sprintervals

60391079_817659991953912_5831985681483694080_n

May 18 2019

The working week (Monday to Friday)

Monday

A busy day at work and no training. I decided that recovery from an intensive weekend of racing was a good idea.

Tuesday

Weights! My personal trainer decided that I am ready for the “big exercises”. So we did only three of them:

  1. Bench press
  2. Dead lift
  3. Squat

The protocol is to start with light weights (or only the bar) as a warming up, then gradually increase the weights until I can do about 10 repeats, with stretching between each series of 10. Then weights are increased one more time to get to failure somewhere between 5 and 10 repeats. After that weights are reduced again to do a few series at 15 repeats.

For the deadlift and squat the protocol was a bit more gentle. We didn’t push to failure but stopped at the point where I was starting to fail on technique, i.e. I was starting to use the wrong muscles to just get the weights lifted.

After that we did some 10 minutes of exercising the core.

Boy, I did feel this training the next three days.

Wednesday 

I have started calling our Masters eights crew together, and this time it was a success. We had 11 candidates show up, so we hit the lake with a double, a single, and an eight. The water was slightly rough and the coxswain slightly inexperienced, as the map clearly shows:

I had some data challenges. Forgot to charge my heart rate belt.

Well, it was just steady state. A pretty short workout as well, as some of our crew members were time pressed.

Thursday

More data issues. I still haven’t managed to sort my regatta bag and move some essential equipment from the regatta bag to the training bag. I have a pretty good system. A separate “rowing electronics” bag that goes into my small training bag or my big regatta bag. The problem with regattas is that they are so hectic that I become messy with where I put my gear. So rowing electronics ends up in the wrong part of my regatta bag, and then I show up on a training day to discover I have left the SpeedCoach holder at home. Sigh.

At least the OH1 heart rate arm band was charged. However, it didn’t seem to respond very well in the first 20 minutes of the workout.

The session was 4 series of 6×45″/75″ at race pace. These series are tuned to our lake length, and after doing one, I wondered if I would be able to complete the workout. In the end I manned up and just did it. It was so beautiful rowing weather that it would have been a sin to shorten the time on the water:

I gave myself some technique targets, focusing on finishing the stroke strong. I am not sure if I am fooling myself, but it looked like I was faster when I focused on that. Here are the data to prove it:

I am charting “Wash” vs “Boat Speed” for each “on” stroke. The line is my totally unscientific interpretation of the data. So a 5% pace improvement? That would be encouraging!

Friday

Another weights session. Bench press. Squats. Deadlift. And cable rows. Seventy five minutes of heavy work. I am due for a light steady state session today.

By • OTW • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

331AC5E7-5F52-48CB-B4EB-12967F262138

Jan 13 2019

Sprints getting longer at shorter rest

Sunday session with the Masters group. We were a smaller core of the bigger group today. Romana was in Prague at the second round of the Czech Indoor Rowing Cup, with Lenka and Dominik, and some of the other Masters also couldn’t come. So it was Martin, Lubka and myself.

The session was one invented by our coach and it is tough.

8x40"/20", 8x30"/30", 8x40"/20"; 5 min rest between series. Stroke rate 35-38

First a 15 minute warming up:
warming up

Then on to the main thing:

main session

Rowsandall.com’s interval editor came in very handy here. It allowed me to simply program the monitor as 8 minute work, 5 minute rest, and then edit the intervals on the site after the workout is uploaded. The alternative is either to use a lengthy process to program varying intervals, or to row it as three short interval sessions and reprogram the monitor in between.

In Rowsandall.com’s interval shorthand, the session is:

(8x(20sec/40sec))/5min+(8x(30sec/30sec))/5min+(8x(40sec/20sec))/5min

This is the resulting breakdown in intervals:

intervals

I am always impressed when it works. After all, I know who hacked it together. The resulting workout summary is as follows:

