Sep 16 2016
Ode to the small regatta – part II
A few pictures from the racing in Břeclav, Czech Republic, last weekend of August. A couple of pictures to capture the atmosphere.
Sep 15 2016
September CTC
Around 2pm in the afternoon, my employer sent out a message to all people on the site that the tap water was not drinkable. Due to hot weather, the entire town’s tap water is above the norm for bacteria. The water company’s site is down, so I don’t know by how much we are over the norm and if there is a huge risk. Driving home after work, I stopped at a supermarket to buy bottled water, only to find it was sold out. Luckily, Romana had managed to get hold of 20 liters of bottled water. Well, I guess you can always boil the tap water and then drink it. It’s a pity I didn’t have our own water well tested. We use it only to flush the toilet and water the garden.
Or, I may have to revert to drinking wine and beer. 🙂
Today’s session was planned as a 5x10min/R3, with the first and last 10min intervals as a warming up, respectively cooling down. I would do the second (hard) 10 minute interval from a standing start, so I could claim it as this month’s CTC.
First, I messed up with the PM. Instead of selecting a time based interval session, I dialed up a single 10 min row.
No problem, that was only the warming up. Dialed up the 10min interval session and set off.
The CTC (Cross Team Challenge) is a fun team challenge. You register for a team (I row for the “Free Spirits”) and each month there is a different rowing challenge. You row the challenge and submit your result to the site. You end up in a “boat” consisting of one lightweight rower, one female rower, and 3 “open” seats, i.e. there will be heavies or fast lightweights or female rowers. The competition is between the teams. The more people participate, the more boats are “floating”. The better your boat scores, the higher you end up in the ranking. I really like this challenge and try to row it every month, to the best score that fits into my training plan. This month’s challenge was “row 10 minutes straight, from a standing start, and record the distance”, so my first 10 minute interval would qualify.
Workout Summary - media/20160915-195537-sled_2016-09-15T20-04-20ZGMT+2.strokes.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08325|36:01.0|02:09.8|25.2|165.9|185.0|09.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02727|10:00.0|01:49.9|27.3|170.8|185.0|10.0
01|02609|10:00.0|01:54.8|26.7|174.5|184.0|09.8
02|02283|10:00.0|02:11.2|22.7|157.4|167.0|10.1
I spent some time thinking about my target pace for a 3x10min. My 30 minutes Season’s Best is 1:52.4 pace. According to the fit to Concept2 ranking distances on my own site rowsandall.com, I would be able to do a 30 minute effort (without rests) in 1:52.0 and a full out 10 minutes in 1:46.7 pace. I didn’t think it would be wise to aim for that 1:46.7 pace in the first interval, but I wanted to row 1:52.0 average pace.
My goal was to row faster than the current lightweight in Free Spirits boat #2:Â David Plump (also known as Plummy), who had set an average pace of 1:52.9. I knew I wouldn’t be able to beat John Steventon’s (of Free Spirits boat #1) pace of 1:42.9, so I set off at 1:52, held that for 4 minutes, then 3 minutes at 1:51, 2 minutes at 1:50 and final minute free rate and pace.
I managed to  2727 meters in that first interval which is 1:50.0 pace. This resulted in a few lightweights jumping ship. I managed to enter Free Spirits II (same boat as Greg) and move it from 20th place to 17th place. Plummy moved to Free Spirits III still on 27th place but with a better score, and RGelissen moved to Free Spirits IV, bringing that boat up from 39th place to 18th place. Free Spirits V and VI are still in the boathouse.
Having rowed 1:50.0 in the first interval, I took back the power a bit in the second interval, with the idea to row 1:55 average, and then manage 1:52.5 in the final interval. I managed to execute that second interval according to plan, but I didn’t like my heart rate at all. It went substantially above 180bpm, just as in the first interval. Also, I felt tired and not motivated. So I just paddled the final 10 minute interval and called it a cooling down.
My mental strength always returns late from business trips.
Anyway, the CTC challenge does make indoor rowing more fun.
Sep 14 2016
Monday – Wednesday: business trip
Monday
Traveled to Brussels through Munich. Then dinner in the hotel with colleagues. No training.
Tuesday
Hotel fitness at 10am. I am not in my usual hotel. In the Hilton Brussels City, where I had to stay to be with the colleagues from the US, you pay more for a smaller room, and the hotel is further away from normal streets and restaurants. But the gym has an indoor rower. A model C with a PM2 monitor. Just like I had in the old days. I rowed a 2k warming up, then 10 minutes of spinning and then I did 3×15 push-ups, sit-ups, bench pulls, pistol squats and that was it. 45 minutes of exercise before a long day of meetings followed by a 3 hour business dinner.
