12km in Wellfleet. Fantastic!

October 7, 20174 Comments

What a beautiful day for October. It was nearly 70 degrees and sunny. There was a bit of wind blowing from the southwest, maybe 10mph. This was kicking up some very lumpy chop.

I went to row at nearly high tide and it’s a full moon, so all of the roads to the beaches where I launch from were underwater. I ended up launching off the bottom of our stairs to the water, which took some maneuvering, but worked out fine.

The plan was for 60-80 minutes of steady state. Heart rate limit at 157.

Since the water was so high, I decided to row up into Wellfleet inner harbor and explore a bit.

The ride up north to the harbor was a blast. I was surfing down the waves and filling the footwell all the time. The bailer worked great, but it does slow me down a bit. When I turned behind the Wellfleet breakwater, the water got nice and flat. I enjoyed poking around there and I was a bit worried about how much slamming it would be to row back into the wind and waves to get home.

After a planned stop for a drink, and an unplanned stop to clear some reeds off my skeg, I headed back out past the breakwater. It was bouncy, but very rowable. I was a lot slower, but in control and moving nicely. I decided to extend a little bit by rowing out to my favorite buoy before turning to go back to the house.

Getting out of the boat was as much of an adventure as launching, but nobody died and nothing got broken. So, I’d call it a success.

        Workout Summary - media/20171007-214327-Greg Smith 20171007 1257pmo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12563|78:13.0|03:06.8|000.0|20.9|152.2|162.0|07.7
W-|12095|73:50.0|03:03.1|000.0|20.9|152.5|162.0|07.9
R-|00472|04:24.0|04:39.7|000.0|19.5|140.0|162.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|05052|29:30.0|02:55.2|000.0|20.0|149.1|159.0|08.6 -
01|00332|02:00.0|03:00.6|000.0|20.6|142.7|151.0|08.0
02|01447|08:34.2|02:57.6|000.0|20.3|151.9|156.0|08.3
03|00879|05:22.9|03:03.7|000.0|21.3|152.7|157.0|07.7
04|04385|28:23.0|03:14.2|000.0|22.0|156.8|162.0|07.0

Tomorrow – hopefully another easy aerobic coastal row. Next hard session will be a head race piece on Quinsig on Monday.

3 x 20′ / 2′ dynamic

October 5, 2017Leave a comment

Plan:

3 x 20′ / 2′
power: 160W
rate: 20
HR limit: 145/150/155

Power target was just right for the dynamic. Right up against the limits, but not past.

10-5a

Tomorrow: 5 x 1500 / 5min rest on Quinsig

Steady State on a foggy morning

October 3, 2017Leave a comment

Pitch black and foggy when we launched. It was chilly, in the mid-40s and the wind was light and variable.

The plan:

Steady state
- R20
HR limit: 155
Maybe work in some SBR

I was using Bob’s Peinert again, and Joe and Kelsey were in the double. They launched a few minutes before me and disappeared into the mist going south.

I launched and the fog seemed to close in around me. I suddenly felt a very strong desire to row with someone else. Part of me wanted to just drop the hammer and catch up with them, but I also wanted to keep the intensity set to low today, so I held the rate at 20 or below. The visibility improved and declined as I rowed down lake, and as I went I found that I was feeling really good in the boat. I was set well, and my catches and finishes were nice and clean. I never caught up with them, but I seemed to close the gap a bit by the time we hit the south end of the lake.

They were nice enough to wait for me, and we set off going north side by side. The plan was to turn south at the bridge because the fog looked a lot worse at the north end of the lake. We next to each other almost all the way up to the narrows, when I pushed the pace a bit to go through ahead of them. After that, they slowed down a bit and I kept the pace up. I waited for them at the bridge and we made the decision to continue north because the fog was clearing a bit.

The rest of the way to the north end of the lake was really nice rowing. There was a bit of headwind, and it was blowing the mist in tendrils past us as we went. When I looked across to Joe and Kelsey, it was an impressive sight. The mist blowing past them made it look like they were going extremely fast. I wish I had a camera and a free hand!

I was rowing along nice and easy, and I noticed that they were starting to pull ahead of me. So, I upped the pressure to stay next to them. Then they pushed it further, and I upped the rate by a stroke or two. I found out later that Joe decided that I needed a bit more work in this workout so they pushed me harder. That’s the pace and HR bump in the last half of the 3rd piece.