Workout Summary - media/20190113-1435360o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08349|39:00.0|02:20.1|159.5|24.9|152.2|181.0|08.6
W-|03610|12:00.0|01:39.7|345.3|33.3|161.1|178.0|09.0
R-|04763|25:30.0|02:40.6|077.6|21.2|148.8|178.0|08.1
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00109|00:20.0|01:31.5|389.6|36.5|092.4|106.0|09.0
01|00103|00:20.0|01:36.8|380.7|34.8|149.4|157.0|08.9
02|00103|00:20.0|01:37.3|376.8|33.7|155.0|158.0|09.1
03|00103|00:20.0|01:37.4|378.8|34.6|147.8|149.0|08.9
04|00103|00:20.0|01:36.7|366.9|33.4|151.6|157.0|09.3
05|00101|00:20.0|01:39.1|369.3|34.1|153.6|158.0|08.9
06|00103|00:20.0|01:37.2|381.6|34.1|148.5|160.0|09.1
07|00103|00:20.0|01:37.4|370.8|34.4|154.1|159.0|09.0
08|00152|00:30.0|01:38.8|349.8|33.5|146.7|163.0|09.1
09|00155|00:30.0|01:36.9|380.6|35.0|158.6|168.0|08.9
10|00154|00:30.0|01:37.4|373.5|34.2|168.7|171.0|09.0
11|00151|00:30.0|01:39.3|361.2|33.4|171.1|175.0|09.1
12|00154|00:30.0|01:37.7|362.4|33.5|164.2|170.0|09.2
13|00151|00:30.0|01:39.2|356.0|34.5|164.4|170.0|08.8
14|00154|00:30.0|01:37.4|365.1|33.6|168.6|174.0|09.2
15|00152|00:30.0|01:38.9|353.4|33.7|166.2|172.0|09.0
16|00198|00:40.0|01:41.0|340.0|32.3|138.3|161.0|09.2
17|00195|00:40.0|01:42.5|310.9|31.6|164.7|170.0|09.3
18|00194|00:40.0|01:43.0|311.1|31.7|170.6|174.0|09.2
19|00195|00:40.0|01:42.7|308.3|31.9|172.1|174.0|09.2
20|00193|00:40.0|01:43.6|307.4|32.1|172.9|175.0|09.0
21|00193|00:40.0|01:43.9|310.4|32.2|173.0|176.0|09.0
22|00194|00:40.0|01:43.3|312.6|32.6|174.7|177.0|08.9
23|00198|00:40.0|01:40.9|331.8|33.8|176.6|178.0|08.8

The first series was eight nice twelve stroke sprints at a luxuriously long 40 seconds rest. The second series was somewhere between 16 and 17 strokes and the end of the rest period started to come a bit too early to my taste. The last series was a never ending list of 22 to 23 stroke sprinting with a few strokes in between to catch your breath. Martin was going through the same pain on the erg next to me. I found it interesting how Martin rowed a few seconds of split faster in the first two series, but in the last one he had trouble following my splits. At least, that is what I think from a few quick glances in the heat of the training.

We ended with 20 minutes of chatting while riding the spinning bikes.

By • rowing • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,

42EC4A56-3692-477B-A544-EE80B368ABFC

Dec 8 2017

Job’s tidings

workout chart

Tough day at work. Some bad news that sucked the last bit of energy out of me. I had a two hour gap between lunch and a call with a colleague in Washington, so I drove home through the rain and sat on the erg.

I had optimistically planned a sprinterval workout and decided to do it. There was definitely a HD risk, but I feared that swapping this one for a steady state session would be a recipe for boredom, frustration, which also would lead to the undesired HD.

So I decided to do a 3km warming up and then the workout, doing at least 15 intervals but aiming for 20. I dialed up the following sufficiently dark and monotonous sound track on SoundCloud. Dark and monotonous but I like to row to it:

I decided to row the intervals at 2k PB speed and focus on technique. That turned out to be a good choice. I was focusing on pulling a relaxed, gentle stroke at 29 SPM, sitting in a strong position from half way the recovery, then just sliding towards the catch, and hang on the handle during the first half of the leg drive. When I do this correctly, it feels like I get 2 splits for free. (Which reminds me of Ranger, the infamous erg blogger back in the days of Concept2.co.uk.)

Every fifth interval is supposed to be a max out, just to make sure that I was doing the others in a controlled way.

Flex chart Rowsandall

First fifteen intervals went by without any incidents, and then it was just a question of hanging on, and emptying the tank in interval #20. Followed by a 2km cooling down.

A quick shower and on to my calls. An unexpectedly good training. Made my day.

By • rowing • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

singlevsdouble.jpg

Aug 28 2017

Monday – Speed work in the double

A short training in the evening. When I made it to the rowing club after work, Romana had already rigged the boat and cleaned it after transport.

Going into the taper for Bled, I wanted this one to be an intensive but short training. I chose my beloved 45″/R75″ format. I personally think our boat moving skills are good, but Romana is unsure about some of the technique changes I have made. Due to rowing with the power meter and analyzing the metrics that the Oarlock has revealed, I have been making gradual changes in my technique, and the issue is that Romana hasn’t changed with them, as she was not rowing for a few weeks in June/July due to back issues.

