I take little credit Owen ... the crisp, flinty Australian Sauvignon Blanc was what did the trick!

Being a 17 year old, i wouldn know!

I have been reading the Join Taff Attack forum for some time now and have seen the recent discussion about the CTC and your need for more women to fill the boats. Phil's comment "no matter what the time" caught my attention, so I PM'd Chris last night.

He approved my application for membership despite the following information:

1. A great grandfather of mine might possibly have come from Wales
2. I can't read the Taff forum without laughing
3. I wouldn't be caught dead or alive in a Taff AIO
4. My mileage for this season is 754,840
5. I tried the 300m for the first time tonight - 1:12.3. Nothing tremendous but it would put me in a boat.

So now in addition to my goal to hit 2MM before the end of this season, I will work on getting my 300m time down. I don't think Krysta has to worry about me though.

So we now have 4 full boats!

Marie Armstrong (in Ontario)

Proper answer.

Welcome, Marie! I'm glad to see another Canadian Taffette in the ranks. I am in Alberta, but one of my sisters and her family are living in your province right now.

Thanks for all the nice comments about the AIO, everyone. I shall wear the team colours with pride!



Well, I can only speak for myself but I personally find the pain of the shorter distances, 2k and less, a little hard to stomach. The long drug-out slightly less intense agony of a 5k or longer row seems a lot more manageable. I have tried the CTC 300m four times so far, and my chest and throat hurt for a quite a while after each go. I know I am not doing it right, though. I haven't done a proper warm-up for any of the attempts and I have just been pulling regular full strokes (albeit, rather ugly ones). I just got some good advice from PaulS on doing a 300m, so next time I am feeling masochistic I will try again.

For non-erging pain... Well Carla's comment on child-birth comes to mind. Also, many summers of beekeeping had to have done something for my pain-tolerance threshold!

On top of that, she lives in Kitchner, where they make the most marvelous bratwurst and other sausages of German ancestry and throw an amazing bunch of parties (with a beer or two) for Octoberfest! That alone should qualify her!

Welcome Marie!

And only two vacancies in boat V.

What we lack in speed, we make up for in participation levels ... and fun. Cool!

And, we have a bunch of folks that have potential to get better and better over time. Very cool!

Mark,

Is that a veiled way of suggesting that some of our (my) times stink?!

Marie

No, mine ... take a look at where I rank ...

Hi Mark, I think you were right! 2 days off and 0.6 secs off (54.9).
Marie - Welcome! I'm a newcomer to the Taffs as well and it's brilliant to be made so welcome.
Krysta - It's sweet that you thank that the AIO isn't flattering on you, but I'm afraid that you may be in a minority of one!
Where can I get a T shirt?

No way I can catch you now Paul! I'm going to take another crack next week, after my RowPro mile on Saturday. May even take Sunday off to be well rested.

I'd like a T shirt as well. How do we do that?

Thanks -- Mark

Marie,

I'm sure Ontario is a fairly big village, but I just wondered - My uncle lives in Kingcardine - Anyway near. He's easy to spot, he got loads of motorbikes, walks with a limp, and says "Tidy' after everything.

Tidy,
Chris

Chris,

Yes, Ontario is a province with a population of about 12,500,000 - I know a few of them, but not your uncle.

Kincardine is about 85 miles away, a pleasant 2 hour drive. It is a beautiful spot, right on Lake Huron. I have never been there, but been on holiday close by.

What does tidy mean? (Certainly not my kitchen!)

Marie

Krysta
As you can see from the Evesham photos on the TA web site those of us who wear the AIO do not
do it justice Glad you showed up to change that .

Welcome Marie

Niall
Where are you boyo,gone quiet down in Cardiff


Chippy

Just did a 30min piece, 8107, a pb, didnt mean to do it at all, just a routine training piece, no sprint and wasnt really that tired, crazy game, this rowing buisness!

Owen

Those are THE BEST PBs Owen ... kinda like finding a fiver in the pocket of an old pair of pants ...

