OTW results

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gregsmith01748
Friend of the Free Spirits web site 2015
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Location: Hopkinton, MA, USA

Re: OTW results

Post by gregsmith01748 »

Yesterday I raced in Cambridge Massachusetts at the Cromwell cup regatta. It was a blast. Here's a summary.

Weather:  Sunny and Hot!  85F  Cross wind, about 7mph. I got to Riverside Boat Club at about 6AM and unloaded my stuff.  

Luckily I found a parking spot close to the action.  (I was worried that I wouldn't) I checked in and went to the Coxes and Coaches meeting at 6:20.  Then I found a few folks from Lake Quinsigamond and hung out until it was time to launch.  I was in race # 13.  Scheduled for 8:08.  

I launched around 7:20 and started to head up river. I was nervous.  Very jittery.  The boathouse is at the finish, and you have to make your way upriver through the same bridge spans that lane 1 uses coming down river.  So they post referees on each bridge to give you the all clear to go through.  I rowed nearly the whole way up to the start doing drills.  Arms only.  Arms and Body.  Legs Only.  Legs and Body.  

Once I was past the Weeks Footbridge, there is enough room to do a proper warmup.  So I started to my ten stroke on / ten stroke off rate ladder.  I found there was too much turning required, so I just did sets of twenty up and down this short section.  After I went through that, I did a few practice starts.  The first was horrible.  After that I calmed down a bit.

 Around 8:00, I paddled back down through Weeks and drifted toward the start. After a bit of backing and forthing they had us set up for the start.  In Lane 1 was a guy from Maine (Hornney).  He pulled a 6:30 erg at last years Crash-Bs, and did well in the Cromwell last year.  I figured he'd beat me by 5 to 10 seconds.  Maybe a boat length or two.  Lane 2 was another guy from Maine (Beretich).  I couldn't find as much info about him, but I figured I would be competitive with him.  In Lane 3 was another rower from Lake Quinsigamond.  I beat him by a little in last year's textile regatta, but I'd never matched up with him in a sprint race before.  I thought we'd be side by side as well.

We eventually got aligned and they called the start.  Which was helpfully captured by row2Ks cameras.  I'm in blue.

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I was slow off the line, but accelerated well and seemed to be even with everyone after about 10 strokes.  I didn't settle my pace down after 10 strokes because I didn't want to let these guys get away.  But around the 20th stroke, I did pull my rating down to 30 and focused on  trying to get way out over my feet for the catch.  At stroke 20 was the point to check my steering and I saw that I needed to make a little adjustment away from the center of the river to get lined up with the Boston side arch of the first bridge.  I did that while counting out my next twenty and I was through the bridge.  

At this point I looked across the other lanes and I saw that I was about half a length up on lane 3, lane 2 was a couple lengths behind me, and it looked like lane 1 was maybe half a length ahead of me.  I settled into this next set of 20 trying to focus on taking long strokes.  I was a bit distratced between the two bridges because there was a wakeless launch trailing with a photographer, who I swear had the longest telephoto lens ever.  I think this is the result of that.
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At the end of this twenty (60 strokes into the race), I checked for my line and discovered that I was drifting over toward the boston bank of the river.  So, I corrected as I went into my next 20 strokes.  This set I tried to focus on legs.  Really staying forward during the leg drive and getting my arms out an body over before I broke my knees on recovery.  I checked my line after 5 strokes and saw I was still off line and corrected more strongly.  This was about the slowest I got in race and I saw the pace drop below 2:00/500. I remembered what Sander had wrote about focusing on technique and I lightened up a bit and tried to take good smooth strokes the rest of the way through the second bridge.  This happened on schedule around 80 strokes.  

Coming out of the bridge, I noticed that I was still only about a length down on lane 1, and a couple lengths up on lane 3.  Lane 2 had not yet emerged from the bridge.  This was highly motivating.  I counted out another 20 strokes, allowing the rate to start creeping up and apparently lane 1 did the same thing because he actually started to pull a bit further ahead.  You can see this at 3:00 of the video, his bow just becomes visible as he puts in a push.  He continues to get further ahead until about 3:25 when I look over again. It was time to decide.  Either I could just row the rest of the race out and settle for second, or I could try to take this guy.  I decided to give it a go.  I had about 30 strokes left, so I threw everything I had at it.  I started to overtake him and I pushed the rate up even higher, it looked like we were right on line together.  I was rating up at 35 and rowing very sloppily.  I could hear a great "pock" noise at the catch because I was starting to drive to soon, but I just wanted to get more rate and get more strokes in before the end.

