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myimage (44)

Feb 10 2017

Minute long intervals

The training plan had running, but I decided to do Saturday’s workout today and keep my running to Saturdays.

Warming up 3km

3x(4x1min/1min), 6 minute break between sets, stroke rate in the intervals 28-30spm

Cooling Down, 25 minutes of stretching

Warming Up

The main workout:

Stats:


Workout Summary - media/20170210-1655220o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07986|35:00.0|02:11.5|205.6|24.9|158.4|179.0|09.2
W-|03517|12:00.0|01:42.4|327.6|29.7|164.2|178.0|09.9
R-|04483|23:00.0|02:33.9|113.2|21.2|154.1|178.0|07.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00298|01:00.0|01:40.8|322.4|29.1|148.2|169.0|10.2
01|00293|01:00.0|01:42.4|323.7|29.7|167.9|176.0|09.9
02|00295|01:00.0|01:41.6|328.4|30.0|167.5|177.0|09.8
03|00299|01:00.0|01:40.3|346.9|30.3|170.2|178.0|09.9
04|00297|01:00.0|01:41.1|338.7|29.9|161.9|175.0|09.9
05|00299|01:00.0|01:40.5|342.8|30.7|162.6|176.0|09.7
06|00297|01:00.0|01:41.2|338.4|30.4|168.1|177.0|09.8
07|00292|01:00.0|01:42.6|321.7|29.4|165.8|176.0|09.9
08|00290|01:00.0|01:43.5|319.7|28.6|156.9|172.0|10.1
09|00287|01:00.0|01:44.7|317.2|28.9|166.1|175.0|09.9
10|00282|01:00.0|01:46.5|306.7|29.4|164.9|176.0|09.6
11|00290|01:00.0|01:43.5|324.6|30.6|169.8|178.0|09.5

Pie charts:

I rowed it as a “just row” which was good, because in the second set, I forgot to start the second interval. My thoughts carried me away and when I looked at the PM again, I was 30 seconds late, so I decided to start one minute late. Luckily, the interval editor on rowsandall.com allows for that. There were a few other intervals where I started a few seconds late, leading to a worse average. I basically pulled 1:41 or 1:42 pace, occasionally 1:40 or 1:39.

Again, I didn’t really know how to pace this, but the long rest between the sets made this quite irrelevant. The main constraint was the stroke rate. I personally would have rated up a bit, and you can see from the stats that I did hit 30spm most of the time, and rarely went down to 28spm.

After that, I did a 2km cooling down.

As I have two lighter weeks, I stay with this plan, but I will have to diplomatically ask our head coach how he determins this plan’s intensity.

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bokeh_plot (75)

Feb 7 2017

New Zones, New Charts, New Correlations

Today’s session was a new one for me. This week I am following his training program for our Masters rowers, and I am considering to stay on this program if it looks/feels OK.


warming up 2500m
8min @ 22spm / 4min rest (Zones 1/2)
16min / 4min rest. 16 min = 1min @ 26spm, 2min @ 24spm, 3min @22spm, 4min @ 20spm, 3min @ 22spm, 2min @ 24spm, 1min @ 26spm (Zones 2/3)
8min @ 22spm
Cooling down
25' stretching

I wasn’t sure how Adam defines zones, and I forgot to ask the other Masters rowers*. I think it is based on a lactate step test that the guys did in the fall. If that is correct, I can do a similar test at home and plug the numbers into rowsandall.com

Something wrong with the HR and power recording after the 16min interval

I programmed the session as an irregular interval on the PM5, and I am afraid this confused rowsandall.com (or painsled) a bit. I haven’t really tested this mode, so I need to check what is going on. The Power figures definitely look wrong in the second rest interval, as do the HR values. Also the interval editor misbehaves, so no statistics today.

