What Training Have You Done Today?

[Dangerscouse]

Am I too cautious referring to Seiler’s work and the cautionary tales of going too hard in SS?

The only way you'll know if you're going too slow is ramp up the intensity and see how you respond. Don't assume that just because it works for others it works for you.

You need to use comparison as fuel, if you can't avoid using it. We've only got to where we've got to through lots of hard work, so it doesn't happen easily, and it's a continuous process to maintain it.

[Dangerscouse]

I always thought headbands were to keep hair out of your eyes. Not sure what I thought wristbands were for, I guess people with long arm hair? But now I see the light. I do use a little rock-climbing chalk bag before each piece.

Today i rowed 26.1 km. Moved to 26th in the distance list. Discovered that the guy one spot in front of me is 80.

Hahaha, as I sweat so much, feeling like someone was squeezing lemon juice into my eyes on really sweaty sessions was the final straw.

Some of fhe older ergers do some phenomenal distances, so you'll probably never keep up with them

[Dangerscouse]

1:23:06.9 21,097 1:58.1 212 1029 22 136
11:47.0 3,000 1:57.8 214 1036 23 128
11:44.7 6,000 1:57.4 216 1043 23 134
11:48.0 9,000 1:58.0 213 1033 23 135
11:49.7 12,000 1:58.2 211 1027 23 138
11:51.7 15,000 1:58.6 210 1021 23 139
11:52.1 18,000 1:58.6 209 1020 22 140
11:50.6 21,000 1:58.4 211 1025 23 143
0:23.1 21,097 1:59.0 207 1013 21 144

Tbh, I could have happily HDed from about 5k onwards. This never felt too enjoyable but I'm glad I decided to slow down rather than HD as it wasn't intolerable, just one of those days.

[iain]

Should I be more conservative in raising my SS pace? Maybe 0.5/1 split first? 2:28 r18 gets me to around 155 HR by 1h from 150 HR at 20 min…

Should I raise the SS pace a bit even if I start training twice a day for 2x a week or more over the summer? Am I too cautious referring to Seiler’s work and the cautionary tales of going too hard in SS?

As I have said far too often on these pages HR responses are individual. I have found that when I can recover from them, UT1 sessions of 40min to an hour or so do seem to improve my fitness significantly. They are also really helpful to "refer back to" in 30 min or longer TTs as mentally getting used to 15 min remaining becoming an encouragement when rowing at or close to threshold really helps in the "hanging on" phase and will be useful for your 30R20. I would suggest that you make incremental changes such as trying a faster SS pace for one SS a week perhaps aiming at 80% HRmax at the finish, but give yourself a week or so to adapt back to erging as even a week off will make it harder to hit the previous paces (Pete reckoned on 1S/500m slower per week away). Don't change too much at once, so if you are adding extra sessions you need to reduce the SS distances a bit to accommodate and don't push pace and distance at the same time.

[iain]

Sharing not a PB nor a solid training session, but rather, one of those days that can leave you scratching your head.

Realized within the first 100-200 meters of the warm-up that the same perceived effort was yielding roughly a 4-5 split slower pace. This persisted through the entirety of the warm-up, so I called it a day after my warm-up

THanks for posting, it is a relief to see others have off days in this world of "perfect lives" on social media! Yesterday I was intending to do my 6k. During my warm up I do 30-60 sec bursts at sequentially faster paces. I found that 30 min pace was at 1-2SPM higher than usual and RPE raised, then holding 5k SB pace even for 45S was a major effort. Decided on a grey session (as away today so enforced rest day). R20 (which is faster than the 17-19 I normally use for SS) and managed to get into a good rhythm with work per stroke at the top end of what I can sustain. Kept this up for what for me was a good 60R20 97% of last season's SB. Made me think that I should have done the 6k after all, especially as woken up with fried legs that suggests that I won't be recovered tomorrow for the 6k!

The human body (and mind) are very confusing!

[p_b82]

Your steady state being the target TT I have in 3.5 months. Crazy. And this ain’t even elite. Makes me realize I have a lot of work to do to achieve very decent PBs…

Should I be more conservative in raising my SS pace? Maybe 0.5/1 split first? 2:28 r18 gets me to around 155 HR by 1h from 150 HR at 20 min…

Should I raise the SS pace a bit even if I start training twice a day for 2x a week or more over the summer? Am I too cautious referring to Seiler’s work and the cautionary tales of going too hard in SS?

Also. Grr. Barely any training. On travels. Gotta do what I gotta do to train.

As others have said it's about what you can recovery from & what other activities you are doing and what is going on in your life.

I'll be honest I'm often very confused by the sessions you do, you sometimes tell us you're following the BPP, and then tell us your coach has you doing pieces, with other sport activities thrown in + some random weights info.

Not saying what you're doing is bad or wrong, but it makes it almost impossible for any-one to give any suggestions on whether pace XYZ in piece ABC is too fast/slow for you. We just don't see the whole picture.

I'm also convinced that smoothing out your technique is a priority for you - as I don't think you're working efficiently on the erg with the sudden jerk you showed in the form video.
That inefficiency (and inconsistency stroke to stroke) will result in higher HR for a given pace - so could skew your training downwards from your potential paces.
I'm also surprised your coach hasn't flagged it as a "thing to not do"