rowing

Rip 002

Mar 24 2016

Račice day 3 -ANP training

Tuesday afternoon. A technique session. I did the whole variety of technique exercises.

dinsdagmiddag.png

Wednesday morning. I looked on the wrong data in my training plan, so instead of a planned steady state session, I did my first ever “ANP” (Anaerobic Power) session. This is one of the four training types from the Olbrecht book. It is supposed to be at >100% of race intensity, short bursts with short rest. The overall training volume is short and it is usually followed by a long, low intensity steady state. That looked quite close to what we rowers do quite frequently, namely “10 strokes on / 10 strokes off”. So I decided to do 4km of 10 strokes on/10 strokes off, followed by steady state. Here is the data:

woensdagochtend.png

After that a long teleconference with Brussels. My partners are just one subway stop from the Maelbeek station, so you can imagine the emotions. Everybody is OK, luckily.

I didn’t have to go to Brno, because our Brussels based customer canceled his business trip, for obvious reasons. Being really tired from the intense training, I decided to go and explore the region. Visited the old (12th century) Rotunda church on the legendary mountain Říp (the climb was a 30 minute brisk and steep climb, so I count it as a short recovery session) and visited the town of Mělník.

Rip 002.JPG
12th century church
Melnik_castle_above_the_confluence_of_the_rivers_Vltava_and_Labe,_Czech_Republic.JPG
Melnik town, vineyards and castle at the confluence of Labe (Elbe) and Vltava (Moldau) rivers. Picture from Wikipedia By Ввласенко – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44975786

 

 

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figure_1

Mar 24 2016

OTW data tool in python

There is very little distraction here in Račice, so I had some time to play with a python based data analysis tool that Greg Smith (from Quantified Rowing) developed for his Painsled CSV files.

I have slightly rewritten it to better match my workflow (sorry, Greg), but more importantly I have added a TCX Parser that parses my CrewNerd files. It took me some time to get up to speed with parsing XML. First time I worked with the lxml package and I needed to learn the syntax of “xpath”, which was greatly complicated because my network connection broke down on Wednesday morning.

Anyway, I succeeded in writing something that converts a TCX file to a “painsled style” CSV file and here is Tuesday morning’s workout in a first crude graph. I need to smoothen the pace graph (probably by a running average) a bit to get the noise level down. Also, I need to calculate useful stuff like meters per stroke etc. The colorful bar graph produces some strange red spikes during the interval part. Not sure what that is.

But for that I am on common ground. No problems to work with the data once I have them.

figure_1.png

Update

The moving average thing took me 5 minutes. Updated graph:

figure_1b.png

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horarip

Mar 22 2016

Račice day 2 – living like a monk

Here’s an overview picture of the area around the watersports center in Račice. horarip.jpg

In the foreground you can see the river Elbe. In the top middle of the picture there is a funnily shaped mountain, the legendary mountain Říp:

According to a traditional legend, first recorded by the ancient Czech chronicler Cosmas of Prague in the early 12th century, Říp was the place where the first Slavs, led by Forefather Čech, settled. The land was named after the leader. In the 16th century, the legend was revived by Václav Hájek of Libočany who claimed that Čech was buried in the nearby village of Ctiněves and, later on, by Alois Jirásek in his Old Bohemian Legends from 1894.

On top of the hill there is a romanesque rotunda of Saint George, which is one of the oldest buildings in the Czech Republic. It is for the first time mentioned in 1126, when Soběslav I, Duke of Bohemia to commemorate his victorious Battle of Chlumec where he defeated Holy Roman Emperor Lothair III, have rotunda repaired and extended by the western circular tower. The present appearance of the rotunda is the result of a purist reconstruction from the 1870s. Inside the rotunda, there is a stone sculpture by the renowned contemporary Czech artist Stanislav Hanzík (1979) – The Good Shepherd, that symbolizes the arrival of Czech ancestors to the country and the beginning of the Czech history there.

