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Training diary and random remarks around my rowing
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  • 9D410D3D-259C-4B0C-B926-7281B4F1677A

    Rowing, Running

  • 3ACDF881-7D03-430F-9D44-EB322441090D

    November, December and year overview

  • WhatsApp Image 2020-11-15 at 14.52.07

    Since August

  • IMG_0124

    Since May 3

  • Screenshot_2020-05-02_15-41-58

    Rowing out of Lockdown

  • bokeh_plot (13)

    Launching stuff

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    Maiden Voyage in a Socially Distant World

9D410D3D-259C-4B0C-B926-7281B4F1677A

Jan 10 2021

Rowing, Running

Thursday, January 7th

A fierce 4×10 minutes at 1 minute rest. We started with a 10 minute warming up, then did four sets of 10 minutes at “hard steady state” pace.


Workout Summary - media/f655a97132-20210107-103134o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10901|00:56:13.3|02:34.7|164.8|21.4|168.3|177.0|09.0
W-|08585|00:39:58.6|02:19.7|191.1|23.0|171.7|177.0|09.4
R-|02320|00:16:15.0|03:30.1|100.0|17.7|159.9|177.0|08.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02124|09:52.4|02:19.5|190.5|22.3|166.1|173.0|09.7
02|02151|10:03.3|02:20.2|190.6|22.3|171.4|177.0|09.6
03|02134|09:58.0|02:20.1|188.5|23.2|173.1|176.0|09.2
04|02175|10:04.9|02:19.0|194.6|24.0|176.0|176.0|09.0

This was a cold Thursday morning, and my hands were cold even when I came off the water. The advantage of rowing in the morning was that we were sculling on a mirror. I was pretty happy technique wise.

I had not charged my heart rate sensor, so the heart rate got stuck at a high level somewhere in the third interval. Happy with the power levels I sustained. This was at about my predicted level for 40 minutes, but I found it very doable. Perhaps it was the nice flat water.

Friday

I had a window between my morning meetings and the afternoon meetings, so I guarded it and was able to get out on the water. Did a steady state of 13.5km.

Saturday

Minimum temperatures below zero and it was around 0 by the time I wanted to go rowing. I decided to do a run instead. I found it a little too cold. It’s going to warm up next week, so a weekend with no rowing is not a bad thing.

This was a 10k run from home. I wanted to get to trails as fast as possible, then do a loop around the east part of the town and return over Gronausestraat, but somehow I missed a turn and ended up in town again, so I had to prolong my loop through the center. As we’re in a lockdown, that wasn’t too bad. Run through empty shopping street with closed shops. The part through the farm fields was nice, but the trails were not soft. I like soft trails, they are better for my knees.

 

In the afternoon, Romana and I walked through the neighborhood where we will move to in February. We’re very excited to finally be in a house of our own again.

This part of Enschede, Roombeek, was destroyed when a fireworks bunker caught fire and exploded in 2000.

The area was subsequently built up completely new, and the mix of larger and smaller houses, small business and studios for creative jobs is pretty nice.

Sunday

Two “sessions”. The first was a nice trail run at Buurser Zand, along the Buurse beek brook. It’s a slow run because the grassy trail is very uneven, but it’s a nice hour in nature.

I usually run this loop in the opposite direction, but I think it’s better in the direction I did today. It starts with a few straight, longer stretches on bike paths and hard roads, then a long stretch along the water, and by the time you get tired, you return through forest and heath, quickly changing views which make time seem to pass faster. Here’s a picture of the stretch along the water:

Yep, that’s uneven and muddy. Not for fast running, but a good steady state workout.

In the afternoon, the sun came out and I decided my son needed some photons and some fresh air. The lockdown and online schooling has made them very lethargic.

That was a easy bike ride, but it still made me sweat lightly, so I guess that’s some work done. If you look closely, you can see that we crossed the border into Germany. We didn’t kiss or hug anyone there, just road through it over back roads. I guess that’s ok.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0

3ACDF881-7D03-430F-9D44-EB322441090D

Jan 5 2021

November, December and year overview

Year Overview

Did anyone have a normal training year this year?

Of course not, but allow me to summarize what was different for me:

  • The year started pretty normally, but then we had a global pandemic, featuring being in lockdown during March and April, then easing up, and back in lockdown from November until now
  • With gyms closed, I needed to find alternative ways
  • As a consequence, there was no racing, so I had to reset all my training targets
  • No travel since March, which in principle could have been beneficial for training hours
  • Changed job and moved to another country

So how does this year compare to other years in terms of training. Here’s a screen shot from the Strava/Elevate App data:

The absolute top years were 2016 and 2017. Those also happen to be the years in which I did play a lot with lactate measurements, and I put in pretty long indoor rowing steady state workouts during the winter. It’s actually my goal to get back to that level, as these were also the years in which I won the most races.

