================================================================ INDOOR ROWING NEWSLETTER #135 ======================== 09-December-2005 ========================= _________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S 1. 2005 Concept 2 Euro Open 2. 2005/06 National Championships 3. Million Metre Record 4. Atlantic Rowing Challenge 5. Online Ranking Challenges 6. Tel's Tales 7. Reader's Letters: The Age Old Problem 8. Plymouth Schools 9. Rowathon For Breast Cancer 10. 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 ========================================================= 2005 Concept 2 European Open ========================================================= The third Concept 2 European Open took place in wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen on the 3rd of December. With rowers from 10 different countries, the day was a well-run and incredibly friendly competition, which saw some excellent performances to match the occasion. Denmark is the land of the lightweights. If you're one of those unfortunate souls for whom double- dipped chocolate doughnuts are the enemy in the run up to a race and your best friend afterwards, then this was the event for you, being probably the only competition where Lightweights race on the front row and Heavyweights are relegated to Rows C and beyond. It was no surprise then that the race of the day came in the Men's Open Lwt event. At the gun, France's Frederic Dufour established the early lead, covering the first 500 metres in a blistering 1:29.2. He was chased the entire way by Denmark's own Mads Rasmussen. With 200 metres to go, Rasmussen upped his stroke rate to 45+ a minute and, with the Frenchman paying a heavy and painful looking price for his start, just managed to catch him on the line, to tumultuous applause and a time of 6:10.8. Behind him, Dufour took silver in 6:11.4 and Denmark's Mads Andersen won the bronze in 6:21.3. In the Men's Open Hwt, Phil Turnham won Britain's first ever Open European title, dominating the race from start to finish with a time of 5:54.6, half a second faster than his time in Birmingham and a new PB. Phil's only just taken up rowing, coming from a swimming background, and at the age of 24 looks well-set to be a star of the future. Denmark's Peter Sylvest and Anders Moustgaard were involved in a fierce tussle for silver and bronze, Sylvest coming out top in 5:59.0 versus 6:00.1. The Women's Open Hwt race was Pavlina Zizkova's from the gun. In an under-represented field, the Czech Republic rower, last year's bronze medallist, won in a time of 6:51.2. The Women's Open Lwt race also contained few surprises. Juliane Elander, who won silver in the first two Concept 2 Euro Opens, finally managed to get her hands on a gold, winning in 7:07.3, well ahead of Kirsten Kirk Jepsen and Norway's Lizzie Schjott in second and third place. Two of the most outstanding performances of the day came in the Men's Junior 18 Lwt and Hwt events. In the Lwt category, Henrik Stephansen was just two-tenths of a second outside the world record of 6:15.2 he set at the British IRC last month. In the Hwt division, the US's Roman Shor won comfortably in 5:58.2. With both men aged 17, it'll be interesting to see what times they can do come the World IRC in February. It was in the veteran categories, however, that the record-breaking performances emerged. Holland's Mies Bernelot Moens absolutely demolished the Women's 60-64 Hwt record, rowing an almighty 7:33.1, over 11 seconds quicker than the previous best. Perhaps even more impressive, meanwhile, was Ingrid Petersen in the Women's 60-69 Lwt, who set a new world record of 7:48.6, 17.8 seconds quicker than the old record. By a narrower but no less impressive margin, Denis Hastings set a new world record for the 55-59 Lwt class in 6:40.8. From a British point of view, the championship was a successful one, with six gold, four silver and seven bronze medals being won. As well as well as Phil Turnham's in the Men's Open Hwt, Roger Prowse (60-69 Lwt), Tracey Axten (40-49 Hwt), Dan Staite (30-39 Lwt), Beth Jackson (30- 39 Hwt) and Geoffrey Knight (70-79 Hwt) all won golds. Perhaps the performance of the day from a British perspective was Andrew Sangster's in the Men's 40-49 Hwt. In one of the most tightly contested races of the day, Andrew set a new Personal Best of 6:10.4 to win silver, just edging out former triple crown winner Antti Niskanen from Finland. Also involved in a titanic struggle was Bedford's Duncan Paterson, who took bronze in a time of 6:33.2 in a great 30-39 Lwt race. A full list of British medallists can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/euro/ while results, replays and race analysis are at http://www.concept2.co.uk/euro/results.php. There are also a number of photographs at http://www.concept2.co.uk/euro/photographs.php. ========================================================= 