Concept2 Forum

Don't want to take away from Rick's much anticipated annual write-up, but I will document some of my personal experiences from the weekend. I have fallen into a pattern of going up for four days, left on Sunday afternoon a day early to out run the snow storm and timed it just right. Drove through the heavy stuff and into Connecticut where it turned to rain. Arrived Friday afternoon and was looking forward to the erg room on Saturday, one of my favorite parts of the weekend. Lots more fun than actually doing the 2k. First guy I hooked up with was Lindsay and we talked quite a bit. He was on a mission to win a hammer and was right on track until he ran into a human wrecking ball, Chris Cooper. Chris is an imposing physical specimen, simply a tall muscular big dude. I met him in the warm up pit on Sunday as we were getting ready for our event. Pretty much no need to say it, but these are great guys. True gentlemen and warriors to the end. Later on Saturday Mark Underwood checked in for a light work out, He had a great 7:10 in his qualifier 65-69LWT and was a threat to win the hammer. Later that day Olena Buryek came in, I didn't have the moxie to approach her. She's a stunning athlete; tall (I'm thinking 6'3" to 6"4") obviously muscular. and has fashion model looks. It's interesting who ya run into. I had been watching a video on RowingWOD by Cameron Nichol; It's very good, one of the best on how to pull a 2k. And there he is in the erg room, working with a client. I did introduce myself to him, he was polite and understandably curt as he was working with a client. True professional, which I respect.

Jack Gilmore from the forum was there. Cool to see him "man up" and get out there and do the event; get the whole experience. Well done Jack. Met lots of other people, Rick and Paul G. where there. Got hooked up Sat night with a couple of other LWT's. A little insight into our world....lots of neurotic people watching their weight like a fashion model. Of course Rick does his signature move, the full winter coat and gym bag weigh in with out which no CB's would be complete. Mark sits sub 165lbs year round. As for me, I'm always close, around 167- 168. After the holidays I hit Jan 1st at 172lbs. By Friday morning I was heading north at 162lbs. I had a big breakfast on Sat and in the afternoon I was at 163.5lbs; cutting it close. So I ate nothing but a salad on Sat night. I carry a scale with me and weigh in several times a day prior to CB's. Did I mention I was neurotic? Need not have worried, hit the weigh in at 161.8......good to go. As I write this I'm just finishing my last piece of french toast at the local Dennys. Forgot how much I like food.

Anyway, only race I saw was Mark's.....and it was a barn burner. It was virtually a dead heat between Adam Wilson, Alain Mangin, and Mark. At around 250m to go Mark made his move and jumped out to a quick 6-8m lead and I'm thinking "he's got this!". Ah.....not quite. Alain responded with a helluva sprint but Adam pulled away for the Hammer with Mark getting 3rd by 2/10 of a second to Mangin. Great effort Mark!

In my race I figured best I could do was 5th. Tom Phillips is sub 7 on a bad day; he's simply that much better. Tom is a quiet guy....he doesn't know how good he is. He won easily at 6:52; but in a slightly bizarre twist he wasn't on our screen, he was in with the HWTs. I sat next to John Owens, another nice guy who pulled 7:05 last year; he was on pace and seemed to run out of gas near the end finishing in 4th at 7:10. 2nd place went to an ever-improving Frank Vetrano with a solid 7:05. I figured Dan Sauer would be the fourth guy in front of me, but he no-showed (probably didn't want to fly in from Minnesota with the weather I'm guessing). A newbie, Hal Carlson got the 3rd spot. And as I predicted I finished 5th with a 7:17.5.

Pretty satisfied with my performance given I let myself slip quite a bit with all of time off the erg and OTW. My performances have been extremely consistent this season: 7:19.4, 7:20.0, 7:17.6, 7:17.5. Felt good getting my seasons best at "B's". I'm hoping they post the splits in the results; pretty sure I even splitted. Goal was 1:49 splits, ended up at 1:49.4. Went out at 1:48 and stayed there until my average dropped to 1:49 (600-700m in). Held pretty tough and saw the average start to creep up near the end, every time I tried to pull it down the wheels started to come off. Not much of s sprint, I was pretty much racing against myself and was completely spent by the finish. With Tom not on our screen there were three guys in front of me and they were way in front; I was safely ahead of Paul G. so just focusing on my splits.

