Around the World Row!

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BriK
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Post by BriK » February 1st, 2007, 6:24 pm

Congratulations, Margaret!!!
You can be proud of what you have achieved!

And ...

Congratulations to every single member of the Eh! Team All Stars for rowing an amazingly great January Virtual Challenge!!!

Champagne for ALL!!!!!

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kit44
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Post by kit44 » February 1st, 2007, 8:14 pm

Way to go, Margaret! I'm ..... well, speechless, actually. There are no words in my vocabulary to express my amazement and admiration at your achievement! And as for the Eh team in the challenge - yeah team, even if I didn't JVC with you! It all makes C2s February challenge look a little tame, hmmm? Good thing the Round-the World is now into a spirnt for the finish! (and of course the beauty of rowing, Margaret, is that in the scheme of things - say 15 k/day as you've been doing - over a full day, you still have time to admire the scenery! Of course, you've earned a rest!)
:wink: Kit

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kit44
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Post by kit44 » February 1st, 2007, 8:14 pm

sorry - that's YAY team, not yeah..... :oops:
Kit

cynthia
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Post by cynthia » February 1st, 2007, 8:43 pm

Y'EH :!:

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kit44
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Post by kit44 » February 1st, 2007, 10:31 pm

I stand corrected

tinnes
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Post by tinnes » February 2nd, 2007, 5:38 pm

Thanks Brigette for organizing the Eh! team all-star virtual team. It finally got me kick-started back into some semblance of fitness! Our team put up a respectable pile of meters on the board with over 40% of us rowing over 200K. Great effort by all! Look forward to keeping with it and climbing back up the Club meter board again (Dave - I'm coming for ya ..!)
- Troy
(45) | 1K 3:07.9 | 2K 6:32.3 | 30min 8428 | 10K 36.34.5 | 60min 16,185 | HM 1:19:01.9 | C2 timeless

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RR1 Kirk
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Post by RR1 Kirk » February 4th, 2007, 8:32 am

Happy Birthday Kit. Good luck on your PB attempt.

I did a 2K yesterday in honour of the brave souls at CIRC today. When I was done Krystyna was asking "are you sure this is good for you?"

I broke 7:30 :D and had the odd cough for a couple of hours later.

Good luck too to those making the trip to Toronto or other sites today. I saw some names I recognise on the lane assingnment list.

Cheers,
Kirk Nelson [img]http://www.c2forum.com/images/avatars/338518880475195dbd7bd8.jpg[/img]
49yrs, 5'7.5", 145 lb.
[img]http://www.c2ctc.com/sigs/img1167078175.png[/img]
"It never gets easier, you just go faster." - Greg Lemond

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Tinpusher
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Post by Tinpusher » February 4th, 2007, 1:42 pm

Kirk, nice 2K PB. A good start to the new year. That uncontrollable cough after rowing a sprint can be unpleasant but you know you've given it your all.

I had the same for a hour after my CTC attempt yesterday. It was the first time I'd done more than 6 intervals at any distance and was very pleased with the result. I'm not in any hurry to repeat the effort though!

Congratulations to everybody for their JVC efforts. We put up a great number of metres and should be proud of ourselves, especially Margaret and Bri with their awesome numbers. The end of the RTW row is very near now, looking forward to the coastal row.

Maybe next year when I'm 40 I'll try the OIRC and maybe the CIRC, but I'll need more work on my 2K first.

Troy, bring it on! B)

Dave
David Chmilowskyj
M 58 6ft 4in/1.94m 230lb/105kg
Team Oarsome

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kit44
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Post by kit44 » February 5th, 2007, 10:20 am

CONGRATULATIONS CYNTHIA!!!! :D

Just checked the CIRC site to see what I had to aim for for my 2 k attempt and saw your amazing time! Are you on the way to Boston? Did anyone else from the Eh team go to Toronto this year? I'm a little upset at the lack of lightweight women - I KNOW I can't compete with your time, Cynthia, but hopefully you've motivated me to aim for the bronze time (gasp - 10 sec. off my PB :shock: )! Way to go!!
Kit
Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it. ~Plato

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Post by cynthia » February 5th, 2007, 11:09 am

kit44 wrote: ... but hopefully you've motivated me to aim for the bronze time (gasp - 10 sec. off my PB :shock: )! Way to go!!
Kit
Hi Kit

I'm sure you will do very well with your 2k test, you've been working hard and will see the reward from that! 10sec off the bronze medal time would be a very respectable lwt time in our age group don't you think!

