concept2

Nov 1 2017

Race Photos and more Training Data

Race Photos

Some great pictures have surfaced from our race. No trace of the drone video, yet.

Monday – Steady State

This is the period of the year when base building is the only focus. So on Monday I dutifully rowed my two times 30 minutes, erring on the lower power side. I will do a lactate step test on November 11 and after that, I plan to use lactate as a guidance. For now, I go with Perceived Rate of Exertion and Heart Rate.

Tuesday – the same but on the rowing club

More base building on the erg. This time I rowed it in the rowing club erg room. I expected a few more of our Masters rowers, as Tuesday evening is our assigned erg room evening for this winter season, but in the end I was the only one. The head coach and a bunch of Men and Juniors were in the adjacent weights room, so there was enough company, and people passing and looking at my PM.

I rowed three sets of 5km, with Tamed Wolverine Plan rate ladders. Tamed, because I did 1spm steps instead of 2spm steps. Here are the first two intervals:

For the final 5k interval, I decided to start a bit higher and work down back to 18spm.

One interesting fact about the charts of Tuesday are that the heart rate date were not recorded by the PM. I recorded it separately on the Garmin Forerunner. On rowsandall.com it is easy to combine data from different sources into one workout.

Finally, a comparison of steady state workouts using the Box Chart:

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

Oct 24 2017

The Power of Habit

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Now, at the start of the winter off season, the most important thing is to keep working out regularly, keep sticking to the plan and building the habit. Coming back from illness, this is hard. On Monday, I actually decided to take a rest day to finish some fine tuning of a new feature on rowsandall.com. My plan allows for this sort of flexibility. I simply took the rest day on Monday instead of Wednesday.

Today, I listened to this Rowperfect rowing chat with Charlie Simpson and Jim Flood who have published a new book on rowing coaching. At the end of the podcast, they come to talk about Rowing Data. What they said made a lot of sense and I am excited to see that rowing data starts to be discussed more and more frequently.

The session was the usual 2 stretches of 30 minutes. In the first set, I rowed Wolverine plan rate ladders. I started doing the same in the second set, but noticed my heart rate rising to above 170 bests per minute, so I took down the power to stay under 165 beats per minute.

First 30 minutes:

Workout Summary - media/20171024-1835500o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|07232|30:04.0|02:04.7|180.6|19.9|157.7|172.0|12.1 W-|07233|30:04.0|02:04.7|180.6|19.9|157.5|172.0|12.1 R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|172.0|00.0 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|02399|10:00.0|02:05.0|177.4|19.3|144.8|161.0|12.4 01|02421|10:00.0|02:03.9|182.4|19.8|160.3|167.0|12.2 02|02413|10:04.2|02:05.2|181.9|20.6|167.2|172.0|11.7

Second 30 minutes:

Workout Summary - media/20171024-1835500o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|07224|30:04.0|02:04.9|180.6|19.9|157.7|172.0|12.1 W-|07226|30:04.0|02:04.8|180.6|19.9|157.5|172.0|12.1 R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|172.0|00.0 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|02395|10:00.0|02:05.2|177.4|19.3|144.8|161.0|12.4 01|02413|10:00.0|02:04.3|182.4|19.8|160.3|167.0|12.2 02|02417|10:04.2|02:05.0|181.9|20.6|167.2|172.0|11.7

Heart rate drift was 8% in the first interval (warming up effect) and 2% in the second one. I am not 100% sure how relevant this metric is, but rowsandall.com reports it, as it was requested by a user, so I take note of the values.

Before the session, I visited an exhibition of art work made by my daughter and her classmates.

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

Oct 10 2017

Monday – a good old. 4x2km

Originally, I wanted to go out in my single, but I had an interview candidate at 4pm, and it gets dark early. Also, the weather was quite windy.

So I decided for an erg workout. A pretty hard one as well, because I am entering a training cycle with a few intense sessions. My legs were still not recovered from Saturday’s race, but I will be traveling without exercise for two days, so I am postponing my “rest”. The normal training plan adjustments that you need to do if you want to combine training with work and family.

I did a 2km warming up, selected a good rowing music list on SoundCloud, put the speaker on loud and started off.

