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Rowing proves Big Hit with UK Youngsters
Yesterday (Tuesday 16 March) just under 2,000 school children from 149 schools across the UK, descended on London's Battersea Park to take part in the biggest ever National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships (NJIRC). The youngsters, aged between 11 and 18, were competing against each other head to head on 80 Concept2 rowing machines, which you may recognise from your local gym. The atmosphere at the Battersea Evolution centre was electric as each race began and it was clear the pupils and schools were there to make their mark on the sport.
The teenagers taking part are the cream of the crop in junior indoor rowing; many having qualified for this national event through regional events.
At least one British Record was broken at NJIRC after Sebastian Adams, a year 7 at the Royal Liberty School in Havering, rowed 580metres in just two minutes. Sebastian's school is part of the Row East London initiative run by London Youth Rowing, designed to help improve the health and well being of young people in the 10 East London Olympic and Gateway boroughs.
GB Olympic rower Tom Solesbury was there to support the next generation of rowers, he said, "I didn't get in to rowing until I was at university and there was never an option to try rowing at my school or in my local area. I think today's demonstrates how much the sport has developed and to speak to some of the children here you can tell how enthusiastic they are about it. They have access to Concept2 rowers in their schools now, which are the same ones we use for training, and they are following the pathways in to local clubs and making the transition in to boats ? it's great to see!"
Tom Kay, Head of Education at Concept2 commented: "This year's NJIRC has again proved incredibly exciting for the world of indoor rowing. More young people than ever took part in 2010, demonstrating that indoor rowing actively engaging youngsters of all ages and abilities. The largest event entry was for the Year 8 girls - an age when many girls are dropping out of PE.
"Indoor rowing is an enjoyable and safe way to increase participation in physical activity and to show youngsters that exercise is fun; which is one reason why it is becoming more and more popular in schools across the UK at a time when we're trying harder than ever before to promote active, healthy lifestyles."
NJIRC, which is organised by London Youth Rowing in partnership with Concept2, takes place every year in London and sees youngsters from all over the UK gather to race against themselves, their competitors and the clock.
In addition to the indoor rowing, youngsters and spectators gathering at Battersea Evolution were met with a plethora of alternative activities to keep themselves entertained, including a graffiti wall, climbing wall, basketball, football, boxing, brush boarding, cycling, street games and The Rowing Academy talent ID.
Read the full storyPosted at 4:30 pm
GoRow iPhone App
GoRow is an iPhone & iPod Touch App developed specifically for rowers (both water & indoors). GoRow allows you to maintain a workout log, plan your training, analyse your recent workouts and set personal targets, all within your iPhone.
Entry of workout data is quick & easy and you can see all the important information at a glance. Tapping on a workout instantly displays more detailed information calculated from that workout. Workouts are organised according to week and planning your workouts is as simple as entering a workout with a date in the future. Tapping the Sync button synchronises your entire workout logbook with the Concept2 online log. This works both ways so you can still enter workouts online or via other mechanisms if you wish.
GoRow also analyses your data in various ways, it can produce charts for your recent workout times over many different distances. On the same chart are displayed your target times & the trend of your recent workouts. The trend-line attempts to show you how your times are improving and lets you figure out what paces & distances you should be aiming for. Charts can also show the spread of either paces or distances for your recent workouts, this lets you see how you've been working out and where you've been focussing your effort.
The calculators section of GoRow brings together in one place many of the rowing specific calculators that previously have been spread around on various websites, it contains:
- Average Split (of many splits)
- Watts to Pace converter (and vice-versa).
- Stroke Power Index (some people find it useful).
- Distance Per Stroke (given time, distance & SPM)
- Target Pace (from distance & time).
- 2K Time from Watts.
- VO2Max calculator (same as on Concept2.com)
- Predicted time (Pauls law)
- Weight adjustment (For OTW rowers)
- Body Mass Index
- Basal Metabolic Rate (to workout how many calories you need per day).
- Row Calories (estimated calories expended during a row).
- Target Distance (given a pace and duration).
