We rowed it in hard summer rain and almost now wind. I was glad it rained so hard. Temperatures have dropped from >30C to 19C, and all the swimmers and recreational boats have disappeared. We had the lake for ourselves.
This wasn’t an easy workout. Martin hasn’t sculled since the race in Piestany. He has trained, but only on the erg and in the pair. The high rates were a bit of a shock to his system. Also, I had the feeling the boat was lying to the port side and there wasn’t the lightness that is required for a fast quad.
I think our paces are slow compared to the competition. Well, we’ll see on Saturday.
Romana and I drove down to Hodonín today for a day of rowing. Romana met with the eight (and the quad) she will stroke in Munich, and I met my double partner Kazimír. A kind of a Masters training camp. On the Morava river, the border between Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Masters on the river.
We arrived just before ten. The ladies of the eight arrived a few minutes after us. I had to wait for Kazi, as usual. No problem. I asked one of the Hodonín ladies if Kazi is training hard, and she answered that he is. Apparently his single goal for next weekend’s Masters Nationals is “to beat Roosendaal”. I smiled and said we could do that race this afternoon on the river. I am not sure if she knew that “Roosendaal” is me. 🙂
I beat him twice this year. He used to beat me two years ago and was out of the running last season because of hip surgery. Most probably, coming weekend we’ll be racing each other in the single at the Masters Nationals.
Anyway, Kazi turned up and we took a double for a steady state row with technique exercises.
When I asked him about his training regime, he commented that he “was just fooling around and will start serious training next year”. 🙂
Hodonín is on a river, so I was looking forward to try out my wind and stream correction algorithms on rowsandall.com with river data. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction of the stream and the stream was a very lazy summer stream, so there wasn’t much pace corrections going on.
Before lunch, Kazi and I rowed a bit more than 13km, mainly steady state and technique exercises. After lunch we spent an hour adjusting the boat. There was a lot wrong with this double. The height differences were different for stroke and bow seat. The bow starboard scull was set at a very high oar angle so Kazi had difficulties keeping his blade in the water.
After lunch we did speed work, the main part being three times 250m from a standing start:
Workout Summary - media/20160710-203236-2016-07-10-1458.CSV
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07874|47:36.0|02:04.6|26.8|152.8|175.6|10.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02803| 18:50 |03:19.1|13.3|141.0|172.0|11.3
02|00250| 00:49 |01:39.8|36.0|156.0|178.0|08.3
03|00250| 00:50 |01:40.7|34.5|158.0|175.0|08.6
04|00250| 00:51 |01:43.3|33.6|158.0|177.0|08.6
05|04321| 26:16 |03:02.0|16.4|151.0|176.0|10.0
As you can see from the summary, we did those 250m from standing starts around 1:40 pace. I am quite happy with that. Kazi and I managed a 1000m in 3:17 at the Masters Worlds in Varese, which to date is my fastest 1k (in the double) as a Masters rower. I think we could be close to that in good weather. So nothing wrong with Kazi’s training regime.
We did the first 250m full out and at high rate. For the subsequent two 250m intervals we lowered the rate, trying to find that “fast yet light” stroke.
Morning row. Technique drills between km 4 and 7
Afternoon workout.
For the 250s, I set CrewNerd to row a single distance of 250m. After the finish, we just continued rowing for a km or more, and I didn’t reset CrewNerd, so the data were not captured.
Hodonín Town Hall
After the rows we jumped into the river for a swim. It was 35C today. The river water was nice. We swam to the Slovak side and back. First time I crossed a border swimming.
Too windy to row, so 45 minutes on the erg. Steady State.
Thursday
Rest day.
Friday
Had to row in the afternoon, because I didn’t have the car in the morning. It was a warm day, and a Friday afternoon, and it is school vacation, so the lake had turned into a giant swimming pool again. I did steady state in the single, with start practices. I set CrewNerd to 250m with 2:30 rest, and started each 250m with a start plus a few strokes, then paddled.
I caught a crab in one of the starts, right in front of a little beach with a few young ladies in bikinis watching me.
Saturday
No rowing. Romana and I took the train from Brno to Vlkov, a small village about 30km into the highlands. From there it is a very pleasant ride on mountain bikes, along a small stream called Bílý Potok. What makes it special is the abundance of old watermills, that are now turned into weekend residences, most of them in a very tasteful way. Another fun aspect of this ride is that there are no less than 16 places where you have to ride through the stream with your bike.
