Back on the Water – Huzzah!

May 24, 20201 Comment

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

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

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

Want Some Hot Singles Action? – The GPS Speed Orders

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday – 5/19 – Quick row

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday – 5/22 – 12k on Lake Quinsigamond

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And on it goes

May 18, 2020Leave a comment

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

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

Sunday – 5/10 – 2 x 30’/5′ With Bumps

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

Also a good chance to use rowsandall interval analysis

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

Monday – 5/11 – 7.5km run

Tuesday – No Training

Wednesday – 5/13 – half and half

30′ stationary bike

2 dart games

Scores: 13840,14210

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

Thursday – 5/14 – half and half

30′ on the bike

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

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

Friday – 5/15 – 7.3km run

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

Saturday – 5/16 – No Training

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

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

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

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

Steady Diet of Steady State

May 10, 2020May 10, 2020Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday – 5/5 – 6.4km run

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday – 5/8 – 6.4km run

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

I cut almost three minutes off my time.

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

I worked a lot harder too!

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

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

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

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

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

A little running, more spinning

May 2, 2020Leave a comment

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

Sunday – 26 April – 60′ Stationary Bike

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

Monday – 27 April – 60′ Stationary Bike

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

Tuesday – 28 April – 44′ minute run

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

Wednesday – April 29 – No Training – Rest Day

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

Thursday – April 30 – 60′ Stationary Bike

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

Low heart rates. Maybe because of the rest day?

Friday – 1 May – 60′ Stationary Bike

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

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

Stumbling into rowing season

March 9, 2020Leave a comment

I feel like I am training without purpose right now.

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

From the beginning 9th of February:

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

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

Target High intensity days 12, actual 3

So, heres the daily activities…

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday – Feb 11 – 2 x 30′ / 2′ L4

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

Wednesday – Feb 12 – No Training

6AM flight to San Francisco. Straight into meetings.

Thursday – Feb 13 – No Training

8AM flight home.

Friday – Feb 14 – 3 x 20’/2′ L4

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

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

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

Sunday – Feb 16 – No Training

My wife and I flew to Aruba for vacation!

Monday – Feb 17 – 5km beach run

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday – Feb 21 – No Training

Flying home

Saturday – Feb 22 – 3 x 30′ / 2′ L4

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

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

Sunday – Feb 23 – 3 x 30′ / 2′ L4

More meters in the bank

Monday – Feb 24 – No Training

Flew to Austin, straight into meetings

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

The walk.

The row – felt terrible

Wednesday – Feb 26 – 30′ inclined walk

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

Thursday – Feb 27 – 30′ Inclined Walk

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

Friday – Feb 28 – No Training

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

Saturday – Feb 29 – 4 x 20′ steady state

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

Sunday – Mar 1 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

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

Monday – Mar 2 – 8 x 500/3’30” L1

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

Tuesday – Mar 3 – 2 x 30′ / 2′ L4

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

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

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

Thursday – Mar 5 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

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

Friday – Mar 6 – No Training

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

Saturday – Mar 7 – No Training

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

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

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

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

5 beds in 5 nights

September 1, 2019September 1, 2019Leave a comment

Monday – 8/26: 30′ Stationary cycle

I hadn’t planned on a workout on Monday, but I arrived at my hotel and had a appropriate gap in my schedule to squeeze in a quick workout. I headed down to the gym and hopped on a stationary bike.

Why the bike? Well, when I was packing on Sunday night I managed to give myself a nasty scratch on the top of my foot and it hurt to walk or run. The bike pedals were OK though.

I programmed a 1 minute on / 1 minute off interval workout.

Good fun. I slept in Orange County on Monday night.

Tuesday – 8/27: 50 minute steady state stationary bike

First thing in the morning when I woke up.

After this, I showered, hopped in the car and drove to San Diego, about 90 minutes away. I had breakfast with our team there, and had a couple of meetings. Then I drove to Agoura Hills which is north of LA. It was a very pleasant 3 hour drive.

Once I got to Agoura Hills, I had a meeting with some of our engineering team there. I had dinner alone and fell asleep around 9, in the hotel in Agoura Hills.

Wednesday – 8/28: 40 minute stationary bike

Again, first thing in the morning. Today was a medium intensity rolling hills workout.

Then back to our facility for more meetings. I headed out to the airport around noon and flew to Chicago, arriving at 9pm. I got to the hotel around 10pm and promptly fell asleep.

