Jul 16 2017
Czech Open Masters Race Report- Saturday
Friday
We left Brno around 11am and arrived at 2pm, including a one hour lunch in the nice village of Horni Cerekev. I decided to relax and not row. Romana and I just claimed a few bost stands for our club boats, I prepared my single, and then we went for a short bike tour.
Saturday
1x
I launched at 8am for a quick row. I had left the SpeedCoach holder at the hotel so I rowed ‘unplugged’. I rowed to the 2k start, then did 2x 30 strokes at race pace, with a 500m paddle between. Then, at the 500m line, I did a 35 stroke interval consisting of 25 race pace strokes and 10 harder ones. The theory behind this is that doing this a few hours before e race will make the transition to lactate burning easier during the race. Usually, the first race of the day hurts a lot agout 300m in, and because I had only two races on Saturday, I thought it would be good to do this. And I think it didn’t hurt.
My first race was a tough one. The Masters C single. I was up against Petr Mitas, a guy who always beats me, and a few other guys who shouldn’t be underestimated. Kazi Nedoba from Hodonin, Tomas Zeman from Prague. Six boats in total. I was super concentrated for this race. My plan was to be in front out of the start, then settle for a race pace around 325W, and start attacking whoever would be in front front of me with 500m to go.
I think I was second out of the start, but I am not sure. I try not to look. There also was a strong cross/head wind which required a lot of attention in the beginning of the race.
By the time I settled down to 34spm, I was in second position, a one third boat length ahead of the ‘pack’ and one boat length behind Petr. Petr battled on at high rate, so I rated back to 35.5 spm. That took me out of the pack but Petr had about 2 lengths on me.
With 600m to go the pack was three lengths behind me and Petr was two oengths ahead of me. When I passed the 500m mark I launched my desperate attack. Stroke rate went up to 36spm and I managed to reduce the gap with Petr to a length and a half. At this point in the race I passed to members of my club who were rowing a cooling down from their Masters A 1x. It was great to have them their cheering for me.
Unfortunately, my engine stopped producing Watts with about 250m to go. In the cross/head wind I had difficulty keeping the rate and power up. All my muscles were burning and screaming. I tried to hold the power, even ousted two or three screams. But to be honest I basically collapsed. I finished in second place, 8 seconds behind Petr and 9 seconds before the rest of the pack, where a dramatic fight for third place ended unfavorably for my friend Kazi, who came in fourth.
3:56 in head wind. Not bad. It took me along time to start breathing normally, then turn the boat. I collected my silver medal in the medal ceremony under the finish tower and started a long cooling down.
Mission failed but I guess it was mission impossible and miracles don’t exist.
4x-
In the afternoon it was time for the quad. We hadn’t rowed the quad since July 2016, at the same race exactly a year ago. This was a full field, six boats of Masters B quads. We knew Neratovice are good. They beat us two times in a row, and they have raced quad smaller races in Bohemia, winning everything.
We didn’t know the other boats.
The weather, which had been quite diverse, changing every ten minutes throughout the entire day, showed an ugly face. During the warming up we got a really strong tailwind, throwing big waves. Our practice start was a disaster.
The real start was even worse. The strong cross tailwind blew us into the next lane, the starter wouldn’t let us correct that so the only thing we could do was turn the boat at an angle that would bring us back into our lane. Sitting in stroke seat, I had to foot steer strongly to get us straight into our lane.
By the time we were done steering and ready for a tactical move, we found ourselves rowing in second position, a lengh behind. The favorites and a little over a length ahead of the rest of the field.
We didn’t really try to catch up with Neratovice. Instead, we tried to tap down clean in the very heavy chop and row long strokes. I reduced the stroke rate to a safe 33/34 spm, and we just monitored the remaining four boats behind us. My friend Kazi stroked the Hodonin quad. They managed to manoeuver themselves in third place and subsequently caught a crab with 100m to go, and they ended in fifth place. We were second in 3:17. Not a fast time but with the cross wind and the chop there wasn’t much we could do to go faster.
Aug 20 2017
Saturday – A storm and a storm of races
On Friday evening, we had a nice dinner at the Regent Beer Brewery, then went to our hotel to get a good night’s rest before the races.
It wasn’t to be like that. Two hours later I woke up because of the storm. It sounded like a hurricane was going over Brno, and I started to get very worried about our boats. We had them outside on the Trebon rowing club grounds. On the one hand, our boats were in a relatively shielded area, under some trees. On the other hand, our boats were under some trees!
I just listened to the sound and worried and wondered if I should go out, drive through the storm, and check the boats. But then, imagining myself under those trees, in the hurricane, … hmm. Luckily, the storm was short and the wind calmed down.
