OK.... here's a video of me rowing. I had no idea my hands were doing that funny loop thing. I must still be trying to feather an oar or something. Anyway, I'd be really happy to hear anyone's critique. After the first 10 or so strokes I'm at about 1:57 and 25 spm.

Carla

Another great video of a teammate to watch ! Thanks for posting it Carla - much more interesting than watching Sunday arvo TV. Picture was a bit small (2" x 2" in centre of screen surrounded by black) using Windows Media Player to watch - anyone know how to make the picture bigger ?

Lovely smooth easy action. Powerful and effective drive very evident - as expected from someone able to maintain 1:57s at 25 SPM. Given you are near the top of the Rankings for your age category Carla your rowing style has to be working pretty well for you.

My only suggestion re possible 'improvement' would be the finish where you loop the hands as for water rowing. I did the same for the first few months of erging - old habits die hard ! but realised that on the erg it added no value (for me anyway) and I shifted to a more 'handle in and out on the same plane' action at the finish. Interestingly, I found I automatically stopped leaning back as far at the finish (which I also wanted to eliminate for the same reason - not adding any real value I felt).

Reducing or eliminating the handle 'loop' and body leanback gives me a quicker finish and saves a small amount of energy per stroke, allowing me to more easily achieve and sustain higher ratings (high 30s SPM) when I need/want to. I also found I can start 'breaking' the legs earlier on the recovery as the handle is well above the legs - giving a nice feeling of co-ordinated flow of arms/back/legs at the start of the recovery rather than hands-then back- then legs.

Hope that all makes sense Carla and is of some help. Only 20 more days to season's end and catching me up ?! For me the EOSG (end of season goal) is to pass 1,500,000 metre mark then see if anyone not too far away to catch and pass

Martin

PS Great rowing Debra, you are perfectly placed to achieve the 2 Million goal,

Hi Martin,

Thanks.

I remember that on the water I had a terrible time getting the handle of the oar out of my stomach and so I had to lean back further. I didn't think I was still rowing like that, though, until I saw the video. The lean back feels fine, but then getting the forward lean isn't so comfy for my lower back. Maybe if I drop the loopy thing it will have the same effect on dimishing the layback and make starting the recovery easier.

My stroke doesn't feel lovely and smooth, it feels jerky and tight...that's what I'm trying to fix. But I'm glad it fooled you!

I'm not concentrating on piling up meters now, I just can't. Concerts May 1, June 18; solo recital (eeeeeeek!) June 11, and my teacher just completely changed my left hand posture, which, while resulting in a more beautiful, fluid tone quality, is wreaking havoc with my intonation and even knowing what notes I'm playing...basically it's like having to learn the recital piece all over again.....and job (supposed to be only 20 hours a week) is now around 30 and growing, without much change in my homeschooling duties...3 day bike trip on May 21 and only just got the bike out yesterday for the first time..

So while I will probably do each ranking piece at least one more time to get my best times in there for Nonathlon, I concede the annual meters race to you and whoever else passes me during this month!

Hi Carla,

Had a couple more thoughts on the rowing stroke in general whilst pottering along at the gym today so thought I would pass them on for your consideration :-

As I get to the end of the drive and the handle is a few inches from the body I ease off the upper body power almost totally. This seems to assist in :-

.. Allowing upper body to achieve almost complete relaxation at the finish which in turn makes 'blending' the arm/back/leg movement at the start of the recovery (as opposed to a 'by numbers' approach - 1, arms : 2, back : 3, legs) feel very natural.

.. Avoiding the handle thudding into the stomach - usually a small gap exists between body and handle on the change of handle direction or at worst a gentle 'caress'.

.. Allowing the first stage of the recovery to happen as quickly as I wish - especially useful when rating high.

If you were to alter your 'finish/first part of the recovery' to something similar to that outlined in my 2 posts I reckon you would 'save' about 3 seconds or so during a minute of rowing. With this 'saved time' you could either spread it out over the recovery phase of each stroke (i.e. have a bit more of a breather) or leave everything else the same and fit in a couple more strokes (i.e. up the rating !) during that minute of rowing.

With your skill, stamina, fitness (you look in great shape in the video Carla) and determination can you visualise a 5K at 28 SPM sitting on 1:58/1:59s - maybe even 10K ? I think so.

Good luck with the Nonathlon PBs and everything else on your plate on the home front. We'll go for 2 Million + next season eh !

Martin

Hi Carla,

Nice video! You look strong and smooth to me.

You might be doing a little of what I am fighting--opening the back too early. Paul Smith pointed that problem out to me after he saw my video. I try to concentrate on keeping the forward lean until my legs have straightened. Maybe that will help take the load off the lower back.

I think Xeno's workout DVD is also helping me to get better technique.

