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41daomg9thl

Nov 19 2015

Rest Day

The lactate meter

… has left Krakow and is traveling to Brno by UPS. The Polish town of Katowice was passed as well (80km from Krakow, but the parcel made a 500km D- Tour in order to see other parts of Poland), and now my lactate meter is somewhere along the way, probably in a truck. Expected delivery is Friday end of the working day. I am planning a light erg and a good strength training tomorrow, so that will not be the first opportunity to use the meter.

I have been re-reading the Lactate Training thread over at Free Spirits Forum yesterday and today. It’s a long read but very useful. There are a couple of posts where the discussion turns and new insights are generated.

In breaks between work I also took some time to make a summary of the different tests one can do with a lactate meter. Here’s a summary:

lactaattesten
Can anyone tell me how to increase the size of this image?

(I am still struggling with the new WordPress.com editor. I believe I used to be able to copy excel tables directly into the editor and it would render a readable table. Now I had to save it as an image …)

Talking about tests, I am wondering if this book is worth buying. Boris, do you have an idea?

41daomg9thl

Training

Still feeling Tuesday’s run in the legs. Also had too many teleconferencing meetings in the evening, so my only exercise was a bicycle ride home:

https://www.strava.com/activities/435565785

Average HR: 132

Max HR: 157

For those who are interested, I have added Heart Rate Ratio Drift to Dan Burpee’s spreadsheet. Write me at r o o s e n d a a l s a n d e r “at” gmail.com if you want to receive a copy. It is only useful for those of us who use RowPro to record erg sessions.

In other news, my team was on Czech Television. You can see my Group Leader Jolana and our pilot Ivan during the flight testing of last week in following videos:

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/10122427178-udalosti-v-regionech-brno/315281381991118-udalosti-v-regionech/obsah/435974-nove-technologie-pro-letadla

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct24/domaci/1618722-bezpecnejsi-letani-se-dela-i-v-brne

The first link is from “News from the regions”. The second one is from a daily Economy program on the main news channel.

Here’s another attempt at a readable table:

lactaattesten2.jpg

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jeh128

Nov 18 2015

Steady State erg

A long working day ending with a meeting that started at 9am – Arizona time.

Standard steady state erg today. A 25 minute solo row, then a 30 minute online row on RowPro, and a 9 minute cooling down. My legs hurt quite a lot from DOMS from yesterday’s intensive run, especially the climbing muscles.

My lactate meter is on its way to me. UPS says it is in transit and on time, and has left Krakow, Poland, an hour ago. Exciting times. It will be interesting to see if I have been doing my steady state rows at the right intensity.

I have the feeling that I am rowing at a lower heart rate than a year ago, and I tried to compare “beats per km” which would slightly eliminate the pace effect … Beats per km was mostly above 600 in the 2014/15 winter, and mostly around 590-600 in this winter season. Could also be different clothing, or a different humidity/temperature etc.

Here are some pictures from yesterday’s run that I discovered on the internet. The guy with nr 416 was the guy I tried to run towards to during the second loop. I didn’t make it all the way to him but he was a good target. I am #313.

jeh125

jeh126

jeh127

jeh128

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Food market 002

Nov 17 2015

Jehnice running event

A national holiday today. Last event in my test week(s). The 10km run in Jehnice, three bus stops from my home. For some reason, I skipped this event in 2014, but this year I participated.

First, the kids run. Dominik came last on the 1000m which is a quite intensive run. The first 500m is a steep climb.  Then a loop around the cemetery and then a steep descent. Robin was somewhere in the slower half of the 600m run.

Then the 6km. Lenka ran and finished 279th place but happy with the effort. 35 minutes and a few seconds.

The 1ok consists of a 1k segment, then two loops on Rakovec hill, and then the 1k segment again. Here is the Strava record of my run:

https://www.strava.com/activities/434324951

It’s nice to run an event with a few more Strava users. I set a personal record on the Rakovec – Koně segment. Also, I clocked 47.07 for the run, which is 41 seconds faster than two years ago. I ran negative split. Started to push the pace a bit on the first climb and passed quite a lot of people. Then relaxed on the descent and started to push the pace harder on the second climb. The climb is that Rakovec – Koně segment mentioned above. In the first loop I did it in 12:26, in the second loop I managed 12:03. My previous PR was 12:31. This is 2.6km with an average climb grade of 3%, 91m of climb in total.

