What OTW Training have you done today

[gregsmith01748]

I think I need to clarify something. Yesterday was my second outing in a single, but I've been going out in doubles and quads (and once in an Octet!) a couple times a week all summer. The club that I am in starts you in the middle of a quad, you work your way up to rowing stroke and bow in the quad so you learn to set rate and how to steer in a nice stable boat, then it's on to the double for a few outings, again both in bow and stroke. Finally, once they see that your doing ok in the double, you go into a single.

We don't use training singles, so it's straight into what Roy would call a "finer" boat. First time in, it feels like you're trying balance in top of a pencil, but it's not much of a step from from trying to keep the double set.

As for doing drills, they were pretty ragged affairs. I'm glad that I shoved off the dock first, so my buddies in the double did not have a good view of my flailing around trying to rows arms only!

I'm totally hooked on the single though. At this point, it requires a high level of concentration on every stroke. It's almost impossible to think of anything else while you are doing it. I'm not sure if I really knew what being completely "in the moment" meant before I tried string together a bunch of good strokes in the single.

Sorry about rambling on like this. I'm a bit obsessed.

[Rocket Roy]

Phew, I'm pleased to hear that Greg! I too am now obsessed with the single and getting the stroke right.

I had 2 outing's in a double 4th and 5th aug, then they stuck me in a racing shell on the Thames at Putney sink or swim I guess.

Today was my 20th outing in my first month OTW.
Today blog, for those that don't get over to the UK site. Hope I am not too boring but like Greg I am smitten.

I was going with Ali to Henley to see a boat at 9.30, woke at 5 as usual couldn't get back to sleep so went down to the river at 7 and saw Josh who is my new coach and asked him if he could coach my friend EK, he said that he didn't have the time but knew coach's who would be keen to teach him, do we have feelers out for Dave. He asked if I'd like to do an hour so I said why not and so we went out for an hour. Today I was concentrating on taking the catch at the same time as pushing on the toes with the body pressed against the thighs while at the same time taking the catch slowly and gently, pushing with the legs then opening the back and finally pulling the oars into the chest with elbows finishing behind the back. We pulled a lot of very good strokes, an hour flew past.
He is indeed a great replacement for Ali.

Ali was dropping some stuff off in Henley and agreed to look at the KIRS I was thinking of buying. We got the boat in the water, it seemed to weigh nothing, I tentatively sat in the boat got the shoes on, perfect size, and was slowly pushed off. To say I was nervous sitting in the same type of boat that Mahe Drysdale won the world's in is an understatement! My first couple of stroke were not good, went too deep. I crossed over to the other bank, pulled a bit downstream then decided to cross over, so I jammed the right oar in to spin it round and was 85% of tipping over, righted it all and breathed a huge sigh of relief, then pulled a nice stroke and the boat took off. I knew then this was a really good boat and one day I hope to be able to row it to it's potential.

I've put an offer in and I hope he accepts it, if he does it will be cheaper than my Cervelo. (if he doesn't then I'll offer his asking price)

[gregsmith01748]

Today was a tough day on the water. I guess I was tired from my CTC attempt last night. I was stroking a double, with a good rower in bow. I could tell right away that I didn't have a lot of pop in my stroke. Here's how it broke down

1k - warm up
2k - steady state rowing, pretty easy rate and pace. A couple of 10s in there.
500m - hard. Our fastest chunk, about a 2:00/500 pace as near as I can tell
5k - steady and reasonably hard rowing. We were about 300m behind a single and we tried to catch him. Alas, we only made up about 250m before I crapped out. I basically hit the wall. My stroke work went to hell. A was having trouble squaring my blades before the catch. I was having trouble getting consistent blade depth. I was slow getting out of the bow. Basically, I was rowing like sh!t. We took a moment to allow me to compose myself and then resumed at 3/4 pressure.
1k - after 500m of easy going, we did a final set of 5 then 10 then 15 power strokes. I was really grateful for the chance to redeem myself.
2.5k - back to the boathouse. The wind had sprung up, along with a bit of chop. My hands were really hurting, and I was again struggling with my blade depth. One last set of 10 then 15, and mercifully, we were done.

