Weather: Sunny, nice temp, around 60. Quite windy, about 15 mph gusting to 20 from the West.
Plan: Row the course a stately pace, count strokes to critical turns and follow the planned line through the most challenging parts of the course (Weeks, Anderson and Eliot). Return down river in the travel lane.
Well, it didn’t work out that way. It was like merging on to a super highway. There were so many boats! I was almost always two abreast with another boat, and close on the tail of a boat, with yet another boat crawling up my stern. And since most of these boats were eights, fours and quads, I felt the need to push the pace a bit more than I originally intended. It was also generally into the teeth of the head wind.
I must admit though, that nerves and adrenaline played a part. Finally, in the critical bits, like counting the strokes from the Western Ave bridge to my turn toward the weeks footbridge, I wanted to do that stuff with close to race pressure so that I would have a better feel for trying to get my points and find my line. At any rate, I probably pushed a touch harder than I should have, but it was a lovely row.
Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00440_|_02:27_|_2:47.3_|_044___|_17.9_|_10.0_|_133___|_warmup
03480_|_17:00_|_2:26.6_|_365___|_21.5_|_09.5_|_165___|_Main set
07180_|_39:07_|_2:43.4_|_737___|_18.8_|_09.7_|_142___|_cool down
11100_|_58:35_|_2:38.3_|_1146___|_19.6_|_09.7_|_149___|_Total
The rules for practice day are to launch from your launching site and proceed up river along the course to the end, then go all the way back to the start, and then follow the rest of the course back to your launching dock. So I did the last 3.5km of the course, and the paddled to the start and then did the first 1km of the course. This was the fiestiest traffic of the bunch. I was sandwiched between 2 eights, and there were a other boats along side as we squeezed through the BU bridge. I was glad to peel off to the dock. I’d had enough of rush hour traffic.
After my row, I drove over the the finish area and picked up my registration packet. I guess I am now official.
Forecast for tomorrow morning is 47F, wind building from W 10 mph at 9am to 12mph at 10am.
I’m bow number 36 in event #4 (Grand Master Men’s 1x). Live stream is at this link:
Weather: Perfect. Flat calm, mist on the water. Sunny.
Plan: The taper plan called for a single high intensity interval, but I decided to deviate from that. I wanted a bit more steering practice and a bit more rowing at something closer to head race pace. High intensity intervals for me are around a 2:00 pace, while head racing is closer to 2:10. So, I elected to do 3 intervals at that pace.
First interval was down river through the bridge. Second river was upriver through the bridge. Third interval was around the s-turn. The rest of the row was SBR, slow roll ups and attempts at rowing “clean” (no touching the water on recovery).
Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
02120_|_11:07_|_2:37.2_|_207___|_18.6_|_10.2_|_132___|_warmup
01500_|_06:16_|_2:05.3_|_176___|_28.1_|_08.5_|_166___|_Main set
01360_|_07:32_|_2:46.1_|_148___|_19.7_|_09.2_|_139___|_rest meters
01340_|_11:37_|_4:20.1_|_233___|_20.1_|_05.8_|_141___|_cool down
06320_|_36:32_|_2:53.4_|_764___|_20.9_|_08.3_|_142___|_Total
Back to lovely weather. Sunny, mid 50s, SW wind 5-9 mph. Enough wind to noticeably impact splits and make the boat feel heavy when heading up river, but no chop.
Plan:
Warmup with pick drill, SBR, slow roll ups and a few 20 stroke bursts at head race pace an rate.
2 x 500 / 500m rest at ~ 2:00 pace and ~28-30 rate.
Both intervals through the bridge to force me to pay attention and steer at full pressure.
Do the s-turn at head race pressure for more steering practice.
Cool down with SBR, slow roll ups and “rowing clean”
Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
03980_|_21:21_|_2:40.9_|_429___|_20.1_|_09.3_|_130___|_warmup
01660_|_06:48_|_2:02.8_|_198___|_29.1_|_08.4_|_164___|_Main set
01240_|_07:35_|_3:03.6_|_143___|_18.8_|_08.7_|_137___|_rest meters
02000_|_11:10_|_2:47.5_|_230___|_20.6_|_08.7_|_142___|_cool down
08880_|_46:54_|_2:38.4_|_1000___|_21.3_|_08.9_|_139___|_Total
Happy with the workout. The first 500, I cut too close to the shoal on the western side of the channel and my oar blade hit the sand bar at the catch. A bit of a fright, but I managed to recover without losing a lot of pace. The second 500 was quick because of the tail wind and I had no steering issues. Good line up and no pace impact.
