The picture (from a previous edition of the Primatorky regatta) says it all. Racing in eights in the center of Prague. By the way, that is our club’s men’s eight in the lane on the left, and I believe the picture is from the final race on Sunday, two years ago.

The racing happens between the Rower’s island and the finish at Naplavka. Naplavka, the river bank, being turned into a sponsors’ market, offering products from gourmet ham sandwiches to Lexus sports cars.

The special thing about the race is a giant turn after about 800m of racing. Every lane has a big colored buoy and it is a huge turn they are doing:

But first things first. It was Saturday morning, June 8, and Romana and I drove to the club in Brno to pick up our trailer with the rental boats for the camp. We would bring it to Prague to be picked up by Wintech Czech Republic.

The long drive on the D1 highway was thankfully uneventful. And that is almost a miracle. Here is my list of things to bring on a car ride to Prague over the D1:

• 3 liters of water
• Two chicken sandwiches
• The AC/DC album “Highway to hell”
• A copy of the book “On the road” by Jack Kerouac
• A piece of paper with the motivational text: “Success is not a destination, but the road that you’re on”

Well, there was some excitement. News from the race course.

• Our Juniors eight had been disqualified for steering the wrong side of the buoys
• The boys 15/16 eight (with my son Dominik) had been disqualified as well. Their coxswain had turned too late and they crashed into the next lane’s boat
• My youngest son’s boys 13/14 year eight had won their heat and were through to the semifinal

Yes, coxing is hard on this course, and unfortunately the disqualifications were entirely the result of our coxswain’s errors. That said, it was very hard for the cox of the Juniors. They had put a young and unexperienced boy on the cox’s seat. This 13 year old is a good cox on our home lake, but I don’t think he was prepared for the pressure of racing.

We arrived in Prague, I moved the singles to the agreed place where Wintech would pick them up, handed over the bag with NK Empower Oarlocks to a guy nicknamed “Navy”, and I took some pictures of Robin preparing for his semifinal:

They won their semi.

A quick lunch, a stroll through through the finish area (I bought a polo shirt) and a few hours of hanging around in the CVK Praha club house and it was time for us to launch our Masters 8+.

Our preparation has been abysmal. We didn’t manage to get in more than 3 practice rows. I think we were in our weakest form in years.

And we were the crew to beat. We have been winning this race 6 times in the last 7 years. (Last year’s edition was canceled due to a ferocious thunderstorm.) The one time we didn’t win, it was due to a grossly unfair start and the race was declared undecided without a rerow.

Three clubs from the Prague region had made a “Sélection de Raisins” in order to put a strong eight against us. It was all very exciting.

The Race

Attention! Go!

Off we were, about 2 strokes behind CVK Praha who started at Attention, and slightly behind the combination crew to our left. Coming in behind, we started to pass the two crews. It took about the first 500m to get back and then disaster struck. CVK Praha to our right and the combination to our left both started to go off course and they basically closed us in. We raced a few strokes with clashing blades, then with our hands in the air as protest, and it took ages for the umpire to decide to stop the race. He waved the red flag and we stopped rowing. Then he blew the horn to alert the other crews and they stopped rowing as well.

With something between 650 and 750m in our legs, we turned the boats and rowed back to the start.

Of course, this was a tremendous advantage for us. CVK Praha was disqualified. I think the combination crew should have been disqualified as well, but the umpire claimed that we started to go off course as well.

Here is our GPS track. In the race, we are going from the bottom to the top in the two tracks on the right hand side, the straight one being the second start. Looking at the GPS track, I think the only thing our coxswain did was to try and avoid boat damage when the other crews were coming off their tracks. But it’s hard to tell.

Anyway, a second start. I didn’t mind, but I was a bit worried about how much our less trained crew members would have left in the tank.

