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Sep 27 2016

12km Steady State OTW

Nothing fancy. Got up early, bot not early enough to do the >15km that I wanted before work. So it was 12km in the end.

https://www.strava.com/activities/726766233

I rowed up the the castle and then back. On the way to the castle, I passed two swans. These animals always make me nervous. When I was almost at the foot bridge beneath the castle, the swans came flying back. For a moment, it seemed they were flying directly towards me, but as I passed under the bridge, they passed over it, their wings flapping noisily, and landed further upstream. By the time I had reached my turning point, they were flying back downstream again.

Makes you wonder what goes on in a swan’s mind.

I did some stroke rate work on the way back.

I also spend some time to add some new plotting functionality to rowsandall.com. Now it is still a hidden feature, until fully tested, but it allows you to plot various parameters against each other. It is really a preparation for Power Based Analysis. Here are two example plots:

More will follow and I will explore which plots (for OTE and OTW rowing) seem useful enough and have potential to make me row faster!

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: OTW, river, rowing, single, steady state

Sep 25 2016

Sunday – a nice run (low heart rate!)

Another beautiful sunny autumn day. Maximum temperature around 25 degrees C, no wind. The plan asked for a “recovery cross training” and I knew that today it was going to be my “regular” 12k run from home. I say “regular” because Strava tells me I do this run just a few times per year. Still I consider it as one of my benchmark runs.

The run starts at home, then goes slightly downhill to the next village, Mokra Hora. There, I leave the hard surface behind and enter the forest. I run along a small stream and continuously climbing with a grade between 0 and 5%, and a few shorter, steeper segments. At “Rakovec” (that is the place I pass twice on this run), a long climb starts. Until this point, I was monitoring my heart rate and let it stay in the 140-150 bpm range. At the climb from Rakovec, I was passed by a group of 5 mountain bikers. The climb has a few steeper segments (up to 15% grade) I started to pass the slower bikers of the group. At the top, I had passed three of the five riders. At the cost of a slightly harder effort and a heart rate in the 160-170 range. But my pride was saved.

Then it’s a quite fast downhill segment, to the village of Oresin, then through Jehnice, and straight on towards the railroad track, which I follow (almost flat) until I hit Brno again.

Twelve kilometers. Average pace 5:30. Average heart rate 141 beats per minute. I did the same run a year ago. It was 10 degrees colder then and my average heart rate was 10 beats higher. Then, the run was classified as “black hole”. Today it was a nice “LIT” (low intensity training).

During the run everything felt effortless. Now, I feel the muscles need a stretch and I will probably have some DOMS tomorrow.

I have been reading this reddit discussion with surprise. Apparently, there are triathletes (age groupers) who spend between 100 and 200 USD on a coach who makes their training plan and is available for discussions on progress. I wonder how much of that value I get from writing my blogs and doing training plans myself. I wonder how much of the value I miss because I do stupid things because I don’t have a coach. It’s interesting to think about this. It seems quite a lot to me. I could also say that a few months of rowing without a paid coach will save me enough money to spend on a power measuring oarlock! 🙂

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: rowing, running, trail, training

Sep 25 2016

Saturday – 2 speed Lactate test and some thinking

Time for the 2 speed lactate test again. The protocol is simple.

Do a thorough warming up
Row a 1k “at 6k pace”
Take 15 minutes active rest, measuring lactate at 1 and 3 minutes
Row a full out 1k
Row a cooling down, measuring lactate at 1, 3, 5 and 10 minutes.

Then you plot the 1 minute values against power.

I started with a 20 minute warming up:

Then I did the first 1k:

Pretty evenly paced. I measured 5.4 mmol/L of lactate after 1 minute and 4.5 mmol/L after 3 minutes. I paddled until 15 minutes was gone, at roughly 150-160W pace.

Then I did the second 1k:

I knew this wasn’t going to be a very fast 1k, so after 10 hard strokes at the start, I settled for 300W, then tried to crank it up with 500m to go.

So here is the result (lactate in mmol/L).

Measurement	Lactate	Power
1 min	5.4	270
3 min	4.5
1 min	6.1	315
3 min	8.1
5 min	7.2
10 min	4.3

The droplet of blood after 1 minute after the full out 1k was a little smaller than normal. I think the measurement was OK. It seems the lactate concentration in the muscle was just much higher and it took time to flush out the lactate. This would explain the higher value after 3 minutes.

Here is the graph of all 2 speed tests I had done in the past 12 months:

The chart looks like a game of Mikado (or pick-up sticks) and it is hard to understand what is going on. I have been rereading on Lactate, especially this article. I picked up my old simple numerical model and tried to model the recent three series of lactate step tests I did in September.

