INDOOR ROWING NEWSLETTER # 15 ======================= 23-June-2000 ======================= _________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S 1. New British and World Record 2. Tel's Tales #1- Warming Up 3. Henley Royal Regatta 4. Newsletter Archive 5. Concept Ranking 6. Concept Ranking Spotlight 7. Tel's Tales #2 - Distance Rowing 8. British Olympic Appeal Team Event 9. Top Tips 10. Fantasy Rowing Competition 11. One Hundred Metre Challenge _________________________________________________________________ ========================================================= Pauline Rayner ========================================================= Champagne corks were being popped in Mortlake, London recently; not because they suddenly discovered they were all Romanian but because Pauline Rayner of Thames Rowing Club became Britain's eleventh world record holder. A month after turning sixty, Pauline fairly skipped over the 2,000 metres to finish in 7:54.3, a gob-smacking 17 seconds inside Lies Muller of Holland's old world record of 8:11.6 and over half a minute ahead of Shelagh Allen's British mark of 8:31.9. Pauline's pedigree in rowing, both on and off the water, is pretty impeccable. A very successful veteran rower, she's won medals in every standard of boat at World Veteran level since 1982 and was the first women's captain at Thames RC. Off water, she's pretty impressive as well, having picked up gold at the last three British Indoor Rowing Championships. She's not yet competed at Boston however: "I'm great friends with Merete Boldt of Denmark who holds the 50-59 world record and I know that I could never beat her. This year, however, we won't be competing in the same age group category, so you never know!" ========================================================= Tel's Tales #1 - Warming Up ========================================================= In another land and another time, three times Olympic rowing coach Terry O'Neill's boundless knowledge would have seen him worshipped as a god; he would have spent his days being hand- fed plump grapes by dusky maidens while passing sentences of life or death over a timorous population. Instead he's here to answer any questions you've got on indoor rowing, so drop him a line at webmaster@vermonthouse.co.uk Henry Gillet: "I would be interested to have some advice on warming up before a 2,000 metre race or Personal Best attempt. I imagine intensity - particularly in relation to intended race pace - duration and interval before the row are all relevant factors." Terry O'Neill: Warming up is very specific to the individual and can vary enormously. Perhaps if I explain the point of warming up and give you some examples you will be able to devise a warm up routine that suits you. The warm up should prepare you physically and mentally for the task and should be started about twenty minutes before the race. Physically in a 2,000 metre race you will be going off flat out so your warm up should contain some flat out bursts. These should be preceded by a couple of bursts below maximum. So, start the warm up by developing the stroke from the back stop. Use your arms only for 10-15 strokes before moving onto body swing, quarter slide, half slide, 3/4 slide and a few minutes of full slide paddling. Then row 10 strokes at 70% of your maximum, then 20 light strokes. Then 10 strokes at 80% of your maximum and 20 light. Then 10 strokes at 90% of your maximum and 20 light and then 10 strokes flat out. Finish off with a start of 15 strokes where you get off as hard as you can then settle into your race pace. This is not a definitive warm up but somewhere to start and develop your own one. Mentally the anticipation of the event causes stress, which in turn stimulates performance. Too much stimulation can drive you over the top so to feel nervous is good but to lose control of the nerves is bad. Try deep breathing to help you relax. ========================================================= Henley Royal Regatta ========================================================= The biggest rowing regatta in Britain takes place on Wednesday 28th June to Sunday 2nd July this year. This year's entry of 451, including 13 entries in the new event for Women's eights. There are 66 overseas crews from 14 nations as well as the cream of British rowing. The World Championship winning coxless four of Steve Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent, James Cracknell and Tim Foster will be competing in the Steward's Challenge Cup against the Australian four who are arguably the biggest threat to Steve Redgrave's chances of a fifth Olympic gold. Similarly themed is the Grand Challenge Cup, where the British Olympic eight will face off against their Aussie counterparts. In the Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, meanwhile, Greg Searle and Ed Coode will go up against a South African pair who were less than a second behind them in the World Cup in Munich. For those of you competing at the event, and who can find us amidst the men in funny blazers sipping Pimm's and exchanging reminiscences about Farquhar-Smythe and how much the alma mater has gone downhill, there'll be a Concept 2 Training Room containing twenty machines, eight of which will be pairs on Slides to help to warm up before competing. There'll also be a DYNO for you to try out and elsewhere an Oarsport stand which will be doing oar repairs on the day. ========================================================= Newsletter Archive ========================================================= When William Hague said that he would "listen to the country" it meant he appeared at the Notting Hill carnival wearing a baseball cap (incidentally, we at Concept 2 possess a picture of him sitting on a rowing machine that makes him look so uncomfortable