Wonderful

In preparation for weekend advertures at the Evesham Regatta we did a light'ish session last night on the water. We were both coo'ing when we got off, it went so well. Admitting to technical flaws and not tinkering too much we worked on simply timing and relaxing through practice starts.

When sessions go like that then you remember why you got so addicted in the first place... awesome!

The weekend brings only one outting in the senior 2 pairs event on Sunday, we aren't senior 2 but the distance of 500m should give us every chance of putting in a decent showing :o)

Lookie, lookie, new lookie...

I am a sucker for a new colour scheme, and so I browsed Blogger's offerings. It looks pretty clean and I like it.

Could have been that I was inspired by the new ARA website - http://www.ara-rowing.org/
Their revision looks great, and the little content that I have gone looking for is well structured.

I also noted that Evesham Rowing Club have revamped their site as well - http://www.evesham-rowing-club.co.uk/
Another effort in streamlining and clean looking content. They seem to have pulled it off nicely, and all the content is dated to show the freshness (or indeed otherwise) of their pages. Many a rowing site looks great, but often leave you wondering when last it was updated.

Another busier week

Training Log	Row	Stretch	Run	Ergo	Circuit	Weights	Cycle
Mon/21/4/08	.	Y	.	.	.	.	Y
Tue/22/4/08	.	Y	xtrainer	.	.	Brief	Y
Wed/23/4/08	2x 3t	Y	xtrainer	.	.	.	Y
Thu/24/4/08	.	Y	45mins	.	.	.	Y
Fri/25/4/08	.	.	.	.	.	.	Y
Sat/26/4/08	2- 3t	.	.	.	.	.	.
Sun/27/3/08	.	.	.	.	.	.	.

Latest training table - busy week!

Training Log	Row	Stretch	Run	Ergo	Circuit	Weights	Cycle
Mon/14/4/08	.	Y	xtrainer	.	Y	Light	Y
Tue/15/4/08	.	Y	xtrainer	.	.	Brief	Y
Wed/16/4/08	2x 2t	.	xtrainer + 20min	.	.	.	Y
Thu/17/4/08	.	Y	.	3x 8mins	.	.	Y
Fri/18/4/08	.	.	.	.	.	.	Y
Sat/19/4/08	2- 3t	.	.	.	.	.	.
Sun/20/3/08	2- 4t.	Y	.	.	.	.	.

Back basics

No, no, no I didn't miss a word from the title of this post... I do mean back basics, and not back to basics.... ah, you would like me to explain? No? Well I logged in to share so I am gonna :oP hehehehe

Since I fell off my bike and did my shoulder in I have not had the strongest shoulder girdle, despite going to a great physio class at the local hospital for a good few weeks at the time. I have in fact never had the strongest shoulders or back, as a kid (and possibly also currently at times) I tended to hunch to reduce my height (as the tallest kid in the class I was at times a bit self conscious).

From the early phases of learning to row it was noted that my core and shoulders weren't strong enough to cope with the leg powered drive phase of the stroke. This lack of strength led to me 'tugging' with my arms, it sounds counter intuitive but it really isn't. If your shoulders, core and back aren't strong enough to translate the leg drive energy to the oar the tendency is to tense and bend the arms (to grip). The consequence being the power of the leg drive is reduced and masked by an almighty arm and shoulder shrug to cope with the oar load. Ideally, during the initial leg drive (which is followed by shorter body and arm phases) the rower should leave the arms straight, fingers loosely hooking over the handle, and the legs exploding; the core, shoulders and back holding the posture firm facilitating the transfer of the huge leg effort through the body into the oar and thus into propulsion through the water. If the leg drive isn't harnessed and you row with bend arms, 'pulling' and 'tugging', then fatigue rapidly hits you and you struggle to row very far at any speed at all.

So during my recent morning sessions on the cross trainer I have taken a half time break to work a little on my back and shoulders. Through using light pull ups and dips, and a couple of the other simple weight machines. It leads you to feel really very tired, there is something different about recovering from upper body that leaves you feel heavier and slower than if you had done isolated leg work. Leg work recovery hurts if you climb stairs, core work recovery hurts when you sit at the dinner table (unless you slump which is painful in a different way). I am hoping that as I carry on this phase it'll get easier and easier like I've found before with running (predominantly leg) training.

A busy weeks training table ;o)

Training Log	Row	Stretch	Run	Ergo	Circuit	Weights	Cycle
Mon/7/4/08	.	Y	xtrainer	.	Y	Brief	Y
Tue/8/4/08	2x 3t	Y	xtrainer	.	.	Brief	Y
Wed/9/4/08	.	.	.	.	.	.	Y
Thu/10/4/08	.	.	.	.	.	.	Y
Fri/11/4/08	.	Y	xtrainer	.	.	Brief	Y
Sat/12/4/08	2- 3t	Y	.	Y	.	.	.
Sun/13/3/08	2- 3t	.	.	.	.	.	.

Two sessions a day has proved interesting, and thanks to being unemployed at the moment, easy to fit into the day. The kind of stuff I've been doing with the cross-trainer (xtrainer) is something I could still do on my return to the working life... I hope to get it so engrained that I will make time for the sessions because I'll be addicted to the activity.

Three outting on the river always helps the mood levels. Especially as now the clocks have changed and the days are longer, the options are more flexible. The elevation in mood with the clock change suggests I am more prone to SAD (seasonal affective disorder - not sure thats the right word combination, sorry). I reckon its an aging thing that makes daylight and associated activities missed more and more each winter.

Picking it up

This week has seen a bit of a pick up in activity, with plenty of training. Unfortunately it has also been a week where work and so on has gotten on top of me rather a lot!! I have a list of things I need to do around training that is pretty daunting, and mentally quite wearing. That meant that I didn't really enjoy my training as much as I would have liked. The main thing was I got on with things, although I have been very tired. I hope that another week of hard work will begin to make things feel a little easier, the first week of harder training is always a tricky adjustment.

Busier week

I've had a bit of a busier start to the week, and aside from a few aches it feels pretty good. The training table for this week (at the foot of the blog) is looking pretty healthy. I have been fitting in some morning sessions at the rowing club. I doubt i'll keep it going at that level all of the time, with appointments and commitments over coming weeks, but I will certainly be filling in the early sessions when I can (they set the day up pretty well).

Got an unexpected double outting tonight that was good in patches. Definitely feeling our way into the four oar boat, we know what we should be doing, its just a case of putting it together. I did find that having watched some footage from last years Rowing World Championships I had the stroke much more clearly pictured in my head. I will definitely be watching a bit more of that before the weekend outtings ;o)

Training table

Training Log	Row	Stretch	Run	Ergo	Circuit	Weights	Cycle
Mon/24/3/08	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
Tue/25/3/08	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
Wed/26/3/08	.	.	.	.	.	Gardening	.
Thu/27/3/08	.	.	.	.	.	Gardening	.
Fri/28/3/08	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
Sat/29/3/08	Twice	.	.	.	.	.	.
Sun/30/3/08	Y	.	.	.	.	.	.