INDOOR ROWING NEWSLETTER # 1 3 =========================== 26-May-2000 ==================== _________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S 1. British Olympic Fantasy Rowing Competition 2. Concept Ranking 3. Tel's Tales #1 4. Gwrolgampau 5. Tel's Tales #2 6. The X Zone 7. Indoor Rowing Training Camp 8. Tel's Tales #3 9. Top Tips 10. Coldharbour Leisure Centre 11. DYNO Demonstrations 12. The Slightly Dull Sound Made By Names As They Drop _________________________________________________________________ ========================================================= The Scrying Game: British Olympic Fantasy Rowing Competition ========================================================= Readers of the last newsletter may remember Jurassic Park style rumblings in the undergrowth regarding a new competiton. In this newsletter we can now reveal that instead of a computer animated Brachiosaurus that looks ever so slightly funny when it walks, it was to do with our British Olympic Fantasy Rowing Competition, or B.O.F.R.C as we're unlikely to be calling it. The aim of the quiz is simple: all you have to do is predict the finishing positions of the British boats in Sydney, along with the winning time of the Men's Single Sculls as the tie-breaker. The prize, however, is anything but: whoever forecasts the result most accurately will walk away with a brand-new Indoor Rower; the second and third place prizes aren't too shoddy either, consisiting of a set of Concept 2 Slides for second place and a Polar Smart Edge Heart Rate Monitor for third. To further increase your chances of winning, and to satisfy those scrying urges, we'll also be running the competition over the three preceding World Cup Regattas in Munich, Vienna and Lucerne, with the top prize in these mini-competitions being a set of Concept 2 Slides. You can enter as many times as you like but, as the deadline for the first mini- competition based around the Munich Regatta is May 31st, you'd better get your skates. The Vienna regatta isn't until June 23rd, so we'll bring you an update and the results from Munich in the next newsletter. More information, such as a form guide for each of the British boats, can be found, along with the competition itself, at http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/fantasy_index.htm ========================================================= Concept Ranking ========================================================= Despite suffering every conceivable setback, up to but not including a plague of locusts, the printed version of the new Concept Ranking should be back from the printers on the week commencing the 12th of June. To celebrate its long and painful birth, we've decided over the next couple of newsletters to spotlight some of the heroes, both sung and unsung, that you can find in this year's edition. To start off with, we've decided to focus on two of Britain's leading indoor rowers, although other than their rowing prowess the similiarities are few and far between. Jessie Welsh -------------------- 79 year old Jessie Welsh is the longest standing female world record holder, having held the fastest time for the 70-79 Lwt category since its inception. Married to Harry Welsh, the only person in Britain to have officially completed 15 million metres on the Indoor Rower, Jessie has been active in sport all her life, spending her early years competing in track and field events for both Birmingham Atlanta and Birchfield Harriers and was an Olympic possible for the 1948 games. After finishing athletics she took up badminton, tennis and fencing and starting rowing as rehabilitation after having a bilateral hip replacement. She took to it like the proverbial duck to water, and within three months she had recorded the world's fastest time for her age group over the old 2,500 metre distance, a record she now holds in perpetuity. Eighty next year, and with the lure of another set of age group records to have a crack at, Jessie still trains every day. Rob Francis -------------------- Rob hit the news last year when he obliterated the previous world record for the 12 and under age category, rowing a phenomenal 7:15.5 the day before his 13th birthday. A Hereford lad, Rob is, according to his father, "totally obssesed with rowing" and trains up to five times a week, a regime which paid off when he won eight J13 regattas in the 1999 season. He also picked up a bronze medal in that category at the British Indoor Rowing Championships. With his sights set even at this early stage on the Olympics, he's definitely one to look out for in the future. ========================================================= Tel's Tales #1 ========================================================= David Parkinson: "I have recently taken delivery of a Concept 2 Indoor Rower which has sadly been banished to the loft by my wife. Due to a freak spell of hot weather in Yorkshire over the last few days, the loft has been very warm on each occasion I have used my new toy. My performance over 30 minutes is significantly worse now than it was in the gym (which is air-conditioned) about two weeks ago. Is this decline in performance due to it being hotter in my loft than the gym or could it be due to some other factors?" Terry O'Neill: The temperature and humidity will definitely affect your performance. When we tested the athletes for the Olympics we had to make sure that both the temperature and humidity were the same and so testing is done in special labs. The body does not like to operate outside of its normal temperature, which is 35 degrees celsius or 98.4 in old money. A couple of degrees either side of this can cause problems. Working in your loft on a hot day means that your blood is diverted to the surface to try to control overheating. Sweat appears on the skin and evaporates, and it's this evaporation of sweat that reduces body temperature. If you get large wet patches appearing on your body then this means sweat is accumulating and not evaporating fast enough. This could be because of high humidity which means that the air is already saturated with water and cannot absorb any more, so more sweat