Free Spirits Rowing

Concept2 are launching a series of events for teams of 8 rowers.

"This is a new virtual team challenge that allows athletes to compete as a crew of eight from the comforts of their own homes.

Team captains create one or more boats and choose their teammates. Each week, there is a different workout. Athletes need to enter their workout results in their individual Online Logbooks before the entry deadline. All eight individual results count for the boat.

Boats do not have to participate in every round, but there is an overall leaderboard for those who do."

I won't be entering, but I am sure there is a willing skipper out there somewhere who could get things organised if there is enough interest.

The series page is here - Spring Series

Thanks for bringing that up Jon, I‘d be very tempted to take part. Do we need to create a new team for this event like for the Indoor Rowers League? I‘d be more than happy to do that if that‘s ok.

That's okay with me, Peter. I'm interested tot join a team.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn FP3 met Tapatalk

Happy to join, although I should add I hurt my knee today lifting a rather heavy parasol base. So you might want to keep me on the bench. When doing today's 10k, above 2:00 was ok but if I tried to go faster not so good. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Edit. A sore knee

As the IRL is coming to an end and the season drawing to a close it might be interesting to have a new challenge to play with

If I understand it correctly there are two ways to participate as a team:

1. as the already existing team "Free Spirits" with Stan as team captain. Stan would have to fill the boat(s) with team members willing to take part. I don't know if he is aware of that as he isn't on the forum that often any more?

2. with a newly created team just for this challenge and a new team captain.

Any suggestions?

A new team would be fine with me.

Not sure if I was reading the rules correctly. But it sounded like the captain could pick the boat for each race? People could opt for races that suit their strengths or current training. If so then slightly more input required so new team and captain specifically for this challenge makes sense.

Max, the rules are a bit confusing indeed (the way I understand them). I understand that a boat can have more than eight people (the „roster“), but they are assigned to their boat for the entire challenge. The captain can decide which eight persons are in the boat for the current challenge (e.g. the eight best results), so that would be similar to the 8on8 team competition in the IRL. I think it definetely makes sense to set up a special Free Spirits for this event.

I talked ro Stan about this topic as I didn‘t want to pass him over on this. His reply basically was „go ahead“.

I also had a chat with Tako the other day and he brought up a different thought. If the participating team members changed their affiliation from „Free Spirits“ to „Free Spirits Spring Challenge 2020“ (or whatever it might be called) they would disappear from the meterboard and Free Spirits would lose their meters, for the World Erg Challenge for example. I don‘t think anyone of us would want that.

Or can you be affiliated to two teams?

There's a <contact us> link on the team page near the create a team button. Perhaps Concept2 can shed some light on this?

Thanks Fred, I‘ve emailed C2.

So my question was:

„Hi there, I have a question re the Spring VIII series. How are the teams defined? Are they the already existing teams e.g. participating in the WEC? Or can teams create „subteams“ especially for this event? If so, would the meters of those subteam team members be subtracted from the WEC because you can have only one team affiliation and you must decide between your „home team“ and your „sub team“.“

I received an answer from C2 today:

„Hello Peter,
Thank you for emailing. They can be existing teams or you can set up a new team. You can be the team captain of only one team and you can be a member of of only one team at a time.
There is an overlap by about a week between WEC and the Spring Series but your team can be doing both challenges at the same time. There is no "sub-team" as you are referring to, just boats for the Spring VIII Series.
Hope this helps!“

To me that means we should stick with team „Free Spirits“ and Stan as captain to avoid losing meters for the WEC and the team total for the season?

Looks like it, yes.

Thanks for finding this out Peter. I agree with your conclusion.

It looks like Concept2 have not thought this through very well, even though the two events (WEC and Spring Challenge) don’t overlap, Concept2 and some teams use the affiliation for other reasons, and some teams, like ours, are huge. So they are drastically limiting the number of boats that they will have entered. They would have been better introducing a “boat” concept or top of “team”. But I realise that would have taken some development, which would have been difficult to do and test at short notice.

It may be worth going back to them and pointing this out, if you have the time.

