January 2017

Image uploaded from iOS

Jan 28 2017

I must be doing something wrong

So the Masters rowers of our club want to go to the Masters Worlds in Bled this year, and I am one of the guys who has been urging everyone to train hard this winter. I even put up a list on the notice board where people are supposed to write their 6k and 2k erg scores (fall, spring and summer values).

Today, there is an erg race in Pardubice, where I was supposed to compete. However, our boys have been sick. They are recovered now, but we decided that it is better I stay at home with them, a day before we go to the mountains.

The instructions of our coach were clear: “Masters compete in Pardubice. Who cannot make it, rows a 2k on Saturday and sends me the score.”

So at the end of the morning I headed down to the basement and started doing the Fletcher warming up for 1:44 pace. I thought I was in shape for a PB attempt. Actually, I had difficulty not going faster than the paces prescribed by Fletcher, at his prescribed rates. Here is the warming up:


Workout Summary - media/20170128-1025200o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|04786|20:09.0|02:06.3|184.3|20.9|160.2|177.0|11.3
W-|04790|20:09.0|02:06.2|179.6|20.6|159.6|177.0|11.7
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|177.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00932|04:00.0|02:08.8|161.1|18.3|140.1|157.0|12.8 "18spm 2:11"
01|00949|04:00.0|02:06.4|173.3|19.3|159.2|164.0|12.3 "20spm 2:07"
02|00724|03:00.0|02:04.3|181.7|21.0|162.9|166.0|11.5 "22spm 2:05"
03|00248|01:00.0|02:01.2|196.2|23.0|165.5|168.0|10.8 "24spm 2:03"
04|00136|00:30.0|01:50.5|257.3|26.8|168.1|172.0|10.1 "26-28spm 1:52"
05|00467|02:00.0|02:08.6|167.9|19.9|167.9|173.0|11.7 "18spm 2:11"
06|00211|00:45.0|01:46.6|285.4|28.4|171.0|177.0|09.9 "28-30spm 1:47"
07|00523|02:15.0|02:09.0|165.3|20.0|169.0|177.0|11.6 "18spm 2:11"
08|00147|00:30.0|01:41.9|330.6|31.3|171.0|177.0|09.4 "30-34spm 1:41"
09|00454|02:09.2|02:22.3|151.2|20.1|162.9|177.0|10.5 "18spm 2:11"

In the last interval, my son came down to ask me something, so I stopped and answered.

And here are the metrics charts:

Then I did some stretching and set up the PM for a 2000m. Here are the stats:


Workout Summary - media/20170128-1025190o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02000|07:08.0|01:47.0|285.6|29.9|179.8|184.0|09.4
W-|02000|07:08.0|01:47.1|284.9|29.9|179.9|184.0|09.4
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|184.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00250|00:50.5|01:41.1|322.8|31.2|164.8|178.0|09.5 - start and first 10
01|00250|00:52.3|01:44.6|306.1|30.4|180.5|183.0|09.4 - settle for 1:45 pace
02|00250|00:52.5|01:45.0|302.0|30.1|183.3|184.0|09.5 - keep 1:45
03|00250|00:52.7|01:45.4|299.6|30.2|183.6|184.0|09.4 - keep 1:45
04|00250|00:52.9|01:45.7|297.8|30.5|183.6|184.0|09.3 - power 10??
05|00250|00:55.2|01:50.3|262.3|29.2|182.3|183.0|09.3 - crisis 1
06|00250|00:54.7|01:49.4|266.7|29.6|181.1|182.0|09.3 - trying to save it
07|00250|00:57.7|01:55.5|230.6|28.5|179.5|181.0|09.1 - crisis 2

The story is simple. I set off at 1:44 pace. In the second 500m I retreated to 1:45 pace, seeing the occasional stroke at 1:46. At 1000m to go I did a power 10, hoping that would give me motivation to get through the dreaded third 500m. After the “power 10” I had difficulty finding the 1:45 pace again. Actually, pace slipped to 1:48 and I wasn’t able to react.

With 500m to go I told myself that all is not lost and with a strong final 500m I could at least set a decent time.

No way.

I sped up slightly, but that only brought me back to a terrible 1:48 pace. Then I let the pace slip back to 1:50 and worse …

Here are the metrics charts:

After the row, I sent the score to the coach.

I guess I will not be going to Bled, unless I drastically improve something.

The problem is that I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I need to look at my training load of November and December, and compare it to the 2015/16 season. I need to find what I am doing wrong. There must be something.

