Metreboard wasteland - help

[webberg]

I had a pop at the work out of the day yesterday which was 20cal x 20 with 20r. Did not go well.

I blew at around 5k (which I've not recorded yet) and felt as weak as a kitten.

I have been doing steady state (for me) 10k to 1 hour sessions. Then a few days away indulging in too much alcohol and good food.

First row back went OK - 13,300 in an hour negative splits. Then yesterday showed me the error of my ways.

So I'm going for a change of plan. The workout of the day always seems to be some version of interval training. SO I'll do that and then a steady state piece to bring overall metreage up to circa 10k to 12k.

So today is 1 min, 2,3,4,3,2,1 with 1 minute easy between them. 16 mins hardish plus 7 mins easy should be north of 5k. Then another 5k easy.

Let's see if the legs are where the head is!

[webberg]

Morning.

Having clawed my way to 45th (as at time of writing) thanks to a friendly rivalry with Eric M I may be forced into a pause.

Getting to that place has seen me pass 8m lifetime recorded and also just over 100k for the present team challenge.

I think however that a weekend gardening - and a particularly reluctant holly plant that had to be removed - means I may have tweaked my knee. I'm quite a coward when it comes to knees, especially the right one, due to having two ACL replacement surgeries on that side. I also had my Covid/flu jabs at the weekend and they might be increasing my aches a little.

So will also be unable to reach 200k for the Fall Team challenge.

All in all, I think a few days away from the machine might be in order before making a final push toward 650k for the season by the time I take my sabbatical starting 1 November. Target remains 1m this season and I'm ahead of the daily metre target by around 30 days so hopefully come January 2025, I'll be motivated again.

Hopefully though just my body reminding me that I'm 67 and not 27 so later in the week I may be able to make some progress.

[ArenT]

I have a local database that has all my csv files from concept2 in it (updated once a day or whenever I want it) and that I can query to create pretty much any analysis or statistics that I want. Lots of predefined queries are defined in a python script, but any ad hoc queries can be executed directly on the database.

Now that is pretty cool. Do you use a Python script using curl or similar to actually download your logbook csv files as well, thus mostly automating the entire process?

To be honest I never really thought about going the full local-database route, even though as a full-time software dev, such things are my daily bread-and-butter.

On the other hand, Ian Bee also shows what fantastic graphs you can make just via your regular spreadsheet software, definitely a "sexy graph".

I'm having a great few months/year; a screenshot of the relevant graphs will tell the story much better than a 1000 words, so I'll attach that. Brief context:

- 2014/2015 worked as PT, in gym a lot, so this was when I first properly got "into" C2 and actually setup a logbook etc.
- 2016-2019 cyclist, bazillion miles outside, meaning not so much other sports/training. In practice this normally meant I did the occasional e.g. 1000m row etc. as a warm-up prior to lifting a few weights etc.
- 2019-2021 outside UK a lot/travel
- 2021-2022 got my home training setup, had a solid consistent routine
- 2023-early this year, various life/work/income complications, lacking routine
- August onward, proper routine, proper focus, proper training again!

(And yes, I got a BikeErg recently, retiring/replacing my old Wattbike).

Whilst we all know that (the correct amount of) intensity also matters a great deal, there is a lot to be said/no substitute for large volume, and cranking the meters in consistently is a great way to guarantee staying in good shape/healthy and fit regardless of what sessions you're actually doing, with the usual caveat of "listening to your body".

Looking at my graph, I should probably do more SkiErg I managed about a 50% ratio in 2021. But not enough hours in the day/evening. Unless I could get up earlier in the morning...

2024-metres.png (68.19 KiB) Viewed 1391 times

[webberg]

Sooo many people with pretty graphs, although I'll observe that they are all males.

Do you ladies not create graphs to track progress?

I'm just about weening myself off thinking that each session I do on the erg needs to be an hour at max speed for that day. Last few sessions have been the C2 workout of the day and then 5k or 30 mins steady pace.

That is fine so long as the blue line on my graph is ahead of the red line (red = average daily to reach 1m after allowing for known period of absence).

My days of being up at 5am to fit in a row are way in the past.

[Iain]

Graham, personally if I did WoD daily I know I would go too hard and compromise my recovery, sticking to PP sessions leaves me room to only do them when I am rested! That 20Cal r20" looks viscious. From experience even 30" is not enough to replenish my alactic reserves and so getting the machine back to pace gets ever harder. Also this is wierd in that it requires the slowest rowers to row the furthest with intervals being ~250M for the faster but 400M for slower people. As a result the pace differential will vary between people. For me it would be 5k pace or so and I would rather do a 5k (that is saying something as this is one of my least favourite Nonathlon distances). Good to provide variety, but unless you have the discipline to do slowly sometimes or you are only rowing 3 times or less per week, I think it is dangerous to make this your default row.

