Indoor Rowing N E W S L E T T E R =========================== 29-Feb-2000 ==================== _________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S 1. 2000 World Championship 2. New 100k Team Record 3. Tel's Tales #1 4. Race News 5. Distance News 6. Tel's Tales #2 7. Tel's Tales Extra _________________________________________________________________ ========================================================== 1. 2000 World Championship ========================================================== February 20th and the Reggie Lewis Track and Field Centre in Boston combined to play home to the jewel in the crown of indoor rowing, the World Indoor Rowing Championship. In an incredibly strong field, the British team acquitted themselves with aplomb, taking the cross-Atlantic flight back with a record number of medals stashed in the overhead lockers. As the full illustrated report of the event, which unfortunately carries no photos from the Sunday night's team party, is a bit too long for the newsletter, check it out on http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/world_champ_r.htm; the page also contains results for all the Europeans in each race, along with a list of medal winners. If anybody wants to read the report but doesn't have access to the World Wide Web, just reply to this e-mail with Report as the subject heading, and we'll get it e-mailed to you as tout de suite as possible. The fastest Men's time of the day was pulled, but of course, by the inimitable Rob Waddell of New Zealand who hammered the field in 5:40.2 to complete his hat-trick of World Championship titles. The two performances of the day, however, were almost certainly by American women. Amy Fuller and Lisa Schlenker won the Women's Open Hwt and the Women's Open Lwt respectively; further more, both did so in the world record times of 6:32.3 and 6:56.7, something especially impressive when you consider that the Open events at the World Championship are run on a heat and final format. British Medallists +++++++++++++ Gold ***** Colin Greenaway, Morden, Surrey, 30-39 Hwt Christina Nugent, Leeds, 30-39 Lwt Helen Mangan, Runcorn, 40-49 Lwt Noel Frost, Upper Thames RC, 60-69 Lwt Herbert Leah, Cheadle Hulme, 70-79 Lwt Paddy Rouse, Isle of Wight, 70-79 Lwt Silver ****** Jane Fisher, Upton-On-Severn, 30-39 Hwt George Meredith, Northfleet, Kent, 50-59 Lwt Philip Stubley, Leeds, 60-69 Lwt Mavis Surridge, South Reading, 70-79 Lwt Maurice White, Skegness, 70-79 Lwt Bert South, USA, 80-89 Lwt Bronze ******** Keith Atkinson, Nottingham, 60-69 Lwt Kevin McKeown, Cheshire, 70-79 Harry Welsh, Canterbury, 70-79 Lwt John Hodgson, Leeds, 80-89 Lwt ========================================================== 2. New 100k Team World Record ========================================================== If even the excitement of the World Indoor Rowing Championship has left you cold, then maybe the efforts of Royce's Gym in Wigan will stir your blood a little. On the same day as events were unfolding in Boston, the eponymous Royce oversaw ten of his biggest indoor rowing enthusiasts taking a shot at what was felt to be the most unassailable of the present world records: the Steve Redgrave-led Leander Club time of 4:44.23 for the 100,000 metre team event. With a team of giants ranging from 6'1 to 6'8, including Wigan Rugby League legend Graeme West and Orrell Rugby Union stars Paul Rees and Alex Bennett, if anybody looked like wresting it from Leander hands it was going to be them. Regular readers of the newsletter may recall that the Wigan team were due to make an attempt on the record at the Northern Indoor Rowing Championship; a flu bug waylaid their efforts on that occasion but this time there was no such trouble. Rowing in 200 metre bursts, they set off at a 500 metre split rate of 1:24.7 and, although they faltered a bit in the middle, a second wind meant they never once dropped below the asked for 1:25.3 split for each 500m. Their final time was a fantastic 4:40:48.1, nearly four minutes under the former record. Royce said, "It was a terrific achievement and I am really proud of them. I knew they would do it! We were a bit worried in the middle but an extra burst of adrenaline saw them home with minutes to spare. For the last 30,000 we were going in 150 metre intervals and people like Paul and Alex were pulling 1:12s for their splits. "We switched the music off at the end and the crowd of about 150 carried them home. It was just like Central Park [Wigan's Rugby League ground] in the old days! That record will take some beating, it would need some Olympians to have a go, but if it is ever cracked, we will have another go at it. Alex Bennett came up from London