concept2

Apr 25 2016

New sculls and a hard 500

This week will be a heavy week in all aspects. First of all, I have an ambitious training hour target. On top of that, this is going to be a crazy week with off site meetings as well as business travel. Let’s see how it works out. I have it all planned from today to Sunday, but it’s a fragile construct. Also, there is heavy wind forecasted Monday to Thursday, so I may have to stick to the erg anyway, even if I can make time to go to the lake.

Today I did go to the lake. Had to unpack my birthday present. My birthday was a week ago, but the present came today.

It was a pleasure to unpack and put together. I think I am the only one who has this blade/shaft combination, but still I better mark these sculls soon.

I didn’t have time to go rowing, though. Had to race home to be on time for my 7pm call. After that, I did today’s session.

The last week of the erg season and there was one last nonathlon distance where I needed to set a time worth more than 900 nonathlon points. First, I did a 5k warming up:

Somehow these twenty minutes went by very fast. I like a fixed distance and watching the meters count down. Also, I had some stuff to think about.

Then the main, painful event. I don’t know any other way to row the 500m than to go out as hard as you can and then hope to keep the pace.

It took a bit too long to get the pace down to 1:30, where I managed to stay for a disappointingly short duration of about 2 strokes. From then on it went downhill. At 100m to go I did manage to speed up a bit, from 1:38 to 1:36.

C2 007 — A PM5. Am I a good Concept2 customer or not?

Good for 912 nonathlon points which doesn’t even make this my worst distance. Here’s the end score for this season:

After that I did a 5k cooling down:

And that was all for tonight. On Wednesday I will go out in the double. The new sculls are meant for the single, but I am considering to give them a maiden trip on the double. Otherwise I will have to wait until I return from Brussels.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: 500m, concept2, erg, OTE, rowing, training

Apr 21 2016

April CTC

The training plan featured a hard distance row, so today was the ideal date to replace that with April’s CTC:

2 minutes , 1 minute rest – from standing start

4 minutes, 1 minute rest – rolling start

6 minutes, 1 minute rest – rolling start

8 minutes

Simple. I knew I would be immune against the temptation to row the shorter intervals faster. When rowed in this order, one has to respect the final, longest interval. Distance wise, this looks like a 5k. There is not an abundance of rest, so I decided that my 5k pace 1:50.5 or slightly faster would do it. I started with a 3k warming up and then went for it.

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

Apr 18 2016

1k Season’s Best

We are a few days into the second half of April, so little time left to complete all the Nonathlon challenges, and the CTC.

Today, I scheduled a 1k PB attempt. The PB is 3:19.2. First, a Fletcheresque warming up. I never remember the exact Fletcher stroke rates and durations, but roughly 20 minutes with a few bursts should do it. The rule is that you start sweating a bit.

Then, on to the 1k.

Interesting to see that my drive length is well over 1m40 today. I thought 1m35 was more normal for me.

Here are the statistics
Workout Summary - sled_2016-04-18T20-32-35ZGMT+2.strokes.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|01000|03:21.0|01:40.6|32.2|174.2|182.0|09.3 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|00209|00:39.6|01:34.6|33.2|151.7|175.0|09.6 01|00194|00:38.4|01:39.3|31.4|177.7|179.0|09.6 02|00203|00:40.5|01:39.6|31.2|180.7|182.0|09.7 03|00198|00:39.8|01:40.5|31.7|181.4|182.0|09.4 04|00196|00:39.9|01:41.9|33.3|181.0|182.0|08.9 06|00000|00:01.7|00:00.0|33.0|180.0|180.0|00.0

That adds up to 3:19.6 for the real 1k. I still have to perfect my algorithms to get the exact statistics from the Painsled stroke data. Here is the proof:

First 500m no issues, but then I started to have difficulties and saw the occasional 1:41. In the final 250m I tried to short slide and rate up, but somehow it didn’t happen. I had a few strokes at 1:42. The very last stroke even was a 1:45 one.

Well, it’s the first 1k, at the start of the sprint race season. I should really do a PB attempt some time in June.

Then I did a 5k gentle cooling down at 2:05-2:10 pace.

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

Apr 15 2016

The 2 speed test again

So today I did the 2 speed test again. I did it on March 17 and on February 26. First, a 20 minutes warming up:

Then the first 1k, at “head race pace”:

Did that in 265W, 3:39.3. Lactate was 5.0 mmol/L after one minute, 4.6 mmol/L after 3 minutes.

Twelve minutes of gentle rowing at 2:12 pace. Then the “hard” 1k.

Hard it was. Max heart rate 184, average heart rate 178. My original plan was to hold 1:41 pace. I had difficulties from 600m to go and I even saw a 1:49 at one point. Lactate reading was 8.4 mmol/L, one minute after the row, and 8.6 mmol/L three minutes after the row.

The top blue line are today’s results. No wonder I was struggling during the second 1k. I have never seen so high lactates.

I have difficulty interpreting the lactate test results. I guess I will have to reread the lactate guru’s bible. One thing I notice is that I am working in the “elbow” of the lactate curve. Any small shift of the elbow to the left or right, or a slight increase in steepness of the right-hand side will have a very noticeable effect on the lactate curve. Here is my 10′ step test from the end of the fall:

The light blue line is an extension of the >200 W points. For the 318W that I pulled today, that line is at 10 mmol/L.

