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.

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.

What is Low Intensity

April 17, 20205 Comments

I posted a workout on the facebook page for the Stuck At Home Rowing Club, and someone made the mistake of showing the slightest interest in what I was doing. Now I will make her regret it.

Q: What kind of low intensity pieces am I doing?

A: Let’s start by defining low intensity. The terms Low Intensity and High Intensity are generally used in the context of a polarized training, so let’s start there. Polarized training applies the knowledge that there are different systems to power your muscles, depending on how hard you are working.

Here it is in graph form, from this article

So, on the bottom of the plot is how hard you are working as a percent of your maximum power output. Think of that as your VO2Max, or when your heart rate is very close to it’s maximum. As fast or faster than 2k race pace. On the vertical are two different things. The graph that starts high at low power output is the percentage of the energy expended that comes from metabolizing fat. The other curve, that starts low and climbs is how much power you get from carbohydrate (glucose/glycogen).

Where the cross over occurs can be moved by the kind of training that you do. If you do a lot of training below the cross over point, you can increase your ability to metabolize fat and essentially push the crossover gradually to higher and higher powers. The opposite can happen too, if your training focuses on more power and sprinting work, which stimulates the sensory nervous system, the cross over point can move down.

OK, so what does this have to do with polarized training?

Well, to get faster over typical 1K to 6K race distances, we need to have both power and endurance. But we need a way to organize the training so that we get the benefit of power development, while minimizing the how much we can move the cross over point to the right. Luckily, a lot of people have done a lot of good work to figure this out. One of them is Stephen Seiler, and wrote a great survey paper about it. It seems the an optimal approach is to put in about 80% of your training time at low intensity and 20% above. This has been shown to be a good ratio for elites who train a ton. and for recreational athletes (like me).

Great, so that why polarized training works, but what does low intensity mean?

Low intensity means that you are training at a power below your cross over point. There are a bunch of ways to figure out what that power is. The key concept is that it is much better to make the mistake of going too easy than going too hard. I have known this intellectually for 7 years and I still get it wrong all the time. I have such a stubborn belief that I have to push as hard as possible that I am always sabotaging myself. Don’t be an idiot like me. go easy and you will be miles ahead.

So, with that caveat, here are a few ways to test whether you are going slow enough.

RPE: Stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion. If you care, it’s a fancy scale from 1 to 17, but what it means is if you can’t speak in full sentences while you are exercising, then it isn’t low intensity.
Heart Rate: My favorite, but a pain in the neck. If you keep your workout below 75% of you maximum heart rate, you are doing it right. Some people think 70%. But to do this you need to get an idea what your max heart rate is, and that has it’s own complications, which I helpfully described here.
Lactate Measurement: Incontrovertible evidence, but a massive pain in the finger. You can measure directly whether you are using fat or carbs by measuring the by product of carb respiration (which is lactate) as it accumulates in your blood. If it is below 2mmol, then you’re doing it right. The challenge to this method is that you have to stab your finger and dab the blood on an expensive test strip that you plug into an expensive meter. I did this for a year or so, and still go back and do it ever once in a while, but it’s way to master rower nerd-core for daily use.
20-25 seconds slower than 2k pace. Right now, if I had the guts to do a 2k test, I would probably pull a 1:45 split. I do my steady state between 2:05 and 2:10. This isn’t a great method, but if you are doing your steady state 10 seconds slower than race pace, then it isn’t low intensity.

So, the main thing is to make sure that your low intensity workout is low intensity enough, what else matters.

Duration: More is better. And then even more. Miles make champions. Since going harder is counter productive, your main variable to get better is more time. If you are just getting started, then 30 minutes will be beneficial, and over time, the improvements will start to slow down and you will need to add more time to get more gains in endurance. I find that I can make very slow gains with 60 minute sessions and much better progress with 80, but having a life keeps me from being able to do that volume consistently.
Stroke rate: I read the wolverine plan years ago and it made a ton of sense to me. The basic idea is to keep the amount energy you put into a stroke about the same, and scale down the stroke rate to do low intensity training. If you think about it, that means that the drive phase of your stroke stays the same in duration whether you are racing or cruising, but you will take far fewer strokes per minute, so you go slower. To be fancy you can can call it Work per Stroke. So, I do my low intensity training at low rates, maybe 60% at 18 spm, 30% at 20spm, 10% at 22spm and above.
Breaks: 80 minutes is a looong time. I’ve read a bunch of stuff that recommends breaking up long rows into 20 to 30 minute chunks so that you can stretch, adjust and hydrate. So, I do almost all of my low intensity work in 20 minute work / 2 minute rest format. I will sometimes do a continuous half marathon to prove I can do it, but it is much more civilized to take short breaks and I think it helps to avoid back injuries.

