September CTC - voting

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:08 pm

We have now had several suggestions for the September CTC so lets begin putting it to a vote

Post by **Thomas W-P** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:30 pm

I voted "something else". Sticking by my % of moon shot x 100 idea

PSims · Post by **PSims** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:42 pm

I voted something else, cos I'd like other teams to get the idea about Free Spirits that we are a little different. Just depends how "different" they will tolerate!!

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 9:46 pm

Paul - well I doubt that legless marathons will go down particularly well

Thomas - many apologies I forgot your moonshot idea

- I will try to put it in the poll
edit: doesnt look like I can include that one. Still if enough people want the moonshot they can vote for "something" else and let us know.

Mike Channin · Post by **Mike Channin** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:04 pm

Small word of caution. Most of the other teams are a bit more SERIOUS than us, and a lot of them are on training plans which limits their flexibility in doing odd challenges, so I think we need to bear that in mind and pick something relatively normal. For that reason, I voted 4k, but the 2.5k would do equally well there.

That said, I'd love to see their little faces if you proposed the blind 500 or the 20pede!

Mike Channin · Post by **Mike Channin** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:23 pm

Actually, please please please can we have a little joke with them and suggest that we're voting between some truly bizarre challenges. (20pede, full marathon, blind 500m, 100k, etc.)

It'll be so funny to see the responses from the other, more serious, teams....

Jon Goodall · Post by **Jon Goodall** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 11:06 am

Hiya,

First of all, just wanna say very nice website.... very posh

As for the CTC, good to see the votes coming in. Just one thing regards what challenge to pick..... back when it started it was suggested to maybe cap the distance at 10k or around 40mins for challenges as some have time constraints and the like. Personally I row 60min sessions quite a few times but know of quite a few who don't have the time available to do so.

I've just tried to find the original CTC thread started by Matt Newman back in Nov/Dec of last year which talked about the upper limit of how long/how far a challenge should be but it seems to have vanished from the forum. The CTC thread was re-started in March by Darren, by which time the upper end of challenges wasn't really discussed.

Hope you don't mind me bringing this up.

Cheers

Jon

PSims · Post by **PSims** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:26 pm

Hi Jon,

Visitors welcome here - that's why we are called Free Spirits.
Stay too long, and we may persuade you to join our happy bunch!!

Point taken on the 40 mins - like you I prefer longer rows - but happy to go with anything really.

What do you think about one of our more "unusual" challenges, rather than just a straight distance or time challenge? They are ones most people can do, just add variety?

Stan (stamps foot)...you are just NO FUN anymore.
What's wrong with a 1 handed marathon?

mharwood · Post by **mharwood** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:57 pm

Well, I'm no where near as creative as you one-handed marathoners! My suggestion would be for 9,999 meters since I have an ancient rower and this is the top of it's challenged little counter! In other words, when I row a 10K, I'm always off one meter but figure hey, should be OK, right?

That would keep it in the 40-50 minute realm (not all of us row that fast!) and it would be bit weird.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:39 pm

Hi Jon - thanks for your input- as Paul stated, input from guests is welcome. We were not aware of the limits as we were not around at the time CTC was created. May be a good idea to post those guidelines back up sometime.

Paul - I wasnt objecting to a one handed marathon - just a legless one. Mind you I think I would have to be legless to try it one handed.

mharwood - not saying its a bad idea but its a bit too close to the 10k challenge earlier this year

Post by **Thomas W-P** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:43 pm

I have added the moon shot to the poll. At the moment it is looking like very close to 2500m...

Jon Goodall · Post by **Jon Goodall** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 1:02 am

Hiya Paul & Stan,

Thanks for letting me post on here

Although I'm with MAD I log my meters for Xeno's Iron Oarsman who I think are your closest rivals in the meters board, so I'll probably be up for a stoning now

Personally, one of my faves is the 10m sprint

My PB is 1.7 sec

I once did a 1-armed 500m at the Postsmouth Grand Prix in Oct 2003 recently follwed up by a drunk 500m in my flat the other week....... can't say I'd recomend either

What are some of the unusual ideas? Do you mean the one handed & blindfolded stuff?