Not an ideal fit but it is interesting to look at the parameters.

	Nov ’15	Sep ’16
Pthreshold	200	195	W
beta	0.1	0.15
C_La rest	0.7	1.5	mmol/L
V_La_max	0.1	0.2	mmol/L/s

Pthreshold is the threshold Power. The parameter “beta” is a parameter which governs lactate usage as fuel in the aerobic pathway (higher values mean more lactate can be used as fuel during aerobic exercise). “C_La_rest” is the rest value of lactate (which I measured today), and “V_La_max” is a parameter which governs how fast lactate is produced once you are above the threshold. So the hypothesis is that my threshold power has shifted to the left (bad), but I am better at burning lactate during aerobic exercise. At the same time, I have become better at producing a lot of lactate when above the threshold.

The model should be taken with a very big grain of salt. It’s all very crude and simplified at the moment. Take it as an illustration of my current understanding of lactate “science”. Instead of looking at individual test results, you have to build a model of how blood lactate is generated and used. In “Olbrecht” language, my Aerobic Capacity has slightly decreased, but my Anaerobic Capacity has improved a lot.

Now, if I knew what that means in terms of race performance, and how to use the result to fine tune my training plan … that would be great.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: lactate, lactate testing, OTE, rowing, training

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Sep 25 2016

Friday – 20×60’/60′ rest

Thursday

My parents are visiting from the Netherlands, so training was squeezed for social reasons. On Thursday, I did a steady state session in the morning. Only 40 minutes, and because it felt very hard, at a low power. I just started rowing, following a few Wolverine Plan L4 stroke rate sequences, and stopped after 40 minutes:

Friday

Another session in the morning, to have the rest of the day for work (partly) and being a tour guide around Brno.

This time it was 20x1min/1min rest. In the past winter, I have done this at much faster average pace, but ok.

According to the PM5, I did an average pace of 1:43.6. We had a great night out at the Brno Opera theatre.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: ANC, OTE, rowing, steady state, training

Sep 21 2016

Wednesday: 6k Test On The Water

So for today the plan said “Row 2x3k full out, short break just to turn”. After yesterday’s nice trip to the castle, I thought why not make it a full 6k, starting at the castle? On Greg’s blog post of yesterday, there was a discussion on training full pressure turns, and I think it makes sense to train with the mirror as well. This trajectory:

So I set out to do a long (5.2km) warming up to get to the start line at the Veveří castle.

Then I set off for my 6k. The plan was to row at 25-26 spm for the first 2k, then 26spm for 2k, and finally increase to 28-29spm. In the spring, I did some theoretical mechanical rowing efficiency simulations for head race pace, and it seemed that 27-29spm is the ideal stroke rate for a single. I really have to work on rating up but staying light, from the beginning of the row. I think it also helps with the pacing. When I start at 25spm, pushing with long strong leg pushes, after 15 minutes my legs start to be “empty”. This is actually exactly what happened today.

The average drive force is an estimate (assuming a constant stroke length). I think I was pushing too hard in the first five minutes, then lacking strength in the final 10 minutes.

Did I do the turns well? I have indicated where they are in the second plot. Here is a zoom in to the “serpentines”:

I think that went pretty well. I slowed down only a little. With these turns, the idea is always to connect the turning points with straight lines. You have to look in the tiny rear view mirror and row towards the turning point, which is a few meters off the bank on the inside of the turn. Then you pass the turning point and head straight to the next one. It was hard, though, to find the turning points in the mirror. The bank is grey rock and green trees on a background of grey and green, and even the reflection of the forest in the water makes it green. Well, I managed, but I had to turn my head a few times to check. I would hate to run into the bank.

The other point I indicated in the graph is “wake”. At “Rokle”, I met a pair and two singles. Then, a few minutes later, with about 1500m to go, the coach’s launch passed me, going in the opposite direction. It wasn’t going fast and it didn’t throw a big wake, but because it was going at an angle to my trajectory, I ended up rowing in a small wake for a few hundred meters. At a point where I was really tired. The result was that I didn’t keep my technique up, started to row sloppy, and I slowed down a lot.

This broke me. I had been rowing with the aim to get the average pace under 2:10. The speedcoach had started counting a few seconds before I really started rowing at the start line, so I started at an average pace of 8:00, and gradually worked to bring that down. I was at 2:11.2 average pace when I entered the wake area, and 2:11.4 when I left it.

