Month: February 2015

Comparison of before and after rowing styles

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Here is a frame grab from the video I posted on Wednesday.  I am mid recovery.  At this point, my arms are extended, my back should be in the catch position and I am starting to roll up the slide.  I have drawn a line from my knee to my hip, then to my mid back, and then to the back of my shoulder joint.  You can see the shallow angle that my hip is making.  Essentially, my hips are rocked back in the same position through the whole stroke.

2015-02-27_16-30-52

Compare that to the video I uploaded after figured out what was going on.  I am consciously trying to sit up and hinge at my hips during the recovery.  It is the same moment in the stroke.  The yellow lines are from the picture above.  The blue lines are the connecting to the same points in my mid back and shoulder as the first picture.  So, this is about a 25 degree change in the angle that my hips are making with my back.

2015-02-27_16-31-27

The good news is that this conforms more closely with what a stroke should look like and enables a great deal more back swing.  The bad news is that trying to make this change after rowing 16 million meters on the erg is horrifyingly hard.  It’s like walking with a stone my shoe.  The other thing is that by hinging on my hips, I am rolling over my sitz bones every stroke.  Today I tried a C2 seat pad with sitz bones holes and that helped a bit, but I am still sore in those spots.

This is a very hard thing to do.  I hope it helps in the long run.

2×20′ + 1×10′ with lactate

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First 20′ were r20 at 184W and tested for lactate.  Result: 2.5…Too high.  I’m not sure how many times I have to do this to convince myself to back off the training power and get myself back below 2.0 mmol/l.

Second 20′, I was really bored, and a bit fatigued, so I did an L4.

First 10′: 22/20/22/20/22

Second 10′: 4’@18, 3’@20, 2’@22, 1’@24

Power was: 18-160W, 20-180W, 22-200W, 24-220W

After I finished that, had a 1′ break and did another 10′ L4

18/20/22/20/18

At that point I was was out of time (and feeling pretty tired).

The main thing that I am dealing with is trying to fundamentally changing my rowing form.  From the video that I posted, it became clear that my posture was terrible and I was working very hard to fix the problem, I think this drove my HR higher than if I was rowing more relaxed and by habit.

2015-02-27_15-53-31

2015-02-27_15-57-27

Tomorrow:  Hard 6K, around 1:50 pace

3×20’/2′ rests with lactate

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I was experimenting with a change in my posture.  Trying to sit up straighter and hinge at my hips.  This made things a bit tougher, since it was like walking with a stone my shoe.

I did the first 20′ at 183W like a good boy, and did my lactate test. I figured it would be high since I felt pretty tired and sweaty.  It was…2.4mmol/l.  too high.  Definitely need to retreat back to 180.

So, I did that for the second 20′ piece.  For some reason, probably because I was concentrating pretty hard to maintain my posture, I was really tired at the end of it.

I had a false start on piece #3.  I briefly thought about just quitting, but that seemed like a wimpy thing to do.  So I decided to do change it up a little bit.  I bumped up the stroke rate to 22.  If I was trying to maintain constant SPI, I would have been aiming for 200W, I instead aimed for about a 190, so it was a lighter stroke.  It was easier to maintain better posture at this slightly higher rate, and even though my HR was higher, it felt more comfortable.  The HR plateaued in the mid-150s in the last few minutes of the the piece. 2015-02-26_9-13-17

2015-02-26_9-21-33

Sit up straight! Suck in your gut!

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I was obsessing about how bad my rowing looked in the videos that I posted and I was really puzzled by why I could see no real lean forward even though it felt like I was doing it while I was rowing. Then it stuck me. I’m actually not as fat as I look in the video! 😀 It’s really that my posture sucks! I am really slumped over and my back is very curved at the catch. It also explained my hand position. My hands weren’t too high, my chest was too low!

The reason I don’t see layback or lean forward is that the bottom of my back (and my hips) are a not moving. All the movement is coming in the middle of my spine. With that in mind, I decided that the best coaching advice for me would be remember what I always heard in junior high.

“Sit up Straight!”
“Stop Slouching”
“Suck in your gut”

Did I mention that it was not a very nurturing environment?

So, I tried to keep that in mind today and, woo boy, was it hard. It was like writing with my left hand or trying breath on the wrong side when swimming the crawl. Entirely unnatural. But effective. I could sequence the recovery better. It was more taxing from a CV perspective since I wasn’t used to it, but I think it’s the right adjustment.

What do you think?

Video of rowing on slides

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After my steady state session today, I took a little bit of video to see how I am doing in terms of “fixing” some things in my stroke.

