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May 12 2015

Race Evaluation

Same as last part of my previous post. Just wanted to capture this in a separate post for ease of searching.

The Quad

We basically had no opposition, so it was just a test of how well we could row together. We were focused. The race plan was to settle down 10 strokes after the start and row a light and easy stroke. We did just that. I decided to not take any stroke coach and just stroke this one on feel. Romana measured a 34spm when we were 250m from the finish. It definitely didn’t feel as an all out effort. Our time of 3:03 is of course fast with the tailwind and the (light) current.

We should expect tougher competition but it was a good start.

What worked: Race plan execution, light stroke. We were confident.

What didn’t work: –

What would I do differently next time: We have to train doing a 10 hard stroke section in the middle and do an all out last 200m.

The Eight

What can I say. We got the 2 guys who didn’t make the selection for the local team and we got their worst eight. Still we won. We managed to pass the boat, take a half length lead and defend this, winning by a margin of 0.5 seconds. Good race experience.

What worked: We won, despite everything. Apparently the six of us have enough horse power.

What didn’t work: The rowers in the bow didn’t hear the cox.

What we need to do differently: We need to make kilometers in the eight. We need to have a boat with a coxbox. We need an experienced cox.

The Single

A nice race despite the pressure I loaded on myself. I wasn’t the fastest out of the start but I was confident and focused and rowed well. More a training than an all out 1km. I should expect tougher opponents in the rest of the season. The time of 3:39 was of course fast with tailwind and current.

What worked: I win effortlessly. I was focused and nothing distracted me (launch wake). I thoroughly enjoyed the racing. I was rowing a relaxed stroke. I was confident.

What didn’t work: I need to discipline myself the evening before the race. Strictly one glass of wine with dinner (or zero), not eat too much, and go to bed early.

What would I do differently next time: I still need to do a hard, all out 1km. Should train this a few times before the next race.

Overall Summary

Good confidence booster. I think I am on the good track. Just need more exposure to sprint racing and some tougher opponents.

Piešt'any racing course (Váh river) — Piešt’any racing course (Váh river)

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: OTW, race analysis, rowing

May 12 2015

500m/1km/2km, Garmin and CrewNerd stuff, and Race evaluation

Today I wanted to do a 4x1km OTW, but the Renegade Rowing wordpress blog (http://renegaderowing.com/2015/05/12/rowing-wod-51215-500m-2min-rest-1k-4min-rest-2k-post-splits/) inspired me to change it to:

500m @32 s/m (2k-1)

2min rest

1k @30 (2k)

4min rest

2k @28 (2k+2 to 2k+4)

It was quite windy when I launched. I did a “long” warming up of 3km, to Rokle and then back to the start of the 2km Albano. In the 500m with strong headwind, I had difficulty holding the prescribed 30spm stroke rate, and the pace was around 2:10 at best. So I was very surprised to suddenly see 2:02 in the Crewnerd App when I finished. Didn’t give it too much thought.

I did take a bit longer rest to drink a bit, reset CrewNerd to “just row”, remember to hit “start” on CrewNerd, and turn the boat.

One kilometer with tailwind. Got started, and had to check my course a few times because there was a windsurfer in my rear view mirror who was doing unpredictable things. At one point he fell in the water and then tried to get his sail up again. When I checked Crewnerd, I suddenly was down to 500m to go, but with a time of 1:30 for the first 500m.

Hm, something must be wrong. The XGPS160 LEDs were on. What to do now? Do an additional unrecorded 30 seconds? Somehow I didn’t feel like it. But I did make a mental notice to do the 2km from start to finish in the Albano, and not stop early.

So I did. The 2km was a real struggle. The Masters pair was next to me, probably doing steady state, but still it felt like a victory that I could row away from them. With the strong headwind and waves, it was difficult to keep the stroke rate at 28spm.

