Charles River GPS Speed order

June 7, 2020Leave a comment

The coolest thing I have been a part of are GPS Speed Orders. This is a case of taking a couple of great ideas and putting them together.

The first great idea was from Greg Benning, who reached out to find out if there was a way to setup on the water competitions to take the place of all those cancelled regattas. The second great idea came from Sander Roosendaal, who has been working on a capability called Virtual Racing as part of the rowsandall platform.

We batted the idea back and forth via email and came up with the idea of “GPS Speed Orders”. These would be free challenges open to all single scullers. You just row the course with some kind of GPS devices, like a smartphone, fitness watch or Speedcoach, and then upload your data. The software one rowsandall measures your time to do the course, and that you went through all the required “gates” through the course. Then it ranks all the competitors, just like a head race. You can learn all about it here.

Sander did a ton of coding and enhancements to make it easier and more fun. Seven folks did a dry run during the last week of May and it worked out great! Check out the results here.

Now we have open up two new events, which will run the whole month of June. The first is over the same course on the Charles River. The other challenge is out in Worcester on Lake Quinsigamond. Even more exciting, I’ve started to get inquiries about setting up challenges in other venues in Pennsylvania, Seekonk Massachusetts. Let me know if you want to run a challenge over the course of your favorite race.

Thursday – May 28 – Charles River GPS Speed Order

I was so excited (and nervous) about doing this, that I had trouble sleeping the night before, just like a race. Knowing that I was going to post my result, made me work really hard. I knew that I was not in the same league as the other people that were rowing, but I wanted to do as well as I could.

As it turned out, I was satisfied with my boat speed, but not so happy with my steering. I made a lot of mistakes in my line, and the race software is incredibly helpful at showing that.

I launched at CRI, which is nearly 8km upstream from the start line, so I tried to row nice and easy down to basin. It was still a pretty good distance for this early in the season and I was feeling fatigued by the time I got to the Dewolfe boathouse.

I lined up and got going. I decided to try to keep it to around a r24 and concentrate on not running into anything.

Here is the whole race, with my track compared to Greg Benning, the winning of the Challenge (also winner of the MGM1x at the HOCR).

So, let’s zoom in and look at the things that I did wrong, shall we? I am Red, Mr Benning is Green.

Mistake #1: Started too far out from the Dewolfe dock, and not hugging the cambridge side of the arch in the BU bridge. This allow GB to be setup right on the bank coming out of from under the bridge and following the tightest line. I eventually clued in and jogged to the bank. I managed to do the right thing for maybe 200 meters.

Mistake #2: The curve tightens halfway around Magazine Beach, and I didn’t sense it right away. I continued out wide and did a big loop away from the docks at the Riverside Boat Club. I should have been right up on it.

Mistake #3: Having swung too wide away fro the RBC docks, I over corrected and ended up heading for the cambridge side arch on the Cambridge St Bridge. That arch is fine, but onkly if you’ve taken a really tight line out from riverside. This was just a waste.

The rest of the power house stretch was not very offensive, but not really arrow straight either

The approach to the Week’s footbridge was also pretty good. Not as tight as GB’s, OK.

Mistake #4: Compound error. The first mistake was not turning quickly enough coming out of Week’s so that I ended up with a big s-turn on the way to Anderson. The other was playing it safe on the Anderson bridge. The normal river traffic pattern allows rowers to use the cambridge arch of this bridge and you can see that GB used it effectively to cut the corner. I on the other hand swung way out in the central arch and made a tough corner even worse.

The eliot turn was just a shambles.

Mistake #5: Instead of getting a good point to the apex of the turn coming out of the Anderson Bridge, I followed the cambridge bank and realized it quite late, so I was going wide into the turn. Which led into

Mistake #6: I over corrected to get the right line, but panicked that I was too far into the downstream lane and faded back to the outside. All the steering slowed me down and the outside arc added a lot of distance.

The Eliot bridge was OK. I like my line there.

Mistake #7: The correct line for the end of the course is to get as close as you can to the Belmont Hill School docks, and then hug the Cambridge bank. In the fog of oxygen deprivation I was experiencing, I totally missed to turn and swung way wide. Again, I added a huge amount of distance.

How much distance you ask? GB rowed 4670 meters. I rowed 4773 meters. That’s a cool thirty seconds of extra rowing. Of course he beat me by three full minutes, so steering is only part of the difference. The bigger factor is that he is a MUCH better rower than I am.

       Workout Summary - media/dbc08d619a-20200528-141554o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|15724|01:28:36.3|02:49.1|128.4|20.6|146.8|180.0|08.6
W-|04781|00:22:40.4|02:22.3|171.1|24.7|168.9|180.0|08.5
R-|10944|01:05:56.1|03:00.7|113.7|19.2|139.2|180.0|07.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|04781|22:40.4|02:22.3|171.1|24.7|168.9|180.0|08.5

/static/plots/dbc08d619a-20200528-141554.png

Another thing you can do is compare your results with other rowers. Here is a boat speed comparison of me, Greg Benning and Jeff Nelson. Jeff beat me by almost a minute.

You can see that GB has a huge boat speed differential, but Jeff and I were quite well matched. He 3.54m/s and me at 3.51m/s. The difference was that he managed to row the course in 4601 meters, versus my 4773 meters.

I was pretty tired by the time I finished. Rowing the 3 k back to CRI was a slog. But I was exhilarated. This was a blast. And I can’t wait to row it again, hopefully a few times to work on my steering.