Near the rotunda there is a tourist hut that was built in 1907 that still serves travellers today. In accordance with the patriotic spirit of the time, a wooden plate is mounted on the hut wall that says “What Mecca is to a Mohammedan, Říp is to a Czech” (Czech: “Co Mohamedu Mekka, to Čechu Říp”).

As you can see, the canal is in a turn of the river, quite a dead end, so there is nothing here except for the rowing center. Silence. The only thing you hear is the birds sing and the sounds of rowing: splashing and coaches shouting instructions. Our accomodation is spartan, but clean. No radio. No TV. So it’s just rowing, meals, and work … True living like a Monk. After breakfast I worked for two hours, then I went for my morning training, followed by work, lunch. Now I am writing this. In the afternoon I will go on a technique outing. Followed by dinner, then quiet reading … and bed time.

The training of this morning was 20×30″/60″ rest. Given the 2km length of the canal, there has to be a slightly longer break for turning the boat after every 6 or 7 intervals. Lubos and I decided to do 3x2km as 30″/60″ rest.

Again, side by side in singles. It’s really great. Again, Lubos was surprised that this Masters rower was able to keep up with him. I was doing 30-34spm and he was significantly higher.

30sec.jpg

Another CrewNerd/excel tool annoyance. I had programmed 30″/60″ intervals. Of course, at the end of the straight 2km, I had to press “stop” to allow for more time to turn the boat. It looks like the heart rate remains constant during that rest interval. Well, I can use a few hours in my rowing monastery to migrate to a python based environment to create nice tables. For now, here’s the plot from the Garmin:

L1 Račice 3-22-2016, Heart rate.png

So in the end we did 19 intervals. The last interval was a shorter one, because we were approaching the finish line. So we did “red buoys until finish line” which was about 20 seconds. I like this workout. The interval is 15 to 17 strokes, which is long enough to focus on technique. The rests are long enough to recover and keep the focus on technique, which for me, at these rates, is “light” touch, don’t force it in the water.

The sprinty stuff was followed by 4km of cooling down. Almost 13km in total. Three “swimming pools” plus a few extra meters rowing from lane 1 to lane 6 and back, and between the finish line and the docks.

IMG_0745.JPG
My single in the racks. No races so plenty of rack space.

