Amazon Fire 7 Tablet to Record all your Concept2 Rows with the ErgData App

After purchasing the Amazon Fire 7 Tablet in ‘Black Friday Week’ it arrived yesterday. Glad to report that the newest generation Fire 7 does work with the Amazon App store Concept2 ErgData App.

Currently Amazon have the Fire Tablet at an amazing £29.99, purchase it by clicking the following link – All-New Fire 7 Tablet with Alexa, 7″ Display, 8 GB, Black

You will also need a USB host cable £3.15 that can also be bought on Amazon here – StarTech.com 5in Micro USB to USB OTG Host Adapter – Micro USB Male to USB A Female On-The-GO Host Cable Adapter

Being an iPhone owner I have wanted to buy the Connect Cable, knowing there were tablets that could do the same job for possibly less money has put me off buying it.

The Fire 7 has great battery life for when you are wanting to do long Erg’s, it also has a 7 inch display so gives all your information in very large font.

Once you have finished your row it is saved and can be uploaded to the Concept2 logbook. You can set up a sync that will then automatically upload the row to Strava.

Concept2 Rowing to Strava

Autumn has arrived and the leaves are collecting on the landing stages of boat clubs around the Northern hemisphere, a lot of rowers will find themselves with less time on water and reluctantly coming back to the iron throne that is the Concept2 Ergo-meter. The bum and leg pain that rowing brings is all the more apparent when you find yourself staring at a brick wall in a pool of your own fluids. A necessary evil to make sure you are fast on the water come spring.

So how can one distract from this discomfort with a bit of data geekery and get your #wattfarming from the Concept2 to Strava. That 30 minute / rate 20 does feel better once you get some kudos on Strava, honest!! 😜💪

Strava does not directly record from the Concept2 to the Strava app, so to get your data across you need to sync or upload your workouts, there are now many ways to this and I shall hopefully list them all below.

What will you need for recording your rowing –
Concept 2 PM5 – This can connect to smart phones/tablets via Bluetooth
Concept 2 PM3 & PM4 – LiveRowing Connect Cable, Concept 2 Connect Kit iOS and Android available. Note some Android phones do not support USB OTG so can not connect with the PM3&4.

Once you have connected your phone to the Concept 2, you can record your row with a number of apps. The app will record and store workout data from your row including split, speed, watts, stroke rate, heart rate (if you are wearing HR monitor), stroke length, some apps even record stroke power curve data.

Concept2’s ErgData – (iOS, Android and Amazon Fire)
BoatCoach (Android)
Painsled (iOS, PC – Google Chrome Browser add on)
LiveRowing – (iOS) They have a nice link up with Strava being a ‘Gym & Studio Sync‘ partner.

Once you have finished rowing these apps can sync to various services. I believe LiveRowing, Painsled and Boatcoach can all directly sync/upload your workout to your Strava account.

ErgData however can only upload your workout to the Concept2 logbook (http://log.concept2.com/). So to get your row to Strava from there you need to set up an automatic sync. Do this first before uploading any of your workouts and then they automatically appear in Strava once they are uploaded. Instructions to set up the link between the C2 Logbook and Strava.

Another really cool way of syncing your workouts from the C2 logbook to Strava is to use @C2_2_Strava and their website – http://p729.com/
This service syncs your workout but also overlays it on to a rowing Strava segment from the real world. Currently saving as a ‘Virtual Ride’ it lets you race Strava segments virtually. So if you fancy a Henley Regatta 2km or a Boston Marathon 50km there is something for you. Its a great way of showing off to all your Strava friends that ‘Zwift’.

Don’t forget for in depth rowing data analysis most of the C2 compatible apps can also upload rowing data to http://www.Rowsandall.com

(I started writing this 7 months ago and had not yet published it so it will be refined and added to)

Concept2 Model D Indoor Rower with PM5 – Black – £860.00
Concept2 Model E Indoor Rower with PM5 – Grey – £1060.00

Rowing with a Garmin Watch, using it to Record Stroke Rate

Running cadence has been part of many GPS watches for sometime but until recently GPS watches have not been able to measure Stroke Rate when rowing.

Garmin watches can offer great rowing specific features, a lot of the newer models are now incorporating rowing cadence ‘stroke rate’ into the standard features of the watch. Even if the watch can not record stroke rate as standard the OS that a lot of Garmin watches use, connect IQ, allows for custom apps to be developed.

When analysing workouts I have found the Strava segments I have completed seeing a stroke rate for these is great to see if Stroke Rate is a fact for why I was quicker in one effort than another.

