concept2

hm

Dec 12 2015

What did I think? HM fail

I don’t know what I thought. After yesterday’s 8x750m I went to a big Christmas party. It wasn’t too wild and I actually returned home before midnight and in a reasonable state. Still, I could have predicted that today wasn’t the right day to do a Half Marathon PB attempt.

Especially when my HM PB is a quite sharp 1h22:47.

After a hard session.

I, who preach that training is about recovery.

But it was such ergo weather, a few degrees above zero and raining hard.

In the morning I made a PB plan. It started softly at 2:01, then 1 second per 500m faster on each km. Hitting 17km to go I would have to row 1:57 until the end.

I managed until 10km to go and between 10km and 9km, I didn’t lose too much compared to my plan. But seeing that my predicted end time oscillated around my PB time was quite demotivating. I like to build a big lead, then stay strong.

With 9km to go, I crashed.

hm.jpg


Workout Summary - Dec 12, 2015
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|21097|86:20.0|02:02.8|189.2|23.9|167.6|181.0|10.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments
01|01000|04:02.2|02:01.1|197.2|21.6|142.3|153.0|11.5|
02|01000|03:58.8|01:59.4|205.5|23.6|157.3|164.0|10.6|
03|01000|03:57.0|01:58.5|210.3|23.8|164.2|167.0|10.6|
04|01000|03:55.8|01:57.9|213.6|23.9|168.0|170.0|10.6|
05|01000|03:53.6|01:56.8|219.5|24.1|171.4|173.0|10.6|
06|01000|03:53.9|01:56.9|218.9|24.6|172.8|175.0|10.4|
07|01000|03:53.9|01:56.9|218.9|24.9|175.0|176.0|10.3|
08|01000|03:53.6|01:56.8|219.5|24.9|175.8|178.0|10.3|
09|01000|03:53.9|01:56.9|218.9|25.1|177.4|179.0|10.2|
10|01000|03:54.5|01:57.2|217.2|25.3|178.5|180.0|10.1|
11|01000|03:54.8|01:57.4|216.2|25.6|178.8|180.0|10.0|
12|01000|03:57.5|01:58.8|208.9|25.5|179.5|181.0|09.9|breaking
13|01000|04:07.4|02:03.7|185.0|24.7|172.8|177.0|09.8|broken
14|01000|04:08.9|02:04.5|181.5|24.3|171.0|173.0|09.9|
15|01000|04:22.9|02:11.4|154.1|22.8|165.9|171.0|10.0|
16|01000|04:21.4|02:10.7|156.8|22.7|160.8|164.0|10.1|
17|01000|04:02.1|02:01.1|197.3|24.5|170.7|174.0|10.1|trying to recover
18|01000|04:04.4|02:02.2|191.8|24.8|172.7|174.0|09.9|
19|01000|04:29.9|02:14.9|142.5|22.5|164.3|172.0|09.9|cooling down
20|01000|04:38.2|02:19.1|130.0|22.0|148.3|151.0|09.8|
21|01097|04:55.3|02:14.6|143.6|22.1|150.5|154.0|10.1|

I knew rowing down from 15k to go to 5k to go would be the hard bit. I managed just the first part of that hard bit. Then I rowed slowly until 5k to go, with the idea to take it up again in the final 5k. I managed for 2k, then crashed again and decided to go to cooling down pace.

Not really polarized training, but at least I emptied my tanks and gave my muscles something to think about.

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ctc

Dec 11 2015

606 strokes: December CTC

Left  the office early but work didn’t stop of course. I felt completely drained and had to focus on driving safely.

The plan was: Pete Plan waterfall (3km, 2.5km, 2km) or this month’s CTC, which is a 8x750m with 1 minute rest. I decided to do the CTC. Knowing that my top three inches were not in the best shape, that seemed the least intimidating of the two options.

2k warming up with speed bursts, and then on to the main event. I had no idea about the pace, but somewhere around 1:50 seemed reasonable. It’s not a long distance, but there are many of them and the rest intervals are deceitfully short.

ctc.JPG


Workout Summary - Dec 11, 2015
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|06000|21:46.0|01:48.8|271.5|27.8|169.8|182.0|09.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments
01|00750|02:45.2|01:50.2|261.8|26.9|155.4|168.0|10.1| 74 str
02|00750|02:43.0|01:48.7|272.8|27.6|167.7|175.0|10.0| 75 str
03|00750|02:43.1|01:48.7|272.2|27.6|168.7|176.0|10.0| 75 str
04|00750|02:44.3|01:49.5|266.3|27.0|170.4|177.0|10.1| 74 str
05|00750|02:43.1|01:48.8|272.1|27.6|171.2|179.0|10.0| 75 str
06|00750|02:43.0|01:48.6|273.0|28.0|173.2|180.0|09.9| 76 str
07|00750|02:42.5|01:48.3|275.4|28.4|173.9|181.0|09.7| 77 str
08|00750|02:41.8|01:47.9|278.7|29.7|177.3|182.0|09.4| 80 str

The first interval was a toe in the water, and in the second one I dared to go a bit faster. It turned out to be doable, but it was a fine balance. Just counted to 75 over and over again. When I tried to go slightly faster than the 1:49 which I turned out doing, I felt it on the next interval. After the 5th interval the number of strokes got above 75 and it started to be hard, but by then the end was in sight. It wasn’t a very glorious session but I got it done in reasonably good form.