In contrast, I am currently doing 1 PP or similar session a week, at least 1 row of >90 min UT2 and trying to do my goto 15' repeats without rest (typically 4 or 5) at what I hope is current FM pace which I am increasing 5M per 15' (about 0.2S/500M) per week.

To get back to topic, Oliver who I have been chasing on the Meterboard has really pushed on through the Autumn challenge increasing rows by 25% and taking less day's off. Will be a struggle to catch him if he keeps this up and I don't stand much chance of catching him in the Autumn Challenge after missing the first 3 days!

[bierik]

I have a local database that has all my csv files from concept2 in it (updated once a day or whenever I want it) and that I can query to create pretty much any analysis or statistics that I want. Lots of predefined queries are defined in a python script, but any ad hoc queries can be executed directly on the database.

Now that is pretty cool. Do you use a Python script using curl or similar to actually download your logbook csv files as well, thus mostly automating the entire process?

Everything is in a Python project, the download is done via subprocess and then wget (with an appropriate cookies.txt), the update/inserts are then handled automatically. The data is stored in a flat table in postgres, indexed by the log_id that's in the csv file). I have lots of different query options built into a command line application. I mostly use it to query stats within a certain time period (year, season, month). This here is what I get when I run the query without any parameters:

all.png (161.94 KiB) Viewed 1344 times

It gives stats about a list of predefined distances and times, and an aggregate summary of a couple of key values since I started rowing back in 2008.
I can also query all trainings within a given time period and plot them (with matplotlib). Having your data in a database gives you endless possibilities to look at your workouts.

[ArenT]

Looks great bierek. Postgres is undoubtedly the best all-round database, but I'm assuming you already have this RDBMS running for other dev work or suchlike, as I was more expecting you to say that the database would be SQLite for a local application.

Your project makes me think there might be a really solid basis for a nice FOSS/GPL based command-line "Concept2" stats tool (e.g. for the full family of RowErg/SkiErg/BikeErg). Would be something I'd be interested in collaborating on in my spare time. Looks like you've already built all the main functionality there, so perhaps just a bit of CLI jazz/colours, and "one command setup" for new installations/users (e.g. perhaps using a self-contained format such as SQLite to avoid the user having to provision a full on RDBMS on their system), and it'd be a really really nice option for new users that are sufficiently tech savvy to be able to type a few commands. Incidentally I'm a GNU/Linux / Unix type/user Could integrate with something like the amazing "remind" command line calendar tool to generate nice calendar displays (unless you've already implemented that).

Anyway, just musing

[bierik]

I do have several Postgres databases locally, so choosing it for the concept2 data was easy. I integrated support for sqlite3 today. It took two lines of code in the db connection layer since the queries themselves are db-agnostic . The script for creating the table in sqlite3 needed one tweak as well (BIGSERIAL PRIMARY KEY -> INTEGER PRIMARY KEY).
The project was built to suit my needs, and has grown organically as I added new functionality. However, I think that it would not take that much effort to put an onboarding feature into it and to have some sort of config file. I won't add any GUI to it, though. I've been using Linux for more than 25 years now and still do most my work on the command line.

[ArenT]

I've been using Linux for more than 25 years now and still do most my work on the command line.

Amen to that! I'm the same, in fact my journey with GNU/Linux (+ FreeBSD) dates back to about 1998, so about the same as you. Have been running Debian 12 last couple of years, and Fedora before that.

[dansims22]

Jon,

There seems to be a bit of a math problem with the Meterboard "Day Mean" column when you look at a previous date. Today's "Day Mean" would be calculated by dividing total meters by 175. That works fine. But if I look at a meterboard from 1 week ago, the "Day Mean" should be the 7 days ago total meters divided by 168, but what gets displayed is 7 days ago total meters divided by "175"...

Maybe this is a known issue and too tedious to bother with, but I just noticed it today and thought I'd mention it.

[JonT]

Jon,

There seems to be a bit of a math problem with the Meterboard "Day Mean" column when you look at a previous date. Today's "Day Mean" would be calculated by dividing total meters by 175. That works fine. But if I look at a meterboard from 1 week ago, the "Day Mean" should be the 7 days ago total meters divided by 168, but what gets displayed is 7 days ago total meters divided by "175"...

Maybe this is a known issue and too tedious to bother with, but I just noticed it today and thought I'd mention it.

Nobody has spotted that. This code pre-dates me and is a bit of a labyrinth. If I get a chance I will have a look at some point.