On appropriate calculators, you can set a personal target with a single tap after you've calculated what pace/time/distance you want to set it at. The Targets list is a set of distances and/or times that are set to the points you're aiming for in your training (e.g. sub-7 2K). GoRow will monitor how well you're doing and calculate an estimated completion date for that target based on your recent workouts.
GoRow brings together a large set of rowing resources and packages it in a handy App complete with synchronisation to the popular Concept2.com online log. There is also a one-tap Personal Bests banner to search through all your workouts and create an image for use in online forums such as the Concept2 forums. And finally, GoRow is being actively developed, so if you think of anything you would like in the next version of GoRow, contact Steve Tickle via info@gorow.net and he'll do his best to help you out.
For more information on GoRow, go to www.GoRow.net. There is also a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/GoRow/334524518373?ref=ts and a Twitter stream (@GoRowApp) for announcements.
Read the full storyPosted at 8:30 am
Lincolnshire Wins East Midlands School IRC
96 rowers from Lincolnshire helped the county win the first East Midlands School Indoor Rowing Championships at Grantham Meres Athletics Arena on Friday.With over 30 rowing machines running at one time, the competition included individual races, team races and 'frantic' relay events. Over 280 children from across the East Midlands battled it out to become the East Midlands Indoor Rowing Champions, but Lincolnshire came out on top in the overall county standing.
Pupils from Kings School, Kesteven and Grantham Girls (KGGS), Central School, Grantham Church School, Lincoln Christ Hospital School and Cherry Willingham Community College were all involved in Lincolnshire's victorious win.
The team events were based on the total number of meters rowed by the teams. The Kesteven Kestrals who were made up of rowers from Kings School and KGGS were victorious in both Key-Stage 3 and Key-Stage 4. (Results shown below)
Coordinated by the Competition Manager team and Concept2, the project was a pilot event to increase the number of schools taking up the offer of indoor rowing. The organisers want to appeal to youngsters who do not necessarily excel in the more traditional sports that schools offer.
Shane Ward is a Competition Manager based at the Lincolnshire Central and South West Lincolnshire School Sport Partnership. He says:
"This is a great schools sporting event that is a real spectacle. The fact that schools can race against each other on big screens will be a great experience for the children and something they won't forget."
Janet Inman is Head of Sport at the Lincolnshire Sports Partnership. She says:
"It's great that so many of our counties schools are getting involved in indoor rowing. Lincolnshire Sports Partnership support school initiatives like this to get more children involved in sport. The Competition Managers and School Sport Partnership network have done a great job in getting nearly 300 pupils involved."
Rob King PDM City of Lincoln School Sport Partnership:
"Indoor Rowing is a great sport to get children involved in physical activity. Events like these demonstrate can have a massive effect on children's perception of keeping fit, active and healthy".
The event was a result of a number of School Sport Partnership Qualification events from Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. Download the full results spreadsheet.Read the full story
Posted at 9:50 am
Stroke For Stroke Raises £40,000
Stroke For Stroke had more people taking part than ever before. With some remarkable group and individual efforts boosting the kilometres rowed and money pledged, the campaign to raise vital funds for The Stroke Association has had its most successful year yet - around £40,000 has been raised so far and over 350 people took part in this year's challenge.GB Rower Anna Watkins clocked up some of the week's first kilometres, before offering her expert advice and tuition to Siemens staff taking part in the challenge at its headquarters in Frimley.
Listed below are some of the achievements made throughout the week on your rowing machines:
- An employee at Siemens' Nottingham site, who individually rowed a total of 100km over the week, raising almost £200.
- Employees in Newcastle took up the challenge to row the distance between the Newcastle Facility to Seabank station, totalling 480km. The final distance reached was a staggering 646km, and funds raised are still coming in.
- Employees at Osram took part in a rowathon, aiming to row a total of 50km in one day ? which they completed in six hours ? they have raised £500 to date.
- A number of Siemens Healthcare employees based the Uptime Centre raised nearly £1,000 and many are now vowing to take to the gym more often as a result!
- A group of four Healthcare and SIS colleagues in Frimley joined forces to row nearly 80k, smashing their £500 fundraising total and collecting over £1,000.
