Rowsandall

Mar 20 2016

A ride

Cross-training day but I was too lazy for running. Biking is easier!

I rode to Vranov. A tiny village on a big hill, with a big church:

Here’s the whole ride.

The ride was planned for 90 minutes, but ended up a bit longer. From Lipuvka, I didn’t want to ride on the main road, which was quite busy with people returning from their weekend cottages. I had to take a longer, windier road with more climbing.

About 20% of the ride was on mud. The rest was normal roads.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: bike, cross-training, ride, training

Mar 19 2016

First row in the double

Yep. Romana and I went out in the double today. Just a technique session. And we nailed it. I think we were rowing pretty well after these 10km of different drills.

Our beloved light blue Salani double “Orca” was behaving very nicely. I think it was glad it got the dust washed off after a long winter of inactivity.

Then we loaded the trailers. Half of our club goes to Varese with the big trailer. I am towing my small trailer to Račice, the national water sports center, north of Prague. It is loaded with 2 pairs and 4 singles. On the way back we’ll have to add two bicycles.

Hoping the weather is going to be nice.

Lenka was rowing with a trial version of the RitmoTime Rowing app. She was happy but I wasn’t convinced. I have to look into an app that allows coaching as well. I guess you want the coach view to do fleet management, so you can instantaneously see all your rowers’ stroke rate, pace, perhaps even heart rate and some other parameters. Of course the fleet will be a mix of iphones and android phones. All the kids in the club have smartphones, so we would just have to get a bunch of watertight cases. Would be a nice way to collect their training data as well. Let me know if you know of such apps, even better if you have tested it.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: double, OTW, rowing, technique, training

Mar 18 2016

Relax. Lighten up.

The original plan was to work for a few hours in the morning, then go rowing at 10am, and be in meetings from 12:30 onwards. The problem was that I didn’t get the inputs needed to do work in the morning. Can’t blame the guy, he has been getting up at 3am since Monday, has been on business travel and working really hard.

So I decided to give him time and went rowing at 8am.

The weather is interesting. Nice and sunny. Just under the freezing point at night, but reaching 15 degrees C during the day. It was 3C when I drove to the lake.

This was a technique training with the following goals:

Technique drills to train a good tap down and a light catch
Short pieces at low pressure and high rate to get used to rating up

A little wind creating some chop. I apologize for the horizont not being horizontal. I forgot to align the camera before the row.

Here is a compilation of the technique drills. Switch to HD for a better view. Somehow the youtube video defaults to a lower resolution:

After the drills, I did intervals “1 minute on, 2 minutes off” and tried to keep everything light. It is hard not to pull hard. It was very hard to keep the light stroke and still rate up, but I am convinced that is something I need to improve. I cannot row a head race in 25 spm. My legs would refuse to cooperate after 2 or 3 kms. I think I can go faster if I can find the right rhythm, and I think the ideal rate is between 28spm and 30spm. Not higher, but definitely not lower.

You can judge the effort level from my heart rate in the video. Of course, pushing light but doing a lot of strokes per minute is still a high power workout. Here are the rate pieces in chronological order. Judge for yourself. I am very interested in your feedback. Switch to HD for a better view. Somehow the youtube video defaults to a lower resolution:

Here is a comparison of the water height of last Saturday and today. Quite a difference. I guess we are almost at maximum water height now.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: OTW, rowing, single, technique, training

Mar 17 2016

Two speed lactate test again

After three weeks, one meso cycle, it was time again for the two speed lactate test. Copy paste from three weeks ago. The difference, instead of Friday afternoon I am doing it on Thursday evening. Tomorrow, I will not have time.

First, a Fletcher warming up:

Copy paste success. Virtually no differences with the previous cycle.

Then on to the main event.

Workout Summary - Mar 17, 2016 --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|02000|06:59.9|01:45.0|302.5|29.7|173.3|183.0|09.6 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments 01|01000|03:37.1|01:48.5|273.7|27.6|168.1|180.0|10.0|3.9 mmol/L (3.9) 02|01000|03:22.8|01:41.4|335.6|32.0|178.3|183.0|09.3|5.3 mmol/L (6.0)

No mistakes in the measurement protocol this time. I also measured at the end of the 10 minutes cooling down: 4.3 mmol/L.

