Oct 11 2017
No, not the Pete Plan Pyramid (250/590/750/1000/750/500/250m), although I believe I have that one scheduled for later this week.
On a business trip to Cairo. No training, this pyramid session was just about visiting the pyramids and enjoying these amazing ancient monuments.
Oct 10 2017
Originally, I wanted to go out in my single, but I had an interview candidate at 4pm, and it gets dark early. Also, the weather was quite windy.
So I decided for an erg workout. A pretty hard one as well, because I am entering a training cycle with a few intense sessions. My legs were still not recovered from Saturday’s race, but I will be traveling without exercise for two days, so I am postponing my “rest”. The normal training plan adjustments that you need to do if you want to combine training with work and family.
I did a 2km warming up, selected a good rowing music list on SoundCloud, put the speaker on loud and started off.
Workout Summary - media/20171009-1901270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10810|50:03.0|02:18.9|205.1|24.6|156.1|181.0|08.8
W-|08000|30:01.0|01:52.6|245.7|26.0|165.8|181.0|10.2
R-|02813|20:02.0|03:33.7|095.4|21.7|141.3|181.0|00.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02000|07:31.7|01:52.9|241.2|25.2|157.9|169.0|10.5
01|02000|07:33.2|01:53.3|242.3|25.9|166.1|174.0|10.2
02|02000|07:31.2|01:52.8|244.2|26.2|168.7|176.0|10.2
03|02000|07:25.5|01:51.4|255.4|26.9|170.5|181.0|10.0
As usual, the first interval was a bit harder than the second, but they were all pretty hard. I was targeting a 1:53.2 average pace, just because that was the winter season opening pace from the last year I did the Pete Plan session. I still have a piece of paper pinned to a piece of wood (an old door, in fact) next to the erg. So, you could say I was aiming for the score on the door.
Even though the second interval was easier, I went slightly above the target. The way I row this, I row target split plus one second for 800m, then target split, and then accelerate or back down depending on the average, to hit my target split.
In the third interval, I didn’t back down.
In the fourth one, I tried to row the final bit full out. The playlist had ended but SoundCloud followed up automatically with something pretty good. I wonder what algorithm they are using.
Stroke length was pretty consistent.
The work per stroke is an interesting one. On the erg, I pull lower stroke rate and higher work per stroke than on the water. This is a static erg. I guess it is natural.
What intrigues me though is that I currently have the feeling that the power I can hold OTW in steady state or in hard distance workouts is higher than what I can do on the erg. My race of Saturday was at 260W, or 1:50.4 pace, which is pretty close to my best 6k efforts of last winter. When I started using the NK Empower Oarlock, I was pulling significantly lower Watts on the water.
There is a psychological effect as well, in that pulling on the boring erg is harder mentally than zipping around on the lake.
It will be interesting to see how this reverses during the winter.
Oct 8 2017
The sun of Austerlitz was tearing apart the fog when I drove past the famous battlefield. I was on my way to Úherské Hradiště and it was a beautiful morning. The sun was coming up behind the hills towards the east, as I passed the famous tree on the Santon hill. From Wikipedia:
The battle took place about six miles (ten kilometers) southeast of the town of Brno, between that town and Austerlitz (Czech: Slavkov u Brna) in what is now the Czech Republic. The northern part of the battlefield was dominated by the 700-foot (210-meter) Santon Hill and the 880-foot (270-meter) Zuran (Žuráň) Hill, both overlooking the vital Olomouc/Brno road, which was on an east/west axis. To the west of these two hills was the village of Bellowitz (Bedřichovice), and between them the Bosenitz (Roketnice) stream went south to link up with the Goldbach (Říčka) stream, the latter flowing by the villages of Kobelnitz (Kobylnice), Sokolnitz (Sokolnice), and Telnitz (Telnice).
