Hi Carla,

I'd like to hear more about the slides and what you think of them after you get used to them. I've been trying to decide if I want to get slides. I hope I'm quoting him right, but Paul Smith says the better technique you have the less difference there is between dynamic and static erging. The C2 website says the catch is quicker with slides but if someone has good technique I don't see why that should be true. Physics says that slides should be a little faster since you are moving less mass back and forth, but from what I've gleaned at discussions on slides, some people report slides are not faster.

Byron

Way to go Wales!!!!

Forgive my ignorance, but who are the blokes in green that they beat??

The blokes in green are the Ireland team.

Nial
Great pictures of a great team. Last year Chris,Eddy and myself did the golden
mile in Evesham and its a top day out.Besides the event there is a boat gala on the river and funny English men dancing around a pole I prefer women dancing around a pole in seedy night clubs but thats another story. (Only joking)

Chippy

Carla wrote:
Welcome back Carla! I'm glad you had a good ski week. X-country IS awesome. You definately have to do the skating. You DO fly! You will love it!
From what I've heard, and the few times I've used slides, they are nicer to your back. I'm planning on getting some as soon as space allows in our house. I much prefer them because they simulate on-water rowing so much better. Because I tend to erg like I'm on-water rowing anyway, they would be much better for me. I'm not so sure about that argument about a fast catch. I think I would have to argue that it would be faster only if you really know the difference. Because the slides simulate on-water, I would assume an on-water rower would be able to benefit from the catch 'feel' (???)
I think Paul Smith would be able to be more specific. I believe he uses slides.
Happy sliding...

Debra

CONGRATULATIONS WALES RUGBY TEAM!! Woo hoo!!!

Well after the first week of heated competitiveness, Debra has flown into a strong lead. Very little between Chris and Niall for 2nd/3rd place and Godfried is hanging inthere and biding his time until he's fully fit.

Will anyone catch Debra?
Should Chris/Niall/Godfried send sweets to Debra's kids to get them into a hyper mood so Mum's erg time gets restricted?
Is Chris tapering down this week for SLIRC? If so, how far will he fall behind?

All these questions and more will be answered in the ciming week so stay tuned...

Hello everyone just joined the team and i'm looking forward to putting in some serious meters to help the team.

HAYLEY

Welcome, Hayley! We're glad to have a new oar in the water for the Taffs.
Tell us something about yourself!

Carla

Welcome aboard Hayley
It's always great to have new members join the team. In order to enable us to target any mickey-taking at you, as Carla says, we need to know a little bit about you.

How long have you been rowing (indoor or on water)?
What is your sporting background?
What made you join the team (assuming you didn't click on the wrong link!)?

I too am compelled to say something about the performance of Wales in the Six Nations, but I am too humble to express my feelings so will choose some quotes from people over the last 6 weeks, and how the story unfolded. Sorry all, but this will probably be a long one.

Feb 5th Cardiff - Wales 11 England 9
Wales had been playing exciting/extravagant rugby for 18 months, but a big win had not been forthcoming. Again Wales (the underdog) fought hard but were behind until the last minute. Gavin Henson (Handsome Henson), who had allready inspired Wales with two tackles on Matthew Tait that required the magic sponge, steps up and kicks a goal that has now entered Welsh folklore. The victory was the catalist that this team needed. And I was there.

Quote: Gavin Henson "I knew I was going to kick it, I had been kicking them all week!"

Quote: Will Carling (Ex England international) "Wales do not have the mental toughness to win a grandslam"

Quote: Dick Best (Ex British Lions Selector) "None of the Welsh team will make it to New Zealand with the Lions"

Feb 12th Rome - Italy 8 Wales 38
Not a huge test but Wales were clinical scoring 6 tries - the quality showed through.

Quote: Brian Moore (ex England international) "The Welsh lineout {where players jump for the ball} is a bit 'up and down'" - Cheers Bri, you really know your stuff!

Feb 26th Paris - France 18 Wales 24
France, under much critism for their performance to date, blitzed Wales with devastating play in the first half. Wales never saw the ball, and when they did they were under so much pressure that they sometimes folded. At halftime Wales were lucky to be losing by only 15-6, and they retired to the dressing room for a talk with head coach and now national saint Mike Ruddock. Before things could get better Welsh Captain Gareth Thomas left the field with a broken thumb. Yet despite everything what happened next was one of the all-time sporting comebacks. The greatest flanker (No 7 - Chippy's old position) in the world Martyn Williams scored two tries that rocked France and gave Wales the upper hand.