- Staff in Congleton completed 175km in just 4 days. More than 30 employees took part and have so far raised around £500.
- Staff in Derby challenged themselves to row over 100km between them over the week, and ended up clocking up 174km, raising £250 to date.
- Siemens? Crawley site raised £600 with a combination of the sponsored row, prize draws, cake sale and other fundraising activities.
- Tonbridge staff rowed 140km, raising around £300
- The Communications team in Frimley rowed 116km throughout the week raising £898.
- Two highly competitive teams at SIS in London rowed nearly 250km between them raising an impressive £1,100 to date.
Posted at 7:53 am
2 Upcoming Charity 100k Rows
Sport Relief is back this month and as part of the Dumfries and Galloway College's Activities David Hislop is planning to complete the 100k row on Tuesday 23rd March starting at 8 in the morning and hoping to finish in 7 and a half hours or less. Later in the year (Sunday 1st August) Richard Hardie is also planning to row the same distance for the Chest, Heart & Stroke charity, a charity close to his heart as explained by Richard on the C2 Forum, if you want to help Richard reach the £500 target he's set himself you can donate on his JustGiving page. Richard's 76 year training partner Jim Tutt will be rowing alongside Richard for the full 100k and in doing so is looking to set a British Record for his age category.Read the full storyPosted at 12:05 pm
Lwt 100K Record Broken
Last weekend Hywel Davies broke the Lwt 100K Individual World record by over 7 minutes, below is his report of the row posted on the Concept2 Forum, there is also a video of the row on Hywel's YouTube channel.In 1997, I was part of a team that set one of the early 100k indoor rowing records for Heavyweights. We did sets of 500m all the way through and did 5.39.
In January 2007, I was part of the Riptide Rowers LWT team that set the world record at 4.39 doing the 10 stroke method. However, having adventure raced around the world, done numerous 100mile time trials, 13 Ironman races and 1 double Ironman race, I certainly thought I had the minerals to have a crack at the 100k solo LWT record.
I started back rowing on 1st December 2009, and in 2 months I have rowed over 1 million metres, including a British marathon record of 2.36.43.8. So of course, a little more training the attempt was on.
On Sunday 7th Feb, 6 days before I get married, I rallied around to get member of Rugby Triathlon club to race in teams of 3 against me. So the challenge was set. My race plan was simple. Hold 1.55/500m pace for the first 50k, considering I can do 42k at 1.51, this was going to be easy. I would evaluate a rest break and toilet stop then schedule another at 75k then go through to the finish. Simple in theory.
So onto the row. Conscious of not going off too fast, I started at 1.53 pace?.which felt very easy and tried to back off, but could not. Went through the marathon distance in an uneventful 2.40 and onwards to 50k in 3.11. I was having thoughts about the Heavyweight record too but being sensible, I took my break at 55k. BIG mistake.
Getting back on the erg I was bloated from energy drink, started burping and coughing. My back seized up from standing up too quickly to run out and I was now in trouble. I could not sustain 1.55 pace and hovered around 1.57/1.58 until 65k when I went BANG. Dizzy, irritated by everything, dry skin, dry mouth and burping fluids. Hip flexors began to seize, biceps aching and I was not in a happy place. I put the handle down every 2500m but was aiming for breaks every 10k. I had lost it. 75k to 80k was even worse. Pace dropped to 2.05 pace and eyes were closed, head down. I was intending to look up and see 3000m or so had passed but often it was not even 300m. Friends were coming over to see what I wanted and I was either being rude of speaking some Russian dialect that I could not understand. I could not speak, make sense or even tell someone how long a kilometre would take. I was losing it.
At 80 I worked out that I had 1 hour and 25 mins left to break the record. 2 x 10k in 40 mins was not possible and I was feeling a little anxious. Having been on target to beat it by 20 minutes, it was now a possibility that I would not do it and for the first time in a long time, I actually felt like giving up.
