crewnerd

Aug 23 2016

The Dog Days of Summer

… winter is around the corner. At least in my mind.

It is still summer, and the weather is beautiful, but I am preparing a training plan for the 2016/17 season, which starts with a preparation for a Head Race in the first weekend of October, and after that it will be back to base building, and probably a lot of erging. I am not changing my plan radically from last year, just refined my planning spreadsheet a bit, and planned out the coming 7 weeks until that head race. This week is a freewheeling week, just doing the sessions that I like (and finally get the August CTC in), but after that I will be doing some lactate testing and then it will be steady state and threshold workouts in a 2×3 week mesocycle.

One or two erg races, one in January and maybe one in December. And then an important head race in the beginning of April.

So this week is free form. I have registered for just the Masters 1x in the local races in Břeclav coming weekend, but I will do the sessions that I like and let the race happen without any special preparation.

Today, I left work slightly early to head to the lake. The session I chose was an “intensive Steady State” from the book about Masters Rowing. It was:

4x(4’/3’/2’/1′)/3’Rest @ 20/22/24/26spm

Actually, “das Buch” calls this an extensive endurance session, but I wasn’t entirely sure if that was the right categorization. The plan was to do the session without a paying too much attention to the paces. Just hit the SPM and focus on technique. As I will explain below, I wasn’t entirely successful.

The other thing I wanted to do was play with my new SpeedCoach by running the workout in parallel in CrewNerd and in the SpeedCoach. In the SpeedCoach I programmed it as a 4×10’/3′ rest. In the SpeedCoach GPS 2, you can actually plan out the detailed workout as I did in CrewNerd, but on the water it turned out that I am too unfamiliar with the interface to manage that. Lesson learned. Program workouts on the shore, next time.

I set both devices to “auto/start” at factory settings, and started the workout with a 30 second count down. On both devices, the sessions started simultaneously, or at least the time difference was less than 0.2 seconds (estimated).

Using the power or rowsandall.com, I could compare the workout results from both tools. There was one caveat. It turned out I could pair my heart rate belt only to one device, and as soon as I started CrewNerd, the SpeedCoach automatically lost heart rate info.

Here is the comparison of the “raw” data:

download (19) — CrewNerd (blue line) raw data vs SpeedCoach GPS (red data) comparison for Pace vs Time. The SpeedCoach doesn’t record data during the rest periods (but I heard that they will add that in a next firmware upgrade)

The raw recorded data look a lot more noisy than what the CrewNerd display actually showed in the boat. On the CrewNerd display, the pace values were jumping around by +/- 5 seconds around the more stable value shown on the SpeedCoach. Rowed distance and time were equal on both devices (within 5m for distance). Using the power of rowsandall.com, I smoothed out the CrewNerd data a bit.

Same plot as above. CrewNerd data smoothed

I think this shows that the smoothing function on rowsandall.com is very useful, especially if you smooth the data before exporting to sports sites such as SportTracks.mobi or Strava.com, and to the Concept2 logbook.

Here is the comparison plot for SPM:

CrewNerd vs SpeedCoach - SPM vs time — CrewNerd vs SpeedCoach – SPM vs time (just a snapshot, not the full session)

On the water, I had the impression that the CrewNerd SPM was jumping around a bit more, and the SpeedCoach GPS seemed to react a bit faster to the stroke rate changes. The SpeedCoach display has a SPM resolution of 0.5 spm, so you can actually get values of 19.5 spm or 23.5 spm. Unfortunately, the export to FIT format rounds this to integer values, because of the way Cadence is defined in the FIT format, I guess.

Here is the colorful plot of the main workout:

Pie chart:

I wouldn’t call this a “extensive endurance” session. The way I did it today, it’s more a threshold session. Here is the workout summary:

