Shock Therapy: 6km OTW trial and testing new Rowing In Motion feature

The update of Rowing in Motion (RIM) has a new feature: programmable workouts. I wanted to try it, because I love the stroke analysis of RIM and combined with programmable workouts it would be a great app.

It works a bit different than CrewNerd. In CrewNerd you can access the “workouts” at any time, so you can warm up using “Just Row”, then dial up an interval session with pre-programmed rests (say 8x500m) but you could also just dial up a 500m, row it, rest a bit, then dial another 500m etc. I didn’t discover this feature in RIM, so if it has it, it is well hidden. In RIM, you program the entire workout before you start to row, so I had to program:

10 minutes warming up

5 minutes rest (with some extra reserve time)

6km trial

5 minutes rest

10 minutes cooling down

I never know if my warming up is going to be 9 minutes or 11 minutes. It depends on the wind, on the exact course taken on the lake, and a few other factors. Also, when starting a set, one may want to wait until another crew has moved out of the way, or until the wake of a large boat has disappeared. I’ll send some comments to the RIM forum.

After a week dedicated to work, including a short business trip to Prague, and no training, I was back on the water again. I arrived at the club at 9am, rigged the single, and did the warming up. As I am defending a head race title on October 10, it’s about time to get used to head race pace. I decided to do the same as last year: row 6km trials on Saturdays. In fact, on our lake it is 3km, hard stop and turn, then another 3km.


|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks
|01891|09:58|02:38.1| 19.4 | 145 | 159 |09.8|warming up
|00392|05:00|06:22.2| 19.7 | 151 | 157 |04.0|rest
|01002|04:03|02:01.2| 27.3 | 171 | 178 |09.1|km 1
|01002|04:11|02:05.2| 26.3 | 178 | 179 |09.1|km 2
|00996|04:09|02:05.0| 26.3 | 179 | 183 |09.1|km 3
|01002|04:49|02:24.2| 26.6 | 180 | 183 |07.8|turn & km 4
|01002|04:38|02:18.8| 25.4 | 179 | 181 |08.5|km 5
|00998|04:25|02:12.8| 27.1 | 183 | 184 |08.3|km 6
|00362|04:59|06:53.1| 18.9 | 140 | 183 |03.8|rest
|01945|11:24|02:55.9| 19.0 | 144 | 155 |09.0|cooling down


Summary:

dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment
1891_____|_09:58____|_2:38.1|145|19.4|9.8|warmup
6003_____|_26:15____|_2:11.2|179|26.5|8.6|Main set
1945_____|_11:24____|_2:55.9|144|19.0|9.0|Cool down
0754_____|_09:59____|_6:37.0|146|19.3|3.9|rest meters
10592____|_57:36____|_2:43.1|161|22.0|8.3|_Total


I set off in a tailwind and had no trouble reaching 29spm. Actually, after all the sprinting, that feels like easy and sustainable. After 1.5km I started to think differently about that. By the time I had to turn, after a little over 3km, I was definitely not looking forward to the second half of the course, to be done in headwind. I somehow survived km 4 and 5 and then counted the strokes in the 6th kilometer.

RIM behaves interestingly. During the row, it overlays the workout data (remaining meters, target stroke rate and time) in the top left corner of the display, over whatever you have programmed to be shown there (pace, in my case). The rest of the display is unchanged, so you can see total meters, and all the other parameters you have decided to be displayed. I think I prefer the CrewNerd way of doing, which resets the meters rowed for each interval in much the same style as the Concept2 PM3.

Also, I cannot find my time for the 6km set in RIM. It’s not in the app and it’s not on the analytics page. Luckily I am using the Garmin Forerunner as a backup.

I rowed 26:15. How does that compare with a year ago?

Not bad, I must say. And I really had difficulty rowing hard in the fourth and fifth kilometer.

Here’s the RIM analysis. Will be interesting to compare with next week’s session:

After she finished her coaching of the girls, Romana went out with the ladies on the quad. Notice the sailing boat traffic in the background: