frankly energy. This session is hard work! But, then again, it’s supposed to be. The whole point of this session is to put in a lot of strokes at head race pace and pressure. Right now that’s awfully slow, but that will change with a but of focused work.

The pace on these is a bit deceptive because a lot of the intervals happen through the big s-turn, which slows me down a bit.

          Workout Summary - media/20180827-2250260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11919|65:02.0|02:43.7|117.9|23.7|156.9|177.0|07.7
W-|07790|35:39.0|02:17.3|155.9|25.3|163.8|177.0|08.6
R-|04142|29:24.0|03:33.0|071.9|21.8|148.4|177.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00167|00:47.4|02:22.3|123.0|20.3|143.0|147.0|10.4 - warmup burst
02|00663|02:59.6|02:15.4|147.2|25.0|154.9|163.0|08.8
03|00546|02:29.8|02:17.1|149.5|25.6|161.1|166.0|08.5 - downriver turn
04|00648|02:52.4|02:12.9|166.1|26.8|163.3|170.0|08.4
05|00644|02:58.4|02:18.5|154.1|26.5|165.8|172.0|08.2
06|00599|02:49.6|02:21.5|155.9|24.3|161.9|172.0|08.7 - upriver turn
07|00607|02:50.4|02:20.3|161.2|24.6|165.6|174.0|08.7
08|00644|02:54.4|02:15.4|152.2|25.1|167.0|176.0|08.8
09|00656|03:00.3|02:17.4|145.1|24.6|167.0|175.0|08.9 - down river turn
10|00648|02:54.8|02:14.8|163.8|24.7|168.0|177.0|09.0
11|00092|00:25.8|02:20.4|153.1|25.4|159.1|160.0|08.4 - hit the weeds!
12|00622|02:49.3|02:16.0|158.9|25.8|161.1|175.0|08.5
13|00636|02:55.9|02:18.4|161.0|26.9|166.8|174.0|08.1 - upriver turn
14|00616|02:51.7|02:19.3|165.2|25.5|169.6|177.0|08.5

The low point of the workout was interval number 10. I finished #9 going under the stone bridge and into the channel leading to the basin. With a one minute rest, it’s barely enough time to get the boat turned around. On this turn, I managed to get my point wrong for the next interval, and within 30 seconds, I managed to get way to close to the weeds along the bank and really entangled my starboard oar. It took me a couple of minutes to back my way out of the situation. I was lucky I didn’t flip.

The last three intervals passed without any additional drama. Well, except it started raining on interval 10, and by the time I finished it was pouring!

Thursday, August 23 – 70′ Steady State

One of the great things about doing a good job on a high intensity session is that you really feel like you’ve earned your right to a low intensity session for the next day. That’s the way I felt on Thursday. I just wanted to work on clean finishes and take it easy.

          Workout Summary - media/20180827-2251030o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13708|77:51.0|02:50.4|108.1|18.7|134.0|148.0|09.4
W-|13013|66:14.0|02:32.7|117.0|18.3|138.2|148.0|10.7
R-|00700|11:37.0|08:17.9|056.9|20.6|109.6|148.0|07.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03895|19:42.4|02:31.8|114.9|17.9|135.2|147.0|11.0
02|02753|14:10.1|02:34.4|117.1|17.7|139.6|148.0|11.0
03|02735|13:34.9|02:29.0|120.8|18.8|140.8|147.0|10.7
04|02800|14:21.1|02:33.8|118.4|18.6|139.8|146.0|10.5
05|00830|04:26.2|02:40.4|110.4|19.8|134.3|145.0|09.4

Easy peasy. delightfully low heart rate.

Friday, August 24 – no training

Well, isn’t that remarkable. Taking a rest day after 6 consecutive training days! Also, I had an extremely important meeting at 8am, so I got up at my normal 5:15 am, but headed straight to the office to do a little bit of last minute prep work.

Saturday, August 25 – remarkably crappy 10K

We stayed in Hopkinton this weekend. There was some yard work and other stuff that needed to get done. I wasn’t really in the mood to get on the dynamic, but I didn’t want to lose the little bit of momentum that I had built up. I was due for a more intense session, so I decided to try to do a threshold 10k. Again, I wasn’t sure what pace I could hold on the dynamic, so I started out at about a 1:57. That didn’t last long.

After multiple HDs, and some might slow rowing, I got a little motivated with about 4k to go. God, I hate the dynamic erg.

Sunday, August 26 – 16K steady state on the Charles River

On Friday, one of my friends from out in Worcester let me know that 4 of them were going to take 2 doubles down and launch them from Community Rowing so that they could row the course for the CRI Fall Classic before the event. He asked if I wanted to come along. I thought that was a great idea, and it was lucky for me that I was around this weekend. I picked up my boat in Newton and met them at 7:30.