Looking at the total number of hours, 2020 was pretty similar to 2018 and 2019. One could say that without travel and without having to commute between work and how, I could have put in more training hours. But I guess these were reduced by having fewer races to prepare for (zero, actually) and the energy I put into starting my new job and moving internationally. Also, in the first half of October, I was in quarantine with my family, so I couldn’t go out to train. Let’s look at the year in detail.

So, on average, I was working out 5 hours a week, but in “good” months, I was doing closer to 6 hours. That means that if I could stick to only “good” months, I would be able to get 50 more hours of training in in 2021. So that should be my target (as well as finally competing in some races again)!

The other things I notice when looking at those charts: I thought I did much more swimming in the beginning of the year, but it is actually just a few sessions in January and February. After June I haven;t done much indoor rowing. I did more cycling over the summer months. I am making good use of the mild winters here, closer to the North Sea, and getting in a large amount of on-the-water rowing instead of erging, which I very much enjoy. My rower is in a storage until February, and unless we get some real winter weather, I have no intention of taking it out of storage.

A final way to look at the year is through the performance chart. The Performance ManagerĀ  is based on scientific literature on modeling human performance. A good description can be found here. You can see that I did a pretty good build up of fitness from January to the end of April. Actually, the second half of the first lockdown, when we were allowed to row OTW in singles again, was pretty good. From that moment on, I had some stress with finishing my old job and onboarding for my new one, moving house internationally, etc, and I am happy with every workout I got in. I completely stopped training when I was quarantined. After that, it has been a gradual build-up, taking a mini break around Christmas, and now looking at how to continue building my fitness. I think the most gains are to be had from making the workouts a little longer, not by adding more training days.

November and December

Much of November and December, I have been on a simple schedule. I start the week with a run, then a weights session, and close it off with one or two OTW sessions during the working week, a long row on Saturday (mostly in the single) and a technique row on Sunday.

 

Date Session Comment
17-11 Run I ran a 10k in Twekkelo
18-11 Hard 10K on the water It was windy, there was wind, I had a conflict with a angler, and a motor boat waked me.
19-11 Weights Session
21-11 Steady State I did 20k! Nice session
22-11 Weights Session
23-11 Lunch Run 12K I tried to do a new “regular” route at Buurser Zand but got lost a little bit
25-11 Weight Training
26-11 4x8min/4min OTW 208W, 2:12 pace, HR 168/180 (avg/max)
28-11 Steady 14km
29-11
30-11 Lunch Run At Buurser Zand, 9k had to cut it short because of time pressure
2-12 Weight Training
3-12 4x8min/4min OTW 197W, 2:16 pace, HR 172/181 – I am getting worse!
4-12 Morning Muddy Mountain Bike Ride 26K, my colleagues were putting me to the test, max HR 186!!!
4-12 Afternoon Slow Steady OTW 9.3K, still tired after the bike ride
6-12 Steady State OTW 10k
8-12 Weight Training
9-12 Steady Run 10.5K, finally did the Buurser Zand round as intended
11-12 A hard 8k OTW 2:22 pace at 23SPM, not very impressive. Strong wind from the east. HR 172/181 (avg/max)
12-12 Steady State OTW 12.5km in the single, low visibility
14-12 Steady Run Second complete Buurser Zand round
16-12 Steady 1x OTW Waked by freight ship, 12k
18-12 Steady 15k in 1x
19-12 Technique in the 2x 10.5K
20-12 Technique drills 8.5K in the 2x
21-12 4x8min/4min OTW in 1x NK Oarlock battery empty, had to stop early due to barge, forgot to wear HR meter
24-12 to 28-12 Various easy hikes Taking a mini break from training
28-12 Steady in the 1x 11.5K
29-12 4x8min/4min On mirror flat water, 210W, 2:15 pace, HR 169/178 (avg/max)
30-12 Steady in the 2x
31-12 17x1min/1min 285W, 2:01 pace, HR 163/180 (avg/max)
2-1 Steady state in the 2x Best row of the month.
3-1 Technique in the 2x Struggle to row well
5-1 Lunch Run Buurser Zand round

They closed the gyms in the middle of December. That made sense from a Corona perspective, but I am missing the weights sessions. The gym I go to was already pretty empty (there was a maximum number of visitors), and I cleaned my hands and the machine before and after every exercise.

