rowing

hotelstairs

Jan 28 2016

Man vs Hotel

Back in the hotel relatively early after a day full of 30 minute meetings at various places in Brussels’ European quarters.

The schedule asked for sprint workouts and I was wondering how to do them. In summer I would find a hill or stairs in Brussels to run on, but traveling light in winter means that you are stuck to indoor exercising in the hotel gym.

Then I realized that my hotel has 26 floors.

So, I did:

  • Warming up on treadmill (20 minutes)
  • 3x(5×5 floors up / 5 floors down)
  • Cooling down 15 minutes on treadmill

I started the watch five minutes into the warming up.

The stairs running was interesting. There are three emergency stairways  in the hotel, one at each end of the corridor and one in the middle. The middle one is really a metal cage hanging on the side of the building, wind blowing through it. It also has these metal staircases with holes in it.

I am not so brave with heights, so this was bad.

Luckily the ones on the front and back end of the building were completely inside. You can imagine how this looks. Concrete and pipes. Dust. Cigarette butts. No need to say more. The five floors up / five floors down routine turned out to be quite close to 30″ active / 60″ rest. First set between floors 10 and 15, second set between floors 18 and 23 (cleaner) and the final set was a special one, all the way from the ground floor to the 25th floor, with 30″ passive rest instead of running down stairs. hotelstairs.JPG

The other people in the gym were quite surprised when I entered the gym through its emergency exit.

Tomorrow: steady state in hotel gym. Fly to Prague.

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urbanfitness

Jan 27 2016

Wednesday: Hotel fitness

Tuesday

Fly to Brussels and a late dinner with a customer.

Wednesday

Putting together a set of important documents to be delivered in Brussels, deadline Thursday 11AM.

We delivered it today at 3PM. The biggest panic was the search for the stamp with the word “ORIGINAL”. The fun part was the initialing of each and every page of the original:

SESAR Membership Application 001.JPG

After that the work was done and as everything went smoothly and I didn’t have any more meetings, it was time to get back to the hotel and do a workout.

This hotel has a nice fitness on the 23rd floor, with a view on the inner ring road.

urbanfitness.JPG

Did a mini hotel gym triathlon (threadmill, ellyptical, bicycle 10 minutes each) and then a weights workout. I chose the weights such that 5 repeats was a challenge and did 3 sets of 5 on each station.

Tomorrow: Meetings meetings meetings, then figuring out how to do a sprinterval workout in a hotel gym.

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5k

Jan 25 2016

5k PB without reserve gas tank

The 5k isn’t a distance I row frequently. I live in a country where all the endurance tests are a 6k. There is always more reason to do a 6k, and the 5k seems too close to do a separate attempt. One could then also do a 7k or a 4k or a 3245m row and keep records of personal best times.

But the 5k is on the list of nonathlon events, so once a winter I row it. And because it is this month’s Cross Team Challenge, I had to do it in January. And because I will be out of town for business for the rest of the week, I had to do it today.

I wasn’t sure about the strategy. My PB was 18:26 and I feel I can go faster. On the other hand, I spent a lot of time snow shoveling and speed skating over the weekend, so I guess my reserves are quite depleted. I decided to aim for a PB anyway, and the plan was to negative split to something between 18:16 and 18:26.

I set up pace boats at 1:50 pace (18:20), 1:51 (18:30) and a final, slow one at 1:52 pace (18:40) to have something to keep behind me in case I would go bust. That’s how certain I was.

Ended up rowing a length behind the fast pace boat, a length ahead of the second one. Tried to create light between me and the 1:51 boat and not lose too much on the 1:50 one. The plan was to then push on the gas in  the last 1500m and get the average down to close to 1:50, row right through and finish a bow ball in front of him.

Reality was different. With 1500m to go I started to push, then with 1000m to go I couldn’t hold 1:49 and started to see the occasional 1:52. I decided to back down a bit and just stay ahead of the 1:51 pace boat. With 500m to go the predicted end time was oscillating between 18:25 and 18:26. That gave me enough energy to push at least a bit and get 18:24 on the predicted end time.

