Got up at 6 as usual, weighed myself and decided I could take the hotel breakfast.

At 8:30 we headed for the start area, to be in time for the juniors 2- to start.

Romana would be active with the car: shouting encouragement from the bank at various places along the course and towing a small trailer to shuttle a few club singles from the finish back to the start. I sat down in one of the microbuses our club had in the start area and tried to relax.

Race boat storage area in the morning:

Views from the car:

I read a bit, Modermismen by Kees van Kooten. Good reading stuff for several reasons. These are light short pieces, a few pages each, written with humor. And, I used to be in school with the author’s daughter. She is two years younger than I am, and was a Dutch film star in the nineties and naughties.

12:20 time for the weigh in.  My own scale gave me -500g with all rowing clothes on. The weigh in was at 2.6kg below the limit. All rowers were smiling at the weigh in.

Ate and drank a bit. Then took pictures of men’s pairs and singles going to the start.

Mr Synek rowing to the start:

Then it was time for me to prepare for the start. With 2km to row to the start I decided to hit the water early, 30 minutes before the 14:21 start time.

All went well until it was my turn and the starter announced 30 seconds to go for me, bow nr 351.

Two singles shot by me, bow nrs 345 and 348 I believe (not sure). I shouted at them: is this allowed??? Their coach on the bicycle said yes this is allowed, come on boys. My he starter announced 10 seconds to my start and started to count down.

The way this race is started: your start time is given (14:21:00 for me) and your time starts running from that minute on the clock, wether you are at the start or not.

Still I was annoyed when I started, rowing in their puddles.

What the heck, I am out of the starting blocks and racing, two singles in my rear view mirror and another one chasing me 30 seconds behind me. This is head racing.

After 1500m I passed one of those rogue scullers who couldn’t show at the start on time. Sweet revenge. The guy stopped rowing the moment I passed him and started to fondle with his oarlock. 🙂 Theater, I thought.

The other rogue single sculler was a harder nut to crack, and the guy behind me was gaining on me.  I took him over somewhere between 2k and 2.5k.

The situation: you have just passed two guys and are doing 29spm into a headwind. Another guy is successfully chasing you down. You are getting tired.

To be continued …

It was a long drive to Horin. Still snow in the highlands, which was strange to see when you’re on your way to a rowing race. 

I did a 8km row with some bursts at race pace. Noted 1:58 with tailwind and 2:03 in headwind. Good. If the wind doesn’t turn, it will be mainly tailwind tomorrow. 

Goals for tomorrow:

1. A faster time than a year ago, unless there is an unexpected heavy headwind. 

2. Beat Mr Prihoda on time. The other Masters rower who dared to start in the elite races. He races heavyweight. 

3. Beat a few of the young guys. The oldest is 12 years younger than I.  

4. Enjoy the racing! 

Romana had planned her training at 4pm and the idea was to row a 3km at 6km pace and I would give the girls a bit of competition.

First the Junior 18yr old in the single would start, followed a minute later by daughter Lenka (15) and her rowing partner Laura (16) in the double, followed another minute later by me. Romana would be on the launch.

The water was mirror flat and there was only a slight headwind breeze on the 3km.

I measured the distance with CrewNerd’s “course” feature, as a test. I want to use that next week at the race. You can see the start and finish as defined in CrewNerd (the red and green areas in the Google earth shot):

I passed the girls in the double after 1500m, and almost immediately after that I passed Pavlina in the single.

I finished first, the 2x second, and Pavlina last. Lenka and Laura had rowed at full speed and were pretty exhausted.

I was not entirely happy. There were sequences where I had a good 29spm rhythm and boat speed was ok, but there were other parts where my stroke rate dropped. Looking at the HR curves, I think next week I should be more in the red. On the other hand, my fastest 6km was in 26:18 in the fall, and I guess today I would have had a very good chance to beat it (ref. this blog blog.php?u=11066&b=116410 ).

|Dist_|Time_|_Pace__|_SPM___|avg HR|max HR|DPS |Remarks
|02635|15:53|03:00.8| 17.1 | 121 | 158 |09.7|Warming up
|00113|07:15|32:04.8| 18.1 | 114 | 147 |00.9|waiting
|02955|12:48|02:09.9| 27.5 | 176 | 180 |08.4|3km
|04982|31:31|03:09.8| 19.2 | 139 | 163 |08.2|cooling down

The spreadsheet didn’t let me select the full 2993m that CrewNerd tells me I did. :S
According to CrewNerd I rowed 2993m in 12:56, a 2:09.6 pace, at 28.0spm (31 max).