Some random photos from my runs and rows:

 

 

By sanderroosendaal • OTW, pictures, Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: 1x, 2x, OTW, rowing, steady state

WhatsApp Image 2020-11-15 at 14.52.07

Nov 15 2020

Since August

Again, it has been too busy, too many changes in life, and blogging about my workouts has not been my priority.

August was a relatively low training time month. I was already working in the Netherlands, but did a few trips back to my family in Brno. Also, it was my first month in a new job. In September, I am pretty happy about the amount of water time that I got. We were allowed to work from the office again, and the Enschede office is a 10 minute bike ride from the rowing club. Also the weather was good, I was living away from my family, and there was enough light in the evening. So, I got in a pretty decent training volume.

At the beginning of October, I drove back to the Czech Republic to pick up Romana and the boys and we are now together again, permanently living in The Netherlands. We were spending the first 10 days in a mandatory quarantine, and we were busy getting everything going for the family. I couldn’t find the motivation to do exercise in our small, temporary appartment, so the training volume you see for October is roughly for the second half. And November isn’t over again, so I hope to get that month up to a decent level, although the shorter days don’t help.

This is an interesting chart of my single sculling from April to today. It plots the Wash value per training day, with the box indicating the spread of the values. The biggest effect you can see is going from lake to flat water canal in August.

Another interesting comparison is my Critical Power curve. Here’s a snapshot using workouts from April to end of June:

And here is a similar snapshot, from August to November:

The green and red lines on both charts are the same. From these data you would conclude that I am pretty similar shape. Well, on May 23, I did a 6k row on the Brno lake. This was a time trial with some other crews from our club. I competed in the 1x. It’s a 3km down, turn, 3km back course. Yesterday, I tried to do a semi hard 3k (alone, with noone chasing me). Here’s the comparison:

Here’s the row in May:


Workout Summary - media/6d77d93f14-20200523-090016o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13712|01:22:35.2|03:00.7|131.2|23.1|143.8|185.0|07.2
W-|05595|00:24:44.4|02:12.6|217.6|27.3|172.9|185.0|08.3
R-|08119|00:57:50.9|03:33.8|094.3|21.3|131.4|185.0|08.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02825|13:10.7|02:19.9|218.4|26.8|169.0|179.0|08.0
02|02770|11:33.7|02:05.2|216.7|27.9|177.4|185.0|08.6

And here’s yesterday’s row:


Workout Summary - media/081ffa4540-20201114-104018o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10432|00:56:39.0|02:42.9|140.7|21.3|157.2|182.0|08.6
W-|03833|00:16:55.9|02:12.5|202.6|24.7|172.9|182.0|09.2
R-|06604|00:39:43.4|03:00.4|114.4|19.9|150.5|182.0|07.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00106|00:29.3|02:18.5|199.0|22.4|151.7|156.0|09.7
02|00099|00:26.8|02:15.6|224.1|24.4|141.4|152.0|09.1
03|03109|13:31.5|02:10.5|207.3|25.3|175.1|182.0|09.1
04|00194|00:55.8|02:23.7|167.0|21.4|169.3|172.0|09.7
05|00326|01:32.5|02:22.0|177.5|22.0|171.6|174.0|09.6

So yesterday a 2:10 average pace at 207W, and in May a 2:12 pace at 217W (but with a stronger wind, and averaging head and tailwind). The big difference is that I easily rated up to 27-28 SPM in May, which would be unsustainable for me now. Interesting …

This morning, Romana and I did a easy steady state row in the double. In the afternoon, we did a short hike around the village of Losser:

Some very nice old farm buildings there …

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0

IMG_0124

Aug 15 2020

Since May 3

Three months without a blog post. There were just too many other pursuits going on:

  1. At the end of May, I accepted a new job. At a new employer. In another country.
  2. Meanwhile, at my old job in the Aerospace tech sector, the effects of lock-down and COVID required my full attention, to lead my group through “interesting” times.
  3. The on-the-water virtual challenges caught on, especially on the Charles in Boston. This led to numerous improvements and bug fixes on rowsandall.com.

So how well did I train through those changes?

The July stats are a little skewed because of a 3 day hiking trip to the Tatra mountains in Slovakia, but yes I did get in a good amount of rowing. Here’s the heart rate distribution:

Here is plan (orange) vs execution (blue):

So, in the week of June 15th, we traveled to the Netherlands to arrange some things around our move there. In the week of July 20, we were hiking in the Tatra mountains. The week after, I discovered that what might have been a tick bite was developing a dark ring around it, on my leg. I went to see a doctor, and although she judged the risk of Lyme’s disease low, she still recommended doing a 20 day antibiotics treatment. The antibiotics come with instructions to avoid being in the sunlight, and no exercise. So since then, I am not rowing according to a plan, but I am rowing when I can and only at low intensities.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

On August 1, I drove to the Netherlands with my two boats on a trailer, installed them in my new club (Thyro Enschede) and started a new job at a new employer, all of that while strictly working from home. Here’s my single in its new home:

My new rowing water:

OK, I took the pictures in the port of Enschede, on the more industrial end of the canal. Rowing towards Hengelo it is a little greener.

