The Road to Boston 2007

seat5 · Post by **seat5** » November 22nd, 2006, 8:23 pm

A good hard session today and now I really am looking forward to a break.

3 x 7 AT targ max 1:58/26

1788 1:57.4/26
1791 1:57.2/26
1795 1:56.6/26

The last 1 1/2 minutes of each piece were hard. I'm sure I couldn't make myself do this without my "Dr Beat" metrenome yelling 1...2...3 at me.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone! We'll all come back ready to tackle the Holiday Challenge with gusto!!

Anne · Post by **Anne** » November 22nd, 2006, 11:13 pm

Made a slight boo-boo and rowed a minute more than the plan called for ....that doesn't sound like much (and I waste LOTS of other minutes) but today on the erg...a minute was like an eternity. (perhaps it was because my HR was 189 and I had a cold too!

) T'was also my third consecutive day of the IP plan given travel last weekend and the holiday tomorrow---and yes, that contributed to the pain of the extra minute.

2x6' -was supposed to be 2x5' TR (9 minute rest) - goal 2:05- yesterday I did the TR (3 minute intervals) under 2:03 but knew that was impossible today.

1454m 2:03.7 31sr 180 HR
1434m 2:05.5 31 sr 182HR

I'm satsified, but not sure if I am really improving with the plan. The next test will tell. And, my only thoughts during the 6 minutes was the pain of doing a 2K even faster. I think I need mental training more than the physical training. No joke. Any suggestions of how to prepare for that part?

Happy Thanksgiving to all....This is my favorite holiday of the year.

Anne

Anne · Post by **Anne** » November 23rd, 2006, 3:45 pm

Consecutive postings from me- maybe I am the only one at home for the holiday.

I didn't row today (I ran the Turkey trot and decided I'd rather row 10K than run 10K!

).

I learned to row two years ago today!

I recall being amazed that I could manage 2 15 minute pieces with the instructor. Then, I became further deluded about this sport when I held a 2:00 pace for about 2 minutes...I did some rough math and figured that translated to a sub 8:00 2K (duh!) .......that is when this insanity began

whaskell · Post by **whaskell** » November 23rd, 2006, 6:18 pm

I did a half-marathon this morning on RowPro with 7 other racers. My time was 1:21:31.7. Not quite a SB. Pretty tired and dewatered afterwards...Spent the rest of the day trying to rehydrate.

njsurfboats · Post by **njsurfboats** » November 25th, 2006, 2:51 pm

Thursday:
AT Workout 6x5' on, 5' off
1:44.4, 1:43.9, 1:43.5, 1:43.2, 1:42.9, 1:40.6
From the first piece I worked -.5, -.4, -.3, -.2, and then went pretty all out. Each week I start from the split off the previous week's second split (e.g. last week I went 1:44.9 then 1:44.4). Next week I'll take it easy and just try and consolidate around 1:44

Friday:
Half Marathon in 80:04, average split 1:53.9. Played some fun games in the last 10k to keep it interesting, going for 1:52-1:53 for the first 250 of every 1000 basically.

Saturday:
6:00 a.m.: 12k in the single, rating 24, 65-75% pressure. Nice and easy.

5:00 p.m.: 2x6k, 5 minutes rest; 1:48.7, 1:47.7. Focused more on a quick rating at 28 or so than the splits. Followed it up with some lifting - 3x10 power cleans, dead lifts, squats and front squats.

Sunday: much needed rest.

whaskell · Post by **whaskell** » November 26th, 2006, 8:28 am

Friday - 10k easy
Saturday - 10k easy

Sunday
15min WU - 3407m
AN 4x1.5min / max pace <1:41 / 36 - 46spm
Target:- AN 4x1.5min / avg pace 1:41.0 / 36spm / 5min rest
Actual:- 1.5min / avg pace 1:40.4 / 37spm / 448m
Actual:- 1.5min / avg pace 1:40.0 / 35spm / 450m
Actual:- 1.5min / avg pace 1:39.8 / 35spm / 451m
Actual:- 1.5min / avg pace 1:38.9 / 36spm / 455m
Total session: 6204m
5min CD - 1106m

Time to get back with the program. It felt good to take a break from the structured workouts for a few days over the holiday.

