Happy Birthday to Dwayne for yesterday from Andy and I.



Jasmine

Taffs,
Looks like the U of NM is pulling away from us. SUCKS!!! Do we want that #6 spot?! I think we do.

So here's how were gonna do it (I hope). Just when you feel like you can't do another meter, do another 100. If you think you have another 1k in you, do another 500. If nothing else pull that chain just one more time after you think you're going to quit for that session.

We can do it!!!

Speedy

Great idea, Speedy!

We can't let those New Mexicans beat the Taffs!

I did 1K more than my planned 5K. I admit they were junk meters--all of them--but there were 6000 of them. So there, UNM!

Carla

Way to go Carla, you can catch me!!!!

Martin

Great effort Carla. As far as the Taff attack on UoNM, the quality of the metres isn't important, it's the metres themselves!

Go Girl!!!

Sue & Graham,
Thanks for the email. You are definitely doing your part for the TA. Keep it up.

Speedy

Hey Martin! Your turn to catch up! Thanks for the encouragement.

Speedy--if I knew your mailing address I'd send you some pom poms as a belated birthday present. You're a great cheerleader! It is sort of silly how little it takes to make me want to work.


It's great to see our newest members cranking along with us. I hope Sue's belly is getting flatter (too bad mine isn't!)

Go Taffs! We've got the best team spirit going.

Carla

Hi Carla, once again a 'bonza' (Aussie slang for top) effort! As my next gym session is a few days away you can enjoy pole position for a while and maybe put a bigger gap between us!

Happy erging

Martin

PS Does 'SEAT5' reflect your favourite seat number in an eight?

Hey Martin,
I'll have to make hay while the sun shines, won't I?

"seat5" was my seat in the UMass novice 8 the only year I rowed on water (1978).

How long have you been erging? I am still working towards my first million--it's coming up in less than 100K.

Carla

Just finished a 10K in my best time for 18 months so really pumped! Keeping in mind Speedy's motivational idea of putting in some extra metres and following Carla's great example, I decided to have an active rest (10 minutes on the bike) and then put in an extra 2K (and like Carla, it was all about the distance and nothing to do with time or quality).

Due for another 10K tomorrow so I'll do my best to put in some extra metres aswell so UoNM feel the pressure from Taff Attack.

Keep up the great rowing guys!

Taffians
Back in gods country after a week in Spain,As we crossed the Severn Bridge from Bristol airport and saw the sign for Wales the heavens opened and the rain came down.Good to be home.
Managed 6 thou this evening in between unpacking and getting the cat.
Back in harness tomorrow to get the meters in so i can get in front of my top mate and enemy (Chris) in our million meter challenge.
Talking of millions Congrats Jasmine and Andy on hitting the mark.

While in Spain i spent time a lot of time learning the lingo and came up with the
idea all you need to know is (uno grande cevasa por favor) =one large beer please.

Chippy

Hi Carla,

All this talk of ergs, metres, inspirational Taffers (esp. Dwayne)and Taffettes (esp. Carla) achievements etc caused an uncontrollable urge to visit the local gym this morning ! So I've leapfrogged over you (temporarily) - hope your back is strong enough to play leapfrog, I weigh about 100 Kilos ! And I may even keep to my usual schedule of a Monday visit so not much time to make that hay.

I 'discovered' erging about 18 months ago but only recorded PB's in my Logbook (so as to get them into the Rankings database) until those 3 Welsh boyos created Taff Attack and in so doing gave me a reason for logging all metres rowed. Good on you nearly reaching the magic Million mark, must be only a few weeks away now.

At the moment I'm 'training' (at 55 one doesn't really train all that seriously!!) for a half marathon in October after an extensive layoff from jogging due to wear and tear injuries. Pity the jogging Kms don't count as I do about 30 Kms a week !

Hoping to see you in front soon,

Martin

PS I used to row in 5 seat in eights in the 70's so we have that in common too.

As promised, I put in an extra 2000m after my 10000m row tonight (with a 5-minute cycle in between). Once again, well done to Speedy as I've now done an additional 4000m that I wouldn't have done for Taff Attack if it wasn't for his initiative. It's also helping me drive forward in my Million Metre Charity Challenge and I'm currently 56,000m ahead of schedule having completed 134,000m in 12 days.

I must say I think Taff Attack are the friendliest and most motivated "University" team. You don't see any team postings by any of the other Universities. It's great fun and very motivational.