I finished the second 500 on the far side of the bridge, so I started a power 20 just before the bridge on the way back and carried it through, just to keep myself on my toes. Then, when I was a 100m before the s-turn, I brought it back up to pace. I hit the right line going into the turn, but I let myself run out a bit wide coming out of the initial turn. You can see the rate popping up as I try to get back on line, then drop back down once I have my point to the exit of the turn. Coming out of the turn, I ran into a gust of wind and pushed it to keep the pace on target. I’ll have to be careful to do a better job rolling with the punches in the race to avoid burning myself out in the turns.
Tomorrow: 1 x 500, last day of taper, then load up my boat. Drop off is on Friday, when I will do a low impact paddle of the course in the afternoon. Then its race day.
The weather was less than perfect today, but fine for rowing. Light drizzle, low 50s, basically no wind. I hate how dark it is in the mornings now when I start.
Plan:
4K warmup with some SBR, and slow roll ups, plus a few bursts of 20 strokes at race pace.
3 x 500m at faster than race pace. Aiming for 2:00 or better and 29-31 SPM.
All intervals through the bridge to practice steering under pressure. Objective is to find a good line, maintain speed and practice looking over my shoulder during the drive.
cool down with SBR and slow roll ups working on finishes and balance
This is the bridge. Each arch is wide enough for a single boat to go through.
Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
04240_|_22:52_|_2:41.9_|_439___|_19.2_|_09.7_|_132___|_warmup
02000_|_08:08_|_2:02.1_|_236___|_29.0_|_08.5_|_170___|_Main set
01380_|_08:50_|_3:12.0_|_170___|_19.2_|_08.1_|_138___|_rest meters
02140_|_12:17_|_2:52.3_|_243___|_19.8_|_08.8_|_146___|_cool down
09760_|_52:08_|_2:40.3_|_1088___|_20.9_|_09.0_|_142___|_Total
The three intervals went fine. It was tough to hold the pace, but the steering went well. I found the right line each time and got more comfortable with the looking every 5 strokes and keeping a picture in my head. After I finished the 3rd interval I started to paddle home and then I decided to take the S-Turn at head race pace, since I struggled with that yesterday. Today, my steering was much better. I did not swing wide in the initial turn, allowed my rate to climb in the turn and powered out of the turn well. In the race, I think turns will be more like 2:10 than 2:08, but it was a good thing to do. Probably do it again tomorrow.
Tomorrow: 2 x 500 at 2:00 through the bridge, plus 1 at 2:10 around the s-turn.
Glorious morning. Fall foliage, temps in the low 50s, very light wind from the SW. Sparkling clear sky. So pretty I took a picture.
Plan:
4 K warmup include a few 20s at race pace or faster.
4 x 500m / 500m rest at faster than race pace and higher than race rate
Try to set up these intervals so that steering is required to get more comfortable with really lining up bridges and turns at full pressure.
Today I discovered that the Wahoo tickr is not compatible with the Speedcoach XL2 HR sensor pickup. The Tickr is ANT+ and the XL2 is Polar compatible. Ugh. Now I need to pick up a new H7. Anyway, the first plot is HR and stroke rate from RIM on the iphone and the second is pace and rate from the speedcoach.
Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
03980_|_20:52_|_2:37.3_|_406___|_19.5_|_09.8_|_000___|_warmup
02000_|_08:08_|_2:01.9_|_236___|_29.0_|_08.5_|_000___|_Main set
01500_|_08:51_|_2:57.0_|_169___|_19.1_|_08.9_|_000___|_rest meters
04340_|_23:04_|_2:39.4_|_472___|_20.5_|_09.2_|_000___|_cool down
11820_|_00:55_|_2:34.6_|_1283___|_21.1_|_09.2_|_000___|_Total
The pace was pretty good, but the steering was less than perfect. On my first interval, I cut through the bridge at a bit too much of an angle and banged my oar blade against the abutment, This happened on my second to last stroke and clearly showed that I was careful enough with my line. On the second interval, I set up to go through the s-turn. I thought I had taken a good line, but at the pace I was rowing, it took a lot more pressure to try to stay on the desired line. This was good practice, because I rated up, really reached out with my port oar and hauled the bow around. The good news was that I was able to keep the pace while I made the adjustment. The third interval was a straight shot. The fourth finished right at the bridge, and I did a good job lining up for the right arch and I didn’t hit anything this time. 😉
This finished it off for me, but I decided to take one more power 20 back through the bridge along the exact path where I had my brush with the abutment. This one went just fine.
In both the warmup and the cool down, I did a lot of square blade rowing and slow roll ups, working on balance and finishes. By the end of the session, I was getting a lot more clearance on the recovery. I’ll keep doing that too.
