INDOOR ROWING NEWSLETTER #129 ======================== 02-September-2005 ========================= _________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S 1. Schools Indoor Rowing League 2. 2005 British Indoor Rowing Championship 3. Concept 2 Into Africa 4. Tel's Tales: Questions and Answers 5. Reader's Letters: Kenneth Citron 6. New Team Marathon Record 7. David Gower 8. Cartoon By Rog 9. Forthcoming Races and Events **************************** Feedback Back Issues Subscription Information ________________________________________________________________ With Bells On ***************** For a glitzier, HTML version of our newsletter with pictures, cartoons and all the funny jokes (possibly), go to: http://www.concept2.co.uk/email/newsletter.htm. To receive the newsletter in HTML format, send an email to subscription@concept2.co.uk with HTML as the subject title. How To Write To Us ***************** Please don't reply directly to this email, 'cos we won't ever see it. Instead send your bouquets or brickbats to editor@concept2.co.uk. Indoor Rowing Glossary ***************** A guide to some of the more common terms used in indoor rowing can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/rowing/glossary.php ========================================================= Schools Indoor Rowing League ========================================================= The Indoor Rowing News has seen various crazes sweep the playgrounds of Great Britain in its time. Quite frankly, most of them have been rubbish. Hula hooping was pointless, difficult and led to a very inferior crisp product; football stickers were monopolised by spoilt kids and the less said about those electronic key fobs pet type things the better. We never understood Pokemon and we bet Harry Potter is bobbins as well. Anyway; grumpiness aside, fingers are being crossed and wood is being touched that the latest hip thing for the kids to get down to will be the Schools Indoor Rowing League. The Schools League is a national tournament in which boys and girls race in year group teams in relay format on one Concept 2 Indoor Rower. Teams race in their own school, submit their results via the website and entry is absolutely free. Round by round and overall results are then available for the separate year group leagues within a day of each round closing. The tournament consists of 6 rounds from September to March. Each round has a different race format and a team doesn't need to consist of exactly the same rowers in all rounds. Round Years 10/11/12-13 Years 6/7/8/9 Closing Date Round 1 2,000m - (8 x 250m) 1,000m - 8 x 125m October 3rd Round 2 3,200m - 8 x (2 x 200m) 1,600m - 8 x (2 x 100m) November 7th Round 3 4,000m - 8 x 500m 2,000m - 8 x 250m December 5th Round 4 6,000m - 8 x (3 x 250m) 3,000m - 8 x (3 x 125m) February 6th Round 5 8,000m - 8 x (2 x 500m) 4,000m - 8 x (2 x 250m) March 6th Round 6 16 minutes - 8 x (4 x 30secs) 16 minutes – 8 x (4 x 30secs) April 3rd The closing date for Round One is October 3rd, so teams have plenty of time to complete the first distance. For more information, or to register for the League, go to http://www.concept2.co.uk/league/. We'll also have downloadable posters for each round up by the middle of next week in order to spread the "craze". Cough. ========================================================= 2005 British Indoor Rowing Championship ========================================================= It's now almost exactly three months until the 2005 British Indoor Rowing Championship. If you haven't yet entered, here are some reasons why you should: 1) The British IRC is the biggest indoor rowing race in the whole wide world, and the biggest mass-participation indoor sporting event in Britain. Each championship has been bigger and better than the previous one. Last year's was already pretty ace, with nearly 3000 entrants, so you can only imagine how good it's going to be this time around. 2) Participation at the championship is compulsory for all National Rowing Squad athletes. This is your chance to see the stars from Athens who are still competing as well as spot the stars of the future. 3) You can enter on-line, and it should take about five minutes to do so at http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/entryform.php. Plus, if you enter your mobile phone number, we'll send a text message with your results to your phone for free as soon as possible after your race (which last year was about five hours, but we've worked out how to do it properly now). 4) As well as rowers, there'll be stars from other sports as well. Cricket legend David Gower will be making his debut this year, depending on his commentating commitments for Sky, while Britain's top decathlete Dean Macey will be making his second appearance at the championship. Also competing is former javelin world record holder Steve Backley. According to Dean: "I've always been a big fan of indoor rowing as a way to build up my base fitness and give me a way to train when I have been carrying specific injuries. I've raced in the BIRC before, but this year I have a special reason to go. Steve Backley and I have a private challenge about who is top on the Concept 2, but I've got to beat him by a clear 20 seconds to win. Anyone who knows me will know I'm definitely up for posting a good time!" 5) There'll be a cool championship T-Shirt this year, and we want you to help decide what it is. If you go to http://www.concept2.