Welcome Pirate, and Scott.

Now, this is quite an odd coincidence, but I looked at Scott's profile only last week or so, but I can't remember why. =)

Speedy,Graham,Scott and anyone else who likes to pump iron.

How about a side challenge ...Starting next week you have to do 5 dips
on the stands, the week after 10,the week after 15 and so on....We will see who can go the furthest. When we have a winner we can try something else.
Anyone interested just let me know and i will keep a record of the scores.
Chris will not be entering has he only has pipe cleaner arms.

Chippy

I can't do dips 'cause I'm too fat. =)

As per an earlier post I sent an email to Godfrey sport about the all in ones.
I got this reply.

"Yes, we have done the Taff Attack all-in-ones, if you were to order another yourself it would be £58.50 although if you ordered 2-11 they would be £49.50 each. They are expensive because of the print that goes into them. If you would like to order any please e-mail me."

So is anyone else thinking of getting one before BIRC or Cardiff? I have just enquired what the delivery time is but hope if we order quickly it would arrive in time.



I am just off on a weeks holiday and assuming that they won't have a C2 in the hotel next weeks metres will be zero.

Phil

I'm going to get one, but I want to put it off until I'm closer to the weight I want to be. I'm not sure how much variance there is in sizing, and I wouldn't want to spend £50 then find that the thing's too large for me once I've lost another stone.

Hey, Lynsey!!!

Unless you have a bunch of meters that you haven't logged, I should be hitting 500K tonight before you....I will complete my 200K/month challenge (it was 9/15--10/15) tonight as well.

By the way, do we have a challenge of the month on right now? Is it on the website, and if so, can someone post the link?

I finally had a half decent workout last night for the first time since I've been back. I did 10K with 800m at around 2:07 and 200m at 1:55--1:58. I did stop 3 times for about 20 seconds. The time I ended up with, which was way far off the mark as far as a serious 10K would go, ended up ranking 11th.

I plan on 10/15--11/15 completing another 200K, taking it a tad lighter from 11/15 to the start of the Holiday Challenge, and completing that. By then I ought be in decent shape to start posting some reasonable times.

I can't do a "dip" to save my life, but the "dip" challenge has got me going doing pushups again. I used to do them daily, but got out of the habit last year when I broke my wrist and now can only do 5 (men's, not bent knee). So I'm doing my 5 a day and plan to build it up until I'm doing 3 sets of 30. I hope to be able to do that by Thanksgiving.

Maybe I'll get one of the all-in-ones as a reward for some rowing achievement. I'm afraid of getting a bad fit, though--it's really hard for me to find stuff that fits, so I don't know if I want to risk it. How much are they in US dollars, anyone know?

No challenge has been decided for this month so it's time to get the ball rolling (thanks Carla).

Suggestions from me:

1) 4x750m (3mins rest); result based on avg pace for the session compared with 2K SB pace
2) 6x500m (90secs rest); result based on avg pace for the session compared with 2K SB pace
3) 30mins (20spm); result based on distance covered compared with current 30mins SB

I've gone for SB rather than PBs as I know some of our more experienced and mature rowers will have PBs that are beyond them right now (that okay Aussietaff!? ).

I'm open to other suggestions then we can have a vote. I would suggest the following "rules":

1) Colour code suggestions in red so we can easily identify them amongst all the posts
2) Deadline for submitting other challenge suggestions is 24th Oct 08:00 (GMT)
3) We will then have a week of voting so we can start the challenge on the 1st November.
4) The challenge with the most votes will win. In the event of a tie, there will be a vote-off of just the tied challenges. If this still remains a tie, then Chippy decides.


As usual, I'm happy to be flexible but we've got to start somewhere, hence this post!

Congratulations to Debra for smashing through the 1 Million Metres mark for this season!

Well done Debra!

Well done Debra

Good suggestions Niall....I'll give a few of them a bash later this week. Are you still up for a training session some time?

I managed a 38k row on Sat morning. I was looking for a relatively quick 2 hour session but got a bit carried away. Would have gone for the FM but my lower back started hurting and decided to jack it in.

Well on track for a LW entry in Cardiff. Has anyone got the date of the event yet?

Mike

Hi Mike,
Yeh, I'm still very much up for a training session with you. I'll email you potential dates, training sessions and arrangements.