Here are few example workouts

3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

3×30’/2′ steady state at 165W

And here’s an example of a workout that I pushed too hard and ended up in the “black hole”. To intense to build endurance and not intense enough to build power.

So, a long answer to a short question.

1/26 – 2/2: Just another week

February 3, 2020Leave a comment

Missed 2 days to travel, but otherwise a good week.

Sunday – 1/26 – 4 x 30’/2′ Steady State:

Long and slow. Listening to the audio book version of Ron Chernow’s “Grant”. It’s 48 hours long, roughly 672km of steady state rowing so I guess I’m good for a while. Nice low HR, so I pushed the power up a bit in the last 30 minutes.

       Workout Summary - media/20200126-1841460o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|30000|02:08:00.0|02:08.0|172.1|19.3|140.0|154.0|12.1
W-|28759|02:00:00.0|02:05.2|178.7|19.3|140.7|154.0|12.4
R-|01245|00:08:00.0|03:12.8|072.6|19.3|130.6|154.0|08.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07150|30:00.0|02:05.9|175.5|19.2|133.3|141.0|12.4
01|07158|30:00.0|02:05.7|176.2|19.1|139.4|145.0|12.5
02|07170|30:00.0|02:05.5|177.4|19.0|141.3|147.0|12.6
03|07281|30:00.0|02:03.6|185.8|20.1|148.7|154.0|12.1

I’m very impressed with Boatcoach. No problems and I like the force curve thing. This is my force curve for steady state on slides.

Monday – 1/27 – Pyramid:

I had not successfully completed a pyramid workout since I started this workout plan in December. I picked what I thought was a reasonable target of 1:44. I was running short of time, so I did a short 2K warmup. I held on to 1:43 through the first 3 reps. I let myself drift up toward 1:44 in the 1000, and then really killed myself in each of the last three reps. One thing about this workout, the rests are so long, you can come back from going really hard to do it again in the next rep.

Tuesday – 1/28 – 3×20’/2′ L4

Flew out to San Diego on a 7:00 am departure. Had an afternoon of meetings, and then a customer dinner.

Wednesday – 1/29 – No training

Up at 5:00am to catch my return flight. Got home around 6pm.

Thursday – 1/30 – 3×20’/2′ L4

Back at it.

Friday – 1/31 – 10K Threshold

I was conflicted about doing this workout. I was worried about the effect of 2 missed sessions, but I figured it was good to just keep plugging, Besides, I didn’t have enough time for a long steady state session, might was well go hard.

I did a 2K warmup. Then I set off. Last 10K I had done was at 1:54.9 (on slides). I thought I might be able to pull off a target of 1:54. On another day, I think I might have. I made it just about 30 minutes and I had a breakdown. I paddled for about 15 seconds and then picked it back up. Slow at first, and then back on pace. I ended with a 1:54.8 pace, but i was disappointed that I wasn’t able to just slow down a little bit and work through the tough bit instead of blowing up,

Saturday – 3×30’/2′ – Steady State

More steady state, more Ulysses Grant.

        Workout Summary - media/20200201-1921280o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|22368|01:36:01.9|02:08.8|167.7|19.1|143.6|155.0|12.2
W-|21471|01:30:00.0|02:05.8|174.9|19.1|144.3|154.0|12.5
R-|00899|00:06:01.9|03:21.3|059.3|18.9|133.7|154.0|08.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07175|30:00.0|02:05.4|176.2|19.6|137.7|148.0|12.2
01|07154|30:00.0|02:05.8|174.9|19.4|146.4|153.0|12.3
02|07142|30:00.0|02:06.0|173.8|18.4|148.7|154.0|12.9

Sunday – 2/2 – 4×30′ / 2′ Steady State

      Workout Summary - media/20200202-1926410o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|29378|02:08:00.0|02:10.7|164.3|18.1|142.3|153.0|12.7
W-|28478|02:00:00.0|02:06.4|172.7|18.3|143.1|153.0|13.0
R-|00904|00:08:00.0|04:25.4|037.6|15.5|130.9|153.0|07.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07115|30:00.0|02:06.5|172.2|18.1|136.3|145.0|13.1
01|07114|30:00.0|02:06.5|172.1|18.3|144.1|148.0|13.0
02|07123|30:00.0|02:06.4|173.2|18.3|145.0|150.0|13.0
03|07125|30:00.0|02:06.3|173.4|18.3|147.0|153.0|13.0

1/12/20 – 1/25/20 –> Work wins!