especially to take part and I'm ever so proud of the lot of them." Sponsorship money raised by the event will go to the Christie cancer hospital in Manchester. Anybody who fancies a crack at the distance should check out The Big One, a team 100,000 metre competition taking place in Somerset on March 19th. Further details can be found by e-mailing neil.rhodes@classicfm.net ========================================================== 3. Tels' Tales #1 ========================================================== Hoarse from his efforts as British team manager at the World Champs, we've still managed to get Terry O'Neill to tap out the answers to this fortnight's questions. If you've got a question you'd like Terry to answer, just send it along to webmaster@vermonthouse.co.uk. Today's first question is from Bruce Harris. "I am 44, 6' tall and fairly fit (sub 7:30 for 2000 metres). My question regards cardio workouts. I like to vary my workouts, sometimes high performance (150-160 beats per minute), sometimes long steady fat burning sessions (125-130 b.p.m). There are workouts that I like where I run hard for 3 miles then bring my heart rate down and do 40 minutes at the fat burning rate. Would this session still be regarded as fat burning even though it is immediately preceded by a high performance run?" Tel says: The simple answer to your question is yes, you would be burning fat. Like most things in life, however, it is not that simple. What people generally refer to as fat burning exercise is low intensity work where fat is the major fuel. These sessions are usually 30 minutes or more in duration. Even at a low intensity fat will only provide 60% of the energy with the other 40% being carbohydrates. At a very high intensity you can be burning 100% carbohydrates, so the fuel mix is on a sliding scale. At a high intensity you burn fat at a higher rate but the sessions have to be shorter, and they are difficult to repeat on a daily basis. To burn off fat you have to look longer term rather than session by session. If you follow a hard run with a 40 minute low intensity row, we would call this an active recovery session. The major benefit you would gain from this combination is that during the 40 minute row, the heart rate is kept elevated and the increased blood flow through the muscles will flush out any debris caused by the impact of running. This will reduce stiffness in the muscles and also speed up the shunting of any lactic acid built up in your legs. This training programme is ideal for players of hockey, rugby and football who sustain a lot of impact damage during a match. If you enjoy this type of training then it's a good session; I would not, although, recommend this session close to an attempt at improving your 2k rowing time. ========================================================== 4. Race News ========================================================== Turns out we missed a record at last month's Northern Indoor Rowing Championship. Eleven year-old Faridah Newman from Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club broke the J12 record by over thirteen seconds, rowing 8:14.1. Faridah will still be eligible to race as a J12 when next year's British Championships roll around, and has her sights set on Danish girl Fie Udby's world record of 7:30.3. The next indoor rowing championship is the Cornish Open, which takes place on March 12th. For details on this, and all the other events taking place up and down the country, check out our web-site at www.concept2.co.uk/v4/calendar.htm ========================================================== 5. Distance News ========================================================== (Belated) marathon news: If April is the cruellest month, according to T.S.Eliot at least, then December seems to be the best month for long distance rows. First off, staff and members of Dimensions Health Studio at Bedworth Leisure Centre staged a sponsored row to raise the funds to buy a Concept 2 Indoor Rower for the home use of gym member Jeanette Hayes, who is affected by cerebral palsy. The challenge was for gym instructor Stuart Boyden and gym member Sue Cooke (the U.K. and Irish Marathon Lightweight record holder) to do individual 100,000 metres. Supporting Stuart and Sue were six other gym members attempting the 42,194 metre marathon distance. Stuart completed the row in 8:15:54 while Sue did 9:51:35, both excellent times, although Sue feels she can go faster next time (next time! sheesh). All the marathon rows were completed in personal best times of under three hours and, when all the sponsorship money was totted up, there was enough to pay for an Indoor Rower for Jeanette. Also that