By • Uncategorized • 5 • Tags: , , , , ,

sev_pohl

Jan 27 2017

Taper for 2k

Today I did a Taper training as prescribed by our coach.

  • 3km Warming Up
  • 6 times 15 hard strokes, rest 2 to 3 minutes
  • Start+250m at 2k pace
  • Cooling Down

I wasn’t sure if the 15 hard strokes were to be done at a high stroke rate or a low stroke rate.


Workout Summary - media/20170127-1710200o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08353|36:55.0|02:12.6|190.1|22.9|145.9|172.0|09.9
W-|08353|36:55.0|02:12.6|188.9|22.9|145.9|172.0|09.9
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|172.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07000|31:15.9|02:14.0|189.4|22.8|144.7|172.0|09.8
01|00250|00:51.4|01:42.7|319.3|29.2|148.8|167.0|10.0
02|01103|04:48.0|02:10.5|162.4|21.9|153.1|168.0|10.5

One thing that I am thinking about a lot is increasing power by stroke rate, rather than by increasing the drive force. I see that in my “power” intervals, I go substantially higher in “Work per Stroke”, which means that I increase the average drive force. A risk of doing that is that your muscle fatigue sets in earlier than aerobic fatigue (if that is a valid term). For tomorrow’s 2k, I want to rate high from the beginning (above 30spm) but keep the power checked at 1:44 pace, at least in the first 1500m.

Here are the charts that show what I am doing:

And here are the Pies:

So a 2k tomorrow, and then packing and on Sunday we’ll go to the mountains for a week of cross-country skiing:

Conditions look great: http://www.jeseniky.net/pocasi-snih#upravene-bezkarske-trasy

By • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: , , , , , ,

IMG_1270

Jan 26 2017

2k test workout

The official plan had a 2x750m at 2k pace, but I wanted to do a bit more and still get a feel for my 2k fitness.

On row2k, I found this workout, also described here, and I was intrigued. The only issue is that the two descriptions weren’t identical.

On the Concept2 Forum, it is described as:

WEIS

Set your erg for 40 minutes

4×30 seconds on , 30 seconds off at 98%

5 minutes on. 1 minute off at 88%

10×20 seconds on , 10 seconds off at 94%

10 minutes on at 86%

10×20 seconds on , 10 seconds off at 94%

5 minutes on ,1 minute off at 88%

4×30 seconds on,30 seconds off at 98%

The percentages are percentages of pace, and the example given is that a 98% of a 1:46 split is 1:48 split.

On row2k, it is described as:

-4 x 30″ on, 30″ off at two splits faster than your 2k split

-1 x 5′ on, 1′ off at three splits slower than your 5k split

-10 x 20″ on, 10″ off at two splits slower than your 2k split

-1 x 10′ at six splits slower than your 5k split (no rest between this and the next set)

-10 x 20″ on, 10″ off at two splits slower than your 2k split

-1 x 5′ on, 1′ off at three splits slower than your 5k split

-4 x 30″ on, 30″ off at two splits faster than your 2k split

I translated the Concept2 prescription to Watts and, based on a 2k split of 1:44, I arrived at the following:

  • 4×30″ on 30″ off at 293W (1:46 split)
  • 5’/1′ at 212W (1:58 split)
  • 10×20″/10″ at 258W (1:50 split)
  • 10′ at 198W (2:01 split)
  • 10×20″/10″ at 258W (1:50 split)
  • 5’/1′ at 212W (1:58 split)
  • 4×30″ on 30″ off at 293W (1:46 split)

I found this quite OK to do, but when I wrote down the splits I didn’t know about the row2k description, which is much faster. Not sure if I did it right or wrong now and what it means for my 2k pace. I prepared a cheat sheet and did the workout.

Here are the charts:

The Seismogram

Here are the Pie Charts. I think the Power Pie chart is a colorful beauty:

And the flex charts:

Unfortunately, there were too many intervals and they were too short for the interval editor to do its work well, so I couldn’t filter out the “rest” strokes. Well, at 20″ on, 10″ off, the rest strokes are not plenty.

Well, I guess I will do my 2k attempt at 1:44 pace … I should have listened to our coach and done the 2x750m.

Still, this was a fun workout to do. But I am afraid that at the paces described by row2k, it is a much harder one.