So, in comparison with three weeks ago:

Heart rate is up 3 to 4 beats per minute
Lactate is higher for the first interval (which felt hard) and lower for the second one …

Actually, the heart rate is back to what I measured in January. Here is the updated graph (the new line is yellow):

Given my 10k effort of two days ago (holding 240W for nearly 38 minutes) and the fact that I was able to hold the same power without too big problems, I don’t think there are any big changes in my fitness. Perhaps we are just seeing the day to day differences. But I will refrain from a strong conclusion now. The training schedule for the coming few weeks is quite fixed and I see no reason to change it. I have a head race in three weeks and I will do a lot of threshold workouts.

After the race, I will repeat the test, and also do a detailed planning of the April to July time frame.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: concept2, erg, OTE, rowing, testing

Mar 15 2016

A hard 10000m

Monday

Enjoyed a rest day. Tactical rest day before a hard threshold row.

Tuesday

A 10k row on the schedule. A threshold row. Thinking of a PB, but I knew it would be hard. Rowing PBs is never easy, but on a working day, rowing it in the evening, after a meal, is hard. My 10k PB of the 2014/15 was rowed with people standing around. At 1:53.5 pace, in a time of 37:52.8. In a vacation, with nothing else on my mind.

So I gave myself a second target. Good training effort would be to row this in 1:55 pace (or faster).

Warming up: A 2k with 10 stroke “pieces” in the second 1000m, at 1:57, 1:53 and 1:45 pace. Strange enough, the 1:45 felt more doable than the 1:53. Strange intermediate pace … unknown territory.

Fired up RowPro, after a long time, but I wanted to have a good pace boat. To be sure, I set up two pace boat, 1:53.5 and 1:55.0. That’s how uncertain I was.

The plan was to divide the row in 4 pieces of 2.5km, and row them 1:53 / 1:54 / 1:54 / 1:53. First 2.5km went by easily. I struggled a bit to find a good rhythm, but once that was found, I just watched my pace boat fall behind, by about 2 meters per 500m.

4000m rowed. 6000m on the display. This was a first desperate moment. I had been going for some time, but still a full 6k in front of me.

Past half way. It became a bit harder to gain the 2 meters per 500m interval, but it kept me busy. I was thinking of finishing around 37:42 …

The pain started with 3km to go. I did a quick calculation, and with 2500m to go I knew that I could hold 1:55 and end up finishing before my pace boat. Between 2000m and 1000m I was really struggling and slowed down a bit. Now I was looking at a predicted end time of 37:47, and counting strokes.

Workout Summary - Mar 15, 2016 --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|10000|37:45.4|01:53.3|240.8|26.1|176.3|184.0|10.1 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments 01|01000|03:46.0|01:53.0|242.5|25.0|153.3|166.0|10.6| 02|01000|03:45.6|01:52.8|243.9|25.3|170.5|173.0|10.5| 03|01000|03:46.3|01:53.1|241.6|25.2|174.1|176.0|10.5| 04|01000|03:46.1|01:53.1|242.1|26.0|176.1|178.0|10.2| 05|01000|03:46.3|01:53.1|241.6|26.0|178.0|180.0|10.2| 06|01000|03:46.0|01:53.0|242.7|26.0|180.2|181.0|10.2| 07|01000|03:46.3|01:53.1|241.7|26.5|181.2|183.0|10.0| 08|01000|03:47.1|01:53.6|239.0|26.9|182.1|183.0|09.8|starting to feel it 09|01000|03:48.9|01:54.4|233.6|26.7|182.3|184.0|09.8|fighting 10|01000|03:46.8|01:53.4|239.9|27.8|182.9|184.0|09.5|end in sight

I did a very slow 2k cooling down, took a shower and then started the pleasant task of updating my signature, nonathlon score, writing my blog etc …

Planning wise I had a little set back. My boss called me to tell me that he has to go to the Middle East next week, and wants me to be at a meeting in Brno instead of him. That’s normally fine as I am based in Brno, but I planned to be in Račice next week with Romana and the girls, on the canal, and work from our Prague office (or from the canal).

