============================================================ INDOOR ROWING NEWSLETTER #44 ====================== 07-September-2001 ====================== _________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S 1. Indoor Rowing Grand Prix 2. Red Nose Row Update 3. PPP healthcare British Indoor Rowing Championship 4. Tel's Tales #1 5. Ward Evans Atlantic Row 6. Concept 2 Shop 7. Forthcoming Events 8. Nasty, Brutish, Short 9. Tel's Tales #2 10. Distance Award Schemes 11. Ross Abley Redux 12. One Hour Women's Team Record ________________________________________________________________ ========================================================= Indoor Rowing Grand Prix 2001/2 ========================================================= The Indoor Rowing News has a secret dream. We see a circuit of indoor rowing races all over the country, one a month, with thousands taking part in each race. We see Murray Walker coming out of retirement to give five hours of live coverage on ITV on a Sunday afternoon. We see top indoor rowers earning millions of pounds a year and John Hodgson spraying champagne from the winner's rostrum. Well, all empires start with a single brick, all dreams with a single piece of bad cheese. This December sees the first ever race in the Indoor Rowing Grand Prix Series. Bringing together some of the biggest regional races around, the IRGPS aims to heighten the profile of indoor racing in this country and establish a proper race season. At the moment there are four races in the first series, one a month from this December, and in time the plan is to add more events to the calendar. We calculate an indoor rower will be winning BBC Sports Personality of the Year by 2006 at the latest. The races that go to make up the first Grand Prix Series are: Irish IRC, Sportslink Leisure Centre, Dublin, 9th December 2001 East Midlands IRC, Nottingham University, 13th January 2002 North of England IRC, Manchester Velodrome, 2nd February 2002 Welsh IRC, David Lloyd Cardiff, 2nd March 2002 Each Grand Prix has seven separate age categories, Junior 18, Open, U23, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59 and 60-69 for Men, Lightweight Men, Women and Lightweight Women. The top ten finishers in each race category are awarded Grand Prix points, with ten points to the winner, nine points for second place all the way down to one point for finishing tenth. At the end of the Grand Prix season, each competitor's best three results will count towards the overall Grand Prix result. i.e. if a competitor competes in all four races, the worst point winning performance is discarded. More information, as well as a full copy of the rules and entry forms for each of the races, can be found on the Grand Prix web site at http://www.concept2.co.uk/gp ========================================================= Red Nose Row ========================================================= So I went down my local ice-cream shop, and said I want to buy an ice-cream. He said 'hundreds & thousands?' I said 'We'll start with one.' He said 'knickerbocker glory?' I said 'I do get a certain amount of freedom in these trousers, yes.' Sometimes, like above, comic relief can be a bit rubbish. Sometimes, like last March, it can be pretty darn cool. The latest news from the boys with red noses at Comic Relief Towers (stick on noses, we mean, not alcoholism) is that the Red Nose Row has so far raised over 400,000 pounds. That's twice the amount from 1999 and is a well fantastic total. Serious congratulations go to everyone involved. If you're still to send your money in, it's not too late, just send it to Comic Relief 2001, Ernst & Young, PO Box 678, London, EC4A 1NT or you can donate online at http://www.comicrelief.com. ========================================================= PPP healthcare British Indoor Rowing Championship ========================================================= British Team --------------------------------- The Amateur Rowing Association have announced that, for the first time, this year's championship will officially be part of national team testing. This means that both the Heavyweight and Lightweight teams for men and women will all be under a three-line whip to attend. With the recent success of the British rowing team both at the Olympics and afterwards, this is your chance to catch not only bemedalled Olympic heroes from Sydney, but also get a crafty butcher's at the stars of tomorrow. Competitors --------------------------------- The Events section of the BIRC web site (http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/events.htm) now contains a list of all the people who have entered each race so far. Here's your opportunity to see who's going to be in your race and plan your assassination/sabotage campaign accordingly. Although the list is kept as up to date as possible, if you've entered on-line at http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/entryform.php and opted