August CTC - Free Spirits to choose challenge

[Rob C]

Handicapping won't work. It just adds complexity. This is an exercise in team participation, not maths.

Our focus in setting a challenge should be around participation. Create something that is a manageable challenge, not necessarily a row many of us will do on a regular basis, so make it something that can test us, but is still fun.

I'd steer clear of ranked pieces. Most of us do those from time to time anyway.

If I get on the erg, I want to do a workout. I don't want to do a couple of minutes and then it's all over. So short distances, which inevitably favour brawn over technique, are out.

Intervals are fine, if they are simple to set up. For those who don't have their own machines some of the complex patterns we've seen take a few minutes to set up, and doing that two or three times in a month isn't going to happen. So one repeating distance or time makes sense? But intervals that are too long get tedious with wait times, so it's a balance.

[Rodger]

I agree with Rob we should not make it more complicated by imposing "corrections" on the results.

As far as the shorter stuff goes, I think the mile is a valid option: not too short, not a ranking piece, but still something we can put in our PB/SB boxes.

I was looking through this thread about favourite workouts and some of the suggestions there could work for a CTC:
10 x 3' with 1' rest
5 x 5' with 5' rest
or a previous suggestion: 3 x 10' with 5' or 3' rest.

[Recess]

I like the Boris' idea of 8 and 15 minutes with a 2 minute rest for a longer workout. Or if people want short, I vote for the mile.

John

[Paul Victory]

I agree with the mile as a good compromise between too long and too short. But we haven't decided yet whether it's going to be a single piece or intervals.

[RogerB]

I think there was a 1 mile CTC in November 2008. I remember this for on the 30th of November after flogging 1 mile I had a heart attack - excessive fibrillation - and finished up in a French hospital. Examination scans, nuclear and "Uncle Tom Cobbley and All" failed to show defects. I am still taking the pills and will have another go. I think the terminology for my condition now is non valvular fibrillation. No doubt the Medics can give an opinion.
Checking my record books I attended the BIRC in October and recorded 6.21 11 for the fateful mile and am happy to support the mile again.Roger

[Rob C]

One other thing to throw into the mix is a reasoning for or titling of the challenge we make. Many of the recent CTCs have had a bit of a ring to them like the current Banana Boat's "Go Bananas for 2 minutes". Next month's FIRT challenge by selecting Mont Blanc clearly relates to their team origin.

Can we think up something that links into or rhymes with our Free Spirits?

[Daffy]

Can we think up something that links into or rhymes with our Free Spirits?

Such as "A Free-rated and Spirited Mile"? (my knee jerk reaction to kick things off...)

I think there was a 1 mile CTC in November 2008. I remember this for on the 30th of November after flogging 1 mile I had a heart attack - excessive fibrillation - and finished up in a French hospital. Roger

Ummm...trying to fill us with confidence for an all out mile....?

[hewitt]

As we are 9 years old this year why not have something like "free" 3x9min with with "free" 3min rest.

[JonT]

As we are 9 years old this year why not have something like "free" 3x9min with with "free" 3min rest.

Like

[Stan]

Do we have any further thoughts about next months challenge. I must admit I like the idea of the 9 theme suggested by Jason.

[Daffy]

Do we have any further thoughts about next months challenge. I must admit I like the idea of the 9 theme suggested by Jason.

I like the reasoning behind it too. It has the advantage of being a decent training piece, whilst being achievable by everyone, whatever level, as it's not too "outfacing".

[Rodger]

Yes, Jason's idea of 3x9'/3' looks fine to me too.

[Rob C]

Yep I'd be "happy" in the masochistic sense of rowing to do the free spirits 9 year old minutes with free (3') rests.

[Paul Victory]

I still like the idea of a simple 1609m. It's a long time since I've had a proper incentive to do a decent mile and it would probably guarantee a high level of participation.

[Caratacus]

The mile is also my first choice. As Paul says, I think we should be trying to maximise participation and this could be not too long, not too short but just right

Also, it doesn't seem to be done that much so everyone might have a chance at getting a new PB!