Workout Summary - Jan 26, 2016
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|05000|18:24.9|01:50.5|259.5|27.0|175.7|183.0|10.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments
01|00500|01:50.7|01:50.7|257.9|26.6|151.7|169.0|10.2|
02|00500|01:51.0|01:51.0|256.1|26.0|170.1|172.0|10.4|
03|00500|01:50.6|01:50.6|258.9|26.6|174.2|176.0|10.2|
04|00500|01:50.6|01:50.6|258.5|26.6|176.3|178.0|10.2|
05|00500|01:50.0|01:50.0|262.6|26.7|178.5|181.0|10.2|
06|00500|01:50.4|01:50.4|259.9|26.6|179.8|181.0|10.2|
07|00500|01:50.3|01:50.3|261.1|27.2|180.5|181.0|10.0|
08|00500|01:49.7|01:49.7|265.3|27.4|181.2|182.0|10.0|
09|00500|01:51.0|01:51.0|256.2|27.6|181.8|183.0|09.8|
10|00500|01:50.6|01:50.6|258.7|28.8|181.6|183.0|09.4|

5k.jpg

5k_spm.jpg

In the first graph you can see very well the short pace dips around 11 and 13 minutes. That is a sign of trouble.

Happy with the result. Still believe I can go faster when well rested, but I will leave it at this attempt.

Romana registered me for a 2k erg race coming Saturday. I will be up against our club’s fastest Masters rower. He rowed a 6:20.5 2k in December and wants to repeat it now that he is 50, to set a new Czech record for the 50-59 category. I will be flying home on Friday after a week in Brussels, so we’ll see what the 2k brings me.

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IMG_1673

Jan 24 2016

More ice skating

I may be jeopardizing my planned 5k attempt for tomorrow, but when it’s possible to skate, I will skate.

It had been snowing on Saturday afternoon, so I had to start from scratch making my oval. I made it a bit longer than yesterday. An hour of hard work. Temperatures are up and the snow is wet and heavy.

But the end result was ok. A little narrow which made it difficult to take over the slower skaters. I also made one of the turns a bit too sharp so I had to make it wider.

When the work was done, I did about 4o minutes of just circling. The rest of the lake was difficult to skate on with speed skates. Too heavy snow.

schaatsenzondag.jpg

100 minutes of aerobic exercise.

Some pictures I took of the boys:

Oh, and the ball was great. We were home at 2am and we had a very good time.

Tomorrow: A 5k. Only opportunity to do it before the end of the month.

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schaatsen

Jan 23 2016

Alternative use of rowing lake

  • Wednesday – 8 cm and more (measured)
  • Thursday – 10 cm (estimate)
  • Friday – 12 cm and more (measured)
  • Saturday – 14cm (estimate)

Yes, I am talking ice thickness. On Friday it finally reached a thickness that is considered safe by the local police (and I have no reason to have a different opinion). Here’s a picture that Romana took on Friday afternoon, when I had to work:

IMG_0665.JPG

That is Czech rowers playing ice hockey, the number two sport (after football/soccer) in this country. Perfect black ice, unfortunately covered by a thin layer of powder snow.

Hockey is not a very Dutch sport. We go crazy on speed skating. This stuff:

5256412-3x2-700x467
Stefan Groothuis wins the 1000m sprint at the Sochi Olympics

Well, Stefan is doing a 1000m sprint in the picture above. I am more passionate about this:

schaatsen
Natural ice tour skating

Global warming doesn’t help, but when the canals and lakes freeze in The Netherlands, it is great. You can skate from village to village and spend the entire day on the ice, doing 50 to 100km. Locals set up food stalls on the ice.

Back to the Czech Republic. Of course I had skating fever, so I couldn’t wait and we drove down to the lake immediately after breakfast.

Put on the skates and skated away … bliss. It’s like rowing, you never unlearn it. Also the feeling is similar to rowing, you push and glide, push and glide, and you can get into a great rhythm.

Spent the first 30 minutes wiping a crude 400m oval clean of snow. Locals quickly discovered it and started circling with me. A bit annoying that about one third of the people skated the oval in clockwise direction! 

Clockwise direction. That’s very dangerous. You bump into people. It’s like going down the highway in the wrong direction.

