OTW

Jul 19 2016

Race recovery for Masters Rowers?

So I took a rest day on Monday, just as I was used to from my pre-Masters rowing career. Just went to the rowing club to unload the trailer, get all the boats ready for rowing and chat about the races.

For this Tuesday morning, my training plan prescribed 30″ on / 30″ off speed work. To paraphrase Amy Winehouse:

“They wanted to make me do speed work. Body said no, no, no.”

I knew it when I was driving to the club, I knew it when I carried the boat to the water, and I knew it for 100% when I did the warming up.

So I decided to do technique work in steady state fashion. One stroke at a time. Perfect stroke. Next perfect stroke. Not so perfect stroke. Try to row next stroke perfect. Repeat.

Recovery from a heavy racing weekend takes time. And a sound training plan should take into account the different recovery times needed for different types of exercises. Sprinty speedy stuff needs more time to recover from.

And Masters rowers need longer recovery than Elite rowers, I guess.

Workout Summary - media/20160719-205521-2016-07-19-0709.CSV --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|09953|51:29.0|02:35.3|17.8|151.0|171.0|10.9 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|09953| 51:29 |02:35.2|17.8|151.0|171.0|10.9

I ended up pushing the heart rate really high, because apparently today “rowing perfect strokes” resulted in rowing high pressure, low stroke rate. I am not saying this is ideal, but that is how it went.

I will have to reshuffle a few trainings in my plan for this week. So tomorrow will be the 30″ on / 30″ off, Thursday a recovery row, Friday 40″ on / 40″ off, Saturday recovery row and Sunday Speedy Fartlek. Hopefully, Friday in the double with Romana.

Rowsandall.com

With the OTW Physics calculations done, I thought I would let rowsandall.com stable for a month or so. However, the need to process my own data of last weekend’s races forced me to add a new feature. An interactive plot where you can pick your own y axis parameters. So you can plot both HR and SPM against time or distance, or Pace and SPM, Pace and HR, etc.

And, finally, I stumbled upon forecast.io which featured a free API for historical weather data and aggregates data from many sources, among other Dark Sky’s “hyperlocal forecasts”, data from The USA NOAA’s NEXRAD system (USA) and the UK Met Office (UK), the Norwegian Metereological Institute (which has actually very good data across Europe), as well as METAR data. Forecast.io has a very easy API so it was literally one boring meeting to implement a functionality that looked up the wind speed and bearing at the time and location of the row.

METAR data are taken at 10 m above ground. I was thinking if I need to apply a Hellman coefficient to get to the wind at 1m above ground, and what Hellman coefficient to take. For today’s row, forecast.io wind data (using METAR from LKTB, the local airport), was definitely higher than the very light breeze I had. I measured my wind to be 0.7 m/s. The forecast.io data said 1.7 m/s. Same difference when looking at the data for last weekend. That looks like a Hellman coefficient for neutral air above human-inhabitated areas is a good approximation. It’s just a tool to get some initial data. Better of course to measure wind speed directly.

Finally, a video that talks about using big data in rowing:

And finally, I have ordered my SpeedCoach GPS 2 with Data Pack. I am getting it in a week and a half, at the Munich Euromasters regatta.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: OTW, rowing, steady state, technique, weather

Jul 18 2016

Czech Open Masters Day 2

Masters C 2x

So I ended the Saturday blog by saying that Kazi and I took the double for a quick row and we were flying. Rowing Nirvana. The right stroke. The right rhythm. Microsecond timing precision.

It was noticed. And we were proclaimed the favourites for this Masters C 2x race, by all our friends. Talk about putting on the pressure.

I wasn’t so sure. We were up against an unknown Polish boat. I saw them row the mixed quad on Saturday and was impressed. They rowed effortlessly, and won by a very big margin. One of the guys was just a second slower than me in the single. Also, I had very strong suspicions that this is the Polish mixed quad that beat us in Hazewinkel. Checking this now and confirmed. It’s the same guys. See here. So the men from that mixed quad would be rowing against us.

The only problem was that they didn’t show up at the start. The umpires called them. We waited 5 minutes for them. Then the umpires decided that it was too late and we were started off, only three boats.

Our rowing was far from the Nirvana experience of the previous evening. We were in front, of course, but struggling to keep Olomouc (Polasek/Brazda) behind us. They kept doing pushes to come next to us. In vain. A 10 stroke push at the 500m got some light between the boats and we rowed the final 500m in relative comfort.