I think I'm finally learning my lesson this season. Henry has said it many times; find your number, get on it and just sit there. I was very erratic last season and botched some races trying to do that which could not be done. I have one, maybe two more events before I wrap it up; hope to continue to improve.

Next up World Indoor Sprints 1000m March 10-12th. If you haven't yet check it out. World wide on line contest.

Good job Ed, both in the race and the report. Like you, I was a bit slower than I wanted to be this season (isn't that always the case? ), but consistent. My last three races were 7:28.8, 7:27.9, and 7:29.2. Like it or not, apparently that's all I've got at the moment, not that I won't be trying to find some way to improve on it before next February.

Thanks Rick, just read your write up; excellent as always. No mention of erg #77, in fact maybe we should just refer to "he who shall not be mentioned" as #77 moving forward. It's a little less bulky from a reporting stand point. Or maybe this is simply the end of the road. And he simply will not be mentioned anymore.

Edward - thanks for the excellent write-up of the day and the race. I've really appreciated the honesty and pragmatism of your posts across the forum over the last couple of months, so even though your performances in your races didn't match what you might have been hoping for at the start of the season, certainly still many positives to be taken from it! Hope the remainder of the indoor rowing season does bring you a couple of pleasant surprises and all the lessons from your SS and OTW adventures in 2016 bear fruit going forwards!

Thanks Rohan! Keep up the good work, looks like we're similar in stature and times (okay I lied, you're noticeably faster....for now!). It's really one big experiment, and that's what I really enjoy. The problem with training is if you get it wrong it's like a big ocean liner......takes a long time to get it turned around! Good luck with your training.

Edward4492 wrote:The problem with training is if you get it wrong it's like a big ocean liner......takes a long time to get it turned around!

What an apt comparison. But it can get even messier. First, recognition that the course is wrong. Second, is the new path really the right one. Third, is the destination fantasy.

Jim, you certainly have a way of getting right to the crux of it. I've been down, and committed to, a number of different approaches. And hit a lot of dead ends. I'll lay out my conclusions and direction at a later date. I like your new term "destination fantasy".

That's what I'm here for.

Nice to read your report Ed, well done to everyone who attended - it sounds fun.

Edward4492 wrote:Jim, you certainly have a way of getting right to the crux of it. I've been down, and committed to, a number of different approaches. And hit a lot of dead ends. I'll lay out my conclusions and direction at a later date. I like your new term "destination fantasy".

Nice write up. Don,t overthink it Ed, nmr 1 is simple, you took a very long, comfortable otw break
You should be relative easy be a good hit better if you simply go back to enough baseline work. 10/12 k ish lowish rate stuff.
Speed for 2k is overrated. Fitness is king

Henry you're dead on. I've gotten my racing strategy simplified. Just get on pace, be at average by 500m in, and just hold it the whole way through. I always tried to put a few seconds in the "bank" and it never worked. I checked out my splits, not dead even but looked like this:

1:48.7 1:49.9 1:49.0 1:49.9

Fading at the end but not horribly. Looks liked I backed off a hair too much on the second split. There may have been another second to be gained there with perfect pacing.....but that's it. I'm looking at the backbone of my training to be a lot of 20r, 10k work with the goal of building the wattage over time. Like you said...keep it simple.

Edward4492 wrote:Henry you're dead on. I've gotten my racing strategy simplified. Just get on pace, be at average by 500m in, and just hold it the whole way through. I always tried to put a few seconds in the "bank" and it never worked. I checked out my splits, not dead even but looked like this:

1:48.7 1:49.9 1:49.0 1:49.9

Fading at the end but not horribly. Looks liked I backed off a hair too much on the second split. There may have been another second to be gained there with perfect pacing.....but that's it. I'm looking at the backbone of my training to be a lot of 20r, 10k work with the goal of building the wattage over time. Like you said...keep it simple.

Its indeed 90% simple, nothing fancy, just putting in the work.

For me, certainly with my current fitness status, getting on pace means, bleeding the pace, after a few strokes, my second stroke is already below race pace. And my last splits is always my fastest, nomatter how had I feel, thats mostly the way m body works. Last year I was fitter, roughly 2 seconds on the split, that meant I could cruise a bit faster. Pure speed is a tad better, that compensates a tad. Overal a bit slower on the 2k. But given the way I trained perfectly understandable.