Jul 18 2015
Pre-race course pictures: Třeboň
Czech Open Masters this weekend.
July 2015
Jul 14 2015
Tuesday: Repeat taper training, in quad
Same training as yesterday, but now in a quad. A bit more wind, 4 Bft vs 2 Bft yesterday. Again 4x250m but this time at a decent stroke rate for the quad: 35-37spm. Which would a challenge in the choppy conditions.
We had Tomas Emr coaching us in the launch, which was good. During the warming up we did 10 strokes on / 10 strokes off at increasing stroke rates (30/35/38/38).
|Start|Stop_|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks
|00000|03159|03159|22:38|03:34.9| 23.0 | 130 | 178 |06.1|warming up (part of)
|03159|03400|00240|00:44|01:31.6| 35.8 | 172 | 179 |09.2|250m, tailwind
|04044|04294|00250|00:45|01:30.0| 36.0 | 176 | 180 |09.3|250m, tailwind
|04763|05014|00251|00:47|01:33.8| 35.3 | 175 | 181 |09.1|250m, headwind
|05555|05800|00245|00:48|01:38.0| 35.8 | 176 | 181 |08.6|250m, strong headwind
|05800|11174|05374|32:13|02:59.9| 19.0 | 148 | 182 |08.8|cooling down
The stroke rates are a bit lower than what I saw on CrewNerd during the row. Perhaps because it takes 3 strokes to get up to the right rate.
Coach said the last interval was the best.
Then we rowed in pairs (bow pair, then stroke pair), then we rowed with exaggerated tap-down and hands very low in the boat. Then we rowed unclipped.
Romana printed out the list of participants to coming weekend’s Open Czech Masters National Championships in Trebon.
12 participants in the C category single, so for sure two finals. Last year I had 3 hours of sleep before rowing this and came in fourth place, in a race where I didn’t have that little extra. I moved up one category so I have different opponents. I rowed 3:50. I looked up last year’s results for those that participated:
Mitas – 3:41 (-9 sec). A week later in Munich’s Euromasters I was second, only 2 seconds behind him
Milota – 3:55 (+5 sec)
Gwozdiak – 4:15 (+25 sec)
Novotny – 4:04 (+14 sec)
The rest are unknown.
In the B category quads, there are 8 boats, so again two finals. A year ago we won the A category in 3:18. We have one new guy in the boat. The only competitors we rowed against a year ago was the Trebon/Jindrichuv Hradec composite which we beat in 3:37. The guy who is not in our boat rows a composite with an Austrian club. If we draw against them, we will have to beat them, but that will be very hard.
In the mix Masters category C, there are 10 boats, so again two finals. Our “arch friends” Dekanovska/Dekanovsky remain category B. We rowed 3:44.
The winners of last year, Nevrala/Vecerova, who beat us by 0.5 seconds, are starting again.Then there is the Neratovice boat, which rowed 4:02 (+18 seconds), Smichov who rowed 3:44 (0 seconds) but were already C category last year, but with another woman. The rest is unknown.
The Men’s B 2x will be a surprise. We are not particularly good, but I didn’t row this last year.
Exciting!!
Jul 13 2015
Only the rowing was cool
Picked up the car from the workshop today. New driving belt. New oil seals. Various other small stuff. Oil change, and repairing the airconditioning. The bill was the equivalent of an average worker’s monthly pay. 🙁
Driving to the rowing club I tested the air conditioning. I normally don’t drive with the airco on, only when it is really hot or on long drives.
It didn’t cool. Not cool. 🙁
When I started the car after the row, this LED came on: 
Not cool. 🙁
Maybe I am not the guy to be a car owner. I hate taking it to the shop.
The Row
Enough whining. The row was a short (taper week) training in the double with Romana. 4x250m stuff with 500m rest (I made that 2min30 rest):
|Start|Stop_|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks
|00000|02153|02153|12:31|02:54.4| 19.6 | 116 | 144 |08.8|warming up (part of)
|02153|02400|00247|00:54|01:49.5| 31.2 | 160 | 171 |08.8|250m, headwind
|02903|03150|00247|00:55|01:51.5| 30.9 | 163 | 173 |08.7|250m, headwind
|03556|03805|00249|00:53|01:46.5| 31.3 | 159 | 170 |09.0|250m, tailwind
|04148|04405|00257|00:54|01:44.9| 32.3 | 154 | 173 |08.8|250m, tailwind
|04405|06892|02487|13:50|02:46.9| 21.2 | 145 | 174 |08.5|cooling down
The first three intervals where from a running start. The final one was a standing start.
