Pittsburgh Race Report

[Edward4492]

Went out to Pittsburgh for the CRASH B satellite, nice six hour drive from New Jersey. This begins the erg racing season for me, I'll be racing every weekend though till march 8th with CRASH B's of course being the target. Had a great time at Pittsburgh, Three Rivers Rowing Association supported the event and it was a great atmosphere, met a lot of nice people.

First order of business was the weigh in. I had been dieting like a fashion model to give myself some wiggle room tho make weight. I'm normally sitting right on the 165-167 range, but I'm always scared to death I'll come in heavy and have wasted a trip. This time I may have gone too far, pictures of me the day before the event show a frightening amount of leanness and was confirmed when I weighed in at 158.5lbs. Reminded me of Rick Bayco weighing in at Boston last year in his coat, hat, shoes. and gym bag......with 8 pounds to spare. A true LWT to be sure!

There were (16) Masters in the first heat of the day with (3) registered in the 55-59 LWT. I was obviously hoping for a win and a good time. There was about a 15 minute delay to get all the machines sync'ed and we were called to the line. Set the stretchers, set the drag at 102, a few quick strokes and we're ready to go. Ready, Attention, ROW ! Don't know why, but I always seem a little surprised by how fast things happen, not sure what I'm actually expecting; I mean this is why we're here....right?

So we're off and i immediately pull ahead with Roger Myers chasing at 20m back. He has a 7:05 on his resume so he's a definite threat. In the excitement I went out a little too hard and at 500m was holding a 1:43; Roger was still doggin' me so I held on, pulling it back to 1:45 -46's. He was starting to fade and was off screen by the 1000m mark (turns out he was a HWT, was put in our heat at the last minute). I was really paying the price for my hard start and settled in around 1:47-48, not where I planned on being. By this time Michael Gold, sitting next to me was closing in. He went out at a more realistic pace and was mounting a bit of a charge. 50m, 40m, 30m. I decided at this point to forget about my target time and focus on winning. When he got to the 30m mark, around 600m to go, I pushed it hard and got back down to 1:45's and was able to slowly pull away. I got down to 150m to go and started to sprint. I should say attempted to sprint 'cause there was nothing left. i was seeing 1:50's by the end. I finished with a 7:09. Michael pulled 7:19 for a PR, nice job by him.

Overall I had 3rd fastest time of all Masters 40 and up. Fastest LWT. It was a small group, ten guys rowed as six no-showed. Not being arrogant, but based on their erg scores the no-shows would probably not have contested for the win. Of course.....ya never know!

Those of you following my training on the forum ( and you both know who you are) know it was not the time I was shooting for, my training indicates I should be capable of low 7 minutes. Let me go on record as saying I'm ALWAYS happy with a win. The other competitors trained hard too, we all have goals and race hard. But I am hoping for more. I suspect I was dehydrated, my throat and mouth were brutally dry and weighing in at 158.5, then the next morning I weighed myself again (same scale) and was at 164 indicates sever water loss. One of the regular posters suggested (correctly I believe) that he thought I had under trained too much and lost my edge. I think he's right. If you read Mike Cavistons's posts, he does not recommend much of a taper at all, very little, and he has the hammer's (as we all know) to back up his assertions. And perhaps I was a little tight, I put a lot of pressure on myself and really wanted to win this event.

So, what's next? I feel really relaxed now, I did manage to win (which is always a good thing). The next three weeks I have local erg events with no LWT class, so no weigh in and no pressure. I'm going to get back to more hard and fast training, work on pacing out my effort a little better. Drink more water. Eat. Practice hitting close to 164 the morning of an event. No real pressure at Boston, even at my current very best I'm not in medal contention. So train hard, have fun, and see if I can find some more speed. Still targeting 6:59 or better at Boston. Just gotta get back to work.

Thanks to TRRA for a great event and congrats to all the competitors, particularly the guys in my class making a race out of it.....well done!

[Hillclimber]

Edward, congrats on the win! agree re dehydration possibly impacting your power. long drives to races always make hydration a challenge.

can you share your race schedule? doing pelham on 2/14?
damien

[DanielJ]

Yes! Congratulations, Edward!