There was now no doubt this team was special and the grandslam was closer than ever.

Quote: Wales on Sunday "Where theres a Will, theres a way!"

Mar 13 Edinburgh - Scotland 22 Wales 46

Scotland are out of form and not playing well, but this is the six nations and everyone rises to big games and occasions. This could have been a massive banana skin for Wales but turned out to be a record win over of Scottish friends.
Wales were incredible and ran from every angle, off loading the ball perfectly. The game was over at halftime with a scoreline of 38-3. In the second half scottish pride was returned with 3 tries against Wales - perfect timing ready for out Irish Grandslam showdown.

Robert Jones (Ex-Welsh international) "It is time to stop living in the past, and off the victories of the 70's" - well said Rob.

March 19th Cardiff - Grandslam Showdown
Wales 32 Irleand 20 - I was there!

The whole atmosphere of saturday was incredible I have never experienced anything like it. Everyone was happy, Everyone knew each other. With 200,000 fans in Cardiff there wasn't much room, and pubs had TV's in windows so that those who couldn't get in could watch the game. The council erected a big screen, with a bar so that those who couldn't get in could watch the game.

I got in half hour early, and for the first time in my humble life I saw Max Boyce sing live. Max had written some special songs for the day to fire the Welsh, and Welcome our friends the Irish (I was surrounded by green, no-one to hug!).

We played, we won, and the place erupted.

Quotes:
Gareth Thomas (Wales injured captain): "I have never heard the millienium stadium so loud"

Max Boyce: "This isnt just about the team, its about you 'the greatest rugby supporters in the world!"

Brian Moore (Ex England international): "I now get it, I now understand what it means to Wales to win at rugby"

Jonathon Davies (Ex Wales international): "All 15 of those players must be selected for the Lions, they have to, they are Grandslam winners"

And from the coach Mike Ruddock "I followed the team around the pitch for 30 minutes to thank the fans, nobody wanted to leave the stadium, and I felt the pride of a whole nation."

Told you it would be a long one, but the story deserves to be told.
Thanks Mike, Gareth, Michael, Kevin, Rhys, Shane, Martyn, Tom, Gavin, Stephen, Adam, Dwayne, Gethin, Mefin, Brent, Robert, Ryan, Robin, John, Mark, Gareth, Ceri, Jonathan, Hal, Dafydd, Ian, Robin, Clive, Andrew, Scott, and Alan.

Didn't know Speedy played rugby too.

What an all-round sportsman he is

Chris,

Marvellous recap of the epic journey. Down here in this far-flung corner we
haven't had much coverage at all - your post has filled in all the missing pieces. Many thanks for a heart-stirring post !

A 'born again' Taff

[quote=Bore Da!,Mar 21 2005, 01:28 PM]
I .


Quote: Will Carling (Ex England international) "Wales do not have the mental toughness to win a grandslam"



Chris
I have always wanted to play against BUM FACE Carling to show him the respect
he deserves.
Great post man.

Chippy

Sorry to be the bearer of sad tidings Niall but it looks like its 'all over Red Rover' for the guys Debra's brilliant ruse at the start had put her in an almost invincible position, leaving the opposition floudering in her wake ! Fortunatley for the bookies her odds had been shortened just in the nick of time else we would have taken a bath. No amount of sweets will save the guys now, might as well eat them yourselves as a consolation prize

Welcome aboard Hayley, I see you are from the Rickster 'stable' - the home of numerous good ergers. Looking forward to reading about your exploits.

Congrats in advance on the 2 Million Mike, is there enough time left to catch Jasmine ??

Cheers

Martin

Bit premature there Martin. 5 weeks to go until the end of the challenge. Us guys are made of stern stuff so don't expect us just to roll over and take it! There's plenty of time yet...

Whilst the bandwagon still rolls I have a few more quotes I wanted to include in the previous post but forgot.

Wales on Sunday: "We have e-mailed Will Carling all week to get him to eat his words, and last night his wife Lisa got in touch with us to say "Will would not be able to help you on this one", Sorry does seem to be the hardest word"

Max Boyce: "I spoke to some Irish players after the game, who admitted to me they had been listening to the Welsh National Anthem to get used to it, but they said that nothing could have prepared them for the intensity for which it was sung at the stadium"

John Inverdale (Rugby Commentator): "Somewhat pompouslly I would like to thank Wales on behalf of the rugby world for playing the game like it should be played"

I love these slides!