January 26, 2020January 26, 20201 Comment

Well, I’ve lost a bit of momentum. The past couple of weeks, I’ve been focused pretty intently on work.

Here’s the damage

I’ve missed 3 training days in the past 8, and two of my workouts were less than stellar fitness center cross training sessions.

Sunday – 1/12/2020 – 4 x 30’/2′ Steady State

Glorious long steady state row on slides, listening to a good audio book.

       Workout Summary - media/20200112-1951170o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|29536|02:07:59.9|02:10.0|167.4|18.4|139.6|154.0|12.6
W-|28579|01:59:50.8|02:05.8|176.0|18.3|140.3|153.0|13.0
R-|00960|00:08:00.0|04:10.0|041.2|19.5|129.9|153.0|09.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07126|29:50.8|02:05.7|176.2|18.3|132.4|143.0|13.0
01|07147|30:00.0|02:05.9|175.5|18.3|138.2|144.0|13.0
02|07149|30:00.0|02:05.9|175.8|18.3|142.6|151.0|13.0
03|07156|30:00.0|02:05.8|176.5|18.3|147.9|153.0|13.1

Monday – 1/13/2020 – 4×1000/5′ L1

At workout. On a static erg. Feeling pretty good. Target pace 1:45.

Started with a quick warm up.

That was a bit over exuberant, so I paddled a 1000m

No avoiding it any longer.

Wow! That was great.

I am getting more comfortable at stroke rates around 30.

Tuesday – 1/14/2020 – 2×30’/2′ L4

Wednesday – 1/15/2020 – 5×1500/5′ L2

Pressed for time so I did the first 1500 as a warmup. My target was 1:48.

Leave off the warmup and that’s a 1:47.7 pace vs my 1:48 target. Tough work, but a big success.

Thursday – 1/16/2020 – No Training

Big day for quarterly business reviews. They started at 8am and I felt like should spend time prepping for the meetings.

Friday – 1/17/2020 – 15 x 3’/1′ L3

This is a very intense workout. Pretty grumpy that Painsled hung up on me. My target was 800m per interval, which I think is about a 1:52.5 pace.

Here’s the hear rate data from my apple watch (hooray for redundancy!)

And here are the old school monitor shots.

Actual: 1:50.7, and nearly a complete negative split. I certainly layed out a really strong last rep.

Saturday – 1/18/2020 – Ergsana

I went out to Worcester to row with my friends. There were two parts to the workout. First was an erg session, then about an hour of yoga. I have never done yoga before in my life and this was the seventh of eight sessions. I was definitely the slow learner of the session.

But the erg session was fun. I have never done any of the games that are built into the concept2 PM5. It was very fun doing them as a group because for each game you could compete both on points, and on other things like distance covered.

First up was the fish game. As far as I could tell, this game rewarded what I will charitably call unconventional technique. You needed to make constant adjustments to stroke rate and stroke power to eat little fishes and avoid big fishes. But, it definitely rewarded pushing yourself because the harder you go, the more of the screen you can cover to eat them fishies.

Each fish game is 4 minutes long and I found myself finishing each at about a 1:50 pace. Since there was a lot of speeding up and slowing down, this was more challenging that you might imagine. My scores ranged from 1170 to 1440. I pretty much stunk at the game play, but after 4 games, I was pretty bushed.

After that, we tried the darts game. This game was my jam. It rewarded consistency, and I have done an awful lot of steady state rowing. With the darts game, a “dart” comes on the screen at the left and at some point begins to drop down. You must judge the trajectory of the dart and decide when to pull and how hard. The drive sends the dart climbing and the rate of climb is rated to how hard you pull. If you get it right, the dart lands in the center of the dartboard and you get 50 points. A game is 300 darts, so a maximum of 15000 points.

You get 5 strokes to set a rhythm and I guess I was a bit amped up because I set out at a stroke rate of 24. But I was also in a groove. I was nailing the bullseye on most of my strokes. But I couldn’t ease up. If I did, then the darts started to go low. the game was incredibly reinforcing. I kept digging deeper and deeper, and finished with 1:52.2 average over 3225 meters. (13785 points in the game) I also finished with a heart rate of 182. Doing a 12 minute piece after the 4x4min was a pretty big ask.

Sunday – 1/19/2020 – No Training

I flew out to California in the afternoon and arrived quite late. I discovered there was a Furry Convention at my hotel.

Well, that was not what I expected!

Monday – 1/20/2020 – 2 x 30′ in the fitness center

30 minutes on the treadmill and 30 minutes on a recumbent stationary bike.

A cool thing is I discovered that the apple watch would link up magically to the exercise gear. There is a little note on the screen of the treadmill or bike that says “Connects to Apple Watch”, and you just put the watch close to the screen and a little bowtie symbol shows up.