Tomorrow: 3 x 500. I think I will do all of them under the bridge.
Weather: mid 50s, before I launched there was a 5 to 10 mph breeze from the north. This moderated and by the time I finished it was more like 3-5mph with a few stronger gusts. Very Sunny. The water as sparking. A perfect day for a row.
I was really looking forward to this race. My first race on “my lake”. The Snake Regatta is an even that is held every fall as a Collegiate head race. It is run over 4200m from south to north on the lake. This year, our club, Lake Quinsigamond Community Rowing (LQCR), and the other masters club on the lake, Quinsigamond Rowing Club (QRC) got together to sponsor a masters division in the race.
Since it was it’s first year, and we really only started to publicize it late this summer, it was small. There were 22 boats in all and 12 singles, most from our two clubs. But it is a great place to row and beautiful day for the event.
I am not sure how they picked bow numbers, but I was given bow number 179, which was the eighth boat to start. I knew some of the guys who started in front of me, and I decided to consider it a “target rich environment”. With the width of the course, and how straight it is, overtaking boats was straightforward.
Me and Bob launched from the regatta point docks, just north of the route 9 bridge and we joined the parade of boats heading down lake to the start. I worked on getting used to being back in the boat. I had not rowed since Monday, so I just focused on balance and reach and trying to clean up my finishes. Toward the bottom of the lake I did 2 sets of 20 strokes at faster than race pace to get the blood flowing.
Then I took off my overshirt, and revealed, for the very first time, an actual LQCR uniform shirt! The coach of the high school kids gave it to me before I launched so I could war club colors at the Head of Charles next week. I was so delighted, I can’t even describe it. I haven’t worn a sports uniform since I was in high school.
We just hung out in a clump chatting until they called us to get organized into bow number order. With this few boats, it was pretty simple. They started with bow 170, a 32 year old rower from community rowing in Brighton. He looked like a rower. Then 171 and 172 were scratches. 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178 (who was missing a bow number but they worked it out), then they called me to full pressure and I was off.
On the video, I am on the course at 2:50. I could feel the head wind making the boat feel a little heavy, but it felt good to row with full pressure and I probably pushed the pace a little too hard off the line. I found my line to hug the shore of the next island and counted strokes. I overtook a boat at 4:15, it looks like he made a mistake steering to the east side of the island and then needed to correct it. You can see him rowing across my bow then falling back.
Then I was past the first island and I had my sights on two things. First, don’t run into the beach, which juts out a bit. Second, the next boat that I was going after. I pass the beach at 5:40. Prior to that, you can see that this boat made the mistake I wanted to avoid. He needed to steer radically around the beach, right while I was closing the gap on him.
After the beach, the next challenge is the narrows. This is a spot that is wide enough to fit four boats with oar tips touching. They have it marked with a buoy so that boats going down lake are separated from the boats racing so there is just enough room for two boats side by side, but it’s tight. I looked over my shoulder and I saw two boats right ahead of me. I closed on one of the quickly and passed him right in the middle of the narrows. The other guy seemed to be rowing at something very close to my pace.
From the Narrows, it is about a kilometer of relatively unprotected water. This is the widest point of the lake. There was a little bit of head wind, but not much chop, and I could really focus in on this next boat. It was the guy with no bow number. His name was Bjorn and he came from Narraganset Rowing Club. A group of women from that club borrowed one of our eights for the race and they told me that he was a good rower. At any rate, here we were. I had made up the start interval on him, and it seemed like he thought I shouldn’t make up any more. From 8 minutes to 9:30, he basically holds me off, and then from 9:30 to 10:00 I manage to crawl up and establish a bit of overlap with him. Then we are stroke for stroke for the next 2 km. Right at the end of the first video, both of us overtake a 3rd boat. We are in our own little race at this point.
The second part of the video picks up right before we go under the bridge. Over the first minute, you can see his bow disappear from view, but he’s still there. I push really hard in this chunk because a couple of my friends from the club are watching from our docks and I hear them yelling. I usually have a significant crisis at the bridge because I know how much the second half hurts and how long the 1.6km from the bridge to the finish feels. I’m still counting strokes and when I get to 400, and I haven’t yet reached the gazebo, I fear that I am going to blow up. But my friend Bjorn is still right on my tail, maybe half a boat length back and showing no sign of slowing down.
I finally pass the gazebo and I know that it’s 60 strokes to the finish. I keep my rate and pressure for another 20 strokes and then I start to push for the finish. The last 40 strokes, I bring up the rate a touch, and the splits obligingly come down, and finally in the last 300m I start putting more distance between us.