Won. A gold medal! And looking at the results, our time was not half bad. Wait, what are those Polish guys Szczepaniak and Bednarek doing among the B rowers (race 1403)? We asked them after the race. The explanation was simple. They hadn’t attended the representatives meeting and were unaware that our race was moved to an hour earlier. They found out 10 minutes before the scheduled start and came late. They went to the race organization to ask and were allowed to row in the B race. They won with a big margin in a time that is comparable to ours.

Mix Double

Talking about pressure, the pressure on us for the double was nothing compared with the pressure we felt for the Mix 2x. Romana and I were the defending champions. Most of the doubles competing in this race are couples, which means that this is a race that is discussed long after the event.

Although we were the defending champions, we were not the favorites. Petr Mitas with his doubles partner Jitka Masatova were. He’s the muscular guy who beat me by 9 seconds in the single. She is a fitness trainer from Prague. Other strong participants were the Cernak’s from Ostrava (husband and wife) and Pardubice/Olomouc (which will soon be Olomouc proper, because Karel will move and he will live together with his beloved Vendula in Olomouc). Romana’s double partner Slavka with her younger doubles partner (but only that, not a couple) were strong outsiders, and on a good day even Neratovice could go fast (not sure about any relationship between Mr Tockstein and Mrs Chovanakova).

We were quick out of the start and executed our race strategy of a very strong opening 15 strokes.That brought us in second position. The good news was that we were not far behind Mitas/Masatova. The bad news was that Karel and Vendula were on our heels.

Still we rated down a bit and tried to save some energy for what we expected would be a very tough second half of the race. With 500m to go I didn’t like how close Karel and Vendula came so I called for a 15 stroke push. This push had an interesting result. Not only did we row away from Karel/Vendula as if they were standing still (and we probably broke them at that point), also did this push bring us in the leading position, a few cm in front of Mitas/Masatova. We didn’t know that at that time, but spectators told us.

Mitas and Masatova stepped on the gas and soon they were in front of us. I didn’t dare to look too often. We were rowing in lane 2, with Mitas and Masatova over in lane 6. Passing the club house I took up the stroke rate a little bit and with 200m to go I really started to push. Unfortunately, also exhaustion started to play a role …

We finished second. A bit more than a boat length behind the winners. But Petr told me later that we scared the hell out of them and he had rowed the second 500m full out to stay ahead of us.

I am also happy that we had a faster time than any of the rowers in the second C race, with all the international participants.

Masters B eight

After the mixed 2x, I spent about 30 minutes lying in our event shelter tent, and then it was time to launch the eight. You can imagine I was pretty tired by now, but this was our revenge race against Blesk of Prague. See this blog post.

In Radek, my “other double partner”, we had a newbie cox. We told him to just keep talking to us. Count. Give information about the other crews. We had a detailed race plan which involved a push around the “water slide” (before the 500m mark) and a “strong last minute”.

We also had the determination to not let Blesk pass us.

Eight races are very emotional events. Fourty eight people lined up at the start. Lots of adrenaline. Big boats that take a while to get up to speed, so the start seems to happen in slow motion. High stroke rates. And, with masters rowing, lots of water splashing about.

Hysterical coxes.

Side wind.

Anyway, we were out of the start well and the first part of our plan worked. At 700m to go, we were half a length in front of Blesk. The bad news was that there was another boat in front of us. And more bad news. The half length lead was shrinking.

We did our push which we executed very well.

I had no tired feeling. All of us were just rowing in a trance.

We managed to increase the lead slightly.

Then it was just a struggle to stay ahead of them. We managed and I got another silver medal.

Overall, this was a super weekend. Four silver medals and one gold, out of five races.

My legs are very very tired today.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: Czech Masters, double, eight, OTW, race, rowing

Jul 18 2016

Czech Open Masters Day 1

Friday

After lunch, Romana and I took off to Třeboň. The weather forecast was 15-20 degrees with wind and rainshowers, so we had all the rowing/racing gear in our bags: Long sleeves, long legs uni, short sleeves, regular uni. Sweaters. Caps. Suncream as well as umbrellas. Two bikes on the back of the car, and wing riggers in the back. We arrived in Třeboň after a 2.5 hour drive which passed without major incidents. Checked in to the hotel and drove to the rowing club/lake/regatta venue to claim rack space for our club’s boats.

We arrived there about 10 minutes after our trailer. We just saw the trailer driver speeding off in his car. He is not a Masters rower, so I just drove the trailer, parked it, and left. So it was up to Romana and myself to claim rack space and a space for our event shelter tent. We had a choice between selfishly just taking care of my single and our double, or try to unload the fours and eights, pairs and doubles, as well as set up the tent. We took a middle road, first claiming our own rack space, then trying to claim a few places with piles of oars and sculls. Then we towed our very heavy tent to the last suitable sport for event tents, and tried to set it up. By then we were helped by Petr “Bulda” Novotny and Romana’s doubles partner Slavka.

