Join Taff Attack

[old] Niall · Post by **[old] Niall** » September 14th, 2004, 2:05 am

Martin/Carla, Now there's a REAL challenge! Your combined distances versus mine. I'm quite a way off right now but it's certainly a target to go for (I think this could be fun and Taff Attack benefit from the metres too!). Martin, Well spotted re. my PBs. I had a good spell of rowing at the end of 2002 and beginning of 2003 (kicked off by the Thanksgiving Challenge set by C2). This culminated in the PBs you see listed in my signature. And of course your perfectly right, I'm feeling very good about my times right now as they come down rapidly. I think I'm still a couple of months away from attacking those PBs though but I know I'll be challenging them in due course. Overall I want to maintain the momentum of this Million Metre Challenge through to the beginning of 2005 and then build on the increased fitness by focusing on the 2K distance. It would be great if I could get under 7 minutes ready for the BIRC in November 2005 (as I've never entered before; always been injured!).

[old] Niall · Post by **[old] Niall** » September 14th, 2004, 3:57 am

So, for the record, the challenge is between Carla and Martin's combined distances and my distance. Currently this stands at: Carla/Martin: 357,631m Niall: 252,545m Good luck guys!

[old] seat5 · Post by **[old] seat5** » September 14th, 2004, 7:46 am

Go for it, Niall! UNM will really be looking over their shoulders soon. That's a TON of daily meters. Seriously, be careful not to injure yourself with a sudden increase (that's one of my usual mistakes!) All my PBs are from 2 season's ago, also, and I had a really lousy season last year because of injuries resulting from trying to work up to a marathon too fast (not counting the broken wrist, which had nothing to do with rowing and everything to do with ice.) It will be a while before I can even match my old PBs. I hope you destroy all of yours this season! I expect you'll be climbing up the Taff team stats list soon! Carla

[old] Niall · Post by **[old] Niall** » September 14th, 2004, 8:22 am

Carla, Many thanks for your support. I don't think any of my past injuries have been due to indoor rowing (apart from the time I got blisters rowing in socks as I'd forgotten my trainers/sneakers). My last injury was a broken elbow (playing 5-a-side football/soccer) and that put stop to my rowing for a good number of months I can tell you. Let's make UoNM really nervous guys! They think they've got a comfortable lead and far more rowers to contribute the metres. What we've got which they lack is a great team atmosphere (I'd rather have a drink with you guys than a room full of UoNM team members) and quality (rather than quantity) rowers! Bring it on!!

[old] Niall · Post by **[old] Niall** » September 14th, 2004, 5:40 pm

Without wanting to hog this Forum thread I just wanted to let you know that on my official rest day today, I decided to see what my best time for 5K was for this season (I've got no misconceptions that I'd get anywhere my PB of last year). My intention was to set off at a pretty fast rate for the first 500m and then settle in at around 1:58/1:59 and then go for it in the last 500m. My splits were as follows: 1:54.5 (29spm) 1:57.7 (29spm) 1:58.8 (28spm) 1:58.8 (27spm) 1:58.7 (28spm) 1:57.7 (28spm) 1:59.2 (28spm) 1:58.8 (28spm) 1:58.8 (28spm) 1:53.0 (29spm) I usually have the DF on around 128 but for this one I decided to increase it and it averaged at 137. My final time was a season's best of 19:36.2. Still 45 seconds off my PB but pleased with it all the same.

[old] AussieTaff · Post by **[old] AussieTaff** » September 14th, 2004, 7:22 pm

Perfectly executed 5K Niall, exactly as according to plan. And a great morale booster too I imagine as you not only rowed a sub 20 min but came home strongly too. Great idea to put your seasons best alongside PBs so the rest of us can follow your progress as it unfolds (I for one always enjoy reading about the accomplishments of others). Personal experience has taught me to go for a PB when I'm feeling good (the first few minutes of a warm-up are enough to tell) rather than wait until I'm at a 'programmed peak' - something always seems to go wrong at that planned peak point ! May be an age related thing though. Glad you liked the idea of the Carla/Martin pair challenge. Looks like Carla has put in a BIG 12K (what happened to the bike ride ?!) so I can loaf along in the bow seat for a while Cheers, Martin

[old] Niall · Post by **[old] Niall** » September 15th, 2004, 5:18 am

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>Personal experience has taught me to go for a PB when I'm feeling good (the first few minutes of a warm-up are enough to tell) rather than wait until I'm at a 'programmed peak'  </td></tr></table> And that's exactly how it worked out for me yesterday. Prior to the session, I'd planned just to do a steady 5K (say around 20mins 30 secs). As I sat down on the rower I felt good and thought "what if?" so went for it! And glad I did too! This morning I tried something new. Decided to do the following sequence: 5K row 10mins Bike 2K row 5mins Bike 1K row This gave me 8K in total which adds to the team total aswell as trying to close the gap between Carla and Martin's combined total. After work I'll be doing a: 10K row 10mins Bike 2K row We'll see how it goes but that would give me 20K for the day and put me under 6K away from 7th place in the team standings

[old] Bore Da! · Post by **[old] Bore Da!** » September 15th, 2004, 7:52 pm

Greetings from Down Under in Nelson, New Zealand! New Zealand has the same weather as Wales, the same sceanery as Wales, the people take the p*ss like the Welsh do, theres sheep and cows around every corner (just like Wales) and everywhere you go theres rugby clubs and beer. WHAT WAS THE POINT IN COMING HERE??? Oh yeah, miss you, great meters everyone (including you Chip), back soon, row on!!!