Is this the new normal?

June 1, 2019Leave a comment

Last post was on May 27. I’ve been in a whirlwind at work. My years long habit of getting up early and getting a solid 60 to 90 minutes of exercise before work has been severely challenged with late nights and early morning meetings.

I’ve been doing the best I can trying to maintain fitness, and catching workouts where I can. The sad thing is how difficult it has been to fit in OTW rowing. I only managed one session since the 27th.

Hopefully this will calm down in a little while and I can get back to my early morning routine. I like it better.

Monday – May 27 – 40′ L4

At home in Hopkinton, around 5:30 in the evening. Felt hard.

Tuesday – May 28 – Terrible Threshold 10K

At work, at 5:30 pm after a really stressed out day of meetings. I walked up to the machine thinking that I should just hold about a 2:00 pace and let it ride. But the first bit felt so good that I really badly over extended myself. I paid a big price in the second half.

       Workout Summary - media/20190528-2240480o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|00:39:11.3|01:57.6|216.5|23.5|162.5|180.0|10.9
W-|10000|00:39:11.7|01:57.6|216.5|23.5|162.5|180.0|10.9
R-|00000|00:00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|180.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:49.5|01:54.7|227.7|23.2|129.0|148.0|11.3
01|01000|03:47.9|01:54.0|236.4|24.0|153.8|158.0|11.0
02|01000|03:49.0|01:54.5|233.0|23.7|160.7|165.0|11.1
03|01000|03:48.0|01:54.0|236.3|24.0|167.2|172.0|11.0
04|01000|04:06.9|02:03.4|191.5|22.7|165.1|173.0|10.7
05|01000|03:55.6|01:57.8|214.8|23.1|165.4|168.0|11.0
06|01000|04:02.9|02:01.5|196.3|22.7|167.5|171.0|10.9
07|01000|04:02.1|02:01.1|199.7|23.5|168.4|172.0|10.6
08|01000|03:56.8|01:58.4|210.6|23.5|172.1|174.0|10.8

Wednesday – May 29 – 40′ L4

At work, static erg. Around 4pm when I had an hour between meetings.

Thursday – 30 May – 4 x (3’@r24, 2’@r26, 1’@r28) / 4′ OTW!

Miracle! No late night meetings and no morning meetings until 8:30. My chance to actually row on the water! I was due for an L2 type workout. I decided to go easy on myself and do it as a threshold rate ladder. 6 minute pieces seemed like a reasonably doable duration. This also fit nicely in the section from around the s-turn.

       Workout Summary - media/20190530-1250480o.csv
--|Total|-Total----|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time-----|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|09816|00:54:08.7|02:45.5|134.1|22.9|146.4|176.0|07.9
W-|05370|00:23:50.0|02:13.2|183.9|25.5|160.7|176.0|08.8
R-|04451|00:30:19.1|03:24.4|094.9|20.9|135.3|176.0|07.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01379|06:00.8|02:10.8|183.6|25.0|156.9|170.0|09.2
02|01337|05:57.0|02:13.5|188.9|25.7|161.7|176.0|08.8
03|01340|05:56.6|02:13.0|179.5|25.3|161.1|176.0|08.9
04|01313|05:55.6|02:15.4|183.6|25.9|163.0|176.0|08.5

Friday – May 31 – Rest day

Like an actual rest day. I had worked out for the 8 prior days. Granted, they were shorter than normal, but I was getting a bit worn down.

Saturday – June 1 – 3 x 20′ / 2′ L4

On slides, down on the cape. Around 4:30pm. Looks like a little lower HR than recent sessions.

Tomorrow: Hopefully a coastal row.

April 16 to May 4 – Hectic

May 5, 2019May 5, 2019Leave a comment

Tuesday – April 16 – L4 session – Aborted after 20 minutes.

Just not feeling it. I had an early meeting and not a lot of time, but mostly I was just tired.

Wed – April 12 – 75′ Steady State OTW

I think it was a nice row. It was a long time ago, so I’m not sure.

        Workout Summary - media/20190418-1830420o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13921|73:53.0|02:39.2|127.8|18.4|151.7|164.0|10.2
W-|12179|62:00.0|02:32.8|136.4|18.0|154.1|163.0|10.9
R-|01751|11:53.0|03:23.8|083.5|20.3|139.1|163.0|10.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00344|01:38.4|02:23.1|141.1|18.2|139.5|145.0|11.5
02|02883|13:44.9|02:23.1|142.2|18.8|152.3|157.0|11.2
03|02848|15:02.3|02:38.4|136.2|17.6|154.3|160.0|10.7
04|02061|10:14.3|02:29.1|137.5|17.4|153.6|159.0|11.6
05|00621|02:55.1|02:20.9|150.0|18.1|156.1|162.0|11.7
06|01413|07:39.1|02:42.5|127.8|17.7|154.7|160.0|10.4
07|01229|06:37.4|02:41.6|127.6|17.6|158.5|160.0|10.5
08|00342|01:50.5|02:41.7|141.5|19.0|154.5|159.0|09.7
09|00438|02:18.8|02:38.3|126.1|19.9|158.8|163.0|09.5

Then I was in meetings from 9am to 8pm.

Thursday – April 18 – L3 10K push

I didn’t get a lot of sleep and I had an early meeting. So, instead of OTW, I setup to do a 10K L3 on the erg in the fitness center at work. I guess my head is just not in it right now.