I stayed in Enschede for a week, then returned to the Czech Republic, back to Romana and the kids. On October 1, we’ll all be in Enschede permanently. So I am putting the photos from a “legendary” period in one job in the album and starting up doing my tricks in a new industry.

The rowing will be a bit erratic now, but I will return to systematic training as soon as things settle down.

 

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0

Screenshot_2020-05-02_15-41-58

May 2 2020

Rowing out of Lockdown

The Bad and Ugly

On March 31, I blogged about the COVID-19 pandemic situation where I live. Here is an update.

This first graph shows the number of people tested positively on COVID-19 in the Czech Republic. It’s evident that the curve is bending.

This chart shows newly positively tested per day. Testing capacity has ramped up to 8000 per day (was 5000 a month ago). Soon, even those without symptoms will be able to pay and get tested (those with symptoms have tests covered by the health insurance).

This last chart shows the cumulative number of positively tested and theĀ  day-to-day percentage growth (solid black line) and you can see how this number keeps falling. It hovers around 1% currently.

On March 31, we were in full lockdown. Since then, the government is following a step plan to slowly relax the measures. So far, none of the relaxations have brought back a wild growth of the virus. Here is how we are relaxing (note that this is not a complete list, and there are certain rules and precautions, so don’t rely on this information and get your information directly from government sources).

On April 20, with certain hygienic precautions:

  • Students can visit universities for individual activities. Students in the final year are allowed to take part in group activities up to 5 people.
  • Handworkers with their own workshops are allowed to open
  • Farmers markets, other markets open
  • Car dealers open
  • Professional athletes allowed to train outside in small groups without public
  • Weddings up to 10 people

On April 24, among others:

  • Up to 10 people can gather in public places but have to respect a 2 meters distance
  • Religious services with a maximum of 15 participants
  • Sport and exercise on outdoor sports facilities, in parks, in nature, in small groups

On April 27, among others:

  • Shops up to 5000 square meters (except indoor malls)
  • Gyms and fitness centers (with special measures)
  • Libraries, zoos (only outdoor), botanic gardens
  • More study activities for university students

And most other activities will start up fully on May 11th. All with a 2 meters distancing, availability of disinfectant and wearing of face masks. Hotels, swimming pools, etc may follow on May 25th. Schools are opening more slowly.

So I have been called a “lucky bastard” for living in an early opening country. Our local health care system seems to have mastered the first wave brilliantly (he wrote, thinking of 241 deaths). The big question is when the subsequent waves will hit, and how strong they will be.

Part of the ugly is that it is estimated that about 30% of restaurants and hotels will not survive. Tourism and travel is a badly hit sector. The government has put in place measures to ease the situation, but getting a compensation goes with huge bureaucratic obstacles and many people still have to see their money.

The Good

The good is exercising. Here is the Planned vs Executed verdict:

That looks good up to the week starting on April 13, then it starts to deteriorate. So what was done?

On April 13th, I did a technique row (working on better tap down) in my new single. Here’s a video from the second half of the row:

If you’re interested in the video analysis, it can be found here and here . This new functionality (on Rowsandall.com since December 2019 is still in development, but it’s great fun to see your rowing metrics next to the video.

On April 15, I tried to do a “10K push” row on the erg:

I thought I was doing well, but I crumbled when it started to bite. I only have one excuse. There is “quite a lot going on” at work, and that shows when you try to do a harder row in between meetings.

The next day, I decided to let the pain machine in the shed and went for a long, slow run:

It was great. Here is one of the pictures I took at one of the lookout points:

Selfie guy was one of the many mountain bikers in the forest. To be honest, I am still a bit reluctant to go on the bike. I perceive the risk of a crash too high.

On April 18, I did a 6x750m row on the water, in my single:


Workout Summary - media/183a1fe59b-20200418-112629o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09202|00:48:09.9|02:37.0|170.3|22.7|152.2|183.0|08.4
W-|04537|00:18:49.0|02:04.4|251.7|28.7|168.7|183.0|08.4
R-|04673|00:26:15.1|02:48.5|118.6|18.8|141.7|183.0|06.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00742|03:06.4|02:05.7|254.1|27.6|160.2|175.0|08.6
01|00753|03:06.2|02:03.7|250.9|28.5|167.0|179.0|08.5
02|00757|03:03.6|02:01.3|265.4|28.8|170.5|181.0|08.6
03|00762|03:10.4|02:05.0|244.5|28.4|170.9|181.0|08.5
04|00759|03:06.0|02:02.6|242.5|29.2|169.9|182.0|08.4
05|00766|03:16.4|02:08.2|252.8|29.9|173.3|183.0|07.8

Pretty happy with the achieved pace and power levels.

