June ctc - 500 r22/30''r/1000 r26/30''/500 r30

[Grobi]

Hi all,

the June ctc has been defined as follows:

"Tommy Gee from the Gee Crew has set the June challenge for the CTC. It is one that has to be completed at fixed stroke rates.

500m @spm 22
rest 30s
1000m @spm 26
rest 30s
500m @spm 30

Standing start for the opening 500m, total time for the work intervals to be recorded. As the focus of the challenge is controlled stroke rate at maximum effort, the hope is that entries will follow the rates exactly. The monitor reading is decisive. Tommy has set a five second penalty for each stroke over or under the target rate. For example 500@24, 1000@27, 500@29 would incur 4 penalties, 20 seconds total."

At least not another bone breaker, but a rather complicated one. I wouldn't be surprised if this one has a lower number of participants. As for the pacing: I have absolutely no idea!

[Liefcat]

Yeah, that´s quite complicated stuff, especially with it being distance pieces, so you might not know exactly how long it´s gonna take and subsequently what number of strokes you should aim at... Anyways, guess it will favour the ones fixated on counting the strokes...

[paulgould]

Looks a bit complicated - probably have just the one go at this, and it will have to be high DF, especially for that 500@r22 interval!!

Paul G

[Ian Bee]

Had a little go at holding r22/2.05 for 2km yesterday (appreciating this isn't one of the required pieces, but for perspective on where to start), and I think it safe to say that I'll have a handsome collection of penalties.

[danfennell]

This is a pretty quirky one and therefore I don't see it generating a huge amount of interest. In addition since no screenshots are required the rules will be impossible to strictly enforce.

Ergdata has a stroke counter feature. http://www.concept2.com/service/software/ergdata

The 22 and 26 will be a bit tricky as they only share 2 as a common factor with 60 (seconds). Unless you row a 1:30 or 2:00 split it will be a bit of a crap shoot.

[plummy]

I quite like the look of that - fairly short and sweet and none of the rates are silly.

[Tako]

Agree with Dave. Looking forward to it. The May challenge is a complete disaster for me.

[Paul Victory]

I think the secret to avoiding penalties will be to count strokes and to aim to be half a stroke per minute above the required rate in order to have a small amount of leeway. As for pacing, I'll just be glad if I can manage to get back erging again!

[Paul Victory]

This is a pretty quirky one and therefore I don't see it generating a huge amount of interest. In addition since no screenshots are required the rules will be impossible to strictly enforce.

Probably not that big an issue. If someone is going to lie about their stroke rate, they're probably quite capable of also lying about how fast they do the challenge.

[CamiCrew]

For my OTW club we regularly do a 15 min TT restricted to a 22 and boy do you learn to dislike r22

By "follow the rates exactly" do they just mean the average at the end of the piece has to show the specified rate? I can't imagine there are penalties for not hitting each stroke exactly, but want to be sure.

[Caratacus]

Had my 1st attempt at this after leaving it late for last months entry and certainly more my cup of tea. The 30s rests aren't really long enough to get your breath back, really just time to mentally get ready for the next rate change. Happy to dip under 7 minutes for this

[Claudius]

well done Felton to dip under 7min with no penalties, my target was a 7:15min, and had a eye on stroke rate, so it also went well with no penalty

[Paul Victory]

By "follow the rates exactly" do they just mean the average at the end of the piece has to show the specified rate? I can't imagine there are penalties for not hitting each stroke exactly, but want to be sure.

There's no way you could track stroke by stroke variations in your rating (unless you have software that does this?) and it's overall rating showing on the monitor for each of the intervals that determines whether or not a penalty applies.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it would be very easy to fall half a stroke short and incur penalties. As far as I know, the monitor rounds down your stroke rate, so aiming for R22.5, etc. is probably the optimal approach. Only way to achieve this in my opinion is to count strokes. Not a problem for me as I often count strokes anyway, but I guess it will be an additional requirement for some.

[Ian Bee]

Had two attempts at this earlier. First was painfully slow but accurate, the second was reasonable pace but I messed up the rates and ended on 8.09

Good luck everyone =D>

[Paul Victory]

After all my talk about how to get the rating right, I messed up on the final interval! I thought I might be a tad too slow and did a fast last couple of strokes and ended up with R31 for the final interval. Time was a pedestrian 7:45.5 plus a 5 second penalty. My R22 500m was 1 second faster than my R31.

[plummy]

I found hitting the stroke rate very straight forward but as usual struggling for any pace at the lower rates. Managed 7:41.1 for a first attempt and was surprised how much my legs hurt the next day.
The 30s rest though - gaah! - not enough at all

[Tako]

Got so stressed about the strokes especially for the 30spm that I forgot to watch my pace, but thanks to the high drag factor and avoiding any penalty I ended up at 7:07.1 which puts me (as usual ) just behind Felton

[Liefcat]

Well done, guys =D> =D>

Hardly any erging for me these days, though health and fitness are still improving luckily And luckily no penalties, ended up at 6:58.8 just behind Felton

[E-Clair]

Drag 134. No penalties, so I don't think I'll be doing this again.
1:57.3 2:02.3 1:59.3
8:01.3 2:00.3
Didn't count strokes directly. Just kept an eye on the s/m of the display. I.e., seeing 23,23,21 thinking plus1,plus2,plus1 and aiming for 0 or slightly positive.

[Grobi]

Had my first go at this last Saturday with 7:33.9 and I have to admit that this ctc turned out to be much more interesting than I thought initially. Concentrating on stroke rate detracts you (at least me) from the pain. The pain comes later though, the following day to be precisely when you notice that your legs hurt like they seldom do after a rowing session

Nevertheless I had a second go last Sunday which went a lot better than attempt #1:

_500 / 1:53.4 / 22
1000 / 1:51.3 / 26
_500 / 1:45.6 / 30

Total: 7:21.7

Happy with that and now waiting for Alan's, Steve's and Dave's response

[strider77]

Well done and thanks for the marker Peter =D>

-I have been continuing with my running-managed 24 miles last week so rowing has been largely put on the back burner.

I will have a go at this maybe later this week, I think I will go a bit slower on the first 500 though and see if I can do the 1k a bit faster

[plummy]

Great effort Peter =D> There's no way I will get near that as I can't generate that sort of power at low rate. I could maybe match your last 500 though (if that was my complete workout)

Dave

[Ian Bee]

This really is a strange one:

Time Meters /500m Watts Cal/Hr s/m 7:40.0 2,000m 1:55.0 230 1091 26 1:58.0 500m 1:58.0 213 1032 22 3:50.5 1,000m 1:55.2 229 1086 26 1:51.5 500m 1:51.5 252 1168 30

On the one hand I think there's a second or two left to hunt for, on the other it's a battle to avoid those pesky penalties.

[Caratacus]

Well done everyone so far
Had my second go this morning and was pleased to be faster on each rep than last time. Hopefully can dip under 6:50 by the end of the month.

[JonT]

I'll have a crack at this this afternoon. I had a quick look at the c2ctc site to remind myself of the format just now. There's a surprisingly low Free Spirits uptake. Is the format putting people off?

My time will be pants. I have a damaged knee tendon so need to be very careful to not try to put down too much power. But a row is a row, so off I go.