 I totally ignored the markings of the course and just rowed until I heard the beep.  There were two beeps right together, and neither me or lane 1 really knew who won the race.  I went for a nice cool down row and then came back to the dock.  I wandered over to the finish line officials and asked.  They told me I had come in second by 0.78 seconds.  My final time was 3:53.1.  

Although I would have loved to win a medal, I was delighted with the race.  I stuck to my plan.  The course was a blast to row.  The conditions were beautiful.  The race officials were friendly and helpful.  I rowed the fastest 1K I have ever rowed by probably about 6 seconds.  I am already looking forward to coming back next year.    

 I was 0.3% off winning time.  The guy who won the second heat (Loucks) beat me by 7 seconds at the Festival Sprints.  Today, my time was 5.5 seconds faster than his although he was not pushed at all in his race.  So, it's all good.

here is the video of the race:


Now I am off to Austria on business.  I'll try to do some cross training and start thinking about a specific Head Race Training plan.

There are more fun maps and graphs over on my wordpress site. The link is in my signature.
Greg - Age: 53 H: 182cm W: 88Kg (should be 83Kg)
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Training blog: https://quantifiedrowing.wordpress.com/
sander
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Location: Brno

Re: OTW results

Post by sander »

As I wrote on the blog, fantastic race. Good to see all the Quantified Rowing come together and bring results.
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Training Blog: http://blog.rowsandall.com/
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sander
Free Spirit
Posts: 451
Joined: Fri Dec 03, 2010 10:07 am
I row on...: Model C with PM5
Location: Brno

Re: OTW results

Post by sander »

Part 1 here: https://rowsandall.wordpress.com/2015/0 ... quick-row/

Pre-race

We got up at 6:30, had breakfast and headed to the meeting. As in many Masters sprint races, the races are split when the number of participants is larger than the number of lanes available. With 6 lanes and sometimes many participants, it was interesting to attend this meeting, hear the cancellations and get first hand information on how the races will be split. On top of what we know from Masters worlds, there were the following rules:

- If there are 4 or more participants in one age category in a given race, there will be gold, silver and bronze medals.

- If there are 3 or few participants in one age category in a given race, there will only be a gold medal for the winner of that age category in that race.

How does that work in practice? Take for example the men's single sculls in the A-C categories. There were 9 entries in the A category, 6 in B, and 12 in C. Easy. There are two races for A,with 4 and 5 participants, then a full field in B, and 2 races with a full field in C. As the bow number in your category is random, with 12 entries in C it was interesting to see who I would race against. It ended up with a "strong" race and a "weak" race (all on paper), and I was in the "strong" one with fast rowers.

More difficult was the ladies 2x, which ended up with a combined B/C race with three participants of each category and a gold medal handed out to the fastest B as well as the fastest C. You have to study this before you appear at the start, because you may get a medal even when you finish third.

I watched Romana win a bronze medal in the mixed eight (yay!), and then I headed back to my hotel room for some relaxation. My race was scheduled for 11:40 AM.

Single

11:40 time for my single race. Full field of 6 entrants. Absolute favorite was Petr Mitas on lane 2, with me placed second on paper in lane 3, but one should not forget Vladimir Milota over on lane 6. Dekanovsky and Brazda should not be underestimated as well. Suffice to say I was very nervous.

My race plan was to start fast, then do series of 10 strokes intervals rotating my focus between strong tap-down, not digging too deep, back swing, and back. As 500m I would assess my position in the field. If necessary to secure a medal position, I would do a set of ten strokes at 500m to go, and of course a strong last 250m if needed. Most probably Mitas would lead, and if I would challenge him would depend on how far he would be ahead of me. Hopefully I would not have to play catch-up.

The conditions were good. Slight cross wind. Air temperature 32C (very sunny and hot). Mirror flat water.

Ready - attention - row

I had a good start and did 10 very strong strokes immediately after that, then settling into my introspective technique focused rotation of sets of 10 strokes.

Of course I noticed that Mitas was half a length ahead and I was in a line with the others.