Here’s how rough the weather was:

Here are the statistics according to CrewNerd:

CrewNerd+XGPS160 statistics
|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks |02875|15:49|02:45.0| 19.0 | 131 | 148 |09.6|Warming up |00495|02:02|02:03.3| 29.4 | 163 | 178 |08.3|500m headwind |00671|04:17|03:11.6| 17.8 | 131 | 177 |08.8|rest |01021|03:33|01:44.3| 28.0 | 165 | 177 |10.3|"1000m" tailwind |00765|04:59|03:15.4| 18.9 | 136 | 175 |08.1|rest |02020|09:50|02:26.0| 26.1 | 174 | 181 |07.9|2km headwind |00804|06:15|03:53.1| 18.3 | 134 | 180 |07.0|cooling down

And here is my trajectory according to CrewNerd:

Notice the strange loop at the beginning of the 1km?

Statistics according to Garmin+Crewnerd

So I decided to do an experiment and merge the Garmin data with the CrewNerd data, taking position and speed from Garmin, and stroke rate from CrewNerd.

Here are the data:
| Time_ | Pace__ | _SPM___ | avg HR | max HR | _A/D | DPS | Remarks | 15:30 | 02:53.1 | 18.9 | 129 | 148 | | 09.2 | Warming up | 02:02 | 02:12.9 | 27.2 | 162 | 177 | | 08.3 | 500m headwind | 04:43 | 04:26.0 | 20.1 | 134 | 174 | | 05.6 | rest | 03:00 | 01:58.6 | 25.5 | 161 | 177 | | 09.9 | "1000m" tailwind | 05:35 | 03:30.2 | 19.9 | 135 | 175 | | 07.2 | rest | 09:10 | 02:18.6 | 25.7 | 173 | 181 | | 08.4 | 2km headwind | 13:32 | 05:18.9 | 19.4 | 128 | 180 | | 04.9 | cooling down

Not sure if the SPM is right. Might be an artefact of merging the data.

Here’s the revised trajectory:

And the colorful graphs:

I guess it was smart to take the Garmin Forerunner as a backup.

Race Evaluation

So it’s time for the race evaluation.

The Quad

We should expect tougher competition but it was a good start.

What worked: Race plan execution, light stroke. We were confident.

What didn’t work: –

What would I do differently next time: We have to train doing a 10 hard stroke section in the middle and do an all out last 200m.

The Eight

What worked: We won, despite everything. Apparently the six of us have enough horse power.

What didn’t work: The rowers in the bow didn’t hear the cox.

What we need to do differently: We need to make kilometers in the eight. We need to have a boat with a coxbox. We need an experienced cox.

The Single

What worked: I win effortlessly. I was focused and nothing distracted me (launch wake). I thoroughly enjoyed the racing. I was rowing a relaxed stroke. I was confident.

What didn’t work: I need to discipline myself the evening before the race. Strictly one glass of wine with dinner (or zero), not eat too much, and go to bed early.

What would I do differently next time: I still need to do a hard, all out 1km. Should train this a few times before the next race.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: crewnerd, OTW, race analysis, rowing, training, XGPS160

May 12 2015

The day after a race

The day after a race is a strange day. After a successful raid like last weekend, your head is full of all the wonderful things. There is no point in sharing with colleagues, though. They couldn’t care less.

At the same time, the body is exhausted and the mind is tired from lack of sleep and the long driving. It has difficulty to focus on the problems at hand. There are photos to be looked at again and again.

There is the weather playing it’s tricks. Monday was one of the most beautiful days to row of this spring. Sunny but not too hot and almost no wind.

The day after racing is the day where you should not evaluate. Not yet. You should do your work and when it’s done, drive to the rowing club if you feel like it.

Give the boat a good wash. It’s dirty from the trip and from being stored outside on a sandy beach for three days.

Chat with the people at the rowing club, but do not evaluate. Yet.

Then, if you feel like it, get on the water towards sunset time and do a gentle row. I did just that. In the end I did 10 km and I felt more refreshed after it than before. I didn’t focus on anything. No technique drills. No structured L4 training. Just rowing and looking at the sunset.

