Indoor Rowing N E W S L E T T E R =========================== 11-Feb-2000 ========================= _________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S 1. 2000 World Championship 2. Tel's Tales #1 3. Concept 2 Dyno 4. Tel's Tales #2 5. Race News 6. Rob Waddell 7. Tel's Tales #3 8. Fastest Indoor Rower In The World (Part 3) 9. The X Zone _________________________________________________________________ ================================================================= 1. 2000 World Championship ================================================================= The World Championship is drawing closer and closer. Taking place once again in Boston (the one in the States, not Lincolnshire), this year the highlight of the indoor rowing calendar falls on February 20th. As this is Olympic year some of the biggest names, such as Steve Redgrave, won't be able to make it as they're locked in training camps. Despite this, the line up promises to be one of the strongest yet. Many of the American Olympic rowers will be competing, and other international indoor rowing stars such as Jean-Paul Tardieu and Rob Waddell will be there. We'll be running a results service on the day, and our team of cameramen will be trying to catch as many of the British competitors as possible. For the full list of British competitors and the latest race news, visit ================================================================= 2. Tel's Tales #1 ================================================================= The first in our regular series of columns written by three-times Olympic Rowing Coach Terry O'Neill. If you've got a question you want answering, just write to webmaster@vermonthouse.co.uk . Steve Lever: "I am 46 years old and 16 stone. I always have the vane setting on 10. At this setting I have achieved some reasonable (by my standards) times. My best being 19 minutes 18 seconds for 5000 metres. and sub 9 minutes for 2000 metres, though I am not happy with never breaking 8 minutes! "Reading your newsletter, am I to assume that if I reduce the resistance I can increase my stroke rate? Will this aid in getting better times? Will this work over 2000m? I ask the last question because I would like to better the younger element at the local gym!" Terry O'Neill: First of all, you'll have to bear with me while I explain the way the damper works. When you have the damper set on 10, it's wide open and thus allows the maximum air flow through the flywheel. With the damper set on 1 then you have the minimum air flow through the flywheel; as the flywheel spins, it spins the air that is trapped inside the cage. Once you have the air spinning then the resistance or drag is low. With the damper wide open the air inside the cage is forced out and fresh air is drawn in and so the drag is higher. Oarsmen want to replicate the feeling of a moving boat and train at the stroke rate that is required in a rowing race. They will tend to set the damper on 3 or 4 and rate around 35 strokes a minute. A lot of world best times are held by people using this technique but they will have been training in this way for years; to a certain extent the question is whether it's the years of training or the damper setting that gives them their results. You are a big man at 16 stone and may find it more suitable to use a lower stroke rate on the higher damper setting than a higher stroke rate on a lower setting. The reason for this is that just moving your body up and down the slide will account for 30% of your energy - energy that therefore is not available to improve your score. With training your endurance should improve and, as it does, gradually reduce the damper setting and increase the stroke rate. By monitoring your progress you will find what damper setting and stroke rate is best for you ================================================================= 3. Concept 2 Dyno ================================================================= With no little fanfare, Concept 2 has brought out their first new machine after twenty years of concentrating on the Indoor Rower. The Concept 2 Dyno takes the air resistance principals of the Indoor Rower and applies them to strength training with three basic exercises - the leg press, the bench press and the bench pull. The flywheel on the Dyno produces a more versatile range of resistance options than the Indoor Rower - with eight damper levers controlling airflow to the fan. This creates a range of drag factors which in turn mimic the different weight loads. This means that up to 500kg can effectively be 'lifted' on a machine which weighs 55kg. It also counteracts a shortfall in traditional weight-based equipment. As the power produced by a muscle is not constant throughout its contraction, traditional weight-lifting is limited to the maximum weight which can be lifted at the weakest point in the muscle contraction. Dynamic strength training enables the muscle to be fully challenged throughout the lift as the resistance is created in dynamic response to the effort of the user. Using air resistance to develop strength also eliminates the potential dangers of free weights dropping when an athlete cannot complete a heavy lift. Although the Dyno is not on sale until March 1, we are taking advanced orders. If you want to catch a sneak preview, go to our web-site at