After that, what ever the machine is recording shows up in the watch.

30 minutes at max incline on the treadmill at 3mph. Then rolling hills on the stationary bike.

I had meetings all day, and then a business dinner in the evening. Back at the hotel at a reasonable hour and right to bed.

Tuesday – 1/21/2020 – 9km run

I had a very important meeting in the morning and then a bunch of other meetings until mid afternoon. We headed back to our hotel, now entirely devoid of furries and I decided to go for a run.

I decided to follow Guadalupe Park, and discovered there are a LOT of homeless people in San Jose. There is so much wealth in silicon valley, but it has squeezed people on the margins out of their homes and into tents. Profoundly depressing.

It was also a lot of running for someone who doesn’t run. I was sore for days afterward.

After a shower, I headed to meet up with my work friends. We watched some basketball (and I drank a couple of beers), then we met some other work folks for an excellent greek dinner.

Another good night’s sleep.

Wednesday – 1/22/2020 – 2×30′ fitness center

Feeling quite sore and not quite motivated.

30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes on the bike. Both magically connected to the apple watch!

Short intervals on the elliptical, Rolling hills on the bike

Pretty tame.

Meetings during the day and a business dinner that night with the unit of our company in San Jose. They had a fantastic year, beating all targets and launching an important new product. This was the dinner to congratulate them.

Thursday – 1/23/2020 – No Training

Up at 5am to drive to the airport. Arrived in Boston around 5pm.

Friday – 1/24/2020 – 3×20’/2′ L4

At work in the fitness center. HR a little high.

Saturday – 1/25/2020 – More Darts games and Boatcoach!

After Painsled betrayed me for my 15×3 workout, I decided that I wanted to check out boatcoach. For rowing apps , there are three serious choices. Ergdata, which is cheap and reliable, but it does a terrible job handling interval based workouts. It doesn’t record the rest times reliably and that messes up analysis in rowsandall. Painsled is proving to be more and more annoying because of dropped strokes and workout hangups. And then there is boatcoach. Every one that uses boatcoach raves about it. The only problem is that it runs only on Android, and until today, I was an iOS only kinda guy. I broke down and bought a small Android Tablet. A Samsung Tab (Model A).

I went and downloaded boatcoach. That was easy. Then I tried to get it hooked up to the erg. This required a bit of fumbling around, but eventually I mastered that. Then I took my inaugural row. A “Just Row” of 501 meters.

That out of the way, I was thinking that the darts game would be an excellent way to pass the time for steady state workouts. 300 strokes at 20spm would be a 15 minute piece and the game definitely rewarded good steady rowing. So, I set it up and off I went. My goal was 14000 points, and to keep my HR below 150. I had time for 4 games.

       Workout Summary - media/20200125-2122030o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15131|01:04:40.2|02:08.2|182.3|19.6|139.4|152.0|12.0
W-|15131|01:04:40.4|02:08.2|182.3|19.6|139.4|152.0|11.9
R-|00000|00:00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|152.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03739|15:01.2|02:00.5|201.0|20.3|137.2|152.0|12.2
01|00211|01:37.5|03:51.0|091.7|11.8|131.8|151.0|11.0 - abort!
02|03724|15:25.7|02:04.3|187.5|19.8|143.2|149.0|12.2
03|00281|02:36.3|04:38.1|076.9|09.6|110.1|131.0|11.2 - abort!
04|03634|15:05.6|02:04.6|184.8|20.3|141.7|147.0|11.9
05|03542|14:54.1|02:06.2|183.8|20.4|141.1|149.0|11.6

I got worse at the game each time! First time, I score 14485, 515 away from a perfect score. The second try was close at 14335, but then I seemed to lose the hang of it at the start of the third and it took almost 10 strokes to get into a consistent groove. The same thing happened in the last game.

It was a fun and absolutely “in the zone” steady state workout.

Oh, and boatcoach worked perfectly! One cool feature of boatcoach and rowsandall. You can look at your force curves!

For a workout like this, it could be useful to look at how tight you can get the q25 to q75 band.

Tomorrow – I think I will do a long, slow steady state session.

12/30/2019 to 1/12/2020

January 12, 2020January 12, 2020Leave a comment

Another couple of weeks have gone by and I’ve done some good training. I’m back in the groove, with no business travel and limited crises at work. It’s been good.

Monday – 12/30 – 4×2000/5′

I had spent the christmas vacation just rebuilding my aerobic base with lots of base work. I wanted to ease into doing the hard stuff. So, even though this was a hard session, I rate limited it to try to make it a bit more doable. It didn’t work, I still blew up in the last rep.