Graphs just green and orange. A nice 20spm row.

|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks |02033|10:28|02:34.5| 18.9 | 125 | 140 |10.3|Warming up |02782|14:15|02:33.7| 20.3 | 148 | 159 |09.6|Rokle -> Sirka headwind |00135|01:11|04:23.8| 18.1 | 133 | 151 |06.3|rest |02716|12:37|02:19.4| 19.3 | 143 | 149 |11.2|Sirka -> Rokle tailwind |00072|01:32|10:40.4| 17.7 | 117 | 139 |02.7|rest |01913|10:35|02:45.9| 19.4 | 135 | 147 |09.3|cooling down

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 9 • Tags: OTW, race, rowing, steady state, training

May 11 2015

Piešt’any Pictures

One has to dwell on successes. Training is the food, but the racing is the stuff that spices it all up.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: OTW, race, rowing

May 10 2015

Piešt’any Open Slovak Rowing Championships – Day 2 Long Read

So I had two beers on Saturday afternoon, but that was followed by a 15 minute leisurely bike ride, so I allowed myself to have one glass of white wine during the summer dinner in the hotel garden.

The wine was quite good so it would have been a shame to not have another glass. My single race was scheduled for 9:30 on Sunday morning and if I would go to bed early everything would be fine.

The waiter brought a third glass by accident (or perhaps on instructions from my local competitors) and I finished it as well.

End result: I didn’t sleep very well. Too much wine, too much good food and too warm in the hotel room.

Between 2am and 6am I was awake, trying to sleep, going over race scenarios over and over. I knew my Czech opponents and I knew I should be able to beat them. It would be a combined Masters B and C race, and I would only have to beat one C guy who I knew was easy to beat, but I really wanted to win the entire race.

I had just two cups of coffee and one slice of bread with ham for breakfast. Then we were off on our bikes to the race course. Did I say it is a quite nice ride along the lake shore? The frogs croaked, the cuckoo tried to lay its egg in someone else’s nest. Then we arrived at the race course.

During the warming up run I inspected the race course. Of course the organizers had put me in lane 1. At the start all lanes had a light tail wind ripple, except lane 1 which was shielded had mirror flat water. Combined with the slower river flow I had a real disadvantage.

First to boat was Lenka, who was to row her Junior B girls final in the single. She was so nervous, she was completely white.

She passed me with 300m to go when I was rowing to the start of my race. She was fighting for 5th place and seemed to win. In the end I heard she came in last. I think she had a great result anyway, qualifying for the finals and losing a real fight. She rowed 25 seconds faster than on Saturday and showed much better form. Also, the first three Junior B girls (15/16 year old) rowed faster than the Junior A girls (17/18).

My singles final followed one of the scenarios rehearsed at night. There were 5 of us at the start. I came out of the start in second position. Three rowers fell behind immediately and I was half a length behind Andrej, one of the two local Masters scullers. I kept the stroke rate at 34 and managed to pass Andrej at the point where my mirror flat water ended and I started to feel the tailwind as well.

At that point there was wake from one of the referee launches, and I managed to pass the wake better than Andrej, which gave me another 10 meters.

I rated down slightly and managed to slowly but steadily pull away.

The three other rowers and the referee launch were somewhere behind us in the distance.

Another set of waves send Andrej struggling and I gained even more.

Rated down to 29.

Now I was in front of the public, the final 250m. Listening to the speaker calling my lane I rowed towards the finish line.

Nice to win with a big margin, for a change. 🙂

Here’s the Stroke Rate and Pace graph of the “race”. Says it all:

Not long after I finished, Romana rowed the Women’s 2x race. Three boats at the start and Masters rower Romana, together with a 19 year old girl from our club, won with a boat length. They had to rate 33spm the entire race in order to win:

Now Lenka was the only rower in our family who didn’t have a medal. Her last chance was the Junior B girls double race in the afternoon.

But first a quick lunch and a winner’s beer:

Some pictures from Lenka and Laura in the double:

Romana was waiting for them at the 250m line and I was 50m before the finish. The girls had a good start but after 250m, two boats were clearly in the lead. With 250m to go they were fighting for third place. With 250m to go they managed to pass their opponents and row to third place. However, with 50m to go, they started to show bad form and quickly started to lose ground. In the end, they managed to hold their third place by a bow ball:

Laura is not smiling as much as she normally does. She threw up after the race and was still having difficulty standing up …

So we drove home with 6 medals … good weekend.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: OTW, race, rowing, single

May 10 2015

Piešt’any – Open SLovak Championships – Day 1 long read

Friday

Left Brno around 11am. We took the shorter but windy road to Uherske Hradiste, then up into the White Carpathian mountains, crossing the border pass and then down into Slovakia through some valleys with scattered cottages that could have been from a fairy-tale. Then we drove into the valley of the river Váh towards the spa town of Piešt’any on the banks of the river Váh, where the Open Slovak Rowing Championships would be held.

