erg

Capture1

May 26 2016

A very special day

Team, friends, blog readers,

About a year ago Greg Smith (of the appropriately named blog Quantified Rowing) and I were exchanging email about getting the famous Dan Burpee spreadsheet adapted for On The Water (OTW) rowing. We did it. I made a version for the Garmin Forerunner. Greg had a version for the SpeedCoach. Then I adapted it for the CrewNerd software.

By fall we were exchanging emails about how great it would be to process the data using the fabulous Python NumPy numerical data analysis modules, and plot in Python’s free plotting libraries.

I proclaimed that it would be great, but would require a lot of time and effort.
[9:17]
We proceeded to chat about the need for a standardized data format for erg and OTW rows, so all data could be smoothly analyzed.
[9:17]
Then:1nothing happened for several months.:17]

Until[9one day, I discovered Painsled (desktop edition), and fell in love with it. It is a great software to gather all the data that the PM3/4/5 spits out. No other software captures so many data (drive length, drive time, everything).

[9:18]
So I adapted my spreadsheet again.
Then, on a good day in March 2016. Greg sent me a plotting routine written in Python, which works with the Painsled iOS data format.
[9:19]
It took me two days to have a TCX version working which I could use with CrewNerd.
[9:20]
I then proceeded to add ErgData, Painsled Desktop and RowPro parsers and threw the Python code on https://pypi.python.org/pypi/rowingdata for the community to use it.
But of course this was cumbersome for anyone except Greg and me. You had to install Python, then the data, and use awkward command line tools.
[9:21]
So Greg and I started thinking about a graphical user interface.9It was my idea to do a web interface, and I quickly had something “working”.
[9:22]
The page disconnected for any row longer than 20 minutes.
[9:23]
A few weeks later I had something reasonable, and I wrote about it on the Concept2 and Free Spirits Fora. That’s when most of you guys joined.
[9:23]
The joy of having a team of testers. Emails started coming in about glitches. Broken image links. I remember Mike was trying out things while I was updating the software at the same time.
[9:24]
I think that with interactive plots of acceptable quality (I know they can be improved, but Mike I did a hoover function specially for you, and I can give you crosshairs if you want),[9and more importantly with today’s BIG NEWS of being approved to upload to and import from the C2 logbook we have reached a big milestone.
[9:25]
I know there are glitches (ErgData Interval workout, the workout duration and total meters, and more).
[9:25]
But it’s a nice place to be, finally.
[9:26]
It starts to look like something that could be of use, somehow, to a few people.
[9:26]
There is more to come.
[9:26]
I have some rowing physics lying around and I want to integrate that so we can do, for example, comparisons between OTE and OTW workouts in terms of power and pace.
[9:26
I want to implement some new cool plots. Perhaps expand some of the interactive plotting.
[9:27]
Export to Strava is missing. And to other fitness tools.
Funnily
[9:28]
This evening I was looking at a mirror flat lake, when a phone call came from one of our Masters 8+. He was in a traffic jam and wouldn’t make it in time. It was the first time I have not regretted that an OTW row in perfect conditions was canceled. I was looking forward to rowing on the erg, in my basement, using the ErgData app, to test the ErgData ==> C2 ==> Rowsandall workflow.
[9:29]
Thanks guys for hanging on here with all the bugs and glitches. Thanks for the time you spent on this chat. I think we should stay in beta for a couple more months, to get everything ironed out nicely.
[9:29]
But the hard work is done.
[9:29]
I hope.
[9:30]
I toast to you, who have become my virtual rowing data junkie friends in the past few weeks. Hoping you will enjoy using the website
[9:30]
Cheers!
logocroppedpro
Some Screenshots from the tool:
Capture1
The workout edit page with the plots I made and a small interactive plot. This is the 4km cooling down.
Capture2
A big interactive plot of the same cooling down.
Capture3
Zooming in in the interactive plot
To celebrate the success, I treated myself to an (ErgData captured) erg workout, consisting of:
2.5 km warming up: http://rowsandall.com/rowers/workout/189
8 min @ 24spm / 5 min rest: http://rowsandall.com/rowers/workout/188 and http://rowsandall.com/rowers/workout/187
8×30″/60″ http://rowsandall.com/rowers/workout/190
4km cooling down happy ending: http://rowsandall.com/rowers/workout/185
Unfortunately the server keeps crashing tonight. I will need to call the helpdesk tomorrow.