Pretty cool stuff. 🙂
Not so cool was that I discovered one of the red clips on the height washers was missing. Did it come off during the row? Did someone borrow it? Not cool.
Jul 11 2015
Saturday: a bit of sprinting in the double
Our boys go on a summer camp. Not sure if they knew what that means. Anyway, they will live in tents in the mountains for 2 weeks in very basic conditions. They will have a lot of fun I am sure, but it may also be difficult now and then:
Lenka started to row with Iva, a girl who will move into her age category in September. It’s vacation time, so a good occasion to let them discover something new. They were out in a pair for the second time. This is when we pushed them off the dock.
We put them on the other side than they had rowed 2 days ago, so Lenka changed from stroke to bow and Iva from bow to stroke. Not good.
We pushed them off:
“IIIIIIII – AAAAAH – THIS IS SO WEIRD! – THIS IS VERY WEIRD – THIS IS SCAAARY – AAAAA – IIII”
They had difficulty coming back to the dock at all. Then Lenka went back to stroke seat and Iva to bow, we pushed them off and they silently rowed away, in good balance. Very funny to this sculler who can row sweep both sides (slightly preferring bow).
Romana and I took the double ORCA out and did some sprinting. 10 strokes on, 10 strokes off in increasing pace during the warming up. The “Small Pyramid” with a test start, then a start+1 minute, some light paddling, then another practice start, and finally a cooling down.
| Start | Stop_ | Dist_ | Time_ | Pace__ | _SPM | avg HR | max HR | DPS | Remarks
| 00000 | 02914 | 02914 | 16:59 | 02:54.9 | 22.0 | 134 | 173 | 07.8 | WU
| 02914 | 03003 | 00090 | 00:19 | 01:46.0 | 37.1 | 132 | 155 | 07.6 | 20" @ 38spm
| 03003 | 03074 | 00070 | 00:20 | 02:22.0 | 23.6 | 163 | 166 | 09.0 | rest
| 03074 | 03253 | 00180 | 00:39 | 01:48.6 | 35.1 | 170 | 179 | 07.9 | 40" @ 36spm
| 03253 | 03382 | 00129 | 00:41 | 02:39.4 | 22.3 | 172 | 179 | 08.4 | rest
| 03382 | 03657 | 00275 | 01:01 | 01:51.0 | 33.4 | 176 | 181 | 08.1 | 60" @ 34spm
| 03657 | 03821 | 00165 | 00:58 | 02:56.0 | 20.5 | 170 | 181 | 08.3 | rest
| 03821 | 04004 | 00182 | 00:41 | 01:52.4 | 34.3 | 171 | 179 | 07.8 | 40" @ 36spm
| 04004 | 04119 | 00115 | 00:41 | 02:58.4 | 21.4 | 174 | 179 | 07.9 | rest
| 04119 | 04210 | 00091 | 00:20 | 01:49.6 | 36.2 | 172 | 177 | 07.6 | 20" @38spm
| 04210 | 05035 | 00825 | 07:24 | 04:29.1 | 20.7 | 135 | 178 | 05.4 | rest
| 05035 | 05303 | 00269 | 00:59 | 01:49.8 | 33.1 | 158 | 174 | 08.3 | start+1 minute race pace
| 05303 | 07965 | 02662 | 17:18 | 03:15.0 | 19.9 | 137 | 174 | 07.7 | CD
Conditions were interesting. Mirror flat when we launched, then ripples, then some light chop. All within 30 minutes. Wind turning. You would row 20 strokes in quite fierce headwind, then suddenly you would row in tailwind.