In the main, the general view has been to stick with either a set distance or time for a monthly ctc challenge. There was 1 month where it was an interval based challenge which was good, but numbers were a bit down that month. Of the ones in the poll, the 4k & 2.5k look real interesting. 4k has only ever been rowed at the Rowathlon events while the 2.5k hasn't been raced since Mar 2004. 3k was done as a race for the first time ever at the Surrey IRC back in Jan and seemed to go down well with people.

I have heard ones saying that as many do 750m based intervals in training, that one day a 750m sprint might pop up on the CTC..... again Sub 7 came up with a pretty good one for one of their monthly challenges a while back where they did the Boat Race distance of 6780m.

C2's monthly challenge is the 1min sprint this month. I remember the first time this was ever staged in public.... Eton College Supersprints 2000, just after Redgrave won in Sydney 2000. 350m sprints on the water and 1min ergo sprints in the boathouse..... C2 were amazed at the response as there was over 400 entries for the 1min sprint that day.

Sorry for gassing on a bit....... Basically as long as it's not interval based and not too long it'll be popular. There's loads of distances/times that haven't been done yet in the CTC so there's a fair bit of range to work with.

Looking forward to seeing what we'll all be rowing next month

Cheers

Jon

johnglynn · Post by **johnglynn** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:22 am

Jon Goodall wrote:Personally, one of my faves is the 10m sprint My PB is 1.7 sec

Hello Jon, what monitor was that done on ?, the PM3 records 100m minimum, or is there a way around that ?

(edit)
Just noticed your a place ahead of me on the CTC

, great row, was it a PB for you ? . I'm going to try another one this Thursday with a 1:22 cruising pace, my last one was a 1:23 cruising pace, I'd be surprised if I manage to hold it, but I think it's worth a shot

11 - Jon Goodall -M - MAD II - 1:22.7
12 - johnglynn - M - Free Spirits I - 1:23.3

What strategy do you use ?, I use a powerful first few strokes (to get rid of the slow first and second strokes), then try and sustain a cruising pace for as long as possible, I managed to hold it at 1:23 for about 400M last time, I finished with a 1:26 split on monitor.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 7:47 pm

I wonder if those who voted for the 60 minutes would like to comment on the issues raised by Jon?
I know many of us like long distances (myself included) but I would not want to see a reduction in CTC participation by other teams if it is not a distance that many can do. Another issue may be would this distance be too far some of those new to rowing (for example Thomas - would Tamsin do a 60 minute row at this stage?).
What does everyone else think?

Post by **Thomas W-P** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:03 pm

Tamsin would not do a 60 minute row. She is limited by when the baby sleeps. I have not been able to persuade her to do a 500m either since she is a bit off-put of the effort involved.

I think she would do a 4000m though (or a 2612m or whatever the moon shot comes out as).

Jon Goodall · Post by **Jon Goodall** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:35 pm

johnglynn wrote:
Jon Goodall wrote:Personally, one of my faves is the 10m sprint My PB is 1.7 sec
Hello Jon, what monitor was that done on ?, the PM3 records 100m minimum, or is there a way around that ?

(edit)
Just noticed your a place ahead of me on the CTC , great row, was it a PB for you ? . I'm going to try another one this Thursday with a 1:22 cruising pace, my last one was a 1:23 cruising pace, I'd be surprised if I manage to hold it, but I think it's worth a shot

11 - Jon Goodall -M - MAD II - 1:22.7
12 - johnglynn - M - Free Spirits I - 1:23.3

What strategy do you use ?, I use a powerful first few strokes (to get rid of the slow first and second strokes), then try and sustain a cruising pace for as long as possible, I managed to hold it at 1:23 for about 400M last time, I finished with a 1:26 split on monitor.

Hiya john,

No it wasn't a PB. I rowed it last week at Pete Marston's BBQ/Training day and done on e-row so had to react to the 'Attention... ROW' command
so might have lost a bit of time at the start.. I went out of the blocks, got down to 1:18, then sat on 1:18's and 1:19's for the first 200m. I started to fade a bit then as I wasn't really that focused on this attempt, and to get a good sprint score you have to give it total commitment.

