Sorry to hear about your COVID result - listen to your body and take the rest you need.
Shifting from 500 meter splits to wattage I’ve found to have a number of benefits, especially when chasing personal bests. What initially caused me to make the change was the need to tightly pace a piece to hit a PB without blowing up mid-piece. What I realized was that the display on the PM5 only shows 3 digits of precision for each stroke pulled (unless you pull calories) and there is an appreciable power difference between a 1:52.0 split and 1:52.9. You wouldn’t get that feedback and how your pacing was developing as both stokes would show as 1:52 without the decimal.
To illustrate that point, drilling into the 30’ test from last week, take a look at the interval table:
https://log.concept2.com/profile/700948/log/74778830
Notice how the first 80% was between 1:52.6 and 1:52.4; had I set the display to show 500 meter splits I wouldn’t have know, stroke by stroke, whether I was above or under my target of 1:52.5 (245.8 watts) needed to hit 8k in 30’. Notice how I was able to settle into exactly 246 watts / 1601 meters per 6’ segment and conserve energy for a small ramp for the last 6 minutes.
In addition to the more precise feedback when pulling wattage, the math is much easier to understand for how you are spending your energy budget within the piece. As my target was 246 (1:52.5/500) average it is simple with a foggy mid-piece brain to understand that a stroke at 258 (1:50.7/500) is 5% above my goal and if I don’t dial the power back on the next stroke I risk blowing up before the end. 1:52.9/500 is 243.2 watts whereas 1:52.0/500 is 249.1 watts - nearly a 2.5% difference but both strokes would show as if they were the same effort of 1:52/500 when the PM5 display is set to 500 meter splits.
In my experience when chasing personal bests, 2.5% above your last best average wattage can be achieved week by week but larger gains, for me, don’t happen. I find it significantly more encouraging to notch those small gains as proof of increased fitness rather than aiming too high (3%… 4%..?), flaming out, and not booking the learnings for where your training is taking you and what is possible in the moment.
Today’s work for me was building off of the 246 average 30’ minute piece last week and completing the Workout of the Day: a 6k test. I haven’t rowed 6k specifically in quite a while but knew that 251 watt average was possible for the shorter piece. Staying patient and focused on that goal allowed me to notch a 254 watt average for 6k in 22:15.0.
https://log.concept2.com/profile/700948/log/74778830
Hope this makes sense, happy to answer any questions.
-Ethan