I did a lactate measurement immediately after the last interval, just for fun. Got 5.1 mmol/L. After 5 minutes of cooling down, that was down to 3.1 mmol/L. I did a longer cooling down but I didn’t do any more lactate measurements.

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5km

Dec 10 2015

Skipped Session & Steady State

Wednesday

I arrived home from my trip to Toulouse at 2AM. Got up at 6 for a long working day. In the evening, I decided to skip that day’s endurance session and relax. Tired from the trip.

One of the outcomes of my trip to France is that I will spend the entire next week in Brussels. Sunday afternoon to Friday morning. Sigh.

Thursday

Cycled home from work, which is 45 minutes of light endurance exercise, average HR=130. I forgot my heart rate belt (still in my travel bag) so today that heart rate was just an estimate.

Later this evening I did the 3x20min. Decided that I wouldn’t force the 200W this time.

When I had done my warming up, I noticed a 5k scheduled row on RowPro, so I joined that one:

5km.jpg

Average pace 2:01. Average HR 165 bpm.

Then a 20 min:

20min1.jpg

Average pace 2:04, average HR 164 bpm. I started to severely relax the pace when I noticed my heart rate approach 170.

Next 20 min:

20min2.jpg

Average pace 2:05, average heart rate 161 bpm

Measured lactate immediately after this: 1.0 mmol/L.

So, should I have gone faster today? I don’t think so. I feel I was just below the threshold.

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soukalova

Dec 6 2015

Another steady state at lactate – and biathlon

Another endurance building session (hopefully). I decided to stick to the 200W level.

I expected this to be a hard session. After yesterday’s running I feel delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and didn’t expect my energy stores to be fully replenished. Funny enough, during the session I sensed that I was OK and kept the 200W level, apart from a slightly slower first interval. Heart rate stayed nice and low (higher than I used to row my steady state intervals but at least it didn’t creep towards 165).

Workout Summary - Dec 06, 2015
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|20432|86:00.0|02:06.3|173.8|21.6|149.9|160.0|11.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments
01|04872|20:00.0|02:03.2|187.4|21.1|143.6|154.0|11.6|#1
03|04972|20:00.0|02:00.7|199.1|22.4|152.5|159.0|11.1|#2
05|04969|20:00.0|02:00.8|198.8|22.9|153.9|160.0|10.8|1.2 mmol/L
07|04975|20:00.0|02:00.6|199.5|23.4|152.8|158.0|10.7|1.4 mmol/L

4x20.jpg

All good. A very successful finger stab at 60 minutes. Blood kept flowing out of my finger for another 5 minutes during the row. I am starting to be less nervous about this.

Listened to the radio during the row. Pop songs alternated with sport reporting. Biathlon is on. I love doing cross country skiing, but for watching (and listening) biathlon is much more interesting.

The leader of the World Cup is a Czech lady named Gabriela Soukalová:

soukalova

Biathlon athletes must have fantastic aerobic endurance. What makes it interesting to watch is the shooting.

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3x20min

Dec 4 2015

Friday:Travel & 3×20 minutes

Woke up at 4:15 to take the taxi to the airport, through a rainy Brussels. Took the 6:25 AM flight to Munich, where I had a breakfast, had my shoes shined, and sat down at the gate for my connection with lots of German newspapers. It’s nice to read foreign papers. You get a different perspective on things.

The flight to Brno was empty. Really empty. Besides me, there was one other passenger. I chatted a bit with the flight attendant. It’s a new route and it hasn’t been advertised much, but I also think that the departure times around noon are not very well chosen. If I want to fly from Brno to have meetings somewhere (other than Munich), I need an extra hotel night, and I end up with a lot of unused time.

Well, it was pleasant for me and a relaxed flight for the attendant, but I doubt BMI regional makes money on this.

Had lunch with Romana in a good Italian restaurant in town, then drove home. Worked a bit, then a 3×20 min session.

3x20min.jpg


Workout Summary - Dec 04, 2015
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-DPS
--|15365|64:00.0|02:05.0|179.4|21.4|155.4|11.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|DPS-|Comments
01|04907|20:00.0|02:02.3|191.4|21.4|146.7|11.5|
03|04964|20:00.0|02:00.9|198.2|22.0|159.5|11.3|
05|04947|20:00.0|02:01.3|196.1|22.3|162.9|11.1|

The summary pace is including the 2 minutes of rest between the intervals.

I didn’t really force myself to hold 200W, but rather rowed on feel. Ended up rowing very close to Tuesday’s result but it felt a whole lot easier.

Heart rate was just 2 beats lower. Heart rate drift was the same.

Lactate was at 1.5 mmol/L though, compared to Tuesday’s 2.5 mmol/L.

Tomorrow,  Romana’s girls and I will do another running event under the “cross-training is fun” banner.

