Weather: mid 60s, overcast, intermittent light rain. Light SE wind, 4 mph with gusts to 6. This was a head wind going downriver and tail wind going up river.

Plan:

• 4 x 2700 / 4′ rest
• rate: 24-26
• pace: ~2:15
• No HR cap

I had a bad feeling about this workout from the moment I woke up.  I slept well, but apparently not long enough to catch up because I was sore and lethargic.

Another bad sign.  I forgot something right before I left the house and needed to climb the stairs to go back and get it.  I felt noticeably winded by the time I got to top of the stairs.  Uh oh.

Well, those intervals are not going to do themselves, you know.  So I pressed on regardless.  I got to the dock around 6:10 and I was on the water by 6:15.  It was then I noticed that my phone had not charged overnight and was completely dead (just like me!).  Today would be a speedcoach only session.  Too bad, I was looking forward to looking at acceleration curves for r24 and r26.  I’ll loop back to that later this week I guess.

When I launched, it was raining lightly, but it stopped by the time I finished warming up.  As I paddled through the cut, I heard and felt a significant thump.  I jammed my oars to stop the boat and heard a much softer bump when the log hit the impeller, and then an almost imperceptible bump when it hit the fin.  I saw it bob to the surface behind me, a weed encrusted log, about 6 feet long and 6″ in diameter.  More about that later.

I got myself setup to go in front of the island, and took off at r24.  The boat felt heavy, probably because of the light head wind, but also I was feeling a twinge in my lower back.  I got up to speed, and was counting strokes.  Looking over my shoulder I saw a single and launch coming the other way, so I stopped after about 50 strokes, hailed them, and paddled back to the launch.  I asked if he would go looking for the log and get rid of it for me.  He seemed happy to do it.  I doubt they want to lose a fin on it any more than I do.

Anyway, back to work.  I started again and was counting strokes.  It felt like a ton of effort to maintain any reasonable pace, and by the time I came out of the S-turn, I was discouraged and very tired.  I costed to a stop, paddled a little, and then brought it back up to an r24 and rowed the rest of the way to the Moody street dam.

Boy that was hard work.  I felt miserable.  Like I was rowing in mud.  I hoped that going the other way, with the light tail wind would be a bit easier.  It wasn’t.  I rowed up to the s-turn and bailed out again.  I paddled through the turn, and then did the last 1100m original start point.  Ugh.

I thought about quitting, but that would have made me feel even worse about this session.  Onward and downstreamwards!  The wind felt stronger, but it probably wasn’t, and I was having trouble just keeping the boat going faster than a 2:25.  And in the s-turn, I saw the pace popping above 2:30 a few times.  But I had had enough of bailing out.  I started to feel a bit hopeless in front of the watch factory, but eased up the pressure a bit and tried to maintain the stroke rate.  Within 10 or so strokes, I was back on track.  Once I was through the bridge, I pushed the pace a bit harder to the Moody Street dam.  I was feeling a bit better now.  At least I had completed the full rep, even if it was slow as hell.  One more to go.

Again, I focused on rate, not pace.  I was hoping that there would be a helpful tailwind.  Maybe there was a little bit, but not enough to help me.  I did OK up to the s-turn, but slowed down a lot through that.  Coming out of it, I gradually increase pressure and rate as I counted strokes.  It takes me about 300 to 320 strokes to get from end to end in these intervals, and coming out of the s-turn, I counted my 200th stroke.  Now, I just needed to get through another 120.  You can see the HR climb through this last section as I sensed the end was near.  Thank God!

After I finished, I pulled my feet out of the shoes and paddled home, working on clean finishes and balance.

Not my best work, but partial credit for sticking it out.

