[In]decent Intervals

[NavigationHazard]

We were on ski holiday in Karpacz, Poland, from Friday through Sunday. I didn't ski, but did manage to put in workouts at the spa/hotel fitness center. And to do quite a bit of soaking in the various Jacuzzi hot tubs, etc. that the spa features.

Monday I managed a desultory attempt at the CTC. 1:57.2 average for 20 mins r20. Drag Factor 88, as my shoulder was bothering me. So were my sinuses.

Today's extravaganza was 34 x 1' r30 on 1':



10265m total work distance in 34:00.0 net elapsed work duration, 1:39.3 average pace, 357w r30 (all reps exactly 30 strokes). That's roughly age group WR pace minus 3.

[NavigationHazard]

Wednesday was 1 hr stationary cycling at a nominal 285 watts + leg presses, back extensions, and a few too many chest presses.

Thursday AM was a second go at the CTC: 5339m, 1:52.3 pace per the PM5 but 1:52.4 on the CTC page when entered. Oh well.

Exactly 400 strokes, all 20 1' segments done in 20 strokes. Last minute at 1:46.0 pace.

I added 14 x 1' r20 on 30" in the late afternoon: 4019m in 14:00.0 net elapsed work time, 1:44.5 pace r20 (all exactly 20 strokes). Rep #14 was 300m, 1:40.0 pace. Meh.

4 x 5' Jacuzzi sessions.

[NavigationHazard]

Saturday: CTC for the late, great Anne Yates, one of the founding members of the UK erging community and both inspiration and example to many, many, many over her 20+ years in the sport. Her courageous battle with the cancer that eventually killed her was also both inspiration and example.

2801m total work distance in 10:09.2 elapsed time, r19. I chose to do the row at 19 strokes/minute (not mandatory but suggested) as if you put that together with the distance you get 28.01.19 in commemoration of the day she passed.

Sunday: 14 x 1' r19 on 30" rest. I'd looked at the ErgData stroke data for Saturday's row and quickly realized what I'd felt during the session. I almost never do anything at 19 strokes/minute so getting there and staying there were a bit of a struggle. The point is that achieving a given average pace by going over/under it costs you energy due to the cubic relationship built into the way the monitor calculates pace/watts. And variations in rating affect pace, other things equal. Mean flywheel rotational velocity is averaged over the duration of the stroke, and both overall duration from stroke to stroke and also drive duration vs. recovery duration within the stroke are different at different ratings.... See http://eodg.atm.ox.ac.uk/user/dudhia/ro ... meter.html for details....

Anyway, I managed 3999m total work distance, 1:45 average pace [PM5 + ErgData], all reps 19 strokes except #13 which was nominally 20 as I messed up the start while sneezing. That's probably more indicative of my ability to row the CTC in a flat-out effort....



Here's rep 14. Reasonably decent stroke-to-stroke pace/rate consistency....

[NavigationHazard]

Left out 30 minutes on the TechnoGym recumbent cycle at a nominal 338 watts, cadence 53, on Friday after my CTC row. HR never got over 141 and was in the mid-130s most of the time....

[NavigationHazard]

30 x 1 min r19 on 30" yesterday, by way of trying to gain some familiarity with a rating of 19 spm that I don't normally ever use. The point is that this month's CTC tribute to Anne Yates has a 19 spm option....



This was the most consistent of the 30 reps rating-wise. Not horrible....

[NavigationHazard]

6 x 500m rate pyramid today, mostly because I got frustrated trying to get ErgData and the PM to recognize my HR belt for a second go at the CTC. For unknown reasons the PM was displaying a HR of 134 BPM even though I wasn't wearing the belt. And when I did get it connected right on the PM it wasn't showing on the ErgData screen. Annoying.



I targeted r20/22/24/26/28/30 but miscounted on rep 2 and rowed it r21. Oh well. I figure I gave away about .3 or .4 seconds' average pace overall by missing the "correct" rating. Trademark last rep, though, which I submit was pretty consistent pace-wise.

FWIW, I consider the session gruntwise roughly equivalent to a 2k trial at the average stroke rating.

[NavigationHazard]

2/5 I did a variation on a 2k predictor that Aussie OTW legend Drew Ginn got from his coaches. His version was 3 x 2k on 5 min rest, paced like this:

500m @ target pace +12/ 500m @ +9/ 500m @ +6/ 500m @ target pace
500m @ target pace/ 500m @ +6/ 500m @ +9/ 500m @ +12
500m @ target pace +12/ 500m @ +9/ 500m @ +6/ 500m @ target pace

Rating wasn't specified, but in his blog Ginn suggested anything between 22 and 32 as suitable.

My version was 12 x 500m on 45 secs rest, which cuts the overall rest time down to 8 mins 15 secs. It also makes the turnaround involving reps 4 and 5 interesting, since both need to be at target pace and you have just 45 secs rest. The Ginn version gives you 5 minutes to get ready for rep 5....

Anyway, you'll have to trust me that the session is much harder than it might look. I started out with a target pace of 1:37. In theory, I should have finished with an overall average pace of 1:43.8. Here's what happened:



Trademark last rep. The results suggest a target pace of just under 1:36....

2/6 I did recovery work on the erg and recumbent bike plus weights.

2/7 Tonight I did 14 x 1 min r24 on 30" on the erg. I'd started out intending to try to do 30 reps at something around 1:44 pace r24. But around rep 10 I realized I'd gotten to the gym so late I wasn't going to have nearly enough time. So I decided to pull the split down and aim for a big finish on rep 14. Here's what happened:



I submit that that's pretty close to perfect pace consistency stroke-to-stroke on rep 14....