Workout Summary - media/20160823-180537-2016-08-23-1723.CSV --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|08741|40:00.0|02:14.0|23.0|176.1|180.4|09.9 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|00867| 04:00 |02:18.2|19.5|154.0|160.0|11.1 02|00688| 03:00 |02:10.5|21.7|168.0|174.0|10.6 03|00477| 02:00 |02:05.3|24.1|178.0|181.0|09.9 04|00238| 01:00 |02:04.7|26.2|181.0|183.0|09.2 05|00839| 04:00 |02:22.5|21.3|176.0|190.0|09.9 06|00615| 03:00 |02:25.8|22.4|183.0|190.0|09.2 07|00442| 02:00 |02:14.9|23.2|181.0|184.0|09.6 08|00234| 01:00 |02:06.3|25.4|185.0|187.0|09.4 09|00873| 04:00 |02:17.4|20.8|167.0|175.0|10.5 10|00672| 03:00 |02:13.1|21.8|176.0|178.0|10.3 11|00467| 02:00 |02:08.6|24.0|180.0|182.0|09.7 12|00237| 01:00 |02:06.4|25.0|182.0|184.0|09.5 13|00780| 04:00 |02:33.7|20.0|166.0|171.0|09.8 14|00638| 03:00 |02:21.0|22.7|176.0|180.0|09.4 15|00442| 02:00 |02:15.4|23.6|181.0|182.0|09.4 16|00232| 01:00 |02:08.0|26.2|183.0|185.0|08.9

And the same data from the SpeedCoach:

Work Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|02267| 600.0 | 2:12.3|21.7| 000 | 000 | 10.4 - tailwind 02|02127| 600.0 | 2:21.0|22.4| 000 | 000 | 9.5 - headwind 03|02244| 600.0 | 2:13.6|22.2| 000 | 000 | 10.1 - tailwind 04|02092| 600.0 | 2:23.4|22.1| 000 | 000 | 9.5 - headwind Workout Summary --|08730| 40:0.0| 2:17.4|22.1| 000 | 000 | 9.9

Looking at the totals, 10 meters difference in recorded distance. I have to look into why the average pace is so different. The correct average pace is 2:17.4 (SpeedCoach) and 2:17.3 (CrewNerd). I guess a bug fix is needed for my processing of the CrewNerd summary file.

Looking at the graph, you notice there is a lot of red in the second (head wind) interval. The reason is the following. During the first interval, I rowed behind a Lodni Sporty (that is the “evil” 🙂 club on our lake) quad. When I turned, they turned as well, and they passed me during the rest period. About a minute into my second interval, a coach launch speeded from the Lodni Sporty club towards the quad, creating an enormous wake in which I rowed my 20spm piece. By the time I had moved a bit to the right to be directly behind the launch and out of the wake, the quad (and the launch) suddenly slowed down.

I passed them and there was the following conversation between the Lodni Sporty coach on the launch and me:

Me: “What’s your name?”

Coach: “Who are you? I don’t have eyes in my back.”

Me: “Try to have a bit more consideration for other people trying to row a workout.”

Coach: “I told you I don’t have eyes in my back.”

Me: “You are supposed to look around. Like rowers do.”

Coach: Told me something I didn’t understand.

The English translation loses a bit of the sharpness. I used the informal (in French “tu”, in German “du”) form, even though this guy was evidently more than 20 years older than I. In the Czech culture, this is a very impolite thing to do without getting permission from the older person to use the informal forms. My questions were not so offensive, but using “tu/du” instead of “vous/Sie” was.

Anyway, apparently the guy was offended, because he threw me a nice big wake at the start of the third interval. For the fourth interval I took a course passing our club house, far away from his launch.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: crewnerd, lake, NK speedcoach, OTW, rowing, single, threshold, 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

Jun 12 2015

Thursday: 1km Time Trial – hot and average

Arrived at the lake late, very late. I just had difficulty leaving work, with all the things going on.

High temperature but very low wind, resulting in a lake which was not choppy but there were these longer waves caused by all the recreation boats, tourist ferries, and police speedboats doing “training”. The police training is quite interesting. I think they specialize in rescuing long-legged blond women, because all I see them do is speeding up and down the lake carrying young, blond women.

I heard an anecdote recently, about a sculler from the other club, who was stopped by the police because he was rowing on the part of the river that is forbidden for “sport”. When asked what he was doing, he said he was a drug smuggler who was carrying a load of crystal meth to Veverská Bityška.

Wrong answer, of course.

He had to row back to the club, police following him a few meters behind in their speed boat. This must have been an interesting scene, a relaxed, slowly sculling single sculler, followed by two guys in a police boat. Back the club he had to show is ID, and was thoroughly lectured. That was it.

Anyway, yesterday I was not going to do any smuggling. I decided to do a 1km trial. My plan is to do these regularly to get used to the pain and be able to rate up through it. The dreaded “500m” bite, as so well described in this blog.

