TimbukTOO Team Room

[The Blacksmith]

WOW-now there's some BIG numbers from all the rowers. Way cool Keep it up and we'll be in the Keys in no time-and maybe head to drop off our Spanish teammate

[BoB/335]

We are slippimg in position on the "Challenge", right? Why is that? Do these teams passing us have more members or are they rowing more meters per day per person?
What is a good average to be shooting for per month? I thought 150,000 meters was do-able AND able to fit into a well rounded program "for me" and so far I am pleased with the balance in my life. (Although I might admit that if I had a Concept 2 at home I might be tempted to hop on it a little more while I'm STILL out of work) Do these other teams have more "fanatics" (for lack of a better descriptive word) than we do?


This is my 3rd Challenge with this team. Don't really know why I picked here over the others. Even thought I would try a different one for my second Challenge (originally( but decided that it probably didn't really matter which team so might as well stay here. Well, I still have no idea what the other teams are like but I like it here just fine!!! I've seen the numbers grow for this Challenge as well as the year round team and would like to see more of both of them chime in here to get to know a little about them and their story of erging.

[BoB/335]

How do I change my time setting. As I hit the "submit" button it it 6:50 AM EST.

[Citroen]

How do I change my time setting. As I hit the "submit" button it it 6:50 AM EST.

http://www.c2forum.com/ucp.php?i=165

[The Blacksmith]

Hey Bob,
I had the same question, so I looked at some stats, and it seems to me the answer to your questions seems to be yes to both. I myself really look at the Challenge as a kind of solo challenge to myself as to how much I can do. I also really enjoy the team-it's gotten to be an enjoyable thing (thanks all!). The whole way of "winning" by total meters is not really fair, but I can't think of a better way to do it than Concept 2 has. I think I'll just keep looking at it how I've been. A fun thing, and a big Challenge to myself. As to a good average per month for myself, I haven't even given it a thought-maybe I should. Right now I'm just seeing how far I can go this month-which so far is way farther than I thought I could-esp after the back episode a couple months ago that really slowed me down. On a good side I've notice my shoulders and biceps have gotten bigger in the last month-too bad my belly hasn't gotten smaller-should I give up ice-cream and such stuff-probably, but haven't been able to yet.
Mark

[mathineer]

You could score a challenge by average # of meters per team member.

[CONLEJM]

Hi Bob, I think you've got it right when you strive for balance. Unless you are a professional or competitive rower, this erging should just be a part of a sensible wellness regimen. There's a law of diminished fitness returns in rowing, too; rowing twice as much doesn't make you twice as healthy.

I found myself getting caught up in aggregating as many meters as possible during this challenge, rowing for sometimes several hours a day, getting as high as fourth place on the team ... And not really having much fun doing it. I was having a lot more fun at the beginning when I rowed for less time and fewer meters, and tried to improve my times and rankings. I enjoy quality rowing over quantity rowing. So I am taking rest days and getting back to rowing for only an hour a day on the days that I row, and trying to improve my speed ( with an occasional long row thrown in).

I think average meters per team member would be the only way to level the playing field between large teams and small teams.

[The Blacksmith]

For me, the whole reason why I got the erg was to get ready for being on the water. I want to be able to do some really long rows. In the past I used to be an avid sea kayak guy-20 years ago- and had gotten into serious trouble on long journeys when the wind and water kick up and was not able to paddle for hours on end with no stops. I was out on the Long Island Sound in early March-water was 40 degrees or so-went a mile or so off shore. The wind started coming from the land side strongly, waves got to be about 3-4feet. There was no stopping paddling-when I slowed/stopped paddling I got blown backwards. Make a long story short I barely made it back to shore after a few hours of battling wind and currents.If I had to go another 10 minutes I wouldn't have made it back. Learned a couple good lessons. NEVER go solo on the ocean-and tell someone where I was going, and check the weather reports. So to make a long story short, I want to get my endurance up a bit. Since I started the challenge I can go an hour with no stops. I my be asking too much, but in my 20's I could paddle for 6 hours with no trouble, and I'm looking to be that strong again.

[glenmbaker]

Hmm...after putting in 46k yesterday I found myself thinking about all of the same things that Bob brought up. To be honest, that row was probably a bit too far and my body is saying "hello brain??? time to back off!" Everything's fine, but it was clear that I was getting close to the point of hurting something (strangely enough it's one knee, on the back side).

That got me to thinking "well why the heck am I doing this?", and the answer of course was that there's this drive to put in the maximum number of meters possible. Once this month is over I am sure I'm going to considerably change my workouts since I don't feel like these LSDs are actually accomplishing my overall goals.

My overall goal is not measured in meters, but in weight stability, aerobic capability, and the ability to ski the West Face of KT22 with a pack on my back without stopping. The weight thing is relatively minor, just didn't like the fact that I was starting to gain weight for no reason and decided to put an end to it. So next month I'll be doing shorter, but much more intense workouts and trying to ignore any measurements of total meters.

As to a better way to do a contest...it's tough. I was trying to think of something that would reward individual improvement. Some combination of total meters (to reward dedication and consistency) as well as a bonus that rewarded percent improvement in personal bests for specific distances. It would be tough to avoid sandbagging though (the PB thing would require ranked workouts prior to the beginning of the challenge, pretty easy to just post a slow row prior to the challenge then "improve" dramatically). Also lots of people probably don't rank their rows to start with, so at the end of the day I really can't come up with anything better than just measuring total meters per member.

And just to launch into geek-ville, I imported this morning's data into a database and did some fooling around. Looking at meters/member:

• We are in 52nd place out of 330 teams.
• Many of the top "teams" have less than 5 members (Imagine what would happen if David and Heather formed their own team)
• If you consider only teams having 20 members or more, we are 11th out of 58
• If you consider only teams having 50 members or more, we are 5th out of 20

All in all I think that's actually a pretty darned impressive team showing!

[damselfly]

Ahoy, team!! Though some of our boat be ailing, we still put in a great day's rowing Saturday, ending with 7,685,500 meters, or 4,773 miles... Excellent!! That put us almost into Amarillo for the night.



We managed to avoid alien abduction and holdup by outlaws, and took a few minutes to tag our team name on the cars of the famed Cadillac Ranch.



Time today to head southeast in a long slog towards Fort Worth and Dallas. Row strong, team!!

[garygOP]

Overtraining is a real possibility.
I did 290K during the fund raiser. My typical monthly production is less than 200K.
I was really in a haze for awhile afterwards- needed to rest for awhile.
I am back into a routine where I am both rowing and working on the ARC Trainer.
It is better for me- I can do 10-15K per day this way 4 or 5 days a week.
I am still improving my stroke, power output, speed.
But the main thing is that there is balance- between work and play- between exercise and the rest of my life.
The metaphor I like to use is that of a wheel with even spokes- rowing is just one spoke in my wheel.
I like it a lot.
But it is one of many spokes.
Provided the spokes are even, and tight, I will roll- smooth and true.

Go 49ers.!!!!!!

[glenmbaker]

Go 49ers.!!!!!!

Huh, I looked but I couldn't find any team or affiliation named "49ers". Who are they?

[The Blacksmith]

Just hit a little over 3 million since last March!

[garygOP]

Go 49ers.!!!!!!

Huh, I looked but I couldn't find any team or affiliation named "49ers". Who are they?

Good one.

[CONLEJM]

Just hit a little over 3 million since last March!

Congratulations, Mark! That's a heck of a lot of rowing in less than a year.