Fortunately, I started pulling away from the pack and after 200m I was rowing in a clear second position, one length ahead of Milota, with the three other rowers falling behind.

When I was through counting my sets and arrived at the 500m mark, Mitas was 2 lengths ahead of me, Milota was a length and a half behind me, and the rest was far enough behind to not be a threat.

I skipped the 500m intermediate sprint and started to watch Milota. Mitas was too far ahead. The only way to catch him was to row constant pace and hope that he would fly and die.

Mitas didn't die.  He won.

I came second, but I did have to do some work to counter Milota's attempts to get closer to me.

Looking at the end result, it seems Mr Dekanovsky got close to Milota and perhaps he was more busy defending his bronze than attacking my silver:

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SILVER!!!! HURRAY!!!

I was really happy with the result, and with the time. 3:38 rowed in a crosswind, I consider that my fastest race of this season so far. I have clocked faster times in the Hodonin and Slovakia Nationals but Hodonin is on a fast flowing river and Slovakia was with tailwind.

I happily collected my silver medal:

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Here are the statistics from CrewNerd. I didn't wear the HR belt so I have no heart rate data:

Code: Select all

|Start|Stop_|Dist_|Time_|_Pace__|_SPM__|DPS_|Remarks
|00000|01820|01820|17:08|04:42.4| 18.2 |05.8|pre race
|01820|01916|00096|00:20|01:43.8| 36.2 |08.0|100m #1
|01916|02019|00102|00:21|01:42.6| 34.4 |08.5|100m #2
|02019|02118|00100|00:21|01:45.4| 32.8 |08.7|100m #3
|02118|02216|00098|00:21|01:47.0| 32.8 |08.6|100m #4
|02216|02318|00101|00:23|01:53.3| 31.8 |08.3|100m #5
|02318|02420|00102|00:22|01:48.2| 31.4 |08.8|100m #6
|02420|02520|00100|00:23|01:54.6| 31.9 |08.2|100m #7
|02520|02618|00098|00:22|01:52.0| 32.9 |08.1|100m #8
|02618|02720|00102|00:24|01:57.9| 32.4 |07.9|100m #9
|02720|02817|00097|00:22|01:53.1| 33.1 |08.0|100m #10
|02817|04261|01443|13:00|04:30.2| 18.3 |06.1|cooling down
Good to see the stroke rates. During the race, there was too much sun to see anything on the iphone, so I ignored it and just focused on good rowing. Happy to see that I sustained a 32spm stroke rate and higher. After the race, Petr Mitas told me his ambition is to row a 3:25 time this year in Hazewinkel. I wish him good luck but I hope my race will be without him.

The Quad

Then it was time to relax, recover, and prepare for the quad race. I spent my time sitting under a tree watching the racing, eating high energy food (apple, dried fruit, energy bar, and something that I call "bird food"). It wouldn't have made sense to go for a full out lunch. I would be asleep by the time I would have to stroke the quad at 2:40pm, three hours after the single.

Watching the races was good fun. Also interesting to see how some older Masters have a very good service. I saw these two gentlemen arriving after their Pair's race. Two bikini clad ladies quickly entered the lake when they appeared and helped them hold their balance while they got ready to disembark:

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Notice the medals around their necks.

The quad race was a full field, 6 entries in the B category. Difficult to predict the result. We had won a year ago, but we had a less experienced sculler this year. Each of the other boats had a few good rowers and a few unknowns.

We launched 25 minutes before the race in bright sunshine and rowed towards the start. We did a few practice starts in the upper part of the lake, seeing a thunderstorm appearing from the south. One of the practice starts was rowed under distant lightning and thunder, which may sound interesting and exciting, but it is slightly scary as well. Hopefully, with the crosswind, the thunderstorm would not come near us.

Temperature at that point: 36 degrees C

Five minutes before the start time it started to rain. A few drops first. Big drops though. Then the rain density increased. Soon, it was a true, heavy downpour. The kind of rain where you see the drops hitting the water surface and creating a splash of a few centimers high. In the 2 minutes remaining to the start we were soaked.

Ready - Attention - Row

Stroking the quad, I had a very special experience during the first stroke. It seemed to happen in slow motion. At the "row" command I started to pull our first swelling, controlled half slide stroke, I heard the whooshing sound of the first stroke of all six quads and I just couldn't help but enjoy it.