Here’s the video:

Looking at the video, here’s what I see:

  • I am pulling in too high.  Essentially, this seems to be caused by me not pulling my upper arms back enough at the finish.  Could be a flexibility issue, or just a bad habit
  • My shins are a little past vertical at the catch, so I am over compressing at the catch.  I am not sure how great a sin that is.
  • At the beginning of the recovery, I break my knees, just a little bit, and then recover with my arms and body and then my legs come up.  I suspect that I should keep my knees locked down until I have my body in the catch position would be more efficient.
  • I have very little lean forward.  Part of this is the excess weight I am carrying, but I suspect that it may also be related to body dimensions, and the angle that my thighs at at when my shins are vertical.

Wednesday AM: 3×20’/1’r on slides

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Woke up with a headache again, but much less severe.  Decided that I had to get back to my routine, so I headed out the door to the gym.  Same workout as yesterday.  But I would aim for 183W.  But I missed.  In the first 20′ section, I again found myself around 185 with 5 minutes to go, so I just stuck with it.  Today, my HR average over the last 5 minutes was much higher (6 BPM), but the lactate reading was down to 2.1.  Another message to stick to 183 for training power.

The second and third intervals I did that, but it felt significantly harder than the session on Tuesday evening.  Maybe short recovery?  Maybe time of day? Maybe phase of the moon?

2015-02-25_9-26-14

2/24/2015 3×20’/1’r on slides
Time meters SPM watts pace Strokes DPS Lac
0:20:00.0 4856 20 185.5 02:03.6 400 12.14 2.1
0:20:00.0 4834 20 183.0 02:04.1 400 12.09
0:20:00.0 4834 20 183.0 02:04.1 400 12.09
1:00:00.0 14524 20.0 183.9 02:03.9 1200 12.10

Tues PM: 3×20’/1’r with Lactate

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Last week, I was on vacation.  I did a little cross training the first 3 days (Tues, Wed, Thur).  Essentially a 5km barefott run on the beach, then about 1.5km of swimming, both at a relatively leisurely pace.  Then I managed to catch a stomach bug and I was out of action from last Thursday until yesterday.

Yesterday morning, I was planning on an AM workout, but woke up with a headache and decided to try to get rid of it with a bit more sleep.  By the late afternoon, I was much improved, so I decided to dip my toe back in with a gentle steady state session.

Tuesday PM: 3×20’/1′ r on slides

I am going to try to do a lactate test after the first 20′ of my steady state sessions to try to build a reasonable database and get a better understanding of the appropriate training intensity.  Since all of my recent lactate tests have been on a static erg, and I had the 8 day break, I was pretty clueless about the right initial power to use.  I was going to target 180, but it felt so easy that I changed on the fly to 185, and when I got to the 15 minute mark, I was averaging 186W.  I decided that cutting back enough to bring the average down to 185 over the last 5 minutes might lead to erroneously low reading, so I just stuck with 186.  Lactate reading 2.3…Too high.  but not far off.  Interestingly, my HR was very low.  The lowest I have recorded for any of my recent lactate tests.  Again showing the very weak correlation between HR and Lactate levels.I rowed the rest of the session at 183 and my HR stayed remarkably low.

2015-02-25_9-19-40

2/24/2015 3×20’/1’r on slides
Time meters SPM watts pace Strokes DPS Lac
0:20:00.0 4860 20 186.0 02:03.5 400 12.15 2.3
0:20:00.0 4834 20 183.0 02:04.1 400 12.09
0:20:00.0 4834 20 183.0 02:04.1 400 12.09
1:00:00.0 14528 20.0 184.0 02:03.9 1200 12.11

Lactate Test Results

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Lactate readings are taken after a 20′ piece at constant power and stroke rate.

