If you have the PM3 monitor, you should be able to set this up as a long chain of variable intervals...then have it display your split pace. The variable intervals allow you to set a rest period of 0, so it could go something like

interval 1 / distance 500m no rest
interval 2 / distance 100m 30 second rest
interval 3 / distance 500m no rest
interval 4 / distance 100m 30 second rest
etc.

Seems a little strange to not have this end with a final sprint! 12k is a nice round number, too, and would give you 20 of each kind of work interval

Rowpro and Ergmonitor also have interval features that can probably be made to do this.

Bill

Challenge #2 in the books. Holy crap was that hard!!

I was on track for the first ten minutes (1:37 pace), then everything fell apart. Had to drop the pace down (1:42) in order to finish. Finished with 8976 meters.

Looking at next weeks, that one should be alot easier than this Beast!!

Speedy

Martin
We are all still suffering with a big hangover after Satudays win over the English
in Cardiff Was a great day.

Chippy

Great job Speedy, totally amazing but believe or not, not "successful" .....
Assuming that you truly averaged 20 spm, you were at a whopping 14.96 meters per stroke (not the ridiculous 15.42 you would have had to do to actually match your PB of 9250.) You had to drop your pace to survive,(to a pace I can't even do one pull for) and I only managed to keep the pace I was supposed to (almost) and stroke rate by doing it in two pieces, while Godfried went way over the prescribed stroke rate by 7.

I am certain you will hold onto the point for most meters per stroke, though. That's a pretty tough act to follow. Any takers, Taffs?

Great Challenge #2 row Speeds, and so close to 9000 metres.

Inspired by your row and Godfried's I decided to have a go today -

30 min PB 8038 (1:52). Didn't see ONE 1:52 the whole row Carla but managed to conform to the 20 SPM rule (more or less, it needed a lot of concentration not to let it creep up whenever I got into the 'groove'). Godfrieds 7746 kept me going as a target to aim for when the going got tough - Thanks Godders. Final distance 7791. Over to you for the maths Carla, I'm too stuffed !

Great 5K PB Godfried - must have been a nice feeling towards the end knowing that a sub 19 was coming up. Gutsy to set a fresh 5K PB just before Challenge #3 too

Martin

Good one Martin... really impressive
Your goal was 8038 @20spm, 13.40 mps (ooof)
You made 7791 which is 12.99 mps

Looks like so far, we are all not quite making it, but man are we tough or what!!!

I am trying this again tomorrow, I know I won't "succeed" but I have to at least get my point for trying, so that means go at it at 20 spm for 30 min even if the pace isn't high enough.....

Godfried, Martin is right...your 5K PB makes challenge #3 even more deadly! good luck next week!

There is an idiot born every minute.

Gave another wack at this weeks challenge.

15 min at 1:37
15 min at 1:40
Total meters: 9139

Still didn't make it!!! Rat bastard piece!!! Depending on how I feel, I'll try again tomorrow.

Dwayne

Awesome Dwayne!
15.23 mps (I'm assuming you were at 20 and didn't stop between the 15mins) that is SO close! It's great you are so determined to make it!
I am feeling much better about my failure after seeing the trouble you're having with it and am trying again tonight. (I'm also grateful my 30 min PB is much lower than yours, too bad for you!) Brings to mind one of my mom's sayings "To whom much is given, much is expected" don't you just LOVE that......grrrrrr

Just some more math for fun

Dwayne is at 98.77% of his mps goal
Martin is at 93% of his mps goal
Godfried is at 74.57% of his mps goal
Not counting my extra 3 mins I would be at 95.47 of my mps goal (yeah I know it doesn't count!!!)

Anyone else going to play? It's only Tuesday!!

Hi guys, sorry for the silence it has been hectic here with the end of the cricket season in OZ. A break for a couple of weeks now!!

I received an email from Jake Evans today who has asked for my address etc for the Challenge, has anyone else received one ? I wanted to ask before I go giving anyone my addie details!! He has also asked for my holiday challenge total but I can't remember what I did now and it has gone from the login page due to the new challenge! Can anyone remember the dates so I can add the totals up please ? !!

cheers
Warnie

Carla

Still coughing,but a lot better than last week so had a go at #2 challenge.

Finished with 7499 at 20 spm
PB stands at 7602

My H/R was 185 at the end and i was glad to finish before i blew a gasket.
Well done on reaching the million.

Speedy
Think Chris has got a sulk on after you called him Baldy, seems to have vanished
of the face of the earth.