Good effort.

jehniceRunning 11-17-2015, Elevation

In the afternoon I visited a local  food market.

Food market 003Food market 002

It was very nicely situated in an old rail cargo building. Good atmosphere. Nice food to taste.

Test evaluations

VO2 Max vs Peak Power. The ideal is 40-45%. My value is 50%.

Anaerobic threshold vs VO2 max. The ideal is 80-85%. My value is 81%.

I didn’t do a test to determine aerobic threshold. The “Rowing Faster” book recommends a 60min to 75min full-out steady state row. Greg uses his power at 2.0 mmol. I am sure he can row a fater full-out 75 min steady state than the 195 W he uses.

The Jehnice run tells me I am in better general fitness shape than 2 years ago (or perhaps running a little more often). My anaerobic threshold vs VO2 max is in the right ballpark. I may be able to improve on my 6k a bit. Peak Power is too low and could be improved.

Conclusion: I am on the good path with my current training schedule. I expect that adding the strength training into the mix makes me row my 2k at a lower percentage of my peak power, which will make it a more sustainable effort. I hope to improve my 2000m score in the coming winter.

On the 6k I may or may not PB this winter but I should really try. 🙂

 

 

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2km2

Nov 15 2015

2000m erg test: Classic and Too Conservative

Testing week. Today was the time for the dreaded 2000m.

I rowed the test in the afternoon. Spent the rainy morning, after a heavy breakfast, with the boys in Brno’s science centrum VIDA which was good fun. Having physics qualifications, I tried to fulfill my duties to science and society by patiently explaining the principles behind the experiments to the boys, but I am afraid some of my explanation was lost and they ended up running enthusiastically between the attractions.

Then a light lunch and some work preparing dinner. We’ll have my special “Turkey a la Duck” with red cabbage. Food that needs a lot of time to be prepared.

Lunch digested well enough, a quick espresso and off to my erg cellar. Did a full fletcher warming up without looking up the prescribed paces, just did the stroke rates as prescribed and let the pace come by itself. Some stretching and prepare for the main  event.

I wasn’t sure what pace to aim at. My PB being 6:58.something, but not having done a 2k in ages, I thought that a 7:02 – 7:04 (i.e. 1:46 pace) would be a good target.

Standing start, of course. Race start and ten hard strokes with eyes closed. Opened eyes, saw 1:37 on the monitor, and slowed down to 1:46 pace, doing about 30spm.

My check points would be 1200m to go, 600m to go, 300m to go.

Of course I checked average pace after 500m: 1:44.1. That was of course due to the first hard 10 strokes which, as every rower knows “are for free”. I continued to row my 1:46 pace.

With 1200m to go I decided to accelerate. I was doing fine and decided I could risk this. If I would die a few hundred meters later, I would probably still be able to hold a pace that would bring me in on target.

I didn’t feel the usual panic at 1000m, which was strange. Usually I have this panicky feeling:
“Is this half way? You can’t be serious! I will not be able to hold this pace for another 1000m.”

Today? Nothing. Half way. OK.

With 900m to do I started to see the occasional 1:46 and had to work a bit harder to get back to the 1:45 pace. My predicted end time was now between 7:00 and 7:02.

I sat up a bit more straight and focused on technique. That brought me to 600m to go. I kind of accelerated but it wasn’t entirely consciously.

Entering the last 500m I started to count sets of 10 strokes and saw the splits come down. With 300m to go I started my final sprint and saw 1:43 splits.

That’s the point when I started to be aware of my mistake.

This was painful but it should have been much more painful.

Predicted end time was showing 6:58. Shit. That’s my Personal Best (at least as a Masters). I tried to add some power and get the monitor to show a 6:57 predicted end time but unfortunately I was running out of water. Finished the 2km with the feeling that I could have done at least 10 more strokes.

Disappointed? Not really. This was much faster than I expected, and the fact that it was relatively easy is a big confidence booster.

I say relatively easy, because of course I was tired.

But no erg cough. No urge to lie down on the floor. And I definitely didn’t have that half way panic, and that feeling with 300m to go that you have to short slide and pray that you can somehow hold the pace, seeing it slip slowly in the final 100m.


