This weeks training block was planned for a 30 minute FTP (See What's your FTP MAN?) on Tuesday, 1.75 hour Zone 2-3 on Wednesday, and a heavy interval day on Thursday. Kevin and I decided to jump in the C2 on Wednesday, the first time we have been in the boat together this spring. In the back of my mind I wanted to keep a steady effort throughout the day, with minimal stoppage time. The focus was on stroke rate and technique.
After just a few strokes I could tell that we would have a good day in the boat. It felt responsive, light, and smooth. (GRB Newman Design) The first hour turned into a unplanned Tempo Effort, a pace that feels comfortably hard but not unmanageable. One of the key things to focus on when doing tempo is breathing, can you still talk without gasping for air?
As you can see from the Garmin Vivoactive data chart, the speed, heart rate, and stroke rate remained fairly consistent over the 57 minute block.
We averaged just under 7 mph for the downstream - upstream loop, with both our heart rates in the 150-160 bpm range. Efforts like this are probably the most important in preparing for a race, training your heart, mind, and technique to stay focused for a longer, sustained pace not normally done outside of racing.
As you can see the last 45 minutes of the workout was at a little easier pace, but still at a consistent heart rate and stroke rate.
Overall the workout was faster than planned with the first hour tempo pace, split almost evenly between Zone 3 and Zone 4 instead of Zone 2-3. All in all a good day, now onto intervals this evening. Training season is in full swing!