| Tstart_ | Tstop__ | Dist_ | Time_ | Pace__ | _SPM | avg HR | max HR | DPS | Remarks
| 00:00.0 | 13:49.0 | 02195 | 13:49 | 03:08.8 | 18.8 | 143 | 165 | 08.5 | WU
| 13:49.0 | 14:19.0 | 00132 | 00:30 | 01:53.9 | 31.3 | 137 | 161 | 08.4 | tailwind
| 14:19.0 | 15:19.0 | 00205 | 01:00 | 02:26.1 | 19.8 | 159 | 164 | 10.4 |
| 15:19.0 | 15:49.0 | 00133 | 00:30 | 01:52.7 | 30.5 | 163 | 169 | 08.7 |
| 15:49.0 | 16:49.0 | 00200 | 01:00 | 02:29.7 | 19.5 | 164 | 171 | 10.3 |
| 16:49.0 | 17:19.0 | 00133 | 00:30 | 01:52.7 | 31.4 | 165 | 172 | 08.5 |
| 17:19.0 | 18:19.0 | 00199 | 01:00 | 02:30.8 | 19.8 | 167 | 174 | 10.1 |
| 18:19.0 | 18:49.0 | 00134 | 00:30 | 01:52.3 | 31.6 | 167 | 172 | 08.5 |
| 18:49.0 | 19:49.0 | 00197 | 01:00 | 02:32.3 | 19.1 | 168 | 174 | 10.3 |
| 19:49.0 | 20:19.0 | 00134 | 00:30 | 01:52.3 | 31.8 | 168 | 173 | 08.4 |
| 20:19.0 | 21:19.0 | 00188 | 01:00 | 02:39.6 | 18.7 | 166 | 174 | 10.0 |
| 21:19.0 | 21:49.0 | 00133 | 00:30 | 01:52.9 | 31.3 | 167 | 174 | 08.5 |
| 21:49.0 | 24:38.0 | 00337 | 02:49 | 04:10.5 | 19.2 | 160 | 175 | 06.2 | turn
| 24:38.0 | 25:08.0 | 00122 | 00:30 | 02:03.3 | 30.2 | 153 | 166 | 08.1 | headwind
| 25:08.0 | 26:08.0 | 00170 | 01:00 | 02:56.1 | 18.7 | 163 | 168 | 09.1 |
| 26:08.0 | 26:38.0 | 00122 | 00:30 | 02:03.3 | 30.3 | 166 | 173 | 08.0 |
| 26:38.0 | 27:38.0 | 00171 | 01:00 | 02:54.9 | 18.5 | 167 | 175 | 09.3 |
| 27:38.0 | 28:08.0 | 00119 | 00:30 | 02:06.5 | 29.8 | 167 | 172 | 08.0 |
| 28:08.0 | 29:08.0 | 00182 | 01:00 | 02:44.5 | 19.4 | 168 | 173 | 09.4 |
| 29:08.0 | 29:38.0 | 00124 | 00:30 | 02:00.5 | 30.1 | 169 | 174 | 08.3 |
| 29:38.0 | 30:38.0 | 00173 | 01:00 | 02:53.9 | 19.0 | 169 | 175 | 09.1 |
| 30:38.0 | 31:08.0 | 00126 | 00:30 | 01:59.4 | 30.4 | 169 | 174 | 08.3 |
| 31:08.0 | 32:08.0 | 00169 | 01:00 | 02:57.6 | 19.5 | 170 | 176 | 08.7 |
| 32:08.0 | 32:38.0 | 00122 | 00:30 | 02:03.3 | 30.5 | 170 | 175 | 08.0 |
| 32:38.0 | 36:25.0 | 00324 | 03:47 | 05:49.8 | 22.0 | 164 | 177 | 03.9 | turn
| 36:25.0 | 36:55.0 | 00129 | 00:30 | 01:56.2 | 34.5 | 140 | 163 | 07.5 | tailwind
| 36:55.0 | 37:55.0 | 00197 | 01:00 | 02:32.1 | 19.7 | 163 | 166 | 10.0 |
| 37:55.0 | 38:25.0 | 00136 | 00:30 | 01:50.0 | 32.8 | 168 | 174 | 08.3 |
| 38:25.0 | 39:25.0 | 00191 | 01:00 | 02:37.0 | 19.4 | 170 | 176 | 09.8 |
| 39:25.0 | 39:55.0 | 00132 | 00:30 | 01:53.6 | 31.4 | 170 | 175 | 08.4 |
| 39:55.0 | 40:55.0 | 00186 | 01:00 | 02:41.0 | 18.8 | 170 | 177 | 09.9 |
| 40:55.0 | 41:25.0 | 00133 | 00:30 | 01:53.1 | 31.4 | 167 | 174 | 08.4 |
| 41:25.0 | 42:25.0 | 00181 | 01:00 | 02:46.1 | 18.9 | 169 | 175 | 09.6 |
| 42:25.0 | 42:55.0 | 00132 | 00:30 | 01:53.3 | 31.0 | 167 | 174 | 08.5 |
| 42:55.0 | 43:55.0 | 00188 | 01:00 | 02:39.9 | 20.0 | 170 | 176 | 09.4 |
| 43:55.0 | 44:25.0 | 00135 | 00:30 | 01:50.7 | 32.8 | 171 | 177 | 08.3 |
| 44:25.0 | 45:25.0 | 00180 | 01:00 | 02:46.6 | 20.1 | 172 | 178 | 09.0 |
| 45:25.0 | 45:55.0 | 00112 | 00:30 | 02:13.9 | 29.9 | 173 | 177 | 07.5 |
| 45:55.0 | 10:03.0 | 04295 | 24:08 | 02:48.6 | 19.2 | 148 | 177 | 09.3 | cooling down

Summary:
dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment
2195_____|_13:49____|_3:08.8|143|18.8|8.5|warmup
2441_____|_09:30____|_1:56.7|164|31.2|8.2|Main set
4295_____|_24:08____|_2:48.6|148|19.2|9.3|Cool down
3640_____|_22:36____|_3:06.3|166|19.7|8.3|rest meters
12572____|_10:03____|_2:47.2|155|19.8|9.1|_Total

At lunch I heard about the horrible stuff that happened in Brussels today. Metro station Maalbeek and the airport are places that I travel through numerous times per year. I do hope that none of the people I work with was on that metro or in that arrival hall. Here in Račice, the birds sing on in the silent woods.

