OTW

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Jun 13 2016

Under and on the Eight

Saturday

Heats day of the Morava races, which are regional races. These races are quite important as they are qualifying races for the National Championships for the 11 to 18 year olds. The races are being held on our lake, so no transport needed this time.

We headed for the lake in the morning. As we were going to sleep at the club and stay for the whole weekend, it took some time to get everything in and on the car, including two bicycles and a lot of food.

I spent the morning preparing my blades for a paint job. There is the new pair of sculls which must be in club colors before the Masters Nationals. Also, one of my old pairs were painted in a rush. By yours truly, I have to confess. I didn’t sand and clean them throroughly before painting, with the result that that paint gradually begins to peel off. This time I was prepared to do the job thoroughly. So I spent more than an hour getting the old paint off those blades, then sanding and cleaning them. Then I discovered that the club was out of the blue paint so I had to hop on the bike to get some new paint. I am happy to report that at the end of the afternoon I had two pairs of nicely painted blades. The only thing is that the paint slightly darkens when it ages, so my third pair is a slightly darker tint. It is either the darkening effect, or the fact that our club is not entirely sure about the right shade of blue that is our club colors.

We do have it specified, mind you, but in a pre-WWII paint numbering standard which is not used any more, and nobody is able to convert it for us. So RAL 5015 it shall be for me.

By then it was time to fire on the barbecue. The girls were out in a quad and I wanted to go for a short row in the single, but my blades were drying and I was responsible for providing dinner.

After dinner, we made a camp fire and had a good time sitting around the fire and chatting. I had no heats, but the kids had done well. My son Dominik had managed to get into the A final on the single (which meant he was qualified for the Nationals) and daughter Lenka and her double partner Iva had done the same in the double.

At 10:30pm it was time for the fireworks.

There is this fireworks contest in Brno. It’s held every year in June and the fireworks are done from a big pontoon in the middle of the lake. From the dock of our rowing club you have the best view of the show.

So we tuned the radio to the station that broadcasted the music to the fireworks show and watched. This year it was really great.

Sunday

Woke up to the sound of birds singing. Breakfast at the rowing club. In the morning I spent some time doing work, but then it was time to get ready for action.

My first race would be at 15:18, so around 1pm I hopped on the bike and cycled around the lake to the Lodni Sporty rowing club for the weigh in. I made 72.2kg with shoes on so no problem there.

The problem was that there were only four LW 1x rowers in that final. Three of them aged 18 to 25 and fast scullers. And me. From our club there was Lubos, who I have occasionally been a sparring partner to, who is trying to get to the U23 Worlds in Rotterdam in the LW2x. Then two guys from Breclav, a Mr Susky who has aspirations as well, and a Mr Rampula, who is unpredictable but can be fast.

Trying to relax before the race, I decided to take it as a time trial and just row a good time. During the day, the light tailwind had turned into a light headwind, so I wasn’t sure what to aim for. Kleshnev predicts a 7:40 2k in neutral weather based on my erg results, but I take that as the ultimate achievable, not as the mean for 7:40 scullers. Based on recent trainings, I thought that under 8 minutes would be a good target. Actually, I have never rowed under 8 minutes on this lake.

In hindsight, I think that the most important decision was to take it as a time trial and ignore the other rowers.

Arrived at the start. Light headwind, still. Set CrewNerd to 2000m and Auto-Start and prepared.

I started off well, but of course started to fall behind the young guys already in the first 500m. But I kept going at 30spm, trying to focus on technique, and getting over the waves as well as possible. When I say waves, I am not talking about chop. I am talking about long standing waves caused by the boat traffic on the lake. These waves really have the ability to throw your balance off, so it is important to stay relaxed and react to the movements of the boat.

By the 1k mark I was rowing about 3 lengths behind the number three, Mr Rampula. I was hoping that Lubos was taking over the lead from Mr Susky by then but I didn’t know. Three singles lengths behind. That didn’t really bothered me, because I noticed on CrewNerd that I was rowing under a 2:00 pace per 500m and I knew the first 500m had been really fast.

The third 500m wasn’t the best. I saw a couple of strokes at a 2:06 pace, but I managed to get back to 2:02 and lower. Then, with 600m to go, I noticed that I was closer to Mr Rampula than I thought. I rated up slightly and started to chase him.

Probably Rampula had gone out too fast, wanting to play with the big boys, and was now paying for it. Anyway, I gradually managed to close the gap and with 250m to go I was half a length behind him.

By now I was really in problems. I was breathing very heavily. Counting strokes. But the fact that I was on Rampula’s tail kept me going.