I started with a 2k warmup at 2:00 pace, then the main session.

Note: this session is on slides. I think you’ll see a trend develop.

Tueaday – 12/31 – 3 x 20’/2′ L4

On the cape, on slides. Nothing to report.

Wednesday – 1/1/2020 – 3 x 20’/2′ L4

A little hungover, but not a bad session. Session done at home after we returned from the cape.

Thursday – 1/2 – 10K push – L3

Back at work! Again, trying to ease into the harder stuff. Change 10K hard into a 10K push, starting at 2:05 and ending at 1:56.

First a 2k warmup.

Then…

       Workout Summary - media/20200102-1336170o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|00:39:44.3|01:59.2|206.8|22.8|151.4|177.0|11.1
W-|10000|00:39:44.9|01:59.2|206.8|22.8|151.4|177.0|11.1
R-|00000|00:00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|177.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|04:07.8|02:03.9|181.8|20.5|122.3|134.0|11.8 - 5
01|01000|04:06.6|02:03.3|187.0|21.4|138.5|142.0|11.4 - 4
02|01000|04:04.9|02:02.5|190.4|21.7|144.3|146.0|11.3 - 3
03|01000|04:02.7|02:01.3|195.8|22.1|147.5|149.0|11.2 - 2
04|01000|04:00.8|02:00.4|200.5|22.4|150.5|152.0|11.1 - 1
05|01000|03:58.2|01:59.1|207.0|23.0|154.2|156.0|10.9 - 0
06|01000|03:56.6|01:58.3|211.4|23.2|157.5|160.0|11.0 - 9
07|01000|03:54.2|01:57.1|218.0|23.8|162.5|166.0|10.8 - 8
08|01000|03:51.0|01:55.5|226.8|24.3|167.2|171.0|10.7 - 7
09|01000|03:42.2|01:51.1|255.6|25.9|173.5|177.0|10.4 - 6

That went well. Next push starts at 2:04.

Friday – 1/3 – 3×20’/2′ L4

Tired, high HR for this one.

Saturday – 1/4 – Rest day

first rest day in 14 days, although I stopped one workout after 30 minutes.

Sunday – 1/5 – 3 x 30/2′ steady state

And I had a problem with painsled so the data did not get captured. Steady state at 18 spm and ~170W.

Monday – 1/6 – 8 x 500 / 3’30” L1

At work, static erg.

2k warmup with lots of little bursts

Then… Target of 1:44. Actual 1:42. <– pretty happy about that

Tuesday – 1/7 – 2 x 30’/2′ steady state

Not in the mood for L4s right now. On a static erg, I can just about hold 180W at 18 spm.

       Workout Summary - media/20200107-1351170o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15018|01:04:00.0|02:07.8|172.0|18.1|141.0|156.0|12.9
W-|14389|00:60:00.0|02:05.1|178.7|18.4|141.3|156.0|13.1
R-|00631|00:04:00.0|03:10.3|071.3|14.7|135.8|156.0|10.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07179|30:00.0|02:05.4|177.4|18.3|135.1|146.0|13.1
01|07210|30:00.0|02:04.8|180.1|18.4|147.6|156.0|13.0

Wednesday – 1/8 – 3×30’/2′ steady state

I’m into a good audio book right now, so the steady state rows are fun and easy. I had extra time on Wed morning so I tacked on an extra 30 minutes. Right about 176W.

       Workout Summary - media/20200108-1406210o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|22239|01:36:00.0|02:09.5|168.5|17.7|140.8|153.0|13.1
W-|21473|01:30:00.0|02:05.7|176.2|18.0|141.2|153.0|13.3
R-|00770|00:06:00.0|03:53.9|052.2|12.7|136.2|153.0|12.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07164|30:00.0|02:05.6|176.2|17.9|133.5|142.0|13.4
01|07156|30:00.0|02:05.8|176.2|18.0|142.9|151.0|13.3
02|07153|30:00.0|02:05.8|176.2|18.1|147.0|153.0|13.1

Thursday – 1/9 – Waterfall L2

Warmup

Then the main session. I was really worried about this session because the 4×2000 was so bad. But I decided to just go for it. I set a aggressive target of 1:51, which was about what I had done back a few weeks ago. I smashed it!

Incredibly gratifying. So, this one was on a static erg.

Friday – 1/10 – 2 x 30′ / 2′ steady state

Saturday – 1/11 – Hard 5K

Start with a 20′ fletcher warmup.