to pay by cheque, your name won't go up until you've actually paid. Soz. Ultra-FIT Magazine --------------------------------- Top fitness magazine Ultra-FIT has recently signed up to become the official fitness media partner of the championship, so expect plenty of coverage in the magazine, both before and after. As well as that, all medallists at the championship will receive a year's free subscription. The next couple of months should see a veritable frenzy of indoor rowing related material in the magazine, so keep an eye out for it at all good newsagents. For more about Ultra-FIT, and to subscribe on-line, you can visit their web site at http://www.ultra-fitmagazine.com ========================================================= Tel's Tales #1 ========================================================= E-mail tels-tales@concept2.co.uk asking what's the plural of mongoose and you'd receive little satisfaction. E-mail a question about training and exercise, however, and you're cooking with gas. Simon Barnes: "During a 10,000 metre piece, if I hold steady state 1:50 500m splits, my heart rate climbs beyond 180 beats per minute during the last five minutes or so, even though at 1:50/500 my watt output is well below maximum. I guess this is due to overheating/dehydration/energy depletion - 'cardiac drift'? Sprinting for the last 500 metres feels very reminiscent of the last 500 metres of a 2,000 metre race. "What contribution does the 10,000 metre session (or a similar 5,000 metres, holding 1:45s) make towards maximising performance over 2,000 metres? The 2,000 metres obviously requires higher output, but similar heart rates. "I've noticed that middle distance runners often include a hard 20-30 minute run in their schedule, saying it improves both V02 max and lactate threshold. Building towards BIRC, should I keep a weekly 5 or 10,000 metre 'blast' in my regime (along with two shorter than race distance interval sessions), or replace it with a further interval session?" Terry O'Neill: The longer session improves muscular efficiency by increasing the number of capillaries around the muscle fibre. This has the effect of increasing the contact time of oxygen from the blood to the muscle. This process will happen at low intensity and so, if this is the aim of the session, there is no need to push on during the final stages. The higher intensity sessions identified by the elevated heart rate have a greater effect on the oxygen delivery system, heart/lung function and stroke volume. However, they will also increase capilliarisation and at a faster rate than at low intensity. The problem is that high intensity training causes high lactate accumulation and glycogen depletion which needs time between sessions to recover. Depending on how many sessions a week you train will determine how many of them should lead to a lactate build up. 5-6 sessions a week should allow enough recovery time but it also depends on your job, whether it is heavy manual, stressful or whatnot. At the moment you are OK to stick with the 10,000 metre piece but I would cut it down to 5,000 metres with six weeks to go to BIRC. ========================================================= Ward Evans Atlantic Row ========================================================= If you think rowing for thirty minutes is pretty tiring work, then spare a thought for Tim Humfrey and Jo Lumsdon on October 7th 2001. That's the start date of the Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Challenge, 3,000 miles of pure, unadulterated rowing. Tim and Jo, who will be crewing the Keltec Challenger, are one of 37 teams from all around the world, all aiming to be the first to get from Tenerife to Barbados. Keltec Ltd, Tim and Jo's title sponsors, are holding an open event at the Broadgate Circle in the City of London (near Liverpool Street Station) on Monday, September 10th. As well as an opportunity to have a peek at the boat, you've also got the chance to pitch yourself against Tim and Jo and win a Compaq iPAQ handheld computer by rowing the furthest on an Indoor Rower in 1 minute. Olympic gold medallist and all-round good egg Jonny Searle, will also be in attendance to help rev things up. For more information about the Keltec Challenger, and to follow Tim and Jo's progress, check out their web site at http://www.keltec.co.uk ========================================================= Concept 2 Shop ========================================================= The Indoor Rowing News has never been particularly good around sales. Just hearing the word sends us into the sort of tizzy you emerge from a couple of hours later with an empty wallet and a garden full of novelty gnomes. We could tell you things we've done with a credit card which would make a grown man cry and the Small Business Institute stand on a chair and clap. Now, however, there's a sale we like. With the addition of the A-range of Polar Heart Rate Monitors, we're now flogging off the