day Date slides power SPM HR % HRR Lactate
7 2/7/2015 no 190.0 19 138.3 67% 1.7
1 2/8/2015 no 190.0 19 134.8 64% 1.8
7 2/14/2105 no 195.0 19 139.9 68% 1.8
1 2/15/2015 no 196.0 19 134.6 64% 1.7
3 2/24/2015 yes 186.0 20 132.3 62% 2.3
4 2/25/2015 yes 185.5 20 138.2 67% 2.1
5 2/26/2015 yes 183.1 20 137.0 66% 2.4
6 2/27/2015 yes 184.1 20 141.2 69% 2.5
3 3/3/2015 no 185.2 17.9 144.3 71% 2.5
5 3/5/2015 yes 176.4 20 134.4 64% 1.5
6 3/6/2015 yes 178.4 20 134.1 64% 1.7
7 3/7/2015 no 185.2 17.9 144.3 71% 2.2
1 3/8/2015 no 182.9 19.7 138.8 67% 1.9
2 3/9/2015 no 183.4 19.3 135.1 64% 1.8
3 3/10/2015 yes 178.8 20 134.1 64% 1.5
4 3/11/2015 yes 180.0 20 138.4 67% 1.1
5 3/12/2015 yes 182.1 20 140 68% 1.3
6 3/13/2015 yes 184.5 20 140.0 68% 2.2
7 3/14/2015 no 185.8 20 133.8 63% 2.4
1 3/15/2015 no 186.7 19.1 136.9 66% 1.7
4 3/18/2015 no 188.1 18.9 137.7 66% 1.7
5 3/19/2015 yes 190.0 20 140.1 68% 1.7
6 3/20/2015 no 190.4 18.6 138.3 67% 2.0
7 3/21/2015 no 190.7 18.9 141.0 69% 1.9
1 3/22/2015 no 190.6 19.3 144.4 71% 1.8
2 3/23/2015 yes 190.4 20 144 71% 1.9
3 3/24/2015 yes 191.9 20 144.2 71% 1.5
4 3/25/2015 yes 193.0 20 150.2 75% 1.9
5 3/26/2015 yes 192.0 20 150.3 75% 2.3
6 3/27/2015 yes 190.1 20 151 76% 1.7
7 3/28/2015 no 191.2 19 138.2 67% 1.3
2 3/30/2015 yes 191.2 20 140.6 68% 2.5
3 3/31/2015 no 191.4 19 144.6 71% 2.6
4 4/1/2015 yes 187.3 19 147.1 73% 1.6
5 4/2/2015 yes 186.9 18 142.9 70% 1.6
6 4/3/2015 no 186.7 17.8 145.1 72% 1.9
7 4/4/2015 no 186.7 19 137.1 66% 2.2
1 4/5/2015 no 187.0 19 135.1 64% 1.7
3 4/7/2015 no 192.0 19 138.4 67%
4 4/8/2015 no 197.0 19 147 73%
5 4/9/2015 yes 193.1 20 144.6 71% 2.4

* Average HR for last 5 minutes of 20′ piece

Feb 14 CTC

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Got back home at 11PM last night. The whole place is just buried in snow. I’ve never seen snow like this.

A serious ice dam situation had developed while I was in europe and we were getting water into the house. A couple of place in the kitchen ceiling have big water stains and my wife spent a lot of time putting down towels and buckets while I was jetting around europe. So today, the first job was to go get some rock salt. The next job was to clear the snow off our north facing roof. So, I trudged with the extension ladder through the 4 feet of snow on the ground the back of the house and put my snow rake to use. I cleared all the snow up to about 5 feet from the peak of the roof, and then put rock salt on the huge ice dams. Hopefully that will soften them enough so I can remove most of them tomorrow. Then it was on to the foot paths around the house. They only had about 14 inches or so to clear, but it was still a lot of hard work. All in all it took about 2 hours and I was pretty tired after it all.

So, I waited a few hours before going to do an abbreviated erg session. I just wanted to do the Feb 14 CTC. I never knew Carol, but she has certainly made impression on this community, and I wanted to make sure that Free Spirits floated as many boats as we could.

So, a 20 minute warmup. Instead of the usual fletcher, I just did 20 minutes at 195 steady state, so that I could do a lactate test after missing a week of erg sessions. Result: 1.8mmol/l If I were going to train next week, I would shoot for that on slides. But, instead, if the weather allows the escape, I’ll be in Aruba where running and swimming will be the preferred cross training. I’ll do another lactate test next weekend when I return.

Warmup / lactate test
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_04939_|_20:00.0_|_02:01.5_|_195.3_|_19.0_|_134.4_|_ 64.1% _|_13.0_|_10.3

Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI
01_|_03706_|_15:00.0_|_02:01.4_|_195.4_|_18.9_|_132.5_|_ 62.8% _|_13.0_|_10.3
02_|_01234_|_05:00.0_|_02:01.6_|_194.8_|_19.0_|_139.9_|_ 68.0% _|_13.0_|_10.3

Then in to the CTC. Simple. Row 1402m. With no speed sessions this week, I wasn;t really sure what pace to row. I figured around 1:42. But of course, with high hopes and adrenaline, I went off faster. I knew by 200m, that the 1:40 pace I was holding was no going to work. I wasn’t sure if I had done too much damage with it. I slowed down to around a 1:44, with a 1:45 popping up now and again. By the time there was 500m left, I had recovered my wind and my pride and started to pull down the splits. My rate is still way too low though. I really need to work on that.