Chippy

PS
Only joking Speedy Chris is changing his bathroom and is up agen it.
Got to give a hand on Saturday to fit a new door to replace the one he has
butchered

Fall Rowing Challenge 2004 : from September 15 to October 15, 2004

Don't know who Jake Evans is , can't remember/find a mail from Concept2 regarding the challenge.

Had me going there for a moment. Good one.

Hey Chippy, that's a great score on the 20 SPM piece. Your goal was 12.67 mps and you were at 12.50, which is 98.66%. You are only .11% (in terms of your own goal) behind Speedy.

Godfried, thanks for putting the 13 Week Taff Challenge in your signature, that's handy. If I email you the Excel spreadsheet with the score for each challenge when it's done, do you want to add that, maybe?

Bad news for me for a day or so,yesterday I skied down my carpeted stairs in my socks--whump, whump, whump, and landed funny and sprained my left ankle. It's not too horrible, but I'm going to wait until it's not swollen before I row.

Warnie, didn't you mean the Holiday Challenge? That was 11/25--11/24 at midnight.

Here are two more Taffians: granddaughters 11-year-old Karina and 7-year-old Julianna:

http://www.math.msu.edu/~drachman/row/karina.AVI

http://www.math.msu.edu/~drachman/row/julianna.AVI

Cute kids, wouldn’t you say?

Byron

Hi Warnie, nice to hear from you now the Oz cricket has finished (bit tame though wasn't it - I reckon you would have got more excitement over there from doing Carla's Challenges )

If you are referring to the recent 200,000 metres Thanksgiving Challenge then Carla's post above has the dates - 25 Nov 2004 to 24 Dec 2004. To get your total for that period you should be able to view the individual entries in your logbook that fall between those dates and add up the metres shown.

That's bad news on the ankle injury Carla. Just in case you are unable to safely do the 30 min piece this week the Judges have conferred and decided that in your case the initial attempt will count if you so desire ! What a bunch of softies eh

Hope you have a quick recovery - however now's my chance to catch up in the Team metres ladder ! Not that I would wish to take advantage of your incapacitation of course.

Martin

PS Nice 30 miniter Chippy and insight into the whereabouts of the elusive Bore (Boldy) Da - and there was me thinking he had gone to ground after bombing out on the 20 SPM 30 miniter trying to top me

Hi Byron,
They are cute, though I'm sure the 11 year old doesn't like to be called that any more. Looks like Karina understands about getting her hands away early a bit better than Juliana does.

Martin, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to try #2 again. I'm walking on it fine, just can't twist it about or run. It will probably be fine by Friday. BTW maybe Chippy didn't catch you on the meters, but he got closer to his mps goal than you did....doesn't that make you want to do it again?

Looking forward to a real snoiwy day tomorrow--maybe everything will be cancelled!

No way Carls, once was bad enough !! You may find the following story re my attempt amusing though and some consolation for you having to do it twice to my once :-

I'm down at the local gym doing the piece on one of the 2 ergs there and getting towards the end of it when through the fog of concentration/discomfort comes an indignant query "How much longer are you going to be ?". Quick glance at the monitor - "6 mins I wheezed". and got back to trying to hold 1:55s at 20 SPM. Upon finishing and recovering I tried to find her to apologise for brevity of response, explain why and see why she seemed peeved in the first place (especially as the other erg freed up a few mins later - someone else hopped on).
No luck, she'd gone. Only realised later in the day that a combination of 30 mins, 20 SPM and a reasonably smooth stroke probably looked to her like I was loafing along doing b*all and hogging the machine to boot !!!!

As Einstein pointed out - "It's all Relative" (to one's perspective).

Have a speedy recovery,

Martin

Great video Byron - thanks for sharing it. Looks like Julianna knows how to 'work the camera' too - an actress in the making ?

Carla .. you dafty ..trying to emulate me .. I know you are after my PPPB'S and going to row one legged .....

My media player wouldn't work, so I didn't get to see them. If they're Taffs, then they must be cute. Question is, do they row? And when can we add their meters to the total?

Speedy

Well , if not : try #3 , see this plan

Carla,
Damn your torturous challenges!!! Tried thing bl**dy thing again, and still didn't make it.

21 min at 1:37
8 min at 1:40
1 min at 1:36

9207 total. So close!!! I'm done with this one.....next.

Speedy

Speedy...you are obsessed!

at 99.55% of your goal, I think you get the "success" point. (15.35 mps, goal 15.42


what do you other Taffs think?

We can't stop him - and look how easy #3 will be for him - see the plan - planned the sprints at 93,5% of 5k pace.