discontinued Polar Tempo, Favor, Fitwatch and Pacer lines at a supercheapo knockdown price. When you add in the three new watches, we're now selling 12 different models at the moment. News like this *could* send your blood pressure soaring higher than a comedy Sergeant Major of the kind played by Windsor Davies, shortly after seeing his present lot of recruits. To counteract this possibility, we've also added two blood pressure monitors to the shop as well. Get in. http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/merchandise.php3 - better than Santa as it doesn't need a mince pie. ========================================================= Forthcoming Events ========================================================= There's still time to enter both the Birmingham and the Nuneaton and Bedworth IRC if you get your skates on. So hurry, hurry, hurry as they used to say at carnivals and the like. Name: Birmingham IRC Date: 16th September Venue: Cocks Moors Woods Leisure Centre, Kings Heath, Birmingham Distance: 2,000 metres Other: Entry Fee: 5.50 pounds Contact: Paul Robertshaw Tel: 0121 464 0285 E-mail: Paul_Robertshaw@birmingham.gov.uk Name: Nuneaton and Bedworth IRC Date: 23rd September Venue: Dimensions Gyms, Bedworth Distance: 2,000 metres Other: Closing date for entries 11th September Contact: Stuart Gealy Tel: 0247 631 7702 or e-mail Monique Raaijmakers at monique.raaijmakers@nuneaton-bedworthbc.gov.uk Name: Imperial Cancer 100,000 metre Challenge Date: 7th October Venue: Havant Leisure Centre, Hampshire Distance: 100,000 metre team event Other: Contact: Robert Piggott, Tel: 02392 476026 Name: Rower's Revenge Triathlon Date: 7th October Venue: Higginson Park, Marlow Distance: 4,000 metre row, 25,000 metre cycle, 7,500 metre run Other: Annual event Contact: Mike Spencer-Jones, E-mail: mikes-j@tinyonline.co.uk Web: http://www.rowersrevenge.co.uk Name: Nottinghamshire IRC Date: 27th October Venue: Newark RC Distance, 500 metres, 2000 metres, one minute event for Under 12s Other: Closing date for entry: 21st October. Entry fee: 5 pounds Contact: Graham Price, Tel: 07970 136054, E-mail: gprice@keymax.co.uk ========================================================= Tel's Tales #2 ========================================================= With the start of the new football season we've had a boatload full of questions this week asking how indoor rowing can help with playing the sport. Here's a sort of general guide then. Terry O'Neill: There are two ways you can use the rowing machine in association with football. One way is after a match; rowing at a steady state for about 30 minutes will help clear any debris from muscles caused by impact during the game. This will mean that the day following the match you will have less problems with stiffness and be able to train more effectively. Rowers have the highest anaerobic threshold of all athletes and although football is a far more complex game than rowing, this physical attribute would also be an advantage to footballers. Therefore the training programme followed by rowers for 2,000 metre competition would also be useful to a footballer. The only difference is that rowing is a winter sport and rowing is a summer sport and so the periodisation would have to be reversed. Also the football season is longer than the rowing season and so the different periods of training would need to be compressed to reflect this. You can download the 2,000 metre training programme from our website www.concept2.co.uk/v4/training_prog.htm ========================================================= Nasty, Brutish, Short ========================================================= Indoor rowing can be an enjoyable, pleasant way to build up your fitness level. That being said, quite a lot of people like putting themselves through the wringer. One oddly popular test is the one minute thrash, where people have a crack at seeing how many metres they can clock up in sixty seconds [see the Ward Evans Challenge article for how this skill can win you a new 'puter]. Whenever the Indoor Rowing News has a crack at this, we normally get to about the 100 metre mark before deciding to have a cup of tea instead. Which is why we were somewhat impressed when we heard about Apollo Perelini. Apollo (full name Apollo 11 Perelini. Seriously.) plays rugby for Sale Sharks alongside the likes of Jason Robinson and, as you might guess, is a big old boy. Giving it some almighty welly, he managed to cover 397 metres, which is some pretty good going. Not quite the best ever, although, because as far as we know, the highly unofficial world record is held by three times world indoor rowing champion Rob Waddell, who prior to last year's Olympics boshed out 435 metres. Crikey. If you do try this at full pelt, be warned, as you'll probably feel a bit doggo afterwards. A slightly milder variant was recently unearthed on the Concept 2 Message Board (http://www.concept2.co.uk/messageboard.htm) in a post