training

Belgie 002

Apr 28 2016

Hotel Fitness #BrusselsTribute

Arrived to Brussels on Wednesday afternoon. First time I go through the airport after the attacks. The main staircase connecting the different levels is still as on March 22, so to reach the train station I had to go through the car park, down a level, walk through the bus station and take a rear entrance to the trains. Later, I heard trains are only running since Monday. On the way, I passed a couple of these banners:Belgie 002

This morning I took the metro to the meeting, passing through the Maalbeek station. Everything is back to semi-normal, but one thinks about the events. Soldiers everywhere make you aware that things are not normal. I wish things get back to normal one day.

Before that, I did 30 minutes of extensive endurance using the “Random”, “Hills” and “Hills” programs of a treadmill, elliptical, and bike in the hotel fitness, respectively. That was followed by 3 rounds of an improvised strength circuit. Total time 60 minutes.

Today’s meeting was an Administrative Board Meeting, but I am not allowed to share the details with you. They are utterly boring, anyway.

I was advised to go to the airport early, because it can take up to four hours to get to your gate. I took the train again, then followed the signs to the temporary checkin area. In tents. Had to queue outside in hail before I got into the tent for the first security check. Then to another tent where I could just walk past the long queues to check luggage. Through staircase that is normally just open for personnel, and on to the main security check. Took me an hour from train station to the airport lounge, so it wasn’t so bad.

Today’s training wasn’t much but tomorrow it will be interesting. The good old 4x2km … on water.

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IMG_9271

Apr 27 2016

First training with Radek in the double

Tuesday was planned ambitiously, with a cycle to work and back followed by a 4x1000m session on the erg. It was too busy to go to the lake. There was a too strong wind to row anyway.

Cycled to work. At the end of the afternoon I cycled to the pub where one of my teams were having an off-site workshop. Of course they asked me to stay for dinner, which I did. Then I cycled home, and I was not in a mood to do an erg session on top of that. Besides, I had to tell Romana of my new US trip early May. :-/

Ochtendrit to work 4-26-2016, Elevation
Morning ride to work
Namiddagrit to pub 4-26-2016, Elevation
Afternoon ride to pub
Avondrit home 4-26-2016, Elevation
Evening ride home

Today Radek and I went out in the double. Time to get some kilometers together, because in less than two weeks we’ll row Slovak Open. Radek being a garden architect, this is the top season for him, and his training has suffered a bit under the overwhelming amount of customers he has. Not a problem.

It was raining lightly and the lake was mirror flat. No need to take out the wind meter. Zero meters per second.

The session was “three lakes” of 30″/60″ rest. Originally I planned for four lakes and 45″/60″ but I made a small concession to my double partner. Spent some time making phone calls before the outing, so my phone died after 28 intervals. I guess now I could tell you I did 28 more but I didn’t. Just a 1k cooling down. I did cheat in another way, though. I took my brand new low i sculls which are actually meant for the single. Made it much easier to tap down and rate up. Remarkable difference.

figure_2 figure_1-7 figure_1-8


Workout Summary - 2016-04-27-0741.CSV
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|05519|24:06.0|01:58.7|29.6|150.1|162.6|09.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02079| 10:36 |02:32.8|16.5|120.0|136.0|11.9 | Warming up
02|00137| 00:30 |01:49.5|30.0|141.0|154.0|09.1 | First lake
03|00138| 00:30 |01:47.9|30.1|149.0|162.0|09.2
04|00138| 00:30 |01:48.6|30.0|151.0|162.0|09.2
05|00137| 00:30 |01:49.3|30.0|150.0|162.0|09.1
06|00137| 00:30 |01:49.5|29.9|149.0|163.0|09.1
07|00136| 00:30 |01:50.1|28.0|148.0|161.0|09.7
08|00138| 00:30 |01:48.8|30.0|154.0|165.0|09.2
09|00140| 00:30 |01:47.4|30.0|155.0|166.0|09.3
10|00144| 00:30 |01:44.7|31.9|157.0|170.0|09.0
11|00136| 00:30 |01:50.1|28.0|145.0|158.0|09.7 | second lake
12|00138| 00:30 |01:48.4|30.0|150.0|163.0|09.2
13|00137| 00:30 |01:49.4|30.0|154.0|165.0|09.1
14|00135| 00:30 |01:51.4|28.0|153.0|163.0|09.6
15|00137| 00:30 |01:49.5|29.9|153.0|165.0|09.1
16|00000| 00:30 |0000:00|29.9|152.0|163.0|00.0 | XGPS failure
17|00137| 00:30 |01:49.4|30.0|152.0|163.0|09.1
18|00133| 00:30 |01:52.7|28.0|152.0|163.0|09.5
19|00142| 00:30 |01:45.8|34.1|156.0|172.0|08.4
20|00136| 00:30 |01:50.5|28.0|145.0|159.0|09.7 | third lake
21|00137| 00:30 |01:49.5|28.0|152.0|162.0|09.8
22|00137| 00:30 |01:49.0|30.1|151.0|164.0|09.1
23|00136| 00:30 |01:50.9|29.9|151.0|163.0|09.1
24|00134| 00:30 |01:51.8|30.0|150.0|161.0|08.9
25|00000| 00:30 |0000:00|29.9|149.0|162.0|00.0
26|00137| 00:30 |01:50.0|32.0|151.0|164.0|08.6
27|00138| 00:30 |01:48.6|32.0|155.0|169.0|08.6
28|00145| 00:30 |01:43.2|34.1|159.0|174.0|08.5

Some new pictures from Saturday’s races. I think they give a good impression of the place where I row:

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Saturday's Races

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C2 001

Apr 25 2016

New sculls and a hard 500

This week will be a heavy week in all aspects. First of all, I have an ambitious training hour target. On top of that, this is going to be a crazy week with off site meetings as well as business travel. Let’s see how it works out. I have it all planned from today to Sunday, but it’s a fragile construct. Also, there is heavy wind forecasted Monday to Thursday, so I may have to stick to the erg anyway, even if I can make time to go to the lake.