I failed at the halfway point and basically took a couple of thousand meters off, then worked hard in the last 2.5K.

        Workout Summary - media/Import_37936047.csv.gz
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|39:31.0|01:58.6|209.5|22.7|153.3|178.0|11.2
W-|10000|39:31.0|01:58.6|209.5|22.7|153.3|178.0|11.2
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|178.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|03:59.8|01:59.9|196.6|22.3|122.7|136.0|11.2
01|01000|03:59.8|01:59.9|201.0|21.2|141.7|144.0|11.8
02|01000|03:57.2|01:58.6|207.6|21.6|149.2|154.0|11.7
03|01000|03:54.2|01:57.1|215.8|22.3|156.1|160.0|11.5
04|01000|03:54.2|01:57.1|215.2|22.1|161.0|162.0|11.6
05|01000|04:14.4|02:07.2|178.5|23.3|150.6|164.0|10.1
06|01000|03:59.6|01:59.8|201.4|23.1|154.8|159.0|10.9
07|01000|04:01.6|02:00.8|201.8|22.2|157.7|163.0|11.2
08|01000|03:49.2|01:54.6|229.4|23.8|167.2|172.0|11.0
09|01000|03:41.4|01:50.7|254.1|25.2|174.2|178.0|10.7

Friday – April 19 – No Training

I was out late at a business dinner and had a 8am meeting. I decided to sleep instead of trying to get up at 5.

Saturday – April 20 – 4 x 20’/2′ L4 on Slides

Still love rowing on slides! Especially the long slow stuff. This was a great, relaxing session. Good way to clear my head after a long week of reviews. The last 30 minutes or so pushed a bit above the target aerobic zone, but there is zero risk of overtraining right now!

Sunday – April 21 – 10K L3

I was tired of failing on sessions, and I wanted to just pull a good consistent piece without any dropped strokes or other lameness.

Mission accomplished. Good hard finish too.

        Workout Summary - media/63841bce186c4b73_37970283.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|38:54.0|01:56.7|218.3|25.1|161.0|183.0|10.2
W-|10000|38:54.0|01:56.7|218.3|25.1|161.0|183.0|10.2
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|183.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|01000|04:00.8|02:00.4|205.6|25.8|123.7|145.0|09.7
01|01000|03:54.2|01:57.1|215.6|23.8|148.6|152.0|10.8
02|01000|03:52.7|01:56.4|219.7|24.4|155.2|158.0|10.6
03|01000|03:53.1|01:56.5|218.2|24.1|159.3|161.0|10.7
04|01000|03:52.7|01:56.4|219.8|24.8|163.1|165.0|10.4
05|01000|03:52.9|01:56.5|219.2|25.0|166.1|168.0|10.3
06|01000|03:53.9|01:56.9|216.4|25.1|168.9|170.0|10.2
07|01000|03:53.0|01:56.5|218.7|25.4|172.1|174.0|10.1
08|01000|03:53.5|01:56.7|217.2|25.8|175.0|177.0|10.0
09|01000|03:48.0|01:54.0|233.1|27.4|179.4|183.0|09.6

Monday – April 22 – Steady State

There was a little wind, but I was rowing really well. Just a great session. I was working on trying to avoid washing out and taping down cleanly.

        Workout Summary - media/20190427-2356270o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14002|74:56.0|02:40.6|129.8|18.7|142.2|163.0|10.0
W-|12783|63:52.0|02:29.9|139.2|18.2|145.8|162.0|11.0
R-|01228|11:04.0|04:30.5|075.7|21.5|121.3|162.0|10.7
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00137|00:39.5|02:24.3|163.0|18.0|120.0|124.0|11.6
02|00376|01:46.0|02:21.0|135.9|18.7|128.1|139.0|11.4
03|02913|13:57.9|02:23.8|138.2|17.9|143.2|149.0|11.7
04|02841|14:51.6|02:36.9|135.1|17.4|144.2|151.0|11.0
05|02847|13:37.5|02:23.6|140.6|18.1|148.3|155.0|11.5
06|02908|15:09.2|02:36.3|138.8|18.4|149.6|157.0|10.4
07|00346|01:47.2|02:35.0|145.6|20.7|147.5|155.0|09.3
08|00075|00:24.2|02:41.1|115.4|22.4|148.8|151.0|08.3
09|00341|01:39.5|02:26.1|170.9|22.2|154.2|162.0|09.3

Tuesday – April 23 – No training

Slept in. It was raining like crazy

Wednesday – April 24 – 75′ Steady State OTW

I arrived at the river on Wednesday morning and this is what I saw.

Yep, That’s the dock under water. I guess it was a lot of rain on Tuesday! So, I took off my socks, and waded my boat out to the end of the float and went for a row.

There was a ton of debris in the river. I ran into a submerged branch, but luckily not hard enough to rip off my fin. I also just avoided a floating stump, and saw lots of other stuff. My head was on a swivel.

But again, I felt nice and fast at first. Turns out I had a nice gentle tail wind. It was a lot slower going upstream.

