training

prehrada

Sep 5 2015

Small Pyramid

A small pyramid

Probably the last training in the single before Belgium. Sunday mixed quad, Monday probably a rest day and Tuesday the Masters quad. Reduced intensity a week before the race, so I did the “small pyramid”:


20 seconds @ 40spm
20 seconds rest
40 seconds @ 38spm
40 seconds rest
60 seconds @ 36spm
60 seconds rest
40 seconds @ 38spm
40 seconds rest
20 seconds @ 40spm

Rowing in the single, I did all intervals at a slightly lower stroke rate. The 20 seconds were going to be standing start and then keep the rate high. The 40 seconds were going to be above race pace, and the minute was going to be at race pace, but with a “15 stroke move” after 15 strokes.

I had been reading in my edition of Nolte’s “Rowing Faster” (first edition) and there was a remark on “race moves”:

  • A 10 stroke move is too short to change how the race is unfolding
  • A 20 stroke move is too long to get the crew to really row at higher intensity/stroke rate
  • The ideal is a 15 stroke move
  • This has to be trained in intervals sessions in order to simulate how it feels during the race (including tiredness).

So I decided to build that 15 stroke move into my 60 seconds, imagining that I would be sprinting for the line.

I met another sculler at Rokle, and he agreed to do the 20 seconds from standing start with me, even though he was coming out of a long steady state session towards the castle. It is always nice to have someone rowing next to you. I beat him by about a length.


| Dist_ | Time_ | Pace__ | _SPM | avg HR | max HR | Remarks
| 02051 | 12:51 | 03:07.9 | 19.6 | 140 | 176 | WU
| 00096 | 00:20 | 01:44.4 | 37.8 | 129 | 159 | 20 sec from standing start
| 00064 | 00:19 | 02:29.0 | 21.4 | 169 | 171 | rest
| 00195 | 00:41 | 01:45.4 | 33.5 | 175 | 182 | 40 sec
| 00135 | 00:40 | 02:28.2 | 21.2 | 180 | 183 | rest
| 00273 | 01:00 | 01:49.8 | 33.2 | 182 | 185 | 60 sec with "move"
| 00176 | 01:00 | 02:50.5 | 18.4 | 177 | 185 | rest
| 00017 | 00:39 | 18:36.2 | 32.9 | 179 | 181 | 40 sec; GPS trouble

I do not have reliable data for the second 40 seconds and 20 seconds intervals, because the XGPS160 decided to stop measuring distance.

malapyramida

I am quite happy with how it went. I managed to hit my race stroke rate quite well and row a 1:49 split during the 60 seconds effort. The “15 stroke move” was intense but good. In the 40 seconds I rowed around 1:45 split.

At Sirka, I took a panorama picture of the lake:
prehrada

Then I rowed next to one of Romana’s new girls for a while to give her instructions. A 17 year old who was on a rowing camp in Italy this summer and decided that she wants to continue with rowing. She’s definitely talented and according to Romana who did a 2x10min on the erg with her, her erg fitness is quite good. It will be nice for Romana to have a new beginner to take care of. If she will be a good race rower, will depend on how often she will show up at practice. So far she seems to enjoy learning a new skill.

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2x750b

Sep 3 2015

2x750m in the double with Radek. Nice flat water. Temperatures around 19 degrees C. We had a pair to row against, but the pair is of course a lot slower than the double.

