The Rows City

Intermediate class

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:06:00 +0000

I'm coaching an intermediate class for the club right now. I have five students from my beginner's classes. It's nice to work with them again and see how far they have advanced. I have a couple students who are still struggling with some basic technique. It's hard to know how to approach correcting their technique. Yesterday I tried having just the two of them row for a little bit so I could focus on them and they wouldn't have to keep up with the rest of the boat. It didn't go so well because I didn't have a megaphone so I was trying to stay close to the shell, but then I kept running into the oars. I was getting really frustrated and I had to keep turning the launch around to get away from the shell and then I would get too close again and have to turn around. So basically I didn't get to coach them because of all the trouble with the launch. Maybe I can try to do some focused coaching of them next time when I have a working megaphone and can talk to them easier.

I have been trying to focus on one thing each practice and I think it is working pretty well. One practice we focused on handle height. One we worked on timing. This last one we were working on feather and squaring and rolling up early. I like to do a drill where they feather at the release and then immediately square their blades. That way they are on the square for almost the whole recovery but they still get to feather and roll up and it reinforces an early roll up. Some of them don't actually roll up right away, they roll up closer to the place where I want them to roll up normally. When we were working on handle height I did a drill where they row on the square for five or seven strokes and then row with the feather for five or seven strokes, switching back and forth a few times. The idea is to carry the hands at the same level through both sets. There are so many little pieces it's hard to know which ones to pick.

One thing that continues to be a challenge is getting the people sitting out to properly set the boat. I try to keep on them and remind them to raise or lower their hands if need be. Maybe I should do the drill where they alternate raising and lowering their handles in sync with their side. That might give them a little more awareness of the set and key them into how to correct it. I'd like to do more rowing all eight in the next few practices. Yesterday was our fourth class and it was the first time this group has rowed all eight. Granted the water has been really bad with all the motor boats, and one day we had bad wind.

The motorboats have really made it challenging. We are constantly plagued by wakes and having to stop frequently. I try to have them row through the smaller wakes. Yesterday, though, we were waked from both sides at the same time. Two pretty big motor boats, one on each side of us, started up at the same time and the wakes just crashed right over the gunwales.

Not much going on in my rowing life

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:13:00 +0000

So I have not done anything rowing related in multiple weeks now. I haven't rowed in a boat in longer than I can recall, probably a couple months.

But I am going to be coaching a class again starting in August. Maybe I will start to post again when that comes around. I'm looking forward to the class because it will be my first Intermediate class and also some of the rowers I coached in my last class will be taking it.

I definitely should be rowing though, for the sake of my fitness. I just can't get myself down to the boathouse and erging seems impossible for some reason.

Thanks to the people who have checked out the blog in the last few weeks. I will try to give you a little more to read soon.

Learn To Row, Learn To Coach

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:48:00 +0000

Week Three of coaching my first Learn To Row class with the club has come to a successful close. Not without a little drama though.

On Tuesday, I was coaching on my own for the first time. Not only that, the club member who I was expecting to come cox the boat couldn't make it, and I had to have a student cox. So I was truly alone.

Here is a brief summary of the various situations that we got into (which I probably should not tell the whole world, but here I am, telling the whole world). To frame all this, the wind was quite a bear and the current seemed nice and swift. We:

Came way too close to shore more than once.
Came way too close to a bridge.
Hit a log near the stern, a pretty huge-looking, mostly submerged log. (The first thing that went through my mind was "There goes the skeg and my coaching reputation." Thank God that the only damage was cosmetic and the skeg was in fine shape.)
Ended up rowing without a coxswain while I was in the middle of switching coxswains to avoid drifting toward another bridge.
Came way too close to a tug and barge, thankfully they were going pretty slow, and we were already parallel to the wake.
Got the boat into the boathouse seven minutes after class was supposed to be over.

All in all, not a bad first time coaching alone with 9 novices. Never was I truly worried about the safety of the students, but, in the moment, I was totally stressed by the experience.

Thursday went significantly better, especially due to the fact that I had an experienced club member coxing. Plus, we only got back two minutes late, an improvement of five minutes. If I can get us back five minutes earlier than that next Tuesday, then I'll have three minutes to spare! Oh, time management. I'm also getting better at driving the launch and talking at the same time. During one drill where I was giving a lot of commands, I was able to switch the throttle between forward and reverse to keep myself in the right position relative to the shell.

