A solid week of training (It’s a Miracle!)

September 10, 20188 Comments

My last post updated things to Tuesday, 4 September. Since then, things have been going great! I knew I had some travel coming up this week, so I skipped rest days and just alternated hard and easy sessions. Here’s an overview.

You can see that I slid some sessions around. I was scheduled for my 5 x 1500 on Monday 9/3, but I couldn’t get on the water. Instead I did an easy steady state session on the dynamic, and moved the hard sessions out by a day. I am also taking liberties with the easy sessions. My coach suggested that I use these sessions to continue to work on drills and also to include some speed work because it has value in head races for overtaking and at the finish. It also pushes me to work technique at high rates, which is a good thing.

I’ll have a bit more to say about training progress overall, but first, the sessions.

Wednesday, 5 Sept: 75′ of drills on the 5s.

Another great morning to row. This session is all about technique. It’s 4 minutes of steady state and then a minute of drills. The drills were

half slide
delayed feather
pause at body over
open hands on recovery

As you can see it was a low intensity session.

Thursday: 6 Sept: 12 x 3’/1′

With the nice easy workout on Tuesday, I should have been well rested and ready for action on Wednesday. These short interval / short rest sessions are supposed to give me a chance to get lots of minutes in at close to head race intensity, but include enough rest so that fatigue does not become a big factor until deep into the workout.

That’s not how it worked out in this session. I decided that I would take a little extra time at the ends of the river, so it was really broken up into sets of 3 reps. I managed through the first three, but when I turned and confronted the head wind, I overcooked the fourth rep. I started the fifth, as I was approaching the s-turn, and I felt kind funny, a little woozy maybe. Anyway, I pulled the plug and paddled through the turn. I lined up and did the 6th interval per plan, but it was a nasty experience. Notice that my HR is not extremely high, but my RPE was through the roof. I was gasping for breath and shaking.

I took a good long rest and a drink, then I turned around to do another set, now with a tail wind. I was a bit more conservative on pace for these and made it through the set of three. Another turn and another longer than proper rest and I steeled myself for the up wind set. I pounded out 2 reps, which took me up to the turn. I decided to paddle through the turn and take a longer rest. Then I did the 12th rep and finished strong.

The plan called for another set of three, but I was completely toasted. In really hard workouts, my right glute will start to hurt at the end of a session and it was really bad this time. I took my feet out of the shoes and gingerly paddled home. I stopped and stretched every couple minutes because I just couldn’t get comfortable in the seat.

Stunningly, no red in the plot.

          Workout Summary - media/20180906-1215320o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12579|79:38.0|03:09.9|092.8|21.6|144.0|178.0|07.3
W-|07379|33:52.0|02:17.7|150.5|24.7|159.6|178.0|08.8
R-|05211|45:47.0|04:23.6|050.1|19.4|132.4|178.0|06.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00694|03:03.9|02:12.5|151.4|24.2|145.9|160.0|09.4 - dwn
02|00676|03:02.1|02:14.6|148.9|25.4|155.6|166.0|08.8 - dwn
03|00691|03:03.2|02:12.5|159.0|23.9|161.5|172.0|09.5 - dwn
04|00637|02:57.3|02:19.3|156.0|25.7|159.5|171.0|08.4 - up
05|00252|01:10.6|02:20.4|157.8|24.6|157.9|163.0|08.7 - up (fail)
06|00630|02:57.0|02:20.5|146.3|23.6|160.1|173.0|09.0 - up
07|00681|03:03.4|02:14.7|150.1|25.2|154.6|168.0|08.8 - dwn
08|00663|03:02.2|02:17.4|134.6|24.7|164.9|174.0|08.9 - dwn
09|00641|02:54.3|02:15.9|149.3|24.4|168.1|177.0|09.1 - dwn
10|00597|02:52.4|02:24.4|146.8|25.1|158.7|171.0|08.3 - up
11|00586|02:47.6|02:23.0|155.2|25.1|167.1|178.0|08.4 - up
12|00631|02:58.1|02:21.1|155.8|24.9|160.7|175.0|08.5 - up

Friday, 7 Sept: 70′ steady state with bumps

In this session, I wanted to keep the overall intensity low to moderate, but I wanted to do 20 stroke bursts at as high of a stroke as I could while maintaining reasonably clean stroke work.

As I went along, I found it easier to get the rate up into the mid thirties. In one rep, I was really feeling it. I was finishing so clean that I was keeping my blades off the water on the very brief recoveries. I could feel the boat settle in the drive and pop in the recovery. I loved it! It’s fun to go fast.

         Workout Summary - media/20180907-1225290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13765|75:57.0|02:45.5|109.3|20.2|141.9|170.0|09.0
W-|01801|07:23.0|02:03.2|212.8|32.5|153.8|166.0|07.5
R-|11973|68:34.0|02:51.8|098.2|18.9|140.6|166.0|08.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00149|00:37.4|02:05.8|206.9|28.8|146.9|155.0|08.3
02|00156|00:41.3|02:12.2|203.3|28.9|150.7|158.0|07.8
03|00156|00:38.4|02:03.4|228.1|31.2|156.9|164.0|07.8
04|00167|00:40.7|02:02.1|205.3|30.8|150.8|157.0|08.0
05|00151|00:37.4|02:04.2|215.5|32.3|156.9|162.0|07.5
06|00137|00:33.5|02:02.5|242.6|34.3|154.6|162.0|07.1
07|00151|00:38.3|02:06.7|206.0|31.4|152.7|158.0|07.5
08|00136|00:33.4|02:03.0|185.8|34.1|156.5|163.0|07.1
09|00142|00:34.4|02:01.0|226.4|35.0|159.1|166.0|07.1
10|00136|00:31.4|01:55.4|237.2|36.3|148.5|158.0|07.2
11|00157|00:38.2|02:01.4|190.5|33.1|153.7|163.0|07.5
12|00165|00:39.6|02:00.1|212.7|34.8|158.1|166.0|07.2