Update

I upgraded the interval parser, so now I could edit the intervals:


Workout Summary - media/20170126-1930210o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09874|40:00.0|02:01.6|210.1|24.4|168.8|177.0|10.1
W-|07972|30:40.0|01:55.4|226.7|25.1|169.1|177.0|10.4
R-|01933|09:20.0|02:25.1|136.3|21.2|167.4|177.0|09.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00146|00:30.0|01:42.9|277.9|27.6|134.3|152.0|10.6
01|00142|00:30.0|01:45.4|291.1|27.8|158.4|165.0|10.2
02|00143|00:30.0|01:44.8|294.3|28.1|164.0|170.0|10.2
03|00143|00:30.0|01:45.2|300.2|28.4|165.1|170.0|10.0
04|01281|05:00.0|01:57.1|218.0|23.8|167.6|171.0|10.7
05|00091|00:20.0|01:49.5|253.5|26.1|152.6|158.0|10.5
06|00090|00:20.0|01:51.6|247.7|26.4|159.2|162.0|10.2
07|00090|00:20.0|01:50.9|254.9|27.4|165.4|168.0|09.9
08|00090|00:20.0|01:51.3|253.9|27.1|167.8|169.0|09.9
09|00089|00:20.0|01:52.6|233.4|26.8|169.6|170.0|09.9
10|00090|00:20.0|01:51.2|246.6|27.1|170.6|172.0|09.9
11|00089|00:20.0|01:52.3|244.9|27.7|169.9|171.0|09.7
12|00089|00:20.0|01:52.4|234.9|26.4|170.8|172.0|10.1
13|00090|00:20.0|01:50.9|251.2|27.6|170.4|171.0|09.8
14|00090|00:20.0|01:51.7|250.7|27.6|172.7|173.0|09.7
15|02481|10:00.0|02:00.9|197.5|23.2|168.6|172.0|10.7
16|00091|00:20.0|01:49.6|256.9|26.5|173.0|176.0|10.3
17|00089|00:20.0|01:52.6|247.0|27.3|173.8|175.0|09.8
18|00088|00:20.0|01:53.4|231.4|27.0|173.7|175.0|09.8
19|00088|00:20.0|01:53.8|231.8|26.8|171.3|172.0|09.8
20|00089|00:20.0|01:52.4|238.7|27.9|171.4|173.0|09.6
21|00089|00:20.0|01:51.8|247.0|28.0|173.2|175.0|09.6
22|00089|00:20.0|01:51.8|243.1|27.8|173.4|174.0|09.7
23|00089|00:20.0|01:52.5|239.2|27.7|174.3|176.0|09.6
24|00088|00:20.0|01:53.9|230.1|27.3|174.1|175.0|09.6
25|00089|00:20.0|01:52.3|240.4|27.9|174.8|176.0|09.6
26|01272|05:00.0|01:57.9|213.1|24.4|174.9|177.0|10.4
27|00144|00:30.0|01:44.2|304.2|28.8|166.0|173.0|10.0
28|00143|00:30.0|01:44.9|297.4|28.6|171.2|175.0|10.0
29|00144|00:30.0|01:43.9|302.3|29.1|173.5|177.0|09.9
30|00146|00:30.0|01:42.5|327.6|31.2|173.5|176.0|09.4

By • Uncategorized • 2

myimage (17)

Jan 25 2017

Taper for no race

I am following the official training plan of the Masters group of our club now. It’s a watered down version of what the Juniors are doing. We’re tapering for an erg regatta coming Saturday.

Unfortunately, I probably won’t be able to travel to Pardubice. We have a couple of sick kids in the family. Gotta stay at home and do the 2k on my own rower. Oh well.

Today was 2k warming up, followed by 2×15 minutes at 19 and 21spm. A luxurious 4 minutes of rest.


Workout Summary - media/20170125-1943230o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08056|38:00.0|02:21.5|184.2|20.3|151.8|168.0|10.4
W-|07373|30:00.0|02:02.1|191.1|20.4|154.1|168.0|12.1
R-|00685|08:00.0|05:50.2|138.8|20.2|144.8|168.0|00.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03639|15:00.0|02:03.6|182.2|19.4|147.7|157.0|12.5
01|03733|15:00.0|02:00.5|199.9|21.4|160.5|168.0|11.7

Something cool about the Power Pie Chart (at least in my opinion). On Rowsandall.com, I have made the Power Zones more flexible. You can now name them as you want and change the zone boundaries to your liking. So I named the lowest zone “Rest”.

By • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,

Double-Pole

Jan 22 2017

Out on the lake again

On skis.