One thing I'm really enjoying is watching the rowers improve. There were a few people who caught on to the rowing cycle quickly or had some previous experience, and it has been fun to watch them get it down. What is more satisfying, though, is watching someone who was having a lot of difficulties the first couple of times on the water really start to get comfortable with the motions of the stroke. I have four more classes to watch their skills grow. I just hope I can make it fun for them and give them a taste of the joy of rowing. Maybe even some of them will fall in love with it the way I did back in the fall of 2004.

Coaching: Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:12:00 +0000

Here it is, my second week teaching rowing. Last Thursday was the class' first day on the water and all went well. I was coxing and Erika was in the launch. She and I had a fun time trying to coordinate our instruction and not talk at the same time. Today we should be better at working together on it. I'm going to mention stretching to the class today and maybe do some demo stretching so they know what and how to stretch.

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:44:00 +0000

So I'm sitting here at my computer, which is what I've been doing most of the day, and trying to talk myself into going down to the boathouse and erging. I'm just going to get off my butt and do it. I'll report back when I return.
***
Well, I did go erg. I'm glad I did. I put in 50+ minutes of steady-state work. I'm trying to keep up my aerobic work and continue building my aerobic capacity. It's good I was able to motivate myself to go and put in some time; every day I do that is a small step toward better health and better rowing.

Teaching and Rowing

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:20:00 +0000

Tonight was the first night of Learn To Row classes for the club. Erika and I were teaching together because we consolidated the M/W class with the T/Th class. It was actually really nice to see her go through all the first day info and be there to help. Later on she won't be able to be there on Tuesdays and Thursdays (which is why she wanted to do the M/W class in the first place) so I will be taking the lead. I had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the rest of the sessions. After the class I got the same energized feeling I get after a math tutoring session. I really enjoy teaching others about something I really love.

Rowing this morning was quite cold. We had enough guys for two 8+s though, which will probably be a rare occurrence. Pretty much every guy we have right now was there. I got to row starboard, which I really want to get more experience at doing. We did a 2k race, and it took all the concentration I had to try to keep my blade work clean. I have rowed port pretty much my whole time rowing. I only rowed starboard a couple of times at the most at St. John's. I did get to row starboard once this winter, so if I keep on bugging Peter about it, I may get some more experience.

It's kind of amazing that just switching the role of my hands takes so much getting used to. Feathering with my left hand is actually kind of tough for me. My right hand is naturally more dexterous, and now my muscle memory is locked into feathering with my right hand, so I have to fight not to feather with my right when I'm rowing starboard. There is also a change in the way my body pulls on the oar that is switched when rowing the starboard side. My right shoulder and my right hand are higher than my left and my right arm is the dominant pulling arm. I really think rowers should learn on both sides so as not to become lopsided. I hope I can become more balanced as my rowing continues.

Sculling

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:37:00 +0000

I got to scull at yesterday's practice in a double. We had a off number of guys, so we put out our San Diego 8+ and the double, and one guy went home. I think I did pretty well considering the last time I sculled was at St. John's, two years ago.

The weather was less than ideal, it rained pretty consistently the whole row, and I got some nice blisters on my left hand, probably because I'm not that great at feathering with my left and I was over gripping as a result. I was glad for the chance to scull though, and I want to get more sculling in this spring and summer.

I feel like sculling gives my body a more balanced workout than sweep rowing. Sculling also feels more graceful for some reason. There's something about coming to the catch with my arms spread wide and then finishing close to the body that feels a bit like I imagine having wings might feel. In addition, I can really feel the boat respond to every stroke when I'm in a small boat, which, when I'm getting good speed and acceleration, feels light and smooth and adds to the flying/floating sensation.

Spring, Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:40:00 +0000

I made it to practice today, but it was hard to wake up--fo' sho'. This weekend DST started, and my body still thinks it is 3:30 a.m. when I get up at 4:30 clock time. The change in sleep last week threw me off balance quite a bit. My mood has gone on the up-swing a lot since last Thursday. I'm trying to take it easy and get balanced again.