Wow! I thought. This is it. This is why we row.

After that moment of joy, there was business to take care off.

I had instructed my quad to row very focused, eyes in the boat, in the first 500m, and I followed my own instructions. There was only our own quad, CrewNerd and the rudder. I needed to steer a straight course! After the start and a few strokes I checked the stroke rate.

40 spm.

Time to settle.

Tried to settle. Settled for 38spm. Too much adrenalin.

After about 200m my field of fiew featured a few boats and I concluded we were leading. I focused on the boat closest to us, Blesk from Prague, two lanes to my left.

We were rowing away from them.

Cool, I thought. We are in a leading position.

At 600m to go, however, the dream ended. This is when I started to realize that something was wrong. There were only 4 boats behind me. Neratovice, directly to our right in lane 3, must be ahead of us.

A quick glance. Yes, there they were. Two boat lengths ahead of us.

Shit.

Our bow man was supposed to give the call for the final sprint, somewhere between 500m to go and 300m to go.

He gave it with 300m to go. Later he told me he was too exhausted to dare to call earlier. I understand that. After the singles race, my legs were jelly at the half way point as well.

Anyway, we were doing a "leisurely" 36spm at that point (remember we had difficulty getting above 34spm in our trainings) and I increased the stroke rate to 38spm.

Still in the heavy rain.

Blesk was still two boat lengths behind us.

Somewhere around 200m to go we had reduced the margin to about just over a boat length.

Martin, in 2 seat, nearly caught a crab but managed to keep hold of his handle. However, he caused an imbalance that made me slap my blade on the water.

S L O W    M O T I O N ...

I couldn't hold of my right hand scull's handle.

Suddenly it disappeared.

Damn! Stupid rain and very slippery handles.

We were very lucky our Wintech quad doesn't have forestays. The scull did a 360 degree rotation around the oarlock pin. The blade disappeared under our hull, then surfaced again.

In slow motion, I saw the handle approach me. All this in a heavily shaking boat, as our two bow men tried to row on while Ondra on three couldn't row and I had just one scull.

I managed to grab it.

Ondra called "We still have silver!" and we started to sprint for the line.

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Code: Select all

|Start|Stop_|Dist_|Time_|_Pace__|_SPM__|DPS_|Remarks
|00000|02828|02828|20:40|03:39.2| 24.4  |05.6|pre race
|02828|02924|00096|00:15|01:17.9| 40.3  |09.6|100m #1
|02924|03027|00102|00:17|01:23.1| 37.9  |09.5|100m #2
|03027|03130|00103|00:18|01:27.4| 37.0  |09.3|100m #3
|03130|03225|00096|00:17|01:28.9| 36.6  |09.2|100m #4
|03225|03325|00100|00:18|01:30.4| 36.2  |09.2|100m #5
|03325|03429|00104|00:20|01:36.0| 36.0  |08.7|100m #6
|03429|03526|00097|00:18|01:32.5| 36.3  |08.9|100m #7
|03526|03628|00102|00:20|01:38.3| 37.7  |08.1|100m #8
|03628|03728|00100|00:21|01:45.4| 35.3  |08.1|100m #9 Crab
|03728|03829|00101|00:19|01:33.8| 36.8  |08.7|100m #10
|03829|04999|01171|23:27|10:01.0| 20.5  |02.4|cooling down
I think we exceeded ourselves and despite the crab I am happy with the result. Close enough to 3 minutes in neutral conditions. Faster than we have ever rowed. Holding 37spm average in heavy rain.

The medal ceremony was done in heavy rain at double the speed. The poor girls in their pretty dresses were soaking wet and cold.

We weren't cold. Actually, getting the shower during the race is quite refreshing.

So two silver medals. Happy with that! Is that the end of a good first day of the Championships? No.

Romana came second in the ladies double C category, but this was a combined race with 3 boats in C and 3 boats in B, so no medal for her:

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Romana and I had dinner in a nice restaurant in the historical town:

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Then we met some more Masters rowers and we all went to the Historical Brewery, where there were masses of Masters rowers and we had a few beers.

Then we watched the fireworks over the island behind the finish line at 11pm.

Then we went to bed but the hotel room was too hot to sleep even though we had all three windows wide open (no airco) and there were drunk people discussing loudly in the hotel courtyard.