Workout Summary - Nov 15, 2015
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-DPS
--|02000|06:58.3|01:44.6|306.0|31.6|177.8|09.1
Workout Details
#-|EDist|-Etime-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|DPS-|Comments
01|00100|00:19.6|01:38.1|370.3|36.7|135.9|08.3|
02|00200|00:40.6|01:44.8|303.9|28.6|166.5|10.0|
03|00300|01:01.7|01:45.7|296.0|31.2|171.8|09.1|
04|00400|01:23.0|01:46.1|293.2|31.1|175.8|09.1|
05|00500|01:44.1|01:45.5|297.9|31.3|178.1|09.1|average 1:44.1
06|00600|02:05.3|01:46.1|292.8|28.3|179.5|10.0|
07|00700|02:26.4|01:45.4|298.6|31.3|179.5|09.1|
08|00800|02:47.5|01:45.8|295.5|31.2|181.0|09.1|
09|00900|03:08.6|01:45.1|301.4|31.4|181.2|09.1|
10|01000|03:29.5|01:44.9|303.1|28.6|182.0|10.0|average 1:45.5
11|01100|03:50.5|01:44.9|303.2|31.5|182.0|09.1|
12|01200|04:11.5|01:44.7|305.0|31.5|182.5|09.1|
13|01300|04:32.6|01:45.9|295.1|28.3|183.0|10.0|
14|01400|04:53.8|01:45.6|296.8|31.2|182.7|09.1|
15|01500|05:14.7|01:44.6|306.2|34.4|182.0|08.3|average 1:45.1
16|01600|05:35.6|01:44.5|306.4|31.6|182.9|09.1|
17|01700|05:56.4|01:44.2|309.3|31.7|182.8|09.1|
18|01800|06:17.1|01:43.4|316.4|31.9|183.0|09.1|
19|01900|06:37.8|01:43.6|315.2|34.8|183.0|08.3|
20|02000|06:58.3|01:42.6|324.4|35.1|183.0|08.3|average 1:43.7

The 500m splits are a OTW rower’s classic. Fast first 100m. Cruise the middle part. Then accelerate.

2km2 2km1

Did a 4km cooling down. Then looked up my PB time: 6:58.2.

0.1 second faster than today’s effort. Damn.

I wanted to do this again.

Took a shower instead.

Next 2km attempt I need a bit more “contempt of death” and perhaps I will be able to seriously improve my PB. That’s not a bad outlook, isn’t it?

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jehnice

Nov 14 2015

Saturday: Running Jehnice with the girls

jehnice

On Tuesday (a national holiday), there will be the Jehnice run. The girls, my daughter Lenka and her training partner Iva, will run the ladies 6km. I will run the 10km. Today we took the bus to the starting point and ran the 6km loop.

Instead of taking the bus home, the girls were happy to run 4km more, so all in all it was a nice 10km. I did a little back and forth running but all in all their running pace between 5 and 6 minutes per km is not bad.

For me it was a nice recovery run. I arrived at 00:30am after a tiring trip back from France.

Paris

When I checked my email in the morning, I noticed one of those automatic travel alert emails that we get when on business trips. Usually this information is quite innocent (strikes, demonstrations, traffic disruptions), but this time I read about the terrible attacks in Paris:

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IMG_0557-0

Nov 13 2015

Hotel strength session

Thursday 

No training. In the morning I was in our Falcon doing the flight test. 

  
We did 1 approach in Ostrava and 2 in Brno. Doing a low fly over the runway in a bizjet is always impressive. 

Then I took the taxi to Vienna airport and a regular flight to Toulouse, arriving there at 10pm. 

Friday

Almost an hour of strength in the hotel room:

  1. Curl biceps 15 15 15
  2. Squat 15 15 15
  3. Push ups 15 15 15
  4. Sit ups 15 15 12
  5. Pistol squats 15 15 15 each leg
  6. Row 15 15 15
  7. Squat 15 15 15
  8. Dips 15 15 15
  9. Back 15 15 15
  10. Bench press 15 15 15
  11. Pull up 15 15 15

For the squats and curls I used the bodylastics bands. Row, bench and pull up where with bodylastics bands and door anchor. 

Good workout. Here is my travel bag:

  
With the bands and door anchor it contains:

  1. A wardrobe
  2. Toiletries
  3. An office
  4. A library
  5. A fitness center

Not bad. I am approaching one bag ninja warrior status. 