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Dec 1 2015

Another Steady State Data Point

Today I ignored lesson 1 for steady state sessions. If it is supposed to be a UT2 or UT1 session, it is not supposed to feel like hard work. If it does, you should back down, reduce the intensity, or even just stop and take a rest day.

For science (or rather for my curiosity as my method lacks scientific rigor), I pushed on.

A lot of things were different today, compared to the steady state sessions that I measured lactate on so far:

  1. I didn’t sleep well. I woke up from a dream which I could remember quite vividly, which doesn’t happen very often. It was 3AM. Between 3AM and 6AM I was turning in bed, not sleeping well.
  2. I cycled to work. Made a point of cycling very lightly, “to get yesterday’s heavy session out of my system”.
  3. I had a big cold salad for lunch, then nothing for the entire afternoon, and for dinner I decided to add an omelet to my usual light dinner.
  4. The weather has changed from nice, cold and dry to 10 degrees C, rainy and humid.
  5. It is not November any more.

I did a 3×20 min tonight with a lactate measurement after the last 20 minute interval.

I warmed up for 5 minutes.

First interval didn’t feel too bad. I slowly ramped up the power for the first 10 minutes and ended up doing a 190W on average.

I rowed the second interval with an eye on the clock. It seemed endless. I knew I was working harder than I want to work in steady state sessions, but after 10 minutes funnily the pace started to drift to 210W and I had to consciously keep it down. Still, my breathing and the feeling in my legs told me I was working too hard.

The third interval was hard. The kind of annoying steady state “hard”. It just took too much mental effort to hold the pace. I did some stroke rate changes in the first 10 minutes just to keep the focus. Took a lactate measurement immediately after the interval:

laktaat 001.JPG

Feeling confirmed. I was actually very happy about this result. It gives me more confidence in lactate measurement as a method to confirm what the perceived rate of effort tells me. And thus it also gives me confidence to continue doing what I have done so far: If it feels too hard, back down.

I’ll start keeping my lactate readings, together with notes on heart rate, perceived level of effort and some other parameters in a spreadsheet.

Here’s the HR plot of the session:

3x20min.jpg


Workout Summary - Dec 01, 2015
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-DPS
--|15428|64:00.0|02:04.5|181.6|22.2|156.9|10.9
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|DPS-|Comments
01|04902|20:00.0|02:02.4|190.9|21.1|147.2|11.6|1st 20 min
02|00345|02:00.0|02:53.7|066.8|17.5|124.5|09.9|rest
03|04990|20:00.0|02:00.2|201.3|23.3|161.2|10.7|2nd 20 min
04|00220|02:00.0|04:33.0|017.2|13.0|127.9|08.5|rest
05|04971|20:00.0|02:00.7|199.0|23.5|165.4|10.6|3rd 20 min: 2.5 mmol/L

HR drift was 7%.

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4x2km2

Nov 30 2015

Torture Variations

It’s one thing that we regularly torture our bodies to misery. Let that pass. But torturing it always in exactly the same way, that goes too far.

So even though I keep coming back to the interval sessions from the Wolverine Plan (and the Pete Plan), this year I make an effort to vary how I row them. Today I tried red-lining (or perhaps purple-lining, looking at my heart rate). Next time it may be positive splitting. Or do a full out 2k in the first interval, then try to minimize the damage in the following ones. The method behind the madness is to avoid staleness, and there are even training theories based on physiology that support this. Surprise your metabolic systems …

The target was 1:52.9 which didn’t seem too hard, but I have come to respect these 4x2km sessions. You cross the line and suddenly you are at risk of not finishing the session.

4x2km24x2km1

The pictures tell the full story better than the summary table. Basically I went into each 2km with 10 hard strokes at 1:40 pace, then slowed down. From the second interval onward this left me gasping for air with about 1890 meters to go. Then I would try to recover. At the half way point I did 10 hard strokes (1:47 pace), and with 500m to go I would do 50 hard strokes (1:48-1:50 pace). The final interval was of course a special one, with everything one or two seconds of split faster and a crazy acceleration in the final 500m, to squeeze out everything.

Workout Summary - Nov 30, 2015
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-DPS
--|08000|29:40.3|01:51.3|254.1|27.6|167.6|09.8
Workout Details
#-|EDist|-Etime-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|DPS-|Comments
01|02000|07:29.9|01:52.5|246.0|26.3|158.0|10.2|
02|04000|14:56.0|01:51.5|252.3|27.3|167.2|09.9|
03|06000|22:20.7|01:51.2|254.6|27.9|170.0|09.7|
04|08000|29:40.3|01:49.9|263.8|29.1|174.6|09.4|

Average pace: 1:51.3. Nice. Haven’t done this session this fast before. In the 2014/15 winter, I managed 1:51.6.

That brings me to my final thought of the day, on steady state intensity again. Since I started measuring lactate I have started to think I can increase their intensity to 200W. One thing is to stay below 2.0 mmol/L in these sessions, but another requirement will be that the steady state intensity is low enough that I can be sharp for the harder sessions.

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