Also a good opportunity to experiment with CrewNerds spoken start command.

Warming up: a few 10 stroke sets at higher rates (25, 30, 32spm). Turning in Rokle. Start practice: first one stroke, then two, then three, etc. Then a slow row along the nude beach to the start.

“Ready – Attention – Row”.

I took off at 35spm but quickly lowered it to 31spm. The plan was to hold 1:50, and increase the rate every time I would see a substantial deviation.

The plan was quickly binned. It was very difficult to hold 1:55.

In the second half I started to have difficulty keeping my line and ended up rowing in the buoys a couple of times. In the final 100m I was rowing in the wake of the tourist ferry.

Excuses. Excuses.

The end time was a 3:52. Still a good result given the heat but not the 3:40 that I am chasing this year. Perhaps it isn’t realistic?

|Start|Stop_|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks |00000|03407|03407|21:01|03:05.0| 20.1 | 149 | 178 |08.1|warming up |03407|03507|00099|00:23|01:55.7| 31.3 | 148 | 172 |08.3|1km, split 1 |03507|03605|00099|00:22|01:51.4| 31.5 | 178 | 180 |08.5|1km, split 2 |03605|03707|00102|00:23|01:53.1| 31.0 | 181 | 182 |08.6|1km, split 3 |03707|03804|00097|00:22|01:53.5| 31.0 | 184 | 185 |08.5|1km, split 4 |03804|03907|00103|00:24|01:56.3| 30.5 | 185 | 185 |08.5|1km, split 5 |03907|04007|00100|00:23|01:55.4| 30.3 | 186 | 186 |08.6|1km, split 6 |04007|04108|00101|00:24|01:59.2| 29.9 | 186 | 186 |08.4|1km, split 7 |04108|04204|00096|00:23|01:59.3| 29.5 | 185 | 186 |08.5|1km, split 8 |04204|04307|00103|00:24|01:56.9| 30.4 | 186 | 186 |08.5|1km, split 9 |04307|04405|00098|00:24|02:01.9| 29.7 | 185 | 185 |08.3|1km, split 10 |04405|10798|06393|36:13|02:49.9| 19.5 | 153 | 185 |09.1|steady state / cooling down

dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment 3407_____|_21:01____|_3:05.0|149|20.1|8.1|warmup 0998_____|_03:52____|_1:56.3|180|30.5|8.5|Main set 6393_____|_36:13____|_2:49.9|153|19.5|9.1|Cool down 10798____|_01:06____|_2:49.7|154|19.4|9.1|_Total

During the row I was convinced there was a strong headwind. When I stopped, it didn’t seem so strong anymore. Still the Italian flag on the fireworks pontoon was flying evidence that I had been rowing into a headwind.

After the 1km I needed a few minutes to recollect myself, then I did a 6km steady state. After the row I went for a swim in the lake. It was nice and warm in the top 50cm, but below that it is still quite cold. First time swimming in the lake, this season.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: 1000m, crewnerd, lake, OTW, rowing, single, steady state

May 12 2015

500m/1km/2km, Garmin and CrewNerd stuff, and Race evaluation

Today I wanted to do a 4x1km OTW, but the Renegade Rowing wordpress blog (http://renegaderowing.com/2015/05/12/rowing-wod-51215-500m-2min-rest-1k-4min-rest-2k-post-splits/) inspired me to change it to:

500m @32 s/m (2k-1)

2min rest

1k @30 (2k)

4min rest

2k @28 (2k+2 to 2k+4)

It was quite windy when I launched. I did a “long” warming up of 3km, to Rokle and then back to the start of the 2km Albano. In the 500m with strong headwind, I had difficulty holding the prescribed 30spm stroke rate, and the pace was around 2:10 at best. So I was very surprised to suddenly see 2:02 in the Crewnerd App when I finished. Didn’t give it too much thought.

I did take a bit longer rest to drink a bit, reset CrewNerd to “just row”, remember to hit “start” on CrewNerd, and turn the boat.

One kilometer with tailwind. Got started, and had to check my course a few times because there was a windsurfer in my rear view mirror who was doing unpredictable things. At one point he fell in the water and then tried to get his sail up again. When I checked Crewnerd, I suddenly was down to 500m to go, but with a time of 1:30 for the first 500m.