month, eight oarsmen from Calpe Rowing Club in Gibraltar completed the marathon distance of 42,194 metres, raising over £500 for R.I.C.C. (Research Into Childhood Cancer). As well as this eight, two oarswomen each completed a half marathon each, and a group of junior boys and girls completed the marathon distance together. Meanwhile, one of our Norwegian readers, Paal Svensson, wrote to tell us of his club, Christiania Rowing, and their fondness for arranging marathon and half-marathon events. At the last one of these Tore Foss of Boler RC actually broke the world record for the marathon, recording a time of 2:30.25 for the distance. With the marathon distance obviously getting a little too easy, this April they're planning a 100 kilometre individual event. ========================================================== 6. Tel's Tales #2 ========================================================== Darren Jones also had a question about heart rates: "As well as using the Concept 2, my wife and I ride bicycles as part of cross- training, and do so wearing heart rate monitors. When going up a decent sized hill, she (28 years old, not overweight, but not as fit as she would like) frequently has a heart rate of more than 100% of maximum rate as defined by the usual 220 minus age equation. This also happens to us both when doing a 2000m test. What recommendations could you make regarding sustaining very high output levels for non-professional sportspeople?" Tel says: A measure of your physical condition is your ability to do prolonged work close to your max heart rate. As a result of training, anaerobic threshold is pushed up to around 85% of heart rate max. The heart also benefits and increases the amount of blood it is able to pump around each beat. This means that for a given task, as you get fitter your heart rate will come down or alternately you will be able to do more work at a given heart rate. Unless you have some heart or circulatory problems I do not believe there is any danger in going flat out. Training at the higher heart rate will have the most impact on your cardio-vascular system with low heart rate exercise improving muscular efficiency. It's all in the Concept 2 training book that you can get off our web-site. ========================================================== 7. Tel's Tales Extra ========================================================== The most common query we receive is regarding heart rate bands. Most people say that when they are training on the heart rate recommended they feel that they are not getting a hard enough work out. The problem is that the recommended heart rate bands are based on the formula that maximum heart rate = 220 - age but this gives you an average figure. The size of the average family in Britain is 2.2 children but I don't know anyone who has 2.2 children. No doubt there is someone who actually has a maximum heart rate of 220 - age, most likely some yak farmer in Outer Mongolia. So for all you non-yak herders in suburbia, I am going to tell you how to determine your own maximum heart rate, or MHR as it is known in the trade. First of all a word of warning, you should be fit and healthy before you carry out this procedure. You should not have drunk alcohol in the previous 24 hours nor have drunk strong tea or coffee in the previous 3-4 hours. You will need a Concept 2 Indoor Rower and a heart rate monitor and interface. Run through your normal warm up routine and when this is done you are ready to start. Set up the monitor by first pressing READY+TIME and using the set digits, set the split time to 1:30. With the main display set to 500m split time, row for 1m 30secs at a heart rate that does not exceed 140 b.p.m Increase the power by 25 watts and continue for another 1m 30secs. Continue increasing the power by 25 watts each 1m 30secs until you blow. (The conversion chart from 500m split time to Watts is on page 69 of the training guide, available from our web-site at http://www.concept2.co.uk/v4/training_prog.htm). By pressing recall you can read off your heart every 1:30 and you can record the highest figure, which will be your own MHR. If you don't have an interface then you will need someone to help you by recording the heart rate from the wrist monitor. When you have found your own MHR, you can amend the programme, substituting your own figures for the training percentages indicated. You will also know why we didn't think it was a good idea to encourage everyone to attempt this test! __________________________________________________F E E D B A C K Like what you read? Dislike what you read? Ideas for future newsletters? 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