    Workout Summary - media/20190427-2355420o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|14011|76:33.0|02:43.9|128.9|19.9|148.4|171.0|09.2
W-|13090|65:49.0|02:30.9|139.4|19.2|151.7|171.0|10.4
R-|00929|10:43.0|05:46.6|064.3|24.0|128.5|171.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00885|04:12.2|02:22.5|138.2|18.5|131.6|147.0|11.3
02|02830|13:01.9|02:18.1|138.3|19.8|148.2|160.0|11.0
03|02836|15:23.0|02:42.7|137.5|18.3|151.7|162.0|10.1
04|02855|13:20.4|02:20.2|138.7|18.8|155.8|163.0|11.4
05|02904|15:55.1|02:44.4|135.5|18.8|155.2|162.0|09.7
06|00344|01:47.4|02:35.9|157.5|22.3|152.0|165.0|08.6
07|00063|00:21.5|02:49.8|161.8|25.4|160.1|163.0|07.0
08|00371|01:48.1|02:25.6|185.1|25.4|160.7|171.0|08.1

Thursday – April 24 – 75′ Steady State OTW

More wading through the flood. More steady state, working on balance and the release. EmPower Oarlock decided to not work. A bit slower today. Everything felt a bit heavy.

        Workout Summary - media/20190427-2025470o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13938|76:15.0|02:44.1|000.0|18.8|148.5|163.0|09.7
W-|12610|64:13.0|02:32.8|000.0|18.2|152.5|163.0|10.8
R-|01336|12:03.0|04:30.7|000.0|21.9|126.8|163.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00371|01:43.1|02:19.1|000.0|18.0|130.5|137.0|12.0
02|02901|13:31.1|02:19.8|000.0|18.0|146.6|156.0|11.9
03|02792|15:08.3|02:42.7|000.0|17.7|151.8|159.0|10.4
04|02844|13:32.7|02:22.9|000.0|18.4|156.0|163.0|11.4
05|02951|16:11.1|02:44.5|000.0|18.1|157.8|163.0|10.1
06|00342|01:54.8|02:47.6|000.0|18.8|150.3|156.0|09.5
07|00409|02:12.2|02:41.7|000.0|20.8|152.0|161.0|08.9

Friday – 10 x 1’/1′ L1 Static Erg

Another present from our friend Eric Murray.

Started with a Fletcher warmup and really pushed it hard.

Then the main event.

That was remarkably tough. I was so not recovered in the last three intervals.

Saturday – April 27 – L4 4 x 20′ / 2′ on slides

Hectic weekend, getting ready for a trip out to St Louis. Had a nice relaxing L4 down in the basement.

Sunday – April 28 – Aborted L3 Session

We were taking off for St. Louis in the afternoon, but I thought I would sneak in a quick 10K. I made it 500m and gave up. Then I felt bad and started again. This time I made it 1500m and gave up. I just walked away. I never do that.

Monday – April 29 – 30′ inclined march

In St. Louis for my daughter’s PhD defense. I bopped down to the fitness center for a quick session before the festivities began. Nothing special. Just trying to keep things ticking over.

Heart rate recorded on the apple watch, sent to RunGap, then to strava, then to rowsandall. Seamless! 😉

The PhD defense was astoundingly good. I am a very proud father and my daughter is a doctor!

Tuesday – April 30 – 30′ Inclined march

Same deal. quick session just to break a sweat before our flight home.

Wednesday – May – 3 x 20′ L4 on slides

I had a dermatologist appointment in the morning. I was inspected all over and it appears that I don’t have skin cancer. I do have a bit of eczema on my face, but that is not a big deal. After the appointment, I dashed home and did a easy session before heading to the airport.

Then I showered and hit the road. I flew to Miami and then to Costa Rica. I was visiting our office down there. I arrived around 7pm local time and I was dead tired. I was asleep by 10.

Thursday – May 2 – 30′ minute inclined march

More of the same ticking over. Lower HR than in St. Louis

Then I headed to the office. Tours and meetings went from 8:30am to 7pm. Then we had a reception in the evening for an employee who was one of our first employees in the office, who had decided to move on. I got to bed around 11 and needed to be up at 4:30am to catch my flight.

Friday – 3 May – No training

I caught a 7am flight out of Costa Rica, and arrived home around 7pm. My wife and I had some dinner and hopped in the car to drive down to the cape.

Saturday – 4 May – 18K coastal row in Wellfleet.

It was a cool (about 50F) and cloudy day today, but the wind was quite light. I was excited to do my first coastal row of the season. I wanted to do a long and easy tour of the harbor. The first 2/3 was just like that, but the end was a bit tough.

I launched from the loagy bay beach and rowed up to Wellfleet Harbor. The water was nice and flat and the breeze was behind me. It was nearly high tide so there wasn’t much current that I noticed. I rounded the breakwater at the harbor entrance and rowed around the town pier and up into the area of the boat slips. I stopped for a drink and got ready for part 2.

I rowed back out of the harbor a headed west all the way across to the harbor at the north end of Great Island. I rowed around the outside edge of the harbor and admired the shore birds.

As I rowed out of the sheltered harbor, I noticed that the wind had picked up a bit and since it was from the east, there was quite a bit of chop. I headed close to due south and had the chop on my beam. I had a fair amount of trouble holding the course and my left hand really blistered up as I was using almost constant starboard pressure to keep my bow from getting blow to the west. I decided to row 2km south and then turn east for home.

The last bit going east was the hardest. I was rowing straight into the easterly breeze and the tide was flowing out against me. My splits slowed way down at the same effort I had been putting in all along. As I approached the island, the chop calmed down quite a bit. But I was pretty worn out after an hour and forty minutes of reasonably hard rowing.

It was a glorious row! My hands are destroyed, but that’s OK. I am so glad to be back out on the ocean. The time passed so quickly, even when it was tougher rowing. I just had a blast.