is produced and this leads to dehydration. A 2% drop in hydration levels will cause a 10% drop in performance. So what to do? Plan A. Wait till the trouble and strife goes to bingo and sneak the machine down into the front room and train watching the telly. Plan B. Get a portable electric fan and possibly one of these water bottles that triathletes use which you put on your back with a feeder tube so you can take on water continuously. Word of warning: if you think it's uncomfortable now, wait until mid- winter. If you've got any brass monkeys I would keep the number of the local welder handy. ========================================================= Gwrolgampau ========================================================= Which as well as being the sound of a teenage gorilla on heat is also the title of a forthcoming Saturday night prime time TV series to be broadcast in Wales shortly. Gwrolgampau translates roughly as feats of strength and endurance and they were originally the physical tasks imposed on the Welsh courtiers and soldiers, in Celtic times. There were ten Gwrolgampau originally and the intention for the TV series is to adapt them for the modern era, using contemporary equipment and techniques to create a championship of physical challenges for teams of specialists in various sports. The mixed teams of 3(2 men and one woman or vice versa) will compete on 8 tasks, two of them featuring the Indoor Rower. Each task will, in the words of the programme's makers "test the 5 "S's" - speed, strength, stamina, suppleness, skill, as well as teamwork" (although if they'd have called it "solidarity" they could have got away with six S's). With elite athletes popping up every now again to benchmark the team's performances, the whole thing looks to be an entertaining cross between Gladiators and the late unlamented Body Heat. The first programme in the series goes out on June 10th, with a further five to be broadcast after that. ========================================================= Tel's Tales #2 ========================================================= One of our readers wrote in to ask how to use the Training Guide to create programmes geared towards improving your 5,000 and 10,000 metre times. Terry O'Neill: In the section about training for the 2,000 metres, it explains how in your preparation you move from quantity to quality. So in the preparation period, you are doing more distance work at a lower intensity and working up to shorter distances at a higher intensity. Following the programme for 2,000 metres in the guide, the training during the early preparation period is ideal for a 10,000 metre test and during the late preparation period for a 5,000m. If you are not interested in going on to 2,000 metres then you don't need to follow the training programme into the competition phase, but some of the sessions in the pre-competition stage would be useful for the 5,000m preparation. ========================================================= The X Zone ========================================================= RAF Cosford in Wolverhampton was taken over last weekend by The X Zone, the ten test challenge to find Britain's Fittest Man and Woman. The X Zone is the toughest cross-training competiton in the UK and the ten event course included amongst other things 3km on a recumbent bike, 3km on a treadmill on a 3% incline and a 2,000 metre row. Amidst some fierce competition Hywel Davies and Sarah Coope, who won last year's event, both retained their crowns. Full results and details can be found on the X Zone web-site at http://www.xzone.org and the whole shebang will be broadcast on Sky Sports from the 12th to the 17th of August. Those of you with eagle eyes might be able to see the Concept 2 team beavering away to finish fourth in the professional team event, won in the end by a kickboxing team led by double world champion Peter Crook, although we still claim we woz robbed. Boom boom. Boom. ========================================================= Indoor Rowing Training Camp ========================================================= As this newsletter hits the inboxes, a few withdrawals means that there are still places left on our indoor rowing training camp to Banyoles, running from September 30th to October 8th. The training camp, which will be led by Terry O'Neill, is open to anyone of any ability and will be a mix of workouts both on and off the rower. If you'd like to book a place on the training camp, just send a cheque for £75 made out to Concept 2, to the following address: Indoor Rowing Training Camp Concept 2 Vermont House Wilford and Sth Nottm Ind. Est. Ruddington Lane Wilford Nottingham NG11 7HQ The cheque is fully refundable if you drop out before August 31st. If you'd like more information on what the training camp would involve, along with an example of the sort of work that will be involved, simply send an e-mail to webmaster@vermonthouse.co.uk ========================================================= Tel's Tales #3 ========================================================= Last newsletter we answered a question about numbness in your legs when rowing. Judging by our mailbag this is obviously not an uncommon problem. Dave Sheehan, for example, wrote in to say: "Terry, I have the same problem with numbness in one leg when I row. I have tried the cushioning but to no avail. I don't have any back trouble either. I was wondering if it may be related to flexibility?" Terry O'Neill: The thing is I don't know what the problem is. I know that numbness is usually caused by restricted blood flow, but it can also be caused by pressure on a nerve. I have first hand experience of both cases; a couple of years ago one of the discs in my back burst while I was lifting an outboard engine. The soft pulp that escaped went into a cavity in my spine and was pressing on the sciatic nerve and I had to have an operation to get it out, since when I have been fine. When I started the million meter programme (see last newsletter), my left leg would go completely numb after twenty minutes. I tried various pads with little success but now I use a cushion from the sofa