[In]decent Intervals

[NavigationHazard]

Back to first principles the last few days -- low rate rowing, aiming for comparatively high power and stroke-to-stroke consistency. The weather has improved enough that the balcony is usable again as an exercise venue....

I've either been doing 12-minute r20 pieces on 3' rest, or else 500m r20 intervals on 20 secs rest. Yesterday, for example, I did 8 x 500m r20 on 20" at an average 1:51.3 pace, took a short break to check my blood glucose, annd then did another 8 at 1:50.8. Later in the afternoon I went and joined a new gym [technically, rejoined as I'd been a member of the chain a couple of years ago on a previous Wroclaw stay], where I did 4 x 500m r20 on 20" in 1:48.9 average followed by leg weights and stretching and a stationary-cycle cooldown. I have to figure out how to quietly update the firmware on the gym's four model Ds....

[NavigationHazard]

More 500m intervals r20 on 20' rest the past few days, generally 10 reps. Yesterday I threw in a leg-weight workout at the gym plus a CTC attempt [666m] r20 [2:17.5] on top of the repeat 500s. Today was the thematic 10 reps:

01] 1:50.5 259w r20 HR 139 bpm
02] 1:50.5 259w r20 HR 144 bpm
03] 1:50.8 257w r20 HR 149 bpm
04] 1:50.5 259w r20 HR 148 bpm
05] 1:49.9 264w r20 HR 151 bpm
06] 1:49.0 270w r20 HR 153 bpm
07] 1:48.4 275w r20 HR ??
08] 1:47.5 282w r20 HR ??
09] 1:46.2 292w r20 HR ??
10] 1:43.4 317w r20 HR 154 bpm

1:48.7 average pace 273w r20.

I had some issues again with my HR belt -- it basically dropped out altogether on reps 7-9 and came back in on rep 10. I think I need some connectivity gel, if I can find any here in Poland. Half the trick will be figuring out what it's called....

[NavigationHazard]

Blergh. Ms Nav and I ran off to a mountain spa for a romantic weekend, except that I came down with this season's flu. I basically spent the first 36 hours of it sleeping, and it's taken me a week or so to get back to some semblance of normalcy. I only started working out seriously again a couple of days ago. Yesterday I managed 10 x 500m r20/20" rest on the rowing erg in a crappy 1:52.2 average pace. That was roughly 2 1/2 sec slower than I'd been before taking ill.

Today was a bit better: 12 x 500m r20/20" rest in 1:50.8. Little by little....

[NavigationHazard]

I continue to hammer away at power-endurance, mostly via 500m r20 intervals on 20" rest on the erg plus endurance weights. The latter are something I was doing back when I made my first C2 US Indoor Rowing squad. The key to them is multiple reps at a modest overload, aiming to emulate the power demands that competition rowing puts on individual muscle groups. If you think about it, a 6:20 (say) 2k at 32 strokes/minute is 203 continuous strokes. So (say) half a dozen 10-rep sets of something, as in a typical supplemental weight-training program, aren't going to come anywhere near the requirements of a race. That doesn't mean that shifting larger weights lacks benefits. Of course it does, not least in increasing (or at least maintaining) absolute strength. But I'm after something rather radically different.... Anyway, I've started doing 275-lb leg presses in 50-rep sets, timing them at a rate of one every 2 seconds. And I'm doing other lifts along similar lines....

In and around this I've been doing various team and CTC challenges plus the occasional BikeErg session for variety. I did 10 x 1' on 1' on the BikeErg the other day in 1:35.2 average pace, 77 rpms and high drag, for example....

[NavigationHazard]

30 x 1' on 1' rest yesterday on the BikeErg, 1:43.5 average pace. I held the first 22 reps constant at 1:44.9 pace and negative-splitted the last 8, dropping the pace ~ 1 second each rep.

34 x 1' on 1' today on the BikeErg. I held the first 25 reps more or less constant at 1:44.7, dropped the pace a bit through rep 33, and added a trademark fast last. I had some ErgData issues, e.g. the polled data and the graphs show me at a constant 50 rpm for the entire workout. The aggregate numbers however match what was on the monitor display. ErgData also dropped the HR feed after 29.3 seconds of the last rep, for some reason recording it at a constant 128 bpm. It actually peaked at something like 158 bpm during the rep (and went into the low 160s during the subsequent rest).



I'm quite confident I can push through at least 45 reps under 1:45 average, provided I manage my hydration and pay some attention to replenishing calories I'm expending. I'd like to get to 60....

[NavigationHazard]

ErgData problems evidently sorted....

35 x 1' on 1' yesterday (BikeErg).

30 x 1' on 1' (BikeErg) today, trying to push the pace a bit....



The last 14 were at 1:39.5 pace, which is under the age-group world-best 4k pace....

[NavigationHazard]

More of the same since my last report, at least up until yesterday. Yesterday I decided to give 60 x 1' on 1' a go on the BikeErg, aiming to get all 60 reps under 1:45 pace. My current age-group all-time best (there are no official BikeErg WRs as yet) for 30' is 1:47.7 pace, set over the summer. 60 reps at around 3 seconds faster pace. equal duration/rest, is prep for another go at the ranking piece....

