race

Aug 22 2016

Saturday – Tropical Race Day

On Friday evening I studied the draw for my events:

12:02 – Masters 1x (combined C/D categories race with 6 entries) – 1000m

12:55 – Masters+Boy/Girl (11-14yr) 2x – 500m

14:15 – Masters 2x (combined B/C categories race with 6 entries) – 1000m

So the entire racing day compressed in a little over 2 hours.

On the day itself it became clear quickly that this was going to be one of the hottest days of August. Temperatures quickly rose over 30 degrees and the sun was painfully strong. There was very little wind, a very slight headwind breeze, but nothing really worth mentioning. I took a few pictures to show the venue. 700 crews would compete over two days. Not quite the Olympics, but still a nice regatta size. Add to that fairy tale like surroundings (medieval town, castle and beer brewery) as well as a full Albano lane system, and you can understand that it was a regatta I was looking forward to. A few pictures to show what I mean:

Our trailer, our two boats and my bike. Operation base for the race weekend.

Lots and lots of youth boats. Launching both from the docks and – for capacity reasons – from the water

The organizers had an interesting rule for the combined Masters races. In order to win a medal, you have to beat everybody in the heat who is in your age category and older. So for me as a Masters C rowing in a combined C/D race, it would mean I would have to win the entire heat to get a medal, but the D competitors would only have to beat the other D rowers to get one.

I wasn’t sure what to expect after nearly three weeks with just some light cycling in the last week, with the heat, and with one or two quite strong competitors.

I was the last out of the start (my own fault, I wasn’t alert enough and didn’t react immediately to “go”), but quickly recovered and managed to get into second position, a length behind Mr Cernak from Ostrava (Masters D). This was not how I had hoped the race would unfold. The plan had been to use my strong and fast starts (especially on mirror flat water I am usually in front) to demotivate the others, then row a flat race for the following 900m of the course.

It wasn’t to be. Here I was, trailing behind a “D” (and thus at risk of not getting a medal), and I had the choice between rowing my original race plan and hoping that he would fade out, or keep the rate up and risking fly-and-die. I decided to stick to my own racing plan.

With 500m to go I was passing Mr Cernak but he was nowhere close to giving up. There was two lengths of light between me and the rest of the field.

Spectators claim that I have been in front of him for two or three strokes, but he rated up and managed to get half a boat length back. By that time my lack of fitness was evident. My legs were hurting massively and I was seeing 1:57 split on the SpeedCoach. 1:57, which my tired brain interpreted as nearly equal to 2:00 and thus extremely slow.

I tried to hang on and not rate down but I had no energy to sprint to the line. The result. Cernak (D) 1 – Roosendaal (C) 0.

SpeedCoach graph of the race. I switched on the SpeedCoach before the alignment at the start. Somehow I don’t understand the readings. They don’t seem compatible with the total time of 3:46.

So, no medal this time. Still the second time over all the mM 1x races, faster than the A and B categories:

I didn’t have a lot of time to contemplate this, because it was time to race the next race, a 500m sprint in the double with my son. We were using our boat “ORCA” but the girls were rowing their race just before ours. When they were done we had a few minutes to change from Big Blades to Macon sculls, adjust the footstretchers and gate heights and then sprint to the start. Luckily, the start of the 500m races was right in front of the rowing club, so it took us less than 2 minutes to get to the start, where the rest of the field was already waiting for us.

It was interesting to race. With a 11 year old in stroke position, the older rower has to adapt to his stroke rate and rhythm. Add to that the Macon blades and you get the challenge. As the race was open for kids between 11 and 14 year old, boys and girls, there was quite a difference in competence levels, but that didn’t matter. You just start hard and then look what the other crews are doing, then pick one that is close behind or in front and race it. We came in third place and it was a lot of fun to do, and hard work as well, looking at my heart rate curve:

Masters/Pupil 500m race including row to the start and cooling down

The last race of my three races in two hours program was the Masters double. Kazi and I were expected to win this one. The only problem was that the heat and the racing was taking its toll. We launched late to avoid being exposed to the sun for too long, but in time to do a few practice sets of 10 strokes and two practice starts.

As there was a lot of racing going on and the organization was slightly short of umpire launches, said launches were racing quite fast from finish to start, creating substantial random wake during the races. Kazi and I agreed that he (as the bow man) would warn by saying “wake” and then we would row with increased attention to a good and deep tap down.

The race plan was simple. Start fast. Row in front. Win.

Simple.

Our start stroke was a disaster, probably caused by me thinking we were not aligned entirely correct (I am quite precise about that) and Kazi not expecting me to put slightly more pressure on the left blade.

We corrected in the first 10 strokes after the start and with 900m to go we were leading the nr 2 by a length. That was a “B” category crew, by the way (as opposed to us being “C” in this combined B/C race), but due to the adrenaline I didn’t remember that at all.

So we worked hard to build a lead and at the half way point we were leading by three lengths.

Comfortable.

Except that I was in much more pain than I usually am at this point in the race and I felt my strength flowing away. The sun was hammering on me. I was looking at the boat chasing us and wondering if I would be able to finish the race and keep pushing hard enough to stay in the lead.

“Wake!” Kazi’s call was clear. An umpire launch had decided to start its sprint from finish line to start line. Immediately as we passed it, it slowed down to reduce wake until our race had passed.

Tap down. Tap down. Wake. Tap down. OK.

We made it.

Tsunami.

So we almost got stopped by the third wave which was a huge one. We lost two or three strokes of rowing and a lot of speed.

Suddenly, our lead was reduced to just over a length. Usually, you wait until the wake hits the boats in the other lanes and everything is fine (or better than before if you manage to row through the wake better than the competition). But this time it was a very local wake and our competition in lane 1 was in the clear zone all the time. So we were no only a bit over a length ahead of them.

I was in big trouble so I wasn’t going to sprint the last 300m or try anything else to build out the lead again. The only option was to continue and hope that good technique and rowing as hard as we could would be enough to secure the win.

I admit that with 200m to go I let out the Masters rowing equivalent of a Monica Seles grunt. With 100m to go I did a Maria Sharapova grunt.

And we won. Rowing the fastest Masters 2x time of the day. Beating a couple of “B” rowers (who thus didn’t get a medal). Despite a massive wake that in the end only affected us in lane 5 and the boat in lane 6, and none of the other boats.

The dip in pace caused by a massive wake. Very high heart rate (a maximum of 188 beats per minute)

On adrenaline I managed to be quite composed during the medal ceremony and to row back to the dock very slowly. But after that it went downhill very rapidly. Despite a cool shower and drinking lots of water, I wasn’t able to do very much except sit in the shade and stare at the racing going on.

In other family members races, Lenka and her partner Iva rowed a nice race in the quad and a disastrous heat in the double. Launching much too early in the heat, combined with a slightly delayed program, they spent more than 45 minutes in the burning sun and didn’t qualify for Sunday’s A finals. They would row in “B”.

In the evening, we broke up our tent (because rain was predicted) and moved to a rented room. All of that I had to do very slowly, taking lots of breaks, and drink a lot of water and sports drinks. It was really an exhausting day.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 3 • Tags: albano, double, lake, OTW, race, single

Aug 2 2016

Sunday – mix double and driving home

I had difficulty falling asleep on Saturday evening. The events of the day, winning the single, Romana winning the eight, the Masters Party, combined with the hot hotel room without airconditioning, and a few beers, made it hard to fall asleep. So I watched some German TV. Then I dozed off.

The best thing about our hotel in Dachau was the breakfast. There was a huge choice of fresh pastry, fruit, eggs prepared in different ways, and as we discovered, on Sundays there was free Champagne.

Not for us. We still had one row to row.

The weather had turned 180 degrees. From sunny and hot to rainy and gray. Temperatures had dropped to 17 degrees C, from above 30 the day before.

We cycled to the race venue, about a 30 minute ride, which we felt was a very nice way to start the body and prepare it for racing.

We arrived just in time, before the rain started.

Euromasters 001 — The boats area on Sunday morning

The boats area was quite empty, with only the boats of the participants to the singles finals (Munich Trophy) and the mixed events left.

We watched the singles finals (with mixed feelings), then went to the Salani booth to pick up our club’s new youth single. After that, it was time to prepare for our race, the mixed C 2x.

The mixed races were open for registration until Saturday afternoon, and apparently the event organizers were a little exhausted when they compiled the start list. Even though we had registered only for the C event, we featured on the starting list of the A event as well. Our friends Martin and Jitka were listed on two heats of the mixed C 2x.

At the pre-start, called our race exactly when we arrived. We found that strange, because at the start there were quads preparing, and we were the fourth heat in the Mix C 2x.

It turned out that two pages of his list had stuck together because of the rain, and he skipped three heats. When he discovered that, there was a lot of confusion, and some of the crews of the first three heats were quite far away, which caused substantial delays.

Our friends Martin and Jitka got started in their second heat.

Then some time was spent calling for them during the third heat. In the end it was decided they weren’t there and their heat was started without them.

Then it was time for our race, which was reduced to a race between three boats, I guess also due to double bookings.

There was a French couple with which we had had chatted at the pre-start. I had translated the confused German and English announcements into broken French.

Then there was a German couple from Hersfelder Ruderclub. I knew Andreas, the guy at stroke, because we had rowed a quad together at Masters Worlds in Duisburg, in 2012.

I also knew he was fresh. He hadn’t started a single race during the weekend. Anyway, there was not a lot of time to think about it. We were in the starting pontoons and the starter was calling us.

Ready – Attention – Go

We started off well and quickly gained … nothing. When I peaked to the side after then strokes, there were three boats in a line. The French maybe a bit behind, and the Germans perhaps half a boat length in front.

In the next 10 strokes the Germans rowed away. When they had a length on us, we managed to stop this.

Well, you have to be patient, right?

Just after passing the 750m line I called for a 15 stroke push. We were a length behind the Germans and the French were half a boat length behind us.

20160802-130537-Sanders SpeedCoach 20160731 1235pmo20160802-130551 — You can see the position of my first push quite well in this graph. The stroke rate stops dropping and goes up

We took half a length back on the Germans, but the French were still on our heels.

In the next 300m nothing really happened. Except that everything started to hurt.

Then I took up the rate again and I think we came level with the Germans. But I am not sure and have to rely on reports from people on the shore.

Everything hurt even more.

With 250m to go I didn’t have to call for a sprint. Romana knew. We took the rate up a little.

According to the post race reports from people on the shore, we came level with the Germans.

The French started a furious sprint. We responded. The Germans responded.

There were just 10 to 15 strokes left to the finish. I don’t know how many. I only remember I moaned and tried to increase the rate even more. I felt how Romana was pushing with every stroke.

Beep. Beep.

Beep.

After the finish, we only knew that the French were last. I didn’t have a good feeling, but when Andreas asked me who won, I answered I didn’t know, and proposed to row to the Finish Tower and ask.

Which we did, to find out that the Germans had won. 🙁

We did a 1km cooling down, then loaded the double on the trailer, went for a quick lunch and then it was time to hit the road.

13662352_10206556043210306_3195968126211956684_o — Traffic Jams and very bad weather

The first 30 km from Munich we drove in very heavy traffic and didn’t move a lot. Then we finally took the highway towards Berlin/Prague, which was quieter. At that moment, however, it started to rain heavily, and we couldn’t go any faster than 80km, driving our trailer through hilly country on a very wet road with very low visibility.

Made to to Prague by 7pm, where we offloaded two boats at rowing club Blesk, then continued for Brno.

We were at our local rowing club at 10pm. We disconnected the trailer and drove home. Tired. But happy. Although we were still contemplating if we could have dug a little deeper and perhaps won even the mixed double.

On Monday I went back to the rowing club to clear the boats from the trailer, put them in the racks, and assist the youth trainer in rigging the new single. Of course, there were a lot of volunteers to try it out:

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And, finally, some random photos from Munich:

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https://plus.google.com/u/0/115014467403568920846/posts/Qr28Uj4LKWD?pid=6314101126332943826&oid=115014467403568920846&authkey=CKnZ18LC8q7t4QE

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: euromasters, mixed double, OTW, race, racing, rowing

PatrickFrostPhotography-3314-(ZF-2190-45276-1-003)

Aug 1 2016

Saturday – WIN!!!!

Masters B (37 years and older) single

My race was at 10:41 so almost copy-paste from Friday in terms of race preparation. The only difference was that this was going to be a very hot day. I sweated a lot during the warming up run and I drank a lot of Isostar to remain well hydrated.

The procedure would be the same. Each heat winner would get a medal and be able to call himself “Winner at Euromasters 2016” and the heat winners would automatically qualify for the “Munich Trophy” races on Sunday. In case of less than 6 heats, the open lanes would be filled with the fastest non-winners from the heat, in order of finish time. In case a rower qualifies in more than one age category, he would have to row in his own age category, and his open place would be filled with the next fastest rower, etc. I like the concept, but there is a caveat. More about that later.

The heats were organized by age, so I ended up in one of the earlier heats with a mix of C and true B single scullers. I didn’t know any of the other participants. I would find out at the start.

I decided to launch late because of the heat, so the warming up was relatively short. I rowed to the start, then continued for another 750m, turned around, did a practice start, and then paddled to the pre-start. Two Croatian rowers were missing from the race scheduled before me, so they decided to let my heat start before that one. So suddenly I was in the starting pontoon. Which was good, actually, because backing up into the starting pontoon is when my nerves usually start to calm down.

To my right was an Italian guy who looked beatable. To my left was a German guy who I noticed had some difficulty backing up into the starting pontoon. Then in lane four a broad-shouldered, big German guy. And in lane 5 an Italian guy.

Romana was on the bike path on her bike. With a few German guys who were supporting Lane 4 (Sebastian Gobel). Romana later told me that they apparently were confident their guy would win and they were making fun of the skinny Czech/Dutch guy in lane 2 (me). I believe her. You don’t have to believe her, but it’s a good story.

This time I was prepared for the starting routine, so when they started to call out the lanes, I mentally put the volume of the starter’s words lower and increased the signal in the visual channel: I watched him grab his flag, raise it, and I shot out of the starting pontoon. Practicing starts really helps.

Start strokes. Then 10 power strokes. Then check position in field.

PatrickFrostPhotography-3310-(ZF-2190-45276-1-002) — Picture taken immediately after the start. I am in lane 2 on the opposite side. You can see the bow of lane 1. The German guy in lane 4, with bow nr 16, was the favorite.

Another picture taken immediately after the start. The other guy is not in front of me. The perspective is misleading.

I was out in front. On my own. There was light between me and Lane 4.

That, I thought, is quite a good position to win.

With 900m to go, I thought, that is a lot of strokes left to spoil a perfect opportunity. Not sure whether to go to race pace directly or to continue at a slightly higher pace and build out the lead. I decided to do something in between. Focus on technique. Ten strokes on length. Ten strokes on a good tap down. Ten strokes on rhythm. That brought me to the 500m mark and I was in a comfortable lead. There was more than enough light between me and Lane 4, and the rest of the field was not a threat any more.

Romana shouted to watch out for lane 4. I knew that. He was pushing.

Instead of my usual push I let the stroke rate drop to 30spm to save energy, see what the Lane 4’s push would do to our relative positions and then respond.

Our relative positions didn’t change.

In a 1000m race, the third 250m is always the hardest one. But this time I was in a comfortable position that I could stay calm, push away at 30spm and survive the lactate rush relatively easy.

250m to go. The shadow of the grand stand. I took up the rate a bit, mainly for my fans, and also hoping to increase the gap a bit.

I wanted the race to be over. And at the same time I wanted the moment to last forever.

I saw the finish tower in my peripheral vision.

A few strokes. I heard the speaker say my name.

Beep. Finished. WIN!!!!!!

WIN!!!!

Very happy. German guy in lane 4 came second, 10 seconds behind me.

HR and stroke rate plot for the race. Pace by GPS is roughly right but the oscillations are probably data processing artifacts

We both waited for the rest of the field to finish.

I paddled to the finish tower, got my medal, and enjoyed a 1000m cooling down. Lots of pictures were taken (which I will publish later when I get them by email), and congratulations received.

Also, I had qualified for the Munich Trophy, to be rowed at 9:20 AM on Sunday. Checking the times, I would be among the three slower boats in that race, and I wondered if it was worth rowing this race, knowing that I wanted to row well in the mix double a few hours later on Sunday.

Later that Saturday afternoon I went to the finish tower and officially withdrew from the race. I had prioritized the mixed row with Romana.

Men Masters A (27 years and older) quad

Only two hours after the singles race, I stroked an ad hoc quad with two other Czech Rowers (the guys in below picture) and a Slovak guy from Piest’any. I guess we were a true Czechoslovak team. Even though our age was C (43 and older), due to our late registration we had to compete in the A category. We also had some difficulty complying with the “uniform clothing rule”. We decided for black shorts and white shirts. I wore my club shirt inside out (sort of white) over my black/red training uni.

13909051_10206089277502636_2910937827052885706_o — Two of my quad partners. Picture was taken after the mixed quad race on Sunday, which they won.

The Italian crew next to us got an official warning for not being uniformly clothed, and I kind of expected to get a warning as well, but we passed.

We rowed well, but two German boats were much too fast for us. We had some nice racing for the third place with the Italian crew.

13667919_1059177257505631_3750537589767305224_o — Watch our “uniform” clothing

Masters 4x, Heart Rate, Stroke Rate and pace

Supporting – WIN!!!

Romana and her eight won the D category in a three boat race that turned out to be a thriller.

13920122_10206555992929049_1273716095014040908_o — Romana in stroke seat (on the left) behind the competition

13717263_10206555993449062_7639290446074665381_o — The final strokes. The very last stroke decided this race.

13640974_10206555993569065_6481390932538034733_o — After the race. Cox indicating the win margin. Romana in stroke position

12496004_10206085336404111_2020162336726262215_o — Medal ceremony

13920482_10206556005369360_3897771260221264838_o — And another picture from the medal ceremony

13913926_10206556005089353_8608118980687195659_o — Traditional cox dive

In the evening, Romana and I took the double for a quick row. Just 4km to check the boat. Then we took a shower and dressed up for the Masters Party. Dancing to a Bavarian live band and mediocre food, and beer, what could you wish more! Good food perhaps. The beer was excellent though.