Strava is a quick way to see an obvious difference in stroke rate, my attempt at the ‘Pooh Sticks’ segment on the left was completed in 1:08 at an average stroke rate of 36 where as the attempt on the right was 1:10 with an average stroke rate of 35. Recording your stroke rate for later analysis can answer questions about why one piece felt good but was slow and another felt bad but was fast. For even further analysis Rowsandall.com can analyse your stroke rate even more accurately to 0.1.

If you Garmin does not have rowing stoke rate measurement as standard the following Connect IQ Apps once installed on your Garmin Watch can measure, display and record stroke rate without any other sensors (please check compatibility) –
Rowing Stroke Connect IQ App – The Rowing Stroke is a data field tailored for rowing. It displays strokes/min. It does not require any sensor to measure strokes/min. The strokes/min is evaluated simply through analysis of the speed variation. The method returns the exact stroke if the stroke has been relatively stable during the last 10 strokes.
Rowing DashBoard – The Rowing DashBoard is a data field tailored for rowing. It displays 4 essential variables: strokes/min, pace/500m, stroke length and heart rate (if HRM is present) in one single data field. It does not require any sensor to measure strokes/min. The strokes/min is evaluated simply through analysis of the speed variation. The method returns the exact stroke if the stroke has been relatively stable during the last 5 strokes.
Rowing Cockpit – This data field displays all necessary parameters for rowers in one field.
Major features:
– Stroke is calculated without the need of an additional device (cadence or foot-pod etc). Need at least 5 stable strokes
– When passing the split distances 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000m the split times are displayed for the additional 150m
– The app detects an U turn and consequently resets the lap.

Uploading to Strava from a Garmin device.

Training on a Concept2 –
There is also an app that can connect your Garmin watch to a Concept 2 PM5 monitor via an Ant+ connection.
Erg IQ (Beta) – ErgIQ will allow you to connect a compatible Connect IQ enabled device with a Concept2 rowing machine. The following is required for this to work:
– supported Connect IQ enabled device, see supported device list;
– Concept2 PM5 running FW v22 or greater;

Below are some great Garmin watches to look at ranging in price from £165 to £500 –
Garmin Forerunner 230 GPS Running Smart Watch
Currently the lowest priced Garmin watch, this watch supports connectIQ apps so the rowing stroke rate can be added.

Garmin Vivoactive HR GPS Smart Watch
I see a lot of uploads to Strava from people using this watch. Unfortunately the wrist based optical HR has not had good feedback from rowers, however it is good for tracking resting heart rate and so how well rested you are.

Garmin Forerunner 235 GPS Running Watch with Elevate Wrist Heart Rate
Like the FR230 but with an added optical HR, maybe a useful feature for people that like to cross train and go running.

Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Multisport and Running Watch
A multi sport watch that has many functions for swimming and cycling. Middle of the road on price which more features over the more basic models.

Garmin Fenix 5 Multisport GPS Watch with Outdoor Navigation and Wrist-Based Heart Rate – Slate Grey with Yellow Band
Garmins premium product it is packed full of features and has a design that makes it a watch you can wear all day.

Garmin Forerunner 935 Bluetooth Black Sport Watch
Almost identical to the Fenix 5 in functions this watch is packed full of features the casing has a sportier design over that of the Fenix 5.

Unfortunately monitoring heart rate whilst rowing with a wrist optical heart rate sensor can be inaccurate to the point of useless. The contraction of the arm muscles means that optical heart rate sensors that are built into watches lose contact with the skin and so do not give a true reading. A heart rate strap is normally needed so be aware of this when ordering your watch.
The Wahoo TICKR Heart Rate Monitor and Wahoo TICKR X have both Ant+ to connect to a Garmin watch and Bluetooth to connect to your phone or PM5.

We have had a good review about the Garmin FR935 in regards to its optical HR monitor and rowing, it would be great to get some more feedback as to how this watch is performing both on the erg and rowing on water.

The Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smartwatch (3rd Gen) has just been released, this has the same optical heart rate unit as the Forerunner 935 so it will be interesting to see how it performs when rowing. The Vivoactive HR (2nd Gen) the predecessor has been very popular with the rowing community as it was one of the first watches to have on the wrist rowing stroke rate calculation as a standard feature.

Kinomap.com, a great way to bring summer rows to the erg room!

A StravaRow follower has just shared with me some of their uploads from http://www.Kinomap.com to Strava. They use Kinomap to virtually row on the concept2 rower seeing the video of the row whilst they complete the course mapped with GPS by someone in the real world.

