Losing the seat in short sprints.

[Brian Lancaster]

Thanks very much for your analysis Stewart. I appreciate the time and thought that has gone into it. My first thought was that I don't fold up quite that much at the catch. I was never very flexible and have become considerably less so with age. I tend to get out of bed feeling stiff and usually do a ten minute 'Just Row' on the erg at 20-22 spm just to get my joints moving a bit more smoothly. I am lying in bed writing this at present at 06:45. My partner is only just 'coming to'. She doesn't appreciate noise from the erg (which is also in the bedroom) before 07:00. I make the morning tea around then and our day starts with reading the news, emails etc. on our IPads.

Back to your post. Despite my inflexibility, I can see that you are correct in showing why I tend to lift off and will try to factor in an adjustment to my starting strokes. I do enjoy sprinting and, for me, success in the 500 in particular gives me more satisfaction than in the longer events. Similarly, I've always admired 400 and 800m athletes more than the 100m men. (Usain Bolt excepted of course).

Today is another gym day so I will be putting some of the variables under test again in three or four hours time. Just now, it's time to make the tea (07:10). I will respond in more detail later.

[Brian Lancaster]

Well, I don't really want to talk about it. I forgot my bleedin. seat pad again. I tried a 100 sitting on a towel. Useless because it slid. Later I went back to the old favourite of a wet flannel on the seat. That worked but, by now, I was trying several things at once. It ended at 17.9 s which the log card rounded to 18.0. Then I thought 'I'll try a 5k'. My PB lately is about 21:35 (2.09+) which I know I could beat easily with a gun at my head. Of course, there was no gun so I bailed out after 1200 m @ 2.07+.

A bit of recovery and I decided to try to break the 500 record for 80-89H. This is 1:40.6 by an Australian, Marius Boon and is from some time ago. It was done at some sort of general sports event I think. When I picture him doing it, I see an ex Wallaby or a farmer rolling up with a sheep under each arm. He puts them down, gets on the machine and knocks out a World Record. He then wanders off back Into the Outback. Australians and New Zealanders are prone to this sort of thing it seems to me.(Like the aforementioned Rob Waddell).

I hold the British Record currently at 1:41.2 as from 18th April last so am within 0.7s of breaking Mr Boon's time. In doing that I covered the first 100 at 1:43 and gradually increased pace. The last 200 were inside the record average but by then it was too late to make up the lost ground. So, this time the first 100 was at 1:38 and the second at 1:38.5. The third was at 1:41 and as I said earlier, I don't want to talk about the last 200. I am fairly desperate (if that is not a contradiction in terms) to get this record. I see it as my claim to erging immortality at least among octogenarians. I fear that at any moment some ex Wallaby or All-Black or sheep farmer could stroll in from the sticks and knock it for six. (Slight metaphorical mix up here). If he takes it from me, that's no problem but if he should do it before I get it, I shall be mortified. Once you get a record then you can always say 'I used to hold that record' . No one can take that away.

So if all you octogenarians from Down Under ( or anywhere else for that matter) can lay off for a little while longer, I would be most grateful. I will eventually get all these variables sorted out. I hope.

[Remo]

I like most track, aka athletics on your side of the pond. I am a big fan of the 400m hurdles. Loved it when Edwin Moses ran it. So fluid and powerful. The 100 and 200m happen so fast that you can't appreciate them unless you use slow motion. And yes Usain Bolt is pretty amazing particularly in slow motion.

Anyhow, go get that record. Nicking the 500m is something that an old OTW rower like me would appreciate.

[lindsayh]

A bit of recovery and I decided to try to break the 500 record for 80-89H. This is 1:40.6 by an Australian, Marius Boon and is from some time ago. It was done at some sort of general sports event I think. When I picture him doing it, I see an ex Wallaby or a farmer rolling up with a sheep under each arm. He puts them down, gets on the machine and knocks out a World Record. He then wanders off back Into the Outback. Australians and New Zealanders are prone to this sort of thing it seems to me.(Like the aforementioned Rob Waddell). I hold the British Record currently at 1:41.2 as from 18th April last so am within 0.7s of breaking Mr Boon's time. In doing that I covered the first 100 at 1:43 and gradually increased pace. The last 200 were inside the record average but by then it was too late to make up the lost ground. So, this time the first 100 was at 1:38 and the second at 1:38.5. The third was at 1:41 and as I said earlier, I don't want to talk about the last 200. I am fairly desperate (if that is not a contradiction in terms) to get this record. I see it as my claim to erging immortality at least among octogenarians. I fear that at any moment some ex Wallaby or All-Black or sheep farmer could stroll in from the sticks and knock it for six. (Slight metaphorical mix up here). If he takes it from me, that's no problem but if he should do it before I get it, I shall be mortified. Once you get a record then you can always say 'I used to hold that record' . No one can take that away. So if all you octogenarians from Down Under ( or anywhere else for that matter) can lay off for a little while longer, I would be most grateful. I will eventually get all these variables sorted out. I hope.