We launched and headed downriver. It’s really a pretty magical place to row. There are lots of turns, but none of them are too sharp. Lots of bridges, but none of them are too narrow. Lots of traffic, but at that time of the morning, it is almost all scullers and everyone knows the traffic pattern.

We rowed from CRI down to the BU boat house, about 8000m. We had a couple of short stops on the way down as needed to stay together as a group. We got ourselves organized and headed back upriver. This is the first time I’ve been on the course since my lousy row in last years HOCR. It was good to row the course at steady state pressure and work on holding a line.

Each of the doubles had a close encounter with the ample vegetation that has invaded the charles this year. There is a thick bed of weeds around the magazine beach turn. People tend to hug that turn pretty closely in the race. I think this year a bit wider turn will be needed. Once we got up past the Weeks footbridge, we stopped again. This is the about where the start line for the CRI fall classic is. Then we took the rest of the way up as a single piece, and finished strong in front of the CRI boathouse. There was a bit of headwind in this section.

It was an incredibly fun outing.

          Workout Summary - media/20180826-1645260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|16467|98:39.0|02:59.7|100.1|21.6|147.0|176.0|07.7
W-|15053|77:18.0|02:34.1|115.3|21.3|154.4|175.0|09.2
R-|01422|21:20.0|07:30.2|045.2|22.8|120.3|175.0|03.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00767|04:03.9|02:38.9|098.4|17.7|134.7|148.0|10.7
02|03436|17:10.0|02:29.9|114.9|20.0|153.4|164.0|10.0
03|00966|05:03.0|02:36.9|109.1|20.6|145.6|152.0|09.3
04|02354|11:59.6|02:32.9|108.6|20.6|154.6|163.0|09.5
05|00917|04:38.5|02:31.9|131.2|22.5|155.7|169.0|08.8
06|00570|03:01.5|02:39.1|108.8|20.1|150.3|156.0|09.4
07|01080|05:17.7|02:27.1|121.2|22.4|155.5|169.0|09.1
08|03379|17:49.4|02:38.2|114.9|22.6|157.9|164.0|08.4
09|01584|08:15.4|02:36.3|128.3|23.4|163.8|175.0|08.2

Monday, August 27 – 4 x 2000 / 4′

On the water in Newton. Weather was perfect, maybe a bit hot, but sunny and calm. The goal this morning was to replicate the happy feelings I got from last monday’s 4x2k on the erg. I knew that this was gonna be tougher in the boat. Each rep would last almost 2 minutes longer and I had to focus on technique and steering. I decided for this session to try to hold the stroke rate around 24.

          Workout Summary - media/20180827-1650270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11324|67:03.0|02:57.6|112.6|22.6|147.3|180.0|07.5
W-|08138|37:59.0|02:20.0|147.0|24.7|162.4|180.0|08.7
R-|03192|29:04.0|04:33.3|067.7|19.8|127.7|180.0|06.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00284|01:24.6|02:29.2|114.6|19.9|130.0|135.0|10.1 - warmup
02|02004|09:11.9|02:17.7|145.6|24.5|154.5|167.0|08.9
03|01966|09:12.2|02:20.4|154.2|25.2|164.7|176.0|08.5
04|01950|08:55.1|02:17.2|148.4|25.0|166.6|180.0|08.7
05|01933|09:15.4|02:23.7|144.8|25.1|168.6|180.0|08.3

So, that was awesome. Slow, but awesome. I held it together through all the reps and managed to focus on technique with my heart going a mile a minute. It feel good to be back focusing on these simple sessions.

Now, I am on a plane out to San Jose. I have a few days of meetings out here. I’m going to try to find an erg so I can maintain my forward progress.

Back to Basics

July 28, 2018Leave a comment

Well, June and June were not my best months.

I had a bad stretch at the end of May (5/27 to 6/4) where I did very little training. This was allergies, injuries, work travel and a busy holiday weekend.

The rest of June was pretty good and my fitness improved. Until the middle of July, when life just got too hectic for me to stick to a training plan. I haven’t been in my fluid since July 11th. Since then I’ve done some coastal rowing, some biking, but I also had a work induced 4 day training hiatus. By the time last Friday rolled around, my fitness had declined to its lowest point since early June and was nearly as bad as it was when I was struggling with my SI Joint issues last fall.

I decided that it was time to simplify and the weather, in a perverse way, cooperated. The whole week was humid, with scattered thunderstorms so I spent the whole time on the erg.

