I============================================================ INDOOR ROWING NEWSLETTER # 32 ======================== 09-March-2001 ======================== _________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S 1. World Indoor Rowing Championship 2. Red Nose Row 3. Tel's Tales #1 4. Aberdeen Asset Management City Challenge 5. Tel's Tales #2 6. Regional Races 8. Top Tip 9. Forthcoming Events 10. Concept Ranking 11. Million Metres 12. World Marathon Challenge 13. Tel's Tales #3 14. Life Fitness Ultra-FIT X-Training Challenge ________________________________________________________________ ========================================================= World Indoor Rowing Championship ========================================================= Against a backdrop of falling snow, the 2001 World Indoor Rowing Championship took place in Boston, USA on February 25th. With 1,800 competitors from over twenty different countries taking part, some of the finest athletes in the world were assembled at the Reggie Lewis Track and Field Center. Unlike the British Indoor Rowing Championship, the World's is run under a heat and final format for the Open events, with the ten fastest qualifiers going through to the grand final. In the Men's Heavyweight Open the fastest qualifier was Pavel Shurmei of Belarus who was clearly going to be the man to beat. Others lining up for the start included six times former winner Matthias Siejkowski, who sneaked in as the eighth fast qualifier; Italian Mario Palmisano, the bronze medallist at this year's British Indoor Rowing Championship, and the young Estonian Tonu Endrekson who impressed with a 5:53.5 in qualifying. Shurmei was the first to show the lead, going off at 1:22 and quickly settling into a race pace of about 1:25. As they went through the 500 metre mark, Siejkowski had managed to form a narrow lead of a couple of metres which he eked out to about ten with 500 to go. Just when it seemed like Matthias had it in the bag, Pavel started going like the proverbial train and with 150 left was hitting 1:15s, forcing Matthias to respond. With one final heave both men gave it their all and, when the smoke had cleared, Matthias had pipped Pavel by just two metres and a scant couple of stokes, finishing in 5:42.2 with the Belarusian on 5:42.5. Some way behind, Palmisano held off a challenge from Luke McGee of the States to take another bronze, this time in 5:51.1. In the Lightweight final Leonardo Pettinari of Italy, the Olympic Lwt double scull silver medallist from Sydney, went in as the clear favourite having cruised his heat. Pettinari hit the front from the gun, going off at 1:30 and briefly hitting 1:29 before settling into a 1:32 race pace. Rowing long and seemingly well in control, he countered an impressive push from Gabe Winkler of the USA through the last 500 metres to take gold in 6:06.8. Steve Warner, also of the USA, finished just behind Winkler in 6:09.3. In the Women's Open Lightweight, the favourite was last year's winner Lisa Schlenker, the fastest lightweight woman ever over the distance. The race followed last year's pattern, with Schlenker hanging in the pack for the first 1,000 metres. Whereas last year she then burned everybody else off, this time around she couldn't get away, and faded to sixth. The battle for gold and silver was a close fought race between Catherine Humblet of the States and Tracy Duncan of Canada, with Humblet just shading it with 7:05.1, two tenths of a second faster than Duncan. Pavlina Krtenova of the Czech Republic came third in 7:07.0. The Women's Heavyweight final was dominated by the Dutch girl Hurnet Dekkers. Standing at 6'5", Hurnet hit the front from the start and finished seven seconds ahead of the Belgian Irja Ven in 6:35.4 with Elizabeth Smith of the United States third with 6:45.7. The day was a great one overall for British athletes and the PPP healthcare team took five gold, seven silver and three bronze medals, as well as two World Records. One of these came in the first race of the day as John Hodgson became Britain's oldest ever world champion when he won the Men's 90-99 Lwt and Hwt class in 9:29.6 seconds, carving just under seven seconds off his old mark. Hodgson, 29 when he signed up for the Second World War, may have taken his time getting into an international sporting career, but was thrilled to become a world champion. Gold medal performances also came from Herbert Leah (Men's 70-79 Lightweight), Pauline Rayner (Women's 60-69 Heavyweight), Sarah Springman (Women's 40-49 Heavyweight) and Helen Mangan, who also broke her own World Record on her way to a comfortable victory in the Women's 40-49 Lightweight class in 7:12.7. Silvers, meanwhile, came from Mavis Surridge (Women's 70-79 Lightweight), Paddy Rouse (70-79 Heavyweight), Weston Towler (Men's 70-79 Lightweight), Christina Nugent (Women's 30-39 Lightweight), Bert South (Men's 80-89 Lightweight) and Graham Price (Men's 40-49 Lightweight). One of the great British performances of the day came in the Men's 30-39 Heavyweight. The old Finnish warhorse Klaus Geiger once again emerged with the honours, winning the title for the third time in four years with 5:57.0. This year he didn't have things his own way, however, with Chris Rushton from Great Britain pushing him hard in the latter stages. Rushton finished in 5:58.8, becoming in the process the first known non-rower to ever go under