It stayed windy and cold all the way through Tuesday. When I got to the river Tuesday morning it was 36 degrees Fahrenheit with a biting north breeze. I paddled toward the north end of the harbor where I would have the most wind protection.
The workout was three 5-minute pieces at 60 strokes per minute (1 minute recovery), three 3-minute pieces at 72 spm (2 minutes recovery), and three 2-minute pieces at 86 spm (3 minutes recovery). Maks urged me to "stay calm and smooth when going to higher stroke rates." The 2-minute pieces were tough: they felt a lot like a set of my bridge-to-bridge sprints. While I felt like I could do the lower-stroke-rate pieces indefinitely, I was glad to have that last 2-minute piece behind me.
Tuesday's session was my first with my new Vaaka Cadence Sensor. It was nice not to have to occupy part of my brain with counting strokes. Even so, I tried to memorize each cadence and rely on the sensor's readout as little as possible.
Yesterday we finally had a bright sunny day with not so much wind. The temperature was on its way to a high in the 50s, though it was still in the 30s when I arrived at the river in the morning. I warmed up and did a set of five 10-minute pieces with 2 minutes recovery. The prescribed stroke rate varied subtly among the pieces: 60 spm, then 64, then 68, then 64, then 60. The workout was uncomplicated enough that I decided to do some of it out on the Mississippi and add some squirrelly water into the mix.
This morning the wind had returned. It was from the south this time, so from the dock I headed for the south end of the harbor so I could do most of the workout coming back north with the wind at my back. After a 10-minute warmup, I began. The workout was three sets of (4 minutes at 76 spm/1 minute rest/3 minutes at 76 spm/1 minute rest/1 minute at 80 spm). I did the first 4-minute piece against the wind, then did the rest with a tailwind. Each new set started 16 minutes after the previous one had started.
Maks promised this would be "A properly hard workout... Anaerobic session, exhaustion will set in." Was he right? Well... it certainly wasn't easy, and I was plenty tired by the end, but it never felt anaerobic to me. I pulled on each stroke with as much power as I could, but the stroke rates were quite a bit lower than what usually makes me go lactic. Maybe I wasn't doing it right, but I don't know how I could have made it harder... I'll just have to see what Maks has to say about it. It's the wee hours of Friday morning in Slovenia as I write this, so it'll be tomorrow next time we chat by e-mail.
It was overcast while I paddled, but not freezing cold--today's high was in the mid 50s. Rain was in the forecast, but it didn't start falling until I was in the car heading home, and that's always a nice feeling.
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