Jon

Jon, that train has left the station, the spring challenge has started, unfortunately without Free Spirits.

It has started but we can still participate, as long as Stan is happy to input. He has until the deadlines below (April 14th is the first one). I've copied the relevant paragraphs. The point is we row the distance then Stan chooses the fastest 8. So let's do this, let's get rowing. First up 6,000m by April 12th .

Peter please can you speak to Stan again to confirm he's willing. Then I'll PM the regulars to ensure they're aware of this challenge. With you, me, Dave and Fred we've got half a boat already!

Status
You are not currently selected for a boat. Your captain might not finalise boat selection until after all athlete scores are submitted.

Details
Week Dates Workout Entry Deadline
Week 1 April 6–12 6000m April 14 (5 p.m. UTC/12 p.m. EST)
Week 2 April 13–19 500m April 21 (5 p.m. UTC/12 p.m. EST)
Week 3 April 20–26 4 minutes April 28 (5 p.m. UTC/12 p.m. EST)
Week 4 April 27–May 3 30 minutes May 5 (5 p.m. UTC/12 p.m. EST)
Week 5 May 4–10 2000m May 12 (5 p.m. UTC/12 p.m. EST)

All athletes must enter their scores in their individual logbooks by the entry deadlines. Captains must also submit their final boat selection(s) by the entry deadline. Any workouts or boats submitted after then will not be accepted. Athletes may attempt the workout as many times as they care to within the given time period. Their fastest verified piece will be selected automatically.

Thanks for the encouragement Max! Yes, let's get going, at least it will be good training and I can use some motivation to row being stuck at home.

MaxMacLaren1 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 07, 2020 8:45 am Peter please can you speak to Stan again to confirm he's willing.

I did that Sunday night but he hasn't read my message yet. I also asked him to join this thread, so hopefully we'll hear/read from him soon.

Does anyone have other ways of contacting Stan, like email or Whattsapp?

Whether we're in or not, I've entered a 6k score which is also a seasons' best by about 3 seconds. Finished in 22:39.4
If not for a boat here, at least 2 more nonathlon points

I've got Stan via Messenger and also Whatsapp I think so I'll give him a prod.#

I assume the times/distances are taken as "raw" times/distances i.e. no weighting for age/LWT status etc?

Also, we need to verify each piece. Not sure why if the times/distances are entered by STAN (or the Captain)?

Great result Fred and I liked the Nonathlon idea. So... a SB in 21:49.5 @ 1:49.1. Plus 3 nonathlon points but more importantly it'll turn my meta-nonathlon score green .

Great work there, Max. I've given up on the green ones on the meta-nonathlon board. I think last season was too fast to do that. Have to hurry with two lacking nonathlon scores though. Next week's scheduled event here allows me to do the 500 mtr which is one of them.

Had a go and it was horrible - I've lost sooo much pace and stamina these last 18 months. Managed 24:25.8 (effectively 26 seconds slower than my SB off 11 months ago) and there were 4, yes 4 HD's in that. I verified it - but now what do I do with it?

Hi guys. Sorry I had answered Peters message a couple of days ago but hadn't realise there were further issues. Let me catch up and I will see if I can sort it out.

Ok, I have been to the team captain page and created a boat for you. I had a choice of 8 people to put in the boat from 11 people who have registered a time. I chose the first 8, but it looks like these can be changed and I can also create more boats.
I think I can add people who have not yet registered a time so I can create more boats if you need. If you can come up with a list of participants I will add these names to more boats. If you need me to rearrange names I think that can be done also.
The names in the first boat are: Michael Maclaren, Fred Koene, Tim Symington, David Plumb, Chris Newberry, Bob Poliachik, Richard Lindner, Gabriella Nonino. This was based on the 8 fastest from the 11 so far. I will log back in tomorrow evening and make any changes you need. Apologies again for not being around, but now im aware of this I will try to keep on top of it. I had decided to get my own c2 and get started again, but you cant buy c2 machines at the moment and I wont pay rip off prices that people are charging. I am on the c2 waiting list so hopefully later in the year I can start to become more involved again. Good luck all and stay safe.