Tomorrow: Maybe another coastal row, maybe an erg session. It will depend on the schedule and how my hands feel.

3/24 – 3/28: Back on the Water!

March 28, 2019Leave a comment

Sunday – 3/24 – 3 x 20′ / 2′

On slides, in my basement. It felt so easy that I ramped up the stroke counts in each section. Looks like something is behaving badly between PM5 and painsled, there a lot of dropped strokes.

But look at nice low heart rate!

Monday – 3/25 – On the water! Just rowing

I rowed down to the dam, and then turned around and did the impeller cal so I could switch over the speedcoach to use that. (The gps data seemed to go a little nutty during that)

Then I rowed back and went way up into the cove. When I turned around, I saw a guy I know in his back yard chasing away the geese with a homemade slingshot! I stopped for a chat. He keeps a bunch of shells in his back yard and last fall, a tree destroyed 3 of them. Then I rowed about halfway back to the dam. When I came out of the s-turn, I ran into the headwind. It wasn’t so bad, but it seemed like a lot of work at the time, so I turned around a rowed home.

As I expected my form was sloppy and my pace was slow, but I was so happy to be back on the water.

Tuesday – 3/26 – The Murray Sprint workout

I don’t know if anyone is following Eric Murray on YouTube, but I have to say it’s pretty amazing. He is posting a new workout almost every day and the videos are great! He describes the workout and then he does the full session on camera. How often do you get to see a former gold medalist training in his sport! It’s awesome to see him laying down these incredible splits. It’s also fantastic to see him in a pretty ruined state at the end of session. This workout is a great example of both. It’s a sprinting workout and if I cued it right, you should be right at the end of the last 2 minute race pace interval. He put a fair amount of work into it!

I was pressed for time on Tuesday, but I wanted to get a hard session in. I decided to give his workout a try. The workout as designed was

1′ @ 30 / 1′ rest
2′ @ 30 / 2′ rest
1′ @ 32 / 1′ rest
2′ @ 32 / 2′ rest
1′ @ 34 / 1′ rest
2′ @ 34 / 2′ rest
1′ @ 36 / 1′ rest
2′ @ 36 / 2′ rest

As a feeble old master rower, I scaled back the rate to 32 to match my most likely 2k race rate for the last segments.

I did a quick 2k warm up.

Then I started up with my 26 spm intervals. I settled on a pace of 1:46ish, then for each interval, I tried to pull down the pace by 2 seconds. I held on OK until the last interval, but I couldn’t hold the target 1:40 pace and needed to back off a smidge. I also wasn’t able to keep the rate up at 32. I kept falling back to 31 or even 30, just because I guess I haven’t practiced these rates much.

I was sweating for 30 minutes after I finished. This workout was hard!

Wednesday – 3/27 – 3 x 20’/2′

Done at work on a static erg.

Heart rate really high. really tired. I backed off to the easiest stroke counts and just piled up some slow mo meters.

Thursday – 3/28 – 4 x 2k / 5′ OTW!

It is still cold, about 28F when I launched this morning, but it was clear and sunny. There was just a little bit of wind and the water was nice a flat. I have decided to try to stick to a basic training plan on the water alternating hard and easy sessions and following the WP template for three types of hard workouts. Today, it was time for an L2 and the 4x2k is definitely the classic!

I also set myself up to use Quiske today. That was really interesting to look at when I was getting tired at the end of each interval and I would start going much deeper at the catch.

I rowed out to the little island at the start of the 2k stretch (with the s-turn in the middle). I marked on the map below with the green lines. And set out. I decided to start at 24 spm, since I’m rusty, and then let the rate rise if I felt inspired to do that later.

That was suitably hard work. Tomorrow morning I’m heading out to Lake Quinsigamond to show a high school coach how to get Quiske setup. Hopefully I can get in a row as well.

Wednesday: Quiske!

October 21, 20183 Comments

For the past year or so, there has been a product on the market from a Finnish startup called Quiske. They have a little pod that can be attached to your oar, or your seat. On a boat or on an erg. And this pod is MAGIC. It works with an app on the phone to provide a stroke by stroke graph of interesting things like your oar path or your seat velocity.

I am interested in this product because I rarely if ever am able to get real time coaching. I will record video and send it off to Marlene Royle who will give me feedback and recommend drills and suggest changes, but it is very hard to keep these changes in mind when I practice. Here are a couple of examples.

I tend to break my knees too early on the recovery. With the sensor on the seat, I would be able to see the seat velocity occurring too soon and could work to correct it.
I have developed the habit of digging too deep at the catch. Obviously, it’s pretty hard to look at your oar blades, but with the magic pod, I can see the exact path that my oars are taking through the water, and I can see in all its glory how my stroke includes both digging too deep AND washing out towards the release.

So, I had big hopes for this new toy and I was eager to give it a try. So the session on Wednesday was more of a fartlek than anything else.

Setup was a snap. I put the included strap around the oar collar, inboard of the oarlock, and then launched the app, it found the pod and I connected up. Then I rowed out to the good part of the river. I was blown away and delighted by seeing the oar path diagrams like I had seen in Kleshnev’s book popping up on my iphone screen.