Thursday – 8/29: 30′ Stationary bike

Tired this morning. Took it easy. HR was high nonetheless.

After that, I headed to our office north of Chicago and had a few meetings. I headed out to the airport around 4pm. I caught a 7pm flight home and arrived back at my house around 11pm. I slept in Hopkinton that night.

Friday – 8/30 : No training

I slept hard until 9am, when my wife helpfully woke me up so I could dash off and get onto my first call of the day.. The morning was a blur of calls. Then we got our stuff packed and around 1:30 we headed off to the cape, arriving around 4:00pm. I had another work call, and the we chilled out, had some dinner and crashed around 10:30.

That was my fifth bed of the week.

Saturday – 8/31: 11k coastal row

A glorious beautiful day! I relaxed all morning. In the early after noon, I loaded up the boat, and headed off for a row. There was a brisk 10-15mph breeze from the north, so I decided to row the marshes where I would be protected from the chop. It was a good call. At the very end, I came out into the bay a little bit and I was bashed around. That bit was not fun, but it only lasted a few minutes and I was back on the beach.

The tide was flowing out during the whole row, and the stream was quite strong at times.

        Workout Summary - media/20190831-2041020o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11661|01:11:55.0|03:05.0|000.0|20.5|146.2|163.0|07.9
W-|11138|01:05:24.4|02:56.2|000.0|20.0|146.7|163.0|08.5
R-|00530|00:06:31.2|06:09.0|000.0|25.1|140.5|163.0|04.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02673|16:15.2|03:02.4|000.0|18.9|136.4|156.0|08.7 against tide
02|01404|08:02.8|02:51.9|000.0|20.4|149.3|155.0|08.5 with tide
03|01915|12:12.5|03:11.2|000.0|19.7|148.0|158.0|07.9 against tide
04|03345|19:28.5|02:54.7|000.0|20.4|150.8|163.0|08.4 bit of both
05|00070|00:27.4|03:16.8|000.0|19.7|159.6|161.0|07.7 against tide
06|01671|08:33.4|02:33.6|000.0|21.2|152.1|161.0|09.2 with tide
07|00060|00:24.6|03:25.0|000.0|19.5|149.6|154.0|07.5 last little bit

Man, I love rowing! The time just flew by, sun was shining, the water was nice and flat (mostly), and was able to focus on trying to row clean.

Tomorrow: I hope I can do it all over again.

The rest of my trip

June 28, 2019July 6, 2019Leave a comment

After my adventure on Sunday, I rushed back to my hotel, took a quick shower, packed up my stuff and headed to the train station. We took a train from Shanghai to the city of Hefei, about two and a half hours away by high speed rail.

Once we arrive, we had a nice dinner with some of the team leaders there, and I called it a night.

Monday, June 24 – Treadmill

There was a well equipped fitness center in the hotel in Hefei, but alas no rowing machines. I grabbed a treadmill and started to hike. Going gradually to see how well I could coax my smo2% up in a warmup. I definitely didn’t give it enough time and it peaked out much lower than other sessions.

Basically what I did was start walking slow and level. Then I increased the pace to about 3 mph. Then I increased the incline every minute to get me to 15%. Around the 5 minute mark, I did a 1 minute run on the incline, that’s the dip. Then I slowed it way back down, and had a drink. In retrospect, I should have done that a couple more times to open things up.

Then I just hiked up the 15% incline at about 3 mph. I saw orange, so I back off to 2.8 soon after starting. That worked fine until about 20 minutes in, where I needed to drop the pace a bit more. The last minute or two was in the orange, but my HR was still quite low.

When I got back to my room, it was sunny, clear and beautiful outside. My room had a great view.

I had a busy day at our design center in Hefei. I great group of engineers. In the afternoon, we headed to the train station and headed back in the direction of Shanghai, stopping in the city of Wuxi. I was schedule to have a business dinner with a customer. We went to a really good Japanese restaurant and had lots of beer and Sushi.

Tuesday, June 25 – Stationary Bike intervals with Humon

The fitness center was hot, and I was feeling pretty tired, and just a little hungover. I hopped on a stationary bike, and started pedaling. I did about 20 minutes of warmup, including a couple of sprinty bits. This warmup increased my smo2 from 63% to 70.9%.