July 23 – Monday: 4 x 20′ / 2′

Back on a static erg, so I wasn’t sure what split I could hit. Turns out it was 2:05. It was a great, relaxing row. I rowed with the rule that I couldn’t go past 145 in the first 20 minutes, then 150 for the next, then 155 for the last 2.

          Workout Summary - media/20180723-2345260o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20211|88:00.0|02:10.6|167.3|18.7|145.6|154.0|12.3
W-|19253|80:00.0|02:04.7|179.7|19.3|146.4|154.0|12.5
R-|00962|08:00.0|04:09.5|043.3|12.6|137.4|154.0|13.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04808|20:00.0|02:04.8|179.0|19.5|139.5|147.0|12.4
01|04798|20:00.0|02:05.0|178.6|19.2|147.2|152.0|12.5
02|04815|20:00.0|02:04.6|179.8|19.2|149.0|153.0|12.5
03|04831|20:00.0|02:04.2|181.2|19.4|150.0|154.0|12.4

Tuesday, July 24: 4 x 20’/2′

Same as Monday. Really enjoyable. Right intensity to get a good HR plateau. Looks like 180W is where I’m working from in a static erg.

          Workout Summary - media/20180724-2210270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20116|88:00.0|02:11.2|167.5|19.4|145.7|156.0|11.8
W-|19226|80:00.0|02:04.8|179.9|19.7|147.0|156.0|12.2
R-|00892|08:00.0|04:29.0|043.8|16.3|132.0|156.0|08.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04826|20:00.0|02:04.3|181.1|19.6|138.8|147.0|12.3
01|04791|20:00.0|02:05.2|178.8|19.6|146.2|151.0|12.2
02|04810|20:00.0|02:04.7|179.8|19.8|151.1|155.0|12.1
03|04799|20:00.0|02:05.0|179.9|19.8|152.1|156.0|12.1

Wednesday – July 25: 15×3’/1′

Time for a little intensity. So, my favorite L3 workout in the world. I set an arbitrary pace target of 1:55, and that turned out to be conservative.

Thursday, July 26 – Travel Day

Up at 5am to head to the airport. I was taking a really quick trip to the San Diego. Basically get there in time for a set of meetings and then catch the red eye home at 8:30 in the evening. No time for training.

Friday, July 27 – Rest Day

I got home from the airport at 7am. I went to bed and slept until 10:30. Then straight into a quick set of meetings and then my wife and I took off to go to the cape for the weekend. Her job was to collect our sons plus one significant other. Mine was to do the shopping: food, booze, and delicious seafood. I got to the house around 6:30 and made dinner, seafood pasta and a big salad. I enjoyed a couple of beers instead of training on a full stomach. I’m thinking it was a good decision, but I still feel a bit guilty for not rowing.

Catching up

July 23, 20181 Comment

It’s been a while, so my memory is a bit hazy.

July 5: 36km Bike Ride

I don’t recollect why I decided to ride my bike instead of rowing. I think I was a bit worn out from my long row on the day before. I wanted to scout out a different route for when my daughter visited.

July 6 AM: Another lovely walk

July 6 PM: 3 x 20′ with bumps

I guess the weather must not have been too good, so I did an erg session.

          Workout Summary - media/20180706-2035240o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15255|66:00.0|02:09.8|169.3|20.9|144.8|169.0|11.1
W-|14380|60:00.0|02:05.2|180.5|20.6|145.6|169.0|11.8
R-|00884|06:00.0|03:24.0|057.3|23.9|135.9|169.0|07.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01212|05:00.0|02:03.8|181.8|19.7|119.0|131.0|12.3
01|00190|00:40.0|01:45.4|290.4|29.3|137.6|144.0|09.7
02|02252|09:20.0|02:04.3|182.7|19.9|143.4|151.0|12.1
03|00195|00:40.0|01:42.6|319.0|31.6|148.2|154.0|09.3
04|01041|04:20.0|02:04.9|181.0|19.6|151.5|160.0|12.2
05|01182|05:00.0|02:06.9|170.7|19.0|135.8|145.0|12.4
06|00192|00:40.0|01:44.1|305.5|30.4|148.8|155.0|09.5
07|02164|09:20.0|02:09.4|162.6|19.6|147.8|159.0|11.8
08|00189|00:40.0|01:46.0|288.3|30.3|148.4|151.0|09.3
09|01019|04:20.0|02:07.6|171.0|20.4|152.4|157.0|11.5
10|01168|05:00.0|02:08.4|166.5|19.2|141.1|150.0|12.2
11|00190|00:40.0|01:45.5|290.3|29.8|152.3|158.0|09.5
12|02168|09:20.0|02:09.1|163.7|20.1|153.1|162.0|11.5
13|00199|00:40.0|01:40.4|334.9|33.8|158.5|164.0|08.8
14|01020|04:20.0|02:07.4|170.6|20.8|161.5|169.0|11.3

July 7 AM: 3km walk at low tide

July 7 PM: Bouncy row up to Wellfleet

Something went a bit squirrely with the data, so no cool charts, but it was about 75 minutes of tough rowing in choppy conditions. I kept the HR below 150.