         Workout Summary - media/20181018-1250330o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|12427|69:54.0|02:48.8|126.5|19.7|133.6|162.0|09.0
W-|08058|39:21.0|02:26.5|152.4|19.3|141.8|162.0|10.6
R-|04379|30:33.0|03:29.3|093.2|20.3|123.1|162.0|03.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00166|00:47.4|02:22.5|146.6|17.6|113.4|125.0|12.0
02|00146|00:41.0|02:20.5|142.8|17.5|129.4|133.0|12.2
03|00243|01:04.7|02:13.2|161.1|20.4|134.4|143.0|11.0
04|01539|07:19.3|02:22.7|146.2|18.4|143.2|148.0|11.4
05|00633|02:46.9|02:11.9|186.1|22.3|145.5|162.0|10.2
06|00431|02:14.0|02:35.5|139.0|18.8|134.5|141.0|10.2
07|00592|03:02.0|02:33.7|145.0|18.8|142.3|149.0|10.4
08|01234|06:16.2|02:32.4|142.1|18.5|146.7|153.0|10.6
09|01258|05:53.9|02:20.6|154.6|19.7|142.7|153.0|10.8
10|00582|03:02.0|02:36.3|154.0|18.5|139.8|144.0|10.4
11|00887|04:32.0|02:33.3|156.9|19.4|143.9|149.0|10.1
12|00348|01:42.4|02:27.3|171.1|24.0|138.5|154.0|08.5

Now for the Quiske stuff.

First, this is what my normal steady state rowing looks like.

This is apparently what it should look like.

Here is my first screen cap of rowing at head race pace and pressure.

Then I started to work on changing my stroke. The first thing I tried was to consciously keep my oars in deeper through the last part of the stroke.

The I was just having fun. Here are Arm only, then arms and body, then half slide.

Next I tried to row as deep as I possibly could. I really pulled the handles up high and buried the shafts. It looked like this. Now I know what to avoid.

I was curious about the recovery being slanted in all the plots. so I tried rowing with just my port oar and kept my starboard oar flat on the water. It wasn’t as flat as I would have expected. I am not sure if that’s a alignment issue in the pod, or if the water is at an angle where I row.

Finally, I tried some head race strokes again, right at the end.

Not much different from the first ones. Maybe even deeper at the catch. I guess this will be a long project.

Tuesday: Steady State r20

October 20, 2018October 20, 2018Leave a comment

This week is a bit weird. No more races for the season, but the weather is still good for rowing, so what should I be doing? I decided that just enjoying the last few days on the water and doing some steady state training would be the best way to go.

So, the goal today was to row at r20 and stay under my HR cap. The exciting thing was that I was rowing with the impeller! It was slightly disappointing that there was a head wind so I could not see perfectly identical splits going upstream and down, but it was still a lot closer than what I was seeing before.

Also, over the past couple of days, and with a lot of help from the fine folks at NK, I finally figured out why my power numbers were so pitifully low. This is a little complicated, so bear with me.

Back earlier this year, NK discovered that their power algorithm was yielding power numbers that were a bit too high, and they pushed a correction in a firmware update. At the same time, the web site that I use to log my training (rowandall.com), did an update so that it would look at the rev of firmware in uploaded speedcoach files, and if it was the old FW, it would apply the same correction, so that power would be consistent for all logged workouts. That’s all great, stuff, but there was a bug in the iOS application that NK provides to transfer workouts. This LINK app apparently was reporting the old FW rev in exported files, even if the speedcoach had been updated. Rowsandall was seeing the old rev and deducting a percentage of my power, but the speedcoach was reporting the corrected power already, so my power readings ended up being about 10% low.

The solution was to delete and reinstall the LINK app on my phone, and viola, my power readings popped back to something that made a lot more sense.

          Workout Summary - media/20181016-1205320o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13751|74:24.0|02:42.3|132.3|19.9|142.4|164.0|09.3
W-|11512|57:07.0|02:28.9|149.5|20.3|147.4|164.0|09.9
R-|02246|17:17.0|03:51.0|075.5|18.6|125.8|164.0|13.8
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00205|00:57.6|02:20.2|147.1|18.7|124.4|132.0|11.4
02|00877|04:14.5|02:25.1|141.2|19.1|131.8|142.0|10.8
03|01868|08:48.7|02:21.5|152.4|19.4|142.4|149.0|10.9
04|02606|13:32.1|02:35.8|149.7|20.2|152.9|158.0|09.5
05|01993|09:26.4|02:22.1|145.7|20.5|146.3|154.0|10.3
06|00629|02:56.1|02:19.9|154.3|20.1|147.2|153.0|10.7
07|02647|13:56.0|02:37.9|145.1|20.4|152.3|157.0|09.3
08|00257|01:13.5|02:23.2|194.2|24.5|141.3|157.0|08.6
09|00429|02:02.8|02:23.0|167.3|25.4|150.7|164.0|08.3

Monday: Impeller Cal

October 20, 2018Leave a comment

I really enjoyed Sunday. I spent a couple of hours just messing around with my boat. I recalibrated my empower oarlock. I tried setting up the new Quiske Pod and it’s iOS application. And I reinstalled the impeller on the bottom of my boat.

On Monday morning, my training goal was to do some steady state, but the other task was to calibrate the impeller. All season long, I have been unable to do much with the pace reading on the speedcoach because the river current has been higher than normal. I finally decided that remounting the impeller would be better.

But the impeller is a finicky little gizmo. If you don’t have it well aligned with the sensor, you get intermittent readings, if you don’t have it well calibrated, you get wrong readings and if you row in a place with a lot of weeds, it gets fouled. But at least you get rid of current as an error in your data!

