what training have you done today on the water?

[Byron Drachman]

Yesterday (Sunday) was the first day I missed on the water since the day in early last March when I used a sledgehammer and other objects to break away enough ice from the dock to launch. I was driving most of the day on Sunday, wishing I could be on the river instead of the highway. This morning I did 19K on a beautiful fall day with temperature around freezing. I'm planning on doing a quad, going about 10K, later today and it is supposed to be warm by then. If the weather is like last year's, I have about five weeks OTW until the river freezes. Here's hoping for a mild December. I do like the C2 but I'd rather be rowing outdoors.

[Rockin Roland]

Yesterday (Sunday) was the first day I missed on the water since the day in early last March when I used a sledgehammer and other objects to break away enough ice from the dock to launch. I was driving most of the day on Sunday, wishing I could be on the river instead of the highway. This morning I did 19K on a beautiful fall day with temperature around freezing. I'm planning on doing a quad, going about 10K, later today and it is supposed to be warm by then. If the weather is like last year's, I have about five weeks OTW until the river freezes. Here's hoping for a mild December. I do like the C2 but I'd rather be rowing outdoors.

With global warming your odds are looking better for a mild winter. I've seen your pics of rowing in winter. I sense that you row in winter more for the adventure as the fitness benefits in those conditions would be limited compared to the warmer months. I too prefer to exercise outdoors but when your doing a lot of technical drills on the water you need the erg to maintain fitness levels.

I would imagine a northen USA winter would be hard to endure where you are unable to row for several months due to ice. Erging every day as a substitute to me seems like a miserable existance. I'd rather be out on the snow cross country skiing.

When I went to the Crash Bs in Boston several years ago I brought along my cross country skis so that I could go ski skating on the frozen upper reaches of the Charles river.

[Byron Drachman]

I would imagine a northen USA winter would be hard to endure where you are unable to row for several months due to ice. Erging every day as a substitute to me seems like a miserable existance. I'd rather be out on the snow cross country skiing.

Hi Roland,
I don't mind some erging but I'd rather be outdoors. I have a collection of Xeno Muller indoor rowing DVD's and his enthusiasm and good humor helps a lot. I do a lot of winter cycling when I can't row OTW.
I went out in a double with a very good coach this morning, so I now have lots of things to work on.
Byron
A web posting by Carl Douglas:

Ergos are the invention of the Devil to torture the bodies & souls of
the damned. Only the good get to scull.

[Rockin Roland]

This thread is looking a bit quite. I guess as winter is fast approaching most of you would have put away your boats and are now erging instead ( except for Byron who gets his thrills from rowing in adverse conditions). However, in the land down under things are really starting to heat up. We have been training madly for the largest head race for eights in the southern hemisphere this Saturday.

I have been spending so much time rowing in eights lately that I've struggled to find time to erg. Not a bad situation I guess, so yesterday I can down to the rowing club a bit earlier with the intention of doing some work on a club erg. Unfortunately it was 32 C / 90F temp. with extreme UV danger so I wheeled an erg from the sheds outside into the shade of a large tree. I didn't want to do too much in the heat before a scheduled long hard session for rowing in the eight. Eventually I decided to set the monitor to 2000m and started off at 1:40 pace. When I had 500m to go I was still well within my comfort zone so I increased the pace to about 1:36 and cruised home in 6:37. Nothing flash about the time but nevertheless a good warm up for the eight.

On the water we went out in a new Sykes boat. It's built for lightweights but our average weight is 85kg. Our coach prefers not to put middleweight crews in boats built for heavies and it seems to work well for us.

Lots of drills to start the session.Firstly a back chocks built up, arms only then onto quarter & half slide. Then we progressed to all eight rowing square blades. The boat sat up nicely with not a single blade on the water so to test us the coach got us to row all eight square blades with our feet out. After a couple of rocks from side to side our boat once again sat up nicely with no oars touching the water. A very difficult drill to do but we pulled it off and the coach was happy.

Next we raced head to head over 2000m against a strong College crew. I'm 6 months away from turning 50 and by far the oldest guy in our crew so felt strange rowing against a College crew. We beat them by about a length so the coach made us do it again. This time giving them one boat length head start. It tooks us 1800m to draw level before we rowed through them a cross the line about a length in front.

Finally we rowed 4km back to the docks at 80 % effort, caping the rating to 28 spm, concentrating on getting max length and clearance on our puddles. It felt great and in excellent sync. My arms were just floating and my legs felt like they were on a leg press as the balance in the boat felt so perfect. Back at the the sheds we were all completely stuffed however we were all smiling. Smiling because we all new that we just a great session. The boat was running rock steady no matter what the coach threw at us. So now with less than a week to go before the race everyone is feeling confident in each other and that we are due for a good race on the weekend.

[Byron Drachman]

The river is not frozen yet. To celebrate Thanksgiving our club had two quads out for a morning row and then we met at the boat house for pumpkin pie and other goodies. Stroke seat for my quad was our Olympian sculler. Seats two and three were two women who do very well in a double. We did a few pieces. What a way to start the day. Life is good.

[Bob S.]

The river is not frozen yet. To celebrate Thanksgiving our club had two quads out for a morning row and then we met at the boat house for pumpkin pie and other goodies. Stroke seat for my quad was our Olympian sculler. Seats two and three were two women who do very well in a double. We did a few pieces. What a way to start the day. Life is good.

It sounds great, except for the fact that you were stuck with the steering. But then I was spoiled by spending a lot of time in 8s before I ever tried sculling.

Bob S.