Keep erging guys!

Yippee!

I just got a season's best on the 6K by 34 seconds!

Then I did a really pokey-pokey 1K cool down, and thought I would log this stuff in and hit the shower. But that Aussie Taff has snuck into the gym before he said he would and is some 2K+ ahead.

Can't let that sit there.

Carla

Great PB Carla - 6K is a tough distance as I find one tends to try to maintain 5K pace and then have that extra K to do. But you really crunched it, way to go!

Off to the gym now, should be able to manage that 1 metre !

Erg on Taffs

Martin

PS Incredible Kms Niall, you may have to revise the 1 million target to, say, 2 million (or 3) to maintain the challenge factor for the next 4.5 months !

Carla/Martin,

What a rivetting battle between you guys. Just 1 metre in it as it currently stands! Big question is, who's going to make the break away first and will the other one respond accordingly??

It's going to get me logging onto the Team Standings every day I can tell you!!

As for my Million Metre target, I agree Martin, at my current rate I should be targeting 2 million in the 5 months. I've certainly got no problem with that as an unofficial target but I know from experience that injury or sickness can hit at any time so at the moment I'll maintain my current rates so if I do get injured/sick, I've got enough metres in the bag to hit the Million Metre mark (2 Million would be great though as it would mean being close to 5 Million for my C2 logbook total; currently on 2.8M).

My plan for today is a 5K this morning and 10K after work. I'll also be looking to continue putting in 1-2K extra at the end of each session just to keep UoNM from feeling too comfortable in 6th place.

Keep up the great work guys!

It's Carla's turn to catch up now as Martin's put in a big 11,750m row! Martin's really thrown the gauntlet down now.

There's only one way to keep an Aussie quiet Carla and that's to put him back in 10th place!

Keep erging guys...

Hey there Taffs,

Way to go with the meters all. Quite simply stated....Outstanding!!!

I love to see the competition going on between Carla and Niall.

Way to go on the PB Carla. Same with you on your 10k Niall.

Speedy

Completed my 5K+2K this morning and 10K this afternoon (no +2K this afternoon as I was running late). That puts me 31K behind 7th place in the Taff Attacks standings. I should cover that by Friday (I've got a rest day tomorrow ).

Keep up the great work everyone...

G'day Niall, sound thinking on your behalf re making allowance for future possible injuries etc. I know the experience only too well of feeling invincible and soaring high one week only to 'crash and burn' through ill health/injury the next !

Maybe you could aim for 2 Million by end of season (30/4/05 ?), and make that 3 if you reach 2 by end January ! Another more immediate 'fun challenge' : take on Carla and myself rowing as a pair (i.e. our 2 scores combined vs yours) and see when you can pass us ! Wouldn't be too hard if on the water as we are both ex-Bowsiders so our pair would go round in circles ! Once past us (if you can that is) then it's on to challenging the Founding Fathers of Taff Attack, who should be feeling the hot breath of your rapid approach by then

I notice your 4 PBs listed are all 2003, with all this erging you must be on the cusp of setting new ones ?

Next gym visit Thursday Carla (fair dinkum !). Don't forget we Aussies are half a day ahead of the pack though, so that's Wednesday evening to you.

Cheers,

Martin

Now stick to your plan this time, Martin, and let me go on a bike ride one of these days instead of playing catchup!!!

This is fun. I'm afraid UNM is still pulling away from us, though!

Carla

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!).

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!

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

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!!

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.

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

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!!!

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

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

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

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!)

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

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

congrats Sue on 100,000
Graham

Well done Sue on reaching 100 thou in such a short time, you have left the big fella for dead

Graham.
Sue has shown the way so get of the bench press and get on the ergo before she is out of sight.

Some great battles going on in the team nobody wants to be left behind.If all the team add our meters together do we match our master blaster SPEEDY.??????

Chris
Sounds like your getting that E.T feeling ...HOME.

Chippy.

Speedy
500k behind all of us! you sure is the Daddy.
Chippy

Good going, Sue! I can feel your breath on my back! Guess I'd better get my rump in gear, or you'll leave me in your wake.

How do you like the erg? Are you using it exclusively, or cross training? You're making great progress.

Carla

Thanks everyone,as a new kid on the rower being part of T A spurs me on. Carla,i weight train twice a week,also walk up mountains Sun and Wed H.R. max 175,Sue

Hi Sue,

There must be a mountain nearby that you climb a lot? How far is it to the top & what's the elevation? Just curious. That's a kind of unique thing to do as a routine.