It was about 13 degrees and windy and the lake didn’t really look inviting. Also, it was getting late, and we had to drive to the local camping to make arrangements for our club’s training camp in August. So in the end we decided to skip the training and just head back to the hotel after all the chores were done.

svet — Trebon situation with training pattern, dominant wind direction and a few landmarks.

Saturday

At 8, we were present at the club representatives meeting. No big changes, except that my doubles race on Sunday was moved to an hour earlier, because some rowers competed both in the Masters C Double and in the Masters D 8+. I noted the change, and that was that.

Before, during and after the meeting there was a lot of hand shaking, nodding, and small talk. For Masters rowers in the Czech Republic, this is the annual event, and it is as much a social event as a championship event. And this year was even better, with a big participation from Austria, Poland, Slovenia, and a few rowers from Germany. The Czech Masters scene, completed with 60 crews from abroad may make this the biggest Masters event in Europe after Euromasters and Masters Worlds. So there was a lot of catching up to do, especially with rowers from Prague and Bohemia, who row their regional races and I don’t meet them very often.

The races are run like most Masters races, i.e. if there are more than 6 rowers in one category, several “finals” are rowed, and medals are handed out for each “final”. Gold medals for a first place, and silver and bronze only if there are 4 or more competitors in the same age category in the same race. Sometimes races are combined for different age categories because of a lack of competitors, so the race can have several “winners” (one for each age category). That is nice, because you have a higher chance of racing in a full field, but can be slightly confusing because you have to remember which lane numbers you are competing with.

After that, it was time to retreat to the tent and concentrate on my first race of the day. The Masters C single. In the mean time, Romana rowed her first race, coming second in the mixed eight, D category, finishing second out of three D boats.

Then it was time for me to do my warming up and row to the start in the single. I was quite nervous for this race. There was a nasty side wind and I rowed in a heavy field, with Mr Mitas who beat me by 9 seconds (probably easily) a year ago, and Mr Nedoba (“Kazi”) who is back after a year of absence and has always beaten me on the Nationals (but I have beaten him twice this year, once in his home regatta and once on the Slovak Nationals).

The alignment at the start was a tricky thing as there are no stake boats and there was a strong side wind. You have to start lining up in the buoys to your right, and hope that the lining up goes fast enough that you only drift to the middle of your lane. I used my tactics of being slightly behind all the others. When you succeed in that, you are the guy who is moving in the right direction and when they start fast (because of the wind), you have a slight advantage of a slightly lighter first stroke and achieving a slightly higher end speed. The tactics succeeded very well this time.

I started off well and was leading the pack, with Kazi less than half a boat length behind me, and Petr Mitas, who was caught by surprise by the fast starting commands, half a boat behind.

The leading position didn’t last long. Petr rowed right through me in the first 150m and took over the lead. Kazi was still half a length behind. During the first 500m I managed to make that a full length. There were a few very strong wind gusts around the water slide (see map above) and some nasty chop from an umpire launch right at the 500m point. I rowed through them slightly better than Kazi and he started to fall behind.

There was no point in trying to catch Petr Mitas. I will show you why. Here’s a snapshot I took from the grandstand during one of the other races (Masters D 8+). Mitas is the smiling giant body builder who is waving at me. The grey haired guy next to him is Mr Polasek, another fast rower from my region,who beat me in Hodonin. The bald guy with the blue uni is Kazi.

So with 400m to go I was in second position. I was rowing away from Kazi but sprinting to catch up with Petr Mitas was pointless. He would just accelerate slightly. I also had to row another race that day (the quad), so I just rowed to defend my position. That still required rowing pretty fast, because I didn’t want Kazi to come any closer, in case I would catch a crab or hit a buoy.

So I got silver. Overall I am not so happy with the rowing. It was erratic in places, but I guess the side wind is the reason. It was a gusty wind, which catches you by surprise, and I had to work hard to not be blown into the buoys.

I wore a HR belt during this race and exported the data directly to TrainingPeaks from CrewNerd, after which Tapiriik.com took care of syncing with Strava and SportTracks.

The two plots are made from the same data set, but one was imported from Strava while the other was imported from SportTracks. I will stick to importing the data from SportTracks. It seems that Strava is doing something “smart” which leads to the funny pace peak directly after the start. Here are the full results for the two “C” races.

