lake

myimage (11)

Apr 3 2017

The Wahoo is dead!

The training plan just said: “12km steady state at 20spm”. I decided to do rate ladders with a 20spm average. It’s almost the same but gives a few short sections with a higher stroke rate, just to get used to that head race pace.

I trained in the morning and I was a little time pressed, so when I discovered that the Wahoo Tickr didn’t pair with the SpeedCoach, and also not with the Garmin, I didn’t go back to the locker room to get the new Tickr X, but just pushed the boat off the dock and rowed without the heart rate belt.

It was pretty windy, so there is a lot of difference between the two rowing directions on the lake. In the last ladder I did a ‘head race start’ and tried to find that “light” stroke at 29spm. I think I am still rowing a bit too heavy.

Work per stroke is a bit higher than on my last 6k trial, in the high rate pieces.

I wonder why the Tickr was dead. I recently replaced the battery. Probably, Saturday’s issues with the SpeedCoach were also due to a low battery on the Tickr, so I will revert to my new Tickr X for the rest of the week. Except for Saturday’s race. I will row that one with an unmeasured heart.

Tomorrow: 5×5’/4′ at 22, 24, 26, 28 and 30spm.

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myimage (8)

Mar 28 2017

Monday – Guest row with the double

Arjan is my old training partner when we were both studying in Utrecht and rowing for Orca. He is over in Vienna for a week long conference, decided to fly in half a day earlier and hop on the train to Brno. I picked him up at the railway station at the end of the afternoon and we headed to the lake.

We took the double “Orca” for a tour of the lake. We rowed up to the castle and then crossed the lake. This was a steady state session so we did most of it at 20spm, with an occasional excursion to 22spm. Arjan really enjoyed the scenery. In Weert and Eindhoven they are rowing on narrow canals in an industrial setting, so being in the middle of a forest, in a canyon, between rocks, was quite a change for him.

He also needed some time to get used to navigating on the lake.

Then we went to my place to have dinner, chat a bit, and at in the end I brought him to the last train to Vienna.

This morning the alarm clock rang at 5AM. At 5:30 the driver was already waiting. I hopped in the car and headed to the Vienna airport. I took the flight to Brussels. First time I flew on a Sukhoi SSJ100 aircraft, operated by City Jet for Brussels airlines. Lots of leg space!

Tomorrow morning: Hotel gym workout.

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myimage (6)

Mar 26 2017

Technique row in the 2x

A short outing with Romana, just to check that our double “Orca” is in good shape. She is.

Lots of technique drills and footstretcher adjustments.

The water was a bit “bumpy” today. Sunny but not so warm.

Tomorrow: A 6k row on the erg. Tuesday travel / rest day and wednesday hotel fitness circuit.

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myimage (5)

Mar 25 2017

Sunny Steady State Session (SSS session)

This was just a very nice morning at the rowing club. Arrived at 9:30, in time for my son’s training time. Lenka helped me swap the oarlock pins on my single for better ones. Since I have backstays, I need the screw-thread on the top of the pin to be longer for all the bolts to fit on nicely. So that is now the case.

Then I took the single for this year’s first row on the lake.

Here is the graph from rowsandall.com:

During the row, I had set the SpeedCoach monitor to the most basic parameters you can have: Stroke Rate, Pace, Distance and Elapsed Time. I just focused on rowing. It was nice weather. This was a 12km steady state. I was tired from the week in Račice, and I didn’t feel like focusing on complex parameters.

The Empower Oarlock magnet moved a bit during the row. Even though I had screwed it tight. I suspect that the new pins are a bit greasy. This made the catch and finish angle measurements unusable, but all the other metrics are still valid. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to spot the headwind and tailwind segments. As a hint, the nearest airport (16km) reported 3kt wind from the North.

After the row, I took out our double and rigged it. It was nice to stand in the sun, mess around with a double, and chat with the other rowers.

I fell asleep in my chair while trying to process my workout. I guess I have some lack of sleep and accumulated fatigue.

I hope to persuade Romana to go for a technique outing in the double, followed by a sauna session. By the way, Romana was in Pardubice today to do rowing trainers’ exams. She passed. Yay! Now she is officially certified.

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20161028-110433-sanders-speedcoach-20161028-1005amo20161028-111631

Oct 28 2016

Technique row in the single

Enough ladies turned up to fill the eight, so I was thrown out, unfortunately. I was looking forward to rowing in the eight.

