A beautiful day at the rowing club – the name of our 2x

Already in the morning it was a beautiful April day. The temperature was already around 10C (and would hit 20C in the afternoon), it was sunny and the lake was a flat mirror.

I took out the single on a steady state row. I was out with Martin and Jiri, two other Masters rowers. We did steady state but we added a few 20 stroke bursts at race pace. Jiri and Martin are 90+ kg guys who pull 6:30 and 6:40, respectively. Still I wanted to outrow them on the single, a new boat type for them.

I noticed I was much faster in the steady state 18spm part of the row, but at race pace Jiri was close. Even though I suspect it was a bit above race pace for him, given how much he slowed down after the twentieth stroke. I happily report that of the 6 bursts I did there was one at 34spm that I really liked. A light catch, a good pull, and keep feeding the boat with more and more strokes. That’s how I like it!

I was using the RIM app to look at technique. I am quite intrigued by the “stroke efficiency” metric (http://www.rowinginmotion.com/stroke-efficiency-explained/) because I see how it correlates with rowing well when I row. At the same time I don’t really understand how it works, and I want to get my head around it.

Well, I was doing 18spm and could effortlessly get my “stroke efficiency” between 4 and 5 meters, which was about 1-2 meters more than on Friday. Did my technique improve so much? I guess the metric is quite sensitive to some subtle effects on the recovery.

What was funny though is that at one turn I fiddled with the phone, and RIM asked me to recalibrate. I pressed “OK” and RIM recalibrated. After that, my “stroke efficiency” numbers were suddenly around 2-2.5. Does the calibration influence the metric?

I don’t have the data, because RIM did to me what it already did on Friday. After 65 minutes of recording it suddenly crashes and I am looking at the iphone start screen. No data recorded. I am wondering if there is a file size limit that it hits, now that I have up to 10 gps locations per second.

Then I spent some time hanging around the club house, helping Romana with coaching and preparing for the boat christening ceremony.

We had 4 club boats and two privately owned boats to be Christened, so it was a big day. Our brand new Salani 2x was one of them. Here are the pictures:

Club members admiring our double
Club members admiring our double
Chatting
Chatting
I always forget that people pictures are the best ones, but here is one I didn't forget to take.
I always forget that people pictures are the best ones, but here is one I didn’t forget to take.
The boats had to be rearranged (part I)
The boats had to be rearranged (part I)

 

The boats had to be rearranged (part II)
The boats had to be rearranged (part II)
Christening
Christening
Presentation of new line of club clothes
Presentation of new line of club clothes
The youth coxed quad in action
The youth coxed quad in action
Our beautiful 2x ORCA
Our beautiful 2x ORCA
Our beautiful new double
Our beautiful new double

A little explanation of our new double’s name “ORCA”.

Orka is the Dutch word for killer whale, a beautiful animal. As my single is called “Dolfijn” it is an appropriate name for a sister ship.

Orca (with a “c”) is the old spelling. Also, it is the name of AUSR ORCA, the Utrecht based rowing club where I spent very happy years rowing as a student.

A killer whale bursts forward out of the water. Its head is just starting to point downward, and is about a body width above the surface.
Orca porpoising” by Minette Layne from Seattle, Washington, USA – Single breaching orca (cropped). Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.