Jul 10 2015
Friday 2x750m on choppy water: Good learning
Thursday’s training was a late evening session. Friday’s training had to be an early morning session. I don’t like to do it that way, especially two high rate workouts after another, but there was no other way. Friday afternoon to Monday I will be without a car, which despite the perfect public transport in Brno makes everything more complicated, our rowing club being 2km of hiking from the nearest tram stop and my work being on the other side of town (23km from the rowing club).
So I rolled out of bed at 5:30 and drove to the rowing club.
Very cold conditions compared to a few days ago. 10 degrees C and mist on the water. Cross wind and chop. Interesting to see mist and chop and wind at the same time, but it truly happened. Should’ve taken a picture of it. Also interesting about our lake is how light wind from certain directions can create seriously choppy conditions. We only have flat water with zero wind. Anyway, about 15 minutes into the session, the mist disappeared and the wind strengthened.
The plan: 2x750m / 12 min rest (1) 34spm, (2) 37spm.
The real plan: As the training schedule is written with double/quad in mind, I have to lower the stroke rates of the high rates sessions when I do them in the single. So I decided to row at 32spm and 34spm, and row them “as the first 750m of a 1km race”. I also decided to focus on achieving that rate by focusing on technique rather than trying to achieve a certain pace. Rate and technique over pace. With the chop and crosswind, splits wouldn’t be fast anyway.
3km warming up with some high rate bursts and a practice start. Had to reset CrewNerd after 2km because it stopped measuring distance. The reset fixed that, luckily.
First 750m with race start, then settle down to 32spm and count strokes to 80. The first half was slightly calmer than the second half, during which I had a couple of instances where my blade hit a wave and I was slightly off balance. The good old lactate rush was also present at the party. End result was 2:47 (1:51.6 pace) at 31.9spm (38max) according to CrewNerd.
To be honest I didn’t feel much like doing another one.
Twelve minutes of rest and I had to decide. Either I continued down the lake to the finish, turn around and would do the second 750m in even more choppy conditions. The alternative was to turn immediately and row to the narrow north end of the lake and do the higher rate interval in calmer water. Calm, flat water certainly helps to achieve 34psm and is easier when you’re tired (or, said differently, gives more flattering splits), so that was a very attractive option. On the other hand, doing the high rate interval in very choppy water would probably be better in terms of race preparation for next week. Trebon lake has a similar chop-sensivity as ours. So I chose the first option. During the rest I had time to think about a way to survive the second 750m. I played with the thought of reducing it to a 500m and avoid the dreaded lactate rush. Or to row 500m and then just paddle it out.
But all that didn’t feel all right, so I had to really find a way to survive. This is what I came up with:
Race start + ten strokes, then
10 strokes focus on clean tap down in the chop, then
10 strokes focus the high rate recovery (speed but calm on the slide), then
10 strokes focus on a light catch, not too strong on the legs in the first part of the catch, then
10 strokes focus on a good back swing, then back to
10 strokes tap down, 10 strokes rate, 5 strokes light catch, 5 strokes back swing, 5 strokes tap-down, five strokes high rate
I did exactly that and it did wonders. I ignored the stroke rate and pace on CrewNerd and focused on these things. The conditions were much more choppy than in the first interval and I thought I was going slower, but when I finished, I found myself looking at 2:48 (1:52.1 pace), 32.8spm (37 max). Not bad pace in cross-wind and being tired.
The stats:
|Start|Stop_|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks
|00000|00808|00808|04:58|03:04.4| 19.0 | 141 | 170 |08.6|warming up (part of)
|00808|01057|00249|00:55|01:50.2| 31.3 | 156 | 175 |08.7|250m
|01057|01306|00249|00:55|01:50.4| 31.1 | 177 | 178 |08.7|250m
|01306|01555|00249|00:57|01:54.6| 31.2 | 178 | 179 |08.4|250m
|01555|03852|02297|14:21|03:07.5| 18.5 | 145 | 178 |08.7|rest
|03852|04101|00250|00:52|01:44.2| 33.2 | 160 | 176 |08.7|250m
|04101|04350|00249|00:57|01:54.6| 32.1 | 178 | 179 |08.2|250m
|04350|04600|00251|00:59|01:57.7| 31.3 | 179 | 180 |08.1|250m
|04600|05895|01295|08:37|03:19.6| 18.6 | 141 | 179 |08.1|cooling down
Summary:
dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment
0808_____|_04:58____|_3:04.4|141|19.0|8.6|warmup
1496_____|_05:35____|_1:52.0|172|31.7|8.5|Main set
1295_____|_08:37____|_3:19.6|141|18.6|8.1|Cool down
2297_____|_14:21____|_3:07.5|145|18.5|8.7|rest meters
5895____|_33:31____|_2:50.6|148|20.3|8.6|_Total
Rowed the cooling down in victory mood. This has been a very useful, educational session. I knew the lesson but apparently had to live through it today to reinforce it:
- Thou shalt focus on thy technique to go faster. Nothing else.
