One hot weekend of training

Another brief update.  It was to my great amazement that all 8 crew members got together for not just one, but two training sessions over the weekend.  First off we all met at Cantabs rowing club at 5.30pm on Friday for an hour session on the ergos.  We had planned 90 minutes, but the erg room was a sweltering sauna, plus the one person who we needed to arrive on time to let us all in was almost half an hour late, as is the way with these things.  Although we cut the time down we did step the session up by doing intervals of hard efforts.  Everyone was well and truely dripping with sweat by the end of it.  A beer or two was most definitely well earned that evening.



At Cantabs rowing club.  Back row: Steve, Dennis, Andy, Gary. 
Front row: Alan, Richard, Jonathan, Jason.

 Then on Saturday morning Dennis, Jonathan, Gary and Richard made it to Milton Country Park to take part in the weekly 5k parkrun.  There weren't any PBs this week given that it was already very hot by 9am.  I was delayed at home as I was finishing off a sign board to help attract attention to what we're doing.

Following the parkrun Jason, Steve, Andy and myself met up with the others for a one hour kettlebell session.  We had a good long warm-up before I put them through a challenging programme, which I call my 30s challenge.  The aim is to do seven exercises and complete 30 reps for each exercise, as follows:

• 30 one arm swings on each arm,
• 30 bent over rows on each arm,
• 30 squat thrusts,
• 30 snatches - 15 per arm in one set per arm,
• 30 press-ups,
• 30 kettlebell squats - 15 with kettlebell in rack on right arm and 15 on left arm,
• 30 shoulder presses - 15 per arm in one set if possible.

We didn't quite end there.  We then did a lot more swings and a series of core exercises.  Then Jonathan made us pose for a series of photos:

The Kettlebell Crew at Milton Country Park.
Andy, Gary, Steve, Dennis, Alan, Jason, Joanthan & Richard.

The Misfits.  How on Earth are we going to make it to France?

That wasn't quite all for my weekend.  With an utra marathon also coming up, I set off this morning for a 20 mile training run.  I left the house at 8am, but it was already warm.  I don't know how hot it was by 10am, but at this point I was flagging and decided to cut my run short by 2 miles.  Fortunately, I had the option to do so.  What a scorching weekend it has been for intense training.

Caught In A Riptide

Yet another belated update on the crew's progress.  On Saturday 21st July we had our third outing in the gig and for the first time we made it out to sea, rather than being stuck in the estuary around Hayling Island.

As 21st July was the first Saturday of school holidays, traffic was horrendous.  It's a shame we didn't have the foresight to see that coming.  The crew arrived at Hayling Island looking frazzled after such a long drive.  Everyone only just arrived in time to get changed and almost immediately jump into the boat for our four hour row.  We were also a man down, as Dennis was ill with a chest infection and under Doctor's orders not to do strenuous exercise.

One of our goals for our third outing was to try out possible crew positions for the final row and to practise change overs without bringing the boat to a stop.  We decided that Steve, Jason and Gary would make up the bow team and that the three of them would have to row the entire four hours.  Myself, Richard, Andy and Jonathan made up the stern team, with each taking on stroke and cox duties.

We also found ourselves setting off in the boat without having a rowing coach on board.  On this trip we'd be joined by a different coach, Steve Woods, but he would be alongside us in a separate rib.  To be left to our own devices in the boat felt like we'd made massive progress and had a lot more responsibility on our shoulders.  Everyone seemed to step up their game accordingly.  On the previous rowing trip it took several minutes for everyone to find the rhythm and to be able to row in time with the stroke.  On this occasion everything seemed to click from the first paddle.  Previously backing down (rowing backwards) to get away from the jetty was a real mess, but this time we were organised and the boat slipped away from the jetty with ease.

Once we were out of the marina and rowing on the wide estuary heading out to sea we made rapid progress, which was helped by the falling tide.  We had great weather and many other people were making the most of it.  We found ourselves sharing water with a huge fleet of sailing ships, which meant the cox had to be extra alert.  Go from the calm of the estuary to wide open sea was like stepping through a door to a different world.  The waves weren't as choppy as our previous trip, but the boat was still lifted and rocked by fairly big waves.  However, we managed to continue to row in time with stroke and make good progress.  This would change we had to turn back for home.



From stroke to bow: Jonathan, Alan, Andy, Gary, Jason and Steve.


