Are average power calculations on the roadmap for Garmin on-water rowing sessions? Garmin does not provide power for on-water workouts so I am hoping Athletica can provide this important metric using data from Garmin on-water rowing sessions.
My current rowing power profile is not including any of my on-water rowing session from the past 4 months. I am getting the same feedback from the AI coach regarding my rowing power profile since starting with Athletica over 6 months ago.
How are you measuring power on-water, @Fracmo ?
Hello Marjanna,
I have not been entering an average power value for on-water rowing sessions.
However, I have tried using stats from the Garmin Row activity to determine joules then get an average power (watts). I think this is not providing an accurate value though.
When I manually enter the values I get using this approach into Athletic, the load value for the session decreases significantly from the load value calculated with no average power entered. I just leave the average power field blank and accept what Athletic has calculated. I find that the difficult part of this approach is converting the stats from the session into an accurate value for energy(joules) for the session. I think my approach may be to simple?
Average Power (P)=Total Time (t)Total Energy (E)​
I have used GPT as well with the following stats from the Garmin session:
Total duration, average moving pace/500m, total strokes, average moving speed km/hr, average HR, average respiration rate, total calories. GPT also adds a drag coefficient for a heavyweight single. Despite all of these inputs I still get results that seem too high or too low with GPT on an endless loop of possibilities of how to calculate average power!
C2 erg power and splits are always higher/lower than on-water rowing so trying to make a correlation probably does not make sense either.
Thanks for help!
Thank you for the explanation, @Fracmo
Maybe @SoCal1x or @Roylerow has an idea here? How are you measuring your on-water load?
MJ
Before you read, the upshot is that I don’t track power on water. I did look into Xboat this morning (available this fall at…yikes…$1,900 and I’m not sure if that’s for one oarlock or two), having been prompted by a reddit.com/r/rowing thread over the weekend. Reviews of the NK oarlocks are not promising (I believe another Athletica rower uses them, though I can’t seem to find the related post…)
Given the “some assembly required” aspects of on-water rowing (getting to the boathouse, lowering the boat, the session, wash/wipedown, store the boat…phew!), I tend to reserve on-water sessions solely for steady-state work, with an occasional tempo session mixed in if pressed for time on a work morning.
All that to say that I do not track power on the water. On-water sessions are obscured even further by the variability of tide flows (pace and direction), windspeed, water depth, relative chop, boat activity, route choice, etc. So, I basically just leave those sessions be what they are after the fact and enjoy the benefit of breaking up the workout week.
I have not the relative effort Athletica calculates for the effort, as I generally am in a triathlon-focused training plan. Seems most platforms, though, treat rowing sessions (per a vague recollection from such reviews) as somewhat less intensive than a similar RPE cycling session.
Thanks MJ and SoCal1x for the feedback! I have looked at the NK oarlock but hard for me to justify the price for my 1x even when it is on sale. Xboat is even more out the question!
I agree with the variability of rowing on-water. I am fortunate to have quick access to a great body of water in Northern Va that minimizes the variability quite a bit. My plan was to add power to workouts that have little to no wind, water chop, etc. Like most full-time rowers I get on the water as much as possible 5-6 times a week March-November (weather permitting) so I feel like with Athletic I can build a solid rowing power profile. I have not been on an erg since April or so.
@Marjaana
My original post was based on the assumption that Athletic needs power stats to generate the power profile for a given modality. Is there anyway to look at all of my rowing sessions to see if they can be factored into the profile? My current profile only uses 41 sessions and none of the sessions are from the last six weeks or six months ( I get a message that “No matching sessions are found”. Could it be a bug or something wrong with my profile specifically.
Thanks again to both of you for taking the time to respond!
Dear @Fracmo
yes, to generate power profile, Athletica would need power readings from your device. If you have no power meter, there is no way to generate a power profile. I don’t think your method of inferring average power for any given session from kJ data would work. I believe your on-water rowing load is calculated from your HR and duration data instead.
Do you have power profile from indoor rowing only?
MJ
Yes, I believe the rowing power profile is only using my indoor rowing sessions as those are the only sessions with power stats.
My on water sessions do not have power calculated so I think those sessions are not being used.
When I use the This Year filter to generate the rowing power profile it consistently only uses 41 sessions; that is approximately how many indoor session I have completed. I cannot generate a profile for the last six week or last three months even though I about 100 on-water sessions in those time periods. I think this is because I have had only on-water rowing sessions since early/mid April.
Yes 
exactly. The system can’t create a power profile for you if you don’t have power on-water.
MJ
Would Athletica consider calculating power for Garmin in water rows as a future capability? Without it, the rowing power profile is not very useful for on-water rowers.
As well, I have noticed that load calculations for on-water rowing sessions can be inconsistent and likely inaccurate. Thinking that not having a power metric might be contributing to this.
Thanks again for your support in this!
It’s already there if you have a power meter, but deriving it by indirect functions like you did from kJ is not easy to get correct either. What measures your kJ? Your rowing power meter calculates kJ based on power output captured continuously. It measures mechanical work.
If you don’t use a power meter, Garmin and others estimates calories burned using HR, pace, activity type, weight, etc - and then displays it as kJ. It isn’t the real mechanical work - it’s a metabolic estimate that can be wildly wrong. Also, only 20-25% of what you burn becomes movement into the oars/pedals,foot strike, swim stroke, so it doesn’t reflect power output.
I am afraid there is no way around getting a power meter on-water if you want on-water power and power profile. Sorry 
Happy to be proven wrong but that’s my initial thought.
Yes that makes sense. Power meter options are very limited and typically quite expensive for rowing!
Thanks again for the conversation on this topic!
