Excited to share this episode of the Faster Podcast, this time with Dr Charlie Simpson.
Charlie is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science at Oxford Brookes University and well known for his publications. The Complete Guide to Indoor Rowing and Advanced Rowing.
In this episode, Charlie and I cover the following topics and a lot more…
Defining training intensity
The holy trinity in training intensity; heart rate, RPE and power
Key training zones to pay attention to
Lactate testing
How to set up your season and week for training
Nutrition and hydration strategies
The Big 5 supplements that can make a real impact on performance
It’s a long episode (99-mins) and perfect for a long indoor endurance session.
The Complete Guide to Indoor Rowing, is the first comprehensive book to focus on this unique form of strength-endurance training. It is aimed at serious athletes, outdoor rowers and normal gym users.
Advanced Rowing , brings together a selection of leading experts in the sport of rowing, including international head coaches from New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and Denmark, who have all coached crews to World and Olympic medals. Distinguished club and university coaches contribute from across the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. Between them, these coaches work with the top national level athletes in their countries and specialize in preparing them to an international competitive standard.
Books recommended by Charlie
Wanted rowing coach by Brad Lewis
Assault on Lake Casitas by Brad Lewis
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
Thank you to our Faster podcast supporters: Precision Hydration, Bont Rowing, Filippi Boats and Citius Remex seat pads. These companies want to support Masters Rowers to go Faster and offer exclusive benefits to my newsletter subscribers. To gain access to exclusive bonus offers, ensure you subscribe to my newsletter.
Success loves preparation, and it’s not uncommon to see athletes heading into the last months of the year, without a clear goal for the next year, and an understanding of what they need to do to achieve their goals. With the off season in Europe and America and with at least 6-months to racing in most of the world, we have an opportunity, to reflect on results from 2022, what went well and what can be improved for next year. Question is, will you take time to reflect and plan?
I thought I’d share the approach I use, along with the approaches from super successful masters athletes and coaches, with the intention of inspiring and even challenging you, in your approach to setting up, and preparing for the year ahead.
First, take some time off
Many rowers feel that they shouldn’t take a break at the end of the season. I like to take at least 3-weeks off, and sometimes 4-weeks. Rest the body and mind. Build up an appetite to get back in the boat, gym and ergo, to train through the off season. I use this time to build up my reserves, and to reflect what I need to do to go faster next year.
Review the year
Take some time to reflect on the year to date. What did you do this year, and how has it worked out?
What I review
Total training hours vs. prior year
Total annual training stress score (TSS) and total TSS in the last 8-weeks leading to a target race vs. plan vs. prior year
Percentage of time spent in high vs. low intensity vs. target
Number of strength sessions and progression in power to weight
Online and actual regattas, how’d you go? What were your results?
What blocked you and what would you do differently in hindsight?
New things you tried out during the year. Technique or equipment, how’d it go?
S Seiler & E Tonnessen (2009)
Some points to consider in reviewing the year
How did you do on the basics; sleep, nutrition and training consistency?
Did you complete all the sessions you planned, or did you miss some due to injury, fatigue or work etc…
Did you advance your technique (ergo & boat) to go faster? It’s noticeable at all intensities/power output, when rowers improve their technique. How’d you go? Are you getting the right advice? Have you consulted someone to help you? Are you focusing on the improvement or did you just go through the motions.
Did your aerobic efficiency improve over time? e.g. more power (watts) at your aerobic threshold. Did you measure this?
Did you improve your power at your anaerobic threshold?
Did your power and strength improve with training? Is this something you track and manage?
So What! Identify areas for improvement
Now that you have the what identified, i.e. data points from the season, a good question to consider is, so what? With good data from the year, you can start making informed decisions, on where to focus in the year ahead.
In my interview with multiple HOCR winner, Greg Benning, this is what he had to say about planning the year.
Goal #1: Do it better every year
Accretive: Start with prior year, try new stuff, keep best ideas
Incremental Gains: Keeping a list of strengths, weaknesses, measuring
Faster podcast interview with Greg Benning (2020)
If your power fades and you can’t last in a race, you may need to spend time building your aerobic base?
If you find that your power to weight has decreased, it will be time to get into the gym and build the strength over the months of Nov – Jan.
You have good times on the ergo yet this doesn’t translate to speed on the water in comparison to your peers. Time to get some technical advice and engage a coach.