LunchWe rode through most of them, but we waded through this one
A rest day. A strange day at work. The US had a holiday, and CZ has bank holidays on July 5th and 6th. So there were not so many people, but I really had to get in and get some stuff done.
Tuesday
A holiday, but I still had to get up early and get to the lake, because after that we would be driving to family in Pardubice to celebrate my brother-in-law’s 40th birthday.
The plan was to row a full out 1000m as a race simulation. To make it a more complete race simulation, I decided to do a longer, “Fletcher”-likewarming up. Then I paddled to the start of the 2k, noticing that the Albano buoys system has been removed because race season is over on this lake. I dialed up a 1k, pressed start and got ready for a race start while CrewNerd counted down 30 seconds. The plan was to row a 3:40, which I thought would be possible in the tailwind conditions.
Go. Race start. Then execute race plan. Ten strokes at high rate, then settle a bit.
Everything was going well. I was seeing 1:44 pace right after the start, then pace slowly crept up to 1:50.
Then, 350m into the race, when things started to hurt a bit, a pair crossed right behind me. Tomas and Jakub doing their warming up.
I knew that that meant that a single was following closely behind them, and as the traffic patterns on our lake are a little vague, I was afraid it might be on collision course. So I decided to look around (I was not wearing my mirrors). I noticed that the single was indeed on collision course and I also noticed that I had drifted from the straight 2k, and was about to collide with a big yellow buoy that is just outside the (now invisible) Albano system.
I had to stop for one stroke to avoid smashing my scull into it, then continued. All this made my rate and pace drop.
To make things worse, along the course the lake became choppier and that also made me slower and rowing at a lower rate. After 100m of struggling, I had an inner dialogue that went something along these lines:
“You’re not making your pace target. Give up and paddle.”
“Man up and finish the row” – I followed that advice.
In the end I didn’t meet my pace target, but I was glad I finished the row.
That is a new plot from rowsandall.com and I am quite proud of it. I am now offering my users wind corrections. So you can see that my 1:51 pace in the first half of the row was really a 1:53-1:54 in neutral conditions. You can also see the big drop in pace, and then I recovered.
To test the wind conditions, I decided to do a hard 250m (running start) in headwind, roughly at the same place where I had done the 1k. For the 1k I averaged 1:53 in tailwind. The headwind 250m were in 1:56. I think that is a fair comparison as I did try to row as hard as the 1k.
On traffic patterns
The confusion with the guys doing a warming up made me look at my traffic pattern ideas again. The traffic patterns on our lake were agreed long ago between the two rowing clubs. I think after a few decennia, some sloppiness has started to creep in, and the traffic pattern is not the safest any more, as there are many points where traffic crosses.
I drew an improved pattern, but nobody wants to change it. And I guess even if the clubs agree, it will be hard to change people’s habits.
Here is the current pattern:
From my club, we row warming up towards Rokle. The “official” traffic pattern is to cross the lake diagonally and merge into the traffic rowing towards Rokle from LS Brno, hugging the right bank (bottom bank in the picture). At Rokle you turn and row back “in the middle”. Some rowers are convinced that the traffic pattern is that rowers from both clubs hug their respective banks when rowing towards Rokle, and in the middle when rowing towards Sirka.
Rowing from Rokle to Sirka there are two options. Either you turn sharply after the nude beach, cross the warming up traffic and row to the start of the 2k. Alternatively, you just keep going straight until you merge into the 2k Albano roughly at the 500m point.
I think the whole area between the 500m point and Rokle is confusing and has a high risk of collisions. Here is my proposal:
The idea is that from our club we should do warming up towards Sirka instead of rowing directly towards Rokle. Then all traffic from Sirka to Rokle should hug the right (bottom) bank.
An interesting detail is that I have found old plans for the race course from the 1950s. Compared with the course that was finally built (after establishment of the LS Brno club) is was shifted more towards Rokle, and the finish was 300m past our club house, with a grandstand on the left (top) bank.
No, I didn’t participate in the National Youth championships, but I was there because two of my children participated, and also to help out the club trainers managing the entire championship.
