"About me" - a place to introduce yourself

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colddrake
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Introducing myself…

Post by colddrake »

Hullo, my name is sarah and I've discovered I quite like rowing. (Better than cycling, not as good as hillwalking :-)
I rowed for the first time on ::checks spreadsheet:: 21 Feb 2014, at the request of a friend in New Hampshire who'd been advised to start an exercise program and had a rower in the basement. The local gym has a couple of Concept 2 rowers, so the plan was we'd each row halfway across the (digital!) Atlantic. I put my imaginary boat in the water, rowed 1730m in 10 minutes and thought I'd die. But it got better, to the point that I kept going when my friend stopped, just changed my goal: I'm going to row into Hudsons Bay, then up the rivers to my home town in Alberta, Canada. I might have to portage occasionally.

I didn't discover the Concept2 log until recently, so I'm still transferring sessions from my Excel spreadsheet (distance to date is 835.64km, due south of Iceland). I've also realised that I need to investigate technique; basically, I Just Row. I've been playing with the power graph over the last couple of weeks and it occurred to me that I could try to train for something instead of Just Rowing. This seems like a place where I could learn to do that.
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plummy
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by plummy »

Hi Sarah - welcome to Free Spirits and thank you for the introduction.

It does get easier and varying the workouts and distances is a good way forward to even more progress. Feel free to ask any questions you have re technique or training (or anything else you fancy)

Plummy
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Paul Victory
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by Paul Victory »

Hi Sarah

I'd like to echo welcome plummy's welcome.

Paul V
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by Grobi »

Hi Sarah,

welcome to Free Spirits :fswink: If you're interested in improving your rowing technique, I always found this video (despite the poor resolution) very helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqVmMd7FdAA
Athletes row, others just play games

Peter

55y, 1,89m, 85kg

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colddrake
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by colddrake »

Thank you for the 'welcomes', everyone :-)

You're right, that video is useful. I'll try to remember to smile more; I think it's sometimes more of a grimace! I have some questions, but I'll take them to the appropriate thread.
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by TomKat121111 »

Hi All,
I'm Tom. When I was in high school and university rowing was a big part of my life. Now I'm just big and need to do something about it. I currently live in Weipa (Far North Queensland) where an adventure in a rowing boat would be just that, an adventure. Our waterways are home to the delightful Saltwater Crocodile and variety of other creatures who would much rather you be dead than alive.
My wife just bought me a second hand Model E from some friends who are leaving town and I see it as a great opportunity to get involved in the wonderful sport of rowing again. Also without the prospect of being eaten.
The problem I have is that most of my motivation for rowing when younger was the team work and fellowship that I had with my crew and club. I hope that this virtual club may be able to provide me with some of that sense of camaraderie that I once had.
Cheers,
Tom
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plummy
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by plummy »

Hi Tom,

Welcome to Free Spirits. You've come to the right place for camaraderie and friendly support (and advice if you want it). Thank you for your intro - I feel that your reasons for not going out "on the water" are based on sound reasoning (not getting eaten seems preferable - although there have been occasions on the erg where a quick death seemed the better option against carrying onto the end of a workout :lol: )

Feel free to post updates and ask questions. Nobody bites here!! :wink:

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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by TomKat121111 »

Thanks for the welcome Plummy. I look forward to getting to know everyone here.
Cheers,
Tom
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by Ian Bee »

Hi all, after too long away from regular physical activity I decided that indoor rowing would be the best shot for me (various back and leg issues meant a low impact activity seemed the best way forward). After much soul searching about what to plump for, I made (on reflection) a rather peculiar choice and bought a waterrower late last year.
Initially, this didn’t really cause me to pause for thought – the first month or two was simply giving myself a jump start into regularly doing some training rather than very limited activity. As of now, while I’ve lost a little weight (with some still to come off) and I’m rowing between 50-55km a week [please see below], my uncertainty over the choice of rower has reached fever pitch.
So: I’ve arrived here as an interloper. I come safe in the knowledge that I can’t compare distances and splits, but hoping (with the aid of an unholy conversion factor which I shall keep to myself) that I can find additional motivation/knowledge from those here.
ATB, Ian
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plummy
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by plummy »

Hello Ian - thank you for introducing yourself.

