February 2017

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Feb 11 2017

Running along the lake

I won’t go ice skating or XC running on our lake any more. The ice thickness is 50cm (20 inches), but the lake water level has been lowered by a meter. With thinner ice, this usually leads to cracks around the edges, but we were warned that this time there is a huge air bubble under the ice layer. Nobody knows if and when it is going to crack.

I was thinking about that during the run. There must be material strength tables for ice, so in theory we could calculate the load leading to breaking.

The girls had a workout similar to what I did yesterday (short intervals), except that the intervals were 40 seconds instead of 60 seconds, but there were more of them. I checked our trainer’s training program for the Juniors, and noted that the Masters plan is a shortened, lighter version of the men’s Juniors. I might do some of the Juniors trainings instead of the Masters ones, if I feel my training load is too light.

The ergs were occupied by the 10 to 14 year old Boys (including my two sons of 10 and 12), so the girls did the warming up running with me. I sent them back to the rowing club after 10 minutes of running, and continued myself.

We chose the south/west side of the lake, running on paved roads, because these are the only ones free of ice and snow. As the snow has partially melted and then frozen again, it is not really suitable for running. Most of the forest trails have turned into bobsled tracks.

After importing the data to Strava, I noticed a very low average heart rate, and some strange jumps in the heart rate data.

Is it perhaps time to replace the batteries in the Wahoo Ticks? Talking about battery replacement, I have replaced the two “D cell” batteries in my PM5 today, for the first time since I installed the PM5. The PM started to complain that the batteries were low.

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Feb 10 2017

Minute long intervals

The training plan had running, but I decided to do Saturday’s workout today and keep my running to Saturdays.

Warming up 3km

3x(4x1min/1min), 6 minute break between sets, stroke rate in the intervals 28-30spm

Cooling Down, 25 minutes of stretching

Warming Up

The main workout:

Stats:


Workout Summary - media/20170210-1655220o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07986|35:00.0|02:11.5|205.6|24.9|158.4|179.0|09.2
W-|03517|12:00.0|01:42.4|327.6|29.7|164.2|178.0|09.9
R-|04483|23:00.0|02:33.9|113.2|21.2|154.1|178.0|07.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00298|01:00.0|01:40.8|322.4|29.1|148.2|169.0|10.2
01|00293|01:00.0|01:42.4|323.7|29.7|167.9|176.0|09.9
02|00295|01:00.0|01:41.6|328.4|30.0|167.5|177.0|09.8
03|00299|01:00.0|01:40.3|346.9|30.3|170.2|178.0|09.9
04|00297|01:00.0|01:41.1|338.7|29.9|161.9|175.0|09.9
05|00299|01:00.0|01:40.5|342.8|30.7|162.6|176.0|09.7
06|00297|01:00.0|01:41.2|338.4|30.4|168.1|177.0|09.8
07|00292|01:00.0|01:42.6|321.7|29.4|165.8|176.0|09.9
08|00290|01:00.0|01:43.5|319.7|28.6|156.9|172.0|10.1
09|00287|01:00.0|01:44.7|317.2|28.9|166.1|175.0|09.9
10|00282|01:00.0|01:46.5|306.7|29.4|164.9|176.0|09.6
11|00290|01:00.0|01:43.5|324.6|30.6|169.8|178.0|09.5

Pie charts:

I rowed it as a “just row” which was good, because in the second set, I forgot to start the second interval. My thoughts carried me away and when I looked at the PM again, I was 30 seconds late, so I decided to start one minute late. Luckily, the interval editor on rowsandall.com allows for that. There were a few other intervals where I started a few seconds late, leading to a worse average. I basically pulled 1:41 or 1:42 pace, occasionally 1:40 or 1:39.

Again, I didn’t really know how to pace this, but the long rest between the sets made this quite irrelevant. The main constraint was the stroke rate. I personally would have rated up a bit, and you can see from the stats that I did hit 30spm most of the time, and rarely went down to 28spm.

After that, I did a 2km cooling down.

As I have two lighter weeks, I stay with this plan, but I will have to diplomatically ask our head coach how he determins this plan’s intensity.

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bokeh_plot (75)

Feb 7 2017

New Zones, New Charts, New Correlations

Today’s session was a new one for me. This week I am following his training program for our Masters rowers, and I am considering to stay on this program if it looks/feels OK.


warming up 2500m
8min @ 22spm / 4min rest (Zones 1/2)
16min / 4min rest. 16 min = 1min @ 26spm, 2min @ 24spm, 3min @22spm, 4min @ 20spm, 3min @ 22spm, 2min @ 24spm, 1min @ 26spm (Zones 2/3)
8min @ 22spm
Cooling down
25' stretching

I wasn’t sure how Adam defines zones, and I forgot to ask the other Masters rowers*. I think it is based on a lactate step test that the guys did in the fall. If that is correct, I can do a similar test at home and plug the numbers into rowsandall.com

Something wrong with the HR and power recording after the 16min interval

I programmed the session as an irregular interval on the PM5, and I am afraid this confused rowsandall.com (or painsled) a bit. I haven’t really tested this mode, so I need to check what is going on. The Power figures definitely look wrong in the second rest interval, as do the HR values. Also the interval editor misbehaves, so no statistics today.

