Advice on joining a team/collaboration/interaction.

[Quinny]

Hi all

Thought about this post whilst out walking the trails with dogs earlier - bear with me please if it ends up somewhat lengthy!

I'm 44, live in the UK. Traditionally I've been 'fit' as I've generally had a sport to dedicate to, a coach and goals. I'm a bit 'all or nothing' about things in general, the same is true of my sporting past. The main bulk of my previous fitness came from the bike, initially riding for fun, then sportive events, then a few years dedicated to time trialling. I had to pause that for a while due to a suspected heart condition, which took the best part of 2 years to diagnose (and ended up not being heart related). Given the green light to go back to TT, I'd just had a couple years with (young) family time not impacted by training and racing schedules, so the guilt of going back to it won and I packed it in for good. Since then I've been a little aimless, dipping in and out of a few things. For a while I decided Ironman would be a good goal (I hate running, so seemed a good challenge) - that was all going very well until a knee issue from way back in the early 2000s put an end to the running.... in hindsight, starting to run was a terrible idea. Got as far as running a half marathon comfortably and also did the Goggins 4x4x48 thing, so was doing OK with it I suppose. There then followed a couple half-hearted efforts at buckling down to gym/weights, which again had results but I haven't found myself wanting to stick with it longer term.

Cycling for me was always an exercise in solitude - I trained alone indoors and outdoors, raced alone (as you do, in a TT), and that was one of the things I liked about it, an element of escaping and switching off from everything else. With the weights thing first time round I got tired of spending so much time in my garage alone doing it, then second time round in Covid lockdown it was worse, seemingly existing only between home office and home garage/gym. Blood pressure is up (being dealt with via the doc), cardio and general physical fitness is declining - and with it, the mental wellbeing is waning too. I've come to realise that in terms of exercise I'm kinda lonely - so time to do something about it!

On my walk earlier I was thinking about the bike - doing more rides with others maybe, perhaps getting into Zwift's race scene perhaps. But, as much as I like the bike and I will indeed do more of it this year, I'd like to get my teeth into something new. One of the things I dabbled with briefly in the last couple years was rowing, and a friend who knows more about it says I have (or had!) a good engine for it - I'd a 6:53 for 2k at second or third attempt, 1:53 split for half marathon, 1:59 split for full marathon. I find it nasty, but much like TT training, in a good way (just!).

So, I got to wondering how I could buckle down to some rowing proper, but doing so in some manner of group or club, where there's perhaps an element of 'team', or collaboration and interaction of some sort. One day I'd like to do the 100k - but in the meantime I'd like to be 'involved' in something. I'm sure I'll get some of the fitness back quickly, but more importantly in the short term it's the mental aspect I'd like to address and I think a group/club/something would be a big motivator. Any advice on the sort of things I could look at would be much appreciated indeed.

Thanks!

[Slothful1]

Hi Quinny

There are a few virtual clubs active on this forum, or on Facebook. They participate in the Cross Team Challenge (there's a thread on this board) and other various challenges, plus have some discussions going. You could have a look around at the various team options and see if the culture / style suits you (Forum Flyers would be my recommendation, but I am biased ).

There could also be some real world rowing clubs active in the area near you, if your interests lean in that direction.

Cheers
Dave

[Dangerscouse]

Welcome to the forum Quinny. As Dave has mentioned there are loads of teams to choose from, and I row for Team Oarsome, but we are only on Facebook, and not on the forum. The good thing is, no matter what team you join, the forum is always an excellent source of camaraderie and motivation.

They are very good splits for your HM and FM for a relative newbie to rowing.

[Quinny]

Thanks both, much appreciated.

I'll do some reading throughout today but after a quick read I'm a tad confused as to what some of these 'teams' are. If I were to join one I'm not clear how I'd contribute (or rather how that contribution would be recorded), or how that interaction and banter with other team members comes about. Are there leagues/tables, or just results posted on a forum, or a bit of both, or.....?

IRL rowing interests me too, something I might look into. Traditionally I don't like having to adhere to a schedule determined by someone else, plus working out at home minimises family time disruption (no driving time to/from things) - but, it's the great outdoors and I love the water, so something I'll look into some more.

Cheers!

[Dangerscouse]

Thanks both, much appreciated.

I'll do some reading throughout today but after a quick read I'm a tad confused as to what some of these 'teams' are. If I were to join one I'm not clear how I'd contribute (or rather how that contribution would be recorded), or how that interaction and banter with other team members comes about. Are there leagues/tables, or just results posted on a forum, or a bit of both, or.....?

IRL rowing interests me too, something I might look into. Traditionally I don't like having to adhere to a schedule determined by someone else, plus working out at home minimises family time disruption (no driving time to/from things) - but, it's the great outdoors and I love the water, so something I'll look into some more.

Cheers!

There is a Cross Team Challenge website www.c2ctc.com and everyone who competes inputs their results on there. It's a different challenge each month, and you've got all month to do it. If you click on 'Current Challenge' at the top of the page, there's a list of former monthly challenges. A lot of the CTC participants are on Facebook and/or Instagram, so you can comment etc via these if you're on social media.

In addition to this teams have a monthly team challenge too, and I assume they all have a leader board for these too: we certainly do. NB I assume most teams have monthly challenges, but I'm not sure.

[Quinny]

Looks good, thanks v much. I'll have a proper look through that lot at lunchtime but looks the sort of thing I'm after. Cheers again!

[Slothful1]

Our new members' guide has some info on how to contribute to the team (challenges, adding your metres to the team's logbook totals, etc.).

It will work the same for other teams too (they might have their own monthly challenges, which we currently don't).

Dave