[hjs]

I don,t congratulate you Edward, you have to deserve that. Getting so far below the desired weight is simply a fault, you should have a good scale and simply make sure you are on weight.
Second point, you should never look at your possible competition early in the race. Ergers have no direct influence on each other. So follow your raceplan, have a look at 1 k where you stand and around 500 in look where you are in the race.
You low weight proberly is the biggest factor, and maybe also the to low intensity of overall training. I think you should train up untill 10 days, if its an important race, and taper from there. To early will make you loose fitness.

[Cyclingman1]

Some thoughts:

Have you done a 1250 - 1400 recently? That is a good indicator of 2K.

Speed work is needed before 2K. Not knock down, drag out speed work. Do some faster stuff. 5 x 300m. Things like 4 x 1K are just endurance workouts in another form. You're trying to get fast and get used to fast pace, not wear yourself out.

Re taper: Very important. You need to feel springy. I cannot imagine a track athlete saying that taper is not needed.
I never do anything but slow, short rowing starting 3/4 days before a race.

One race does not necessarily indicate anything. You have to judge.

Long travel before a race is a killer. One reason that I think that traveling to Boston from ATL regardless of mode of transportation is a prescription for failure.

Winning versus good time - Erging is different than most sports. It is man versus machine, not man versus man. The conditions don't change much: one rower looks like the next. One trains to a time. Winning with a crappy time does not make me happy. I've been there. Last time I just walked out of the venue. No shiny medals wanted. I've never noticed another time when I'm rowing. Eyes glued to current and average pace.

[Hillclimber]

can't do a PB every time out. winning is winning. if i placed second and the winner walked out all disappointed in himself, did not bother to collect the hardware, I would consider that disrespectful, unsportsman like. it's about the sport, the event, the comraderie. not just about yourself.

[Edward4492]

Thanks for all the replys and the critique, I take it all in stride and in the spirit of trying to help. To Henry...you are correct! I got so obsessed with making weight that I may have carried it to far. I also made the classic mistake of deviating from my race plan and trying to carry a pace that I could not handle too far. I offer no excuses, just possible explanations for a sub par performance. To Jim, I think I backed way off my hard training too early. I looked back to when I pulled 6:59 and I was training hard right up till with in a few days of that PR. But I will say it again here....it's a race, not a PR attempt. When you're not bringing your "A" game it's time to re-group and do it damn fast to salvage what you can. To do that and still hold off the competition and have enough solid training that even a sub par performance results in a win, well it's a race. I can't tell you how many times I've been at a bike race and had to sit there listening to the winner complain about his "poor" time after he just smoked everybody. If you win, act with dignity and congratulate the runner up on his nice PR effort. Show some class. That guy trained hard too and poured his guts out.There's a difference between doing a PR in your basement when you get to set all the conditions up perfectly. We had a delay that resulted in about an hour expiring between my warm up and when we started. Add in travel, a second or two lost to the clock, some general nervous that had me going too hard out of the chute holding off a perceived threat and it adds up to a sub par performance. Not a HD, not a 15s loss of time, not even a loss for that matter. 5 to 10s off where I wanted to be.
.
Not trying to be overly defensive... I appreciate the honesty.If I'm going to report when I have an excellent result, well then I have to report when I have a sub par result as well. I put it all out there....the good, the bad, and the in-between. And I plan to continue to report on my upcoming races. To Damien, I won't see you until Boston. This week is Gami sprints in south jersey, 2/14 is Center City Slam in Phila, 2/22 is Two River Erg Challenge in central jersey, then Boston.

I plan to use the next three races as training events, There's no weigh in, so I can experiment with cutting it tighter to the 165lb limit. No pressure this week as it's an 18+ Senior men event. I want to try and get my edge back and fine tune things...still targeting sub 7 for Boston. No more tenative training. I'm goin' hard and we'll see what happens.

[rhr]

Well done on the win Edward.

As mentioned 158lbs is too low, you need to be right on 165 if possible. Dehydration will severely impact your performance. The good news is that it was your first race of the season and a warm up. You've got lots of time to perfect everything before the Crash B's.