Too bad I discovered that I left the door anchor in the hotel room. Well, I believe there is another one in the set at home, or else I can call the hotel if they found it – or order a replacement. 

Full day of meetings. Now waiting for flight at Toulouse airport. Arriving home after midnight, but the good news is that I will go through Amsterdam so I will have a chance to purchase Dutch reading stock. 

In other good news, I have an offer for a very reasonably priced lactate meter and strips. I will get it to try out of the lactate religion is something for me. 😉

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DSC_0830

Nov 11 2015

A normal day in the office – and a 6km Season’s Best

A normal day in the office …

First a group photo with the Honeywell Aerospace Advanced Tech Group. This group started in 2006 and will soon celebrate it’s 10th anniversary. I joined in 2007 and I am leading one of its departments (about 50 people). From 1 person in 2006 to 150 people, located in Prague, Brno and Toulouse, in 10 years and still growing!

DSC_0830
A couple of us posed for the photographer

After the picture taking I had to rush back to work, to the airport in fact, for ongoing flight testing.

Our
Our “own” aircraft, the Dassault Falcon 900EX, parked at Brno airport
The Precision Guidance Team
The Precision Guidance Team
Avionics Bay
Avionics Bay

Today was just picture taking and talking to the team for me. Tomorrow I will fly … yay!

6km test

Doing a test week in the fall is a good thing, and I already did the “1 minute test”. What’s left is a 2k test and a 6k test.

Originally, my schedule called for another very useful steady state session, but today I decided to be a bad boy and ignore the training plan. 6km testing OTW has been a staple for me in September and October, so in the evening I sat down, did a warming up of 2k with a few bursts, plugged a few pace boats into RowPro and set off to row the 6000m.

6kmb 6kma


Workout Summary - Nov 11, 2015
--|Total|-Total-|Total|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|Dist-|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS|-SPI
--|06000|22:28.3|06000|01:52.4|246.7|27.5|177.0|185.0|09.7|09.0
Workout Details
#-|EDist|-Etime-|SDist|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|-SPI|Comments
01|00500|01:52.4|00500|01:52.4|246.5|26.7|147.7|166.0|10.0|09.2|ahead of PB schedule
02|01000|03:44.3|00500|01:51.9|250.0|26.8|169.7|172.0|10.0|09.3|2 seconds ahead of PB
03|01500|05:36.0|00500|01:51.7|250.8|26.8|173.6|176.0|10.0|09.3|3 seconds ahead of PB
04|02000|07:28.0|00500|01:52.0|248.8|26.8|175.8|179.0|10.0|09.3|
05|02500|09:20.3|00500|01:52.3|247.4|27.3|178.2|179.0|09.8|09.1|
06|03000|11:11.9|00500|01:51.6|251.9|27.4|179.8|182.0|09.8|09.2|
07|03500|13:03.2|00500|01:51.4|253.5|27.5|182.3|184.0|09.8|09.2|
08|04000|14:53.9|00500|01:50.7|258.0|28.2|183.8|184.0|09.6|09.2|4 seconds ahead of PB
09|04500|16:45.8|00500|01:51.8|250.2|27.9|184.0|185.0|09.6|09.0|3 seconds ahead of PB
10|05000|18:39.7|00500|01:53.9|236.8|27.9|183.0|184.0|09.4|08.5|2 seconds ahead of PB
11|05500|20:33.6|00500|01:53.9|236.7|28.4|183.0|184.0|09.3|08.3|2 seconds behind PB
12|06000|22:28.3|00500|01:54.7|231.9|28.8|181.7|183.0|09.1|08.1|9 seconds behind PB

Until 1500m to go I rowed at the edge of breaking my PB. But to break a PB, one needs to be fresher than I am after a long working day and having done 90 minutes of endurance work the day before. Perhaps I also need a bit more pace discipline.

This time a year ago, I did a slightly cowardly 23:00.0. Happy I can crank out a 1:52 pace 6k now.

The 2k will have to wait. I may row it on Sunday or Monday. Tomorrow I will travel to Toulouse, returning Friday late. On Saturday, I promised to run with the girls. It will be a reconnaissance run for an event that we will partake in on Tuesday. They will run the Ladies 5k. I will run the 10k. It’s a hilly run close to my home, and the girls should do it once to pace it.

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