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Jan 14 2018

Friday – remaining ranking distances

In the morning, during short breaks from finalizing this year’s performance assessments for my group, I worked down a long checklist to release and publish about the latest and greatest on rowsandall.com.


Here are some articles about the new Ranking Functionality:

  1. Tutorial article for the ranking functionality
  2. Long read discussing some of the statistics behind the functionality

After that, I took the train home. Before going to the erg basement, I visited the Honda dealer close to my home. We’ve been contemplating getting rid of one of the cars (Romana’s Skoda Fabia), keeping only one as a “family car”. The idea would be to get a scooter for those rides around our town that cannot be done on the bike.

A typical round that I do in the OTW season is

  1. Home – work (15km)
  2. Work – Lake (18 to 25km depending on the route)
  3. Lake – Home (12km)

A scooter would save fuel and usually be faster through the traffic. I still have to get used to the idea though. The issue for us Masters rowers is that we still believe we look like this:

While the reality is this:

Anyway …

The workout for the day wasn’t really a workout. After Thursday’s rest day, Friday was meant to be both a confidence booster (for Saturday’s 2k erg race) and a way to get two of the remaining ranking distances out of the way. So I did:

  • 2km warming up
  • 500m at target power 430W or higher
  • 2km rest paddle
  • 100m full out
  • 2km cooling down

I managed the 500 in 1:33.4, which is a nice score. As you can see from the chart, power was oscillating between 440 and 460W, and it started to drop when the wheels came off in the final 150m.

Then I did a 2km paddle followed by a 100m at a slightly higher drag factor, which I managed around 600W. This resulted in the following series of ranking pieces rowed this season:

The only piece missing is a standalone 1 minute effort, which I will do soon.

The other interesting thing is that the 500m piece looks like the best of the series. The 100m piece average is below 600W because it takes too many strokes to get up to 600.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: 100m, 500m, concept2, ergometer, ranking, rowing, training

Jan 9 2018

Steady State, Swim, 1k erg and some Math

This is going to be a very brief summary of the past three days of training, plus some math related to a big upgrade planned for rowsandall.com.

Sunday

Steady state at the rowing club. As the others were doing some 10 minute intervals, with increasing intensity during the 10 minute, my steady state was reflecting that, at a milder intensity and a less steep power increase.

One hour in total.

Monday

A long day at work and meetings late into the evening. So I went swimming in the morning. I wore the Tickr X heart rate belt, which has an internal memory. Unfortunately, it doesn’t record heart rate well in the pool. The summary said total time 78 minutes (correct), maximum heart rate 161 bpm (could be right), average heart rate 109 bpm (definitely wrong). I think the average is somewhere around 140-145 bpm.

Tuesday

Another long day at work, then a quick dinner, followed by a 1k full out. Twenty five minutes of warming up. Ten minutes of cooling down. My volume is decreasing as a taper for Saturday’s race.

Funny heart rate values. I don’t believe them much.


Workout Summary - media/20180109-1905300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|01000|03:21.4|01:40.7|339.2|31.1|158.2|178.0|09.6
W-|01000|03:21.4|01:40.7|339.4|31.1|159.0|178.0|09.7
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|178.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00094|00:18.0|01:36.0|294.6|27.6|114.3|119.0|11.3
01|00094|00:19.1|01:42.0|329.1|30.8|131.7|145.0|09.5
02|00107|00:21.7|01:41.3|337.3|30.7|161.9|170.0|09.6
03|00097|00:19.6|01:40.9|339.1|30.8|173.3|175.0|09.7
04|00096|00:19.6|01:41.5|334.5|30.2|176.8|178.0|09.8
05|00107|00:21.7|01:41.1|337.6|30.4|175.8|177.0|09.8
06|00095|00:19.1|01:40.4|346.8|31.0|165.1|172.0|09.6
07|00103|00:20.6|01:40.2|347.8|31.7|161.0|161.0|09.4
08|00096|00:19.1|01:39.4|354.2|32.2|161.8|162.0|09.4
09|00111|00:22.1|01:39.4|366.5|34.6|161.3|162.0|08.7

Well, that was better than expected. I aimed for 330-335W. Not bad for a regular weekday evening, after a long workday.