Our club’s group was more than 30 people, kids, trainers, and me. We took our Salani 2x, “Orca”, both for the girls to race in and for Romana and myself for some early morning trainings. As I did more than 40km cycling up and down the race canal during the race days, the OTW trainings were short and sweet. On Friday we did a 1km time trial, which I already blogged about. On Saturday, we did a steady state row, and Sunday was 30″ intervals to try out various stroke rates and race paces. On all days, I forgot to charge the XGPS 160, so the CrewNerd data are noisy.
Saturday Steady StateSunday sprintervals
Here is the CrewNerd summary for Sunday’s sprintervals:
My son Dominik started in the boys 12yr single, racing over 500m. On Friday, he managed to beat one guy and thus proceeded to the semifinals. In the semifinal he finished last. In the double, they didn’t survive Friday’s heats.
My daughter Lenka competed in the double and the quad. In their age category, they compete over 1500m. In the double, they rowed a fantastic heat, finishing second and qualifying for the semifinals with a time of 5:58 (first time under six minutes for them). This row was brilliant. They started off quick, took a second place with a good lead over the rest of the field and defended that to the end. They rowed a quiet 30-31spm but the boat was moving very well.
On Saturday, they rowed in the Semifinals. Six boats per semi. First two would go to final A, third and fourth to final B, and the two last would be out. The girls fought hard for a place in final B but unfortunately, they didn’t make it. Again they rowed a controlled stroke rate of 30-31, but this time the boat was not moving as well. No free speed.
Less than two hours after that, they rowed their semifinal in the quad. With three girls of the four girls only 15, it would be hard to get into final A in this girls 15/16 field. Also, the girls had been competing in the double, our stroke even in the single, and they were rowing against a few quads who only focused on this discipline. And although the rowing looked tired, they managed to keep Hodonin at a length behind and made it to the A final.
A final. Yay! Mission accomplished.
Sunday. A final day. We tried to set the expectations. And even though we told them that they would probably be fighting for fifth place, being the outsiders in a very fast field, some of the girls seriously thought they had a chance for bronze. It is funny talking to children. You can tell them some things many times, but they don’t hear. I guess this applies to adults too …
Anyway, we tried to fire them up for a quick start, and try to stay with the field as long as possible, then row for a good time if they lost contact with the rest of the field. It was hard for us to coach them. For the first time, there was a big screen next to the grandstand and a camera crew filming each race. For that, they had closed the bike path next to lane 1 for all traffic, causing a huge disadvantage for boats in lane 1 and 2, because you cannot reach them by voice when you cycle next to lane 7 and try to shout across 6 lanes into a crosswind. Fifteen minutes before the start of the girls’ final, I tried cycling all around the canal to sneak behind the camera car, but I was stopped by an official. I contemplated hanging around until the start, then quickly escaping him and cycle behind the TV crew, but the official knew which club I belonged to, so I didn’t want to risk a disqualification of our girls. Because of this “incident”, I had to cycle all around the canal again, from 500m back to 0m, then to 2000m, across the bridge over the return channel, and back up to 500m. It’s a good thing I am trained. I managed it just in time.
The race went as expected. They started slow, then fought their way back to half a length behind the Pardubice boat in sixth place, but then gradually lost ground. In the final 100m, the boat rowing in third position caught a huge crab, which cost them bronze, and our girls almost passed them on the finish line.
You can see for yourself in the Youtube replay of the live stream. Forward the video to 6:36:21 and then watch. The next race is the Girls 4x- A final.
And some pictures:
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Our recent race in Prague, where we filed a protest, unfortunately boomeranged back to our kids. The cox of the boys 15/16 eight forgot to go to the weigh-in. He arrived 12 minutes late. The officials refused to weigh him and canceled the eights semifinals immediately (there were only 7 boats registered). Normally, if somebody forgets to weigh in in time, they get a yellow card before the start, and the cox has to weigh immediately after the race. If he is under weight, the crew gets a red card. So we didn’t understand the decision to just give us a red card immediately and so our trainers went to the tower, acknowledged that it was our mistake, but reminded them of the usual practice in such cases. Two of the boys had come to Racice only for the eights.
One of the officials commented that it was very bold of us to ask them such a favor, given that we had called them “čuráci” in Prague. This is very probably true. One of our guys was so pissed off after that race and how the officials had spoilt it, that he used a few strong words. In the original blog, I described that as “Our boat needed another five minutes to calm down.”
