rowing

May 26 2019

A week of rowing

Saturday

A steady state row in the single. This was the weekend of the Brno international Juniors regatta, so I decided to not go on the lake but row on the river instead. There was a strong wind and the lake was very choppy, so this was a good choice anyway. I didn’t have a lot of time to Row because I had to be back in time to coach some of Romana’s girls in Romana’s absence.

Nice row.

Sunday

Originally, I wanted to go on the double with Romana after the last race of the Juniors regatta, but somehow it went differently. Our club has bought a new LiteBoat Quattro (4x/4x+ combo) and it arrived from France on Sunday morning. I helped putting on the riggers and rigging it, including a complex foot steering mechanism, and so we wanted to try it out. It wasn’t an overall success. The foot steering mechanism was somewhat loose so I had trouble steering it. I did like cutting through a huge wake caused by a motorboat, though.

It was a short row, because we all wanted to be home in time.

Monday

I managed to leave the office at a reasonable time and I did a very nice steady state row in the single. Again to the castle to avoid the choppy lake.

Interesting to see the difference in pace in the tailwind versus headwind part, compared to the power which is nearly constant.

Tuesday

Another day where I arrived early. I had to leave work early to go to the bank to solve an unpleasant issue. During my last visit to the USA, it seems my bank card was copied. Suddenly, suspicious payments at a gas station in North Carolina showed up in my electronic banking app. I blocked the card immediately, and this Tuesday I had to go to the bank to pick up my new card.

I suspect this happened on one of the dinners. I hate it when they take your card to do a swipe of the magnetic strip, and then you sign. I think this is a technology of the 1980s, but in the US it is still widely used.

The workout was 4x5min with each five minute interval 2 minutes at 24spm, 2 minutes at 26 SPM and 1 minute at 28 SPM.

I had company from the Masters E pair, but I was slightly faster than them. The wind was a very light breeze from the south west, nothing to write home about.

The speed vs pace chart looks pretty ok, I think.

Workout Summary – media/20190521-1635470o.csv
–|Total|-Total—-|–Avg–|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
–|Dist-|-Time—–|-Pace–|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR–|-HR–|-DPS
–|11886|01:02:30.5|02:37.8|169.1|21.8|145.7|179.0|08.7
W-|04472|00:19:33.5|02:11.2|239.4|25.7|162.5|179.0|08.9
R-|07417|00:-81:53.0|-5:-24.1|495692181610166.6|85618463765934.2|641582514294807.5|179.0|-0.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01105|04:51.2|02:11.8|238.2|25.1|158.2|173.0|09.1
02|01096|04:51.9|02:13.1|242.1|25.8|164.1|178.0|08.7
03|01154|04:58.4|02:09.3|232.9|25.9|161.6|178.0|09.0
04|01118|04:52.0|02:10.6|244.8|26.0|166.0|179.0|08.8

First two intervals were in a light headwind, last two in light tailwind. I was happy with the pace and it was a very enjoyable training session.

Wednesday

We were supposed to go out in an eight, but only three people showed up, unfortunately. Also the lake was very choppy, so my original idea to row a 4- wasn’t going to be a very meaningful training. We settled for the erg, doing 2x(4x250m/250m)/4min.

I have no data, unfortunately, but I was happy to hold 1:37 to 1:38 on the intervals. I think this is slightly faster than I would have been able to hold a year ago. I believe this is my weights training paying off.

Friday

I had a quite difficult morning. Our club was supposed to go to the races in Hodonin, but it had been raining very hard in the preceding few days, and the water in the Morava River was rising fast. On Thursday evening, I received following video from the race venue:

I thought racing in these conditions was madness, but the race organizers were postponing their decision. On Friday morning I decided for myself to not race and not send my sons racing. The official decision to cancel the Regatta was done only at 3pm on Friday.

I did a weights session. Bench press, dead lift, squats, cable row, plank. Pretty heavy.

Saturday

Finally! Romana and I went out in the double. We did a short sprint workout: 2x(8×20″/20″). It was fun and it was nice to climb into the higher stroke rates.

Somehow the heart rate monitor misbehaved again, I may have to go back to the chest straps.

After the row, we drove to Klentnice to fine tune the menu for the rowing camp dinner. The Fara restaurant in Klentnice, in the Palava area, just 40 minutes south of Brno, has true genius loci.

Sun, vineyards, nice modern architecture, ruins of a medieval castle. What do you want more?

Sunday

We were supposed to race in Hodonin, but the races were canceled because of high water. So I invited my 2x partner from Hodonin to come train in Brno. The boys were doing the Pete plan pyramid (250, 500, 750, 1000, 750, 500, 250m) and we decided to join them. There also was a mixed masters 4x on the water, so in the end we were an armada of 2 singles, one pair, one double and two quads doing the same workout, which was big fun. We have a buoyed 6 lane course.