Jon

[Iain]

Noticed it for very old meterboards where metres divided by multiple years. I just assumed that it defaulted to the current year.

[JonT]

There seems to be a bit of a math problem with the Meterboard "Day Mean" column when you look at a previous date. Today's "Day Mean" would be calculated by dividing total meters by 175. That works fine. But if I look at a meterboard from 1 week ago, the "Day Mean" should be the 7 days ago total meters divided by 168, but what gets displayed is 7 days ago total meters divided by "175"...

Maybe this is a known issue and too tedious to bother with, but I just noticed it today and thought I'd mention it.

Well I've now found the bug. It does indeed just use the difference in days between the current date and start of season as the denominator. Now I just need to find where the 'selected' date is held and use that. Don't hold your breath!

[Duckrunner]

I've just been reading through the thread, and it's good to see people still about from when I bought my Concept2 in 2007 in New Zealand.

Alan (Strider) I was sorry hear about your stroke I think you and my son in law Tom Houghton used to chase each other back in the day. I hope you are still moving forward in your recovery mate.

Back in UK now and I need the meter board for motivation. I usually row for about a couple of hours on 4 days of the week but will do more in the big competitions after Christmas and the Military challenge of course which is a press gang for the Royal Marines Team.

I try to do 15k on rowing days which can be any thing really. I often do the WOD in the 70 to 79 group,I am 76 and can turn a good time in and be thrashed by people at 79.

I am still fairly fit and put that down to regular rowing and go the a gym three times a week to lift some weights.i am interested in making myself stronger to help protect against injuries from falls. Not that I am prone to them but I have had a couple through stupidity but fortunately escaped with a only couple of bruises.

I live on my own since my dear wife passed away in New Zealand in 2013 so I can row or go to the gym whenever I want too.

Currently sitting at 18th on the metre board being hounded by Kirby Tillotson who seems row every day.

I like the current challenge as it certainly gets one in shape for Christmas and allows a little leeway for the luxuries of the Season.

I don't expect to be in my current metreboard position at the end of the season but you. Ever know.

[Duckrunner]

I've just been reading through the thread, and it's good to see people still about from when I bought my Concept2 in 2007 in New Zealand.

Alan (Strider) I was sorry hear about your stroke I think you and my son in law Tom Houghton used to chase each other back in the day. I hope you are still moving forward in your recovery mate.

Back in UK now and I need the meter board for motivation. I usually row for about a couple of hours on 4 days of the week but will do more in the big competitions after Christmas and the Military challenge of course which is a press gang for the Royal Marines Team.

I try to do 15k on rowing days which can be any thing really. I often do the WOD in the 70 to 79 group,I am 76 and can turn a good time in and be thrashed by people at 79.

I am still fairly fit and put that down to regular rowing and go the a gym three times a week to lift some weights.i am interested in making myself stronger to help protect against injuries from falls. Not that I am prone to them but I have had a couple through stupidity but fortunately escaped with a only couple of bruises.

I live on my own since my dear wife passed away in New Zealand in 2013 so I can row or go to the gym whenever I want too.

Currently sitting at 18th on the metre board being hounded by Kirby Tillotson who seems row every day.

I like the current challenge as it certainly gets one in shape for Christmas and allows a little leeway for the luxuries of the Season.

I don't expect to be in my current metreboard position at the end of the season but you never know.

[strider77]

Great to hear from you Chris and thank you for your kind words. I remember you with particular affection as we both had a rowing pal in common the late great Bill Wright who would have won Crash Bs World Champs when at his peak when his back seized whilst he was in the lead.

Keep on metre crunching, we might not be the fastest rowers in our 70's but we can still crank out some metres !

[Duckrunner]

Great to hear from you Chris and thank you for your kind words. I remember you with particular affection as we both had a rowing pal in common the late great Bill Wright who would have won Crash Bs World Champs when at his peak when his back seized whilst he was in the lead.

Keep on metre crunching, we might not be the fastest rowers in our 70's but we can still crank out some metres !

The late great Bill Wright,an absolute legend in the Royal Marines and later in life in the indoor rowing world. I have an email from him describing his tactics in his first major competition the Welsh National I think...Bill said he listened to all the different tactics being thrown about and decided to just hit the front fast and stay there... which he did by the time the other rowers realised he was not fading as he hit 1500m it was too late to catch him. Very fit guy and a great character.

I agree with you about not being the fastest but I can still keep going.. depends on the movie I have on the TV..

[Mike Channin]

It's great to see you guys on here, Alan and Chris! Might even have inspired me to get back on the machine today...