As you say, operating on a water rower makes things very skewed as everything you achieve on your WR from the metreboard (C2 only metres) to times and distances are not related to anything C2 based which is 99.9% of everything here (apart from the fundamentals of being an indoor rower of course).

The technique is the same and the aspiration for motivation and learning is all good so if advice can be offered re fitness/weight loss/technique etc, please ask away.

Plummy
60 yrs old, 76kg, 5' 10"
43Mm metres rowed. Re-setting the bar much lower now. Getting too old for this malarky
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by CamiCrew »

Thanks for saying hello, Ian. Lots to learn here about technique that will benefit you and help keep you going. Sounds like you are off to a great start. That's solid weekly volume after time off from exercising. Congratulations on finding an activity you enjoy! I've not tried a water rower but hear they sound nice (?). If you do eventually switch to C2 you may need to add a fountain nearby... or earphones, in my case ;)

ATB2U2 :fsbgrin:
-barbara

F Hwt 53 yrs 5'10"
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by Ian Bee »

Thanks to you both - much appreciated. I shall dive in to the various training threads!

PS - the sloshing water provides endless entertainment for the cat and bunny....
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by Claudius »

Hello,

my Name is Claudius, living in the northern east of Bavaria (upper palatinate) with my wife and 3 small kids. I started rowing a long time ago, it was 1991, in Celle, Northern Germany, mostly otw, favorite regatta Head of the River Race in London. Just for some performance tests I met the painful c2 machine (best test result in watt/kg=5,16, was in ´95: average 320w/6min with a bodyweight of 62kg – so yes I am a former lightweight. Went for medical school to Hannover, kept on rowing otw in a legendary students club, made their my pb in 1000m 3:10min, and participate in some more regattas. My choice of location to start in working life was “the foot to the Bavarian forest” Deggendorf. I am addicted to Mountainbiking, so Deggendorf was the best choice to do both: biking and rowing. Unfortunately I realized that ambitious rowing and working as a young physician is a bad combination, as a student you have much more time for sport, so I quit ambitious rowing and concentrated to discover all the fine trails and roads in the Bavarian forest with my mtb and road bike, in winter I learned the country ski run.
I also lived in Regensburg, had a small rented flat in its gorgeous old town between porta praetoria and stone bridge (my avatar is the bruckmandl, I shot this photo in 2010).
Just before my first son was born in Jan. 2013 I moved to northern east Bavaria near the town Weiden in a very countrified region (some Americans of you probably know the Grafenwöhr training area, Elvis Presley did).
I passed my exam as a consultant anaesthesiologist this month, so after that I have a little bit more time to finally introduce myself !
My C2 machine was a gift from my wife 5 years ago. With kids and the job as a physician your time for sports will be diminished to nearly nothing, so I always knew: erging with c2 is one of the most effective sports. I joined row pro in late 2013. It cost again 2 years as I recognized some ctc sessions in row pro and wanted to know what it is and joined free spirits, as I liked the free philosophy!

See you, and have a nice day !

Claudius
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by Paul Victory »

Hi Claudius

Welcome to Free Spirits! Thanks for telling us about yourself and congratulations on your recent success in qualifying as a consultant anaesthesiologist. =D> =D> =D>

It's great to have people with OTW experience in the team. Erging is very tame by comparison and I wonder if I would ever have been able to master the art (or handle the early morning training) if I had taken up this 'hobby' at an earlier age.

I hope you enjoy being a member of Free Spirits and maybe we'll all get a chance to meet up at some future point.