Saturday: Attempted 10K Threshold

Down on the Cape. I was hoping to do my threshold session as a coastal row, but the weather was a bit windy, forcing me inside to do it on the erg (on slides). The plan wanted a 40′ threshold piece, so I decided on a 10K.

I started with the a 2K warm up.

Then into the main event. I thought I should be able to do it at a split of 1:58, so of course I set off at 1:57. Turns out, 2:00 would have been a better choice. I blew up just after 6K.

I took a few paddle strokes and then got going again at about a 2:02 pace. I sped up a bit towards the end, but it was a pretty ugly showing.

          Workout Summary - media/20180908-2250280o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:36.0|01:58.8|209.3|25.7|167.7|182.0|09.8
W-|10000|39:37.0|01:58.9|209.3|25.7|167.7|182.0|09.8
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|182.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:51.4|01:55.7|221.1|25.4|142.2|154.0|10.2
01|01000|03:53.6|01:56.8|219.8|25.7|160.0|162.0|10.0
02|01000|03:55.3|01:57.6|215.0|25.4|163.6|166.0|10.0
03|01000|03:55.2|01:57.6|215.5|25.6|167.0|169.0|10.0
04|01000|03:55.5|01:57.7|214.5|25.6|170.3|172.0|10.0
05|01000|03:56.8|01:58.4|211.2|25.9|172.6|174.0|09.8
06|01000|04:11.3|02:05.6|185.1|24.9|168.6|174.0|09.6 - boom!
07|01000|04:01.3|02:00.6|199.4|24.9|174.0|177.0|10.0
08|01000|04:02.4|02:01.2|196.7|25.1|177.2|179.0|09.9
09|01000|03:54.5|01:57.3|217.3|28.3|180.6|182.0|09.0

Good training effect anyway. I’m interested to see how this piece goes on a static erg to get an idea of how much I suffer on slides.

Sunday, 9 September: 3 x 20’/2′ dynamic

So nice and cool! I decided to observe a strict 150 bpm max HR because I wanted to recover from the nasty 10k attempt the day before. It turned out to be a really nice session. Unfortunately, the painsled session data got blown away somehow. But in any case, it was about a 2:08 pace, which is pretty good for a low HR cap on the dynamic.

It was one of those sessions where I felt better after I finished than when I started.

Monday, 10 September: 4 x 2k OTW

This is the real pinnacle of the weekly training plan. The long intervals. They end up being very close to head race pace and by the last one you are feeling the effects.

Today the weather was cool again, and there was a bit of a breeze. A headwind heading down river.

My plan for the session was to aim at 25 or 26 strokes per minute and try to work on smooth strokes and clean finishes. I am trying to lighten up the first part of the drive. I feel like it went very well today.

         Workout Summary - media/20180910-1255340o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12201|71:36.0|02:56.1|111.7|23.6|140.5|174.0|07.2
W-|07930|35:55.0|02:15.9|164.8|26.0|160.4|174.0|08.5
R-|04276|35:40.0|04:10.3|058.3|21.2|120.5|174.0|06.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01966|09:02.4|02:18.0|164.8|25.5|156.5|167.0|08.5 - up
02|01987|08:54.2|02:14.4|166.3|26.0|160.6|171.0|08.6 - dwn
03|01969|08:59.0|02:16.9|163.3|26.7|162.0|174.0|08.2 - up
04|02008|08:59.9|02:14.4|164.8|25.9|162.5|173.0|08.6 - dwn

Notice the consistency of power between up and down wind pieces. That’s what I was hoping to do. As for the low HR, that’s pretty cool. It still felt really hard.

Comparing the stroke profiles to the last time I did this session. There isn’t a lot of difference, but the peak angle did move later by a couple of degrees.

After my row this morning, I drove straight to the airport. I showered at the Admiral’s Club and made my 10:30 flight with time to spare.

Now I am on a plane out to San Diego. I am planning to do a steady state session at DelMar crossfit tomorrow morning. Then I think my streak gets broken. I fly early morning up to San Jose and I have meetings all day, and a business dinner at night. I’m not sure if I will have time on Thursday before I fly home.

I track my overall training load in Strava and it was pretty depressing looking at it recently. But with the string of sessions I’ve put together, things are definitely picking up. I’m nearly to the level I was last January.

I should probably do a 20 minute test on a static erg to see where I stand.

It’s a pity that I have a trip to the Philippines and Japan coming up next week. That should screw things up pretty well.

Sun: 70′ Coastal, Mon: 3 x 20′, Tues: 5 x 1500 OTW

September 4, 2018Leave a comment

Sunday: 70′ Coastal Row

Down on the Cape. Another glorious day. A bit hotter and a bit less breeze. I felt pretty worn out from the 36′ threshold piece (and the long cool down) on Saturday, and my hands were a bit beaten up too.