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0 (3)

Mar 21 2016

Račice day 1

The drive to Račice was uneventful, as it should be. A bit more than 280km. Of course the famous Czech highway D1 with it’s concrete panels made me slow down a bit. Luckily they are working on the road and the segments with panels are fewer and fewer.

Mini pictures from the event and Lenka’s afternoon training:

0 (4)0 (3)0 (2)

It was a cold 8 degrees C. We’re not training here for the nice weather. We’re here because there are fewer choppy days than in Brno, because coaches can conveniently ride a bike next to the rower instead of having to steer a launch, and rowers can nicely row in lanes and don’t have to worry about oncoming traffic.

And I am here because I am the trailer tow car driver. And because I sort of took a week off to be with the kids. Sort of. Need to be back in Brno on Wednesday afternoon and Tuesday morning, to take care of some work related business.

I did a 4x2km row, together with Lubos. He’s pulls a 6:34 erg and is a first year senior rower. I am a 42 year old slow Masters rower. Still, I managed to get him tired on this 4x2km, which we rowed in 25/26 spm.


|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks
|02221|15:41|03:31.8| 18.6 | 135 | 166 |07.6|WU
|02000|08:28|02:07.0| 24.9 | 167 | 175 |09.5|2k tailwind
|00124|01:59|07:58.8| 16.6 | 148 | 174 |03.8|rest
|01999|09:24|02:21.1| 24.9 | 173 | 179 |08.5|2k headwind
|00139|01:59|07:07.7| 17.0 | 158 | 178 |04.1|rest
|01999|08:38|02:09.5| 25.2 | 173 | 179 |09.2|2k tailwind
|00143|01:58|06:53.3| 15.9 | 153 | 177 |04.6|rest
|01999|09:28|02:22.1| 26.3 | 174 | 178 |08.0|2k headwind
|02176|14:09|03:15.1| 17.1 | 137 | 178 |09.0|CD

Summary:

dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment
2221_____|_15:41____|_3:31.8|135|18.6|7.6|warmup
7997_____|_35:58____|_2:14.9|172|25.3|8.8|Main set
2176_____|_14:09____|_3:15.1|137|17.1|9.0|Cool down
0406_____|_05:56____|_7:18.3|153|16.5|4.2|rest meters
12800____|_11:44____|_2:48.1|156|21.0|8.5|_Total

The wind was quite strong, but there was relatively mild chop, especially when compared to our home lake.4x2km

4x2kmspm.jpg

At 4pm, a meeting notice jumped up on my iphone screen. I didn’t want to stop to click it away, because I was happily (well – slightly out of breath) rowing next to Lubos. Here’s the Garmin plot, because I want my readers to see the final push in the fourth interval:

L2 Račice 3-21-2016, Heart rate.png

I was rowing well. Romana commented only that my blades are slightly too deep, so I tried to work on that. Otherwise the stroke rate was light and easy to hold. My heart rate was high but sustainable. A good workout.

Oh, and Strava thinks the rowing canal is a meadow:

strava.JPGstrava2.JPG

 

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orca

Mar 19 2016

First row in the double

Yep. Romana and I went out in the double today. Just a technique session. And we nailed it. I think we were rowing pretty well after these 10km of different drills.

Our beloved light blue Salani double “Orca” was behaving very nicely. I think it was glad it got the dust washed off after a long winter of inactivity.

orca.jpg

Then we loaded the trailers. Half of our club goes to Varese with the big trailer. I am towing my small trailer to Račice, the national water sports center, north of Prague. It is loaded with 2 pairs and 4 singles. On the way back we’ll have to add two bicycles.