Thunderstorms in the distance while we cycled home.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 4 • Tags: euromasters, OTW, race, rowing, sprint, win

PatrickFrostPhotography-2843-(ZF-2190-45276-1-001)

Aug 1 2016

Friday – Racing and supporting

Masters C (43 year and older) single

My race was planned for 10:44. The line-up was interesting

Lane 1: Petr Mitas, representing NED but a Czech, De Laak – yes the same guy that beat me at the Czech Open Masters

Lane 2: me, representing CZE, but a Dutchman

Lane 3: GER Michael Helbig

Lane 4: ITA Massimo Patea

Frank Arnold from Germany had withdrawn.

So this bunch was the four youngest participants in the C category. At Euromasters, the singles categories race as follows. Each winner of a heat gets a medal and proceeds to the final. If there are fewer than six heats, the next fastest times qualify for a final as well. If a rower qualifies in more than one age category, he will row the final in his age category, and for the other age category the next fastest time will be selected, so there was an incentive to row fast whatever your position in the field. The finals (one for each age category) for the “Munich Trophy” would be rowed on Sunday morning, before the Mixed events, and the winner would get the Munich Trophy. The nrs 2 and 3 in the final would get a medal.

After my usual warming up routine I found myself at the pre-start with Petr and the rest of the field. Petr and I started chatting (and got reprimanded for being too noisy). Then it was time to row.

Ready

Attention

(I almost shot out of the starting pontoon now but managed to control myself, while the starter was grabbing his flag)

Red flag went up

GO! Red flag down. We were off. Here is a picture of Petr (the guy in blue in the background) and myself doing our first stroke.

Ready - Attention - Go! — Ready – Attention – Go!

Despite the almost false start, my real start was an excellent one. By the 5th stroke I was leading by a length, with Petr in second position.

I managed to stay ahead of Petr in the first 250m, but the distance between us became smaller with every stroke. With 750m to go he passed me. Given my previous race experience with this guy, I decided to stick to my race plan and race for time, as well as defend the second place.

SpeedCoach graph (exported through FIT file to Strava to Rowsandall.com) – not sure whether the wavy splits are a SpeedCoach FIT export artefact or a real thing. Here is a quick plot that I made from the CSV export:

It shows better how the race evolved. I started very fast and then gradually dropped to my race pace as Petr was passing me. The 4.4 m/s of the second half of the race corresponds to a 1:53 pace. I pretty much rowed this out in a flat pace, keeping an eye on the German guy. While rowing in front of the grandstand (which is a full 250m long), I noticed a few 1:58 splits on the SpeedCoach, which motivated me to try and speed up a bit. In the end I was just 4 seconds behind Petr.

Also in the overall ranking I didn’t do bad. I had the 7th time overall, out of 38 participants. I was the fastest guy not qualifying for the finals for the Munich Trophy. 🙁

As this was all my racing for the day, I had the afternoon free to enjoy watching Romana racing, browsing through the merchandise, have a beer, and chat with various people.

13662303_10206555940647742_3524466472358415673_o — Romana stroking the eight in the Masters Women C field. Photo by Natascha Kral

13662348_10206555927527414_2461264361560049584_o — Romana stroking a combined Austrian/Czech/German quad

Romana was racing an eight and a quad, both races in a younger field than her crew’s age category. They finished last in both races but they took it as a good rehearsal for the Saturday races.

13923259_10206555943847822_2523422990782744172_o — The weather was nice. Photo by Natascha Kral

Regarding the photos, I am reproducing the excellent pictures taken by Natascha Kral and the race pictures that I purchased from the official race photographer Patrick Frost. Only the lower quality pictures taken with a phone are my own.

In the evening I did a quick training in an ad hoc quad that we registered on Thursday afternoon. With the high price for late registration, we counted that we would pay 1,50 EURO for each stroke during the race, and although we were age category C they would only let us start in the A category. Still it was attractive enough and the race was on Saturday after my B singles race, so no clashes with high priority races.

Then Romana and I cycled to Dachau. We had an excellent Italian dinner at Mamma Rosa, a very nice place, and then went to our hotel.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: euromasters, OTW, race, rowing, single, sprint

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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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

race

Saturday – Tropical Race Day

Sunday – mix double and driving home

Saturday – WIN!!!!

Friday – Racing and supporting

Czech Open Masters Day 2

Czech Open Masters Day 1

Under and on the Eight

Calendar

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