A dense fog helped to cloud the advance of St. Hilaire’s French division, but as they went up the slope the legendary ‘Sun of Austerlitz’ ripped the mist apart and encouraged them forward.[41] Russian soldiers and commanders on top of the heights were stunned to see so many French troops coming towards them.[43] Allied commanders moved some of the delayed detachments of the fourth column into this bitter struggle. Over an hour of fighting destroyed much of this unit. The other men from the second column, mostly inexperienced Austrians, also participated in the struggle and swung the numbers against one of the best fighting forces in the French army, eventually forcing them to withdraw down the slopes. However, gripped by desperation, St. Hilaire’s men struck hard once more and bayoneted the Allies out of the heights. To the north, General Vandamme’s division attacked an area called Staré Vinohrady (“Old Vineyards”) and, through talented skirmishing and deadly volleys, broke several Allied battalions.[44]
In fact, I discovered on my Instagram feed that a drone user discovered the same magic moment. Here is a picture he took of the Prace hill.
An hour later I arrived at rowing club Moravia Uherske Hradiste. I would spend the morning there, waiting for the early races to finish, load singles on my trailer and shuttle them back to the start for the afternoon races. The weather was gorgeous when I arrived and I took a few pictures of the mirror flat river Morava.
Sitting on the bank, watching the races, noting down times about 200m before the finish line. In this head race, the start time is exactly on the clock, in one minute intervals. So by starting the stopwatch as the first boat of a field passed, then noting the differences, I could see the results as they happened. It was quite interesting, especially in the Juniors 1x and the Girls Juniors 1x, where there were s few unexpected fast boats in the back of the field and a few favorites performed badly. This is going to lead to discussions, because funds for youth are distributed to the best twelve rowers, using the outcome of this race and a 6k erg test in November.
The sun disappeared and the weather got humid. Then it started to rain. The mirror flat water got ripples and the final stretch had a nasty headwind – good Werthera for powerful rowers.
By noon I saw the last boat of my batch finish, loaded it and drove to the start. I arrived there at 1pm, with my race start time being 1:50pm sharp. That is when they start the stopwatch to measure my 6k. Arrive late and you will find your clock already running.
I grabbed my start number 225, rigged my boat in heavy rain, then changed to racing gear in the club minivan, and carried the boat to the dock to launch 20 minutes before my race time. No time for a warming up run. I warmed up with a few speed burst while the sun came out again.
My main opponents were Mr Machacek, the president of the Czech Rowing Federation, fresh back from Sarasota, with start number 227 (starting two minutes after me) and Mr Cernak with 228, who regularly beats me on the 1k distance. But Cernak is a sprinter pur sang. Mr Skodik with nr 226 had scratched, unfortunately, so there would be a gap of two minutes between me and Mr Machacek.
I started as the second boat in the Masters 1x field and had good hopes of passing number 224 fast.
The river was flowing and the referees ordered me to counter Row constantly so I would not drift past the starting line. Mr Machacek shouted: “Give him a warning! He is so fast he doesn’t need a shorter course.” I didn’t get a warning.
The start was good and I rowed a few hard strokes, then tried to settle for 250-260W on the SpeedCoach, as well as making the first turn. Turns were slightly harder than in other years, because I didn’t wear my rear view mirror. I had decided to not wear it because of the rain.
I tried to estimate the difference between Mr Machacek and myself when he rounded that first turn. It looked like about 500 meters.
So, now I was doing business. Focus on form. Don’t go crazy in the first three kilometers. In terms of Watts, I was pulling a bit harder than my target of 255W. But I was also closing in on the guy ahead of me. Perhaps I could pass him before half way?
Well, that didn’t happen. It took the entire 1000m between 3km and 2km to go to close in and pass him. I rounded the big turn at the beer brewery, using the power lines to time the moment to start the turn. I remembered this from last year. Turn when you are under the second power lines. After the turn I took the ideal line to the next turn, pushing the other guy into the bank, which he obviously didn’t like. Too close to the bank and the flow of the river is reduced and you slow down markedly. So now I was rowing in his puddles and there was a risk of blade collision.
However, gripped by desperation, St. Hilaire’s men struck hard once more and bayoneted the Allies out of the heights.
I turned my head and shouted “Damnit, move over”, pushed the power up a bit and rowed through him. Head racing is fun. You get to talk with your opponents. He didn’t talk back, though.
In hindsight, this was all very good. I kept the pressure high in that difficult middle part. Now it was only 2k to the finish line. Would I dare to keep the power above 270W?
