Paddling 1x

This is a short clip from last week. This row was a low intensity speed session, as Dan likes to call it. Other coaches in the world might describe it at a steady state row, or a UT2 ss row. Dan despises conformity, though. This particular row it was remarkably calm and I was finding a lot of easy speed. This was a 21 k row, trying to move the boat with very little energy. Boat speed here is about 2.08-2.10 @ 19 spm @ probably 135 HR, about 20 bpm lower than my target HR for aerobic training.

This week in particular it seems as though I am playing with a different deck of cards than years past in the single. Particularly on steady state rows, but not limited to race pieces. On Monday, we went on a 20 k jaunt in singles. I warmed up, per usual, with my feet out, 1/4 feather, and gradually loosened up. After 10 min, I strapped in and started jaunting along with my fellow single scullers along the bends of the lake and back into some beautiful protected sections. I was paying special attention to the stern. Being patient with the front, receiving the boat on the recovery, and slinging it away again. I was being fluid but was definitely stepping more with the legs. Taking time to step and then just make sure the power stayed constant, no slippage. For the next 20 min of rowing, I wondered whether I just have not been connecting my leg drive properly for my entire rowing career? It's possible. In dead calm water, I was holding steady below target HR, 150-155, at 20 spm, at 1.58-2.02 splits. Something maybe I have seen before but never within a sustainable intensity.  I was rowing a simpler, easier, and faster stroke. When correlations between perceived exertion, actual exertion, stroke rate, and speed come together like that you got to try and bottle it. Imprint it the best you can. So I rowed 10 k out, turned and began rowing back home. At that point I wasn't sure whether there was tail current or something which would explain the speed going in that direction. The speed was validated when I started hitting the same splits and HR on the way back.
 The problem people, including myself, run into when trying to row the way I'm describing is that if you miss it, just be a smidgen, you slow the boat down big time. So, rowing with a less precisely timed leg drive can many times result in a more consistent and sometimes greater boat speed. However, those who master this "catch-press timing", as LG calls it, they can do some serious damage to those other crews. It's a fleeting feeling and I am  sure that I have not bottled it yet. Crews that stand out to me that have tapped into this precision of the leg drive: Katrin Rutchow Stomporowski( GER W1x 2004 Olympic Champion by a mile), Xeno Mueller( I don't think I need to tell anyone what Xeno has done, just watch any of his youtube videos...), Ginn/Tompkins, Ginn/Free, AUS M4-.

Athens W1x. Watch her front end in the third 500.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6yHQ9hoJ_E