six minutes, just edging out Paul Spencer of Canada who took bronze with 5:59.1. When you consider that both Geiger and Spencer had long and fruitful careers as international rowers, Chris' achievement is obvious. Britain's haul of medals was completed with bronzes for Richard Lake (Men's 60-69 Lightweight), Anna Bailey (Women's 50-59 Heavyweight) and Shelagh Allen (Women's 60-69 Heavyweight). Full results for the championship can be found on the World Indoor Rowing Championship web site at http://www.concept2.co.uk/wirc/results.htm ========================================================= Red Nose Row ========================================================= For those of you who've spent the past couple of weeks in a long-term coma (like Robert de Niro in the film Awakenings) or have spent 37 years atop a pillar in the desert preaching to pilgrims (like Saint Simon of Stylites) March 16th is the date of this year's Comic Relief Red Nose Day. The Red Nose Row is one of only two official Comic Relief sporting events this year, and indoor rowers from up and down the country are joining forces to try and beat the 200,000 pounds that 1999's indoor rowing fundraiser made. For more information about this year's event visit http://www.concept2.co.uk/rnr/index.html Events ******************** Can't/haven't/won't decide what you're going to do yet? http://www.concept2.co.uk/rnr/rnr_events_index.htm has got some ideas, but if you still struggling, we've picked three groups at random to give you an idea of the sort of thing people are doing. ########### The Body Matters staff at Fareham Leisure Centre are going to complete the team 100,000m dressed in 80s workout wear - leggings, sweat bands, leg warmers & head bands - in the main reception area starting at 11:00am. We really, really hope they play Olivia Newton-John's "Let's Get Physical" repeatedly throughout the day. ########### Frank Callaghan from Reuters, meanwhile, will be aiming to cover the 100,000 metre distance on his own. He is currently doing 12,500m twice a day and thrice on a Saturday. According to his colleague Glenn Karpeta, "Frank is a popular chap down at the Reuters Health Club Gym, but people have been giving him a wide berth of late, due to rumours about total insanity." ########### The fitness staff, receptionists, chef's, general manager and sales team of Club Indigo, Cwmbran will be taking on the members from 11:00am to 8:00pm with the flywheels on both machines kept constantly in motion. The race will take place using e-row software. ########### Whatever you decide to do, if you fill in the on-line form at http://www.concept2.co.uk/rnr/rnr_events_database.php3 it'll help us know what's going on. On-Line Ranking ******************** Over 280 people so far have been taking part in the Million Metre Challenge on-line (http://www.concept2.co.uk/rnr/rnr_mmc_index.htm), chalking up a mighty 126,636,244 metres between them. A superb 47 of those have already made it to the million mark and will be rewarded by a special Steve Redgrave signed certificate. You've got until midnight on March 16th to complete the distance, so if you're still got metres to do, best get a-cracking. T-Shirts ******************** There's many an option to choose from when you're doing the Red Nose Row. One thing you won't have to tax too many brain cells over is what's the best thing to wear. The world, his mother and his mother's dentist all agree that anybody seen dead without a RNR T-shirt deserves pointing at. If you've not yet got yours, all orders (whether off the web site or by phone, fax or post) must be received by 9.00am on Tuesday 13th March at the absolute latest for there to be any chance of receiving them by Friday 16th. If you state what date your event's taking place it'll help us prioritise dispatch as well. ========================================================= Tel's Tales ========================================================= For those of you coming afresh to the Indoor Rowing News, Tel's Tales is the column written by three times Olympic Rowing coach Terry O'Neill. When he's not organising the after race party at the World Indoor Rowing Championship, he also answers any questions you might have about all aspects of indoor rowing and training. Send your questions into webmaster@vermonthouse.co.uk. Ross Pyne: "I have been asked by a member of our rowing club about making the sessions that she does a little more interesting. She is training purely to keep fit and tests herself over 2,000 metres every other month (although she will not divulge her time). Do you have any suggestions (apart from wearing fancy dress)? "Anything that will keep juniors interested for more than about 10 minutes would also be appreciated." Terry O'Neill: Juniors may be a little easier. Put them in pairs with one on the machine and the other doing some other activity that takes around two minutes. This could be shuttle runs or a series of floor exercises or even some light weight exercises. The person on the machine has to row for as long as it takes the partner to complete the circuit and then they change over. Repeat as many times as you feel necessary to give a good workout. The pairs will be in competition with each other and the winning pair will be decided by who has the highest number when dividing the total metres rowed by total time in seconds. As for the adult, a lot of people