Luckily, the Flex Chart works well, so here are the flex charts:

I have implemented a new feature on Rowsandall.com. A big page with statistics. One feature that I implemented for my own pleasure is a correlation matrix:

This is the correlation matrix for this particular workout. Each cell indicates how strongly the metrics on the two axes correlate. A positive correlation means that if one metric increases, there is a good chance that the other also increases. A negative correlation means the opposite. So you can see that the Average/Peak force ratio decreases as my heart rate increases. Also, a shorter drive length goes together with a higher average/peak force ratio. I also seem to shorten up on the slide a bit when going to higher SPM.

This is just one workout, and I am not 100% convinced of the usefulness of this chart (although I do hope it is). I also implemented functionality where you can look over all workouts over a longer time period. Here are all my erg workouts in January.

It is interesting to look at the strong negative correlation between Peak Force and Average/Peak Force Ratio. Here are two plots of all strokes over the same time period.

I have filtered out any strokes in the first 2km of any workout, to reduce any “warming up” effect. There are two funny things. In the plot on the right, you can see that most of the negative correlation comes form “paddle” strokes.

The other funny thing is the little “island” of strokes in the graph on the right. Looks like some different “mode” of rowing. Comparing that with the graph on the left, where the two parameters are plotted against the stroke rate, you can see that most probably the “island” correspond to a group of strokes between 18 and 20spm.

So I created two more plots:

 

On the left, I filtered out all strokes at lower than 20spm (so the chart shows only strokes of 20spm and higher), and you can see that the island disappeared. The chart on the right shows only strokes at 20spm and lower, and you can see the two islands. The red dots are Power values. You can see that these are not “paddle” strokes, because they were done at around 150W.

Another interesting thing in the left graph is that my peak force stagnates as power increases above 250W.

So if anything, the correlation matrix plots have led me to find some mysterious “flat” stroke that I row at 19spm. I have added the last two plots to my regular flex charts to study after a workout. Interesting!!!!

*Regarding zones, I asked the other Masters rowers, and the definition is as follows:

Zone 1 = 1-2 mmol/L “Steady State”

Zone 2 = 2-3 mmol/L “Steady State”

Zone 3 = 3.5-5 mmol/L “ANP”

Zone 4 = 6-8 mmol/L “Aerobic Capacity”

Zone 5 = 8-15 mmol/L “Anaerobic Power”

Zone 6 = 3-6 mmol/L “Speed”

The table also has individual paces and HR frequencies for each rower. 

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myimage (37)

Feb 6 2017

Short Recovery Row

Nothing special to report. The training plan said “40 minutes bike or running” but cycling or running in the dark and on the melting snow is not really what I fancied.

It was clear that I wasn’t going to row really hard or long. I want this to be a light week after the intensive cross-country skiing. Also, I felt that I needed another light day. Tomorrow’s session looks quite “interesting”.


Workout Summary - media/20170206-1915180o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08140|35:37.0|02:11.3|161.3|19.3|142.1|158.0|11.9
W-|07046|30:00.0|02:07.7|167.6|19.4|141.6|158.0|12.1
R-|01097|05:37.0|02:33.7|118.9|18.1|143.7|158.0|11.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|03284|14:00.0|02:07.9|166.6|19.3|133.4|148.0|12.1
01|03304|14:00.0|02:07.1|170.2|19.6|150.0|158.0|12.0
02|00458|02:00.0|02:11.0|156.5|19.1|139.7|150.0|12.0

Wanted to do 45 minutes but stopped after 35.

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stravafitness

Feb 5 2017

Using Fitness, Fatigue and Training Load graphs

Over on RowingMusings (read that blog!), a recent post discussed Stravistix, a Chrome plugin to add some stats to Strava. The most interesting add-on is a Fitness & Fatigue graph, based on the TRIMP measure of your training load.

SportTracks and TrainingPeaks also have something similar implemented. The PC version of SportTracks has a plugin that does the same. When you are a Masters rower who trains regularly, it is very helpful to monitor graphs of Fitness, Fatigue, and Training Load.

The principle of these metrics is quite straightforward.

