Saturday – Fartlek

The wind forecsst urged me to go to the lake as early as possible, but I didn’t skip sleeping in properly and a decent weekend breakfast, so I arrived at 9:30. To my surprise the lake was mirror flat. Also, it was already hot.

When I was about to launch, a Masters ladies eight just came back from their training. This is s group of older ladies from all over the Czech Republic and they are having a training camp at our club to prepare for Bled. I rowed a 3km warming uding some 10 stroke bursts and a practice start. Then I lined up at the start of the 2k course for the first interval. I was going to do a 300 W effort and try to hold on as long as possible. 

With the SpeedCoach set to show SPM and instantaneous power on the top row and elapsed time and average power on the bottom row, this is a nice thing to do. You set out at a certain wattage and then try to hold it as long as possible. My cutoff criterium is that the average has dropped 5W below the target. At 300 W, I managed 5 minutes and I could have continued longer. 


Workout Summary - media/20170708-102438-Sanders SpeedCoach 20170708 0945amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|04061|22:00.0|02:42.5|176.0|22.9|157.5|185.0|08.0
W-|01239|05:00.0|02:01.1|300.8|29.8|176.6|185.0|08.3
R-|02826|17:00.0|03:00.5|113.0|19.5|147.9|185.0|08.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00248|01:00.0|02:01.0|317.6|30.5|155.1|174.0|08.1
01|00246|01:00.0|02:01.9|297.6|29.2|178.3|181.0|08.4
02|00248|01:00.0|02:01.0|305.2|29.4|181.9|184.0|08.4
03|00251|01:00.0|01:59.5|302.6|30.1|183.6|185.0|08.3
04|00245|01:00.0|02:02.2|280.8|29.9|184.2|185.0|08.2


After 5 minutes, I slowly continued all the way to the 2k finish, then turned around to row back to the start, doing some square blade rowing in the mean time. The next test was 350W. That didn’t last much longer than 2 minutes, a fact I am not happy about. 


Workout Summary - media/20170708-102509-Sanders SpeedCoach 20170708 1007amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|04029|22:00.0|02:43.8|162.7|22.1|157.1|186.0|08.3
W-|00520|02:00.0|01:55.3|347.9|33.4|173.7|186.0|07.8
R-|03510|20:00.0|02:50.9|129.1|20.0|154.2|186.0|08.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00261|01:00.0|01:55.0|356.6|34.0|164.0|181.0|07.7
01|00259|01:00.0|01:55.6|339.2|32.8|183.4|186.0|07.9


When I lined up for the third time at the 2k start, it was to do a 325W effort. Around 1:30 in, it looked like I would not hold this much longer than 2 minutes, but passing the 2 minute mark gave me inspiration to go all the way to three minutes:


Workout Summary - media/20170708-102534-Sanders SpeedCoach 20170708 1030amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|01336|07:00.0|02:37.2|226.9|26.9|165.6|187.0|07.1
W-|00769|03:00.0|01:57.0|315.2|32.3|175.5|187.0|07.9
R-|00568|04:00.0|03:31.1|083.5|18.0|149.5|187.0|07.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00258|01:00.0|01:56.4|337.5|32.8|160.4|177.0|07.9
01|00255|01:00.0|01:57.8|313.3|31.6|180.8|184.0|08.1
02|00257|01:00.0|01:56.7|294.8|32.6|185.2|187.0|07.9


A few minutes after that, I found energy for another start and a one minute effort:


Workout Summary - media/20170708-102559-Sanders SpeedCoach 20170708 1037amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|01608|09:37.0|02:59.6|154.3|21.9|145.9|182.0|07.6
W-|00283|01:00.0|01:45.9|411.9|37.6|164.5|182.0|07.5
R-|01325|08:37.0|03:15.3|093.0|18.2|141.8|182.0|08.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00146|00:30.0|01:42.7|449.0|38.3|151.2|172.0|07.6
01|00137|00:30.0|01:49.3|374.9|36.9|177.8|182.0|07.4


Uploading to rowsandall.com, I was hoping for a ‘breakthrough’ notification. I thought that the 300 W for 5 minutes would qualify. Alas. Here is my CP chart before the row:

And here is the after picture:

A breakthrough workout is defined as having a red dot above the red line. I did manage to move the green line slightly closer to the red one, though. Perhaps it would be more motivating if I made the criterium easier?

As I saved today’s session in multiple workouts, because I reset the SpeedCoach at the beginning of each interval, I couldn’t use the normal flex chart to look at all the strokes. Of course I could use the Stroke Analysis, setting the date rwnge to cover only today:

However, selecting all of today’s workouts with the new Trend Flex chart, I had fun producing different charts and thinking about them.

First, I looked at pace. Looks like in today”s weather rowing 1:50 would mean holding 35 spm at 350W. In terms of power, below 40 spm there are no diminishing returns. Or, in other words, I can go up to 40spm without losing form, and the question is only how long I can hold it. Looking at pace, there were no surprises either. Increasing the stroke rate inicreases boat speed. The drive length charts confirm that there is nothing wrong with my form. The outliers are really the start strokes, which of course are shorter. 

Judge for yourself, but I do believe that this new chart is useful.

After the row, I did a swim in the lake. After the thunderstorms of Friday evening, the water was a lot colder than last week, so I didn’t swim longer than 10 minutes. I hung up my wet uni in my locker, not realizing that the water was dripping all over my other clothes, so I ended up wearing wet shorts, which looked a bit weird when I went shopping afterwards. 

I also mounted a new bow ball on our double. The old one had suffered from a collision when my daughter rowed it at the Hodonin regatta. It was still a fully functioning bow ball, but I don’t want to risk not passing the checks at the Masters Nationals.

Tomorrow: a trip to Mordor.

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