rowing

10kmpb

Mar 15 2016

A hard 10000m

Monday

Enjoyed a rest day. Tactical rest day before a hard threshold row.

Tuesday

A 10k row on the schedule. A threshold row. Thinking of a PB, but I knew it would be hard. Rowing PBs is never easy, but on a working day, rowing it in the evening, after a meal, is hard. My 10k PB of the 2014/15 was rowed with people standing around. At 1:53.5 pace, in a time of 37:52.8. In a vacation, with nothing else on my mind.

So I gave myself a second target. Good training effort would be to row this in 1:55 pace (or faster).

Warming up: A 2k with 10 stroke “pieces” in the second 1000m, at 1:57, 1:53 and 1:45 pace. Strange enough, the 1:45 felt more doable than the 1:53. Strange intermediate pace … unknown territory.

Fired up RowPro, after a long time, but I wanted to have a good pace boat. To be sure, I set up two pace boat, 1:53.5 and 1:55.0. That’s how uncertain I was.

The  plan was to divide the row in 4 pieces of 2.5km, and row them 1:53 / 1:54 / 1:54 / 1:53. First 2.5km went by easily. I struggled a bit to find a good rhythm, but once that was found, I just watched my pace boat fall behind, by about 2 meters per 500m.

4000m rowed. 6000m on the display.  This was a first desperate moment. I had been going for some time, but still a full 6k in front of me.

Past half way. It became a bit harder to gain the 2 meters per 500m interval, but it kept me busy. I was thinking of finishing around 37:42 …

The pain started with 3km to go. I did a quick calculation, and with 2500m to go I knew that I could hold 1:55 and end up finishing before my pace boat. Between 2000m and 1000m I was really struggling and slowed down a bit. Now I was looking at a predicted end time of 37:47, and counting strokes.

10kmpb.jpg

10kmspm.jpg


Workout Summary - Mar 15, 2016
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|37:45.4|01:53.3|240.8|26.1|176.3|184.0|10.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments
01|01000|03:46.0|01:53.0|242.5|25.0|153.3|166.0|10.6|
02|01000|03:45.6|01:52.8|243.9|25.3|170.5|173.0|10.5|
03|01000|03:46.3|01:53.1|241.6|25.2|174.1|176.0|10.5|
04|01000|03:46.1|01:53.1|242.1|26.0|176.1|178.0|10.2|
05|01000|03:46.3|01:53.1|241.6|26.0|178.0|180.0|10.2|
06|01000|03:46.0|01:53.0|242.7|26.0|180.2|181.0|10.2|
07|01000|03:46.3|01:53.1|241.7|26.5|181.2|183.0|10.0|
08|01000|03:47.1|01:53.6|239.0|26.9|182.1|183.0|09.8|starting to feel it
09|01000|03:48.9|01:54.4|233.6|26.7|182.3|184.0|09.8|fighting
10|01000|03:46.8|01:53.4|239.9|27.8|182.9|184.0|09.5|end in sight

I did a very slow 2k cooling down, took a shower and then started the pleasant task of updating my signature, nonathlon score, writing my blog etc …

Planning wise I had a little set back. My boss called me to tell me that he has to go to the Middle East next week, and wants me to be at a meeting in Brno instead of him. That’s normally fine as I am based in Brno, but I planned to be in Račice next week with Romana and the girls, on the canal, and work from our Prague office (or from the canal).

Well, I’ll drive back to Brno on Wednesday afternoon, and return to Prague on Thursday afternoon. I will miss just two workouts. Just 5 to 6 hours of driving … or 8 hours by train.

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3x20min

Mar 13 2016

3×20 minutes

Instead of running, I went on a strawl with my wife Romana and my son Robin. We took the bus to Ořešín and hiked back. It was a very nice walk, through the village of Jehnice, then through the forest and along a few ponds back to our house.

So, enough outdoors and nature to be able to tolerate the 3×20 minutes on the erg, which by this time in the preparation phase are really becoming boring.

Nothing special to report about this session. Sat down. Rowed 3×20 minutes and listened to a course. Stroke histogram and heart rate plot are below. After the third interval, I measured lactate: 1.4 mmol/L. It felt “medium”. I wouldn’t call this a “Watts came easy” session and I had to play a few mind games to negotiate with myself and keep the 200W, but it wasn’t too hard.

3x20min_histo3x20min

This was the last session of a high volume week. The target was missed by a whopping two hours because of the travel and the show. Still, I am looking forward to a lighter week. I am planning it now. Need to take note of the wind forecast too, so I can plan my OTW sessions on the low wind days.

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roei 007

Mar 12 2016

First OTW session of the new season

Pretty tired after a 5x1500m on Thursday and the 9x300m CTC of yesterday, but so much looking forward to this session.

