Evening training again!

A combination of clocks going back and a nice day allowed us to escape the “joys” of circuits last night and get in our first water session in the evening this year. Nice to see so many small boats out, a four, a dobule and no less than four singles. Mind you, spotting the singles (and our “stealth” double – see pictures to see what I mean) in the gloom at the end was quite challenging.

A good extra session ahead of Bedford this week-end, allowing Will and I to get out in the double AHEAD of the race (not like usual) and Steve to dust off his single.

Can certainly tell it’s coming up to the Easter break as well. Suddenly our ranks are swollen by the (very welcome) return of the tax dodgers.

For info really, if you’re reading this and aren’t a member but would like to learn to row and/or scull, MKRC are running our first ever “Learn to Row” course, starting tomorrow morning. So, if you fancy a go, e-mail bob@mkrowing.org or just pitch up.

Rowing Challenge March 2009

We held our first ever rowing challenge today – the aim was to do 150,000 meters on the ergos in 5 hours. We did this with over five minutes to spare!
The event took place at Kingston District Centre, MK (courtesy of Tesco Kingston). Starting at 10:00, we rowed 1,000 meters at a time, swapping over and rotating through the members who were there. The split times held up well through the day, obviously dropping towards the end. Can’t remember who did what distances but thanks to everyone who took part. Special mention to Tom, Lou’s son, who put in some (very welcome) late 1ks despite not rowing for us.
From memory, those who took part were (let me know if I’ve missed anyone):
Kirsten (8k), Nick (6k), John C (1k), John D (15k), Kieran (3k), Bethany (3k), Pierre-Yves (15k), Paula (15k), Jo (4k), Clare (15k), Steve (15k), Mariano (9k), Lou (9k), Tom (5k!), Mike (9k) and Becks (3k). Oh, and me (15k).
Photos on line already at MKRC Fotopic site and the MKRC Juniors Fotopic site

John Cunningham afloat!

Nope, not what you’re thinking!!

A really momentous event at training this morning. After many, many months of hard work by John (the person), John Cunningham (the boat) was ready. By good fortune we had nine guys down this morning and were able to take out the boat for it’s first run since we got it.

All of the effort from John (and Bob) is really worth it. The boat went really well, even with a scratch crew (including a couple of newbies) was quick and responsive and just sat so nicely. Mind you, I’d have loved to have seen John’s face (he was at bow for the maiden voyage) when Steve nearly steered straight into a buoy!

Even I enjoyed the outing (this is praise coming from someone who wonders where the second blade has gone in a sweep oar boat) – the funniest moments were seeing Nick and Pierre-Yves swapping seats; in the middle of the lake. Just a slight nervousness in Nick’s voice when he called for us to sit the boat, while he was standing up…

Good training outings for the ladies again, some very encouraging signs from these crews. Roll on the next race!

Training at last!

For the first time in what seems (and actually is) ages, we got out on the water this morning. Although a bit cold at first, there was no wind, no ice and no fog – we’ve lost sessions to all of those so far this year. This was only our second water session this year (plus the races at Northampton).

Encouragingly, we had quite a lot of traffic out on the lake. First session saw no less than five different fours/quads plus a pair and a single (plus the juniors). Nice to see several new or, in the case of Ed, returning faces. Gregg and Andrea had their first taste of a fine boat in a 4+ and Simon went out with us in the quad for his first ever try at sculling. All of them did really well. The second session saw Will braving a single – rather him than me with the water temperature still just off freezing.

Some really good work-outs but boy, the time off showed itself with the number of blisters!!

Now to start practicing for the next event – this will be Bedford Small Boats in April. Really missing the competitions, having had Bedford 4s and 8s canceled because of the flooding on the Ouse and having had to miss Henley as we were snowbound (even if Henley wasn’t).

Wasn’t terribly impressed by Henley – one of the biggest (and probably richest) clubs around and yet no consideration for smaller clubs unable to get to the event. They may be able to write off entry fees if they can’t make an event but that really hurts us. Given that around a third of the entries scratched, I would have thought someone would have had the decency to offer refunds….

Club captain Steve Lawson - ergo in the snow

More of this lunacy on YouTube

Rowathlon

OK, today saw our first real activity of the year with the inaugural MKRC Rowathlon. After three weeks of enforced inactivity (two weeks with the lake frozen and yesterday blowing a gale), Steve had organised this event. A gentle 2K ergo was followed by a 12K bike ride and then a mere 3K run to finish.

