race prep

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Sep 12 2017

Tuesday & Wednesday – Travel & First Training in Bled

I haven’t blogged in more than a week. The reason is the World Rowing Masters Regatta. There was simply so much racing and stuff going on and no time to blog. But there was certainly a lot that I want to blog about. So here we go. A series of posts about the most important regatta of the season.

Tuesday

Finally! We are off to Bled. Picked up the rowers at a parking in Brno, then the trailer at the rowing club. Our lake showed its most mirror-like water, so we were tempted to unload the boats and go rowing, but traveling to Bled won.

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The drive was uneventful, luckily. I would hate an “eventful” drive with a boat trailer. The only point where I was a bit nervous was when we chose the left lane at Graz, and were diverted into a very narrow temporary highway lane, separated from upcoming traffic with concrete blocks. Romana was driving and she managed the 7km of driving in this lane with perfect calm. Millimeter precision steering, with a few cm on both sides of the trailer, or so it seemed to me.

Driving into Bled town, my passengers started to make phone calls to announce our arrival and go for a training in the afternoon.

Too early.

We were caught by the organizers and put on a temporary trailer holding area.

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After about an hour of waiting, we were allowed to drive to the venue. So, all in all the wait wasn’t long, and it was a good move by the organizers. If they hadn’t done this, they would have created a traffic jam of trailers on the venue.

Boats were unloaded, and the official Bled 4×4 pulled our trailer to the trailer parking. Romana and I hopped on the bike and rode to our hotel. We checked in, took a shower, and then went into Bled for a nice dinner.

Wednesday

I went for a quick training in the morning. The official training times were between 8am and 10am. First, I took some time to rig the boat. Then I had to carry it about 500m from our rack to the dock. I did two loops of the entire lake. A few practice starts and a few 20-25 stroke intervals.

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In the afternoon, we rode around on the bike. We had a nice lunch on the lake. The racing had already started, but we weren’t racing today, so it was nice to see the boats rowing their warming up.

 

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After that, we watched some races from the grandstand. I saw a regular follower of my blog win, and watched Tom Carter race the Masters A 1x. I also took the opportunity to look around the booths and chat to rowing electronics vendors.

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Aug 20 2017

Friday – race prep

A very hot day in Trebon. Before lunch, I did a short row with my son Dominik (12) to check the setting of the double. Unfortunately, I couldn’t test the sculls with the Macon blades, because our other son Robin (11) was out in the single.

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We did a few practice starts and then a full 500m at the end. I had forgotten my SpeedCoach at the hotel, so the workout was captured through Garmin Connect, and stroke rates are off.

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In the afternoon, I had a few work related calls. I was glad to be inside because the heat outside was getting unbearable. At the end of the afternoon, Romana and I went out to train in the double. It was a nice row. We did a warming up, then 3x250m with 500m rest, and then a long cooling down.

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Work Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|-Pwr-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00250| 00:55 |01:50.5| 33.6| 000 | 144 | 166 | 8.1
02|00500| 02:26 |02:26.3| 21.7| 000 | 143 | 167 | 9.4
03|00250| 00:55 |01:49.9| 32.7| 000 | 163 | 175 | 8.3
04|00500| 02:31 |02:31.8| 21.3| 000 | 148 | 175 | 9.3
05|00250| 00:53 |01:47.3| 34.6| 000 | 166 | 178 | 8.1
06|00500| 04:16 |04:16.3| 10.1| 000 | 144 | 178 | 11.6
Workout Summary
--|02250| 11:58 | 2:39.6| 20.2| 000 | 150 | 178 | 9.3

A light tailwind during the 250m sessions.

Sixty minutes of rowing for the entire day.

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Jul 12 2017

Tuesday Chop Day

Monday

The plan called for a 1k full out as race preparation, but I decided that I better spend more time at work to finish some things, and I also think that taking some rest in the taper week is not a bad thing. I adapted my plan for Tuesday to compensate for that.

Tuesday

Short training. I arrived at the lake after work and it was very choppy. A few white caps here and there. The plan was a 750m at race pace and then two 250m full out sprints. That’s all. I managed to fit that into 6km including warming up and cooling down. It’s taper week.