First OTW session after a January 1 New Year’s gimmick row. I planned to do a 2x3km. There was some wind, so I chose to row towards the castle.

First, the joy of a normal rowing dock instead of the terrible thing we have used for a few decennia:

Here’s a picture of the new dock:

roei 007.JPG

The water level is still low. When the Brno reservoir is fully filled, the concrete cubes and the dock will be at about the same level.

During the row, I discovered I have a lot of attention points for the coming month. I had difficulty getting the rate up during my 2x3000m/2min rest session. Especially in the headwind sections I couldn’t get above 24spm. I need to sit more straight and reduce the pressure immediately after the catch, and not dip my blades so deep.


|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks
|02142|14:17|03:20.0| 18.6 | 158 | 169 |08.0|WU
|02977|14:06|02:22.1| 24.8 | 177 | 181 |08.5|head wind
|00190|02:00|05:15.4| 18.2 | 158 | 180 |05.2|rest
|02969|13:04|02:12.0| 25.1 | 177 | 181 |09.1|tail wind
|02133|13:17|03:06.8| 17.6 | 145 | 181 |09.1|CD

and summary:
dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment
2142_____|_14:17____|_3:20.0|158|18.6|8.0|warmup
5946_____|_27:10____|_2:17.1|177|24.9|8.8|Main set
2133_____|_13:17____|_3:06.8|145|17.6|9.1|Cool down
0190_____|_02:00____|_5:15.4|158|18.2|5.2|rest meters
10412____|_56:44____|_2:43.5|165|21.2|8.6|_Total

I wanted this to be around 2:13 pace, so still some work to do. Here’s a short video taken with the GoPro:

Here are the colorful heart rate graphs. Even though I didn’t manage to rate up, my heart rate was quite high and I think it was a good threshold session:

2x3km2x3kmspm

This is how my hands looked after the row:

roei 009.jpg

Great to be on the water again. I hope I can persuade Romana for an outing on the double tomorrow.

This is also the weekend of the Heineken Roeivierkamp, a very interesting race in The Netherlands. Over two days, the crews race over 4 distances, 250m, 750m, 2500m and 5000m. The overall ranking is calculated by converting all times to 250m times. The sum over the four distances forms the final score. Everything is rowed in the centre of Amsterdam:

 

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ctc1

Mar 11 2016

Concept2 Cross Team Challenge @ 2k pace

Working from home today, but don’t think I am lazy.

Still tired from all this, but I have to complete the final reviews of 11 project proposals:

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Picture from Honeywell Aero Twitter (https://twitter.com/Honeywell_Aero)
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Picture from Honeywell Aero Twitter (https://twitter.com/Honeywell_Aero)
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Picture from Honeywell Aero Twitter (https://twitter.com/Honeywell_Aero)

So sitting behind my desk, reading and commenting.

Tiring work. I was done around 3:30PM and decided to read a bit in a book I bought at the Vienna train station. It’s about the Habsburg family, and very interesting. A family that left an influence in Spain, the Netherlands and central Europe. I just wanted to read for 30 minutes and do my workout.

An hour and a half later I woke up, book on my chest.

So I quickly changed clothes, did a 2k warming up and then straight into this month’s Cross Team Challenge:

Row nine reps of 300m
with just 30 seconds rest between each rep
The first rep from a standing start the others can be rolling starts.
Record the time taken for the 9 reps (2700m total).

I decided to go off at 2k pace (1:44). This way it would be nice intermezzo between two threshold pace workouts, and allow me to train my stroke at 30spm, the intended stroke rate at the Czech long distance championship (April 8th).

It’s an interesting workout. The breaks are extremely short. Somehow it reminded me of an old recipe to improve your 2k pace, which goes like this: Dial up a 2k on the Concept2 rower. Row your new 2k pace (3 seconds per 500m below your PB pace). Stop when you hit three subsequent strokes that are slower than the target pace. Get up, stretch your legs, sit down on the erg and continue at the target pace. Repeat until you’ve completed the 2k. Repeat session until you complete the 2k in one go at the new target pace. (Yes, that sounds like 20th century training philosophy.)