This is potentially a great way to bring summer sunshine memories in to a cold erg room in the middle of winter. Also potentially a way to introduce crew synchronicity by having each person on the erg following a rower on the screen as you see in the following video – https://www.kinomap.com/embed/m69b9b

Wow look at the water at Lac d’Aiguebelette

This online service could be great for virtual coaches, being able to follow body movements on the erg could really help with a rowers technique. Virtual coaches could record on the water work outs at specific rates so that indoor rowers can then follow those workouts.

Potentially something people can race virtual Strava segments on as well. It appears rows that are recorded using Kinomap.com are uploaded to Strava as virtual rides. These virtual rides can map your speed over virtual Strava segments. There is a support thread that asks Strava to add a ‘virtual row’ option so that they could then be separated from the virtual rides.

So to all those with GoPro’s whilst the sun is out, now is the time to capture some nice hour long rate 18 rows, once Autumn comes be ready to play them back and bring back memories of the summer.

I have not tested the system so I am unsure how the video syncs with the speed you are moving along on the rower and the GPS track. There is a leader board showing how fast people have completed each row.

Concept2 Model D Indoor Rower with PM5 – Black – £860.00
Concept2 Model E Indoor Rower with PM5 – Grey – £1060.00

Tweaking your ‘Strava Name’ to make Strava a little more rowing friendly

Why not a have a little fun with how your name is displayed on Strava.

As Strava currently only lets you chose your primary sport as Running or Cycling. How about adapting your name on Strava so that we can give rowing a bit more of a promotion in the Strava sports community.

Strava have recently activated the use of ’emoticons’ for use in activity titles. You can also use them if you are editing your name on your phone. So as we are rowers why not drop the little rower emoticon into your profile name.

🚣🚣‍♀️

A great way to show that you are a rower or have a love of rowing.

Upper Thames Masters have recently asked me how we could display what club we are from in Strava segment leader boards.  An idea and another tweak to the Strava name would be to get rowers to add their British Rowing Boat Code the name. E.g. If you Row for Upper Thames add ‘UTC’ to the end of your first name. The BR three letter code is on the boats you Row in. This will then show in the name even if you restrict privacy to first name only.

As you can see I have had a play with my own name on Strava –

The easiest way to make these changes are in the Strava app, click on the profile tab at the bottom and then edit at the top, you can then edit your name.

Get your Strava Name Rowified 🚣🏻🚣🏻

Follow me on Strava so that I can give your rows Kudos and find Rowing Strava Segments.

Concept2 Model D Indoor Rower with PM5 – Black – £860.00
Concept2 Model E Indoor Rower with PM5 – Grey – £1060.00

Weekend Round Up – Strava Segments at UK head Races

Loads of events going on in the UK at the weekend, hundreds if not thousands of rowers taking part, well done to all those that raced.

A little round up to see how many rowers are recording their rows with Strava and so registered on the Strava Segments for the head courses. Some great pre/post race crew selfies!

Worcester Head of the River 6km, 6 rowers recorded the race on the Strava segment. The segment looks to be set up for quite an accurate time when compared to the official timing.  The event was offering £100 to the fastest mens crew and £100 to the fastest womens crew. This went to a Worcester/Worcester Uni/Upper Thames RC composite SEN 8+ for the men (18:25.1), and City of Bristol RC W.IM2 8+ for the women (21:05.71).

Henley 4’s and 8’s Head 3km, 14 rowers recorded the race on the Strava Segment. Most also rowing over the HRR Segment.  The 4’s and 8’s segment is also used for Scullers Head, Upper Thames Head, it has been a little off compared to official timing in these. Again this was the case it seems the start of the segment should be moved a little towards the finish. Leander Eli 8+ fastest mens crew of the day (10:23), Tideway Scullers School fastest womens crew of the day (12:06).

Tyne Head 4.5km, currently no Strava segment it appears 2/3 rowers did record the race using Strava but with no segment set up it is a little difficult to see exact numbers. I keep asking people who row the course to set a Strava segment up or email me a copy of their row on the Tyne. I am also looking into how I can set a segment up without any course GPS info. BUCS Head here next weekend. Durham University BC Eli 4- fastest mens crew of the day (15:28.1), Tyne ARC W.IM2 8+ fastest womens crew of the day (17:58.6).

Molesey Veterans Head 2.85km, 8 rowers recorded the race on the Strava Segment. The segment is a little bit too long by about 27 seconds. Molesey BC MasC-D 8+ fastest mens crew of the day (08:50.7), Weybridge RC fastest womens crew of the day (10:27.7).