After we got to the north end, we turned to go home and I did alternating chunks of steady state and SBR. Then when I got to the dock, I did a minute at a little higher than head race pace and rate, to try to apply the technique work I did to full pressure strokes.

Workout Summary - media/20171003-130528-Greg Smith 20171003 0541amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11883|66:54.0|02:48.9|000.0|19.5|142.8|158.0|09.1
W-|10453|52:39.0|02:31.1|000.0|19.3|145.7|158.0|10.3
R-|01434|14:15.0|04:58.1|000.0|20.0|122.3|158.0|04.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03246|16:00.0|02:27.9|000.0|19.0|146.9|155.0|10.7
02|03042|15:30.0|02:32.9|000.0|18.9|148.3|154.0|10.4
03|02244|11:15.0|02:30.4|000.0|20.2|148.8|158.0|09.9
04|01691|08:54.0|02:37.9|000.0|18.7|135.1|141.0|10.2
05|00231|01:00.0|02:10.1|000.0|26.5|144.6|155.0|08.7

Tomorrow: I fly out to California first thing in the morning. I am hoping to do a cross training session Wednesday night at the hotel. Thursday, I’ll be flying home and I’ll take a rest day. Friday, I hope to do a 5×1500 on the water.

All about that base: 3 x 20′ / 2′ Dynamic

October 2, 2017Leave a comment

Plan:

3 x 20′ / 2′ rest
power: 160-170W
rate: 20ish
HR limit: 145/150/155 (1st/2nd/3rd piece)

       Workout Summary - media/20171001-2001100o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14506|66:00.0|02:16.5|161.7|20.7|144.9|156.0|10.6
W-|13994|60:00.0|02:08.6|164.4|20.4|145.0|156.0|11.4
R-|00514|06:00.0|05:50.2|093.2|23.9|138.7|156.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04686|20:00.0|02:08.0|166.0|20.4|136.2|147.0|11.5
01|04676|20:00.0|02:08.3|165.9|20.1|147.7|155.0|11.6
02|04632|20:00.0|02:09.5|161.3|20.8|151.0|156.0|11.1

Tomorrow: OTW 1x, Quinsig, 15×3’/1′, rate: 25

12K in a borrowed boat

September 30, 2017Leave a comment

I was excited all day long yesterday. On Thursday night, when I got home, I saw a big object wrapped in bubble wrap on my front porch. My new rigger!

I didn’t have time to get it on my boat and adjusted Thursday night, so I erg’ed on Friday morning and planned to install the new rigger as soon as I got home from work on Friday evening.

After dinner, I went out to get it all set up. I got the old rigger off the boat, started to unwrap the new rigger, and I noticed something looked a bit odd about the port end of it.

That’s funny, I didn’t remember them having a bend in the end of it like that, and it looks kind of sloppy. So, I unwrapped the starboard end.

That’s the way it’s supposed to look. Dammit, the rigger got bent in shipping. I looked more closely at the bend on the port end. The aluminum tube was actually fractured on the inner side where the crease was. This is not repairable and there is no way I would try to row with it. My boat is still unusable and it’s 21 days to the HOCR.

So, I dispatched an email to Fluid with pictures and I am awaiting instructions on what to do. In the mean time, I need to get my ass back in a boat with some urgency. So, today, I headed out to Worcester and made arrangements to borrow a friends peinert. Until I have a boat, I will just have to wake up earlier, and schlepp out to Worcester to get out on the water.

The plan today was to take it easy. Just get comfortable in the boat, build up some more aerobic endurance minutes and keep my HR below 155.

The conditions were not ideal. It was grey and cool, in the mid 50s, with a gusty 6-10mph wind from the North. This was shooting straight down the lake, so there was a good amount of chop. And heading into it was a slow slog. I was very interested in trying to be good to my back, so I purposely rowed more lightly and at a higher rate for this easy of a workout.

I started off with a double heading south on the lake. After about 1000m, I noticed that they weren’t behind me anymore, so I headed back to check on them. They were off in the cove doing some drill work, so I resumed my trip down lake. As I got back to them a single came by heading south, so I took off in pursuit. My rules were simple. Respect the HR cap. Keep the rate between 20-22. And catch up with him. I did, and passed him as we went through the narrows.

