Aug 13 2017
Sunday – mix double – training racing
Spent most of the day running errands and doing some work in the garden. I grilled some nice steaks for lunch.
At the end of the afternoon we headed to the rowing club. Romana and I arrived earlier than the Masters Men’s Pair, so we took some time to check the rigging of our double Orca. All OK.
First a warming up and some training starts.
The high stroke rates in the beginning are our usual drill. Starting to row with arms only, then arms+body, then half slide, 3/4 slide, and finally on to full slide.
Pazdi and Krocan weren’t ready yet, so we did the first 500m with race start on our own.
Then a longer rest paddle. A training start with Pazdi and Krocan next to us in the pair, and finally the second 500m. We lined up the boats and off we went. The pair was leading slightly out of the start and they managed to keep the lead all the way to the end. I called “go” with 200m to go and increased the stroke rate.
Romana is a “feel” rower. She doesn’t need any gadgets, is not very interested in looking at graphs and playing with data. But this time she wondered aloud whether the stroke rate increase had increased boat speed. Let’s check the graph.
The static chart is not very easy for reading the stroke rate, so let’s look at the flex chart:
So yes, there seems to be an increase in pace. But what is interesting is that the pace seems to increase even more when we drop the stroke rate slightly after a few strokes of the sprint. Here are the comparison charts for 500m take 1 vs take 2:
The second 500m was 5 seconds faster. We rowed it in identical conditions. Same part of the lake. Same weather (mirror flat water, no wind).
Then we did another loop of the lake together with the pair. On the 3km straight stretch from Sirka to Rokle, Romana and I rowed really well together. We fell into a nice rhythm at stroke rate 23. It didn’t feel hard at all. Our timing was just perfect, and we moved from rowing slightly behind the pair to passing them and finishing about 50m ahead of them. Nice row. Everything just clicked.
You can see how my heart rate nicely stays in the very narrow blue band during the entire 3km stretch (7 minutes to 19 minutes) . I was watching the SpeedCoach during the row and when the timing was perfect, the pace improved from 2:12 to 2:09. A few times the pace dropped to 2:16, but focusing on timing brought that back to 2:12 easily.
The pair were wondering what was going on. They were visibly working hard and we passed them so easily. That 3km stretch was the one that brought out the smiles.
Jul 7 2018
Last Week
Monday
We did a workout in the quad. The quad was a ad hoc crew that we combined such that no rowers would stay on the shore. We rowed 4x2k, divided in various intervals. It wasn’t bad for an ad hoc crew.
Tuesday
A weights session of one hour.
Wednesday
The plan called for steady state but Romana and I were in the double and had a chance to do starts and short intervals against our Masters Men B 2x. It wasn’t bad at all. We were faster in the start compared to the young guys, and in the 20 and 30 Stroke pieces we managed to row next to them. We rated a lot higher than the guys, but I am not sure if they were able to rate up. It takes some time rowing together to rate up effectively.
I forgot to put on the heart rate sensor and the power is estimated values. Nice workout.
Thursday & Friday
We spent a day and a half in Prague. View on the city from the Strahov monastery.
On Friday we arrived around 2pm and I did go to the lake, but there was too much wind and I felt tired, so I skipped the session.
Saturday
In the double again with Romana. A week from now, we will be starting at the Masters Nationals (Czech Masters Open) in the mixed double. Unfortunately, I will be traveling for work early next week, so this is our final workout before the race. We did a 3km warming up, then a 750m at race pace, 3km steady and then 2x250m with 250m paddling.
This time I did wear the Heart Rate sensor but I don’t believe the values at all. Here is a comparison of the 750m and the 250m pieces:
The 250s were a bit more aggressive. All pieces rowed with a cross tailwind and unpleasant chop.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: 2x, double, mixed double, OTW, rowing, training