Ideal race preparation for my two races on Sunday, the Men's Masters B 2x and the Mixed Masters C 2x.  More about that in part three of this blog.

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Training Blog: http://blog.rowsandall.com/
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sander
Free Spirit
Posts: 451
Joined: Fri Dec 03, 2010 10:07 am
I row on...: Model C with PM5
Location: Brno

Re: OTW results

Post by sander »

And here is the last part. Sorry for long postings.

Some more thoughts on Saturday's results

Going through the results, I have a few things to note on Saturday's results.

In the singles race, I hoped to be the fastest sculler from our club. I ticked that box, by a very narrow margin. It's always difficult to compare results between races. Some guy may be winning easily or give up, but still, here's our club's Veterans ranking in the single:

1. Roosendaal 43 years 3:38.06 (silver in C)
2. Janacek 30 years 3:38.13 (gold in A)
3. Nahodil 31 years 3:41.92 (silver in A)
4. Hubik 32 years 3:53.10 (5th/last in A)
5. Doubek 41 years 4:02.93 (4th in B)

Also worth noting is that there were two "C" races because there were 12 entries. Here are the two races compared:

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So I would have won the second race against the Slovenian, though one has to note that he won by a huge margin. I met him at the dinner restaurant, where he was sitting at the table next to me. In rudimentary English he explained that the single had been a tough race because of the heat and the sun. Well, who knows.

In the D-F category nobody rowed faster times than in the A-C category, but these were rowed in the afternoon. The fastest time was by Akai (50 years) who rowed a 3:41.50 beating Cernak by 1.8 seconds. Both are excellent scullers. Fastest time in E was 3:48 and only from F upward the results were above 4 minutes. There is a bunch of fast scullers in this country. I would also like to mention the oldest single sculler, 73 years old, who rowed an excellent 4:37 time.

On to the quads. The first heat, A category, was won in 3:04, with a 6 seconds margin. We rowed 3:05.70. I think my crab cost us 2-3 seconds. We missed about 4 strokes but the boat was going fast and doesn't stop immediately. What is interesting is that in the C category there was a Austrian/Czech composite with 2 scullers from our club who wanted to make a fast quad and went abroad to find some fast scullers. They rowed in the same rainshower as we did, 10 minutes behind us, and finished second place, 3:09.71, four seconds behind the winner in their category, and 4.2 seconds behind us. As their race was a combined race with 3 C boats, one D boat and one F boat, they didn't get a silver medal. Suffice to say they weren't very pleased.

Sunday's results

Masters Men's Double, B category

This was the fun race of the weekend for me. I am rowing with Radek, a self-taught sculler from the other side of the lake. I am happy with how we row but of course there is room for improvement. I considered ourselves an average competitor in our B race of 4 boats, the 7 entries divided in two races of 4 and 3 boats respectively. We were starting against Neratovice (one guy from the quad that had beaten us on Saturday), Breclav who we had beaten easily in Hodonin (but they claim they are much faster now), and Blesk (unknown).

This was Radek's only race of the weekend. A year ago he started in the single and had flipped, rowing in third position. This year he lacked the confidence to start in the single and decided to row only the double with me. Of course he was nervous as hell. And when he is nervous he tends to push too hard, dig his sculls deep and waste a lot of energy in the first half of the race. So I told him the race plan was a fast start but then settle quickly in a sustainable pace and focus on light catches, blades not too deep. We would start "racing" at the 500m mark. I told him to not watch the competitors and keep his eyes in the boat.

Conditions: 25 degrees at 10 AM. It felt more like 30. Slight cross/headwind.

We started well but the "false start" sirens went off and we had to get back to the starting line. Blesk in the lane next to us had moved very very early.

Our second start was slightly worse but acceptable. I lowered to 32spm and started to focus on technique. We were in first position and gradually pulling away from the others.

With 500m to go we were leading by a length and a half. I decided to not increase the pace, just continue to row. With 300m to go I noticed that Neratovice were gaining on us so I called "finish" and increased the stroke rate. I was comfortable but Radek behind me was already out of energy. Still, we won with a 4 seconds margin. 3:34.50 is not a fast time in the double but it was enough to win. We would also have won the other B race (winning time 3:41).