Byron

I also posted this at the training thread, but we Taffians tend to stick together here.

added later:

I also notice a little slouching at the finish. If you look at the video, you can see the head comes down quite a bit at the finish. At Neil Wallace's website, when I click through the strokes of Xeno Muller and Paul Smith, I notice their heads stay fairly level during the entire stroke. They both seem to get a good layback at the finish but keep their heads high.

Thanks Byron. I do try to keep from using my back too early, but it seems like my stroke gets jerkier and jerkier the more I concentrate on the seperate parts. I like doing the drills on Xeno's DVD but I don't think I'm getting my actual stroke to improve even though I'm getting good at the drills.

I hope PaulS looks at it but maybe he is too busy.

NEW 10K PB 40:37.5

I couldn't decide what to do for a workout, so I figured out exactly how many points I needed to move up on Nonathlon one spot, and how fast I'd have to do a 10K to get them, and then did it! Also ended up being, at least temporarily, in the #1 spot for 40-49s hwts (though, there is a light weight who has posted a faster time).

It was on slides. I've checked everywhere I can think and I don't think it's against the rules to post times in the rankings that are on slides. Besides being on slides, which really smooths out my stroke, I let myself rate whatever and paid no attention to MPS. To quote Paul Smith "train hard, race easy", and it was, until the last little bit.

Doesn't everyone take a shower at 1:30 am and go to bed with wet hair?

You make us proud to be Taff.

It happens

Yay Carla! Way to go! I was wondering when you were going to do that 10k.
This is what C2 says about slides:
"Pieces done on slides are considered separately, and
not compared to pieces done on a stationary erg. Slides are not used in any
of the indoor championships, and are usually considered a completely
separate event."
I'm not sure how they keep track of this. I guess it doesn't really matter unless you're really hung up with the rankings. It's just so great that you've made such awesome improvements over the past year!

DB

Well, I put it in my log as on slides, and it still gave me a "rank" link thing, so I ranked it. I am going to email Dena at C2 and ask her if I should take the slide PBs off the rankings. Seems to me, though, that if they didn't want them ranked, they should not give you a "rank" link when you select "slides". I wonder if "on water" meters get a "rank" link, because those are mentioned right on the log book page as un-rankable, and if slides were not supposed to be rankable it seems they would say so there.

I'll let you know what Dena says.

You are really keeping the guys on this team working on the annual meters, Deb! Good for you. You're going to make that 2M this season. (what will your lifetime meters be? )

Carla,
I agree that they're not very clear about the slides. I know there has been a lot of 'discussion' about this over time in the forum. I never paid attention because I wasn't interested at the time! I'm curious now because I may get some to use this summer (outside on the deck). I just don't want to go through the effort (and pain associated) doing ranked pieces on them if in the end they don't count for anything. Well, I guess there would be the personal satisfaction! You're right though, they shouldn't put the 'rank' option if they don't mean to rank them. Maybe there are not enough people using slides for them to consider this??? Who knows. I guess the bottom line is that we need to be happy with our own success and not worry too much about the rankings. To be honest I have not been paying much attention to them because I have found so many obvious 'misrepresentations'. It takes the integrity out of it! Although I have to admit, it was fun last year having a bit of a fun competition with times. Maybe I should consider that angle for next season and not think about the idiots posting stupid times.

My life-time meters will be almost 6 million as I pass the 2 million for this season. I got a great long sleeved t-shirt for the 5 million in December. I'll get a water bottle for 6 million! Woo hoo!

I have 3 sick kids right now = sleep deprivation! May be tough holding Chris off much longer but I sure will try my best!

DB

Passed Nial today - no movement there so an easy target for now.

Daren is planning to return in May - so also doable.

For now : plan + 10k : : plan leaves me 80k short of 2M overall total , too much I think.

Godfried,

Plan + 15K would do it

Ok, here's the final word on rankings & slides:

Dear Carla,

Thank you for emailing. The slides cannot be used for any record-breaking 2000 meter times. This is listed on the bottom of the Ranking page in the Ranking Notes:

2000 Meter Record-Breaking Times

All 2000 meter record-breaking times must be rowed at a Concept2 sanctioned indoor rowing event with witnesses present. In addition all 2000 meter record-breaking times must be rowed on Concept2 Indoor Rowers without Slides.

All other entries are fine on the slides. To see if the rower was on slides or not, you can click the place number beside the piece. The piece will either be listed as "slide" or "standard".

Hope this helps.

Happy rowing and best regards,

Dena Hirchak


Debra, I think you should let yourself have fun with the rankings again. Go ahead and post your times, and the heck with whoever is making up fake times or whatever you were upset about. (Though I have to say it bugged me a little with having Tim Prindle show up in the women's rankings and bumping me out of my spot a few months ago!) But it never stopped me from posting my times and wanting to do better in the rankings, and I always posted times as soon as I did a distance, even if the time was embarrassingly slow. It just makes it all the better when you improve and move up!