Luckily, the Flex Chart works well, so here are the flex charts:

I have implemented a new feature on Rowsandall.com. A big page with statistics. One feature that I implemented for my own pleasure is a correlation matrix:

This is the correlation matrix for this particular workout. Each cell indicates how strongly the metrics on the two axes correlate. A positive correlation means that if one metric increases, there is a good chance that the other also increases. A negative correlation means the opposite. So you can see that the Average/Peak force ratio decreases as my heart rate increases. Also, a shorter drive length goes together with a higher average/peak force ratio. I also seem to shorten up on the slide a bit when going to higher SPM.

This is just one workout, and I am not 100% convinced of the usefulness of this chart (although I do hope it is). I also implemented functionality where you can look over all workouts over a longer time period. Here are all my erg workouts in January.

It is interesting to look at the strong negative correlation between Peak Force and Average/Peak Force Ratio. Here are two plots of all strokes over the same time period.

I have filtered out any strokes in the first 2km of any workout, to reduce any “warming up” effect. There are two funny things. In the plot on the right, you can see that most of the negative correlation comes form “paddle” strokes.

The other funny thing is the little “island” of strokes in the graph on the right. Looks like some different “mode” of rowing. Comparing that with the graph on the left, where the two parameters are plotted against the stroke rate, you can see that most probably the “island” correspond to a group of strokes between 18 and 20spm.

So I created two more plots:

 

On the left, I filtered out all strokes at lower than 20spm (so the chart shows only strokes of 20spm and higher), and you can see that the island disappeared. The chart on the right shows only strokes at 20spm and lower, and you can see the two islands. The red dots are Power values. You can see that these are not “paddle” strokes, because they were done at around 150W.

Another interesting thing in the left graph is that my peak force stagnates as power increases above 250W.

So if anything, the correlation matrix plots have led me to find some mysterious “flat” stroke that I row at 19spm. I have added the last two plots to my regular flex charts to study after a workout. Interesting!!!!

*Regarding zones, I asked the other Masters rowers, and the definition is as follows:

Zone 1 = 1-2 mmol/L “Steady State”

Zone 2 = 2-3 mmol/L “Steady State”

Zone 3 = 3.5-5 mmol/L “ANP”

Zone 4 = 6-8 mmol/L “Aerobic Capacity”

Zone 5 = 8-15 mmol/L “Anaerobic Power”

Zone 6 = 3-6 mmol/L “Speed”

The table also has individual paces and HR frequencies for each rower. 

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Feb 6 2017

Short Recovery Row

Nothing special to report. The training plan said “40 minutes bike or running” but cycling or running in the dark and on the melting snow is not really what I fancied.

It was clear that I wasn’t going to row really hard or long. I want this to be a light week after the intensive cross-country skiing. Also, I felt that I needed another light day. Tomorrow’s session looks quite “interesting”.


Workout Summary - media/20170206-1915180o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08140|35:37.0|02:11.3|161.3|19.3|142.1|158.0|11.9
W-|07046|30:00.0|02:07.7|167.6|19.4|141.6|158.0|12.1
R-|01097|05:37.0|02:33.7|118.9|18.1|143.7|158.0|11.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03284|14:00.0|02:07.9|166.6|19.3|133.4|148.0|12.1
01|03304|14:00.0|02:07.1|170.2|19.6|150.0|158.0|12.0
02|00458|02:00.0|02:11.0|156.5|19.1|139.7|150.0|12.0

Wanted to do 45 minutes but stopped after 35.

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stravafitness

Feb 5 2017

Using Fitness, Fatigue and Training Load graphs

Over on RowingMusings (read that blog!), a recent post discussed Stravistix, a Chrome plugin to add some stats to Strava. The most interesting add-on is a Fitness & Fatigue graph, based on the TRIMP measure of your training load.

SportTracks and TrainingPeaks also have something similar implemented. The PC version of SportTracks has a plugin that does the same. When you are a Masters rower who trains regularly, it is very helpful to monitor graphs of Fitness, Fatigue, and Training Load.

The principle of these metrics is quite straightforward.

  1. For each session calculate a “Training Impact” Number. This “suffer score” (or Training Stress Score) is one number that indicates how hard the training was. There are various ways to calculate such a number. It is basically a weighted average of training intensity over the time. Various proxies are available for training intensity: Power, Speed, Heart Rate.
  2. From the training impact, calculate “Chronical Training Load” (CTL) and “Acute Training Load” (ATL). Both are usually exponentially weighted average of the Training Impact. The CTL averages over a long period (42 days typicall) while the ATL averages over a short period (7 days)
  3. Calculate the Training Stress Balance (TSB) which is the difference between CTL and ATL. As your CTL represents your Fitness and your ATL represents your Fatigue (the opposite of Freshness), the TSB represents “Form” (Fitness+Freshness).