by Aussie Steve Lydell: "Here is something different for anyone out there who is looking for a new ergo challenge. We have a competition that has been on going for the last couple of years. It involves any competitor at the surf club (swimmers, runners, ski paddlers as well as boat rowers) and it usually occurs about two or three hours into a bar session. Whoever happens to be there at the specific time will head out to the gymnasium and commence the 'World 10 second ergo championship'. "We'll set the damper to 10 and the countdown clock to 10 seconds, and with someone standing at the front of the ergo we will try to break the world record. The current record stands at 69 metres, and has been achieved twice. Once by a boat rower and once by a ski paddler. We have yet to break that elusive 70 metre barrier, but with a core group of regulars consistently scoring 68 metres I can almost smell a new record." ========================================================= Distance Awards ========================================================= One of the more familiar faces in Indoor Rowing is Kentish man Harry Welsh. An ever-present on the scene from day one, as well as competing in most of the last decade of British and World championships, he's been responsible for a couple of Top Tips in past newsletters (see issues 22 and 33 for further detail). He's also the author of Distance Tips on the Distance Award Scheme page of the Concept 2 web site (http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/dist_award.htm) an article written shortly after Harry had mullered his way through the 15 million metre mark. Now it looks like we might have to ask him for a revised version of article, as Harry's just burst through the 20 million metre mark, the first ever Brit to do so. Unfortunately, due to recent medical problems, while Harry can still do low-level aerobic work, he can no longer do any hard training or competition. His presence will be missed at this year's BIRC, although his performances over the years won't be forgotten. Especially by those who saw him two years ago when he had to weigh-in clad just in his underpants, his false teeth and glasses, beside on a table in order to make the weight. No matter how hard they might try. Also worthy of congratulation in the distance stakes is Peter Hawney. Last July Peter took part in a Commit To Get Fit (http://www.committogetfit.com) scheme at his local gym, Coldharbour Leisure Centre in New Eltham. Challenged to row a quarter of a million metres in the month, despite having to double his usual load, Peter ended up covering 300,000 metres, raising 217.50 pounds Imperial Cancer Research in the process. According to Peter, "The longer rows have resulted in me losing about 7 kilos, and if I continue to row approximately 60,000m a week, come November I might make lightweight in the 50-54 age group for BIRC." ========================================================= British Record Holder: Ross Abley Redux ========================================================= No sooner had the ink set on Ross Abley's new British 80-89 Lwt record then he only went and broke it all over again. The new mark now stands at 8:44.7. Ross is hoping to attend this year's British Championship where he looks to be one of the favourites, not only for gold, but for the Millennium Cup, awarded to the best age handicapped time (see http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/news.php?news=millennium_cup.inc) ========================================================= One Hour Team Records ========================================================= It seems that nowadays it's not a proper newsletter if there ain't a report about a BG team breaking a one hour team record. This time around it's the BG Babes who have inked themselves into the record books with 16,319 metres. Congrats all round to Mala Chohan, Cara Catherall, Lenice Prosser and Clare Borsberry. All records can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/brit_world_records.thm ______________________________________________________FEEDBACK Like what you read? Dislike what you read? Ideas for future newsletters? Spotted a really silly error that would have been picked up by an eight year old pruf-reader? Make sure to tell us at webmaster@concept2.co.uk. Or, of course, you could always say something at our message board: http://www.concept2.co.uk/messageboard.htm. Oh go on. _____________________________________________________BACK ISSUES Back issues of the Indoor Rowing News are now available on-line at http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/newsletter_index.php3. New issues will be posted on the release date of the following newsletter. _______________________________________________SUBSCRIPTION INFO "I'll be jiggered if I ever read another one of these": Reply with "unsubscribe" as the header. "What on earth are they sending me two copies for?": Reply with "multiple" as the header.