Carla,
That means that all of your pb's are good to go. Good on ya!!!

Deb,

I'm racing this weekend in the Brechfa Enduro. http://www.ddbc.btinternet.co.uk/index.htm

Will be needing my strength so 20 thou tonite, then rest till at least monday when I doubt I'll be in any shape for it anyway. Will expect a large deficeit when I return on Tuesday.

Row On Girl!

I have to do plan + 90k to get it done.

I have planned 9 more sessions and need 188k - - 9 times a HM would do it.

1 done - 22k ; 166k to go.

Any chance we can make 46M by the end of April? That's about 900k to go.

Speedy

Yes, now Godfried's back on the erg

Only 13K to go Debra and you are in the 'home straight'. Go Debra !

Martin

2 done - 13k ; 153k to go in 6

I think we will end somewere between 47,000,000 and 47,500,000.

Speedy
I have had 3 days of to decorate my house to keep my princess happy , be back on "machine o torture " tomorrow. Cmon team lets follow the speedster war cry.

Chippy.

I'm really psyched, because I can see that all the C2 training has put me in great shape for the bike season (not racing, just biking for fun). I went out for my first real ride of the season, just 16 miles, best I've ever felt on my first time out. Avg, 16.2 mph, and the killer hill at the end that usually by the end of the season I'm doing 8-9 mph on, I whipped up in 9--10 and felt great at the top....Yeah for C2 rowing!!!

Carla, there's no better reward than that feeling you get that all the hard work you've put in has paid off. What a buzz indeed! I draw a lot of motivation from the achievements of my fellow team mates and feeling sorry for myself right now ('cause I can't train due to my %&@@£$ back) so posts like yours really pick me up (thanks ).

Hey Niall


I hope your back recovers soon. It would seem a little hollow to overtake you at the end of the season in those circumstances.

Training quite hard now as everything around me seems to have settled for the time being. I hope to average 17k for this week. Indoor rowing seems to be quite popular at the gym I go to so I don't feel like a leper training alone all of the time.

Prufrock

No worries about overtaking me Bernard. We all get injured throughout the season and it just so happens that mine's at the end. So it all equals out in the end so you go for it mate and see how much you can beat me by .

Carla wrote:



Yep. Years ago I was faculty advisor to our cycling (racing) club, and I noticed that whenever we got a speed skater or rower, that person was already a strong cyclist. Usually all it took was a little work on technique to be very competitive. On the other hand, distance runners usually needed some time to develop the kind of strength for hill climbing. That's not to say distance runners don't have strong legs, but it's a different kind of strength.

I think rowing is especially relevant for recumbent riding. Care to see my first trike?

http://www.math.msu.edu/~drachman/trike.jpg

Byron

Greetins from the Bat Cave fellow Taffians,Blod and i back from Andorra,no accidents it's a fabulous place to learn to ski and everything is so inexpensive,there's no tax added to anything Sue sheparded me on the slopes picking up the various articles of ski equipment that fell off me as i kamikazeed down the pistes
Da iawn Rob and Chris top effort,to quote Jimmy Cagney "look at me Ma, i'm on top of the world"
10 Taffs in the Lions, Grand Slam champs,Taff Attack rampant, Blod and Ramboyo back on the erg,need i say more!!!
Nos da

I ran across this and wanted to share:
Welsh Honor

Wow! Now that is following through... Whenever you think you don't have enough to finish what you started, remember that.

A bona fide Darwin Award winner....

3 not done - 153k to go in 5.

Got bitten by a vampire yesterday*, so an easy day today.

4 done - 8 k ; 145 to go in 4.

So no 2M at end of season - Just 55k to beat Daren.

* A nice nurse took a pint of blood plasma at the local blood donation centre.

Just been catching up on the latest Taff Attack team standings:

- Well done to Chippy for breaking the 2 Million Metre mark for the season (lost patience waiting for Chris did you??)
- Big nod to MikeZ for overtaking Jasmine into second place. I think you've left it to late for a charge towards first place though. The smart money's still on Speedy!!
- Talking of smart money, Martin's streaked ahead of Carla in the distance stakes but I'm sure Carla wont mind as she's had some storming PBs of late (small sacrifice Carla!)
- Daren sliding down the leaderboard and I would strongly suspect he'll lose another place before the end of the season (to Godfried)

Well done to everyone!

P.S. I've started back this week (gently) so have been contributing some token metres

Good to hear your back on the erg!


Prufrock

Hey Niall, good you're back on board!