He managed to stay in front of me. I passed the finish and collapsed, just barely noticing that CrewNerd was still counting down and only stopped 20 m after the real finish line. I guess that’s the problem with GPS measured distances.

CrewNerd stopped counting at 8:06 but I hung around in the finish area and listened to the announced official times. I had managed 7:59.06 and I was very happy with that. Actually made a proud fist punch gesture to celebrate. That must have seemed strange from the grandstands. Comes in last. Is happy. 🙂

And here is how I suffered to achieve this. I am not 100% sure about the immedate jump to “red” heart rate values after the start. The data seem to have a strange plateau there. Need to look into that. Otherwise, though, the picture is true.

After that, I had about 2 hours to recover and get ready for the eight. Of course that wasn’t to be. And worse, there were more rowers in our Masters eight who had done one or two races before that day, so we ended up in third place, beaten by our Elite crew and by a mix of Juniors/Masters/Elite from Lodni Sporty. We managed to leave our club’s historical eight behind us. 🙂

And here are the pictures …

Tailwind changed into headwind. Some of us changed gear

Our head coach sending a pair to the start

The Author almost ready to row to the start

The Author's son rowing to his start — The Author’s son rowing to his start

Group picture of the three eights of our club

Lenka and Dominik did well in their respective races. Lenka was third in the double and Dominik came in fifth in the single. Both in the A final.

The races ended, it was time to enjoy our club house’s brand new beer tap:

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: eight, lake, OTW, race, rowing, single

Jun 13 2016

Friday – 8×15 strokes – speed work

First time I did a stroke based workout in CrewNerd. This workout idea came from our club’s official Masters rowers training plan. I don’t follow that plan, which is assuming 4 sessions/week, but I receive it in my Inbox and sometimes pick an interesting looking session from it.

This was 6-8x 15 strokes at 38 spm, 2-3 minutes rest between sets. Two sets from standing start. A race prep session.

http://rowsandall.com/rowers/workout/315

Workout Data

Rower:  Sander Roosendaal
Name:   8x15 strokes/2min
Date:   10 juni 2016
Time:   16:03
Distance:   10248m
Duration:   00:57:12.0
Type:   water
Weight Category:    lwt
Workout Summary

Workout Summary - media/20160610-193012-2016-06-10-1702.CSV
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|07674|40:04.0|01:55.3|33.5|148.8|169.1|08.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02280| 13:09 |02:52.9|19.6|135.0|164.0|08.9
02|00111| 00:23 |01:46.5|38.1|131.0|163.0|07.4
03|00113| 00:22 |01:38.0|40.5|156.0|171.0|07.5
04|00121| 00:24 |01:40.3|37.2|165.0|173.0|08.1
05|00113| 00:23 |01:44.7|38.0|144.0|166.0|07.5
06|00121| 00:24 |01:40.7|36.9|160.0|173.0|08.1
07|00117| 00:24 |01:43.9|37.0|161.0|174.0|07.8
08|00107| 00:23 |01:48.9|38.6|150.0|169.0|07.1
09|00098| 00:23 |02:01.1|38.0|143.0|167.0|06.5
10|02579| 14:37 |02:49.5|21.8|147.0|168.0|08.1
11|00250| 00:52 |01:44.3|36.8|154.0|176.0|07.8
12|01664| 08:20 |02:30.2|20.0|140.0|165.0|10.0

I really went up high in spm and tried to achieve a good pace. The first 6 intervals were in tailwind. The two final one in headwind. Some steering was required around sailing boats and swimmers.

At the end of the workout I added a 250m full speed from a standing start. Just for fun.

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

Jun 7 2016

Tuesday – 8x500m in the single

Last time I did this (on the water) was in July 2015. Then, I averaged 1:59.3 for pace at 28.5 spm. The training plan prescribed shorter sprint intervals, but I thought it would be interesting to do this standard row as a benchmark.

Today I arrived at the lake after another really busy day at work. We have a VP over from the US so lots of time spent in preparing presentations, then waiting for the vice president to arrive, presenting, etc.

When I launched, the lake was calm, but there was a southeast wind that gained strength during the row. This was a head/cross wind in intervals 1,2, 5 and 6 and a tailwind in intervals 3, 4, 7 and 8.

