The Road to Boston 2007

TomR · Post by **TomR** » December 3rd, 2006, 1:20 am

UT1/ 3x16

2.07.6 avg pace, which has been the UT1 avg for the past several weeks of doing longer intervals.

I have lived w/ a twinge (tendonitis?) in my left knee for several years. It hasn't been bothering me lately, and I haven't particularly noticed it doing the 30r20. I can only figure that the soreness is reduced because I am doing 5 workouts a week, rather than 6 as before, and because most IP workouts require fewer meters than I was doing before.

Everyone should come race in Boston. In return for a bit of pre-race anxiety and a few minutes of respiratory distress while racing, you get to meet lots of friendly supportive rowers.

Tom

njsurfboats · Post by **njsurfboats** » December 3rd, 2006, 5:11 am

Saturday: after Friday's HM, I took it easy Saturday, just lifting in the evening (I'm getting over an eye infection so I passed on rowing the single in the morning as well.) All lifts 3x10 reps; power cleans, dead lifts, squats, front squats, bench press. Turned out to be a good choice, since I felt pretty strong in the weight room and went up 5kg on all the lifts.

Sunday: and then I paid for my efforts. Since between erging and the single I just log so many meters (mostly light steady state) I don't really find myself sore from the lifting sessions (they're plenty hard when I'm doing them, though) so I don't really have a good indicator of when to back off. This morning I set out to do 3x15', 5' rest, averaging something like 1:48, 1:47, and 1:46. I've done this exact workout at faster splits recently so I know my paces were right, my recovery from the lifting (and from Friday's HM) wasn't. Piece 1 felt alright, Piece 2 felt pretty damn bad (anytime I'm bringing the rating up to 30 to hit a 1:47 is bad news) and then I just bonked and handled down on Piece 3 pretty much right away. I'll take some recovery time over the next few days to get my act back together.

That said, I did find an indoor race at Lehigh University on 1/27 which I'm pretty excited about; should be a nice benchmark before Boston.

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » December 3rd, 2006, 2:14 pm

Good work njsurfboats. A lot of us on this thread seem to tire ourselves out. At least we're not loafing.

A test was scheduled in the IP today, but since I'd done a race only three weeks ago I figured that I wouldn't be doing anything in a test to cause me to use faster paces in my training, so I decided to do the Forum Flyers "blind" 5km instead. I warmed up as I would for a 2km race, then covered everything on the PM3 except the meters counting down:

2197m w/u in 10' with accelerations

2291m w/u in 10' with faster accelerations.

5000m 18:59.7
(500m splits:
0500m 1:49.0 31spm 139hr
1000m 1:52.3 30spm 145hr
1500m 1:54.3 29spm 148hr
2000m 1:54.8 30spm 151hr (7:30.4 2km)
2500m 1:55.8 30spm 156hr
3000m 1:55.8 30spm 156hr
3500m 1:55.9 29spm 157hr
4000m 1:54.6 29spm 158hr
4500m 1:55.4 29spm 158hr
5000m 1:51.9 31spm 160hr)

1431m c/d in 7'

Standard erg, 122df, 57 degrees, 47rhr. The bad--I started out too fast. The good--I think that I concentrated on keeping my right shoulder down, and getting my hands away at the finish better. Also I suspect that if I had seen the splits rising the way they did in the middle I might have become discouraged and bagged it. Instead I just eased off as necessary to stay in control and finished it off decently.

73,789m for the Holiday Challenge.

Rick

zubeldia · Post by **zubeldia** » December 3rd, 2006, 3:16 pm

Another tired person here

5mins warm-up
50mins UT2 @ 2:24.5 sr 20
5mins cool-down

96,611 towards the challenge.

Z

Anne · Post by **Anne** » December 3rd, 2006, 7:58 pm

njsurfboats wrote:
That said, I did find an indoor race at Lehigh University on 1/27 which I'm pretty excited about; should be a nice benchmark before Boston.

