WNov8+ comparison: Spring Regatta v Scot Champs

Reading in the data

The .fit data for each event has been extracted from Garmin Connect. The data span the following times (this includes the warm up/row to the start line and cool down):

race date time
SPR 2023-04-23 15:11-15:52
Scot Champs 2023-06-04 11:44-12:31

Here is a map of both activities:

Identifying where the race starts and ends

I have to guess where the races start and end.

The start is identified by the biggest increase in speed. The end is identified by the biggest decrease in speed and rating that occurs at or beyond the race distance.

The inferred start/end points are shown as red dots on the maps below.

Comparison of speed

How did our speed compare in both races?

Find below the speed (m/s) as captured throughout each race. In addition to the individual datapoints, I have calculated averages for three phases of each race: the start (0m-350m), middle (350m-699m) and end (700m-end).

The average speed (in m/s) in each phase is shown below:

race 0-350 350-700 700-1050 Overall
Scot Champs 4.59 4.28 4.14 4.24
SPR 4.44 4.17 4.02 4.15

The same data expressed in 500m splits is shown below:

race 0-350 350-700 700-1050 Overall
Scot Champs 1:49 1:57 2:01 1:58
SPR 1:53 1:60 2:04 2:00

Comparison of rating

How did our rating compare in both races?

Find below the rating (spm) as captured throughout each race, summarised to the same three phases.

race 0-350 350-700 700-1050 Overall
Scot Champs 35.4 33.5 31.9 33.8
SPR 36.2 33.1 32.3 34.2

Comparison of ‘efficiency’

To generate some measure of efficiency, I have calculated the speed divided by the rating. We want this value to be high: more speed for less “effort” (rating being used as a proxy for effort here).