I tried to focus on technique and hold 30spm, irrespective of pace. I did the 500s like this:

10 strokes focus on “soft catch”
10 strokes focus on strong finish
10 strokes focus on the recovery (not too fast, not too slow, reach far enough)
repeat

Interactive plot here: http://rowsandall.com/rowers/workout/306/interactiveplot
Workout Summary - 2016-06-07-1750.CSV --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|09654|45:17.0|02:03.7|28.3|163.5|175.7|09.1 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|02854| 14:42 |02:34.6|19.8|140.0|164.0|09.8 - WU 02|00500| 01:55 |01:55.1|30.7|164.0|180.0|08.5 - headwind 03|00500| 01:59 |01:59.8|30.0|168.0|179.0|08.3 04|00500| 01:54 |01:54.2|30.5|170.0|180.0|08.6 - tailwind 05|00500| 01:58 |01:58.7|29.8|172.0|179.0|08.5 06|00500| 01:59 |01:59.5|30.6|166.0|179.0|08.2 - headwind 07|00500| 02:03 |02:03.7|30.6|171.0|180.0|07.9 08|00500| 01:55 |01:55.5|29.1|169.0|178.0|08.9 - tailwind 09|00500| 01:53 |01:53.0|32.4|171.0|181.0|08.2 10|02800| 14:59 |02:40.6|19.8|144.0|157.0|09.5 - CD

The first and fifth interval were from a standing start. The last interval was an attempt to empty the tanks by rowing the first 30 strokes at the usual 30spm, then increasing to 34spm.

Looks like a 1:58 average over the 500s to me, at a stroke rate of 30spm average. So not much better, not much worse than last year. Actually, my average heart rate seems to be higher. Not sure how happy I am with this benchmark.

Tomorrow: Flying to Brussels & rest day.

Thursday: Hotel gym

Friday: steady state

Saturday: Race heats or start practice

Sunday: Races (2km in single & eight)

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 6 • Tags: 8x500, lake, OTW, rowing, single, training

Jun 5 2016

Primátorky race report – disappointed

Primátorky races. Eights and singles in the heart of Prague, on the Moldau river. The culmination of the season for many Czech Masters teams.

As you have been able to read here, also the Masters men of CVK Brno put in a few trainings on the eight, to defend their series of 4 subsequent wins on this race. Last year I didn’t take part because of back issues, but this year I would be rowing on 2 seat.

We left Brno on Saturday morning. A comfortable 2.5 hour train ride brought us to Prague. The race would only be at 7pm, so time enough for a nice lunch with Romana and some race watching.

Spectators on the Moldau bank near the finish line. Prague Castle in the background

View from the grandstand towards the famous “Railway Bridge”

After watching a few races from the grandstand, I moved to the Railway Bridge to take pictures of our Men’s Eight (the young men) in their heat.

View of the finish area from the Railway Bridge

Prague is a great place to race. Here is the first men’s eight heat approaching the railway bridge.

The Brno Men:

After the men rowed their heats and the repechage, the Wintech eight was ours for our Men’s Masters B final. We had time enough to launch early and used that time to sharpen our skills. After all, we hadn’t had so many trainings together. We rowed a good 7 km with 10 stroke pieces at different stroke rates and a few practice starts.

We were ready to roll and it was time for our start. Four boats started to align at the 1000m mark.

Lane 1: Brno (that’s us)

Lane 2: Piestany (they came all the way from Slovakia)

Lane 3: Neratovice

Lane 4: Blesk

A year ago our boat beat blesk by a tiny margin.

While we were aligning for the start, this guy came steaming up the river from the finish:

Right next to us, at the start line, it started to turn.

It turned. Then its engines roared as it started to make speed to return to the finish. Right next to us. The bowman and I were trying to keep our boat in the right direction.

Suddenly I noticed that the other boats had started. We did a panicky improvised start and started chasing them, right through the wake of that big river boat. The water seemed to have reached the boiling point. Whirls everywhere, waves, and the roaring sound of a fifty year old diesel engine.

After about 10 strokes our cox had to pull sharply to the left to avoid bumping into the giant. A few strokes later we started clashing blades with Piestany, but we quickly rowed through them. Adrenalin fountains were spouting from our ears. Stunned tourists on the deck of the river steamer saw us steam past them. Our stroke rate was 39 spm.

Two hundred meters into the race Blesk’s lead had shrunk from a boat and a half to a boat length. Our cox was shouting orders and we were reducing the gap by every stroke. They rowed over on the other side of the river and I was just focusing being in sync with our stroke, who was doing a fiery 37spm.

In that part of the race I was confident. We were rowing into Blesk so fast that I estimated we would be next to them by the time we rowed under the railway bridge, and then would be able to pass them in the final 300m.