On April 19th, my birthday, I went out in the double for 10 kilometers. A nice slow row, with some technique exercises.

On April 21, I put the ergometer on the terrace and sat down to row a Half Marathon. I am happy to report that I managed to follow my race plan quite closely. I went out a bit faster than planned, and didn’t speed up as much as I hoped in the second half, thus averaging exactly what I wanted to average.

Part of a Stuck At Home Rowing Club challenge, I had to takeĀ  a monitor photo of the half marathon:

A day later, I rowed a workout by Eric Murray. These were the instructions:

6 sets of 6minutes. 90s break.
2 minute segments;
1- 18,20,22
Then +2 start each one from there so the last is;
6-28,30,32

Easy!

Keep focus. Look for the acceleration and commitment to the ratings and the pressure to get the speed.

Go for it!

It was not easy and I had to take some extra rest before attacking the final interval, and then I still didn’t complete it without the wheels coming off. Well, at least I did it!

On Thursday the 23rd I did a glorious steady state row in my single. I rowed up to the castle and did rate ladders.

On Friday, I did a short outdoor body weight session on the terrace. It was good, but I was already pretty busy. I was part of a team participating in the “EUvsVirus” hackathon. We developed a secure, trusted app for remote teaching. On Friday, I was busy finding education experts to become part of the team (which I succeeded in). Saturday and Sunday were a marathon of web calls and work on the app. I did however go for walks, and even a run on Saturday. Walking and running are great to calm down when the grey cells are firing at full fire power.

So, what did we achieve? Here’s our video report:

You can read the details here.

On Monday, I had to work, but I decided to work only a few hours, taking time off to relax, read the paper, and do a nice hike in the forest.

On Tuesday, I went out in the single in the morning. Breaking glass. The water was perfectly flat. A great day to do some technique work:

I am still working on tap down and use Wash as a parameter that measures if I am doing it right. I want to keep the Wash value under 14 degrees, and when I tap down well, I am easily able to hold 10-11 degrees.

As you can see, the 28 April row was indeed one of the better ones.

On Wednesday, I had no time to do any workout, and on Thursday, I just managed a 40 minute steady state row between meetings, on the erg.

On Friday, May 1st, I had the first gym session in 8 weeks. I realized I hadn’t done indoor training since the start of the lock-down. Working out in the gym was weird, wearing a face mask, and disinfecting everything after every station. So overall, 8 weeks of just doing bodyweight workouts has kept my strength in relatively good shape. My bench press has deteriorated, as has my squat. But my deadlift, pulldown, seated row are good as they were. Happy with that.

Today was time for another round of “Fun with Eric Murray”. It was a 3x10min/2min row, with the 10 minutes rowed as 18-20-22-24-26 SPM, rating up every 2 minutes for the first interval. The second interval starts at 20SPM and rates up to 28SPM and the final interval starts at 22 SPM and ends at 30 SPM. I was curious to see if I would finish the workout.

It turned out it wasn’t too bad. I did this in the single, and there were lots of other single scullers on the lake, so that added to the fun. I was also able to find a nice rhythm, avoiding a too heavy catch, and keeping everything dynamic and playful. There were some waves from the launches, but other than that it was great rowing weather.

I was also lucky enough to row into a group of junior single scullers as I was going into 26SPM in the final interval, passing them while rating up to 28SPM and rowing the final 4 minutes being chased by five 18 year olds in singles.

I am sure they weren’t chasing me really, but it helped me to imagine they were. And I am proud to report that I outrowed them. Must be the new boat. šŸ™‚

And here are the numbers:

Workout Summary - media/a3d2028e66-20200502-092418o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10985|00:56:35.6|02:34.6|154.6|22.0|148.6|183.0|08.8
W-|06625|00:29:51.8|02:15.2|193.8|24.3|163.0|183.0|09.2
R-|04369|00:24:35.7|02:48.9|111.4|19.5|131.8|183.0|10.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00389|02:00.0|02:34.1|145.2|18.7|137.3|142.0|10.4
02|00412|02:00.0|02:25.6|167.4|20.9|149.1|154.0|09.9
03|00422|02:00.0|02:22.2|170.0|22.4|157.0|161.0|09.4
04|00437|02:00.0|02:17.2|198.8|24.0|161.2|165.0|09.1
05|00446|02:00.0|02:14.6|197.0|25.1|168.8|171.0|08.9
06|00427|02:00.0|02:20.4|161.1|20.8|147.6|153.0|10.3
07|00446|02:00.0|02:14.4|183.6|22.5|159.1|162.0|09.9
08|00449|02:00.0|02:13.5|200.5|24.5|164.2|169.0|09.2
09|00466|02:00.0|02:08.6|213.3|26.2|172.4|173.0|08.9
10|00435|01:51.8|02:08.4|238.9|27.9|175.2|176.0|08.4
11|00427|02:00.0|02:20.5|171.3|22.9|152.8|160.0|09.3
12|00438|02:00.0|02:16.9|196.9|24.9|166.6|171.0|08.8
13|00462|02:00.0|02:10.0|205.8|26.5|174.9|177.0|08.7
14|00486|02:00.0|02:03.5|238.9|28.1|178.4|180.0|08.6
15|00481|02:00.0|02:04.7|221.1|29.1|182.0|183.0|08.3

Happy with that. In the final 30 SPM my technique was falling apart, and I am not surprised I was actually faster in the 28SPM interval.

Tomorrow, I am planning a row in the double with Romana.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0

bokeh_plot (13)

Apr 12 2020

Launching stuff

Wednesday was the first day on which I tried out my new single. Thursday, I went out in a double. I am lucky to live under one roof with my favorite double partner, so we were allowed.

We didĀ  a steady state workout prescribed by the Stuck At Home Rowing Club (SAHRC). The workout was called “Flatten the Curve” and it was 2km at 18spm, 1km at 20 spm, 1k @ 22, 1k @ 24, 1k @ 22, 2k @ 20, 2k @ 18 SPM. I slightly altered it to avoid the 24 SPM section, and of course there were built-in rest periods when we were turning the boat.

It was a bit choppy, and Romana and I had to concentrate to get the strokes right. Good training.

Thursday was also launch day. We launched the sales of our SAHRC club shirt.

Isn’t it a great shirt? You can have yours too by ordering here (Men) or here (Women). The best thing is: The proceedings will go to Medecins sans Frontieres / Doctors without Borders, and you will get a great shirt.

And more was launched on Thursday. As Czech children are stuck at home since March 10th and Czech teachers are struggling with web conferencing software which is too complex, hasĀ  a language barrier and has security issues, two guys from my team decided to develop a free alternative in their free time. After a week of testing with one school in the Kolin region, and numerous improvements, as well as fund raising and preparing the infrastructure, we launched webskola.cz on Thursday. Czech schools can now very easily launch a secure virtual classroom without risking that hackers post obscene images on their students’ screens.

We got 78 classes registered on the first day, and we sold 91 SAHRC shirts. It was a great day.

Friday

On Friday, I did another repetition of a home circuit. Same thing I did a week ago. It was a good circuit and I did three rounds, even though it was quite hot in the sun.

I also had to do groceries for the long weekend. I thought going to the store at 10:15, fifteen minutes after the closing of the “Senior Citizens Only” hour, was a good idea. It was such a good idea that many other folk had the same idea. I got one of the last parking spots and grabbed one of the last scanners. It was not a pleasant experience. Of course everybody was wearing face masks, but it was just too crowded for me. Well, I did my groceries, paid, and disappeared back home.

Saturday

A nice day to go out in the single. I got the 9AM slot from our singles departure slot system. (We have a 2 boats per 15 minute slot roster for going out in singles, in agreement with the recent government rules.) The 9AM slot is perfect because it seems to be the time of the day with the flattest water.

The workout I did was another one from the SAHRC, well actually a brutal workout copied from Eric Murray: 28 minutes rowed as 7 minutes at 20spm, 6 @ 22, 5 @ 24, 4 @ 26, 3 @ 28, 2 @ 30, 1 @ 32 SPM.

As I was in the single, I decided to reduce stroke rates by 2 SPM. I had also forgotten to take a water bottle, so it was pretty exhausting. It’s a great workout though. You start gently and get to work on technique and boat run, then you try to take that to a higher stroke rate, and on and on. I had some micro breaks of 15 seconds to turn the boat.


