Starting to Row at 60
My first Indoor rowing race
I had my first 2000m rowing race yesterday February 7, 2009. It was a great experience. To put all this in context last year at this time (February 7, 2008 ) I was still in a cast after Achilles surgery which amounted to detaching my Achilles tendon shaving the bump off the back of my heel and reattaching my Achilles. I spent six weeks on crutches and six weeks in a boot. I discovered the rowing machine as a way to exercise with my two arms and one foot. As I slowly progressed to weight bearing and eventually walking without a boot I found that the rowing machine was giving me the best exercise I have ever had. I started feeling like I used to feel after running a 400 meter race when I was a kid. The machine was addicting. I then found the Concept 2 web site (http://www.concept2.com) with its on line community and the ability to compare one’s time with people around the world which was quite motivating. My first goal was to try to row the 5000 meters in less than 20 minutes. I started off doing 21’s for the 5k and then slowly crept closer and closer to 20 minutes. I remember one day I rowed 20.00.1 and thought how close I had come but had just missed my goal. My next attempt at the 5K personal best (PB) turned up a 20:22 and up and down it went to eventually one day I finally hit 19:58. Around July 2008, I got my 2k time down to around 7:30 minutes and started looking around on the concept 2 site and found information about the Crash-B’s (the indoor world rowing championships in Boston) which are held every year and Boston. I saw that for my age and weight group the qualifying time was 7:11 and to top if off it would be possible to get the trip to Boston paid for by Concept 2 if you made your time at a qualifying race. There were qualifying races all over the country which seemed quite amazing. Needless to say I planted that in the back of my mind and when I turned 60 in July I got a Concept 2 Model D for my basement as a birthday present to myself. The thought of qualifying for this event entered my mind. Could I do it? Should I try? I went to the Crash-B web site and watched the 2008 races and saw the winner of the 60-69 heavyweight division Jim Castellan who pulled a 6:39.2 2K in the heavy weight division which really impressed me since I was now becoming familiar with splits and how hard one has to pull to even get down to that speed for a few strokes let alone doing it for an entire 2000 meters. In October, I got my 2k time down to 7:19.3 which is a long way from 7:11 but I thought that in a real race I may be able to actually get down to 7:11. I also was learning about a strange cough that one gets from rowing very hard indoors which was similar to the cough one gets when running real hard on an indoor track. My initial plan was to visit my sister in CA and do my first race held by the Long Beach Rowing Association and see what this was all about. I would then try the Main Line Slide at Villanova which had the added attraction of having Jim Castellan rowing there since I saw that he had won that event in my age group many many times. I did another time trial in December 2008 and only hit 7:23. I thought maybe I had peaked and decided not to go to the Long Beach event. I tried a couple of other times to get another PB time for the 2k but was always wimping out at the 1000 meter marked which allowed me to lower my PB in the 1000 but did not get me a new 2k time. I started realizing how much ones mind effects your rowing. So I debated and debated about trying the Main Line Slide in February. The week before the race I decided to row in the light weight division. Now I needed to drop 5 lbs by race time and I was back to my high school wrestling days of stepping on a scale every day restricting myself to two meals a day and if I got down to 165 I would register at the door. The day before the race I weighed 164 and decide to go to the race.
I had my first 2000m rowing race yesterday February 7, 2009. It was a great experience. To put all this in context last year at this time (February 7, 2008 ) I was still in a cast after Achilles surgery which amounted to detaching my Achilles tendon shaving the bump off the back of my heel and reattaching my Achilles. I spent six weeks on crutches and six weeks in a boot. I discovered the rowing machine as a way to exercise with my two arms and one foot. As I slowly progressed to weight bearing and eventually walking without a boot I found that the rowing machine was giving me the best exercise I have ever had. I started feeling like I used to feel after running a 400 meter race when I was a kid. The machine was addicting. I then found the Concept 2 web site (http://www.concept2.com) with its on line community and the ability to compare one’s time with people around the world which was quite motivating. My first goal was to try to row the 5000 meters in less than 20 minutes. I started off doing 21’s for the 5k and then slowly crept closer and closer to 20 minutes. I remember one day I rowed 20.00.1 and thought how close I had come but had just missed my goal. My next attempt at the 5K personal best (PB) turned up a 20:22 and up and down it went to eventually one day I finally hit 19:58. Around July 2008, I got my 2k time down to around 7:30 minutes and started looking around on the concept 2 site and found information about the Crash-B’s (the indoor world rowing championships in Boston) which are held every year and Boston. I saw that for my age and weight group the qualifying time was 7:11 and to top if off it would be possible to get the trip to Boston paid for by Concept 2 if you made your time at a qualifying race. There were qualifying races all over the country which seemed quite amazing. Needless to say I planted that in the back of my mind and when