report from Amsterdam

dennish · Post by **dennish** » December 18th, 2006, 10:17 pm

Great trip, excellent team. First and foremost I would like to thank C2 for the opportunity and support and specifically to Lisa and Brickett for all things that they did unflaggingly and with a smile. To Linda Muri for being so supportive, insightful, calming and sharing her knowledge so readily. Nereus Boat club also needs some huge thank yous for the great event, ergs to practice, and a dinner that was delightful. Thats probably the most important stuff so you can stop reading now, as I'm going to take a stab at describing my race. Also if you don't keep up with the 50-54 and 55-59 lwt classes much of the drama, humour, pathos and euphoria will be lost. That said.

Going in I was convinced that the best outcome for me was 5th place. There was the Roy Brook/Rich Cureton duel sure to be in the 6:30's and David Hislop has been mid 40's several times this year already and Fred Nielson from Denmark is also in the mid 40's. My training and state of mind said high 40's. There was huge amounts of pressure on the Roy/Rich match.

Our race was the third one. Clean start, took a fair bit to sort itself out but I was settled in comfortably in fourth (Fred was a no show) by the first 500. Rich was leading 12m in front of me, David was third 3m in front. I assumed Roy was second. Around 700 I closed my eyes and concentrated on staying smooth and calm for 50 strokes.

I opened my eyes and we were closin in on 800 left. Then things started to happen. Roy was in first about 18 meters ahead and David was third. Then "say What" Rich was third and I was thinking David don't do something stupid its a far way out. But as we went along it became clear that David was steady it was Rich that was dropping. He leveled off at about 3 to 4 meters ahead of me. Then all of a sudden I'm in third and Rich is falling off. Stayed there for a bit but at 200 I told myself that this was my last race and I should just lay it out there and crank it up.

Dropped the place below 1:40 and just kept trying to make every stroke as strong and correct as I could. David and Roy neither responded and the meters were starting to close. What a great finish. When we three handled down we all we sure that it was Roy, David then me. Apparently the monitor screen is not quite as closely calibrated as the computer and the announced finish was David third 6:49.5 and me second 6:49.3 and Roy 6:47.? Great race, I was happy to be third, second was amazing but I did and still do feel a twinge of regret for David. ~~~

To all my teammates,
1) share your stories and thanks for the memories(Stan on the wrong train, Paul not knowing the story between Mike and Rich and getting an earful from cureton, Noah falling asleep at the table, Pam playing bicycle pinball, Laurette and Luann schooling Emily, Linda being aghast at some of the rowing technique she saw, the stories go on and on.
2)special thanks to Jim for being a patient and forbearing room mate and Jonathan for knowing where the ice cream was for the post race lwt food fest.
3) thanks to Paul Smith for being a rock of support and knowledge and not just dismissing me when i got balky. And to all of you who cared enough to read through this, thanks it has been a great run, but I'm off to try the bike for awhile. I'll see you at Boston but only as a spectator, starting now, today its full tilt with the bike team.

Take care, be safe. Live well, live strong. dennis

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » December 19th, 2006, 8:50 am

Good report Dennis, after another great race. Can I have dibs on your coxing in the 55-59 lwt race at Boston?

Rick

P.S. one of the best things about the Development Squad section of the Forum is that the previous poster is not allowed there.

PaulS · Post by **PaulS** » December 19th, 2006, 1:10 pm

Dennis,

Thanks for the report, I will look forward to seeing you in Boston, but it won't be the same without you racing, though I understand the decision. It has been a pleasure to have worked together and an honor to be your friend.

All the best on the Bike, of course you already started to show them the way this past summer, and it's going to get better from here on out.

Cheers,
Paul

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » December 20th, 2006, 12:42 am

Thanks for sharing your story.

I saw your race on the internet. Rich must have been devastated in the last few hundred meters to see himself slip out of medal contention, particularily in light of the big deal Concept 2 Europe made of the medal winners.

I particularily focused on the Men's 30-39 and Men's 40-49 Hwt races. It appeared a number of the competitors used low drag factor based on the damper setting lever.

I also saw some competitors who looked like they used the race to either kick off or was part of a weight loss program.