         Workout Summary - media/20171009-1901270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10810|50:03.0|02:18.9|205.1|24.6|156.1|181.0|08.8
W-|08000|30:01.0|01:52.6|245.7|26.0|165.8|181.0|10.2
R-|02813|20:02.0|03:33.7|095.4|21.7|141.3|181.0|00.4
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02000|07:31.7|01:52.9|241.2|25.2|157.9|169.0|10.5
01|02000|07:33.2|01:53.3|242.3|25.9|166.1|174.0|10.2
02|02000|07:31.2|01:52.8|244.2|26.2|168.7|176.0|10.2
03|02000|07:25.5|01:51.4|255.4|26.9|170.5|181.0|10.0

As usual, the first interval was a bit harder than the second, but they were all pretty hard. I was targeting a 1:53.2 average pace, just because that was the winter season opening pace from the last year I did the Pete Plan session. I still have a piece of paper pinned to a piece of wood (an old door, in fact) next to the erg. So, you could say I was aiming for the score on the door.

Even though the second interval was easier, I went slightly above the target. The way I row this, I row target split plus one second for 800m, then target split, and then accelerate or back down depending on the average, to hit my target split.

In the third interval, I didn’t back down.

In the fourth one, I tried to row the final bit full out. The playlist had ended but SoundCloud followed up automatically with something pretty good. I wonder what algorithm they are using.

Stroke length was pretty consistent.

The work per stroke is an interesting one. On the erg, I pull lower stroke rate and higher work per stroke than on the water. This is a static erg. I guess it is natural.

What intrigues me though is that I currently have the feeling that the power I can hold OTW in steady state or in hard distance workouts is higher than what I can do on the erg. My race of Saturday was at 260W, or 1:50.4 pace, which is pretty close to my best 6k efforts of last winter. When I started using the NK Empower Oarlock, I was pulling significantly lower Watts on the water.

There is a psychological effect as well, in that pulling on the boring erg is harder mentally than zipping around on the lake.

It will be interesting to see how this reverses during the winter.

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

Oct 3 2017

2×30 minutes on the ergometer

A simple steady state workout on the Concept2 erg. Nothing special. I played a bit with Wolverine Plan style rate ladders, but made the SPM jumps smaller, just 1 SPM per transition.

The first 30 minutes was 3x(4min+3min+2min+1min). My radio stopped after 10 minutes because it was running on battery power, so the first seconds of the second 10 minute interval there were no strokes, as I was off the erg connecting the radio to power.

 Workout Summary - media/20171003-1926400o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07324|30:27.0|02:04.8|188.7|20.4|150.3|168.0|11.8
W-|07330|30:27.0|02:04.7|188.1|20.4|149.7|168.0|11.8
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|168.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00954|04:00.0|02:05.7|173.3|18.9|130.2|139.0|12.6
01|00717|03:00.0|02:05.5|177.0|19.2|142.1|145.0|12.5
02|00488|02:00.0|02:02.8|188.7|20.3|147.5|150.0|12.0
03|00247|01:00.0|02:01.7|195.8|21.1|151.7|154.0|11.7
04|00859|04:00.0|02:19.8|176.2|19.2|141.7|149.0|11.2
05|00730|03:00.0|02:03.3|186.8|20.3|150.1|155.0|12.0
06|00496|02:00.0|02:01.0|197.7|21.0|156.5|160.0|11.8
07|00251|01:00.0|01:59.5|204.9|21.7|159.6|162.0|11.6
08|00979|04:00.0|02:02.6|190.1|20.6|158.1|163.0|11.9
09|00741|03:00.0|02:01.4|195.6|21.1|158.8|163.0|11.7
10|00501|02:00.0|01:59.9|203.1|22.1|162.5|165.0|11.3
11|00368|01:27.8|01:59.4|213.6|23.0|166.4|168.0|10.9

I took a very short break, just to drink a bit of water. Then I did the second 30 minute interval as 3x(5x2min):

