Strength Friday v Speed Sunday

To my coaches, Megan, Ellen and Lilly. 

Subject: Strength Friday v Speed Sunday 

I thought the recent Friday and Sunday workouts would be interesting to compare. I think I've got a couple findings. While there's more to be gained from a closer look, here's what I've got so far. 

To recap, Friday's otw strength workout was 3 x 5 x 1 minute on, 1 minute off, @ 18, 20, 22, MAX pressure. Sunday's otw speed workout was 3 x 6 x 1 minute on, 1 minute off, @ 30, 32, 34, open, MAX speed. For the record, both were hard. 

I met expectations at a B-B+ level.  Friday we lost a rep to wakes in the Cut; finished one shy before returning to the dock on time; and I was over the the prescribed rates 2-3 beats. Sunday lost 2 reps to turns and was generally over 30, but not much variation. 

Findings. 
I don't gain as much speed as I should at higher rates. I don't row as well at rate. I think this is related to not hinging well, to collapsing at the finish. 

The data shows I lose 8-10° of length between low and race rate. Ideally the loss of length should be the same at the catch and finish, or perhaps biased to losing less at the catch. But instead reduction in catch angle accounts for more - up to ⅔ - of the loss. I think this goes hand in hand with the above. 

This link is to a spreadsheet capturing the reps on Friday and Sunday as measured by my SpeedCoach. My process was to capture the fastest 40-45 seconds for each rep. The other attributes, like distance, number of strokes, catch angle and so on are for that 40-45 second interval. This is on the "data" tab. 

On the 2nd tab there are 2 pivot tables, also embedded below.  The first compares all strength reps to all speed reps. The second compares the top 5 (fastest) of each. 


What do you think? Is my hypothesis plausible? Is it consistent with what you see? 

In today's practice (Parker), I tried to address what I think is the issue by sitting up more and focusing on hinging. But sometimes in the heat of the piece my lizard brain took over. Or I got tired and couldn't do what I wanted. 

Looking forward to your comments. 

Hank

Garmin activity files for Friday's Strength session and Sunday's Speed session.

Map of Sunday's Speed session.

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