Sep 14 2017
Saturday – Bled Masters Worlds B1x
For Friday’s fantastic C 1x race, I wasn’t nervous at all. Saturday morning 9:00 was the scheduled time for my B1x race. Between 2am and 6am I didn’t sleep much. I was constantly replaying Friday’s race. I guess it was a consequence of being so close to winning.
As usual in such situations, I dozed away just before the alarm clock rang. I did a quick breakfast in the hotel, already dressed in race gear, and then cycled to our car. This ride through and around Bled is a perfect warming up. There are a few short climbs, and it has the right duration. Romana rode with me and helped me, so the pre race routine was efficient and calm. I checked my heel straps. I was hydrated. I just felt tired.
Romana snapped a pre-race picture and I rowed up the very beautiful Bled lake. The usual two loops and I arrived just in time for the start. I wasn’t nervous. At this point, I have enough race experience to be calm and focused. But I was tired. I had the feeling that everybody around me was going to be faster than I. Their practice starts and short pieces at race pace looked all really fast.
The weather was colder, and a bit calmer than on Friday. The cross wind was virtually absent. Ideal conditions.
Attention/go. When I checked, about 10 strokes later, I was somewhere in the middle of the field, with the Dutch guy sticking his bow out a bit further. I shortened the high power phase and tried to rate down to a sustainable pace.
Half way, passing the island with the church, was somewhere in the middle of the pack. And that was really the last time I checked. I was in lane 1 and some of the fast guys were over on the far lanes, so I just focused on my rowing and my SpeedCoach. The SpeedCoach was not telling me good news. I was having trouble keeping the power over 300W and Work per Stroke was way under the 600J value that is my target.
As I neared the 250m to go mark I could hear Romana. She was standing on a little balcony-like pontoon right next to lane 1. As you near the finish, the lake suddenly becomes very narrow, and in lane 1 you almost have the feeling that you are going to hit the bank. The little pontoon there is an ideal point to see the rowers from very close and cheer for them in the final 250 meters. I also heard a woman shout “Hop hop hop” and I assumed that was for a competitor.
I focused on a point far behind my stern and just tried to squeeze out my remaining energy, pulling good strokes. I finished fourth, or so I thought. Rowing back to the rowing center, Natasha Kral took this great picture:
Natasha Kral, the wife of Andreas Kral, a friend from the rowing scene in Vienna, has many great pictures of Czech and Austrian rowers on her Facebook page. By the way, my club CVK Brno were the first in the Czech Republic to have the club name on our long sleeved race shirts. Now many clubs are doing it.
At the rowing center, I performed the hardest part of the race, carrying the boat back to the rack. When I returned for my blades, I met Romana who told me I was second, which I didn’t believe. Apparently, I had raced a fantastic race catching up and passing two guys in the final stretch. I was completely unaware of that, but that is maybe better. Here are the official results which confirm my wife’s assessment:
The Dutch guy had rowed a controlled race, but I had beaten the rest of the field. My time was worse than on Friday, but seeing my name on second place immediately made me feel better about the effort.
Here is a comparison between the two races in the single:
It was raining and I was cold. Romana and I rode back to the hotel. There was no more racing for us on Saturday, so we rested, then went to Bled for a coffee and a Kremšnita. Then we spent some time in the boat area getting the single and two pairs ready for transport. I also picked up a Roseman single belonging to a German guy, for taking it to Brno for a repair.
Got a message from Quiske that they finally had their experimental virtual reality system ready, so I had to try it out. Kristina took a few pics of me trying out the future.
I shall be honest. I don’t see the benefit over streaming the images to a normal big screen or external monitor. We rowers are used to taking quick glances. It is nice to see the metrics in front of you but I feel the Virtual Reality glasses cause eye fatigue, are unpleasant when you are sweaty, and currently need too much pre row fiddling with. Streaming the metrics from your rowing app to a big screen does make a lot of sense, though.
The weather got slightly better, so we went to the grandstand to watch some racing.
Zuzka’s water bottle rolled into the lake and her trying to recapture it was an entertaining intermezzo between the races:
She succeeded eventually. No risk of a water bottle causing a racing crew to crab, and the beautiful Bled lake was spared of plastic waste.
Around 4pm, I had finally digested the kremšnita so we headed to Grajska Plaža, a restaurant with a lake view, for an excellent late lunch.
Wr ended the day on the promenade, but this time Romana and I went to bed really early. With the mixed double race and the drive home, Sunday would be a long and tough day.
Just because I just discovered them, I am adding two photos by Natasha Kral, taken back in May at the Piestany races. I won the single there.
Sep 14 2017
Masters Worlds – the last day (WIN)
Sunday. The last day of racing, entirely devoted to the mixed disciplines, and the day to drive home.
It had been raining all night, but when we rode the bike to the car park close to the rowing center, it was relatively dry. Our mixed double was scheduled for 12:33, but Romana was rowing in a mixed C 8+ with our joyful French friends, in the morning.
The same interesting ritual of determining who would row on which side and where to sit, and this time I took pictures of it. I am fascinated by people who, when they see someone taking a picture, snap into ‘funny picture for the internet’ mode, as demonstrated by the cox of the eight.
As expected, the eight was not rowing in the front of the field. As expected, they had a lot of fun. I did a quick inspection of our trailer and took this picture:
Around 10:30, the weather got worse. The light rain turned into rain, and later into heavy rain. Romana and I spent most of the time in the food tent, drinking coffee and eating donuts.