Details of the Welsh IRC in Cardiff can be found through the link below:

Welsh IRC Details

Hi all

The coming week sees the sixth week since my return to regular training, so I think now is a good time to gauge where I am.

I can't complain about erging more than 500k metres in five weeks, so I can see my psychology is ok, motivation good and stamina is improving daily.

Admittedly I have only been doing UT1(60-70%) and UT2(70-80%) training with the odd sprint interval training session to shock myself out of complaceny and potential boredom.

The offshoot of this training is my resting pulse - taken first thing in the morning - is back down to 45bpm; my ability to use oxygen is back in the excellent range for my age - it was poor-average to begin with; my 2x20 minute UT1 row times are better than they have ever been.

After this week of training I shall now add a couple of AT(trembles with fear) rows. I'll start off with 4x6 minutes and 2x8 minutes workouts next week.

On the negative side. My max pull has still not gone under 1'20". I have not yet done a 2k and need to do some sharp power work and strength endurance stuff.

The most important thing is that I am enjoying my rowing more than ever, and more importantly doing it for the right reasons - my own personal, intrinsic reasons.

Breaking the seven minute barrier is now just a question of when rather than if. Naturally, it won't count unless I do it in competition, but I don't see any problem in doing so at a prescribed location in the coming months.

I'm happy though not nearly satisfied with the way things have gone so far, but though I want to grumble, I can't.

regs
Bernard Pru

What a great post to read Bernard. You certainly sound the embodiment of fitness and well-being and great to read your confidence in going sub-7:00!! I'm aiming to do it at BIRC and I'm guessing that's your target too (yes?).

Keep up the great training and I look forward to reading how you get on with those AT sessions !! Good luck my friend!

Hi Bernie,

I wouldn't be too worried about the Max Pull, I haven't seen a sub 1:32 this year when I've had a go and still managed a 6:52 at the AIRC yesterday (2nd in the 55 - 59 age group category introduced for the first time at AIRC this year). So probably not much correlation between Max Pull and Sub 7 apart from sounding like a couple of dudes out of an Austin Powers movie

Going to try for a 7:0x soon to see how close you are to it ? You may be pleasantly surprised judging by your recent training. Best to go sub 7 in training first in my opinion as Race Day is a strange animal indeed as I found out yesterday - anything can happen to waylay the best of plans (and did !).

Cheers and good luck in your quest,

Martin

Hiya Martin,
Well, that was just .2 slower than your 2005 SB...I'm sure you were trying to beat it, but congratulations anyway! The extra tension of the real McCoy I think must make it harder to do your best than when you can totally focus more easily in your usual training place.

What happened to "waylay" your plans? I'd like to hear about the experience.

It's about 6 weeks since I started rowing again, too, and I'm starting to feel more like the real me again. Today I managed a 10K (no stops, hurrah!) in 41:57.7; that's a minute and half slower than my PB, but it was a good row, slowly speeding up throughout and finishing strong. I really had no idea of what to aim for, since I don't think I'd done a non-stop 10K at any sort of reasonable pace at all so far this season,so I wrote the finishing times for a 10K done at 2:06, 2:08, and 2:10 on my white board and ended up averaging 2:05.9. 2:08 was what seemed sensible when I set out.

Fantastic result Martin, well done on the 2nd place (silver medal/podium placing!!) at the AIRC. When do we get a full report on:

- how the race went,
- did you stick to the race plan?
- what was your race plan?
- did you take any guym bunnies with you for motivation?
- what was the event like (good turnout)?
- did you get to sign autographs afterwards?

Carla,

Well done on your 10K. Iy's a starting point to work from and it sounds as if you rowed a sensible, controlled set and with the powerful finish, I'm sure there's more to come. Good for you!

Congratulations to Dykie who's has now reached 900,000m for the season (only 100K to the big 1M!!).

Also, a big Well Done to Carla for breaking through the 500,000m mark (good way of celebrating that solid 10K row Carla!).

We've got a couple (Hollie Matthews, Pete Shillingford) who very close to the 100,000m mark. C'mon guys, big push now!!