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20160520-163232-sled_2016-05-20T15-01-25ZGMT+2.strokes.csv

May 20 2016

Good old erg and good old Pete Plan Waterfall … and a stomach full of rice

The lake is a no go area today because of the youth (“Olympic Hopes”) regatta. Somehow I didn’t mind. I had enough work to do and some errands around the house, so I worked from home and squeezed the workout in after lunch.

For lunch I went to our neighborhood Thai, combining that with some shopping. Our Thai guy had an excellent dish with rice, duck, and lots of vegetables. Delicious. Had a beer with that. Then two coffees, and about an hour after lunch I started my workout.

Pete Plan Waterfall. Good old erg again.

3km, 2.5km, 2km, with 5 minutes of rest between the intervals. My all time record is 1:51 pace (on sliders). Last time I did this workout, in February, I managed 1:52.0, so that’s what I set off at. I decided to negative split each interval, allowing myself 1:53 pace for the first 4/10ths of the workout, then accelerating from 1800m, 1500m, and 1200m to go.

Focusing on length and good posture at the finish. When I become sloppy, it feels like harder work to keep the pace in the right ballpark.

figure_2

IMG_0890

Hard but doable, is the verdict.

But the rice in my stomach was a bit of a problem.

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CTC 002

May 4 2016

Under the weather & CTC

Monday was a planned rest day. Already on Sunday I started to feel bad, then I had a really bad night. Headache. Sore throat. Still went to work. Had a difficult day, surviving on aspirin and willpower.

So I worked from home on Tuesday and decided to skip the rowing session in order to get fully recovered. I already felt much better. Still sniffing and sneezing but no more headache, and able to concentrate on work. Business dinner in the evening which I survived without too much damage.

I am not ill very often, and when I catch the cold, it is usually this very intensive but short affair. Somehow I relate this to my physical fitness. When I trained less, these illnesses were much milder, but they carried on longer. I like it better this way.

Today, Wednesday, I definitely felt I could do a workout. The plan called for something intensive, short, with little rest. So a good day to try this month’s CTC:

May 2016 – The Sub 7 Triple 7 Long and Short of it
This challenge was chosen by SUB7
Row
777m / 223m / 777m / 223m / 777m / 223m / 777m / 223m
With 7 minutes total rest spread however you like between the reps.
The first rep from a standing start the others how you choose
Record the time taken for the total 4000 metres.The simplest way to split the rests is one minute between each rep.

I decided to do the rest in a bit more fancy way:

  • 777m, 30 seconds rest
  • 223m, 90 seconds rest
  • 777m, 30 seconds rest
  • 223m, 95 seconds rest
  • 777m, 35 seconds rest
  • 223m, 100 seconds rest
  • 777m, 40 seconds rest
  • 223m, done

I had no idea about pacing but 2k pace seemed a good idea. It wasn’t of course! I guess I should be able to hold 2k pace (or faster?) when in good shape, but recovering from a cold is not the same … CTC 002

And here are the colorful plots.

There is something special about these pictures. Although they look like the ordinary Python stuff I have been using recently, these ones are made online on my website rowsandall.com, which runs Python and creates the plots for you.

In fact, one of the plots was made directly from the iPhone, using painsled’s export to Google Drive and Safari browser’s capability to upload files from Google Drive. Here’s my website on the iPhone during the process:

CTC 003
The website’s “dashboard”
CTC 004
Selecting the file from Google Drive
CTC 005
Ready to upload and create a Pie Chart at the same time
CTC 006
The upload succeeded and the pie chart was made

Here are some screenshots from a Desktop Brower:

uploada
Uploading the CTC to the website
edit
After the upload I can edit the details and create new charts
addedchart
I have created the Pie chart as well

I have built in synchronization functionality with the Concept2 Logbook. Right now it works with their Development/Testing server. Once the application is more mature, I will ask them to allow to upload to their production server.

warminguponc2
The warming up as it appeared on Concept2’s test logbook server

After all this, the images are on my website, ready to be linked to blog or forum posts. Drop me a note if you are interested and want to be part of the testing!

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C2 001

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:

figure_1

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.

figure_2figure_1-6

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:

nonathlon

After that I did a 5k cooling down:

cd

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.

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figure_1-1

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.

figure_1

figure_1-1

IMG_0825

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unrotated

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.

figure_1

Then, on to the 1k.

figure_1_1k

figure_2-1k

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:

unrotated

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.

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2speed

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:

figure_1

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

1kmb

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.

1kmb2

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.

2speed

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:

lactate2

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.

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