Despite the anesthetic (alcohol) this evening, I’m still in total agony. I think there are a few bits that don’t ache but I’m sure the morning will see to those as well. Steve tells me it’s good training, with the Head races coming up. I think he’s “being economical with the truth” here and just enjoys inflicting pain and anguish on people.

Anyhow, congratulations to the winners (Paul for Men’s Open, Pierre-Yves for Men’s Veteran, Helen M for Women’s Open and Paula for Women’s Veteran) and thanks to Tring Brewery for sponsoring us.

The scary thing is that Steve has suggested we do this regularly – I’m in favour of adding the handicapped swim for him (handicap is to tie the training weights to his feet and drop him in Caldecotte Lake….)

Seriously, did “enjoy” it really and would do it again – thanks Steve

Surprising myself, photos are already online at the MKRC fotopic site

Frozen New Year

This morning saw our first session back in the New Year. Trouble was, it was so cold overnight that virtually the whole of Caldecotte Lake was FROZEN!

It’s the first time I’ve seen it like that (there’s been the odd patch of ice before but nothing on this scale) and we figured that trying to break through the ice with a racing shell might not be a good idea. So, far from a gentle reintroduction to exercise from a light paddle we had the unmitigated horror of an early morning circuit. Happy New Year to all….

Odds’n’sods

Haven’t had a chance to write much recently (not that there’s been a lot to write about) but I find myself with a bit of spare time this morning, courtesy of the weather. Having been perfectly calm all week (Caldecotte Lake was like a millpond on Monday and Thursday) this morning the wind was steady at 15 knots and gusting higher. The lake looked more like the tideway, with a strong stream running. No chance of getting out in this, so we had the “joy” of an early morning circuit. Just for a change, Steve threw in ergos as well, six minutes at rate 26. Exactly what we needed first thing on Saturday morning. Still, it was nicer indoors than out. Mind you, there was a noticeable lack of people down this morning, especially men…

Major event last week was the Christmas Party. Very well attended and a really enjoyable night. More than enough food to go round (good thing we’re rowers, otherwise there would have been a mountain of stuff left) and livened up with a couple of party games. Will impressed everyone with his detailed knowledge of Mr. Men characters to win that contest. The competitive nature of us all was well demonstrated in the over/under game – how can something so simple wind up being such a competition? Still, we won when the other team burst their balloon (and, no we didn’t sabotage it as was being muttered by the losers).

Some of you may have noticed there’s a couple of other links on the right of this. I’m trying to add in useful rowing related links as I find them – if you want any added, let me know. One good one is the Top 100 Rowing sites – this is like a “hit parade” of rowing sites. To raise our profile, please click on this each time you visit this blog or the fotopic sites; this will move us up the rankings!

That’s all for now – only three more circuits ’til Xmas!!!!!

Boat names, AGM and stuff

Last night was the club’s AGM. This saw a couple of major changes in the committee, with Nick standing down as Club Captain and Greg stepping down (after many, many years) as Treasurer. Many thanks to both of them for the work they’ve put in over the last year/years.

Our new Captain is my “other half” Steve; I’m going to have to be far more respectful to him in our double from now on… Congratulations Steve, obviously the joy of sculling with me for the season has driven you mad. Paula has volunteered as Treasurer – within minutes she was being asked how to set up Standing Orders! A very quick baptism of fire. Again, congrats, it’s not an easy role, having to extract subs from everyone.

Before the AGM, we had a quick ceremony to name our latest boats. The Wintech four was named “Sirrocco”, the HG double “Foehn” and, in recognition of all the work he does for the club generally and on this boat in particular, the “Irish” eight was renamed “John Cunningham”.

The AGM was followed by a review of the video shot at the last training session. This was really useful, with Dean pointing out to us all a number of areas for improvement. The highlight for many was the extreme tutorial by Nick and Paul in the pair. Nick expertly demonstrating that if you look over the wrong shoulder, you take an air shot. If, at the same time your partner gets a good stroke then laws of physics apply and the boat gracefully turns over. All on video – priceless.

Following this it was Caldecotte Arms time – any excuse will do.