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Picture of happy National Champions, competitors in the background:

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Race stats:

Code: Select all

|Start|Stop_|Dist_|Time_|_Pace__|_SPM__|DPS_|Remarks
|00000|00259|00259|05:29|10:35.0| 15.8  |03.0|pre race
|00259|00356|00097|00:18|01:33.2| 33.6  |09.6|100m #1
|00356|00459|00103|00:21|01:41.6| 33.2  |08.9|100m #2
|00459|00560|00101|00:21|01:44.1| 32.3  |08.9|100m #3
|00560|00655|00095|00:20|01:44.9| 32.0  |08.9|100m #4
|00655|00758|00102|00:22|01:47.4| 31.5  |08.9|100m #5
|00758|00859|00102|00:23|01:52.9| 31.2  |08.5|100m #6
|00859|00956|00097|00:21|01:48.3| 30.9  |09.0|100m #7
|00956|01056|00100|00:22|01:50.3| 31.8  |08.5|100m #8
|01056|01160|00103|00:23|01:51.1| 32.6  |08.3|100m #9
|01160|01254|00094|00:21|01:51.2| 33.1  |08.1|100m #10
|01254|01309|00055|00:24|03:38.5| 28.5  |04.8|cooling down
Mixed Double

The mixed double race with Romana was scheduled at 14:10, three hours after the double race with Radek. So again I settled in the shade under the tree and tried to recover, rehydrate and get some quick energy in my body.

We were up against some pretty quick couples and Romana was quite scared. I was joking that we would win easily. First, Romana has made a lot of progress on the erg over the winter. Second, we have a lot more training kilometers together than a year ago, and last but not least she's rowing with a fast sculler.

I had an eyewitness report that the lake was full of mixed doubles practicing on Saturday evening, when we were enjoying good food and wine in the historical town center. I found that comforting. The mixed double is a difficult boat to row because the stroke profile is a compromise between two rowers with very different power and usually also different length.

One of our competitors, a Mr Zeman, was constantly walking around us, showing his impressive torso and his very minimal swimming trunks. We also met our friends from Pardubice/Olomouc Mr Karel Nevrala and his partner Vendula Vecerova. They beat us a year ago by a minimal margin of 0.5 seconds.

The wind had changed to a clean tailwind, causing quite significant chop on the lake. Temperature was a "moderate" 33 degrees C.

There were 10 competitors in the Masters C category, so they had broken it in 2 races with 5 entries. In our race, they had added the single entry in the A category. These guys just had to row the course and get a medal, and their result wouldn't influence the results of the battle in the C category.

Rowing up to the start, Romana was telling me who the competition was and how fast they were. Basically, they were all dangerous. Our practice starts were dramatically bad in the chop.

Ready - Attention - Row

Luckily, the real start was back to our normal standard and we were fast away from the starting line. Lane 1, the A category, was leading, we were in second place and Karel/Vendula were just slightly behind us, immediately followed by Ostrava and Smichov (the "impressive torso" man). Neratovice was falling behind quickly.

But I had a good feeling. Romana, when she's working hard, has a very distinct breathing out just before the finish, so we were rowing like a steam train. Our ORCA double was jumping forward on each stroke and we were slowly but surely rowing away from Karel and Vendula.

The A boat was half a length ahead of us.

By the 500m mark we had beaten all our C competitors in theory. In the chop, one mistake by us would bring them back in the race.

This being our last race of the day, I decided that I wanted to beat the A's as well, so I asked for a "10 strong strokes" when we were passing the 500m mark, and we passed the A boat in lane one.

Now we were leading by half a length.

The chop increased towards the finish line and the A boat was catching us back. I called for a finish with 200m to go but our steering was a bit erroneous. In the final 5 strokes we ended up in the buoys and the A boat passed us.

I wonder if we would have fought harder if they would be C's. I dare to say so.

Anyway, we did it. YAY!

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And look at the fast time! Granted, rowed in a tailwind, but, on the other hand, in difficult, choppy conditions. Our home lake can be choppier, but still this was not easy.

Of all the mixed doubles that started that Sunday, we had the second time. The other C race was won in 3:35. The B's was won by Mitas/Tomastikova in 3:29 and the fastest time in the D-F mix races was 3:39.

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No race stats. I forgot to press start in the CrewNerd app. Too much focused on the race.