Brian - Marinus Boon was actually a Kiwi rather than a Aussie and set the record at a Masters Games in 2008. These are multi sport (up to 50) events that are quite common in this part of the world and often include Indoor Rowing. I met him a few times in NZ and he was a really nice guy. I don't remember whether he had an agricultural background or not I am afraid. The scary prospect is that Paul Guest is only a few years from 80 (ex Olympic rower and WR holder) and if he sets his mind to it will be pretty unbeatable I suspect. The 90+ records beckon too for you although some of those are very strong and all are held by the legendary Bob Spenger from memory. You are right of course once you have set a WR it can never be taken away. (I can quite immodestly claim one held for an entire week in 2016)

[Brian Lancaster]

My apologies to Marinus Boon. I got both his name and his country wrong. I have looked at his record entry dozens of times and while I can see how my eyes could easily have mistaken Marinus for Marius, there is no excuse for mistaking NZ for Aus.

On assessing future threats to records, I now see that you are also in the frame Lindsay. Your current 500 time of 1:29.8 is ahead of my best at your age which was 1:31.2. That was my best ever 500 done during my first or second year on ergs. Another potential threat is Ernest Tuff (appropriately enough) who is a WR deadlifter in his age group. He is 79 currently and much faster over 100m than I am. The organisers of our 100k marathon relay team tried to recruit him for the event but he lives in Northern Ireland which is a bit awkward for getting to Newquay just for four to five hours of exhaustion. I recently started dead lifting and was doing reps at 80 kg. I expect to improve significantly on that which is how I came to be looking at E.T.'s profile again. I knew that he states his record in it. On seeing 210 kg I gave up instantly on any ideas of potentially challenging. Even 80kg is not trivial for me.

With respect to other potential erging records, I looked up the British ones for 90-99 and, apart from the 2k, there are none. So all anyone here in the UK has to do is live that long. I don't want to wish my life away but I have a new set of ambitions lined up already.

[hobbit]

Thanks very much for your analysis Stewart. I appreciate the time and thought that has gone into it. My first thought was that I don't fold up quite that much at the catch. I was never very flexible and have become considerably less so with age. I tend to get out of bed feeling stiff and usually do a ten minute 'Just Row' on the erg at 20-22 spm just to get my joints moving a bit more smoothly. I am lying in bed writing this at present at 06:45. My partner is only just 'coming to'. She doesn't appreciate noise from the erg (which is also in the bedroom) before 07:00. I make the morning tea around then and our day starts with reading the news, emails etc. on our IPads.

Back to your post. Despite my inflexibility, I can see that you are correct in showing why I tend to lift off and will try to factor in an adjustment to my starting strokes. I do enjoy sprinting and, for me, success in the 500 in particular gives me more satisfaction than in the longer events. Similarly, I've always admired 400 and 800m athletes more than the 100m men. (Usain Bolt excepted of course).

Today is another gym day so I will be putting some of the variables under test again in three or four hours time. Just now, it's time to make the tea (07:10). I will respond in more detail later.

Brian,
I find it inspiring and amusing to read your posts, so thanks! Seeing that you live in Worthing brings back my youth, when my grandparents, who lived in Southwick, took us to see Gilbert and Sullivan on Worthing pier. Happy summer holidays playing on the tarry beach by the old powerstation...

[Brian Lancaster]

Hi Bilbo ( the hobbit?), nice to hear from you. The power station at Shoreham is long gone as I expect you are aware. I watched one of the chimneys come down. My house is 150m off the sea front but I hardly ever go to the beach. Perhaps, if my five year old grandson comes down for a weekend.

I came to Worthing from Birmingham at the age of 27 so, 53 years ago (blimey). It was almost accidental in more ways than one. I was late going to university (23 years old) having spent time in industry and two years National Service. In industry we had two weeks annual holiday in those days. At university it was three ten week terms so, twenty two weeks holiday ( not exactly holiday but not exactly under pressure either). Going back into industry after three years like that was not exactly appealing.

I had won my place at university on the basis of my exam results at Matthew Boulton Technical College in Birmingham on day release from industry after National Sevice. I was therefore familiar with the College system of education for youth/adult intakes from industry and other part timers of all ages furthering their education. Such teaching posts offered twelve week's annual holiday (again, not exactly holiday but not highly pressured ). On top of that you got two year's enhancements up the salary scale for National Service and further enhancements for having a degree. And even on top of that, if you had a degree, you were considered not to need teacher training. A 'no brainier'. I even managed to land a post in Birmingham just ten minutes on a motorbike from my home.

