Friday AM: 14K Steady State in the rain

April 17, 2015April 17, 20155 Comments

Technology failed me today. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get my HR monitor to link up with either my phone or my speedcoach. I have to assume that it has consumed yet another battery. I really like the Polar H7, but the battery life is not very good, and seemingly random. Some batteries last a long time, some of them only last a few weeks.

So, I was flying blind in terms of intensity, and as I always do, I’m sure I pushed too hard due to the lack of the feedback. Oh well, I had fun pushing too hard.

The weather was less than perfect, and I enjoyed it a lot. It was 50F and raining, with about a 10mph wind blowing from upriver to downriver. Rowing downriver, I felt like a god! The boat felt light and my splits were fast. Rowing upriver, it was like I had pushed the drag lever up to 8. Every stroke felt very heavy and the boat had very little run. It was hard work.

But the good news was that I was able to concentrate on those crisp finishes from yesterday, and getting good compression at the catch. When I got it right, I was rewarded with a 5 second improvement in boat speed. When I got sloppy, I slowed right down.

I did two laps of the river. This is about 20 minutes downriver from launch to the Moody Street dam, then 15 minutes upriver, stopping before the twisty turny part. Then 15 minutes back down river. Finally, 20 minutes back home.

Tomorrow: A hard 5.5K on Lake Quinsigamond

Wed PM: Windy 8K

April 16, 2015April 16, 20153 Comments

I flew home from LA, which required me to get up at 4AM. I arrived at Logan airport around 4pm, and decided that I really, really wanted to go for a row. The weather indicated that the wind would be 15mph gusting to 25, but I figured that my sheltered little river would be OK.

I was mostly right. There were some sections where the wind was so strong that I was just trying to hang on. There were other sections, at the end of a longer exposed section where the waves and whitecaps were big enough to cause significant problems on recovery and wash over the deck of the boat. But it was glorious nonetheless! It was great to be out on a sunny day after being cooped up on a plane for 5 hours.

I worked a little too hard for a good quality steady state session, but it was good to get some rough water practice.

4×20’/1’r at Crossfit Anaerobic (Oh the irony!)

April 14, 2015April 14, 20152 Comments

No training yesterday, I was up before 5AM to catch a flight out to LAX. Then into meetings for the rest of the day, and a very nice dinner at the Crow Bar. They have a delightful slogan.

The place has about 50 beers on tap, mostly local and as far as I could tell, delicious. They also have a “black label” burger, consisting entirely of ground ribeye and served on a brioche bun along with french fries, cooked in duck fat.

Needless to say, I definitely needed to hit the gym this morning. So I toddled off Crossfit Anaerobic in Irvine, which was close enough for me to walk to from my hotel.

As usual, the folks there were very nice, the facility was clean and well equipped. The erg I selected from a row of identical machines was smooth and well maintained.

Then it was time to settle in for my purely aerobic workout and crossfit anaerobic (There’s that irony).

Target power was 195W, and it felt nice and easy. HR popped quickly up to about 145 and then very slowly drifted up from there. It felt like the right power.

I was holding 195W through 19 minutes of the last interval, and decided to finish strong. So, I upped the rate to 24 and held >300W for the last minute.

Tomorrow: Flying back home, and hopefully getting in time to go for a row on my way home.

Sunday PM: Bonus Session 3×20′ steady state -ish

April 12, 2015Leave a comment

I have to fly out early tomorrow morning to California, and I doubt I will have any time to fit in a workout. So, I thought it would be a good idea to do a second session today.

Nothing to taxing, but some more meters in the bank.

As usual, I started with a 20 minute lactate test. As usual for a Sunday, it felt easier than on any other day. Target was 193W, but I was having trouble getting it down below 195W. And my HR was nicely controlled and stayed below 140 throughout the piece.

