Mawning all,

Chris/Chippy - superb rows both of you. Chris to do a 6:50 and Chippy, what a lionhearted effort ! You both truly are the "Lions of Risca". A 6:59.9 - those last few strokes must have been a sight to behold as the race between the clock and metres-to-go was SO close. Fitting that one of the Taff Founding Favvers should break the 7 min ahead of the "Taff hordes" queueing up - will inspire the rest no doubt.

And our HT's (honorary Taffs) - Mrs Mac and that Pirate bloke ?

Hi Debra, Thanks for the post. I thought your family must have been quite young (unless you had quads ), makes your season total of 800K+ even more impressive.

"Stickybeak" - Nosy Parker, Overly-Curious-about -other-people's-business !

Where do your Melbourne friends live ? (more stickybeaking ) I'm on 4 acres in Wattle Glen, about 30 Kms NE of the city centre, near Eltham/Greensborough (not many Melbournites know of WG - tiny rural suburb with only 1 general store for shops).

Great looking T-shirt Daren, Godfried should be happy as it matches his avatar. Put me down for 6 or so - let you know sizes when ordering becomes a reality. I'll kit out the family.

Thats a superb HM PB Niall - very controlled for such a long row and puts you up there with Chris timewise. And done so soon after your 5K pb too. Bernie must be spitting chips seeing you sail on by

Hi Graham and Sue - enjoying erging in NY with "100K Mike" ?!

And a big WELCOME to Ray - more wheel power for the "TaffMobile"

Off to the gym now Carla for a 60 miniter (to tidy up my graph "Pace" line)

Martin

Martin,
I honestly don't know where in Melbourne my friends live but will ask if they know where 'Wattle Glen' is. We met them when we were in the middle east a few years ago and have not seen them since but have kept in touch. We were thrilled to hear they are coming to Canada for a while. I hope they don't find it too cold. Martin it sounds like you have a healthy sized family as well - 6 t-shirts to kit the family!

Niall,
Awesome HM man!! Way to go! You just keep getting faster and faster! Amazing work.

Chippy & Chris,
WOW great job at your races! Chippy way to squeek in under that 7 minutes! Woo hoo!!

WHAT A TEAM!!!

That's SOOO Exciting! Sub 7 for Chippy! Yay! And a great time on your race, too, Chris!

Anyone know how Carole & Sir P. did?

Mike you are a wonder for sure. Don't think I'll ever catch up to you again!

T-Shirts: I like the dragon design, let's do it! I want a mess of them! I usually buy T shirts long so when I wear them biking they are, well, long enough. But I could use a bunch of shorter ones to row in, because the long ones get caught in the seat rollers...and what better than Taff Attack shirts! I can't imagine wimping out in a Taff Attack shirt!

Hey all, you really want to be amazed, Debra not only has 4 ittle bitty kids and has rowed 800m, but is pursuing an advanced degree in her spare time! Doesn't that make you feel really lazy? It does me!

Welcome, Ray, glad to have more oarsman in the galley!

Carla

New 30 min PB--7256 avg 2:04 24 spm #3 in ranking 23 more Nonathlon points--
Carla

I see an Imposter has passed Carole and me both on the 10k...tsk tsk...that needs attention!

Carla

Hi folks .... had a bit of a disaster at SOUTHAMPTON ..had a sore throat all week but still performed ..no PB'S ..but got Silver in the 2k ... even though foot came out of the strap twice.. 7.46..... however still unbeaten in the 500metres in my category 1.45 not my best but hey ho .... was so hot at the venue ...

Was a pleasure to meet the old Taffs ..gggg ..think may have persuaded them to go to the Europeans .. !! Taffs on tour in Amsterdam!!!

woke up this am with no voice at all ... gobby mac was shouting all day again!!!!

Martin,

Well done Martin and Carla on your 60 and 30 minutes. Rocking stuff.

Carole, it's a shame you weren't fully fit, but very well done! See you on Sunday. =)

Chippy, Great Row Man - 6:59.9. It was amazing because I saw how much effort he put into it. The cry of pain with 750m to go was quite ominous, but Chippy has strength of character, and a great competitive sprit. I later asked which technique he used, the 'Wimp' or the 'Groan'? - He replied "Both!".

