Nov 4 2016
That great feeling at Lactate=8.9 mmol/L (CTC+lactate test+nonathlon+ranking)
Today was a 4 results in one session. The training plan had a “2 speed test” scheduled. The tests consists of rowing 2x1000m at different paces. The first one at “6km pace” and the second one full out. This month’s CTC is a 1000m, and the 1k is also a ranking distance on both the C2 log book and the nonathlon competition.
I started with a nice 20 minute “Fletcher” warming up:
I have recently read a few studies about warming up and priming the Aerobic system to reduce the build-up of “oxygen debt” at the start of a race/workout. The Fletcher warming up is perfectly in line with the conclusions of those studies: It pays off to do a few bouts of hard strokes during the warming up. Also, the studies showed that the effect lasts for more than 30 minutes after the warming up, so I was confident that the warming up plus the first 1k would prepare me well for the second 1k.
Did I mention that the mental aspect of indoor rowing is huge? I normally told myself that I couldn’t row a Personal or Season’s best in that second 1k, because I would already have 1k at “6k” pace in my legs. Today I told myself that the first 1k was actually part of a very long, scientific warming up.
The first 1k was done in 3:40.9, which corresponds to 260W average, slightly lower than a month ago.
Workout Summary - media/20161104-182905-sled_2016-11-04T17-21-03ZGMT+1.strokes.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|01000|03:40.9|01:50.5|27.1|166.5|179.0|10.1
W-|01000|03:40.9|01:50.5|27.1|166.5|179.0|10.1
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|00.0|000.0|179.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00100|00:21.4|01:47.0|26.4|127.5|147.0|10.6
02|00100|00:22.5|01:52.4|26.8|156.5|161.0|10.0
03|00100|00:22.4|01:52.1|27.0|164.4|165.0|09.9
04|00100|00:22.2|01:51.2|26.9|167.0|169.0|10.0
05|00100|00:22.2|01:51.0|26.7|171.5|172.0|10.1
06|00100|00:22.0|01:49.8|27.1|172.7|174.0|10.1
07|00100|00:21.9|01:49.7|27.4|174.7|176.0|10.0
08|00100|00:21.8|01:49.0|27.6|175.7|176.0|10.0
09|00100|00:21.8|01:49.1|27.7|176.7|177.0|09.9
10|00100|00:21.8|01:48.8|27.5|177.8|179.0|10.0
Let’s say I started conservatively, but things went well and I got into a nice rhythm, so eventually I dared to go below 1:50 pace.
After the first 1k, I did 15 minutes of slow paddling, with a lactate measurement at 1 minute and 3 minutes after the 1k. The measured values were 4.1 mmol/L and 3.1 mmol/L respectively.
Then the main event. CTC, ranking piece, and second part of the 2 speed test in one.
Workout Summary - media/20161104-183109-sled_2016-11-04T17-44-18ZGMT+1.strokes.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|01000|03:21.4|01:40.7|32.2|176.9|185.0|09.3
W-|01000|03:21.4|01:40.7|32.2|176.9|185.0|09.3
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|00.0|000.0|185.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00100|00:19.1|01:35.3|34.3|136.9|161.0|09.2
02|00100|00:20.4|01:41.9|31.5|170.4|174.0|09.3
03|00100|00:20.4|01:42.2|31.3|176.8|178.0|09.4
04|00100|00:20.2|01:40.9|31.6|180.0|181.0|09.4
05|00100|00:20.2|01:40.8|31.5|181.8|182.0|09.5
06|00100|00:20.1|01:40.3|31.2|183.3|184.0|09.6
07|00100|00:20.2|01:40.8|31.7|184.5|185.0|09.4
08|00100|00:20.2|01:40.8|31.9|184.4|185.0|09.3
09|00100|00:19.9|01:39.3|33.3|184.8|185.0|09.1
10|00100|00:20.2|01:40.9|33.8|184.5|185.0|08.8
I did a race start and 10 hard strokes with my eyes closed.Then I settled to good hard strokes and continued counting.
First 250m went by without any problem. In fact, I reached 600m to go with ease, but then it started to feel hard. But the counting helped, and I managed to even accelerate in the second half. The trick was to watch the SPM and make sure I rated up whenever I saw the stroke rate fall below 32spm. With 150m to go it started to be really hard, but by then I was counting sets of five strokes and I even managed to keep the pace under 1:40 in the 9th 100m interval.
Happy with 3:21.4. It’s a Season’s Best. It’s just 2 seconds above my PB, and it’s a nice improvement of my nonathlon score.
The hardest part was taking the lactate measurement one minute after the 1000m. Breathing hard, shaking, sweating, and at the same time trying to go through the lactate routine is not easy. Wipe hands. Wash hand with wet towel. Dry hand. Prick a hole in a finger. Wipe off first drop of blood. Put the lactate strip in the lactate meter. Try to get the drop of blood at the open end of the lactate strip.