Two races after my singles race, Romana rowed a combined B/C/E/D race in the four (4-). She won a gold medal for showing up at the start in this race with one boat from each age category. 🙂

Just before my quad race, a few hours later, Romana came second in the Women’s D 8+. No medal for her, because there were only two D boats in a combined D/F race. I stroked our quad. This one was even more difficult to align at the start and we only succeeded with the second attempt. I wasn’t sure at all what to expect here. I have proclaimed before that we have a slow quad this year. The race was very hard work. The guys behind me were not completely in sync, which drives a stroke to row a too high SPM with a wrong rhythm. Exactly that happened, which means that you cannot take that fraction of a second rest during the recovery and the whole 1k becomes a cramped affair. I didn’t wear the HR belt during this row, but I am sure my heart rate was very high. We did a successful 10 stroke push to defend against Blesk who were closing in on us. Then our bowman called for our “legendary strong last minute”, but I didn’t have the energy to raise the stroke rate. By that time I was so exhausted that I had difficulty with steering. I managed to stay away of the buoys, but there were a few zig zags around the center line of the lane.

We started at >40spm, rowed 38spm for 200m, then dropped to 35-36spm at cruising speed. We were beaten by an “A” crew in lane one and by Neratovice, who also beat us a year ago:

MC4x — Masters A/B combined race. The “A” boat just had to show up to get a gold. We got a silver with a slow time.

That was the Saturday for me, but Romana wasn’t done yet. She was doing a 4 race Saturday. I moved to the grandstand and arrived in time for her race in the double. Together with her bow girl Slavka from Breclav, they won a race with four C doubles, beating the silver crew by 10 seconds. Lucky number 13.

And here are some pictures from our club’s team competing in the “giga eight” category. Not sure what the English word is for this historical boat type. Clinker eight? You may wonder what the kid is doing in this crew. For this category, the minimum age of 27 years was dropped. Only the average age of the crew decides the category:

After the races ended, Kazi and I took my double for a quick 4km of testing. In Hodonin, we had been rowing a Hodonin club boat. My double is newer (that’s unimportant) and better rigged (that is important). So we had to do a few km to make sure we had Kazi’s footstretcher in the right position. We did a few race starts and a few race pace pieces. Just a few strokes, but we were flying!

We ended the day with a restaurant dinner and a brief visit to the local brewery where we met many of the other competitors.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: Czech National Championships, double, OTW, quad, race, rowing, single

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Jul 13 2016

Fartlek in the single

This was a very nice outing, during the day between meetings. Overcast, 24 degrees. I took out the single and did a very short row, mainly steady state but also a few practice starts and race pace pieces (10-20 strokes max). Nice to see 1:45 and faster paces.

The water was mirror flat. The rowing felt good. Three days to go to the Masters (Open) Nationals … Here is the line-up:

So … Kazi is the guy who is training to beat me (I beat him twice this year). I have never beaten Petr Mitas (he came first last year, beating me by 9 seconds). If one of the two others beat me, I will eat my hat.

The other race with C guys has one Czech boat, two Polish boats, an Austrian boat and a Slovenian boat. Don’t know how I would fare there. Will be interesting to compare times.

The 4x- race will be interesting as well, but I am afraid we will not have the quality this year. Let’s see. Neratovice beat us last year (we caught a crab).

The 2x mM field is also divided in two fields. Polasek beats me in the single but I beat Brazda on any day. Don’t know about the Smichov (VKSM) guys from Prague and the guys from Poznan, Poland. The other race is a clear win for Mitas+Cernak. A pity we don’t row against them. Perhaps one boat withdraws and they merge the races …

Two very strong races in the mix 2x. Romana and I are defending champions. Again, Mitas has found a strong partner, so that boat will be hard to beat. Masatova is a fitness trainer. Let’s hope she has a lot of work this week and arrives tired.

And finally, the eights. Two races:

Here, Blesk are the guys who beat us in that terrible race in Prague. The International crew will be hard to beat. We haven’t trained much in the eight (zero trainings since the Prague race).

Back to today’s training. Here are the plots:

The training was interrupted by an important work-related phone call. So important that I stopped rowing, took the phone from the watertight bag and answered the call. That is the 7 minute interruption in the middle.

After the training, I prepared the single for transport. Then I drove back to work.

Finally, a few more pictures from the Youth Nationals:

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 3 • Tags: lake, OTW, rowing, single, taper, training

Jul 12 2016

Mixed Feelings – Speed work in the quad

One guy in our quad is sick, so we replaced him with Martin “Turkey” Krocil.

The training was a “Small Pyramid”, i.e.

20″ / 20″R @ 40spm
40″ / 40″R @ 38spm
60″ / 60″R @ 36spm
40″ / 40″R @ 38spm
20″ / 20″R @ 40spm

We rowed it in hard summer rain and almost now wind. I was glad it rained so hard. Temperatures have dropped from >30C to 19C, and all the swimmers and recreational boats have disappeared. We had the lake for ourselves.