July 8: Failed 10K push

We headed home on Saturday night and on Sunday, I did a quick row on the dreaded dynamic. My go to for this situation in the 10K push.

It went terribly. I started slow, but it did no good. I flamed out at 2:00 pace.

          Workout Summary - media/20180708-2330230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|40:57.0|02:02.9|189.8|23.6|160.4|182.0|10.4
W-|10000|40:58.0|02:02.9|189.8|23.6|160.4|182.0|10.4
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|182.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|04:06.9|02:03.5|183.1|20.1|126.7|142.0|12.1
01|01000|04:07.0|02:03.5|185.8|21.2|148.1|152.0|11.4
02|01000|04:05.7|02:02.8|188.7|21.7|155.4|158.0|11.2
03|01000|04:02.7|02:01.3|195.7|23.2|161.2|165.0|10.6
04|01000|04:01.2|02:00.6|199.5|23.6|167.7|171.0|10.5
05|01000|04:13.8|02:06.9|177.3|24.0|163.9|171.0|09.8
06|01000|04:04.6|02:02.3|191.3|23.8|168.2|170.0|10.3
07|01000|04:11.3|02:05.6|180.4|24.7|170.7|173.0|09.7
08|01000|04:13.9|02:07.0|172.7|23.7|166.1|171.0|10.0
09|01000|03:50.9|01:55.5|227.4|29.9|177.0|182.0|08.7

July 9: Drills on the 5s

Back to normal, at least for a few days. I was back on the river in my fluid. I wanted to get comfortable in the boat again, so I went to my new favorite workout. Drills on the 5s.

A minute of drills and 4 minutes of steady state. The drills were delayed feather, half slide, pause at body over and open hands on recovery. The greatest thing about this workout is that I feel like I row so much better at the end than I do at the beginning.

July 10: 4 x 1k

I’m not sure why I did this workout. After my vacation and all the walking and endurance session, I think I wanted to get a bit of intensity into my training.

That being said. Despite the splits being no where near where I wanted them to be, I was happy to push a bit harder than normal and I enjoyed session a lot.

I did this as a rate ladder. r20, r22, r24, r26. There was a head wind for the 2nd and fourth interval.

          Workout Summary - media/20180710-1931010o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07251|44:02.0|03:02.2|103.6|21.0|142.2|183.0|07.9
W-|03588|15:59.0|02:13.7|165.7|23.0|163.1|182.0|09.8
R-|03668|28:03.0|03:49.4|068.3|19.8|130.3|182.0|06.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00862|03:54.1|02:15.7|143.9|19.5|150.0|161.0|11.4
02|00912|04:08.6|02:16.3|167.9|22.2|162.8|175.0|09.9
03|00947|04:03.6|02:08.7|170.1|24.1|167.7|179.0|09.7
04|00867|03:53.4|02:14.6|180.6|26.4|171.6|182.0|08.4

July 11: Drills on the 5s

An easier session after the 4x1k of the day before. I pushed the steady state a bit harder because I was doing some side video (i’ll post that next). The batteries in the oarlock died in the last chunk of the row. No great loss.

That evening, I headed down to the cape. My daughter was coming into town for vacation.

July 12: 35km bike ride

Nice and easy with my daughter. I pushed the pace a little at the end because I had a work call that I needed to get back for.

July 13: Rest Day

We were stymied by the tide, so we ended up going kayaking around the island.

July 14: 40km bike ride

We drove up to Truro and then biked up and around the provincelands at the tip of cape cod. It’s beautiful scenery, but the ride through north Truro is a bit of a slog. It’s flat but it feels like the wind is in your face no matter what direction it is coming from.

July 15-July 19: No Training at all

On Sunday, we got everyone back on the ferry and then we had the house to ourselves again. We just hung out and relaxed for the rest of the day. We decided to sleep over on Sunday night.

On Monday morning, I had the long drive from the house on the cape to work. I set out at about 5:15 and I didn’t get to work until about 8:15. I was all stressed out because this week is our quarterly business reviews. The business is going well, but there are a lot of specific things that could certainly be going better, and I had a lot of high tension meetings throughout the week that I needed to handle well. I had no time to train on Monday. I got home quite late, and didn’t get to sleep until after midnight.