[old] AussieTaff · Post by **[old] AussieTaff** » September 16th, 2004, 12:42 am

Welcome to the 'down-under-mirror-image-of-Wales' world Chris. You forgot to mention the narrow, twisty roads as well ! Hope the honeymoon is going great, call in to Melbourne on the way home if you want to have an erg with a fellow TA. Australia is quite a contrast to NZ (or should that be New Walesland ?!) Just back from the gym with 13K under the belt. Tried for a 30 min PB (8K+) but didn't feel that flash at the start and 'died' at the halfway point (4K in 15 mins), so turned the session into a long (for me) muck-around row, with a couple of breaks to create the impression I'm adhering to the gym's max-15-minutes-on-the-machine rule. So I've got a few K's up on Carla (temporarily) and making our challenge more testing for you Niall. Great Kms by the Taffers team but UoNM just seem to be able to draw away each time the gap closes. And Royal College with only 7 members have come out of nowhere (who are these guys - are they human ? Do they live to erg or erg to live ?!). Martin

[old] seat5 · Post by **[old] seat5** » September 16th, 2004, 12:59 am

Hey Chris, Hope you are enjoying your trip even if it feels like you never left Wales! I took a day off today--I really felt like I needed it. You know that feeling when you get up in the morning, and all your muscles just feel like they itch inside? And you stretch and yawn and stretch and just never feel like you could stretch enough? Just seemed like a good day to be lazy... Tomorrow will be a good workout, so I should catch up to you, Martin. We've got to make it tough for Niall! (I'll bet Speedy and the rest of the gang on the top of our team roster each do about twice our combined daily meters!) Does anyone know what country LKA is? All the Royal College folks, who are almost catching us!!! horrors!!! live in LKA. Carla

[old] AussieTaff · Post by **[old] AussieTaff** » September 16th, 2004, 2:24 am

Looks like Royal College (of Erging !) may be Sri Lanka ? Their names sound Sri Lankan to me and LKA - Lanka? Have a good row tomorrow Carla, next one for me probably Saturday (depends on what sort of training run I do tomorrow). Niall has quite an uphill task against our combinrd might ! Looks as if you are over your Achilles problem ? Cheers Martin

[old] Niall · Post by **[old] Niall** » September 16th, 2004, 4:48 am

I bet our Welsh sheep are better looking than those New Zealand crossbreeds though! Put in a total of 20K yesterday and another 8K this morning. I didn't think it would happen but that elevates me to 7th place in the Taff Attack standings. However, Martin and Carla seemed to have upped the ante somewhat and are really pounding out the metres. I've just done some calculations and I'm surprised to see that I've actually closed the gap on them (Martin/Carla started with a 105,086m head start and it's now down to 91,086) so that's cheered me up. Still a long way to go though... We're certainly goingto need a full team effort if we're going to hold off Royal College. As you say they've come out of no where and are fast approaching. (And Achilles seem to be fine, for rowing at least!)

[old] seat5 · Post by **[old] seat5** » September 16th, 2004, 9:20 am

I'm planning on 10K today. The day off yesterday was just what I needed, now I'm raring to go. Achilles is at bay. It's still not quite right, but now it seems as though instead of the tendon, it's the lower calf muscles that feel like they want to pull, especially if I do something like push down on the clutch in the car for too long, or use the left foot to balance with the right foot still in the bike toe clip. I don't usually drive the stick shift--it's my husband's--but it was really uncomfortable the other day when I had to take that car through downtown traffic, which surprised me. I think you're right about Sri Lanka. Isn't it amazing that we could be competing against people from that obscure little place! With only half the number of team members, they have almost the same number of meters we have! Let's get going! Carla

[old] dadams · Post by **[old] dadams** » September 16th, 2004, 9:43 am

Taffs, Love to see the little interclub competition going on here. Great stuff. Chris, Glad to hear you're having a good time in New Wales. Oops sorry, New Zealand. Keep those meters coming, everyone counts!! Speedy

[old] blod · Post by **[old] blod** » September 16th, 2004, 2:36 pm

congrats Sue on 100,000 Graham

Concept2 Forum

Join Taff Attack

General

General

General

General

General

General

General

General

General

General

General

General

General

General

General