Summary:

Workout Summary - media/20160712-204857-2016-07-12-1848.CSV --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|06883|37:06.0|01:43.9|31.5|171.1|180.3|11.0 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|03314| 16:36 |02:30.3|17.5|154.0|180.0|11.4 02|00117| 00:20 |01:25.5|38.9|167.0|178.0|09.0 03|00219| 00:40 |01:30.5|37.8|184.0|188.0|08.8 04|00317| 01:00 |01:34.4|37.1|185.0|187.0|08.6 05|00213| 00:40 |01:32.8|36.4|180.0|184.0|08.9 06|00113| 00:20 |01:26.6|40.0|177.0|180.0|08.7 07|02590| 17:30 |03:19.3|13.0|151.0|165.0|11.6

This wasn’t an easy workout. Martin hasn’t sculled since the race in Piestany. He has trained, but only on the erg and in the pair. The high rates were a bit of a shock to his system. Also, I had the feeling the boat was lying to the port side and there wasn’t the lightness that is required for a fast quad.

I think our paces are slow compared to the competition. Well, we’ll see on Saturday.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: lake, OTW, quad, rowing, speed work

Jul 10 2016

Borderline: Masters on the River

Romana and I drove down to Hodonín today for a day of rowing. Romana met with the eight (and the quad) she will stroke in Munich, and I met my double partner Kazimír. A kind of a Masters training camp. On the Morava river, the border between Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Masters on the river.

We arrived just before ten. The ladies of the eight arrived a few minutes after us. I had to wait for Kazi, as usual. No problem. I asked one of the Hodonín ladies if Kazi is training hard, and she answered that he is. Apparently his single goal for next weekend’s Masters Nationals is “to beat Roosendaal”. I smiled and said we could do that race this afternoon on the river. I am not sure if she knew that “Roosendaal” is me. 🙂

I beat him twice this year. He used to beat me two years ago and was out of the running last season because of hip surgery. Most probably, coming weekend we’ll be racing each other in the single at the Masters Nationals.

Anyway, Kazi turned up and we took a double for a steady state row with technique exercises.

When I asked him about his training regime, he commented that he “was just fooling around and will start serious training next year”. 🙂

Hodonín is on a river, so I was looking forward to try out my wind and stream correction algorithms on rowsandall.com with river data. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction of the stream and the stream was a very lazy summer stream, so there wasn’t much pace corrections going on.

Before lunch, Kazi and I rowed a bit more than 13km, mainly steady state and technique exercises. After lunch we spent an hour adjusting the boat. There was a lot wrong with this double. The height differences were different for stroke and bow seat. The bow starboard scull was set at a very high oar angle so Kazi had difficulties keeping his blade in the water.

After lunch we did speed work, the main part being three times 250m from a standing start:
Workout Summary - media/20160710-203236-2016-07-10-1458.CSV --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|07874|47:36.0|02:04.6|26.8|152.8|175.6|10.3 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|02803| 18:50 |03:19.1|13.3|141.0|172.0|11.3 02|00250| 00:49 |01:39.8|36.0|156.0|178.0|08.3 03|00250| 00:50 |01:40.7|34.5|158.0|175.0|08.6 04|00250| 00:51 |01:43.3|33.6|158.0|177.0|08.6 05|04321| 26:16 |03:02.0|16.4|151.0|176.0|10.0

As you can see from the summary, we did those 250m from standing starts around 1:40 pace. I am quite happy with that. Kazi and I managed a 1000m in 3:17 at the Masters Worlds in Varese, which to date is my fastest 1k (in the double) as a Masters rower. I think we could be close to that in good weather. So nothing wrong with Kazi’s training regime.

We did the first 250m full out and at high rate. For the subsequent two 250m intervals we lowered the rate, trying to find that “fast yet light” stroke.

Morning row. Technique drills between km 4 and 7

For the 250s, I set CrewNerd to row a single distance of 250m. After the finish, we just continued rowing for a km or more, and I didn’t reset CrewNerd, so the data were not captured.

After the rows we jumped into the river for a swim. It was 35C today. The river water was nice. We swam to the Slovak side and back. First time I crossed a border swimming.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 3 • Tags: double, OTW, river, rowing, training

OTW

Race recovery for Masters Rowers?

Czech Open Masters Day 2

Czech Open Masters Day 1

Fartlek in the single

Mixed Feelings – Speed work in the quad

Borderline: Masters on the River

Wednesday – Saturday

Calendar