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Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 3:28 pm
by Grobi
Hi all,

this is a quick note to inform you that a certain Mr. Plummy and I have decided to enter this year's 30 minute race at Starnberg, south of Munich, which will be held on February 9th. It is the german championships for this distance/time (www.ergoregatta.de)

Former race reports can be found here:

2011: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2025&hilit=starnberg
2012: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2330
2013: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2540&hilit=starnberg
2018: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3489&hilit=starnberg

My training hadn't been too promising at the beginning of the year with a poor 7420m four weeks ago :shock: but I have been working on that since then. Let's see what race day will bring. Plummy will be flying in on Friday afternoon and we will then head off to Starnberg Saturday morning (240km round trip).

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 4:21 pm
by Tako
Good luck and have fun!
Hopefully the traffic conditions will be better than last year!

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 4:27 pm
by RdGkA
Have Fun!

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 4:32 pm
by MaxMacLaren1
Hope the air isn't too dry and that you can row your best races! What training do you do for a 30min race and does it have the same impact as fast interval training for a 2k race i.e. can you make big gains during the pre-competition and competition phases of periodisation?

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 5:30 pm
by plummy
Max - my race prep/training is:
turn up...
row...

I have few aspirations of achieving much more than 74xx metres. Last year I just about staggered over 7500m having had to back off 3 times which is about normal for me for anything above 3~4k at the moment. I'm going to do a 30 minute row at 24spm tomorrow and concentrate on power rather than spm rate and see what happens. I got 8026m in 33 minutes last night at 23spm (which was about 2:03.6 pace) without tooo much difficulty although a considerable volume of sweat.I'm hoping that if I can get through the first 20 minutes without having to back off I can maybe use a higher stroke rate after that for a few more metres.
Last year I was the oldest of 7 x 50~54 age group in the race (5 years age bands for us old folk in this event) and there were only 2 in the 55~59 event- and 2nd place was rowing at about my warm up pace :-). This year, when I'm a young 55~59 there's 10 of the buggers decided to show up - damn....blast....

Might be my last race this...

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 7:15 pm
by MaxMacLaren1
plummy wrote: Wed Feb 06, 2019 5:30 pm Max - my race prep/training is:
turn up...
row...
:lol: :lol: :lol:
plummy wrote: Wed Feb 06, 2019 5:30 pm Might be my last race this...
[-X [-X [-X

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 10:00 am
by Claudius
Hello, i´m a bit busy the recent days and got this wonderfull seminar from 9th- 16th Feb. in Garmisch-it is a termin collision(Seminar begins at 12 o´clock) so i hesitated to sign up- which i did yesterday, i also hesitated because ...hey you all might guess...its this season with all its common cold viruses spreading around- i am not full ill but for sure not 100% fit...so status yellow- i´ve been thinking these days of the stress im putting into myself...so i am a bit snoopy and asking all of you and Mr Plummy- but neednt to ask- you´ll show up from Great Britain--- ^O^ [-o< --- a long way to travel- my snoopy question is: how long do you would travel for a real life competition like this starnberg 30min ? so it shouldn´t be a offend my question and i´ll give you my answear right away: 3 hours radius with my car...not longer...as i told you...lots of stress these days...maybe i would sacrifice more time and wouldt travel longer when the kids are older...but no chance at the moment cause of family and job.

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 12:00 pm
by plummy
Thanks for the best wishes. To be honest, it's a very pleasant weekend in Bavaria with Peter interrupted by 30 minutes of extreme discomfort then a lack of shower facilities (unless the local gym is actually open this year)- so ther drive home can be a bit "pungent". As I'm not at "the pointy end" of results these days I'm really not that bothered where I finish in the race (I've been making up the numbers for 2~3 years now). It's all a bit of a blur as I don't speak any German (well, maybe a few words now) but it is a fun event (pain aside) as it's all done to heavy German rock music and EVERY race finishes to a full rendition of Eye of the Tiger. The guys in my race were also good enough last year to invite me onto the podium for a photo but I think that was because it's a 3000km round trip to race there!