2005/06 National Championships ========================================================= The Welsh Indoor Rowing Championship took place in Cardiff on December 4th. Full results and race analysis can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/racing/regional.php. As well as the Welsh championships, there are also Irish, English and Scottish championships. The Irish race takes place this weekend, in Dublin, while the English IRC is in Manchester on the 29th of January and the Scottish IRC in Wishaw on the 5th of February. For more information on the National Championships, including entry forms, go to http://www.concept2.co.uk/racing/nationals.php. ========================================================= Million Metre Record ========================================================= Rowers Dan Darley and Rich Dewire broke the two-man million metre world record last month as part of their preparation for the 2005 Atlantic Rowing Race. Their record-breaking row began on the morning of Sunday 6th November at 10:15am in St Katherine's Docks in London. The initial pace was around 2:00 splits - too fast but the intention was to build up a safety margin to allow for some inevitable fading in the last day or two. The first 12 hours went by pretty quickly but from about midnight on the first day the rowing began to get quite tough and the one to two hour long shifts that each rower was doing became more and more difficult to get through. Daybreak on day two brought some relief as the sun lifted spirits and the two went through the first third after about 23 hours. The pair made fair progress during the day to go through halfway at around 8pm that evening, averaging c. 2:06 after about 34 hours of rowing. The second night proved to be something of an ordeal - the combination of lack of sleep and fatigue really starting to take its toll - so it was with some relief that Dan and Rich greeted dawn on day three. At least now with the bulk of the distance covered the end seemed almost in sight, even though the pair had continued to slow down - with the two thirds point being reached just inside days. The last day dragged on a bit until in the early hours of Wednesday the distance finally dropped below 100k to go, and then finally at 10:32am that day Rich rowed the last few strokes to complete the full distance in three days 17 minutes and five seconds - some four and a half hours inside the previous record. The pair have now started the 2005 Atlantic Rowing Race. Having beaten the erg record set by a Kiwi team that won the 2003 Atlantic Race the two men are confident they are well placed to do well in this years race. You can follow their progress at http://www.atlanticprince.com. ========================================================= Atlantic Rowing Race ========================================================= As well as Dan and Rich (see above) there are a number of other familiar faces competing in this year's race. Former British indoor rowing champion James Cracknell is taking part with Ben Fogle, and they're going great guns, currently up in fourth position. Former British IRC doctors Becky Thorpe and Steph Temperton are also taking part, as are Geroid Towey and Ciaran Lewis, the former a contributor to the Concept 2 Training Guide. Our best of luck goes out to everybody competing, especially if the weather rumours come true. You can track everybody's progress at http://www.atlanticrowingrace.co.uk/ ========================================================= Online Ranking Challenge ========================================================= Every month, Concept 2 offers users of the Online World Ranking and Logbook (http://www.concept2.com/sranking03/) the chance to win some excellent prizes provided by Gaiam (http://www.gaiamdirect.co.uk). To win, all you have to do is either row and log over 50,000 metres in the course of the month for adults, 20,000 metres for under 18s and 10,000 metres for under 15s, or to complete that month's ranking challenge. The challenge for November was 2,000m and last month's winners were: 2,000m Ranking Challenge 4 x Powerbreathe Sport Leighton Curtis, Dawlish Teresa McQuay, Hayle Steve Houston, Worthing Duncan Ball, Bournemouth 4 x Gaiam Sports Conditioning Kit Fiona Smith, Cardiff Louise Cranmer, Oxford Andrew Raine, Sheffield Giles Wilkes, London Distance Awards (Prize: 2 x Gaiam Stretching Starter Kits) Under 15s (10,000m+) Sam Harvey, Birmingham Tym Berry, Devon Under 18s (20,000m+) Ross Harman, Surrey Samuel Malloy, Exmouth Adults (50,000m+) Andy Burrows, Rayleigh Chris Doswell, Bexhill-on-Sea December's challenge is to row 10,000m. The 10,000m challenge is a great test of aerobic endurance. A sound aerobic base is a fundamental requirement in almost every sport as well as a key component to a healthy life. For many though it may be the furthest you have ever rowed in one sitting and getting to