I had a tough time, but did bring it home in 6:51.1. Which wasn't bad as my build up wasn't great. I got 4 weeks of sprint trainning to cover now for my sub 6:45 attempt at the british on Nov 21. Was also trying to watch Grahams row but eyes were going blurry - only 56 seconds to catch him up tho!

Great to see Carol again, and meet Sir P! Bring on the BIRC ehh?

Martin, few questions based on your previous posts:

1. Is the 'garden' big enough to go dirt biking in?
2. Son in law, north or south ireland? The wife is from Co Derry.
3. Awesome job on the 60 min, truley awesome mate. BUT I have to ask, are you gutted to have missed 16000? Sorry I gotta know?

Niall, Nice PB, Nice Pressure.

yeh Martin silver in the 2k and gold in the 500....

Carla you go for the 10k again hun ... I am way tooo knackered.... and won't be doing one before Birc .... and in fact not before the Europeans..... which hopefully will be party time after ..as will be celebrating my thirty twelf..birfday that week ..weg ...


Shame I ain't coming to Melbourne in JAN ... would have annoyed you to bits Aussie lol got me itinerary sorted now too ....

Swoon ..... ain't Godfried masterful when he riled ..weg ......

Looking at the Team Standings, it looks like Bernard's been putting a lot of time on the erg recently. He's managed to overtake me into 10th place by 267m! !

It continues to be a competitive fight between us and I'm loving it!
Keep it going Bernard!

James and Ray

Welcome to Taff Attack.Ray i think you live around the corner from me so if i see you i will shout Taff Attack so you know who i am.You have to promise not to tell the Rickster if you see me out running or on my bike getting in the sneaky training.
I tell him i dont do any

Chippy

Hiya Carole,

Sorry you felt crummy on your race day, that is so frustrating! But you did really really well anyway and should feel good about that for sure. Sounds like you really enjoy the head on competitions, you go girl! Have you got a special display cabinet for all them trophies?

I'll stick with the long slow stuff--just don't have it to sprint at all right now, not that I ever really did.

Keep us posted! Keep breaking that speed limit!

Carla

Someone help this non techie figure out the PM2!!

In yesterday's half hour row, I wanted to also try to set a 6K pb. My average pace at the end of the half hour says I most likely did, by almost a minute. But I had tried to set it up so that it would actually tell me the time I finished 6K in by setting the split to 6K. It didn't work, though, and just gave me 2 min splits, as usual.

Can anyone give me simple simon directions for this? The ones on the c2 website which I swear I followed either didn't work, or I don't know how to make it recall the custom split.

Carla

Welcome to new members Ray, and Jamie.
Jamie's from All Black territory (Auzzie thats Neath, Not NZ!) which I grew up following so welcome mate.

Just a note on some things of late. Logo's and T-shirts are on the cards, and are something myself, and Chippy have been discussing. I know its all exciting but be cool - Taff Attack isnt going anywhere, except up, they will come, and they will be quality - Chippy dont like to be rushed.

The interviews are not fogotten, I've had loads of trouble with PC's lately (they keep getting thrown out the window). Soon as I get 5 minutes OzTaffs interview will be in the post.

Cheers, keep the meters flying in, Chris.

New PB 500m 1:37.9 ( was 1:38.3 ) ( Sep 03 )

The road to it:
5 mins @ 2:09.3 damper 4
5 mins @ 2:05.3 damper 5
5 mins @ 2:01.2 damper 6
5 mins @ 2:09.3 damper 7
5 mins @ 2:09.2 damper 8
500m @ 1:37.9 damper 9

Only at damper 8 I could get sub 1:38 , so I did the 500m at damper 9.

And if you have a problem with this method, TAFF you.

Welcome to the TA team Jamie and Ray!
You're very welcome as are your erg metres.

Great news on the PB Godfried. Like Martin (but without his welath of experience) I too seemed puzzled by your warmup. But, heh, who am I to judge, if it ends up with a PB then it clearly works for you so that's the important thing. Well done!

Great graph as well. It makes for some very interesting "reading". Really shows the push Mikez put in of late and also how way ahead of the rest of us Speedy is (as if that was a surprise though ). I dare say it was Speedy's volume that made the scale of the graph difficult in places to differentiate individuals' lines. How did you get the historic data on everyone's metres???? Great job Stat Master!!!

