How do I assess if I'm properly recovered and rested ?

[iain]

Looks good, rather than doing more intervals, you should try and go longer. Your HR levelled out rther than climbing. Perhaps next time try 20' sessions or even "Just Row" and hold as you can. I would try and make this my regular "Recovery" row pace and rating. Can't remember your Max HR, but only increase the pace if <75% of HRR for 90%+.

More importantly did you manage to get into a good consistent rhythm without pausing during the stroke at 17SPM? THat is what you are aiming at.

Interestingly you managed an average work per stroke of 6.5WMin on that 500, so this suggests that you can probably maintain an even higher SPI (2:45 at 17 is 4.6 WMin, only 70% of this). It suggests that you haven't completely grasped the periodic nature of the effort in rowing (0.7S of high effort followed by a variable period of low effort)/ ie you are not driving as explosively as you can. Finally, power increases rapidly at higher paces, so you need to be more disciplined. If you mean to row at 2:05, it may take a few strokes to stabilise it, but you want to be doing that (179W) rather than 2:03 (188W). A 5% increase in power is huge and was probably the reason you didn't manage to complete the second. Also at high output I would recommend a minimum of 3min rest after a 500 (the regular PP has 3:30 rest). An HR of 131 in the rest suggests you were only partially recovered.

But all in all a good useful session that revealed more of your true potential.

[jrkob]

Iain thanks for the feedback, this is very helpful.

Perhaps next time try 20' sessions or even "Just Row" and hold as you can. [...]. Can't remember your Max HR, but only increase the pace if <75% of HRR for 90%+.

Will do. My Max HR is 175. Could you clarify the end of your above sentence ?

More importantly did you manage to get into a good consistent rhythm without pausing during the stroke at 17SPM? THat is what you are aiming at.

This is something that I do pay attention to when rowing, but I think I should improve this further. I'll take a video next time to check, it will be easier to tell if I see myself.

you are not driving as explosively as you can

Yes and that was intentional, the problem is if I increase the explosiveness of the drive, both my pace and my SPM will quicken.
In fact, this combo 2:45/17spm wasn't a sweet spot for me and I found it hard to maintain. I had a tendency to quicken. Rowing slow is not easy.
What should I do ? In fact... I think this is going back to me not grasping the periodic nature of rowing as you explain... I think something isn't clicking right yet. Let me go back to some of your earlier posts. You have tried to explain several times but it seems it's still not 100% clear.

Finally, power increases rapidly at higher paces, so you need to be more disciplined [...] Also at high output I would recommend a minimum of 3min rest after a 500 (the regular PP has 3:30 rest). An HR of 131 in the rest suggests you were only partially recovered.

Ok, well noted.


I have another question about recovery.
My HR when I am for example on my computer or watching TV, should be around 70.
I have observed that after a harder session (today would qualify), my HR remains elevated for many hours. For example, I went rowing at 9am, and it is now 5pm and my HR is still 90, seated at my computer. And from experience it will probably remains like that until tonight.

Is this a sign that the session was too hard for my system ?

[iain]

Can't remember your Max HR, but only increase the pace if <75% of HRR for 90%+.

My Max HR is 175. Could you clarify the end of your above sentence ?

Taking 70 as your Min HR (probably this is a little high as watching TV in afternoon it is probably higher than when first woken up)

HRR is (HR - HRmin)/(HRmax - HRmin) x 100% So 149 Hr is (149-70)/(175-70) = 75.2% HRR.

you are not driving as explosively as you can

Yes and that was intentional, the problem is if I increase the explosiveness of the drive, both my pace and my SPM will quicken. In fact, this combo 2:45/17spm wasn't a sweet spot for me and I found it hard to maintain. I had a tendency to quicken. Rowing slow is not easy.

No it isn't and takes some getting used to! The drive should stay the same and only the recovery change between low and high rating. So a more explosive drive will have minimal difference on the time for the stroke at low rating as most of the time is in the recovery. In fact the hands probably go away a little quicker at the start of the recovery, but driving fast should not effect how slowly you crawl up the slide. The purpose of lower rate training is to give us plenty of time to recover from the drive, that way the drives can be practiced as we will do them at speed far more times than would be possible at a racing rating. The way we perform the 2 parts of the stroke are not linked, the power of the drive determines the work per stroke and the speed of the recovery determines the rating. As such we can adjust each independent of the other. You only drive really hard when you are going at a fast rating, slowing the drive when you slow the recovery. You made good progress on the 2:45 intervals, you need to adjust like this on the demands of each session.

[quote=jrkob post_id=568341 time=1684487795 user_id=787907I have another question about recovery.
My HR when I am for example on my computer or watching TV, should be around 70.
I have observed that after a harder session (today would qualify), my HR remains elevated for many hours. For example, I went rowing at 9am, and it is now 5pm and my HR is still 90, seated at my computer. And from experience it will probably remains like that until tonight.

Is this a sign that the session was too hard for my system ?[/quote]

No, we continue to burn calories recovering from a workout afterwards (as well as restoring glycogen, possibly elevated fat metabolism if glycogen is depleted etc.) This has been recorded 48 hours after hard workouts and is normal. It is just an extension to HR starting subsequent intervals at a higher rate despite apparent "full" recovery. A test of whether it was too hard is where it is when you are due to do another tough session.

[dabatey]

For me.

If I was doing 4 sets of ten minute intervals with 2 min rests and my heartrate was level on the intervals, I would start upping the pace rather than extending the time, and trying to ensure I was doing that with a 'proper' explosive push off with the legs. 40 minutes is plenty to work the CV system for someone at the start of their fitness journey, and upping the pace rather than distance will push the training balance toward strength/muscular endurance a little bit.

[jrkob]

Guys thanks for the explanations.

Iain Garmin says that my RHR is 60 (they calculate this as the lowest average 30min period in the last 24 hours, I believe, so when I'm sleeping).
So in this case my HRR become (146-60)/(175-60)=75%.
And 146 was already my average HR during this exercise, so it seems I have no room to row faster on that one ?

--------------------------

I have noticed something.
Today was Week 3 Session 5 (20 May) of the BPP, which is identical to Week 1 Session 2 (done on 20 April so exactly 1 month ago), except that today I had to row with splits 1 second faster. I took this opportunity to lower my spm from 24 to 22, based on what we had discussed a few days ago. Below are the results which I put in a table for easier comparison.
This is essentially 6x500m/2min rest.



Because I lowered the spm from 24 to 22 and I rowed 1 second faster, based on what we had discussed a few days ago, I was expecting doing this exercise, today, with a higher HR. But in fact, the exact opposit happened, and the difference is very large. I have included the HR at end of the 2' recovery periods: it was almost 20bpm slower today !!!

[iain]

Shows great improvement and you could have gone much faster . I would say that in general you should keep the rating up for shorter intervals, but you would have had to up the pace significantly. Up to you whether you want to continue the "faster" sessions at lower intensity as you aren't looking for the fastest improvement in pace, or revise the estimates a bit to go faster.