After a 2k warming up with some 10 stroke bursts, we did 6 intervals. After the fourth one we had to do a quick turn because there was too much traffic ahead. Paddle boards, wind surfing, sail boats, and a pair from the other rowing club, who are also preparing for Bled. Actually, that ladies’ pair was rowing in the wrong direction, against the traffic pattern. I did point that out to them after we had completed our intervals. Told them a crash would have damaged two boats and ruined our plans for the World Masters Regatta.

Here is the summary:

#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|-Pwr-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00200| 00:45 |01:52.5| 33.3| 000 | 140 | 166 | 8.0
02|00209| 00:45 |01:47.6| 33.3| 000 | 164 | 175 | 8.4
03|00206| 00:45 |01:49.2| 34.7| 000 | 162 | 173 | 7.9
04|00211| 00:45 |01:46.6| 33.3| 000 | 165 | 174 | 8.4
05|00189| 00:45 |01:59.0| 32.0| 000 | 168 | 176 | 7.9
06|00195| 00:45 |01:55.3| 33.3| 000 | 165 | 176 | 7.8
Workout Summary
--|01210| 04:30 | 1:51.5| 33.3| 000 | 161 | 176 | 8.1

myimage (33)

After my “friendly” chat about the traffic pattern, we turned around and rowed a “500m” against the pair. Actually, we were leading by several boat lengths after about 400m when Romana had enough of constantly turning around to check the position of paddle boarders, pedalos, sailing boats, and wind surfers, and we continued to row slowly.

myimage (34)

I had put the Quiske sensor on Romana’s scull. So here are some charts, from all the 45″ intervals as well as the 500m.

When I put the sensor on the scull, Romana joked that she hoped that I wouldn’t remove her from the selection based on her rowing data. Of course, I praised her great rowing style. (And I don’t think there is anything wrong with these curves.)

What is interesting is to compare the scull horizontal/vertical angles of a stroke between the single and the mixed double. I don’t realize it any more, but we do row a shorter stroke, as Romana is a bit shorter than I am. And here are the data:

single vs double

The outlier curve is me in the single.

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myimage (6)

Aug 6 2017

Saturday: Sprintervals in the double – minus one GoPro camera

Friday

Another heat wave day. I decided to cross train, cycle to work (15km) and, after only half a day of work, cycle home (15km), which was a good endurance workout in the heat. I took the afternoon off and did some work around the house, helped by my son Dominik.

I didn’t know the route through the city center is shorter:

Saturday

We drove to Pardubice, where we celebrated my youngest son’s eleventh birthday at my mother-in-law’s place. Big lunch. Then coffee with birthday cake. Then unwrapping of gifts, followed by a refreshing hour of splashing in the pool.

At 5pm, my brother-in-law Tomas and I, as well as my daughter Lenka and her boyfriend took off to the University rowing center in Pardubice (where Tomas is coaching). Tomas and I took a double, and Lenka and Vasek would row a quad with two Pardubice student girls.

I fitted the double out with my GoPro camera, because I wanted to film this workout.

Then we were busy getting the girls (+ one boy) out on the water, and in the hassle I forgot to put on my heart rate belt. I only noticed that after the row.

I also forgot to record the cooling down on the SpeedCoach (because I was pretty exhausted by the time we started the cooling down). So for the entire row, I only have the Garmin Forerunner recording:

The workout was great. The only minus was that we got terribly waked three times by a waterskier. Normally water skiing happens on a lake not far from Pardubice, but this guy decided it was a good idea to do water skiing.

I also noted that Stand-Up Paddle boarding has reached Pardubice. There was a SUP rental station 500m upstream from the rowing club, so there we would row through about 15 paddle boarding beginners. Exciting!

One of the wakes must have washed my GoPro off our front deck. We ended the row without camera. It’s a pity I don’t have the footage, because it was a good workout and we wanted to look at some technical flaws. I am not too depressed about losing the camera. I was a very early adopter of the GoPro, so I am due for an upgrade! 😉

The workout was 2x(8×45″/1:15″)/5min. The 8 intervals were chosen to fit nicely into the 4km stretch of river that we rowed on. It was an interesting experience. There were intervals where Tomas was perfectly in sync with my rhythm, and there we hit 35spm easily with good pace. But about half of the intervals were “miss”. We were slightly out of sync, which means that the boat suddenly feels heavy, you have difficulty getting the stroke rate up, and about 20 seconds into the interval you feel the lactate rush to your legs.