That last part is the hardest. The blood drop is not big. The lactate strip is small as well. I am shaking and breathing hard. Almost everything except my hand and the lactate strip is covered in sweat (which, if mixed with the blood, makes the lactate measurement invalid), and if I miss and deposit the blood drop somewhere else than on the few mm that is the opening of the lactate strip, I can start over.
But I managed even that. The first measurement was 7.5 mmol/L, then after 3 minutes of paddling I measured 8.9 mmol/L, and after 5 minutes the value was 8.1 mmol/L.
So, compared to a month ago the curve shifted to the right, and I did a much faster second 1k. I think that is progress.
In the “weird plots from rowsandall.com” department, here is today’s harvest:
This first plot show the work per stroke for both 1k efforts, using the cumulative plot, selecting a date range that covers only today’s rows, and filtering out all the strokes below 24spm. The Work per Stroke value is significantly higher than in my Steady State rows (where it is about 640 Joules).
The second plot is the peak and average drive force for both 1k rows. The average is 220/90 lbs.
This plot show stroke length vs stroke rate for the two 1000m efforts. Interestingly, I took longer strokes at the full out effort. This again confirms my theory that this is from the increased lay back that I do when I work harder. It’s just a few cm but it looks significant.
Here is an interesting plot from the second (full out) 1k. Instead of a scatter plot, I decided to do a line plot, which connects subsequent strokes. At the bottom of the plot, I enter the chart in the first stroke at 36spm. The second and third (short) strokes go up to 44spm, and then I go through my 10 stroke sequence, each one being at a slightly lower SPM as I start to take more length. Then I spend most of the time in the 32spm/1.42m area. At the end of the 1k, I trade stroke length for stroke rate, go up to 34spm at the cost of going below 1.4m.
Finally, here is another plot from the rowsandall.com site:
It shows my best efforts over the past twelve months (the red dots) and makes two curve fits to the data. The blue line is the famous Paul’s law, and the green line is a “CP model” (something I copied from cycling data analysis). Looking at the green line, which seems to fit the data better, I can predict a target pace for next week’s 6k effort. It amounts to 1:50.9 pace, 256W, and a total time of 22:11. My PB is 22:12.0. Let’s see.
Nov 6 2016
Saturday: The Frog Event
Every year, my rowing club has a closing of the season celebration, called “The Frog”. It’s a fun day, followed by a fun evening. There are two mandatory parts of The Frog. In the afternoon, we have an awards ceremony for our club’s best crews. Then, late in the evening, there is another award ceremony, called “The Anchor of the Year”. The Anchor is awarded to a person or a crew who contributed most to slowing down our boats (which should be taken in a very broad way). Usually, the Anchor is given to a good rower who decided to end his racing career, or to someone who caught a crab in a crucial race. All in good spirits, of course. The Anchor is a big trophy in the form of an anchor, and a 1.5 L bowl of beer, to be emptied in front of the crowd during the celebration.
As I entered the changing room in the morning, the Boys (11-14 years) were already nervously debating who would receive the “Boys crew of the year” award, and they were even preparing their speeches. It was fun to listen to. Actually, one of the joys of being a master rower in a rowing club is listening to the kids discussions in the changing room.
We’re a small club but we take rowing pretty seriously. Here’s a video from our weights room, where we regularly set up ergs in this “double” or even “triple” configuration:
A club’s spirit is hard to describe. Perhaps browsing through our photo pages will give you an impression.
Anyway. before the activities would start, I wanted to get a steady state row in. Carrying my single to the dock, I realized that this could very well be the last OTW row of this year. The water level is getting lower every day, and our dock is almost resting on it’s lowest possible level, which means that if the water recedes even further, we either have to pull our a temporary small dock or we won’t row.
Also the weather has changed a lot. A few weeks ago we had this ideal autumn weather. Here’s a picture that was taken from the other rowing club, on the opposite side of the lake, that pretty much captures where we were rowing:
But the temperatures have dropped and on most days it is either windy, or rainy, or both.
Today it was dry but very windy, so I opted for the river. The workout I did was a 4x12min with 1 minute to turn, which exactly fits in the part of the river that is rowable. (Past the castle, the water depth is less than 15cm and I am afraid of fin damage.)
A pretty good Steady State session, I would say.
Then it was time for “The Frog”. The first part was a Futnet (Noheybal) tournament, to which I didn’t participate. I am a complete and utter failure in all ball sports, and I would actually be risking injuring either myself, or my team mate, if I would have participated. Here is our Futnet field, part of the club grounds:
If you don’t know the sport, here is a (longer) video that shows pretty much how it is played:
At 4pm, the tournament was interrrupted for the crew of the year awards ceremony. Yours truly got the “Best Masters Crew” trophy. The “Best Elite” was awarded to Milan Viktora. Here’s a video from the spring head race where you can see the guy has a really nice rowing stroke.
As the evening progressed, the author of this blog had a few more beers (but he wasn’t awarded the Anchor trophy, luckily). It was a very nice evening, but he is not going to write up any details.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: OTW, rowing, single, steady state, training