The goal for the day was just a nice steady state row. Try to keep the HR below 155 and “row good”. From that perspective, it was a great session. I rowed out to my favorite buoy, and then headed north to Wellfleet harbor. I rowed all the way around the town jetty and then turned around for the row back.

Except for nearly constant wakes for most of the way back south, it was pure delight.

The glitch around 30 minutes was the turn into the harbor. At 35 minutes, I needed to take a sharp turn to avoid a moored boat. I was rowing on an incoming tide, that why the pace changed so much at 16 minutes. That was when I went from fighting the tide to going with it into the harbor. From 42 minutes to 52 minutes, I was rowing out of the harbor. I had to stop a couple of times to open the bailer. Then from 55 minutes to the end, you can see the diminishing effect of the tide. At first, it was in front of me, and then as I went south along Indian Head, it gradually swings behind me as the tide pushes into loagy bay.

Monday: 3 x 20 / 2′ Dynamic

We drove home late in the day on Sunday, and on Monday I just took care of stuff. Shopping, laundry, getting organized for the work week. By the schedule, I was supposed to do a threshold session, but I preferred to do that on the water, and honestly, I was still a bit tired from my two coastal outings. I decided to swap sessions and just do steady state.

The intent is to stay below 155, no matter how sucky the pace gets. And it got sucky. It was hot as hell and humid too.

          Workout Summary - media/20180903-2155290o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|23559|66:00.0|01:24.0|148.1|21.5|143.2|157.0|16.6
W-|13830|60:00.0|02:10.2|158.7|21.2|144.3|157.0|10.9
R-|09732|06:00.0|00:18.5|042.9|23.9|132.4|157.0|168.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04644|20:00.0|02:09.2|161.8|20.2|135.1|146.0|11.5
01|04604|20:00.0|02:10.3|158.5|21.2|146.5|153.0|10.9
02|04582|20:00.0|02:11.0|155.8|22.2|151.4|157.0|10.3

I left a big puddle.

Tuesday: 5 x 1500 / 4′ OTW 1x

On the Charles in Newton. Sunny, hot, nearly windless. A beautiful day for rowing.

The goal for today was to try to focus on a bit higher stroke rates and hopefully faster paces than the 4 x 2000 from last week. So, I was trying to stay between 26 and 28. It might have been a bit too ambitious, but I sure felt like I had had a good workout when I was done.

          Workout Summary - media/20180904-1555280o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13603|84:03.0|03:05.4|109.2|23.1|148.0|181.0|07.0
W-|07736|35:12.0|02:16.5|152.5|26.9|166.4|181.0|08.2
R-|05872|48:51.0|04:09.6|077.9|20.3|134.8|181.0|07.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00228|01:05.5|02:23.5|129.9|21.0|140.4|143.0|09.9 wu strokes
02|01512|06:37.3|02:11.4|160.9|27.1|161.8|176.0|08.4
03|01486|06:46.8|02:16.9|159.7|26.6|166.9|179.0|08.2
04|01482|06:41.5|02:15.5|151.7|27.6|170.0|181.0|08.0
05|01522|07:06.4|02:20.0|151.0|27.1|168.7|181.0|07.9
06|01506|06:55.1|02:17.9|143.5|26.8|168.4|181.0|08.1

Pretty clear that I didn’t have much left over for the fifth rep.

Tomorrow: steady state technique day. drills on the 5s

Friday: Steady State, Saturday: Threshold

September 2, 2018Leave a comment

Friday: 3 x 20′ / 2′ on slides

I flew out of San Jose at about 9pm and arrived in Boston at 5:15am Friday morning. I got an hour or two of sleep on the plane. Once I got to Boston, I got to my car and drove home to Hopkinton, grabbed a few things I needed for the long weekend and headed to the Cape. I ultimately arrived around 9am. I went to bed for a couple of hours and woke up feeling kind of groggy. I felt a bit better as the day went on.

I toyed with the idea of going for a coastal row, but it was a bit windy and I didn’t feel like the hassle of loading the boat. Instead I just popped down to the basement for a steady state session on slides.

It was a pretty lousy session. I needed to slow way down to keep my HR below the caps.

          Workout Summary - media/20180831-2030270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14499|65:59.0|02:16.6|144.3|19.5|147.1|162.0|11.3
W-|13795|59:53.0|02:10.3|155.1|19.4|148.4|162.0|11.9
R-|00707|06:00.0|04:14.6|038.1|20.4|134.8|162.0|06.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04712|20:00.0|02:07.3|163.7|19.8|140.6|148.0|11.9
01|04547|20:00.0|02:12.0|152.5|19.1|150.0|155.0|11.9
02|04536|19:53.8|02:11.6|149.1|19.3|154.5|162.0|11.8

Someday, I’m gonna figure out how to improve the accuracy of the summaries.

Saturday – Sept 1: 36′ Minute Threshold Piece in a coastal row.

It was gorgeous today! Sunny, about 75F, light to moderate breeze from the East. That’s the best direction for the wind because it provides the best water conditions since the wind is coming off the land.

I launched from the north beach and turned to head into Loagy Bay. I wanted to get as long of a straightish run as I could get. I hate turning around in long threshold pieces. I figured I could run up along Indian Neck, and then turn West and head toward Chequessett Neck and finish by the outlet of the Herring River. This would be running with the incoming tide, but there wouldn’t be much current close to shore, and the chop should be minimized except as I crossed to Great Island, and then it would be generally behind me.

