Training on Australia Day

What a great thing to be woken by your children. Well being jumped on by the kids certainly got my attention. I felt like I was a surfboard and the two of them were attempting to ride a dona wave. Thought I would make a quick entry before I head out to train. Today is Australia Day, a public holiday so I thought I would have a sleep in and enjoy breakfast and morning with the kids before getting into a bike ride and then and ergo.

We have a club regatte tomorrow in which I will race the single scull and a four. It has been a pretty full week of training and the result is clear when you look at my hands. Due to our Queensland camp being in a pair. With one oar each the grip on the handle is very different to the scull, and so with a few intense session the blisters that formed in my right hand we amazing and very painful. It is luck that my boat went on the traillor with my coach a day ago which meant that I trained on the ergo yesterday and I will train on it again today.

Training today will be a ride and ergo and I thought I would share what will be involved. In 30min I will head off from home down Beach Rd, Port Melbourne. It is a great streatch of road for cycling considering how close to the city we are. It is not going to be a long ride, but fairly intense. It will be 60km and during the ride I will do some interval work, where I take off as fast as I can go see what max speed I can get to, then hold for 30sec after which I back off say 5% effort and maintain for 3-5min. The speed are not all the important, but I use a rough guide of 65-50km top speed, down to a speed range of 55-40km. It depends on wind conditions and any small rises or hills in the road. With the number of set, I really go by my level of fatigue and I find that between 3 & 8 sets is the range for me. Again if I feel tired before then 3 sets is more than enough and I use it to get things moving at a speed which stimulates, but won't flatten me all together.

The ergo this afternoon will be done on feel and my focus will be to do some power work where I increase the resistance with the fan setting. I like to do this because it is a challenge to create ease of movment when the load is increased. I certainly don't want to though form out the window as I work to stay attentive with using a sensation of hips back and swing. The duration will be around 40min all up and I will break it up into 10min blocks to ensure I get off the machine and streatch and keep my back free and loose. The way I prefer to do each 10mins is by starting out the first minute will a real driving rhythm and then transfer into an easier movement that flows more. I will keep that stroke rate around 20 to start then settle down to 18-19 strokes per minute. After 5min I will work to create the driving rhythm again and allow the rate to climb back to 20spm. I find it it fun to let go a bit in the last 2mins and feed on the pressure gradually and let the rate move up until I start to find I am loosing form. This is the tipping point and most times I can hold this for a good 50sec with all my attention on efficency while close to max output. The scores on the ergo will range from 1.28/30 at best to 1.45/48 and I am very conscious of not being to hard on myself is at times the split slips further.

So that's the plan for today, it is not a normal day but does give some insight into the way I train. The biggest factor in determining the outputs I aim for come from all the years of training and that sense of what works to assist my preparation. Obviously heart rate is taken into account as well, and I am a big fan of the subjective feeling I have and use them to monitor progess and level at which to perform. I am certainly not as consistent as some, but I have learn over the year that self monitoring is essential in maintaining and improving.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Very interesting reading your post on the ergo in the shed the other day, very well written.

As a keen indoor rower myself i will be reading your progress.

My blog is on line at http://www.concept2.co.uk/forum/weblog.php?w=61 if you've time.

Best of luck with your training.

Michael.

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