So here’s the result:

ctc2ctc1


Workout Summary - Mar 11, 2016
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02700|09:15.1|01:42.8|322.2|30.8|168.9|184.0|09.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments
01|00300|01:02.6|01:44.3|308.8|29.7|142.6|163.0|09.7|
02|00300|01:01.9|01:43.2|318.5|30.0|165.2|170.0|09.7|
03|00300|01:02.1|01:43.5|315.7|30.0|167.4|172.0|09.7|
04|00300|01:02.1|01:43.6|315.0|30.9|168.3|173.0|09.4|
05|00300|01:02.1|01:43.6|315.1|29.9|171.1|176.0|09.7|
06|00300|01:01.8|01:43.0|320.1|31.1|172.8|178.0|09.4|
07|00300|01:01.5|01:42.6|324.2|30.2|174.4|179.0|09.7|
08|00300|01:01.4|01:42.4|326.1|31.3|176.7|181.0|09.4|
09|00300|00:59.5|01:39.1|359.7|34.3|180.3|184.0|08.8|

Quite hard work, but in the end I managed 2k pace minus 1 second.

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madrid

Mar 10 2016

Flywheel spinning again

A hard week

Training plan said it was a high volume week. At the same time, I was going to spend Monday to Thursday  in Madrid, Spain, to represent my employer at a big industry trade show.

Sunday

Traveled to Prague by train, then flew to Madrid. In bed at 1:30 AM. No exercise.

Monday

Not a show day, but I had to review a large number of documents. Slept in a bit, then started working in my hotel room.

In the afternoon I went to the hotel gym (3×4 meters with a few dumbbells, a threadmill and a cycling machine. I did 10 minutes running on the threadmill, 10 minutes of pedaling, then 10 minutes of running. An interesting observation. In the first 10 minutes, my average heart rate was around 140 bpm. In the final 10 minutes, with the same threadmill slope and speed, my heart rate was around 120 bpm. Quite a significant difference.

After that I did 45 minutes of strength training in the hotel room, using body weight and elastic bands. All in all a pretty good session.

I also planned out the exercise for the rest of the week so I would achieve the prescribed volume and type of training.

Late business dinner.

Tuesday

Alarm clock at 5:45 to go running in the park. Woke up and discovered that it is still dark in Madrid at that hour. I hesitated for about 20 minutes, then went for a short run,  not in the park but through the city center. The Madrilenos were getting into taxis or staggering home on foot. There were a few other runners. Did just 40 minutes instead of the planned 60 minutes recovery run.

A full day at the show, standing around, having meetings. Quite tiring and some adrenaline involved as well.

Late business dinner.

Wednesday

I had meetings planned from the opening of the show to the closing time, and then a dinner. This was the second blow to my plans. There was simply no time to exercise.

During the day the starting time of the dinner was moved to the right, and I was able to start my final meeting early, so that created a 40 minute slot for running. Took to the park and did two quick rounds. Quite far from the planned 12 km.

madrid.jpg
Red: Tuesday morning. Blue: Wednesday evening (two rounds)

We had a very nice dinner at La Cocina de Maria Luisa. An excellent restaurant with a very nice atmosphere, delicious food and excellent wines. In bed around midnight.

Thursday

Alarm clock at 4am to catch the plane. Ouch. This was hard, especially after the late dinner and the excellent wine.

On top of that, Madrid Barajas Terminal 2 is an “old” and inefficient terminal,  and this Thursday there were large groups of weekend travelers, people who are not used to the airport security drill. You can’t blame them, but that in combination with super strict checks and very unfriendly and slow personnel, on top of my lack of sleep, made it a not nice experience.

Slept in the plane. Woke up to admire the Mont Blanc Massif, then fell asleep again. Sprinted through Frankfurt to catch the connection to Vienna. Train home. Arrived at three in the afternoon.

At four I sat down to do the planned 5x1500m/R5 workout. First time on the erg in almost 2 weeks.

I knew this was going to be hard. I have done this workout at a pace faster than 1:50/500m, but today I gave myself a soft target of 1:51.5 (i.e. a little slower than 6k PB pace). I managed:

1:50.7 – pretty ok – 0.8 seconds (per 500m) in the bank

1:50.8 – started to be hard – 1.5 seconds (per 500m) in the bank

1:51.5 – 1.6 seconds in the bank

1:51.5 – 1.6 seconds in the bank

1:52.7 – lost a bit.

The “seconds in the bank” is my number mind game. I basically count how many cumulative seconds (per 500m) I am under the average, so I know how much I can afford to slow down and still make the target pace. After just 4 hours of sleep, I just didn’t have the mental energy to do anything faster than the target pace that I agreed with myself. In the end the average pace for the session was 1:51.3.

5x1500spm5x1500

I did it. That’s all I can say. Tired now.

 

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2speed_graf

Feb 26 2016

Two speed lactate test

Workouts this week

Monday: Waterfall 3k/2.5k/2k

Tuesday: 60 minutes of steady state

Wednesday: Nothing. Worked from 7am to 11pm.