I guess not. I had passed the guy and it also seemed that the gap with Mr Machacek was widening. At that point in the race, I thought it highly likely that I would win, and I focused on being above 245W and rowing with good form.
In the last kilometer I started counting strokes, and I also passed a boat from the tail of the Open Women 1x field. The lady thanked me afterward for chasing her. It had helped her struggle through the final 2km.
With 20 strokes to go I emptied the tank, and then I collapsed behind the finish line. I noticed that it was 14 past the hour on the SpeedCoach and waited for Mr Machacek to finish. Seemed to take ages, but it was worth it. There were definitely more than 2 minutes between us, and more than three minutes between me and Mr Cernak.
Details. I think the pace fluctuations are mainly due to differences in the river flow and the wind, which was a headwind in the initial km and the final 3km.
Workout Summary - media/20171007-192834-Sanders SpeedCoach 20171007 0149pmo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|06098|24:59.0|02:03.0|252.3|28.0|177.7|183.0|08.7
W-|06001|23:05.0|01:55.4|258.7|28.1|179.2|183.0|09.2
R-|00099|01:55.0|09:38.1|040.3|19.6|151.5|183.0|03.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00500|01:46.5|01:46.5|277.8|28.9|168.7|177.0|09.8
02|00500|01:51.6|01:51.6|270.0|27.1|177.0|178.0|09.9
03|00500|01:57.4|01:57.4|269.6|27.3|177.2|178.0|09.4
04|00500|01:53.2|01:53.2|261.3|27.6|178.4|180.0|09.6
05|00500|01:52.6|01:52.6|259.1|27.7|180.1|181.0|09.6
06|00500|01:57.1|01:57.1|234.8|27.7|180.1|181.0|09.2
07|00500|01:56.1|01:56.1|263.1|28.1|180.4|182.0|09.2
08|00500|01:60.0|01:60.0|261.0|28.4|181.5|182.0|08.8
09|00500|01:58.5|01:58.5|267.1|28.6|181.7|183.0|08.8
10|00500|01:58.3|01:58.3|247.4|27.9|181.0|182.0|09.1
11|00500|01:57.7|01:57.7|252.3|28.9|181.4|182.0|08.8
12|00501|01:56.4|01:56.2|242.9|29.5|181.4|182.0|08.7
This map nicely shows the power lines which I used to time the turn.
I did a 2k cooling down, during which it started to rain again. In my wet racing gear I prepared the boat for transport, then I changed to dry clothes, headed to the club house, got my medal, had a bowl of soup and a hot tea, and that was the end of a great race.
Oct 4 2017
Today, I had to prepare my boat for transport, and the training program asked for a short, light recovery row. Given the time I could leave from work and the fact that it gets dark earlier and earlier, my original plan was to drive to the club, put the boat on the trailer, and do an erg workout, either at the club or at home.
But it was beautiful weather and the lake was mirror flat. I decided to go OTW with my single, shorten the training even a bit more, and have fun rowing. I did steady state with some speed bursts at roughly head race pace.
There was a Masters pair on the water, and towards the end of the workout, I literally rowed around it:
Just because I could!
Oct 2 2017
No training. Nothing at all. On Tuesday I was tired. On Wednesday, my family and I traveled to Brussels. On Thursday, first I had to get my wife and kids on track for their site seeing in Brussels, and then I had to attend a long meeting. At the end of the day, we drove to my parents’ place in The Netherlands.
On Friday, we made a bike tour around Enschede. A few hours on the bike. Nothing intensive.
On Saturday, I wanted to go running, but in the morning it was raining too hard, then we made a small trip to the castle of Bad Bentheim (in Germany) and in the afternoon my sisters had arrived, so I preferred to spend time with them.
On Sunday we drove back to Brussels and flew to Vienna. We landed at 5pm local time, and were in the car by 5:30. Just in time for Romana to start following the live broadcast of the World Championships Men 1x final. I was driving, but we heard the comments, and Romana was commenting as well. It was great to witness Synek’s win live.