Power: 195.1W, Rate: 19.4spm, AvgHR: 137.4bpm, Lactate: 1.4mmol/l

Output
Workout Summary – Apr 12, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_04938_|_20:00.0_|_02:01.5_|_195.1_|_19.4_|_132.8_|_ 62.9% _|_12.8_|_10.1
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_01236_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.4_|_195.7_|_19.4_|_123.0_|_ 56.0% _|_12.7_|_10.1
02_|_01235_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.5_|_195.3_|_19.4_|_133.9_|_ 63.8% _|_12.7_|_10.1
03_|_01235_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.4_|_195.4_|_19.4_|_136.7_|_ 65.8% _|_12.7_|_10.1
04_|_01232_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.8_|_193.9_|_19.2_|_137.4_|_ 66.3% _|_12.8_|_10.1

So, then I setup for 2 more 20 minute pieces. I row these using rowpro, and I have gotten in the habit of just setting them up as a single continuous row. I started doing it that way because it is the way you have to do it for online rows, but it just works better for the spreadsheet to do it this way. For a 2×20’/1’rest, I set up a continuous row of 42′ and then set up the splits to be 21 minutes long. That way, the avg power for the split is accurate throughout. I row down from 42′ to 22′, then I grab a drink of water and a quick wipe of the towel. I start paddling with a few seconds to go before the 21 minute mark, and then I’m into the second piece. I row that down from 21′ down to 1′, and then I have to decide what I want to do with that last minute. Sometimes I just row it out at the target pace. Other times, I paddle it as a quick cool down. Most often, I do a quick 1′ at higher rate and pressure for a bit of fun at the end of the row.

You can do the same thing for 3×20′ (63′) or 4×20′ (84′).

Today, I dutifully did my next 20 minutes at 195W target power. My HR monitor was dropping in and out, but I had enough readings to see that my HR was staying nice and low. I also felt terrific. So, during the 1 minute break, I decided to row the last 21′ harder. I did the first 5′ at r22 and 220W, then 5′ at r21/210W, then 5′ at r20/200W, then 5′ at r19/190W. That left 1 minute to go. I bumped it up to r24 and tried to take long hard strokes. I was able to hold about 275W (1:48) at r24 comfortably.

This was a great way to make the time pass quickly and to get a bit more intensity. Through the whole thing, my HR never went above UT1. There is something magic about Sundays.

Output
Workout Summary – Apr 12, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_10339_|_42:00.0_|_02:01.9_|_193.4_|_19.6_|_138.2_|_ 66.8% _|_12.5_|_09.8
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_04952_|_20:00.0_|_02:01.2_|_196.7_|_19.3_|_131.1_|_ 61.8% _|_12.9_|_10.2
02_|_00060_|_01:00.0_|_08:22.1_|_002.8_|_05.0_|_128.2_|_ 59.7% _|_12.0_|_00.6
03_|_01297_|_05:00.0_|_01:55.7_|_226.1_|_22.0_|_137.7_|_ 66.5% _|_11.8_|_10.3
04_|_01273_|_05:00.0_|_01:57.9_|_213.8_|_21.2_|_147.5_|_ 73.4% _|_12.0_|_10.1
05_|_01250_|_05:00.0_|_02:00.0_|_202.5_|_20.0_|_146.9_|_ 73.0% _|_12.5_|_10.1
06_|_01231_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.8_|_193.6_|_19.0_|_145.3_|_ 71.8% _|_13.0_|_10.2
07_|_00277_|_01:00.0_|_01:48.1_|_276.9_|_24.0_|_150.7_|_ 75.7% _|_11.6_|_11.5

Tomorrow: 7am flight to LAX. Probably no training.

3×20′ / 1′ on slides – Back home

April 9, 2015April 9, 20153 Comments

I got to my hotel around midnight and was up at 5am to catch my flight back to Boston.

I had hoped to get on the water today, but the weather conspired against me at both ends of the trip. First, my departure from Chicago was delayed by an hour, compressing the time available for a real row. And once I arrived at Boston and was greeted by drizzle, wind and 35F temperatures, the decision was basically made for me. I decided that an hour on slides would have to suffice for today.