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_1197_|_06:48_|_2:50.4_|_123___|_18.1_|_09.7_|_124___|_warmup
01206_|_0454_|_02:00_|_2:12.3_|_050___|_25.0_|_09.1_|_147___|_head wind
01660_|_0162_|_01:02_|_3:10.7_|_016___|_15.5_|_10.1_|_144___|_stop to chat
01822_|_1181_|_05:17_|_2:14.4_|_135___|_25.5_|_08.7_|_159___|_head wind
03003_|_0137_|_00:45_|_2:42.8_|_016___|_21.5_|_08.6_|_138___|_bailed
03140_|_1129_|_05:19_|_2:21.5_|_125___|_23.5_|_09.0_|_155___|_head wind
04269_|_0037_|_00:27_|_6:10.3_|_007___|_15.3_|_05.3_|_127___|_rest
04306_|_1457_|_06:39_|_2:17.1_|_164___|_24.6_|_08.9_|_159___|_tail wind
05763_|_0239_|_01:41_|_3:31.3_|_030___|_17.8_|_08.0_|_135___|_bailed
06002_|_1094_|_04:51_|_2:13.1_|_121___|_24.9_|_09.0_|_163___|_tail wind
07096_|_0051_|_00:47_|_7:37.8_|_010___|_12.8_|_05.1_|_117___|_rest
07147_|_2798_|_13:29_|_2:24.5_|_323___|_24.0_|_08.7_|_165___|_head wind
09945_|_0117_|_01:21_|_5:44.9_|_020___|_14.9_|_05.9_|_120___|_rest
10062_|_2760_|_13:05_|_2:22.1_|_320___|_24.5_|_08.6_|_165___|_tail wind
12822_|_1212_|_07:43_|_3:10.8_|_143___|_18.5_|_08.5_|_132___|_feet out

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
01197_|_06:48_|_2:50.4_|_123___|_18.1_|_09.7_|_124___|_warmup
10873_|_50:41_|_2:19.8_|_1238___|_24.4_|_08.8_|_162___|_Main set
00743_|_06:02_|_4:03.7_|_099___|_16.4_|_07.5_|_131___|_rest meters
01212_|_07:43_|_3:10.8_|_143___|_18.5_|_08.5_|_132___|_cool down
14025_|_11:13_|_2:32.3_|_1603___|_22.5_|_08.7_|_152___|_Total

Today’s session: 50′ HIT, 20′ LIT

Tomorrow: The plan calls for r20 steady state, but I think I need a very low intensity session.  So I think I will switch it with my Planned Friday session, which is:

• Square Blades / Slow Roll Up / r20 2 minutes each, repeated

 

Weather: Sunny.  Beautiful.  Building wind from the WNW.  I launched at 6:30, and started the first interval about 10 minutes later.  I was back on the dock at 8:00.  So you can see the wind increasing in the chart below.

Plan:

• 4 x 2800
• 4′ rest
• rate: 24-26
• pace: <2:20
• HR: No cap, objective is to maximize time in TR
• Technique:  early and clean finishes, good reach at the catch.

This was a good workout.

The reason that this workout is 2800m intervals is because that is how much river I have to row on.  I row out of a place called Boating in Boston, at the bottom of this map.

I row across the lagoon, which is chock full of weeds, then around a reasonably tight corner.  Then there is about 300m of straight water.  This is good for a few power strokes and warmup type drills.  Then a sharp turn into “the cut”.  That is a short cut that cuts out a big, long, annoying oxbow in the river.  Coming out of the cut, there is about 100m of weedy channel to get to a little island on the south side of the river.  That island is the start point of the “good rowing” and the start of the 2800m interval.  This map shows the course of the rowable water.

Starting at the island, you row down a narrow channel for about 100m, and then things open up on both sides.  On the south/east side, there is a long cove which is good rowing early in the season,  but gets all weedy.  On the north/west side, there is a broad area of wetlands.  This is a nice broad channel.

About 600m from the start you pass between a point on the east side and little island on the west side.  There is a sunken log off the point that I mashed a fin on two seasons ago.  I tend to give it a wide berth.

After you pass this point, you turn a bit to take the ideal line through the s-curve.  The traffic pattern on the river is defined as downriver on the south/east side and up river on the north/west side.  But in the curve, on a high intensity workout, I will go for the best line and keep a sharp eye out for boats.  The river is usually pretty deserted.  The perfect line for the curve is to cut the south shore close going in, then turn as little as possible to get past the north corner, then gradually get back to the east side coming out of the turn.  The turn is tight enough to cost me me about 5 seconds on pace in the two turns.

Coming out the turn, there is beautiful stretch in front of an old watch works.  It has been converted to condos and offices, but it still looks like a classic New England factory.  There is about 600m of nearly straight rowing before you need to think about the bridge.