The warmup was unexpectedly hard. It didn’t bode well for the 5K. Since I had gotten the 1:49.4 for the waterfall, I thought that a 1:51 would be in reach for the 5K. That dream lasted 1K. I reset my sights on 1:52. That lasted to about 2500m, when I reset for 1:54. I kind of lost it around 3750m, but brought myself back in focus to just try to finish the piece out. I suspect if I had set out at 1:53, I would have been able to accelerate in the second half and done better.

So the interesting thing to me is the big difference in performance between the waterfall workout and this one. Here are the differences.

waterfall	5K
Static	Slides
Morning	Afternoon
2k warmup	5k warmup
3 days after rest	5 days after rest day
room 20C	room 18C

Looking at it, it seems like the biggest differences are static versus slides and length of warmup.

So, I looked at the previous time when I did the waterfall workout, and discovered it was on slides. Here’s the plot. (ignore the HR in the second rep, the sensor went screwy)

And here’s a direct comparison. The first one on 11/25, was done when I was in better shape as measured by the Strava fitness and freshness metric.

So, I think that I am about 11W more efficient on a static erg than I am on slides. In pace terms. 1:51.0 on slides vs 1:49.4 on static. If I can figure out why this is, and how to fix it, I might be able to go faster in a boat.

Piling up meters

December 2, 2019December 2, 2019Leave a comment

Saturday – Nov 30 – 4 x 20′ / 2′ L4

In the early evening after dropping my sons off back in Cambridge.

On slides. Classic L4 progression

       Workout Summary - media/20191201-2301590o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20024|01:28:00.0|02:11.8|166.9|19.1|136.9|158.0|11.9
W-|19238|01:20:00.0|02:04.8|179.9|19.4|137.3|157.0|12.4
R-|00791|00:08:00.0|05:03.4|036.3|15.6|133.4|157.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04787|20:00.0|02:05.3|177.2|19.0|128.6|137.0|12.6
01|04840|20:00.0|02:04.0|183.8|19.8|137.5|153.0|12.2
02|04758|20:00.0|02:06.1|174.6|19.0|139.5|148.0|12.5
03|04852|20:00.0|02:03.7|184.0|19.9|143.4|157.0|12.2

Sunday – Dec 1 – 3 x 30’/2′ Steady State

The goal here was to maximize power and keep HR below target for each section.

first 30′ – 145
second 30′ – 150
third 30′ – 155

       Workout Summary - media/20191201-2301190o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|21998|01:35:59.9|02:10.9|169.1|19.6|143.4|156.0|11.7
W-|21431|01:29:28.5|02:05.2|177.6|19.8|143.9|156.0|12.1
R-|00571|00:06:00.0|05:15.4|056.1|16.1|136.5|156.0|07.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07196|30:00.0|02:05.1|177.7|19.7|135.7|145.0|12.2
01|07065|29:28.5|02:05.2|178.2|19.8|145.5|152.0|12.1
02|07171|30:00.0|02:05.5|176.8|19.9|150.4|156.0|12.0

Felt tired. It was my 13th day in a row without a break. The double session on 11/21 was actually one session in Shanghai, and then another at home after my flight.

Now I am sitting in the lounge in the airport, waiting to board my flight. I am on my way to Taiwan for some customer meetings, I will be returning on Friday night (late). Last year, there was an erg in the fitness center. Hopefully, I can keep up on my plan.

Looping back around again.

November 25, 2019Leave a comment

I’ve completed the three week cycle of the plan, and then had a 1 week interruption to go to China. Now, I am back to repeating the workouts for the second time through and have a much better idea of pace targets.

Sunday – Nov 24 – 3 x 30′ / 2′ Steady State with a bit of L4 action

I was feeling a tired and my HR was a bit higher than I expected, but it was a good session. I got bored and decided to do the last 30 minutes in L4 format.

       Workout Summary - media/20191124-2146140o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|22007|01:35:59.8|02:10.9|164.8|19.3|143.9|162.0|11.9
W-|21250|01:29:33.9|02:06.4|173.4|19.4|144.5|162.0|12.2
R-|00761|00:06:00.0|03:56.4|044.8|17.4|135.4|162.0|09.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07041|29:42.1|02:06.6|172.7|19.2|137.0|146.0|12.3
01|07117|30:00.0|02:06.5|173.5|19.9|145.2|151.0|11.9
02|07092|29:51.8|02:06.3|174.1|19.1|151.1|162.0|12.4

There is something brewing with the monitor on this rower. The spikes that you see at the end of the first 30′ piece were transients. I saw them on the monitor too. I was rowing along and suddenly the power went up above 200 and the stroke rate was way off too. There is also missing strokes, something that I saw a lot more of a while ago, but is still an issue on this specific machine.