I rowed into the cove at the south end of the lake, had a quick drink and then headed north into the wind. I upped the rate to around a 23 to try to avoid putting too much pressure on my back and tried to rationalize that the pitifully slow pace was due to the head wind and chop. As I came past the little island coming out of the cove, I caught sight of an 8 from our club heading south, so I spun and followed them into the cove. The double that I started with was also coming south too.

We all headed into the cove again, and I spun. The double spun quickly and took off north again. I watched them go and they looked pretty smooth. I decided to give chase using the same rules as before. Respect the HR cap, keep the rate above 22, and focus on keeping my damn knees together at the catch. The chop was a bit challenging at times, and the gusty headwind slowed me down. It was a relief when I was rowing in the lee of an island or outcrop. The most obvious example of that is the drop in pace around 47 minutes. I went from being in the wind shadow coming up to the narrows into a choppy, gusty mess as soon as I passed it. I was gaining on the double all the way up to the bridge, but they bailed and headed into the boathouse. I continued up lake.

After another 1000m or so, I decided I wasn’t really enjoying the slog. Also, I was concerned that everyone would head in to the dock and I’d be making them wait if I went all the way up lake. So, I spun it around and did the downwind slide back to boathouse.

All in all, a very nice outing. My back feels good. I liked the Peinert. It seems a bit tippier than my fluid, so that was good practice to keep the boat set.

Oh, and I used the Polar OH1 on my arm today. It worked great, even under a long sleeve shirt.

Tomorrow: Steady State erg session, 60-80 minutes in 20′ chunks

Steady State

September 28, 2017Leave a comment

Plan:

15′ warmup – Treadmill 15% grade, 3mph
3 x 15′ / 2′ steady state
- pace target 2:05
- rate: 20
- HR limit: 155
- Technique: knees together

I got a phone call while I did my warmup so I ended up doing 20 minutes of death march.

On the erg, I was unhappy that I needed to slow down to stay under the HR cap. But, one must respect the rules!

HR for the whole workout including warmup…

The rowing bit.

        Workout Summary - media/20170928-1251390o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11018|51:00.0|02:18.9|169.3|19.8|146.4|155.0|10.9
W-|10704|45:00.0|02:06.1|174.4|19.9|147.4|155.0|12.0
R-|00316|06:00.0|09:28.9|053.3|18.0|128.4|155.0|01.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03596|15:00.0|02:05.1|178.0|19.7|144.4|153.0|12.1
01|03562|15:00.0|02:06.4|174.0|19.9|148.2|155.0|11.9
02|03547|15:00.0|02:06.9|171.3|20.0|149.8|154.0|11.8

Tomorrow: Hard Distance. 30′ pace target 1:55.

12km coastal row in Wellfleet

September 25, 2017Leave a comment

Oh, what a beautiful morning! It was in the mid 60s, very little wind, flat water and bright sunshine. It was just after low tide, and there was just enough water depth to launch and row out. The seabirds were wheeling around my boat as I started out, and I could see the bottom. Schools of striped bass swam under my boat chasing after smaller fish.

The Plan:

60-80 minutes of easy rowing
HR cap: ~150
rate: ~20
Technique: Work on keeping my knees together and tapping down cleaning without a lot of layback. Get those blades off the water!

I followed the Lt Island shoreline out toward deeper water. My path out is the more northerly one in the map below. Once I was clear of the projecting point of the shoal, I turned west and headed toward the red buoy, but I couldn’t pick it up over my shoulder yet. I was heading out and the tide was coming in, so the pace in this section was a bit slow. After about 2000m, I did a more purposeful scan and found is bit to the south, so I turned and headed towards it. I did a u-turn around the buoy and headed north to Wellfleet inner harbor, now with the tide behind me and the pace improved by at least 30 seconds per 500. I rowed to the green buoy and then continued past two more marks around the tip of the breakwater. I decided to turn at 6000m. I stopped and had a drink of water.