There is an indoor race in Cincinnati on 1/28 which you could use as a benchmark. Are you back in the states in 2007?

TomR · Post by **TomR** » December 3rd, 2006, 10:32 pm

TR 5x3' /4.30 recovery (work to recovery 1:1.5)

I was dreading this, so negotiated a deal w/ myself whereby I wouldn't try to go as fast as I did for the 4x3' TR session a week ago (1.50.6 avg), but I'd do the whole workout.

1.51.9/157 hr/29 spm
1.51.9/162 hr/29 spm
1.51.8/165 hr/29 spm
1.51.8/167 hr/30 spm
1.49.4/170 hr/31 spm (pace of my mile test a few weeks ago)

Avg of 1.51.2. The HR of the intervals are all 90%+, with the last being close to max. I went out fast on the last one and surprised myself by being able to hold the pace the whole way.

Tom

whaskell · Post by **whaskell** » December 4th, 2006, 7:18 am

Friday: Off

Saturday:
10min WU 2239m
AT 2x9min/max 1:50/26-28spm
Actual 9min/1:51.7/27/2417m
Actual 9min/1:51.7/27/2415m
Total: 6129m
Felt pretty good, easy to hold pace and stroke rate.

Sunday:
15min WU 3347m
AN 6x1min/<1:41/36-46spm
Actual 1min/1:40.7/36/298m
Actual 1min/1:39.3/36/302m
Actual 1min/1:39.0/35/303m
Actual 1min/1:38.4/35/305m
Actual 1min/1:36.8/37/310m
Actual 1min/1:38.0/36/306m
Total 8386m
10min CD 2262m

These felt relatively easy as well, but I was taking a long active rest (5min) in between - probably too long.

Monday
10min WU 2175m
UT1 4x12min/max 1:54.5/22-24spm
Actual 12min/1:57.0/24/3077m
Actual 12min/1:57.0/24/3076m
Total 7220m

Cut this to two repetitions primarily due to lack of time but also due to too many fast sessions over the weekend. One thing I don't like about IP is it appears that it expects you to take the rest days at the end of the week. I need to try and rearrange the workouts so I don't have to do 2 faster workouts back to back on the weekend.

Up to 125,477m on Holiday Challenge!

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » December 4th, 2006, 9:44 am

4 X 5' AT (2.5'r)

2405m w/u in 11'

5' 1282m 1:57.0 24spm 136hr (recovered to 62hr during rest)
5' 1287m 1:56.5 24spm 145hr (rec. to 77hr)
5' 1293m 1:56.0 24spm 149hr (rec. to 77hr)
5' 1298m 1:55.5 24spm 153hr (rec. to 78hr)

1248m c/d in 6'

Standard erg, 121df, 56 degrees, 43rhr. Felt decent. Strapless, and still a struggle to try to stay symmetrical throughout the stroke. Getting the arms straight earlier in the recovery seems to help some, but I still twist myself around too much.

82,605m in the Holiday Challenge. Way behind Will.

zubeldia · Post by **zubeldia** » December 4th, 2006, 10:13 am

I'm pretty glad that it's a rest day tomorrow

Just a short 12mins AT session today:

20mins warm-up

12mins @ 2:15.1 sr 26

15mins cool-down

Z

seat5 · Post by **seat5** » December 4th, 2006, 12:35 pm

I swapped a 5K for the CTC for my workout today as it was suppposed to be 2 x 10' AT and it was about the right pace for it. It didn't feel too good as I think I've trained myself to expect 3 ' rest breaks and of course I couldn't take one! I did rate cap it at my AT rate (26) but the pace was slower than usual. Breakfast went into rebellion around 3500m which didn't help.

19:49.6 1:58.9/26 standard erg

I'm about 21K behind on the Holiday Challenge, but as long as I can keep that much behind I can always do a miserable HM on Christmas Eve Day like last year.... blahhh

njsurfboats · Post by **njsurfboats** » December 4th, 2006, 12:37 pm

So pretty frustrated with my 15' pieces on Sunday and I felt pretty charged up today so I just decided to sit down on the erg, set the monitor for 60', and see how long I could hold my 15' split.