We started well and were leading right out of the gate. Then, unfortunately, the combination crew took over, underrating us but going faster. By the railway bridge, with 350m to go, my 2 seat was level with their 6 or 7. We rated up (from 38 to 42) and tried to pass them in a final push. However, fatigue made it hard to row well and although we managed to speed up and we were faster than the opponent, we lost by a bit.

Exciting racing. Disappointing result, although I think we didn’t really deserve to win. We need to prepare better.

After the shower and a beer with the disqualified CVK Praha crew in their club house, we all went to the Bohemians rowing club for the Masters Party. It was great. Of course, we were being made fun of: “Why do Brno rowers race with one hand in the air? Is that how they teach to row in Brno?” but there was beer and wine, live music, good food and dancing. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

On Sunday morning, Romana and I saw our son Robin get a second place in a very good race, and then we hit the road again. Back to Brno.

From June 2 to 7th, I was busy hosting a rowing camp. You can read all about it here: https://pryglrowing.com/2019/06/10/the-june-2019-rowing-camp/

I didn’t row on Monday as I was too busy with the camp. On Tuesday, I joined the camp participants on their third session. My session was

1x1500m in tempo 24

2x(4x1min/1min)/6min (stroke rate 30, 32, 34, 36)


Workout Summary - media/df_20190615-132747.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11883|01:10:06.1|02:57.0|155.8|21.9|149.5|183.0|07.7
W-|06377|00:31:12.8|02:26.8|225.7|24.8|153.2|183.0|08.7
R-|05517|00:38:54.2|03:31.6|099.6|19.6|146.5|183.0|08.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02923|15:46.1|02:41.8|165.7|19.7|144.8|163.0|09.4
03|01474|06:25.1|02:10.6|226.9|24.4|166.0|175.0|09.4 - 1500m at 24spm
04|00238|00:59.4|02:05.0|278.0|29.5|153.5|169.0|08.1 - 30 spm
05|00241|00:58.6|02:01.7|320.2|31.9|172.4|180.0|07.7 - 32 spm
06|00234|00:56.2|01:60.0|327.0|33.3|174.5|182.0|07.5 - 34 spm
07|00224|00:53.2|01:58.9|329.8|33.7|171.9|182.0|07.5 - 36 spm
08|00259|01:02.0|01:59.9|270.5|29.1|150.6|168.0|08.6 - 30 spm
09|00281|01:05.0|01:55.6|297.1|31.5|170.2|177.0|08.2 - 32 spm
10|00242|00:54.2|01:51.8|327.4|34.0|170.9|179.0|07.9 - 34 spm
11|00255|00:56.5|01:50.8|351.7|36.1|174.2|183.0|07.5 - 36 spm


It was a great outing, and fantastic to have a sparring partner. It was also very hot, which I think explains the high heart rate.

On Wednesday, I had a very hectic day. I had to go to the office to do a big demo (which turned out to go really well). Then we had a dramatic row with the eight.

Lots of soul searching. It was also extremely choppy, which was a change after the super flat water we had had for three days.

On Thursday, I did a race preparation workout, combined with some technical exercises and start practice. I also invented a new drill, the “Romanian Drill”. I may explain it later. For now, I keep it as a secret drill for camp participants.

We did a 250m and a 500m at full power, racing side by side. It was great!

On Friday, after the end of the camp. Romana and I took the double and did “one lake”.

Just a nice low rate row to enjoy the lake after we had successfully completed the camp!

Hard Work

Romana and Dominik are racing at the Juniors Regatta in Munich. It’s a good opportunity for a selection of our club’s youth to get international experience and measure themselves with the Germans, who are producing quality juniors. I only found out that Dominik could have started in the lightweight Juniors B category, and he would be rowing in the front of the pack. I have mixed feelings about this, though. I understand how it makes for more interesting competition for kids who are lighter. But knowing how hard lightweight rowing is for some grown-ups, I wouldn’t want to see people limiting their food intake to make weight at that age.