http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/index.html and check out the What's New box. ================================================================= 4. Tel's Tales #2 ================================================================= Roger Phipps had a question about Heart Rates: "With reference to the use of a Heart Rate Monitor when rowing, any tips about how quickly your rate should decline from the maximum rate identified by your "45 second burst" mentioned in the last Newsletter. I read somewhere that how quickly (or slowly) the rate falls off after tough exercise is a good measure as to the state of one's ticker." Terry O'Neill: The quicker your heart rate returns to normal after a burst of exercise is not so much an indication of your heart's condition but your overall fitness. The heart rate increases as a response to the demand for more oxygen from the muscles involved in exercise. The keyword here is response. You start the exercise and then the heart kicks in, ups the rate and pumps the blood round. There is therefore a delay from the commencement of exercise to the heart rate increasing, and the heart rate may continue to increase even when you have stopped hard work. Then, as a response to the reduced demand for oxygen the heart rate will start to fall. As a means to measure your fitness, try this: One minute post-exercise take your heart rate, this will allow for any increase in heart rate after you stop exercise. Then take it each minute for two more minutes. Then at 5 minutes and finally ten minutes record the rate and plot the heart rate against time. You can do this once a month and you can see the rate fall against time. ================================================================= 5. Race News ================================================================= The big event of the last fortnight was the Northern Indoor Rowing Championship (formerly known as the North of England IRC), held in Rochdale on the 30th January. With 450 entrants, the Championship is the biggest indoor rowing competition in Britain after the British Championship, and the day saw several excellent performances. Kevin McKeown, competing in the 60+ Heavyweight Men finished third in the race, but broke his own 70-79 British Record with a time of 7:35.1. George Meredith also broke his own British Record for the 50-59 Lightweight Men at the championship, setting a new mark of 6:39.1. George holds the British record for his age group at 2000, 5000 and 10000 metres, an impressive feat for one who's never rowed on water. The time of the day, however, must go to Helen Mangan of Runcorn Rowing Club. In winning the Women's 40-49 Lightweight in 7:23.2, Helen set a new World Record breaking the old one held by Suzi Molz-Evans from the United States. The biggest record-breaking news comes from the British Women's Olympic Trial, where Cath Bishop picked up Britain's ninth World Record. Cath, who won this year's British Indoor Rowing Championship after an enthralling battle with Kath Grainger, shattered Katrin Boron of Germany's previous record time of 6:33.4, with 6:32.6 to become the fastest women ever over 2000 metres. Unfortunately, Olympic training prevents Cath from defending her World crown in Boston, although hopes are still high that Kath Grainger may fly the flag for Britain in that event. ================================================================= 6. Rob Waddell ================================================================= As we mentioned, many of the biggest names in indoor rowing will be unavoidably missing from the World Championship. Possibly the biggest name of all, in both varieties of rowing, Rob Waddell will definitely be there however, come hell or high water. Rob was recently voted Sportsman of the Year in his native New Zealand and will be attending a New Zealand Sportsman of the Century Dinner the night before flying to Boston, only arriving on the Friday before. In a sport often dominated by the large, Rob tips the scales at a comparatively small 6'7" and 100 kilos. In the words of one New Zealand rower, "he looks like a peanut compared to the likes of Matthias Siejkowski. Mind you, we all look like peanuts compared to Matthias." Despite this he's been the dominant force in indoor rowing for the last couple of years. Although narrowly pipped to the post in the 1997 world championship by Siejkowski, he returned to win the next year and took his revenge on the German by defeating him in a head-to-head battle at last year's championship. In 1999 he took over a second off his own world record when he rowed 5:38.3 at the final New Zealand Olympic selection trials, while this year he ran up 15:04 for the 5000 metres and has been training harder than ever, clocking up some serious on-water mileage. According to those in the know, Rob has the potential to be the first person to go under the 5:30 mark on the Indoor Rower, a feat undreamt of a couple of years ago. ================================================================= 7. Tel's Tales #3 ================================================================= Graham Richardson: "I have been training on a regular basis for 18 months at my local gym (Academy, Harrogate), I have always included the Concept 2 as part of my regime, and indeed have invested in one at home. More recently my instructors have changed