Then, it was time to go. As Romana had already raced, her warming up routine differed from mine, and I really didn’t fancy running in the rain. So I made a change. After changing to race gear and dropping my back at the luggage drop off, I headed to the erg room, upstairs in one of the buildings in the rowing center. I jumped on a RP3 erg and rowed for ten minutes. I had no feedback on how hard I was rowing, but my routine was simply ten minutes row with a few speed bursts in the final five minutes.
I do like the feel of the RP3. Definitely closer to on the water rowing than the static Concept2 erg. I enjoyed going higher rate and having the direct start of the drive, as opposed to the sloppy catch on a static C2. I even slightly started wanting to own such a machine, but I then reminded myself that I was going to put my money on on the water related gear. I also feel that a C2 on slides is a decent alternative, with the added benefit of using a PM which makes resukts comparable with C2 ergs worldwide.
I took a glance at the C2 dynamic in the corner of the gym, but refrained from trying it out for a direct comparison.
I grabbed my umbrella and headed out, into the rain.
Some friends helped carrying our blades, and just before 12:00 we were on the water. It was raining harder. Luckily, our two loops of warming up kept us warm.
We were at the pre start about 15 minutes before our race time and waited. By now it was raining very hard. Martin and Jitka, a Czech Masters mixed double who we race on home races, were waiting in the same lane for the race after ours. Jitka is a professional fitness instructor and she does look like you expect a female fitness instructor to look. Including sun glasses planted on forehead.
Martin turned around, a big smile on his face, and asked me if we had a hairdryer in our boat.
“Jitka’s hair has become wet. We do have sunglasses on board, but no dryer.”
We were all laughing. The joys of mixed rowing.
Not long after that, we removed our soaked upper layer of clothing and tucked it away in the boat, where it would absorb the rain water that we had collected. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait for our race to start, because it was chilly in just a uni and a shirt.
We were on lane 6 and we didn’t know any of the other competitors.
We had a good start. I timed it right, starting the stroke exactly when I saw the starter lowering the flag (which you can spot earlier than hearing the sound of “go”). The second start stroke was not ideal but we were there and gaining speed fast.
In fact, after about 100 meters, we were in front, with only one boat level with us.
With 750 meters to go, Romana’s killer instinct kicked in and she called for a set of power strokes. I rated up slightly (back to 36spm), worried if the pace was sustainable, and we started to pull away slightly from the boat in lane 2 (Abingdon/City of Oxford).
That gave confidence, so with 500m to go it was me who called for another power ten, and this time we were able to break them. I could see it from how they rowed. They were hurting and mentally accepting a second place.
All the while it was raining hard.
They were not far behind with 250 meters to go and we had to continue rowing hard and avoid mistakes in order to win, but passing the 250 sign I was starting to enjoy the row. Somehow our stroke had felt rushed for the entire race and I spent a lot of time worrying if I should rate down to go faster or not, but now I didn’t care any more. Perhaps part of the rushed feeling was due to us being super precise at the catch and our stroke just felt fast and light.
All the while it was raining hard.
Crossed the line first! Yay!
I had heard a comment at the rowing center earlier, from a multi-medalling rower, that mixed races don’t really count, but I disagree with that of course.
We paddled to the medals ceremony dock where we met Míša and Petr, the Czech winners of the preceding race, and while we were waiting for them to get their medals, Jitka and Martin came by winning their heat by a very small margin. So apart from Karel and Vendula, who withdrew because of Karel’s back problems, the entire Czech Masters mixed 2x crowd won at the worlds. Mixed rowing is popular here and taken very seriously, and it showed.
While we were getting our medals, an older lady from our club, Darina, was trying to master her smartphone and take pictures. I have seen the pictures and even commented that Darina is a hidden journalistic talent, but unfortunately I forgot to get the pics off her phone. So for now, this is the picture I have:
Edit
Got the pictures from Darina’s phone.
Having received our medals, we paddled back to the rowing center, carried our boat to the end of the boat area (which was quite a challenge in the mud) and put the boat in slings. Our club members volunteered to prepare the double for transport, which was great because I was shivering by now.
I hurried back to the luggage area, where I received congratulations from our French friends, and then changed into dry clothes.
Then I went to the parkking on top of the hill to get our minivan, which had been parked on this muddy meadow for five days. I did make a mistake there. Instead of driving forward, over the sidewalk, onto the road, I backed up and tried to drive across the muddy field to the official exit of the parking. About half way, I got stuck in the mud and couldn’t move the car any more. I talked to the guy in charge of the parking and he was great. He called a friend with a tractor, which arrived about ten minutes later. Just enough time for me to read the manual and find the towing eye.
I got to the end of a long queue of towing cars.
About two hours later we were seeing our trailer.
The issue was thst the trailers were on an extremely muddy field and the organizers had only one 4×4 and one tractor to tow. So it took about ten minutes per trailer. Some people had their towing car in line but their trailer wasn’t ready, causing more delays. We spent three hours in the queue. At 6pm, we departed to Brno.
We arrived home at 1am, after a long, rainy, but otherwise uneventful drive. I was in bed by 2am.
It was worth it. It was a great regatta. I am proud of my two second places in the single. Not bad for a skinny guy like me. I am extremely happy with the mixed double medal. And I had a great time talking to all the people interested in rowing data. I met s jolly bunch of Frenchmen and got to row the eight. We had very good dinners in the local restaurants and great eveningss at the Bled promenade.
This week
No rowing far. On Monday evening, we unloaded the trailer in the rain. On Tuesday I had to work long, and on Wednesday I left for a two day business trrip. I am typing this blog post on the international train Vienna – Warsaw. Tomorrow, I will start fall training.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: double, OTW, race, romana, rowing, WRMR