Wednesday
3×20 min of steady state with 1 minute of rest. A quite sweaty affair in the very hot fitness center. In the first interval I just rowed for 10 minutes, then did a Wolverine L4 4/3/2/1 sequence at 20/21/22/23 spm to break the bore. In the second interval I did 4/4/4/4/4min at 170/180/190/180/170 W. The most successful boredom reduction strategy was the last interval. I started at 190.5 W for one minute and then let the average drop by 0.5 W per minute, which means you row at 170W in the final minute and end up with an average of 180.0W.
Sep 12 2016
Ode to the Small Regatta
This weekend, our club, and thus my family and me, participated in a small regatta in Brandýs nad Labem, a small town on the river Elbe, close to Prague. Having left Brno around 2pm, we arrived in Brandýs at 5pm.
This is OndĹ™ej Synek’s club. The bronze (Rio) and silver (Beijing, London) Olympic medal winner and four-times World Champion of course trains in the Prague club Dukla, where most of the Czech  National Team train on the Vltava river or on the canal in RaÄŤice, but he is the president of the club where he started rowing and an inspiration to the local rowing community. Of course, this was one of the reasons why we had chosen to take part in this regatta, but also because there are many rowing clubs on the Elbe (Labe) river and it would be a good opportunity for the kids of our club to measure their forces with the kids from this region. In Moravia, our club is one of the best, but on the National level, the Prague and Elbe based clubs regularly beat us.
When we arrived, we were surprised by the humble conditions. We were wondering if it was possible to organize a relatively big “small regatta” on this site.
The Synek himself was laying out the buoys.
A few pictures (not taken by me) of the rowing club’s buildings:
We unloaded the trailer and sent the kids for a training. After that we drove to our “hotel” Sport Centrum Brandys, which was a time travel back to the Communist 1980s. The rooms were depressing, brown, and worn down, but at least it was clean.
In the evening, we walked back to the rowing club for a party. The beer was on Ondrej Synek and we had a great time.
My race was scheduled for Sunday, so on Saturday I took my youngest son to the Prague zoo, just a 20 minutes drive from the race venue. We spent 5 hours at the zoo, and it was great, except for the heat. It was 31 degree in the shade. In the afternoon, we returned to the regatta. I had a beer and watched the races. Our tent was under a group of oak and birch trees on the East end of the island, so we were in the shade, but still it felt like being in a laundry.
Sunday started early, because the girls had their singles races at 9am. I managed to get a little 30 minutes practice row in, just to check if I would be able to race in this 2 year old bow-wing Wintech single. It was OK. Compared to my own single, this felt a bit more like rowing a tank, but I managed to get decent boat run.
Lenka’s race didn’t go well. She didn’t finish too far behind but did finish last, rowing a low stroke rate and looking tired. After the race, she told me she wanted to start rating up at the 500m mark, but got demotivated by seeing the 800 sign when she was expecting 500. A 800m sign? I checked it and found that just before the 500m mark there is a sign marking 800km to the river’s end in Hamburg!
Then there was a long wait for my race, which I spent watching the racing, or reading a book under one of the trees. It was hot, 29 degrees in the shade, but it wasn’t as humid as on Saturday. It was actually one of the nicest Sundays I have spent. On a river bank, under the trees, with a view on the houses and gardens on the other side of the river, early 20th century villas. Big houses from the 1910s and 1920s and smaller, but elegant villas from the 1930s. With gardens sloping down to the river banks, with large trees, nice terraces.
I should also compliment the regatta organizers. Even though there was a very full program with starts every 6 minutes, and just two motor boats, the organizers managed everything  easily and calmly. There was enough dock space to launch and land without problem. There were no queues at the catering tent, there was nice commentary, and the music was fantastic. Usually they just broadcast a local radio station, but at this regatta they had a complete musical program, starting with some jazz in the morning, moving to rock during the day, but instead of the usual pop, the DJ played music from lesser known rock bands and really helped to maintain the easy sunny weekend atmosphere. Just perfect.
Then it was time for my race. The line-up was:
- Malecky from Melnik (1977)
- Doubek from Brno (1974)
- Roosendaal from Brno (1972)
- Lacko from Roudnice (1972)
- Brezina from Litomerice (1969)
Before us, there were 10 heats of boys (14 years) doubles, starting at the 1000m just as we, so after warming up and a few practice starts, the Masters rowers could wait in the shadow under the highway viaduct.