Work Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|-Pwr-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00206| 00:45 |01:49.2| 32.0| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.6
02|00222| 00:45 |01:41.3| 33.3| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.9
03|00217| 00:45 |01:43.6| 33.3| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.7
04|00226| 00:45 |01:39.5| 36.0| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.4
05|00210| 00:45 |01:47.1| 33.3| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.4
06|00218| 00:45 |01:43.2| 33.3| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.7
07|00215| 00:45 |01:44.6| 33.3| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.6
08|00219| 00:45 |01:42.7| 34.7| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.4
09|00205| 00:45 |01:49.7| 32.0| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.5
10|00198| 00:45 |01:53.6| 32.0| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.2
11|00204| 00:45 |01:50.2| 33.3| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.2
12|00201| 00:45 |01:51.9| 34.7| 000 | 000 | 000 | 7.7
13|00183| 00:45 |02:2.9| 30.7| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.0
14|00189| 00:45 |01:59.0| 32.0| 000 | 000 | 000 | 7.9
15|00220| 00:45 |01:42.2| 36.0| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.1
16|00227| 00:45 |01:39.1| 36.0| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.4
Workout Summary
--|03360| 12:00 | 1:47.1| 33.5| 000 | 000 | 000 | 8.4

Power courtesy of Strava (not accurate)

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myimage3-3.png

Jun 24 2017

Saturday: Sprintervals

This was supposed to be a heavy week, but I have the feeling that the weeks of business travel and some stressful work issues are taking their toll. I did no exercise on Friday. Partly because I was moderating a full day workshop on strategy, and partly because I needed some rest. Well, if you can’t do volume, you have to make sure there is some intensity. And that was the plan for today.

Meanwhile in Prague, my son Dominik rowed a 1k race in 4:25, coming last in his heat. In two of the four heats, he would have been third and qualified for the semifinals of his National Championships (for 12 year olds).

This morning, we decided to row at 8am. A bit earlier than usually on Saturday, but necessary with this hot weather. The water was great. Mirror flat. A good day to work on race pace and above by doing sprintervals.

I decided for 45 sec sprints, long enough to get into a rhythm and feel how the boat moves, long enough to correct some errors, but short enough to be manageable. I also decided on 1:15min rest, long enough to make sure I would do each interval with maximum focus. A five minute break at the turning points, and you have a 3x(6×45″/1:15)/5′ workout. I also decided to row this at 30/32/34/36/34/32 spm, to make it more interesting.


Work Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00191| 00:45 |01:57.8| 29.3| 152 | 168 | 8.7
02|00193| 00:45 |01:56.5| 32.0| 168 | 176 | 8.0
03|00199| 00:45 |01:53.0| 33.3| 171 | 180 | 8.0
04|00202| 00:45 |01:51.3| 34.7| 173 | 182 | 7.8
05|00199| 00:45 |01:53.0| 32.0| 173 | 181 | 8.3
06|00195| 00:45 |01:55.3| 32.0| 166 | 177 | 8.1
07|00189| 00:45 |01:59.0| 30.7| 159 | 170 | 8.2 - wake
08|00196| 00:45 |01:54.7| 33.3| 170 | 178 | 7.8
09|00202| 00:45 |01:51.3| 34.7| 172 | 179 | 7.8
10|00207| 00:45 |01:48.6| 36.0| 173 | 181 | 7.7
11|00196| 00:45 |01:54.7| 33.3| 175 | 181 | 7.8
12|00187| 00:45 |02:00.3| 32.0| 173 | 177 | 7.8
13|00190| 00:45 |01:58.4| 30.7| 157 | 168 | 8.3
14|00193| 00:45 |01:56.5| 32.0| 169 | 177 | 8.0
15|00196| 00:45 |01:54.7| 33.3| 171 | 178 | 7.8
16|00200| 00:45 |01:52.5| 36.0| 176 | 182 | 7.4
17|00202| 00:45 |01:51.3| 34.7| 172 | 182 | 7.8
18|00196| 00:45 |01:54.7| 32.0| 171 | 179 | 8.2
Workout Summary
--|03533| 13:30 | 1:54.6| 32.9| 169 | 182 | 8.0

myimage (3)

In the first series of 6, I rowed a bit too much on power. I corrected that in the second series. I got waked in the first sprint of the second series, but for the rest it was great. Tapping down was good today and reaching high stroke rates was thus very easy.

By • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,

racice

May 25 2017

A bunch of hard 250m intervals

The wind was strong and the water was very choppy, but I didn’t want to shy away from rowing high stroke rates in the chop. You never know what the conditions will be on race day.

