2speed

Jan 22 2016

Plan, Periodise, Train, Adjust and Win Part II

On December 18th, 5 weeks ago, I did the two speed lactate test. Read my blog of 18 December about it.

Today, I planned to repeat it. I tried to copy the protocol as much as possible. So first a Fletcher warming up:

fletcher.jpg

Higher heart rates than 5 weeks ago.

Then the main event, two 1k tests spaced 15 minutes apart. The first one at head race pace. Second one at 2k pace or faster (full out allowed). I looked up my stroke rate of 5 weeks ago. They were 27 spm for the first one and 31 spm for the second one.

2speed2.jpg

Again, a higher heart rate in the second 1k.


Workout Summary - Jan 22, 2016
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02000|06:58.5|01:44.6|305.6|29.5|173.9|185.0|09.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments
01|01000|03:36.5|01:48.3|275.8|27.4|168.7|180.0|10.1| 2.6 mmol/L (1.9)
02|01000|03:22.0|01:41.0|339.9|31.8|178.8|185.0|09.3| 4.1 mmol/L (3.2)

So, compared to 5 weeks ago, there are the following differences:

  • 2 seconds faster split on the first 1k (stroke rate 0.4 spm up)
  • HR 10 bpm higher on the first 1k
  • Lactate 0.4 mmol/L lower after the first 1k
  • 2.3 seconds faster split on the second 1k (stroke rate 1 spm up)
  • HR 7 bpm higher on the 2nd 1k
  • Lactate 0.4 mmol/L lower

So I am faster at lower lactate but higher heart rate. This sounds plausible. For the aerobic energy path way, the heart rate has to go up when delivering higher power.

In a graph, it looks like this:

2speed.jpg

To be honest, I had hoped for a right shifted first point and a steeper curve. You can’t say I didn’t try. The second 1k is a Season’s Best.

I did another lactate test after a 2k cooling down. 2.3 mmol/L

So I guess my aerobic fitness has increased. Next test in 5 weeks.

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ples-v-opere-brno-mahenovo-divadlo-43_denik-600

Jan 22 2016

Thursday: Two short trainings

The first training was Bow Tie training. I haven’t worn a bow tie since my Ph.D. thesis defence, and I didn’t even own one until this week.

A Dutch Ph.D. thesis, by the way, to steal the words of this blogger, “The ceremony is incredibly formal, fairly succinct and the party that follows approaches the level of a wedding reception. The scale and grandeur of the event is a fitting marker of the accomplishment of completing a doctoral degree.” At that event, my “paranimfen” and I were wearing a full tuxedo, as is required at such an event. Formally, my “paranimfen” (usually good friends or a colleague) are the only persons who are allowed to wear a sabre during the examination, so they could defend me in case the commission attacked me. We refrained from that right, however.

So that was my last bow tie wearing of 16 years ago, in this room to be precise:

academy-hall

But on Saturday I have to go to a ball with Romana, who got herself a beautiful dress for the occasion. I could of course wear a suit and tie but I would feel as if I was going to work. I craved for something that was acceptable to the occasion but also has a fun and party air to it. So the bow tie.

The training took 30 minutes and I went from zero skills to being able to tie an acceptable tie.

The second training was 40 minutes of strength training. Nothing special. Just my weekly routine. This time without a light steady state to precede it, because it is low volume week.

So on Saturday I will be dancing at the Ball of the Olympians. Something like this, but with Olympic medal winners (and us).

ples-v-opere-brno-mahenovo-divadlo-43_denik-600

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3x20interrupted

Jan 20 2016

Concessions

Monday

Plan: Free form steady state

Execution: Did a 4x2000m “biathlon game” Concept2 with 250m penalty rounds each interval for

  1. Exceeding 190 strokes – penalty round 250m for every 10 strokes)
  2. A 250m round for each second above 2:00 average pace for the interval (2:00.9 – zero penalty; 2:01.0 – 2:01.9 – one penalty; and so on)
  3. A 250m round for each part of the interval where HR was 161 or higher.