- In the race, thou shalt not focus on how far the competition is ahead of thee, but thou shalt focus on rowing faster thyself
- Thou shalt give thyself something to focus on, and the lactate bite will hurt less
It’s the reason we have coxes, right? In uncoxed disciplines, there needs to be a voice in your head reminding you of it.
Jul 9 2015
Thursday: Chop = Slow Splits but useful training
5:00 – up and drive to Prague. Covered the 200km in 2 hours roughly. Good. At km 87 a standing truck in the left lane. Managed to switch lane smoothly but if there would have been a car next to me, I would have had to break hard, and you never know if the guy behind you isn’t making a phone call or texting, or sipping a coffee. Not pleasant.
Meetings in Prague. Left around 3pm. Made it to the rowing club at 7pm. Lots of traffic jams. Tired.
Windy. Chop.
The plan: 3x(5×30″)/8min rest. (1) 30″ 34spm / 30″ rest. (2) 30″ 36spm / 45″ rest. (3) 30″ 38spm / 60″ rest.
Here’s the summary. In the remarks column I put what CrewNerd told me, because at these short intervals it differs slightly from the spreadsheet analysis.
| Dist_ | Pace__ | _SPM | avg HR | max HR | DPS | Remarks
| 01969 | 02:57.7 | 19.0 | 144 | 162 | 08.9 | WU
| 00139 | 01:48.0 | 32.9 | 140 | 169 | 08.5 | 34spm #1 (31.9 / 1:48.5)
| 00108 | 02:23.3 | 21.4 | 170 | 172 | 09.8 | rest
| 00134 | 01:44.3 | 33.1 | 173 | 177 | 08.7 | 34 spm #2 (33.9 / 1:43.8)
| 00110 | 02:21.0 | 21.2 | 177 | 179 | 10.0 | rest
| 00130 | 01:51.4 | 32.7 | 176 | 179 | 08.2 | 34spm #3 (33.9 / 1:47.5)
| 00103 | 02:30.2 | 21.4 | 177 | 180 | 09.3 | rest
| 00130 | 01:55.3 | 33.3 | 175 | 179 | 07.8 | 34spm #4 (33.9 / 1:50.7)
| 00102 | 02:31.8 | 21.3 | 176 | 179 | 09.3 | rest
| 00127 | 01:54.3 | 32.2 | 175 | 178 | 08.1 | 34spm #5 (32.0 / 1:52.9)
| 01363 | 02:56.1 | 18.9 | 144 | 178 | 09.0 | rest 8min
| 00133 | 01:52.9 | 33.7 | 165 | 175 | 07.9 | 36spm #1 (33.9 / 1:52.1)
| 00151 | 02:32.3 | 22.2 | 174 | 178 | 08.9 | rest
| 00126 | 01:54.9 | 34.4 | 175 | 181 | 07.6 | 36spm #2 (33.9 / 1:53.2)
| 00126 | 03:02.1 | 20.7 | 177 | 181 | 08.0 | rest
| 00129 | 01:56.7 | 34.4 | 177 | 180 | 07.5 | 36spm #3 (33.9 / 1:56.4)
| 00134 | 02:47.4 | 20.5 | 177 | 181 | 08.8 | rest
| 00133 | 01:52.5 | 34.7 | 176 | 180 | 07.7 | 36spm #4 (35.9 / 1:52.3)
| 00122 | 03:09.2 | 19.1 | 177 | 182 | 08.3 | rest
| 00125 | 01:55.7 | 35.0 | 176 | 180 | 07.4 | 36spm #5 (33.9 / 1:58.9)
| 01301 | 03:04.0 | 19.4 | 150 | 181 | 08.4 | 8 min rest
| 00149 | 01:44.3 | 35.5 | 169 | 176 | 08.1 | 38spm #1 (35.9 / 1:43.1)
| 00203 | 02:27.5 | 22.0 | 174 | 177 | 09.2 | rest
| 00137 | 01:49.4 | 35.3 | 175 | 179 | 07.8 | 38spm #2 (35.9 / 1:49.4)
| 00185 | 02:42.4 | 20.5 | 174 | 180 | 09.0 | rest
| 00137 | 01:49.8 | 35.3 | 174 | 179 | 07.7 | 38spm #3 (35.9 /1:49.0)
| 00178 | 02:48.1 | 20.3 | 174 | 179 | 08.8 | rest
| 00124 | 02:01.3 | 34.5 | 172 | 178 | 07.2 | 38spm #4 ( (35.9 / 1:49.8)
| 00181 | 02:48.4 | 19.6 | 173 | 179 | 09.1 | rest
| 00131 | 01:50.3 | 36.7 | 173 | 179 | 07.4 | 38spm #5 (37.9 / 1:49.0)
| 00907 | 03:41.7 | 19.4 | 148 | 179 | 07.0 | CD
First set of 5×30″ was done with tailwind and increasing chop. Second set of 5×30″ in headwind and decreasing chop. Final set in tailwind and increasing chop.
