Madchester 2016 - is ON!

[plummy]

OK Chris - I fully understand. Best wishes to your mum and your good self - hope the move goes as smoothly as possible.

Thanks for letting me know.

Plummy

[Jon]

Dear All,

I am still very much intending to be present at Madchester, though I think it is highly unlikely I'll be able to compete. On Sunday, I was doing some late sprint training for the 1K, 1 minute intervals, then some pretty brutal 200m intervals at 1:27/500, a pace I've not rowed at for some years. I have had a bit of a facet joint irritation (something I'm a little prone to), but rowing doesn't usually aggravate too much. It did seem worse yesterday, but today I've been having spasms of pain radiating around to my anterior chest. I have been bent double in agony, something painkillers aren't denting. My wife was saying yesterday I'd be mad to race whilst I admit to being somewhat mad, I didn't want to throw in the towel that easily. Today I was off this afternoon, much worse and I won't be able to cope with work so I can't risk that.

I'm pretty sure I'll be OK to drive, certain positions and it's OK. I am somewhat gutted despite being somewhat underprepared. Thank goodness I have a Watt bike, though I doubt I could even use that just at the moment.

See you all Saturday, and I'm still planning on collecting Paul V and Erik from Manchester airport, T3.

Apologies for this set back ... my voice hasn't been affected for cheering other's on

[Liefcat]

Sorry to hear about your recent troubles, Jon When I first read about your training session it sure looked very ambitious - and that is also my impression of you - very competitive wanting to give it your best shot. As I have expressed before we both seem to suffer from not being anywhere near our erging level some 5 years ago... Have been looking forward to our races, maybe we would have made some kind of split where one was faster than the other on the 1k - and the other way around on the 5k.

Looking forward to meet you in person, Jon Very generous of you to offer to drive me and Paul V from the airport. And I´m sure Plummy can make use of your erg! Anyways, fantastic that you have a Watt Bike (is it Pro )

For me I think I´m still up for the 1k and the 5k still - but maybe Plummy wants to make some readjustments - I´m open to those...

[Recess]

Sorry to hear that Jon - having had my fair share of injuries, I feel for you. Just rest, stretch and recover. Looks like it's just you and me for the 1k Erik! Grrrrrrr

[Paul Victory]

Sorry to hear you won't be able to make it Chris. I hope everything goes smoothly with your mother's move.

Jon, thank you so much for picking me and Erik up from the airport. Sorry to hear about your injury and I hope it doesn't take too long to clear up.

John, I might be persuaded to take part in the 1k. I won't get anywhere close to your time, but if there's a spare erg.... I'd have over an hour to recover for the 5k, so definitely do-able.

Paul V

[plummy]

Shuffle..shuffle...

Ah - the old mental training session just before a race - we've all done it (risking injury whilst chasing a couple of tenths.. )

Glad you are still making it Jon, someone needs to eat the giant Costco pepperoni pizza we are getting

Paul - give me an estimated time for a 1k (assuming you are not fully fit please) - we can make it a handicap event. To be honest, I might do a 1k for some Nonathlon points so we can occupy all the ergs. As I'll only be targeting >1:50 pace (about where I am right now) it looks like I'll be the rabbit for the big hounds to chase.

P.S. There is one "guest" coming who is not a Free Spirit. Stuart Thorp (Yes Crazy Bear himself) is coming along at my invitation. He's very widely know to the erging community and a friend of mine. Add to that, I owe him a huge thank you for the support he gave me during my million metre week so I thought it rude NOT to invite him as he is quite local to me. Hope that's OK with all FS'rs

[Paul Victory]

Thanks Plummy

Not really sure what my estimated time would be for a 1k - maybe 3:25?

It will be great to meet Stuart. I've had a lot of interaction with him on Facebook, so I'm really looking forward to meeting him.

Cheers
Paul

[Liefcat]

Hope the time schedule isn´t entirely dependant on the estimated time 3:00 Not gonna happen

Looking forward to meet the Crazy Bear - had hoped to meet him at British 2015 - but it didn´t work out then - hopefully this time it will

[Rob C]

3:00 for 1000m

[Recess]

In case you weren't aware, all being good I'm going to try for the British Record (40-49 lwt) on Saturday. Hopefully chasing Erik will make it a bit more in reach, but it's going to be a toughie.

Training's been a bit up and down for it. But I managed 700m at the right pace today, and stopped with 300m to go - not because I needed to, but because I didn't want to destroy myself a couple of days before the 'big shot'. So I can only hope that being with like minded people (rather than the gym) plus 'racing' Erik will mean I can break 3:07.1

Finger's crossed! (And let's hope sitting in a car for 3.5 hours on the drive down is good rest, rather than detrimental.

John

[lcantey]

Best wishes and looking forward to hearing about it this weekend.

[zootMutant]

Best wishes everyone! Can't wait to read the write up (where is Scoop?!?) and see the wonderful pictures (hint, hint).

[plummy]

I'm highly likely to be running around like a one armed wallpaper hanger for most (no, actually all) of the day but will try and take some photos an upload them during the day. It's far quicker to put them on the FS Facebook page so that's where they will be initially I suspect.

[Jon]

Thanks for the thoughts, the back was much better yesterday, worse again overnight (woke early), but on getting moving and doing some stretches (no painkillers at all), it has improved somewhat. I'm planning a bike ride later on my day off, so the forward flexion should help.