Workout Summary – media/20190526-1226280o.csv
–|Total|-Total—-|–Avg–|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
–|Dist-|-Time—–|-Pace–|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR–|-HR–|-DPS
–|13065|01:31:23.5|03:29.9|000.0|23.0|126.1|181.0|06.2
W-|04064|00:14:51.9|01:49.7|000.0|32.7|157.2|181.0|08.4
R-|09007|00:-315:49.3|-17:-26.4|000.0|-1302108410965260137714941952.0|-5016110237894753553529962496.0|181.0|-0.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00320|01:08.4|01:46.9|000.0|30.5|152.3|166.0|09.2
02|00503|01:48.1|01:47.4|000.0|33.3|110.0|125.0|08.4
03|00743|02:45.0|01:51.0|000.0|32.0|166.2|179.0|08.4
04|00996|03:46.3|01:53.6|000.0|31.0|166.6|179.0|08.5
05|00777|02:54.6|01:52.3|000.0|32.7|163.7|177.0|08.2
06|00493|01:41.3|01:42.7|000.0|36.5|166.1|181.0|08.0
07|00231|00:48.2|01:44.2|000.0|36.0|152.3|168.0|08.0

Splits according to the GPS. In the second 500m we were quite competitive with the boys quad and took the rate up to 38spm in the final bit.

Here is our stroke rate vs pace chart:

After a short coffee break, we rowed another 10k with lots of drills and technique training.

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: double, OTW, rowing, training

Mar 24 2019

River dweller

On Friday evening, Robin, Lenka and I took the train to Pardubice. Romana is here already since Monday doing a training camp with the girls of CVK Brno.

I don’t think we can complain about the rowing water here in Pardubice, but I am getting ahead of myself. The rowing was the second workout of the day, the first being a short run.

I decided that I liked a bit of competition on the water, so I joined the boys (under 16) in their workout. They did 4 series of 5 two minute intervals at one minute rest, starting the first two minute interval at 22spm and increasing by 2 SPM for each interval. So

4x(5x2min/1min)/5min @ 22/24/26/28/30 SPM

The rest period of five minutes was not exactly defined as five minutes, but as the time to turn the boat, drink a bit, and wait to recover. In Pardubice, the trainer riding a bike on the bank has no access to the turning points, so this is an ideal location for the youth to catch a few minutes of extra rest. After five days of training two or three times a day, I guess they needed that.

It was a great training. I rowed about as fast as the fastest of the boys, so there was good competition going on. I really enjoyed the Filippi single for lightweights that I was able to use (because one of the girls had to leave camp early for a booked vacation) enjoying its stiffness and responsiveness compared to my own single. The only thing I didn’t like and which turned out quite painful in the end, was the size 40 shoes, which were much too small for my tired old big feet. Actually they prevented me from reaching as far in the catch as I am used to. I short slided a bit.

The power values in the above chart are notional. I am not sure I was able to capture the river stream well, and there was quite a large difference in pace going upstream or downstream.

What I liked most about this session is how you start at a leisurely 22 SPM focusing on technique and how the progression allows you to take over technique attention points to higher stroke rates. Perhaps this was an illusion because it is really the first time after the winter that I am rowing at higher stroke rates, but I seemed to rate up easily and really enjoyed how the boat responded.

I may also be subconsciously convincing myself to upgrade my old and faithful Dolfijn to a Dolfijn II?

The small shoe size made me decide to skip the third training session of the day and join Romana with coaching from the bank instead. A few pictures:

And a sort video. Some of these girls learned to row only recently:

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: intervals, rowing, single, training

Mar 12 2019

To the radio tower

Friday

Weights training. I had to go for my last shot related to the India travel in the morning. So I did the weights a little lighter than normal.

Went to a concert with my son. In bed after midnight.

Saturday

No training? It depends how you see it. I spent four hours cleaning out the rowing club workshop, where we had stored lots of stuff during the reconstruction of the club house. It was a combination of physical work (lifting boxes, cupboards, boats, and other stuff), with that of an historian (deciding what to keep and what not). We have boxes full of trophies from the 1920s, 1930s, 1950s, and younger. Old coaching related literature, 1930s club house restaurant menus, etc …

Sunday

Erg workout at the club, with some other masters. I went with their workout, which was sort of steady state but with lots of rest and alternating 20 and 24 SPM. Here is the main bit:

There was also a warming up and cooling down and a long stretching session.

Tuesday

On Monday, I had a long day at work with a few performance review with my subordinates. Exhausting. I decided to take a rest day and work on the Rowsandall.com site. Fixed a few bugs. Improved a few things.