The first 750m was rowed at 90% effort and a lower stroke rate. The second one was at race pace. I reset CrewNerd after 2500m of warming up with a few high stroke rate bursts, so the data are without warming up.


|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks
|00245|00:51|01:43.9| 32.6 | 150 | 173 |08.8| 250m
|00250|00:53|01:45.9| 30.5 | 176 | 178 |09.3| 250m
|00250|00:54|01:47.8| 30.8 | 179 | 180 |09.0| 250m
|02971|18:57|03:11.4| 19.1 | 140 | 180 |08.2| rest
|00249|00:51|01:42.3| 35.2 | 157 | 177 |08.3| 250m
|00250|00:52|01:43.9| 32.6 | 179 | 181 |08.9| 250m
|00247|00:53|01:47.3| 32.1 | 182 | 182 |08.7| 250m
|02233|13:37|03:02.9| 19.0 | 134 | 182 |08.6| Cooldown


dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment
1493_____|_05:14____|_1:45.2|171|32.3|8.9|Main set
2233_____|_13:37____|_3:02.9|134|19.0|8.6|Cool down
2971_____|_18:57____|_3:11.4|140|19.1|8.2|rest meters
6697____|_37:48____|_2:49.3|143|19.2|9.2|_Total

2x750b 2x750

Quite happy with the rowing. The paces are slightly disappointing, but technique wise this was more than OK.

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3x5x30a

Sep 2 2015

Masters Men’s Quad – Grunt Fest

Another version of 3x(5×30″), this time as advertised here, but as this was the quad we would do the first 5 in 36spm, second 5 in 38spm, third 5 in 40spm.

The weather has changed. A 10 degree (C) temperature drop from yesterday. Paddle boarders and swimmers have disappeared. It was windy today but by the time we hit the lake it was calming down.

On Monday I rowed a slightly different version of this in the mixed quad. Today was totally different. I was exhausted from work. But that was not the only difference. The mixed quad rows on technique, stability, and manages to go fast by that. The Men’s Masters quad is more aggressive but that doesn’t always lead to results. Today was a good example.

Somehow we had agreed that every interval should be well below 1:30 pace. After the 30″, I would shout the average pace for that interval. Problem was that I forgot the XGPS160, so we were relying on the iphone GPS with reduced precision. On such short intervals there can be a 5 second error on the pace. So I had to shout a result above 1:30 a few times, which greatly frustrated the team. The result was that more and more grunt was put into the rowing, until we were all in the red zone and the bow rower couldn’t hear me any more because of the grunting of Martin on #2.

Here are the stats. CrewNerd gives higher stroke rate averages.


| Dist_ | Time_ | Pace__ | _SPM | avg HR | max HR | DPS | Remarks
| 02041 | 12:39 | 03:05.9 | 18.7 | 125 | 146 | 08.6 | WU
| 00180 | 00:31 | 01:26.0 | 35.7 | 154 | 170 | 09.8 | 36spm #1 tailwind
| 00104 | 00:30 | 02:24.5 | 23.3 | 169 | 174 | 08.9 | rest
| 00165 | 00:29 | 01:27.8 | 34.9 | 174 | 179 | 09.8 | 36spm #2
| 00101 | 00:31 | 02:32.8 | 23.7 | 176 | 179 | 08.3 | rest
| 00165 | 00:30 | 01:30.6 | 34.3 | 176 | 180 | 09.7 | 36spm #3
| 00095 | 00:29 | 02:32.5 | 23.0 | 177 | 180 | 08.6 | rest
| 00161 | 00:31 | 01:36.0 | 34.0 | 175 | 179 | 09.2 | 36spm #4
| 00103 | 00:30 | 02:26.1 | 23.6 | 177 | 180 | 08.7 | rest
| 00161 | 00:29 | 01:30.3 | 35.7 | 176 | 179 | 09.3 | 36spm #5
| 01417 | 08:01 | 02:49.7 | 20.0 | 147 | 180 | 08.9 | rest
| 00156 | 00:30 | 01:36.2 | 36.7 | 171 | 177 | 08.5 | 38spm #1 headwind
| 00150 | 00:45 | 02:30.3 | 22.5 | 175 | 178 | 08.9 | rest
| 00157 | 00:29 | 01:32.3 | 36.6 | 178 | 183 | 08.9 | 38spm #2
| 00154 | 00:46 | 02:29.1 | 22.9 | 179 | 184 | 08.8 | rest
| 00151 | 00:30 | 01:39.4 | 36.9 | 179 | 183 | 08.2 | 38spm #3
| 00133 | 00:45 | 02:48.8 | 23.0 | 177 | 183 | 07.7 | rest
| 00171 | 00:30 | 01:28.0 | 36.9 | 176 | 180 | 09.3 | 38spm #4
| 00122 | 00:44 | 03:00.1 | 22.4 | 176 | 182 | 07.5 | rest
| 00172 | 00:31 | 01:29.9 | 36.9 | 175 | 181 | 09.0 | 38spm #5
| 01132 | 08:00 | 03:32.0 | 20.2 | 144 | 181 | 07.0 | rest
| 00169 | 00:30 | 01:28.7 | 39.7 | 163 | 174 | 08.5 | 40spm #1 tailwind
| 00186 | 01:00 | 02:41.2 | 22.9 | 170 | 175 | 08.1 | rest
| 00178 | 00:30 | 01:24.3 | 38.8 | 175 | 180 | 09.2 | 40spm #2
| 00203 | 00:59 | 02:25.4 | 22.6 | 176 | 180 | 09.1 | rest
| 00167 | 00:31 | 01:32.9 | 38.3 | 176 | 181 | 08.4 | 40spm #3
| 00194 | 00:59 | 02:31.8 | 22.3 | 175 | 182 | 08.8 | rest
| 00164 | 00:31 | 01:34.3 | 38.3 | 175 | 181 | 08.3 | 40spm #4
| 00207 | 00:59 | 02:22.5 | 23.1 | 175 | 182 | 09.1 | rest
| 00170 | 00:31 | 01:31.4 | 37.0 | 175 | 181 | 08.9 | 40spm #5
| 02211 | 12:02 | 02:43.3 | 19.3 | 153 | 181 | 09.5 | CD

