If all goes well we could be making our way across the Channel at 7am tomorrow morning. There's a chance the sea might be still too rough following the recent storm. If so we'll be hanging around to see if it will calm down during the day so we can make our crossing. Weather forecast for tomorrow is excellent. If we can't go tomorrow we'll hang on in Dover another night to see if we can row on Monday. The sea should be o.k. on Monday but we'll be rowing into a head wind, and this means we can expect to get wet in the boat as some waves will make it over the bow.
In terms of funding raising we have raised a total of £6052.27. This is from the crew justgiving page, which has a link to the right, plus a separate page set up by Gary and Jason, and all gift aid donations. Thank you to all you awesome people who have been incredibly generous and shown your support.
Saturday, 6 October 2012
Saturday, 29 September 2012
The Last Training Session!
With any luck we had our last group training session today. We’re due to cross the Channel next weekend if the weather is kind to us.
All crew mates, with the exception of a poorly Dennis, met at Milton Country Park Oxford to Walton on Thames , but that’s a different blog. The seven of us swung our kettlebells, and some people stopped to wish us luck and a few people even chucked some money into our collection bucket. We’ve currently raised about £1500 on Jason and Gary
We had our final sea row training session on Wednesday 19 September. The trip was memorable for a few details. First of all Dennis proved to have a stronger stomach for rowing in choppy seas than he does for being a passenger in the back of a car. The safety boat that Mike, our rowing instructor, was to use was not working so he had to hire a boat from the other side of Hayling Island
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| Getting Deborah into the water. |
Crew positions for the row have now been fixed. The bow team consists of Steve (who is frequently referred to as Grandpa as he’s the oldest crew member), Jason, Gary and Dennis. We tell these guys that they are the powerhouse of the row, just so they feel better about their positions. In reality all they have to do is shut up, not think and row.
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| Looking a bit out of time. |
In the stern we have Jonathan, Richard, Andy and I. Each of us has to take a turn being the stroke and cox. The stroke is the one person who everyone else in the boat should be following. The stroke aims to set a consistent stroke rate of about 24 strokes per minute and to not vary this if at all possible. This is easier said than done in a rolling sea. The cox is responsible for steering the boat, keeping everyone in time if needs be by shouting commands in time with the strokes rowing, shouting motivational comments and making sure we don’t hit anything big. It would be embarrassing if our row was brought to an end by us hitting a blooming big tanker.
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| Looking much better. From front to back (stern to bow) Andy (stroke), Jonathan, Alan, Grandpa Steve, Dennis, Gary (bow) & Jason in the bow passenger seat. Richard took the picture whilst in the cox seat. |
We all started having doubts about Andy’s coxing abilities, but it’s too late to make any changes now. On our return to harbour, and whilst rowing without supervision again, Andy steered us up the wrong channel and we found ourselves outside the wrong harbour. We only confirmed that we weren't where we were suppose to be by using the GPS tracker on Richard's mobile. What would we do without mondern technology? To get us back on track Andy decided to ignore the channel marker posts and to take a short cut to the main estuary. What he didn’t realise was that we were going over sandbanks on a falling tide. The alarm was raised when Jonathan hit solid ground with his oar and we looked over the sides of the boat to sea ground just below the water’s surface. Seconds letter blades of grass were poking up from under the ripples of water. I had visions of us having to jump out of the boat to push it back to deeper water. Fortunately we got back to the main channel and back to the right harbour without further incident and having agreed not to tell Mike about getting lost. However, he was curious as to why we were half an hour late so in the end we had to confess.
We then had our last debriefing and motivational chat from Mike Gilbert. He told us that we were good enough to make a crossing of the Channel in conditions up to gale force 5, the strongest winds that they will contemplate taking a rowing boat to France
It’s amazing to think that all our training is now behind us. The experience so far has been amazing. As the person who brought all these guys together for the challenge I can say that I am incredibly proud of all of them. I think we’ve made very good progress with the training. Early on Richard referred to us all as a bunch of misfits, which is a fair description of us. For a start there is over 30 years separating the oldest and youngest crew member. Our fitness levels coming into this challenge also varied considerably. Richard was used to doing half marathon and marathon rowing events on a rowing machine, but no one else, other than me, were used to doing long endurance events. To row for over 5 hours across busiest shipping lane in the world is going to be an incredible experience. Mike put it into perspective as he said goodbye to us, informing us that more people have climbed Everest than have rowed the Channel. I think it’s great that we’ll be part of such a small group of people.
Sunday, 19 August 2012
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.
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:
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.
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| At Cantabs rowing club. Back row: Steve, Dennis, Andy, Gary. Front row: Alan, Richard, Jonathan, Jason. |
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- 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.
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| The Kettlebell Crew at Milton Country Park. Andy, Gary, Steve, Dennis, Alan, Jason, Joanthan & Richard. |
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| The Misfits. How on Earth are we going to make it to France? |
Thursday, 9 August 2012
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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
Sunday, 15 July 2012
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.
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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.
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| Walking press-ups on the balance beam |
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| Rope climb - no legs |
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| The field was a little soggy in places |
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| We'll give that one a miss |
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| 6 to 10 dips. |
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| 20 lifts of the beam. |
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Richard on the cargo net climb  |
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| 10 jumps |
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| Jonathan contemplates the height of the leapfrog station.. |
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| ..and then has a go. |
Sunday, 8 July 2012
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.
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
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.
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.
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