If you can access a C2 with race starts available on the monitor then practice a few.

You're very good at learning and taking advice on board so I have no doubt that you'll be posting results that you're pleased with soon enough.

[hjs]

Edward, I see my comments are a bit harsh, that is not how I mend it. But 10 seconds is a lot, when 100% fit you can never loose that.
And erging is mostly a timetrial, winning is nice, but a lower placing with a strong time is better.

[Cyclingman1]

Am I the only one who notices that every WR in the C2 listings except for 2K is done in the privacy of one's basement? So much for "racing," that is man on man. Erging inherently involves a mindset of man versus the clock. When I go to a venue [very seldom] that mindset does not suddenly change. All I see is my pace and avg pace, just like for any distance. Yes, I'm very self-absorbed on every aspect of what I'm doing on the erg. No, a PB is not the mentality. The mentality is to accomplish what one has trained for. If I've trained for 7:00, that is what I want to be able to do. That is what is satisfying. Doing a poor effort and beating some guy on the other side of the arena who I do not know is not compensation. I would be way more concerned about what went wrong.

Erging is not like competing in other sports, even rowing. Time is less important when all manner of environmental factors are introduced. And one sees others moving ahead or not.

There are no award ceremonies at many C2 venues. If one wants to hang around for varying amounts of time there may be something laying on a table to pick up. If I'm not interested, so what?

[Edward4492]

Again, thanks for all the critique. I take it in the spirit that it is given. Henry again you are correct, 3-4 seconds off is acceptable, 10s is way too much to give away. I received an incredibly detailed email from Steve Roedde with very specific recommendations on preparation. I'm making changes as we speak, to be honest this was a wake up call. Looking at how Steve trains is quite frankly frightening. I still work 50-60 hour weeks plus part time at the gym, not sure I can duplicate his efforts. But I'm attacking my training with re-newed vigor. And after CRASH B's I'm already formulating a plan to push the envelope as far as possible.I have had many successful performances under pressure before. I PR'ed by 2 seconds at Boston last year and earned a bronze medal. It was not a particularly fast time; but it was my best. At the time I had only been erging for three months. I've won state archery titles and qualified for the olympic trials in that sport. I really enjoy the whole atmosphere of being at a venue and competing.....the whole thing.

And Jim, your point of view is not to be dismissed. I was positively thrilled to break 7m with a 6:59 PR. Take a look at the world rankings for 55-59LWTs and you'll see it's a small club in that range......extremely small. It was deeply satisfying, the end result of some very hard training and perfect preparation. Way more satisfying than this past race. I think I made it clear that I have mixed feelings. As a competitive athlete, you need to be grounded. That's means be honest about coming up a little short, but also take away the positives to build on. But again, everything is under perfect control when you're doing it at home. In fact, if you're having a bad day you can just decide to do it some other time. Going to a venue and racing you need to man-up regardless of conditions. Not feeling good? Too bad. Big delay after the warm up? Oh well. All of the associated stresses with travel, etc. It's part of the deal.

I'll continue to report on my coming races.....good, bad, or indifferent. I'm sure there will be some bad ones, and hopefully some good ones. To summarize my modified approach, I'll be doing more hard, sharpening types of work outs and approaching my events towards a more controlled start and get on target pace as early as possible. And please don't get the impression i wasn't trying on Saturday; I practically fell off that erg and was dizzy for about fifteen minutes.

It just wasn't there.

[Bob S.]

After spending the last 3 weeks or so making weight for 6 different events, your reference to weighing in resonated with me. But I don't go along with your approach. I have been drinking 3 - 4qts of water each day and have gotten down to about 163# for each event. Normally I start an early morning at around 166#. My main concern is getting too much salt. At home I can control it by being careful and always reading the labels carefully. The last 3 pieces, i.e. the 3 short ones, were done while we were staying at a hotel in Long Beach and eating all our meals out. Restaurant meals are notorious for adding too much salt and other sources of sodium, like msg. I felt that it was essential to keep up a high water intake to help excrete some of that excess sodium. I made a point of having light, early dinners and taking that last glass of water fairly early in the evening to allow plenty of time for it to pass through the system.