Never in all my ironman races, double race or adventure race had I ever felt this bad, that there was a chance I could just pass out and stop. I could barely pull the handle let alone at any pace. I battled through the next 5k but then with 15k to go I worked out that an hour left is nothing in training, but now it was going to be a maximal effort. So be it. If it was easy, everyone could do it. Calling on my reserves of energy, motivation, experience and training I powered on without stopping and held a low 2.00 pace through to the finish.Collapsing off the erg my back crunched worryingly as I lay on the floor but in the comfort of knowing I had taken 7 mins off the world record.
I was hoping for more and expected it to be much easier, much faster and much more enjoyable. That was hard?harder than anything. Knocking on the door of failure with 2 hours still to go is not a happy place, but it has been conquered, its done and now I can rest.
Not sure how many rowers out there hold both the individual and the team world record, but I do. That, I am happy with. Read the full story
Posted at 12:28 pm
RAF Indoor Rowing Championships January 27th 2010
This year's Royal Air Force Indoor Rowing Championships (RAFIRC) was held at RAF Digby in Lincolnshire. Around 70 people, including for the first time, a handful of civilian rowers from various rowing teams from round the country took part.The blue ribbon event of indoor rowing is the 2000m. This along with a 500m sprint and a team relay event to finish meant competitors were up for a gruelling but good quality session.
The categories were split into Male and Female, Heavy and Lightweight and Junior (Jnr) and Senior (Snr).First race of the day was to be the female Jnr lightweights, which saw the current RAF ladies squash champion, Claire Cyprus, change her area of expertise to indoor rowing and win the 2000m event in a time of 8:01.6.
The men's Jnr Lightweights put on an excellent display, with notably Dan Garrett and Toby Rose, both of East Midlands University Air Squadron (EMUAS), demonstrating almost perfect rowing technique. A close battle between the two ended with Dan coming through victorious in an excellent time of 06:49.2.
The ladies heavy weight category was won by RAF Rower Katherine Linton from RAF Brampton, in a superb time of 7:41.9. Also in this race was Katherine Hammond of RAF Digby who, previous to the IRC, had very little experience on a rowing machine. Her quality 7:49.7 time got her a well deserved 2nd place in the category.
The day slogged on with the Men's Snr Lightweight being won by David Dickinson from RAF Leeming, with a time of 7:04.5 and the Men's Snr Heavyweight being won by Chris Morrill of RAF Coningsby, winning in 6:51.5. The penultimate 2000m race of the day, the Ladies Snr Heavyweight, included 3 ladies from the same Indoor Rowing Team, Sub 7. A good race put Helen Haggerty in top spot with a very respectable 7:51.7.
The last and fastest race of the day which saw the top 5 men go sub 7 minutes was won by RAF Rower Chris Nash, who just managed to pip under the 6:30 mark with an excellent 6:29.6.
A brief respite was followed by the 500m sprint event. The fastest men's time of the day was an outstanding 1:22.9 by EMUAS student Mark Smith with the ladies fastest time of 1:42.1 being produced by Katherine Linton. The day was finished off with a team relay event, which saw the home team, RAF Digby cruise over the finish line and take home the silver ware.
The various prizes were distributed to the category winners, with a surprise presentation for 78 yr old ex-SAC Charles Morley who's 2k time of 9:31.2 showed us all that you are never too old to! A big thank you to Concept2 for providing the rowing machines, and equipment needed for the day and especially C2's Ben Addison who managed to keep all the races on time.
If you are interested in taking part in next year RAF Indoor Rowing Champs, please contact Danny Graham, PEd Flt , RAF Digby 01526 327448.Read the full story
Posted at 8:00 am
Scottish IRC 2010
Over 500 individuals and teams competed at the 2010 Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships held at the Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh on Sunday 31st January 2010. Full results are available in the National Championships section.In addition to the normal races over various distances and times, the Championships played host to a special event in the form of an attempt, by Matthias Auer of Clyde ARC, on the World Lightweight Marathon Record. Matthias amazed the crowd by maintaining a split of 1.47 for almost two hours of rowing, smashing the previous record by over two minutes and recording a time of 2hr 29min 56.7sec.
There were a number of notable performances in the Junior Championships including Kerion Brown(Clydesdale ARC) winning both the U17 and the U19lwt boys events and from Emily Colley of Glasgow Academy who won the U16 girls event before later claiming a silver in the Open Women's category.