First AN workout - felt pretty good. Technique felt a little sloppy on the first one, but smoothed out after that. Found that I was really moving the erg towards the flywheel along the floor, even with my mats under the legs. I am not quite sure if I could ever get my stroke rate over 36 and hold it there for 1.5 minutes.

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » November 26th, 2006, 12:15 pm

2 X 15' UT1 (3.75'r)

2161m w/u in 10'

15' 3658m 2:03.0 22spm 144hr (recovered to 74 hr during rest)
15' 3773m 2:02.5 22spm 151hr (rec. to 79hr)

1031m c/d in 5'

For a starting point I chose the 7:08 reference 2km that I did 2 weeks ago at BIRC. Then I chose the slowest UT1 pace on that line of the IP (2:03 - 1:58.5). It may have been a bit ambitious since my HR on the second piece exceeded my approximate UT1 top of 147hr. But I made an impromptu decision to be a bit more pace-based in my training this time around to see if it makes a positive difference, and therefore let the HR drift up. It spiked to as high as 156, which even exceeds theoretical AT, but didn't feel too tough.

Rick

TomR · Post by **TomR** » November 26th, 2006, 1:19 pm

Welcome Rick.

Friday did my 30r20.

avg 2.02.6/hr 163 (same as previous week)

This is faster than I did my season's best 30r20 back in Jan. That was an all-out effort. This wasn't quite, so a bit of progress.

Skipped Saturday workout. Didn't have the energy after working in the woods for a couple of hours.

Supposed to do my first TR later today.

Tom

Anne · Post by **Anne** » November 26th, 2006, 9:24 pm

Rick and our friend from Cairo-- glad you are joining us on this thread. Rick, I'm certainly following pace as opposed to HR. Where do you row your single in Cairo? (I was there in the spring)

Week 14 started and I did my first AN piece 8x1' with a 2' rest. The goal was 1:59 and it was easy to keep the 1:59--(actual average was 1:58.5) The problem was getting my stroke rate over 35. I averaged 33. In one interval I focussed only on SR and got a 35sr and a 1:57.6; but it was tough. Could it be that I am 5'11" and a shortened stroke feels sloppy?

Tom, I may try the 20r30 in place of the UT1 workout tomorrow or should I put it in the place of an AT workout???...I need a shake up from the plan for a day

Last year George recommended pulling hard with a slow rate and it was what helped me the most in the 2K. I'm planning to do my 2K test at the end of next week and am wanting to have some sort of strategy...

Anne

TomR · Post by **TomR** » November 26th, 2006, 10:15 pm

Anne,

I have been doing the 30r20 (30 min@ 20 spm) instead of TR. This week I did a TR (see below) and am doing the 30r20 instead of AN. The 30r20 is the toughest of all the sessions I have been doing, so plan accordingly.

Tonight did TR 4x3'. Took 4'30" recovery, so work to recovery=1:1.5.

1.51.8/28 spm/154 hr
1.50.9/28 spm/161 hr
1.50.7/29 spm/166 hr
1.49.4/31 spm/168 hr

Deliberately increased the stroke rate on intervals 3 and 4. On the 4th, I focused almost exclusively on rate. Was reasonably happy w/ the result.

seat5 · Post by **seat5** » November 27th, 2006, 12:19 am

Glad to see you here, Rick. Your UT1 pace is what I also did today, only I'm supposed to be going about 3 sec/500m slower. I am ignoring heartrate entirely however. I've only had a few AT workouts, but I only do those about 1--2 secs too fast and the TRs I do at the correct pace. Haven't had an ANs yet.

Today was only 2 x 12 UT1, max targ 2:05

2926 2:03/22
2942 2:02.3/22

Tomorrow is 2 x 13 and then I have 2 TR workouts (this is week 10).

Will, it sounds like the break was good for you! Nice 30 r 20, Tom. I should do one of those some time soon.

