steady state

romana1

May 15 2015

Double with love

Double with Romana today. BB King died. I realize we go faster together than Radek and I yesterday … looking forward to racing the mixed double with her.

Special atmosphere on our lake. The International Youth regatta coming weekend, so lots of youth talent training today.

romana2 romana1

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P1370014prigl

May 12 2015

The day after a race

The day after a race is a strange day. After a successful raid like last weekend, your head is full of all the wonderful things. There is no point in sharing with colleagues, though. They couldn’t care less.

At the same time, the body is exhausted and the mind is tired from lack of sleep and the long driving. It has difficulty to focus on the problems at hand. There are photos to be looked at again and again.

There is the weather playing it’s tricks. Monday was one of the most beautiful days to row of this spring. Sunny but not too hot and almost no wind.

The day after racing is the day where you should not evaluate. Not yet. You should do your work and when it’s done, drive to the rowing club if you feel like it.

Give the boat a good wash. It’s dirty from the trip and from being stored outside on a sandy beach for three days.

Chat with the people at the rowing club, but do not evaluate. Yet.

Then, if you feel like it, get on the water towards sunset time and do a gentle row. I did just that. In the end I did 10 km and I felt more refreshed after it than before. I didn’t focus on anything. No technique drills. No structured L4 training. Just rowing and looking at the sunset.

Sunset at Brno lake
Sunset at Brno lake

Graphs just green and orange. A nice 20spm row.

ss2 ss1


|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks
|02033|10:28|02:34.5| 18.9 | 125 | 140 |10.3|Warming up
|02782|14:15|02:33.7| 20.3 | 148 | 159 |09.6|Rokle -> Sirka headwind
|00135|01:11|04:23.8| 18.1 | 133 | 151 |06.3|rest
|02716|12:37|02:19.4| 19.3 | 143 | 149 |11.2|Sirka -> Rokle tailwind
|00072|01:32|10:40.4| 17.7 | 117 | 139 |02.7|rest
|01913|10:35|02:45.9| 19.4 | 135 | 147 |09.3|cooling down

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radek1

Apr 29 2015

Steady state in the double

A first row with Radek. We launched at 6, took my double “Orca” on a lake that was relatively quiet, but not entirely without chop.

Pick Drills to warm up.

There was another double on the lake, who launched together with us. As they have been training together forever, and this was the first time in ages that Radek and I sit together, we turned a little earlier to avoid rowing next to them. Rowing next to them would probably have woken up our competitive spirits and would ruin what was supposed to be a good technique / steady state workout.

Did 2x12min, which is one lake length down, one lake length up. As we had turned early and the first leg was with tailwind, I ran out of lake with 15 seconds to go. Tant pis.


| Dist_ | Time_ | _Pace__ | _SPM___ | avg HR | max HR | DPS | Remarks
| 01993 | 13:37 | 03:25.0 | 19.5 | 124 | 152 | 07.5 | warming up
| 00448 | 02:00 | 02:14.0 | 17.9 | 130 | 141 | 12.5 | tailwind, 18spm
| 00477 | 02:01 | 02:06.9 | 19.6 | 146 | 153 | 12.1 | 20spm
| 00483 | 01:59 | 02:03.3 | 20.9 | 154 | 157 | 11.6 | 22spm
| 00667 | 03:01 | 02:15.8 | 18.1 | 146 | 154 | 12.2 | 18spm
| 00470 | 01:59 | 02:06.6 | 20.2 | 154 | 159 | 11.7 | 20spm
| 00203 | 01:01 | 02:30.3 | 22.3 | 160 | 162 | 09.0 | 22spm, ran out of lake
| 00145 | 01:10 | 04:00.6 | 19.9 | 131 | 160 | 06.3 | rest
| 00440 | 01:59 | 02:15.3 | 18.2 | 137 | 148 | 12.2 | headwind, 18spm
| 00447 | 02:00 | 02:14.2 | 19.7 | 154 | 157 | 11.4 | 20spm
| 00448 | 02:00 | 02:14.0 | 21.3 | 162 | 166 | 10.5 | 22spm
| 00631 | 03:00 | 02:22.7 | 18.7 | 160 | 166 | 11.2 | 18spm
| 00446 | 02:00 | 02:14.4 | 20.2 | 164 | 166 | 11.0 | 20spm
| 00234 | 01:00 | 02:08.0 | 22.5 | 168 | 170 | 10.4 | 22spm
| 04063 | 24:29 | 03:00.8 | 18.3 | 137 | 170 | 09.1 | technique & Cooldown