Short summary:

dist_____|time_____|_pace___|_HR__|_SPM__|_DPS|comment
2041_____|_12:39____|_3:05.9|125|18.7|8.6|warmup
2488_____|_07:33____|_1:31.0|173|36.7|9.0|Main set
2211_____|_12:02____|_2:43.3|153|19.3|9.5|Cool down
4302_____|_24:58____|_2:54.1|156|21.1|8.2|rest meters
11042____|_57:12____|_2:35.4|152|19.5|9.9|_Total

3x5x30a

Average pace about 1:31. Shoot.

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Aug 28 2015

Looking forward to fun races

Coming weekend I am competing in a fun race in Breclav, an hour drive from Brno. The picture above is the event poster. The text is fun:

“BE THERE! The SLovacko rowing club organizes traditional rowing races:

Slovacko regatta 2015
29 and 30 August 2015 * BRECLAV *
Area above the weir

The best rowers from Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia
* Dramatic races for traditional prizes
* Saturday heats starting 11:00, Sunday finals starting 9:00″

The entire happening is also a fundraising event for a few good causes.

Here are some pictures from last year:

The race is held on a river. The 2km course is more like 1700m long and is a big S curve. The 1km course is also a bit shorter than 1km and is one big curve. With the drought, there will be low water levels and not much current. Still, lane 2, the middle one of the three lanes is the fastest, especially when they forget to cut the branches of the trees on the bank (lane 3). Sometimes they put four boats on the three lanes, and usually the “random” draw puts the local crews in lane 2. It’s just a fun race, where everything works in a very friendly atmosphere and nobody makes a big problem out of these small irregularities.

On Saturday, I am competing (in order of start time):

  1. 1x men Masters
  2. 2x men Masters. I bet they will put us in lane 3 with the tree branches. We have already beaten the local Masters 2x twice this year.
  3. 8+ men Masters. The locals put us on the starting list without us knowing about it, so we will try to collect eight Masters rowers during the day, meet near the boat they will assign to us and row.

