Come on Jono...help your fellow Taff's out.

Just because we're beating MAD 2 in this months CTC....don't get all bitter

300m is less than a minute's work, even for me! OK, well, maybe it won't be. My 100m best was about 17 seconds, so I'm probably looking at around 55-65, depending on how much I tail off.

Darren:

I'll wager (and I'm not a betting man ... yes, we all like to say that don't we?) that you'll be at or just under 55, based on your other times. No higher.

And yes, it will hurt, but just a bit, and just for a short while. But, the good news is that the faster you go, the shorter the time for pain.



-- Mark

Hehe, all my times are more than a year old each - at least 14 months, even for the most recent. For example, a recent 2k was 7:29.9!

Whoops ... sorry ... must have been too much of that Navy Rum (from your avatar) in the interim, ehh?

Alright...... here goes!

Best way to row a 300m. Follow this EXACTLY.

Set the footplates to the LOWEST position (or even just put your feet on the floor)

Set the_drag_to 90.

Optimum sprinting rate is 12spm

Rowing strapless_WILL_make you row 300m faster

Secure a 50lb sack of spuds on your back before you start and sing the theme tune to FAME during the row

It's rumoured that rowing the 300m_with breaks_ is more efficent

Be sure that Dwaaaaaaaaaaaaaayne follows this exactly!!!

Jon

I'd heard that was how Dwayne had been rowing all his other challenge pieces so nothing new here

Paul,

Received tha AIO today, thanks for organising it.
It will be a little while before its first public outing but can't wait to get going in it again. It should be good to see a hanful more Taff AIOs at Manchester.
Best of luck to all.

Phil

I'll guess it's the exact opposite of that. For a change I'll take the spuds off before I start that one. I may replace the spuds with a sack of leeks.

Sprinting strapless could produce some interesting slide wedgies.

BTW, has Dwayne seen that his 30'R20 is just not quite good enough. Mr Graham Benton, the ultimate MAD rower has pushed him off the top slot.

Sorry Dwayne, you may have to suffer for 30' again before 1st Feb. Although I think the bronze medal is safe for the TAFF I boat (MAD II are a fair way back) and we won't easily beat OARSOME I (they are a fair way forward) into silver.

PS. Thanks Scott for sending details we now have 30 assorted Taffs in the JVTC team (and 6,889,972m).

PPS. Phil Tilley has even logged 1000m - which isn't allowed - you should be resting your leg.

PPPS. Ramboyo - can you log your metres - you're showing as zero for January.

PPPPS. I got my AIO today - will test drive it for a HM tomorrow. (That takes me through 2,000,000 for the season - Daren has already reached that target)

Woods 100, aye! Actually, it was more like the 5 months between Jan 2005 and June 2005 when I did no rowing, and then the other 2 months between Oct 2005 and Nov 2005 when I only did 1.5 hours. Trying to get back to my previous level of fitness now, but of course I'm a good year older!

I'll reach it tomorrow as well Dougie ... well done!

Ooooh, I have, too! I didn't realise! \o/ \o/ \o/

Congrats on hitting 2M metres this season Darren!

Side effect of that rum again Darren ...

Darren, my 30@20s are 3 good breaths per stroke, too. I tried 2 and 1 but it gets me all off rythm.

I have no idea how to do 300m. It sounds like sort of worse than 500, but shorter.

Off for another go at the miserable thing....

Drat it. When I started warming up today I started feeling a pain on the inside of my left knee sort of along the tendon there. It was bothering me a bit last time at the end. I think I've got to lay off a few days and let it heal if there's at all a chance of a better distance before the end of the month. It feels pretty bad even rowing slowly at a paddle.

Smart decision Carla ... rest well!

I don't care if Graham has beat me or not. I'm not doing that bl**dy thing again!!

Well...I may have a poke at it this weekend. But no promises.

You poked your way up to over 9200m last year on this....9207 I think it was...and you DO care!!

Cheerleaders are on standby!