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8372 you can find five different t- shirts and vote for your favourite. Whichever one wins, you're guaranteed to be the envy of your entire club/gym/garage by the end of the year. For more on the British IRC, go to http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/ or contact birc@concept2.co.uk or call 0115 945 5522. ========================================================= Concept 2 Into Africa ========================================================= Armed with a very generous donation of a Concept 2 Indoor Rower from Concept 2 UK, Jim Mostyn arrived in Malawi determined to share his belief in the Rower as the ultimate exercise and rehabilitation machine. The idea was to take it to a village in the central region of this poor African country and donate it to St Andrew's Hospital to help patients after operations. Jim was travelling with a party of students from Wrekin College in Shropshire who were to work on an Orphan House. Wrekin students, parents and staff had raised money to build the Orphan House through a sponsored swim, discos, a banquet and Chapel collections. Jim's rowing club – Wrekin Rowers - had also raised a substantial part of the sum through a sponsored marathon and 5,000 metre row on London Marathon Day. With a free trip for the Rower, courtesy of South African Airways, it seemed that finding a suitable instructor would be easy in Mtunthama, but on arrival in the village, the group soon realised that when most people lived in traditional huts and walked barefoot, where chairs were a luxury and space in the hospital was at a premium, finding a home for a Rower and a person with a real incentive to master the use of it, was going to be very difficult. Jim and the Wrekin party worked on the Orphan House and gradually a scheme for the Rower fell into place. At the nearby Kamuzu Academy was a Swimming and Athletics coach called Patrick Chilupa. He was also churchwarden at St Andrew's church, in the same community as the hospital Jim was donating the Rower to. When approached, Patrick was keen to learn how to use the rower and it was decided he would use it as a business, charging small amounts for locals and students from the academy to workout on it. In addition he would help patients in rehabilitation and would donate part of the income to the work of the St Andrew's community. This suggestion was given the blessing of the local charity, Medic Malawi and the vicar, Frank Zentenge. Jim took the Rower to the Orphan House before passing it over to Patrick. There all the volunteers wanted to have a go. Pictured here are the youngest and the oldest, Benson and Boyson, both characters and both very quick to pick up a good rowing technique. It looks likely that a small corner of the eighth poorest country in the world will be a centre of excellence for the ergo! ========================================================= Tel's Tales ========================================================= Tel's Tales is the question and answer column written by three-times Olympic rowing coach Terry O'Neill. If you've got a question or point you'd like to make to Terry, send it to terry@concept2.co.uk. Barry Fletcher: My Wife takes Atenolol and like Gerald Haigh [Newsletter#128] she would like to know if she can row or take other exercise to help control her weight. I own an Indoor Rower that she would like to begin using, but she isn't sure about whether she can do it safely. She does some swimming and walking but, as I have the Rower in the house, she would like to make more use of it herself. Any advice would be much appreciated. I perhaps should add that she is aged 59 and has taken little exercise in the past few years. Terry O'Neill: Atenolol is a beta blocker and is prescribed for people with high blood pressure. It works by reducing the amount of blood pushed out by the heart each beat and reducing the oxygen requirements. Exercise does the opposite in that it increases stroke volume from the heart and increases the demand for oxygen. Most sufferers from high blood pressure are recommended to take exercise of some sort, as is the case with your wife. Swimming and walking have been recommended not because there is anything uniquely efficacious in them but because she is unlikely to encounter high pulse rates. Therefore you could substitute rowing but she would need to wear a heart rate monitor. I would suggest you obtain a heart rate range from her doctor within which your wife can exercise safely. ****************************************************************** Peter Ellam: I am 60 and have had angina for the past three years. My cardiologist recommends that I run for 4 - 5 days a week at a heart rate of about 120 bpm for about 20 minutes, which I do on a treadmill. I find this OK but getting to be tedious, and I am wondering if a Concept 2 Indoor Rower would be a viable alternative. Also, although I am maintaining my weight with this regime, I am not losing any and I could do with shedding, say, 10 lbs or so, according to the cardiologist. Do you have any info on the subject of exercise for people with my condition, please? Some years ago I owned a Concept 2 Indoor Rower Model B but eventually sold it for two reasons - it was very noisy and my dog used to howl incessantly whilst I exercised (!) and it also caused backache which, being a horse rider, I could do without. Presumably the latter was due to my adopting a poor position? I'd appreciate your comments. Terry O'Neill: Mild angina sufferers sometimes only require a lifestyle change. This would include exercise, adjustment to diet and losing weight. The chest pains associated with angina are caused by the heart receiving insufficient blood. This in turn is cause by a build up in plaque in the coronary arteries. The problem you have is that exertion will cause your heart rate to increase and you want to avoid it going above 120. There are two types of exercise that will help you lose weight: long periods of low intensity or short periods of high intensity. At the moment you are between the two and just stabilising your weight at the current level. If you are restricted to a maximum heart rate of 120 you would need to increase the time spent on exercise. The new model D is certainly much quieter than the model B and it would serve the purpose of helping you keep fit and lose weight. However, whether on the treadmill or the rowing machine, you would need to spend more time if you want to lose weight at a low intensity workout. ========================================================= Reader's Letters: Kenneth Citron ========================================================= "I