Apr 7 2015
Colorful graph tools – TCX to Excel
Just some notes on a training-free day. I had too much work backlog because I had Friday off and Monday was NOT a holiday in the USA.
There has been some discussion on the Free Spirits blog about the excel tools that are circulating. It all started with the “Danburpee” spreadsheet to read CSV data from RowPro into Excel and make colorful graphs. Such as this one:
From Gregory Smith (quantifiedrowing.wordpress.com), I received a similar spreadsheet to read in CSV files exported from CrewNerd.
I modified it to read in CSV files created from TCX exports from Garmin Connect (or Sporttracks), using TCX Converter (http://www.tcxconverter.com/TCX_Converter/TCX_Converter_ENG.html).
Recently I started using CrewNerd only, so I converted my Garmin tool to read CSV files created from TCX files exported from CrewNerd. I wanted it to work with the TCX export of “custom workout” CrewNerd recordings. The challenge was that the “distance” field reset to 0 each time a new interval was started. So I calculated total distance from the coordinates fields. Here I possibly create an error and indeed I see a 50m difference over a 15km workout, 0.5%.
The circle is almost round.
Now reworking that one to import TCX files directly and avoid a few steps. 🙂
Changed the macro to read TCX. The only minor flaw is that you have to OK some warning messages about incorrect XML. Now I just need to copy-paste the right columns into the source data fields of my spreadsheet.
Ah, the joys of messing about with data. Perhaps I should also start importing Crewnerd stuff into SciPy.
Apr 19 2015
A relaxed row in the double – XGPS160 troubles
After yesterday’s racing with crazy wind conditions the weather turned for the good. Today the leaves barely moved. I am just exaggerating slightly. The lake wasn’t a mirror, but the water was flat and very easy to row.
Well, spring races wouldn’t be spring races without wind and crazy waves. See my blogs from other years on Indoor Sport Services:
http://indoorsportservices.co.uk/forum/blog.php?u=11066&b=114495
http://indoorsportservices.co.uk/forum/blog.php?u=11066&b=114495
Always waves and wind at our spring races.
The sailing clubs have races a week after the rowers. Every year they end up sitting on the shore waiting for wind …
Anyway, today we were looking forward to a calm row in the double. We settled for 2×12 minutes in Wolverine plan “L4 style”, i.e.
2 min 18spm
2 min 20 spm
2 min 22 spm
3 min 18spm
2 min 20 spm
1 min 22 spm
1 minute rest to turn the boat
Repeat.
On the second 2 minute interval of the second 12 minute set CrewNerd stopped counting meters and the pace remained stuck at the last value. Luckily, we were in a time based training, so we could finish the set.
Apparently the XGPS160 and the iphone were not communicating well.
So I switched it off and on, and checked the XGPS in its own iphone app. All working well, 65% battery remaining.
I started a “just row”. Romana and I did a practice race start. Nothing. No pace. No meters. I pressed “reset” on the CrewNerd just row and now the meters were clocked.
We rowed another 1500m, and when I started the second 20 stroke at race pace segment, the meters stopped again.
Quite annoying. I don’t know what’s going on. I had the XGPS160 on during the drive home, without problems. It was communicating with the phone all the time.
However, when Romana was washing the boat and I was bringing the sculls to the rack, I noticed that the XGPS160 pretended it was on, was showing a “connected” status in the app but the data transmission was 0 Hz!
I will do 8x500m tomorrow, so I guess I will take the Garmin Forerunner as a backup system.
Here is my HR vs pace for the first part of the row, stopping at the point where the GPS stopped.
As you can see a real easy row to flush the muscles.
Here is the second part of what CrewNerd recorded, including a 20 stroke sequence that brought us up to 1:50 pace, and the onset of the second 20 stroke sequence when the GPS dropped out again:
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: crewnerd, double, lake, romana, rowing, training, XGPS160