So it was an outing in the single. The lake was mirror flat, but we were all rowing in our little armada of four pairs, three singles and one eight, so I got my share of rowing in other boats’ puddles. Still it was a perfect day to work on technique.

I did few drills, but tried to row at 18spm with attention to making the boat run. 

The high SPM stuff was drills at the turning points.


Workout Summary - media/20161028-110433-Sanders SpeedCoach 20161028 1005amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11404|61:26.0|02:41.6|18.3|150.3|169.0|10.1
W-|10819|53:45.0|02:29.1|17.9|152.0|169.0|11.3
R-|00590|07:41.0|06:30.9|09.5|055.5|169.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00918|04:33.0|02:28.7|16.9|127.2|137.0|12.0
02|02572|12:26.8|02:25.2|17.5|149.1|159.0|11.8
03|02686|13:07.4|02:26.6|18.3|159.8|169.0|11.2
04|02704|13:12.8|02:26.6|18.2|157.5|166.0|11.3
05|01939|10:25.8|02:41.4|17.8|149.5|156.0|10.4

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15km

Oct 16 2016

Saturday – Long, Windy Steady State OTW

I felt guilty for taking an unplanned rest day on Friday, although it probably wasn’t bad to take an additional rest day.

Saturday was a windy day. First time in the single since Tuesday morning. In the mean time, the manufacturer of my boat (mr Růžička from “Roseman”) had come by to fit my single with back stays. Or are they called front stays? They extend from the top of the oarlock to the “front” of the boat (looking in the forward rowing direction, behind my back). Well, what is the forward rowing direction, anyway. To me, forward is the usual direction of motion, with the rower facing backwards.

Anyway, I got a new wing and those stays for free, so I have to tell Roseman’s service is excellent.

It was very windy. The forecast was 4 m/s, and I believe on the lake part of the outing it was just that. Rowing in tailwind, I felt the wind blowing into my face, which means that the wind speed was higher than my 12km/h rowing speed. There were big waves on the lake, so I decided to go up to the castle.

15km

Workout Summary - media/20161016-161625-Sanders SpeedCoach 20161015 0946amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15242|82:17.0|02:42.0|20.0|156.9|171.0|09.3
W-|15231|82:40.0|02:42.8|20.0|156.5|171.0|09.2
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|00.0|000.0|171.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01000|05:05.0|02:32.5|22.1|131.9|151.0|08.9 - warming up - tailwind
02|00990|05:00.0|02:31.6|17.7|149.8|154.0|11.2
03|01000|06:16.8|03:08.4|20.8|148.3|162.0|07.7 - remove layer
04|01000|04:33.9|02:16.9|20.1|162.0|165.0|10.9 - tailwind
05|01000|04:39.4|02:19.7|20.5|163.8|166.0|10.5
06|01000|04:50.8|02:25.4|20.9|163.8|167.0|09.9
07|01000|05:38.4|02:49.2|20.3|156.8|167.0|08.8 - turn
08|01000|05:07.3|02:33.6|20.8|166.9|171.0|09.4 - headwind
09|01000|05:06.1|02:33.0|20.7|165.4|167.0|09.5
10|01000|05:17.2|02:38.6|20.1|164.5|169.0|09.4 - strong headwind
11|01000|05:38.7|02:49.3|20.1|161.1|165.0|08.8 - back on lake
12|01000|06:53.2|03:26.6|18.4|154.8|162.0|07.9 - unrowable part
13|01000|06:00.7|03:00.4|19.2|158.5|162.0|08.6
14|01000|05:47.1|02:53.5|19.4|159.1|161.0|08.9
15|01000|05:27.6|02:43.8|19.7|146.8|163.0|09.3
16|00242|01:18.0|02:41.5|18.5|144.8|149.0|10.0

After 6.5km, I was catching up with a big ship, so instead of trying to pass him on a part of the river where I am not supposed to be, I turned around and decided to add an extra lake loop to the end of the workout.

On the river, you are shielded. The headwind was a bit less strong, and there was no chop. Arriving at the lake, I found myself in trouble. The wind has 3000m to get to maximum speed and sweep up the waves. The waves were of the kind that wipe over the stern, and every fourth or fifth wave would dump some water into the cockpit. There was an extra layer of clothes in that cockpit, which I had removed at the end of the warming up, so those clothes got soaked and there wasn’t  a lot of bailing going on.

Buoyancy enough, so I decided to not be a Sissy and row all the way to the south end of the lake. After about 1.5km of really bad water, the chop became slightly lower and my motions started to resemble rowing again.

