Wednesday: 14K Steady State

September 7, 20162 Comments

Weather: Intermittent light rain. Overcast. Light wind from the east ~2mph.

Plan:

steady state
4x the length of the river
r20.
HR cap at 155

Sometime when it rains, rowing can be a magical experience. The rain flattens out the water, and the it muffles all the noises. You feel like you are gliding effortlessly along.

Today was not that day.

Today, every stroke felt sluggish. The splits were slow and the it seemed like the boat was 50 pounds heavier than it used to be. The 2mph headwind made it feel like I was rowing up a long slow hill. And when I turned around, it seemed like the wind just disappeared.

But, I went out and I did the work. Good for me!

|Start|Dist_|Time_|_Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|DPS_|Remarks
|00020|01306|06:58|02:40.0| 19.6 | 128 |09.6|warmup
|01326|02623|13:11|02:30.8| 20.6 | 149 |09.7|rep #1
|03949|00187|02:19|06:11.7| 11.9 | 130 |06.8|cool down
|04136|02843|13:50|02:26.0| 20.5 | 152 |10.0|rep #2
|06979|00128|01:10|04:33.4| 20.2 | 148 |05.4|rest
|07107|02822|14:43|02:36.4| 20.1 | 154 |09.5|Rep #3
|09929|00110|01:47|08:06.4| 13.7 | 133 |04.5|rest
|10039|02774|13:52|02:30.0| 19.9 | 152 |10.0|Rep #4
|12813|01217|06:19|02:35.7| 21.5 | 155 |09.0|cool down

|00000|01306|06:58|02:40.0| 19.6 | 128 – warmup
|00000|11062|55:36|02:30.8| 20.3 | 152 – main set
|00000|01217|06:19|02:35.7| 21.5 | 155 – rests
|00000|01306|06:58|02:40.0| 19.6 | 128 – cool down

Very high HR for a 2:30 pace. Oh well.

Tomorrow: Short rest intervals. Plan calls for…5 x 20@32/10 off / 5 x 20@34/15 off / 5 x 20@36/20 off, 8′ between sets

I don’t think I want to do that. I think I will substitute a 4 x (8 x (1′ on / 30″ off) ) 4′ rest

Monday: 4 x 20 @ 185W

September 5, 2016Leave a comment

Saturday and Sunday we had guests and there was never a good time to go train.

We came home last night and today, in the afternoon, I settled in for a long and easy erg session.

Plan:

4 x 20′
1′ rests
power: 185W
HR limit: 155

I got back into listening to a Teaching Company course. This one is a skeptics view of american history. Today I heard about the beginnings of the labor movement and america’s ambivalent attitude toward imperialism. The time passed quickly.

Tomorrow the forecast is for lots of wind, showers and a chance of thunderstorms. I think another erg session is called for. Maybe a shot at the September CTC.

Wednesday: Steady State (and more accuracy fun)

August 31, 2016Leave a comment

Weather: Yawn…Another perfect day.

Plan:

4 x ~14min
rate 20
pace target < 2:30
HR cap < 155

So, here is the pace plotted for GPS (on the left) and speedcoach (on the right)

Here is the rate data

Tabular comparison of impeller and GPS

Impeller Data
Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_1028_|_05:50_|_2:50.2_|_114___|_19.5_|_09.0_|_124___|_warmup
01044_|_2825_|_13:46_|_2:26.2_|_282___|_20.5_|_10.0_|_145___|_rep #1
03869_|_0126_|_00:59_|_3:54.1_|_013___|_13.2_|_09.7_|_124___|_rest
03995_|_2833_|_14:00_|_2:28.2_|_288___|_20.6_|_09.8_|_148___|_rep #2
06828_|_0058_|_00:32_|_4:35.0_|_006___|_11.3_|_09.7_|_117___|_rest
06886_|_2846_|_14:05_|_2:28.4_|_284___|_20.2_|_10.0_|_150___|_rep #3
09732_|_0139_|_01:14_|_4:27.6_|_017___|_13.7_|_08.2_|_129___|_rest
09871_|_2826_|_14:23_|_2:32.6_|_294___|_20.4_|_09.6_|_153___|_rep #4
12697_|_1041_|_06:35_|_3:09.6_|_127___|_19.3_|_08.2_|_133___|_cool down