Michal Doubek was telling me that I would win, but I wasn’t so sure. I didn’t know the other guys (and I didn’t check them), and with Masters rowers you can’t really tell from the looks. A huge guy who pulls 6:30 on the erg can be slower than me, a lightweight guy pulling 6:56.
The river was wide enough for five boats, but there were no buoys marking the lanes, just one line of buoys to separate the racing from the boats rowing towards the start. The course is almost straight, with a very slight turn around the 500m line.
We were started off. My start wasn’t slow but I do faster starts in my own boat. It takes more strokes to get the Wintech going. Malecky was a length in front of me, and I was in second position. I prolonged the high rate start to try and come next to him, which I managed to do, but I paid a high price. About 20 strokes in I realized this pace was not sustainable, so I lowered the rate a bit and Malecky rowed away from me.
At the 500m mark I was just one length ahead of Brezina. As I started turning to row the final straight line to the finish, Brezina started to catch up with me, but he didn’t turn. The umpire was shouting at him, and at one point I also shouted “left”. Then he slowly started to turn, but he had already pushed me out of my lane. Rowing in a quite nice club boat, I didn’t want to risk, so I preferred taking the wider turn over risking a clash. In the final 250m we were rowing next to each other, but he managed to push his bow ball over the finish line before me. Of course I didn’t protest. This is a small regatta. A Masters single race. No reason to be overly serious. Also, I did receive apologies immediately after the race.
It was also interesting to see that the winner, Malecky, started in lane 1 and finished in lane 6.
So a third place. My measured time was 3:44. The river was almost standing still after the dry summer, so I guess that a stream corrected pace would be somewhere between 1:52 and 1:55 average 500m pace. Not good. Not bad. Probably according to expectations after 2 heavy weeks of training with a focus on head racing, no tapering, and an energy draining Saturday spent in a hot zoological garden. There were also a few beers on Friday and Saturday evening.
I just checked the results of the Masters Nationals, and Malecky was 9 seconds faster than I, rowing in the B field. Brezina didn’t start in the single. It’s an interesting fact about Masters rowing. Even when you win, you know there are probably dozens of faster scullers out there, who just couldn’t participate because of other priorities. It’s as much about showing up as it is about rowing fast.
So our son Dominik was the only family member taking some medals back to Brno. He steered the 14 year old boys 4x+ to a win and he won the boys 12 year old 2x with his partner Stepan. Among his trophy was the picture below and a rowing cap signed by Synek:
I love small regattas. A relaxed atmosphere. Lots of racing going on. This is were future Olympians learn to race and get addicted to rowing.
Sep 9 2016
5 reasons to exercise in the very early morning
Admittedly, I constructed today’s blog title as click bait. Hopefully the content will satisfy you.
Here are my five reasons:
- You get to see the sunrise
- Less wind, which is a big deal on our lake.
- You have the lake for yourself (or just share it with other rowers). No swimmers. No ferries. No paddle boats
- On hot days, the temperatures are better
- It energizes me for the working day. One positive thing done first thing in the morning sets the direction for the rest of the day
Today was a shorter session than on Wednesday. For logistics reasons, Saturday’s session of 2x3km at head race pace had to be moved to Friday. The problem is that that is just two days after another heavy session, so would I be fully recovered? I wasn’t sure, but I figured the negative effect of not doing a session is stronger than the negative effect of doing a heavy session when not fully rested (and potentially not doing it as hard as it should be done).
I did an interesting experiment with myself. I promised myself to focus strongly on technique whenever my stroke pace would be higher than the average pace. So on the first 3k I set out at 2:03, and take a glance at the SpeedCoach every few strokes. If I would see 2:05 or 2:06 (or worse) I would focus on tap down, back swing or length at the catch instead of pushing harder with the legs. So just focus on technique, not working harder, especially not in the first part of the stroke.
It worked! Either the wind gods played with me and increased the tailwind (or decreased headwind) slightly to bring the desired outcome, or it really worked. I am going to settle for the second explanation.
Stroke rates were still only at 25 spm, but that will be the focus a couple of weeks from now. First, I need to build a good basic head race stroke.
