Conditions: Sunny, 65F, less humid. Wind W 7-10 mph. This was mainly a cross wind, but seemed like a head wind no matter which way I was rowing.
I went and looked at the appropriate biorow newsletter which covers the impact of wind on boat speed and I was surprised by how much cross wind effected speed as soon as it wasn’t a perfect cross wind.
Here are the relevant plots. (Reference: Volume 9 No 105 Rowing Biomechanics Newsletter December 2009)
So, with a wind 60 degrees off the bow at 4m/s (9 mph), the speed impact will be about 7% or maybe 8 seconds on pace. As a pure headwind, it is a 13% impact (18 seconds on pace).
In any case, I was certainly not happy with how hard I had to work to make the boat go very slowly today, so I am looking for reasons why.
Plan for today:
- Steady State, r20
- HR cap at 155
- Posture, reach at the catch, delay opening my back, clean finishes.
- No pace target
Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_1220_|_06:11_|_2:31.9_|_125___|_20.2_|_09.8_|_135___|_warmup
01240_|_2680_|_12:51_|_2:23.8_|_259___|_20.2_|_10.3_|_154___|_cross/tail
03920_|_3020_|_15:26_|_2:33.3_|_307___|_19.9_|_09.8_|_153___|_cross/head
06940_|_2820_|_14:09_|_2:30.5_|_280___|_19.8_|_10.1_|_153___|_cross/tail
09760_|_2740_|_14:22_|_2:37.2_|_287___|_20.0_|_09.5_|_151___|_cross/head – slow roll ups
12500_|_1360_|_08:22_|_3:04.6_|_166___|_19.8_|_08.2_|_136___|_square blades
Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
01220_|_06:11_|_2:31.9_|_125___|_20.2_|_09.8_|_135___|_warmup
11260_|_56:47_|_2:31.3_|_1133___|_20.0_|_09.9_|_152___|_Main set
01360_|_08:22_|_3:04.6_|_166___|_19.8_|_08.2_|_136___|_cool down
13840_|_11:20_|_2:34.6_|_1424___|_20.0_|_09.7_|_149___|_Total
As I said above,even though I was trying to focus more on technique and not on pace, I could not drive those thoughts out of my head since the numbers were so very, very slow. I did notice that when I concentrated on long reach and crisp early finishes, that my pace did improve, but it was hard to stay focused on it for long periods.
I might need to break up these sessions and focus on something for a certain number of strokes and then focus on something else instead of trying to do everything, always.
Tomorrow: High Rate (for me) training. 3 x (8 x 1′ @ r32/ 1′ paddle) / 3′ rest
Quantified Rowing 
Yes, and headwind slows you down more than tailwind accelerates you. Sometimes it is better to row “unplugged”, “quantified rowing” or not.
As a matter of fact, I was thinking about your blog name today. There are so many factors like current, wind, water depth and temperature, waves and wake, that make it so hard to quantify on the water rowing, until we have the hardware to give us Watts on our data screens in the boat.
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