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
01028_|_05:50_|_2:50.2_|_114___|_19.5_|_09.0_|_124___|_warmup
11330_|_56:13_|_2:28.9_|_1148___|_20.4_|_09.9_|_149___|_Main set
00323_|_02:45_|_4:15.9_|_036___|_13.1_|_09.0_|_125___|_rest meters
01041_|_06:35_|_3:09.6_|_127___|_19.3_|_08.2_|_133___|_cool down
13722_|_11:23_|_2:36.1_|_1425___|_20.0_|_09.6_|_145___|_Total
TCX Data
|Start|Dist_|Time_|_Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|DPS_|Remarks
|00019|01081|05:44|02:39.1| 20.0 | 122 |09.4|warmup
|01100|02898|13:48|02:22.9| 20.6 | 145 |10.2|rep #4
|03998|00222|04:07|09:16.3| 08.8 | 110 |06.1|cool down
|04220|02898|13:58|02:24.6| 20.7 | 148 |10.0|rep #2
|07118|00082|01:36|09:45.4| 14.0 | 133 |03.7|rest
|07200|02898|14:03|02:25.4| 20.2 | 150 |10.2|Rep #3
|10098|00213|02:09|05:02.8| 16.3 | 133 |06.1|rest
|10311|02886|14:21|02:29.2| 20.5 | 153 |09.8|Rep #4
|13197|01095|07:07|03:15.0| 19.3 | 133 |08.0|cool down

|00000|01081|05:44|02:39.1| 20.0 | 122
|00000|11580|56:10|02:25.5| 20.5 | 149
|00000|01095|07:07|03:15.0| 19.3 | 133

2:26.2 vs 2:22.9 –> 3.3 – down stream
2:28.2 vs 2:24.6 –> 3.6 – up stream
2:28.4 vs 2:25.4 –> 3.0 – down stream
2:32.6 vs 2:29.2 –> 3.4 – up stream

current effect ~ 3.5 – 3.15 (avg of 2 ups – 2 downs) = 0.35

So, the downstream pieces GPS will read .2 faster than impeller, up stream .2 slower
Average difference between speedcoach and GPS –> 3.4 seconds (impeller is slower)

Yesterday the difference was around 2.5 seconds difference. I think I need to recalibrate my speedcoach.

Tomorrow: My first outing doing short rest intervals in this mesocycle.

4 x (5 x 2′ on / 30″ paddle) / 2′ rest

The 2′ on is supposed to be at head race pace. I’ll target 2:15.

Monday: Steady State Rate Ladders

August 29, 2016Leave a comment

Weather: broken overcast. Warm and humid. Light wind from the W. This was a headwind going up river, but not much of a factor, maybe 4 seconds on pace.

Plan:

Rate ladders
- 4′ at 18
- 3′ at 20
- 2′ at 22
- 1′ at 24
Pace targets: 2:30 for r18, and faster with higher rate, maybe 3 sec for each step.
HR: Cap at 155

Tabulated pace and rate data from the Speedcoach. This let’s me break it down by rate. I blocked the 1 minute chunks around each turn around to get a better estimate of actual pace. I finished with the ladders at 1:01, and then rowed with square blades back to the dock as my cool down.

