Aug 1 2017
Rate Ladders
I managed to get to the lake before work, but not early enough to do more than a 12k workout. I actually think that is a good thing, because I was still feeling tired from Monday’s Pete Plan Pyramid (OTW version). The plan called for steady state (16k) but I decided to use the shorter format to spice it up slightly. I went for rate ladders. Our lake is a little under 3km long from “Rokle” to “Sirka”. (You can actually do a full length 3k if you row from “behind Rokle”, but then you have a turn at the beginning.) So I decided to do 1k/750m/500m/250m/rest of lake at 18spm/20spm/22spm/24spm/16spm. So I would gradually rate up, trying to hold just under 600 J on the Work per Stroke metric (Empower Oarlock), until a 250m at 24spm, and then I would fall down to 16spm, while still holding 600J, until I ran out of lake. A turn, sip of water, repeat.
Workout Summary - media/20170801-093716-Sanders SpeedCoach 20170801 0653amo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11751|61:24.0|02:36.8|170.9|20.2|147.5|175.0|09.5
W-|10252|50:02.0|02:26.4|177.0|20.0|147.1|175.0|10.3
R-|01500|11:22.0|03:47.5|120.8|20.4|144.1|175.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|02000|11:16.1|02:49.0|141.4|20.4|121.0|139.0|08.7
01|01000|04:40.3|02:20.1|181.4|18.5|139.4|149.0|11.6
02|00750|03:22.5|02:15.0|198.1|20.3|152.3|158.0|10.9
03|00500|02:09.9|02:09.9|218.4|22.2|161.6|165.0|10.4
04|00250|01:03.2|02:06.3|239.7|23.8|166.7|167.0|10.0
05|01000|04:58.4|02:29.2|172.6|17.9|150.4|155.0|11.2
06|00750|03:35.6|02:23.7|196.7|20.3|160.9|166.0|10.3
07|00500|02:17.7|02:17.7|216.7|22.3|168.7|171.0|09.8
08|00250|01:05.1|02:10.2|242.2|24.5|172.4|173.0|09.4
09|01000|04:42.3|02:21.2|176.3|18.3|154.4|162.0|11.6
10|00750|03:26.0|02:17.4|191.2|20.1|163.4|166.0|10.9
11|00500|02:11.5|02:11.5|219.0|22.2|169.6|173.0|10.3
12|00250|01:03.9|02:07.8|236.8|24.3|173.6|175.0|09.6
13|00752|04:09.8|02:46.1|115.1|17.9|134.6|138.0|10.1
As the water was mirror flat, and the temperature just after sunrise a nice 22 degrees C, it just required a bit of concentration to hit those numbers:
Just for fun, here is the distribution of strokes in terms of power and pace:
There was a slight wind when I started (tailwind in the first set, headwind in the second) but the wind strength was decreasing as the session progressed. I think that explains the spread of pace values.
The Trend Flex chart averages all that out:
Monitoring the Work per Stroke over the past three months, here is the Box Chart of Work per Stroke for all strokes in the 15 to 25 spm range with more than 400 J (to eliminate paddle strokes):
Perhaps “just under 600 J” is a bit too much and my natural stroke should be in the 500-550J range? Looking at the trend for race pace strokes (chart below), I have been rowing them at a higher Work per Stroke. Wrongly, perhaps?
Anyway, glad that I have the data allowing me to ask those questions.
Aug 4 2017
Thursday: steady state
My entire flotilla was on the water. Romana and her doubles partner Veronika were out in our double “Orca” and I took my single “Dolfijn”.
Just 14 km of steady state, rowing back and forth alongside (in front of) the double. Veronika, who is from Ostrava and used to a quiet river, was very stressed by the traffic on the lake. In her own words: “If something floats in our river, it’s dead.”
I guess I have developed quite some nonchalance managing the lake traffic. I take calculated risks and go close. The risk is having to do a dead stop, but most of the time everything is fine. Perhaps my Dutch cycling skills come into play here:
This is how we cycle, where I grew up. I don’t see anything abnormal, but I understand from the circles, that there is something interesting going on.
Back to rowing, I was also rowing low Work per Stroke on purpose, and I was not slow.
A quick look at some metrics:
And here is the interesting chart. I am looking at data for the steady state workouts of Tuesday and Wednesday.
And here is the really interesting chart. I took pace vs power (my go-to efficiency chart currently) and looked at average data grouped by work per stroke. The data are from this week’s steady state workouts. On Tuesday I was rowing in the 550-600J range. On Thursday, I was in the 475-550J range:
You see how the boat speed stagnates between 180 and 200W of power? I was just more efficient on Thursday. Getting the same average boat speed at lower power.
The water temperature was the same. The weather was the same:
Thursday: Summary for your location at 2017-08-03T18:22:24Z: Mostly Cloudy. Temperature 78.81F/26.0C. Wind: 0.24 m/s. Wind Bearing: 4 degrees
Tuesday: Summary for your location at 2017-08-01T07:23:25Z: Clear. Temperature 82.53F/28.0C. Wind: 0.79 m/s. Wind Bearing: 147 degrees
According to the weather report there was a slightly stronger wind on Tuesday. According to my own observations, the wind was stronger on Thursday. But light wind in both cases. The wind direction was different, but that should average out over the outing.
I don’t take it as hard evidence but I do take it as an encouragement to keep experimenting with lightening up the stroke.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: lake, OTW, rowing, single, steady state, training