Thanks Niall and Carla for the congrats. Here's how it all happened (well you did ask for it !) :-

Race plan was based on picking the eyes out of Niall/Chris and Chippy's suggestions and it all went to plan at the start of the day (acknowledgements in brackets) -

Got there nice and early for a bog (Chris) and enjoyed it (Niall). !K warmup to familiarise myself with the PM3 and feel of the 'D' - like a Rolls compared to the 'C'. Felt out of sorts (had been for past few days) so restricted proper warmup to 10 mins instead of 20 mins (Niall). Was sweating like a pig and burning up inside so contemplated withdrawing - flu ? Went for a last minute nervous bog instead (Chris) and enjoyed it (Niall) so decided to give it a go,

Race Plan totally up in the air at this stage - sat on the erg for the pre-start and stuffed around putting socks on handles (for sweaty hands) and photo-shoot. Went to warm up and check DF only to see message "Stop Rowing" !! So had NO idea what the DF was (no numbers on the lever setting for a 'D') and just took a stab for where the lever should be (Stuff Up #1 Carla).

Had a great start and was actually in front at the 1900-to-go mark, glanced at Ave Pace to see what to do next only to find it showing TIME instead !! (Stuff Up #2 Carla - I should have figured out how to put it on Ave Pace and not assumed it would show it automatically). Was too scared to push any buttons in case I 'lost' the screen altogether so rowed the race 'blind' - I really rely on Ave Pace to work out what to do the next 10 strokes in when going flat out.

With 400 to go was in 3rd place locked in a mighty struggle with 2nd. First place aleady in the bag for a chap who does about 6:30 so it was me and the 2nd guy. Mentally called for an effort (Chris) but the body had called it a day by now so I hung in listening to the announcer calling the race for 2nd - kept saying I was catching and about to pass only to find at the end I was 1.5 secs behind (in 6:51.9) !! What a con job.

Anyway the first guy rowed a great 6:33 and as the guy who finished 2nd was in the 50-54 category (we all raced together as a 50-59 group and split into 2 for the results) I got 2nd for the 55-59 category. Beauty !!

Was really pleased with the 6:51.9 Carla -only 0.1 secs outside PB - as I had no Ave Pace to help in the middle stages and was feeling a bit off (later that evening I passed yet another Uric Acid sludgy kidney stone - that was why I was a bit off I think).

Great atmosphere Niall and a really well organised event. Probably nowhere as big as BIRC but still a good turnout and lots of events well patronised by the schools and rowing club youth. No need for gym bunnies !! No autographs for 2nd old son and as the 6:30 guy is 55 it looks like I'll be the bridesmaid for the next 3 years unless I can go sub 6:30 !

Will organise display of photos when my son gets around to loading them onto the computer.

Well done on 500K Carla and regaining some old form,

Cheers,

Martin

Fabulous report Martin. Certainly sounds like a great even and that you've learnt a few things (set up monitor and DF before racing!) for next time (there will be a next time wont there?!

Look forward to the photos (if for no other reason than to see the socks on the handle ).

Glad you enjoyed it!!!

Carla - I raise a glass to you on the 500,000 meters

Chippy - Cool challenge.

I think it is time for me to give more of an effort to the team, I do not like being in sixth place.

Hi


Congratulations to Carla on reaching 500k and the impressive 10k.

Great performance Martin in your competition. You must be some rower. I hope I'm doing those kind of times when I'm 55+. I don't think I'll be ready in time for BIRC, so I'll probably race in Cardiff, though I will be in Birmingham to see what's going on in the world of indoor rowing. I guess all the superstars will be there. But enough about Taff Attack.

Added to which I may be coming down with something. I struggled with my 1 hour row this morning. Only the Bernard Pru cussedness and some Lighthouse Family tunes enabled me to finish it. For the time being I'll put it down to running on empty - nothing to eat yet - and having a complete rest day yesterday to play chess.

I'll do a 3x10 minute UT1 session tonight, which will tell me whether there is some little animal doing battle with my immune system or, as I hope, this morning's suffering was simply due to a lack of fuel.

I like your attitude Jumpsoda!

It's just occurred to me how hungry I am. Time to pig out a little. Ok Pig out a lot!

regs
Bernard

Don't know about you Bernard, but I'd like to be able to do that kind of time now

So funny Niall and yet there is a bitter truth in what you say! There's no way I'd even attempt to go that fast until AT LEAST this time next year

Ah well. Where did I put that chicken leg?

regs
Bernard

Well, a half decent 30 minute row today, 7320, av 2:02.9, 25 spm. I put the meters for av. 2:05, 2:04, and 2:04.5 and was really surprised to find myself pretty comfortable at 2:03. I hadn't bothered to look at the rankings either so was surprised to find it needed a code and will be in the top 3 (but of course, no "v"--my cat is not a good enough witness). It's still pretty far off last year's time, though.