Niall

Right, it's over to you my friend....Jono isn't playing ball and advising us how to best do the 300m...so you are going to nag him constantly to and from Manchester until his spirit is broken and he can take no more and spills the beans

Do it for the good of the team

Paul

No problem Paul. With me, Chippy and Bore Da int he car with Jon, he's gonna have a hard time talking himself out of it. Any mention of potato sacks, intervals or low spm will be frowned upon and he'll get a severe beating in the back of the car (assuming we've let him out of the boot (US translation: trunk).

I'll start off subtly and ask if he's done a 300m before and then say how fantastic a rower he is and how he approached the distance. If that doesn't work I'll hand him over to Chippy for some physical persuasion!!

When me and the Chip, (Sorry I'm from Wales and can't talk proper like!). When Chip and I came back from Surrey I got flashed on the M25.

Yesterday I had a card to say I had a recorded delivery waiting for me. I thought it was a speeding ticket. Turned out to be an AIO - Chuffed.

This one is better than the first set because it doesn't have the crappy Union Jack in the corner that me and Chippy (Sorry Chippy and I), ended up picking out at midnight before race day - Just didn't seem right on a WELSH KIT!

Chris

Should have warned you the AIO's were on the way

Mine arrived too..I have to say I'm slightly apprehensive about putting it on..no doubt my wife will find it very amusing

Let's hope this one fits you for some time now

I baked some of your Welsh cakes last weekend. Not sure whether they looked right, but they tasted good. No wonder you had put weight on and needed an new AIO - how much sugar and butter goes into them

Good luck for Sunday.

Paul

Welsh Cakes? Food for Hwts I suspect!!

If that doesn't work, try plying him with many beer (truth serum) after the event (unless he likes a few before the event). No drinking and driving though Niall.

Race well, be safe ... and get the secrets!

I see Dougie broke the 2M metre mark for this season today ... Bravo!

Alright Taffs, here's the scoop -

We are less than twenty meters out from the #2 spot on the CTC. I'm going to give it one more go this weekend to see if I can squeeze out any more meters.

Carla - Whatchu got left in ya? Scott and Paul are injured, so it's up to us. Here's a suggestion. Instead of going for more meters (which can look intimidating when you're doing this thing), go for lowering your average by 0.1 seconds. Which means taking it from a 1:59.6 to a 1:59.5.

I would suggest that to all of you that may be trying this again this weekend. If you lower your average by just 0.1 seconds, you will increase your total.

FYI - this goes for the TA II boat as well. You're less that twenty meters out from the sixteen spot.

Speedy

Speedy

I'm not injured - just coming to terms with my new training schedule. Struggled with stamina this racing season (wanted sub 6.20 but only managed 6.24), so in consultation with my coach - he has put me on his 12 week marathon programme to improve base endurance.

This has really upped my weekly meterage and I'm just really tired. This week I've done 3 x 80 min rows and 1 x 60 min rows and I can really feel it in my legs. I'm hoping after another couple of weeks of this, my body will be a bit better adjusted. Having done this for 2 weeks now - I've the utmost respect for the kind of metres you are doing.

Consequently, I don't think I'd get near my 1.48 at the minute, unless I took a few days off, which I don't want to do at the minute as I've got my eye on the bigger picture

Fair comment Paul.

You tried your Taff Attack AIO out on your Model D yet?
Your wife proud that hubbie's all grown up now and got his own kit?

No? Nor mine!!

Adam just entered a LW 7,872 today ... darn nice row for one of us skinny guys!

Great row Adam!

Going to try my slinky AIO on tonight, if I can get into it without my wife seeing it

Please tell me you didn't go for the Small size

What with an arse my size

You done 'em wrong. Told you before, it's 50% LARD. Thats where the strength increase comes from - no wonder your tired.

Try for 6:50ish on Sunday now.

Mrs T,

Top rowing, well done - bet it hurt. Hope to get my spot back in the 2nd's on Tuesday.

Chris.