Monday – Nov 25 – 8 x 500 / 3’30”

Last time I did this session was October 25th. I targeted a 1:45 pace, did the first 7 reps between 1:44 and 1:45, and kicked out a nice faster last rep at 1:41.9. That brought the average to 1:44 even for whole session.

So today’s target was 1:44 for the first 7 and a faster last. But, I am getting ahead of myself. I started with a fletcher warmup.

That was hard work. I was worried that I might not be up to the session.

But, it turns out I was OK. In fact, I was really nailing it in the middle reps. The last couple started to bite pretty hard, but I focused on trying to keep my rate up above 30 and row nice and light.

Here is the comparison between sessions.

1.2% shorter DPS (correlates with slightly higher stroke rate)
2.4% higher peak force.
1.9% higher stroke rate
3.1% higher power (up from 309 to 319W)

I’m really happy with the session. I had an irresistible urge to lie down for a minute in the locker room afterwards, and I’m pleasantly sore now. I’ve kind of missed doing these sprint interval sessions.

Erg Based Training is so simple!

November 17, 2019Leave a comment

I last posted on November 11th, right after I struggled with the Pyramid workout. Since then, I’ve had some OK workouts, some good workouts, but the main thing I’ve had is consistency. I been able to follow my plan at just about 100% conformance for the past three weeks.

Just in time for three weeks of travel and holidays! Let’s see how well I can maintain momentum through this.

Tuesday – November 12 – 4 x 20′ / 2′

At work, static erg. Nothing fancy. Just doing the meters. Working with a HR cap of 150.

       Workout Summary - media/20191112-1401180o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20011|01:27:59.9|02:11.9|160.6|19.7|137.7|150.0|11.6
W-|18981|01:19:52.4|02:06.2|173.5|20.2|139.1|150.0|11.8
R-|01034|00:08:00.0|03:52.1|033.7|14.6|124.7|150.0|11.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04773|20:00.0|02:05.7|174.0|19.9|129.7|138.0|12.0
01|04742|20:00.0|02:06.5|173.2|20.2|138.6|146.0|11.7
02|04747|20:00.0|02:06.4|173.2|20.2|143.4|149.0|11.8
03|04719|19:52.4|02:06.4|173.5|20.5|144.6|150.0|11.6

Good session.

Wednesday – 13 November – 5 x 1500/5′ L2

Always my favorite of the L2 workouts. Pace target was 1:51.0.

Started with a 2k warmup.

Then the main session. I chickened out about the 1:51 target and decided 1:52 would be better.

        Workout Summary - media/20191113-1341120o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10974|00:52:45.7|02:24.2|157.6|22.0|143.0|176.0|09.5
W-|07500|00:27:44.4|01:51.0|256.1|26.7|155.5|176.0|10.1
R-|03476|00:25:01.6|03:36.0|048.4|16.7|129.1|176.0|08.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01500|05:32.4|01:50.8|254.4|26.2|149.6|164.0|10.3
01|01500|05:35.5|01:51.8|253.5|26.6|154.6|167.0|10.1
02|01500|05:33.3|01:51.1|254.4|26.9|156.5|170.0|10.0
03|01500|05:33.1|01:51.0|255.9|26.9|158.1|172.0|10.1
04|01500|05:30.1|01:50.0|262.7|27.2|158.7|176.0|10.0

As it turned out, with a bit of a fast last, I was able to make the target after all.

Later Wednesday morning, I headed down to Washington DC to do a presentation at a conference.

Thursday – 14 November – steady state cross training in Washington

30′ inclined walk

10′ stationary bike (I was not enjoying it)

20′ on an ellipitcal

Friday – 15 November – 3 x 20′ / 1′

I was pressed for time, so I cut back from an 80 minuter session to 60′. I pushed the power target up a bit, mainly just to see what would happen. I was very happy with the result. My HR was higher, but plateaued pretty well.

        Workout Summary - media/20191115-1331160o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14840|01:03:00.4|02:07.4|175.2|19.9|142.0|157.0|11.8
W-|14481|00:60:00.0|02:04.3|182.0|20.0|141.9|157.0|12.0
R-|00363|00:03:00.5|04:08.7|038.8|17.5|143.6|157.0|07.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04829|20:00.0|02:04.2|181.7|20.1|131.1|144.0|12.0
01|04825|20:00.0|02:04.3|182.1|20.0|144.0|150.0|12.0
02|04826|20:00.0|02:04.3|182.2|20.0|150.5|157.0|12.1

That was really gratifying. I feel like my base fitness is starting to return.

Saturday – 16 November – 6K Threshold

I was nervous about this session all day. I was originally going to do it with company at the lake with some clubmates, but we ended up locked out of the storeroom where the ergs are kept. So I was able to procrastinate a bit longer. I finally got up the nerve to go do it. First, a 2K warmup.

