Apr 27 2018
No training in the eight?
It’s a pity we didn’t train on Wednesday, because it was pretty nice weather initially, although it would have started raining lightly by the time we arrived at Rokle at the end of the warming up. But then we would have quickly rowed back to the south part of the lake, because it really was a small and local cloud.
We would have rowed a lot of technical drills and be able to really focus on our timing. We also could have done a couple of 3 minute efforts at slightly higher stroke rates.
And finally, we could have done my favorite technique drill “Sweden”:
- 10 very light strokes arms only
- 10 hard and fast strokes arms only
- 10 very light strokes arms and body
- 10 hard and fast strokes arms and body
- 10 very light strokes at half slide
- 10 very hard and fast strokes half slide
- 10 very light full slide strokes
- 10 very hard and fast full slide strokes.
We could have reached 48 spm on those final full slide strokes. Those SPM spikes on the chart are not noise. This is a great exercise to get the timing right in any boat size larger than 2x.
Really, a pity. But we are the eight that doesn’t practice.
How-To
This row was done in an older Empacher eight, and I was seated in 2. There is no NK SpeedCoach holder at that position, so I rowed using BoatCoach (which is now working perfectly, after the developer made a few updates based on my suggestions), running on a Samsung Galaxy A3.
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That phone is waterproof, and BoatCoach has a nice splash guard function which works in all circumstances except the roughest. I mounted this to my foot stretcher using an assembled RAM mount
[amazon_link asins=’B01CW8BZ9M,B0055PH0XA,B00JQNRTDI’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’rowingdata-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’dbf7e881-4a01-11e8-80d8-b542e4802dc8′]
Regarding the RAM mount, I linked to Amazon’s related products, but do take care to create a compatible selection. I used the following:
- RAP-B-400U
- RAM-HOL-UN7BU
- RAP-B-201U-A
Of course, BoatCoach connected to my Polar OH1 arm band to get heart rate information.
[amazon_link asins=’B074KG6G5Q’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’rowingdata-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’1a5295f0-4a02-11e8-8e38-9b73e4090324′]
So, that’s the hardware and software out of the way. I really start BoatCoach and then don’t worry about it any more, except for quick glances at the stroke rate info.
After the row, when exiting BoatCoach, it asks me if I want to export the data. I believe it is one of the settings you have to set, but while I am writing this, I don’t have the phone with me, so I don’t know for sure.
Anyway, at that moment I select Email, and send the “Raw BoatCoach Data” to workouts@rowsandall.com.
Power Data Estimate
On Rowsandall.com, in the Advanced Edit of the Workout, Rowsandall Pro members can go to “Geeky Stuff” where they can download the wind strength for the row, and then start a power estimation calculation. This takes about 10 minutes, and adds an estimate of power to your rowing data. Better than nothing, but you have to take into account that it is an estimate for the average power per rower generated for the entire boat, so if you row with Gorillas (like I do), this may be a slight overestimation. I mainly use estimated power to generate power based Workout Effort Estimates, which I use to gauge my training volume, and for that purpose it works pretty well.
A small glitch in the GPS data capture gave me this one stroke excursion to Algeria. I guess I could update the filters on rowsandall.com to prevent that.
Mar 22 2019
Mirror Flat Lake in Brno
Thursday. Sunny weather. Which means -2 C in the morning, which is a bit chilly on the scooter, and 14 to 16 degrees in the afternoon, which is great for rowing.
Half of our club is in Gavirate for a camp, and the other half are doing a camp on the Labe (Elbe) river in Pardubice. I will join the Pardubice crew for the weekend. But this Thursday it meant that I had the lake almost for myself. There were a few rowers from the club on the other side of the lake.
Steady state. I didn’t monitor the Power values during the row, but focused on Effective Length and Work per Stroke.
During km 6 to 8 I rowed without feathering. I was pretty happy with the execution of the drill, but looking at the data after the row, it shows that I significantly shortened the finish during that bit.
I had a fun “Masters Rower Price” moment in the final 3km full lake stretch. A junior from the other bank was trailing me and apparently doing some intervals. He was fiercely rowing at 30spm and catching up. His rowing was ugly, but he had the strong body of an 18 year old. When he was almost level, I increased stroke rate from 17spm to 24 spm and was able to stay ahead of him by keeping the length and rowing nice and clean, until he gave up. I enjoy those moments. Here’s a zoom in on that bit:
Recently, I have started to use Boat Speed in meters per second for the speed plots, but I am adding a pace (seconds per 500m) for those not used to the meters per second values.
How much more enjoyable is this. Being out on a sunny day on the lake, gliding over the water, outrowing a junior. Compare that to doing mindless steady state on a static erg in a basement, without company. I may ditch erg training early this season. Time to do more running.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: OTW, rowing, single, steady state, technique drills, training, water