Hoping the weather is going to be nice.

Lenka was rowing with a trial version of the RitmoTime Rowing app. She was happy but I wasn’t convinced. I have to look into an app that allows coaching as well. I guess you want the coach view to do fleet management, so you can instantaneously see all your rowers’ stroke rate, pace, perhaps even heart rate and some other parameters. Of course the fleet will be a mix of iphones and android phones. All the kids in the club have smartphones, so we would just have to get a bunch of watertight cases. Would be a nice way to collect their training data as well. Let me know if you know of such apps, even better if you have tested it.

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vlotvandaag

Mar 18 2016

Relax. Lighten up.

The original plan was to work for a few hours in the morning, then go rowing at 10am, and be in meetings from 12:30 onwards. The problem was that I didn’t get the inputs needed to do work in the morning. Can’t blame the guy, he has been getting up at 3am since Monday, has been on business travel and working really hard.

So I decided to give him time and went rowing at 8am.

The weather is interesting. Nice and sunny. Just under the freezing point at night, but reaching 15 degrees C during the day. It was 3C when I drove to the lake.

This was a technique training with the following goals:

  • Technique drills to train a good tap down and a light catch
  • Short pieces at low pressure and high rate to get used to rating up

A little wind creating some chop. I apologize for the horizont not being horizontal. I forgot to align the camera before the row.

Here is a compilation of the technique drills. Switch to HD for a better view. Somehow the youtube video defaults to a lower resolution:

After the drills, I did intervals “1 minute on, 2 minutes off” and tried to keep everything light. It is hard not to pull hard. It was very hard to keep the light stroke and still rate up, but I am convinced that is something I need to improve. I cannot row a head race in 25 spm. My legs would refuse to cooperate after 2 or 3 kms. I think I can go faster if I can find the right rhythm, and I think the ideal rate is between 28spm and 30spm. Not higher, but definitely not lower.

You can judge the effort level from my heart rate in the video. Of course, pushing light but doing a lot of strokes per minute is still a high power workout. Here are the rate pieces in chronological order. Judge for yourself. I am very interested in your feedback. Switch to HD for a better view. Somehow the youtube video defaults to a lower resolution:

techniek1spm

techniek1.jpg

Here is a comparison of the water height of last Saturday and today. Quite a difference. I guess we are almost at maximum water height now.

aweekago
A week ago
vlotvandaag
This morning

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2speed_graf

Mar 17 2016

Two speed lactate test again

After three weeks, one meso cycle, it was time again for the two speed lactate test. Copy paste from three weeks ago. The difference, instead of Friday afternoon I am doing it on Thursday evening. Tomorrow, I will not have time.

First, a Fletcher warming up:

fletcher.jpg

Copy paste success. Virtually no differences with the previous cycle.

Then on to the main event.

2speed.jpg


Workout Summary - Mar 17, 2016
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02000|06:59.9|01:45.0|302.5|29.7|173.3|183.0|09.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments
01|01000|03:37.1|01:48.5|273.7|27.6|168.1|180.0|10.0|3.9 mmol/L (3.9)
02|01000|03:22.8|01:41.4|335.6|32.0|178.3|183.0|09.3|5.3 mmol/L (6.0)

No mistakes in the measurement protocol this time. I also measured at the end of the 10 minutes cooling down: 4.3 mmol/L.

So, in comparison with three weeks ago:

  • Heart rate is up 3 to 4 beats per minute
  • Lactate is higher for the first interval (which felt hard) and lower for the second one …

Actually, the heart rate is back to what I measured in January. Here is the updated graph (the new line is yellow):

2speed_graf.jpg

Given my 10k effort of two days ago (holding 240W for nearly 38 minutes) and the fact that I was able to hold the same power without too big problems, I don’t think there are any big changes in my fitness. Perhaps we are just seeing the day to day differences. But I will refrain from a strong conclusion now. The training schedule for the coming few weeks is quite fixed and I see no reason to change it. I have a head race in three weeks and I will do a lot of threshold workouts.

After the race, I will repeat the test, and also do a detailed planning of the April to July time frame.

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