Thank you for your congrats. I did the race this year really just because it was that time of year and I like any excuse to compete, but it wasn't my goal to go to Boston this year. As a result my time was pretty far away from a PB. :oops:

Good luck with your test!! I'll be watching to see how it went.

Cynthia

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kit44
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Post by kit44 » February 5th, 2007, 12:21 pm

Thanks Kirk, for remembering that I planned to race 2 k on my birthday (I was out of town yesterday so did it today instead) and Cynthia, for the inspiration and encouragement. I may have wimped out without the on-line encouragement :wink:
I managed a respectable PB of 8:12.7 - 6 sec off my previous best, but a long way from competitive. I'll keep slogging and hope to break the 8 minute mark by my 50th birthday! :?
Kit
Dare I ask what your best 2k is, Cynthia?
Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it. ~Plato

cynthia
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Post by cynthia » February 5th, 2007, 12:37 pm

Happy Birthday!!! (late, I'm sorry)
Awesome Kit :!: 6 seconds off your PB :!: That is a great result and you should be very pleased with it.

Cynthia

.....I was 7 sec over my PB.

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Post by tinnes » February 6th, 2007, 3:40 pm

Dave - that was one heck of a CTC row this month. Congrats. You are gonna be tough to beat!
(45) | 1K 3:07.9 | 2K 6:32.3 | 30min 8428 | 10K 36.34.5 | 60min 16,185 | HM 1:19:01.9 | C2 timeless

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Tinpusher
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Post by Tinpusher » February 6th, 2007, 4:45 pm

Thanks Troy,
I'm trying to decide how to give some more structure to my training. I've done the weight loss program and have lost about all I want to (44lbs) and have improved my general fitness level dramatically.
I now want to improve my sprint times as I'm in the 18-22% range for the 500-2K but 8-11% for the 5K-60 minutes. I downloaded the Wolverine Plan last night and I'll take a look at the Pete Plan too and see what to do next. Someone of my build should be better suited to the power events rather than the endurance ones, but that isn't yet the case. Maybe next year I'll be ready for competition.
Cheers
Dave
David Chmilowskyj
M 58 6ft 4in/1.94m 230lb/105kg
Team Oarsome

tinnes
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Post by tinnes » February 7th, 2007, 2:13 pm