My training power has been all over the place over the past couple of weeks. And the fact that so many of my sessions have been on a static erg confused me further as I tried to figure out the right target pace. I decided that 193W was a reasonable place to start. It turned out that I would have done better with 190W, but it wasn’t far off.

The stats: 193W, 144.6BPM, 20 SPM, 2.4mmol/l (above target)

So, after the first 20 minutes, I reduced my target power down to 190W for the rest of the workout. That slowed down the HR drift and made the rest of the ride pretty easy.

Based on my schedule tomorrow, I am not sure if I can fit in a workout at all. If I do, it will likely be a quick 40 minutes of steady state on slides.

3×20’/1′ at Crossfit Carbon in Vernon Hills, IL

April 7, 2015April 7, 20155 Comments

No lactate test today, and plenty of noise on the HR data, but a delightful workout. I was going to row at 187W, up just a little from Sunday’s row, but it felt so easy, and my HR was happily low, so I went with 193-ish.

As I have found at every single Crossfit box that I have visited, these folks were friendly, and the ergs were meticulously maintained. There was a beginner class going on while I rowed and three experts (all women) doing a fiendish looking WOD that involved clean and jerks, rowing and kipping pull ups. I was thoroughly intimidated, but the time passed extremely quickly with so much going on around me.

Tomorrow: I will head back to Crossfit Carbon. Most likely I will make an attempt at the CTC.

4×20′ – Amazing difference

April 6, 20151 Comment

I had intended to take today off, but then I remembered that I was taking off for Chicago first thing Monday morning and would probably not have time for a workout. Of course, by then it was 6 at night and I had consumed a big easter lunch, along with beer, wine and other spirits. I didn’t feel too full, so I thought an easy session would be OK.

Besides, I was interested to see what happened.

Well, it was stunningly easy. I had to work hard to slow down to 185W, and when I did, my HR just ticked along, barely teetering along the bottom UT2 range through the second half of the 20 minutes. And the lactate test was similarly low –> 1.7mmol/l

Output
Workout Summary – Apr 05, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_04869_|_20:00.0_|_02:03.2_|_187.0_|_19.0_|_131.6_|_ 62.1% _|_12.8_|_09.9
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_01222_|_05:00.0_|_02:02.8_|_189.1_|_19.0_|_119.4_|_ 53.5% _|_12.9_|_10.0
02_|_01220_|_05:00.0_|_02:03.0_|_188.1_|_19.4_|_135.5_|_ 64.9% _|_12.6_|_09.7
03_|_01214_|_05:00.0_|_02:03.6_|_185.4_|_18.8_|_136.3_|_ 65.5% _|_12.9_|_09.9
04_|_01214_|_05:00.0_|_02:03.6_|_185.5_|_18.6_|_135.1_|_ 64.6% _|_13.1_|_10.0

So, after that happy result, I dialed in a 63′ minute rowpro session, with 21 minute splits. That way, I can row 20 minutes, take my 1 minute rest, and then start up a new 20 minutes with a new split so I can watch the avg watts. It makes it a lot easier to hit the 185W target. The rest of the session was exactly the same. Easy and anything, and my HR never really rose much.

Output
Workout Summary – Apr 05, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_15027_|_63:00.0_|_02:05.8_|_175.9_|_18.7_|_138.6_|_ 67.1% _|_12.8_|_09.4
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_04857_|_20:00.0_|_02:03.5_|_185.7_|_19.1_|_135.7_|_ 65.0% _|_12.7_|_09.7
02_|_00102_|_01:00.0_|_04:53.9_|_013.8_|_09.0_|_127.2_|_ 59.0% _|_11.3_|_01.5
03_|_04859_|_20:00.0_|_02:03.5_|_185.9_|_18.8_|_139.9_|_ 68.0% _|_12.9_|_09.9
04_|_00107_|_01:00.0_|_04:39.4_|_016.1_|_11.0_|_128.1_|_ 59.6% _|_09.8_|_01.5
05_|_05101_|_21:00.0_|_02:03.5_|_185.8_|_18.9_|_140.7_|_ 68.5% _|_12.8_|_09.8

So is this a new workout secret? Have a couple beers and a big slice of lemon meringue pie a couple hours before each workout? Perhaps I can start a new trend?