As a former lightweight rower, I will say my opinion. For many athletes, lightweight rowing is not healthy. It forces people to take in less food than their training regimen requires, and fosters an unhealthy relationship with one of the best things there is in life: eating and enjoying good food (without feeling guilty). Let alone the lure of helping your performance by taking banned substances.

The natural conclusion of that is to stop lightweight rowing as a separate category, and I think I am OK with that. And I am more than OK with that for people under the age of 18.

This morning, I had a nice long sleep in, a slow breakfast and then spent time helping my youngest Robin with his Dutch homework. I also decided which restaurant in Amman I was going to have dinner in on Monday evening, which involved googling sunset times. It’s the first week of Ramadan, after all. I have good memories of Amman, so I am looking forward to going back to Jordan. After that, I headed to the office to drop some presents. One of my best people is going on maternity leave, and unfortunately I have a business trip coinciding with her last day in the office. So the least I could do was organize a collection and buy some nice presents from what was collected (plus a little extra).

Then on to the lake. I wasn’t too hopeful. Looking at the flags around the office, it would be windy. On Friday, the conditions were like this:

Today it would be tougher. I was hoping the lake would be rowable, knowing that the wind is always stronger in Slatina, where my office is, than in Bystrc at the lake. When I arrived, it wasn’t too bad. It looked like the south end of the lake was very choppy (but still rowable) and the north end was more sheltered and quieter.

So I stayed on the north end.

The training looked brutal on paper: 2x(3x3min/3min)/5min at race pace.

But a Masters sprint race takes less than four minutes. So taking that literally, it would be like rowing 3/4 of a race, then returning to the start, rowing another 3/4 to the race, and repeating that another four times.

I decided that 2k pace was meant. I don’t have enough data for this season to make a reliable estimate of my 2k power, so I just picked 28 to 30spm and 270W. (Rowsandall.com tells me my 2k power is at 241W, but that is probably an underestimation, as I haven’t done any long hard pieces on the water recently).

I rowed the 3 minute pieces at “Rokle” (see map above, top left), and the wind was ‘interesting’. It was mostly North to North-East (0 to 30 degrees) but it was turning, so there were strokes with tailwind during a headwind interval, and the other way round.

And here’s the summary:


Workout Summary - media/20190505-1105450o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09785|55:26.0|02:50.0|157.4|22.4|149.1|183.0|07.9
W-|04228|17:56.0|02:07.2|262.9|28.7|166.9|183.0|08.2
R-|05562|37:31.0|03:22.4|107.0|19.4|140.5|183.0|08.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00697|02:55.0|02:05.5|265.6|28.3|165.7|178.0|08.4
02|00669|02:59.8|02:14.4|267.5|28.3|168.2|181.0|07.9
03|00723|03:01.6|02:05.6|251.8|28.4|165.7|182.0|08.4
04|00752|03:02.0|02:00.9|275.4|29.7|167.3|180.0|08.3
05|00669|03:01.0|02:15.3|253.6|28.4|166.9|183.0|07.8
06|00717|02:56.6|02:03.1|263.4|28.9|167.5|182.0|08.4


I am a little disappointed with the power averages for some intervals, but it has to be said that there was some turning, and I did have to work hard to keep myself above 270W in the straight bits.I was pretty happy with interval number 4. This was with a nice tailwind, but I felt I could row lightly at 30spm and I didn’t have difficulty keeping the power up. I was also able to tap down cleanly and find rest in the recovery at 30spm. This is how I want to row all my intervals and race pace pieces! (Easier said than done.)

Relax

After the training, I felt very tired. I decided I needed to do something nice and relaxing, so I took the car to the Maximus Infinit Wellness resort, only 500m from our rowing club, and indulged in 90 minutes of sauna and relax. It was wonderful. Today, I really enjoyed the cold bits of saunaing. Taking the ice cold shower. Swimming in the little lake with a water temperature of 10 degrees. Standing outside in just 6 degrees C, with just a towel wrapped around my body. It was wonderful.