  1. For each session calculate a “Training Impact” Number. This “suffer score” (or Training Stress Score) is one number that indicates how hard the training was. There are various ways to calculate such a number. It is basically a weighted average of training intensity over the time. Various proxies are available for training intensity: Power, Speed, Heart Rate.
  2. From the training impact, calculate “Chronical Training Load” (CTL) and “Acute Training Load” (ATL). Both are usually exponentially weighted average of the Training Impact. The CTL averages over a long period (42 days typicall) while the ATL averages over a short period (7 days)
  3. Calculate the Training Stress Balance (TSB) which is the difference between CTL and ATL. As your CTL represents your Fitness and your ATL represents your Fatigue (the opposite of Freshness), the TSB represents “Form” (Fitness+Freshness).

I think this is a great way to help you monitor overtraining and detect stagnating fitness. But you have to know how to interpret the graphs.

Here are example graphs from my training diary. I keep all my data on Strava, SportTracks (PC) and SportTracks.mobi, so it is easy for me to compare:

Fitness graph in Strava
Fitness graph on sporttracks.mobi
Fitness graph on SportTracks (PC)

I use the standard out-of-the-box values for all parameters used in the calculations. So do these graphs tell the same story? All of them show roughly the past 12 months of training. Somewhere in March 2016, I switched from erg based training to boat training. I tried to peak for races in mid July and early August. Then I took a vacation with low training intensity, which was great for mental recovery from the racing season. In September, I resumed training for a head race in October, and then on to the winter erg training from November onward.

Looking at “Form”, SportTracks (PC) puts my best form (highest TSB) in the middle of my vacation. Sporttracks.mobi (the Performance graph on the right) shows three peaks, and then seems to suggest that I greatly reduced training intensity (and thus form) after the vacation. Strava has a Form peak in May and a peak in the middle of my vacation.

Regarding fitness, the PC version of SportTracks and of Strava come much closer to my gut feeling, but SportTracks.mobi seems to be more in line with my erg scores. The main difference seems to be that the SportTracks.mobi has a much shorter time period to measure CTL. On this site, you get fit faster, but when you reduce the training load, your fitness drops almost immediately. This seems to give a better representation of what happened during my vacation.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle.

The book Training and Racing with a Power Meter gives some good advice about using the Fitness graphs. One of the observations in the book is that athletes show their best performance when TSB turns positive, but not overly, especially for shorter duration events with a larger anaerobic contribution (think 1km sprint racing for Masters rowers).

So while a positive TSB value is an indication of good form, a higher positive value does not necessarily mean better form. All this is quite interesting stuff to think about when you plan your taper for an important race.

In my experience, how I feel is more related to relative changes in the graphs than in the absolute values. For example, today, after one day of full rest after a very intensive week of cross-country skiing, I still feel highly fatigued. My fatigue scores are roughly equal to the values that I had during the entire period of April to July, but I am sure I am more fatigued now and I badly need a “light” week. Looking at the graphs, I see a very steep growth of both CTL and ATL as a result of last week. I expect to fully recover in a few days of rest and light exercise. This doesn’t mean my TSB value will be positive, but it is going in the right direction.

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IMG_1281

Feb 4 2017

A great week in the mountains

That was a great week. Romana organized the cross-country skiing training week in the Jesenik mountains. On Sunday, a bus picked us up in Brno, brought us to Ovčárna and from there we hiked 1.5 km to our mountain hut Barborka:

Just before sunset, we managed our first cross country run.

Here are a few pictures I shot:

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After that, I took a picture of the sun setting and we had a drink at another mountain hut:

On Monday morning, we did a XC ski run to Svycarna:

In the afternoon, we hit the training loops close to our hut:

On Tuesday, the sunny weather was gone. It was snowing hard. We decided to stay close to the hut and hit the training loops again:

After lunch, I ran to Svycarna and back in heavy snowfall:

On Wednesday the weather started to turn good and I took the three most experienced girls on a long tour, to the Cervenohorske Sedlo (“Red Mountain Saddle”, a mountain pass and hotel).