I ended up doing a few penalty rounds as you can imagine. It made the time pass quick.

Tuesday

Plan: No training, rest day

Execution:

  1. Alarm clock at 2:30 am to catch taxi to airport, then flight to Brussels
  2. 10 am to 5pm – meetings in Brussels
  3. 7pm to 11:30pm – travel home by flight to Vienna, then taxi home

What a rest day!

Wednesday

Plan: 3×20 minute steady state erg @ 200 W

Difficulty to wake up. Decided to work from home and do the workout before work. Would give me time in the evening to spend with my family.

Execution:

  1. Wrote important email briefing on Tuesday’s meeting to my boss and other stakeholders. I bring home a few facts that may change a few important decisions. Then quickly sat down on erg. Between this and my first meeting of the day, there was only just enough time to do the workout and a quick shower
  2. A 1km warming up, followed by the 3x20min
  3. Power seemed to come easy. HR was high but the perceived rate of exertion (PRE) was OK and I didn’t have difficulty holding the 200W average.
  4. Started second interval. RPE was a bit higher now. Still holding 200W.
  5. A few minutes into the second interval, my audio stopped (I was playing some course material) and I noticed an incoming call from my boss. Stopped to answer the call and talked to him for the rest of the interval and the beginning of the third interval.
  6. Finished 3rd interval and measured lactate: 1.7 mmol/L

I am not sure about the significance of the Lactate reading as I had an interrupted row.

3x20interrupted.jpg

I had 10 minutes left between end of shower and first meeting. Made a coffee and went to work.

Did some of the urgent “emergency” tasks, multitasking during the meeting and am now caught up enough to take 10 minutes to write this blog.

I had to make a few concessions but this week there are a more than a few crucial work topics to finalize and decisions to make. Also, I preferred a compromised row in the morning over spending the evening in the erg room without seeing the kids.

It’s a low volume week anyway, and the recovery is the most important part of the training. So, in that light, the decision to sleep in that caused the compromised row was a great one.

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run 007

Jan 17 2016

Run, Ice and Sauna

A nice sunny morning. I did a run followed by two hours of sauna and relax.

I had my phone with me so I could inform Romana about my expected time of arrival at the sauna. This enabled me to take a few pictures. It was supposed to be a calm run but in the climbs my heart rate did go up quite a bit. First time I took this route. I like to explore the trails around my house, and sometimes I do regret that I don’t run more and row less.

Here is the start of the run. This is 5 minutes from my house, leaving Brno town through a mix of car dealers, hypermarkets, and other places of low interest. To the right of this are the hills towards Oresin and Utechov, my usual running playground, but today I would take on those hills in the background, nature park Velka Baba. run 001.JPG

After the village of Ivanovice, infamous for the Harok family murder, which led to the first case of a US citizen, the prime suspect, being extradited to the Czech Republic.

Shortly after the village, the climb starts. That’s where I found out that the snow of last week had turned into ice:

run 002.JPG

Not good. I had to slow down and run on the edge of the path.

A nice view on the top:

run 004.JPG

I descended into the village of Jinacovice, first through an area where forest workers had been working with heavy equipment, so the trail was turned into something that looked like a frozen training facility for tanks. Going downhill, I had to slow down a lot.

A bit lower, I had the pleasure of running through a very nice forest. This is what I call running heaven:

run 007.JPG

Then I took the “red” marked trail to Rozdrojovice. Again, a few pretty frozen parts made me slow down:

run 008.JPG

That is ice that you see, not snow.

Hura do sauny 1-17-2016, Elevation.png

dosauny.jpg

It was a really slow run. I covered the 12km in 80 minutes. The stops to take pictures may have slowed me down by about five minutes, but the real difficulty was the ice. Still, I don’t regret it. It was a very nice outing with a variety of forests and fields, a different trail every few kilometers. Will repeat this run.