I had a victory beer and started to prepare the boat for transport, but Romana had to row another race, the C ladies quad, one hour after our start in the mix. She was stroking it.

They brought home a bronze medal:

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Three hours of driving home, including a dinner half way. Then we could sit down on our own terrace and enjoy a glass of white wine and discuss the event. It was a very good weekend. Look at the harvest:

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Radek wasn't pleased that we had actually rowed faster in the mix than in the men's double race. :-)
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Re: OTW results

Post by strider77 »

Fantastic write up and pictures Sander.

Very well done on all those medals and being fastest sculler in your club =D> =D>
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Re: OTW results

Post by sander »

strider77 wrote:Fantastic write up and pictures Sander.

Very well done on all those medals and being fastest sculler in your club =D> =D>
Only the fastest Masters sculler. There are juniors who are much faster.
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Re: OTW results

Post by sander »

For those who like to read about OTW rowing, I have participated in the Masters World Championships. Quite good results, especially in the mixed quad where we really exceeded ourselves: https://rowsandall.wordpress.com/2015/0 ... -longread/
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Re: OTW results

Post by strider77 »

Brilliant write-up Sander-I am surprised you have any legs left after 4 days of OTW-great time was had by all :D
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Re: OTW results

Post by sander »

Yes it's tough to do 2 full out 1ks per day for four days ...
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Re: OTW results

Post by CamiCrew »

What a great writeup on Belgium, Sander. I loved it. Congratulations on your results, among such a competitive bunch.

Your points were interesting about the timing of the race in the year.

Which races would you say you train the hardest for in a year? Just curious.

Thanks for the blog.
-barbara

F Hwt 53 yrs 5'10"
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Re: OTW results

Post by sander »

CamiCrew wrote:What a great writeup on Belgium, Sander. I loved it. Congratulations on your results, among such a competitive bunch.

Your points were interesting about the timing of the race in the year.

Which races would you say you train the hardest for in a year? Just curious.

Thanks for the blog.
I would say Masters Nationals in mid July. One cannot keep doing the sprint training too long.
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Re: OTW results

Post by sander »

I have won a sprint race over 450m in the single. We had a lot of fun on these regional races. Full blog including pictures here:
https://rowsandall.wordpress.com/2015/1 ... ce-report/
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Re: OTW results

Post by CamiCrew »

How great to have the kids racing too. Love the photos & write up, Sander.

I thought our winter sprints were short... they are ~850m. Your course was 450m :?: :!: Must feel like the blink of an eye!

What stroke rate(s) do you choose for these races? In the 850m, it is possible to rate lower and catch people who rated too high... I wonder about half that distance though.

Fun!

p.s. I'm smiling in advance knowing you will miss the gas station turn again next year :lol:
-barbara

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Re: OTW results

Post by sander »

CamiCrew wrote:How great to have the kids racing too. Love the photos & write up, Sander.

I thought our winter sprints were short... they are ~850m. Your course was 450m :?: :!: Must feel like the blink of an eye!

What stroke rate(s) do you choose for these races? In the 850m, it is possible to rate lower and catch people who rated too high... I wonder about half that distance though.

Fun!

p.s. I'm smiling in advance knowing you will miss the gas station turn again next year :lol:
It is so short that I don't bother using a stroke coach. So I honestly don't know the stroke rate, except that it is high. You basically start and keep going. It's 90 to 100 seconds ...
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Re: OTW results

Post by gregsmith01748 »

I was in action this weekend too!

I raced in the USRowing Masters National Head Race Championships in Lowell, Massachusetts.

The weather was not very cooperative. There was a stiff headwind and very choppy water for the last half of the race. I managed a 6th of 13 overall for men's master single and a 3rd of 4 ( :( ) in my age class. I would have loved to do better, but looking at the quality of the guys that beat me, I might have closed the gap with them, but I don't think I could have beat them.

If you are interested in reading more (or watching a video of me struggling with the conditions, skate on over to my training journal.

https://quantifiedrowing.wordpress.com/ ... pionships/

I think this frame from the video sums up the conditions pretty well. The gopro camera mounted about 6 inches above my stern deck is almost entirely submerged.

