Iron Wars

It has been a long Winter.  But it has been worth the investment.  Lately I’ve tuned all my focus to the task at hand, in the big picture of performing every day to the limits of my ability in practice, and in the “small picture”, meaning everything outside of practice.

In no particular order…

Technology

The RCX5 Polar heart rate monitor is a totally fun toy, and also a quantifiable way to track progress and workouts.  I love the feature that allows me to sync the training data to their website, which gives me a graph of my heart rate v. time elapsed, and approximate “zones” based on my thresholds.  All estimates, but particular to me.  The attachment linking the NK SpeedCoach Gold to my computer is also fun to play with, more graphs, this time stroke rate v. time or distance v. pace or speed for 500 meters.  Here's some graphs from a recent workout in the single, 3 sets of max power strokes, First set, 20x 17 on 7 off, all at SR30-33.

Heart rate v. time from entire workout, showing the warmup w/bursts, the first and second 17/7s, and the pyramid.

First set, 20x(17 strokes race pace, 7 strokes off).  Stroke rate in blue, pace in orange.

Second set, same thing, third set, 10 on rate 26, 10 off, 20 on rate 28 , 20 off, 30 on rate 30... 50 on rate 34, 40 off, 40 on rate 32, ... 10 on rate 26.  Although I was 100% toast after the first set (into a headwind), and was almost ready to call it, I felt strong, stronger than I expected by the start of the second set, which was much faster.  

Second set 20x(17 strokes on race pace, 7 strokes off)

Somewhere during that set I reached a point where I just tuned everything out but my rowing, my boat, embracing the total fatigue and going beyond it.  And it didn't get worse, it actually got better, the harder I pushed the less I felt fatigue or pain or was even aware of it, not thinking, just doing.  I looked at the horizon line and went on autopilot and had the best row of the year.

Third set, 10on 10off SR26.... 50on SR34.... 10 on SR26

Nutrition

My old favorite website meets my old favorite book for weight management.  While Livestrong.com is an invaluable resource, and keeps me honest, it doesn’t do anything more than give a total in/out caloric estimation.  To round out this commitment to weight management you need to eat to fuel top performance… which is where Matt Fitzgerald’s book Racing Weight comes in.  I cannot recommend this book highly enough.  The author is very logical and clear about what will work eating-wise for endurance athletes looking to maximize performance in races and training.  I’m seeing my fastest numbers on the erg and on the water, ever, at weight.

Commitment

I ask myself “what is the rower who will be standing on the medal stand in London this August doing to prepare himself, today?”  Is he running around trying to “balance” rowing against other priorities?  Or is he making every day count towards the fulfillment of his goals?  Olympic trials for me and my partner Alex in the Light Men’s Double Sculls is in April, only six weeks to go.

After reading another of Matt Fitzgerald’s books, “Iron War”, chronicling the battle between Dave Scott and Mark Allen during the 1989 IronMan Triathlon, my thinking shifted a little.  If you don’t know the outcome of that race, don’t look it up (I didn’t).  Just call up your local bookstore and see if they have it, and read that thing.  A preview – with only two miles left in the marathon leg of the 1989 IronMan, Dave Scott and Mark Allen, two men at the top of their game, have both swam 2.4 miles, biked 114, and run 24, all neck and neck, and are now running shoulder to shoulder, flat out, sub 6:00 mile pace, 3 miles ahead of the next competitor and well under record time… only one of them can win.

Our training this Winter has been solid.  I’ve had the most consistent, strongest, heaviest load and most challenging training of my rowing career.  There were physical and mental gains along the way, but most of it was a grind, albeit a joyful one, joyful to even be taking strokes after the disc injury I sustained last year and for which I had to sit out the entire twenty weeks of Summer rowing.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, and not much reflecting, but I wrote this after a very good practice in the double yesterday, 2000m stroke rate 28-30, 1000m rate 32, 2000m rate 28-30, 1000m rate 32.  It’s not too specific, but somewhat approximates where my head is at right now headed into this weekend, where Alex and I will be racing at the Elk Lake Regatta in Victoria.  As for today – man what a fun Sunday!  Got all my errands done, including completing the first blog post since November!

Saturday 2/25/12

New attitude since reading “Iron War.”

Feeling…invincible.  Not all powerful,

            But impossible to damage.

Lean+mean, or getting there.

No guilt about making it all about this.

TRULY giving this 100%

I feel good.

Don’t think, just do.

Lock onto horizon line and go.

Auto pilot.