Final week for the Concept 2 Dog Days of Summer challenge, so 40,000m requirement this week.
Monday morning skiing, 2000m (10:59.0) warm up, 10000m (52:22.1) for the challenge, slow and steady as I need to do a similar number of meters rowing later on and then a 2238m (13:04.6) cool down. I watched Battlestar Galactica S01E11 and part of S01E12.
I managed to set up my iPad such that it was wedged between the arms of the SkiErg and then held up with a large bulldog clip to stop it falling forwards – sub £0:10 iPad bracket right there.
I wear Apple AirPods that have a noise cancelling capability so that largely removes the sound of the fan during the workout. I do have to be careful of my ears becoming too sweaty or they have a tendancy of working their way out of my ears.
Monday evening I did 2000m warm up and finished watching Battlestar Galactica S01E012, then 10000m (44:58.4) rowing while watching Battlestar Galactica S01E013, then a 2235m cool down (10:17.8).
Tuesday, calisthenics pull day, a repeat of last weeks session, increasing the pull ups and chin ups slightly.
- Inverse Knee Rings Row – 3 x 3 x 5
- Rings Row – 3 x 3 x 2
- Rings Scapular Pull – 5 x 0:30
- Band Assisted Rings Pull Up (Purple) – 3 x 3 x 3
- Band Assisted Rings Chin Up (Purple) – 3 x 3 x 3
- Angled Rings Row – 5 x 10
- Static Rings Hold – 5 x 0:10
- Various Isometric Rings Holds – 0:10 each
Tuesday evening archery, I decided to have another go at a 252 for longbow at 40 yards. The requirement for longbow is a score of 164 for 3 dozen (252 with 4.5 dozen). I shot it with 2 different longbows, one of 45lb draw weight and the other 60lb. With the 45lb longbow and the first set of arrows I only managed to score 100 points, however with the 60lb longbow and the second set of arrows I managed a score of 196 that comfortably surpassed the 164 requirement.
I just need to do this again with a flatbow (score of 178 required – 252 with 4.25 dozen) for the full set at 40 yards and then I can start concentrating on filling out the 50 yard set.
Wednesday morning skiing, 2000m (11:59.7) warm up, 10000m (52:59.1) for the challenge, slow and steady as I need to do a similar number of meters rowing later on and then a 2238m (12:44.1) cool down. I watched Battlestar Galactica S02E01 and S02E02. This brings me to 28,475m for the week so far.
Wednesday evening rowing I did a 2000m warm up, 10000m (44:58.4), then a 2235m cool down (10:17.8). I watched Battlestar Galactica S02E03 and S02E04. This brings me to 28,472m for the week so far.
Thursday morning, once again I did not feel like exercising, heavy rain and thunder woke me up at 03:30 and I didn’t sleep well after that.
Thursday evening rowing I did a 2000m warm up, 10000m (44:58.4), then a 2235m cool down (10:17.8). I watched Battlestar Galactica S02E05 and S02E06. This brings me to 42712m which rounds out the week for the RowErg and completes the rowing half of my Dog Days of Summer challenge.
Friday morning skiing, 2000m (11:59.7) warm up, 10000m (52:59.1) for the challenge, slow and steady then a 2238m (12:44.1) cool down. I watched Battlestar Galactica S02E07 and S02E08. This brings me to 42,711m which rounds out the week for the SkiErg and completes the skiing half of my Dog Days of Summer challenge.
Saturday morning took the dog for a walk and then off to Staines Boat Club for my first session with the masters rowing group.
I had been assigned the number 3 seat in a coxless four that is ‘frig-rigged’ and has a bowside stroke and strokeside bow who also steers, but follows the normal alternate side rigging pattern.
The guy at bow is also a coach, so he was defining what we were doing at all points of the session.
We started off with various square blade pick drills in pairs to warm up, before moving onto single stroke balance exercises, as a crew, where we ‘paused’ in different positions: release, arms away, catch, etc.
By the end of the session we were rowing for 500-1000m at a time again with various drills thrown in, light, hard, 3 strokes pause, 5 strokes pause, etc.
I managed not to disgrace myself despite being rusty and was helped to remove a few bad habits – burying the blade rather than just dropping it in and relaxing my hands on the oar.
I hung around Staines for the next couple of hours then went out again with the leisure group in one of their leisure quads, this time I was in the stroke seat but there were only three of us rowing in this boat so we removed the number 2 seat.
I was complemented by the chap at 3 for keeping an even pace over the duration of our continuous rowing pieces which was a major sense of pride.
I swapped with the coxwain around halfway through the session, whilst still out on the water, which involved an interesting under and over manoeuvre, with me standing up and the lady coxwain crawling through my legs to take my stroke seat and then me continiung forwards to the coxwain seat.
We then did a few practice race starts 3/4, 3/4, 3/4, full, 5 hard, before droppping back to light rowing again.
One thing I did notice was that the guy at bow only had his blades in the water for about 10% of the stroke compared to the other 2 rowers, so we were really only being propelled by the stroke pair as we did not have a number 2.
I managed not to crash the boat and do an OK job of steering and calling out the drills before we headed back in which was not bad for never having coxed a boat before.
Sunday morning after going for a walk without the dog, as he has a little bit of a limp, I headed back to Staines for another masters session which was largely a repeat of the Saturday masters session with the same crew and started off with the same warm up drills.
We did however do more continuous rowing and finished with a steady state piece of about 4000m as a ‘preparation for head racing’.
All of the sessions were around 2 hours in length and in total I covered about 26Km OTW, the last session being 11,300m.
The maps were all made by the ‘Rowing Coach’ app from data it captured on my watch, all miss the first 1000ish meters because I forget to start it.
Most of the sessions end up looking the same from a map point of view as we are rowing between 2 locks on the river, both of which also have weirs next to them.
4000m is about the maximum continuous row that can be managed in either direction before being in danger of being too near one of the weirs.
Apparently they had a fatality near the bottom weir a year or so back, as a result of someone getting too close to the weir, so they now keep a very respectful distance from it when turning the boats round.
My Bont BR3 shoes from Rowing Shoes UK finally arrived on Saturday along with the Drive QRS quick release plates and Adjustable Heel Tie Clips.
The old Addidas shoes were definitely past their best and in need of replacement.
Most of the screws came out easily enough, however one seemed to be welded in place and I needed to drill out the centre of the screw to remove the shoe from the foot plate.
First I attached the foot plate half of the Drive QRS system to the foot plate.
The kit comes with a number of different screws, some countersunk and some cheese head to cater for all types of foot plate, I used the shortest countersunk screws, but also needed to use the washers between the foot plate and the QRS plates to keep the ends of the screws below the top surface.
I then attached the other half to the bottom of the shoes
The full kit also comes with heel wedges
This is a picture of the fully assembles stretcher plate with the shoes attached.
I think these will match well with the boat and will hopefully last me a nice long time.