Heart rate vs. pace in building an aerobic base?

[drm7]

Today's interval work shined a bright light on my non-existent aerobic capacity!

It was 4x750 with 2 minutes rest. I completely flamed out about 3/4 of the way through the 3rd interval. I was well-rested, well-fed, well-hydrated, etc. I just lost my leg drive.

I think the culprit was my recovery ability. My H/R was maxed out at about 180 during the intervals, but was still at 160-170 1 minute after, and maybe 140-150 at the start of the next interval. I was barely paddling during the rest periods and fighting to control my breathing. I'm guessing that more UT1/UT2 work will help with this, so I'm going to stay on the Beginner Pete Plan and log some volume at low(er) intensity.

My splits:

1:59.4
2:01.4
2:05.2
2:09.4

The average pace for all the intervals was about 1 second slower than my 6x500 I did earlier in the month, although my pace for the 1st 750m this time was 2 seconds faster than the first 500m of the earlier session.

Also experimented with varying stroke rate - on 3rd interval stepped it up to 26-28, from my usual 20-24 pace. Not sure if it really helped, although I seemed to have a better rhythm.

[drm7]

Resurrecting my old thread with a follow-up question on heart rate. I know that one marker people use to judge their CV fitness is how fast their heart rate drops after finishing an interval.

I'm still chipping away at the Beginner Pete Plan, and I just did the 2x2000m r4' interval session. Right after the end of the first interval, my H/R was right at my max - about 185bpm. I then took it at roughly every minute (while doing light paddling) during the rest period. I found that it dropped about 10bpm for every minute of rest, and was around 135-140 when I started my second interval (which, as you might imagine, was slower than the first 2000m.)

8:38.2 2:09.5 21 spm
8.50.8 2:12.7 20 spm

Two questions:

1) What rate of H/R recovery is there in well-trained rowers (i.e, not me!)
2) Should I modify my interval training to a H/R-based recovery, rather than an arbitrary time? I am pretty sure that I am not fully recovering during the rest periods.
2a) Related to #2 - or am I incorrect, and that is the point of interval training, to tax your recovery and make the last intervals more difficult?

[G-dub]

I cannot answer #1 either but mine goes from 180 ish to below 110 in a couple of minutes or so depending on how long the previous rep was and which one I was on. Your recovery between reps is geared to what you are wanting to accomplish - either to be fully recovered to go as fast as possible, or less recovered to challenge your fitness, and/or for a set time so that you can monitor progress from session to session.

[lindsayh]

I cannot answer #1 either but mine goes from 180 ish to below 110 in a couple of minutes or so depending on how long the previous rep was and which one I was on. Your recovery between reps is geared to what you are wanting to accomplish - either to be fully recovered to go as fast as possible, or less recovered to challenge your fitness, and/or for a set time so that you can monitor progress from session to session.

Yes as Glenn says the rest time can be varied depending on aim of training. (there was a discussion a couple of days ago on the "what training" thread here.) The Interactive Plan says that as you get close to a race you should make the rests long enough to get back to twice RHR and earlier in a training program you can use shorter rests for a different training effect by staying anaerobic for longer. The IP recommends heart rate based rest intervals rather than timed.
It is reasonable as part of a general training program that is not race day focussed to do some intervals with shorter rests where your HR is not returned to "normal" - good for fitness in that it will keep your HR higher for longer tha a single piece. Do some with longer rests as well - for example you could do 500m with 1/2/3' rests to achieve different effects.

There is no doubt that HR recovery times is linked to fitness level - the fitter you are the quicker it gets back down again.

[Bob S.]

There is no doubt that HR recovery times is linked to fitness level - the fitter you are the quicker it gets back down again.

It is also highly dependent on the kind of rest. "light paddling" can mean different things to different people. I have had the assumption that the drop to 2xRHR rule applied to passive rest. If non-passive rest is used it can vary all over the place, including mixes of passive and active at varying levels.

[gooseflight]

Your HR should be sub max after the first interval so you're probably hitting it a bit hard. Should be a 85% effort of thereabouts. You may find that lifting the rate helps a bit. You're doing some heavy lifting there.

If you graduate to the full Pete Plan you won't make it to the last interval [of four] if the first is at max.

The point of these intervals is more about facilitating quality work rather than taxing recovery. Obviously 2 x 2K should be faster than you can row 4K straight. Of course there is a cumulative fatigue effect and in training terms it's probably better to make the second interval faster than the first.

As for rest I would follow Bob's suggestion and look for x2 resting rate. My interpretation of resting in this context is your HR when you sit on the erg, i.e., your pre warm up HR. I would though expect your HR to back at x2 resting after four minutes.