The fastest individual times for 2km came from Callum McBrierty (George Watson's College) and Karen Benett (Clydesdale ARC), with Callum posting his time in the U19Hwt event and then leading George Watson's College to victory in the U19 Team Event.
Victor Gilbert of Age Without Limits, the Championships oldest competitor at 82 was narrowly pipped for Gold in the over 60Hwt by George Meredith, 61, of Gravesend IRC. George had earlier taken 2nd place in the Lwt category behind John Howie of Midlothian. It was a successful day for the Howie household with Barbara Howie also winning the Women's Adaptive Event.
The team events again proved hugely successful with Team AEGON retaining their title, in the Men's Team, despite strong opposition from Aberdeen Boat Club and HMS Vanguard. A composite of Glasgow based rowing clubs were winners of the Women's Team.
The event also incorporated the Scottish Universities Championships with Strathclyde University's Mike McLaren and Megan Mackie winning the Men's and Women's Open Hwt titles respectively. Megan's result was even more impressive considering she was forced to re-row after a technical problem with her ergo. Heriot Watt University retained the Victor Ludorum, for the most successful club, with consistent point scoring and a clean sweep of wins in the team events.
The Championships concluded with the newly offered 500m sprint category providing a great climax to the day. Indeed the Men's Lwt event saw a dead heat between Shaun Callaghan and Colin Barnet of Team AEGON.
Photographs of the days racing are available at www.darrochphotography.ifp3.com and www.cofd.co.uk/.Read the full story
Posted at 10:52 am
Snowdon Rowing Challenge
A breathtaking indoor rowing challenge between the top 6 UK university rowing clubs: Cambridge Unversity BC, Imperial College London BC, Oxford Brookes University BC, Oxford University BC, Reading University BC and University of London BC. In the 1950 Boat Race, Lord Snowdon, then Tony Armstrong-Jones coxed the Cambridge crew to victory over Oxford. This event will celebrate the 60th anniversary of that race and will raise funds for Lord Snowdon's charity, The Snowdon Award Scheme which provides grants to students with a physical or sensory disability, to help them complete further or higher education or training.The Snowdon Rowing Challenge will take place on Friday 5th March 2010 at the Porchester Hall in London. It will be the finale of a major event celebrating Lord Snowdon's 80th birthday, his charity's work, and the launch of The Snowdon Alumni.
Each club will provide a team of eight oarsmen. Half will be current students and half prestigious alumni. In view of the profile of the event and the highly competitive nature of the sport, each club is looking to provide the best possible team and a number of Olympic and World Champions have already volunteered to take part, including Tom James (Cambridge), Sir Matthew Pinsent, Andy Hodge, Jonny Searle (Oxford), Steve Trapmore (IC), Alex Partridge (Oxford Brookes) Dr Richard Budgett (UL).
Each team will have an ergo (rowing machine) on which they will race as a relay team. The race will last for 20 minutes 15 seconds, which was Cambridge's winning time in the 1950 race. Film of Lord Snowdon's Boat Race will be shown on big screens alongside the digital read-outs of distances travelled by each competing team.
The race will be fun, noisy and highly competitive: a great spectacle. The winning team will be presented with a glass challenge trophy in the form of a rowing blade.
The rowing community at each university will help to raise sponsorship for their teams in advance of the event. For more details
Hugh Mcleod with OUBC president and chief coachThe Challenge is being organised by Dr Hugh McLeod, who received an award from the charity in 1988 and coxed for the University of London Boat Club in 1988/9. Please contact Hugh for further information (07890 145339 or alumni@snowdonawardscheme.org.uk ).Read the full story
Posted at 1:05 pm
Euro & Scottish IRC Results
Last weekend was a busy weekend for indoor rowing with both the European and Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships taking place.17 British competitors travelled to Kettwig in Germany for the European IRC and are bringing back 2 gold and 7 silver medals from the championship, for full GB results and a link to the complete results please go to the Euro IRC section.
The Scottish IRC took place at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh on Sunday 31st January with a record entry, full results can be found in the National IRCs section.
Read the full storyPosted at 11:48 am