Finally, Some Math

In case you want to find the highest average power interval of a certain duration in a workout, or perhaps all “fastest” intervals for all interval lengths, you can use the following.

Your workout data is a series of metrics measured at equidistant times \bf{t} = [ t_1 \, t_2 \dots t_{n-1} \, t_n] . Similar to the time vector \bf{t} there is a power vector \bf{P}. Calculate the vector \bf{G} given by:

G_j = \sum_{i=1}^{j-1} P_i

We then calculate a matrix \bf{D}:

D_{nm} = G_n - G_m

The average power for an interval starting at t_n and ending at t_m is then given by:

\bar{P}_{nm} = \frac{D_{nm}}{t_m - t_n}.

If \bar{P}_i represents the ith diagonal of \bf{\bar{P}}, counting from 0, the 0th diagonal being “the” diagonal

\bar{P}_0 = [\bar{P}_{00} \, \bar{P}_{11} \dots \bar{P}_{n,n} \, \bar{P}_{n+1,n+1}],

and

\bar{P}_1 = [\bar{P}_{10} \, \bar{P}_{21} \dots \bar{P}_{n,n-1} \, \bar{P}_{n+1,n}]

then this vector represents all values of the average power for a time segment of duration i \Delta t. Then you simply take maximum value of this vector.

When written like this, the calculation is just a few lines of code, with the help of the numpy library.

So now you know what we do to your rowing data.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0

E538B62D-BA43-4AC3-BFC1-C8FE57F11A5D

Jan 6 2018

Four Minutes is not that long

Thursday

I didn’t do any workout, because I felt tired after the hard 2k and my morning pulse was getting higher.

Friday

A 2km swim in th morning. I like the swimming because it is a new element in my training. I have no expectations on how hard or fast I “should” be. It is a great workout, covers the shoulders which I will need when I get back to OTW rowing, it is easy on my back and it involves breathing and water resistance.

I have noticed that I have to pay attention to how I breathe, which enables me to concentrate. I have also noted the similarity with OTW rowing, in the sense that rhythm is quite important and with good timing you can increase the distance you cover per stroke.

This being the first two weeks of a new year, the pool was crowded, and every lane that was reserved for endurance swimming had its slow swimmers. I just coped with it, knowing that I am not a particularly fast swimmer, and three weeks ago I was probably just as slow as this week’s beginners.

The only thing that bothers me is not having any heart rate data. I may try out the Tickr X next time. It has internal memory, so it can record a workout without needing a watch. The problem is that I don’t see anyone wearing any wearables in the pool.

In the evening, Romana and I went to a theater performance in the center of Brno. I took a few pictures on the way between the tram stop and the theater.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The performance was great, and afterwards we tried out a new “hipster” pub. The owner is very brave, selling Canadian and US craft beers (and no local beers) in the center of Brno. But I had a nice darker ale, and we had a great time.

The pub is on the first floor of the “modern but doing on the left of the photo above this blog post.

Saturday

Today was a “third” day, so time for the next ranking piece: the four minute effort.

First, a long and thorough warming up:

warming up chart

Then, on to the main event:

four minute ergometer rowing

Workout Summary - media/20180106-1510540o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|01172|04:00.0|01:42.4|323.1|31.2|166.1|183.0|09.4
W-|01176|04:00.0|01:42.0|323.0|31.2|166.4|183.0|09.4
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|183.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00149|00:30.0|01:40.4|285.0|29.5|110.6|126.0|10.1
01|00144|00:30.0|01:44.2|313.4|30.3|149.1|165.0|09.5
02|00145|00:30.0|01:43.2|316.0|30.5|170.1|174.0|09.5
03|00146|00:30.0|01:42.5|325.2|31.1|176.9|179.0|09.4
04|00145|00:30.0|01:43.2|320.6|30.4|179.0|179.0|09.6
05|00147|00:30.0|01:42.0|328.0|31.1|180.8|181.0|09.5
06|00149|00:30.0|01:40.9|339.6|32.1|182.0|182.0|09.3
07|00150|00:30.0|01:40.1|356.2|34.4|182.9|183.0|08.7

Based on my Critical Power Chart, I decided to start at 310W, then increase to 320W with 2:30 minutes to go, to 330W with 1:20 to go and go all out with 40 seconds to go. Again, a conservative approach, but one where the first 2 minutes are a good taste of how my 2k race of next week will go.