I had meetings starting at 8am on Tuesday, which were scheduled to go straight through until 8pm that night. Again, no time for training.

Same thing on Wednesday. Meetings started at 8am and finished at 7pm.

Thursday was basically another intense day of meetings. Still no time to train.

July 20: Slow 10K

On Friday, I headed into work early so I could do some final prep for meetings with my boss at 9 and 10. The 10 O’Clock meeting went until 1pm. After that, I had a couple more meetings, which finally wrapped up around 4:00. I had a bit of email to finish up and then I headed down to the gym to finally do a bit of exercise after a 5 day layoff. I’ve taken less time for injuries and illness than this!

I just dialed up a 10K on a static erg and did a slow and easy row.

Even though it was slow (2:06.6, 172W avg), it was still too intense. I decided that I need to back of the intensity and rebuild some endurance, so that what I’ll be doing for a little while.

It was good to be back rowing again though.

July 21: 3 x 20’/2′ on the dynamic

After my tough week, I wanted to sleep in. Late in the afternoon, I jumped on the dreaded dynamic to do a 3×20′ session. The only guideline was HR limit of 155.

          Workout Summary - media/20180721-2045250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15032|66:01.0|02:11.8|158.6|20.8|143.7|166.0|11.0
W-|15034|66:01.0|02:11.7|158.6|20.8|143.7|166.0|11.1
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|166.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04684|20:00.0|02:08.1|166.1|19.9|133.3|147.0|11.8
01|00255|02:00.0|03:55.0|052.5|21.8|125.2|148.0|05.8
02|04665|20:00.0|02:08.6|164.7|20.2|147.3|154.0|11.5
03|00291|02:00.0|03:25.8|051.9|26.6|134.7|152.0|05.5
04|04642|20:00.0|02:09.2|162.4|20.8|151.4|157.0|11.2
05|00495|02:01.5|02:02.7|195.4|27.9|163.1|166.0|08.8

I stuck to the cap, except for the last 2 minutes. I really wanted to get the total distance over 15km, so I sped up to do that.

Looks like 165 is a much better power level for me to work right now. (sad really).

July 22: 4 x 20’/2′ on Slides

Basically more of the same. I dropped my wife off at the airport, she’s visiting some family down in texas. After that, I continued on to the cape so I could do a bit of cleaning, and hopefully rowing.

When I got there, rowing was definitely not an option. The wind was blowing about 25mph from the southwest and there was intermittent rain. Time for an erg session.

I thought I’d be able to hold the 165W from Saturday’s session, but my HR had other ideas. To stay below the 155 cap, I had to keep slowing down throughout the whole session.

Today, by the end, I was only pulling about 155w. Well, it is what it is. I know the drill. Stick with the HR limit. Put in the minutes and the power level will slowly rise. That’s what I need to do for the next few weeks. Add in one or two threshold sessions per week and there you have it, a basic training plan.

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.

More Power! – Peak Power Session

March 27, 2018Leave a comment

Plan:

PT Suite
10 minute warmup with 5 stroke power bursts at nominal drag factor
10 x 10sec / 1′ rest peak power training on max drag
2 x 20′ / 1′ Cat VI (r18-r20, 2:03 to 2:08, HR cap at 155)

I did my PT exercises. My back was a bit sore from the kettlebell swings I did yesterday, but it loosened up nicely.

The warmup was uneventful. I tried to work on getting the rate up nice and high, but I wasn’t too successful. But I managed to work up the beginning of a sweat, so mission accomplished.

For the Main set, I tied my shoes extra tight, moved the foot stretcher up one hole, and cranked the damper to 10. Then I programmed the PM to 20 second intervals with 50 second rests. That’s as close as I can get to the desired setup with the constraints of the PM5. SO, I rowed the first 10 seconds of each interval hard, and then eased up for 10 seconds, and then let the flywheel coast down during the 50 second rest.

The protocol is to do a rep, see what power you manage to get, and then do reps until you reach 10, or your power drops below 90% of the your initial value.

Today, I saw no real drop off, which I suspect means that I am not trying hard enough.

Here’s the summary plot. I think the only useful information on it is the drag factor. 187, maybe it’s time to clean the erg?

It is way more instructive to look at this on a flex plot.

So you can see all the reps have peak power between 675 and 710W. 710W is 1:19.0. My all time best low pull on a static erg was back in 2015 at 1:16.9 (769W).

It is telling that my best power was achieved in the last two reps. You can see how many reps it took me to get the rate up to near 45 SPM. the early reps I was trying too hard to just over power each stroke. By the end, I was more focused on getting my ass back to the catch.