We had headed out to sea directly away from Hayling Island.  The return row to the island was easy enough, but as we approached the mouth of the estuary it became harder and harder to make progress.  At the time I was sat in the cox seat and I found myself shouting at the crew to dig in and row hard in order to make some progress.  I could see two buoys that we were aiming for, and I could also see the full force of the water coming out of the estuary and spilling around and over the buoys with great force.  It was no wonder that rowing had suddenly become so hard.  Apparently we were rowing against a riptide.  I'm no expert but we were later told that certain atmospheric conditions can have an effect on the tide and increase it's force.  To give you some idea of the effect of the tide, for most of the row we made progress at a rate of 1 mile for every 12 minutes.  On the approach to the mouth of the estuary it took us an hour to cover 1 mile.  In the end our support boat had to come to our rescue and tow us beyond the worst of the tidal current.  We weren't the only boat in trouble, even some of the sail boats had to get a motorised tow back to harbour.

After a short tow we were cut loose and left to our own devices again.  Everyone dug in and we rowed back to harbour at a fairly fast pace.  Jason was pretty wrecked from the previous hard work, so we gave him an unplanned turn in the cox seat.  Every time someone had to change seats in the boat we managed to keep the boat moving forward by making sure that at least two people were rowing.  With Jason in the cox seat we put in short bursts of hard efforts on our return trip.  We also rowed the very last kilometre flat out, which was a great moral boost at the end of a hard four hour sea row.

Once back on dry land everyone was elated by the experience we'd gained from the trip.  It was hard to believe that this was only our third time in the boat as a unified crew.  Although everyone had just put in an awesome level of work, energy levels were high.  In fact the crew was almost unrecognisable from the travel weary car drivers and passengers who arrived at the marina earlier that day.

Since our last row fitness training has continued with running and kettlebell workouts.  We've been missing out on group ergo sessions, but most of the crew are doing this by themselves.  As we're now into August many people are away on holidays and group training sessions are becoming more sparse.  But this will change once we head into September and have just one month to our crossing.

Wet Runs and Soggy Fitness Trails

The crew have been working hard this weekend.  Three of the eight (Steve, Jonathan and Richard) managed to get up early enough Saturday morning to attempt the 5k parkrun at Milton Country Park.  Following a night of heavy rain the parkrun route was mostly one big puddle.  Only Richard managed to complete the whole 5k, but the other two should still be applauded for given it a go. 

The rest of us had reasonably valid excuses for not being there.  Myself and Gary were out with Jason to celebrate his 40th birthday.  Andy was also out late Friday evening, although I don't know if there was any particular reason for his revelry other than it being what you do when you're still in your 20s.  An age that is a distant memory for most of us in the crew.  Dennis couldn't join us as he was still on holiday in Spain.

Andy, Gary and me managed to meet up with the other three at 10am for a one hour kettlebell session.  This will be the first and last time that I will ever do serious training with a hangover.  Jason had promised to join us whilst under the influence of alcohol, but we all forgave him for not attending given that it was his birthday.

We had all agreed to meet at Girton Recreation Ground this morning to tackle the Trim Trail.  This is a reasonably substantial assault course with a good variety of obstacles and exercise stations to tackle.  Five crew members made it, including myself.  I also bolted on a 10 mile run from my home to Girton and arrived just before everyone else got there.  I then led the crew around the trail and told them what to do at each station.  I then set t everyone off and we kept at it for the next hour.  In this time everyone completed the trail between 4 to 6 times each, and all were pretty exhausted by the end.

Walking press-ups on the balance beam

Rope climb - no legs

The field was a little soggy in places

We'll give that one a miss

6 to 10 dips.

20 lifts of the beam.

Richard on the cargo net climb

10 jumps

Jonathan contemplates the height of the leapfrog station..

..and then has a go.

A couple of weeks respite for the crew

The crew have had an unintended easy couple of weeks recently.  I was away running in the Isle of Wight Ultra Marathon over the 30 June/1 July weekend, so was unable to take charge of any weekend training sessions.  Some crew members did their own thing, whilst others had a weekend off.  This past weekend has also been an easy weekend for the crew.  Some have been unavailable for training, so I decided not to do a training session for the few who were around today.  In hindsight I think it would have been a good idea for us to have met up just to maintain the impetus in our training.  It will be back to normal next week with a Saturday morning parkrun and kettlebell session for all those who can make it, which should be everyone except Dennis, who is now on holiday in Spain.

3 Hour Sea Row

So much has happened since the last posting, but unfortunately I don't have enough time right now to do it all justice, so this will be a brief outline of how the crew are progressing.