The oval was OK but there was an entire lake to explore. So I skated up to Rokle, then to Lodni Sporty, back to our rowing club. A few more loops on the oval, then to Lodni Sporty to greet some friends who were preparing a hockey field for a match at noon. Back to the club.

schaatsen.jpg

I wanted to take pictures but I left the camera in the car. It was snowing lightly and the light wasn’t very beautiful.

After 20km I stopped. I was worried a little that this would be too light training. It felt so effortlessly. Walking up the hill to the car, I noticed that my legs were tired anyway.

I was very surprised seeing the heart rate levels reached during the skating:

schaatsen2.jpg

Not bad.

Tomorrow again. Then temperatures will rise, so next weekend will probably not be safe to skate.

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2speed

Jan 22 2016

Plan, Periodise, Train, Adjust and Win Part II

On December 18th, 5 weeks ago, I did the two speed lactate test. Read my blog of 18 December about it.

Today, I planned to repeat it. I tried to copy the protocol as much as possible. So first a Fletcher warming up:

fletcher.jpg

Higher heart rates than 5 weeks ago.

Then the main event, two 1k tests spaced 15 minutes apart. The first one at head race pace. Second one at 2k pace or faster (full out allowed). I looked up my stroke rate of 5 weeks ago. They were 27 spm for the first one and 31 spm for the second one.

2speed2.jpg

Again, a higher heart rate in the second 1k.


Workout Summary - Jan 22, 2016
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02000|06:58.5|01:44.6|305.6|29.5|173.9|185.0|09.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|Comments
01|01000|03:36.5|01:48.3|275.8|27.4|168.7|180.0|10.1| 2.6 mmol/L (1.9)
02|01000|03:22.0|01:41.0|339.9|31.8|178.8|185.0|09.3| 4.1 mmol/L (3.2)

So, compared to 5 weeks ago, there are the following differences:

  • 2 seconds faster split on the first 1k (stroke rate 0.4 spm up)
  • HR 10 bpm higher on the first 1k
  • Lactate 0.4 mmol/L lower after the first 1k
  • 2.3 seconds faster split on the second 1k (stroke rate 1 spm up)
  • HR 7 bpm higher on the 2nd 1k
  • Lactate 0.4 mmol/L lower

So I am faster at lower lactate but higher heart rate. This sounds plausible. For the aerobic energy path way, the heart rate has to go up when delivering higher power.

In a graph, it looks like this:

2speed.jpg

To be honest, I had hoped for a right shifted first point and a steeper curve. You can’t say I didn’t try. The second 1k is a Season’s Best.

I did another lactate test after a 2k cooling down. 2.3 mmol/L

So I guess my aerobic fitness has increased. Next test in 5 weeks.

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ples-v-opere-brno-mahenovo-divadlo-43_denik-600

Jan 22 2016

Thursday: Two short trainings

The first training was Bow Tie training. I haven’t worn a bow tie since my Ph.D. thesis defence, and I didn’t even own one until this week.

A Dutch Ph.D. thesis, by the way, to steal the words of this blogger, “The ceremony is incredibly formal, fairly succinct and the party that follows approaches the level of a wedding reception. The scale and grandeur of the event is a fitting marker of the accomplishment of completing a doctoral degree.” At that event, my “paranimfen” and I were wearing a full tuxedo, as is required at such an event. Formally, my “paranimfen” (usually good friends or a colleague) are the only persons who are allowed to wear a sabre during the examination, so they could defend me in case the commission attacked me. We refrained from that right, however.

So that was my last bow tie wearing of 16 years ago, in this room to be precise:

academy-hall

But on Saturday I have to go to a ball with Romana, who got herself a beautiful dress for the occasion. I could of course wear a suit and tie but I would feel as if I was going to work. I craved for something that was acceptable to the occasion but also has a fun and party air to it. So the bow tie.

The training took 30 minutes and I went from zero skills to being able to tie an acceptable tie.

The second training was 40 minutes of strength training. Nothing special. Just my weekly routine. This time without a light steady state to precede it, because it is low volume week.

So on Saturday I will be dancing at the Ball of the Olympians. Something like this, but with Olympic medal winners (and us).

ples-v-opere-brno-mahenovo-divadlo-43_denik-600

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