          Workout Summary - media/20180901-2110280o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14550|83:37.0|02:52.4|000.0|22.7|158.3|182.0|07.7
W-|14551|83:37.0|02:52.4|000.0|22.7|158.3|182.0|07.7
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|182.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01658|09:00.0|02:42.8|000.0|20.1|140.0|152.0|09.2 - warmup
01|06827|36:00.0|02:38.2|000.0|24.4|171.4|182.0|07.8 - Main piece
02|06066|38:37.5|03:11.0|000.0|21.7|150.4|181.0|07.2 - Long row home!

The row went very well. I just counted strokes. Every hundred was another 4 minutes down. I wasn’t sure how many minutes I would get out of the course. It turned out to be about 36′. I had two slow downs. The first was a massive waking that seemed to get me from two directions, and then soon after that, I needed to turn to avoid the shoal as I got to the Herring River inlet.

I was really pleased with the workout. I was able to settle in to a groove with my HR in the 170s and just keep cranking. I’d like to get the stroke rate up over the next month, but for now, I am just pleased to have unbroken sessions and good efforts.

After I finished, I realized just how far away I was from home. And I also realized that a lot of it would be into the wind and tide. I decided to just take it easy and focus on rowing with reasonably good form. I was really tired for the first 10 minutes or so after I finished the hard piece, but by the time I got close to the end, I was feeling good and pushed a little harder.

Now, a few hours later, I am starting to feel very stiff and tired. And I have a couple of really big blisters. I guess it was a pretty hard workout after all.

More fun at NCFit – 3 x 20′ / 2′

August 30, 2018Leave a comment

Just a steady state session. HR limited. Target pace was 2:06.

I ended up pushing the pace a bit faster as I went along.

Now I’m off to work and then I catch the red eye home. Tomorrow I will either go for an easy open water row or do another 3 x 20 on the erg.

6/8 to 6/16 – Pretty Hectic

June 17, 2018June 17, 2018Leave a comment

Thursday 6 / 7 – in CA, red eye home.

After my fantastic row in San Diego on Thursday morning, I flew up to San Jose. I had a meeting in the afternoon and a business dinner that evening. I flew home on the Red Eye.

Friday 6 / 8 – rest day after the red eye

I got in around 6 and was home by 7:30. I needed to hop right in the shower and head up to the office for a 10 am meeting. After that meeting, I had another, and another, and so on until around 5pm. I headed home and my wife and I packed up and headed for the cape. The forecast was sunny and warm for the whole weekend.

We got down there in the evening and settled in. I was really tired and slept like a log.

Saturday 6 / 9 – 12km coastal steady state

I slept in until about 9, and then I went out to get delicious croissants for breakfast. After lazing around for a while, we went out and bought some flowers to put in near the path to our door, came home and planted. Around 5pm, it was really beautiful and there wasn’t all that much wind, so I decided to go for a row.

I launched from the north beach, as usual, and headed up toward wellfleet harbor. I didn’t notice much at the time, but the tide was with me and so was a little bit of breeze. My splits heading north to the harbor were quite fast for my tubby little aero.

After I turned around and headed out of the harbor against the tide and the breeze, it was payback time. The splits were slow and the boat felt heavier. Although it was just supposed to be a gentle evening row, the slow splits pushed me into putting in more effort. Although my HR was a bit too, high, I was really enjoying myself. On the way back, I rowed straight out to my favorite buoy and then turned due east to get back to the beach. I did the last 3 minutes or so at a hard 24.

Another really enjoyable row.

          Workout Summary - media/20180610-0135230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12363|70:25.0|02:50.9|000.0|19.5|153.6|176.0|09.0
W-|11720|65:02.0|02:46.5|000.0|19.4|155.5|176.0|09.3
R-|00648|05:23.0|04:09.4|000.0|20.0|130.3|176.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|04707|25:19.0|02:41.4|000.0|18.8|152.6|157.0|09.9
02|04849|28:50.0|02:58.4|000.0|19.3|155.4|165.0|08.7
03|01491|07:45.0|02:35.9|000.0|19.8|158.9|164.0|09.7
04|00673|03:08.8|02:20.3|000.0|23.9|170.8|176.0|09.0

Sunday – 6 / 10 – 14km coastal steady state

I was up around 8 and I decided to go for a row before the wind started to build. It turns out I didn’t quite succeed at that.

I launched from the north beach and looped around the island to go south toward Eastham. The forecast was for the wind to be from the east, so I figured if I hugged the shore, I would be sheltered and have reasonable smooth water.

As I went, I felt the wind building a bit, but it seemed my plan was working. The water was nice and smooth, and although I would be buffeted by some of the gusts, it was a nice ride. I wanted to be done in about 70 minutes, so I rowed for 35 and turned around. It was then that I noticed that the wind was really coming more from the NE or even the NNE and I had a long slog into to get home.

I rowed in as close to the beach as I could get, and slowly made my way up the Eastham shore. I was not looking forward to leaving the lee of this shore when I got up to point where I needed to cut over to the west side of Lt Island. When I got there, it was really tough rowing. The waves were on my starboard bow, and they were throwing me around a bit. I made quick decision to turn east and row straight upwind so I would be going right into the waves. This was slow, but much better rowing. The boat was nice and stable and I just kept pushing along.

I was looking over my shoulder every ten strokes or so, and it made me nervous every time seeing these well define rolling waves with white caps on them.