plus cycling shorts with a chamois insert. Since then I have not had a problem and can row for an hour or so. The point here is that if the numbness is caused from restricted blood flow, and you can alleviate it by padding, then this is quite simple, even if you have to try different padding arrangements before you find something suitable. It is very individual and there is no universal product that is available. The risk is that, if for some reason you have a misalignment and this is causing pressure on a nerve, it needs to be sorted. There is a bloke that has done a lot of work on seats and works closely with the F1 racing teams. He also has some medical background and knows loads of long words so maybe you can speak to him. His name is Simon Goodey at Eel Pie Rowing Supplies. You can e-mail him at simon@goodey,demon.co.uk or visit his web-site at http://www.eelpie-rowing.co.uk Tel ========================================================= Top Tips ========================================================= The first in what should hopefully become a regular column. Dave Sheehan (see Tel's Tales #3 above) also asked about what race strategy and rates (i.e. how many stokes a minute) the fastest people in the sport use for the 2,000 metres. According to Terry O'Neill, "The general race strategy is to do the first 500 metre split the fastest, the last 500 metres the second fastest, the second 500 metres third fastest and the third 500 metres the slowest. The difference, however, is usually quite small, with no more than four seconds between the fastest and the slowest. You have to commit yourself from the first stroke because it is impossible to make up any dropped time, and you have to be ahead at each marker for a Personal Best, but not suicidally so. Rating will depend on what splits you are trying to hold. The top boys go off at 40+ and settle at around 35-36 before running in at close to 40." Race strategies, of course, vary from person to person, and for the inaugural newsletter "Top Tip" we went straight to the, ahem, top and Rob Waddell, the current world champion and the fastest man alive. Rob rows for most of the race with his eyes firmly shut, only looking when he gets to each 500 metre checkpoint and towards the end of the race. Rowing with his eyes shut enables him to concentrate more, focusing on how his body is working rather than worrying about what the monitor says. In keeping with this focus on rhythm, rather than adopt a split pattern like the one above, Rob tries to row even-paced splits all the way, preferring to grind the competition down rather than try to burn them off from the start (for an example of how to use a quick start to unsettle your opponent, witness Matthias Siejkowski's duel with Dutch champion Geert-Jan Derksen at last year's British Championship). Hopefully the Top Tips column will become a regular feature in the newsletter, and we'll be featuring stories and advice from athletes from all ends of the spectrum. If you've got any workouts or tips which you'd like people to know about, just send them to webmaster@vermonthouse.co.uk and we'll publish them in future editions of the newsletter. ========================================================= Coldharbour Leisure Centre ========================================================= Coldharbour Leisure Centre in Mottingham, London, is having an open day on the 18th June. The aim is to have 500 metre races going on throughout the day and a 2,000m challenge kicking off from 1pm. The day is open to all and anybody after more information can contact them on 020 8851 8692. ========================================================= DYNO Demonstrations ========================================================= People who have visited our web-site at http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/dyno_main.htm, or went to the European Fitness Convention at Olympia a while back, will have already seen our new strength training machine the Concept 2 DYNO. If you've not yet had a chance to see it in the flesh yet, or if you'd like a closer look plus a demonstration, then you're in luck. At the moment, crack teams of highly trained Concept 2 operatives are busy touring the country now, offering free demonstrations to any gym who wants one. For more information, or to book one of these, call us on 0115 945 5522 or drop us an e-mail at sales@concept2.co.uk ========================================================= The Slightly Dull Thudding Sound Made By Names As They Drop ========================================================= One of the more unsavoury sights that can be seen in the West End is that of aging theatre critics spending their dotage drooling over the exposed flesh of Hollywood film stars. The latest starlet to induce such conniptions is Kathleen Turner, currently appearing as the eponymous Mrs Robinson at the Gielgud Theatre. Her six second long nude appearance has generated enough publicity to float the Titanic, and as the Indoor Rowing News suffers from both star worship and an inability to see a bandwagon without leaping aboard it, we'll just point out that there's no prizes for guessing on what piece of equipment at the Berkeley Hotel in Knightbridge Ms Turner can be spotted every day. For those of you with memories of her finest hour as Joan Wilder in Jewel Of The Nile, it's just further proof that when the going gets tough, the tough get rowing. Sorry. __________________________________________________F E E D B A C K We're eager to hear what you think of this newsletter and we're even more eager for your stories, tales and anecdotes. E-mail us at webmaster@vermonthouse.co.uk _________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________S U B S C R I P T I O N If you're on this mailing list by accident, reply to this e-mail with "unsubscribe" as the subject header. If you're receiving multiple copies of this e-mail, reply with "multiple" as the header _________________________________________________________________ Concept 2 Tel: (0115) 945 5522 E-mail: info@concept2.co.uk Web: www.concept2.co.uk Printed from: www.concept2.co.uk/news/newsletter_archive.php