The official training plan (from our club’s head coach) asked for 2x(4x250m/250m)/5min. I decided that I would do three sets of four. The prescribed stroke rate was “Race SPM+2”, and I decided that that would be 34spm. I wanted to row each 250m as the respective 250m segment in a 1000m race, so the first one from a standing start and the final one with a desparate push to the finish line. Race simulation on a chilly and rainy Thursday morning. I had the entire choppy surface of the lake for myself.

Pushed off the dock and rowed to the end of “Rokle”, where the water was a bit flatter. After the row, I discovered that I had not switched on the SpeedCoach for this 2.5 km of warming up. This always upsets me a bit. 2500m of unrecorded rowing!

On the SpeedCoach, I programmed the workout as 8x250m with no rest. When I got ready to start, I noticed that I had already moved 3 meters and the clock was ticking. Must have been the wind. So I set off and rowed. The final 100m of the first 250m is in a slight turn to starboard, so I was recording lower power on my (starboard) Empower oarlock.

This first set was done with tailwind. I forgot to focus on anything, except the final sprint in the fourth interval.

myimage (11)


Workout Summary - media/20170525-081041-Sanders SpeedCoach 20170525 0734amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02015|09:13.0|02:17.3|243.0|27.5|166.5|182.0|07.9
W-|01007|03:47.0|01:52.8|325.3|32.8|169.6|182.0|08.1
R-|01009|05:26.0|02:41.9|149.0|21.5|163.3|182.0|09.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00257|01:03.5|02:03.4|331.8|32.4|153.9|176.0|07.5
01|00250|00:54.6|01:49.2|324.7|32.2|173.6|179.0|08.5
02|00250|00:55.1|01:50.2|322.9|33.3|175.3|179.0|08.2
03|00250|00:54.1|01:48.2|320.7|33.3|178.0|182.0|08.3

The second set of intervals was in headwind. After the first set, I noticed a ship steaming towards Rokle, so I decided to do the first two intervals in front of our rowing club. Worse chop and stronger wind, but no need to be on the alert for potential collisions. One of my club mates made a very wise remark yesterday: “The more tired you get, the more important it is to keep the technique perfect.” It is true, when the drive force starts to diminish, you get tired, your posture gets a little less strong, and the decline in boat speed keeps increasing.

myimage (10)

 


Workout Summary - media/20170525-081203-Sanders SpeedCoach 20170525 0747amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02000|10:42.0|02:40.7|226.6|26.7|168.3|183.0|07.0
W-|01000|04:09.0|02:04.6|317.0|32.8|171.4|183.0|07.3
R-|01000|06:34.0|03:17.0|129.2|20.2|164.9|183.0|08.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00250|01:05.3|02:10.6|332.1|32.7|158.3|178.0|07.0
01|00250|01:01.9|02:03.8|320.2|32.2|175.1|181.0|07.5
02|00250|01:00.7|02:01.4|315.0|32.8|176.9|183.0|07.5
03|00250|01:01.4|02:02.8|299.9|33.5|176.0|182.0|07.3

The final set of intervals was in tailwind. I started them at the same point as the first interval. After the second set of intervals I was of course tired, but I judged that I should be able to finish another set.

myimage (9)


Workout Summary - media/20170525-081256-Sanders SpeedCoach 20170525 0801amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|02000|09:31.0|02:22.9|219.0|27.6|167.3|180.0|07.6
W-|01000|03:44.0|01:52.1|307.5|33.8|169.8|180.0|07.9
R-|01001|05:47.0|02:53.7|120.6|20.8|165.0|180.0|08.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00250|00:56.5|01:53.0|320.9|34.7|156.7|174.0|07.6
01|00250|00:56.1|01:52.2|310.6|33.0|174.8|179.0|08.1
02|00250|00:56.1|01:52.2|295.6|33.8|173.0|177.0|07.9
03|00250|00:55.5|01:51.0|302.9|33.5|174.8|180.0|08.1

I finished the workout with a 2 km paddle in the most choppy part of the lake.

All in all it was a good workout. I was happy that I managed to get the stroke rate up (at the cost of a slight reduction in finish angle, I am afraid). It was hard work to stay technically together in the windy and choppy conditions, and it was also hard work get the power output in the desired range.

I am trying to get in another workout at the end of the day. I will spend the coming weekend in Racice (where I did the training camp in the spring) to attend (not compete, of course) the European Rowing Championships, so I need to get my training load in before Saturday.

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