Then I programmed in one of the preset “interval sessions”. I set it for a 40 minute session. This turned out to be another 10 minutes of warming up and then a one minute on / one minute off routine with 4 levels of intensity for a total of 14 reps.

As it turned out, I had not set the intensity high enough for this session, as you can see I was not getting into the red in most of the sprints.

But, it was interesting following my progress on the app. I met my colleague in the lobby and we grabbed a “didi” (basically the same as an Uber) to drive us to Shanghai, which was about a 90 minute ride.

When we got to Shanghai, I went straight to a lunch time meeting with one of our teams there, then headed over to another office and had another set of meetings. In the evening, I had a business dinner with a customer at an extremely good, very small Chinese restaurant. Then it was back to the Kerry hotel.

Wednesday, June 26 – 3 x 20′ Endurance Session on the erg

I grabbed the good erg, and set myself up to do a nice gentle warmup. I started with a pick drill, and then just gentle rowing. I was alarmed by the early appearance of some orange. I decided to experiment with a set of moderate power bursts. I did 10, 20, 30, and 40 strokes The 40 strokes I did a noticeably lower power. You can see the corresponding dips and recoveries in the SMO2%. I finished very close to where I started, 72% vs 69%. I’d have to say that this was not an entirely successful warmup. I suspect that it would have recovered to a much higher umber, but not in the 2 minute rest that I had programmed.

The rest of the session was pretty much terrible. I had a lot of trouble staying in the green and ended up just alternating r18 and r20 at 160W and 180W. Even with that light load, my SMO2% was low, and my HR was a bit high. I was a bit grumpy so I sprinted out the last 2 minutes, taking my SMO2% way down to a 61%.

It’s interesting that the Humon color algorithm is a much more sensitive indicator than HR. If my theory that I am not making good progress because I had been overcooking my steady state stuff, this will certainly put that theory to the test.

I went straight from my workout into some work calls, took a quick shower, and headed into the office for a couple of last meetings.

After lunch, I headed to the airport to fly to Taiwan, the last stop on my, way too long trip. I arrived at my Hotel, the Sheraton in Hsinchu around 8, had some dinner, and then I was on the phone in conferences until about 11pm.

Thursday, June 27 – Inclined walk

I was up at 5:30 and in the fitness center before 6. I headed to the treadmills and settled in for another boring slog.

The plan was the same as the last one, but I was going to try to take the warmup more slowly. Again, I got up to a healthy walking speed and then boosted the inline, but only a degree or two every minute. It was good to see my SMO2 climbing as I went. After twenty minutes I was at the right incline and then stopped to grab a drink and towel off. It was remarkably hot and humid. My SMO2 climbed really well in that rest period. From 63% at the start to over 72% after recovery.

In the session itself, I found that I was pretty tired and the time was going very slowly. Kept popping over into orange, and I would slow down a tenth or drop the incline by a degree each time. But you can see how many times that happened. It was not my best work.

After my workout, I started my business day. A couple of quick calls in my room. It was a misty morning, and the mountains near Hsinchu looked like classic asian landscape art to me.

To our office for prep meetings, then to a customer reception at lunch, then to another customer meeting, then back for another internal meeting, and finally a dinner meeting with a few of the managers. Around 8 I headed to airport and got on a work teleconference. This lasted my whole trip to the airport. I checked in, got settled in the China Airlines lounge and got on another work call. This lasted until it was almost time to board my 11:35 flight. This flight took me from Taipei to San Francisco. I arrived at 8pm, shuffled off to the Delta terminal and caught the 10:42pm red eye to Boston. I am currently over Nebraska with another 2:37 to go.

Once I get to Logan Airport, I am going to drive straight to the Cape. Hopefully arriving before 11 on Friday.

It’s been quite a trip. I had a rowing experience I will never forget. Visited places I have never been, and worked out every day that I was on the ground. I’m pretty happy with that.

3/29 – 4/8 : Oh my back!

April 8, 2019Leave a comment

Friday – 3/29 – 4 x 1500/random rests:

I had a great row on Thursday 3/28. I was planning on heading out to Lake Quinsigamond to demonstrate Quiske, and hopefully go for a row.

As it turned out, I didn’t get out on the water. But, I was working at home, so I could try the experiment that I wanted to do on the erg.