I turned around and headed back the way I came. I seemed to weave around a bit more on the way back. I suspect that the tide was setting me east or west depending on my direction relative to flow. The last 1000m of the row back to the red buoy was a bit sloppy. A little bit of wind from the east had sprung up and there was a bit of cross chop that was making it hard to keep a good rhythm. Once I turned into the wind at the buoy, the boat felt a bit heavier, but it was easier to hold a rate.

As I got closer to the end, I pushed the rate and pressure up a bit just for fun.

A fantastic outing.

        Workout Summary - media/20170924-160226-Greg Smith 20170924 0910amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12101|72:55.0|03:00.8|000.0|19.6|142.2|160.0|08.4
W-|11831|69:55.0|02:57.3|000.0|19.7|142.4|160.0|08.6
R-|00273|03:00.0|05:29.5|000.0|18.1|126.4|160.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02397|15:30.0|03:14.0|000.0|19.3|134.2|147.0|08.0 - a/ tide
01|03610|19:30.0|02:42.0|000.0|19.3|144.4|148.0|09.6 - w/ tide
02|03643|23:00.0|03:09.4|000.0|19.6|142.8|150.0|08.1 - a/ tide
03|02180|11:55.3|02:44.0|000.0|20.8|149.0|160.0|08.8 - w/ tide

Tomorrow: Short interval/Short rest on the erg. 15 x 3’/1′

The Voyage of the Doomed

September 22, 20172 Comments

Or…The Accidental Triathlon

The day started like any other day. I woke up, did my hated core exercise routine, and drove to Newton to go for a row. Little did I know that my easy steady state session would end up…in disaster.

It was cool and grey out. They was a brisk, gusty wind from the ENE blowing about 15mph with gusts to 20. This was a cross head wind going downstream. The 4km trip from the dock to the dam was an uneventful slog. I have not spent enough time in the boat and my rowing was terrible. There was a bit of chop in some places, and the wind was hard enough to toss around my oars. But I just worked on trying to keep my oars off the water on recovery and take nice smooth strokes.

I turned around at the dam, and I was really looking forward to working with a tail wind. I rowed back under the bridge, and in front of the watch factory. As I was approaching the s-turn, I heard a loud metallic pop behind me and my port oar washed out. I looked over my shoulder and my rigger had failed. I row in a Fluid which has a bow mounted rigger. There is a main strut and a smaller reinforcing strut. The main strut had completely severed, right near the edge of the hull. The only thing holding the rigger on was the thin reinforcing strut.

After a few moments considering my situation. I was roughly 3km of river away from the dock. I decided to see if I could gently paddle along on what was left of the rigger and make back to the dock. This worked great! For about 20 strokes. Then the joint connecting the severed main strut to the reinforcing strut parted and I was left holding an oar that just dragging in the water. An immediate moment of panic passed when I realized that I could keep the boat balanced by leaning to starboard a bit on my good oar. That gave me time to think. The first thought was…I am not getting out of this boat without getting wet.

Obviously, I wasn’t going to be able to make it back to the dock, but there was a boat launch ramp about 100m from me. 100m is not far to go, but if you have no means of propulsion, and it’s 100m upwind, it isn’t really close either. For about a minute, I thought the wind would push me to the bank of the river and I could get out there. Then it became clear that I was getting pushed to a part of the bank where there was a lot of underbrush, and I wouldn’t have been able to get out.

I made the decision to eject. I leaned to port, and quick as a wink, I was in the water next to my inverted boat. I kept a grip on the loose oar. I was worried that the extra weight of the broken rigger on it might be enough to make it sink, which I now doubt would have happened, but at the time, it seemed quite important to me. With my free hand, I flipped the boat back over, got my water bottle and flip flops back in the cockpit and started swimming upwind to the dock.

The swim took a while, maybe 5 minutes or so. I’m looking at this as the second leg of my triathlon. Then I put my boat and oars off in a grassy corner of the little park where the ramp is. It was a bit worrying that I could hear water sloshing around in the bow. I’ll have to look into that later.

OK. So I was on land and I had a boat. What’s my next step. I knew that I was 3km from the dock on the river. I had no idea how far it was to get there on foot. And then I discovered reason #67 to have a smartphone with you when you row.

Reason 67 to have a smartphone with you in a boat: If your rigger fails and you need to get back to your car, you can use it to give you directions!