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Re: OTW results

Post by CamiCrew »

I remember last year Greg when you mentioned you were "too chicken to sign up" for NE Regionals. Now here you are battling it out at Nationals for head racing, and HOCR next? (after the tune up) Awesome progress!
-barbara

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Re: OTW results

Post by gregsmith01748 »

CamiCrew wrote:I remember last year Greg when you mentioned you were "too chicken to sign up" for NE Regionals. Now here you are battling it out at Nationals for head racing, and HOCR next? (after the tune up) Awesome progress!
I'm afraid that there has been less progress on my speed and technique and more progress on not caring how badly I get beaten. :lol:

Seriously, life is too short to only play the games you can win.
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Re: OTW results

Post by Paul Victory »

gregsmith01748 wrote:Seriously, life is too short to only play the games you can win.
Great race and great write up Greg. I love your attitude. It sums up perfectly why a lot of us do what we do.
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Re: OTW results

Post by gregsmith01748 »

Saturday, I raced in the lake Quinsigamond snake regatta, a 4.2km head race. The weather was the opposite of last week, with bright sunshine, warm temperatures, and dying breeze. I really enjoyed the race. I passed lots of people, and ended up 2nd of 13, and the guy who beat me was 20 years younger than me.

Details and videos are over on my blog:https://quantifiedrowing.wordpress.com/ ... e-regatta/

Next Saturday is the Head of the Charles. I'm simultaneously thrilled and terrified for that one. My race has 60 competitors, the course has 5 bridges and some nasty turns, and there are tens of thousands of people watching! It is such a challenging course that every year, a rowing website (row2k) puts up a video called HOCR Carnage of all the collisions between boats and with bridge abutments.
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Re: OTW results

Post by Paul Victory »

Congratulations Greg. All that training is really paying off.

Good luck next weekend. Sounds like an interesting challenge and makes a 2k erg TT sound pretty nondescript (I'm currently trying to psych myself up to do one).
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Re: OTW results

Post by strider77 »

Fantastic result Greg well done =D>

Good luck for the HOCR :wink:
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Re: OTW results

Post by CamiCrew »

Greg are you in Event 4 at 9:20 EDT Saturday? Can't wait to watch online. Last year the live Internet broadcast was glitchy and they didn't get it working until after the first few 1x events had gone by, but now you can pull up footage by athlete -- how cool -- even the ones missed during the glitch time. It will be fun to see your 10 seconds of fame in your first-time-HOCR!

http://www.hocr.org/the-regatta/live-webcast/

I have friends to watch in Events 1 and 2 -- two are in the over 80 age bracket. Barbara is one of only 3 ladies in her age group, rowing for the 10th or 11th time. She is a firecracker, amazing energy we all struggle to emulate. (Nancy, a young'un at 60, will be in the same event.) Don is 82, I met him in a learn to row in 2008... I swear he has gotten younger every year since. He'll be racing HOCR for the first time -- one of 8 in the 80+. He has had quite a 2015, winning the free ticket to Crash-Bs, then winning the 2015 Hammer.

I know it will be insanity there, but if you see them around the launch area, say Hello!

For those on the forum who are maybe not familiar, Head of the Charles has 11,000 athletes and attracts 400,000 spectators. It's a thing! BEST WISHES GREG
-barbara

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Re: OTW results

Post by gregsmith01748 »

Image

That's me right after the start of the 2015 Head of the Charles. I raced in the Men's Grand Master [50+] Singles event. There were 59 boats, and I placed 24th. My time was about 14.6% off the winning time. It was an awesome day.

Nothing compares to this regatta! The organization is amazing. The competition incredible. The course challenging. The scenery beautiful. The people friendly. It absolutely should be on every rowers bucket list!

The weather was challenging. It was sunny and 47F, but windy as hell. The wind was from the West blowing 15mph gusting to 25. The course curves all over, but that is generally a head wind.

If you are interested in me prattling on about the race, follow this link: https://quantifiedrowing.wordpress.com/ ... e-charles/

If you want to see the videos, follow this one: https://quantifiedrowing.wordpress.com/ ... es-videos/

I'm still on a high from the event.
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Re: OTW results

Post by CamiCrew »

Glad you enjoyed it! Nicely done.
-barbara

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Re: OTW results

Post by Paul Victory »

Great race and brilliant write up, Greg. (Almost) makes me want to take up OTW rowing!
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