Anne, I haven't done an AN workout yet, but I am between 5'10 and 5'11 somewhere and have managed to rate over 40 for short pieces (the one that comes to mind was last year's 300m CTC piece.) That was on slides, though, I haven't tried to rate that high yet on the standard erg and I think it will be harder. It doesn't seem reasonable that you had no trouble with the AN pace though, when you've had trouble with the TR pace, or maybe I am remembering wrong. I am anticipating really struggling with the AN paces as I find I have to do the TR actually at the pace that it's supposed to be. Or is it that they are so short?

njsurfboats · Post by **njsurfboats** » November 27th, 2006, 3:20 am

Sunday: easier recovery day for my legs. In the morning, 60' very easy stationary bike. In the evening, upper body lifting.

Monday:
6:00 a.m. 1x
4k warm-up
6x 2:00 on, 3:00 off, race pace or thereabouts (31-32 spm). No strokecoach so I have to go off my watch, but I was counting 62-63 strokes per interval.
This evening, probably low-rep legs in the weightroom (8x4 power cleans, dead lifts, squats, front squats). After a really hard Thurs-Fri-Sat my legs feel pretty recharged, and I'll have another easy day Wednesday. Getting back on the squat rack has really made an impact, especially on my longer pieces, making it a lot easier to crank out AT intervals and half marathons without reaching for ratings. And this, in turn, will hopefully benefit my 2k, but I've been only really doing 2k work (12x60" intervals) once a week if that. Plenty of time for that from January on.

And I am rowing out of Nadi El-Masry El-Etegdif (The Egyptian Rowing Club) down by the Cairo Sheraton. The club has flagged a lightweight Olymsport single for me, which has been rowing better as I've been losing weight (I'm hovering around 170 now, having lost a whopping 24+ lbs. since last spring season. I guess being away from a college meal plan and bagels with cream cheese and frozen yogurt will do something for you.)

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » November 27th, 2006, 9:29 am

Thanks for the welcoming words. I'm hoping that a two week shutdown and a re-boot has me back in the groove.

Today:2 X 6' AT (3'r)

2404m w/u in 11'

6' 1526m 1:58.0 24spm 145hr (recovered to 73hr during rest)
6' 1532m 1:57.5 24spm 152hr (rec. to 71hr)

1240m c/d in 6'

Standard erg, 121df, 59 degrees, 46rhr. As I did yesterday, I used the slowest time in the band (1:58-1:53 for AT) for a 7:08 as my starting point. I've gone back to doing it strapless and feel a bit more awkward than I used to. A couple of years ago I could go up to 28spm strapless quite smoothly. My poor technique has apparently gotten worse. Time to concentrate on that a bit more.

Carla, I've tentatively decided on January 21st for the Newburyport race. I'll try to get an email out to my list of interested ergers from last year, sometime within the next few days.

Rick

TomR · Post by **TomR** » November 27th, 2006, 9:41 pm

UT1/ 3x17/12,000+ meters.

2.07.5/132 hr/21 spm
2.07.5/139 hr/21 spm
2.06.8/144 hr/21-22 spm

HR remained low. I'd like to think I was suddenly wonderfully fit, but more likley, it's just a phenomenon that often happens after a hard workout the day before.

Anne · Post by **Anne** » November 27th, 2006, 11:30 pm

Last night's e-mail had an SOS from the Forum Flyers needing women for the CTC 2K challenge, so I decided to do that today. And, in a deluded state assumed I'd row it well after all this IP work. Was rather disappointed with a 8:10.2, even though it was sloppy and not well planned. Ah...I have lots of excuses...bottom line was that I don't have it. I'm not bailing out- just had a crash encounter with reality.

Carla, I do like the short intervals. I have a pacing problem when my SR gets high. Today I knew that my SR was too high at the start-but couldn't get the rhythm to slow down and pull harder. I do need to do the 30x20

A coach has volunteered to work with me Wednesday so that will be a help. Tomorrow will do the 3x17' to get back on plan.
Anne