Next week, I plan to do a 1k OTE erg to get a good score in for the nonathlon, before the erg season ends. I guess I will approach this 1k attempt with fear, after this result. After that 1k, I may have to think hard about the effectiveness of the training that I am doing.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 6 • Tags: concept2, erg, lactate, OTE, rowing, test, testing

Apr 11 2016

Tame Session – new mesocycle

No time to go rowing OTW. First day of a new 5 week mesocycle. Maintaining base fitness, continuing with endurance power and then slowly gearing up for the 1000m sprint race season.

For the non-rowers: What we call sprint is a 4 minute effort.

Anyway, today I eased into the first week of the new cycle. A light endurance session of about 60 minutes. Decided to row it as 5×12 minutes and use the “Wolverine Plan” rate ladders to keep me busy.

I love Painsled. Nice export of stroke data to CSV files. I was curious to see what the rate ladders would do with my stroke length, average force, drive time and recovery time. It turned out to be no surprise. The recovery time is varied, all other parameters staying roughly the same.
Workout Summary - sled_2016-04-11T19-28-49ZGMT+2.strokes.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|14428|62:12.0|02:09.4|20.2|141.8|157.0|11.5 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|02861|12:03.3|02:06.4|19.9|134.1|147.0|11.9 04|02876|12:07.0|02:06.4|20.0|138.7|148.0|11.9 08|02869|12:07.1|02:06.7|20.0|142.9|153.0|11.8 12|02890|12:07.3|02:05.8|20.4|146.9|157.0|11.7 16|02914|12:07.7|02:04.9|20.8|146.4|155.0|11.5

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 7 • Tags: concept2, erg, OTE, painsled, rowing, steady state, training

Apr 6 2016

Playing with the PM5 and data tools

No time for an OTW row today. The taper plan called for a quiet 40 minutes row. I decided to play a bit with the PM5 and the different tools. Here’s what I did:

Row a 2km Warming Up on RowPro. Export data. Process with my python tool.
Row a 6km Main Row on painsled, export data. Process with my python tool
Row a 2km Cooling Down on ErgData. Export data to Concept2 logbook

It all worked like a charm.

Warming Up (RowPro):
Workout Summary - D:tijdelijk2km_rowpro.csv_o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|01998|08:35.0|02:09.0|21.9|140.3|156.0|10.6

Main Row (Painsled):

The 6km Main Row, data captured in painsled, plotted from the CSV export

Workout Summary - sled_2016-04-06T07-44-35ZGMT+2.strokes.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|06000|25:06.0|02:05.6|22.7|155.5|168.0|10.5 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|01204|04:58.1|02:03.8|23.0|142.6|159.0|10.5 01|01204|04:59.2|02:04.2|22.5|158.0|165.0|10.7 02|01200|05:03.3|02:06.4|22.8|158.0|168.0|10.4 03|01200|05:02.8|02:06.2|22.5|157.6|164.0|10.6 04|01193|05:02.1|02:06.6|22.6|161.2|165.0|10.5

Cooling Down (ErgData):

What you see is a screenshot from my Concept2 logbook. I don’t have a parser for the ErgData CSV file in my plotting tool yet. Should not be too difficult. Yesterday, I literally had the SpeedCoach parser written, working and tested in 10 minutes.

Edit

It took me 15 minutes to add a ErgData parser to my tool. Had to calculate the Power in Watts by hand. It’s a pity that they don’t include Drive Length, Drive Speed, Drag Factor, Peak Force and Average Force in the CSV download.

Now, the only problem is that I will have to manually put the ErgData row in SportTracks. I don’t want to write a CSV to TCX converter. This, to me, is the downside of ErgData. Lack of export to SportTracks, Garmin Connect, Strava, and other fitness sites … I understand that Concept2 may want to build out their own logbook. I want my data to be free, however, and I want to see my rows (OTW and OTE) next to my runs and bike rides.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 4 • Tags: concept2, erg, OTE, pm5, rowing, rowing data, taper, training

Apr 4 2016

New toy – and more python

Got my PM5 today.

The row was a warming up, a 3x20min at 190W and a 2km cooling down.

I also captured the row with painsled and exported both CSV and TCX files. The TCX files read fine into SportTracks. In contrast to CSV files that I have from other people who run painsled, my files don’t have HR data 🙁

EDIT – I reported this to the painsled developer (Rick) and he fixed it within 12 hours. See the plots in all their glory:

It’s already the third monitor for my Concept2 Model C. Here are the first two:

More Python

My python software ran great on my PC. Turns out the command-line scripts didn’t work too well on other people’s computers. Over the weekend, I did some testing, using my son’s Windows10 computer with a clean Python (Anaconda) install, and on my old Linux netbook. Greg also helped greatly by running subsequent updates on his macintosh.

Turns out Python packaging is quite confusing. In the end I got it all working. Now it should install easily for people who have Python and easy_install. Just installing Anaconda and then easy_install rowingdata should do the job. You get command-line scripts that should work on every platform.

It’s all documented on: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/rowingdata and http://pythonhosted.org/rowingdata/

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 3 • Tags: concept2, erg, OTE, pm5, rowing, steady state, training

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concept2

New sculls and a hard 500

April CTC

1k Season’s Best

The 2 speed test again

Tame Session – new mesocycle

Playing with the PM5 and data tools

New toy – and more python

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