[Byron Drachman]

The river is not frozen yet. To celebrate Thanksgiving our club had two quads out for a morning row and then we met at the boat house for pumpkin pie and other goodies. Stroke seat for my quad was our Olympian sculler. Seats two and three were two women who do very well in a double. We did a few pieces. What a way to start the day. Life is good.

It sounds great, except for the fact that you were stuck with the steering. But then I was spoiled by spending a lot of time in 8s before I ever tried sculling.

Bob S.

Hi Bob,
I prefer to steer. To me it is like being a passenger in the front seat of a car. Usually I wouldn't do things exactly the way the driver does and I would rather be driving. To put it another way, I might be a bit of a control freak--I prefer to control where the boat goes rather than let somebody else determine that.
Byron

[Nosmo]

today: ~1.5 hours mostly steady state in the 1x. It was supposed to be 4/3/2/1 at 18, 20,22, 24 but I didn't have a stroke coach. Worked on soft catch and holding body angle. Very cold and dark at 5 am.
Yesterday: 4x2000 with 3 other singles.
Saturday: 3.5 hour bike ride ~5000' of climbing.
three good days in a row.

[Nosmo]

Today is one of those days where I realize I need to be very careful if I'm going to make it through the day.

Plan was to row a 2x at 5am assuming decent weather. Alarm goes off, it says 4:27, leaving me very little time. I set my alarm just in case but it is the first time all year I did not get up before the alarm. Very slight mist and warm (maybe 50 deg). When I Get to the lake there is a light rain but no one is there. Usually several rowers from the women's team are there. I can't believe everyone wimped out. So I take out a 1x. On the first lap, I'm rowing along steadily ~22 firm pressure and BAM!, I'm stopped dead. My back hit a fixed dock. Fortunately it was a very flat hit over a large area on the left shoulder blade. The boat and my oars miss everything. I'm slightly dazed and a little bruised but otherwise fine. I was really lucky. If I was at a different angle or point in my stroke I might have hit the edge and really hurt myself. A few feet closer to shore and my boat would have hit a piling. A few feet further away my rigger or oar would have hit and I may have broken something and/or gone for a swim (although the swim might have been preferable). Lower tied and may have hit my head. I've been rowing on the lake for 12 years and haven't hit a dock before.

I continue on, and at one point on the second lap there is enough light to see my watch. It says 4:55! I realize I must have changed the time when setting the alarm! Further more I didn't notice the clock in my car. I get back to the dock a bit after 5, and some women are there as well as the guy I was going to row with. Put the single away, and take out a 2x. 1500m in we stop and do a river turn. while backing, my oar pops out of the oarlock. I forgot to tighten it. Had that happen I think only once before.

I was really careful the rest of the row and driving home. Not a day to operate heavy machinery.
Did get a very good 2.5 half workout in.

[Bob S.]

Get to the lake there is a light rain but no one is there.

There are days like that. Let us hope that there are not too many.

I thought that you rowed out of Greenbrae in Marin County, going out to the bay. Are you using Lake Merritt now?

Bob S.

[Nosmo]

Get to the lake there is a light rain but no one is there.

There are days like that. Let us hope that there are not too many.

I thought that you rowed out of Greenbrae in Marin County, going out to the bay. Are you using Lake Merritt now?

Bob S.

Are you just trying to highlight my sloppy english?
Yes lets hope there are not any more! That was three very unusual screw ups in a short time, one of which was potentially very dangerous. Maybe it shows what happens when I wake up at 3:30. I don't really like rowing at night alone. Don't think I would have spaced out like that if someone else was around.
I've only rowed on the bay a few times. I've told you about them because they were unusual. I am almost always on the Lake.

[Bob S.]

Get to the lake there is a light rain but no one is there.

Are you just trying to highlight my sloppy english?

Not at all. Lake was highlighted to call attention to the fact that it wasn't the bay.

I rowed on the lake just one time myself. It was in the 40s in a UCB 8. I can't remember why we went there. It was probably some sort civic festival. I remember seeing only one other shell on the water, a single that jumped away from us at the start. It took several strokes before we could get all that mass moving fast enough to catch up to him. I also remember that it felt sort of claustrophobic to be on the tiny lake when we were used to going several miles each way during our workouts on the estuary.

Many years later, I attended a National Masters regatta there, the first one that I ever saw. I was not a participant as I was just barely starting to get back into rowing again after being away for almost 40 years. However, I did run into an old UC crew mate who was a member of the host club there. He put me to work helping out - hooking up some of the plastic floating dock units.

Bob S.

[Nosmo]

The lake is very small. In the summer, it is about a 4.3K loop with two stake turns. In the winter they close off a section for the nesting birds so it becomes about 1K shorter but that eliminates one stake turn. You can stay on part of the lake but and not do a stake turn, but that cuts another 1.5K off of it. The advantage over the estuary is that it is much safer--no big boats, and much calmer water.Even though it is small the conditions can be radically different in different parts of the lake. One also fairly often hits a duck or goose with an oar.

We hosted the Master's Nationals in (I think) 2000. I wasn't around for the one in the (I think) 80's. The race course has improved greatly since then, and the regattas have been much better run. (probably because it is mainly being run by women, and a women designed the coarse. ) We run a regatta every year but the last two years we hosted the South West Regionals and will next year too. Last year we got a huge increase in entries. We had to move to starting a race every six minutes, which meant launching a boat more then once a minute off of a small two sided dock. Two weeks before the regatta we were 100 volunteers short, but somehow we pulled it off. USrowing wanted to go to two days next year but getting almost twice the volunteers is too hard. We will have to cancel the open races in order to keep it to one day.