We'll all be strongly encouraging you John with the British record. I hope the traffic is not so bad. It's a road I've driven many times when I was at St. Andrews (admittedly many years ago). It'll be busy around Preston then again coming into Manchester as you'll no doubt be anticipating. The 700m sounds very encouraging, at pace and not destroyed, all being well, its definitely ON! I'll really miss being part of it. I would dearly love to go sub 3 some time this year, not for the time being. I doubt I'd have been capable of it this time anyway, I'm not in good enough shape and hadn't practised enough. What I have learnt (the hard way), is I need a more structured warm up routine. Any tips and I'll be all ears!

Erik, it's definitely been too long we've been training together not to have met and you've even been to the UK to events that I've missed. The Watt bike is equivalent to the Pro. The model I have is one of their earliest and it was before they differentiated. The resistance is incredible, far too great unless sprinting, though my plans are to focus on sprinting in cycling in the short term. I want to go section hunting on Strava. I have no chance on the climbs, but the sprints should be doable locally at least. A bit of fun for the training at least to try. I'm hoping it'll inject a much needed boost to the erging. Yes, we both are not hitting the numbers we've done in the past and like you say this is challenging to get over. Age is certainly making a difference, but I am confident with prolonged consistency in training, we can both get close to previous performances, if not surpass them. Life just has a way of getting in the way of best laid plans and other responsibilities only seem to mount.

Plummy, it'll be great seeing Crazy Bear! Should be a great gathering of like minded people.

Plummy, don't show me pepperoni.... it'll be like man versus food, that's one world record I could take (I certainly won't be challenging GB's 2:45 1K record any time other than in my dreams)!

Looking forwards to it immensely, thanks to Plummy for all your hard preparatory work in creating a mecca to FS indoor rowing in Manchester

Paul V, no problems at all re the airport pickup. If you could send me your flight number on Facebook via messenger that will be helpful. I'll send you my mobile number and details of car etc though FB Messenger is a good method of communicating if you'll have data roaming access. I'm going to look things up. I reckon I can probably pickup outside T3 somewhere with some careful comms.

[Paul Victory]

I'm trying to decide when to do my last FM Plan training session. It's a 10k rate ladder and I need to do it either today or tomorrow in order to have the program completed before doing my 5k TT on Saturday. I'm tempted to do it today to get it out of the way and then have a rest day tomorrow. But it would be my 7th day in a row doing one of these sessions (as I had to play catch up last week due to an enforced break the previous week) and I'm concerned that I might be overdoing it. Any thoughts?

By the way, I'm not planning to do a 'full on' 1k on Saturday as this would affect my 5k TT later in the day. I think somewhere around 3:25 should be doable without killing myself, but I will back off if this feels too hard.

Paul V

[Recess]

My thought is that you should spill S4 into the next week. Sam will understand. You'll effectively be replacing a TT from W7 with S4 from W6 anyway.

[Grobi]

Jon, sorry to hear about your back problems! Just take it easy, you already seem to be on the road to recovery. Talking of roads, we need to catch up on some car talk

John, I'm very confident about your BR attempt. Can't wait to see you smashing it!

[Paul Victory]

My thought is that you should spill S4 into the next week. Sam will understand. You'll effectively be replacing a TT from W7 with S4 from W6 anyway.

I had considered that, but I just want to get finished. I've enjoyed doing it (in a way), but I will be glad to be able to go back to a less pressurised routine for a while. I think I'm beginning to suffer from mental burnout.

Anyway, I posted the same message on Sam's page and he's recommended doing it today, but easing back on the pace a little. So that's what I'm going to do. My 'official' target starting pace is 2:02.8 and I was planning to try to beat that by a second or so, but I think I'll just aim for 2:03 or thereabouts.

Looking forward to seeing you smash that record on Saturday (or at least rowing alongside you while you smash it).

Paul V

[plummy]

Jon - they have reduced the amount of drop off area around T3 significantly. Waiting is a no no bar a few seconds or you'll likely get a tap on the window and be asked to move on. What I do (when I have to) is be prepared to stop if a space presents itself and make sure people jump in really quickly.
Forget the formalities of greetings - just throw the bags in, jump in and drive
If your passengers aren't there, just keep circling the block - takes about 2 minutes per circuit to be back where you started.

[CamiCrew]

John how COOL! Can't wait to cheer you on!

Dave we are closer to Manchester than I realized -- bad nav search on my part -- so I'll update eta tomorrow but it should be a couple hours earlier.

We've been totally enjoying our travels. After sampling sticky toffee pudding, victoria sponge, cream tea, Suffolk cider, fish chips, and not erging a single stroke, I may need to adjust my handicap

[plummy]

After sticky toffee pudding and fish & chips....I think you may be right!

[Liefcat]

Jon - they have reduced the amount of drop off area around T3 significantly. Waiting is a no no bar a few seconds or you'll likely get a tap on the window and be asked to move on. What I do (when I have to) is be prepared to stop if a space presents itself and make sure people jump in really quickly.
Forget the formalities of greetings - just throw the bags in, jump in and drive
If your passengers aren't there, just keep circling the block - takes about 2 minutes per circuit to be back where you started.

Jon and Paul V, have you read this

Paul V, are you aware of the where that drop off/pick up area is I seem to remember Dave doing this last year but there was so much confusion with you going "to" Liverpool and stuff so don´t recall exactly what happened

[Jon]

Thanks for the T3 tips Plummy. It might be viewed suspiciously that I have the giant girder of the C2 protruding into the passenger compartment also if I'm scrutinized too closely!

Definitely looking forwards to catching up Peter and with some car talk of course!

[Grobi]

At Munich airport and ready to board. See you tonight/tomorrow!

[GuidonTheBee]

Have a great day all & good luck especially to John on the 1k attempt. I fully expect something superhuman and I'd love to have been there to watch it !!