We were lucky. At Svycarna we met the snow groomer and we had freshly groomed trails all the way to the Saddle pass:

In the afternoon, we didn’t do a training, but we hiked back to the bus stop and visited the nearby village. Very nice woodenn mountain architecture:

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On Thursday, the beautiful weather had returned. We decided to ski up Praded mountain. The girls took the elevator to the top floor of the TV tower and enjoyed the view. I did a few more km by skiing to Kamzik and back.

I took many pictures when we climbed up to the TV tower on Praded mountain:

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In the afternoon, we were back on the training loops and did the 5k loop twice. By this time, I was already pretty tired, and my daughter Lenka skated away from me in the second loop and there was nothing I could do. Let’s say I let her win to boost her confidence, but to be honest I am not sure about it.

Actually, all the girls had by now made tremendous progress in their cross-country skiing. Romana taught them some technique, a few different styles, and they were all enjoying themselves.

On Friday morning, I took a very easy run to Svycarna, where we had coffee. On the way back, my son Dominik was getting the hang of the skating technique (on thawing, icy trails), and I did a sort of interval training, running up the hill until I caught up with Radka, the lady who was accompanying us, then going downhill back to Dominik who was struggling but not giving up, turning around, and repeat.

In the afternoon, we organized XC team races. Each team consisted of three athletes, and each of them would run 2 loops of 2km, 4km in total, 12km per team. During the coffee break at Svycarna, we had carefully arranged the teams in such a way that all had a chance to win. Here are the pictures from the race:

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My job was to measure the times. At the end, I did the 4k myself. My time was 15 minutes and 52 seconds.

This morning we packed and hiked back to the road. A two hour coach ride later we were back in Brno. From the sunny mountains to a smoggy Brno, with just the memories of a nice stay in the mountains:

Today: Rest.
Tomorro: Rest & Sauna.

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Image uploaded from iOS

Jan 28 2017

I must be doing something wrong

So the Masters rowers of our club want to go to the Masters Worlds in Bled this year, and I am one of the guys who has been urging everyone to train hard this winter. I even put up a list on the notice board where people are supposed to write their 6k and 2k erg scores (fall, spring and summer values).

Today, there is an erg race in Pardubice, where I was supposed to compete. However, our boys have been sick. They are recovered now, but we decided that it is better I stay at home with them, a day before we go to the mountains.

The instructions of our coach were clear: “Masters compete in Pardubice. Who cannot make it, rows a 2k on Saturday and sends me the score.”

So at the end of the morning I headed down to the basement and started doing the Fletcher warming up for 1:44 pace. I thought I was in shape for a PB attempt. Actually, I had difficulty not going faster than the paces prescribed by Fletcher, at his prescribed rates. Here is the warming up:


Workout Summary - media/20170128-1025200o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|04786|20:09.0|02:06.3|184.3|20.9|160.2|177.0|11.3
W-|04790|20:09.0|02:06.2|179.6|20.6|159.6|177.0|11.7
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|177.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00932|04:00.0|02:08.8|161.1|18.3|140.1|157.0|12.8 "18spm 2:11"
01|00949|04:00.0|02:06.4|173.3|19.3|159.2|164.0|12.3 "20spm 2:07"
02|00724|03:00.0|02:04.3|181.7|21.0|162.9|166.0|11.5 "22spm 2:05"
03|00248|01:00.0|02:01.2|196.2|23.0|165.5|168.0|10.8 "24spm 2:03"
04|00136|00:30.0|01:50.5|257.3|26.8|168.1|172.0|10.1 "26-28spm 1:52"
05|00467|02:00.0|02:08.6|167.9|19.9|167.9|173.0|11.7 "18spm 2:11"
06|00211|00:45.0|01:46.6|285.4|28.4|171.0|177.0|09.9 "28-30spm 1:47"
07|00523|02:15.0|02:09.0|165.3|20.0|169.0|177.0|11.6 "18spm 2:11"
08|00147|00:30.0|01:41.9|330.6|31.3|171.0|177.0|09.4 "30-34spm 1:41"
09|00454|02:09.2|02:22.3|151.2|20.1|162.9|177.0|10.5 "18spm 2:11"

In the last interval, my son came down to ask me something, so I stopped and answered.

