Dwayne

Why don't you do a 100K? 2:00 pace will take you 400mins

If I was not at BIRC I would do one with you Good luck what ever you do, !!crazy!!

Sir Pirate

Here's wishing our 'Magnificent Seven' Taffs - Chris, Chippy, Bernie Snr, Bernie jnr, Niall, Daren and Eddy - the very best of British for Sunday.

Unlike Speedy and Mike I will be spending many hours travelling to Bundaberg, Queensland from Melbourne (2000K) so won't be contributing any logable metres. Have to make up for it later.

Great training 'Maverick' - living up to your call sign

And remember Taff "Top Guns" those immortal words - "I feel the need ... the need .... for SPEED"

'"Viper"

PS Above sentiments also for Carole 'Nicole' Mac and Phil ( your joke would have been enhanced by saying "ergument" ?!)

Hello,we shall be willing all the boys on at the BIRC,amazing offer Mike,Dywane!!!
Mike i think it may have been my accent that confused your wife,there's not many Tredegar Taffs in Queens! We're off to the Stadium to-morrow watch Cymru stuff the Blacks!!
On Sunday we're off to Pontypool my first skiing experience (dry slope), Sue ski's extremely well so here goes.
Chris.Caldicot earlier this evening lost to Risca 3-2 at squash,although i recorded my first win of the season in the match,erging is begining to pay dividends!!!
It's been a brilliant effort by Taff Attack,superb,cadwch fynd bois,
Sue and Graham.

You guys are awesome!

8 HOURS?!?!?!?!!? Well, Mrs. Speedy must have known about your vice before you were married, so at least she won't be shocked!

4 hours is pretty nuts, too, Mike, but you're racking up the meters so fast you'll be at the top of the list pretty soon!

All of you BIRC-ers, I'll be rooting for you, and expect to see lots of big letter posts about your PB's!!!!
I would say Best of Luck but Taffs don't need luck 'cuz they've got what it takes!

Carla

PS I'm getting over a crummy cold as fast as I can so I can hit the Holiday Challenge with gusto.

Many thanks for the words of encouragement Carla.

As recommended by Speedy, I'm currently thinking through my strategy for my race tomorrow and thought I'd share it (as you'll appreciate, this helps me focus on it!).

I've learnt from recent rows that going out too fast and getting over confident too early ends up with disastrous results. I'm therefore going to go out at a comfortable 1:48 pace (31spm) and stick to this for the first 1500m. With 500m to go, I'm going to up the rate to 32spm and hope for a 1:47 pace. With 300m to go it'll be the sprint home and I'm looking for something like 34-35spm and around 1:42-1:44 pace. That would give me a new PB of 7:08.6 which I'd be very happy with (sub 7:00 will come in time, I don't need to rush it through now).

If times get hard then I'll be repeating "Heart of a Dragon"!!

Good Luck to all my fellow TAs in BIRC and also Speedy and Mikez with their mamoth erg sessions!

And here are some of the results.

Despite my good intentions, the conditions got the better of me. The arena was extremely dry and very early on I found my mouth really as dry as a desert. Being a newbie, I timed my warmup pathetically and finished it with about 20-30 minutes to go to the race.

Yeh, I hear you! Excuses, excuses! And you're right, I would have felt hard done by until I overheard others (except Chris!) were short by about 5 seconds of their expected times. All I can say to Chris is that he's used to these dry conditions in his garage so he's been acclimatising for weeks!

I must say then that I'm fairly happy with my time of 7:15.2 consdiering. Next year will be different. I'll be wiser (and with any luck lighter and better equipped!).

I have to say it was great to meet Daren, Chippy, and Chris from Taff Attack and of course our nemesis, Sir Pirate! It was an absolute pleasure to put faces to names and Daren was the perfect host for me as he introduced me to a multitude of people he'd clearly had beers with the night before. I was just sorry to have missed Bernard (my personal nemesis for the last month or two), Grimpy and Eddy though.

I'm certainly fired up for next year though as there were some monumental performances today. I watched a 15 year old (Daniel Bream) go under 6:30 (beating his nearest rival by 13 seconds! And of course there was Graham Benton's win in the Open Hwt Men's (first non-rower to win the Open Hwt at BIRC; where were you Speedy!?).