Eventually, the salt marsh on the inner side of the island finally started to get closer, and then, before I knew, I was right on the edge of the marsh. The wind was blocked by the island, the water flattened out, and I turned to follow the shore. Now the wind was behind me, so was the tide, and the water was flat. I torn along the south edge of the island until I came out of the wind shadow along the westward side.

Then it was a short final slog into the wind to the beach.

It was interesting, I felt like I was working hard, but my heart rate was nice and low. The sun was out, the sky was blue and it was the perfect temperature. When I landed, I was so glad that I had gone out. Coastal rowing is a very different experience from flat water rowing, but a total blast.

Workout Summary - media/20180610-1540220o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13642|83:41.0|03:04.0|000.0|19.7|141.7|155.0|08.3
W-|13644|83:41.0|03:04.0|000.0|19.7|141.7|155.0|08.3
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|155.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00118|02:07.0|08:59.9|000.0|21.2|095.2|106.0|02.6 - getting set
01|06345|34:21.0|02:42.4|000.0|18.8|136.2|145.0|09.8 - downwind
02|04307|29:22.0|03:24.5|000.0|19.9|147.7|155.0|07.4 - up wind
03|01537|08:47.0|02:51.5|000.0|21.0|146.6|152.0|08.3 - sheltered
04|01337|09:04.1|03:23.4|000.0|21.0|148.7|153.0|07.0 - upwind

I was pretty worn out for the rest of the day though.

Monday – 6 / 11 – Steady State and drills

By the plan, this was supposed to be a rest day, but everything has been so disrupted, that I just decided to do a nice steady state session and work on some basics.

I started with a complete pick drill, did some legs only rowing. I also did at least 10 reps of the KOM drill at the start and at each turn.

         Workout Summary - media/20180611-1745210o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13950|78:43.0|02:49.3|110.8|20.0|145.4|163.0|08.8
W-|13286|65:57.0|02:28.9|124.6|19.9|151.6|163.0|10.1
R-|00669|12:47.0|09:33.3|040.2|20.7|113.3|163.0|05.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03725|18:03.3|02:25.4|127.4|20.5|145.6|158.0|10.0
02|02878|14:17.8|02:29.0|126.0|19.3|154.2|163.0|10.5
03|02841|13:59.9|02:27.8|124.3|19.5|153.1|159.0|10.4
04|03437|17:30.0|02:32.7|122.2|20.0|155.0|163.0|09.8
05|00405|02:06.0|02:35.5|111.2|21.8|148.6|155.0|08.9

Nice fast splits for the first 3 segments. I felt great too.

Tuesday – 6 / 12 – Starts

The plan is as follows:

Race warm up
5 x 20-stroke starts
- Rest between: 3’
- Rating/Pace: SR 36-40 (or your most efficient rating)
- Notes: Steer straight, clean releases, same sequence as planned for your race.
2 x 9’
- Rest between: 2’’ easy rowing
- Rating/Pace: Cat V: SR 22
- Notes: Focus on your releases.

As it turns out, I deviated a bit from the plan. I ended up doing more starts than planned, and a bit less of the steady state rowing. I think I also skimped a bit on the warmup.

The conditions were far from perfect. There was a reasonably strong breeze. You can see the first 2 starts are downwind, then 2 upwind, then two down, then two up. The last two starts, I extended out to thirty strokes and settled to race rate, around 32 after 10 strokes.

I did about 11 minutes or so of steady state rowing at the end.

6 / 13 – Rest Day

I couldn’t get out of bed at 5:15. I tried, and failed.

6 / 14 – A horribly bad workout.

It was supposed to be this.

4 x (2’ with your start sequence, paddle 1’ then, 2’ 1k base pace)
Rest between: 4’
Rating/Pace: 1k base pace

But I just couldn’t put together a good 2′ piece to save my soul. I don’t know what the hell was wrong with me, but I was ready to withdraw from the Cromwell Cup, quit racing and never sprint again. I was a quintessential drama queen!

Ultimately, I gave up on the workout and tried to one minute on / one minute off. That seemed to work a bit better, but I think I have to push through this problem next week.

          Workout Summary - media/20180614-1735190o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09028|63:34.0|03:31.3|123.6|24.4|132.4|176.0|05.8
W-|03686|15:44.0|02:08.1|195.9|28.1|143.3|174.0|08.6
R-|05358|47:51.0|04:28.0|099.9|23.2|128.8|174.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00895|04:13.6|02:21.7|127.9|18.9|143.7|158.0|11.2
02|00075|00:18.2|02:02.0|244.1|32.9|113.0|117.0|07.5
03|00213|00:52.8|02:04.0|211.4|29.4|121.1|131.0|08.2
04|00234|00:57.2|02:02.3|226.2|32.4|156.7|168.0|07.6
05|00129|00:29.5|01:54.1|238.4|32.6|117.6|124.0|08.1
06|00224|00:52.0|01:56.1|239.2|32.2|132.4|137.0|08.0
07|00165|00:39.4|01:59.2|215.0|33.5|158.1|161.0|07.5
08|00184|00:43.0|01:56.6|246.3|34.9|158.9|168.0|07.4
09|00070|00:16.2|01:55.7|247.0|33.3|138.2|139.0|07.8
10|00256|01:00.8|01:58.5|231.3|31.6|128.4|136.0|08.0
11|00237|01:01.9|02:10.7|185.1|30.1|135.5|143.0|07.6
12|00147|00:39.6|02:14.5|228.1|30.2|126.5|132.0|07.4
13|00207|00:54.1|02:10.7|201.7|29.9|160.6|170.0|07.7
14|00218|00:56.2|02:08.6|200.4|30.9|167.7|174.0|07.5
15|00208|00:54.0|02:09.6|219.3|31.1|164.5|172.0|07.4
16|00223|00:55.7|02:04.9|231.1|31.2|136.6|147.0|07.7

One thing I’ve noticed. With the technical changes that Marlene has had me working on, I can row cleanly at high rates. Up above 32. And I can move the boat very fast. But I burn out very fast too. I have to find the pace and pressure I can sustain over four minutes.