After that it was two hours of taking saunas and relaxing in front of the fireplace in Maximus Resort. Splendid.

Now I am very lazy. There are some chores I should be doing but the chair is just too comfy. It’s the end of a high volume week. I did 10 minutes of exercise less than planned. Still a good score.

 

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ergroom 003

Jan 16 2016

Saturday: Two Flavors of Steady State

At the rowing club. Romana’s girls had a 30 minute run and then a 30 minute erg. I was elected as their “running coach” so I went with them.

Passing the fire station, a fire truck honked at our little group. I guess it wasn’t my attractive sportsman body that they were admiring. :-/

I taught the girls a few basics about the 30 minute run from our rowing club.

  1. Run slowly, conversation tempo
  2. Run to the other rowing club
  3. At the other rowing club, touch the gate
  4. If you’re feeling naughty you can ring the other club’s doorbell
  5. Turn around, run back slowly

We got to Lodni Sporty when one of their Masters rowers was just done with training. With a smile, he invited me for coffee. I declined the offer, saying I still had to do my training.

ls.jpg

https://www.strava.com/activities/471342951

141 bpm average heart rate. 5km. 30 minutes.

Then it was time to erg.

The girls spent ages in the changing room. Romana told me that they were completely exhausted after their run with me.

I did an hour on the erg, as various just rows because I had to interrupt the rowing to fiddle with the radio.

The rowing club erg room with the view on the (frozen) lake:

ergroom 003.JPG

 

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20x40sec

Jan 16 2016

Friday: Sprinty intervals

Another reason why I didn’t write a blog yet, is because after Friday’s training I preferred to take the family out to our neighborhood Thai restaurant.

Friday was another half work from home day. I had a “conformity review” meeting to host at 3pm, with a large crowd dialing in from Phoenix, AZ. Must have been pretty early for them. 😉

Rowed this one with Painsled running to collect the data. Worked even better than I expected. Instead of programming the entire session as a variable intervals on the PM, I did a “just row” warming up, a fixed intervals main part, and a fixed distance 2km cooling down.

Then I exported the three rows by selecting them and exporting to tcx file. After the import into SportTracks I had my entire session there. Great! The import from RowPro sometimes creates wrong total distance and has difficulties with the rest periods.

Even sweeter was the data analysis with excel and the CSV. First, it didn’t work, but the only thing I had to do to make it work was order the CSV data by time. Will update the spreadsheet to make this automatic. The issue was that the CSV didn’t have the three rows in chronological order, but as every stroke has a time stamp that is very easy to correct.

It was a modified 20x1min. I shortened it to 40second and increased the rest time to 80 seconds. Then I rowed it with increasing pace.

20x40sec.jpg

Average 322 W (1:42.8 pace).

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fiets

Jan 16 2016

Thursday: Bike & Strength

I am a little behind writing this blog.

My boss is in town.

My teams have a deadline on January 28th.

It is the time of the year when we are preparing and doing the annual reviews with our reports. With more than 50 people to take care of that is quite a task if you want to do it consistently and fairly.

Training didn’t suffer. Well, on Wednesday I went to a Cuban restaurant with my boss and a few colleagues. Good food and a few beers. No training.

On Thursday, it was a beautiful, sunny day and I didn’t get my work done at work. I rode home in the sun, on the bike, arrived at home with a clear head, made sure I didn’t connect to email and chatter and did my work.

https://www.strava.com/activities/470172351

fiets.JPG

The ride was 2km longer but my phone battery died after 12km. I wanted to do a slow ride but I couldn’t help and sprint up the Husovice hill. That’s the high HR bit around km 8.I don’t understand Strava’s power estimate but I think they come pretty close. This is a very non-taxing ride.

In the evening I did an hour of strength training. Quite intensive. Low number of repeats.

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