Absolutely Carla. Anyone who does that murderous Challenge 3 times deserves the point ! And to be so close on the 3rd attempt (looks like a new PB coming up Speedy at normal stroke rate ?).

What are the pieces for Challenge #3, is it 500m at 5K PB pace then 100m sprint or 400m at 5K PB pace then 100m sprint for the 10K ?

Good luck with your 2nd go

Martin

I've always done this* by doing 100m sprints at 9500, 9000, 8500, etc., which comes out to the first non-sprint being 500m, and all the rest end up being 400m. You get 1900m of sprint, and 8100m of non sprint, which is sort of squirrelly. But it's easy on your brain. Just start sprinting on the 500's or 1000's. Speedy asked the same question last week and that's what I told him then.

Godfried's plan has it set up the other way, I think, but I can't quite figure out exactly what all the numbers on this chart mean--if this isn't a link after I quote it, you'll have to go back to his post to look at this:



*I've "done" this workout a number of times, but I'm guessing at the pace I was doing for the not sprint part, so I'm really not sure how hard this one will be. Actually when I've done it before I didn't have the rest time for the first 10 or so sprints--they started happening by accident and so I decided to put them in on purpose, if the pace was going to be mandated.

No fair trying to make your time better if you can't do the 5K pace non-sprints, by rowing through the rests!

Thanks Carla,

So I do 500m at 5K PB pace
Then 100m sprint at a pace about 7 secs faster than the 5K PB pace
Then 30 secs rest (monitor says 9400m to go)

Then 400m at 5K PB pace
Then 100m sprint
Then 30 sec rest (monitor says 8900m to go)

Repeat the last 3 lines 17 more times, sprinting each time the monitor shows the last 3 digits of the distance as either 000 or 500 (monitor says 400m to go after final repeat)

Finish with 400m at 5K PB pace

Have I got it ? Don't want to be DQed on a technicality and have to suffer through it all over again !!

Had a thought on a possible refinement of the points scoring system for the Challenges.

How about something along the lines of 5 points for the best time/distance, 4 points for the 2nd placegetter and so on. That way the top 5 get points - may provide an extra incentive for others to join in and also makes it worth striving for a podium finish when 1st is already wrapped up by someone else ?

Also could award 2 points for achieving one's "goal" and 1 point for getting really close but just missing out (say within 98% of the goal). Most of the goals are pretty stiff so having the possibility of 1 point for getting close may provide extra incentive ?

What do you think ?

Martin

You've got it. It's a bit odd, but there it is.

I'd like it if more of us did it and if you guys think it would be more fun if more points could be won than we could change that, and add runner ups and all. I don't want to water down the special point for succeeding because I think that's the best point you can earn in this silly thing, in fact at the end, I think whoever earns the most "success" points ought to get a really special thing. 99.55% is 100% as far as I'm concerned--gee whiz, it actually rounds up to 100. But anything below 99.4% isn't. Anyone wants that special point, they'll have to work their you know what's off for it!

I made a second attempt at #2 tonight. It was reallyawful. I did about 6K of whatever for a warm up and then tried it.
First of all, I couldn't even do my 30 min PB pace. I felt like my legs were made of mashed potatoes. I was about a second/500 slow. And I kept pooping out and stopping and starting and scolding myself but really it was hopeless. Anyway I ended up with only 6470m, about 1000m low, which is around 10.78 mps, around 88% of goal. If I went with the average spm (which was 19 because of all the stupid stopping) it comes out to 11.35, but that's not right, because part of the time I wasn't even moving. Most of the time, if I wasn't stopped, I was at 2:04 and 20 or 21.

I will try again tomorrow or Saturday.

Hello Team hope all is FIT. What a day last Saturday for Welsh Rugby, still waiting for my nails to grow back

If anyone struggles with a sore rear end on the rower, then I have found a new solution. I got a 3 inch thick piece of foam from Ray in the wheelchair and put it on the seat, this was fantastic my arse wasn't hurting no wear near as much as normal.

Hey Chippy I had a match yesterday and I lost to Gavin Jones 3-2 in a monster match, not bad considering he is 46 in the World!!!!! C U in the Gym!!!

Keep it going everyone. Hello Speedy God!!!

RICKSTER

Another good solution to that problem, is bubble wrap. The stuff with the small bubbles, not the large ones.

Hi Speedy,

I couldn't get media player to play those either. I used Quick Time Player (it's free.)

So far I'm not pushing the idea of rowing to the grandchildren. I just wanted to plant the seed. Every time they come over they just erg for a few minutes. For now, I want them to improve their techniques, although I wish I could hold my back as straight as they do naturally. They're busy with soccer, swimming, skiing (alpine and downhill), violin lessons, and other activities.