Summary:

dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment
1993_____|_13:37____|_3:25.0|124|19.5|7.5|warmup
5393_____|_24:00____|_2:13.5|152|19.6|11.5|Main set
4063_____|_24:29____|_3:00.8|137|18.3|9.1|Cool down
0145_____|_01:10____|_4:00.6|131|19.9|6.3|rest meters
11594____|_03:16____|_2:43.7|141|18.3|10.0|_Total

On the tailwind leg, the other double seemed to be slightly faster than we, rowing about 500m behind us. On the headwind leg, even though they were doing 26spm and we did 18spm, we had the same speed. Nice!

Then we did 4km of cooling down with technique drills.

“King of the mountain” followed by “Pimanov” (aka Top Quarter)

Pause after tap-down

Square blade rowing

I asked them how it went. They were happy that they had done a “steady state” 6km at 26spm. Interesting. When I do a 6km I count it as “hard distance”. May be just a nomenclature confusion.

radek1

radek2

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IMG_0221

Apr 26 2015

Barefoot 2000m erg season’s best & OTW 2km row

I chickened out of the 2km attempt yesterday. I wanted to do it at home, but hay fever and other excuses got in the way.

So I had to do it today. I chose to row it on an erg at the rowing club, before my row with Romana. I asked her to cheer.

I was lucky. There were a few other Masters rowers in the weights room.

Too bad I forgot to bring my training shoes. I should permanently store an old pair in my locker at the rowing club. Why not?

Well, I would row this one barefoot, then. I did a 2km warming up with a few bursts, then dialed up a 2km, took a deep breath and I was off.

Romana was chatting with the 2 guys in the weights room. What, she was supposed to cheer!

The plan was to go at 1:44-1:45 pace and see where it ends up. First 500m was without any problems, in 1:44.
Second 500m went by and I was still seeing the 6:55 predicted end time on the monitor.

The problems started in the third one. Luckily, that was about the time when Romana finally came over to stand behind me and cheer. I even saw a few 1:43s when she started to cheer me.

But it was very painful. After 750 to go I had to close my eyes.

At 500m to go I had three people cheering me. Luckily. I was very close to handing down.

Come on, 350 to go!

I was rowing with eyes closed and listening to the instructions, which were telling me to quit the 1:47s and bring back the 1:45s.

Come on, the last minute!

I started counting strokes. Lost count.

250m to go! I started counting again.

Lost count.

Last ten strokes!

Five strokes!

Collapse.

I was delighted to see a sub 7 time, but a bit disappointed after the hope giving 6:56 that I saw during the first km.

Well, as a Season’s Best I will take it! Also just above 900 nonathlon points, which was my target. Still have to do a 500m and a 1km before the end of the month.

Then we had a delightful 8km steady state in the double.

I took the picture from my home erg, transferring the result to it using the log card.

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part2

Apr 24 2015

A wider span

Romana was on the single today and she complained it is rigged too heavy. Also, my daughter Lenka will row on it.

So when I arrived at the rowing club I took a rigging hour. Increased the span from 158.5cm to 160cm, leaving scull length and inboard the same. Lowered the oarlocks by 5mm.

Did 16km of steady state today. 6km with an inboard of 89cm (using the Concept2 orange clams), the rest with an inboard of 88.5cm. The 89cm inboard corresponds to the overlap I used to row with. The 88.5cm inboard is the gearing I used to row with.

The idea is that the 89cm setting is for the girls and for me in headwind.

I did most of it at 20spm, except for 2 sets of 20 strokes >30spm, one of each with each setting. On feel, I liked the heavier gearing more.