So the first thing to do was calibrate. I rowed out to the straight 1000m section, and set up to do a 500m cal. The way the speedcoach does this is it uses the GPS to measure you going 500 and sees how far the impeller has measured. Then you do the same thing in the other direction, over the same exact section of river. The theory is that this will cancel out the effect of the current. Anyway, I did it and it seemed to yield sensible results afterward.

Of course, after I calibrated, I forgot to push “start” on the the speedcoach, so I didn’t log any of the rest of the workout. Have no fear! I had a backup. I was running RIM on my phone.

          Workout Summary - media/20181015-164518-115122o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|11390|66:03.0|02:54.0|000.0|19.8|0.0|000.0|08.7
W-|11391|66:03.0|02:54.0|000.0|19.8|000.0|000.0|08.7
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|000.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|11391|66:03.0|02:54.0|000.0|19.8|000.0|0.0|08.7

5 x 1500 / 5′ (ish)

October 9, 20183 Comments

Well, I guess it makes sense to look at my training plan. I was so sure that I was supposed to do a 5 x 1500 today, that I didn’t bother to look. Afterwards, I saw that, in fact, I was supposed to do a 4 x 2k. Oh well, it was a hell of a workout.

It was a nice morning. Grey skies, a bit misty, but around 60F. There was a light and variable headwind heading up river. I passed a few boats as I headed out and they were heading in. I had the river to myself. With the high level of the river and the high flow, There is a fair amount of debris. I scared myself to death when I hit a stick poking up from the water with my oar. It was only about an inch in diameter, but it must have been attached to a really big submerged log because it nearly took the oar out of my hand. This happened on the first rep, so I was working hard to spot the stick on the four next reps as it slowly floated downstream on the current.

I am still having issues sleeping and I didn’t feel so great when I got to the river. It was tiring sweeping he goose crap off the dock. But once I was in the boat and doing my pick drill, I started feeling a bit better.

I stopped and relaxed and had a drink when I got to the fun part of the river and then I started my first rep. As usual, I was careful with rate at first. Today, I tried to keep the power on the speedcoach display in the 180 to 190W range.

The first rep was blazing fast. 2:06.4 and 176W. Thanks to the tail wind and the current, I was flying. The second rep was a rude shock. Almost 11W higher average power for an average pace of 2:17.8. I was a bit more conservative in the third rep, but it was stil pretty damn hard by the last 500m. The fourth was higher watts than #3, but lower than #2 and it really stung at the end. Then it was a cruise down the river for the fifth, 16W lower than the second interval. A bit more fade than I would have liked. But, I’m happy with my execution on the workout.

          Workout Summary - media/20181009-1340300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13644|83:39.0|03:03.9|115.7|22.8|139.8|178.0|07.2
W-|07540|33:19.0|02:12.6|176.4|26.3|161.1|178.0|08.6
R-|06111|50:20.0|04:07.2|075.6|20.5|125.7|178.0|07.3
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00111|00:32.0|02:23.6|117.6|18.7|116.9|122.0|11.2
02|01496|06:18.2|02:06.4|175.9|26.1|155.3|167.0|09.1
03|01471|06:45.3|02:17.8|186.5|26.7|163.3|175.0|08.1
04|01514|06:28.4|02:08.3|173.5|26.0|161.0|175.0|09.0
05|01462|06:52.7|02:21.2|179.7|26.8|166.5|178.0|07.9
06|01486|06:22.5|02:08.7|170.5|26.3|162.7|176.0|08.9

Tonight, I fly to Geneva. I have meetings on Wednesday afternoon and evening, and fly home on Thursday. If I can find a gym to do a quick taper workout on Thursday morning, that would be a bonus. Then I will do a quick technique row on Friday. I race Saturday.

Drills on the Fives

October 8, 2018Leave a comment

We came back from the cape last night, and I had a choice to make this morning.

I needed to be at work, showered and ready for a 8 am meeting, so I could either head straight to work and do a 60 to 80 minute steady state session on the erg, or I could do an shorter session on the water.

I decided to row on the water. Here’s why.

With a race this weekend, I want to taper down volume a bit anyway
Also because of the race, getting in a technique session this week would be good reinforcement for good mechanics
It’s too late to do much to improve my aerobic fitness, so doing just enough to maintain what I have is enough.

It was dark when I got to the boathouse. Very dark. And cool, around 55F. And there was a noticeable breeze blowing as a headwind when going down stream. Did I mention it was dark! With the overcast and the later sunrise, I couldn’t see across the lagoon when I arrived.

By the time I had swept the goose poop off the dock, and got my boat rigged and in the water, the sky was starting to lighten up. I felt irresponsible that I don’t have working lights though and I was glad that there was no one else on the river today. I’ve ordered a new pair of lights, hopefully they will be delivered today.

Today’s session was drills on the fives. 4 minutes of steady state, and then 1 minute of a drill. The drills were

Half slide: working on clean releases and blades off the water
delayed feather: Working on releasing on the square, and then feathering without touching water
Pause at body over: Working on keeping my knees downwith my body over and arms extended.
Open hands on recovery: Working on outward pressure against the oarlocks on recovery and clean catches after regripping the oars.

As usual, with this session, I felt like I was rowing better at the end than the beginning. Today, it was even more the case because the wind seemed to be dying down a during the session and the water was a bit flatter at the end.

I had time for one lap down to the dam and back. I was pretty surprised at how low my heart rate was today. My RPE felt like it was in line with this session, but my HR was a good 10 beats lower.

Here is a summary of the steady state bits. It cuts out the drills and the turns.