Heart rates were slightly higher than expected and there was some DOMS, especially shoulders and chest.

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univerzitni-osmy-001

Oct 1 2016

4x(3min/2min/1min)/R3 in the single – and more eights racing

Today’s workout was from a list of typical Threshold Workouts. The instruction was:

(2-5)x3/2/1min @ 26/30/34spm, 3 min rest

I decided to do 4 of them, because 24 minutes is about the duration of next week’s head race. I also suspect that the 30/34spm is for elite rowers, so I made it a bit more easy by allowing myself to do this in 26/28/30spm. This would also be a good test for head race stroke rate.

The youth rowed their hard 6km today. Because Romana was down at the river helping with the regatta, I had to take care of the girls a bit. So I rowed a long (4km) warming up, in order to arrive at Rokle with all the others. Coach Doubek’s boys and 3 girls in singles (Lenka has an ear infection and didn’t row today). It was an impressive sight. Twelve boats, pairs, singles and doubles, at Rokle. I set off with the first (slowest) but did my 4x6min workout, which means that I got to turn earlier, and had a chance to cheer for the crews rowing down to Sirka (the south end of our lake).


Work Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00713| 03:00 |02:06.2| 25.7| 162 | 170 | 9.3 - tailwind
02|00506| 02:00 |01:58.5| 28.5| 175 | 178 | 8.9
03|00259| 01:00 |01:55.8| 31.0| 179 | 181 | 8.4
04|00483| 03:00 |03:06.3| 19.0| 156 | 180 | 8.5 - rest
05|00653| 03:00 |02:17.8| 25.3| 169 | 175 | 8.6 - headwind
06|00459| 02:00 |02:10.7| 27.5| 179 | 182 | 8.3
07|00239| 01:00 |02:05.5| 30.0| 183 | 185 | 8.0
08|00434| 03:00 |03:27.3| 18.0| 155 | 185 | 8.0 - rest
09|00703| 03:00 |02:08.0| 26.0| 168 | 176 | 9.0 - tailwind
10|00489| 02:00 |02:02.6| 28.0| 179 | 181 | 8.7
11|00253| 01:00 |01:58.5| 29.0| 183 | 184 | 8.7
12|00402| 03:00 |03:43.8| 15.7| 150 | 182 | 8.6 - rest
13|00676| 03:00 |02:13.1| 26.0| 170 | 179 | 8.7 - headwind
14|00457| 02:00 |02:11.2| 27.5| 180 | 184 | 8.3
15|00240| 01:00 |02:05.0| 30.0| 184 | 186 | 8.0
16|00477| 03:00 |03:08.6| 17.7| 155 | 186 | 9.0 - rest
Workout Summary
--|07443| 36:00 | 2:25.1| 24.0| 169 | 186 | 8.6

There was a 1 m/s wind blowing from NNW, so my intervals were alternating tail and head wind. It was a nice but very hard workout. You start at 26spm which is very sustainable, and get to work a bit on boat efficiency. Then, after 3 minutes, you step up to 28spm and you are rowing a real head race pace, trying to maintain good technique. Then, finally, a fierce 1 minute at “last 1000m of the head race” pace. It wears you out quickly, and the 3 minutes of rest are a bit short. But it’s really a good way to simulate head race pace.

I am adding another esoteric plot. It’s the drive speed (m/s) versus average drive force:

download-25

Multiplying these two parameters gives you something that has the dimension of Power. Of course, in OTW rowing, drive speed and average drive force are coupled through boat speed and rigging parameters, but still I find it interesting to think about this plot.

univerzitni-osmy-001
Traffic sign near the river. Czech humour.

After the row, we left our lake boathouse and drove to the river, where it was the second day of the University Eights. Yesterday it was a “duel” between the eights of the two Brno based universities. Today, we had 5 eights, with three boats from universities from other towns. We puzzled a bit to find a format that would be attractive, but in the end we came up with the following:

  1. All five eights row the course solo to set a time. The fastest boat goes to the semifinal directly
  2. Two “quarter finals”. The two winners and the fastest losing boat go to the semifinal.
  3. Two “semi finals”.
  4. The semi final winners meet each other in the final. The losing boats get to race for third place.

In this way, all eights got to row three or four times in one morning, and it was attractive for the public.

I took some video so you get an impression of the atmosphere. Warning. This is not The Boat Race. This is a tiny regatta.

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