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00000_|_1186_|_06:45_|_2:50.9_|_123___|_18.2_|_09.6_|_120___|_warmup
01186_|_0821_|_04:01_|_2:26.7_|_074___|_18.4_|_11.1_|_132___|_18
02007_|_0608_|_02:58_|_2:26.3_|_060___|_20.2_|_10.1_|_142___|_20
02615_|_0438_|_02:05_|_2:22.8_|_046___|_22.1_|_09.5_|_148___|_22
03053_|_0218_|_00:59_|_2:16.5_|_024___|_24.2_|_09.1_|_152___|_24
03271_|_0590_|_02:56_|_2:29.3_|_054___|_18.4_|_10.9_|_147___|_18
03861_|_0193_|_01:01_|_2:36.7_|_017___|_16.9_|_11.4_|_134___|_turn
04054_|_0603_|_03:02_|_2:30.5_|_062___|_20.5_|_09.7_|_143___|_20
04657_|_0400_|_01:59_|_2:28.5_|_044___|_22.2_|_09.1_|_148___|_22
05057_|_0212_|_01:01_|_2:23.2_|_024___|_23.7_|_08.8_|_152___|_24
05269_|_0769_|_03:58_|_2:34.7_|_074___|_18.7_|_10.4_|_147___|_18
06038_|_0612_|_03:02_|_2:28.9_|_062___|_20.4_|_09.9_|_149___|_20
06650_|_0174_|_01:02_|_2:59.0_|_018___|_17.3_|_09.7_|_120___|_turn
06824_|_0208_|_00:58_|_2:20.1_|_022___|_22.6_|_09.5_|_140___|_22
07032_|_0220_|_01:00_|_2:16.6_|_024___|_24.0_|_09.2_|_149___|_24
07252_|_0813_|_04:01_|_2:28.5_|_074___|_18.4_|_11.0_|_146___|_18
08065_|_0609_|_02:58_|_2:25.9_|_060___|_20.3_|_10.2_|_150___|_20
08674_|_0417_|_01:58_|_2:22.0_|_044___|_22.3_|_09.5_|_154___|_22
09091_|_0222_|_01:00_|_2:16.0_|_024___|_23.8_|_09.3_|_157___|_24
09313_|_0186_|_01:01_|_2:42.9_|_017___|_16.8_|_10.9_|_149___|_turn
09499_|_0580_|_03:02_|_2:37.0_|_056___|_18.5_|_10.4_|_142___|_18
10079_|_0583_|_02:57_|_2:31.7_|_060___|_20.4_|_09.7_|_151___|_20
10662_|_0419_|_02:04_|_2:28.3_|_046___|_22.2_|_09.1_|_155___|_22
11081_|_0211_|_00:59_|_2:20.0_|_024___|_24.4_|_08.8_|_158___|_24
11292_|_0774_|_03:58_|_2:33.5_|_074___|_18.7_|_10.5_|_155___|_18
12066_|_1357_|_08:28_|_3:07.2_|_169___|_20.0_|_08.0_|_132___|_c

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
01186_|_06:45_|_2:50.9_|_123___|_18.2_|_09.6_|_120___|_warmup
00553_|_03:03_|_2:45.8_|_052___|_17.0_|_10.6_|_134___|_rest meters
01357_|_08:28_|_3:07.2_|_169___|_20.0_|_08.0_|_132___|_cool down

04347_|_21:56_|_2:31.4_|_406___|_18.5_|_10.7_|_145___|_r18
03015_|_14:56_|_2:28.6_|_304___|_20.4_|_09.9_|_147___|_r20
01882_|_09:05_|_2:24.8_|_202___|_22.2_|_09.3_|_150___|_r22
01083_|_05:00_|_2:18.4_|_120___|_24.0_|_09.0_|_154___|_r24
10327_|_50:57_|_2:28.0_|_1032___|_20.3_|_10.0_|_147___|_main set

So, a bit slower for the r18 than I would have liked. About 3 seconds faster for r20. 3.8 seconds going from r20 to r22 and 6.4 seconds faster going from R22 to R24! Interesting to see the HR following the rates too.

Here’s the view of the workout from the TCX data collected by RIM and process by rowsandall.com

Tomorrow: Long Intervals – 4 x 2500 / 5′ rest. rate target r26.

Sunday: Easy hour.

August 28, 2016Leave a comment

Got home around midnight last night, so I slept in instead of heading off to the lake this morning. Around 3 in the afternoon I was ready for an erg session.

I wasn’t sure what to do today, so I decided to do an hour. I would start slow, around 2:05, and speed up by a second every six minutes until I got to the top of the UT band. Then I would slow down by a second to the end.

It ended up being an enjoyable session. A bit warm, in the mid 80s and very sweaty, but I was happy that it took until the last 12 minutes before I hit the top of my UT band.

Data was saved using ergdata and then processed by rowsandall.com.

Tomorrow: 14k steady state OTW

Saturday: 14K open water in Wellfleet

August 27, 2016August 28, 2016Leave a comment

Sunny warm and beautiful. Brisk wind from the NNW between 10 and 15 mph with gusts to about 20. This kicked up a fair amount of chop away from the windward shore, so I tried to stay close to shore where I could

I launched at 8:40am. Here’s the weather data.