the finish without stopping will be the biggest achievement. So, don't be put off by the records or the expectations of others. Have a go. Gradually build up the distance you can comfortably row in one sitting and then when you're feeling good set that clock for 10,000m and start rowing. Irrespective of your time all entrants have an equal chance of winning in the Prize Draw. ========================================================= 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. Des Mabbut: I approached the training season leading to my race with a lot of confidence, which was supported by a 7:07 about 17 weeks before the event. With only seven seconds to take off for my target of seven minutes, I was pumped. I worked hard but I seemed to get worse. Then to top it all I could only complete the race in the same time as my test piece above and that was 8 seconds down on my previous year. I entered the race feeling strong and healthy. Talk about gutted. I tabulated my results and it became pretty obvious that I had omitted many long UT1 training sessions, which I had replaced with long aerobic runs, as I like to enter half marathons and shorter runs during the winter and spring. Do you think the omission of these UT1 sessions is the deciding factor or is there another possible cause you can see from the programme? Was there any possible element of overtraining do you think? Should I give the running a miss? Terry O'Neill: There is a very common misconception about cross-training and what is and what isn't useful. Basically aerobic or endurance work should be done specifically. This means doing the end sport and not cross-training. The reason for this is that the aerobic system improves by an increase in both the amount of mitochondria in the muscle and capillaries around the muscle fibres. Aerobic cross-training may bring about an increase in oxygen uptake but you need to have this take place on the muscles used in the end game. When training anaerobically, this can be done by almost any activity that raises the heart rate above the anaerobic threshold. So if you were doing sprint or hill running then this would be OK, but replacing UT1 sessions with a long run is a no no. ========================================================= Reader's Letters: The Age Old Problem ========================================================= Tim Hellis, Llandaff Rowing Club: "I've been using Concept 2 Indoor Rowers, since around about 1992. Having been a serious competitive on water rower since the 1960s, the introduction of a machine which realistically simulates the rowing action on dry land, made a huge difference to the effectiveness of my training programme. "Now I was able to 'row' even when the river was in flood. "Now I was able to compare my performance with other oarsmen and, more importantly, with myself as my fitness improved or deteriorated. "Now I had an effective way to warm up all my rowing muscles, before starting a weights session. "In short it revolutionised my training programme, and the results were evident when it came to racing on the water. Over the past ten years I have been very successful in national and international veteran rowing events, and have a large collection of medals as evidence. "However, as the years advance (I'm now 57), a negative aspect has become evident, and I wonder how others are coping with the same problem. I have been continuously recording my ergo scores for various times and distances since 1992, when I was 44. Most of these are distances covered in 30-60 minutes, but there are some 1k-5k times as well. "Each year followed a similar pattern. I would steadily improve my scores during the winter training period (October – March) until summer racing began and training switched from power and stamina building to speed work. September would usually mean a break in training, after which, on returning to stamina work again, I would find my ergo scores had significantly worsened. This was fine as it provided me with the incentive to train hard, and get the reward of seeing my ergo scores steadily improve (still the only reliable feedback I have). "My target each year would be to get back to the scores of the previous spring, and for 5 or 6 years this worked really well. "Since passing 50, however, I have noticed an increasingly fast deterioration in my peak performances year on year. Everybody tells me of course that this is only to be expected, and they're right I know. However, I'm a very competitive guy, and the success of my ergo training up to now has been competing with myself. It's hard to keep motivated when you no longer have a realistic target to aim at. "What I need is some kind of 'ageing curve' that can help scale down expected performances based on age and previous scores. Does such a thing exist? Are there studies going on? (If not perhaps my personal data could be useful). How do