Well, I’ll drive back to Brno on Wednesday afternoon, and return to Prague on Thursday afternoon. I will miss just two workouts. Just 5 to 6 hours of driving … or 8 hours by train.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: 10000m, 10k, concept2, erg, L3, OTE, PB, rowing, threshold, training

Mar 13 2016

3×20 minutes

Instead of running, I went on a strawl with my wife Romana and my son Robin. We took the bus to Ořešín and hiked back. It was a very nice walk, through the village of Jehnice, then through the forest and along a few ponds back to our house.

So, enough outdoors and nature to be able to tolerate the 3×20 minutes on the erg, which by this time in the preparation phase are really becoming boring.

Nothing special to report about this session. Sat down. Rowed 3×20 minutes and listened to a course. Stroke histogram and heart rate plot are below. After the third interval, I measured lactate: 1.4 mmol/L. It felt “medium”. I wouldn’t call this a “Watts came easy” session and I had to play a few mind games to negotiate with myself and keep the 200W, but it wasn’t too hard.

This was the last session of a high volume week. The target was missed by a whopping two hours because of the travel and the show. Still, I am looking forward to a lighter week. I am planning it now. Need to take note of the wind forecast too, so I can plan my OTW sessions on the low wind days.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: concept2, erg, OTE, rowing, steady state, training

Mar 12 2016

First OTW session of the new season

Pretty tired after a 5x1500m on Thursday and the 9x300m CTC of yesterday, but so much looking forward to this session.

First OTW session after a January 1 New Year’s gimmick row. I planned to do a 2x3km. There was some wind, so I chose to row towards the castle.

First, the joy of a normal rowing dock instead of the terrible thing we have used for a few decennia:

Here’s a picture of the new dock:

The water level is still low. When the Brno reservoir is fully filled, the concrete cubes and the dock will be at about the same level.

During the row, I discovered I have a lot of attention points for the coming month. I had difficulty getting the rate up during my 2x3000m/2min rest session. Especially in the headwind sections I couldn’t get above 24spm. I need to sit more straight and reduce the pressure immediately after the catch, and not dip my blades so deep.

|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks |02142|14:17|03:20.0| 18.6 | 158 | 169 |08.0|WU |02977|14:06|02:22.1| 24.8 | 177 | 181 |08.5|head wind |00190|02:00|05:15.4| 18.2 | 158 | 180 |05.2|rest |02969|13:04|02:12.0| 25.1 | 177 | 181 |09.1|tail wind |02133|13:17|03:06.8| 17.6 | 145 | 181 |09.1|CD

and summary:dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment 2142_____|_14:17____|_3:20.0|158|18.6|8.0|warmup 5946_____|_27:10____|_2:17.1|177|24.9|8.8|Main set 2133_____|_13:17____|_3:06.8|145|17.6|9.1|Cool down 0190_____|_02:00____|_5:15.4|158|18.2|5.2|rest meters 10412____|_56:44____|_2:43.5|165|21.2|8.6|_Total

I wanted this to be around 2:13 pace, so still some work to do. Here’s a short video taken with the GoPro:

Here are the colorful heart rate graphs. Even though I didn’t manage to rate up, my heart rate was quite high and I think it was a good threshold session:

This is how my hands looked after the row:

Great to be on the water again. I hope I can persuade Romana for an outing on the double tomorrow.

This is also the weekend of the Heineken Roeivierkamp, a very interesting race in The Netherlands. Over two days, the crews race over 4 distances, 250m, 750m, 2500m and 5000m. The overall ranking is calculated by converting all times to 250m times. The sum over the four distances forms the final score. Everything is rowed in the centre of Amsterdam:

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: crewnerd, OTW, rowing, training

«< 85 86 87 88 89 >»

A ride

First row in the double

Relax. Lighten up.

Two speed lactate test again

A hard 10000m

3×20 minutes

First OTW session of the new season

Calendar

Tags