Jul 14 2015
Tuesday: Repeat taper training, in quad
Same training as yesterday, but now in a quad. A bit more wind, 4 Bft vs 2 Bft yesterday. Again 4x250m but this time at a decent stroke rate for the quad: 35-37spm. Which would a challenge in the choppy conditions.
We had Tomas Emr coaching us in the launch, which was good. During the warming up we did 10 strokes on / 10 strokes off at increasing stroke rates (30/35/38/38).
|Start|Stop_|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks
|00000|03159|03159|22:38|03:34.9| 23.0 | 130 | 178 |06.1|warming up (part of)
|03159|03400|00240|00:44|01:31.6| 35.8 | 172 | 179 |09.2|250m, tailwind
|04044|04294|00250|00:45|01:30.0| 36.0 | 176 | 180 |09.3|250m, tailwind
|04763|05014|00251|00:47|01:33.8| 35.3 | 175 | 181 |09.1|250m, headwind
|05555|05800|00245|00:48|01:38.0| 35.8 | 176 | 181 |08.6|250m, strong headwind
|05800|11174|05374|32:13|02:59.9| 19.0 | 148 | 182 |08.8|cooling down
The stroke rates are a bit lower than what I saw on CrewNerd during the row. Perhaps because it takes 3 strokes to get up to the right rate.
Coach said the last interval was the best.
Then we rowed in pairs (bow pair, then stroke pair), then we rowed with exaggerated tap-down and hands very low in the boat. Then we rowed unclipped.
Romana printed out the list of participants to coming weekend’s Open Czech Masters National Championships in Trebon.
12 participants in the C category single, so for sure two finals. Last year I had 3 hours of sleep before rowing this and came in fourth place, in a race where I didn’t have that little extra. I moved up one category so I have different opponents. I rowed 3:50. I looked up last year’s results for those that participated:
Mitas – 3:41 (-9 sec). A week later in Munich’s Euromasters I was second, only 2 seconds behind him
Milota – 3:55 (+5 sec)
Gwozdiak – 4:15 (+25 sec)
Novotny – 4:04 (+14 sec)
The rest are unknown.
In the B category quads, there are 8 boats, so again two finals. A year ago we won the A category in 3:18. We have one new guy in the boat. The only competitors we rowed against a year ago was the Trebon/Jindrichuv Hradec composite which we beat in 3:37. The guy who is not in our boat rows a composite with an Austrian club. If we draw against them, we will have to beat them, but that will be very hard.
In the mix Masters category C, there are 10 boats, so again two finals. Our “arch friends” Dekanovska/Dekanovsky remain category B. We rowed 3:44.
The winners of last year, Nevrala/Vecerova, who beat us by 0.5 seconds, are starting again.Then there is the Neratovice boat, which rowed 4:02 (+18 seconds), Smichov who rowed 3:44 (0 seconds) but were already C category last year, but with another woman. The rest is unknown.
The Men’s B 2x will be a surprise. We are not particularly good, but I didn’t row this last year.
Exciting!!
Jul 25 2015
Last week: Party Time and Rowing
Monday
No rowing. Lots of stuff to do at work.
Tuesday
Long day at work, then to the rowing club to remove the boats from the trailer and rig them.
We had an unpleasant experience with our Wintech quad on Sunday afternoon. After Romana’s race in it, somebody informed us that some rowers from another club (not necessary to name them here) had bumped into our quad with theirs. Apparently the metal rudder construction on the hull had bumped into our boat.
We checked and discovered a nasty hole, so we went to ask the people involved.
Well, we got shouted at. Apparently it wasn’t “sportive” that we wanted them to take their responsibility for the damage. According to them our boat was in a stupid place (it was on the rack just below their boat), these things happen and it is absolutely normal that people damage other people’s boats at races and walk away without mentioning it.
The lady kept shouting at us, and wanted to give us 300 Kc for the repair “because we were so unpleasant”. We refused the 300 Kc (about 15 USD) and I went to see the race organizer.
The race organizer was very helpful, and suggested ways to resolve this if the club of the lady wouldn’t cooperate. Luckily, when I returned from that discussion, an official from that club had already approached us, apologized for the behaviour of the unpleasant lady, and offered that they pay for the repair.
So on Tuesday we were discussing the next steps. We would have to contact the Wintech rep and ask her how to carry out the repairs, to make sure the repair doesn’t impact the warranty we have on the boat, which is half a year old.
Then we opened the beer tap and fired the barbecue and had a splendid evening, celebrating the many medals our club has won in the past weekend.
Wednesday, Thursday
Alarm clock at 3am for the travel to Toulouse. Meetings in Toulouse on Wednesday and Thursday morning. Nice dinner in the town of Blagnac.
This week is turning into a rowing vacation. Not bad, relaxes the rowing mind. Also, I have a lot of work to do this week, with some deadlines coming up by the end of the month.
Friday
I couldn’t row in the early morning because of work and some car related stuff (needed to get a new battery), so I had to do it in the afternoon after work.
35 degrees C. On Friday afternoon. On such days, our lake turns into a giant swimming pool.
I took the single, and Romana went on a quad with a few ladies. Because of a logistics problem around my water bottle, I had to row without taking water with me. I did a leisurely 10km on the single. Nice rowing. Swimmers to the left, swimmers to the right. Inflatable boats. Pedal boats. Paddle boards. Kayaks. Fun. This time, I didn’t mind too much, made constant use of my mirror as well as turning my head, and slalomed between the other people.
Stroke rate around 20spm.
Back at the club, I drank a lot of water, gave my single a wash and then jumped into the lake, waiting for Romana and her quad to come back. The water in the lake was perfect, clear and a nice temperature, like swimming in a lukewarm bath.
The quad ladies arrived and joined me swimming.
Then we all hopped in the car and drove around the lake to the other rowing club. My double partner Radek was throwing a birthday party on his club. It was very nice. One of his friends is a good singer, so first she gave us a concert of two ladies singing slightly jazzy songs, accompanied by a good guitarists. Then she turned into Alanis Morissette (even looks a bit like her) and her band turned into an Alanis Morissette revival band.
In the mean time I had a few beers, some meat from the barbecue, some salad. Nice talking to friends, and looking over the lake from the other side. A nice change of perspective.
We left quite late. There was some (quite stupid) drunk naked swimming going on when we left (I wasn’t involved).
Saturday
Morning row to the castle, in the double with Romana. We saw something floating in the lake but luckily it wasn’t a drowned drunk swimmer.
We did steady state again but made it interesting by
a) rowing to the castle and beyond
b) doing Pete Plan rate ladders
Tomorrow: July CTC.
I made a plan that starts on Monday and ends on the World Rowing Masters Regatta in Hazewinkel.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: double, lake, OTW, river, rowing, single, steady state, training