I was really hurting at the end and paddled well clear of the course before turning. Bjorn and I congratulated each other and then paddled into the QRA docks. I stopped there for a few minutes and chatted with some friends from the club up there, and then paddled home to regatta point. At this point, I had no idea what the results were.
I packed up and headed home. About an hour later, Bob texted me a picture of the results.
I got a second place behind the guy who looked like a rower. Considering the 20 year age gap, I guess I’m OK losing to him by 16 seconds. Truth be told, I’m delighted with the whole race. I feel like the benign conditions let me really push myself as hard as possible, and having someone to race side by side with forced me to keep it together when it started to hurt.
By the way, there is an excellent online tool to watch rowing videos called Rowvid. It let’s you use slow motion or speed things up so you can look at form an fast forward through the dull bits.
Sunday: Recovery / Endurance session…4 x 20 / 1′ rest with lactate
03900_|_19:48_|_2:32.4_|_333___|_16.8_|_11.7_|_132___|_r16
04000_|_19:40_|_2:27.5_|_363___|_18.5_|_11.0_|_140___|_r18
03840_|_18:14_|_2:22.5_|_374___|_20.5_|_10.3_|_147___|_r20
11740_|_57:43_|_2:27.5_|_1070___|_18.5_|_11.0_|_140___|_main set
00220_|_01:30_|_3:23.4_|_022___|_14.7_|_10.0_|_117___|_rest meters
01060_|_05:29_|_2:35.2_|_110___|_20.1_|_09.6_|_136___|_cool down
Happy with the heart rate and level of effort. Really just focused on balance and good rowing today.
After the workout, I went to work for half a day, then flew to Munich, where I am now. I arrived Tuesday morning around 10AM, and straight into a customer meeting. So, Tuesday is basically a very tired “non-restful rest day”.
Wednesday: Fun in the fitness center (HR cap at 150)
The weather was really bad. It was raw and cold, 46F and overcast. The wind was from the NE which is basically a perfect head wind for the last 2K of the course and blowing 15mph with gusts to 25mph. The last 2K of the course were impossible to row at rate and pressure.
In terms of results, it’s the usual story. I did as well as I could expect but not as well as I would have hoped. I finished 6th or 13 among all master men starters, and 3rd of 4 “D” Class boats. Looking at the other D entrants, this is exactly where I I should have been in the finish order. I would have liked to be closer to the guy in front of me, but his 2K erg is about 8 seconds faster than mine. This earned me a Bronze medal. It’s hard to not think of it as a “second to last” medal.
Honestly, I’m more proud of just getting out on the course and finishing under the conditions than anything.
I was pretty tense about the conditions, and I managed to forget to put on my HR strap, so I don’t have an objective idea about how hard I was working. It felt like I was pushing just about right through the first 3K of the course, but after that, I needed to back off a bit to just keep the boat under control. I managed to pass about 4 or 5 boats and I was passed by one guy. So, I think everyone was struggling under the conditions.
Here are the pace and rate charts.
Here is the course that I took.
I was extremely slow. A 2:21 pace. The fast current shaved about 400m off the course. It’s 5800 meters by GPS and 5400 meters by impeller. So, the river moved 400m in 25 minutes. I figured it out. That is roughly 0.944 km/h. The current in the first half was probably twice that, and much less where the river widens out. It was interesting to see the water swirling around submerged rocks and stuff as I was rowing up to the start.
More details about the race itself. The first 800m or so was with a cross wind and the river was narrow so it was nice flat water. I wanted to hug the bouy line on the north side of the river, but they set the buoys very close to the center of the river and I was forced further to the south bank than I wanted.
In the turn to the east, I went a bit too wide and probably added some distance. This stretch was with a cross/head wind so things slowed down. I steered this part right. Moving over to the south bank ad hugging that turn. As we approached the next turn to the east, the water started to get lumpier, and by the time we made the turn, I thought it was pretty bad.
I stuck to my plan to hug the buoy line on the north side of the course. This was complicated by the fact that some of the markers had dragged a bit onto the course due to a very strong current (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the really fast current!). So, I would have to adjust to stay on the right side of the markers a bit more abruptly than I would have liked.
I had no idea just how good we had it at the beginning of this stretch. The water just got worse and worse, and the wind got more and more crazy as I approached and passed under the bridge. I was whacking the wavetops and crabbing every 6th stroke or so, but I was pounding it out to the end.
Here is the video of the ordeal.
Thinking it over. Here are my take aways from experience.
I let the conditions phase me. I was so preoccupied that I managed to boat without my HR strap. I need to work on focus during the pre-race.