Tomorrow: Off to Chicago. Looking for a rowing machine somewhere near Buffalo Grove.

HR and Lactate – Workload effects and when to test.

April 2, 20152 Comments

I’ve been taking close to daily lactate readings for the past month and a half. In addition to thoroughly perforating my ring finger and keeping Nova Pharmaceuticals in business, this has both baffled and entertained me as I tried to understand how to best implement a polarized training plan using lactate measurements to manage steady state intensity.

I’ve previously posted this scatter plot of lactate readings*

Which shows essentially no correlation between HR and lactate. Over the past couple of weeks, I thought I was starting to see some relationship between lactate and HR readings and the day of the week, so it was time to bust out excel and see what i could find.

I follow a reasonably consistent workout schedule.

Sunday: Usually rest, but last month I was doing 10K just to bank the meters for a C2 challenge. Definitely the lightest trainning day in any case
Monday: ~80′ of steady state at target training power
Tuesday: ~80′ of steady state at target training power
Wednesday: 20′ lactate test at target power, and then an intense interval session
Thursday: ~80′ of steady state at target training power
Friday: ~80′ of steady state at target training power
Saturday: 20′ lactate test at target power, then a middle distance threshold workout (10K,30min, 6K, 5K)

Another thing to note: Saturday and Sunday sessions are at home on a static erg, during the week, most days are on slides. The airflow and temperature at home are better too.

Here’s the HR and lactate data sliced by day of the week.

First things first. Thee is still a lot of variation in the data when analyzed by day of the week. But looking at the data for lactate you can see a repeatable variation by days of the week. The effect is less pronounced with HR, but interestingly, it is shows a different day to day change.

So, starting with Sunday. I am on a static erg, in a cool environment, in addition to that, I am coming off a hard workout the day before. Both HR and lactate are low. Average HR is reasonably consistent for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

So, what’s deal with Wednesday? I theorize that by Wednesday my lactates are low and my HR is high because I of the accumulated workload on Monday and Tuesday, so I have less glycogen available to create lactate. Since my Wednesday workout is shorter but more intense, it actually ends up being fewer overall meters (and calories) than a steady state session. This means that I actually have more glycogen available on Thursday morning for steady state, so, lactates are up a bit.

It’s all quite confusing, but I think it makes sense to use a consistent. specific session during the week to set training power, and if you believe that the most important consideration for setting the optimal training power is to make sure that it consistently yields less than 2.0mmol/l in all sessions, that the session you use to test power setting should be one where you are well fueled and rested. For me that’s Monday.

* Note: Lactate and heart rate readings are taken at the end of a 20′ steady state piece at constant power. Lactate readings are taken at the conclusion of the piece. HR is the average HR for the last 5 minutes of the piece. Power is changed on a weekly basis (or sometime more frequently) to attempt to maintain lactate levels between 1.5 and 2.0 for all steady state rows.

4×20′ / 1′ r – Not quite slow enough

April 2, 20152 Comments

Intended to drop power to 185W, but settled at 187W. Tried to hold the rate at 18 for the first 20 minutes.

20′, r18, 186.9W, AvgHR: 142.9, Lactate: 1.6

No problems with those numbers. Pushed on at 187W and was fine through the next 2 20′ pieces. In the last piece, I kind of did a slow motion crash into the wall. My HR started to run away from me and I felt a much higher level of fatigue. So, after about 10 minutes of trying to hold 187, I slowed down to about 180W and essentially paddled it out. HR stayed stubbornly high though.

Tomorrow: Same thing, but at 185W

4×20 – Now at reduced power

March 31, 20152 Comments

I held on to hope for the first 20 minute piece. Since I did 20 minutes at 190W with a lactate of 1.3mmol/l on Saturday on my erg at home. I thought I would exactly replicate that and see what happened today. Answer…Lactate of 2.6!