You can see this in the work per stroke, which is actually declining as the power is going up.

What I found really fascinating was comparing this workout to the same session done on the Concept2 Dynamic. I did this a couple weeks ago.

First is a comparison of the power. I was able to achieve much higher peak power on the dynamic, maxing out at 795W. What’s up with that?

The short answer is that you can rate up like crazy on a dynamic erg. I was consistently able to rate between 55 and 60 spm, versus the 40 to 45 spm on the static erg.

Take a peek at the work per stroke on the prior workout. It is really consistent and 200 joules lower than what I was pulling on the static erg.

You can see this in the peak force too. On the dynamic, I pulling around 1100N. On the static, peak force was around 1400.

What the hell does all of that mean? I guess it depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the session. If the point of the session is to get as many reps at the highest possible handle force, then it make more sense to do the session on the static erg. If the point is to work on neuromuscular coordination to be able to effectively apply force at high rates, the dynamic is a better choices. If you are trying to impress your friends with insanely fast splits, definitely go with the dynamic!

This is a very interesting session to highlight the differences between unique erg types. I think I’d like to do this session on the Oartec and the C2 on slides to see what happens. I think they will probably fall in the middle between these two extremes.

After that, I did the 2 x 20′ Cat VI. Apparently there wasn’t much left in my legs or body, because it was massively hard work. my HR shot up to the limit very quickly and so I rated up to 20 and lightened up the pace to try to hold my HR right at 155. It was an extremely long 41 minutes.

Tomorrow: The forecast is for temperatures of 31F and freezing rain, so I’m going rowing! I’m going to meet my friend Joe to take out the double for my first outing of the season. I will also pick up my boat so I can get it back down to the Charles on Thursday morning.

The planned session should be a bit of fun. I think Joe will enjoy it.

Nice long warmup, working on technique from the boat house to the south cove.
3 x 1500m / 1′ rest (This should take up from the south cove to the north end of the lake)
- r24
3 x 500m / 2′ rest (This will take us from the north end of the lake to the boat house)
- r28

I have a lot of organizing to do tonight to get all my goodies packed and charged.

Ambition Should be made of sterner stuff

March 26, 2018March 26, 2018Leave a comment

Yesterday, I did my session around 5pm and it was a hard one. This morning, after a rather lousy night’s sleep,, I was up at 5:15 and off to work.

I headed to the fitness center at 7 and this was my plan:

Full PT exercise suite (I haven’t done it for a couple weeks and I’m noticing that my back hurts and my legs are starting to splay at the catch again.)
Then 3 x 20′ / 3′ with one arm KB swings during the rests. (15 each side during each rest)
- Cat VI: r18, 2:03-2:08

I did my PT exercises and then the first set of KB swings. Then I setup on the rowed and did the first 20 minutes. Between the session last night and the first of KB swings, my legs felt empty and it was hard work from the start.

I finished the first 20’s and then did another set of the KB swings. Which brought my HR up to 165, and then sat down for the next 20 minutes. This was pretty hard work. I slowed down to keep my HR below 155.

I finished rep 2 and did another set of KB swings, then started rep #3 on the erg. I was struggling along for about 6 minutes and then decided that I had had enough for today. I’m disappointed that I didn’t finish the session, but I think the idea of doing the KB swings is a good one. I need to do more strength work.

          Workout Summary - media/20180326-1225310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11202|53:30.0|02:23.3|153.5|15.8|147.3|156.0|13.2
W-|11036|46:30.0|02:06.4|174.1|17.8|148.2|156.0|13.3
R-|00168|07:00.0|20:53.5|016.3|02.7|141.3|156.0|03.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04820|20:00.0|02:04.5|180.9|18.0|144.7|152.0|13.4
01|04749|20:00.0|02:06.3|173.8|17.9|152.0|156.0|13.2
02|01467|06:30.0|02:12.9|154.2|17.1|147.4|154.0|13.2

Tomorrow:

10 minute warmup
Peak Power training (10 x 10″ / 1′ rests) max drag
2 x 20’/1′ Cat VI (r18,2:03-2:08)

Back in town for a week.

March 24, 20181 Comment

Tuesday night: After my afternoon workout, I headed to the office for prep meetings and then to Cardiff by the Sea for a very nice diner at the Pacific Coast Grill. I got back from dinner around 10pm and by the time I had caught up with email, it was around midnight.

Wednesday – March 21: Rest Day

I had planned to get up at 5:30 to go to Crossfit near the hotel, but when my alarm went off, I couldn’t find the motivation to get out of bed. I slept until around 7:30, showered and headed off to the airport.

