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Last night at the CRAP ride there was a big, fun crowd, so I stuck around to chat for a bit and have a beer. I can't say I regretted it for a minute, but it meant that I went to bed late and had to drag myself out of bed and to the boathouse this morning. K was dragging a bit as well (the torpid humidity didn't help), but we managed to get out and put in some solid piece work anyway. With all of the nonsense that has been going on with my shoulder, we spent a good part of the summer playing it by ear and just getting in whatever work we could manage. But now our next major goal looms on the horizon--Australia in mid-October--and it's time to buckle down and focus more directly on race preparation.
The rowers out there will recognize our routine as fairly standard-issue stuff: we did a set of ten-minute pieces, with five minutes of rest in between. We reinstalled the stroke coach on the boat about a week ago, which provides us with an estimate of our split (time required to travel 500m), a timer, and our stroke rate (number of strokes per minute). Before we reinstalled the stroke coach, most of the pieces that we did were at whatever stroke rating seemed comfortable or appropriate (that would include 500-m pieces, 1000-m pieces, steady-state long-distance laps, or power pyramids). That was fine for the time, but as I rode over to the boathouse this morning I started thinking more about the benefits of rowing at a relatively slow, controlled cadence.
Slower stroke ratings force us to work on the mechanics of the rowing stroke, and they aid with the strength training portion of rowing. At a slower stroke rating, each part of the motion of the rowing stroke takes a little bit longer, so it's harder to hide incorrect or uncoordinated movements. The boat also has more time to slow down in between strokes, which means that the initial load at the catch (initiation) of each stroke is heavier. A couple of the sculling coaches who have led workshops in Tempe actually said that they make some of the elite scullers row almost exclusively at low stroke ratings for much of the early portions of their training, adding on the speed work closer to race day.
The standard ten-minute pieces that we completed are actually progression pieces--we start out at a relatively slow stroke rating for four minutes (20 or 22 spm), and then increase the stroke rating just two beats per minute in a controlled manner for the subsequent three minutes, then two minutes, then one minute. As we get closer to racing, that final minute will be a stroke rating that's above our base racing cadence (which will ideally be somewhere between a 28 and 32, depending on what's most efficient for us).
Anyway. Because I sit in the stroke seat, I set the pace for the boat and coordinate our efforts when we need to shift the stroke rating. And it was just plain fun to get back into that mode.
--
Other than that, it's going to be a busy day with respect to running around and doing things and stuff and such. There's a Tempe bike committee meeting to attend, then some ceramics items to run down and pick up, Ladies' Night at the Bike Saviours, plus a member meeting after Ladies' Night. So I may just end up napping under my cubicle at some point today. It's going to be rough when I have to break the cubicle-napping habit due to the return of the Very Important Academic Figure who walks past my cubicle frequently on his way to and from his office.
The rowers out there will recognize our routine as fairly standard-issue stuff: we did a set of ten-minute pieces, with five minutes of rest in between. We reinstalled the stroke coach on the boat about a week ago, which provides us with an estimate of our split (time required to travel 500m), a timer, and our stroke rate (number of strokes per minute). Before we reinstalled the stroke coach, most of the pieces that we did were at whatever stroke rating seemed comfortable or appropriate (that would include 500-m pieces, 1000-m pieces, steady-state long-distance laps, or power pyramids). That was fine for the time, but as I rode over to the boathouse this morning I started thinking more about the benefits of rowing at a relatively slow, controlled cadence.
Slower stroke ratings force us to work on the mechanics of the rowing stroke, and they aid with the strength training portion of rowing. At a slower stroke rating, each part of the motion of the rowing stroke takes a little bit longer, so it's harder to hide incorrect or uncoordinated movements. The boat also has more time to slow down in between strokes, which means that the initial load at the catch (initiation) of each stroke is heavier. A couple of the sculling coaches who have led workshops in Tempe actually said that they make some of the elite scullers row almost exclusively at low stroke ratings for much of the early portions of their training, adding on the speed work closer to race day.
The standard ten-minute pieces that we completed are actually progression pieces--we start out at a relatively slow stroke rating for four minutes (20 or 22 spm), and then increase the stroke rating just two beats per minute in a controlled manner for the subsequent three minutes, then two minutes, then one minute. As we get closer to racing, that final minute will be a stroke rating that's above our base racing cadence (which will ideally be somewhere between a 28 and 32, depending on what's most efficient for us).
Anyway. Because I sit in the stroke seat, I set the pace for the boat and coordinate our efforts when we need to shift the stroke rating. And it was just plain fun to get back into that mode.
--
Other than that, it's going to be a busy day with respect to running around and doing things and stuff and such. There's a Tempe bike committee meeting to attend, then some ceramics items to run down and pick up, Ladies' Night at the Bike Saviours, plus a member meeting after Ladies' Night. So I may just end up napping under my cubicle at some point today. It's going to be rough when I have to break the cubicle-napping habit due to the return of the Very Important Academic Figure who walks past my cubicle frequently on his way to and from his office.