This workout left me grumpy all day long.

6 / 15 – Steady State and drills

I had an 8 am meeting so I got on the water early, and I only had an hour.

It was a bit windy and I was pretty slow.

Saturday – 6 / 16 -Random fun on Lake Quinsigamond

I went out with a mixed double. We are reasonable well matched in speed.

We rowed low rate, but good pressure to the south end of the lake, then did some drills for a bit of the way back north. Then a bit more steady state. Finally when we got to the north end of the lake, we decided to play leapfrog. That was a blast. They would take off and when they were clear ahead, they would call “clear”. That was my cue to speed up and their cue to paddle. When I got clear ahead, I’d call “clear” and it was their turn.

We did that for about 2km. Then we steady stated our way back to the dock.

The only problem with the session was my speedcoach running out of memory and not recording all my leapfrog strokes.

Here’s the data from RIM.

Whew! Now I’m all caught up!

6/4 – 6/6: Finally back rowing!

June 11, 2018June 11, 2018Leave a comment

Monday – 6/4 – Drills and Steady State

By Monday morning, I had normal range of movement and very little pain in my back. I decided to do an easy session to test it out a little bit.

I have a new workout plan, but based on the long layoff that I had, I decided to take a week and focus mostly on steady state and drills to get back into the program and avoid risking injury or disappointment.

Today, the plan was to row for an hour and at each turn, stop and do about 10 reps of the King of the Mountain drill. The longer than normal breaks between segments is me doing the drills. Weird HR dropout during the second interval.

It was a grey and windy morning. I was slow and my power values were really low. I am wondering (hoping) if I have a calibration issue.

Workout Summary - media/20180604-1615230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12342|72:16.0|02:55.7|115.3|18.7|128.4|162.0|09.1
W-|11692|59:12.0|02:31.9|124.9|18.3|134.5|162.0|10.8
R-|00657|13:04.0|09:56.8|071.9|20.3|100.5|162.0|02.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00782|03:58.0|02:32.2|120.0|18.6|109.6|139.0|10.6
02|02900|14:39.0|02:31.5|126.9|18.0|144.8|150.0|11.0
03|02780|14:23.0|02:35.2|118.0|17.3|105.0|152.0|11.2
04|02067|10:27.0|02:31.7|124.3|17.7|143.2|152.0|11.2
05|03163|15:45.0|02:29.4|130.8|19.8|152.4|162.0|10.1

Told you it was slow!

Tuesday – 6/5: Steady state and drills

Basically the same session as monday. Pushed the pace a little bit harder. Same deal, 10 reps of the KOM drill x 4 sets. They are getting a bit easier as I do more of them. The wind sprung up a bit in the last rep. Headwind, of course!

          Workout Summary - media/20180605-1425220o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13918|77:24.0|02:46.9|118.7|18.9|143.7|165.0|09.5
W-|13421|67:18.0|02:30.4|128.9|18.5|148.9|163.0|10.8
R-|00501|10:06.0|10:05.7|051.1|21.7|109.4|163.0|07.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03825|18:41.0|02:26.5|128.0|18.0|141.3|152.0|11.4
02|02889|14:49.0|02:33.8|128.4|17.6|147.6|155.0|11.1
03|02837|13:47.0|02:25.7|128.5|18.4|150.5|157.0|11.2
04|03869|20:01.0|02:35.2|130.4|19.7|155.7|163.0|09.8

Wednesday – 6/6: Starts

I had a 9:30 flight to San Diego, so I had a short time window for a row. I decided to do a quick session just to start working on my starts. I started with 5 stroke sets, and then as I got more comfortable, and my “hit rate” improved, I extended them to 10 strokes.

There was a bit of wind and a little bit of chop, but on my sheltered river, I can’t say it caused any of my problems.

The last start was pretty good. 15 strokes at 1:48 pace and 37 spm.

I made my flight with plenty of time.

Catching up. 5/24 to 6/3

June 10, 20181 Comment

Over the 11 days, I rowed 1 day, biked one day, had a good walk one day and didn’t train for 8 days. It was a pretty bad spell including allergies and injuries.

Thursday – May 24: 61′ Steady State

I arrived home from California late in the day on May 23rd. The next morning, I was back on the water down in Newton. It was windy and choppy, and I was a mess. Slow and sloppy.

Friday – May 25: Rest – Sick

Thursday night, I felt awful. Stuffy nose, sore throat, a bit of a fever.

I worked from home on Friday morning. I was worried enough about my throat that I went and got a strep test. The diagnosis was allergies causing congestion, post nasal drip and throat irritation. They told me to go buy some flownase and sent me on my way.