Training Weekend

After a bit of on/off drama on Friday, with the river state going from red to yellow, we finally got the “go” for the planned Ladies’ squad training weekend. This was at, for us, a new location at the RAF Rowing Club at Danesfield (courtesy of Steve’s contacts).
After normal training on Saturday morning (good weather for a change!) we loaded up and headed off. No dramas with the towing this time until we got to Danesfield – the turn into the club is a very sharp left hander, not possible with the trailer, so we had to go all the way into Henley, round a roundabout and back. Still, got there OK and offloaded boats for the first training session.

The first session comprised the eight and the quad. Steve, Paula, Steph and Charlene were in the quad (Steve and I being honorary girlies for the weekend) with the other girls in the eight with me coxing. Really annoyingly, I checked the cox box before moving the boat to the river – almost inevitably by the time the boat was on the water it had a fit of the sulks and wouldn’t work. Oh joy, coxing an eight without a cox box. For a long distance row.

The river was high and the stream running very fast. This made the first big corner extremely interesting – it’s almost 90 degrees and has an awesome cross stream. Getting round this was a bit hairy, having to stop and back down, spin, back a bit more and spin a bit more (all the more difficult with coxing directions having to be relayed down the boat as my voice didn’t carry). Still, we got round in the end and carried on. It’s a nice bit of river here and we reckon around two miles uninterrupted stretch with virtually no traffic on the Saturday (I guess sane people were still staying off the water).

It was really good for the crews to get in some good, long and hard practice – a run of well over 3k without stopping compared to our usual 1k on Caldecotte lake. We managed to get in two return trips before calling it a day. On getting back to the club we then did some work in the fours, with Steve compiling a video nasty to watch later in the evening! Parking the boats was an even greater challenge, with the stream determined to carry us off.

After finishing for the day, we then set up the barbie and cracked open a few beers. Everyone had chipped in with food, so there was loads to go round – still don’t know who got the burgers that dropped through the grill…

Following dinner, we watched the video of the earlier sessions, picking out some interesting styles and tips. Best one was a start with Laura – she’d never done a start before and Lindy was explaining what was involved when the “go” was given. Chaos ensued but she picked it up well on the second time. Paula then followed the family tradition of duck battering, whacking one round the head as it came up from a dive, neatly causing Charlene to catch a crab. Showing the competitive spirit in the club, we settled down for a quiet game of Rapidough afterward. Shall we say the rules were being bent to the maximum with very liberal interpretations of what was allowed…

So to the Sunday. Again the quad and the eight although different combinations this time. I managed the first bend much better this time, actually getting round without stopping. The session was a hard one this time, four minutes at half pressure, two at three quarter pressure. This was certainly starting to tell, mainly on hands (and my voice – the cox box still not working). It showed how fast the stream was, comparing return runs to the upstream ones.

After a quick lunch, time for the afternoon session. And time for me to stop being the shouty one at the back and get rowing (well, sculling actually). Steve and I headed out in the double, with two fours also going out. Great fun in the double, having to go at half pressure just to keep moving. We took it down to the far end of our stretch before spinning and coming back at Head Race pace. This got very interesting as the river traffic was picking up and we got hit by a couple of really big wakes. The first one of these caught me completely by surprise – this led to a major crab and this spun us into the bank. After extricating ourselves, we carried on to the end with no further mishaps. We did catch another couple of big wakes and by the end we had an inch of water in the boat an I looked like I’d been in the river.

At the end of this session we all headed back in. Although we’d planned to get another session in, all the girls were pretty much done in (mainly sore hands) so we decided to call it a day. In the end we’d got in some serious water time and long distance, high pressure work. It was a very worthwhile weekend and we all agreed it was a great location and stretch of water – definitely worth doing again.

I’ve written this from my perspective – how about one of the girlies posting their thoughts???

Caldecotte Circus

Nothing like good weather for bringing out rowers! Monday evening was brilliant, warm, sunny and almost dead calm. The net result was the largest number of boats I’ve ever seen out on Caldecotte Lake at one time. We peaked at ten – a Mens’ Eight, a couple of Womens’ Coxed Fours, a Womens’ Coxless Quad, two Mens’ Doubles and four singles!

Where we were restricted to the South Lake at the start of the session, this made for some interesting traffic jams. This is definitely a new phenomenon, and the lake suddenly seemed quite small. Quite a few needs to “hold it up” during the evening.

The bridge is getting interesting just now; the good weather has led to an explosion in lake weed and going through the bridge is leading to a large number of crabs. Very interesting in singles and doubles!