Workout Summary – Feb 14, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_01402_|_04:46.5_|_01:42.2_|_328.3_|_28.3_|_160.0_|_ 82.3% _|_10.4_|_11.6
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_00200_|_00:40.1_|_01:40.1_|_348.6_|_28.5_|_132.2_|_ 62.6% _|_10.5_|_12.2
02_|_00200_|_00:40.9_|_01:42.3_|_326.7_|_27.9_|_157.9_|_ 80.8% _|_10.5_|_11.7
03_|_00200_|_00:41.3_|_01:43.3_|_317.2_|_27.6_|_161.9_|_ 83.6% _|_10.5_|_11.5
04_|_00200_|_00:41.9_|_01:44.7_|_304.7_|_27.2_|_163.9_|_ 85.1% _|_10.5_|_11.2
05_|_00200_|_00:41.6_|_01:44.1_|_310.5_|_28.8_|_166.6_|_ 86.9% _|_10.0_|_10.8
06_|_00200_|_00:40.8_|_01:42.0_|_330.0_|_27.9_|_168.3_|_ 88.2% _|_10.5_|_11.8
07_|_00202_|_00:39.8_|_01:38.6_|_365.3_|_30.1_|_169.2_|_ 88.8% _|_10.1_|_12.1

I’m pretty disappointed. Maybe with a proper warmup I could have done better. I really would have like to have been around 1:40. Oh well.

Then I did a 5K “cool down”. I had intended to start at 2:00 pace and slow down gradually. But I found myself pulling 1:50. I made it nearly 500m before I slowed way down. But for the next 500, I pulled it back to 1:52. Then 1:54 and so on until I was pulling 2:08 for the last 500. The beginning was a little cathartic. The ending was nice and gentle.

Workout Summary – Feb 14, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_05000_|_19:47.9_|_01:58.8_|_208.8_|_21.7_|_159.1_|_ 81.6% _|_11.7_|_09.6
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_00500_|_01:56.0_|_01:56.0_|_224.2_|_23.3_|_139.4_|_ 67.7% _|_11.1_|_09.6
02_|_00500_|_01:51.8_|_01:51.8_|_250.4_|_23.6_|_156.6_|_ 79.9% _|_11.4_|_10.6
03_|_00500_|_01:53.3_|_01:53.3_|_240.5_|_23.8_|_164.8_|_ 85.7% _|_11.1_|_10.1
04_|_00500_|_01:55.0_|_01:55.0_|_229.9_|_22.9_|_166.0_|_ 86.6% _|_11.4_|_10.0
05_|_00500_|_01:57.1_|_01:57.1_|_218.2_|_23.1_|_165.8_|_ 86.4% _|_11.1_|_09.5
06_|_00500_|_01:58.7_|_01:58.7_|_209.2_|_22.2_|_164.6_|_ 85.5% _|_11.4_|_09.4
07_|_00500_|_02:00.5_|_02:00.5_|_199.9_|_21.4_|_163.0_|_ 84.4% _|_11.6_|_09.3
08_|_00500_|_02:02.7_|_02:02.7_|_189.5_|_19.6_|_160.1_|_ 82.3% _|_12.5_|_09.7
09_|_00500_|_02:05.3_|_02:05.3_|_178.0_|_19.2_|_157.2_|_ 80.2% _|_12.5_|_09.3
10_|_00500_|_02:07.5_|_02:07.5_|_169.0_|_18.4_|_152.6_|_ 77.0% _|_12.8_|_09.2

Tomorrow: 4×20’/1′ with lactate test after 20′ I will work at 195 for the first 20 minutes.

Track bite fix for Fluidesign 1x

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On my single, I have developed a good set of track bites. The seat tracks are as far to the bow as I can get them and my calves land on top of the ends of the slides. There is just enough of an edge between the slide and the cap that I get a pretty good sore from it.

Picture of tracks before fix

The coiled up cable is the speedcoach HR sensor cable. The sensor was directly beneath the deck that the track was on.

I fashioned 2 covers for the ends of the slides from a leather chafing guard kit. I cut the leather to length. It was pre-punched to enable the edge to be sewn. It is secured using the same bolt and wingnut that secures the track to the deck. It took 30 minutes total to craft and install.

With the fix installed
Close up

The seat will roll all the way to the front stops on top of the leather. I rowed with it this way from July through the end of the season in November with no further track bite troubles. The leather would get wet, but remained soft and pliable. I highly recommend this to other fluid owners.