Today I did go to the lake. Had to unpack my birthday present. My birthday was a week ago, but the present came today.

It was a pleasure to unpack and put together. I think I am the only one who has this blade/shaft combination, but still I better mark these sculls soon.

I didn’t have time to go rowing, though. Had to race home to be on time for my 7pm call. After that, I did today’s session.

The last week of the erg season and there was one last nonathlon distance where I needed to set a time worth more than 900 nonathlon points. First, I did a 5k warming up:

figure_1

Somehow these twenty minutes went by very fast. I like a fixed distance and watching the meters count down. Also, I had some stuff to think about.

Then the main, painful event. I don’t know any other way to row the 500m than to go out as hard as you can and then hope to keep the pace.

figure_2figure_1-6

It took a bit too long to get the pace down to 1:30, where I managed to stay for a disappointingly short duration of about 2 strokes. From then on it went downhill. At 100m to go I did manage to speed up a bit, from 1:38 to 1:36.

C2 007
A PM5. Am I a good Concept2 customer or not?

Good for 912 nonathlon points which doesn’t even make this my worst distance. Here’s the end score for this season:

nonathlon

After that I did a 5k cooling down:

cd

And that was all for tonight. On Wednesday I will go out in the double. The new sculls are meant for the single, but I am considering to give them a maiden trip on the double. Otherwise I will have to wait until I return from Brussels.

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13077076_1100972559961195_5967130301831869196_n

Apr 24 2016

Out in the eight

Recovery day. Romana’s Masters Ladies eight was missing some rowers, so I jumped in. The weather has changed a lot. It is cold and there is a strong wind blowing.

We rowed from the other side of the lake, the Lodni Sporty rowing club. Turned out the ladies had invited one other husband to replace a missing team member, so we joked that we would send out the ladies in a 6+ and we would remain in the club house. The lake really was not inviting. Cold. Choppy.

Romana stroked and I got the 4 seat. Had some difficulty to get used to the sweep stroke which is a lot shorter than how I scull in the single. I used just the Garmin watch to get data, so no stroke rate info:

figure_1

figure_1-5

Not very hard work but fun!

And here are a few more pictures of our winning girls in the double. My daughter Lenka on stroke seat:

13087299_1100972569961194_1641089867663264468_n 13055480_1100972549961196_5654213622573226716_n 13077076_1100972559961195_5967130301831869196_n

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figure_1-2

Apr 22 2016

Another steady state row in the single

Not much to report. Except that the XGPS160 failures are starting to annoy me. The XGPS160 as an external GPS is good for two things:

  1. More accurate and frequent GPS updates – less need for smoothing, more lively pace feedback
  2. Save battery of cellphone

But having to reset the bloody thing twice during a training is a bit much. Looking at the data, I have been rowing half of it with a non-functioning XGPS160 anyway:

figure_1

Workout Summary - 2016-04-22-1645.CSV
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11088|61:10.0|03:10.0|20.0|148.3|159.7|09.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01955| 11:19 |02:51.7|19.3|139.0|155.0|09.1 | warming up
02|02870| 13:40 |02:21.4|19.8|148.0|159.0|10.7 | tailwind
03|00000| 02:43 |0000:00|20.2|147.0|161.0|00.0 | headwind, GPS off
04|02296| 12:27 |02:39.3|21.7|162.0|169.0|08.7 | headwind
05|02859| 14:33 |02:32.0|19.0|151.0|161.0|10.4 | tailwind
06|01108| 06:28 |02:51.8|20.2|143.0|153.0|08.7 | cooling down

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figure_1-1

Apr 21 2016

April CTC

The training plan featured a hard distance row, so today was the ideal date to replace that with April’s CTC:

2 minutes , 1 minute rest – from standing start

4 minutes, 1 minute rest – rolling start

6 minutes, 1 minute rest – rolling start

8 minutes

Simple. I knew I would be immune against the temptation to row the shorter intervals faster. When rowed in this order, one has to respect the final, longest interval. Distance wise, this looks like a 5k. There is not an abundance of rest, so I decided that my 5k pace 1:50.5 or slightly faster would do it. I started with a 3k warming up and then went for it.

figure_1

figure_1-1

IMG_0825

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wind 002

Apr 20 2016

A windy outing

A quick row during the lunch hour. I did manage to take some wind speed measurements. It was very windy today. It was interesting to do the measurements. The device measures wind speed and show the instantaneous, average, and peak wind during the measurement.

  • First measurement: average 1.9 m/s with a peak of 3.7 m/s.
  • Second measurement: average 2.8 m/s with a peak of 3.8 m/s.
  • Third measurement: average 1.5 m/s with a peak of 2.4 m/s
  • Fourth measurement: average 1.9 m/s with a peak of 3.5 m/s
  • Final measurement (back on the dock): average 3.8 m/s with a peak of 6.1 m/s.

SportTracks synthesized an average wind over the nearby weather stations and informed me that the average wind over my session was 2.1 m/s with a maximum of 3.6 m/s.

The final measurement was taking over 2 minutes. The other ones were shorter, of course. Anyway, today was a windy day. Lots of chop as well. Here is how the lake looked at that final measurement:

wind 002 wind 004

The row itself was a steady state row with interruptions. Here is an ugly plot. My algorithms don’t do corrections for paces slower than 3:00.

figure_1-5

I used an average wind speed of 3.0 m/s. Quite conservative. Looking at the data, it seems that the GPS160 had it’s hickups again, 35 minutes into the row. 🙁

 

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