"

"

20spm
20spm
20 spm metrics
20 spm metrics

Here are the heart rate and spm graphs for the two parts of the row:

Lin=89cm
Lin=89cm
Lin=89cm, spm
Lin=89cm, spm
Lin=88.5spm
Lin=88.5spm
Lin=88.5spm
Lin=88.5spm

The differences are really small. Still I will keep rowing at an inboard of 88.5cm, unless there is heavy headwind.

On the last 2km, rowing back to the club, I noticed an armada of 3 singles, 1 double and a coxed quad coming from our club. Our 13/14 year old training had begun.

I decided to hug the shore and avoid a collision course, but suddenly the coxed quad began to drift towards the shore.

I corrected my course and rowed between the boats. Then I noticed my son Robin (8 years) was coxing the coxed quad of 14 year old girls. He was lying in the front, coxing, waving at me and generally offsetting the balance of the boat.

A fun moment. Not sure if the girls appreciated it. But Robin is hooked on coxing now.

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Lugio & Eda in the double at Rokle

Apr 21 2015

Steady State: Are my easy days too hard?

Yes! They are hard. Because working on technique is hard. But I don’t think they are too hard.

Another morning row because of the wind forecasts. It is actually quite beautiful to be out in the morning:

Lugio & Eda in the double at Rokle
Lugio & Eda in the double at Rokle

Sunrise and all:

Sunrise & All
Sunrise & All

The problem is that when I drive to work from the lake at 7:45 I hit the main traffic jams which I so elegantly avoid with my usual route and departure time. That’s really frustrating. You know there is work waiting for you, but you can’t do anything else than wait in traffic.

I did a 10km row but the graph below shows only the last 8km. I was using the Rowing in Motion (RIM) app and I have trouble with the calibration. I push off the dock, put my feet in the shoes, and start up the app, then wait a few seconds, then start rowing. When I see “catch efficiency” around 0.5 and lower, I know the calibration is off. I need to be above 1.5, ideally 2 and higher.

I also have the feeling this is limiting the comparison between rows. For example here is a picture with three strokes,

RIM analysis comparing between workouts
RIM analysis comparing between workouts

The yellow stroke is from today with tailwind, while the purple one is from November. Stroke efficiency was 2.2 today at 18spm, which was pretty much the maximum I saw during the row, but in November I seemed to be able to hit 2.96. Or was it a different calibration? A slight offset in the acceleration may have been the problem.

Perhaps the boat should not be moving when you switch on the app, as I guess it can measure acceleration but not velocity for the calibration?

Nevertheless, I feel the “stroke efficiency” is a good metric to monitor during one row. I saw it going up when I was focusing on my flaws:

  1. Blades not too deep at the catch, gentle leg push, not biting off more of the stroke than I can swallow
  2. Strong middle and second half of stroke by “shoulder swing”
  3. Clean, distinct, hard tap-down

I need to exaggerate to get (2) and (3) right. I am sure an observer on the bank wouldn’t see what I call “shoulder swing” but it feels pretty dramatic. Also, the tap-down probably is just rather sloppy when I don’t pay attention.

So today I was just alternating 18, 20 and 22spm in roughly two minute intervals, trying work on those three points mentioned above while keeping an eye on the RIM metrics every 5th stroke. This is hard work but when it works I am rewarded with splits that are 1 or 2 seconds faster, and the check factor numbers moved to values greater than 2. Sloppy rowing is between 1 and 1.5. I am guessing on the split numbers, because it is hard to judge what is due to good rowing and what is due to changing wind conditions.

Anyway, here are the pretty graphs. Slightly more noisy pace values as I didn’t use the XGPS160. It’s not compatible with RIM yet:

ss1
ss2

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Apr 13 2015

Technique in the double

I had a day off. My parents had been visiting over the weekend and would fly from Prague today, so I took the train to Prague with them, had a nice walk through the old town and then took the train back to Brno.

Arrived at the rowing club at 6pm for a training in the double with Michal. We would do technique and steady state. There were high waves so we went out “under the castle”.

michin_spm

michin_techniek

We did pause drills around the 17 minute mark and we did a few higher rate bursts.

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