row to music or the TV but there is no reason why a similar circuit training approach would not work. One suggestion is to combine rowing with core stability exercises at different ends of the gym. You then row one minute followed by one minute stability exercises, return to the machine and do two minutes followed by two minutes exercises. Continue in this fashion with one minute increments until she is at her predicted 2,000 metre time. So, for example, if this is 7 minutes, the total workout time would be 56 minutes. ======================================================== Aberdeen Asset Management City Challenge ========================================================= Not content with having bossed it over the world of rowing for the last 12 years, Sydney Olympic champion and three times Oxford Blue Matthew Pinsent has now cast down his gauntlet to the whole of the City of London. The triple Olympic gold medallist is urging Londoners to get on their plates of meat (feet) and up the apples and pears (stairs) of a participating Holmes Place gym to take part in the Aberdeen Asset Management City Challenge. The challenge is open to all, male and female. Each team of four will battle it out over four buckets of sand (4,000) metres on Percy Throwers (Indoor Rowers). The six fastest teams from each of the participating gyms will row off for a place in the finals to compete against the Aberdeen Dream Team of Matthew Pinsent and Aberdeen staff. "There should be more grass root events such as this," says Pinsent. "It's a really fun forum for communicating all of the things which are great about the sport of rowing. I'll look forward to facing the competition on 21 March." Each member of the winning team will receive a 500 pound Aberdeen Asset Management Unit Trust of their choice together with three months free gym membership. The male and female individual winners will receive an Indoor Rower with three months free trial membership at a Holmes Place gym. To enter just contact your nearest participating Holmes Place gym to register your details and preferred time (gym membership is not necessary): The Broadgate Club, Appold Street, London EC2 (Tel: 020 7422 6400) The Barbican Club, 97 Aldersgate Street, London EC1 (Tel: 020 7374 0091) The Minories Club, 1 Haydon Street, London EC3 (Tel: 020 7680 5000) The closing date for the first round is March 13th with the semi-finals taking place on March 15th, 16th and 19th. The Grand Final will be held from 11.00 - 3.00 pm on Wednesday 21 March at the Broadgate Arena. ========================================================= Tel's Tales: Aerobic V Anaerobic ========================================================= In the last few years I would say that the word "aerobic" has become the most widely used word in the English language and yet the real understanding of what is actually going on in the body is vague to say the least. Fair enough, most people want to do some exercise, not a degree in biochemistry. However, since we have opened the Concept 2 Message Board (http://www.concept2.co.uk/messageboard.htm) it is apparent that some contributors oversimplify what is a complex process and here I will try to explain the way muscles work without the aid of a safety net. When you wake up in the morning and open your eyes the muscles in your eyelids are working anaerobically. You throw back the duvet (anaerobic), swing your legs out of bed (anaerobic) and stand up (anaerobic). It is not how hard something is that determines whether it is aerobic or anaerobic, all initial movement is anaerobic. In the muscles there is a limited supply of fuel known as ATP. The action of the muscle burns one of the phosphate atoms and it becomes ADP. This missing phosphate is replaced by creatine phosphate and this process will last for 10-15 seconds. Beyond this point the missing phosphate can either come from the breakdown of glycogen, which is also stored in the muscle, or the breakdown of free fatty acids which are carried in the blood stream. If the rate at which we need to replace the missing phosphate is high then we will get it from the glycogen. There is a limited supply of glycogen which will last for up to one minute of flat out activity; beyond this we will need to reduce the intensity of the activity so that we can replace the phosphate from fat. There is plenty of fat but its breakdown into a useable form is slow and hence we have to reduce the demand to match the supply. So ATP is always the end fuel and how we recharge it will be done aerobically via the breakdown of fat or anaerobically by the breakdown of glycogen. Now this is a simplified version of a very complex chemical reaction but I'm sure there is a popular belief that somehow the body has three different and independent energy systems and of course it doesn't. The notion that after the initial start of a 2,000 metres race, when you are into your race pace, you are burning a combination of fat and glycogen so that your initial ATP/CP stores are fully replenished and can be used again in a tactical burst is incorrect. Tactical bursts in 2,000 metres on-water rowing races can be effective as your opponents can see you moving ahead. Although this is expensive in energy terms the psychological benefits can outweigh this. With indoor rowing the result of a burst is not apparent to opponents and so there is no psychological gains