The crew have continued to meet at Cantabs Rowing Club to make use of the Concept 2 rowing machines there.  So far we haven't managed to get all 8 members along to the boat house at the same time, but everyone has been along at some put for a group training session of between 1 hour to 1.5 hours.  We will be repeating the 2 hour session at some point before we next go to Hayling Island.

The biggest event over the last few weeks was our second trip to Hayling Island on Friday 15th June.  The day before our outing it was looking doubtful as to whether we'd actually get out on the water, as the weather forecast was awful, with the worst storm in 50 years predicted.  Fortunately, the forecast was way off and the weather was almost pleasant, except for the high winds.  Expecting heavy rain and cold conditions all crew members got wrapped up in full waterproofs and thermals.  One of our problems was then finding we had too many clothes on and over heating on the row.

Our rowing coach, Mike Gilbert, was rather more quiet and serene on this outing compared to our first trip.  There was one anxious moment whilst leaving the marina, when the wind was blowing us towards a rather expensive yacht, and the crew hadn't quite got their act together with the backing down instruction (rowing backwards).  Mike's anxiety was heightened by the fact that the owner of the yacht was standing on deck watching us inch towards his precious boat.  Fortunately, everyone got their act together in time to prevent us scratching his hull.

Once out on the estuary things came together beautifully.  Everyone managed to row in time with stroke for a good 85% of the outing, compared to probably 10 to 15% on our first trip.  The stroke rate was also spot on.  Mike had told us that we should aim for 24 strokes per minute, and this is what we've been practising on the rowing machines.  Every now and again Mike would check our rating and report back that we were hitting exactly 24 strokes per minute each time.  This was with four different people in the stroke seat over the 3 hour row.

Conditions weren't good.  On leaving the marina we were faced with a strong head wind.  The plan had been to make it all the way out to sea.  As it happens the sea conditions were to rough for us, and the wind also kept us back.  We did manage to get into the bubbly stuff for a few minutes.  Just enough to experience how hard it is to row in large waves with the boat being lifted and dropped by the swell.  Trying to keep in time was very hard in the rolling sea.  I was sitting in the stroke seat at the time and I'd find myself going from pulling my blade through water and then suddenly find it in thin air as it came out the back of a wave.  The sudden drop in resistance would have me fightng to stay upright on my seat and not rolling over backwards.

After briefly experiencing large waves we turned round and got mostly blown back to the marina.  The effect of a tail wind made the rowing feel really light, which some crew members found harder to deal with than rowing hard into the head wind.  However, once we were all back on dry land and sat around to analyse our performance everyone was really pleased with how the trip had gone.  The improvement over the previous outing was immense and everyone was full of confidence that a row across the Channel to France is now something that is achievable.  I only hope we continue to show progress on our next rowing outing in a few weeks.

First two hour ergo session

I am so glad that the seats in the gig are padded.  Yesterday morning all kettlebell crew members, with the one exception of Jason, who was at a wedding, met at Cantabs rowing club for an endurance ergo session.  For the likes of Steve and Jonathan this would be the longest that they have every worked out before, so quite a shock to the system.

Dennis is a member of Cantabs and managed to get approval for us to use their rowing machines.  We started rowing just after 10am and continued for the next two hours with everyone having just one 15 minute break each.  Whoever was on a break was required to act as a 'cox', which meant giving time checks, reminding people to drink and making sure everyone kept to the same pace.  We also nominated someone to act as stroke every 15 minutes, their job was to set a consistent stroke rate of between 22 and 26 strokes per minute for everyone else to follow.  Ensuring that everyone keeps to the same pace as one person is harder than it might sound, but we were noticeably better at this towards the end of the 2 hour session.

The two hardest aspects of the session, as far as I was concerned, were dealing with the complete lack of cushioning on the Concept 2 seats, and preventing boredom setting in.  We didn't have much of a view from the rather small windows that faced the river.  Everyone noticeably perked up briefly when a female crew appeared and got ready to take an eight out on the river.  I think everyone would have preferred it if they had done a longer warm-up in front of our window.  That was the only distraction we had during our two hour in-door row.  At least when we cross The Channel there should be plenty for us to look out for.

By the end of the session my butt felt raw from spending so long on one hard seat.  I am definitely buying myself a cushion before we do that again.  I'm also going to try and remember to take a camera next time so anyone reading this can see our training environment.  You'd have thought that at least one of us would have taken a camera yesterday.  Unfortunately, not.

Two weeks on

It might be two weeks since our first row in the gig, but I thought it was worth adding the video made by Richard to the blog: