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.
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.
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.
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:
Here is the same plot from the CSV export.
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:
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.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: lake, OTW, race pace, race prep, rowing, single, training