And here are the metrics charts:

Then I did some stretching and set up the PM for a 2000m. Here are the stats:


Workout Summary - media/20170128-1025190o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02000|07:08.0|01:47.0|285.6|29.9|179.8|184.0|09.4
W-|02000|07:08.0|01:47.1|284.9|29.9|179.9|184.0|09.4
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|184.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00250|00:50.5|01:41.1|322.8|31.2|164.8|178.0|09.5 - start and first 10
01|00250|00:52.3|01:44.6|306.1|30.4|180.5|183.0|09.4 - settle for 1:45 pace
02|00250|00:52.5|01:45.0|302.0|30.1|183.3|184.0|09.5 - keep 1:45
03|00250|00:52.7|01:45.4|299.6|30.2|183.6|184.0|09.4 - keep 1:45
04|00250|00:52.9|01:45.7|297.8|30.5|183.6|184.0|09.3 - power 10??
05|00250|00:55.2|01:50.3|262.3|29.2|182.3|183.0|09.3 - crisis 1
06|00250|00:54.7|01:49.4|266.7|29.6|181.1|182.0|09.3 - trying to save it
07|00250|00:57.7|01:55.5|230.6|28.5|179.5|181.0|09.1 - crisis 2

The story is simple. I set off at 1:44 pace. In the second 500m I retreated to 1:45 pace, seeing the occasional stroke at 1:46. At 1000m to go I did a power 10, hoping that would give me motivation to get through the dreaded third 500m. After the “power 10” I had difficulty finding the 1:45 pace again. Actually, pace slipped to 1:48 and I wasn’t able to react.

With 500m to go I told myself that all is not lost and with a strong final 500m I could at least set a decent time.

No way.

I sped up slightly, but that only brought me back to a terrible 1:48 pace. Then I let the pace slip back to 1:50 and worse …

Here are the metrics charts:

After the row, I sent the score to the coach.

I guess I will not be going to Bled, unless I drastically improve something.

The problem is that I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I need to look at my training load of November and December, and compare it to the 2015/16 season. I need to find what I am doing wrong. There must be something.

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sev_pohl

Jan 27 2017

Taper for 2k

Today I did a Taper training as prescribed by our coach.

  • 3km Warming Up
  • 6 times 15 hard strokes, rest 2 to 3 minutes
  • Start+250m at 2k pace
  • Cooling Down

I wasn’t sure if the 15 hard strokes were to be done at a high stroke rate or a low stroke rate.


Workout Summary - media/20170127-1710200o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08353|36:55.0|02:12.6|190.1|22.9|145.9|172.0|09.9
W-|08353|36:55.0|02:12.6|188.9|22.9|145.9|172.0|09.9
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|172.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|07000|31:15.9|02:14.0|189.4|22.8|144.7|172.0|09.8
01|00250|00:51.4|01:42.7|319.3|29.2|148.8|167.0|10.0
02|01103|04:48.0|02:10.5|162.4|21.9|153.1|168.0|10.5

One thing that I am thinking about a lot is increasing power by stroke rate, rather than by increasing the drive force. I see that in my “power” intervals, I go substantially higher in “Work per Stroke”, which means that I increase the average drive force. A risk of doing that is that your muscle fatigue sets in earlier than aerobic fatigue (if that is a valid term). For tomorrow’s 2k, I want to rate high from the beginning (above 30spm) but keep the power checked at 1:44 pace, at least in the first 1500m.

Here are the charts that show what I am doing:

And here are the Pies:

So a 2k tomorrow, and then packing and on Sunday we’ll go to the mountains for a week of cross-country skiing:

Conditions look great: http://www.jeseniky.net/pocasi-snih#upravene-bezkarske-trasy

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