How many meters did you row/erg today?

Scrimmaged a local club crew on saturday. Took 2 of 3 pieces against them. On our best piece, we did 1000m in 2:48, taking a length of open. Midwest Championships are Sunday in Oak Ridge, Tenn. I'm so damn psyched.

Originally Posted by wmmk

Click to expand...

Scrimmaged a local club crew on saturday. Took 2 of 3 pieces against them. On our best piece, we did 1000m in 2:48, taking a length of open. Midwest Championships are Sunday in Oak Ridge, Tenn. I'm so damn psyched.

Good luck!

My gym got brand new concept II's today!!!! So excited to pull on em! No so excited to watch the guy next to twist the damn chain with some of that stupid side pulling crap.

Laid down one of our worst pieces of the year yesterday. We started sloppy, settled to too high a rate, and didn't respond well when the cox called for moves. We ended up coming in 3rd at Midwest, and two boats in the 2V8 qualify for SRAA nationals. So this is the end of my high school rowing career. I'm crushed.

Originally Posted by wmmk

Click to expand...

Laid down one of our worst pieces of the year yesterday. We started sloppy, settled to too high a rate, and didn't respond well when the cox called for moves. We ended up coming in 3rd at Midwest, and two boats in the 2V8 qualify for SRAA nationals. So this is the end of my high school rowing career. I'm crushed.

That's really tough dude, and I know there's not a lot anyone can say to make it feel better. It's so much worse to lose a race and know that you could've done better. The last race of my high school career we were in second the entire race, until the last 5 strokes when a school we'd beaten two weeks earlier walked through us. I still haven't really gotten over it, but it's definitely served as fuel. Next time you're in college doing a hard workout think about that race and how you felt afterward.

Is anyone at IRA this weekend? I've heard about a bit of debris out there on the course. Any other news? Predictions?

V8: UW, Harvard, Cal
2V: UW, Cal, Harvard
F8: Cal, Harvard, UW

Hmm, see a recurring trend here? I could also see Princeton edging Cal in the V8 for 3rd, but not very likely.

Princeton might be fast in the F8 as well, but not fast enough for the rest.

Originally Posted by unclesam099

Click to expand...

Is anyone at IRA this weekend? I've heard about a bit of debris out there on the course. Any other news? Predictions?

V8: UW, Harvard, Cal
2V: UW, Cal, Harvard
F8: Cal, Harvard, UW

Hmm, see a recurring trend here? I could also see Princeton edging Cal in the V8 for 3rd, but not very likely.

Princeton might be fast in the F8 as well, but not fast enough for the rest.

Watched online. Some exciting races! Looks like you were pretty accurate on those predictions. The Cal frosh were impressive. Just drove down the course. V8 final was awesome.

^^ Really proud of the 100% non scholarship, majority walk on squad at UCSD. Impressed to even have them qualify for IRA

Can anyone remind me the proper or most efficient way to be pushing through your feet during the stroke?

Back in college I was pretty much all off my toes, engaging mostly my quads. I never really pushed through my heels to get my glutes really engaged. Now I'm trying to start with the ball of my foot and finish with my heel (It's hard for me to keep my heel down at the catch). Does this sound semi-normal?

Originally Posted by rjmaiorano

Click to expand...

Can anyone remind me the proper or most efficient way to be pushing through your feet during the stroke?

Back in college I was pretty much all off my toes, engaging mostly my quads. I never really pushed through my heels to get my glutes really engaged. Now I'm trying to start with the ball of my foot and finish with my heel (It's hard for me to keep my heel down at the catch). Does this sound semi-normal?

Yeah, pretty much. I've seen very few rowers with the ankle flexibility to keep the heels down at the catch.

There's a bit of ambiguity in your phrase "finish with the heel". I've found my best results have come from getting the heels down relatively quickly (by half-slide if not sooner), but I think your drag factor and some other stylistic matters could possibly make a difference.

Originally Posted by Gattopardo

Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty much. I've seen very few rowers with the ankle flexibility to keep the heels down at the catch. There's a bit of ambiguity in your phrase "finish with the heel". I've found my best results have come from getting the heels down relatively quickly (by half-slide if not sooner), but I think your drag factor and some other stylistic matters could possibly make a difference.
Its hard to explain the dropping of the heel, but of course I want it down as soon as possible (half slide or sooner as you said) because I can engage more muscles. Good to know I am not entirely messed up in my form. And my question is regarding erg form only, I'm not a member of a club so I am not on the water. Hopefully that will change soon. But my nearest water is 50 mins away . Just trying to remember how to vomit on the erg .

I was actually taught to initiate the drive through the heel, holding connection through the toes at the finish. It can feel awkward for a while, but I do think it ends up being pretty efficient.

Anyway, today was my first day back on the water since that last race. Took out a rec single at 6AM on Lincoln Park lagoon; it was beautiful out there, and the Chicago skyline was a nice backdrop. The single felt a little unset at first (this was maybe my second time ever in a 1x), so I started out with arms and back only, and gained some confidence by the end of my row, going at about 3/4 or 7/8 slide. I'll take the same shell out tomorrow, and hopefully be in a racing shell by Wednesday.

Tuesday was a good day in the single. Got up to full slide, maybe 80% pressure, and slightly higher rates.

This morning, it was thundering and raining heavily, so I erged at the boatclub. Did 4x10' (splits around 1:55, rates around 18-20), then went to take a piss in the locker room and passed a big ole kidney stone. My blood circulation got kind of temporarily messed up, I got really faint and dizzy, and the pain in my abs was giving me a hard time breathing. I ended up in the ER, but it's all good now. Hoping there's better weather tomorrow AM so I can get back on the water.

Originally Posted by chobochobo

Click to expand...

A newbie question, do you guys wear gloves to protect from blisters, if so what's recommended please?

No gloves.... man up.... rowers and blisters go hand in hand...

Have not posted here in a while, but glad to see that more people have turned this into a type of training log thread. Pretty cool. Have been quite busy myself with everything so my online activities get cut short to checking emails from my blackberry

Well, I have to say I love this time of the year. It's bright early in the morning and late into the evening... Makes the early mornings so much easier I think! I won't bore people with the ins and outs of our training. But as with most crews this time of the year, we have been on the water mostly. Winter is when the serious fitness work get's done, now it's just a matter of keeping everything ticking over and focussing on the OTW sessions.

Seat racing, 2k erg tests, and various other performance measures to aid crew selection are all behind us now and we have started to become comfortable as a crew again. There hasen't been any drastic changes, but a switch between 4 and 2 seat has been working out well. So that's the VIII... Have been rowing in a 4+ too. Out yesterday for a technical paddle. Wasn't expecting much considering an hour and a half earlier we had just collapsed on the slip after a tough work session in the eight. The 4+ was running extremely well between strokes, solid off the finish... Maybe we were just so tired after the work session that everyone was naturally relaxed The combination of this four is working well. We have our stoke, seven, four and bow from the eight.

All in all I think this is a great time of the year. The fitness is strong from a hard winter of training, the crews are set and water sessions are all about getting boats moving nicely. To the newcomers on this thread, I urge you to stick with it. I owe this sport so much and I think all rowers will agree to that. Sure, there are gonna be times when you don't make a crew selection, or pull a **** 2k time, or feel like jumping out of the boat because it's not sitting level..... but stick with it and you'll see that good outweigh the bad 100 times over! Those 5am starts, blistered hands and hours spent training are all forgotten about when your in a boat and it's running well. Even more so if it's running well as your bow ball passes the finish line ahead of everyone else!