Dave,

There are probably several hundred experts within the C2 forum better qualified than I to give out advice - but I'll offer some personal experience. I was in the same boat as you in Fall 2005 - had a lot of extra weight to lose, was completely out of shape. I had been a competitive rower for many years until 1990, did the erg races when they first started and were 2500 meters and had kept up (sort of) on my own erg after 1990 for a few weeks here and there when I became concerned about how much beef I was packing on. When I lost the weight, the erg collected dust again! So in fall 2005, I decided I was going to make a decent effort at getting back into rowing condition and stick with it for more than a few weeks and at some point be in condition to do the indoor erg races. I started off with the Interactive Training Program (C2 UK homepage - let me know if you need the link) in September 2005 because I liked the fact that I needed to monitor my heart rate for every workout. For anyone just starting out – and in the kind of condition I was – getting yourself a polar watch and working out to a target heartrate is the best way to go. By December I lost 22 lbs and had notched up a fair # of meters: Sep=160K, Oct=265K, Nov=365K, Dec=331K. In January 2006 I deviated from the interactive program to get ready for the BC indoor rowing championships. I took a program that Xeno Muller had posted on the forum which was meant to ramp up to competition. It consisted of a lot of short interval pieces, hard from the first week but gradually tapering off. At the erg competition I notched a 6:32 2K. One other thing to note during this time, in September I was doing 30’ pieces trying to keep within the aerobic heart rate zone below 150. To do so, I was pulling 2:04 / 500m pieces. By February 2006, I was able to keep within this heart rate doing 60’ pieces at 1:59/500m . (a 5 second improvement which is huge!). From Feb 2006 to Apr 2006, I packed on a lot more meters (about 1M), but things were improving at a very slow pace. I kept at the Interactive program, but in the middle somewhere I tried out the Wolverine plan for a few weeks. One comment on the Wolverine plan – I think its good for guys like Mike C. who created the plan and is in world class condition. It’s an excellent step approach to inching out a few extra seconds if you re already at his level (which I am not). The fact that he credits the program for his crew successes at Michigan, could be just due to the fact the crews got on a program period. Hey, I got on the interactive program, stuck to it and I improved a lot too. In the end after trying the program, my lower back was not ready for pulling 1:56 splits at 17spm and I spent to much time trying to memorize / figure out the tables that I felt it interfered too much with what I was trying to accomplish. I still do believe that if I get into better condition, and need to inch out more seconds, that I will try out the program again. In May 2006 I felt I needed to do something disruptive to get over the slow to zero improvements I’d had over the past few months – so I hit the weights. A physiotherapist that was also an avid bodybuilder once told me that in order to make one set of muscles stronger, you need to work on the equal/opposite muscles as well. There needs to be a balance and other muscles need strength to be prepared to accommodate the extra load that you would naturally accumulate building strength with the rowing muscles. So I made the weight program focus on activities which ‘push’ rather than pull. So I concentrated on things like bench press, shoulder press, and other ‘push’ exercises and started off slow doing only 1 rep of each at lower that what I felt was maximum weight. One day before I was feeling like I was in great shape – the day after, not so much. I was sore for days after that and it gave me a wake-up call as to where I really was condition wise. One week after I started the weights program, I had done an all-out half marathon at 1:20:25. 2 Months later after sticking religiously to the weights, 1:19.01. It was a huge jump.
Starting august for the next few months I was on business trips non stop. So everything ground to a halt including aspirations of going to Boston for the WIRC. However, since January I’ve been slowly ramping up again and will try to stay focused for 2008.

Again, I’m no expert – but here’s my opinion & steps on how to become a top 2k erger:
1. Make sure you have proper technique. Its number 1. Technique can subtract lots of time no matter how good condition you are in. I have been erging (off and on) for 15 years and I still concentrate during every workout on keeping my back straight, hands over the knees, breathing, how I’m holding the handle etc. I went to Xeno’s studio last year and he added some things for me to work on also. Get his video or send him a video of you rowing just to make sure you are maximizing your stroke. Believe me – the longer you;ve been erging, the longer it takes you to change your stroke. Better you do it sooner than later.
2. Get into a program and stick to it. I suggest the Interactive program – others on the Forum like other programs, fair enough. Just get into something that works gradually toward the goal of competing at a 2k event.
3. When things don’t seem to improve much while on your program, do something disruptive. Again stick to the program – but add something that disrupts the balance you’ve created with your program. For example – add weights, or completely change your weight program using different muscles. At first you might find your times on the rowing machine start suffering, but as soon as your body adapts, you should see some improvements. Stick with the rowing program though
4. 16~12 weeks before competition, start phasing out weights or any of the disruptive programs you’ve engaged and start concentrating on your anaerobic fitness. Lots of interval training and less long intervals (though I keep one or 2 sessions of 40~60’ pieces in there until a few weeks before the race).
So this is my philosophy on preparing for a 2k. If I can stick with my program in 2007, I’ll report back in 2008 and let you know whether it worked ;)

Regards,
Troy
(45) | 1K 3:07.9 | 2K 6:32.3 | 30min 8428 | 10K 36.34.5 | 60min 16,185 | HM 1:19:01.9 | C2 timeless

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