So, what about Worthing? Well going into teaching full time without any prior training is not a great move, degree notwithstanding. That first year was in some parts nightmarish. There were good classes but there were some lousy ones. I made some dreadful mistakes through overconfidence. I went into some early classes without preparation thinking that I knew it all. One group I remember in particular. It was a two and a half hour evening class for people who had just failed 'O' Level maths. It was effectively revision towards a resit in the coming November. I thought I would handle it by just asking people in the group (thirty plus people over quite an age range) to offer questions from past papers that had given them problems. It was all going very well until someone produced a graphical question. It was a piece of cake apparently. I drew the graph on the board from its equation, easy. We read off assorted values from the graph. Then there was a final part asking how you would use the graph to solve a significantly different equation. It dawned on me that I didn't know how to do it. I tried to mask my ignorance by asking if anyone knew how to do it. Nobody did. Training would have showed me how to make light of it and say 'Well, I don't know either. I will find out for next week' and go on to something else. Instead I just froze and stood there whilst the group became more and more restless. I did move on eventually but rode home thinking 'this is not the job for me'. I was really shaken. A colleague showed me that it was a trivial problem and I was really embarrassed at showing such ignorance. There were many other stumbles in that first year and I just wanted to get away to a fresh start.

I applied for higher grade posts and decided to move to the seaside. I was successful at my second attempt which was in Worthing. Initially I failed, second out of two candidates in Lowestoft on the east cost. That was an area of low cost housing. I came second out of six in Worthing an area of high cost housing. Coincidentally, the first choice candidate was from Lowestoft and he turned the post down because he said housing was too expensive. So the panel called me in and said to me, 'If we offered the post to you how would you afford to live in Worthing'? No problem. I would be renting accommodation. So my girlfriend of six years and I got married on the strength of that offer and lived in digs with a nice old boy in a very nice house for a year. We paid the princely sum of £18 per week including bills. We both had quite well paid work and bought our first house one year later. It was a detached house for £5150 and I was too green to haggle. So not that expensive after all. Mind you my current house is nearer to £500,000 and is by no means exceptional.

Quite where rowing comes into all this escapes me. I am renowned for getting off the point. This evening I have watched Lewis Hamilton breeze through the Spanish Grand Prix with the arrogant (IMHO) Sebastian Vettel not even getting a podium place. All's well with the World.

I will get back on that rowing machine at the gym tomorrow. I will remember my seat pad this time and I WILL do a PB at one event or another. If all else fails, I will do a 'four minutes'. That has to be a PB because I have never done one before.

[Allan Olesen]

This evening I have watched Lewis Hamilton breeze through the Spanish Grand Prix

...and I watched Romain Grosjean breeze through the same Spanish Grand Prix, albeit in a slightly different direction...

[Brian Lancaster]

Well, I decided to separate out one sprint variable. I used the handle the 'right' way up. The result was 100m in 18.3 seconds. So, no more use of that orientation. I was not exactly feeling on top form today. The main reason was that I had been toying with the idea of doing a half marathon in line with the current C2 challenge. I decided to check the British Record pace and found it to be possibly doable. Two hours before the start of the Grand Prix yesterday I set off. Nice low drag and found I could manage the target pace very comfortably. Well inside it in fact.

I've never tried anything on that scale before and one thing this event gives you is plenty of time to think. You count off 140 light easy strokes without looking at the monitor. You know that this will see off 1k and it gives you something to occupy your mind. I had the big fan going here at home so no sweat worries. So, you count off another 1k and another. After a while you start to think things such as, 'is this likely to be beneficial physically '? I had done a fairly demanding session at the gym on Saturday. 'So is it a sensible thing to do'? Guess what, I 'thought' myself out of it. After 6205m @ 2:15.0, I turned it in. I regretted it a little later when I realised that I was not that far outside my 30 min PB pace. However you can't rank a part piece so even if I had gone on to 10k it would only have been a marker. An indicator for what I might do, not rankable.

Now I was having thoughts today along the lines of what yesterday's effort had taken out of me. Another series of ifs, buts and maybes. I needed a PB and as I said earlier any four minutes result would be a PB because it would be a first. I started at a pace at which I knew I would definitely finish. It went as follows:-

1:00. 245m 2:02.4. 33 spm
2:00. 245m. 2:02.4. 34 spm
3:00. 250m. 2:00.0. 34 spm
4:00. 267m. 1:52.3. 37 spm

So a total of 1006m in the four minutes. (I know the total shown comes to 1007 but the log card rounded the total down. Only two other people have exceeded 1000m in the 80-89 four minute category in the few years that it has been ranked. One of them did 1001m in 2015. That's the good news. The bad news is that the other did 1055m for the World Record in 2017. Then in 2018 he upped that to 1079. Now he tells me that he thinks that he can do 1090m. @&£!!! His average pace for 1079 is 1:51.2, faster than my last minute for the whole four minutes. Hmmmm. I can improve on the figures above but........

So, it's back to the 100, one minute and the 500 for now. At least I can hold my own there.