I bike & row. I used to swim a lot, and may do that again--the pool hours weren't making sense with my schedule. I also used to run but have been finding that not very good for me anymore.

We're glad you're on the team. We need every meter we can get! The Royal College Team is only 313,902 meters behind us--with only 7 members--and UNM is 432,371 ahead of us.

Time to go do my 10K.
Carla

Hey Carla, only a few more K's before we crack the 200K barrier! Which one of us will get there first ? I've lost count of the number of calf injuries since making a 'comeback' to jogging (inspired by my 25 year old daughter who actually enjoys distance running - we are doing a Half Marathon early October) after a 15 year layoff. I found that they soon pass and don't stop one training, albeit on a reduced workload provided that the injury is not a tear. Different approach then - plenty of rest followed by very gradual increase in training intensity from a low starting point.

Well Speedy, I suspect no red (white & blue) blooded American could let a small matter of 500K pass through to the 'keeper (a cricket term, an Aust vs USA cricket match was played the other day, did you see it over there on TV?) !!!! A pretty tough ask but maybe made a bit more feasible with the top end of the TA Leaderboard (excepting you and Jasmine) having a bit of a siesta (hot Northern Hemisphere summer?) at the moment. A bonus would be the passing of UoNM with that 500K (if done tomorrow) ! Plus keep Royal College at bay for a bit longer.

Speaking of RC, one can't help but be impressed by their progress up the ladder - Colombo is pretty hot and humid most of the year and they are basically a team of 6 judging by their individual K's.


Niall, 7th spot claimed and the 300K mark about to fall - Bonza effort !

Cheers all,

Martin

New season's best on 30 minute piece--an improvement of over 200m and only about 40m short of my old PB. I did a very slow 2K warmup and then set the display on avg. pace, which I've never tried before. The PM1 didn't have it, so I've been used to displaying total meters. This time I looked up 7K on a pace chart and found I had to hold 2:08 to make it. It was not hard until the last 5 minutes and I ended up with 7095, at avg 2:06.8 and 24 SPM. Usually I use the meter display to help keep the stroke at 10 meters per stroke, but I don't know how I did on that. It felt like I might have been a bit on the short side.

Anyone remember how to figure that out from avg SPM and pace? If it comes out less than 10, I'll have to decrease the SPM. It is so helpful to have that avg pace displayed, I hate to give that up.

Your turn at bat, Martin!
Carla

Great row Carla, breaking the 7000 barrier and so close to your old PB. Looks like you are back in town !

Off to the gym tomorrow to be the first through the 200K (unless you have another 4K in you !). I'm now inspired to try that 30 min 8000 barrier again after your achievement, need to carry that inspiration onto the beast tomorrow though, not just whilst typing this !

Martin

PS If you did 24 SPM average for 30 mins that equates to 24 X 30 = 720 strokes in total.
Dividing metres rowed by 720 gives metres per stroke, in your case (7095) just a bit under 10 (7200 metres rowed would be 10 exactly).

Must confess to never using 'metres per stroke' as I either use the 'average rate' feature to determine if I need to go faster/harder (if I can !) or have a little recovery period (i.e. loaf) or I simply do what you did with the PM1 and do mental calculations (based on the time/distance displayed) at various key points (1K,2K, etc) to see how I'm travelling. Helps take one's mine off the pain too!

Carla,

Fantastic effort on the 30-minute row. Pulling an avg 2:06.8 at 24spm , you've obviously getting good power out of each stroke. By my calculations you're doing about 9.85 metres per stroke (not your target of 10 but damn close). Came to this figure through the following calculations:

Total number of strokes= 30 x 24 (30 minutes x 24spm) = 720
Total distance travelled = 7095
Distance per stroke = 7095 / 720 = 9.85

Hope that helps!

It'll be interesting to see who out of Carla and Martin breaks the 200K barrier first. I'm guessing Martin's favourite due to daylight hours in Oz coming before the USA. Of course an 8000 row from Martin wont quite make it for him unless he takes Carla's lead and does a 2K warmup row.

Many congratulations to Sue for hitting that 100K marker. Hope the rowings getting that tummy flat and I hope you've drawn Graham's attention to the fact that he's lagging behind you in the metres!!