Work Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03000| 12:28 |02:04.7| 25.0| 173 | 181 | 9.6
02|03000| 13:16 |02:12.7| 25.7| 177 | 182 | 8.8
Workout Summary
--|06000| 25:44 | 2:08.7| 25.4| 175 | 182 | 9.2
During the tailwind interval I thought that I was rowing very well in what I thought was just a very light tailwind. It was a bit disappointing to see my pace hovering around 2:13 / 500m in the headwind interval. In that one, pace drifted to 2:16 when I didn’t focus on technique and I managed to get it back to 2:09-2:11 when I did.
Both 3km intervals went by much faster than I thought they would. Actually, they were rather enjoyable. Painful they were of course, but no thought of giving up. I guess the technique focus kept my mind focused on something else than the pain.
Sep 17 2016
Saturday: 2x3km
Friday
No training on Friday. I am in recovery week. Also, somehow the business trip and Thursday’s 10 minute intervals made me very tired.
Saturday
Romana is racing in Bratislava, Slovakia, today. A race in eights from Devin to Bratislava, 11 km on the Morava river with the current.
I got a text message that her eight has won and she is bringing a cup home. Great!
Because Romana was racing in Slovakia, I got to manage the girls 15/16 training today. My daughter Lenka is not fit to row, so she got to do stretching and some light spinning in the gym. With the two other girls, I set out to do a 2x3km in singles, to prepare for the 6km race in 3 weeks.
The weather: 18 degrees C and drizzle. Quite a change after a week of 30-35 degrees and sunshine.
Two girls, a 15 year old and a 16 year old. I let them start side by side, because they tend to be competitive and race like that. On this headwind 3km, I started myself three minutes after the girls.
I took over Tereza (15) with 500m to go. Iva (16) was already waiting at the 3km mark “Sirka”. I asked her how long she had been waiting. Two minutes, was the answer.
Three minutes after I finished (and about 2:15 after Tereza finished) we all started together for the second 3km interval.
A tailwind row. I quickly took the lead and rowed away from Iva, but somehow the mojo wasn’t there. The stroke rate was at the prescribed 25/26 spm but I didn’t pull too hard. Even had two “handle down” moments, and certainly didn’t have energy to finish strong.
After completing my second 3km interval, I waited for the girls to arrive and had them count heart beats with their fingers on their neck. Iva (16) counted without hesitation, 24 beats in 10 seconds, so a 144 pulse.
With Tereza, it was a bit more difficult. She had gone much deeper during the row, and she is younger and not yet used to structured trainings. I had to explain to her how to measure heart beats with your fingers on your neck. In the end she got it, and counted 26 beats in 10 seconds. So, how much is 26 times 6, I asked her. You should have seen the look on her face. Counting on her fingers, she got to the correct answer eventually.
After the training, during the stretching, I explained a bit about training programs, that every week there are one or two hard sessions, where the coach expects them to go really deep. Iva told me that Romana had set a stroke rate cap of 24 and I had told her to take a light stroke. Yes, she has to work on technique and take light strokes, but endurance wise she is ready to do this at 28spm. For the younger girl, Tereza, all this was a new world and she did go deep (having difficulty to hold 24 spm). Anyway, it was fun to work with the girls and (hopefully) help them be better rowers. A very welcome change to my normal solo (narcissistic?) sessions.
Here’s the session in images and statistics:
Work Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|03000| 13:54 |02:19.0| 25.0| 174 | 183 | 8.6
02|03000| 12:54 |02:09.0| 25.0| 173 | 178 | 9.3
Workout Summary
--|06000| 26:48 | 2:14.0| 25.0| 174 | 183 | 9.0
I measured wind speed on the dock after the session. An average over a 2 minute measurement was 2.9 m/s, with a peak of 4.0 m/s. I used these values to calculate power. There may have been a slightly lighter wind during the session, but I still think the power plot is an accurate representation of what I did.
The second 3km got recorded on Strava as a valid time for the “Sirka-Rokle” segment that I defined, and I am leading the leaderboard with it. I don’t think this is fair. I was helped by the 3m/s tailwind and I think this is one of my worst efforts on this segment. It shows that Strava and rowing is difficult. Wind is a big factor. The first interval didn’t get recorded for the segment “Rokle-Sirka”, probably because I was too far off the course. Rowing Strava intervals on a lake is not straightforward.
After the training, my son Robin and I went to Kunstat, a small town in the highlands, about 30 minutes from Brno, to visit a pottery fair. Unfortunately, we didn’t find what we wanted, but we had a great time.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 4 • Tags: 2x3km, lake, OTW, rowing, single, training