I turned 60 in July I got a Concept 2 Model D for my basement as a birthday present to myself. The thought of qualifying for this event entered my mind. Could I do it? Should I try? I went to the Crash-B web site and watched the 2008 races and saw the winner of the 60-69 heavyweight division Jim Castellan who pulled a 6:39.2 2K in the heavy weight division which really impressed me since I was now becoming familiar with splits and how hard one has to pull to even get down to that speed for a few strokes let alone doing it for an entire 2000 meters. In October, I got my 2k time down to 7:19.3 which is a long way from 7:11 but I thought that in a real race I may be able to actually get down to 7:11. I also was learning about a strange cough that one gets from rowing very hard indoors which was similar to the cough one gets when running real hard on an indoor track. My initial plan was to visit my sister in CA and do my first race held by the Long Beach Rowing Association and see what this was all about. I would then try the Main Line Slide at Villanova which had the added attraction of having Jim Castellan rowing there since I saw that he had won that event in my age group many many times. I did another time trial in December 2008 and only hit 7:23. I thought maybe I had peaked and decided not to go to the Long Beach event. I tried a couple of other times to get another PB time for the 2k but was always wimping out at the 1000 meter marked which allowed me to lower my PB in the 1000 but did not get me a new 2k time. I started realizing how much ones mind effects your rowing. So I debated and debated about trying the Main Line Slide in February. The week before the race I decided to row in the light weight division. Now I needed to drop 5 lbs by race time and I was back to my high school wrestling days of stepping on a scale every day restricting myself to two meals a day and if I got down to 165 I would register at the door. The day before the race I weighed 164 and decide to go to the race.
Race Day
Race Day
The web site said weigh ins were at 7:30 AM and I live about 80 minutes from Villanova. So I get up early and arrive at Villanova by 7:20 AM. When I find the athletic center the crew team is setting things up as I walk in I see the setup which is pretty impressive with about 50 ergs setup (30 for racing and 20 for warm ups) but few people are around. I weighed in at 163.4 lbs (sigh of relief I made my wt). It turns out that weigh-ins were going on most of the morning so I could have gotten there closer to my race time of 9:45 AM. What to do from 7:30 to 9:45? I laid around on the bleachers and waited for more people to arrive. Around 8:30 the masters rowers started to arrive and use the rowing machine setup for warm ups. I eventually saw Jim Castellan arrive who I recognized from his Crash-B video. He hops on an erg and I get on one beside him to warm up. As I look over he is pulling 1:45’s as he warms up and I am pulling 2:07’s. I say to myself that is what I am hoping to be my race pace. I decide to warm up with 3 1Ks at varying strokes rates which seems to have worked fairly well. I speak briefly with Jim and a few other veteran rowers and find out that most of them have been doing this for many many years. So they are pretty familiar with the ritual. This is all new to me but started to look pretty similar to the indoor track meets I have been involved with as a coach and a parent. I find out that they are assigning each person and erg based on the time that they put on their entry form and to my surprise when it is time to go into the rowing area I am on erg 2 with my 7:19 time seated next to Jim Castellan who is on erg 1 who has pulled under 6:40. I also know that there are two other lightweights in the pack but I am not sure who they are. I sit down on the erg and come face to face to a PM4 monitor (my erg has a PM3). A pleasant young woman from the Villanova crew team offers to be my coxswain and I say sure. She asks what I would like her to do and I tell her that I will probably pull 1:45’s for the first 1000m which is a 7:00 minute pace and then if she would try to keep me under 1:50 pace I should do pretty well. I go to set my drag factor and do not know how to use the PM4 and either does my coxswain. The organizer comes by and tells me that instruction where handed out when I checked in (I must have checked in too early to get them) and to just put the resistance on three. I look over and see that Jim on erg 1 has his set around 7 so I set mine at 5. I really wanted a 125 drag factor so I probably should have placed it at 4 (lesson learned). As I look at the PM4 monitor I see my name (cool). As the race gets ready to start I see the commands that start the race which are similar to the track commands. The command are : Sit Ready, Attention, and Row. I am now into the first 500 meters. On the PM4 I can see who is ahead of me and who is behind me and by how far they are from me. I pull 20 hard strokes to get me down to the 1:45 pace. I actually get down to 1:44 average or the first 500 meters. Jim is comfortably ahead of me and I am in third place down by 6 meters. I wonder who this second place person is? I already know that I will not be catching erg 1 and by 1000 meters I have pulled in second place by around 80 meters. Now my goal is to try to stay under 1:50 pace. I start to loss my power and my pace starts slipping above 1:50. My coxswain is urging me on and my mind is saying you have second place in the bag keep it smooth and steady. When I hit the final 500 I try to pick up the pace but to no avail. I hit the final 200 I ease off for 2 strokes (I know a big mistake) and then try to pull hard home. I finish in a 7:22.6 which is my second best time but I really did want to go under my 7:19 PB which was pulled in my basement.
