Monday: Another typical On The Water workout

There would be no point in doing this on the ergometer. This one is really about getting used to high stroke rates in real conditions (wind, waves, chop, traffic, buoys, and wake). Anybody can get up to 40spm on the erg, but getting good boat speed at 38spm in a single is more difficult.

This is another one from my personal list of interesting workouts that I collected over the years. It says:

3x(5×30″)/R8 (1) 30″/30″ @36spm, (2) 30″/45″ @ 38spm, (3) 30″/60″ @40spm

So three sets of 5 times 30 seconds of hard work, with mini rests that get longer for the higher stroke rates. Eight minutes rest between the sets. This is the first time I am doing it this season and I am not sure whether the stroke rates weren’t originally intended for the double or even the quad, so I lowered the target spm by 2.

The conditions: Alternating sun and a few drops of rain, light wind from the north (the nearby weather stations reported something else but in this hill country a weather station 5km away on the other side of the hill can report something entirely different), about 24 degrees C.

Warming up was uneventful. I did 3 10 stroke bursts at slightly higher stroke rate than my normal “warming up” bursts, and I took 3km of warming up instead of 2.

The first set was with slight tailwind, the second set with headwind and the final set with tailwind again. In the first interval of the second set, I had to suddenly steer in another direction because I was on a collision course with a tourist ferry. During the first set I thought I would not be able to survive the second and third sets, but the slightly longer rests combined by the fact that I really got used to the high rates were enough to save me.

Here are the data.

| Dist_ | Pace__ | _SPM | avg HR | max HR | DPS | Remarks
| 03161 | 02:38.6 | 20.1 | 136 | 169 | 09.4 | WU
| 00140 | 01:47.3 | 32.9 | 159 | 172 | 08.5 | 34spm #1 (32.0 / 1:46.2)
| 00136 | 01:50.1 | 33.3 | 174 | 180 | 08.2 | 34 spm #2 (33.9 / 1:48.1)
| 00133 | 01:52.7 | 32.8 | 176 | 182 | 08.1 | 34spm #3 (33.9 / 1:49.9)
| 00142 | 01:45.4 | 32.9 | 177 | 182 | 08.7 | 34spm #4 (34.0 / 1:42.2)
| 00139 | 01:48.2 | 33.0 | 176 | 182 | 08.4 | 34spm #5 (34.0 / 1:48.1)
| 01414 | 02:49.7 | 20.1 | 147 | 183 | 08.8 | rest 8min
| 00126 | 01:55.4 | 34.6 | 169 | 178 | 07.5 | 36spm #1 (34.0 / 1:54.7), steering
| 00137 | 01:49.5 | 34.8 | 176 | 181 | 07.9 | 36spm #2 (36.0 / 1:49.1)
| 00134 | 01:51.5 | 35.6 | 178 | 182 | 07.6 | 36spm #3 (36.0 / 1:48.7)
| 00143 | 01:48.1 | 34.3 | 177 | 183 | 08.1 | 36spm #4 (35.9 / 1:45.9)
| 00137 | 01:49.7 | 35.1 | 179 | 185 | 07.8 | 36spm #5 (33.9 / 1:48.7)
| 01425 | 02:48.4 | 19.6 | 152 | 186 | 09.1 | 8 min rest
| 00143 | 01:44.7 | 37.1 | 167 | 177 | 07.7 | 38spm #1 (38.0 / 1:43.0)
| 00145 | 01:46.7 | 36.4 | 174 | 179 | 07.7 | 38spm #2 (38.0 / 1:43.7)
| 00149 | 01:40.6 | 37.1 | 176 | 181 | 08.0 | 38spm #3 (37.9 / 1:39.1)
| 00140 | 01:47.0 | 36.6 | 176 | 183 | 07.7 | 38spm #4 ( (36.0 / 1:45.8)
| 00137 | 01:49.6 | 36.8 | 175 | 182 | 07.4 | 38spm #5 (37.9 / 1:45.7)
| 01916 | 02:59.3 | 20.1 | 155 | 184 | 08.3 | CD


I have removed the data for the mini rests as they are not interesting. In the comments I captured what CrewNerd reports me. In these short intervals it is slightly different from the excel spreadsheet. I guess it gives you a feel for the accuracy. The intervals were just 17 to 19 strokes long, and with one data point per second there are bound to be rounding errors.

Summary:

dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment
3161_____|_16:43____|_2:38.6|136|20.1|9.4|warmup
2082_____|_07:31____|_1:48.3|174|34.9|8.0|Main set
1916_____|_11:27____|_2:59.3|155|20.1|8.3|Cool down
4553_____|_24:59____|_2:44.6|159|20.3|9.0|rest meters
11712____|_00:40____|_2:35.4|154|21.0|9.2|_Total


Happy with the paces achieved and even more happy with the stroke rates. During the 36spm and 38spm I really felt how I could work fast and still get reasonable stroke length.

This evening a session in the quad and I may have to do a 5km on the erg immediately after it to keep my promise to do each and every CTC of this year.