60', it turns out.

Total meters: 16575m
Average split: 1:48.6
Average rating: 27-28 (this felt really good actually, rating higher than I probably had to but just a nice quick turnaround on each stroke.)

Yeah goign to take it easy today (Monday). Some sort of hard day Tuesday though..

Anne · Post by **Anne** » December 4th, 2006, 6:11 pm

Carla- I should have just quoted your first paragraph because I had the exact same experience...even the breakfast part...But, my AT was supposed to be 3x10, so I got off easy. I have gotten too dependant on the breaks that are part of the IP plan.

I ended with a score for the CTC, but wasn't overly happy with it--- 21:38.0 (2:09.8) with a HR of 183---but it launched another boat for the Flyers.

I know it is unrealistic, but every time I do a timed piece on the erg, I somehow expect it will be a PB--or close to a PBs. I'm beginning to wonder if my expectations are totally out of line or if one needs to be a wee bit optimistic in this sport?

Following the 5K, I did a pilates session to stretch out my leg muscles and was appropriately humbled there as well!
Anne

TomR · Post by **TomR** » December 4th, 2006, 10:04 pm

UT1/4x12

2.07.9/128 HR
2.07.8/133 HR
2.07.4/137 HR
2.07.1/139 HR

HR low by 5+ bpm. I noticed the low HR during warm-up. This sometimes indicates lack of full recovery (so I have read), and I was feeling weary after yesterday's TR session. At the same time, I didn't drink any coffee today and drank more water than usual--could that be the culprit? Such vagaries are part of the reason some eschew HR training.

I stuck w/ my typical UT1 paces and didn't push HR to 146, UT1 max.

Anne--re PBs. Once you've been rowing for any length of time, they seem tough to come by, and I think you've got to be both rested and mentally prepared.

Bob S. · Post by **Bob S.** » December 4th, 2006, 11:07 pm

Anne wrote: I know it is unrealistic, but every time I do a timed piece on the erg, I somehow expect it will be a PB--or close to a PBs. I'm beginning to wonder if my expectations are totally out of line or if one needs to be a wee bit optimistic in this sport?
Anne

Anne,

Remember that the theme of this thread is training. It is about preparing for a race, i.e. at Boston (even for those who might not go), not racing itself. Going for a PB is racing, even if it is only against yourself. I suppose that the tests should be regarded as races, but not the workouts. Sometimes some people on the thread will sustitute a race effort for a regular workout that would be of similar time and effort. This is usually to fulfill a team challenge or one of the monthly challenges. I did it once or twice to try to improve weak spots in my nonathlon record. The IP seems to be set up to exclude pieces that could be ranked — perhaps to deliberately exclude enticing people to try for PBs rather than sticking with the training program. Just a thought.

Bob S.

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » December 5th, 2006, 9:57 am

3 X 16' UT1 (4'r)

16' 3967m 2:01.0 21spm 141hr (recovered to 70hr during rest)
16' 3985m 2:00.5 22spm 148hr (rec. to 76hr)
16' 4001m 2:00.0 22spm 150hr (rec. to 77hr)

1031m c/d in 5'

Standard erg, 122df, 54 degrees, 43rhr. Pretty good. Each UT1 workout seems to get a bit better, with the heartrate staying down lower despite faster paces. Satisfied.

97,760m for the Holiday Challenge.

Anne, I know how you feel about chasing PB's. When we are new at it we can actually do such a thing. But once we've plateaued that tendancy must be guarded against. I think too many people quit the sport because the PB's stop coming easily, instead of realizing that it's still immensely worthwhile to stay fit at somewhat slower paces. Chasing PB's at some time has to change to chasing SB's, or even just having a workout that leaves you feeling good.

Rick