It turns out that there is a path that runs along the river, but cuts out a lot of the twists. Google maps told me that my car was 1.5 miles away. I put on my flip flops and jogged the whole way for the final leg of the Triathlon. I got to my car, changed into some dry clothes and then drove to pick up my boat. I never knew that it would be so handy to keep my boat rack on my car. I’m just glad that I do! I picked up my boat and my oars and headed to work. The crazy thing is that I got to work almost exactly at the time that I normally do. It was a disaster, but a very efficient one from a time point of view!

Part 1 of the row. No HR data because it was connected to the speedcoach that ran out of battery power. This took me about 3km into the row. When the speedcoach packed up, I stopped this session and hooked the HR monitor to RIM to continue with part 2.

Part 2 of the row. Finishing the trip down to the dam, turning around and rowing until the boat busted. Then the swim to the ramp!

I didn’t bother tracking HR or pace on the run back to my car, but it took about 15 minutes.

Tomorrow: We’re heading to the cape tonight. If the wind dies down I might go for a coastal row tomorrow. Other wise it will be on the erg. In either case, the goal will be head race simulation. 30 minutes at 24 spm.

Here are few pictures of the busted rigger

Back on the water

September 19, 2017September 20, 2017Leave a comment

Sunday, September 17th

We hung out down on the cape until mid-afternoon and then headed home. There was still no AC in the house. But around 8pm, I settled in for a sweaty erg session. Today, painsled decided to cooperate.

The same session as Saturday. 4 x 15′ / 2′ rest with stretching in the rests. HR limited at 155.

        Workout Summary - media/20170917-2005310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14605|68:01.0|02:19.7|145.9|21.6|141.6|156.0|09.9
W-|13735|60:00.0|02:11.0|155.6|21.4|143.0|156.0|10.7
R-|00874|08:01.0|04:35.5|041.6|22.8|123.3|156.0|06.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03481|15:00.0|02:09.3|161.5|21.3|132.8|142.0|10.9
01|03463|15:00.0|02:09.9|159.5|21.2|143.6|152.0|10.9
02|03412|15:00.0|02:11.9|152.7|21.3|146.1|155.0|10.7
03|03379|15:00.0|02:13.2|148.8|21.9|149.4|156.0|10.3

Monday, September 18th

Yet again I had to be home in the morning to let workmen in and get them setup. That killed any chance for a morning workout. I finally had a window around 5pm. I headed down to the fitness center. I’m worried about too much rowing, so I decided to start off on the treadmill with a 20 minute death march (15% grade, 3mph).

After that I was planning to jump on our brand new Model D indoor rowing machine. But someone beat me to it! While I waited, I jumped on a elliptical machine to get a few more aerobic minutes.

Now the rower was open and I hopped on. The PM5 picked up my HR monitor and linked with Painsled with no issues. I set up a time based interval session. 15 minute work and 2 minute rest. I intended to do 2 intervals.

        Workout Summary - media/20170918-1720320o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07324|34:00.0|02:19.3|160.0|19.2|149.3|158.0|11.2
W-|06991|30:00.0|02:08.7|164.2|19.1|150.1|158.0|12.2
R-|00335|04:00.0|05:58.0|079.4|19.1|133.8|158.0|05.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03562|15:00.0|02:06.3|172.6|19.5|151.0|158.0|12.2
01|03428|15:00.0|02:11.3|155.9|18.8|149.3|153.0|12.2

I was interested to see how it compared to the dynamic. Same stroke rate. I think about a 4 second pace differential, not as much as I would have thought going in.

Tuesday, September 19

I was so excited to get back on the water, I woke up before my alarm and just lay there imagining how awesome it would be.

Since this was my first early morning workout since my injury, I wanted to put in place my new protocol. I got up and went straight into my core routine (curl ups, side planks, bird dogs). Man, I am coming to loathe doing ab exercises. I stretched before and during and did some jumping jacks and stuff. Hopefully it was enough to squish some of the extra fluid out of my disks before I went rowing.

The drive to where I launch is about 30 minutes. I was on the water by 6:30. The weather was less than perfect. It was around 65F, with a fine misty drizzle and a bit of wind from the northeast, maybe about 7 mph. This was a headwind going downriver.