[sander]

Is there an error in the message on the CTC thread on the UK forum?
http://indoorsportservices.co.uk/forum/ ... start=6765

First Column: Months from previous challenge, counting back from October '15 and assuming that teams will be active in the three intervening months.
Second Column: Boats floated in June

46 + 07 = 53 - Forum Flyers
50 + 02 = 52 - DLCGP
44 + 01 = 45 - Team Oarsome
42 + 01 = 43 - MAD
40 + 03 = 43 - RowPro Rowers
38 + 03 = 41 - C2TweetCrew
12 + 29 = 41 - Sub7
28 + 01 = 29 - Independent
22 + 02 = 24 - Fitness Matters
08 + 14 = 22 - FIRT
18 + 02 = 20 - Tribesports
14 + 04 = 18 - Paddypower
04 + 08 = 12 - Free Spirits
10 + 01 = 11 - Banana Boat
06 + 02 = 08 - Empty The Tanks
02 + 01 = 03 - Gee Crew

22 + 00 = 22 - Rote87*
22 + 00 = 22 - ERG*
18 + 00 = 18 - Age Without Limits*
12 + 00 = 12 - SYC*

[Paul Victory]

Is there an error in the message on the CTC thread on the UK forum?
http://indoorsportservices.co.uk/forum/ ... start=6765

First Column: Months from previous challenge, counting back from October '15 and assuming that teams will be active in the three intervening months.
Second Column: Boats floated in June

The first column shows twice the number of months since the previous challenge. Is that the error you are referring to, or is it something else?

[Stan]

There have been a few suggestions so far
6k
8+15 2r
1609
3x9 3r
20 mins

I will set up a poll and we can vote on it

[sander]

Is there an error in the message on the CTC thread on the UK forum?
http://indoorsportservices.co.uk/forum/ ... start=6765

First Column: Months from previous challenge, counting back from October '15 and assuming that teams will be active in the three intervening months.
Second Column: Boats floated in June

The first column shows twice the number of months since the previous challenge. Is that the error you are referring to, or is it something else?

Have we chosen 2 months ago? In the first column it says 04 for Free Spirits.

[Paul Victory]

It's for the October challenge, so they count back from October.

[sander]

It's for the October challenge, so they count back from October.

Got it. Thanks for taking the time to explain something that should have been obvious to me.

[plummy]

Shall we continue with this thread as is for posting results (we could re-title it if necessary)?

First day of the month and it happened to coincide with me needing to do something, so why not something different - 3 x 9 hit that mark

Managed:
2301
2314
2322
Which added up to 6936 (grrr - rounded down again)

- which I'm pretty pleased with - but it was hard work!

[Grobi]

Nice going Dave! Does that compare to 2k +5 (which would be my estimate for this ctc)?

[Liefcat]

Shall we continue with this thread as is for posting results (we could re-title it if necessary)?

First day of the month and it happened to coincide with me needing to do something, so why not something different - 3 x 9 hit that mark

Managed:
2301
2314
2322
Which added up to 6936 (grrr - rounded down again)

- which I'm pretty pleased with - but it was hard work!

Well done, David =D> =D> Thought you liked those numbers to divide by 3 - as is also in the challenge

Had my own go today. Realized my cat turned 3 today - so double celebration, really... I was trying to go careful in the last rep - but still after two minutes my HR hit 155 (as it is often the case with me - I seem to hit the EHR from the previous rep pretty soon in the actual one) - so just damage control for the rest. Of course it should be able to squeeze more out of this challenge - but it is a good training piece - so guess I will do plenty... EHRs were 146, 155 and 157: 2579m + 2585 + 2562m all at R24...

[Paul Victory]

Well done plummy and Erik. I also decided to have a go at this today. My training has been very lacklustre recently and I just couldn't do a decent CTC last month. I think the main issue is that I have lost a lot of mental toughness as I have not been doing many sessions where I have to push on through the pain barrier. That and a few kgs extra weight accompanied by a general loss of fitness.

I was foolish enough to express a view on FaceBook that this challenge should work out at around 30 minutes pace minus 3 seconds. My 30 minutes SB is at 1:53.5 pace, which would give me a target of just over 1:50 pace. But I'm nowhere near SB pace at present, so I decided to target 1:52.5 pace, which equates to 8k for 30 minutes and would give me a total of 2,400m per interval. Unsurprisingly, this proved to be harder than I thought.

After about 3 minutes of the first interval, I felt like HDing, but I decided to soldier on at around 1:55 pace and see how things went. I managed to keep going at that pace and even pick it up a bit to finish the first interval with 2,375m @ 1:53.6 pace. The second and third intervals didn't feel quite as bad as the first one and I managed a slight negative split to finish with 7,156m @ 1:53.1 pace.

Splits were as follows:

Time Distance Pace Rating Heart Rate
09:00.0 2375 1:53.68 29 158
18:00.0 2383 1:53.30 29 166
27:00.0 2398 1:52.59 29 172

27:00.0 7156 1:53.19 29 165

Now we just need one female and one other rower to float our first boat.

Paul V