Then in the early afternoon, I headed down to the cape. My wife was following me down later with one of my sons, his girlfriends and my daughter who was flying in from St Louis late in the evening.

I had a long list of things to do. Work on the stairs to the beach. Get a bunch of delicious food. Rent a bike for my daughter and do a bit of cleaning. I made very good progress on the stairs, and I made a large number of trips up and down the 80 steps, often carrying loads of wood. By the time the tide came in, I was really worn out. But I had managed to get all the stair treads in, leaving just the railings to do on Saturday.

So, I got some exercise, but no proper training

Saturday – May 26: 50km bike ride

My daughter wanted to go for a ride, so we planned an excursion to the Cape Cod Rail Trail. I was a bit worried about my health. If I had a cold, the ride would knock me flat. If I was just suffering with allergies, it should actually make things better.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1603514609/embed/8b62620dc4f0ae56e28b1b8323692095a734d5b9

It was two and a half hours of riding, but at a nice easy pace. I guess it was allergies!

After we got home, my son, his girlfriend and I finished the stairs. I think they turned out great!

I slept well.

Sunday – May 27: rest

The weather was pretty lousy, so we went up to Provincetown for lunch, hung out, did puzzles, played games and relaxed.

Monday – May 28: A brisk walk around the island

The weather was still crappy. Cold and grey. My daughter and I originally planned to go for another bike ride, but we didn’t have good cold weather clothes, so we opted to just go for a walk around the island.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1603515324/embed/e08141cd9fb397c13ddac4e921803367eb37d9fc

Later in the day, we put my son, his girlfriend and my daughter on the ferry to Boston, we cleaned up the house, had some dinner and left around 11.

Tuesday – May 29: Rest – Travel Day

Flew out to San Diego for a business dinner. It was a long day, I got back to the hotel around 10pm, and I had an early flight.

Wednesday – May 30: Rest – Travel day

I was up at 4:30 to get to the airport to catch my 6:30 flight to San Jose. I had meetings from 10am to 7pm. After that, I headed to the the airport to catch the red eye home.

Thursday – May 31: Rest

My original plan was to go straight from the airport to the river and go for a row on the way to work. But the flight home was miserable, and I discovered that a meeting had been scheduled for 8:30, leaving me no time to train.

I ended up getting home around 8:00pm. During the day, my back started to really stiffen up, By the time I got home, it was painful to try to stand up after sitting and I ended up walking with a bit of a stoop. Based on how quickly it cleared up, I assume it was a pinched sciatic nerve which calmed itself down with ibuprofen after a few days.

Friday – June 1st: Rest – Back Injury

I was in too much pain to train. So I didn’t.

Saturday – June 2: Rest – Back Injury

Back pain starting to ease, but I wasn’t going to chance aggravating it.

Sunday – June 3: Rest – Back Injury

Almost pain free. Decided to train on Monday.

Tough week…spotty training

May 17, 2018Leave a comment

Last Friday was a wonderful workout. The joy that I got out of it carried me through a much less enjoyable set of days and activities since.

Saturday: Yardwork.

I was spreading mulch. I was curious about how hard this work is, so I wore a heart rate monitor. Here are the stats.

Duration: 5:07:56
Average HR: 97, Max HR 125 (so below UT2)
Calories: 2619

So, I guess you could think of it as a long lazy bike ride. But that’s not quite right because there is a strength component to it. Basically shovel work, pushing a wheelbarrow and a lot of squatting, bending and raking.

It really knocked me out. I was useless all night I was so tired.

Sunday: Yardwork

I did the bulk of it on Saturday, but there was one more flower bed to do, and then moving the excess mulch and some other tidying up. It was easier work and it only took about two hours. I didn’t bother with the HR monitor.

Monday: 80 minutes of speed play

I wish I could remember more about this session, but I can’t. From the data, it looks like it was a pretty nice session, I wish I could remember enjoying it. Oarlock still acting up.

Tuesday: 30r22 on the erg

So, the original plan was 2 x 30′ @ r22 on the water. I got up at 5:15, drove to the river, and as I always do, I double checked my work schedule to see when I needed to be in the office so that I could make sure that I got back to the dock in time. When I looked, to my horror, I saw that I had a dentist appointment back near my house at 7:30am. So, I drove home, took a shower, and went to the dentist instead of rowing.

It left me in a foul mood all day long. Add in the fact that I needed to deal with unpleasant HR related work matters and by the afternoon, I was a quivering wreck. I snuck off to the fitness center. If everything went right, I had just enough time to do my 2×30 on the erg and make it to my next meeting.

Everything did not go right, and when I finished the first rep, I saw that I didn’t have enough time to do another 30 minutes. This blew my momentum and instead doing 15 or 20 minutes, I just walked away.

The 30 minutes that I did were nice and hard though. I felt much better afterward.

Workout Summary - media/20180515-1930250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07719|32:00.0|02:04.4|205.9|20.5|156.6|170.0|11.7
W-|07708|30:00.0|01:56.8|219.6|21.9|155.7|170.0|11.7
R-|00012|02:00.0|86:46.3|000.0|00.0|170.0|170.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07708|30:00.0|01:56.8|219.6|21.9|155.7|170.0|11.7

Wednesday: Unintentional rest day

I intended to go do my speed session in the morning, but I slept terribly. When my alarm went off, I rolled over and slept two more hours.

I thought I might be able to go to the gym, or maybe even head down to the river in the afternoon, but work conspired to keep me busy all day long.