This went through my head when I heard about it: “So a couple of really disappointed Masters rowers called you something in Prague and you were just waiting for your revenge, with our boys as the victims, who have nothing to do with the original incident?” Our trainers stayed calm and managed to negotiate that our boys could row, out of contest, in lane 7 with the final. The boys ended in fifth place (but you won’t find them in the official results).
Another 1k simulation. We’re in Račice for the youth national championships. We took our double and this morning, before they closed the canal for the races.
We did a warming up in the parallel canal up to the start, then a few practice starts, and after 2750m of warming up we got ready for a hard 1k.
Romana didn’t want to row in front of the grandstand. So we rowed from 750m to 1750m (as the distances are marked on the canal, which I as an old fart would call 1250 to 250).
We rowed a 3:42 in windstill conditions at a relatively low rate my legs still hurt from yesterday’s effort but on the races that will also be he case.
I have a feeling that this venue is slower than our lake. Perhaps because our lake is deeper? Our lake is harder in the catch but faster. Might be just imagination.
Very little time for a workout this morning, but this one is short and nasty. ‘Lactate is the killer’ in the single
I rowed a warming up of 3km, including a few speed bursts. At the start of the 2km Albano I got ready for the first 250m.
Start, then 3×10 strokes. Ten strokes focus on strong finish. Ten strokes focus on long reach at the catch. Ten strokes focus on not digging too deep. Beep. 1:50 pace. Good.
Not much time to think, because the break is just 30 seconds. So getting ready for the next 250 from standing start while still breathing hard.
Start, and the same 3×10 stroke routine. Beep. 1:49 pace.
Then 2:30 minutes of not rowing. Just wait in the sun and think about the pain that will come almost immediately after the start of the 1000m.
Time. Ready. Go. Start strokes, then 4 sets of 3×10 strokes focusing on technique. High stroke rate out of the start and the pain didn’t come immediately.
It came after 30 strokes. I was going at 32-33 spm and 1:51 pace and between strokes 30 and 40 that dropped to 31 spm and 1:54 pace.
Expecting improvement after the half way mark I battled on.
No improvement there but I managed to keep the 1:54 – 1:55 pace.
Well, even that pace dropped but I kept cycling through my focus areas and just kept going. Telling myself ‘you’re not giving up now’.
Writing blogs helps in these situations. Nobody wants to write a blog about giving up a well opened 1k.
Final 25 strokes and I changed the counting pattern. In this phase of the race I count to five. Five times.
Final time 3:47. Not bad actually. In neutral weather. Flat water and no wind.
In the blog about yesterday’s training I forgot to write that I measured my catch angle on the dock. During the row I tried to memorize my real catch position, then at the dock I moved the handle to that position and did some goniometric measurements. 53 degrees roughly.
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Jul 12 2016
Mixed Feelings – Speed work in the quad
One guy in our quad is sick, so we replaced him with Martin “Turkey” Krocil.
The training was a “Small Pyramid”, i.e.
20″ / 20″R @ 40spm
40″ / 40″R @ 38spm
60″ / 60″R @ 36spm
40″ / 40″R @ 38spm
20″ / 20″R @ 40spm
We rowed it in hard summer rain and almost now wind. I was glad it rained so hard. Temperatures have dropped from >30C to 19C, and all the swimmers and recreational boats have disappeared. We had the lake for ourselves.
Summary:
Workout Summary - media/20160712-204857-2016-07-12-1848.CSV
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|06883|37:06.0|01:43.9|31.5|171.1|180.3|11.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03314| 16:36 |02:30.3|17.5|154.0|180.0|11.4
02|00117| 00:20 |01:25.5|38.9|167.0|178.0|09.0
03|00219| 00:40 |01:30.5|37.8|184.0|188.0|08.8
04|00317| 01:00 |01:34.4|37.1|185.0|187.0|08.6
05|00213| 00:40 |01:32.8|36.4|180.0|184.0|08.9
06|00113| 00:20 |01:26.6|40.0|177.0|180.0|08.7
07|02590| 17:30 |03:19.3|13.0|151.0|165.0|11.6
This wasn’t an easy workout. Martin hasn’t sculled since the race in Piestany. He has trained, but only on the erg and in the pair. The high rates were a bit of a shock to his system. Also, I had the feeling the boat was lying to the port side and there wasn’t the lightness that is required for a fast quad.
I think our paces are slow compared to the competition. Well, we’ll see on Saturday.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: lake, OTW, quad, rowing, speed work