In the morning, I received a picture from my brother in law, who was sleeping in a cabin on a camping about 20 km away.
Not good. Tomas was sleeping in the cabin opposite, but there were people inside when the tree fell. Luckily, nobody got hurt, but it is a small miracle.
On to the races. Luckily, we found all our boats in good order. The first race was for my son Robin, competing in the 500m single scull in the Boys 11 category. He raced to a great second place. Unfortunately, I didn’t see his race, because my single was planned for 10 minutes later.
My first race was the Masters 1x. A full field of C rowers. On lane 1, Radek Skodik from Hodonin, a merry chap who combines horse racing with race rowing. He learned to scull a year ago, and this year he is confident enough to race the single. Me, on lane 2. On lane 3, a Mr Lacko from Roudnice. Lane 4, Tomas Zeman from Smichov Prague, bronze medal at the Masters Nationals. Lane 5, a Mr Gerhat from Prerov. On lane 6, Jan Dekanovsky from Tabor, fourth place at the Masters Nationals.
My race plan was well prepared. I consider this a training race, so the plan was to go out hard and fast, then settle to 325W exactly, and hold that to the finish line.
“Lane 2 a little forward. Lane 1 a little forward. Lane 4 back. Attention. GO!”
Well, that caught me a bit by surprise, and my first start stroke was not as planned. Luckily, I managed to correct immediately in the second stroke, and as the adrenalin was kicking in, I hammered 5 hard strokes after the start which brought me to the lead, and then another 2 sets of five hard stroke which gave me a length of lead on the field. Yep, my starts can be fast.
Shift down to target power. This is always very difficult. The risk is dropping the stroke rate too much, and actually that is exactly what happened.
I was approaching the second 250m in 30spm. I noticed, and corrected. The field crawled back a bit. I just continued to hold 325W, slightly raising stroke rate with each 100m gone. With 200m to go I didn’t like that Mr Dekanovsky was moving ahead of the field and starting to close in on me, so I pushed a bit more. I crossed the line in 3:48, three seconds before Jan Dekanovsky. Nice.
What is also nice is that this workout is moving my power-duration curve (also known as CP chart). Here are the before and after pictures. First, before:
Then, after. Check the values on the y axis.
My Silver race at the Czech Masters was 347W over 3:56 minutes. This race was 358W over 3:48 minutes. I guess the 15 hard strokes after the start made the big difference, but I tend to think these are not the ones that punish you in the second 500m.
This win was the start of a series of races. I did four races in total within a two hour time frame.
The first one was the Masters/Child combination with my son Dominik. We battled ourselves to a nice second place on the 500m, in a time of 1:52. I think it is a nice result and a great time, especially given that most of the other Masters took a 14 year old, where I was rowing with a 12 year old. It is fun to scull with Macon blades. You really have to row technical and make sure you get the blade placement right. As a result, I didn’t row this race full out.
Shortly after that, I swapped my son for a fresh family member. My brother-in-law Tomas took his place and we rowed the Masters 2x over 1000m. That was a great race, racing wise. Immediately out of the start, I am told that we were leading. I do not know, because I was busy stroking the double and looking straight back to avoid bringing the boat out of balance. Then, Zeman+Ulc from Smichov took over the lead, with Dekanovsky and his partner, who had a slower start, starting to catch up with us. At the 500m point I started to increase the pressure and we passed Zeman+Ulc. Unfortunately, so did Dekanovsky and co, and in the process they also passed us. With 250m to go I rated up and we started to catch up with Dekanovsky, but they did a great final sprint to secure their win. We were second in a time of 3:33. I consider that not bad for the neutral wind conditions. It will not be a winning time in Bled, but we should be able to beat a few crews.
The closing event of my marathon racing afternoon was a 500m double scull. Again with Tomas, but this time in the Open Men category. Because there weren’t enough boats registered to row heats, the race organizers had replaced the heats with a 500m sprint on Saturday. I was tired already and we didn’t race well. Our first 250m was great, and we were hanging off the end of the field but I even had hope that we would be able to pass the fifth placed boat. Unfortunately, we got thrown out of rhythm by a few waves and never were able to get back into it. It shows that we have not enough meters rowed together.
I have no digital record of this sprint, because I forgot to switch the SpeedCoach to recording.
So we were last, and on Sunday’s 2km I expect to finish last as well, but it will be a good training/race. We need to make meters together.
My son Dominik came third in his Boys 12 race (a 1k event) and my daughter Lenka survived the heats and qualified for the A final in the combined Juniors/Women 2x (over 2k). So Sunday will be an interesting race day.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: 1k, 500m, double, OTW, race, rowing, single, sprint