The summary on Rowsandall.com didn’t capture the first 30 seconds correctly. I had set the PM to 30 second splits and monitored the split averages during the row. I was never below 310W.

That was a pretty exhausting row, but I managed a good update to my Critical Power values. Here is before:

CP chart 1

And after:

CP chart 2

Now I need to remove the low values in the “dip” between 1and 4 minutes. In three days, I will do a 1k, and then in the few days before the race, the remaining short ranking pieces (500m, 1 minute, and 100m).

After a few moments of breathing hard and being content with the result, I started the cooling down. However, during the first 1000m I discussed with myself that this wasn’t a real training. How about adding three 1k efforts to make this something similar to a 4x1000m/5min workout?

I decided to add three 1k segments at any power that I could hold, at 1000m of paddling in between.

intervals

In the first interval, I “felt” I could hold 300W, but was brutally corrected by reality, about 500m into the row. In the second interval, I decided to hold 280W and succeeded, and in the final interval I started at 270W but then gradually increased the pace, emptying the tank in the final 150m.

I followed up with a 2k cooling down. Now this feels like a complete workout, and my muscles are sore.

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: 4x1km, concept2, ergometer, four minute, OTE, rowing

8DAF94AC-90D1-40E0-90DA-80C6344D5DA6

Jan 3 2018

A Test 2k

Mind you, “a test 2k” is an entirely different thing than “a 2k Test”. But let me start at the beginning. In the morning, I drove to Modrice to pick up the mystery parcel from the UK. Luckily, the drive to Modrice is only ten minutes from the office. It turns out the mystery parcel was the latest issue of Row 360:

rowing magazine

Lots of reading and beautiful photographs, yay!

In worse news, the low water level in our lake has revealed that somebody has dumped more than 200 car tires close to the bridge at Veverska Bytiska. I venture there occasionally, when I take a long steady state row through the gorge. What a crime!

So after the working day, it was time to test what it is to row a 2k. I am racing on the 14th, so I need some estimates. Today, I opted for the conservative approach, knowing that doing such a row after a working day is tough. Also, I have planned 4 minute and 1k trials in the coming week, during which I will get a good feel for the upper limit.

First, a long warming up:

warming up chart

Then on to the main event. The battle plan was to start at 280W and then accelerate and keep accelerating until I run out of steam. Which happened already at 290W.

2k rowing chart

    Workout Summary - media/20180103-1716190o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02000|07:06.0|01:46.5|286.8|29.0|172.6|182.0|09.7
W-|02000|07:06.0|01:46.6|286.7|29.0|172.5|182.0|09.7
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|182.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00250|00:52.5|01:44.9|282.4|28.6|128.0|157.0|10.0
01|00250|00:53.9|01:47.8|279.7|28.0|168.0|174.0|09.9
02|00250|00:53.5|01:46.9|285.4|28.4|177.0|178.0|09.9
03|00250|00:53.1|01:46.1|291.4|28.6|179.2|181.0|09.9
04|00250|00:53.3|01:46.6|290.2|29.0|181.0|181.0|09.7
05|00250|00:53.2|01:46.5|289.2|29.0|182.0|182.0|09.7
06|00250|00:53.5|01:47.0|286.0|29.4|182.0|182.0|09.5
07|00250|00:53.5|01:46.9|289.8|30.7|182.0|182.0|09.1

PM shot

Below a set of charts comparing this row with a 2k attempt of 11 months ago, where I set out at a sub 7 pace and then crashed. A few weeks later I rowed a solid 7:57.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I was glad I opted for a conservative approach today. The pain of a 2k is something entirely different than that of a 5k or longer row. Even now, a few hours later, I feel a very distinct tiredness in all major muscles.

Looking forward to the race, actually.

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: 2000m, 2k, concept2, ergometer, rowing

myimage (22)

Jan 2 2018

Rowing by numbers – big fun

A steady state row.

