Training - Vasa Test Day

In getting a new season started, I decided I'm going to substitute practices this season with daily training on my Vasa Ergometer.  To kick off the season, I'm going to start out with an all-day session of tests, with the machine set at various levels of resistance, and trying to measure my performance over the course of the day.

If nothing else, it should be a nice day of working out, and I'll know more about what to expect through the course of this season.

I'm setting my phone to alert me at 20-minute increments.  Each time it goes off, I'll venture into the back room to do a 100-meter test.  Each time I perform one of these tests, I'm going to increase the resistance by 1 level.  I'll do my best to record the entire day, and we'll see what happens, and how I feel.

Here we go.

1.  Door set at "1" -- all the way closed.  Felt really easy, and I didn't push it.  Time: 1:29.1
2.  Door set at "2" -- more resistance than "1."    Not a problem yet.  Time:  1:23.6
3.  Door set at "3."  Uh oh, this is going to get VERY difficult.  Time:  1:20.7
4.  Door set at "4."  Man... on every pull, the machine is asking me to generate so much more power!  That one was getting much tougher.  Time:  1:20.1
5.  Door set at "5."   Definitely time to zone out and count.  I knew it was going to be much tougher, so watching the counter isn't a good thing.  Counted to 30 strokes, then checked.  I'm just shy of 25 meters per 30 strokes.  We'll see what "6" is.  Time: 1:18.7
6.  Door set at "6."   Hitting the wall a little bit.  So much more power required.  Really looking forward to going back down in the setting, but this would certainly make you VERY strong.  Time:  1:20.1
7.  Door all the way open at "7."   I tried to go hard on this one but, having done this a few times, I was a bit afraid of what was going to happen.  I also felt my elbows dropping a bit toward the end.  Gonna have to work to get this one feeling good.  Time:  1:19.1
8.  I am going to try to do some fast 100s at this point.  I looked back at the fastest 100, which was when the door was set at "5," and decided to close it down one more to be able to get through the whole 100.  So, with the door set at "4," and trying to pull with as fast a cadence as possible, I was able to drop the best time by just a bit.  Oh yeah... it hurt.  Time:  1:17.2
9)  I think I've hit the wall.  I figured I'd drop down to a resistance of "2" and get some speed going.  The real trouble is, I'm not generating nearly the power necessary for real speed.  In other words, I'm spinning my wheels.  That was the hardest one, and the time didn't show it.  Time:  1:18.2
10)  OK... that did it.  I went back up to level "5" resistance to try to add a bit of power back in.  Didn't go hard on the first half... died anyway.  Probably too much rest between sets, and not enough warm-up prior to trying to go fast... but that's OK too.  Time:  1:22.2

Considering all the 100s were done fairly cold, it's easy to see where I'm going to be able to initially generate the highest power levels, combined with the fastest speed.  Setting the resistance level pretty near the middle of the road allows me to get a steady turnover for the entire duration of the exercise, as well as developing good power.

Gonna be a fun year on my VASA, and I've got some goals in mind based on the season starting tests.  Here we go.