my programme to include 5 shuttles of 250 metres working at full capacity, I normally achieve a sub 50 second time for this distance. "How will this improve my overall cardio-vascular fitness? - I had previously worked on the basis of one 2000 metres stint or two 1000 metres - assuming that cardio-vascular stamina was more desirable. Resistance level is normally set to 8, max heart rate that I attain during the 250 is circa 175, I am 35 and weigh 83kg. Also, have you any tips for the shorter rower, I am 5ft 8 and feel I have to work harder that a 6ft rower to achieve the same result." Terry O'Neill: By giving you 250 metre shuttles, your instructor has decided you need to train in a higher intensity band. This could be for physiological reasons or just to ring the changes but both are perfectly valid. The physical demands of a 2000 metre row will challenge all of your energy supplies. You are correct to say that you need stamina but you also need power and so you will need to train in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, in a sport where reach is a factor, the taller rower will always have a mechanical advantage. What you must not do is try to compensate for your lack of height by overreaching and getting into weak positions. The way to overcome your lack of reach is to increase your stroke rate. To simplify, you are 5'8" and you compare yourself to someone of 6'. You're 94% of his height so let us assume you can only row 94% of his stroke length. Then, if the taller man rows at a stroke rate of 26, you will have to rate at 27.5 strokes per minute. ================================================================= 8. Fastest Indoor Rower In The World (Part 3) ================================================================= Last newsletter we inaugurated a competition to find the "fastest indoor rower in the world". Amongst the answers, both Mark Hough and Nick Butcher pointed out that, as the Indoor Rower is used by NASA to train its astronauts, one of these is undoubtedly the quickest. We decided, on entirely arbitrary grounds, to disqualify this as an answer due to them in fact being the fastest indoor rowers out of this world. Instead the prize goes to Ivan Pentz. An international oarsman, Ivan was the stroke in the South African eight at the Barcelona Olympics, where in finishing eighth overall, they broke the old African record by over 20 seconds. He also rowed in the 1993 world championships and was un-beaten in a scull over 2000m in South Africa between 1982 and 1990. For the last two years Ivan's also taken home the silver medal in the 40 - 44 age group at the British Indoor Rowing Championships, posting 6:15.1 on both occasions. An impressive resume, and one more than matched by his job as a test pilot in the South African Air Force, where he is involved in a Hercules Upgrade Project at Marshall Aerospace in Cambridge. The primary fighter in the SAAF, until recently, was the Mirage F1 and on two occasions Ivan's flown the Mirage to Mach 2. Speaking about his flying, Ivan says "Mach 2 is a sortie each new Mirage pilot would fly towards the end of his conversion course. The exercise is not inherently dangerous, although with only 20 hours "on-type" there are certain aspects which one becomes keenly aware of. At Mach 2 the aircraft is being flown at the edge of the envelope in more ways than one. At 50,000 ft one is only 5000 ft below the maximum design height of the Mirage F1, which one pops up to any way to bleed the speed at the end of the run. When the aircraft eventually gets to Mach 2 you have been flying at full afterburner for the best part of 10 minutes. There is also a red warning which threatens to blink as the aircraft skin temperature reaches its maximum. Most significantly, you are flying at twice the speed of most rifle bullets. Notwithstanding, at 50,000 ft the sky is a dark blue, the curvature of the earth is noticeable and the earth moves exceedingly rapidly below you. Most significantly, it's a real buzz which is just reward for the effort and dedication required in becoming a fighter pilot." ================================================================= 9. The X Zone ================================================================= Back for its second year, the format of The X Zone has changed slightly. The five disciplines in the preliminary stages are Running, Rowing, Stepping, Cycling and Press Ups and entrants are asked to complete the five disciplines in the lowest time possible depending on their fitness. Blue, the first step on The X Zone, is designed with the starter in mind. Red is slightly tougher training but should be achievable - with a bit of work - for the majority of fit people. Black is not for the faint-hearted and is a serious physical challenge. Those who record the fastest times by mid- March will receive an invite to the Grand TV Final in May. For more information on the various exercises, check out their web-site at www.xzone.org _________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________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 _________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________SUBSCRIPTION INFO If you think you're on this mailing list accidentally, just return the e-mail with "unsubscribe" in the subject 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