To make it a bit more interesting, I added a mental arithmetic challenge.

After 1000m of rowing, I took the power of the stroke at which I crossed 1000m, in Watts, and subtracted 100. I multiplied that number by my heart rate minus 100.

I got

188-100 = 88
128-100 = 29
------------ x
        3534

So I rowed to 3534m, where I did the same arithmetic with the value at that moment:

3534 + (97x56) = 8964

So I rowed to 8964m, where I had to calculate:

8964 + (86x62) = 14196

In fact, I made errors on all the calculations, so the numbers above are just as an example (although the meter values are approximately right).

Anyway, it was good fun and I realized I need to restore my mental math skills. I am pretty good at estimating and I used to be slightly faster than gents with calculators, back when I was a Ph.D. student and estimating skills and mental arithmetic were a handy skill to have have.

Yes, I do realize that this is not everybody’s idea of fun, but it works for me. The hour was over in no time.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: concept2, erg, OTE, rowing, steady state, training

myimage (17)

Dec 29 2017

Train rides, reading and a 6k

Tuesday – Steady State

We met at the rowing club. By the time everybody was ready for the 3x15min steady state workout, I had already done a 3km warming up.

Here is the entire workout in one chart combining warming up, main intervals and cooling down.

Heart rate data are slightly offset, because I recorded them separately and didn’t bother to adjust the time offset on the rowsandall.com site.

Wednesday – no training

In the morning, there were some chores around the house. Then we took the train to Pardubice to visit Romana’s mother. The entire trip takes two hours by car, and three hours by train and bus, but in this time of the year I prefer that. I spent most of the time reading. Before Christmas, I plundered the Math/Phys section of the Academia bookstore in Brno. In fact, I bought so many books that the one purchase earned me a lifetime 20% discount card.

The selection is not as great as Amazon.com, but their in-store coffee house has great espresso, and their Physics and Math section is serious, so there you go.

(A note to my American readers, who may be imagining something like the Barnes & Nobles coffee corner when I mention espresso in a bookstore: We are not too far from Italy, and all countries of the former Austro-Hungarian empire have a great coffee house tradition. We are in a different league here. Come over and try yourself.)

Thursday – 6k

Spent the morning at my mother in law, including lunch, and then a bus/train ride home. Again, lots of time for pleasant reading. The car alternative would have involved driving on wet snow and freezing rain. Arrived home around 4pm, so no excuse to skip the next Ranking Distance: 6k.

First, a nice long warming up. For the shorter ranking distances, a good warming up is important, and I have learned that it doesn’t hurt to do 20 minutes including some pretty tough intervals.

Then the main piece. The CP chart gave me the bounds. I was supposed to go faster than 230W (of course, because I had held 230W for 30 minutes just three days earlier) and the stretch target was 245W.

I decided to start at 230W, then accelerate at 3600m to go. I set the PM to record 400m intervals. From 3600m to go down to 1800m, the goal was 235W but I did go slightly higher.

Workout Summary - media/20171228-1636020o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|06000|22:30.0|01:52.6|245.6|26.6|168.7|180.0|10.0
W-|06000|22:31.0|01:52.6|244.7|26.5|168.4|180.0|10.0
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|180.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00400|01:30.7|01:53.4|231.7|25.9|127.7|156.0|10.2
01|00400|01:32.0|01:55.0|230.9|25.5|161.1|164.0|10.2
02|00400|01:31.6|01:54.4|232.6|25.6|164.3|166.0|10.3
03|00400|01:31.7|01:54.7|232.4|25.4|167.1|168.0|10.3
04|00400|01:31.5|01:54.4|233.6|25.8|167.8|169.0|10.2
05|00400|01:31.2|01:54.0|236.2|25.8|170.4|171.0|10.2
06|00400|01:31.0|01:53.7|237.9|25.9|171.0|171.0|10.2
07|00400|01:30.9|01:53.6|238.0|25.9|171.2|172.0|10.2
08|00400|01:30.8|01:53.5|239.5|26.1|172.2|173.0|10.1
09|00400|01:30.5|01:53.1|241.7|26.4|172.2|174.0|10.0
10|00400|01:30.3|01:52.9|243.7|26.5|173.5|174.0|10.0
11|00400|01:29.2|01:51.5|252.7|27.0|174.8|176.0|10.0
12|00400|01:28.3|01:50.4|260.5|27.6|176.9|178.0|09.8
13|00400|01:26.9|01:48.6|272.2|28.7|178.6|179.0|09.6
14|00400|01:25.0|01:46.2|292.2|30.4|179.5|180.0|09.3