        Workout Summary - media/20171003-1926200o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07259|30:04.0|02:04.3|183.7|20.2|160.2|168.0|12.0
W-|07267|30:04.0|02:04.2|183.2|20.1|160.2|168.0|12.0
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|168.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00488|02:00.0|02:02.9|182.1|20.0|143.4|156.0|12.2
01|00497|02:00.0|02:00.7|199.1|21.2|159.0|162.0|11.7
02|00502|02:00.0|01:59.6|204.3|22.1|163.2|166.0|11.4
03|00495|02:00.0|02:01.2|197.0|21.2|166.3|168.0|11.7
04|00485|02:00.0|02:03.6|185.3|20.5|163.8|166.0|11.9
05|00474|02:00.0|02:06.6|172.5|19.5|157.8|160.0|12.2
06|00486|02:00.0|02:03.5|185.8|20.4|159.6|163.0|11.9
07|00491|02:00.0|02:02.1|192.1|21.5|163.3|166.0|11.4
08|00484|02:00.0|02:04.0|183.6|20.2|163.5|165.0|12.0
09|00475|02:00.0|02:06.3|174.3|19.6|160.7|164.0|12.1
10|00468|02:00.0|02:08.2|166.2|18.5|157.8|160.0|12.6
11|00473|02:00.0|02:06.8|171.3|19.4|157.6|160.0|12.2
12|00488|02:00.0|02:02.9|188.3|20.1|162.3|164.0|12.2
13|00476|02:00.0|02:06.2|174.6|19.4|162.9|165.0|12.3
14|00485|02:04.9|02:08.9|171.2|18.4|161.4|163.0|12.6

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: concept2, ergometer, OTE, rowing, training

Sep 24 2017

On being a prick (a steady one)

Sorry for the title. Couldn’t resist.

I tried to make an hour of steady state on the erg a bit more interesting. On Friday, I had tried to use Kinomap and wasted 10 minutes of precious exercise time trying to revive my Kinomap account. Didn’t work. I think I am going to uninstall Kinomap from my devices. It is never straightforward, and it is always taking more time than I want.

So I dusted off my lactate meter and decided to take measurements every ten minutes. I did a baseline measurement before the row, which gave me a nice 1.2 mmol/L value. That was slightly higher than expected, but OK.

Down to the erg room. Dialed up a 10 minute and rowed. I decided to aim for a 200W average, which is probably higher than I should row my steady state, but I wanted the lactate readings to tell me that. You basically want to see that the blood lactate concentration keeps rising steadily during the entire hour.

The dip after a few minutes is when I decided to stop erging and increase the volume on my radio. I was listening (again) to the BroShow podcast on training planning and the volume was too low to hear anything.

Measured lactate after 10 minutes and got an “Er1” value. Hm. Probably due to me learning to do lactate measurements again after almost a year. I tried with a new strip, and got the same problem.

So I did another 10 minutes.

I did hold 203W exactly. Somehow, 203W is a more attractive value than 200W, because it means that in 10 minutes you cover exactly 2500m (and row at 2:00 pace).

Did a lactate measurement (so this is now 20 minutes into the hour): 1.7 mmol/L. Phew.

So I had the feeling I was going to run out of Lactate strips before the end of the hour, so I dialed up 20 minutes and rowed for 20 minutes, average power 203W:

Heart rate is behaving nicely. Everything was fine. And steady. Fourty minutes done in total. So I perforated my finger another time and took a measurement: 5.6 mmol/L. WHAT?

Well, no time to think. Dialed up another 10 minutes and rowed.

This time the Lactate measurement gave 1.9 mmol/L, which seems more in line. So I had good hopes for the final 10 minutes.

And the lactate meters said … 3.9 mmol/L. Damn! I had one strip left of the set I took down to the erg room. I wanted to use that to measure after a five minute cooling down paddle, but now I used that one immidiately. The result: “Er1” error. Not good.

Well, I guess it was a good steady state session. Probably at a slightly too high power value. From past seasons using the lactate meter, I know that my steady state, stable lactate level is lower than the 2.0 mmol/L that people use. I also know that my feeling of how hard the row was correlated quite well with the lactate readings. So, I tend to conclude that the high values are due to incompetent measuring from my part, and the 1.7 and 1.9 values are correct.

I am wondering, however, if I should order a new set of lactate strips, and row with lactate this winter, or not. The only reliable use I got out of the device was checking my steady state. The other tests gave results that were hard to interpret. Just doing steady state to confirm my subjective feeling of hardness doesn’t seem to give a lot of added value. Lactate is always a measurement after the row, so you cannot use it to adjust the intensity during the row. Especially for steady state, I think it is important to adjust the intensity when you are feeling it is too hard.

Over lunch I watched the Poznan and Lucerne World Cup singles races on YouTube. I am really impressed by Manson’s boat skills at 38spm. He is my favorite for winning the world title in Sarasota, even though I live in the land of Synek. I am also going to cheer for Annika van der Meer (in the Mix 2x Para event) and Marieke Keyser (LW 1x), both from the Netherlands. For the eights, I am neutral. I think the Dutch eight is not good enough (yet) for a big win. But there are a lot of very good heavyweight sweep rowing men in NL. Hoping they can prepare something spectacular for Tokyo.