All together a bit over 12k, avg Hr of 141, max of 171. But truthfully, even a bad day on the water sure beats a good day on the erg!

Now I need a nap! (and a new set of hands)

[Rockin Roland]

Back on the water this week after being away for several weeks in the snow doing some serious cross country ski racing. Fortunately cross country skiing is an ideal cross training sport for rowing.

Went out in my single after work last Wednesday in the dark. I don't enjoy rowing in the dark on a narrow river with lots of obstacles and bridges. It can get scary at times. However, it's either that or working out on the Rowperfect erg until crew rowing commences in a few weeks. Fortunately it's now Spring and the days are rapidly becoming longer. Plus daylight saving starts in about a month.

This morning it was very windy(typical early spring day). To make things easier in the wind I swapped the Croker S2 oars for the heavier S3 oars. They didn't get picked up by the wind as much during the recovery. As the water was so wind affected I rowed mostly at LSD pace concentrating on sitting back into the wind during the stroke and a more precise tap down at the finish to clear the waves.

Tonight I'll compliment this morning's row with a half hour sweat session on the Rowperfect. I'm going to undo the bungy cord on the limited tilt seat and screw the seat stopper bolt back into the central bar just to increase the degree of difficulty. That combined with the new modified chain guide will force me to keep my weight perfectly balanced in the middle of the erg during the stroke, otherwise the erg will abruptly let me know even if I'm slightly off balance or out of sync. Hopefully the added balance practice help me when I go out in my skinny single on the water.

[mikvan52]

To make things easier in the wind I swapped the Croker S2 oars for the heavier S3 oars. They didn't get picked up by the wind as much during the recovery.

Roland:
How tall are you and how do you have these Crokers set?
Spread?
Inboard?
Overall length?

Am interested in hearing more about the S3s

[mikvan52]

Today was my 20th outing in my first month OTW.
(snip)
(a) look at the KIRS
(snip)
I've put an offer in ...

Great stuff, Roy... hope you get it!
= Mike

[mikvan52]

... as for my training (today is off)

Did a head race style time trial in a single yesterday:

http://concept2.co.uk/forum/blog.php?u=7679&b=88957

What did I learn?

#1: Short blades make it easier to keep the stroke rate up, especially with the "fat" blades that C2 makes

I've an accomplished friend who has been in the top few of his class for the last 10 years at the head of the Charles. He rows very short fat smoothies in his 1x with great effect... But he's not won yet...

Perhaps there is a "too short" for us older lightweight scullers...

This coming weekend when I'll race a whopping 10 miles ( 16k + !) I will use longer sculling blades with smaller balde faces...
IOW to worry about rate at such a great distance is to be foolish. The key is to stay effective and in a heart rate zone that I can maintain...
It's great to have the luxury of trying out wide varieties of sculling equipment
Now, if I could only borrow an Empacher with a carbon fiber reverse wing .....

[Byron Drachman]

I did my shortest row ever this morning: about 2K. I have been a volunteer for the last two days at the dragonboat races in Lansing. On my way to the races, you know how once a horse is headed toward the barn, the horse is in charge. You cannot get it to go any other way once it has it in mind that it is going to the barn. Well, I tried to turn the steering wheel of my car to take the exit to the dragon boat races, but I could not overpower the car. My car had decided it had to go to the boat house first. Well, what could I do? I happened to have my stuff along, so I did a quick 2K. It wasn't my fault. The car made me do it. So I was a little late to the dragon boat races, but I knew we had many more volunteers than we needed. Maybe there is a small problem with compulsive behavior? Who? Me? I really don't have to start my day sculling. I can quit any time I want. It is just that I don't want to.