We were practicing starts this morning. Our start is 3/4, half, 3/4, full--something I'll have to get used to. At St. John's we did a half, 3/4, full start. It was simple and I liked getting longer each stroke. I should ask Peter about start theories. On our second or third start, our 6-seat's keeper on his oarlock broke off and went bye-bye in the river, so for the rest of practice we were a 7 instead of an 8. Needless to say that made rowing a bit less stable, add that to our being in the Chambers, which sits higher in the water than the other boats we've been rowing, and it made for a pretty shitty set. But bad set is just a fact of life sometimes.

I'm pumped about the race in Seattle this weekend. Peter and I are driving up the night before with the trailer, and I get to spend some time with my aunt. It will be good to get to chat with Peter for a while too.

I've been reading Rowing Faster by Volker Nolte. I just read a chapter on designing training programs and really liked it. I think that part of the sport really appeals to me. I often enjoy dreaming up my own training schedule for the week ahead (how often I stick to it is another matter) ;) I was calculating the number of hours a week I would have to train 300 hours a year. It's about six hours a week if I trained that much 50 weeks a year. If I designed my training with particular sections for building my fitness and power, then I have to divide the training volume up with some structure. Developing a training plan is another thing I'd like to ask Peter about.

Yesterday I erged for an hour at a pretty steady and strong pace. I did a little double stair stepped dividing the workout into 10 minute segments: the first 10' at 18spm and 2:30/500m, the second at 20spm and 2:20/500m, the third at 22spm and 2:15/500m, the fourth I went back to 20spm and the corresponding split, the fifth I went back up to 22 with the same split and the last 10' at a higher rate and faster split than the fifth until 8' left when I cranked it up to 26-28 with splits about 2:00-2:05. I felt pretty strong throughout and was definitely tired by the end. I think my cardiovascular fitness is definitely improving since the fall. I feel like I wasn't doing much over the winter, but I was pretty consistent about erging at least once a week. I also made about half a dozen water rows. So I guess I did put some work in.

Good Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:01:00 +0000

Yesterday's row on the Willamette was one of the best I've had with Station L. To begin the weather was really good. The temp was in the mid-40's, and the sky was broken clouds. So when the sun came up it illuminated the clouds and shone through a bit. I was part of a mixed 8 rowing in Blind Faith, the club's new boat. We rowed pretty well together. Part of the reason for this was that we had a good stroke, Devin. He has a strong, clean catch. He puts the blade into the water aggressively and cleanly and then starts the drive. It was good to row with him because he was giving me a good example of something I am trying to work on. The other reason the row was good, other than that it seemed like we were together, was that we had a good cox, Kate. She has a really good presence in the boat. She knows the right things to say, and when she says something, I feel like it's not just one of those things that she's saying because she has heard it from someone else, but that she knows what it means and is saying it for a purpose. She was good.

In related news, I think getting up on Tuesday and Thursday, which I was able to do, really messed up my brain balance. I've been feeling up since about Thursday. So we will see where that goes. On top of it, Daylight Savings Time starts this week to the detriment of all early a.m. rowers. So instead of getting up at 4:30 a.m., I'll be getting up at 3:30, effectively.

I also just got two rowing books from the library that I'm excited to read. Maybe I'll go do that now.

Four-Thirty In The WHAT??!!

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:09:00 +0000

Weekday rowing starts tomorrow. My alarm is set for 4:30 a.m., uuhhhhggggg. We'll see how I feel when that alarm goes off. We kicked off the season this Saturday with a post-row brunch and a dedication of the new women's boat, Blind Faith. Widmer Ale was poured over the bow, quite an appropriate welcome to Portland.

My fitness this winter has not necessarily improved. I don't know if it has declined. I know that I have gained a few pounds since the fall, but on the other hand I think my erg times might be better. I haven't actually done another 2k test, which would be the real measure, or at least an objective measure, but I feel like my erging is better. I pretty much maintained at least one erg session a week some times two. My water workouts were sporadic. The big achievement of the winter was attending the USRowing Level I Coaches Clinic. I'm really looking forward to teaching some learn-to-row classes this spring.

My first regatta with Station L will be on March 15 at Green Lake in Seattle. I'll be rowing in an 8+ and 4+. The races are 1k. Next Saturday we are going to scrimmage with some other Portland clubs in the Holgate Channel behind Ross Island. That will be a 3k race.

Wish me luck on waking up.

