Another year, another ANP test

Monday

I took a day off to give my back some rest.

Tuesday

I went to the pool before work, expecting to do a shorter, lighter swim, but things went so well that I did the full hour. Almost came late for my first meeting.

Wednesday

A weights session. This time I did the full workout prescribed by our club coach. Most exercises at 4×30 repetitions, some at 4×15 or 4×20. It was a good session. I felt it for two days.

Thursday

My back was recovered enough to try one of the erg sessions. This was 3x15min with each 15 minutes as 4 minutes at 20spm, 1 minute at 24spm. Of course with a nice 2500 warming up and a 5 minute cooling down.


Workout Summary - media/20181115-2001130o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11628|53:59.0|02:19.3|164.2|18.7|161.3|177.0|11.5
W-|10998|44:52.0|02:02.4|190.2|21.0|164.0|177.0|11.7
R-|00632|09:00.0|07:06.9|037.0|07.3|147.8|177.0|24.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03709|15:00.0|02:01.3|193.7|21.1|159.1|173.0|11.7
01|03648|15:00.0|02:03.3|187.1|21.0|163.7|174.0|11.6
02|03640|14:52.5|02:02.6|189.7|20.9|169.2|177.0|11.7

Friday

An easy erg session on the day before the lactate step test.

s

Saturday

ANP Test day. I was in the 8:30 group so I didn’t have a lot of time for erg test anxiety. I had to go to the club immediately after breakfast, got changed, signed the mandatory GDPR form, paid for the test, and started warming up.

The protocol was the same as last year, 5 times 5 minutes with two minute sessions of rest. I also rowed the exact same target wattages: 160, 190, 220, 250 and 280W. The scientists had some difficulty getting blood from my ear. Perhaps because my ears were a bit frozen (it was -2C outside).

I was curious if I would succeed in the last session, not having done a lot of erging at that power level. In the end it was all right. It was tough of course, but it was doable, especially with the coaches cheering behind us. Of course our men go a bit faster than us Masters. Tomas next to me ended at 410W.

On Rowsandall.com, it was easy to compare with last year’s test:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I was surprised how close the values are between last and this year. It only seems I have started to Row a bit shorter (but with higher average and peak force). Not sure I am pleased with that.

After the erg testing, I rowed a short cooling down, and then I helped getting some eights and fours off our trailer and into the boat house. After that, I did a 5km slow run. From our boat house to the boat house of the other rowing club, turn around at their entrance gate, and run the same way back. It’s almost exactly 5k.

My sons were doing stairs running at the dam:

Fifteen times in various ways (skipping one step, one one leg, jumps, etc). It’s a hellish workout.