The training plan prescribed otw rowing but the weather wouldn’t have allowed that. Windy and wet snow.

Today, the work day was nice and relaxed. It involved a one hour drive to the engine factory in Olomouc for a meeting with the Olomouc site leader. Had a coffee break on the highway on the way back, it felt nice to not be in an office. I returned in time to get some work done in the Brno office as well, so all in all a nice and varied day.

However, since my illness I have difficulty getting back into the rhythm. Had to force myself to go down to the erg basement and row. The erg seems boring and one dimensional after having tasted the OTW feeling again. I decided to dial up the “Mountain Loop” in Zwift (connected to the erg via the PainSled app) and force myself to Row/ride the full loop.

There were lots of people on Zwift, so I ended up riding the way up in a huge group, and stuck with a few guys who were about as fast as I. Riding up to the radio tower I got my heart rate up a bit too high, but it was fun, even though the splits weren’t were I would have liked them to be.

In the screenshots, I am the guy with the black/red striped shirt. In the end the workout was where I wanted it to be in terms of rScore.

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: Comcept2, erg, OTE, rowing, steady state, training

Jan 16 2019

Hard Work

Monday

The training plan called for an hour of steady state but I gave up after 6 kilometers.

Tuesday

The same weights session as a week ago. I am starting to like it. That probably means that we will get a new session next week.

Wednesday

Romana has already done the session earlier and told me it is short and not hard.

She was wrong. The session is probably really short and light, but not when you are tired from a hard weights session on the previous day, and when you are a bit short of sleep and have a lot going on at work.

2x(3min/3min) with 3min = 1min+1min+1min @ 24/26/28spm

Those were the instructions. Sounds easy.

I counted to twelve. I counted to thirteen. I counted to seven.

I huffed and I puffed.

I moaned, and then it was done. Another workout. I am going to bed early today!

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: concept2, ergometer, OTE, rowing, training, workout

Jan 13 2019

Sprints getting longer at shorter rest

Sunday session with the Masters group. We were a smaller core of the bigger group today. Romana was in Prague at the second round of the Czech Indoor Rowing Cup, with Lenka and Dominik, and some of the other Masters also couldn’t come. So it was Martin, Lubka and myself.

The session was one invented by our coach and it is tough.

8x40"/20", 8x30"/30", 8x40"/20"; 5 min rest between series. Stroke rate 35-38

First a 15 minute warming up:

Then on to the main thing:

Rowsandall.com’s interval editor came in very handy here. It allowed me to simply program the monitor as 8 minute work, 5 minute rest, and then edit the intervals on the site after the workout is uploaded. The alternative is either to use a lengthy process to program varying intervals, or to row it as three short interval sessions and reprogram the monitor in between.

In Rowsandall.com’s interval shorthand, the session is:

(8x(20sec/40sec))/5min+(8x(30sec/30sec))/5min+(8x(40sec/20sec))/5min

This is the resulting breakdown in intervals:

I am always impressed when it works. After all, I know who hacked it together. The resulting workout summary is as follows:

Workout Summary - media/20190113-1435360o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08349|39:00.0|02:20.1|159.5|24.9|152.2|181.0|08.6
W-|03610|12:00.0|01:39.7|345.3|33.3|161.1|178.0|09.0
R-|04763|25:30.0|02:40.6|077.6|21.2|148.8|178.0|08.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00109|00:20.0|01:31.5|389.6|36.5|092.4|106.0|09.0
01|00103|00:20.0|01:36.8|380.7|34.8|149.4|157.0|08.9
02|00103|00:20.0|01:37.3|376.8|33.7|155.0|158.0|09.1
03|00103|00:20.0|01:37.4|378.8|34.6|147.8|149.0|08.9
04|00103|00:20.0|01:36.7|366.9|33.4|151.6|157.0|09.3
05|00101|00:20.0|01:39.1|369.3|34.1|153.6|158.0|08.9
06|00103|00:20.0|01:37.2|381.6|34.1|148.5|160.0|09.1
07|00103|00:20.0|01:37.4|370.8|34.4|154.1|159.0|09.0
08|00152|00:30.0|01:38.8|349.8|33.5|146.7|163.0|09.1
09|00155|00:30.0|01:36.9|380.6|35.0|158.6|168.0|08.9
10|00154|00:30.0|01:37.4|373.5|34.2|168.7|171.0|09.0
11|00151|00:30.0|01:39.3|361.2|33.4|171.1|175.0|09.1
12|00154|00:30.0|01:37.7|362.4|33.5|164.2|170.0|09.2
13|00151|00:30.0|01:39.2|356.0|34.5|164.4|170.0|08.8
14|00154|00:30.0|01:37.4|365.1|33.6|168.6|174.0|09.2
15|00152|00:30.0|01:38.9|353.4|33.7|166.2|172.0|09.0
16|00198|00:40.0|01:41.0|340.0|32.3|138.3|161.0|09.2
17|00195|00:40.0|01:42.5|310.9|31.6|164.7|170.0|09.3
18|00194|00:40.0|01:43.0|311.1|31.7|170.6|174.0|09.2
19|00195|00:40.0|01:42.7|308.3|31.9|172.1|174.0|09.2
20|00193|00:40.0|01:43.6|307.4|32.1|172.9|175.0|09.0
21|00193|00:40.0|01:43.9|310.4|32.2|173.0|176.0|09.0
22|00194|00:40.0|01:43.3|312.6|32.6|174.7|177.0|08.9
23|00198|00:40.0|01:40.9|331.8|33.8|176.6|178.0|08.8