Check out this guy

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:22:00 +0000

I just got done reading this guy's blog entries from a month-long effort to erg 2000 miles and raise awareness for breast cancer. Anybody should check it out here.
If the link doesn't work his myspace page is http://www.myspace.com/blindmannofish and click on the blog link.

I especially liked the spiritual comments.

Erging

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:32:00 +0000

I went to the boathouse tonight to erg with the boys. Patrick was the only other person there. I did four 6 minute intervals with 4 minute rests. My splits were about 2:00. I do a rate progression of 24/26/24 each for 2 minutes. I felt pretty strong tonight. The first piece felt good. The second and the third were a bit tougher to keep up the effort. On the last one, I just put it all out there. My last interval was my fastest which is always a nice way to do it.

I have been averaging about one workout a week. This week was special because I went on the water on Saturday. My last erg workout was on Thursday the 17th. I was still feeling pretty sick then and I could only do two 6 minute intervals and my heart rate was really high even at seemingly low effort. I didn't work out with my heart rate monitor tonight.

I haven't been using this blog like I thought I would. Maybe I will start writing in it a bit more. I'm hoping to do some coaching this spring so maybe I will have some to write about that. I went to a US Rowing coaches clinic in Seattle on the 5th and 6th of this month. I'm hoping to use some of what I learned. I offered to Peter to help with the rigging of the boats to get ready for the spring.

Exciting News

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 03:11:00 +0000

Next Saturday I will be going to Station L to do some rowing. I'm way pumped. I haven't been in a boat since May of last year.

I'm hoping to meet some people at the club too. It will be a good chance for me to get more of a social life, something I'm certainly wanting and needing.

I can't wait to feel the slide under me, smoothly rolling back and forth, the oar in my hands; the feel of a good, clean catch and my legs pressing my feet into the foot-stretchers, the swing of my back and a fast finish followed by "quick hands away" and an easy recovery up to the next catch. Then do it all over again 20-30 times a minute.

Seeing the pictures on the Station L website also got me really excited. I was taken back to the Severn on those chilly fall mornings when you can see Venus, and the sunrise is falling upon the smooth water.

In The Beginning

noreply@blogger.com (Thom) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 23:49:00 +0000

I started rowing in college at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, where, in my junior year, I joined the crew team. I put in a total of four seasons (two fall, two spring) and rowed in eights, fours, a pair, and a single.

The most interesting boat was the pair, a difficult boat to row in because the two rowers must balance their strokes and be well synchronized. My partner Fred and I always went a little to starboard. The pair was just a one race project to see what it was like. Most of the time I rowed in eights and sat stroke seat. Being stroke was great. It pushed me to be the example for the boat and to learn good ratio and rhythm. It also forced me to practice patience for my fellow boatmen who, like myself, were imperfect humans, and it made sure that I wouldn't be able to watch anyone else and focus on their technique instead of my own. I am forever the critic and coach and sitting at stroke made sure I could only see my oar.

Our coach was the noble Leo Pickens, famous for yelling such lovelies as 'Quick with the legs!' and 'Send the boat!' One his favorite concepts was the Republic of the Boat House. The Republic refers to the Republic of Plato, one of our readings at St. John's, and by this he means that...well I guess I'm not sure exactly what he means but I take him to mean that for our team to embody the Republic of the Boat House we all pitch in and look out for one another, that we are a team that strives for the good and the beautiful as it manifests in rowing and in comradeship. The reason I bring it up is that every season he would make a speech about the Republic of the Boat House and forever I will remember him for it. One more idea about the RBH: in Plato's Republic a just city is constructed to study justice in the individual, I think that what Mr. P meant, perhaps, is that, by attempting to construct a just and noble team, we might be able to bring that justice and nobility into our individual souls.

It wasn't until the winter of my second year that I found a true appreciation for the erg. I started researching different training programs online and was keeping careful records of my workouts. Part of the reason for my obsession was to distract me from my senior essay that I was working on during the same period. I enjoyed logging my erging meters on the concept2 website. I've even dreamed of buying an erg, but it is cheaper to join a rowing club here in Portland and use the club ergs.

After being in Portland 10 months now, I'm starting to take steps to join a club. I'm thinking about the Station L club that rows on the Willamette River. The practices are 3x a week at 5am which is an hour earlier than our practices at St. John's--I'm waiting to see how just how motivated I really am to be in a boat.