Hm, something must be wrong. The XGPS160 LEDs were on. What to do now? Do an additional unrecorded 30 seconds? Somehow I didn’t feel like it. But I did make a mental notice to do the 2km from start to finish in the Albano, and not stop early.

So I did. The 2km was a real struggle. The Masters pair was next to me, probably doing steady state, but still it felt like a victory that I could row away from them. With the strong headwind and waves, it was difficult to keep the stroke rate at 28spm.

Here’s how rough the weather was:

Here are the statistics according to CrewNerd:

CrewNerd+XGPS160 statistics
|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks |02875|15:49|02:45.0| 19.0 | 131 | 148 |09.6|Warming up |00495|02:02|02:03.3| 29.4 | 163 | 178 |08.3|500m headwind |00671|04:17|03:11.6| 17.8 | 131 | 177 |08.8|rest |01021|03:33|01:44.3| 28.0 | 165 | 177 |10.3|"1000m" tailwind |00765|04:59|03:15.4| 18.9 | 136 | 175 |08.1|rest |02020|09:50|02:26.0| 26.1 | 174 | 181 |07.9|2km headwind |00804|06:15|03:53.1| 18.3 | 134 | 180 |07.0|cooling down

And here is my trajectory according to CrewNerd:

Notice the strange loop at the beginning of the 1km?

Statistics according to Garmin+Crewnerd

So I decided to do an experiment and merge the Garmin data with the CrewNerd data, taking position and speed from Garmin, and stroke rate from CrewNerd.

Here are the data:
| Time_ | Pace__ | _SPM___ | avg HR | max HR | _A/D | DPS | Remarks | 15:30 | 02:53.1 | 18.9 | 129 | 148 | | 09.2 | Warming up | 02:02 | 02:12.9 | 27.2 | 162 | 177 | | 08.3 | 500m headwind | 04:43 | 04:26.0 | 20.1 | 134 | 174 | | 05.6 | rest | 03:00 | 01:58.6 | 25.5 | 161 | 177 | | 09.9 | "1000m" tailwind | 05:35 | 03:30.2 | 19.9 | 135 | 175 | | 07.2 | rest | 09:10 | 02:18.6 | 25.7 | 173 | 181 | | 08.4 | 2km headwind | 13:32 | 05:18.9 | 19.4 | 128 | 180 | | 04.9 | cooling down

Not sure if the SPM is right. Might be an artefact of merging the data.

Here’s the revised trajectory:

And the colorful graphs:

I guess it was smart to take the Garmin Forerunner as a backup.

Race Evaluation

So it’s time for the race evaluation.

The Quad

We basically had no opposition, so it was just a test of how well we could row together. We were focused. The race plan was to settle down 10 strokes after the start and row a light and easy stroke. We did just that. I decided to not take any stroke coach and just stroke this one on feel. Romana measured a 34spm when we were 250m from the finish. It definitely didn’t feel as an all out effort. Our time of 3:03 is of course fast with the tailwind and the (light) current.

We should expect tougher competition but it was a good start.

What worked: Race plan execution, light stroke. We were confident.

What didn’t work: –

What would I do differently next time: We have to train doing a 10 hard stroke section in the middle and do an all out last 200m.

The Eight

What can I say. We got the 2 guys who didn’t make the selection for the local team and we got their worst eight. Still we won. We managed to pass the boat, take a half length lead and defend this, winning by a margin of 0.5 seconds. Good race experience.

What worked: We won, despite everything. Apparently the six of us have enough horse power.

What didn’t work: The rowers in the bow didn’t hear the cox.

What we need to do differently: We need to make kilometers in the eight. We need to have a boat with a coxbox. We need an experienced cox.

The Single

A nice race despite the pressure I loaded on myself. I wasn’t the fastest out of the start but I was confident and focused and rowed well. More a training than an all out 1km. I should expect tougher opponents in the rest of the season. The time of 3:39 was of course fast with tailwind and current.

What worked: I win effortlessly. I was focused and nothing distracted me (launch wake). I thoroughly enjoyed the racing. I was rowing a relaxed stroke. I was confident.

What didn’t work: I need to discipline myself the evening before the race. Strictly one glass of wine with dinner (or zero), not eat too much, and go to bed early.