By the railway bridge I had them in my peripheral vision. Thirty strokes to go. We were over 40spm by now and we were still moving but not as fast as I liked. That was clearly the feeling in our entire crew because everybody started to pull harder and harder. The problem was that everybody was pulling for himself and as we hit an area with very bad water because of the concrete banks, we started to lose balance and hit a few bad strokes, which cost us the win.

Immediately after the finish our stroke and our cox raised their arms and summoned the marshalls to listen to our complaint. At first he thought we were complaining about the clashing blades, but when we explained him the situation at the start, he started to understand. He acknowledged that conditions at the start had been far from ideal and even proceeded to say that the should have stopped the race after a few strokes.

His launch disappeared to the bank to discuss with the finish line officials. The Blesk boat and us were waiting impatiently.

After about 20 minutes of waiting, they finally seemed to have a verdict. The marshall’s boat came to the Blesk boat and started talking to them. We couldn’t hear what they were saying but it was clear that Blesk wasn’t pleased. Then the Marshall communicated the verdict to the speaker, who announced:

“The Masters B is declared undecided because of unfair conditions for Brno at the start. The two first boats will re-row the race at 19:40 to decide the winner. If one of the boats, or both, do not show at 19:40, they will be automatically put in last place in the results.”

After this announcement, Blesk rowed away proclaiming that they wouldn’t re-row. Our boat needed another five minutes to calm down. At that moment, I was ready to row to the start and race again, but some of us were fiercely against it.

All was decided when our stroke got cramp in his legs. We returned to the Blesk rowing club, only 7 rowers rowing, stroke seat bent over his oar and holding his leg.

At Blesk we went to see the Blesk crew to explain our point of view. Apparently they had calmed down as well, because they invited us with a big smile, exclaiming: “What did you think complaining against a crew from the organizing club?”

We explained that they rowed well and were not to blame, but that the conditions at our start were clearly unfair. Anyway, there wouldn’t be a re-row. One 1000m row was clearly more than enough for some of us (and some of them as well).

Our times of 2:54 and 2:54.4 were the two fastest of all the Masters races by more than five seconds.

HR and pace plot of the warming up row and race. No stroke rate data because I didn’t take the phone on board.

So of course I am disappointed by the result. On the one hand, I am sad we didn’t do a re-row. That would have been a nice story and a nice thing to do for the spectators, whoever would win it. On the other hand, I must acknowledge that I have crew members who cannot do 2 1000m efforts in series. Especially when done at 37 to 41 spm. Also, we clearly should have rowed better in the final 300m, instead of just everyone pulling hard without coordination.

Romana, the girls and I took the 9pm train from Prague to Pardubice, where we spent the night. Today was basically getting home, taking the train from Pardubice to Brno, then some groceries and now I am firing up the barbecue. My training of today consisted of a bike ride to the supermarket.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 4 • Tags: eight, OTW, prague, race, race report, river, rowing

20160601-204107-2016-06-01-1854o20160601-211549

Jun 1 2016

A short training in the eight – sprints between thunderstorms

Today’s training was a short session in the eight.

Warming up, 1k lower four, then 1k upper four. Then 2.5km with some stroke rate variations. And then the main event.

When we launched, thunderstorms had swept over our lake and were disappearing to the northwest. During our warming up the wind started to get stronger. By the time we were up to the main event there was a strong headwind, and the sky to the southeast was very dark.

We did a 4x250m/250m rest at race pace into that headwind. The kind of headwind that throws the boat off balance when one of the rowers clips too early.

http://rowsandall.com/rowers/workout/256/interactiveplot

When we returned to the dock, there was a beautiful rainbow.

The cox box showed 1:30 as fastest pace into the headwind. I don’t think it is bad, although there is a lot to improve to our stroke.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: eight, lake, OTW, rowing, sprints

May 31 2016

Unexpected outing in the Masters 8+

I was supposed to go on a business trip, but less than an hour before take-off it was canceled. Luckily I was scheduled to fly from Brno on the Brno-Munich connection, so I wasn’t even heading for the airport when the cancellation went through.

We are racing the eight on Saturday so I had delegated this evening’s session in the eight to a reserve. Now I cancelled the reserve and could row it personally.

Always better than delegating. Especially in that final week before a race when things are supposed to come together.

The training was:

Warming up. Row 1500m at 24pm, pushing hard. Then a series of starts plus 20 strokes.

I had CrewNerd running during the session, but the phone was tacked away behind my footstretcher. There is no place to fix the phone in the eight. That’s OK. I just wanted to record the session. On top of that was my water bottle.

During the first start, my water bottle started wandering towards the rower in front of me in the second stroke. So before the second partice start I tried to press it tightly into the small gap between the footstretcher and the nr 3 position. I must have stopped CrewNerd during that, because I have no stroke data after the first practice start.