I have been corresponding with the developer of PainSled. I really like the painSled app. It is simple and generally pretty reliable, but recently, it seems to be dropping strokes. The app eventually catches up, but the missing strokes mean that summaries and plots look ugly.

The developer thought that the setup that I was using might be causing the problems.

So, I designed an experiment to test the theory. The experiment had 6 parts. I would row 1500 meter pieces.

Playing music (spotify streaming using wireless earbuds), stroke scope enabled
Playing music (spotify streaming using wireless earbuds), stroke scope disabled
No music, earbuds disconnected, stroke scope enabled
No music, earbuds disconnected, stroke scope disabled
ergdata, no music, no earbuds
playing music, BT earbuds

The experiment design was better than the execution. I had a number of interruptions, but despite that, I got some pretty compelling data.

I reviewed the raw exports from painsled. Painsled provides a column with stroke count data, so simply by looking for data records where the stroke count increments by more than 1. Here is a snippet from the spreadsheet which calculates the missing strokes. Notice the line 3 from the bottom where it missed 14 strokes!

The ergdata log file was a bit more challenging to analyze. It does not log the stroke count. So, for this one, I used the distance column. For this workout, my distance per stroke should be between 10 and 15 meters.

You can see all the strokes are in the right range, except for one. I had an interruption in the middle of this piece. Notice the time jumps from 89.6 sec to 338 sec. I needed to go deal with a tradesman who was fixing our garage door. The fan spun down clicking up some additional meters. Otherwise, there were no missing strokes.

So, here is the summary of the results.

So, I got a good workout, and I think I showed with reasonable certainty that the problems are not related to other stuff connected to the phone.

Before I worked out I noticed that my back was a little stiff. In the hours after my workout, my back got progressively tighter and sorer. The symptoms were exactly the same as the late summer of 2017. I had bilateral pain, very low on my back, and it hurt most when changing positions. For example, standing up hurt like hell. It also was impossible to bend over and lift my leg to, say, put on my pants without bracing with one hand.

At that time, I was diagnosed with some minor osteo-arthritis in my SI joints which were exacerbated by some nasty adhesions and imbalances in the muscles of my hips and thighs.

By Friday night, I was hobbling around like 90 year old man. My amateur treatment plan was.

Rest and ibuprofen for a few days
Stretching and foam rolling, with light non-rowing aerobic training
When I was reasonably pain free, start back rowing, avoiding intense pieces for a week or so.

Saturday – 3/30 – No training

My wife and I went down to the cape and had a nice day just hanging out. The highlight of the day was making some tasty Fajitas. Back still mighty sore!

Sunday – 3/31 – No Training

We headed home late in the afternoon. Back getting a little looser, but it still hurt a lot.

Monday – 4/1 – No Training

One more day of rest. Improving daily.

Tuesday – 4/2 – 20 minute treadmill, 10 minute bike

stretches, foam rolling, ab lifts

20 minutes treadmill: 15% incline, 2.9 mph

10 minutes stationary bike, level 14, rolling hills

Wednesday – 4/3 – 20 minutes treadmill, 20 minutes bike

stretches, foam rolling, ab lifts

20 minutes treadmill: 15% incline, 2.9 mph

20 minutes stationary bike, level 14, rolling hills

Thursday – 4/4 – No Training

I had to drop my car off at the shop and didn’t have a window to train.

Friday – 4/5 – 20 minutes treadmill, 20 minute row

stretches, foam rollings, ab lifts

20 minutes treadmill: 15% incline, 2.9 mph

20 minutes on the rower. Heart rate quite high as one might expect. Back felt fine before and after.

Saturday – 3 x 20’/2′ on slides

More experimentation with painsled. I was wondering if the problem was being caused by the painsled app trying to find a BLE HR monitor and not succeeding. So I decided to try disabling that. It didn’t make a difference. But on the plus side, my back held up great!

Sunday – 4/7 – 3 x 20’/2′ on slides

Same workout as Saturday. I was a little more tired and that caused a higher heart rate. The back is still feeling good.

I headed to the airport around 6pm to catch a 8pm flight to Europe.

Monday – 4/8 – No Training

I arrived around noon and was at my hotel at 1pm. I needed to be in the office by 2:30, no time for a workout.

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.