After the 2k I did just a little food bingeing, but I still have the 10k and the 60' to go, so I got right back into the routine. It payed off this morning when I hit 161.1! As I have hopes of going for the 60' on Wednesday, sothat was good news.

I plan to give the C-Bs a shot this season and have my reservation at the Marriott. So I may see you there. We can meet at the drinking fountain.

Bob S.

[Edward4492]

Thanks for the advice Bob. A close friend of mine is a personal trainer and he got on me pretty hard about the hydration. I started yesterday with a comm itment to (6) 16oz bottles a day which is three quarts. I used to drink maybe two bottles a day. I'm getting in the habit of doing it, I'll see if it helps. After eating pretty heavily all weekend and some slight binging, I was 163.2 this morning. So going to focus on floating right at 165 and take it from there.See you at CRASH B's.

[PaulG]

Went out to Pittsburgh for the CRASH B satellite, nice six hour drive from New Jersey. This begins the erg racing season for me, I'll be racing every weekend though till march 8th with CRASH B's of course being the target. Had a great time at Pittsburgh, Three Rivers Rowing Association supported the event and it was a great atmosphere, met a lot of nice people.

Overall I had 3rd fastest time of all Masters 40 and up. Fastest LWT. It was a small group, ten guys rowed as six no-showed. Not being arrogant, but based on their erg scores the no-shows would probably not have contested for the win. Of course.....ya never know!

Thanks to TRRA for a great event and congrats to all the competitors, particularly the guys in my class making a race out of it.....well done!

Edward:
Congratulations on the win. I raced at the Pittsburgh Sprints two years ago as a 50-59 LWT and TRRA always puts on a good show. I understand how a race strategy can go out the window once things start. Shortly after my heat started I noticed that my name was persisting on the monitor at the top of the list of names. It took me several strokes to figure out that I was leading! Holy Cow, I was not used to seeing that! So then my strategy was one of survival; don't let anyone pass me. I actually slowed down slightly to prevent a blow up later because I felt I could outsprint the other competitors if necessary. I held on to the lead and finished first at a pedestrian time of 7:22 if I remember correctly, which was much slower than my plan. I don't think I would have placed this year, it all depends on who shows up.

Henry and C-Man are right, it is nice to win but this is ultimately a competition against ourselves. It takes discipline to follow your race plan and a PR is better than a first place (although I like my only competitive win). The only thing on the monitor that counts is your average pace and the rest can just distract you.

[Edward4492]

Thanks Paul. I'll be the first to admit that recording a 6:59.1 PR was the highlite of my erging "career" (if there is such a thing) to date. It was immensely satisfying, more so than winning with a weaker performance. But I tend to have a difference of opinion. When you go to a venue to compete; it's a race. If not, then why not just cover the monitor and do your best? Why have the big blue screen? Why are the monitors all wired together?Why not have people come in, register, pull their time, and then sort it out at the end of the day? What you described as your race experience is just that....racing! Using strategy, holding back to manage your resources, planning to sprint at the end to secure the win. Some may argue the analogy; but in a bicycle race the sprinter usually sits in the back, sucking wheels, saving it all, and then going at just the right time to go for the win. Road racers and time trialists are different animals, for the TT guys it is truly a race against oneself and the clock.

Of course the ultimate victory is the win and the PR. Finishing 4th or 5th with a new PR...also very gratifying and respectable. Finding yourself in a position to win and managing the race to secure a victory; acceptable, but obviously much better if I produce a PR or with in a few seconds.Please keep in mind I did not make a decision to back off. I was absolutey dying. The big mistake I made (and it's a rookie mistake, I should know better) was holding an unrealistically low split for too long, heading for the classic "fly and die". Had to re-group quickly and manage the race. I'm clearly not thrilled with the time, but I am happy with being able to keeping my head and not falling apart.

In the end; this is a hobby (I assume) for most of us. It's what we do for fun and fitness. And we do it for our own reasons. It's why I love the forums, great exchange of viewpoints and information. I like the satisfaction of nailing a good time, and the thrill of racing. And when those two come together; well that's the ultimate goal.