Workout Summary - media/4b05597757-20200411-083229.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|-Avg--|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|-SPM--|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|05962|28:00.0|02:17.8|195.0| 23.5 |166.0|186.0|09.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr--|-SPM--|AvgHR|DPS-
02|01444|07:00.0|02:25.3| 148.0 | 18.0 | 149.0 |11.4
03|01251|06:00.0|02:24.1| 161.0 | 20.0 | 160.0 |10.4
04|01051|05:00.0|02:22.9| 181.0 | 22.5 | 166.0 |09.4
05|00848|04:00.0|02:21.6| 200.0 | 23.5 | 174.0 |09.0
06|00662|03:00.0|02:15.9| 201.0 | 25.5 | 174.0 |08.7
07|00466|02:00.0|02:08.9| 233.0 | 27.5 | 181.0 |08.3
08|00237|01:00.0|02:06.3| 243.0 | 30.0 | 184.0 |08.2

You can see from my heart rate that I was pretty exhausted. I am pretty happy with the boat speed I achieved, although there is a lot to optimize. New single, new boat shape, requires getting used to. I am also thinking about doing some rigging changes. I want to set everything a tad lighter, hoping that will make the rowing aĀ  bit more dynamic.

Here’s the force curve as recorded with the NK Empower Oarlock and analysed on rowsandall.com. Here is a 6K race on my old single, for comparison:

Seems I need to work on getting a bit of length there. Let’s look at some other data from this interesting session:

Power and Boat Speed vs stroke rate. Seems pretty linear, and it shows in the pretty flat Work per Stroke data. Boat Speed is of course influenced by head and tailwind sections.

Wash numbers are pretty awful, I need to work on my finish. I will also set a weekly alert on rowsandall.com to send me a report on Wash. Knowing that you will get that email forces you to work on improving a metric.

Slip values got betterĀ  but I think it’s rather a reflection of the wind calming down than of me improving technically.

And this last very short interval is me playing with max boat speed (headwind) for 10 strokes. Just test driving the new boat. Looks like I need to improve timing at higher stroke rates. I get the boat up to speed, but then boat speed drops as I rate up more. I know how to do it. Just avoid rowing like a pig.

On Saturday afternoon, I spent a pleasant hour in the garden taking apart my Concept2 erg and cleaning it. It wasn’t too dirty inside the cage, but I had time to do it and I wanted to adjust the bungee and take care of the chain anyway. Got very dirty hands and a very happy mind.

Sunday

Romana and I headed out early for a quick spin in the double.

This was my 6th workout this week so we didn’t do a full training. Just played with some 20″ on 40″ rest intervals, and after we turned the boat we did 30″/30″ at 30-32 SPM. It was fun. When we got home, the boys had made breakfast. No eggs, but waffles, toast, freshly pressed orange juice, and other good stuff. We stuffed ourselves and then had coffee. Now I am relaxing.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0

unnamed

Apr 8 2020

Maiden Voyage in a Socially Distant World

Lockdown status update

So the last time I wrote was on March 31. Here is how the number of positive tests developed. The source isĀ https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data.

.

The two charts are the same. Just that the right hand side is plotted on a logarithmic scale, so you can see how we are slowing down the growth. We are doing all the measures to make sure the healthcare system will be able to manage. So here is an interesting set of charts, taken fromĀ https://covid19.healthdata.org/czechia:

So according to the predictions, the number of Intensive Care beds should be sufficient, even if you take into account the uncertainty. The picture for invasive ventilators is the same. Here is a comparison between Czech Republic and Portugal, both countries with 10 Million inhabitants, reaching 10 confirmed cases on the same date.

So what is the difference? Let’s look at the lockdown measures.

Looks pretty identical, right? There may be a couple of differences:

  1. Czechs have been pretty disciplined in taking the measures seriously, especially in the first three weeks
  2. Czechs are not a “hugging” nation. I don’t know about Portugal, though, but here people greet with a nod or with a handshake (we don’t do that any more). Czechs don’t kiss or hug every time they meet each other.
  3. Face masks. It seems that virtually overnight, around the 17th of March, we have turned ourselves into South Koreans or Japanese. Previously, the only people wearing face masks were Asians at the airport and in the tourist hotspots. When the government announced mandatory coverage of nose and mouth outside your property, when there was a shortage of face masks, people were told that some protection is better than no protection, and that the masks serve to protect others in case you are infected, not the other way round. In a day or two, enough people were making face masks at home to supply an entire country of 10 million.

Wearing a mask is now seen as an act of responsibility. It’s unpleasant, but if it helps, it helps.

None of the numbers provided above are to be seen as scientific evidence, but I would say that wearing a home made mask is not a big sacrifice to make, especially if it allows to get the virus under control and start thinking about easing up some of the other measures.

So since a few days, the crisis team of the Czech government are starting to think about how to ease the measures, and allow more economic activity. This debate is very difficult, because it’s a huge balancing act. How do you protect the vulnerable groups while allowing others to go about their business? How do you balance “smart quarantine” measures with data privacy laws?