So I go away for a few days and look what happens....relegated to the second boat. Well I have been dragging for the last 2 weeks, so it is time to take anouther crack at this. There have been some big rows since I was gone, and now I need to fight my way back on to the first boat. Can you hear me weazing in your ear Paul...yep thats right I coming for you! Ugh >1:48 is going to realy hurt!

Great rows from the other Taffs!

I've been beaten, fair and square, by Adam Balogh (another new recruit). I will NOT be doing it again. Not for all the tea in China.

Adam's new target of 7872 is too far away from 7766.

I test drove my AIO - not with a HM, instead with a 4' sprint (1160m) which ranks as #2 and a 10K (4K+6K with a break).

Spectre - Sounds like a gauntlet being thrown down to me

Good luck with it!!! I wasn't going to have another, go but if my place in boat 1 is under threat.....

Just done my first row in my new AIO (3 x 20 mins - ave 1.51 @ 23 - just over 16k) felt like a real rower Surely just putting on an AIO has to be worth a couple of seconds in a race

Wife and daughter are still laughing at me - I told them "If you've got it flaunt it" ..."Your hardly Linford Christie" came the reply....not a lot to add so I left it at that

Only thing I need to sort out now is the VPL - do I go commando, go for the skimpy thong or the Bridget Jones big pants

Dougie has a suggestion somewhere ...

Commando every time. Unless you have a tendency for wearing girl's pants that we need to be told about.

I go commando under my cycling shorts, and find that the cargo pockets on the legs are really handy for my spare inner tube and emergency tools. I think the DPM works too well, though, 'cause I swear half the car drivers can't see me.

Real men go commando!!

I wouldnt worry too much, It was all I could do to get that last score, and thats if I can even get my self motivated enough to do this within the next 5 days.

You know I would love to be challenging for that spot as well.


I tried my AIO on as well tonight. Looked riduculous with a wasted thigh and leg brace.
I tried it on over the top of boxers, after my daughter enquired what all the strange lumps around the waste are it became clear it has to be commando.


Mrs T did her row today, she's been complaining about feeling tired for the rest of the day. She was gutted that it didn't improve the boats position but probably not going to go again. Next weeks challenge is to get her to register herself and then provide her own first hand experience.


Phil

And without her help! How tight are those suits, anyway?

That's my usual approach but I think I've been aiming at too many 10th's faster. I was aiming for 1:59.0 and had the average down to 1:59.3 but just couldn't get past ~21 minutes.

I'm resting the start of some sort of hamstring/inner knee ouchy thing and so have not rowed now for 3 days, hoping to manage another shot before the last day of the month. I might row tomorrow but if I feel it at all I'm getting off and cleaning the house or something because it doesn't feel like the sort of thing that gets better with work. I'm not sure if these 30@20's are doing me any favours. The 3 attempts I've done were all 30 min pbs so trying to improve it further is really a push...

I know you can squeeze a few more meters out, Dwayne, hop into that phone both and put on your blue & red all in one--the one with the Red S on it!

WE NEED TO RECRUIT SOME GOOD SPRINTER GIRLS FOR FEBRUARY I'm not going to produce a very good 300m I don't think!! the darn thing will be over before I get sorted out.

Carla

They are the kind of things that professional athletes look very good in

Clearly Phil and I aren't professional athletes

Nevertheless, I felt good in it and I shall be wearing it with pride around the UK race circuit

Got my AIO as well (thanks Paul for sorting it out). wife has not stopped laughing since I tried it on.

Given the number of us with kit it might be time for a big team photo at the next local event? Maybe we should have a Taff invitational event?

Mike

Mike

A team photo would be good, as long as I can stand at the back to hide my modesty

I like the idea of a team photo. Nearest we've got was at Evesham last year and it did look mighty impressive. With even more AIOs on display this time round, it'll be quite a spectacle

If I stand in the back behind you monsters (in height I mean!), you wont see me at all so I guess I'll have to be the red-faced one at the front!

You know that isn't true. You've excelled on the December and January challenges.

Whack the damper up to 10, pull short 3/4 slide strokes and fall off the erg a minute later. You know you'll enjoy that.