Roll on BIRC 2005! (See you in the Lwt Mens 35-39 Daren!!)

109,000+ meters in eight hours. Very tired. Will write more tomorrow.

Speedy

Dwayne, fantastic! But you're a nutter! =)

Thanks for keeping the metres up for us slackers that only did 2k today. Actually, I did 2k warmup too, so 4k in all -- I'll have to remember to put it in the log.

As Niall said, mouths were dry after 60 seconds of racing, and the conditions seem to affect almost everyone I spoke to. I went in with dreams of 6:55 (heheh), but finished in 7:00.7. Still my second-fastest 2k, so I think it was OK. Neither Niall or I were last in our race, anyway!

Was good to meet Niall, Chippy and Bore Da! I meant to try and find them all again after the race, but when I walked out of the race arena (after a minute on my back) there was an old friend of mine that I haven't seen for more than a year, so I got distracted. =)

Hopefully I'll see the guys again soon. I can' tmake Cardiff, but if any of you are at Manchester, I'll see you there. The 30+ field looks tough though, Niall, so we'll have our work cut out for us! =)

I am so proud of all you Taff's for giving it your all. Those with P.B. well done. But those who tried an even bigger well done. I wish I could have been there to watch it myself.

As for me, well not as good as the master Speedy, but I did 4 hours 10 minutes, for a total of 49,111. I was going to go for a fifth hour but escape from L.A. ( call me snake) had just ended and I was shot.

So tried in fact I could not write a word. laid down and watched football before going to work.

Nevertheless, very proud of your performances. And you should all be proud of yourselves.

Mike

Thanks Godfried for posting the Taff BIRC times - no Bernie Jnr ? And who is Nicole ?

Quick post (yes I know, I hear you say - pigs might fly !) but I'm on borrowed time up in sunny, muggy Queensland.

Chris - great row. It's one thing to train well, a LOT harder to do it on the day. Well done old son.

Niall - 7:15 is very respectable for your first race, esp. given the lead-up training. Next time if hit by dry throatits why not stop for a quick drink

Daren - so close to the sub 7 must have left you with mixed feelings ?

Everyone else - great stuff. Need to hear the stories from the others sometime eh.

Great rows by Speedy and Mike - makes the marathon distance look like a doddle.

Carole - Latest US National Gregraphic (cover story - Evolution) has a fantastic article on the "Big Wet" up the "Top End" of Oz. Captures the atmosphere perfectly and compulsory survival reading for first-timers to Nothern Oz in Jan/Feb ! (don't worry, Cairns is not hicksville though like the towns in the story )

Gotta go,

Martin

16. Thomas Phelan Supercanoa 39 6:23.0

I didn't realise he was in our race, Niall. I met him at the Crowne Plaza on Saturday night. Seems a nice bloke - tall!

Yeah, Thomas has Rowpro he paid for the full version.

I had the pleasure of taking Thomas upto & back to/from BIRC, he is a great guy and did a great time to 6:23.0.

Sir Pirate

Good to hear from you Bernard but really sorry you weren't able to make it to BIRC. I'm sure you'd have loved it as it was a great event. I've never been in the company of so many tall people! My wife filmed me coming out to the Arena (as well as the race of course) and I look like a school kid amongst adults! Definately going to train harder and get down to lightweight for next year.

I filmed Graham Benton's race which was a corker. Still can't believe he pulled a 1:07 split time on his second stroke of the race. Mind you, he's got big levers for legs (as Martin Cross kept saying yesterday) and I'm just not built like that. Yep, it's gotta be lightweight for me next year! Just hope I can drop the weight AND maintain progress with my 2K times.

Morning all,
Congrats to the lot of you. Job(s) well done!!!!!!!!!!!

The meters yesterday came out to 109,011. About a 2:12 split if I remember correctly. Everything was going pretty smooth for the first five hours or so, until I stopped for the first time. Big mistake!!! I was in such a groove, that I should have just continued.

After getting some water (and getting rid of some), and taking a small breather, I started up again. It was as if I had sprinted the first five hours. Nothing wanted to move. The hands, back, bum, feet, all did not want to cooperate. Let's just say that the last three hours were from hell!!!