Taipei / Shanghai – Ticking Along

October 26, 20176 Comments

After the race on Saturday, we had lunch in Cambridge, and then headed home. I had some organizing to do since I was heading off to Taiwan. My flight was scheduled to depart at 1:45AM Sunday morning, and my wife and I had a nice afternoon and evening.

I headed off to the airport around 11pm, and got on the plane, and waited. We taxied out from the gate, and then the pilot came on and said that there was a problem with one of the engines so he was heading back to gate to wait for maintenance to come deal with it. After about an hour parked at the gate, the call came over the PA asking if there was a doctor on board. Apparently, someone on board had had a heart attack. Now it seemed to me that the engine trouble was a real blessing for both the heart attack victim and the rest of us on the plane. He was wisked off the plane within minutes. If we had been in flight, they would have had to divert the flight and that would have taken a lot more time. And I bet it would have delayed the rest a lot too.

We didn’t get going until after 4AM. Then it was fifteen hours and 30 minutes of flight time to Hong Kong. Then a quick shuffle through the airport to catch the next flight to Taipei. I was in Taiwan by 11am on Monday morning, and at the hotel by 12:30. I made it just in time to shower and change before the event I was going to. I slept pretty well on the flight, getting maybe 8 hours of sleep total, but in short segments.

The work event lasted from 1:30 until 10:30PM. I crashed hard as soon as I got back to my room.

So, I guess that means:

Sunday: Travel Day – No training.

Monday: Rest day?

Tuesday:

I had a flight Shanghai in the early afternoon so I planned to sleep in, but I woke up around 5am, and couldn’t get back to sleep. Eventually, I made my way down to the fitness center. I had plenty of time, so I did a long fitness center triathlon.

30 minutes: Treadmill death march, 15% grade, 5km/h
30 minutes: Elliptical, level 14, random
30 minutes: Stationary bike, level 14, “Hills”

It was sweaty. It was boring.

Then I headed to the airport and flew off to Shanghai. I had a customer dinner in the evening and some conference calls after that. I got to bed around 1AM.

Wednesday:

I got up at 6 and headed straight to the fitness center. I was staying at the Kerry Hotel in Pudong, which has the one of the finest fitness centers I’ve ever seen. They have two Model D ergs. Mechanically they are both fine, but one of them has a display problem so you can’t see the time remaining. The good rower was being used, so I grabbed the one with the display issue.

Plan:

3 x 20′ / 1′
rate: ~20
power: 175W
HR limit: 145/150/155

I noticed that my heart rate took off like a rocket from the start and by the time I got through the first 20 minutes, I knew I had to ease up. Even then, I was really struggling.

After 40 minutes, the other erg was free so I swapped over to continue. I basically gave up after 3 minutes in the last piece and just paddled the rest of it out.

Lack of fitness? Lack of Sleep? Who knows. Anyway, time to reset my power target lower for the next session.

After my workout, I headed to the office for some internal meetings, a customer lunch, more meetings, and a customer dinner. I got back to the hotel around 10, and had a beer with a colleague. I was in bed by 11.

Thursday:

I was up at 5:30 to fit in my workout. Back to the fitness center for some more rowing.

Plan:

3 x 20′ / 2′ (longer rest to allow stretching between piecese
- rate: 20
- power: 165
- HR limit: 145/150/155
2 x 1′ / 1′ (I see Paul Buchanan doing these at the end of aerobic sessions and I’ve read that it’s has a beneficial training effect. It’s also an energizing way to finish the workout – In theory)
- rate: >32
- power: >360W

This was much better. Based on my HR, the power was pretty close to right on for base training. I could probably push a couple more watts, but not much. My HR plateaued nicely right around 149 and stuck there for most of the second and third interval.

And the 1′ sprints were a blast. I think I will make them a regular part of my routine.

And I left a nice sweat pattern on the floor.

After that, I packed up, had a work breakfast, then headed to the airport. I’m now in Narita in transit back to Boston. I will get home around 7:30pm Thursday night.

I’ve decided to start working with a coach, Marlene Royle. Next week I have a bunch of erg tests to do. I may start them this weekend, but only if I am not having jetlag issues.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: stationary bike

Back on the Water – Huzzah!

And on it goes

Steady Diet of Steady State

A little running, more spinning

Stumbling into rowing season

5 beds in 5 nights

The rest of my trip

3/29 – 4/8 : Oh my back!

Lost week – Taiwan

Taipei / Shanghai – Ticking Along