Thursday: Strength training (45 minutes of “elasto” and body weight exercises)

Two speed test

After 4 weeks, I did the 4 speed test again. Same day of the week. Same time of the day.

The only difference being that we are in the “short final” of a very big pursuit. There was a problem with one of the partners, and I was expecting a phone call, roughly at the same time as the test. I sent my partner a message that I might be “driving” and unable to take his call, but would call back immediately.

First, a Fletcher warming up:

fletcher.jpg

Then it was time for the main event, two 1ks with 15 minutes of paddling between. The first one at “6k pace” and the second one “2k pace or faster, preferrably max out”.

2speed.jpg

Workout Summary - Feb 26, 2016
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02000|06:57.7|01:44.4|307.4|29.6|169.9|181.0|09.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments
01|01000|03:35.6|01:47.8|279.5|27.3|165.1|178.0|10.2|6.9? mmol/L (3.3)
02|01000|03:22.1|01:41.1|339.2|32.1|174.4|181.0|09.3|6.1 mmol/L (6.1)

I made a serious mistake after the first interval. My lactate taking routine is the following:

  1. Handle down
  2. Wipe hand with paper cloth
  3. Wipe hand with wet washcloth
  4. Wipe hand dry with paper cloth
  5. Prick finger
  6. Wipe away first drop with paper cloth
  7. Prepare lactate meter
  8. Measure using the second drop

After the first 1k, I forgot steps 3 and 4. I measured 6.9 mmol/L lactate. I presume my blood drop was contaminated with sweat.

I did the measurement 3 minutes into the break and measured 3.3 mmol/L, so I guess my real lactate was somewhere around that value, or perhaps slightly higher. Lactate values above the threshold are not supposed to drop immediately after stopping the exercise, as the blood takes up the lactate from the muscles.

After the second 1k I did follow the correct protocol and measured 6.1 mmol/L. After 3 minutes (light paddle), I measured again. Again, 6.1 mmol/L. During the cooling down, I used the two spare strips to take some more measurements. Here is the entire series:

1 min: 6.1 mmol/L

3 min: 6.1 mmol/L

7 min: 4.5 mmol/L

10 min: 3.3 mmol/L

Intriguing results. Compared to a month ago, I observe

  1. High lactates (6.1 vs 4.1 after the second 1k, both at 340 W)
  2. Lower average heart rates (165/174 bpm today vs 169/179 bpm a month ago)

Here is the graph:

2speed_graf.jpg

Not sure what to think of it. It’s really a pity I missed the first measurement. In the graph, I put the 3.3 measured after 3 minutes. I think it is quite close to the truth.

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volvo-p1800s-roger_moore1319548312

Feb 22 2016

A hard day / waterfall

The day started in an interesting way. I woke up at three, and couldn’t fall asleep again. Some work related issues, and such.

Drove to work early. Control light on dashboard alerted me that my headlight needed replacement.

Fine. I wanted to test that new Volvo shop in town anyway. This would be a nice simple thing, to check them out, and casually get a quote on some bigger repairs that I need to do.

I was welcomed by a “easy on the eye” blonde young lady. Offered coffee and some Swedish pastry. Got to admire a beautiful white Volvo 1800S in the showroom:

volvo-p1800s-roger_moore1319548312
Yes, this car

The friendly head mechanic took my car keys and promised to change the bulb in 10 minutes.

I waited 30 minutes. He came back to apologize. The light wouldn’t work. They were checking the cabling. Had already tried exchanging the left and right bulbs and other parts.

I agreed to leave the car there and they gave me a lift to work. Again, I casually mentioned the planned repairs and that I was interested in a quote.

A busy day at work. Lots of meetings. I didn’t drink enough water and too much coffee.

End of the day I called the shop. They apologized lengthily, saying that it was a mystery. The mechanic had spent the entire day trying to figure out what was wrong, but couldn’t find the culprit.

I need the car repaired soon. Should I pick it up and drive to the competition? Decided to give them one more day. See how they cope. I hope my car is not a training project for an unexperienced mechanic.

The session was the dreaded 3km/2.5km/2km waterfall. I have mixed results on this one. The door in my erg room has a record of a 1:51.0 average on slides (and on the rowing club, with people walking around behind my erg). The last session (this fall) was a 1:52.9 average. Decided to go for improving that. An “uninspired, grumpy Monday” approach to the session.

watervalspmwaterval

Averages were 248W/249W/250W for the 3000/2500/2000m respectively. That boils down to a 1:52.0 average (according to the PM) and a 1:51.9 average according to my spreadsheet.

It was hard work, but it wasn’t impossible. I think about this session as a “longish 6k with breaks” so I kept telling myself that pulling 1:52 was slower than my recent 6k. That helped me through the hard parts.

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