I used them today to do Xeno's workout. First of all, doing the arms/arms& back/1/4 slide/`1/2 slide/3/4 slide drills really made sense to me for the first time. I can feel when I'm doing the forward body lean correctly; the rower moves under you when you do arms & back if you are doing it right and doesn't if you aren't. My stroke is now smooth, when I am concentrating on it. I was going to say, "the jerk is gone", but that is a matter of opinion!

Xeno does his workout DVD on the slides. On previous occasions, I have really struggled to try to keep up with him on the 15 seconds on/15 seconds off, when he is doing about 40 strokes per minute. I just couldn't get that rate. Now on slides myself, I was with him stroke per stroke and got the last few licks in at 1:36, a number I was sure my monitor would never get to display. I'm sure Xeno was probably doing like 1:14 at the same stroke rate, but at least I was with the program.

It's going to take a lot of concentration for a while to get the power out that I know I've got in there and I'm much less afraid of injury on the slides. It is an amazing difference. Niall, I would recomend them for you if you are at all concerned about blowing out your back again.

I"m going to do all my training on the slides, but I guess I'll have to take them off to do ranked pieces. I am hoping that working on the slides to correct my stroke will carry over to the stationary erg and I won't kill myself going for PBs without the slides.

Carla

Didn't know I played rugby either. They say that the memory is the first to go.

Welcome aboard Hollie and Hayley.

Aussie Taff wrote:
Ha, ha, ha...thanks for the vote of confidence Martin, but it's close enough to light a fire under these guys' butts so they row more! I will not be surprised if the gap closes quickly. Of course I will do my best to be the rabbit, but when you get these guys with a mission, there may be no stopping them!

Niall, as far as sweets for the kids go - this is Easter weekend coming up and I'm sure their grandparents will ensure they get more than enough sweets! Of course the thought has crossed my mind to use some tasty chocolate eggs as rewards for good behaviour if they let mommy row for a while. Ye gads! What would the child experts say about that!?!

Carla, those slides sound awesome for you! I'm sure you will find a big difference in your scores off the slides with the change in technique. With your amazing strength already, we'll be seeing even more big, red PB notices from you!

Happy rowing everyone. I'm taking another day off. Somehow that nasty cold virus Niall had a few weeks ago has made its way across the pond...

Debra

Niall wrote:


And what the heck are us girls made of?

I thought they said that it was the second thing to go, I don't remember what the first thing is

David

Hi Debra,

I think Niall meant "sterner stuff than playdough"

Given that Jasmine is cruising along in 2nd place, Carla is just toying with me (letting me catch up then gliding away on those magic slides) and you have the guys struggling in your wake, the gals are obviously made of tempered steel at the very least !

Since Debra likes slides and Carla says she loves them, I am convinced. My slides should arrive at the end of the week. Will they make me row exactly like Xeno?
Byron

Geez, Byron, I was sure you'd just build a set for yourself out of coat hangers and broomsticks!

I don't know if the slides will give me better scores (I will feel like it is cheating if they do) but I certainly feel that I am rowing in better form than on the stationary erg, and if I can avoid injury by using them, it's worth it.

It's like "old times" again with all the Taffs vying for a higher spot on the board! This is great!

Carla

Hi Carla,
How did you ever guess? Well, not exactly coat hangers but two boards and some rope. I was curious what "dynamic erging" would feel like, so I had the C2 suspended from some rafters in the garage to give me a low-budget, low-friction dynamic erg.

I wouldn't recommend this as a permanent solution, although I could see maybe using some steel cable, available at any hardware store, and some swiveled hookeyes like swings have. Especially if the C2 is in a basement with exposed heavy rafters. I also thought about getting some long hardwood boards and making my own slides but with a different design. Anything I would make would cost at least as much, if not more, than what they sell at C2. The more I look at the pictures of the slides from C2, the more I like them.

Byron

Chris,

You're a machine man!! After you put in over 20K yesterday (while I only had chance to do 10K), I knew I'd have to put a big effort in today. So I did two seperate sessions (morning and afternoon) of 3x15mins. This gave me a total of just over 21,500m.

Felt good about this and had a strong feeling I'd have made ground on you. But of course, I forgot about that competitive edge of yours! 14K today after your 20K yesterday .

I can see this challenge is going to be just that, a real challenge!

The good news is that all these metres everyone is putting in has stretched our lead over MIT and we're now over 3 million metres ahead of them and closing on Team Oarsome!