We slept in late after a very good “Olympians Ball” in Hotel International. We had great fun at the ball. As usual, rowers were the largest and loudest contingent, arriving first, eating the most, and leaving the dance floor last. In bed around 3am.

The weather was sunny again. Beautiful winter weather, so there was no way I was going to do an erg workout. Romana and I headed down to the lake. Today we would go on skis. The 2km skating lap is too crowded on Sundays to be going at my speed skate training speed safely.

How crowded it was can be seen from this photo. We rowers are lucky to have our own parking on the club, behind a gate.

Many people risking a parking fine to go skating

There was quite a strong south wind blowing, so on the way from the rowing club to Rokle we perfected our double poling technique. Sort of like doing a workout on the Concept2 SkiErg. That got us nicely warmed up.

At Rokle we turned around and ski skated the 3km to Sirka, the south end of the lake.

See the similarity with the rowing stroke?

Turning around and 3km of double poling all the way back to Rokle. Double poling is really difficult to do well, but at some points I got the hang of it and was going as fast as the people who ski skated. It’s also a great workout for your shoulders.

Arriving at Rokle, I was so tired from the double poling that I just did a slow classic skate back to the rowing club.

I am giving myself some slack from the training program, just doing what I like and what time allows me. Still, I am going to plan the coming week. I want to fit in speed skating and cross country, because the weather is still looking great and freezing. I sport for fun and being outdoors is a big part of it.

At the same time, I am doing a 2k race on the erg, coming Saturday, so I need to prepare somehow. I was thinking of doing a 1500m at race pace to check that I am where I think I am. I think I am around 7 minutes pace and unless the 1500m tells me otherwise, that’s how I am going to row the 2k.

So for planning the coming week, I have clear requirements and constraints which will make the planning easily.

After that, I will spend a full week in the mountains. Basically 2 cross country ski workouts per day. Lots of volume.

After that, it is either going to be back to my own training plan, or I may jump to our club’s official training plan for the Masters rowers. Our head coach writes this training plan. It is basically a watered down version of what he prescribes for the juniors, at paces derived from your 2k pace. There is a bit too much weight lifting for my taste, but I could fine tune that. The good thing is: NEW WORKOUTS, (and quite challenging ones at that), and doing the same workouts as the local Masters group.

The downside is losing the ability to plan and play with my own plan.

But maybe I can find some compromise.

And, maybe, I am just impatient. Looking at my training load in SportTracks, I am returning from a high load phase where I accumulated a lot of fatigue. Perhaps another free wheeling week and I will be back on track again.

By • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: ,

bc71b394-62bd-4634-951e-e36a46df9df3_1316_608_fit

Jan 21 2017

How I set a Course Record

Thursday and Friday – business travel to Toulouse. I did hotel room workouts. Nothing to report.

While I was in France, a great thing happened on our lake. Two local business decided to join forces and prepare a skating oval on the lake. Here is the video:

 

AKTUÁLNĚ 20.1.: NOVÝ 2KM OKRUH PRO BRUSLAŘE NA PRÝGLU 👍

⛸ Bruslaři na přehradě využívají asi 2 km dlouhý okruh přibližně oválného tvaru, který v těchto dnech pomocí fréz a kartáčů budují pracovníci firmy AVE CZ (techniku zdarma zapůjčuje Garden studio). Okruh začíná přibližně před hrází a táhne se směrem k Sokoláku. Přístup je možný buď z bystrckého přístaviště nebo z Kozí horky.

🎿 Dobré podmínky nadále panují i pro běžkaře. Sníh je přemrzlý a velmi rychlý. Některé stopy jsou ledové, některé ale velmi kvalitní. Výborně si zaběžkujete i na golfovém hřišti Kaskáda (viz minulé video) a na medláneckém letišti.

ℹ️️ Podle dnešního měření má led u přístaviště tloušťku již 29 cm (přičemž za “přijatelně bezpečnou” se považuje již 12 cm). Stále však platí výstraha na nebezpečný led se vzduchovými kapsami v oblasti Sokoláku, Osady, Rokle a dále směrem k Bítýšce a městská policie sem radí nevstupovat. Stejně jako příliš daleko od břehu i v široké části přehrady. Včerejší utonutí bruslaře na Vranovské přehradě je jistě silnou výstrahou ostatním před nerespektováním těchto doporučení.

➡️ DALŠÍ INFO průběžně na fb.com/prygl.

Díky za vlastní zkušenosti v komentářích.

