I guess there is only one or two practices left before leaving to Portland. The workout and some advised for the race are below:
Day1 ) Warm up for 30min. 1 x 1000m Racing rate (Standing start + transition into the racing pace + body of the race. Find your rhythm before 500m. After 500m do 3 x Power 8 moves transitioning back to the pace. 1 x 500m / 1 x 250m (Running start. Base rate 30, 3 shifts. strokes for rate shifts)
- 1 x 1000m Racing rate (Standing start + transition into the racing pace + body of the race. Find your rhythm before 500m. After 500m do 3 x Power 8 moves transitioning back to the pace. 1 x 500m / 1 x 250m (Running start. Base rate 30, 3 shifts. strokes for rate shifts).
- 1 x 500m. Side by side. Standing start. Hold the race pace steady. The rate should be 2 bits higher than for the 1000m piece.
- 1 x 250m. Running start. Base rate 30, 3 rate shifts.
When you are in Portland. A couple of things to consider:
1) Make sure you have a good warm up going to the start line. Your warm up is steady with technical work, power pieces at R18, R24, R28, then pieces at a higher rate to get your bodies ready for the racing pace.
2) Getting to the start line. Really make sure you have a good line. The last thing you need to have is a bad course right off the start.
3) Be patient building power for the first 3-4 strokes. You don't' have to win the race right there spinning the wheels as fast as you can. Focus on applying the pressure onto the foot plate, connect the face of the blade to the water and then start building your rate up.
4) After you complete your start sequence (3 power +5 to build rate up + 4 to lengthen), start making the transition into the racing pace. The transition takes about 40 seconds or 25 strokes (+/- 1 stroke). The rate will be high for the first 10-12 stroke but then you need to lengthen recovery and apply even more pressure to the foot plate. By doing that you will change the ratio to positive which helps to lengthen the distance per stroke. Again, DO TRANSITION after the start sequence.
5) During the body of the race, if you do any power pieces (like power 6, power 8 or power 10), do not forget to transition properly i.e. gradually back to your race pace. Everyone can do power 10 bu not every one can get back to the pace without dropping the speed.
6) Last 250m. Remember about those 30 sptroke pieces we did for the last several weeks.