One has to understand that Slovakia is a proud but small rowing country. There are 5 clubs in total, but about 8 Czech clubs and one Austrian club were participating as well.

A view of the race course in Piešt'any — A view of the race course in Piešt’any

Each of us did a brief 30 minute row and then we were off to the hotel, which turned out to be a lovely place with great food, great wine and a garden terrace to dine. Also they gave us bicycles, on which we could bridge the 4km between the hotel and the race venue by a very pleasant bike ride along the lake.

Saturday

A day full of races. First to go was our daughter Lenka who had to be third or better in her single to qualify for the final on Sunday. When I took her picture at the 500m point she was in fourth place but she managed to secure a place in the final.

I took the picture from the 500m because our son Dominik was already waiting for the start. Here he is in lane 2, at the moment of the start:

I wanted to cycle next to him on the bicycle, but after 10m the chain fell off, so I had to spend a minute to put it back on, then chase him on the bumpy path. The chain came off one more time, so I saw Dominik finish third only from the distance. Here is a picture of our bronze winner:

Then it was time for a quick lunch. At 13:55, the Masters quad was on the program. We had to wait for the 4- to finish (they came in 3rd place) to rig the boat with the quad riggers. A warming up run, and on the water.

The quad race was a 2 boat affair. Bratislava, the third contender, had withdrawn. They wanted to save energy between the 4- and the 8+ race. We had two guys in our quad who had already rowed the 4-, and so had our opponent, the local club Piešt’any. We were out of the starting block head to head with them. In the first 500m they managed to stay about half a length behind us, but then they started to fall behind.

My first Slovakian title. We each got a small “gold” medal and a bottle of “Schauma for grey hair” shampoo:

Two hours later we were launching the eight. We were up against Piešt’any proper in their best boat, against Bratislava who had withdrawn from the quad race to save energy for the eight, and us. In exchange for a liter of home-made Slivovice we were allowed to borrow their worse eight and two of their Masters rowers who hadn’t qualified for their proper eight.

We took our Junior sculler as a cox. He is taller than I and has a bit more than 55kg.

Of course the race organisers had put us in the slower lane 1, with less tailwind and less current.

Out of the starting blocks we were half a length behind and drifting into lane 2. We were almost clashing oars with Piešt’any when our cox finally managed to turn the boat. We got our stroke together in lane 1 proper and started to make some gains. I was in bow seat, and we were one man behind Piešt’any who were leading. Bratislava was half a boat length behind us.

Apparently the cox called three strong 10s during the race but I couldn’t hear anything. We were driving from one end of the lane to the other. I later heard that the rudder was almost impossible to control.

At the 500m mark we managed to pass Piešt’any and clear a boat length. With 250m to go we were a boat length and a bit in the lead but in lane 3, Bratislava was suddenly making quick gains.

We pulled hard for another 25 strokes. The cox managed to not park our eight in the bank and we managed to pass the finish line a second before Bratislava. The eight, our least expected win.

The Piešt’any crew took their loss very sportly. They accused their men who had rowed with us of not having fulfilled their secret mission to slow us down. Who knows … In the end they invited us for a beer, which became two beers.

Then we all cycled back to the hotel and had a great dinner in the garden.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: eight, OTW, quad, race, rowing

May 9 2015

Day 1

So far so good. Lenka qualified for tomorrow’s final. Dominik won a bronze medal, and a gold one for myself.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 4

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Uncategorized

Race Evaluation

500m/1km/2km, Garmin and CrewNerd stuff, and Race evaluation

The day after a race

Piešt’any Pictures

Piešt’any Open Slovak Rowing Championships – Day 2 Long Read

Piešt’any – Open SLovak Championships – Day 1 long read

Day 1

Calendar

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