I finished in 26:11.0 minutes and an average pace of 2:10.9. Average stroke rate 26.3. Average heart rate 177 bpm. Pretty much a maximum effort but not well paced at all. I need to rate higher but row lighter in the beginning of the 6k.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: 6k, lake, OTW, river, rowing, test, training

Sep 20 2016

Cloud-based rowing

Don’t be scared. This is not another nerdy post about data and more data.

It’s just that it was a beautiful, cold, misty morning today. A cloud was resting on the water and just my head and shoulders were sticking out of it. First row this fall where I had to wear an extra layer with long sleeves.

I launched around 6:40 and this session turned out to be one of the most enjoyable ones of the year. It had everything. Rowing through a misty gorge, past rocks, a medieval castle, weekend houses. Seeing the sun rise through the mist (which blinded me for about 500m). Doing head race pace trial pieces of 30 seconds, just long enough to feel the boat rush forward and try to play with and optimize its speed, but short enough to not get tired. Then a long steady state section where I really fell into a groove. With the river turns and the great views, those 55 minutes passed by really quick.

Everything perfect, except a little rowsandall.com upload glitch. This happens only occasionally, and only on the FIT files, and I don’t know exactly what’s going on. The error happens in the part of the rowingdata code where I am creating the colored heart rate bars (this is code that Greg Smith wrote, but I “improved” it) and it leads to the data blowing up, creating 10 MB of data out of a 30 kB set of strokes. The funny thing is that it only happens in the on-line version, and not when I carefully repeat all the steps in an interactive Python session.

But enough nerdy data stuff. Here are the rows:

5x30-45-set-2-9-20-2016 — 5×30″/45″ Set 2

So, first a long warming up of 15 minutes, crossing the lake and going through the windy part of the river.

Then I did 2 sets of 5×30″/45″ rest. I rowed at 28-29spm, deliberately limiting the stroke rate to what I intend to do in the head race. I worked on technique and tried to see the effect on the GPS pace on the SpeedCoach. Rowing clean, with a strong finish, and not too much pressure right after the catch. That’s the recipe I need to follow. I don’t understand why it’s so hard for me to not just do that every stroke. The SpeedCoach is very clear about this. Gives me 2-3 seconds per 500m.

Work Details - Set 1 #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|00126| 00:30 |01:59.0| 30.0| 149 | 158 | 8.4 #1 02|00145| 00:45 |02:35.1| 20.0| 154 | 160 | 9.7 03|00127| 00:30 |01:58.1| 30.0| 160 | 166 | 8.5 #2 04|00138| 00:45 |02:43.0| 20.0| 159 | 168 | 9.2 05|00124| 00:30 |02:00.9| 28.0| 160 | 167 | 8.9 #3 06|00145| 00:45 |02:35.1| 20.0| 162 | 168 | 9.7 07|00128| 00:30 |01:57.1| 30.0| 162 | 171 | 8.5 #4 08|00145| 00:45 |02:35.1| 20.0| 164 | 171 | 9.7 09|00129| 00:30 |01:56.2| 30.0| 164 | 172 | 8.6 #5 10|00145| 00:45 |02:35.1| 20.0| 165 | 173 | 9.7 Workout Summary --|01352| 06:15 | 2:18.6| 23.8| 160 | 173 | 9.1

Work Details - Set 2 #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|00130| 00:30 |01:55.3| 30.0| 150 | 164 | 8.7 #6 02|00148| 00:45 |02:32.0| 21.3| 160 | 166 | 9.2 03|00127| 00:30 |01:58.1| 30.0| 163 | 169 | 8.5 #7 04|00142| 00:45 |02:38.4| 21.3| 164 | 170 | 8.9 05|00129| 00:30 |01:56.2| 28.0| 164 | 171 | 9.2 #8 06|00140| 00:45 |02:40.7| 20.0| 164 | 171 | 9.3 07|00121| 00:30 |02:03.9| 30.0| 164 | 169 | 8.1 #9 - Swans 08|00136| 00:45 |02:45.4| 21.3| 160 | 168 | 8.5 09|00131| 00:30 |01:54.5| 30.0| 164 | 172 | 8.7 #10 10|00140| 00:45 |02:40.7| 20.0| 165 | 173 | 9.3 Workout Summary --|01344| 06:15 | 2:19.5| 24.3| 162 | 173 | 8.8

The second set is going through a big turn but the fast bits were done in straight segments. In interval #9 I was rowing in collision course with two swans, who seemed to be very cool about it. I don’t trust these animals at all, so I slowed down and turned, and I checked almost every stroke what they were up to. That slowed me down a bit.

The second set is faster than the first one. The power calculations seem to suggest that that is due to a more favorable wind. I thought it was because I had found the perfect head race stroke. Probably the wind.