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 4:50 pm
by Ian Bee
I'll add my best wishes for you both in the race

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 5:49 pm
by Grobi
Thanks guys for your good wishes!

Max, re my preparation for this race: last year I did the three long distance intervals of the Pete Plan (5x1500, 4x2k, waterfall) per week (every other day), so no alternating with the shorter interval sessions. This worked well for me in terms of physical fitness, but I was lacking the mental toughness of facing a full 30 minutes race. I don‘t like time based pieces, it doesn‘t make sense to pull any harder, you won‘t finish a second earlier :D

This year I tried a different approach by doing three hard 30 minute tests per week and long ~70 minutes heart rate capped rows in between. So far it seems that it worked, my last test Wednesday night was 7806m which I‘m very happy with, given I was at 7420 three weeks ago.

My training routine last year had a similar effect though, so which one is better is probably down to personal taste.

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 9:14 pm
by plummy
I did some prep tonight trying for 24spm solid throughout. I was a total disaster and I quit at 20 minutes at 4920m feeling not great. I did another 4k (of 5) after 5 minutes or so and quit again then did another 1k cool down. Saturday's 30 mins is gonna be a hoot....not!

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 8:54 am
by Jill
Peter and David, good luck and best wishes - I hope that you will not have to contend with any unpleasant weather conditions.

Enjoy yourselves - okay, there might be a certain 30 minutes … :fsbgrin: :fswink:

Safe journey - you are both excellent ambassadors for the sport. :)

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 10:43 am
by MaxMacLaren1
Thanks Peter, very interesting that the training works in the same way, and to aadd c400m in 3 weeks is fantastic.

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 10:55 am
by Claudius
When do you expect to arrive ? I´ll be there at 11o clock - if i race or not - as it is only a stones throw away on the way to Garmisch - never the less i am listed on the race no.8 at 13:35h. Maybe we will see us for the first time !

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 11:07 am
by Grobi
Hi Claudius, Dave's race is at 14:45, but he might want to do his weigh in as soon as possible, which would be 12:45. I suspect we'll be at the venue around 12:30, traffic permitting. See you then!

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:40 am
by Grobi
Hi everybody,

raceday was two days ago so it's high time for a race report. Like in the years before it was a well organized event, run to the minute, loud rock music playing during the race and two huge race screens, one for competitors, one for spectators.

We met Claudius just after we arrived and it turned out that he was the first of us to race (40-49 m lwt). He asked me to cox him through his race which I happily did. Well, to cut a long story short: he won! =D> =D> =D> He managed very impressive 8166m which is a lightweight PB for him! The result was a well earned medal:

image-2019-02-11.jpg
image-2019-02-11.jpg (40.51 KiB) Viewed 3246 times
Next one was Dave in the 55-59 m lwt category. There were six entrants and Dave being Dave he made his way through the field and (almost) nobody could stop him which resultet in a second place! =D> =D> =D> He was and is very happy with it but I leave it to him to write his own race report as I couldn't watch the most part of his race because I had to warm up for my race.

Which leads me to my own race (50-54 m hwt). There were 17 entries in this category, including two ex-olympians :shock: My race plan was a 1:57 pace for the first 15 minutes, then 1:56 for the next five minutes, then 1:55 and finally 1:54 (or quicker if possible) for the last five minutes. This plan would lead me to a 1:56 average pace. Claudius was kind enough to cox me through my race and helped me a lot to stick to my race plan. Everything went according to plan and I managed 7788m (1:55.5) so a bit quicker than planned.

Unfortunately the first ten guys in my race all managed to go plus 8k so I came in only 12th out of 17.

Nevertheless it was a good eperience attending a race again and meeting old and new Free Spirits :fswink:

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:51 am
by Wolfmiester
well done guys, a very positive day all round =D> =D> =D> =D> ^O^

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:38 am
by Caratacus
Very well done guys
Perhaps Dave should reconsider his retirement from competitive erging?