Unfortunately for reporting purposes, there are limits as to how many intervals ErgData will store. I thought it was 50, but when I got to rep 49 I saw a "No more intervals" message on the monitor screen. I couldn't remember if ErgData gives you one base interval plus 49 more reps (total 50) or whether it's 49 total and you start over. I panicked, bailed, and hit rerow (maybe it's reride on the BikeErg). And somehow in doing that I broke the ErgData connection with my phone. So I only have ErgData data for the first 49 reps...



Although I have monitor screenshots for both components of the workout....




The last 14 reps were at 1:38.5 pace....

[NavigationHazard]

Ms Nav and I ran off for the weekend to a mountain spa over on the Czech border. The hotel gym actually had a model D with a PM5. But 1) the chain last was oiled around 2010; 2) the flooring was a fairly glossy fake wood, so the rig slid around even though I piled weight plates on the footings; 3) the batteries in the monitor were totally dead; 4) the monitor firmware seemed to think it was 2017, and was about 12 updates behind. I actually carry with me a usb stick with a current-version upgrade for just such situations, so I was able to update the monitor. But I couldn't replace the batteries until Sunday morning, so I don't have hard data for my Friday and Saturday workouts.

Friday I did 18 x 1' on 1' at 1:42 pace, 24 spm.
Saturday I did 21 x 30" on 30" r30, 1:39 pace.
Sunday I did 28 x 30" on 30" r30, 1:38.0 pace.

Just now I did 30 x 30"/30" r30 on my own erg, back home in Wroclaw, 1:37.0 pace.

Gruntwise, 30 reps at that pace is probably roughly equivalent to a 2k at the same rating. I'm not convinced that the HR data was being recorded accurately, but it's not impossible that I actually got up to 174 bpm on the last rep.... Off to the gym now for more weights.

[NavigationHazard]

Added 250 x 266 lb horizontal leg presses, done as 2 x 100 reps + 1 x 50 reps; plus leg extensions, chest presses, bench rows, and ab pullovers. Total moved ~ 75000 lbs.

[NavigationHazard]

Volume workout yesterday on the rower: 70 x 30" r30 on 30", targets 10k+ net work distance at faster than age-group 5k WR pace.

10380 net work metres in 35:00,0 net elapsed work time, average 148.3m per rep, 1:41.1 pace if you average the displayed paces from the monitor but 1:41.2 pace if you work it out from the aggregate time/distance. HR average 139.1 bpm from the recorded data, but probably closer to 139.5 since there were funky belt readings on reps 5, 8, and 61. Note that in this type of constant-load, short-interval workout, there is a tendency for HR to stabilize -- HR during the rests converges until it's basically the same as HR during the work reps. Trademark fast last -- and I submit that 1:29.8 pace r30 on it was pretty good for rep 70.

Age-group 5k WR pace is 1:42, FWIW.

Best of all, I was able to manage the aftereffects of the session on my blood glucose levels.

[NavigationHazard]

Broke my own age-group (60-69 M) 30 min BikeErg all time best by exactly 400m this evening.



It turns out I can indeed hold better than 1:45 pace for the half hour on the bike erg, even at DF 191 and a ridiculously low cadence....

[NavigationHazard]

More weights, bike sessions, and the occasional rowing erg session since my last post.

The weight workouts have emphasized endurance, e.g. 300 x 266 lb horizontal leg presses in set of 100, done at a constant 2 secs per rep (Sat) plus leg extensions, adductor and abductor lifts, ab pullovers, bench rows, chest presses, back extensions, etc. Yesterday I varied a bit and did 150 x 416 lb leg presses in sets of 10, plus the other stuff. I'm now up to about 100,000 lbs moved overall during one of these.

Today was an erg workout: 21 x 1' r30 on 1', working on stroking consistency at a target pace slightly under age-group 5k WR. I did the first 20 reps at a constant 1:41.6 pace and indulged myself with a trademark last rep:

[NavigationHazard]

Fcuk. I seem to have had another motherfcuking seizure. It would be hard to overstate how fcuking depressing it is. The good news is that I don't seem to have bitten through my tongue this time.... It had been quite a few months since the last one and I thought I was doing well with managing the disease....

[DavidA]

Fcuk. I seem to have had another motherfcuking seizure. It would be hard to overstate how fcuking depressing it is. The good news is that I don't seem to have bitten through my tongue this time.... It had been quite a few months since the last one and I thought I was doing well with managing the disease....

Sorry to hear that
I hope things get back in control soon.

David

[NavigationHazard]

Been hanging in there over the last week, slowly and gingerly resuming training while keeping a close watch on glucose levels, hydration, etc. etc, etc.

I was bummed today not to be at BRIC [the British Indoor Championships], where I think I could have done all right despite my recent setback. I took it out this evening on the BikeErg, with 8 x 1000m on 2' rest, targeting the winning age-group BRIC pace of 1:39.25. I know that the BikeErg isn't directly comparable with the rower, and that venue conditions are different than a home session, and that my good friend and BRIC age-group winner Richard Cheeseman undoubtably could have gone faster had he had to. But you have to believe in something....



Off to a mountain spa town with Ms Nav for a week of r & r, massage therapy, and hopefully some hard training.