Workout Summary - media/20170711-1805210o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|00750|02:46.0|01:51.2|331.3|32.6|173.1|185.0|08.3
W-|00750|02:46.0|01:51.3|330.7|32.6|173.5|185.0|08.3
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|185.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00250|00:55.2|01:50.3|363.2|33.5|156.2|177.0|08.1
01|00250|00:56.1|01:52.1|319.2|31.9|180.2|182.0|08.4
02|00250|00:55.8|01:51.5|310.1|32.4|183.7|185.0|08.3

I rowed the 750m in cross/tailwind with white caps. That caused the stroke rate to drop a bit below the envisioned 34spm. I also had to make sure I crossed in front of a big tourist boat, so that required some head turning, and I rowed through the wake of two sailboats who were enjoying the windy weather.

It was fun but it felt awful. I am surprised that the summary gives such a low power average for the final 250m, because despite the chop I thought I was able to bring up the power again. Probably, because I check the SpeedCoach only now and then during the row, some of the strokes in the chop were a lot below 300W. It happens. When it happens in a race, all have the same conditions and the one who deals with them best, wins.

I paddled for ten minutes and got ready for the first 250m.

Workout Summary - media/20170711-1805480o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|00250|00:59.0|01:59.0|343.6|35.3|152.2|178.0|07.1
W-|00250|00:59.0|01:59.8|345.2|35.2|153.6|178.0|07.2
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|178.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00050|00:16.5|02:44.6|318.1|37.7|118.6|132.0|04.8
01|00050|00:10.7|01:46.8|390.0|35.5|149.2|161.0|07.9
02|00050|00:10.4|01:43.7|373.5|34.8|167.5|171.0|08.3
03|00050|00:11.7|01:57.0|336.0|34.0|173.2|175.0|07.5
04|00050|00:10.7|01:46.9|324.9|33.1|176.7|178.0|08.5
I guess that the SpeedCoach started a few seconds too early, due to the chop, causing the strange value for the first few strokes.
After some paddling, I ran out of lake, so I turned around my single and did a 250m in the cross/headwind:
Workout Summary - media/20170711-1806110o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|00250|00:59.0|01:59.2|366.6|33.6|160.0|178.0|07.5
W-|00250|00:59.0|01:59.7|362.5|33.4|162.1|178.0|07.5
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|178.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00050|00:11.7|01:57.5|421.6|35.3|127.7|142.0|07.2
01|00050|00:11.4|01:53.7|395.5|34.1|156.8|164.0|07.7
02|00050|00:11.7|01:57.4|370.3|33.6|170.6|174.0|07.6
03|00050|00:12.5|02:05.3|309.5|32.4|175.3|177.0|07.4
04|00050|00:12.5|02:04.5|322.5|32.0|177.9|178.0|07.5
That was even more fun, battling against the wind.
 
Data Analytics
In the evening I had some fun with rowsandall.com’s new Trend Flex chart. I have improved it to show the value of the third parameter in the color of the bubble, and by running the chart through various metrics combinations for the past two months of rowing, there are some nice insights to be had from them:

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Jul 9 2017

Mordor Part II

Another excursion to Ostrava (a.k.a. Mordor), this time with daughter Lenka and my lovely wife Romana. Romca has resumed training, and will row the Masters Worlds with a lady from Ostrava. I went to train with Vojta for next weekend’s Masters Nationals.

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Basically steady rowing alternated with starts plus 20 strokes. All went pretty well. Looks like a start at 42spm, first 200m at 36spm, then the stroke rate will drop naturally as the body is struggling to switch on lactate burning, and then we go again.

Not all the registrations are in but it looks like both the doubles and singles races will be very hard. The aces have already registered.

In the afternoon, we had coffee in Ostrava, and then drove home. While I am typing this, I am watching the Lucerne races which I recorded.

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Jul 4 2017

Monday – chop, Tuesday – race pace

Monday

Tired legs from the Sunday workout and a hectic day at work. I was wondering if I should work out. In the end I did drive to the lake, but about an hour later than planned. I decided to do what was planned. A short, light workout in the single. Main goal: Recover.

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As you can see from the pace part of the chart, there was quite a strong wind, pushing me to 2:40 and slower on the warming up and to 3:00 pace on the headwind segment Sirka – Rokle, while speeding me up to 2:20 on the Rokle – Sirka segment and in the cooling down. There was quite some chop. The kind that occasionally breaks on your front stays and splashes your elbows and back. It was fun, actually.

Then a nice chat with the rowers at the club, about the National Championships (Juniors & Open) of last weekend. Our club has done quite well. One of our junior scullers, who wasn’t selected for the National Squad, turned his disgust into energy and took his Filippi to a strong victory in the J18 1x field, winning his heat, semifinal, and final with ease. The second place in the final was taken by another guy who didn’t get selected. We also had a guy in the winning (national squad) J18 4x-.

