Aug 6 2015
steady state with Radek. The lake had turned into a public beach. We need traffic lights at the point were swimmers like to swim across the lake. Temperatures were way above 30C. Difficult to breathe.
I took a few pictures. 15 km in total.
Aug 4 2015
14km perfectly flat water. On the river.
Low heart rate and focus on technique. Boat rowed itself today. Not fast but very good boat run and thus very useful training
Aug 1 2015
There was a lot of wind this morning, so Romana and I decided to the castle. We launched at 10am, at the same time my double partner Radek launched from the opposite side of the lake in his single. We would row the training together.
Before we arrived at the river/canyon with minor chop, the lake was quite hard to cross.
My feelings were:
Nice and fun.
Romana’s feeling were like this:
Terror and fear.
When we all survived the lake and met up at Rokle, we started our training. The training plan said “hard distance” so we decided to row up to the castle and a bit beyond in 24-26spm, then turn around and do the same thing on the way back.
There was still strong wind but  relatively mild chop, so it was OK.
Tonight we are invited to a festival at the same castle that we rowed to this morning. Some Celtic song and dance, with food and drinks. It will be interesting I am sure:
Jul 25 2015
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.
Jun 24 2015
Tuesday evening is quad evening this week (because I will be on a business trip on Thursday).
Before the training, we broke the news to “Turkey” (some of us have nicknames) that we are going to row the quad in Hazewinkel in this constellation. Selection has been made and we will now train without crew changes. Good news for him because his pair partner cannot make it to Belgium.
He was happy as a child. Jumping up and down in the changing room.
“I am going to Belgium! I am going to Belgium! Guys, I am so happy! I gotta tell my wife!”
Training with the quad is interesting. A lot of time spent messing with the boat. When we rowed, we did steady state and technique:
| Dist_ | Time_ | _Pace__ | avg HR | max HR | Remarks
| 00180 | 03:58 | 10:59.3 | 080 | 111 | Messing with boat
| 02743 | 12:59 | 02:22.0 | 141 | 154 | Warming Up
| 00120 | 03:03 | 12:41.4 | 107 | 150 | Discussions
| 02564 | 11:26 | 02:13.8 | 149 | 162 | To the castle
| 00183 | 05:45 | 15:40.4 | 110 | 153 | Turn & Peeing
| 03220 | 12:48 | 01:59.3 | 148 | 160 | Back to the lake
| 00182 | 02:19 | 06:22.1 | 117 | 151 | Discussions
| 02021 | 09:22 | 02:19.0 | 145 | 156 | Cooling Down
It was interesting to steer through the narrow and windy part of the river with a foot steered quad:
Pictures by Marcela Jakusova https://ssl.panoramio.com/user/2080598?with_photo_id=54959204
Jun 16 2015
Monday
I took a recovery day. A full day of work until 10pm, only interrupted by dinner and a hot, relaxing bath. Still feeling tired from Sunday’s races.
Tuesday Morning
Looking forward to a planned L4, steady state session with 18spm, 20spm, 22spm, 24spm rate ladders. Â No difficulty getting up early. It was looking to become a nice sunny day. Temperatures have dropped more than 10 degrees since Sunday, to a nice maximum temperature of 21 degrees C. It was 15 degrees when I drove to the lake.
Quite some chop, so decided to row to the castle.
Rowing to the turning point, about 500m past the castle, I did 2x10min rate ladder (4min/3min/2min/1min in 18/20/22/24spm). Paces were not particularly fast but I tried to focus more on technique.
The lake was choppy, but the river part was perfect flat water with a thin layer of mist on top. It was so beautiful, I decided to take some pictures when I turned, and then again when I passed the castle.
Then I decided to skip the rate ladders and focus on technique. I did some technique drills on the way home. Rowing with pauses, mainly.
Here are the stroke acceleration pictures from RIM:
Aug 24 2015
Back in the boat
… well, I have spent enough time in boats during the vacation, but they were sailing boats. For example on Thursday we did a big tour of about 40km on Fluessen lake. There wasn’t much wind, about 2 Beaufort, but it was fun.
I will not give a full update of my training activities during the vacation, but I will add one picture of my Saturday afternoon run, a 13km affair where I finally found the way around the small lake next to our rented cottage. It involved climbing over a few fences and running through a meadow with cows, but it was marked as a public footpath. It’s the part where I return to the shores of the small lake and then cross to an even smaller lake. I did a 2 minute break at the end of that. You can see my HR going down there.
Yesterday I covered 1100km in 10:45 hours, in a car. 🙂
Today was the first day back in the single. There was quite a strong wind so I went up to the castle and back, just steady state in 18-20spm. Heart rate around 145-150, pace around 2:20 with tailwind, 2:29 to 2:35 with headwind.
I used RIM to analyze my stroke. First time after I changed the length of my scull (added 2cm of length, keeping inboard and span the same). Here are the metrics:
The yellow and purple lines are today. The green, gray and brown ones are from June 16. Check factor and stroke efficiency are in the same ballpark. It seems “catch efficiency” has improved a bit, which seems logical as IÂ changed the gearing slightly. Still wondering though if the changes are significant.
By the way, on purpose I didn’t write “rigged heavier” or something like that. After reading this discussion on rec.sport.rowing I try to avoid that. Still, with the same handle speed at the catch I expect to be accelerating the boat slightly more with my new rigging parameters.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 18 • Tags: OTW, river, rowing, single, steady state, training