Byron

Hello Taffians,things are quiet in the Bat Cave,i've been playing a lot of squash,both team and otherwise,Sue away a lot with new job.
We're off in the morning to the French Alps skiing,Les Arcs,i've never skied on snow,Sue has 23 yrs.experience skiing,Taffs on tour.
I've just taken delivery of my Taff Attack team rowing suit, I think i shall look quite dandy wearing that on the slopes!!!!!
So one last erg in the morning and off to spread the word about our team to Jonny foreigner, who knows how many French Taffs are out there
Oh, superb effort Rickster, Gaver is a mint player
Nos da, Blod and Ramboyo.

OK : now the way Carla wants it done

Carla :

Set the monitor to 10,000 m

#1 -- 500m at 5 k pace ( 2:03.3 ) -- takes 2:03.3 -- ends at 2:03.3 -- average pace 2:03.3
#2 -- 100m sprint pace ( 1:55.3 ) -- takes 0:23.1 -- ends at 2:26.4 -- average pace 2:02.0
#3 -- 30 seconds deserved rest --- takes 0:30.0 -- ends at 2:56.4 -- average pace 2:27.0

#4 -- 400m at 5 k pace ( 2:03.3 ) -- takes 1:38.6 -- ends at 4:35.0 -- average pace 2:17.5
#5 -- 100m sprint pace ( 1:55.3 ) -- takes 0:23.1 -- ends at 4:58.1 -- average pace 2:15.5
#6 -- 30 seconds deserved rest --- takes 0:30.0 -- ends at 5:28.1 -- average pace 2:29.1

#7 --> #5 : just do some more of this

#58 -- only 400 meters to go

( so the red numbers mark the start of the 5k-pace-pieces )

and you will end after 50:05.5 with an average pace of 2:30.3 : piece of cake.

Carla
Will have a go at #3 this week when i can work out the maths,got my best tape measure out and was still confused. Got together with the Rickster tonight for some Cross training or (general PE as Grumpy calls it) either way it hurt just
the same. Rickster pulled a 3 inch piece of foam out of his bag when it came to our row section to sit on, the boy is a whimp.

Chippy

P B 19 54.4 / 5K
Now for the Alps!!!!

Yahoo!!!
Have fun in the Alps!

A new contestant : see the plan .

Hey Godfried you're taking away everyone's excuses 'cus you're doing the math for them!

We may have a new member soon, I just gave my model B to my sister in law, Deb. More meters for the Taffs (though she did row for MIT many years ago).

Off to do my last attempt at #2 before the new challenge hits tomorrow.

FINAL ATTEMPT AT #2
7251m 20 spm 12.09 mps 99.51% of goal

2:04.9 22
2:04.8 20
2:04.7 20
2:04.6 20
2:03.9 20
2:03.7 20
2:03.4 21
2:03.7 21
2:04.3 21
2:04.7 21
2:04.5 21
2:04.0 21
2:04.3 21
2:04.3 21
2:02.3 20

Does .51 round up?

'cuz I don't wanna do that again!

Speedy thats a cracking idea's nice one I'm going straight out to buy some bubble wrap.

Trained with Chippy on Friday night for General P.E a good session but I think rowing is making Chippy soft or maybe its old age not quite sure yet!!! I think I need to take him out on a lead and run his Bo**ocks off, Greyhill here we go!!!

Rickster[SIZE=1][COLOR=green][B]

Rickster
Old age mate.

Dykie
That must be one of the fastest 1millions in the team ,well done cwm boy.

Called in to see Grumpy today and he has the DVD of the BIRC.All the shots are of the front rows where all the big guns are rowing.BUT through the mayhem my
nephew Max noticed me rowing in the back rows where the snails are strutting there stuff.Cant keep me out the lime light of late.

Chippy

Speedy, what happened - you're not #1 on the meter leader board anymore
Are you okay?
Too busy on the water?

David

What happened to DarenC, did he retire, is he waiting for his garage to warm-up ????

Godfried
Thanks for the chart man,ill have a go tomorROW.

Martin
Savour that last meter.

Chippy

Chippy,

I fully intend to

It will be the easiest metre of the lot

Martin

Good going, Martin! let's see at 20 spm that would be about 1/12.5 of a stroke, that would be about 1/4 of a second...

Better wait till you're well rested before you tackle it!

12 hours sleep Carla,

Followed by the Itsiest Bitsiest Teensiest Weensiest pull down at the gym tomorrow

Martin