I did 1:21.5 back in 2001 but have never really had a proper go at a 500m.

To be honest I still haven't worked out which is the best way to row a 500m. Even pace or fly and die...... 300m sprint I mostly do that even pace..... A couple years ago I attempted a 500m and the ave was at 1:17.4 with about 170m remaining then I got a mental block and put the handle down

I was fading but might have held on for about 1:20 had I just finished it off.....
I'm gonna try and have another go before the end of the month but the 500m scares the heck out of me coz I know how much it hurts toward the end

Good luck with your next attempt!!!

If you go to the racing section on C2, take a look at some race results as there were a few 500m races. There you can click on stroke graphs which can give you an idea of how some others have tried it.
Here's one done by a bit of a powerhouse at the Nottingham GP a couple years ago.
http://www.concept2.co.uk/gp/race_analy ... pbell+Watt

And Chris Brett who's on our team
http://www.concept2.co.uk/gp/race_analy ... hris+Brett

Here's the results from that race.
http://www.concept2.co.uk/gp/results_de ... m&event=41
Best thing to do is just take a look at the stroke graphs to give you an idea how some others have raced their 500m.

As for the 10m sprint, it was done on a PM2. I've never known why the PM3 cant go lower than 100m... bit of a pain really.

Cheers

Jon

johnglynn · Post by **johnglynn** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 9:09 am

Thanks Jon

Great resource there, I think my last 500 was similar to both Campbell Watts and Chris Brett , apart from there splits been about 5 secs faster !!, probably a bit closer to Campbell Watts row . It's good to know I have a good/decent 500 strategy .

Reacting to the 'Attention... ROW' command at the BBQ would have hurt your start a lot . Best of luck with your next attempt.
On the row a few years ago 1:17.4 average at 330m in

, I only get down to those splits when doing 100m's.

Best of luck
John

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:18 pm

Thomas W-P wrote:Tamsin would not do a 60 minute row. She is limited by when the baby sleeps. I have not been able to persuade her to do a 500m either since she is a bit off-put of the effort involved.

I think she would do a 4000m though (or a 2612m or whatever the moon shot comes out as).

Thanks for the feedback Thomas. Could I suggest to Tamsin she just records her 500m split from a longer distance. Less effort that way and it would get another boat afloat.

Could I also encourage more people to vote as well please. Just 16 votes so far.

Post by **Thomas W-P** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:36 pm

Good idea. I have pulled it from one of her rows this month. Tamsin did a 2000m on 8th August. Her best 500m in that was 2:18.6. Enough to float Free Spirits VIII with 6 points.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 11:12 am

I think I put a 10 day limit on this vote meaning it would finish on the 28th August. In the event of a tie that would give us an opportunity for a tie breaker, but I guess we would need to let Daren know by the 30th or 31st.
If you havent voted yet, please do. Being free spirits there is of course no compulsion.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 7:05 pm

ok everyone - looks like 4k is the winner using the "first past the post" system, as endorsed by generations of democratically elected British MPs so unless anyone has any strong objections we should let Daren know

Mike Channin · Post by **Mike Channin** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 11:22 pm

Sounds good to me - you going to do the honours, Stan?

Think there was a bit of a panic going on when the other teams thought we were going to pick 60mins. Maybe you should tell 'em we selected a marathon instead, just for the hell of it...

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 7:17 am

Done
I was going to try the marathon trick but it looks like they have been following the voting anyway

steve the slug · Post by **steve the slug** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:36 am

hi all

i know its a bit late but heres one for something else,

we are now 4 months into the rowing season or one third of the year completed so why not do a third? 3,333 metres its something different

slug

webberg · Post by **webberg** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:52 am

Sorry guys, just catching up after a couple of weeks off.

Following up on The Slug's idea and bearing in mind the frantic training for BIRC why not an interval?

Say 4 x 1k with 30 sec rest?

Too late??????

September CTC - voting

What should we choose for the September CTC?

September CTC - voting

Agreed

Trespassers will be...invited to JOIN!!!

Challenges

late choice

Later and later