Cross Training: Rowing

[mike]

That's absolutely without question the most depressing stretch of river I've ever rowed on.  Look over your shoulder and you can see the banks converge to a point.  It's like the barrel of a gun, a cold and windy gun with white horses and no view whatsoever.

Poor sods!

I think peterborough is worse - similarly dull and straight but at least at Ely you... nope, can't do it, they're both dire.  Good for coaching on though!!

[Marco Stefano]

That's absolutely without question the most depressing stretch of river I've ever rowed on.  Look over your shoulder and you can see the banks converge to a point.  It's like the barrel of a gun, a cold and windy gun with white horses and no view whatsoever.

Poor sods!

Wind from the NE - agreed, it can be horrible, even when there is usually little stream to speak of. A lot of the time it's fine, honestly. Few distractions either (barring CUBC pairs, the most dangerous species on the river).

When the Great Ouse Marathon was run Ely - Denver some decades ago, a friend recalled starting in an eight and finding it somewhat depressing to still be able to see the cathedral about 45 minutes later...

[Marco Stefano]

Trial eights next week for the university rowers...

Are Trial 8s running downstream (Ely - Littleport)? Hope to be watching; women & lightweights also?

yep, starting at the tiny flag just after the adelaide bridge - which lines up with the commemorative marker on the road side bank where the race started in 1948 (?).  Not sure on timings but it'll be the openweight men and women in eights, plus the lightweight women in fours and lightweight men in eights (I think) - although oxford lightweight men still havent agreed to racing in Ely. I'll post here as soon as I find out times, if you like..   Look out for me on a launch following the women!

Yes please, Mike - I'd like to see them all, timings would be useful if you can get them.

The last race was 1944 (apart from the 'Diamond 44' re-run in 2004, out of which popped Isle of Ely RC) - the marker is the Diamond 44 finish. Hope there is room to slow at Littleport in a close race, only room for one under the bridge...

[mike]

Yes please, Mike - I'd like to see them all, timings would be useful if you can get them.

I only have the timings for the women:
8:15 - 9.00 Openweights pre-paddle
8.30 - 9.15 Lightweights pre-paddle

[plenty of time for weigh-in and briefings]

12.15 Openweight women race
13.30 Lightweight women race

So the two mens races could be either 9.30 and 11 which I think is unlikely, given they'll need time to have a pre-paddle, weigh in and have and briefings or after the women at 2.45 and 4..   the gap between races just about gives time for everyone to row home, get out of the way and swap launches to the next load of people!

then Oxford repeat it all on friday!   It's all being recorded and will be put online next week on the boat race website and youtube, i think.

The finish line is about 75 yards before the bridge, so hopefully we'll be OK!

[simonp]

That's absolutely without question the most depressing stretch of river I've ever rowed on.  Look over your shoulder and you can see the banks converge to a point.  It's like the barrel of a gun, a cold and windy gun with white horses and no view whatsoever.

Poor sods!

I'd quite like to try rowing on a straight river at least once, though actually given my tendency to veer to bow side in a single, a circular one would be better still.

[Marco Stefano]

Thanks for the info Mike; unfortunately I missed them due to grandparental duties.

At least you had decent conditions; much windier on Friday, gusty tailwind. I had a trundle down to Queen Adelaide on Friday and saw a few Oxford crews off, presumably on warmups since no racing was involved.

[mike]

we had a lovely day!  Openweight women went exactly as expected (one crew got 1/2 length up off the start and then got rowed through at about 1500m and lost by a few lengths), lightweight women were much closer than we thought.  A surprising amount of steering considering it's a straight river...  https://www.theboatrace.org/ were filming all day so should be putting up clips during this week.  They had an amazing drone which hopefully got some great footage.

I think oxford were racing on Saturday.

I finally got a decent pic with the cathedral in the bg of one of the crews warming up:


& the same crew racing later:


and for balance, here's the other crew (on a different morning!)

[mike]

And I thought I'd give the holiday challenge a go, aiming for 100km between thanksgiving and christmas, I've enjoyed it a lot more than I expected and I just went through 200km... 300 by christmas?

as of last night, 300k done!   Went for a ride on tuesday and it has ruined my legs, might take a few days off the erg now!

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

And I thought I'd give the holiday challenge a go, aiming for 100km between thanksgiving and christmas, I've enjoyed it a lot more than I expected and I just went through 200km... 300 by christmas?

as of last night, 300k done!   Went for a ride on tuesday and it has ruined my legs, might take a few days off the erg now!