NavigationHazard · Post by **NavigationHazard** » December 20th, 2006, 3:30 am

Actually, testing the machines the day before the races revealed that DFs on many of them were at the high end of the normal range for new machines right out of the box. I probably helped check out a dozen or so myself, and was rountinely encountering max DFs >210. Max drag on the machine I used in my race was 216 in pre-event testing. The practical result was that you often had to lower the damper lever setting substantially to end up with your favorite racing DF.

german answer · Post by **german answer** » December 20th, 2006, 8:38 am

Yes the drag was exceptional high. Normally I use position 10, which is 205-210 on new machines, but indeed there was a df >220 at my machine. I had to put down.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » December 21st, 2006, 2:56 am

NavigationHazard wrote:Actually, testing the machines the day before the races revealed that DFs on many of them were at the high end of the normal range for new machines right out of the box. I probably helped check out a dozen or so myself, and was rountinely encountering max DFs >210. Max drag on the machine I used in my race was 216 in pre-event testing. The practical result was that you often had to lower the damper lever setting substantially to end up with your favorite racing DF.

Thanks for the input on what was going on. I think the Model D's I use at the gym are on the lower drag factor at the higher damper settings. It appeared people like Jurgen Schwab, Thomas Axeslon, Peters, Boyer, and other fast people were all using drag factors around 120, based on the appearance of the damper lever. More than likely then they were using drag factors probably in the neighborhood of 140.

german answer · Post by **german answer** » December 21st, 2006, 4:23 am

Sorry Thomas to contradict you, but I wll never use df 120. I use around 210 in race, and sometimes 300 for special strength workouts. The last years I can improve my otw times as well, with such system. I never do any additional weight training, because I think the whole muscle slings for the rowing movement, can be strengthened by high resistance rowing.

johnlvs2run · Post by **johnlvs2run** » December 21st, 2006, 11:49 am

Thank you for that, Jurgen.

How do you get the drag factor up to 300?

c2bill · Post by **c2bill** » December 21st, 2006, 1:05 pm

dennis - you are a classy guy and i'm proud to have seen you race in person over these many years. One of the most touching moments in indoor racing history what the final race between you and the flying frenchman. Moments after being beaten narrowly by you, Jean-Paul stood up and offered you his hand.

thanks for a great summary of the race action - i'm hoping others will follow you lead and post again.

regards,
bill patton

NavigationHazard · Post by **NavigationHazard** » December 21st, 2006, 1:08 pm

There's a nice piece on EIRC featuring the M50LW race at

http://www.worldrowing.com/display/modu ... wid=324069

german answer · Post by **german answer** » December 21st, 2006, 1:17 pm

I take the perforate metal cover off the flywheel! The first days are really hard but you get used to it. You may laugh out or not df 210 feels easy after a few weeks with df 300.

But you can not produce low splits, because the air resistance is immense. You have to control your movements during the stroke- upright position at the catch and nearly upright position at the finish. No angle over 90 degrees in your knees. This feels better than any workout with weights and muscular ache is guarenteed.

PaulS · Post by **PaulS** » December 21st, 2006, 1:27 pm

german answer wrote:I take the perforate metal cover off the flywheel! The first days are really hard but you get used to it. You may laugh out or not df 210 feels easy after a few weeks with df 300.

But you can not produce low splits, because the air resistance is immense. You have to control your movements during the stroke- upright position at the catch and nearly upright position at the finish. No angle over 90 degrees in your knees. This feels better than any workout with weights and muscular ache is guarenteed.

Jurgen, you need to get your hands on a Model A, DF =~ 2000. LOL

I think you may be running into an error condition on the PM that is hindering "low splits". I know the low end of the DF is in the 40's, but it may also have a high end that is less than 300 (the 300 is similar to what gets displayed when the DF is too low, and the splits go all over the place when that happens).

Interesting that you do try the hyper-overcompensation with a high drag though, you also get very good results.

Cheers.

german answer · Post by **german answer** » December 21st, 2006, 1:38 pm

Some of us use low drags, some of us use high drags. Don´t you think it depends on your muscle structure and character, what is the ideal drag for each rower Paul?

german answer · Post by **german answer** » December 21st, 2006, 1:42 pm

I would never propose this df to Ralph (Eckhart) because he is so much taller than me (and not so fat).

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report from Amsterdam

report from Amsterdam

thanks dennis