Use the off season to invest
I use the time now to plan forward for next year, with a strong focus on what I need to do in the off season, to be ready for the base training in 4-months time.
Systems and tools to help me track and analyse performance
Getting crystal clear on the main target events, and how these fit around family and work
Identify clearly the gaps I need to close and the plan to close them
Planning out the main training phases.
Complete a strength and power block. Targeting an increase in lean muscle mass, before the high volume endurance work starts
Close the gaps in weak areas. For example, I may want to work on a specific area for strength improvement or flexibility.
Review and Plan are key aspects of success in life, business and sport. I hope that some of the points I have raised, challenge and inspire you, to review what you have done, and identify areas that will help you to go faster.
I am very lucky to live only 2 hours drive away from Lucerne and what the locals call ‘God’s Lake’ the Rotsee. So when World Rowing came to town, twice, it was a great opportunity to go and watch what the world’s best row, and share some observations from the two weekends of great racing.
Great organisation around weather & viruses
Moving the finals at the FOCR. The finals were planned for the Monday, always a strange arrangement, yet the weather conspired to bring the finals forward to the Sunday. Superb collaboration between the Lucerne regatta organisation and the Meteo team. The predicted weather that would’ve resulted in unfair racing early on, they debated, decided and took the decision fast. Unlucky for the TV crews that were unable to set up a day in advance, yet superb organisation for the athletes and teams.
The COVID-19 plan was clear to all attending and well executed. Athletes and teams were in front of the rowing centre with uninterrupted access to the water. The entire area was cordoned off, with all athletes requiring their accreditation to enter the area, and a laser temperature scan at the two entry points. Unfortunately for locals that wanted to watch, there were no big screens and no food stalls. That said, the Rotsee is an ideal place for a picnic and most spectators were watching the action on their phone up until 750m to go and then it was full HD Live action in front! Nice commentary from Martin Cross.
Boats & Equipment
Over the course of watching all the heats and finals, and after peering through the security fence into the boat yard, I was surprised to only see three different makes of boats in the finals. Filippi, Empacher and Hudson. I only saw one Hudson boat over the regatta (maybe I missed another) used to great effect to finish 2nd in the woman’s single scull final A. Empacher appears to be the choice by most nations for the eights, however more and more nations are choosing Filippi, with 104 boats, 61% of boats used in World Cup II and 69% of total medals (31) with crews rowing in a Filippi.
I noticed more and more stroke coaches being used by different a crew members in the boat. No longer reserved for the cox or the stroke, you can see the stroke coach strapped the the stroke man’s rear wing rigger for the bowman in the Romanian men’s pair, and just in front of the coxswain in the Dutch eight.
Use of the stroke coach throughout the boats. Photos taken from World Rowing live feed 2021.
Riggers
Rigger set up in the men’s eight final (what a race), the German & Netherlands crews were using the rear carbon wing and the winning crew, GB using a front carbon wing, with rear carbon support. The GB crews used the same set up in both their fours. Surprisingly, the Italian men’s four decided on a front aluminium wing set up, the only boat in the race to do so. On closer inspection in the boat park, Filippi are making a big statement with their new carbon wing design. This new design looks to be thinner and very aerodynamic.
Different rigger materials and location. Photos taken from World Rowing live feed 2021.
Integrated cables
The newer boats appear to be integrating cables and rudder mechanisms under the deck. Looks very tidy and must help with aerodynamics, and save the cables catching on boat trailers and storage racks. It looks like boat manufacturers are following the lead of road bike manufacturers, with tighter cable management and integration. Would make sense.
Steering cables integrated below deck on the Dutch woman’s 4- and Romanian men’s 2-. Photos taken from World Rowing live feed 2021.
Shoes
Boat manufacturers are taking on the BOA fixation system, first started by Bont Rowing and borrowing from cycling technology, now with Empacher bringing out their own version (made in Italy) and soon Filippi. This makes sense to me, as the BOA system helps to secure the foot in place, more so than laces or Velcro, and designed correctly, the release system is very effective.
Fins
Most of the crews were using the classical aluminium fin, and not the thinner elliptical fin. This fascinated me, as the Rotsee is known for its calm and fast following conditions with very little waves. According to the Australian Boatman, Mr Urs Graff, some of the crews were feeling the effects of the side wash from the returning TV crew boats and umpire boats. The wash was disturbing them, hence the choice to swap out the elliptical dagger fin for the more conventional aluminium fin.