Don't think I ever want to do that again!! Mucho respect for the individuals that have done the 100k!!!!!

Haven't seen any of the results yet, so I'm going to head out and do that now.

Cheers again all. I raise my glass in your honor.

Speedy

Hi folks just a quick post ... no red letters ..boohoo had a disaster don't know where I went wrong.. 1k out sitting comfy on 1.55's and then died no excuses... not a happy bunny... .......................... but I will be back .....

Didnt see the Taffians properly so many peeps there ... shouted for them though and today got back home and I have no voice.. Mr mac happy lol ...

Taffs,
Major development!!! We have moved back to number six in the team rankings!! U of NM has passed both us and MIT.

I know alot of you just came off of training hard for BIRC. But now is the time to show your metal!! Enough of this s**t!! Let's get the meters in and pass both of these teams. Taffs together, Taffs forever!!!

Speedy

I noticed that, too. I thought I might have been imagining that we were ever in 5th. They've gone past by quite a way, I think. I don't even recall them from before, but I stopped reading at #5. =)

I've done 10k so far today, with another 7-10 planned for this evening. The Holiday challenge starts on Thursday, so I expect all of us will be going for our 200k pins at the very least, won't we? Won't we?

BIRC for me was OK. Should have gone a lot quicker, but over the last few months have lost interest in 2K’s.

I was comfy sitting on 1:37/1:38’s so I thought I would just stay at that pace till the end, If I would have tried to speed up I would of no doubt blown up and hobbled in with a slower time.

Am just concentrating on 5K’s now for a while, would also like a do crack a HM at 1:49 pace. No more races for a long time for me.

Graham Benton was very impressive, 1st ever non water rower to win the Open Hwt………EVER!!


Also meet 4 Taffs yesterday

Sir Pirate

Just read the bad news about the University Standings .
I'm away on business tomorrow but will be returning with a vengeance on Wednesday to help out.

After my performance yesterday and with Carla's expectations of lots of large red writing, I decided today to do a 10K piece with attempts at PBs for the 5K and 6K .

Having watched some video I'd shot of a couple of the great performances from yesterday (Graham Benton included) I changed my technique slightly today and made sure I released my hands away quicker than normal. With this change the splits came down and they actually felt easier and more relaxed. Managed to maintain around a 1:53/1:54 rate for most of the 5K and finished off with a 1:50 to come home in 18:48.0 beating my PB by 2 seconds and smashing my SB by 30 seconds! I had a breather for about 20 seconds and then continued on to the 6K mark going through that in 23:07.4 (beating my PB by 15 seconds). I'm confident I can get this under 23 minutes with a dedicated 6K effort but for now it was good enough. I paddled home and completed the 10K in 40:16.7. Splits for the first 6K were:

1:52.1 (32spm)
1:53.8 (31)
1:53.9 (30)
1:53.7 (30)
1:53.4 (30)
1:52.8 (31)
1:52.8 (30)
1:52.9 (30)
1:52.6 (30)
1:50.0 (31)
2:19.2 (23) ; this was my recovery!
2:00.2 (27)
[/CODE]

I really feel that I have a sub 7:00 for 2K in me, it's just a matter of getting the right technique and sprinting ability.

So I'm ecstatic that I've proven to myself that I can still put in a big performance. The priority now is to contribute metres to the team and this will commence first thing Wednesday morning!

Niall,
Keep 'em rollin' mate!!!!!!! Your progress has been impressive.

Speedy

Niall, great going, particularly after yesterday's hot and dry exhausting race.

I hit the erg again today -- I've had enough rest in the past week -- about 20k but only two pieces that were set pieces (the other bits were "just row"). Tried a 500m attempt but blew up at 400m so that failed. Also did a 30 minute attempt, but my distance of 7870 is some 80m behind my best.

My 500m PB is now more than 5 weeks old, so I'm disappointed that I haven't beaten it. My half marathon and 6k are similarly 5 weeks old, so I reckon they're due a seeing to.

I've grabbed a frame from the video of my Mens 35-39 Hwt race at BIRC that shows daren and I. For those that are interested the two shortgest guys in the race (but neither came last!) can be seen here.