I'm doing a road run tomorrow so no doubling up for me (probably only the one session for me).

Good luck everyone.

We're racing this weekend, so Im just about done for the week.

Go Taff Go!

Chris,

I thought a 20K day followe dby a 14K day was tapering for you!

Good luck at SLIRC Taffs!

New 500 PB...on slides, though, so take this with a grain of salt. 1:49.9 (was 1:57 something).

Just noticed, I finished my second lifetime million today!

My technique clearly needs improvement on slides. I get this sort of ricocheting action when I sprint. I'll bet it would be sort of funny on video.

Who all is racing this weekend? Keep us posted!

Congratulations on the new PB! (I took the grain of salt, and it still looks a PB to me. )

Congratulations also on the 2 Mm, that is a lot of erging.


David

Taffians:

Today was my first time on slides. All it took was one or two stroke to get used to staying more or less in place with the erg moving back and forth. The whole thing feels very smooth. So far I don't notice any difference in my stroke or how erging feels. I did one of my interactive 2k workouts from the UK website and my times were just about the same as my previous efforts. It didn't feel any easier or harder than without slides. I do notice I need to get a bigger fan. Staying in place does make you warmer.

I do like the slides, but as I said, I don't think they give me any advantage or disadvantage. I can see that if you wanted to rush the recovery it would be easier on the slides, but I usually erg to the metronome with 1 beat on the drive and 2 on the recovery so that shouldn't matter for me.

I suspect there might be a little advantage for a sprint, since that's a time I don't care about technique at all. I'm willing to rush the recovery, over-reach at the catch, etc. Sometime when I feel fresh and like suffering, I should give it a try.

I should mention that the slides are beautifully made and as soon as I opened the box I was glad that I didn't try to make my own out of broomsticks and coat hangers.

I took Carla's advice and I've ordered Xeno's workout DVD.

Byron

Good hunting to all the South Wales Taffs competing at the SLIRC this weekend - Chris, Chippy, Eddie, ???. Take over some of that 6 Nations euphoria with you.

Congratulations to our 'Media Star' Niall on yet another media appearance - this time in the latest C2 Rowing newsletter (#121) as a top 10 performer in the Tsunami fundraiser.

Go Debra, the gap is widening nicely !

Glad to hear the slides are such a success Carla - aren't times done on slides eligible for PB's ? I thought they were, though as my local gym has 2 ageing/battered C2's that are plonked in the corner well away from the new treadmills, bikes etc (to avoid comtamination ?) the slides issue is somewhat academic for my erging !l

Happy Easter Taffios

'The Easter Bunny'

Debra, Chris and Godfried will be pleased to hear I've added no rowing metres since Wednesday and for reasons which I'll come onto shortly I doubt whether I'll be doing any rowing until Sunday (or even Monday ).

For a while now, I've been wanting to add some variety to my training so last Thursday I decided to go for a run. I figured that with my fitness I would be able to do 4 miles. I didn't look to do any specific time but wanted to concentrate on completing the distance in a nice steady pace. The good news was that the run itself went really well; pace was steady and I had enough energy to put in a sprint finish. That's where th epositives stopped!

The following day, my thigh and calf muscles were aching really badly. Walking down stairs was a real effort and I walked like a cripple! Today (Saturday), the legs are better but probably only 40% effective. So no rowing today and I suspect I'll need tomorrow aswell to recover.

Not a happy bunny!!

News from the BatCave we're off skiing to Andorra today
I have been playing squash for two teams which has limited my rowing time Sue has been working away a lot, when we return back to erging with a vengance. Good luck to the Taffs on Sunday

Niall wrote:
Niall, sometimes a nice, light, easy row really helps! Really! I've had this happen before. Just go really, really slow and light just to work out the muscles. Much better than trying to run it out. I suspect a good rub-down would help too, but that's something you'll have to negotiate with the Mrs.!

DB

Nice comeback run Niall. 4 miles and the achilles held up ok - you would have to be pleased with it.

In addition to the usual advice re stretching here are a couple of tips from an old plodder :

Forget the sprint finishes as you get 'older' and/or run infrequently. All they seem to do is leave one stiff and sore later on (unless you are a finely tuned runner) !! I used to do the same and wondered why I felt so stiff later on until a physio son-in-law said in my case I was much better off doing the last K or so at a gentler pace - any adrenelin surging is best done in the middle stages of the run.