I added 30 mins on the TechnoGym recumbent at a nominal 341 watts, which FWIW is a PB for me on that piece of non-C2 kit....

[NavigationHazard]

2/8 I was feeling poorly and managed 10 x 500m r28 on 1' rest at 1:40 pace, plus weights and a protracted Jacuzzi session.

2/9 I did 14 x 1' r24 on 30", the first 10 at around 1:42.5 pace and then brought down for a trademark big finish...



I couldn't get the PM5 to pick up my HR belt for love or money. I added 30' on the TechnoGym recumbent at a nominal 344 watts, cadence 54. That apparatus did connect with the HR belt. HR averaged 141. At some point with maybe 5 minutes to go I triggered a "Attention! HR is high!" warning from the recumbent's software. I think a temporary posture change was responsible, as in reaching for my water bottle or some such, as I theoretically hit 158 bpm for maybe 10 seconds until it dropped back to ~140 as quickly as it had risen....

[NavigationHazard]

Both of the ergs in the gym were in poor shape tonight. The one I usually use was producing tortured sounds when I extended my legs and rolled the seat back on the drive. Evidently the decal/logo on the side of the rail was decaying, and some sticky bits got stuck to the seat rollers. I didn't feel like cleaning them off myself, so I switched to erg #2. Oops. Something has gone wonky with the chain such that there is a noticable pop when you pull hard on a drive. I suspect that one or more links have got dirt in the connections and are sticking when they are supposed to swivel. Again I didn't feel like doing the maintenance myself. I ended up bagging the erg workout and putting in a hard 30 mins on the TechnoGym recumbent cycle. 346 nominal watts, a new PB for the workout on that bit of kit....

Sometime early next week I should get a status report on progress finishing my new flat in Wroclaw. If all is going according to schedule -- a big if -- I should be able to move in mid-March, and resume working out on my own C2 erg and BikeErg....

[NavigationHazard]

2/11 I spent the better part of the day switching medical providers here in Wroclaw, Poland. This included a lengthy consultation regarding the current state of my diabetes vis-a-vis my training, eating, and activity schedules. Going forward I have a raft of tests and followup consultations, starting with blood work on 2/13 after 10 hours fasting.

2/12 I still felt dragged out from the doctors' visit and the tests I did. I managed 13 x 1' r25 on 30" rest at 1:41.5, the first 12 pretty much dead on 1:42 and the last in 1:34.6 pace. I added 30' on the TechnoGym recumbent at a nominal 351 watts.

2/13 I did 13 x 1' r28 on 30" rest, the first 9 more or less even pace and the last 4 negative splitted. Here's the ErgData graph for rep 13:



The salient point here is the essential flatness of the HR curve. That's because I started the rep at 160 bpm, HR having peaked from the previous interval during the nominal rest period. This is actually a common feature of hard sprintervals on short rests: HR flattens out and doesn't drop. You end up spending considerably more time in the AN zone than you could ever hope to do during continuous rowing....

I added 30 hard minutes on the TechnoGym recumbent at a nominal 358 watts, cadence 55 rpm. Much sweat attended....

[NavigationHazard]

2/14 Spent a considerable chunk of the morning having blood work done at my new medical provider here in Wroclaw. I had to do it on an empty stomach, which meant no brekkie or morning coffee. This totally messed up my normal eating/activity pattern for the day. I'd have bagged a workout altogether except it was the annual Carole Mac[Nally] tribute row for the CTC. I would need to be dead to miss that. She was a teammate [Team Oarsome] and a legendary combination coach/cheerleader/surrogate mother/comedienne to any number of rowers both in the UK and across the water. For example, back in the days of the old UK Forum, I'd do mega-interval sets -- e.g. 40 x 500m on 2' -- and she'd chat/cox me during the rest intervals. Somewhere even now, Carole MacSilly (as she used to call herself) has a glass of red wine in one hand and the Hoover vacuum hose in the other, tidying up the workout space for another session....

Anyway, knackered as I was, I resolved to do the first 1150m or so r24ish and then sprint the last 250. Carole always encouraged that from me....



The last 500m was at around 1:34.7 pace, mostly because the last 250 was sub-1:29....

[NavigationHazard]

2/15 Opera tickets last night (Don Giovanni; 12th row main floor) so not much time for a big workout. Okay then, let's do intense....'

6 x 1' rate ladder on 1 min rest, done r20/ 22/ 24/ 26/ 28/ 30. Last time around on this (Feb 5) I managed 1:38.8 pace. Today I was considerably faster on the lower-rated reps but marginally slower on the higher-rated ones at the end. The net result was 0.6 seconds' improvement in overall average pace....



Oh, and the opera was stunning....

[NavigationHazard]

14 x 1' r28 on 30" rest this afternoon, the idea being to do 13 at around 1:42.5 pace and then boom. Result:



I added 30' on the Technogym recumbent cycle at a nominal 327 watts, cadence 52, plus some quality steam room time. And some actual outdoor cycling to/from the gym via somewhat deviant routes along the river. It was glorious weather-wise....

[NavigationHazard]

1' r28 on 30" rest again, this time 13 reps with the first 12 targeting around 1:40.5 pace and then boom:



I added 30 minutes on the TechnoGym recumbent cycle at a nominal 322 watts, cadence 50 rpm.

[NavigationHazard]

20 x 1' r28 on 30 seconds' rest today, looking to up the volume a bit:



I added 30 minutes on the TechnoGym recumbent cycle at a nominal 325 watts. HR was remarkably docile, considering the erg session that had come before the ride....