What would I do differently next time: I still need to do a hard, all out 1km. Should train this a few times before the next race.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: crewnerd, OTW, race analysis, rowing, training, XGPS160

May 3 2015

Data annoyances and wellness

Just checking if this cool video works. Looking forward to following this guy:

Saturday

Went out in the single for a steady state workout. Everything seemed to work against me. I had terribly tired legs after Friday’s workouts. There was a nasty chop. Did I mention I was tired? My back hurt. I didn’t seem to be able to find my light and fast stroke. CrewNerd issues. First, the XGPS160 stopped after 4km, which I discovered just after the turn and I didn’t want to interrupt my rowing, so I rowed 4km without tracking. Then I switched the XGPS back on, closed CrewNerd, restarted it, but CrewNerd didn’t seem to take the high update rate of the XGPS. I can see that on the screen. When it works, the distance rowed is increasing in 1 meter intervals and I can see the pace change during the stroke. When it doesn’t work, the distance rowed is increasing in steps of 2 or 3 meters, and the pace displayed changes every other stroke.

I have the new version of CrewNerd and I am duly sending bug reports to the author of the software, who is very active and responsive, so I am expecting this is a bug that will be solved in the next couple of weeks.

However, on a day when everything seems to cost extra energy, I find this annoying. 4km of rowing missing in my data. Data in two separate files. Not good for this data and automation junkie.

Need to start using the Garmin forerunner again as a backup scenario. It has never failed me and seems to have more accurate position data than the iphone without the XGPS160.

I made a salad with green asparagus and lamb steaks from the charcoal grill for dinner. Picture will follow once Lenka sends it to me.

Sunday

Went out in a double with Romana in considerable chop. The plan was to do 4x6min but it turned out there were sailing races. We couldn’t go on the river because it is officially forbidden to go there so you have to do that only on times when the ferries aren’t out. On the lake, we had only 500m of the 2k to our disposal because of the sailing races.

My father called me in the middle of the row and I had to take it. My first phone call from the middle of the lake.

Funnily, this was one of the rare outings where Romana actually did enjoy rowing in rough conditions. So we did do a race start and a few fast strokes, then binned the session, promising ourselves that we would finish it in the erg room.

We didn’t do that. We went to the wellness in hotel Maximus instead:

It’s a really great wellness, with lots of nice saunas around a little lake with ice cold water to swim in after the sauna. The sauna complex is 500m from the rowing club. So I took an unexpected rest and recovery day. I really enjoyed the sauna. Feel very refreshed now.

The data annoyances continue. I am actually surprised at how low my HR was during the 5km row in the double, but looking at the values and steps in the HR, I am really suspecting something is not right.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 14 • Tags: crewnerd, double, OTW, rest day, rowing, XGPS160

Apr 23 2015

Waterfall On The Water

A long day at work. I looked at the wind forecast and decided to not go rowing until 7pm.

That turned out very well. There was almost no wind and really flat water. Long Pete Plan intervals were on the menu and I decided to do 3km, 2.5km, 2km, the dreaded waterfall session.

I also wanted to pay attention to technique so I decided to let the stroke rate go with the flow. Feed the boat with a stroke when it asks for it.

As I am still not completely accomodated to good technique. It is still hard work for me. After the first set I was already tired, but technique wise it was good. I turned around and did the second one, happy with each 500m completed. Splits were bad, meters per stroke as well. Turned around for the last set, the 2km. Technique was better now. Consistently above 8.5m per stroke, but that was because I was doing a slightly lower stroke rate. In the last 500m I took it up to 30spm.

When I finished I almost needed to feed the fish … For a few moments I couldn’t do anything else but just sit on my single and breathe.

Polarized training, they say. I think today I did that.

|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks |02234|13:07|02:56.2| 18.8 | 126 | 143 |09.1|Warming up |03000|12:54|02:09.0| 26.9 | 176 | 181 |08.6|3km |00772|04:57|03:12.3| 17.9 | 148 | 178 |08.7|rest |02491|11:00|02:12.5| 26.7 | 177 | 180 |08.5|2.5km |00688|05:00|03:38.1| 18.0 | 144 | 177 |07.7|rest |01994|08:33|02:08.7| 26.6 | 175 | 180 |08.8|2km |01636|12:17|03:45.2| 17.3 | 134 | 179 |07.7|cooling down

Short summary:
dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment 2234_____|_13:07____|_2:56.2|126|18.8|9.1|warmup 7485_____|_32:27____|_2:10.1|176|26.8|8.6|Main set 1636_____|_12:17____|_3:45.2|134|17.3|7.7|Cool down 1460_____|_09:57____|_3:24.5|146|17.9|8.2|rest meters 12815____|_07:48____|_2:38.7|156|21.8|8.7|_Total

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: crewnerd, lake, OTW, pete plan, single, training

Apr 20 2015

First OTW 8×500 – Are my hard days too easy?