The web site said weigh ins were at 7:30 AM and I live about 80 minutes from Villanova. So I get up early and arrive at Villanova by 7:20 AM. When I find the athletic center the crew team is setting things up as I walk in I see the setup which is pretty impressive with about 50 ergs setup (30 for racing and 20 for warm ups) but few people are around. I weighed in at 163.4 lbs (sigh of relief I made my wt). It turns out that weigh-ins were going on most of the morning so I could have gotten there closer to my race time of 9:45 AM. What to do from 7:30 to 9:45? I laid around on the bleachers and waited for more people to arrive. Around 8:30 the masters rowers started to arrive and use the rowing machine setup for warm ups. I eventually saw Jim Castellan arrive who I recognized from his Crash-B video. He hops on an erg and I get on one beside him to warm up. As I look over he is pulling 1:45’s as he warms up and I am pulling 2:07’s. I say to myself that is what I am hoping to be my race pace. I decide to warm up with 3 1Ks at varying strokes rates which seems to have worked fairly well. I speak briefly with Jim and a few other veteran rowers and find out that most of them have been doing this for many many years. So they are pretty familiar with the ritual. This is all new to me but started to look pretty similar to the indoor track meets I have been involved with as a coach and a parent. I find out that they are assigning each person and erg based on the time that they put on their entry form and to my surprise when it is time to go into the rowing area I am on erg 2 with my 7:19 time seated next to Jim Castellan who is on erg 1 who has pulled under 6:40. I also know that there are two other lightweights in the pack but I am not sure who they are. I sit down on the erg and come face to face to a PM4 monitor (my erg has a PM3). A pleasant young woman from the Villanova crew team offers to be my coxswain and I say sure. She asks what I would like her to do and I tell her that I will probably pull 1:45’s for the first 1000m which is a 7:00 minute pace and then if she would try to keep me under 1:50 pace I should do pretty well. I go to set my drag factor and do not know how to use the PM4 and either does my coxswain. The organizer comes by and tells me that instruction where handed out when I checked in (I must have checked in too early to get them) and to just put the resistance on three. I look over and see that Jim on erg 1 has his set around 7 so I set mine at 5. I really wanted a 125 drag factor so I probably should have placed it at 4 (lesson learned). As I look at the PM4 monitor I see my name (cool). As the race gets ready to start I see the commands that start the race which are similar to the track commands. The command are : Sit Ready, Attention, and Row. I am now into the first 500 meters. On the PM4 I can see who is ahead of me and who is behind me and by how far they are from me. I pull 20 hard strokes to get me down to the 1:45 pace. I actually get down to 1:44 average or the first 500 meters. Jim is comfortably ahead of me and I am in third place down by 6 meters. I wonder who this second place person is? I already know that I will not be catching erg 1 and by 1000 meters I have pulled in second place by around 80 meters. Now my goal is to try to stay under 1:50 pace. I start to loss my power and my pace starts slipping above 1:50. My coxswain is urging me on and my mind is saying you have second place in the bag keep it smooth and steady. When I hit the final 500 I try to pick up the pace but to no avail. I hit the final 200 I ease off for 2 strokes (I know a big mistake) and then try to pull hard home. I finish in a 7:22.6 which is my second best time but I really did want to go under my 7:19 PB which was pulled in my basement.
Looking back I think I should have concentrated totally on my time in the last 500 meters and I also should probably have had the damper setting at 4 rather than 5. After the race I got to talk with the Jim and the Bob Levy who came in third. I wished Jim luck at Crash-B (he had qualified with a 6:42.4) and decided to work on my Crash-B aspirations for next year.
Looking back I think I should have concentrated totally on my time in the last 500 meters and I also should probably have had the damper setting at 4 rather than 5. After the race I got to talk with the Jim and the Bob Levy who came in third. I wished Jim luck at Crash-B (he had qualified with a 6:42.4) and decided to work on my Crash-B aspirations for next year.
(Note: finally hit the crashB qualifying time of 7:11 by pulling a 7:10.5 PB on 4/13/2009 so I know it can be done splits - DF 118, 500 1:46.8 34 spm, 1000 1:48 33spm, 1500 1:47.9 33 spm, 2000 1:47.8 34 spm - overall 7:10.5 33 spm)
Note: Just found out the qualifying time for 60-65 lwts at the 2010 crashB race is now 7.07.5 which I guess means that the 60 year old lwts are getting faster. I am hoping to get my time down to this level by January 2010.
