Free Spirits Rowing

Hi all,

like in the years before I went to Starnberg last Saturday to attend the German Championship over the 30 minutes distance. My training in the runup to this event had been going really well. Three weeks before the race I did a waterfall session (3000m/2500m/2000m, 5'r) with a 1:52.0 pace which indicated a 1:53.5 pace for the 30 minutes (7930m). With threee weeks to go I was very excited about that.

Unfortunately one week later I caught a nasty cold and sore lower back problems, which both made me stop rowing completely. I lost about four seconds in pace so my expectations were dropped to a 1:57.5 pace/7700m.

But before you can race you have to get to the venue first Due to heavy traffic and a bridge over the highway being torn down it took us 3.5 hours to get to Starnberg which on a normal day would have been 1.5 hours By the time we arrived my race had been finished ten minutes before... The organisers wre flexible and let me start in a later race, but it had to be a younger age group, so I raced the 30-39 youngsters

As for the race itself my plan was to start out at 1:58 pace for the first half and then try to wind it up from there. The problem with Starnberg is the very dry air. About 32.5 seconds into the race my mouth was dry as the Sahara desert First fifteen minutes went to plan though and I noticed I could pass two of the younger guys. Things got a bit ugly from minutes 15 to 25, but with the last five minuts showing up on the PM I found some motivation to open the hurt box. Last two minutes was simply counting down strokes, finishing on 1:38s for an overall split of 1:55.5 / 7667m.

So not quite as far as I had hoped to go (7700m) but given the circumstances I'm happy with the result. This meant 7th out of 10 in the 30-39 hwt group.

More importantly I have it in writing now that I'm 30 - 39 years old :

It was also a great pleasure to meet fellow Free Spirit Claudius who despite shifting his focus to biking lately managed to defend his title in the 40-49 lwt category with a stunning 8094m
But I leave it to him to write his own race report.

Tremendous effort Peter, given the circumstances and another cracker from Claudius. Thank you for flying the Free Spirits flag.

Hello, I decided to take part in the competition - since I was in Garmisch anyway and didn't have it that far. I am very happy about the result - so I didn't know what was possible - I had not done a test over 30min. I knew 7900m are at least in it - but also not more than 8100m. A few weeks ago I noticed that the European Championships in Prague passed me by quite unnoticed. Prague would still have been within the possible distance radius...but was too busy with cycling. And so I told myself I had to try it again in Starnberg !
wet toasted directly after the race...
...this race was a lot harder than last year...my opponent did his job very well in pushing me forward !

Congratulations Peter and Claudius! Fantastic rowing and very inspirational .

Very well done gentlemen

Great rowing and a great write-up

Congratulations and well-done to both of you.

I'm such a slacker....