Cracking PB row that. Better than my 1K tonight where I missed a PB by 0.2 secs (and I had a bad 200m in the middle where I couldn't hold the 1:44 pace).

Great!!!!

Hey, we get to pick the next CTC, right?

I vote for a real distance---10K or a 60 min, unrestricted. What do you guys think?

Carla,
You are seriously tinged!! Heck...why not make it a 50k piece??!?!?!?



Welcome aboard Marie. Good to have another Taff on this side of the pond. I think that makes seven of us now.

Dwayne

I think they had a rule at the outset that the longest challenge would be 10K.

But anything is better than 300m!!! I am getting p'o'd at this one! I hates it forever!!!

Boat race?

(Now that I know what one is ... thanks to my UK friends ... )

[quote name='seat5' date='Feb 16 2006, 12:15 AM' post='56016']
[quote]You are seriously tinged!! wink.gif Heck...why not make it a 50k piece??!?!?!?[/quote]

You cannot be serious with this!?

Sorry I've been a bit on the quiet side but as of Monday last week, my wife and I have seperated and I've left the family home. Currently staying with my brother and hoping to move into my own place on St David's Day (very patriotic!). Training has gone out the window and I've only done two road runs (3miles and 5 miles) and two failed rowing sessions in the last 10 days.

Been very busy sorting out the split and how we're going to seperate the finances and property as well as arrangements for the kids. It has to be said though that the kids have been amazing and have adapted really well.

I'm probably going to be a bit absent until I get myself settled in my flat (with Model D and Internet PC!).

A very big welcome to all the new guys on the team. It's fantastic to see us lime-minded individuals joining in the fun!

[Adopts Terminator voice] "I'll be back"

We know you will Niall ... takes a strong person to make a post like this. I'm sure I can speak for everyone in saying we wish you the best, and will help support you any way we can ... even from thousands of miles/KMs away.

Sorry to hear you're having such difficulty Niall. It seriously sucks when a relationship goes south. Prayin' for ya mate.

Dwayne

This won't be known for another decade or two.

Whooo, great stuff!

I didn't get any rowing done yesterday or Tuesday. On Tuesday I spent most of the day fitting a new motherboard and CPU into my PC. Then Windows XP refused to boot (as expected). I tried to reinstall on top of my existing version, but no ball. So I had to dash out to PC World (spit) and by an emergency hard disk, and install Windows on to that, then swap my other drives around to recover all my data.

What a pain. Still, on the up side, it seems to have been worth it. I now get a steady 63fps in Quake 4, where I was getting a very variable framerate before in the 10-25 range.

Not found myself a new job yet, but I've still got 6 weeks (don't know if I mentioned it, but if I didn't, I'm being made redundant from the end of March).

Sorry to read your news Niall.

Krysta,
Top stuff with the photos. Quite the sporty look.

Daren,
Being made redundant sucks. Been there...done that. Good luck in finding a new job mate.

Speedy

Likewise Daren (we're a bundle of laughs today aren't we !?)
I'm confident you'll have no problems getting a replacement job as you've got the skills that businesses need/want. Just make sure you use your spare time wisely.

Yes, every free moment pull another 300 and see if you can improve ...

(probably not what Niall meant BTW)

Be sure you take the time you need to regroup.

Thanks for your contribution - Just what the doctor ordered!

Welcome to all the new members - good to have you aboard.

Krysta - at last we've got a team member with an AIO who looks good in it - all credit to you for posting a photo - you'd not catch me doing that even if you paid me a large sum of money

Niall - Keep that chin up mate

Chris/Chippy/PhilT - enjoyed the rugby on Sunday - are Kevin Keegan 1970's perms the norm for front rowers in Wales

Managed a half hearted 1st go at the 300m - 1.23.0 or 0.49.8. Moved boat 2 up a bit

I'm not much of a sprinter at best but my current marathon training programme is really leaving me tired so it's the best I could do in the circumstances. Having said that even at my most rested I really doubt I'd have made boat 1 this month with super sprinters Scott, Dwayne and Owen in the team

Have you seen the stupid Rugby Test that SUB-7 have come up with for next month? Crazy!
I've arranged to do a full marathon on 23rd April (London Running Marathon day) with a couple of other rowers. So I don't want anything long for the CTC for April.