Blades
Didn’t see many crews using the new Comp Blades from Concept2. In fact these blades we the unicorns at both regatta. It looked like most crews were sticking to the tried an tested Crocker oars or Concept2 blades, with a high proportion or crews using the skinny shaft option. Reviewing Dr Kleshnev’s data on the wind resistance of regular oar shafts vs. the wind cheating skinny’s, (see below) the advantage over 2,000m is about 2-3 seconds with the Skinny shaft.
Peter (Pete) Hardcastle, is well known in Australian and World Rowing. Pete represented Australia at the Sydney, Athens and Beijing Olympic Games in different boat classes. After the olympics, Pete moved to the UK in 2008. where he coached at Dulwich College, Emanuel School and London Rowing Club, and coached the men’s four at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in 2014. In 2017, Pete joined Imperial College as the Head of Rowing and in his first season at Imperial, he coached the crew that won the Prince Albert Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.
Pete is an amazing athlete, and still continues to amaze mere mortals, with his Ironman Triathlon exploits, and marathon running. In this episode, Pete and I explore what got him into rowing, and how he progressed to the U23 World Championships and then the Elite team under 4-years. We talk about personal motivation, and challenging others to explore what is possible. We review what is really going on with some of the rapid crews we are watching today, and he shares his tips on how to get yourself ready to race as well as preparing your race mindset.
This podcast is supported by, Precision Hydration, Bont Rowing, Filippi Boats and Citius Remex seat pads. For more information about our supporters, and to gain access to exclusive bonus offers, ensure you subscribe to my newsletter.
Over the last 12-months, I have tried out different boat brands, (check out the Filippi vs Nelo article) and always come back to Filippi for shear speed, performance, quality of build, and style. Over the course of the last 3-years, I’ve enjoyed success with the F22, and planned to simply continue. Then David Filippi shared with me, the new performance features for the 2021 models, then it was clear, an upgrade was in order. The features David shared with, sound really exciting, both from a performance and design aspect. More about these new features in late January 2021.
I invite you to join me as I follow David’s team at Filippi Boats, as the build my new 2021 F22 single scull over the next few months. Together, with the team at Filippi, we will be following the process from start to finish.
The first step will be choosing the final colour. My current F22 is all black, although ascetically pleasing, the boat suffers in direct sun, with the all-black surface heating up. There was always the risk of damage to the materials if the boat is not covered and out of direct sun.
I have selected the following colours for the boat. Which one do you like best? You can vote for one of the three colours below on the Masters Facebook Group.
The final colour will be accented with the classic Filippi white stripe.
Stay tuned and subscribed to my newsletter to follow the build, and for more information on the new performance features released in 2021.
Insights into how rowing has evolved over the decades
Really excited to share with you, my conversation with Noel Donaldson. Noel is widely recognised, as one of the world’s most successful rowing coaches. He has held posts as the head coach at the Victorian Institute of sport winning countless King’s Cup races, Elite Development, Head Coach and high-performance director at Rowing Australia, as well as the head coach for Australia and then New Zealand Rowing.
Victoria King’s Cup Crew, Australia
Oarsome Foursome (1992)
Oarsome Foursome (1996)
Ginn & Tompkins (2004)
Perhaps best known as the coach of the “Oarsome Foursome” from Australia winning gold medals at both the 1992 and 1996 Olympics and coach of the outstanding ‘Kiwi Pair’ to three consecutive Gold medals, including a double gold in 2014 in the M2- and M2+.
With so much experience and building winning teams, and crews over the years, I thought it would be nice to have a conversation with Noel and get his insights into how rowing has evolved over the years, across some different themes.
Technique
Approach to training and preparation
Equipment
Join Noel and I, as we talk about how rowing has evolved over the decades. Click on the button to go to the Faster podcast. Like and subscribe, so you never miss an episode.
Precision Hydration: So after a whole heap of time sweating on ergos and bike ergs over the lock down period, I started to do some research on hydration and the impact on both training and racing performance. I came across a company called ‘Precision Hydration’ via a sports science podcast, and I just did their sweat test. Will let you know how this goes, my sweat test results, and what this means for me.
Bont PBR1 Rowing shoes: Received a pair of Bont’s new rowing shoes this week. Excited to try them out, especially to see how they feel compared to their other models, and how the BOA closure system goes in the rowing environment. I’ve used the BOA closure system on cycling shoes and winter sports. Let’s see how this goes.