Good morning... well it is here at a wet n windy 4:42 am

Just seeing what the forums are like this side of the water.

hey, as my Gran was a Williams from the Newport do you want my 400K ? it would be more but I've only been rowing 6 weeks.

Jump on board the merry ship that is Taff Attack!

Good to hear from you this side of the big pond Jef (I see you're a regular over at C2 UK).

We'd be happy to have you in the Taff Attack team and appreciate you not taking the easy route and offering your metres to Team Awful!

Carla, you're definitely well down the road to recovery. That's a terrific 10K and it must have been a great feeling to be prompted for a code

More to come, I guarantee it!

7320 would be a kind of odd 10K....

Yep, I'd go along with your logic there Carla

It was about 05:30 in the morning so I guess my concentration skills were somewhat limited. Sorry!

Martin
What a top story of race day and its ups and downs.Think you did a great job getting so close to a pb without knowing the ave pace and drag factor.

Chippy

It is really hard to produce a decent result when "flying blind"...Double hats off Ozzie Taff!

I have similar problems when doing 30 minute pieces and having the display say the av. pace, which I like to see, but then I don't have my meters counting up so I can really tell if I'm on 10 mps.

Hi Jef,
So was mine. Welcome to the Taffies.
Byron

Thanks Chippy, looks like that 6:50 is still there for the taking ! BIRC or Cardiff ?? Best get a wriggle on as I might fluke it one day at the gym before the long hot Oz summer.

Martin

There is a new challenge : the Skeleton Crew.


Had it delevered today. The room is not ready. I have half a C2 ( C1 ? ) in it to test the PM3 with Rowpro. All seems to be OK.

Hi Godfried


Good to see you're getting ready to pull the chain again.

Well, I completed my first AT session today and yes, it hurt. I suppose this is a step up in pace for me and so I must expect it to be tough. I even did a 15 minute UT2 row to warm up.

Still, it's done now and in a strange way I feel quite invigorated, as though a few cobwebs have been cleared out. I started a week early but I'm glad I have, because hopefully, I'll adapt to the increased intensity a lot sooner and be cranking out some good times.

In a strange way, I'm looking forward to my UT2 and UT1 rows tomorrow, because they may be longer, but they are far more pleasant!

Row straight and hard.

regs
Bernard Pru

Thanks, Godfried, but I meant a Taff team challenge. Last time it was 'row til you drop'. I think Speedy won it, but I'm not sure. Just always looking for ways to make myself want to row instead of going to bed at a reasonable hour!

By the way, how is the "dips" challenge going, guys? Anyone working on that one? I'm not doing "dips" but I'm working on pushups. Now I am up to a whopping 6. Aren't you all impressed?

I just rowed a great feeling workout 10K. It was meant to be 800 m @ 2:08 and 200 m @ 2:00 but almost immediately became 800 m @ <2:05 and 200 m @ 1:55 ish. The last 2K of it felt pretty awful and I even stopped for 10 seconds at 1K to go but then made myself finish it with the reward of posting (rhymes with boasting) about it to the Taff gang! I finished at 41:16.1 which ended up being ranked 2nd (sigh, no "v" for me). Of course, it's very early in the season and the timess are really soft. That was a fun surprise, and even more surprising, how energetic I feel right now right after doing it.

I like these few days a week that I get to row before dinner, instead of after midnight (well, we eat dinner at 10 PM these nights, but that's ok!)

Yippee!

This time would put you at #4 last year ( you were #2 last year ), see woman 2005 (page 7)

That's what I mean by soft. But I think there's progress there,anyway; that 2005 10K was rowed at the very tail end of the season, not at the beginning. I'm hoping this means I'll be significantly faster by the end of the 2006 season.

Great comeback 10K Carla and only 30 secs off last season's time if the 10 sec rest is subtracted. Ready to do the other distances soon and move up the Nonathlon ladder ? I couldn't keep up with you last year (no FM) but Carole and I are now waiting patiently for you to join us this season !

Looking through Godfried's list you certainly finished high up the rankings last year, good luck for this season's comeback now you are starting to feel energised again.