My vote would have to be for 1609m.
6780m for the Boat Race conflicts with the www.concept2.co.uk challenge (which is a 16 minute "boat race").

So 1609m is my firm vote.

No. What's the stupid rugby test?
Also, what is a boat race?

1609 is short.

I like this idea even better than the boat race ...

Isn't getting fun over in the UK CTC forum over the proposed Rugby test challenge

How could the taffs NOT take up any sort of rugby challenge? That's what I say

Having said that, I really don't suit this 300m thing - my knees are really sore, especially the right one, since i started doing them. I'm back to setting 1 on the damper and 2:30 pace for a while.

Brendin

Use the link below to purchase Taff Attack branded merchandise (thanks to Daren!)

http://www.cafepress.com/taffattack/

Who decided we should have a club "classic thong"

I look bad enough in my AIO - there's no way I'm going for club thong

They're for us LWs for use at "weigh in".

I had the feeling that there was some good reason why I should just skip the weighin and go hwt at C-B this time.

Bob S.

But Krysta's shirt is red, and the cafe press shirts are white. Maybe she got one from the AIO people.

I am waiting to hear from the AIO people about sizing because I want one but not if it's not long enough in the torso (eeeeek!)

I am also going to see if my extremely strong daughter (16) will crank out a 300 m for us. She doesn't row, but the 300m isn't really a row, it's a stomp, and I'll bet she can easily hop into Taff 1. Right now she is training for shot put, discus and javelin, and does karate 4 hours a week, and is taking 6 college courses at once. But I'll bet she can spare 60 seconds or less for the Taffs!

Heheh, I could ask my 7-year-old daughter to have a go! She's more in to her gymastics though, and isn't powerful as much as flexible...

EEEWWWW!!!!

It's 14 minutes in the depths of the hurt box, letting your legs drink the lactic acid. I guess I'll give it a go, but I'm not looking forward to it one bit. I don't like the 250-1K-250 pyramid and it's not as hard as the rugby test.

For folks who haven't met the rugby test read this: http://www.concept2.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4979

Did another 300 this morning. Think that's my last one. It really hurt!! Nothing major, but my lungs don't feel right, and I'm with Owen on the knees hurting.

How 'bout one more go from Carla to get the Taff I boat into second????

Dwayne

P.S. I wish Graham wasn't getting ready for CRASH-B's, I'm curious as to what he could do full out on this challenge. I'm guessing in the 42 sec range.



Now at first glance, eleven minutes doesn't seem that bad. Am I totally nuts with this line of thinking?

Of course it doesn't look all that fun either. Basically five sprints in a row. Who thinks this stuff up????

Good news, bad news, good news.

I got my daughter to try the 300m last night - she did 1:05.4.

That put her in boat 4 and me back to 5. (Bad news for me)

We now have 5 full boats!

Marie

(Snow day yesterday here in Ontario, got in two 11,000m rows while 'working' from home.)

[quote name='dadams' date='Feb 17 2006, 08:50 AM' post='56141']
Did another 300 this morning. Think that's my last one. It really hurt!! Nothing major, but my lungs don't feel right, and I'm with Owen on the knees hurting.

How 'bout one more go from Carla to get the Taff I boat into second????

Dwayne

Intend to give it 1 last shot next wednesday, should take me sub 46 with a decent start, only read about racing starts after my 1st 2 attempts, i'd just been on damper 10 and blasting it full stroke from the start, anyone with any more advice on 300m, especially starts please PM me or post it here!
Thanks

Owen

Ooops, congrats on the great new time Dwayne, sorry only just found out what it was.

Owen