I was really happy that my balance wasn’t terrible. I felt comfortable almost immediately. The plan for the day was pretty simple:

steady state
r20
heart rate limit: 150. lower is better
no pace target
technique focus: keep knees together at the catch. rock hips over at the catch and keep spine straight. focus on isolating the back swing.

I was using the speed coach the whole workout but because I stopped right at the beginning to change what I looked at in one of the display fields, it stopped and I forgot to restart it. I didn’t realize what I had done until I went to upload the session and saw that it was for a total distance of 8 meters!

But, as an experienced speedcoach user, I have my backup. No heart rate, but at least I have the whole session on RIM.

        Workout Summary - media/20170919-193028-95635o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12766|70:59.0|02:46.8|000.0|20.0|0.0|000.0|09.0
W-|11801|58:39.0|02:29.1|000.0|20.3|000.0|000.0|09.9
R-|00973|12:20.0|06:20.4|000.0|17.5|000.0|000.0|03.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00821|04:07.2|02:30.6|000.0|19.8|000.0|0.0|10.1 - To the cut
02|03019|15:10.2|02:30.7|000.0|20.0|000.0|0.0|09.9 - To the dam headwind
03|02865|14:00.0|02:26.6|000.0|20.4|000.0|0.0|10.0 - Back to the cut Tail
04|02013|10:25.2|02:35.3|000.0|20.4|000.0|0.0|09.5 - to the bridge
05|02178|10:34.8|02:25.7|000.0|20.5|000.0|0.0|10.0 - back to the cut
06|00905|04:22.2|02:24.8|000.0|20.7|000.0|0.0|10.0 - Back to the dock

I think the paces are overly optimistic. I can see the jaggies on the map

(map provided by rowsandall using the latest and greatest navionics overlay!)

It’s more obvious in a close up of the s-turn.

I was so happy to be back on the water, I can’t even begin to describe how much better the rest of my day was. I was just walking around grinning.

Thursday: 14km steady state

June 15, 2017June 15, 2017Leave a comment

Weather: The kind of day that makes you think that rowing is the finest sport ever created. Temp was about 60F when I started and in the high 60s when I finished.

There was very little wind when I started, just enough to barely ripple the surface of the water. In the last 30 minutes or so, the wind built to a steady 3-5mph from the Southwest. This was a headwind that slowed me down in the last segment.

The sun was shining and sparkling in reflections off the water and the birds were singing. It was just a glorious morning to be out.

The plan for today was:

2 x 40′ / 4′

MP or slower

80.0%

(149)

To do this OTW, I changed it to

2 x 35′ / 2′
In each 35′ section there is a turn which takes about 30 seconds. Goal is to do it quick enough so my HR doesn’t go down.
HR cap at 155, since I can’t seem to stick to anything lower.
target power: MP (158-171W)

Workout Summary - media/20170615-161158-Greg Smith 20170615 0635amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13889|72:21.0|02:36.3|153.4|18.7|149.1|159.0|10.2
W-|13673|68:25.0|02:30.1|160.0|18.7|149.2|159.0|10.7
R-|00221|03:55.0|08:53.5|036.7|18.4|143.4|159.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|04029|19:16.2|02:23.5|170.8|19.0|143.9|152.0|11.0
01|02847|14:25.8|02:32.0|162.7|18.5|150.3|155.0|10.7
02|02820|13:46.8|02:26.6|161.7|18.3|148.6|155.0|11.2
03|03977|20:57.0|02:38.0|147.0|18.9|153.8|159.0|10.1

Today, I was really trying to focus on two things

Keep my HR below 155
Keep my effective length above 83 degrees, especially as I got more tired.

I also wanted to maintain power and WPS through the workout.

I can’t complain about that workout.

Tomorrow:

3 x 20′ / 5′

7′ @ 5KP, 13′ @ MP

92.5%

(172)

This is kind of tough, because I will need to turn in the middle of the 13′ segments.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: steady state

12km in Wellfleet. Fantastic!

3 x 20′ / 2′ dynamic

Steady State on a foggy morning

All about that base: 3 x 20′ / 2′ Dynamic

12K in a borrowed boat

Steady State

12km coastal row in Wellfleet

The Voyage of the Doomed

Back on the water

Thursday: 14km steady state