I launched from the small beach near my house, and rowed along the shore of Lt Island. Then I cut over toward indian neck. On the water, the wind felt like it was more NNE than NNW, and once I got over to the indian neck shoreline, there was nice smooth water and a bit less wind.

I went into Wellfleet inner harbor and I wanted to explore up into Duck Creek. It was a good thing I did, because as soon as I turned around the end of the breakwater that forms the entrance to the creek, my boat was surrounded by a school of fish, they looked to be between 6″ and 12″ long and they were swimming so fast that they were stirring up the surface of the water. I wasn’t sure why they were so agitated, but when I looked around there were a couple of seals peeking out the water at me. They soon went back to hunting these fish, there were thousands of them. A most amazing site.

I turned at the end of the marina and then rowed all the way out of the harbor and along the Wellfleet town beach to the west until I got to great island. By then I had done about 9km and I needed to turn for home. I didn’t stay as close to the beach on the way back and there was a lot more chop, which was basically on my beam. I needed to ease up a bit and work on balance and timing to get both oars engaged at the catch with the boat rocking around.

I wanted to get over to the eastern shore a bit before I turned for home to avoid a bit of the chop, but time was growing short so I decided to just turn and row with the waves. This was a blast. Sometimes I was surging down the fronts of waves, but I needed to be really aware to avoid catching my oars on them on recovery. In this case catching an oar is not the kind of slap that I am used to in flat water rowing, but burying the whole damn blade in the back of a wave. I don’t want to give the wrong impression. I would be surprised if many of the waves were over 12″ tall (except when they merged with a passing wake). But it was enough to really change the way that I could row.

I surfed all the way back in front of my house to the little beach. Then I had to carry my boat over the dunes back to my car. One issue with the boat. Every time I row, I get a good liter of water in the boat that drains out when I open the plug in the bow. I suspect that the seam between the hull and the deck is cracked. I’ll have to try to fix it this winter.

Edit: Adding graphs from rowsandall.com

Here is the pace data leaned up and scaled so you can see the slow bits that were going into the wind and waves. The worst was the bit from about 5 minutes to 10 minutes. The bit from just after 20 minutes to 30 minutes was tooling around wellfleet harbor. I struggled with the waves from about 55 minutes all the way to about 1:10. The big slow downs were huge wakes combined with the waves that pretty much swamped me.

Thursday: 14K steady state (r18/r20)

August 25, 2016Leave a comment

Weather: Sunny, beautiful. light wind, building from the west. This was a head wind going up river.

Plan:

70 minutes of steady state
r20
pace target: around 2:30
HR cap: 155

A very nice row. No complaints. Getting way out for the catch sure makes a big difference to boat speed.

Tonight my wife and I are heading back to the cape. If the weather is nice, I’ll do an open water row tomorrow morning. If not, I’ll go for a bike ride.

Tuesday: Speedcoach Calibration and 14K of steady state

August 23, 2016August 23, 20167 Comments

Weather: Crystal clear. Very Sunny. Cool and breezy. Wind NW 2 to 5 mph.

The main objective today was to get the new impeller mounted for my speedcoach. Once it was mounted, it needed to be calibrated. So, I popped it in the water and headed out. I usually row in the early morning, but today, I had some things to do at home in the morning. So, I launched around 1:00 in the afternoon. Since it was such a nice day there were a lot of kayaks, pedal boats, canoes and various other water craft out enjoying the day as well. Even though I was looking around constantly, I still had to back down hard a few times when a boat zigged instead of zagging, or I missed them in my scans. Despite this, it was a glorious day to be out rowing.

Plan:

Do 2x 1000m at r24 in opposite directions to calibrate the speedcoach.
80 minutes of steady state

Leaving the dock, I started RIM and reset the speedcoach. After I warmed up and got to the start of the straight part of the river, I realized that I really should be using Crewnerd for a autostart 1000m piece for speedcoach cal. So, I flipped over and started up crewnerd, losing the first 1200m of rowing.