Posted by Brněnská přehrada a okolí on Friday, January 20, 2017

A “2km” (actually more like 1700m) “oval” on my own rowing lake! Heaven! So I packed my skates and headed to the lake.

I forgot the Garmin Forerunner in my travel bag, so I had to record the workout using Strava on the phone. Unfortunately, my iPhone hates cold weather. It goes from 80% to 20% in 15 minutes, and then says “bye bye”. When I plug it in to charge afterwards, it wakes up with a 60% full battery. This makes the phone totally unusable for winter sports.

Anyway, here are the first 20 minutes on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/839084453

It turns out that someone has defined the skating loop as a “segment” on Strava and I turn out to be the Course Record holder from that first warming up round. I did a few of the subsequent rounds faster, but who cares. A course record is a course record! 😀

The skating itself was quite slow. There were lots of people on the ice, enjoying the nice weather. Here is a video from last week:

Zimní sezóna na Prýglu

❄️ PRÝGL ZAŽÍVÁ PARÁDNÍ ZIMU! ❤️

Využijte zamrzlé přehrady a výborných sněhových sněhových podmínek k zimním radovánkám.

Informace o stavu ledu a sněhu v předchozích příspěvcích na Brněnská přehrada a okolí.

Posted by Brněnská přehrada a okolí on Tuesday, January 10, 2017

The ice was also pretty bad. Lots of cracks and a few places with very rough, uneven ice, basically you couldn’t skate there. So I sped up whenever there was some empty space in front of me, but I had to put on the breaks quite a lot.

In the second hour, I met many friends, so it was more standing and chatting than skating. At some point I got cold, so I headed back to the rowing club.

I think it was a good Steady State effort.

By the way, the cover picture is from another year. This year, there is much more snow, as you can see from the videos.

By • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: , ,

myimage (16)

Jan 18 2017

So – and what now?

On Monday I took a rest day. Something told me I should be rowing, but I didn’t. I was tired after the skiing exercise of the weekend, and in the evening I was struggling with a nasty software bug that prevented a user of rowsandall.com to import ErgData interval workouts from the Concept2 logbook and then export them to SportTracks.

It took a while to figure out the culprit, because it was an exotic bug, which only occured at some interval workouts, and only when recorded with ErgData, and only when imported through the Concept2 logbook, and only when exporting them to SportTracks. And when I had isolated the data path that led to failure, I had to follow it, line by line through the code, and compare with the working paths. In the end I found it, but I spent some time on Monday evening doing that.

On Tuesday I just had a very long day. I am on a business trip from today to the end of the week, so my regular work gets compressed in two days. On top of that, the trip preparation has to be done in those two days as well. And it’s the time of the year when we finalize performance assessments and compensation planning for our employees. That is a very important task. And not an easy one. So on Tuesday evening I arrived late from work and spent the rest of the evening with my family, rather than isolating myself in my rowing basement.

So, the idea was that after two rest days it would be a good idea to do a 5k test before heading to the airport.

I set off at my target pace of 1:51 (my PB being 1:50) and just tried to hold it, rating up and lightening up the strokes rather than increasing the drive force.

After about 5 minutes I knew I was going to blow this 5k attempt.

So I came up with a plan B. I would row a 4x(6min+9min)/4min workout that Greg Smith had rowed yesterday, with the 6min part of the 15 minutes interval at 5k pace and the 9min part at “Marathon pace”. I would finish the 5k like that, and then set up the proper 15 minute intervals on the PM. So here is the plot for the 5k row.

And here are the esoteric plots, including a new one looking at drive rhythm.

After that, I set up the 15 minutes, wondering if I had time to do all three remaining intervals plus a cooling down before I would have to go to the airport.

I didn’t have to worry. After a few minutes, I just dropped the handle, very unhappy with myself. I rowed out the rest of the interval as a cooling down and stopped.

Very unhappy with that. Normally, around this time of the winter, I am in PB form for longer erg rows. Not now.

Not sure how to continue. Reduce the volume? Reduce the intensity? Throw out all the test rows and just train? Give up Cross Team Challenge participation and other stuff that is fun but sometimes interferes with the training plan?

For the rest of the week, I will be out in France, on a business trip. Next week, I will have to train somehow. The week after that I am going to be in the mountains to do cross country skiing with a large group of rowers. Perhaps I will find my mojo there.

But right now, I find it hard to motivate myself to do workouts at all. And I find that really disappointing.

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