What do I mean by that?
The north end of the lake was wind from the north and medium chop. The south end was wind from the same direction, but heavy chop. So in the first set, as the intervals progressed I entered more difficult water to row. I turned with about 2 minutes rest to go, and started doing the 36spm intervals into headwind. Last set was again rowed with tailwind.
Chop doesn’t speed you up. It was good exercise though to row in the rough at high rates. I imagined an end sprint situation at next week’s Masters Nationals, where there can be the same difficult conditions.
Related to my post of yesterday, I have been thinking a bit about effects which could explain why a “pull on the recovery” combined with a prominent and fast catch help the boat speeds. One hypothesis is about drag and boundary layers, combined with the rocking or tilting of the boat … which also could explain slowing down in choppy conditions, as I saw waves going over the deck regularly. Just a hypothesis for now. Perhaps the slowing down in choppy conditions is just due to balance and precision difficulties …
Jul 20 2015
Friday: Travel to Třeboň and quick row
I am late with my race report on the Czech Masters Open. Apologies for that. I spent the weekend offline, racing, interacting the people there and enjoying the atmosphere. Back in the office, there is a lot going on and I need to prioritize between getting my job done, my family, my training and the blog writing. The online audience just had to wait. But don’t worry. There will be a race report. I plan to write it in three parts: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The Czech Masters Open is the Czech National Championship for Masters rowers. It is interesting for our neigbor countries as well because Masters rowing in Czech is big, especially relative to the size of the country. Eight boats in the Masters Women’s Eight. Twenty entries in the Men’s Masters Quad. It’s nothing compared to Masters Worlds or Euromasters, but still big in the region. Also, the race is held on the lovely Albano race course on the lake Svet, which is a 10 minute walk from the very lovely small town Třeboň:
Much more interesting than the sterile 2k course in Račice:
No historical brewery there. A chemical factory and a communist 1970s factory town, yes, but no historical center with a castle or a brewery.
Perhaps more FISA compliant, but Not Good for Masters Rowers. So the atmosphere and the large Masters Rowers community were enough to attract a few foreign participants from Germany, France, Austria, and … Australia!
So on Friday Romana and I did the 2.5 hour drive to Třeboň, checked in to the hotel, waited for the trailer to arrive, and I rigged the single.
Then I did a leisurely 6km row, with a few test starts and 10 stroke intervals at race pace.
Followed a dinner with the ladies that Romana rows with, and then to bed early.
Saturday morning: the Men Masters C 1x Singles!!!!
Some pictures from Friday:
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: 1000m, 1km, Czech National Championships, race