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EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2018 10:13 am
by plummy
I received confirmation direct from the organiser by e-mail last night that EIRC 2019 is happening (after the cancellation in 2018 owing to refurbishment of the venue):

"Yes we are running the English Indoors on the 3rd Feb 2019. Really hoping to get the entry form and further detail s up soon, but feel free to pass this onto any networks you have that might be interested. I will of course be there on the day so if there is anything I can do either prior to or at the event to help Please just let me know .
Very best wishes Rebecca"

For those that are new/aren't aware, it is held at the National Cycling Centre (Velodrome) in Manchester, just opposite the Etihad (Manchester City) Football ground).
I've checked the football fixtures and Man City are playing Arsenal (BIG game) at home....on the 2nd...phew!!

It's not that far away...!!

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 8:37 am
by Wolfmiester
ok, IF I'm in the country ... I'll definitely think about it :-)

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 8:34 pm
by plummy
This has just arrived in my inbox from Rebecca (EIRC organiser):

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/english- ... tocomplete

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 5:46 pm
by plummy
This Sunday it's the English championships in Manchester and I've put my name down again as it is so local to me. I have taken young Andrea Lewis-Coker under my wing and been trying to help her with her training and technique and she has entered the Women's 30~39 HWT race. Her target is a new PB (currently 7:39.x) but I think, looking at her training results she could attack 7:30 and has a fighting chance of a medal (depending who else rocks up). She's up at 10:30 and my race is 12:50.
To be honest, I think this WILL be my last 2k race (where I attend a venue) as I still hate the performance pressure of it all and after 12 years I think I've put in a decent shift.

Next weekend I'll be in Germany for the Starnberg 30 minutes where I hope to at least worry 7500m (but given recent attempts I think 7450 will be a stretch). There's more than a fighting chance that it will be my final race (attended). Never say never but I suspect so.

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 7:44 pm
by Grobi
Have a great day at the races Andrea and Dave! I understand it‘s Andrea‘s first race so I hope your nerves won‘t trouble you. If so, ask Dave, he’s an indoor rowing methusalem (in terms of experience of course, not age :D ), he will know what to do.

Thank you for flying the Free Spirits flag and looking forward to your race reports!

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2019 7:33 am
by Wolfmiester
sausage, I'd forgotten this :oops:
Weather permitting though, I still might come and cheer you on :wink:

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2019 2:22 pm
by Wolfmiester
Turns out Man City are at home today, and 2 lanes were closed on the M6 North, so I thought best to avoid. sorry about that.
How did go for you both?

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2019 7:20 pm
by plummy
Ange's report crept on to a separate thread. Guy was there as well and I saw James Merrey's name in the list but didn't catch up with him at all.

I had an idea that 7:20.0 would be as good as it would get, 7:24.8 was my SB so something in between might be OK. After seeing Andrea row a cracking race I figured I'd better try and beat her time (albeit she's 20 years younger) and I targeted 1:51 splits until the last 2~300 and that's pretty much how it went ending up pulling 1:46/7's ish for the last 150m. Stroke rate held at 30~31 and ended up with 7:21.3 - which is OK given I'd have been over the moon with sub 7:20. Many people were complaining about the dry air and me amongst them, not so much during the race but after and well into the afternoon it felt like someone had had a go at my throat with a rasp.

Thanks Wolfie for even considering coming and to Jill for her message of good luck. I'll let Guy tell his own story when he gets home and recovered. He promised to be lore active on the forum ;-) ;-)

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2019 7:37 pm
by Tako
Congrats Dave!
Sounds like a very good result to me!

When I got a notification about whether problems at Munich airport, I thought you were unlucky like last year when travelling to Starnberg, but now I realised that I mixed the weekends.
Good luck next weekend and hopefully the air there won’t be as dry. Although last year it was if I remember correctly...

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2019 7:43 pm
by Grobi
Congratulations on a great race and a new SB Dave! =D>

Take, yes, Starnberg is next weekend and yes, the air there is very dry.

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 9:31 am
by MaxMacLaren1
Well done Dave and great to hear you achieved a SB. Good luck at Starnberg and I hope it won't be your last race because I have a small Starnberg itch that I suspect will need scratched one day.

Looking forward to seeing Guy's race report because from the photos it looks like he struck gold!

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 1:47 pm
by GuidonTheBee
Well raced Andrea & Dave. Second with a PB & a seasons best respectively - excellent performances both !

As mentioned by Plummy, I was as at the English IRC last Sunday and I promised to try & be a bit more active on the forum. (This isn't the first time I've tried to be a bit more active but I'm no quitter ;) ! )

I wasn't sure whether or not to enter the EIRC, mostly because having peaked for the Scottish IRC, Welsh IRC & BRIC before Christmas, and being really pleased with what I'd achieved, I wanted to get stuck into a decent few months of base building. However, I've done the EIRC a few times & it's a good, well organised event and I knew there would be quite a few people to catch up with so I decided to stick an entry for the 2k & 500m in at the last minute. I'd done almost nothing fast since BRIC, just a few 100m & a single 1 minute for the IRC so I thought it'd be good to go & see some friends, support my sport & have a bit of fun.

Needless to say, by the time I got to the Velodrome my competitive spirit had kicked in & I was regretting not doing any race prep ! I knew I wasn't in shape to go out hard for time, so my race plans were roughly to go out fairly conservatively, try and stay within contact of the leader if I could & then either see if I could pick anyone off or defend whatever position I had in the final stages.

My 2k category weren't racing until 12:50, meaning a 10:50 - 11:50 weigh in window which meant I had a chance to catch up with a few people but ended up missing Andreas race while getting set for weigh in unfortunately.

For the 2k I pretty much stuck to my plan. The early leader went >30m up on me which was more than I'd hoped for but I wasn't confident to push any harder so I held steadyish at 1:42-1:43, mostly in 4th or 5th place I think. I was struck by a terrible dry mouth after about 750m but managed to mentally file that under 'Unpleasant but not a priority'. Somewhere around 700m to go I started to press on a little although I don't think it had much of an impact, probably because everyone else was starting to think the same way ! At 300m to go I dared to apply full pressure ("One minute to go - whats the worst that could happen ..."), though I didn't rate up much, which did a decent job of reducing the gap to the leader, good enough for 2nd in the end (6:47.1). It seemed like a really good, close race with a few of us all finishing within quite a close timeframe.

My lack of recent speedwork was even more evident in the 500m. As is often the case with sprints the first half felt great, pulling way faster splits than I should have been & consciously having to back off to something more sensible. Then the final 200m seemed to last forever, pulling through treacle which was just getting thicker & thicker. At the BRIC I had been tailing off but this was far more dramatic and it was a huge fight to cling on to the win (1:28.0). I think second place was catching me & I don't think I'd have been able to hold him off for much longer !

All in all a great day. Good to catch up with people with just a couple of bits of discomfort along the way ;)

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 3:52 pm
by MaxMacLaren1
Congratulations and thank you for the race report =D> =D> =D>.

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Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 4:37 pm
by Caratacus
Well done Guy - a great pair of times, especially considering you're not 'match' fit

Re: EIRC 2019 (English Indoor Rowing Championships)

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 4:43 pm
by Tako
Congratulations Guy! Great performance!!