Either use the last mile or so as a very gentle 'warm down' jog or go for a 10 min stroll immediately after the run. Works wonders for my mobility the next day.

Debs tip is also a good one for easing away any stiffness.

Good luck with the comeback program. What pace are you aiming for down the track ?

Martin

Great show by Bore da and Chippy today at the S.L.I.R.C, took home some Silverware

I like your Taff Attack kit too.

Thanks to the Taffs for making the journey down

Sir Pirate

Could you guys let us know how the bleep (ing) test/race went? I'm interested to hear about it.

Thanks!
DB

Thanks sir pirate
Great day out in London Town . A lot of pain and a lot of fun for all.
Got third place and a medal and a pb in 40-50 class for a 1000m
Then to top it all Chris and myself got third place in the team 1000m 18 years +.
There was some good teams in this event but our change over was perfection so we got into the medals.
When Chris and i started the TA we did it to race , have fun, to reach all, and we did that today.
Run into a young Taff A.Jones who won the u 23 today so hope he will sign up for us. Big prospect

Again
Thanks Sir P and N Ridge for a great day out.

Got to get some Brasso to polish my medals.

Chippy

The bleep test took some time to set up, but worked great first time out. The one to watch was the group 5 race at the end. They worked a minute at 1:34's (You were eliminated if at the end of the minute your average pace was 1:35.0, but 1:34.9 was accepted).

Then they rested for a minute, before working a minute at 1:33....rest...1:32...so on. (I think it ramped down evenly)

After 1:27 there were 3 people left Rob Smith didnt start the 26, Gallant Neil Ridge started and blew up, while Andy Sangster (sorry if name wrong) lapped up second of the excrutiating pain he was in to clear the bleep, and win the event outright - Awesome Row.

Thanks to Neil, and Pirate - Top Event Men.

Way to go Taffs. Showed them Limeys what a good Welchman can do eh?

Good on ya for the pb and the hardware Chippy.

Dwayne

I don't quite get it...this was a relay race, right? but you had to hit certain paces? can you explain it a bit more, it sounds really cool but truly torturous.



Congratulations!! You guys are tops and I'm proud to be on your team!!! Go Taffs!!!

Hope everyone is having a Happy Easter!

Carla wrote:


Hey Carla,
If you go to the Competition thread off the main forum board these guys get into the specifics about the bleep race. It sounds pretty challenging. I think I would have to start in Group 1 and I'm not sure if I could finish that!

DB

Same here. That looks just awful awful awful. I'm tempted to try it at home....but not right now. ugh

Sorry to hear about the legs Niall.
I have the same problem. Before erging so much, if I went for a run after not running for a while I would be sore, but not terrible. Once I started erging much more, and then did an outdoor run, I wouldn't be able to hardly walk down the steps for a couple of days. (If I ran on the treadmill this didn't happen.)
Just points to the need to do more cross training, and not just concentrate on one specific set of muscles, unless one is really a world-class rower and so maybe would just want to concentrate.

David

Tough going on the sore legs, Niall! I'm sure if I tried to run right now I'd be crippled for 3 weeks.

New 500m pb, stationary erg, 1:48.5, moved up 5 spots in the C2 rankings and up a few on Nonathlon as well.

Martin, looks like we are back to our neck and neck meter competition again!

I'm struggling to find time to row and learn all my music since now I'm working 25+ hours a week and still doing everything I was doing before....

Way to go Carla. The pb's just keep on comin' for ya eh?

That puts Carla into 17th on the Nonathlon ranking system lads and lasses!!

Well done to Chippy and Chris for a storming performance in the 1000m team event (no bleeps involved!). Great to see Taff Attack getting in the medals!

Well done too to Carla on the other side of the pond pulling in a great 500m PB. Was it the training on the slides that helped you?

Great stuff guys!!

Well another week of the Taff Attack Oarsome Foursome Battle has passed us by and it's the same old story . Debra's still showing us guys that steady and consistent metres wins the day again as she's the first to break the 1.7M barrier for the season.

Chris has put in a great week considering he's been tapering down for SLIRC and Godfried's managed to find some time and fitness to start his push towards the front.

As for me, well I was doing okay until I went for that run last Thursday which left me like a lame horse for the rest of the week. Still now rowing for me since last Wednesday but that will be put right tomorrow when I return to the gym. (I could have gone today but it's been my birthday - 38 - and have been doing "family stuff")

Good luck to everyone for the forthcoming week.

Holy cow man...wasn't aware of it. Happy birthday Niall!!!

Speedy