As you can see from the summary, things continued favorably and I managed to finish in 292W, raising the average power to 244W and a total time of 22:32.4. (Somehow, the total time in the summary misses 2.4 seconds, probably because I skipped the final pull.)

So that was a good one, at 96% of my PB power. Looking forward to the 5k on Sunday, actually.

Friday

I did a recovery training in the pool. I swam 2km in about 50 minutes. This time it was slightly challenging, because the pool entrance was free today.

It was nice to see kids from poor families enjoying the water, but it also required a bit of flexibility from the endurance swimmers.

I almost felt like a seasoned swimmer, in this chaos. That was partly because I was swimming with swimming goggles.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: 6000m, 6k, concept2, erg, OTE, ranking piece, rowing, training

A6654F35-74DE-4C97-9269-F88C1090C775

Dec 25 2017

Sometimes it is tough

Saturday

First, we spent an hour bringing in the dock for winter storage. As the lake’s water level lowers, our dock comes to rest on stands that we have built, concrete structures with a car tire on top. Like that, it would survive the entire winter, if random people wouldn’t feel attracted to use it as a trampoline.

The lake I see covered with a thin layer of ice. A few cm.

We need about 10 people ideally to do this, but there were only six of us. Only the Masters showed up. The Juniors and the Elite didn’t bother. So it was a pretty hard strength workout. After that, I retreated to the club’s erg room to do a very light steady state workout. A little under an hour at 2:05 to 2:08 pace.

Sunday – Christmas Eve

The biggest holiday in the Czech Republic. First thing in the morning, Romana and I headed to the shop to get fresh fish and seafood. Then we made a stop at the swimming Stadium. I did 2km. Romana outswam me by a lot, but what do you expect from somebody who in her youth held a regional record.

The rest of the day went by in traditional fashion with lots of food, lots of presents, and too much alcohol.

Christmas

Happy Christmas! And time for another ranking distance. The 30 minute.

I did this one before lunch, in the only time slot available. The CP chart suggested 224W as a lower limit and 240W as the upper limit. I wanted to at least row faster than my 10k of 3 days ago, but a few strokes into the row I realized that even that was going to be hard. I decided to row flat, between 225 and 230W, count down 3 minute intervals and hang on as long as possible.

Such rows on bad days are harder than the PB or SB rows on good days!

rowing workout chart

Workout Summary - media/20171225-1121090o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07824|30:00.0|01:55.0|230.1|25.8|169.1|182.0|10.1
W-|07827|30:00.0|01:55.0|229.9|25.8|169.0|182.0|10.1
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|182.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00780|03:00.0|01:55.4|223.6|25.5|142.4|160.0|10.2
01|00777|03:00.0|01:55.8|225.8|25.1|163.7|166.0|10.3
02|00779|03:00.0|01:55.5|226.8|25.4|167.1|169.0|10.2
03|00777|03:00.0|01:55.8|225.4|25.4|169.1|170.0|10.2
04|00780|03:00.0|01:55.4|227.8|25.5|170.8|172.0|10.2
05|00781|03:00.0|01:55.2|229.3|25.5|172.7|174.0|10.2
06|00782|03:00.0|01:55.1|229.2|25.7|174.0|175.0|10.1
07|00779|03:00.0|01:55.5|227.1|25.8|174.7|175.0|10.1
08|00783|03:00.0|01:54.9|230.3|25.9|175.7|177.0|10.1
09|00807|03:00.0|01:51.5|253.7|27.9|179.4|182.0|09.7

We had a simple leftover lunch. Pasta sprinkled with black truffle.

Now we’re off to get some fresh air. We’ve chosen this destination, a chateau 25 minuted where we live:

Lysice Chateau

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: concept2, erg, ranking distance, rowing

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