Paul V
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by Draggon »

Thanks for the intro, Claudius - enjoyed it very much! Seems we have at least one common interest in that silly activity they call mountain biking. I've been riding consistently (above 40 Deg F... ;) )since '05 when I was 39. (I'm also a huge Elvis fan thanks to my mom... )
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Massi
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"About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by Massi »

Hi, my name is Massimiliano and I live in Leeds, UK. I've started rowing only a few weeks ago, mainly as cross training for my main passion, running. But...I'm really liking it so far, really! I can do it everyday, it's so easy on the joints and so addictive. I'm really slow though! I can row for 60 minutes no problem but I'm struggling to push as hard as I usually do while running.
Anyway, I wanted to introduce myself as I'll stick around for a while :-)


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zootMutant
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by zootMutant »

Welcome Massimiliano! :fsbgrin:

If you decide to stick with it, I'm sure you'll see very rapid progress. Your overall fitness from running is good, but your muscles need to adapt specifically to rowing. I think this will be much faster than if you were a total couch potato who never exercised.

Keep us posted on your progress!

Cheers, :P
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Massi
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"About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by Massi »

Thanks for the welcome zootMutant! I've been rowing basically every day in the last couple of weeks as I'm sidelined by a ankle sprain. No problem rowing, and that's great as I think I've managed to keep my fitness level.
One thing I've noticed is that I put some weight (about 2kg) in the last 4 weeks, basically since I've started using the rowing machine. I'm quite skinny, 68kgs for 180cm, so it was a surprise. Is it possible I gained muscles in such a short time? I definitely can't remember my hamstrings to be as defined as they are now...but 2kg?

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plummy
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by plummy »

Hi Massi and welcome to the team. Apologies for the slow welcome, it's been a busy week. You're not so far from me being just on the other side of the Pennines :-) (I used to work in Leeds too!)
60 yrs old, 76kg, 5' 10"
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catdailey
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by catdailey »

Thanks for the add! I'm a 55 LW F. Bought my husband a C2 probably 20 years ago just for his exercise. I did some erging 8 or 9 years ago with a 2k trial for a paddling team, but really didn't know what I was doing. Fast forward, decided to learn to scull 3 years ago. My team seems to erg just a little bit in the winters if the river freezes, but I find that I really like the erg :>. I've done the Holiday Challenges and the Fall Challenges the last few years. Since I finished up the Fall Challenge on Oct 15, I thought maybe to use that nice 200K erg base as a springboard to trying a proper 2k race in February. I ran off a 15 week Interactive 2k Program on the UK site and am a few workouts into week 2. It's going to be awesome having some folks to share experiences with since so few of my otw team seem to want to erg...lol. Anyway, thanks for adding me!
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by Claudius »

Hello catdailey...i wish you to find the motivation you are looking for...i also came from otw rowing to indoor rowing and I was surprised about the fascinating possibilities it offers...
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by plummy »

Welcome Cat. Looking forward to hearing about your progress :-)
60 yrs old, 76kg, 5' 10"
43Mm metres rowed. Re-setting the bar much lower now. Getting too old for this malarky
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by Wolfmiester »

Hi Cat, great intro. Best of luck with the training and the race.
Wolfie

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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by webberg »

Not really new, but a reminder.

I was invited to join the club by one of the original Free Spirits and was perhaps in the first intake in July 2006.

Then I was working in a bank (tax department) and had a lot of time. Now I work for myself (and my 10 staff) and have no time. However the scales do not lie and I need to shift at least (mumble) kilos.

Partly because it's sensible and partly because having been a keen cyclist for ever but more seriously over the last few years, I agreed in a moment of foolishness (alcohol had been taken) to do Ride London. Having a Mod D at home is the first and at the moment, painful, step.

Looking forward to joining in again.
Uphill to the finish

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plummy
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Re: "About me" - a place to introduce yourself

Post by plummy »

'bout time Webberg ;-) - welcome back...again :-)
60 yrs old, 76kg, 5' 10"
43Mm metres rowed. Re-setting the bar much lower now. Getting too old for this malarky
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