Well done.  I stopped at 250k.  However, it seems to have helped my legs.  Am able to hold the power down on some of my little local hills better than a month ago.  Am going for The Haul (15 hours in January), which will probably end up being a similar distance.   

With 200k+ you should qualify for the little pin from Concept II

[UKJim]

Sorry to hijack the thread but anyone have a good suggestion for a home rowing machine?

[mike]

concept2 is the gold standard that most rowers use, and the only one that'll let you compare scores with others. 

Hard to buy new at the mo, but they do come up on ebay and are pretty much indestructible so dont worry too much about getting a model C or D - they're essentially the same machine with a different monitor.  To get proper connection to your phone and the world you'll need to retrofit a PM5 monitor, if it doesnt already have one. (£155 here: https://shop-uk.concept2.com/performance-monitors/338-pm5-monitor.html )

[ElyDave]

C2's last forever, I bought my model C second hand about 15 years ago, with a PM2+ which died, I seem to remember a standard repair at the time that I could do at home. Now has a PM4 which has been going strong.  Though my use of it has dwindled massively from my >>1mm/yr I still use it now and then and although I've thought about selling a few times, could never bring myself to do so.

Will probably do half an hour cross training on it this evening

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Am 6 days into The Haul - 15 hours on the Concept II in January, 3 hours 10 minutes so far, so just ahead of schedule.

[mike]

Am 6 days into The Haul - 15 hours on the Concept II in January, 3 hours 10 minutes so far, so just ahead of schedule.

good work! I've had a couple of days off with a foot too sore to push off [gout] - back on this afternoon, hopefully! 

and after a couple of days off to recover, the 300k in December meant I was flying up a couple of the short, sharp slopes around here on boxing day (on the long steady ones, sadly not so much..)

[freeflow]

So this Year's new year resolution came to a grinding halt today.  Our (very old) Tinturi rowing machine died with a ghastly grating sound.  (It was still suffering from the shock of having its comfy layer of dust removed and being pressed into action in what it thought were its retirement years).


The pulling rope no longer retracts and having had a look inside there is no obvious thing that I can fiddle with to make a repair.


Does anyone have any recommendations for a low cost replacement?

[L CC]

Anything low cost will only be worth what you paid for it.

There's a reason most of us on this thread have/use Concept2.

[mike]

What she said.  We still use a Concept2 model B from about 1990 as a boat-bay coaching / warmup machine.  The feel and the scores are identical to the nearly-new model Ds, its just bloody noisy (and the footplate is crap).

[Davef]

The first concept 2 I used the wheel was an actual bicycle wheel with a 5 speed block, and plastic flaps attached to the spokes. Distance was a clickety old school bike mileometer

[De Sisti]

concept2
Hard to buy new at the mo, but they do come up on ebay

Brand new the waiting is about 15 -20 weeks and the cost is approx £820.
I have seen pre-owned models on ebay for about £500.

[simonp]

That waiting list seems to only be getting longer.

[ElyDave]

The first concept 2 I used the wheel was an actual bicycle wheel with a 5 speed block, and plastic flaps attached to the spokes. Distance was a clickety old school bike mileometer

The first gym I went to had those, they upgraded to model B's with the plywood footplates and PM on the fan cage

[Davef]

The first concept 2 I used the wheel was an actual bicycle wheel with a 5 speed block, and plastic flaps attached to the spokes. Distance was a clickety old school bike mileometer

The first gym I went to had those, they upgraded to model B's with the plywood footplates and PM on the fan cage

Back then it wasn’t a rowing machine, it was an ergometer . Rowing machines were what you got from Argos.

[UKJim]

Thanks I am stuck between getting a Concept 2 or a JLL Ventus 2
https://www.concept2.com/
or
https://www.sports-supplements-compare.co.uk/jll-ventus-2-air-rowing-machine-uk/

If I can find a 2nd hand Concept localy I will go with that.

[De Sisti]

concept2
Hard to buy new at the mo, but they do come up on ebay

Brand new the waiting is about 15 -20 weeks and the cost is approx £820.
I have seen pre-owned models on ebay for about £500.

Mine has been put back, so probably sometime in March.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Having done 250k in December and deep into the 15 hours of the haul this month, noticed that I was able to keep a faster pace over an hour, so decided to have a go at a half-marathon PB today.   Knocked more than 2 minutes off the old time, so the distance has really made a difference.  I hope it transfers to the bike once the weather gets better and I can ride a reasonable distance from home.