I'm a little under the weather so I'm not rowing so I'll recover faster. Hope to get back on the erg next week for general fitness, but with a tough concert May 1 (Brahms and Prokofiev, ouch) don't know if I'll do much before the season ends...definitely not any marathons or HMs.

It's been really great being on this team and I hate to fade off like this right at the end when it's our last chance to gain those meters! You guys are doing great.

Hi all



Just completed my second half marathon of the weekend. I hope to complete a marathon on April 30, so this effort should leave me in good shape.

I should be ready for the long preparation for BIRC 2005 then!!

Hope all is well with everyone.

Prufrock

1,965,000
Good job, Debra, you certainly have 2M in the bag for this season!!

Dwayne, congrats on surpassing your goal of 14M! Sorry I missed seeing when you blew past it. You're a machine...

What a team!

Yesterday
5 done - 22k ; 123 to go in 3.
Today
6 done - 13k ; 110 to go in 2.

No way that is going to happen.

So goal this week:

3226 to pass Daren
10k / 20k to keep Bernard behind me.

Debra's definitely got that 2Million marker clear in her sights. 35K for this week should be find (just gotta keep those kids amused!).

Many congratulations Speedy for blasting through the 14Million mark for the season. "Awesome" just doesn't seem to do you justice!

The best I can hope for I think is a grand total of 1,730,000

How proud was i when I read recently that Eddie had received five entries for the Evesham Golden Mile Event (9th July) and all entries were from Taff Attack!!

Read about it here.

Nice one guys!! It's always great to see the team name in dispatches!

I'll be getting my application in soon and hope to be competing as a Lwt for the first time !

Well it almost brings a tear to my eye to see that the close of this season looks like Bernard and I (as ever) will be battling it out for 9th place in the Team Standings. At the end of last year we had a very competitive time of it with the lead changing hands almost on a daily basis.

It only seems fitting therefore that the 2004/2005 season should end in a similar fashion.

Currently I'm a mere 5,500m ahead so let's see how this progresses.

Here's a link to the Team Standings

Bernard has planned to do a Marathon on April 30, so you have to do better!

[quote=Niall,Apr 26 2005, 07:09 AM]
How proud was i when I read recently that Eddie had received five entries for the Evesham Golden Mile Event (9th July) and all entries were from Taff Attack!!

Just sent off application for Graham and myself oh no lots of training now, no more excuses Taff Attack Rules OK.......!!!!!!

Mikez you are top man in the Big Apple, Charlies angels love you

Niall,

The only tears I want to see you shed are tears of anguish when I beat the number of meters you do. Took a day off rowing today but will be back tomorrow morning, bright and early.

You're strong Niall, I thought you had finished for the year but you still insist on making me work til the very end. I'm even more determined to do the marathon on Saturday.

On a more serious note I think this happy band of ergers should congratulate themselves on providing a mutually supportive, entertaining and inspiring year. Being part of this has made feel that I am not alone in wanting to pull a chain just because it is good fun and, yes, healthy.

I'm looking forward to next year's erging with enthusiasm and not trepidation as a result of knowing the Taff Attack crew.

Prufrock

New 500m pb this morning. Beat it by one tenth of a second. 1:15.2

Speedy
Congrats on the pb,after reading the Pirates claims you have fallen out with the law was that rowed in jail or out.

Chippy.

Taffs

Should have a strong team to go to the Golden Mile in Evesham.

Myself,Chris,Dykie,Tracy,Graham,Sue,Nial,Grumpy and Rock Steady Eddy all
making the trip so far. Must be a few more who fancy 5-6 mins of pain.

Chippy

11k today - so now 7th of the team.

1 day of rowing to go for me - Niall at 53k , Bernard at 59k - will this be enough?

Taffs
Thats me done,no more meters for me.
What a great first season for the team..High lights for me got to be Speedsters
world record,Chrises pb at the BIRC when the rest of us failed and moaned about
the conditions and the many pbssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
from Carla.

Chippy

Some highlights from me:

1. The worst 18 mins of my life trying to beat OzT over 5000m, eventually scrapping through by 3 secs, only to have him smash it by 30 seconds within 12 hours.

2. Chippy's offer to Speedy that he just "Couldn't Refuse"

3. Winning my first and only silverware in the 1000m pairs at SLIRC, after a month lay off from trainning, and most importantly winning it jointly with the Chipster!

4. Debs 2 million at seasons end, I know how hard it was because I been rowing almost identically the same amount of meters. Im sure we're both glad thats over - well done Deb.

5 Meeting all the new dudes on the scene to name but a few, pirate (will give him a shoeing one day), Neil Ridge, and the noisey northen lass with a gammy leg. And to all the others whom Ive briefly met and chatted. Tidy Like.