The bridge.  What can I say about the bridge.  It’s very pretty, but a challenge for rowers.  Here is a view of it from the downstream side on the north/west bank of the river.  The nearest arch is unusable because it is too shallow.  The middle arch is for going uyp river.  The far arch is for downstream traffic.  Each arch is about twice as wide as the span of a sculling boats oars, and the bridge carries two lanes of traffic and two sidewalks, so it’s about two boat lengths through.

The challenge is the approach.  Coming downstream (at the bottom of the next photo), you need to cut close to the dock, and turn toward the east bank for a few strokes.  Then you need to cut back to line yourself up with the center of the arch since the road is not at right angles to the river.  Then coming out of the bridge, you should steer a bit back to the east bank to be in the right traffic lane.  You can see I didn’t do a good job with that today.

Coming upstream, you can’t just aim at the middle arch because the is a outflow pipe which has made a little sand bar that juts out a bit, so you need to aim at the downstream arch, then turn to the middle, then turn back to get the right angle through the arch.  Then there is a bit more adjustment to get out to the upstream lane.

All of this is actually easier than it sounds, but it is a challenge to do it right after 2200m of hard rowing.  It’s even trickier at 30spm.

After the bridge is about 600m in a long arc to the Moody Street Dam.  This is straightforward but tends to have the worst wind for some reason.

Anyway, not sure why I felt the need to do that, but I did.  Back to the workout.

The first rep was magic,  I was flying.  I was rowing well and moving fast.  If only it was always like that.  2:11.8 pace over 2800m including all the shananigans.

After I finished it.  I had an “Oh dear” moment, realizing that I had 3 more to do.  I decided to hold myself back a bit from then on.  I aimed at keeping the pace on the right side of 2:20.  That worked out fine.  The second interval was trouble free.  2:18.4 pace.

OK, half done.  Time to go again.  I was tired but ready to give it a go.  No problems to report.  2:17.6, with a little bit of help from the WNW breeze.

After three I was smoked.  And the breeze seemed to be building. I gave myself permission to suck.  And at first I really did.  The head wind was not debilitating, but it sure slowed me down across the basin at the start, then it was more of a cross wind, until the S-turn, when I was back into the teeth of it.  I was lots of 2:25s and higher in the worst of it.  Then when I got back to about the point with the sunken log, I started to push a lot harder,  I got a little faster and my level of effort went a lot higher.  I charged back up the channel at about 2:10 pace and declared victory.  2:20.3 pace for the last interval, fair enough with the head wind and tired legs.

Here’s the data from the Speedcoach

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_1519_|_08:51_|_2:54.9_|_148___|_16.7_|_10.3_|_119___|_warmup
01536_|_2801_|_12:18_|_2:11.8_|_309___|_25.1_|_09.1_|_163___|_light tail wind
04337_|_0145_|_01:18_|_4:27.9_|_020___|_15.4_|_07.3_|_125___|_rest
04482_|_2798_|_12:54_|_2:18.4_|_327___|_25.3_|_08.6_|_169___|_light head
07280_|_0229_|_02:50_|_6:11.4_|_027___|_09.5_|_08.5_|_127___|_
07509_|_2784_|_12:46_|_2:17.6_|_317___|_24.8_|_08.8_|_169___|_light tail
10293_|_0136_|_01:49_|_6:40.4_|_024___|_13.2_|_05.7_|_136___|_
10429_|_2788_|_13:02_|_2:20.3_|_325___|_24.9_|_08.6_|_171___|_stronger head
13217_|_1204_|_08:06_|_3:21.6_|_150___|_18.5_|_08.0_|_135___|_cool down

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
01519_|_08:51_|_2:54.9_|_148___|_16.7_|_10.3_|_119___|_warmup
11171_|_51:01_|_2:17.0_|_1278___|_25.1_|_08.7_|_168___|_Main set
00510_|_05:57_|_5:49.7_|_071___|_11.9_|_07.2_|_129___|_rest meters
01204_|_08:06_|_3:21.6_|_150___|_18.5_|_08.0_|_135___|_cool down
14404_|_13:54_|_2:33.9_|_1647___|_22.3_|_08.7_|_155___|_Total

Tomorrow: Completely the same and totally different.  Again 4 x 2800, but with 1′ rests, at r20 and with a HR cap at 150.  Steady State endurance training.