I’m still trying to figure it all out, but independent of the reasons why, it is is clear that I need to train at a lower power. So, my new training power is 185W. And that’s what I did for the next 3 20 minute pieces.

But it is interesting to try to try to fit a theory around this. So, what I saw last week was steadily decreasing lactate readings, and increasing HRs after my hard session on Wednesday. Lactate readings were very low on Saturday. Then I did a very hard 6K and took Sunday off. Come back on Monday and HRs are more normal, but lactates are up.

Prior to Sunday, I had rowed at least 10K 24 days in a row to try to complete the Mud Season Madness. Granted one session a week was pretty easy, but the rest of them were at least 60 minutes of steady state or hard intervals / threshold type workouts. Over roughly the same period, I managed to lose about 10 pounds. I think I managed to achieve a cumulative depletion of glycogen over the period so that I was forced to metabolize fats, which does not produce lactate. When I finally took a day off, and, I must admit do some re-feeding (and beer-dration), my gylcogen stores were fully restored. So, going into the workouts monday and today, the power level was high enough to demand gycolysis and the glycogen stores were there to satisfy the demand. the product of that metabolism was higher lactate levels.

The higher power and lower lactate last week was not the result of an improved ability to metabolize lactate, but a lack of glycogen to make lactate in the first place. That is not what I was trying to induce with training.

So, as I said, the conclusion is the same. Get the training power down to a better number and increase it very slowly. Maybe 3W per week as Tom has suggested.

First 20 minutes. Power: 191.4W, Avg HR over the last 5 minutes: 144.6, lactate: 2.6

utput
Workout Summary – Mar 31, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_04907_|_20:00.0_|_02:02.3_|_191.4_|_19.0_|_136.4_|_ 65.5% _|_12.9_|_10.1
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_01229_|_05:00.0_|_02:02.0_|_192.6_|_19.0_|_120.5_|_ 54.3% _|_12.9_|_10.1
02_|_01228_|_05:00.0_|_02:02.1_|_192.1_|_19.2_|_138.7_|_ 67.2% _|_12.8_|_10.0
03_|_01225_|_05:00.0_|_02:02.4_|_190.7_|_18.8_|_142.0_|_ 69.5% _|_13.0_|_10.1
04_|_01224_|_05:00.0_|_02:02.5_|_190.2_|_18.8_|_144.6_|_ 71.4% _|_13.0_|_10.1

Then drop power to 185 for the next 3 pieces. Decided to drop stroke rate to 18 based on a suggestion from “mightyquinn” over on the Rowing Illustrated boards.

This was a happier power level, and may still be a bit too high. I got bored with about 2 minutes to go. I was staring at a projected distance of 14950m and that pissed me off. So, I cranked up the stroke rate to 27 and power to 300W and finished with a little flair.

Output
Workout Summary – Mar 31, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_15017_|_63:00.0_|_02:05.9_|_175.5_|_17.7_|_146.8_|_ 72.9% _|_13.5_|_09.9
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_04839_|_20:00.0_|_02:04.0_|_183.6_|_17.8_|_139.1_|_ 67.4% _|_13.6_|_10.3
02_|_00086_|_01:00.0_|_05:48.1_|_008.3_|_08.0_|_133.0_|_ 63.1% _|_10.8_|_01.0
03_|_04855_|_20:00.0_|_02:03.6_|_185.5_|_17.9_|_146.9_|_ 73.0% _|_13.6_|_10.4
04_|_00049_|_01:00.0_|_10:15.2_|_001.5_|_04.0_|_146.5_|_ 72.7% _|_12.2_|_00.4
05_|_04634_|_19:00.0_|_02:03.0_|_188.1_|_18.0_|_152.5_|_ 76.9% _|_13.6_|_10.4
06_|_00553_|_02:00.0_|_01:48.5_|_274.2_|_24.5_|_164.9_|_ 85.8% _|_11.3_|_11.2

Tomorrow: 3K / 2.5K / 2K on 5′ rest. Target pace: 1:48 (6K pace). On slides.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: steady state