Then I had a quick sip of water and continued to row up the river, now in head race pace. I turned at this point, where there is a small barrier in the river so you can’t row any further.

Here is a picture of another place I passed:

And here is a (spring) picture of the castle. I have shown it many times on this blog, but I simply love rowing in this scenery:

After turning back, I gradually came into a groove, trying to focus on technique. I was doing paces between 2:22 and 2:28 per 500m and gradually lowered the stroke rate from 22spm to 19spm.

I took the average wind speed and direction to calculate the wind corrected pace. That is certainly correct for the river part (40 minutes and later) but I am not sure about rowing through the gorge. The water was mirror flat (or actually, green pea-soup flat because of an algae problem) on the row through the gorge. But yes, I think the 200W equivalent erg power is quite correct, considering my subjective rate of perceived exertion. Looking at the SPM part of the graph, you can nicely see how I dropped the rate during the row, while maintaining boat speed. One explanation is focus on technique. Another one is that it was helped by the wind.

Total distance: 17.3km. I was on the water for 90 minutes, including a few drinking breaks.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: gorge, head race prep, lake, OTW, river, rowing, steady state, training

Sep 20 2016

Monday: 8x500m OTW

This week is a weird week. In my preparation for the 6km head race of October 7, I plan this as an intensive week, but at the same time we are getting guests from Wednesday afternoon to Sunday morning. Therefore, I had to plan my training with all OTW and the most important sessions on Monday to Wednesday.

Originally I wanted to do a 4x2km but I changed to 8x500m in the last minute, for three reasons:

Lack of time. With 4km vs 8km of work, the 8x500m is a faster workout
I hoped to be able to rate up to my head race stroke rate (27-29spm) a bit easier in the shorter pieces. A good opportunity to explore these stroke rates and learn how I am fastest at these intensities
A 2x3km (or full 6km) planned for Wednesday – too similar to 4x2km.

When I set out the lake was mirror flat, but as usual ripples started to form during the warming up.

I used the pre-programmed 8×500/2:30 rest from the SpeedCoach, failing to remember that the speedcoach doesn’t record data during the ‘rest’ period (they say that will be fixed in the next firmware update). The weather report for my location was:

Summary for your location at 2016-09-19T05:43:09Z: Mostly Cloudy. Temperature 54.19F/12.3C. Wind: 1.27 m/s. Wind Bearing: 22 degrees

I think that is about right. Seems consistent with my own observations.

Work Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|00500| 01:58 |01:58.7| 27.3| 160 | 170 | 9.3 - tailwind 02|00500| 01:56 |01:56.5| 28.3| 165 | 174 | 9.1 - tailwind 03|00500| 01:58 |01:58.4| 27.9| 165 | 174 | 9.1 - tailwind 04|00500| 02:06 |02:06.0| 27.1| 167 | 175 | 8.8 - headwind 05|00500| 02:04 |02:04.5| 28.0| 167 | 176 | 8.6 - headwind 06|00500| 02:00 |02:00.5| 27.9| 163 | 173 | 8.9 - tailwind 07|00500| 01:59 |01:59.0| 27.7| 162 | 174 | 9.1 - tailwind 08|00500| 02:01 |02:01.2| 28.2| 160 | 172 | 8.8 - tailwind Workout Summary --|04000| 16:05 |02:00.6| 27.8| 164 | 176 | 8.9

The last time I did this workout was in June. Then I managed a 1:58 average at a stroke rate of 30spm. Today was a 2:01 average at 28spm. Sounds similar to me.

Also the pie chart looks similar:

I didn’t like how I was rowing. I had difficulty rating up and somehow I didn’t manage to get in the right rhythm. In the fourth rest period I understood why. I looked at my oarshaft and noticed I was rowing with a pair of sculls from our double. I have gotten used to the low-i sculls that I use in the single, and the normal sculls are now … different.

On rowsandall.com, I am working on a histogram of all erg strokes over a period of the past 12 months. Here is a prototype graph for my sessions:

The data are not really representative, because since the inception of rowsandall.com I have mainly rowed on the water, but still it’s an interesting graph to look at and see evolve over time. The beta testers had a lot of fun comparing each other’s graphs. One of the uses could be to check if you are really adhering to a polarized training plan.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: 8x500, lake, OTW, rowing, single, training

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Uncategorized

12km Steady State OTW

Sunday – a nice run (low heart rate!)

Saturday – 2 speed Lactate test and some thinking

Friday – 20×60’/60′ rest

Wednesday: 6k Test On The Water

Cloud-based rowing

Monday: 8x500m OTW

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