City of Bristol Winter Head 3.3km & 2.3km,  5 rowers recorded the race on the long course Strava segment. The segment is a little short, there is a longer one but this then appears too long, Both are out by about 25 seconds. The start of Bristol head is near quite a long tunnel this may cause an issue with GPS. The short course has been introduced because of the construction of a new bridge that makes steering quite tricky, there is not segment that represents the shorter course. Plymouth University Eli 8+ was the fastest mens crew of the day (11:15.0), University of Surrey BC W.SEN.4x- was the fastest womens crew of the day (12:37.7).

Greenwich Head 3.5miles, 2 rowers did record the race using Strava but there is no segment set up. The tideway below Tower Bridge is a barren place for Strava segments.  Poplar, Blackwall and District Rowing Club Nov 8+ fastest mens crew of the day (16:06.83), Poplar, Blackwall and District Rowing Club W IM2 4x- fastest womens crew of the day (16:43.6).

How to create a rowing Strava Segment

Concept2 Model D Indoor Rower with PM5 – Black – £860.00
Concept2 Model E Indoor Rower with PM5 – Grey – £1060.00

Rowing ‘The Boat Race’ on a Concept2 Indoor Rower and Strava

@BNYMellon and @NewtonIM have donated their sponsorship of The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races @theboatraces to Cancer Research UK @CR_UK.

This year they have organised ‘The Great Row’ a fund raising challenge taking place #pulltogether @pulltogether to encourage everyone to have a go at indoor rowing and to row any distance between 25th March – 1st April 2017 (Challenge Week).

There are further details of the challenge on the Cancer Research UK website.

The event is also running a Celebrity-Olympian boat race. This will be shown on the same day as the Oxford and Cambridge Boats races. You can watch what appears to be the first training session on the Tideway yesterday.

This brings me on to how anyone taking part in the challenge or just rowing indoors can ‘row on the tideway virtually’. Any Concept2 indoor rower with a PM5 monitor can connect to the Android or iOS ErgData app.
ErgData Concept2 app on iOS
ErgData Concept2 app on Android
The ErgData app lets you record your row stroke for stroke the information is broadcast to the app via a Bluetooth connection to your mobile phone. Once the row is finished it can be uploaded to the Concept2 logbook via the app.

Now using a clever and innovative system from @c2_2_Strava at their website p729.com you can connect your Concept2 logbook account to your Strava.com account. The link between the 3 websites is done using ‘tokens’ so that your account password and user name details are not shared.

Once the two accounts are linked you can set it up so that any rows you record with ErgData on the Concept2 indoor rower can be overlaid on to The Boat Races Strava segment. Andrew who is behind @c2_2_Strava has made the segment virtual and any upload from p729.com is classed as virtual on Strava so the leader board will be people who have also rowed the course on a Concept2 rower. Andrew is currently working on letting people virtually row any of the real world Strava segment Regatta and Head race courses that have been created. For now each course is selected by the distance rowed but going forward you should be able to select the course you wish your workout to be overlaid on to. This will make storing the training log of your indoor rows a whole lot more interesting.

If you are wanting to row the boat race course strava segment set a row on your Concept2 for between 6800m and  7240m, maybe best to enter a 7000m row. Complete this and when the row is synced via ErgData and @c2_2Strava to your Strava account the Strava segment  for the Boat Race course will be automatically calculated. Make sure you add the obligatory C2 Monitor pic and a sweaty selfie close up. Once all done share your row from Strava to twitter @pulltogether, @theboatraces and #pulltogether

The Great Row has set up a club Strava page – https://www.strava.com/clubs/TheGreatRow

If you have a Concept2 with an earlier PM3 or PM4 monitor you will require a cable to connect your phone to use the ErgData app, connection kits can be found here.

Concept2 Model D Indoor Rower with PM5 – Black – £860.00
Concept2 Model E Indoor Rower with PM5 – Grey – £1060.00

Strava Segment Logo for Rowing Clubs

The following Strava logo has been approved by Strava marketing in the UK to be used on rowing club websites to link through to the clubs relevant Strava segment. It is a good way to advertise Strava segments for unofficial regatta timing or the segment that represents a clubs head race course.

I have linked the above logo to the Royal Henley Regatta Strava segment. So when the logo is clicked it takes the person to that Strava segment. It would be easy to do this on most club websites.

There is a list of segments I have been made aware of, so if relevant clubs wish to link to the segment from their website the logo is a good way of doing that.

Any club can use the logo on their website, if they wish to print the logo in any way on a regatta or head race poster it would need approving by Strava marketing in the UK so you would need to contact me for their details.