This was a long, not really planned training pause. I must say I don’t regret it. I am hoping that it doesn’t decrease my fitness significantly. I had work and family priorities. Also, I felt hungry during the entire week and ate large meals. I am secretly hoping that my body is building up necessary reserves.
A long working day. But still I wanted to go on the water and do a 6k trial. Shock therapy after such a long training pause.
The last one before the race of coming Saturday. It turns out it was good that I arrived so late. The weather had been windy and the lake was far too choppy to row until 6pm. When I arrived, all rowers were indoors rowing on ergometers. I was the first to go out. When I rowed to the starting point for my 6k, it was still quite choppy on the lake part, but the wind strength was decreasing rapidly.
Behind Veveří castle, I turned around the single and got ready for the 6k.
I was wondering what a good average power would be for Saturday’s race. The CP chart on https://rowsandall.com tells me it is around 256 W. My last 6k race was on April 6, when I averaged 244 W. For today, I aimed at 240W, assuming that on race day I will be able to row at the same power, perhaps a few % faster.
I focused on not pulling too hard in the beginning (both in terms of power as in work per stroke) and feeling the boat run. I think I succeeded quite well with that.
Between km 2 and 3 I was going through a narrow part, which was even more complicated than normally because I
Then, arriving at the lake, the chop increased and the headwind became stronger.
Workout Summary - media/20171002-182806-Sanders SpeedCoach 20171002 0633pmo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|06000|26:26.0|02:12.2|244.4|26.9|175.2|179.0|08.4
W-|06000|26:26.0|02:12.2|244.2|26.9|175.3|179.0|08.4
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|179.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00500|02:09.8|02:09.8|279.4|27.5|160.0|175.0|08.4
01|00500|02:08.0|02:08.0|254.0|27.1|175.9|177.0|08.7
02|00500|02:09.5|02:09.5|259.9|27.0|176.8|178.0|08.6
03|00500|02:08.3|02:08.3|244.8|27.0|176.8|178.0|08.7
04|00500|02:13.7|02:13.7|254.5|27.1|176.7|178.0|08.3
05|00500|02:15.4|02:15.4|238.1|27.3|176.6|178.0|08.1
06|00500|02:09.9|02:09.9|236.7|27.0|176.1|177.0|08.6
07|00500|02:11.7|02:11.7|238.7|26.8|176.9|179.0|08.5
08|00500|02:17.1|02:17.1|228.4|26.2|176.2|177.0|08.3
09|00500|02:14.8|02:14.8|236.0|26.4|177.1|178.0|08.4
10|00500|02:16.6|02:16.6|230.5|26.4|177.2|178.0|08.3
11|00500|02:11.7|02:11.7|231.8|27.4|177.0|178.0|08.3
Comparing with the April race is also interesting. Light blue is the race. Orange is today’s session:
I think I can conclude that I am not in bad shape. Interesting to see the difference in Drive Length. I wasn’t aware I am rowing shorter than in April. The dips and peaks in the power values are due to steering (which was virtually absent in the April race). I am not comparing pace, because the conditions were incomparable.
The chop had a marked influence on Wash values:
So, pretty happy with the result. For the rest of the week, I will be tied to the erg. Customer visits. Long days. Business dinners, one of them I cannot escape from.
Sep 26 2017
Because I had swapped Friday and Saturday, messing up my three day schedule of hard/easy/easy workouts, I had another hard distance row to do on Monday. Saturday was 8km. This time it would be the 7k. Probably a bit shorter. I wanted to row it without 180 degree stop and turn interruptions. From the 90 degree turn close to Veveří castle to Sirka is 6.5km.
Doing so many of these makes it easier to churn out another one. One gets used to it.
Arriving at the rowing club, I discovered that I had forgotten my SpeedCoach. No power values. I would have to row this one purely on ‘boat feel’. Well, that actually wouldn’t be a bad idea, and the flat water on the river part of the 6.5km would help keeping a focus on technique.
I used the Garmin Forerunner as my reliable data recording tool. On the Android phone, I had a choice between Quiske RowP, but that doesn’t export sessions yet, a non activated version of CrewNerd, and an app I had never personally used: BoatCoach. Well, my rowsandall support for this app was long overdue, so why not try out that one.
