Summer Racing or Training Series? Any takers?

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » June 21st, 2006, 9:22 am

Friends:

I just had a note from Krysta asking about RowPro and a possible Summer Series like we had last year. I did some research here, and see that Frank is not going to race as much this summer as he did last summer because of a modification to his training plans for the 2007 CRASH-B, which is entirely understandable.

I want to ask who else might have interest in a Summer Series? ... of some sort? I'd be glad to help organize, and we could come to a consensus on what events to run and how to score them.

I'm interested in joining something of this kind. If you are too, please post here, and post your ideas on what events, how frequently we hold them, when to start, and how we score or handicap.

We might also make it a "Summer Training Series" and make it part of all of our training plans, rather than races. Paced events, or predicted time events. Something of that nature.

Thanks!

-- Mark

ancho · Post by **ancho** » June 21st, 2006, 9:28 am

Hi, Mark!
I will finish my otw competition season by mid of july. From then on, and depending on always inforeseeabke family organization, I sure would like to do some online racing. Necertheless, during sommer months (and in winter), I will always prefer an otw to an erg session.

What I would like to repeat again is the Virtual Crash-B stuff, but that's still a long way to go. Will you be in for that?

Cheers

nacho

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » June 21st, 2006, 10:32 am

Nacho:

I was thinking we start after the Evesham race (after July 8th) ... since I will be away until then and many people here in the US take a long (for us, 1 week) holiday over our 4th of July Independence Day holiday weekend.

I will be glad to organize another Virtual CRASH-B, but hope to be there in person this year, so mine may not be so virtual!

I'll keep you on the list for a Summer Series. I completely understand your OTW comment. It is great now that I have started. I finish my first OTW program (class) the end of June, but start another for July and into August. After that, I graduate and need to find a boat! But, it's now only two evenings, and then in July only two mornings, each week, so I still must erg to stay fit.

Cheers -- Mark

Shannon · Post by **Shannon** » June 21st, 2006, 12:36 pm

Mark,

I would be up for a Summer Race Series or a Summer Training Series or whatever. I really enjoy racing and training online. The format doesn't really matter to me, as long as I don't feel totally intimidated by all the speedy folks. I am a lightweight female and not that fast, although I am improving all the time!! I think it would be nice to get some more women involved in these kinds of events. I have several friends that I row with online, but not so much since summer has arrived. Once you get some plans in place, I will see if I can muster up any interest from them. Keep me posted.

Shannon

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » June 21st, 2006, 12:41 pm

Shannon:

Great, send your buddies here and have them post so we know who they are. I'll noodle on how to structure something that may be more suited to training, or time trials (tests), rather than flat out racing. Maybe we can structure some teams, to make it a bit more fun in that respect.

If you have any ideas, let me know.

Thanks!

-- Mark

FrankJ · Post by **FrankJ** » June 21st, 2006, 12:50 pm

Mark,

I'm not sure what you have in mind for a series but I have the spreadsheet that I used for scoring last season's handicap races if that helps. Let me know if I can help in any way to get you started.

Frank

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » June 21st, 2006, 12:53 pm

Thanks Frank. I believe I have your "shell" file, but if you've updated it, you can send me another. My e-mail's in the signature (I think, can't see it from this screen!).

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » June 21st, 2006, 12:54 pm

Whoops ... it's mark_pukita AT fastswitch.com ... sorry ...

holm188 · Post by **holm188** » June 21st, 2006, 1:15 pm

Mark,
I'm travelling a lot until August 10, so if the Summer series are a late Summer series, I'll join. I would like better longer distances.
Holm

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » June 21st, 2006, 2:37 pm

I knew we could count on you Holm! We'll keep you posted.

Hey, how about a new picture? Your kids, who are cute as all get-out by the way, must be teenagers by now, yes?

michaelb · Post by **michaelb** » June 21st, 2006, 3:56 pm

I have not rowed in weeks and am leaving for Japan tomorrow, so don't really have time to participate in this thread. But I would sign up for some summer online rows. I am not in racing shape either.

At least for one or some of the rows, I would suggest something that I called a "place your bets" handicap. Instead of setting the handicap on your PB, and forcing people to actually row fast, let people row whatever pace they want, as long as they row that pace. In the last 1000m, "all bets are off" and people can row as fast as they like. So in theory no one would be passed until the final 1000m sprint, and we would be pretty close together at that point depending on the handicaps.

I suggested this last fall for the fall racing series (but Frank didn't take me up) and ran one race like this during the spring, that had 7-8 boats and was pretty fun. One person either didn't follow the rules or didn't know the rules, but the rest of the group more or less went according to plan. I think Andreas blew by me in the last 500m.

Krysta Coleman · Post by **Krysta Coleman** » June 21st, 2006, 11:08 pm

Hi Mark,

As mentioned in my email to you, I would certainly be up for some sort of summer series. Racing, training, whatever. I am not in great shape right now after illness, holidays and a number of other poor excuses, but I would sure join in anyway.

- Krysta

Shannon · Post by **Shannon** » June 22nd, 2006, 12:58 am

Mark,

One thing that I really enjoy is those 2K cool-downs where we see how close we can get to a certain exact pace. I did one once with I think it was Leif, where we could choose what time we wanted to finish 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 etc. I chose 9:00!! But then the idea was the same: to finish as close as possible to that certain time. We could do something like that for whatever distance. That might be my only chance to ever "win" a race!!! I'm not sure how to score something like that though...

The place your bets handicap sounds good too. I am up for straight racing as well. I just find it so much fun to have a little company when rowing.

Shannon

fish · Post by **fish** » June 26th, 2006, 12:00 am

I also have not been rowing very much and am not in great racing shape. I am riding (bicycle) the Seattle to Portland on July 15 and plan to focus on my rowing after my legs recover. I would guess by August I will be interested in doing some training rows.

Arlene

captain · Post by **captain** » June 26th, 2006, 7:57 am

Same here, I have been away racing for my other sport and rowing was keep to a very low level. I need to get back at it. So I will be very interested to participate in your summer series, mind you I should be very busy until August.

I think if you go ahead with the series during the summer you should not restricted the race on strictly the week end and maybe include Friday and Monday part of the window where you can race so you will get more participant.