as to dwarf the baseball cap incident and, if t'were widely seen, would render him unelectable for at least another two terms). When we promise to listen, it means that all the letters we've got saying "your newsletter's passable, can I have a butcher's at the odd back issue" have prompted the addition on our web-site of a newsletter archive. Past editions of the newsletter will be posted there approximately one month after they're first released. http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/newsletter_index.htm ========================================================= Concept Ranking ========================================================= The first batch of this year's Concept Ranking should have hit/is hitting/will shortly hit the mat just inside your letter box around about now. With over 7,000 times in, along with reports on the British and World Indoor Rowing Championship, it's what the well-dressed rower will be wearing this season. If you want a copy, just send a SAE envelope with stamps to the value of £1 to: Concept Ranking Concept 2 Unit 5 Vermont House Nott'm Sth and Wilford Ind. Est. Ruddington Lane Wilford Nottingham NG11 7HQ ========================================================= Concept Ranking Spotlight ========================================================= If you've not got tired reading our address, this newsletter the Ranking Spotlight comes on not one person, but an entire gym: Copley Fitness Centre is based within a Head Office site of Halifax plc and has a membership base of around 360. Of these, an impressive 89 submitted times for this year's Ranking. Head Honcho Andy Barron takes over: "I went on your Instructor Training Course in November 1998 and it gave me the ability to go back to the members and teach them a better way to row. Since then, the Indoor Rowers have become an integral part in most of the users' workouts, and having a national ranking enables me to show people where they are compared to other rowers around the country. We have used the ergos for charity and we held a 24 hour row-a-thon which involved about sixty members of the centre rowing through the night; two members also did a sponsored million metres recently and raised £1,100 for a local special school. "In the Ranking we've had some successes as well. Two of our members, Paul Danielson and Soma Ray, have achieved some extremely good times despite never having sat on an ergo before joining the gym. Paul, a 50-59 Hwt, is currently 15th at 2,000 metres, 6th at 5,000 metres, 5th at 10,000 metres and 2nd at the Marathon, while Soma, who is in the Open category, is 148th at 2,000, 13th at 5,000 and 5th at 10,000. Paul started using the Rower about two and a quarter years ago and is currently well on his way toward his five million metres! Soma only started rowing about eight months ago and is faster than some of the men! "We tend to use the 5,000 metre distance quite a lot as part of programming workouts, one member, Sally Wood (21:15.3 for the 5,000) rowed 5,000 metres daily for 3 months and lost 2.9kgs of fat and gained 1.6kgs lean body mass in the process. It's turning out to be quite a good fat burner for our members." Bucking the trend as we like to do, last newsletter we countered the tendency for Hollywood to rewrite history, a la Saving Private Ryan and U-571, by claiming Kevin Corcoran as one of us in our article on British domination of the 5,000 metres on-line ranking; turns out this was a tad too hasty on our part as in fact Kevin's an American ex-pat who, if you were to cut would bleed baseball and apple pie. Probably. ========================================================= Tel's Tales #2 - Distance Rowing ========================================================= What's most special about this Tel's Tale is that it's not actually written by Tel. Readers of the last newsletter may remember a question from two Durham students training for a 24 hour row (see http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/tels_tales.htm). In response to that, we got an e-mail from Tim Donovan. As well as being a sessional lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University in Sport and Exercise Sciences and studying for a PhD in rowing physiology, Tim also holds the individual 24 hour world record, set in February of last year, having rowed 302,008 metres in that period. Yup, that's over three hundred thousand metres ON HIS OWN, a useful background in anybody's book: "There are a number of things that you have to consider. Terry is correct in his statement that you are at your 'lowest ebb' in the early hours of the morning. The body is trying to switch itself off by lowering your body temperature and reducing the production of hormones (adrenaline and noradrenalin) that keep you alert. In my attempt I decided that I would rather go through this period later on rather than at the start, so I commenced the piece at nine in the morning. Nutrition is very important as you can expect. Fortunately you will get regular breaks which will allow you to eat and drink. During my attempt I had to drink through a long straw connected to a vat of liquid. It is important to have solids as well, as these are very good mentally. The food that I found most palatable was bananas. I went through a very bad patch roughly 18 hours in to the attempt and ate nothing at all. It was only with the help of the support team who insisted that I eat (and drink) that I got back on track, even though I knew it was very important. They started me on very small amounts of banana and gradually I could eat and drink more. Liquid intake is essential and I suggest that you monitor your weight constantly in order to ensure that you do not get dehydrated. The last world record holder lost 10lb. This I suggest was half water and half