So the row started by crossing the lake and then a 5 km paddle through the gorges. On the lake I noticed a stiff tailwind, which would be a headwind battle on the hard distance part of this session. In the gorge, there was no wind and mirror flat water. Cool. Also cool was that some of the tree are slowly turning yellow.
I didn’t get BoatCoach to give me reliable information about stroke rate. The value kept jumping up and down between 10spm (missing to register a stroke) and 40 spm (registering boat movements as strokes). I tried several settings combinations, playing with stroke sensitivity and phone orientation. Nothing helped.
That is how I arrived at the castle, rowed up to the turn, and turned the boat. A few moments of doubt snd contemplation, and then I set off.
I wasn’t sure what pace to hold so I tried to row on feel, but I was happy to see faster than 2:10 at a pace that seemed sustainable. As spm on BoatCoach was unreliable, now and then I counted strokes over 30 second intervals. Thirteen to fourteen strokes consistently, so 26 to 28 spm.
It was fun. I had the comfort of my rear view mirror. Although I still had to look now and then to make sure, because the contrast between the reflection of the trees in the water and the trees on the bank wasn’t great, it allowed me to turn, pick a course, and row 10 to 20 strokes without checking, focusing purely on letting the boat run, getting that springy lightness into the catch, sitting up straight, and generally showing the wildlife how good rowing looks. (Or so I pretended.)
In the narrow and twisty part I had to hug the bank to avoid an oncoming big tourist boat. I also noticed that the reported pace showed values below 2:00. Looking at the GPS trace, the cause is clear. This is not me needing a steering clinic:
The GPS of the phone apparently didn’t like rowing under the trees in the gorge.
Coming on to the lake I was still holding a 2:09 average and feeling good. This row was a blast!
After the nude beach (without nudes) I hit the headwind. Pace slowed down to 2:20 as I battled through that. Towards Rokle the lake started to be a bit more shielded. I wound up the rate. The water was flat again, and boat speed responded positively.
I wasn’t too exhausted after this row, and my heart rate values are in a nice range, slightly lower than on the previous few hard distance rows.
Paddled home happily. In the locker room, I casually mentioned that I did a full out 6k. Actually, a 6.5k.
Oct 21 2017
Recovery Row in the Double
I haven’t exercised in a while.
Sigh.
I returned from my business trip to Egypt feeling well and happy that I didn’t get the food poisoning that they had warned me about. On the evening of my return trip, I did a steady state row on the erg, but I stopped after 30 minutes, because Romana came home and I wanted to greet her more than I wanted to exercise.
Then the misery started. The next day, on Friday, I am having lunch with my team and all is well. An hour later, I visit the bathroom and get a nasty surprise. Another hour later, I am not feeling well. Feeling feverish. I decide that I need to drive home as soon as possible. I spend the rest of the day at home, on the couch, under a blanket, feeling miserable. Terrible headache, belly not good, and fever. I did manage to drink 2 liters of disgusting salt/sugar water mix that I made for myself.
Over the course of the weekend there are ups and downs. I am now eating only light food. After every meal I have to lie down for an hour because of belly cramps. I start taking activated charcoal pills. It seems to slowly get better. On Monday, I work from home. On Tuesday, I feel strong enough to go to work. All seems well.
On Wednesday, I am packing to go to Sofia, Bulgaria, but I am on a 45 minutes fine, 15 minutes of terrible cramps interval session. That lasts the entire morning, and I decide to take the chlorine containing pills that claim to clean my intestines leaving the good gut flora alive.
I depart to the airport, telling myself that if things get worse, I can always turn around before boarding and just go home. But this is an important trip.
My situation improves and I make the trip fine.
Friday, I am back, and it’s ups and downs again, but more ups than downs.
Today, Saturday, I even dared to take out a boat and row. I took our double together with my daughter Lenka.
It was a nice autumn morning. I took some pictures:
And the map:
It is good to be back among the living. Now I urgently need to review my training plans because ten days of travel and being sick does have an impact, and I think I should ramp up slowly and carefully.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: double, illness, OTW, rowing, training