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 11:06 am
by Ian Bee
Fantastic to see you both achieving - very well done.

Looking forward to reading Dave's thoughts on his race.

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 7:29 pm
by MaxMacLaren1
Congratulations, fantastic rowing! And, Claudius delighted to see that looks like a proper "metal" medal.

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 2:38 pm
by Claudius
Thank you, and Max: yes it is out of Heavy Metal ;-)


I updated the link with Pictures and 2 Videos, if Dave give permission there is a video to give a Impression of the race atmosphere...

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 6:42 pm
by plummy

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 9:39 pm
by plummy
A quick (and belated) race report from me...

I flew to Germany on Friday and stopped with Peter and enjoyed the usual excellent hospitality. Having monitored my weight closely up to the English Championships the week before I knew I had little to worry about - so opted for a large Calzone pizza for fuel on the Friday evening.
Saturday morning started badly with a pre-migraine aura appearing in my left eye which means within an hour or two the headache will start so I chucked a couple of Ibuprofen in my face and hoped they'd keep it at bay.
Travel to Starnberg is about 90 minutes to 2 hours "Stau" allowing (the first German word I learned many years ago) from Peter's and although slow at times I've known it worse but we'd allowed plenty of time for me to get there before my weigh in.
On arriving it was very good to meet Claudius (who has lost so much weight looks nothing like his forum picture) and even better to hear that he was also flying the flag for Free Spirits. His race was quite a lot earlier than mine and he went off at a tremendous pace and held it really well - the results of which, can be seen with the shiny medal.

There are plenty of warm up machines and also bikes and a dynamic rower but the warm up room was stiflingly hot so after 10 minutes I called it a day and decided I'd go off steady in the race and see how it developed. In my race there were 6 (only 2 last year - grrr) but I didn't know a single one of them or their potential so just set off with a low drag (about 102) and looked to the PM to give me feedback.As it happened, I could see the PMs to my left and right and could see one guy pulling about 2:01 and the other 1:58. From my PM I could see a 55~59LWT 11m ahead of me but had no idea who it was. After a while I was glancing right and could see the guy had dropped to 2:03?2:05 and the distance ahead of me dropped to 9m so I was pretty convinced I knew who I was "chasing". He picked it up to 1:58 but I had already marked his card as struggling to hold the earlier pace so as long as I held mine, he should fade repeatedly. The next guy on the PM wasn't in my race and was 60+m ahead so I just settled and held my pace using the rock music and crowd cheers for distraction but then the screen changed and a LWT in my race appeared 44m ahead, then 41m then 39 and dropping so again I held my pace and he came back to me. It wasn't that long before I was past him but I had no idea if I was 4th or even 1st - not a clue so just kept going, waiting for the inevitable point at which I would have to back off.....which never came. I waited until the last minute until I gunned it (actually cocked up a bit because one second there was 1 minute 40 to go (a bit early) then suddenly only 40 seconds - oops, a bit late. Knowing everyone would be sprinting I hoped that 40 seconds of 1:46's and 7's would get me a few more metres and hold my place. I was pretty much tanks emptied at the end but still had no idea until maybe 5 minutes after the race that I'd come second (by around 20m over 3rd).

7552m was the distance. Second best of the season. If there was a disappointment it was not expecting to be anywhere near an SB so never had the mental maths to hand to perhaps gun it with 2~3 minutes to go to grab the extra 40m for an SB.

I watched Peter's race who was pushing and fighting hard throughout and did very well against some giants and then, this year we actually managed to get showered at a local sports hall (about 400m away) before the drive home (so the car wasn't quite as "ripe" smelling and then a trip into Peter's main home town for a major portion of Bavarian food.

Sunday was mostly chilling (after a very good night's sleep) and the mostly uneventful trip home (apart from the incredibly annoying git sitting next to me who sniffed loudly and violently for the 1 hour 50 minutes of the flight), getting in around 11:30pm

Re: Starnberg 30 minutes 2019

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 12:30 pm
by Ian Bee
Great summary, and really well done Dave.

Nice filming too.