fat and would have cost him some additional distance. In addition to the water you should have an 8-10% maltodextrin solution. You can get this from any health food shop (PSP 22, or PSP 11). Make sure that it is pure maltodextrin, with nothing else and use your own flavourings. After 12 hours I got bored of the drink and ended up consuming only water. It was again during the bad patch mentioned earlier that the support team made me drink fizzy drinks, high in sugars (Lilt was my favourite and Coke, both watered down to half strength). The main thing are regular drinks whenever you can, even if you do not want to, with some glucose, sugar or carbohydrate. Pacing is another important strategy. I disagree with Terry here. I feel that you should alternate with small bursts each, maybe as little as 3 minutes each. You do, however, need to try this out. I did a 12 hour dummy run to ensure that I was at the right pace. The pace you should go at it is dictated by your physiology, as well as your mental strength. You will probably only be able to go at about 60- 65% of your max heart rate for this period of time. My average 500 metre split was 2:24-ish, but I had to have breaks to rest my back and bum every 20-30 mins so had to average about 2:18 for this. A 2:00 split may be a bit ambitious, and again I suggest you do a practice run as a time trial. Training - this is going to be hard. On top of a few years training, I went through a regime of between 3-4 hours a day of very light ergo work splitting 2:05-2:20 alternating 1 hour 2:05, 1 hour 2:10 etc for 3-4 months. You need to develop your endurance capacity. The last thing is make sure that you have lots of different types of seat cover/padding as your arse gets very sore. ========================================================= Eight Hour Team Event ========================================================= Saturday July 8th will see the Row for Sydney. Organised by Colonel Martin Grubb the event will be an eight hour sponsored team challenge raising money for the British Olympic Appeal. Teams can be between 6 to 10 strong and the event will be run under Concept 2 100,000 metre rules (see http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/team_chall.htm if you don't know what these are). The whole shebang will be taking place at Salisbury Leisure Centre from 10am to 6pm and is open to everybody, although as Colonel Grubb points, it's for "charidee mate", so remember to whip up some sponsorship before you go along. As an additional bonus, Colonel Grubb says that they will be recording people's scores after 100,000 metres, so you'll record a score for that event as well. For further information contact Colonel Grubb on 01772 433558 or Salisbury Leisure Centre on 01772 339966. ========================================================= Top Tips ========================================================= Who better to ask for a Top Tip this newsletter than Britain's newest world record holder Pauline Rayner? Pauline's top tip is, somewhat unsurprisingly, all to do with training for a 2,000 metre race. Pauline, take it away… "The most important thing for me is: always listen to your body. If I feel tired when I come to my workout, I never over-extend myself in trying to complete it. When training for a 2,000 metre race, the following is one of my favourite workouts: "First of all, I try and find how hard I can pull for ten strokes and see what my fastest 500 metre split is. I then take that split, say 1:44, and add ten seconds to it to get 1:54. I then do 16 half- minute intervals at that pace with a ten second rest between them." (If you don't know how to set the monitor for interval training, read the Monitor FAQ on the Product page of our web-site: http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/product.htm) If you've got a Top Tip you'd like to share with the world, send it into webmaster@vermonthouse.co.uk. ========================================================= Fantasy Olympic Rowing Competition ========================================================= The next round in our British Olympic Fantasy Rowing Competition takes place this week-end as all seven British boats compete in the Vienna World Cup Regatta. The results from Vienna will be posted on our web-site on the 26th along with the top twenty people in the competition. Remember: if you've not yet taken part, the next mini-competition will be based around the Lucerne World Cup regatta which takes place on July 14th. htpp://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/fantasy_rowing_index.htm ========================================================= One Hundred Metre Dash ========================================================= A quick note that the highly informal competition to find the quickest time for the 100 metres and the lowest split it's possible to pull will be open until next newsletter. We also hope to bring a secret weapon into play… One star the challenge has thrown up is Anna Bailey. 49 year old Anna only took up indoor rowing in January having got bored of the treadmills and bikes. Since then she's managed to do 41:19.7 for the 10,000 metres and 7:28.4 for the 2,000, both extraordinary times. For the 100 metres however, she's in pole position amongst the women at the moment with a best time of 18.4 and a best split of 1.27 – which if you have a crack at the distance you'll realise is definitely going some. Anyway, next newsletter we'll bring you the best scores for both men and women, so if you haven't entered yet, get moving. You can either send your time into webmaster@vermonthouse.co.uk or you can enter on-line at http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/index.html __________________________________________________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