On Tuesday I got in the boat and did some more varied-pace work. It was 3 times 6 minutes on/1 minute off at 60 strokes per minute; 4 times 3 minutes on/2 minutes off at 72 spm; and 3 times 1 minute on/2 minutes off at 85 spm.
I felt like I was moving the boat well at 60 spm, though measuring that has been tricky. Since I got my Vaaka Cadence Sensor, which communicates with my G.P.S. device via an ANT signal, my speed display has been acting funny: it seems to jump around from 6.7 miles per hour to 7.2 mph to 6.4 mph, stuff like that. I wonder if the ANT signal is interfering with the communication between the G.P.S. device and the satellite. Anyway, as I paddled at 60 spm, my speed display went as high as 7.0 or 7.1 mph, which I think is pretty good for me at that stroke rate, but I'm not sure how accurate those speed readings are. At least I can check my stroke rate readings by counting strokes against the clock, and they do seem accurate.
Anyway, I worked to put a lot of power into every stroke during Tuesday's session, and the pieces felt good. It wasn't a terribly exhausting workout but it was a solid hard one that made me go home feeling like I'd done some good work that'll pay off down the road.
The biggest challenge of yesterday's session was simply getting it in. A system of strong thunderstorms was moving across the Mid South with the potential for damaging winds and tornadoes, and I had to watch the Internet radar closely to identify a window for paddling. I thought I saw one around 9 AM and quickly went down to the river. There were some lightning flashes as I warmed up, and I eyed my watch closely; it seemed that all the lightning was at least a couple of miles away. The storms were moving from southwest to northeast, and at that time they were missing the city to the north. The northern sky was ominously dark while the sky was much brighter to the south and east, and I stayed in the south end of the harbor, as far from the storms as I could get. As it turned out, I got rained on just a little bit even though it was clearly pouring down rain up north.
The workout was three sets of (3 times 200 meters/2-minute rest/10-second sprint with a flying start/2-minute rest). Within each set, the 200-meter pieces were to be done at 60 spm, then 70 spm, then 80 spm. Once again the workout turned out to be hard but not super-exhausting. My 200 times were just over a minute at 60 and 70 spm, while at 80 spm I managed to dip just under a minute. My 10-second sprints felt a lot smoother than the ones I did last Saturday, but that was partly because of the flying starts.
There was some cooler air behind the storm system, and today's high temperature was only around 51 degrees Fahrenheit. It was mostly cloudy with the wind blowing hard from the west, making it awfully blustery and cold down on the riverfront. As I paddled this morning there were patches of blue sky overhead, but the horizon in every direction was lined with dark rain clouds. Today's workout was a simple one: paddle for 70 minutes at a "moderate to strong" 64-68 spm.
It's definitely a higher training load this week than last, and my body is starting to feel it with a substantial weekend schedule still to come.
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