Then there wasn’t anything else to do but to give it a try. I had put my 10K and my 30 minute sessions into the Free Spirits pace predictor and it spit out a 1:51.4 target. Holy hell, that felt fast. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. So, off I went trying to keep 1:51’s on the screen. That worked out OK through the first 2000, but I was starting to really feel it. My HR was well in control, but I had that vaguely drowning feeling you get when you’re on the edge. I played with pace and rate a bit to see if anything felt better and counted out blocks of 100 strokes. The section from 4000 to 5000 was the worst. I managed to get some control of myself by really trying to concentrate on stroke technique. Keeping my knees down during the first part of the recovery and limiting my layback. Then into the last 100 strokes, and it was just a matter of getting through it. I managed a small sprint in the last 500 meters.

Then a happy ending cool down.

I am very happy with that. I ranked it and for it’s currently 38th for the 50-59 heavies. Roughly the 90th percentile. It’s a full minute off my best 6K time, so lots of room for improvement, but a good hard row.

Sunday – 17 November – 3 x 30’/2′

Long and easy. Perfect for a sunday afternoon.

        Workout Summary - media/20191117-1926120o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|22004|01:36:00.0|02:10.9|167.2|19.8|136.9|147.0|11.6
W-|21455|01:30:00.0|02:05.8|175.3|19.9|137.9|147.0|12.0
R-|00553|00:06:00.0|05:25.7|046.4|18.1|121.5|147.0|08.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07137|30:00.0|02:06.1|173.3|19.5|134.3|141.0|12.2
01|07135|30:00.0|02:06.1|174.9|20.0|138.7|144.0|11.9
02|07183|30:00.0|02:05.3|177.8|20.3|140.7|147.0|11.8

I wanted to stay below a HR cap of 150, and started with a power target of 173W. I nudged it up in each 30′ segment by a couple of watts. More signs of progress.

Tomorrow: I fly out to Shanghai at 9am.

Broken on the Pyramid

November 11, 2019Leave a comment

Sunday – November 10 – 3 x 30’/2′

When you get the target power right, these sessions are actually quite pleasant. My target today was 170W, but I happened to end the first 30 minutes at 173W, so I tried to match that for the next two pieces. My HR was a little higher than other sessions, but well within bounds.

Compared to last Sunday, much higher HR and drift this week, for only 1 more watt.

Monday – 11 November – L1 Pyramid

On the older Model C static erg in the fitness center.

I slept terribly last night and woke up at 5:15 feeling not at all rested. But there was a hard session in the plan.

Started with a fletcher warmup. Not my best work. I slowed way below target after the 1 minute and 30 second sprints.

I had a target of 1:44 for the session and I was worried about it. I probably should have backed off of it on principle, but I’ dumb that way.

The first 2 intervals were no problem. The third was really hard and I was just barely hanging on at the end of it. I went into the 1000m interval with a bad attitude and had a mental break about 300m into it. I paddled a few strokes and then decided to row it out to a softer target, around 1:46 or so. The last 10 strokes were very difficult.

For the 750m, I decided to stick with 1:46 and then see if I could speed it up in the last 250m. I was pretty shattered after I finished it, but I had 4:30 to recover. The 500 was fine. I started to rate up and just punched it out. The last 250 is always good fun, and today was no exception.

       Workout Summary - media/20191111-1316100o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07061|00:38:06.6|02:41.9|138.3|23.4|142.2|173.0|07.9
W-|04000|00:14:05.9|01:45.7|309.6|28.9|150.1|171.0|09.8
R-|03067|00:23:10.2|03:46.7|037.9|20.1|137.3|171.0|05.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00250|00:51.0|01:42.0|311.6|27.8|115.8|141.0|10.6
01|00500|01:44.2|01:44.2|317.7|29.3|149.9|166.0|09.8
02|00750|02:34.9|01:43.3|318.2|29.1|157.6|171.0|10.0
03|01000|03:47.5|01:53.8|267.5|26.8|153.3|169.0|09.8
04|00750|02:37.5|01:45.0|302.8|28.3|154.6|171.0|10.1
05|00500|01:41.7|01:41.7|334.9|30.6|147.1|167.0|09.7
06|00250|00:49.0|01:38.0|427.4|36.5|138.9|156.0|08.4

So, with a massive issue in the middle interval, I still finished only 1.2 seconds off of target. I could have done the middle interval around 1:48 and hit the target. This was a useful lesson. Stick to the target and let yourself slow down for the 1000m interval. Same target next time.

Tomorrow. 4 x 20’/2′ at 170W

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: steady state