Luckily, I had the Garmin Forerunner as a backup, so I could merge the two TCX files and still see the workout data:

http://rowsandall.com/rowers/workout/239

The stroke rate and the pace/heart rate plots are misaligned by about 2 minutes. I guess you can get the point.

After the row, our stroke claimed that he stuck to 24spm during the 1500m. Looks more like 27/28 spm to me in the plot. We also struggled quite a lot during this 1500m, so we had some discussions while turning the boat. We have to put more emphasis on finishing strong and clean.

After the 1500m we did the practice “start+20”. The starts were fine and the first 10 strokes were pure bliss. The timing was great. The strokes were hard and the finishes strong. Then after 10 strokes we were supposed to take a bit more length and that’s where things started to fall apart. It seems in the process of taking more length we forget to finish strong.

In the locker room we discussed the 1k tactics. My point being that a 1k race in an eight is a matter of 3 minutes and a few seconds. We should stay rowing in the rhythm of those first strokes after the start. We will row away from our competition. If we try to take length we will just slow down, keep them next to us and then we will have to rely on our final push.

Saturday’s races will be funny. For the fourth time in a row the Masters B eight will be a fight between Piestany (from Slovakia), Neratovice, and us. We have already won three times, always beating Neratovice in the final 200m. I met some of the Piestany rowers at the races last weekend, and they commented that it doesn’t make sense to go to Prague to get beaten by us again. 🙂

I am not so sure.

Another interesting factor is that there are many thunderstorms and heavy rain in South Bohemia. If this continues, we will row on Prague on high water.

Here is a link to the races website: http://www.primatorky.cz/en/about

On the occasion of the jubilee 60th edition of the Prague Mayors Eights, development of Masters rowing in the world inspired Spartak Praha 4 – ČVK officials in 1973 to extend the programme to include a race for those rowers who did not contest in the main competition any more. The founders donated a challenge trophy for the winners: a wooden shield. The race is run over the typical Masters distance of one kilometre. There had been just one category for a number of years, and it takes place on Saturday because the entrants include numerous officials who carry out their duties during the Sunday programme of the Prague Mayors Eights. During the 1990s, the number of categories increased, sometimes up to five. A very remarkable race occurred in 1990 when the Vyšehrad-based Blesk and Smíchov-based Tatra crews introduced several emigrants who had not visited their native country for years with some of them having been banned from returning. The line-up Provazník, Líbal, Pulkrábek, Mrvík, Schmidt, Pojezný, Toček, Čermák – Koníček included Pavel Schmidt, the 1960 Rome Olympic Games double scull winner. Unfortunately, two of these famous rowers, Pavel Schmidt and Jula Toček, are no longer among the living. In 1992, the Masters event was run as an international race for the first time. A year later, the Mayor of the City of Prague donated a perpetual challenge trophy to the Masters Eights.

It’s quite a big event.

This picture shows the main event, the Open 8+, with our club’s crew in the foreground, battling and coming in second place, on typical waves in the final 200m, between concrete banks on the river Vltava:

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: eight, lake, OTW, rowing

May 30 2016

Cleaning up and rate ladders

I normally prefer a rest day after races, but Tuesday is a travel day, so I decided to turn it around.

After work I headed to the rowing club. Everybody was already busy offloading boats from the trailers, giving them a wash and putting riggers on. It took me an hour to get the single and double ready. I am not sure if these things can be done faster. Personally I want to be precise, make sure that each bolt is tightened, all the covers are folded and put away, and also the washing is something I take time to do.

At 6pm I was ready and went for a row. A steady state row was on the menu, and I always like to spice these up by doing rate ladders. The rate ladders are also a good way to work on technique, in my mind. At 18spm, there is time enough to focus on each attention point. After a few minutes, you switch to 20spm. Just slightly faster so transferring the good stroke is not so difficult. After a few minutes, on to 22spm, then on to 24spm.

There was some chop on the lake. Nothing that would make it unrowable, but I fancied a change so I rowed up to the castle and back.

The water was brown. There has been a big thunderstorm two nights ago. Apparently the muddy water has now reached our lake.

http://rowsandall.com/rowers/workout/225

Tomorrow: Travel

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: OTW, river, rowing, single, steady state

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OTW

Under and on the Eight

Friday – 8×15 strokes – speed work

Tuesday – 8x500m in the single

Primátorky race report – disappointed

A short training in the eight – sprints between thunderstorms

Unexpected outing in the Masters 8+

Cleaning up and rate ladders

Calendar

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