Time for the first 8x500m training of this season. I spent some time on Sunday to prepare the training plan between now and the next race, which will be a 1000m sprint on May 30. Time to get accustomed to the high stroke rates. My training being based on the Pete Plan, from now on I will push for short intervals rather than long intervals. I want to replace the “hard distance” with 1km or 2km efforts with long warming up and cooling down steady state.

I did the last OTW 8x500m a year ago, on 18 April 2014, achieving roughly 2:00 pace on average, roughly 28spm, in light wind (0.8m/s average). The temperature was 16 degrees C.

In June 2014, I did a 10x500m/500m rest which looked roughly like this:

That really looks painful¹.

Today’s session had to be early in the morning, because there is stronger wind predicted for the afternoon. So I pushed off at 6:18 which is early for me.

The weather was slightly different than a year ago. Average temperature during the session 3 degrees C, and a wind speed of 1.1 m/s. So colder and slightly stronger wind. My year old report doesn’t say anything about waves. Today there were some, and there was some varying wind. Rowing from Rokle (northwest corner of lake) to Sirka (south) I had both tailwind and headwind conditions.

Here are the data:

|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks |02059|12:37|03:03.8| 19.0 | 132 | 145 |08.6|Warming up |00499|01:58|01:58.3| 28.3 | 159 | 168 |09.0|#1; tailwind |00500|02:00|01:59.9| 28.6 | 163 | 172 |08.8|#2; tailwind |00498|02:06|02:06.5| 29.5 | 165 | 174 |08.0|#3; varying wind |00501|02:03|02:02.8| 28.9 | 166 | 175 |08.5|#4; varying wind |00500|02:16|02:15.9| 26.9 | 165 | 174 |08.2|#5; headwind |00501|02:10|02:09.8| 28.2 | 171 | 176 |08.2|#6; headwind |00500|01:57|01:57.0| 31.0 | 171 | 179 |08.3|#7; tailwind |00499|01:59|01:59.2| 30.8 | 171 | 178 |08.2|#8; tailwind |01006|06:52|03:24.8| 18.3 | 139 | 178 |08.0|cooling down

And the overall summary:
dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment 2059_____|_12:37____|_3:03.8|132|19.0|8.6|warmup 3998_____|_16:29____|_2:03.7|166|29.0|8.4|Main set 1006_____|_06:52____|_3:24.8|139|18.3|8.0|Cool down 3532_____|_20:58____|_2:58.1|149|19.0|8.9|rest meters 10595____|_56:56____|_2:41.2|149|21.1|8.8|_Total

Hm, so I am a bit slower at a bit higher pace, but at lower HR. Should I be worried that my hard days are too easy? Whatever the answer to that question is, this a good marker for the season, although I am wondering if I should keep the 8x500m / 3:00 rest format or switch to the 10x500m/500m format. I want to see the red next time¹.

I can also happily report that I made some additional changes to my CrewNerd TCX spreadsheet and above summaries are now almost produced automatically. XGPS160 and CrewNerd were well behaved today. I did “swipe up” to completely switch off CrewNerd before the row, as Greg suggested.

Footnotes

¹Yes, I am aware that my TR/AN boundary was set 5 beats lower in April 2014. Still, I want to see more red. Red is good for me!

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: 8x500, crewnerd, lake, OTW, pete plan, rowing, rowing data, single, training, wind

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crewnerd

The Dog Days of Summer

First OTW session of the new season

Thursday: 1km Time Trial – hot and average

500m/1km/2km, Garmin and CrewNerd stuff, and Race evaluation

Data annoyances and wellness

Waterfall On The Water

First OTW 8×500 – Are my hard days too easy?

Footnotes

Calendar

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