Oh, and I will cheer for the Czech Women’s 2x, and hoping the Dutch will take silver.

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

Sep 21 2017

Planning

Wednesday

Back on the erg. This time I was a bit better prepared. For example, I listened to a podcast from the RowingChat series. Catching up with these RowPerfect podcasts, I listened to the episode where Rebecca Caroe was the interviewee.

At one point there is a short discussion about rowing data, and Rebecca remarks that people respond well to small challenges, leading to incremental improvements. YES!! I entirely agree with that. Measuring and trying to improve is a huge motivator. And it can start with simple measures. Even counting strokes on the erg. Or counting the number of strokes you can row with clean blades.

The workout was simple. I did two full sets of 5k, with a roughly one minute break in between. In the last, third interval, I rowed 2.5km at normal steady state pace, and then started to lower the stroke rate. I wanted to generate some data to look at the new Distance per Stroke metric on rowsandall.com.

I noticed that I should clean the erg. The drag factor is a bit low.

So, here are the charts with the nww metric:

Thursday

Rode to work and back on the bike. It was nice weather, and this is a very time efficient way to get 90 minutes of cross training. I am puzzled by the 600m difference between the morning and afternoon ride. It was the same route.

Planning

I have been playing with a new training plan for the coming 12 months. I am going to try out 9 day cycles, as opposed to week cycles. The nine day cycle will enable a very simple ‘rhythm’ of workouts:

Hard/easy/easy/hard/easy/easy/hard/easy/easy

Three of those cycles (plus a few days) is a calendar month, which I plan as training blocks with emphasis on a certain type of training, with a specific goal. The three cycles will be

Intensive, low volume
Low intensity, high volume
Low intensity, medium volume

Of course reality will interfere and there will be deviations, but I hope that the longer cycle of nine days ensbles me to be more flexible.

Tomorrow: another hard day. A full out 8km row on the water. In the single. Whatever the weather.

Rowsandall.com

Apart from the new metric, I have also made a few changes in the code to make adding new metrics even easier. Introducing a new metric (from a new sensor, or a new calculated metric) now is almost as simple as adding a new line to a configuration file. In case anyone is interested.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 4 • Tags: concept2, erg, ergometer, OTE, rowing, steady state, training

May 30 2017

Roeicorvée

Roeicorvée.

Corvée is the Dutch word for drudgery and roei is row, so roeicorvée would be rowing drudgery.

I wanted to row late in the evening, when the temperatures start to drop from the high of 30C. However, by the time I wanted to drive to the rowing club, the sky was black and the weather forecast looked like this:

Not so good, in other words. So I opted to row the steady state session on the erg. Roeicorvée. It was a good decision. The hailstones were the size of golfballs.

Kinomap

One of my Strava followers had talked about Kinomap. This iOS app shows you footage of rowing while you are pulling on the erg. I thought it would make the erg less boring so I installed it on my iPad and rowed the first 2k with it. That is, I played the only video of a 2k effort that was available on the free version and rowed while it played, covering s little over 2400m while looking at some single sculler on a brautiful lake.

For data capture, I had Painsled running in the background, but connecting Kinomap through BlueTooth actually threw out Painsled, as I discovered after the row. Bugger.

But Kinomap syncs automatically to Strava, except that it didn’t transfer heart rate data from the PM5. Here is the workout after import to rowsandall.com from Strava:

So I tried to look at pricing of Kinomap but couldn’t find a way to subscribeor find any pricing info on Kinomap’s website or in the app. I thought about connecting Kinomap through the USB cable (using the connector cable for the iPhone) but the connector csnle is very short and I had no way to support the iPad next to the PM.

So I rowed another 30 minutes of rowing drudgery, wiped off the sweat from the handle, my hands snd my face, dialled up a 5k and rowed on. Here are the PainSled plots. These ones are missing SPM values because Painsled has corrected a typo in the CSV column header (stokes instead of strokes) without informing the developer at rowsandall.com. I will fix that asap.

All really slow as you can see. Tomorrow: another row in the eight.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

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

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concept2

Race Photos and more Training Data

Race Photos

Monday – Steady State

Tuesday – the same but on the rowing club

The Power of Habit

Monday – a good old. 4x2km

2×30 minutes on the ergometer

On being a prick (a steady one)

Planning

Roeicorvée

Calendar

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