Martin

Just thought I'd give a brief update on what I've been doing.

Had a very good week's training in the lead up to the Newark IRC on the 29th October. Despite a bad 4x750m result yesterday (due to the culmination of the week's training taking its toll on my legs), I had a really good 3x1250m session on Monday and a very pleasing 6x500m session Wednesday (first time I've ever managed to complete this session). Details are in My Training Blog.

So I've kept up the metres this week to keep ahead of Sir Pirate's galleon. Can't quite seem to catch Dykie though .

I've got an Indoor Rowing Training Camp today with nine other rowers. Looking at the agenda, it's gonna be a fantastic day and I'm really relishing it. Subjects to be covered include:

- the WHY and HOW fo warm up and warm down
- Yechnique review
- Stroke rate development
- Watts/Pace curve
- Drag
- Stroke rate/Energy curve
-The energy systems and physiology of 2K rowing (aging implications and training zones)
- and much more (including some practicals!)

This will be great for Newark and BIRC!

I did a nice, easy row this morning in a double. The river was full of sculls this morning. There were lots of 8's with MSU woman rowers, many of the boats with a couple of pink ribbon rowers.
It was a beautiful fall morning. I'll be in a regatta, a head race, tomorrow. I'm not sure if I'm in a 4+ or a double. As you can guess, the regatta is rather low key.
Byron

Hi all


Well, everyone is really putting in some quality stuff now. I am trying to focus on enjoying my workouts at the moment. My performance improves when I'm having fun!

I finished my second AT workout today and now feel ready to start attacking the AT workouts from Monday. I am finding it difficult to maintain 26spm after all the long slow pulls. I'm tending to fall back to 23spm if I don't consciously make an effort to stay at 26spm. Still my lungs didn't burn as much as the first time I did AT, and, hopefully the next couple of weeks will see me adapt to the higher intensity workouts, with improved times, and a more constant and appropriate stroke rate. I intend to an AT session every other day, with UT2 or UT1 rows in between to recover.

Tomorrow's row is my favourite. I'll row 90 minutes at 50-65 percent of maximum effort.

Gnight all

Bernard Pru

Hi Niall,

Here's some pics from AIRC as promised :-

General view of the stadium from behind my erg (not my race yet).







Stuffing around at the Pre-start with those wretched socks (note experienced pro next to me setting up monitor).







Pre-start photo shoot with son John.






Ready to start (too early) after noticing 'Stop Rowing' message (note exp pro next door still nice and relaxed !).






At the halfway mark. On the big screen I'm the #12 (lowest) boat locked in a battle for 2nd with boat #3, closely followed by the chap in #10.







Podium finish. First place did a 6:33 to win hansomely - an ex rugby (league) player like so many Taffs.
l





Hope the camp went as well as your recent training Nialll - looking forward to some insights from it if you can pass them on. Actually, Mike Calviston in a thread (Wolverine Plan) in the Training section of the forum has some top comments to make on Pacing a 2K and the Start itself - well worth a read if you haven't seen it already.

Cheers,

Martin

What a beautiful set up for the races. So clean and bright! You look good up there on the podium, Martin, and it's only about a 3" step to the right to get on that Gold Medal platform!

Next time I'm sure you're going to keep your socks on your feet, get your monitor set, and than everybody better just get their little yellow boats out of your way!

I seem to recognise that flag , isn't that the one I sent over to you as part of your Taff Survival Kit??

Great report Martin and really appreciated the photos too. It's good to put a face to the name (I pictured you taller though ).



I worked on a report this morning for the camp but it took me so long that it prompted me for a login and then my report disappeared. Didn't have the heart to do it again so have decided to leave it for a while (will be available by Monday - Brit time) though.

I read with interest the comments made by Calviston (obviously a very well respected rowing coach) and will be taking up a couple of them with my coach.

Look out for the camp report on my Blog.

It sure is Niall, it goes everywhere with me (well, to AIRC anyway). Couldn't find a spot to stick the flag on the erg ( and wasted more time looking !) - will need to work out something for next time.

Looking forward to the report with keen interest, esp. if it lives up to it's 'description'

Glad you liked the pics Carla, it was a superb venue indeed and just the right size for the occasion. Great atmosphere.

Congrats to Byron for passing the 2 Million mark.

Cheers for now,

"Shorty"