If you wish to download the logo it can be found here

Garmin watches can sync with a Concept 2 PM5 monitor and record the data of your indoor row with the Erg IQ (Beta) Garmin connect IQ app. When on the water they can also measure stroke rate from the wrist without any need for any other sensors.
Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Multisport and Running Watch – £327.41
Garmin Forerunner 235 GPS Running Watch with Elevate Wrist Heart Rate – £215.99

Concept2 Model D Indoor Rower with PM5 – Black – £860.00
Concept2 Model E Indoor Rower with PM5 – Grey – £1060.00

Henley Royal Regatta Strava Segment

Walking the entire length of Henley Reach on regatta Saturday carrying a heavy picnic in blistering heat doesn’t help at all when one needs the GPS information for the Henley Royal Regatta course. Having never rowed the old course myself (on my bucket list) I could not make a Strava segment on Henley reach…… until this point.

Luckily a Strava user has helped me out and shared a .gpx file with me of their 2016 row.

This has also happened with Peterborough Head, so any one else wanting to have a Strava segment of a head race or regatta and so can share workout files and official timing contact me on twitter.

Great thing when setting up segments with very accurate official timing is you can tweak the segment until you are as close as possible to getting the same time measured. The .gpx file has been created by the rower using a GPS watch. All GPS devices have different sampling rates and varying amounts of data is stored during a workout. With the file supplied it appears that GPS points are stored on the device every 4 seconds. Getting the start and finish in the correct spot is not easy but I have got within 1 second of the official time. For GPS accuracy this may be as close as it can get for Strava segment timing. I may have another go if I get a file with more GPS data but for now it will do.

Now the segment has been created anyone can make use of it. If you have a row at Henley recorded with a GPS device simply upload it to Strava and the segment time will be calculated. If you already have the row on Strava simply edit it and change it to another activity ‘run’ is normally good, save it. Then edit it again and change it back to ‘rowing’ save again and Strava will recalculate all the segments in that activity. You should find the Henley Course segment then shows up.

Due to the stake boat start at Henley the Strava segment may trigger when rowing up past the start. If this happens the Strava activity can be cropped so that the false trigger is deleted, be careful that you do not crop any of the actual row. If you wish to keep the row up to the start splitting the Strava activity may be preferred.

Garmin watches can sync with a Concept 2 PM5 monitor and record the data of your indoor row with the Erg IQ (Beta) Garmin connect IQ app. When on the water they can also measure stroke rate from the wrist without any need for any other sensors.
Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Multisport and Running Watch – £327.41
Garmin Forerunner 235 GPS Running Watch with Elevate Wrist Heart Rate – £215.99

Strava Club Pages – Rowing Clubs

Firstly a plug of StravaRow’s club page.

Strava offers a social media style ‘feed’, listing your activities and the activities of anyone you follow. An extension of the social aspect of Strava is to join Strava clubs, like a club Facebook page the club can be private or public.
There is a club leader board, displaying total training time and distance for cycling, running and swimming.
A club only recent activity feed can be viewed so club members can catch up on other club members training.
Finally there is a discussion section in the club page. This lets you discuss topics as a group, training ideas, club events, hints and tips there is a lot of scope for rowing clubs to use this.

You can see Strava club would be great for rowing clubs if it could only display rowing workout totals as well. This is surely just a slight tweak in the code that programs the page. This is one of the first things Strava could improve when the number of rowers using Strava increases. There is a Strava feedback section that you can vote to get this feature added. On this page there is also reference to a service that can bypass Strava’s limitations with the use of a 3rd party website.

Even with the leader boards not working for rowing there is a growing number of rowing clubs making use of Strava clubs feature –

The most popular is Concept2 it is not clear if this is official or unofficial currently over 170 members. Strava are releasing a Beta Clubs feature for businesses rather than groups of people. It would be great to see British Rowing create an official Strava club.

Cancer Research UK’s ‘The Great Row’ is an example of a charity fund raising event making good use of a Strava club page. The Great Row has its own club page that you can find here – https://www.strava.com/clubs/TheGreatRow

Don’t forget to check out the StravaRow club we are hoping to start to develop the discussion tab on it with helpful feedback.

Garmin watches can sync with a Concept 2 PM5 monitor and record the data of your indoor row with the Erg IQ (Beta) Garmin connect IQ app. When on the water they can also measure stroke rate from the wrist without any need for any other sensors.
Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Multisport and Running Watch – Midnight Blue/Frost Blue
– £327.41
Garmin Forerunner 235 GPS Running Watch with Elevate Wrist Heart Rate and Smart Notifications – Black/Grey – £215.99