The first series was eight nice twelve stroke sprints at a luxuriously long 40 seconds rest. The second series was somewhere between 16 and 17 strokes and the end of the rest period started to come a bit too early to my taste. The last series was a never ending list of 22 to 23 stroke sprinting with a few strokes in between to catch your breath. Martin was going through the same pain on the erg next to me. I found it interesting how Martin rowed a few seconds of split faster in the first two series, but in the last one he had trouble following my splits. At least, that is what I think from a few quick glances in the heat of the training.

We ended with 20 minutes of chatting while riding the spinning bikes.

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: concept2, ergometer, OTE, rowing, sprintervals, training

Jan 12 2019

Nearly Ten Henleys

Friday

After the underwhelming performance of Thursday (I was lucky the schedule called for such a short and relatively light session), Friday was cross training / recovery training day. The schedule talked about 40 minutes of cross training followed by some body weight exercises for twenty minutes.

I just swam for an hour straight. No breaks. Did my 2k of swimming and felt happy about it. I even managed to make it on time for the 9am meeting, but that was mainly the result of knowing some back roads that avoid traffic jams. Or maybe the traffic was lighter than usual.

Saturday: Nearly Ten Henleys

Nearly Ten Henleys is an online event on Rowsandall. It’s not on the schedule that our head coach writes, but I have already decided to add one session per week if possible. What session is better than 21097 meters of erging?

Saturday morning was spent doing some Rowsandall.com related chores. Answering overdue emails, paying the bills, and so forth. I was also not looking forward to the half marathon and basically hung out on the couch until I couldn’t postpone it any more without compromising my plans for the afternoon.

I did a 5 minute warming up and then I dialed up the 21097m and got going. The plans was to hold 200W initially, then start increasing power, aiming for a nice 203W or better average, as was predicted by Rowsandall.com.

Somehow around the 9 km to go point, the increase the power plan didn’t seem so smart any more. Between that point and the final 2k, I was really struggling. I had to remind myself to row with good posture and to rate up a bit if necessary to keep the splits in the right range. I was sad to see the average power drop back from 203W to 202W and then even, briefly, to 201W. In the final 800 meters I managed to find some energy and rate up to empty the tank.

The cool water tasted deliciously after the row.

I browsed to the workout on Rowsandall.com and did a few quick comparisons with a similar effort a year ago. That effort from December 2017 was the one that caused me to go out so conservatively, because it was a slowing down drama. Turns out 2017 was a few Watts more and under 1:24. I didn’t like that. I liked how easy it was to make these comparison charts:

The final chart shows how I traded Work for Rate when I got tired.

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: concept2, ergometer, Half Marathon, OTE, rowing, training

Jan 10 2019

Better than nothing

Wednesday

The weights training was only an hour long but it was intense. Four rounds of a circuit

Bench pull 60x at 50%
Bench press 15x
Leg press 30x
back swing 15x
sit ups 30x
Pull Down 40kg 15x
lunges 25kg 20x each leg
dumbbell pull over 20kg
rope skipping 100x

And that four times. The next day I mostly felt the effect of the lunges, bench pull and pull downs.

Thursday

A long day in the office, followed by having to go to my son’s school with my son to talk to the history teacher about bad marks. I won’t further comment it but it was tiring.

Add to that the above-mentioned DOMS and you can imagine how I did today’s session purely on willpower and mostly to avoid embarrassment.

4x(3min+/1min+/1min)/3min at 22/24/26spm surely couldn’t be too hard, right? Let’s say I took it one stroke at a time and had to work very hard to keep Work per Stroke in the acceptable range. According to below plot I succeeded.

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: concept2, ergometer, intervals, OTE, rowing, training

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rowing

A week of rowing

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

River dweller

To the radio tower

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Tuesday

Hard Work

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Sprints getting longer at shorter rest

Nearly Ten Henleys

Friday

Saturday: Nearly Ten Henleys

Better than nothing

Wednesday

Thursday

Calendar

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