In the J16 fields, our club won virtually everything on the sweep side. On the girls side (Romana’s team), the results were varying, and disappointing in the final, getting beaten by crews that they beat easily in the heats on Friday. Lenka has just come back from a long illness, so three days of racing is a lot for her, currently. Iva wants to win so bad that she forgets about technique (not her strongest point) and tries to outpower everyone in the first 1k, then dies in the second 1k with people rowing cleaner and longer passing her. Well, she’s 16 so there is time for her to learn how to race.

Tuesday

Out early to get in a workout before heading to the airport. Today’s workout was a 2x(12x35sec/25sec)/6min with a target stroke rate of 30 to 32spm. Short and sweet.

I made a point of rowing strokes with stops during the warming up, focusing on body position during the recovery. This helps me tremendously in approaching the catch on “a stable platform” and getting the most (length, catch efficiency) out of every stroke.

The workout itself was interesting. I had to program it as 30″/30″ intervals, because the SpeedCoach doesn’t take less than 15 second steps. However, I used the final 5 seconds of each rest interval to take to strokes at full power (but lower stroke rate) to get up to speed. That worked out quite well. A 25 second rest is really short! Still, I was able to row well, and only in the second half of the second set (in a headwind) did the rowing start to fall apart – slightly. I think I could have managed a third set, but two weeks to the Championships, I prefer my workouts to be shorter.


Work Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00134| 00:30 |01:51.9| 34.0| 145 | 161 | 7.9 - tailwind
02|00131| 00:30 |01:54.5| 32.0| 164 | 170 | 8.2
03|00133| 00:30 |01:52.7| 32.0| 165 | 171 | 8.3
04|00134| 00:30 |01:51.9| 32.0| 168 | 173 | 8.4
05|00134| 00:30 |01:51.9| 32.0| 168 | 174 | 8.4
06|00135| 00:30 |01:51.1| 32.0| 170 | 175 | 8.4
07|00134| 00:30 |01:51.9| 34.0| 171 | 176 | 7.9
08|00134| 00:30 |01:51.9| 32.0| 172 | 176 | 8.4
09|00134| 00:30 |01:51.9| 32.0| 170 | 175 | 8.4
10|00135| 00:30 |01:51.1| 34.0| 173 | 179 | 7.9
11|00133| 00:30 |01:52.7| 34.0| 172 | 176 | 7.8
12|00136| 00:30 |01:50.2| 34.0| 172 | 178 | 8.0
13|00132| 00:30 |01:53.6| 32.0| 160 | 168 | 8.2 - headwind starts here
14|00128| 00:30 |01:57.1| 34.0| 170 | 176 | 7.5
15|00131| 00:30 |01:54.5| 34.0| 173 | 179 | 7.7
16|00129| 00:30 |01:56.2| 32.0| 174 | 178 | 8.1
17|00126| 00:30 |01:59.0| 32.0| 175 | 179 | 7.9
18|00127| 00:30 |01:58.1| 34.0| 175 | 179 | 7.5
19|00128| 00:30 |01:57.1| 34.0| 175 | 180 | 7.5
20|00125| 00:30 |01:59.9| 32.0| 175 | 179 | 7.8
21|00126| 00:30 |01:59.0| 32.0| 175 | 180 | 7.9
22|00125| 00:30 |01:59.9| 32.0| 176 | 179 | 7.8
23|00126| 00:30 |01:59.0| 32.0| 175 | 179 | 7.9
24|00137| 00:30 |01:49.4| 36.0| 176 | 179 | 7.6 - tailwind
Workout Summary
--|03147| 12:00 | 1:54.3| 32.9| 170 | 180 | 8.0

Here is the pace and SPM plot from the FIT export from the SpeedCoach:

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Here is the same plot from the CSV export.

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The SpeedCoach CSV doesn’t denote the “rest” intervals as rest. In fact, it doesn’t contain any strokes taken during the rest at all. I find that quite disappointing, and will urge NK to change that. The FIT at least contains the time stamps, so you can see how the intervals are spaced apart, and it doesn’t fool rowsandall.com into believing that I have rowed a “breakthrough” workout:

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Anyway, I was able to contantly push the power above 340-350W.

Some technique related charts. Try to guess where the rowing started to fall apart:

 

Now, I am sitting at the gate at Munich Airport, waiting for my connection to Brussels.

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Jul 2 2017

A visit to Mordor

The ladies are still at the Open/J18/J16 Czech National Championships, so my sons and I are enjoying a men’s weekend.