this only leaves the energy costs. If you watch indoor rowing competitions, changes in position in the final 500 metres are in the majority of cases caused by slowing down rather than a blistering finishing burst of acceleration. This would suggest that the most effective way to race 2,000 metres is even pace at the highest sustainable level. ========================================================= Regional Races ========================================================= Welsh Indoor Rowing Championship **************** The second Welsh IRC took place at David Lloyd Leisure Centre, Cardiff on 24th February 2001. Entry was well up on last year, with 109 people competing this time around. Fastest woman of the day was Michaella Erskine, of University Wales College Cardiff, who won the 19-29 Hwt class in 7:04. The fastest female lightweight was Tegwen Rooks of Tideway Scullers RC who topped the 19-29 Lwt category in 7:25. The fastest man was Craig Barstow from Sheffield who won the 30-39 Hwt in 6:18. The male performance of the day, however, must go to Richard Wilder from Cardiff who was the fastest lightweight and only a second behind Craig in 6:19. Full results can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/local.htm Prison Service **************** While Norman Stanley Fletcher was busy playing draughts and attempting to get enough snouts together to pay off his debt to Grouty, it seems the chances are Mr Mackay was busy knocking off a quick 2,000 metre test. The Indoor Rower is a regular feature in many prison gyms and last month the second Prison Service Indoor Rowing Championship was held at H.M.Y.O.I Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. The fastest 2,000 metre time for women was by Sara Wager of Aylesbury in the 19-29 category with 7:51.7 while Neil Ridge from Downview pulled out a 6:22.1 in the Men's 30-39. An extra event, although rather impromptu, was a children's 500m, with ages ranging from 5 to 10. All thoroughly enjoyed the race and the prizes they received and next year they will definitely have something more structured. Marie Curie Indoor Rowing Challenge **************** 356 people took part in the Marie Curie rowing challenge over the weekend of February 24th and 25th at the Marriot Hollins Hall Hotel and Country Club, Bradford. Individual events took place over 2,000m, 5,000m and 10,000m and were dominated by Nick Fleming who not only won all three events, but also took part in a team competing in the Team 10,000 metres that came second. He was supposed to do this over the two days but instead rowed them in one. The team event attracted 58 entries and was won by Unisurf in 32:54.7. Some teams came from the same company and so went head-to-head with each other. One team had a sister company in America who had already done a similar indoor row and videoed it. When the British Office rowed on the Saturday, a TV and video was brought in and they rowed head to head with the TV. Although all funds haven't been gathered yet, the organisers estimate that they'll have raised around about 20,000 pounds. ========================================================= Top Tip ========================================================= This week's Top Tip comes from Patrick Andrews and is short and sweet. "I've found that rowing wearing gradually increasing wrist weights really helps build up my shoulder and arm strength and allows me to exercise harder in a shorter time." If you've got a Top Tip you'd like to share with the world, send it to webmaster@vermonthouse.co.uk. ========================================================= Forthcoming Events ========================================================= The fourth Cornish Indoor Rowing Championship will be taking place amidst the dark satanic mills on the 25th of March at Phoenix Leisure Centre, Launceston. The deadline for entries is on March 10th, so if you want to take part best get your skates on and give organiser Martin Williams a call on 01566 772 551. ========================================================= Concept Ranking ========================================================= The deadline for this year's Concept Ranking has now been and gone. However, people who are taking part in a Ranking event for the Red Nose Row have until March 23rd to get their entry in as long as it comes in on an official Red Nose Row Ranking form (available either in the Red Nose Row Action Pack or from the Red Nose Row web site: http://www.concept2.co.uk/rnr/rnr_rnr2001_forms.htm) ========================================================= Million Metres ========================================================= Six months to do a million metres? Nigel Gower of Weybridge Rowing Club turns his nose up and laughs like a tickled pig at that. Nigel will be attempting to cover the distance in about seven and a half days, the equivalent of three marathons a day for a week. Jeez Louise. The attempt is to raise money for the White Lodge Centre in Chertsey, a local charity caring for young handicapped people, and for Wayfarers Rowing Club, a new group with the aim of encouraging adaptive (disabled) rowing. If you want to come along and lend Nigel support and drop some coins in the bucket, he'll be visiting a number of sites during the week and the locations (at present) are: - Sat 17th (am) - Imperial College Boat House, Putney Embankment (Eights Head) Sat 17th (pm) - Victoria Station Sun 18th - Victoria Station Mon. 19th - Waterloo Station (Provisional) Tue. 20th - Tesco, Brooklands Race Track, Surrey Wed. 21st - Tesco, Brooklands Race Track, Surrey Thu. 22nd - Tesco, Brooklands or Bentalls Centre, Kingston Fri. 23rd - Bentalls Centre, Kingston Sat. 24th - London Rowing Club, Putney Embankment (University Boat Race day) ========================================================= World Marathon Challenge ========================================================= Fancy following in Nigel's footsteps and doing a solo million metres between March 19th and 25th? Course you don't, you'd have to be off your rocker. Still, if your fancy's tickled by the idea of taking part in some sort of long distance row type thing scenario then the World Marathon Challenge might be just the tonic for you. To register for the Challenge, you need to become a temporary citizen of "RowNation" by editing your personal profile in the online ranking (http://166.82.35.96/sranking/home.asp). To do this, log in as usual, and then click on the "Edit Profile" link on the "Individual" page. For country, select "RowNation" and then click on "Submit". Row the marathon whenever you want between March 16 and March 25 and then submit your time in the On-Line Ranking as usual. At the end of World Marathon Week, all participants will be emailed with the results along with the chance to download an exclusive certificate. Visit http://166.82.35.96/sranking/world_marathon/marathon_index.asp for more details. ========================================================= Tel's Tales ========================================================= Richard Parrish: "I'm just starting the marathon training programme as given in the Indoor Rowing Training Guide, on page 53 [http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/training_prog.htm). This includes (for instance) 4 x alternate 5' @ 5kP / 8' @ MP [i.e. four sessions doing first five minutes at 5,000 metre pace and then eight minutes at Marathon pace]. Is there any way of setting the PM2+ to display this programme? I tried to set the 8' component as a countdown rest period but then the times/500m are not displayed. "The alternative seems to be to set the total time period, and try to remember when the rowing intensity should change, but my mental arithmetic gets a bit dodgy after an hour's rowing!" Terry O'Neill: There is a limit to what you can set up on the monitor. What you can do is modify the programme so that the duration of the alternate steps are equal. Using the session you quote as an example, set the time for 6:30 and the rest for 10 seconds. This will mean there will be a 10 second period between the steps, which you can ignore, but during the rest of the time you will have the pace displayed. Changing the programme in this way will not alter the training effect. ========================================================= Life Fitness Ultra-FIT X-Training Challenge ========================================================= The annual Life Fitness Ultra-FIT X-Training Challenge is the quest to find Britain's fittest man, woman and team. The challenge takes place over ten different pieces of equipment performed in the order below: Exercise Bike: 1.5km Indoor Rower: 500m Lat Pulldowns: 40 reps Hip Flexors: 60 reps Press-ups: 50 reps (men), 30 reps (women) Box Step-ups: 100 reps Abdominal Crunches: 60 reps Shoulder Press: 40 reps Treadmill: 800m at 10% incline Bench Press: 40 reps Individuals do all the exercises, while the teams of five have each member do consecutive exercises (e.g. the first person does the bike and the rower, the second the lat pulldowns and hip flexors and so on). Incidentally, rumours that one of the teams entering the competition could be five members of the British Men's Eight who won gold at the Sydney Olympics appear not to be too wide of the mark. As the demand for places far exceeds the number of racing slots for the final showdown in Stratford-Upon-Avon on May 12-13, prospective individual competitors need to complete a pre-qualification time trial at their club under the supervision of a qualified instructor. The number of teams competing depends on the level of applications. For a full-colour poster and action pack for your club, ring the hotline on 01736 350204. Find out more about the competition in volume 11, number 2 of Ultra-FIT magazine, on sale from all proverbially good newsagents now. PS. Indoor Rowing Nicknames #1 in an occasional series: Ultra-FIT contributing editor John Shepherd who came to the World Indoor Rowing Championship (and did a Personal Best of 6:36.1 in the 30-39 Heavyweight class) became nicknamed The Mattress due to the perception that he always rows in his comfort zone. I bet he thought he got away with this. ____________________________________________F E E D B A C K Like what you read? Dislike what you read? Ideas for future newsletters? Make sure to tell us at webmaster@vermonthouse.co.uk. Or of course, you could always tell us at our message board: http://www.concept2.co.uk/messageboard.htm. Oh go on. _________________________________________________________ _______________________________________SUBSCRIPTION INFO If you think you're on this mailing list accidentally, just return the e-mail with "unsubscribe" in the subject header. If you're getting more than one copy, then reply with "multiple" as the header.