Sprintervals with long rest – OTW

Finally an OTW day again. Couldn’t do the row in the morning, as it is the First Day of School after the vacation, and I didn’t want to miss the breakfast with the kids this morning.

Arrived at the lake around 5pm. It was warm, around 28 degrees, and the lake was calm. There were fewer swimmers and paddlers and other recreational vessels than during the vacation, but there was still enough for me to be nervous and wear the mirrors.

The problem is always the same. Nobody estimates the rowing boat’s speed correctly. There is a very simple way to determine if you will pass in front of or behind a vessel, or are on collision course. If the other boat is moving forward relative to a fixed point on the shore (horizon), you will pass behind it. If it is moving backwards relative to the shore, you will pass in front of it. If the horizon doesn’t move with respect to the other boat, you are on a collision course. Assuming none of the vessels changes course or speeds up/slows down.

I was still struggling with the SpeedCoach workout menu. I wanted to do 20×30″/60″ rest. Being lazy, I thought I could program that as 10x(30″/60″/30″/60″), so the rest periods would also be captured. However, I forgot to change the rest between the series. I discovered that after the first two 30 second speed bursts, when the SpeedCoach went to a “break” of 10 minutes. I stopped and reprogrammed, reducing the rest between “sets” to the minimum of 30″. I guess the right way to program this workout is to do 30/60/30/60/30/60/… etc, at least if you want the rest period to be recorded. Here are the plots for the 18 intervals I did after reprogramming:

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Power estimated through the algorithms on rowsandall.com

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Workout data for the first 2 intervals:

Work Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00129| 00:30 | 1:56.2| 32.0| 145 | 170 | 8.1
02|00193| 01:00 | 2:35.4| 21.0| 166 | 172 | 9.2
03|00129| 00:30 | 1:56.2| 32.0| 164 | 164 | 8.1
04|00190| 01:00 | 2:37.8| 20.0| 167 | 170 | 9.5
Workout Summary
--|00641| 03:00 | 2:20.4| 24.3| 161 | 172 | 8.8

and for the 18 intervals (removed the 60″ rest intervals):

Work Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00131| 00:30 | 1:54.5| 34.0| 150 | 157 | 7.7 - headwind
03|00129| 00:30 | 1:56.2| 32.0| 166 | 176 | 8.1
05|00135| 00:30 | 1:51.1| 34.0| 165 | 169 | 7.9 - tailwind
07|00134| 00:30 | 1:51.9| 34.0| 173 | 182 | 7.9
09|00135| 00:30 | 1:51.1| 34.0| 174 | 176 | 7.9
11|00139| 00:30 | 1:47.9| 32.0| 172 | 179 | 8.7
13|00105| 00:30 | 2:22.8| 22.0| 151 | 154 | 9.5 - forgot to sprint
15|00138| 00:30 | 1:48.6| 34.0| 163 | 173 | 8.1
17|00135| 00:30 | 1:51.1| 32.0| 163 | 169 | 8.4
19|00138| 00:30 | 1:48.6| 32.0| 171 | 174 | 8.6
21|00137| 00:30 | 1:49.4| 32.0| 167 | 173 | 8.6
23|00123| 00:30 | 2:01.9| 32.0| 160 | 162 | 7.7 - headwind
25|00127| 00:30 | 1:58.1| 32.0| 162 | 165 | 7.9
27|00129| 00:30 | 1:56.2| 32.0| 169 | 173 | 8.1
29|00127| 00:30 | 1:58.1| 32.0| 150 | 153 | 7.9
31|00124| 00:30 | 2:00.9| 32.0| 168 | 170 | 7.8
33|00125| 00:30 | 1:59.9| 30.0| 164 | 169 | 8.3
35|00129| 00:30 | 1:56.2| 30.0| 159 | 159 | 8.6
Workout Summary
--|05500| 27:00 | 2:27.2| 23.1| 166 | 186 | 8.8

The setup of the SpeedCoach confused me in such a way that I forgot to sprint during one of the 30″ intervals.

I didn’t go all out on the sprints but tried to reach a good boat speed by technique, especially trying to accelerate slightly in the last part of the recovery. I think I am seeing a boat speed improvement doing this, but it is too early to proclaim victory.