Here is a photo I took at the dragonboat race this morning. These people were in a dragonboat the first time ever for a couple of times yesterday, and they were racing today. So we cannot expect them to look better than a novice eight. If the flag-catcher pulls the flag out of the holder first, then that boat wins. It was surprising to me how close many of the races were. The timers had this one as a tie, and I couldn't tell from this photo who won:

dragonboat_sept_4_2001_4_c_r.jpg (115.04 KiB) Viewed 7663 times

[Rockin Roland]

To make things easier in the wind I swapped the Croker S2 oars for the heavier S3 oars. They didn't get picked up by the wind as much during the recovery.

Roland:
How tall are you and how do you have these Crokers set?
Spread?
Inboard?
Overall length?

Am interested in hearing more about the S3s

Mike,
I have both the Croker S2s & S3s set at 197cm outboard, 88 cm inboard(due to the overall length of the oar I can't shorten the oar anymore by decreasing the inboard). My Spread is only 157 cm though.

If you pick up the Croker S3s you immediately notice the extra weight but despite being heavier and more durable they still have more flex in them than my S2s. In some ways I prefer them over my S2s because they offer more stability & balance yet more feedback because their flex is softer.

I'm 191 cm tall and weight 88 kg.

[Rocket Roy]

Byron I was down at the boathouse just hanging out with some friends who had come to stay overnight and we were watching a couple of 8's go out and the oldest kid in them must have been 10, it must have been their first time.....Most amusing but also very impressive how they listened to their coach and after a good while started to co-ordinate...a bit. They had a guy at stroke and bow who were slightly older and set the boat for a lot of the time while these others found their sea legs. But what a great age to start to learn to scull eh? By the time they are our age they will be pretty good.

I love just being by the river and watching people go out in their various boats, and just watching the water really. Takes me back to my youth I was born on the edge of the River Deben in Suffolk and lived there for my first 7 years, lovely.

[Byron Drachman]

Byron I was down at the boathouse just hanging out with some friends who had come to stay overnight and we were watching a couple of 8's go out and the oldest kid in them must have been 10, it must have been their first time.....Most amusing but also very impressive how they listened to their coach and after a good while started to co-ordinate...a bit. They had a guy at stroke and bow who were slightly older and set the boat for a lot of the time while these others found their sea legs. But what a great age to start to learn to scull eh? By the time they are our age they will be pretty good.

I love just being by the river and watching people go out in their various boats, and just watching the water really. Takes me back to my youth I was born on the edge of the River Deben in Suffolk and lived there for my first 7 years, lovely.

Hi Roy,

I know the feeling. I think part of my addiction traces to my childhood and getting to row in an old wooden rowboat during family vacations, and riding an Irish Mail (rowing on wheels.)

Was that an octuple (eight scullers?) A couple of years ago I had a chance to get an octuple for our rowing club for free, but I couldn't convince on our club's board of directors that we should have one, even at no cost to the club. They are great for learn to row courses, and are very challenging for advanced scullers because they are so fast and the stroke rate ends up so high.

On crabbing: Check out the M4X final here:

http://www.universalsports.com/rowing/video/index.html

Byron

[Rocket Roy]

Yes it was but for kids. Great stuff!

[Rocket Roy]

I thinking of getting a Speed coach XL2. Would this be a good buy?

Like my boat i hope not to have to buy another one a year or two down the line.

[sander]

IMG00076-20110906-1140.jpg (106.25 KiB) Viewed 7618 times

9.5 km, last training before moving to Poznan. I did 2x10 minutes in 20 spm. Pretty stiff breeze, so with tailwind I did 19spm, with headwind 22spm. Nice little waves, good for a change after weeks of summer weather and mirror flat water.

Then preparing the boat for the trip to Poznan. First leg cartopping, the rest on the trailer of a club from another town.

Next training will be on the race course, Wednesday and Thursday, then races on Friday and Saturday. I will start A 1x, B 1x, and a blind date C 2x with a German guy.

[mikvan52]

I thinking of getting a Speed coach XL2. Would this be a good buy?

Like my boat i hope not to have to buy another one a year or two down the line.

I'll "sell" you a Stroke Coach Gold for a future pint and postage...