The 1000s went fine. The first one was with the light wind and was done at an average pace of 2:11.4. The second was upwind and the pace was 2:13.3. I was winded but I didn’t push them all that hard. After that, I did the river twice from the start to the moody street dam. At first I was feeling like I was really struggling to hit any reasonable split. But eventually, I started to row a bit better and sped up. The main difference was focusing on getting way into compression at the catch.

Tomorrow: Some more steady state. 80′ at r20.

Monday: 40km Bike Ride

August 23, 2016August 29, 2016Leave a comment

Monday morning the tide was too low to launch. I would have had to carry my boat across 500 meters of sand to get it in the water. It was also windy (15-20mph with gusts t0 30 from the SW). So I needed another plan. I decided to give biking a try.

I have my old mountain bike down on the Cape. I decided that navigating the sand and gravel roads on the island on a road bike with skinny tires and clip-in pedals was a bit much. I might give it a try sometime, but for now, the old mountain bike is the pick.

This bike handled the sand and gravel without any trouble. It’s 3.6km from my house to the major road. 1.3km is sand road. The other 2.6 is paved. The transition from sand to paved is right at the boundary between the island and a long causeway across the salt marsh. There is a little bridge across a tidal channel, right where between the “e” and the “u” are in the word Lieutenant on the map below. The approaches to this bridge actually are covered by the highest of high tides and cut off the island for a couple of hours. When I went out biking it was much closed to low tide.

Right across Route six is the Cape Cod Rail Trail. A lovely, straight, flat bike trail along the path of railroad right of way. It stretches for about 23 miles. I got on at about mile 22, and I rode south 15 km. I decided to just ride out 50 minutes and then turn around to go home for a total workout length of 100 minutes.

When I turned around, I realized that I had a work phone call to do at 11am, so I pushed the pace and cut off a few minutes. It also actually got my heart rate up into some reasonable zone for training.

Very nice. I think biking is a great alternative if the tides of wind are not favorable.

Thursday: 15K Open Water Row

August 19, 20161 Comment

Tuesday: To much going on. We headed back to the cape in the late morning. I stopped for groceries on the way. Once I was set up in the house, the wind was too strong for rowing. Whitecaps all over the bay. I went for a walk instead.

Wednesday: Lots of projects. Furniture getting delivered. Buying lumber and hardware and digging post holes to put up a clothesline. I was hoping to go for a row in the afternoon, but it was still quite windy, sustained winds between 15 and 20mph with gusts to 25.

Thursday: Weather report indicated lighter winds in the morning so I got up round 7:30 and headed out around 8:30. I’ve decided that it is impractical to carry the boat own the stairs. They are too steep and rickety, so I threw the boat on top of my car and headed off to a place by the beach that I could park.

The beach is not steep at all, so I had to carry my oars out to the water’s edge and then go back and get my boat. This round trip took about 5 minutes or so. In that time, the tide had come in enough to float my oars. I got myself setup in the boat and rowed out to deeper water. I was touching my oars to the sand with just about each stroke at first but within 5 strokes, I was free and clear.

The goal for today was to get used to rowing this boat in open water. It will take a while to get used to rowing in waves. Each direction relative to the waves brought unique challenges. From some respects, rowing right into the wind was the easiest. It was also the most taxing. Waves coming on the quarter bow or stern tended to really throw the boat around. From the side, the main challenge was to get both oars firmly set at the catch. Straight downwind was kind of fun. It seems to work best if you adjust stroke rate to match the wave frequency and take a stroke at the crest of a wave and surf down on the recovery.

Thursday the wind was from the southwest. It was blowing pretty good when I first started at 8:30, but died down a bit as I went along. This wind direction is generally unprotected, so the waves get bigger. I think they were maybe 8″ to 12″ high with some bigger ones.

I was out for an hour and 15 minutes and covered about 16km. All UT2 / UT1.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: steady state

Wednesday: 14K Steady State

Monday: 4 x 20 @ 185W

Wednesday: Steady State (and more accuracy fun)

Monday: Steady State Rate Ladders

Sunday: Easy hour.

Saturday: 14K open water in Wellfleet

Thursday: 14K steady state (r18/r20)

Tuesday: Speedcoach Calibration and 14K of steady state

Monday: 40km Bike Ride

Thursday: 15K Open Water Row