I flew up to San Jose. Again I had a prep meeting in our office and then a customer meeting at 3pm. I was done by around 5pm and headed to SFO for my flight home, a red eye departing ay 8:45pm. I wasn’t sure if it would actually depart because another snow storm was forecast in Boston.

As it turned out, we left on time and arrived early, about 4:45am. I slept maybe an hour on the flight. I guess it was a “rest day”

Thursday – March 22: 3 x 1500@24 + 3 x 500 @ 28+

Since it was so early, I drove home and crawled into to bed. I slept from 6:30 to 10:30 and then went to work. I had a couple of meetings and then headed to the gym. The plan for today was…

3 x 1500m / 1’
- Rating: Cat IV pace; target SR 23-24 + (1:52)
3 x 500m / 2’ easy
- Rating: Cat II pace: target SR 28-30 (1:45)

I had low expectations because of my travels, but the session turned out well. I added a 1500 @ Cat VI at the beginning as a bit of a warm up.

Compared to the first time I did this workout last week, this was a much better effort. I blew up in the 3rd 1500 last time and I had no oomph for a sparkly last rep. You can see the dip in power in the third rep (green was last time), and the much higher heart rate in the right plot.

Friday – 23 March: 30 minutes with bumps.

Although it feels like the world is conspiring to make it impossible for me to maintain reasonable consistency in training, I realize that it is just a product of the choices that I am making. The consequence of wanting to remodel the master bathroom in our house is that I had to meet a contractor this morning during my usual workout time. I thought that meant that wouldn’t get in any kind of a session, but as it turned out, I had a brief window in the evening, once we had come down to Cape Cod.

I popped down to the basement for a quick 30 minutes session. I decided the main intent was to just work up a sweat and go to bed feeling a bit more relaxed. So, I invented a session on the spot.

30 minutes
6 x 5′ splits
each split 4′ at Cat VI pace, 1′ at Cat II pace.

I was on slides, and I gotta say, with the slides aligned and level, I love rowing this way. The Steady state stuff was smooth and it was a pleasure to rate up. I pushed the 3rd bump a bit too hard and took the 4th slow bit a little slower than plan, but overall this was just a really nice little workout.

Workout Summary - media/20180324-0300470o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07515|30:00.0|01:59.8|209.2|21.2|149.5|171.0|11.8
W-|07523|30:00.0|01:59.6|209.2|21.2|149.5|171.0|12.0
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|171.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00989|04:00.0|02:01.3|192.6|18.8|124.3|140.0|13.1
01|00289|01:00.0|01:43.9|306.8|27.3|148.7|154.0|10.6
02|00979|04:00.0|02:02.6|190.7|18.6|150.6|157.0|13.1
03|00289|01:00.0|01:43.7|311.7|27.1|154.9|163.0|10.7
04|00970|04:00.0|02:03.7|187.0|19.2|156.1|165.0|12.6
05|00287|01:00.0|01:44.4|302.0|28.5|155.6|161.0|10.1
06|00913|04:00.0|02:11.4|155.8|19.7|145.0|161.0|11.6
07|00289|01:00.0|01:43.8|308.8|29.3|152.1|159.0|09.9
08|00949|04:00.0|02:06.5|174.3|20.0|153.6|161.0|11.8
09|00293|01:00.0|01:42.5|323.8|29.1|158.1|165.0|10.1
10|00962|04:00.0|02:04.7|181.8|18.8|160.7|166.0|12.8
11|00314|01:00.0|01:35.7|395.1|34.9|153.8|171.0|09.0

I did a quick 1000m cooldown after that and now I feel great!

Tomorrow: Rate ladders!

Session:

3 x 15’ / 4’
- 5’@ Cat VI; SR 20
- 4’ @ Cat V; SR 22
- 3’ @ Cat IV; SR 24
- 2’ @ Cat III; SR 26
- 1’@ Cat II; SR 28

The Glamour of Business Travel

March 19, 2018March 19, 2018Leave a comment

Thursday, 15 March: No training, travel to CA.

Friday, 16 March: Quickie HIIT session

35 minute treadmill in the fitness center.

6 x (30″ hard / 4’30” easy)

Felt like crap. The intervals really hurt. Then I headed to the airport to fly home. I got home around 6pm.

Saturday, 17 March: No training. Rest Day.

I went to the Boston Flower Show with my wife and had dinner in Boston.