For those that are interested in the progress of my Million Metre Rowing Challenge, I've charted the progress to date (plus projected trend line). You can view the chart here.

Good chart Niall and nice to see you are back on track and well ahead of "Ave Pace" required. Will you be keeping it up to date so we can follow progress ?

Had a viewing also of Chris and Chippy's races - makes that last 10 strokes at 1:35's to get the sub 7 even more awesome Chippy when seen in that yellow boat race format. Looked like a very controlled (as much as one can when flat out !) race Chris - bodes well for 6:45 at BIRC I think. One tiny request Chris - can you do this armchair viewer a favour and keep closer to Graham next time as after a while your boat seemed to exit stage left, making your progress a bit hard to follow

Martin

Cool graphs, Godfried! The greatest thing is seeing pretty much a general upward trend for every team member, and to see how closely the lines correspond for those of us in team roster place battles!

I still don't see how you managed to get into everyone's log. I feel like Big Brother is watching me!!! I'm going to go down to where my erg is and see if there are any bugs hidden in there....check my phone for wire taps... eeeek where' s the Department of Homeland Security when you need them?

Great time on you 500!

Carla

Bernard,

You promised me last week that you were away in Belfast on business this week!
I've just taken a look at the team standings and you've put in a 7K session to pull away from me.
Don't make me ring your hotel and revoke your access to the gym!

Unfortunately I've had no chance to row today as it's half term and I've had some family commitments to meet. Looks like I need a real push tomorrow to keep up wtith you.

Keep up the progress, they all count towards the team total!

Hey everyone. Thanks for the welcomes. If you followed Neath I hope you like the avatar, Bore Da! I hope to start doing some longer rows from next week. Need to clock up 100,000 anyway so I appear on the graph!
-James

Hi Pumpkins, how's the Halloween Challenge going ???

Just back from the gym with the remaining metres (14K) under the belt. Clicking on "Challenges" and scrolling down reveals a cogratulatory message from Concept2 and a couple of things to download.

Carla's suspiciously quiet on the metres front, got me nervous - doing the 31K in one go as training for the FM ??

(picture of a pumpkin here if I had Niall's computer skills)

Martin

No metres from me yesterday as I strained something in my back on Monday night whilst playing with my son. I'm only 7500m through the Hallowe'en challenge. Might try some today, but there's still a bit of an ache in my lower back, so probably wiser not to.

I'm irritated by not being able to erg. It's making me cross.

Take it from me Daren, you're better off resting your back until your body tells you it's ready. You'll be even more frustrated if you do yourself some serious damage and end up being out of action for weeks rather than days!

Take it from someone who's been there and done it

I'm sure everyone has similar tales and words of wisdom.

Aye, Niall, you're right.

Too late though. Well, not that I've done myself any more harm but I did do a session to see how my back felt. 30 minutes for 7600m or so. It felt OK but I didn't push things. Seems it was just a slight strain, but that'll do for today.

Daren,

Glad you were able to row without any additional aggrevation. As long as you listen to your body and don't do what I've done in the past and focus on a rowing target then all will be fine.

7600m for 30 minutes is good going considering it was a gentle row. More metres in the bag for Taff Attack too!!

Hey there Taffs,
Been awhile since I've been able to post (or do anything for that matter).

First...let me welcome Jamie and Ray.

Second..Holly crap have we been puttin' in the meters!! Less than 2M away from MIT now!

Third...Congrats to everyone for all of their achievements the past few days.

I'll be back to my normal schedule here in about two days. So until then, keep up all the great work.

Speedy

Hi Niall


Good form with the million metre challenge. If I'm not careful you'll be dragging me along with you. Not such a bad thing, I guess.

I managed to find some time to pull the chain a little while. 2000m warm up, 6x500 at 2k pace and then 1500 warm down.

I'll be working into the night with some designs, but hopefully, will be back in Felixstowe tomorrow afternoon. I haven't looked to see where I am in the Taff hierarchy but I must have completed 600,000 metres by now. That's not a bad thing either. I think I'll have a quick look now.

Daren, A gentle 30 minute row at 1'58" per 500 would be murder for me. I'm pleased your back pain was merely a twinge.

Bernard