          Workout Summary - media/20181008-1700310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08689|46:43.0|02:41.3|116.3|20.0|130.7|143.0|09.3
W-|05153|25:33.0|02:28.8|131.8|20.6|134.5|143.0|09.8
R-|03548|21:11.0|02:59.2|097.6|19.4|126.1|143.0|10.6
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|00365|01:51.0|02:32.1|129.4|18.9|119.8|126.0|10.4
02|00270|01:15.9|02:20.8|134.9|19.7|126.9|131.0|10.8
03|00529|02:39.0|02:30.3|117.0|20.4|135.1|141.0|09.8
04|00887|04:23.3|02:28.4|130.3|21.0|139.2|142.0|09.6
05|00782|03:49.9|02:27.1|136.6|20.4|138.1|143.0|10.0
06|00129|00:38.2|02:27.7|148.6|20.4|134.9|137.0|10.0
07|00256|01:17.2|02:31.1|121.2|20.2|130.0|135.0|09.8
08|00680|03:23.8|02:29.9|132.4|20.9|136.4|142.0|09.6
09|00744|03:44.2|02:30.7|127.1|21.1|137.4|141.0|09.4
10|00179|00:51.6|02:24.1|144.1|19.8|129.7|136.0|10.5
11|00098|00:29.2|02:28.8|142.7|20.4|127.1|131.0|09.9
12|00236|01:10.0|02:28.4|157.3|23.1|131.1|139.0|08.8

Tomorrow: Last hard workout…5 x 1500 / 5′ target pace 2:15.

T/F/S : A Threshold Sandwich

October 7, 2018Leave a comment

Thursday – Oct 4 : 70′ Steady State R20

          Workout Summary - media/20181004-1200310o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13830|74:54.0|02:42.5|123.4|20.7|144.8|159.0|08.9
W-|13187|65:37.0|02:29.3|132.7|20.2|147.8|159.0|10.0
R-|00650|09:17.0|07:08.7|057.5|24.5|123.4|159.0|06.2
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
05|01254|05:57.9|02:22.7|130.0|19.9|132.2|144.0|10.6
06|02592|11:59.4|02:18.8|136.2|19.8|145.6|155.0|10.9
07|02839|14:42.0|02:35.3|134.2|20.0|149.8|159.0|09.7
08|02758|12:57.1|02:20.9|133.4|20.3|149.2|156.0|10.5
09|03037|16:11.7|02:40.0|129.7|20.2|151.6|157.0|09.3
10|00305|01:40.8|02:45.5|138.9|21.4|153.6|156.0|08.5
11|00370|01:59.1|02:40.8|125.1|23.1|154.6|159.0|08.1

Friday – Oct 5: 2 x 3K Threshold

The goal for today was essentially a Head Race simulation. Stroke rate around 25. The goal was to try to keep the pace around 2:15, but it was not to be. There was a lot of wind which was basically a head wind for the downstream part of the row. That’s better than the alternative, it would have been very depressing rowing into a head wind and against the current during the second half of the session.

The wind was strong and gusty enough that I took some really bad strokes. Generally, striking a wave as I was squaring up and catching with one oar skewed. This was a bit scary at the time, but I was just trying to keep it going.

The hard bit for me is keeping my motivation through the turn. Today, with a brisk tail wind, it wasn’t so bad. I kept my mind of clean finishes.

          Workout Summary - media/20181005-1140300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|08131|43:02.0|02:38.8|133.9|24.7|150.1|177.0|07.6
W-|05488|25:16.0|02:18.1|164.8|26.2|165.5|177.0|08.3
R-|02645|17:46.0|03:21.6|090.0|22.6|128.2|177.0|07.5
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|02746|12:30.1|02:16.6|166.6|25.9|161.0|169.0|08.5
02|02742|12:46.1|02:19.7|163.1|26.5|169.9|177.0|08.1

So, slower than I would have liked, but considering the wind, I guess it is OK. I was happy about the sprint at the end.

Saturday, Oct 6: 13km Coastal Row

Today was absolutely beautiful. The temp was around 60F. There was a light wind from the northeast, which meant that the water was flat. The sun was sparkling on the water. It was amazing.

The only problem I had was a wonky heart rate monitor. I worked hard, but not too hard. I think my heart rate was in the high 140s to 150s.

The tide was running pretty fast today. It was going out, so it was with me at first, then as I turned toward the harbor, it was against me. Then I turned and rowed with it all the way out past my favorite buoy, then I was rowing right into it for the last section.

          Workout Summary - media/20181006-191253-Greg Smith 20181006 1249PMo.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|13357|75:56.0|02:50.6|000.0|20.7|147.0|147.0|08.5
W-|13359|75:56.0|02:50.5|000.0|20.7|147.0|147.0|08.5
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|147.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00037|01:18.7|17:35.0|000.0|21.3|147.0|147.0|01.3
01|05862|32:53.8|02:48.4|000.0|19.5|147.0|147.0|09.1
02|07059|38:07.7|02:42.0|000.0|21.5|147.0|147.0|08.6
03|00401|03:36.4|04:30.1|000.0|22.9|147.0|147.0|04.9

Tomorrow: If it’s a nice day, another coastal row. If not, a steady state erg session.

I’m racing next weekend. One complication is that I am going to Geneva on Tuesday night and returning on Thursday. So, it will be a unique kind of a taper.

Quantified Rowing

Measure – Adjust – Improve

Tag: Charles River