Sunday, 18 March: 4 x 20′ / 3′ Dynamic

          Workout Summary - media/20180318-2130340o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20700|92:00.0|02:13.3|159.9|20.6|144.6|160.0|10.9
W-|19049|80:00.0|02:06.0|175.3|20.2|146.7|160.0|11.8
R-|01654|12:00.0|03:37.8|057.4|23.4|131.0|160.0|09.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04825|20:00.0|02:04.4|181.4|20.3|136.2|148.0|11.9
01|04783|20:00.0|02:05.4|177.4|20.3|145.3|152.0|11.8
02|04749|20:00.0|02:06.3|174.4|20.1|151.4|159.0|11.8
03|04691|20:00.0|02:07.9|168.0|20.0|153.8|160.0|11.7

I felt really strong through the first two intervals, but I kind of ran out of steam in the second half of the third interval. The last one was a bit of a struggle.

Monday, 19 March: 2 x 2k/2′ + 2 x 1k/3′ + 2 x 500/2′

I added a 2k warmup to the front end.

          Workout Summary - media/20180319-1215340o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11321|50:52.0|02:14.8|169.9|19.7|142.4|169.0|11.3
W-|09000|34:49.0|01:56.1|226.5|21.9|144.7|169.0|11.9
R-|02326|16:03.0|03:27.1|047.3|15.0|137.2|169.0|11.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02000|08:14.9|02:03.7|182.9|18.1|129.5|143.0|13.4
01|02000|07:51.6|01:57.9|215.9|22.1|146.0|156.0|11.5
02|02000|07:49.5|01:57.4|216.1|22.2|150.6|160.0|11.5
03|01000|03:42.8|01:51.4|253.7|24.0|151.3|166.0|11.2
04|01000|03:40.7|01:50.4|262.5|23.8|152.7|169.0|11.4
05|00500|01:45.6|01:45.6|305.4|25.1|146.4|165.0|11.3
06|00500|01:44.7|01:44.7|313.2|25.2|152.4|168.0|11.4

The PM was considerably more generous than rowsandall in terms of the paces.

Tomorrow: I fly out to San Diego first thing in the morning. I’m hoping that I can do a workout in the Hotel Fitness Center once I get there. I have a business dinner that night.

Tough Session: 3 x 1500/1′ + 3 x 500/2′

March 14, 2018Leave a comment

Went to bed a bit late, but slept well (if only for about 5 hours). Up at 5:15 to head to work.

Plan:

3 x 1500m / 1’
- Rating: Cat IV pace; target SR 23-24 (Pace: 1:52)
3 x 500m / 2’ easy
- Rating: Cat II pace: target SR 28-30 (Pace: 1:45)
Notes: Stay on the target paces, no faster, no slower.

I added a 2K at Cat VI pace to warmup.

I figured I would be OK since the pace for my 20′ test was faster than what was required for the 3×1500. But I was a bit worried about the short turnaround from the peak power session at 5pm last night to this session at 7:30am today. I wasn’t sore this morning, but my legs felt “empty”.

The first two reps were OK, but really taxing. I was counting strokes the whole way. The third rep, I basically chickened out. I think I could have made it, but I was really struggling, and I knew that I had the 3×500 yet to go. I HD’ed briefly in the middle and started up again at a slightly slower pace. Stopping once really took the wind out of my sails so when it started stinging again near the end, I just paddled it out.

The 500s were far more humane, even though they were a lot faster. I was having trouble holding the stroke rate above 28 because I was really focusing on trying to sequence the recovery correctly. The last of the 500s was pretty brutal, but I was not in the mood to bail on any more intervals.

          Workout Summary - media/20180314-1230360o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08981|40:38.0|02:15.7|182.8|21.6|156.4|177.0|10.2
W-|08000|30:36.0|01:54.8|235.5|23.0|155.4|177.0|11.5
R-|00985|10:01.0|05:05.4|022.0|17.2|159.3|177.0|08.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02000|08:19.0|02:04.7|179.3|18.2|133.5|146.0|13.2 - wu
01|01500|05:37.8|01:52.6|248.6|23.8|157.6|170.0|11.2
02|01500|05:33.5|01:51.2|254.1|24.0|167.2|175.0|11.2
03|01500|05:55.4|01:58.5|216.2|24.0|169.0|177.0|10.5 - HD!
04|00500|01:43.4|01:43.4|316.2|27.8|160.4|174.0|10.4
05|00500|01:44.0|01:44.0|310.8|27.1|160.5|174.0|10.6
06|00500|01:43.6|01:43.6|313.7|27.9|159.3|171.0|10.4

Next time, I think I can get this one on target.

Tomorrow: I am flying off to San Francisco first thing in the morning. I have meetings in the afternoon and a dinner. Then I head home Friday morning. I will take a rest day tomorrow and try to a quick session in the hotel fitness center before I fly home.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: static