Thursday: 60 minutes of steady state (ish) rowing

I had two missions this morning. The first was 60 minutes of rowing. The other was to replace my empower oarlock. I’ve been trying to troubleshoot the dropped power values with NK for a couple of weeks. They finally came to the conclusion that the problem was interesting enough that they wanted the specimen in the lab. They sent me a unit to swap it out, and a label to return the prodigal oarlock to them.

It took a lot more time than I expected because I had trouble getting through the calibration. I would try it and it would take me through the steps and then curtly imform me that “Calibration Failed”. Ultimately, I diagnosed the problem. The oarlock senses angle by having a magnet assembly on the oarlock pin, and the oarlock is supposed to freely rotate above that. What happened to me is that the length of the pin was just a hair shorter than the height of the oarlock, magnet assembly and 3 spacers. The pin was shifting slightly when the oarlock swung. Ultimately, I sanded about 1/16″ off one of the spacers, and then I could crank down the pin bolt and the oarlock would swing nice and freely. Viola, calibration passed.

Then, after wasting some more time finding a restroom, I headed out for a row. I had just enough time for 60 minutes or rowing, but I wasn’t in the mood for speedplay today. I decided to just work on trying to row well.

I tried. Sometimes, I succeeded. Often, I did not. But it was totally absorbing.

And I ran into a tree! I was just starting. I left the dock, rowed into the turn. I cut close to the north bank coming into the last bit of the turn, and I usually swing wide while I build some speed into the straight bit. I alway look over my port shoulder because I can see the whole straight bit without turning too much. What I missed by doing that was a huge tree that had fallen into the river on the east bank. I saw it about 5 strokes later and checked down hard. I managed to take all the speed off the boat and gently coasted into a tangle of the upper branches.

It took me a little bit to calm down and then I backed my way out of the mess and swung around it.

The rest of the row was quite uneventful.

Workout Summary - media/20180517-1845250o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11172|60:37.0|02:42.8|118.6|18.4|139.4|172.0|10.0
W-|10461|53:10.0|02:32.5|126.6|18.2|140.3|172.0|10.8
R-|00718|07:27.0|05:11.5|060.9|19.6|132.4|172.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00584|02:54.0|02:28.9|126.5|16.9|097.3|115.0|11.9 - to the tree!
01|03335|15:51.0|02:22.6|132.8|18.4|141.7|151.0|11.4 - After the tree
02|02167|11:18.0|02:36.5|126.2|17.5|146.4|155.0|11.0 - up from the dam
03|00278|01:13.0|02:11.1|199.4|30.5|165.4|172.0|07.5 - fast minute
04|00284|01:29.0|02:36.5|120.4|17.4|141.7|153.0|11.0 - technique stuff
05|01439|07:15.0|02:31.1|119.4|18.4|140.9|155.0|10.8 - technique stuff
06|01504|08:18.0|02:45.6|117.3|17.7|138.3|149.0|10.3 - technique stuff
07|00870|04:52.7|02:48.2|118.2|18.2|143.5|152.0|09.8 - Back to the dock

I wanted to do some higher rate rowing just to see if the oarlock missed a beat. I did a hard minute and it worked great. The data is not glitchy at all!

After that, I shifted gears. I decided to do 2 minute intervals with 2 minutes of square blade rowing, 2 minutes of slow roll up and 2 minutes of r20. This was awesome practice, especially the slow roll up. This really allowed me to focus on the first part of the recovery and get my arms out and body angle right, and then slowly square the blades as I went from body over to the catch. A few strokes were perfect. Just a few. But the feeling was extraordinary. Finish cleanly, keep the blades off the water, cleanly square the blades in a smooth movement, and drop them in for the next stroke. Imagine if I could do that for all my strokes!

Tomorrow: I am still feeling pretty tapped out, so I think I will do a speedplay session instead of one of the more intense workouts.

Back home: 3 x 20′ / 2′ dynamic

October 14, 20172 Comments

I slept until around 9:30am, and had a nice relaxed morning. My basic plan for the rest of the week, leading up to the race is:

Saturday: 60′ Steady state on the erg
Sunday: Head race piece OTW
Monday: Technical Session on the water, 80 minutes UT2
Tuesday: 4 x 2000 OTW
Wednesday: 60 minutes OTW, short intervals at race pace and rate, with generous rests.
Thursday: 45 minutes OTW, short intervals at race pace and rate with generous rests.
Friday: Bring boat to launch area in the afternoon. Practice run of the course, stick to UT2 pace.
Saturday: race day!

So today was steady state on the dynamic

3 x 20′ / 2′
Target rate: 20
Target power: 165W
HR limit: 145, 150, 155

          Workout Summary - media/20171014-1800450o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14589|66:02.0|02:15.8|155.9|20.3|140.8|154.0|10.9
W-|14000|60:00.0|02:08.6|164.4|20.0|141.6|154.0|11.7
R-|00592|06:02.0|05:05.8|041.5|23.9|126.1|154.0|06.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04664|20:00.0|02:08.6|163.7|19.8|130.4|143.0|11.8
01|04666|20:00.0|02:08.6|164.8|20.0|144.8|151.0|11.7
02|04669|20:00.0|02:08.5|164.5|20.2|149.6|154.0|11.6

Tomorrow: 2 x 6K with 10′ rest. Each 5K will have a turn at 3K. No rest at the turn.