Also I intend to sign up for the “single open” which is an interesting format. The race is over 300m and it’s a knock-out format, one single against one single. In previous years, if you won your heat, you would immediately row back to the start for the next round. This year they seem to have planned heats on Sunday morning and semifinals and finals on Sunday afternoon. To enter you pay a whopping 100 Kc (5 USD) and the winner gets 10,000 Kc (500 USD) prize money. I have never rowed for prize money, so this is pretty exciting. Not that I stand a chance to win, but I would at least like to advance by one or two rounds.

Also on Sunday is the mix 8+ where our club has an entry (again, put there by the organizing club without informing us), so I will probably spend a big part of the weekend addressing random women at the race venue and try to convince them to join a mix 8+. 🙂

Above, I wrote that we beat the Breclav Masters 2x twice, but this is not entirely true. I did beat them twice, but this weekend I am not racing with Radek, my regular 2x partner. He has to be in Prague for a (personal development) training, so I row with Martin, one of the guys from our masters quad.

Yesterday we took the double out for a quick training. I put him on stroke seat. I always row stroke, so I really wanted to row bow for this occasion. Also, I think I have a little more ability to adjust to Martin’s stroke than the other way round (even though I stroke the quad). He’s a converted sweep rower. In the first part of the outing, the double was bouncing around quite a lot when we tried some race pace stuff, but we managed to adjust quite a bit and I am looking forward to a fun race on Saturday. Tree branches, here we come!

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lactate

Aug 26 2015

Suffering by Lactate

Today was going to be “death by lactate” day. Six am, just 10 hours after the 2x750m session, this was going to be a tough one.

In the double with Radek, after more than two weeks. Unfortunately, Radek had to get used to rowing the double again, so we were “off” technique wise. The stroke was not a compact thing. There were balance issues, and power curve disconnects between bow and stroke.

The temperatures were below 10C and there was fog. We did a long warming up with a few bursts at higher stroke rate and some technique drills. Then we got ready for the main thing.

First 250m from standing start. Difficulty to get the rate up and stuck at 30/31 because of the technique disconnect. But 250m is easy to survive.

Hard stop at the end of the 250m, getting ready for another 250m from standing start, 30 seconds after finishing the first one. Heart rate got up a bit more. Breathing got heavier. Managed to get the stroke rate slightly higher.

After completion of the second 250m, bring the boat to a full stop and sit still. Watch the sun above the mist, the forest in a beautiful green color. After 2 minutes, start to get ready for a full out race pace 1km from a standing start.

Ready – attention – row

Legs started to burn after 10 strokes, the kind of burn you feel in the final 250m of a hard fought 1km race. Technique started to fall apart after perhaps 20 strokes. Difficult again to keep the stroke rate above 30, let alone to bring it up to the desired 34spm. Somehow survived the first 500m, then started counting strokes. If I were in a single, I would be at serious risk of HD-ing at this point. The double is better. Nobody wants to be the first to stop rowing. So two rowers who desperately want the pain to stop, still keep rowing. Pace was going the wrong way slowly but surely. Steering was pathetic. Technique was very far from our (quite low) standard.

This was one of those “difficult sessions”.

We finished in a 3:35 time. Not good. Here are the details:


|Dist_|Time_|_Pace__|avg HR|max HR|Remarks
|03550|23:08|03:15.5| 121 | 160 |WU
|00248|00:53|01:46.7| 141 | 163 |250m
|00044|00:31|05:54.2| 165 | 165 |stop-get ready
|00250|00:52|01:43.9| 163 | 172 |250m
|00091|02:31|13:51.7| 170 | 172 |rest
|00997|03:35|01:47.9| 167 | 176 |1000m
|02906|19:42|03:23.4| 131 | 175 |cooling down

Interestingly, in contrast to yesterday’s 2x750m my heart rate didn’t go up into the red zone:
lactate

Perhaps the struggle with the leg and arm pain was keeping me at a lower effort and prevented me from pushing HR into red. Perhaps it was just a difference between morning and evening rowing. Yesterday’s max HR was 182, vs 176 today.