Heheh, that was obviously before we'd started. I look so calm, relaxed and composed!

When we finished, I was flat on my back with my ... cox? girl? helper? assistant? official? ... asking me if I was OK. =)

Good job all you BIRCers! I respect every one of you for going and competing, even if you weren't thrilled with your times. And Speedy...you are in a class by yourself! All I can think of when I imagine 109,000 meters in one go is the expression "having your *ss in a sling". That's 67 blooming MILES.... Good going, Mike, on your Marathon +! Martin, hope you are having a great trip.

This is the first day since last Thursday I've felt like I can even get out of my own way--now that I'm mostly well I'll start rowing again tomorrow, get a few sessions in, then away Thanksgiving and Friday and ready to take on the Holiday Challenge! I'm excited about doing the Holiday Challenge, it'll be my first one!

Hey! Let's have some special Taff Team meter prizes, how about it? We could all send, say, $10 to one of our founding fathers, and at the end of the challenge, the top 3 would get a...something, anyone got any ideas?

Carla

Hey great going Graham on passing 300,000. A good mark, now get off the erg and let Sue on so she can get to 300,000.

Speedy you are my idol I mean 109,000 in one go. I thought I would not be able to go to work last night after my 4 hours and you did not even get off the erg till five hours went by....I must remember next time you propose a meter run to take what ever number of meter/hours you are going to erg, divide by 2, divide again by 2, sleep on it and then divide again. No one is in your level. best to Mrs Speedy and your son

Good Idea Carla Im in.

Watch out Debra, Anry, Robert, and Chris ( I am having a laff) I am coming for your spots, fair warnings boys, get on those ergs and start moving on the score boards

Taff Rules Mike

Stroke data and race analysis for BIRC competitors are back online.

Graham Benton's graph looks supremely consistent. Look at that spike, too! Wells isn't close to that consistency, stroke by stroke.

My own race confirms what I felt.

I'm up for Carla's idea. I think I should scratch my meters for this though. That way the contest is a bit more interesting for the number one and two spot (Jasmine and Daren).

Where do I send the cash??

Speedy

I like Carla's idea, but I think it favours those of us with the luxury of an erg at home, for one, and who are at home a lot.

I'm trying to get my metres up again anyway, because I've been slack. 20k yesterday, and 14k so far today. I want to try and do around 16-20k per day, for at least the next month. I've got 3 months until my next race, so plenty of time to try adding power, but I think my aerobic base could be better.

Rather than a basic distance challenge, an alternative would be something like a power per stroke challenge. Maybe something along the lines of a simple 1 minute row at the start, and then another 4 weeks later. The winner would be the person whose increased his or her power per stroke the most (as a percentage of the original row). Or a 4 minute distance challenge - who can improve their distance most over 4 weeks, first row compared to final. These sorts of challenges might favour those who are relatively new to it though, and disadvantageous to people like Dwayne who are probably close to the peak of their game.

Either way, I'll play along with anything we come up with. I don't even need a material reward; just being awarded "Taff Attack Power Challenge Winner, 2004" would be enough. =) (not that I'll necessarily win, naturally) I'm doing a web site behind the scenes, and things like this could always just be added to the "Merit Awards" or "Roll of Honour" section or whatever.

Once Chris has sorted us out racing strips, I'll see about getting a mate of mine to embroider little award strips that we can sew on, like military awards on uniforms. OK, I'm getting carried away now. Best stop before I get carried away.

I like Daren's idea. I'm not at my tip top (power wise) at the moment, so I may stand a chance.

I also like the idea of the Taff-Hall-of-Fame idea (for the web site). We could do lots with that (most improved, biggest rivalry, tops in every category you can think of, etc.).

You got my vote for anything along these lines.

Speedy

Taff's,
Ok...now this U of NM thing is getting on my nerves. One of there members (won't mention any names) has posted a comment in his "Comments (from profile)" section concerning this 'challenge'. I think it's time to get down to business and tear these guys/gals a new a**. Just my opinion however!!!

Speedy

Kevin, your guys are going down!

Where did UNM suddenly come from? Was it just the addition of Dennis Kline? he's the only one with enough metres to have moved them so far up the table so suddenly.