Today, we hit the road at 8am, to arrive in Ostrava at 10AM. From Wikipedia:

Ostrava grew to prominence thanks to its position at the heart of a major coalfield, becoming an important industrial centre. It used to be nicknamed the country’s “steel heart” thanks to its status as a coal-mining and metallurgical centre, but since the Velvet Revolution (the fall of communism in 1989) it has undergone radical and far-reaching changes to its economic base. Industries have been thoroughly restructured, and the last coal was mined in the city in 1994. However, the city’s industrial past lives on in the Lower Vítkovice area, a former coal-mining, coke production and ironworks complex in the city centre boasting a unique collection of historic industrial architecture. Lower Vítkovice has applied for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

When we arrived in Ostrava, the boys and I started to call it Mordor. It’s a strange place. Lots of abandoned 19th and early 20th century industry sites. Lots of buildings falling apart. On the horizon beautiful mountain ranges. It has a funny atmosphere.

But the reason to visit this interesting place was rowing.

As I am rowing the Masters Nationals with Vojta Cernak from VK Perun Ostrava, I was up for a training on his Filippi 2x, on the river Odra. We installed my sons Dominik (12) and Robin (10) in the club house, where they were watching the Tour de France, playing games on their smartphones and other fun stuff, Vojta and I took the double out for a long row.

For this training, I had two aims. First, to do some technical drills to get us rowing together and set up a stable base on the double. In the past two sessions, we rowed on my boat on the Brno lake, but with all the traffic, Vojta wasn’t comfortable, and was turning around to watch traffic every few strokes, which negatively impacted boat feel. Now, on his home river, where he knows every turn, this should be better. So technical drills first, then some race pace segments.

We did a lot of square blade rowing in the first 2.5km against the stream. Then we used the downstream part to do rowing with stops, working on being together especially in the final part of the recovery.

Then we turned around for another loop, during which we did a 500m and a 30 stroke interval. Finally, we agreed on a usable format. Our “500m” at race pace would be 60 strokes at 34spm, followed by 10 strokes full out. That was fun to do. We did the 34spm strokes at 90%, focussing on technique and being together and I think we did quite well.

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All intervals were done from a standing start in order to practice that as well. The Odra river is a slow “S” turn, and it was beautifully flat. In the low intensity strokes between the intervals, we were dowing 2:20 pace downstream/tailwind and 2:35 pace upstream/headwind.

It was a very nice experience. I think we finally nailed these 70 stroke intervals and we now feel very comfortable at 35spm. Also, we know that we are capable of doing a 40spm sprint while keeping technically together, so that is a good thing, because we may need it in the race.

After that, we had lunch together, and then I drove to the Lower Vitkovice area with the boys. This is an amazing place. A coal mine, coke production and ironworks complex in the middle of the city turned into an urban park, with a great technical museum. We spent more than three hours there, and we left only because I didn’t want to be at home late. It’s a two hour drive of 170km, so it was me who was getting tired. Given a choice, my sons would still be there, trying to operate a steam loc, playing in the automobile simulator, or learning about how an ironworks plant works.

To quote an online reviewer, agreeing with everything he says:

It was a brilliant idea to make something of Ostrava’s brutal industrial heritage. The ruins of a coal mine and a steel smelting plant have been converted into an area of clubs, concert halls, cafes, and attractions, including the splendid Bolt Tower that you reach by lift. The whole area is work in progress so it will only become more interesting in years to come.

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May 24 2017

Pretty good session in the eight

As Greg correctly pointed out, combining big boat rowing with a job is harder than combining it with a single. Today was no exception.

My boss was out of town, so I had to moderate a 5pm to 6pm conference call with our headquarters in Phoenix. I also had a training in the eight from 6:30. So I would either have to tell the crew that I come late or find another way. Left the office at 4pm. Made it throught the traffc with just 10 minutes to spare and set myself up in one of the bedrooms at the rowing club.

All good, except that the juniors switched on the music in the gym just below this room. And to make matters worse, two rowers started a loud discussion right in front of the window. At least the US colleagues took it with humor and content-wise the review was fine.

There was a lot of wind on the lake and especially in the first 30 minutes of the outing we were in big waves. There is just 45 minutes of rowing recorded, but we spent another 20 minutes of “discussion time”. We basically rowed up and down the quietest part of the lake doing 25 stroke and 50 stroke “race pace” pieces and practicing starts. It was better than I expected and there was real progress during this hour.

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