A 3km cooling down to complete this short session of 8km in total. Had to be at work early so there was no time for a long lactate flushing cooling down.

Walking up the hill from the rowing club to the car parking brought back the leg pain.

It was not a pleasant session and not a good one technique wise, so I guess it was a very useful session to have completed.

Races coming weekend. I am curious to see if I will be able to get the stroke rate up to sprint values in the single. If not, I may have to work harder on this to get ready for Belgium, or decide to change back to my old gearing?

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2x750b

Aug 25 2015

Tuesday Quad Day (2x750m)

Repeat of this training, 2x750m with 12 minutes rest, first at 34spm, second at 37spm. Then we rowed 2:28 and 2:27. There were a few differences today:

  • Our bow rower has been ill and is still recovering, so he wasn’t pulling very hard, and we would row the distance in a slightly lower stroke rate
  • Today’s temperatures were a pleasant 18 degrees, vs above 30 on July 3.
  • Flat water and no wind today, a slight crosswind back in July.

Warming up with a few high stroke rate bursts. This felt very good. We hadn’t trained together since the Nationals, due to vacation and illness. Then we did two practice starts, rowed to the start of the 2k course, dialed up a 750m with standing start and off we went.

Bowman Tomas had permission to pull half strength. We asked #2 Martin to pull double strength to compensate :-).

|Dist_|Time_|Pace__|_SPM__|avg HR|max HR|DPS|Remarks
|03052|18:24|03:00.9| 21.8 | 135 | 173 |07.6|WU
|00746|02:26|01:37.9| 32.1 | 173 | 182 |09.6|750m
|03059|18:00|02:56.5| 18.9 | 143 | 182 |09.0|rest
|00748|02:28|01:39.0| 32.0 | 173 | 182 |09.5|750m
|02305|12:41|02:45.0| 18.5 | 137 | 182 |09.8|CD

So 2:26 and 2:28 at lower stroke rate. Not bad and it felt good. Perhaps it is a good idea to remind Martin that he has to pull hard ;-).

2x750b

Tomorrow: “Death by lactate”! Was planned for Thursday but my double partner has to go to a seminar, so we have to do it … Wednesday AM.

Coming weekend I will row double and single Masters at regional regatta in Břeclav. Quite an unregular 1km course with a big turn. Good prep for Belgium.

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analysis

Aug 24 2015

Back in the boat

… well, I have spent enough time in boats during the vacation, but they were sailing boats. For example on Thursday we did a big tour of about 40km on Fluessen lake. There wasn’t much wind, about 2 Beaufort, but it was fun.

I will not give a full update of my training activities during the vacation, but I will add one picture of my Saturday afternoon run, a 13km affair where I finally found the way around the small lake next to our rented cottage. It involved climbing over a few fences and running through a meadow with cows, but it was marked as a public footpath. It’s the part where I return to the shores of the small lake and then cross to an even smaller lake. I did a 2 minute break at the end of that. You can see my HR going down there.

rondje idsegeaster poel

Yesterday I covered 1100km in 10:45 hours, in a car. 🙂

Today was the first day back in the single. There was quite a strong wind so I went up to the castle and back, just steady state in 18-20spm. Heart rate around 145-150, pace around 2:20 with tailwind, 2:29 to 2:35 with headwind.

analysis

I used RIM to analyze my stroke. First time after I changed the length of my scull (added 2cm of length, keeping inboard and span the same). Here are the metrics:

analysis2

The yellow and purple lines are today. The green, gray and brown ones are from June 16. Check factor and stroke efficiency are in the same ballpark. It seems “catch efficiency” has improved a bit, which seems logical as I changed the gearing slightly. Still wondering though if the changes are significant.

By the way, on purpose I didn’t write “rigged heavier” or something like that. After reading this discussion on rec.sport.rowing I try to avoid that. Still, with the same handle speed at the catch I expect to be accelerating the boat slightly more with my new rigging parameters.

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