The first thing that is now possible again since two days is: Individual sport without a face mask. Maximum group size 2 persons.

Yes, we were already running in the forests and parks, but we were wearing face masks. And we were out in nature. All sports facilities (even outdoors) were forbidden. So for me as a rower that meant: No rowing on the water.

We have been working with the club board yesterday to install a way to comply with the government measures but still allow some rowing, now that external sports facilities are open again.

  1. We have a strict timing policy on when you are allowed on the club ground, governed through a simple Google spreadsheet. So if I want to launch at 9, I block the 9 to 9:15 time slot in the spreadsheet, and that is the only time when I am allowed on the club ground. This can be easily checked through the chip key access. In this way, a maximum of two persons is present on the club ground at any time. Of course they are wearing face masks.
  2. No access to any of the indoor facilities. You arrive in your rowing clothes, do your training, and shower at home.
  3. Desinfection of all surfaces you’ve touched.

I hope this will gradually be eased. But I guess it is more realistic to take a week or two between each subsequent easing step to see if we are not creating a second wave of infections. Crossing fingers!

Trainings

So what sessions have I been doing last week?

On April 1, I did a run:

I ran pretty slowly, taking pictures here and there:

I cannot remember if it was an easy run or a hard one, but I did really enjoy it. It was the first time in four days that I left my property.

On Thursday, I did nothing. Meetings from 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM.

On Friday, I did the land workout. It’s a workout I found on this youtube channel and it’s pretty balanced, doable and nice. I had a pleasant muscle soreness the next day.

On Saturday, it was time for an indoor rower session in the garden. It was great weather. I did 4 rounds of “Dart Games”. That’s a pretty nice way to work on stroke consistency. The trick, I discovered, is to not fuzz about the curve on the monitor, but to get in a trance, listen to the flywheel, and try to focus on leg pressure. I managed a high score of 14,625 points (out of 15,000 max)!

Unfortunately, BoatCoach disconnected itself in the middle of the second game, so the chart looks a bit weird.

On Sunday, I had a lot of computer work in the morning, and then I procrastinated before doing my workout. Actually, I switched on the TV and watched a movie “Catch 22” that they were broadcasting. Great movie, but not the smartest thing to watch during a lockdown.

The workout was 4×4 min/4min, a variation on the Pete Plan 4x1km/4min. I hate time based workouts, but I get why we’re doing them (to make it easier to do them in groups). Anyway, after three intervals I felt like Yossarian and just quit.

Well, three is better than nothing.

On Monday, I had to pick up a parcel at a parcel delivery spot, and I decided to take the bike. It was also a good way to air my two teenage boys who rode with me. Bike riding with a face mask is hard work.

It was a nice ride. Also interesting to see the town center again. It looked pretty busy, but I quickly realized that a normal Monday afternoon would have been much more busy. Parcel collected and a 90 minute bike ride is kind of equivalent to a 60 minute row, I think.

On Tuesday, April 7th, I did nothing. Even though I am on COVID-19 related unpaid leave (furlough) this week, I still find I have a pretty busy schedule. With two colleagues from work, we are trying to deploy a low cost video conferencing tool for basic schools. I am doing some maintenance work on rowsandall.com, and there is some volunteer work I am doing. So … busy days.

I also discovered that I started a bit too late with the hayfever pills, and on Tuesday I was suffering.

Maiden Voyage

So, with on-the-water rowing legal again thanks to the disciplined behavior of all people around me, I was able to row on the water today. Thanks, everyone!

This means a lot to me, because I have a new boat. It was sort of the last thing to arrive from Italy before the rowing club closed, so I hadn’t done anything with it except putting it together. Today was the day to test drive it. Here is the boat:

I won’t tell you its name yet.

First, I did a 1km paddle. I had to return to the club to adjust a few things. Luckily, the 15 minute slot after me was empty, so I could return and do some adjustments. After that, it was a prefect row on a flat lake.

Here are a few more charts, just for fun.

Unfortunately, the NK Empower Oarlock had some issues. Even though I had put in a freshly charged battery, it would disconnect from the SpeedCoach every few minutes. After a few times, I didn’t bother to reset it. So that’s causing the flat areas in the power curve.

So this was great. Of course, we will miss a big part of club life, and it’s not clear if there will be any racing in the coming few months (I personally don’t think so).

I am also aware that my readers who are in full lockdown may be very jealous. I am sorry. I know the pain. One day, also you will be taking out your single again. Remember, when that happens, it is because all people around you were disciplined and took COVID prevention measures seriously.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: 1x, OTW, rowing, single, steady state, training

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