I think this is a great way to help you monitor overtraining and detect stagnating fitness. But you have to know how to interpret the graphs.

Here are example graphs from my training diary. I keep all my data on Strava, SportTracks (PC) and SportTracks.mobi, so it is easy for me to compare:

Fitness graph in Strava
Fitness graph on sporttracks.mobi
Fitness graph on SportTracks (PC)

I use the standard out-of-the-box values for all parameters used in the calculations. So do these graphs tell the same story? All of them show roughly the past 12 months of training. Somewhere in March 2016, I switched from erg based training to boat training. I tried to peak for races in mid July and early August. Then I took a vacation with low training intensity, which was great for mental recovery from the racing season. In September, I resumed training for a head race in October, and then on to the winter erg training from November onward.

Looking at “Form”, SportTracks (PC) puts my best form (highest TSB) in the middle of my vacation. Sporttracks.mobi (the Performance graph on the right) shows three peaks, and then seems to suggest that I greatly reduced training intensity (and thus form) after the vacation. Strava has a Form peak in May and a peak in the middle of my vacation.

Regarding fitness, the PC version of SportTracks and of Strava come much closer to my gut feeling, but SportTracks.mobi seems to be more in line with my erg scores. The main difference seems to be that the SportTracks.mobi has a much shorter time period to measure CTL. On this site, you get fit faster, but when you reduce the training load, your fitness drops almost immediately. This seems to give a better representation of what happened during my vacation.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle.

The book Training and Racing with a Power Meter gives some good advice about using the Fitness graphs. One of the observations in the book is that athletes show their best performance when TSB turns positive, but not overly, especially for shorter duration events with a larger anaerobic contribution (think 1km sprint racing for Masters rowers).

So while a positive TSB value is an indication of good form, a higher positive value does not necessarily mean better form. All this is quite interesting stuff to think about when you plan your taper for an important race.

In my experience, how I feel is more related to relative changes in the graphs than in the absolute values. For example, today, after one day of full rest after a very intensive week of cross-country skiing, I still feel highly fatigued. My fatigue scores are roughly equal to the values that I had during the entire period of April to July, but I am sure I am more fatigued now and I badly need a “light” week. Looking at the graphs, I see a very steep growth of both CTL and ATL as a result of last week. I expect to fully recover in a few days of rest and light exercise. This doesn’t mean my TSB value will be positive, but it is going in the right direction.

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IMG_1281

Feb 4 2017

A great week in the mountains

That was a great week. Romana organized the cross-country skiing training week in the Jesenik mountains. On Sunday, a bus picked us up in Brno, brought us to Ovčárna and from there we hiked 1.5 km to our mountain hut Barborka:

Just before sunset, we managed our first cross country run.

Here are a few pictures I shot:

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After that, I took a picture of the sun setting and we had a drink at another mountain hut:

On Monday morning, we did a XC ski run to Svycarna:

In the afternoon, we hit the training loops close to our hut:

On Tuesday, the sunny weather was gone. It was snowing hard. We decided to stay close to the hut and hit the training loops again:

After lunch, I ran to Svycarna and back in heavy snowfall:

On Wednesday the weather started to turn good and I took the three most experienced girls on a long tour, to the Cervenohorske Sedlo (“Red Mountain Saddle”, a mountain pass and hotel).

We were lucky. At Svycarna we met the snow groomer and we had freshly groomed trails all the way to the Saddle pass:

In the afternoon, we didn’t do a training, but we hiked back to the bus stop and visited the nearby village. Very nice woodenn mountain architecture:

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On Thursday, the beautiful weather had returned. We decided to ski up Praded mountain. The girls took the elevator to the top floor of the TV tower and enjoyed the view. I did a few more km by skiing to Kamzik and back.

I took many pictures when we climbed up to the TV tower on Praded mountain:

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In the afternoon, we were back on the training loops and did the 5k loop twice. By this time, I was already pretty tired, and my daughter Lenka skated away from me in the second loop and there was nothing I could do. Let’s say I let her win to boost her confidence, but to be honest I am not sure about it.

Actually, all the girls had by now made tremendous progress in their cross-country skiing. Romana taught them some technique, a few different styles, and they were all enjoying themselves.

On Friday morning, I took a very easy run to Svycarna, where we had coffee. On the way back, my son Dominik was getting the hang of the skating technique (on thawing, icy trails), and I did a sort of interval training, running up the hill until I caught up with Radka, the lady who was accompanying us, then going downhill back to Dominik who was struggling but not giving up, turning around, and repeat.

In the afternoon, we organized XC team races. Each team consisted of three athletes, and each of them would run 2 loops of 2km, 4km in total, 12km per team. During the coffee break at Svycarna, we had carefully arranged the teams in such a way that all had a chance to win. Here are the pictures from the race:

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My job was to measure the times. At the end, I did the 4k myself. My time was 15 minutes and 52 seconds.

This morning we packed and hiked back to the road. A two hour coach ride later we were back in Brno. From the sunny mountains to a smoggy Brno, with just the memories of a nice stay in the mountains:

Today: Rest.
Tomorro: Rest & Sauna.

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