have led a busy life as a consultant physician in London. During most of this time I took no regular exercise. But on reaching middle age I became convinced that my sedentary lifestyle could be a health hazard. Medical studies had shown that regular exercise was effective in reducing the risks of coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, obesity, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Exercise is also an effective antidepressant. This evidence persuaded me to take up regular jogging. Unfortunately I was forced to stop after a few years because of a slipped disk in my back with nerve compression, causing wasting and weakness in my left leg. I had become a victim of exercise. "About the time I retired aged 65, my son left his Concept 2 Indoor Rower with me in my home. I started rowing gently and was delighted to find that it resulted in great improvement in my wasted and weak leg. Gradually increasing my effort, I experienced a sense of well-being, due to the release of endorphins at the end of a row. For the next fifteen years I enjoyed rowing about three times weekly in the convenience of my home. "On the Concept 2 website I learned that indoor rowing is a worldwide recreational activity for both young and old. Elderly people row for pleasure and health and may also choose to enjoy the thrills of competitive rowing. I decided to attempt to compete with those in my age group. Helped by the Concept 2 Training Guide, I found it fun to train regularly, concentrating on progressively improving my results. Shortly after my 80th birthday I attempted my fastest rows on a Concept 2 at the Molesey Boat Club and was pleased to attain first position in my age group in the British rankings for 2,000 and 5,000 metres and in the world rankings for the 5,000 metres. "I recommend indoor rowing as a health giving and enjoyable activity for the elderly. It is fun and it makes you feel good. It is non-weight bearing and places little stress on joints. It strengthens most of the body's muscles and will tend to help mobility and prevent falls. Most elderly people benefit, but those who are considering taking it up for the first time who are suffering from illness or disability, should first be advised by their General Practioner." ========================================================= New Team Marathon Record ========================================================= Andrew Burrows: "On Saturday 13th August, Team Oarsome IRC set about breaking the four- man Full Marathon British Team Record set by the MAD Team earlier in the year. The team that was attempting this was made up of the following - Matthew Balch, Grahame Todd, Nick Rockliff and Julian Tomkinson. The venue was The LivingWell gym at the Hilton Hotel in Bracknell and the target to beat was an average of 1:39.3 per 500m. "After an early meet up that day the four set about practising for the first time the changeovers, these have to be done by the four taking part only with no outside help from others. After 30 minutes they thought they had it slick enough to start the attempt at midday. The order of the rowers was Matt, Graham, Nick and finally Julian. Each rower had to take it in turns to row a minimum of 2,000m each before swapping for the next man. They decided to do five lots each of 2,100m, which would leave Julian an extra 195m on his last piece. "From start to finish the team stayed ahead of the current record; there was not a weak man amongst them and they all hit their required splits on each and every stroke. Matt was the strongest on the team and rowed the equivalent of five sub 6:30 2,000 metres and the others were not far behind which, combined, meant the team finished with a final time of 2 hours 18 minutes and 1.1 seconds which equates to an average per 500m of 1:38.1 at 28spm, beating the old record by over 90 seconds. There was great support on the day with various people from the Concept 2 Forum turning up to watch so a big thank you to all of them, also a huge thanks to Andrew Sansom (http://www.andrewsansom.com) who took lots of photos on the day, some of which can be seen here." ========================================================= David Gower ========================================================= As noted above, former England cricket David Gower is hoping to compete at this year's British Indoor Rowing Championship. Keen-eyed readers of the Daily Telegraph's Property section will already have been clued in to his interest in indoor rowing. If you've ever wanted to know how to get your gym, sauna and shower set up to match that of England's most naturally gifted batsman of the 80s, then you can check it out at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2005/07/23/pgower23.xml And yes, we know it's not the strongest of stories, but we were struggling for a cartoon this issue. ========================================================= Cartoon By Rog ========================================================= http://www.concept2.co.uk/email/images/cartoon129.jpg ========================================================= Forthcoming Races And Events ========================================================= Name: Reading Rowathlon Date: 10/09/05 Venue: Reading Distance: 2.5k row, 7k bike, 2.8k run Organiser: Rowing Triathlon E: info@rowingtriathlon.com W: www.concept2.co.uk/rowathlon/ Name: Thruxton Rowathlon Date: 25/09/05 Venue: Thruxton Distance: 3k row, 21k bike, 3.5k run Organiser: Rowing Triathlon E: info@rowingtriathlon.com W: www.concept2.co.uk/rowathlon/ Name: Enfield indoor Rowing Gala Date: 25/09/05 Venue: Southbury Leisure Centre Distance: 500m, 1000m, 2000m Organiser: Frank Birch T: 020 8886 8499 E: Frank.Birch@Myho.me.uk W: www.enfieldIndoorRowing.org.uk Name: Marlow Rowathlon Date: 02/10/05 Venue: Marlow Rowing Club Distance: 4k row, 25k bike, 7.5k run Organiser: Rowing Triathlon E: info@rowingtriathlon.com W: www.concept2.co.uk/rowathlon/ ____________________________________________________FEEDBACK You like? 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