others deal with this problem? "Please don't tell me I should just grow old gracefully!" There are a lot of people in a similar boat. Each year, the number of rowers over the age of 50 competing at the British IRC grows faster than ever. In terms of information on the effects of ageing on rowing performance, there's a section in our Training Guide that covers that exact topic. You can find that chapter online at http://www.concept2.co.uk/guide/guide.php?article=ageing_and_performance. One point it makes is that VO2 max decreases by 0.4ml/kg/minute/year on average. A man aged 25 who is at the peak of his fitness and weighs 80kgs has a VO2 max of approximately six litres/min. If his weight remains the same and he continues to train, at the age of 50 his VO2 max will have dropped to five litres/min. If, at his peak, his 2,000m best time is six minutes, this would fall to around six minutes 40 seconds by his 50th birthday as a direct result of the decline in VO2 max. In terms of an ageing curve, we do have an age correction table, based on data collected by Concept 2 in Denmark. This can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/racing/correction.php along with a weight adjustment factor. ========================================================= Plymouth Schools Award ========================================================= Olympic rowing silver medallist Guin Batten presented a group of Plymouth schools with a national award for increasing the number of pupils taking part in sport. The Plymstock School Sport Partnership embarked on a huge rowing project after asking children to choose a new sporting activity. Two instructor courses in Dry Land Rowing were set up and teachers, school sport co-ordinators, teaching assistants and students were trained. Since the project started, more than 250 students have taken part in championships and around 100 regularly attend clubs on school sites. One has even been identified for a World Class Start programme while 65 have been recognised by the Amateur Rowing Association. On Wednesday, the Partnership Development Manager, Rob Wright, received the 'Highly Commended' award from Guin at a national conference organised by the Youth Sport Trust. He said: 'It's very pleasing to see everyone's hard work getting this recognition. This is the start of a project to get people involved in outdoor activities and it's been great.' The rowing project started after an audit of pupils, many of whom were not involved in team games, revealed 80 per cent wanted to try a new sport in school. Around 100 completed an indoor competition where they rowed a distance equivalent to the Plymouth coastline. Mike Jelly, Headteacher at Longcause Community Special School, said: 'The value of this type of work is immeasurable. The growth in our pupils' physical skills, endurance, stamina, teamwork, social skills, and experience of the community are very clear. This is inclusion in its truest sense.' ========================================================= Charity Rowathon ========================================================= Roma O'Neill: "I just wanted to let you know about a Rowathon that took place at the George Campbell Leisure Centre, March, Cambridgeshire on Thursday 27th October. "Three teams, chosen at random to make it fair, rowed for two hours. Most people were doing 500m so it turned out to be very exhausting, especially as we ended up with about six people in each team! At the end, there was only 1,000 metres between the teams, and they fought right to the finish! The winning team rowed 30,431 metres. "It is expected we shall have raised over £1,000 so everyone is delighted." If you've taken part in a fundraising attempt using the Indoor Rower, make sure you send a report and any pictures in to editor@concept2.co.uk. ========================================================= Forthcoming Races And Events ========================================================= Name: Abergavenny IRC Date: 10/12/05 Venue: Abergavenny Leisure Centre Distance: 2000m Organiser: Ian Parfitt T: 01873 735365 E: ianparfitt@monmouthshire.gov.uk Name: Irish IRC Date: 11/12/05 Venue: University College Dublin Distance: 2000m Organiser: John Holland T: +353 (0)87 259 2755 E: irishindoors@eircom.net Name: Surrey 4.5 IRC Date: 14/01/06 Venue: TBC Distance: 805m, 3000m, 3.5 minute relay Organiser: Phil Morris T: +353 (0)87 259 2755 E: thepirate@teammorris.fsnet.co.uk Name: English IRC Date: 29/01/06 Venue: Manchester Velodrome Distance: 2000m Organiser: Martin Davies and Matt Rostron E: Martin.C.Davies@btinternet.com E: matt.rostron@crown.com Name: Scottish IRC Date: 05/02/06 Venue: Wishaw Sports Centre, Wishaw Distance: 2000m Organiser: David Hislop E: DavidSHis@aol.com W: http://www.scottish-rowing.org.uk ____________________________________________________FEEDBACK You like? 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