I need to work on rough water rowing. And probably try out some rough water adjustments to my rigging. Moving my oarlocks up to the top limits for conditions like these.
I need to find and do balance drills regularly to improve blade clearance over the water.
Conditioning needs improvement. Next year, I need to be much more diligent about endurance intensity and probably substitute one OTW steady state with a erg steady state session so I can track lactates better.
So, now I have 3 more races. Next weekend is a tune up race on Lake Quinsigamond. The weekend following is HOCR. Then a couple weeks after that is the Merrimac chase. I think the best thing to do now is train enough to maintain where I am and reduce volume to be as fresh as possible for next weekend. This is complicated a bit by a business trip to Munich this week. Oh well.
I got this email from my friends at USRowing yesterday.
So, I guess it’s probably going to be windy!
Today was another chance to get a little wind/chop practice in before the race. I really didn’t have much of a plan, just a thought that I would do a couple of intervals at head race rate and pressure in the parts of the river that had the worst wind and water.
The wind today was blowing more from the West, which is a quartering head wind on the longer stretches. The chop was worse than yesterday and I struggled getting clearance above the wavetops. In the bigger gusts I had a lot of trouble maintaining the rate. The real issue was trying to be very careful about blade placement at the catch before I loaded up. There was a real chance of missing water if I hit a trough wrong.
I ended up doing 2 600m intervals. I was a little low on rate, but the pressure was about right and in the second one, I got more comfortable with getting the blades nice and high on the recovery. It’s nice to know that I still have a lot of opportunities to get better at sculling! I’d hate to think that I’d mastered this sport.
Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
01360_|_07:23_|_2:43.0_|_137___|_18.5_|_09.9_|_127___|_warmup
01200_|_05:38_|_2:21.0_|_139___|_24.6_|_08.6_|_157___|_Main set
00460_|_02:22_|_2:34.5_|_049___|_20.7_|_09.4_|_142___|_rest meters
03360_|_16:40_|_2:28.8_|_351___|_21.1_|_09.6_|_138___|_cool down
06380_|_32:04_|_2:30.8_|_676___|_21.1_|_09.4_|_139___|_Total
Tomorrow: Race Day! My start time is 9:13.
Hourly forecast is for NNE winds 10-15mph
The wind direction is actually more favorable than I feared. Mostly it’s a cross wind and the river width will keep the chop from getting too bad. The last couple of km are a quartering head wind. I think it will pay to hug the north shore as there might be some wind shadow, and the water will be flatter.
Forecast for the weekend is for a brisk headwind, so today, I decided to take advantage of the elements to prepare. It was a blustery fall day today. Temps were in the low 50s and the there was a gusty NNW wind around 10mph gusting up to 15-20 at times. This wind direction is a head wind on the widest, straightest part of the river, so I did my 2 little intervals right into the teeth of it. I also started right at the downwind end of the stretch to get the worst possible chop. Because the river is so shetlered, it wasn;t so bad, but it was noticeably unpleasant to row in.
Plan:
Race style warmup with bursts at increasing stroke rates
2 x 500m with a 5′ or longer rest
pace target: 2K race pace or better .. 2:00 (without wind or waves)
Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
03480_|_18:45_|_2:41.7_|_368___|_19.6_|_09.5_|_136___|_warmup
01000_|_04:20_|_2:10.1_|_125___|_28.8_|_08.0_|_165___|_Main set
01000_|_05:43_|_2:51.4_|_106___|_18.5_|_09.4_|_128___|_rest meters
02200_|_11:46_|_2:40.4_|_233___|_19.8_|_09.4_|_135___|_cool down
07680_|_40:34_|_2:38.5_|_832___|_20.5_|_09.2_|_138___|_Total
That was a challenge. Trying to get the rate up and row cleanly at full pressure was challenge, especially during the gusts. I improved a bit over the 2 intervals getting a bit more clearance and smacking fewer wavetops, but I am still not all that comfortable rowing in chop.
In the first interval, I had to do some abrupt steering to thread the needle between a couple of Brandeis crews and a protruding headland. I think it was more a case of information overload. I was trying to judge where they were, and where the headland was (by the way, this is the place where I nearly ripped the skeg off my boat by cutting it too close once), maintain full pressure, and deal with the wind trying to take my blades and the chop making the catch tricky. I don’t see a solution to that other than more practice in lousy conditions.
I paddled back to the same place to start the next interval. This one was way more controlled and I rowed much better. It was still slow, but for the conditions it was the best that I think I could do. If I have this much headwind, I’ll be lucky to break a 2:20 average split for the race.
Quantified Rowing 