Getting Back on the Seat

Getting back in the saddle didn't work. Getting back on the runners felt a bit obtuse. So, getting back on the seat remained. At least at this hour of the night - trying to get something out.

Last weekend, I realized that we'd already been out on the water 3-5 times at this time last year. This, and recent Rowing News issues, had me yearning to get back to rowing. We've had an unfortunate stretch of intermittent thunderstorms these past few weekends and haven't planned much water time. I washed down the shell to get rid of the gunk from my last paddle in December.

This weekend, Kathleen joined me for a first row. It was midmorning, bright and sunny, with a strong breeze. I remembered about half of the "system" I had together for getting our stuff together and donkeying the shell down to the neighborhood access ramp. On the water, our technique was rusty and our bodies were creaky, but it was good to be sculling. The wind was mostly southerly and did generate some white caps along the longest fetch of the lake. From our kayaking adventures, we've learned that fetch is the distance that the wind can blow on water unimpeded. Recalling this no-no from our CYC rowing stint, we turned around and continued hugging shore. All in all, a nice hour on the water getting our feet "wet" again.

1st Erg Exercise Experience

I used an ergometer for exercise for the first time today at the local YMCA. It was a Model D from Concept2.Their website recommended doing several short rows the first time. I did four of 5 minutes each. It took most of the first one to the hang of how to use the thing. I started out being a pansy on the drive and didn't get much resistance until I used my arms. It wasn't until near the end of the first "set" that I realized I had to hit the start of the drive much harder in order to get any resistance for my legs. The last three went much better. As usual, I had to be careful about engaging the back too soon. Next time, I'll bring the FlipVideo to tap one of these sets to get a better handle on my technique. Since I'm still recovering from a 2 week long infection, the small number of short sets suited me just fine!

P.S. Everyone who uses the machine calls it an "erg." It's a made-up name meaning work meter or work machine. The common name reflects the love-hate relationship everyone seems to develop with using the thing for (winter) training.

Rowing Against the Current

I just finished Rowing Against The Current (On learning to scull at forty) by Barry Strauss. It is a short, enjoyable, fast read. I'm not sure how someone who's never rowed would like it. The author does a good job of describing a number of ephemeral aspects of being on the water, a bit of the sport becoming a sport in the late 1800's, rowing in ancient naval warfare, and some of the serious training he does. Plus midlife angst of former teenage non-athletes, not the career or marital kind of crisis. Recommended.

Next up, David Halberstam's The Amateurs.

Cold Weather Rowing #1

I've rowed a couple times now when the temperatures were in the 40's F. I had anticipated the dressing appropriately for rowing would be fairly similar to dressing for running. Differences noted so far:

1. My hands are warmer. Duh! They're being used as part of the exercise. Also ...
2. I'm moving faster in the boat than I was on the ground. "Longer" vectors hence greater variation in relative speed depending upon the orientation of the boat direction and the wind direction.
   
3. My torso feels colder since my sweating back is pointing forward, more often into the wind.

I'm labeling this post #1 because I expect additional observations from experience and learnings from others and other resources. I've noticed that the mantra for kayaking is "dress for the water temperature" but that doesn't seem to be the case for rowing. I'm thinking this might be because most folks row for a school, which have coaches in a power boat, or a club, which have rules for accompanying chase boats as the weather chills. Not quite sure where the single scullers stand.

My observation so far is, except for getting in/out at our access ramp, I'm only wet from my own sweating. However, one goof with an oar and I could be in the drink. Brrrrr. So far, I'm staying REAL CLOSE to the shore.

Being Thankful

Everything finally came together for a row today. Although I've been off all week, it's been rather cold and windy so far. At least, colder and windier than what has seemed manageable. Our days have been starting out below freezing and almost warming to 50. More on the temperatures in another post.

I may have mentioned it in an earlier post, but it bears repeating on Thanksgiving. 2008 has seen a drastically improved work-life balance. This broke the downwards trend over the previous 4-5 years. I'm grateful that Kathleen stuck to her guns on wanting to try sculling. After our dock was built, I was leaning towards less expensive kayaking but she was steadfast. We've really enjoyed doing something together and being out on the water. And the exercise component has me back into an active lifestyle. Stopping my 3-4-5-a-week running schedule was the first casualty of the work-like imbalance. Through the good fortune of lake access, a shell dealer, and the rowing club in Charlotte, we got off to a great start and are self-sufficient in the activity. Thank you, Lord!

Almost Funny Clothes

My youngest sister said that people ordering funny clothes for their hobby means they've gone off the deep end. Well, these aren't obviously specialty clothes (that'll have to wait until the warm weather again). Errrrrr - I guess I need to admit that the mitten-looking things qualify us:


JL Racing/Rowing does custom apparel for clubs and competitive teams. We picked up a pair of their cold weather deals for the Purist jackets and CoolMax tops (which are cut short in front and long in back). What with the rowing stroke having us bent over almost all the time, the specialty cut should make a big difference. Kathleen didn't have any leggings that weren't cotton and my running tights are rather garishly colored. We'll try rowing with baseball caps over the beanies since we both found the glare from the sun to be a killer.

The mitten-looking things are called "pogies" (po-gees, hard g). Byron and Nancy at CYC recommended them. They go over our hands AND the ends of each of our oars. Direct hand contact on the oars is, apparently, critical, so true rowers don't wear gloves. Kathleen's been wearing golf gloves to prevent blistering. We'll see how this plays out for her.

UPDATE: Dec 23. Finally uploaded the picture of our cold weather rowing duds.

Moss Lake Water Temperatures

I asked around about winter water temperatures for Moss Lake. I was pointed to Newt Henson at the Water Treatment plant. Here's what he sent me for temperatures read from 5 ft or 15 ft depths where their intakes are located:

              Avg          Low           High
11/07          59           54            66
12/07          52           50            54
01/08          46           45            54
02/08          46           45            46
03/08          52           46            54
04/08          59           54            61
05/08          66           61            72
06/08          79           72            81
07/08          82           79            84
08/08          84           81            86
09/08          79           72            82
10/08          68           61            72

He said the coldest they've measured was 39 degrees.

(Much bigger) Lake Norman temperatures are here. Looks like it's warmer there.

Getting Chilly!

This is the first weekend without some kind of watersport exercise. Yesterday's forecast was rain and wind. Didn't get the former, had the latter, and temperatures around 70 degrees. Today, clear skies, but still 15 mph wind, and temps in the 50's. Windchill in the upper 40's. I decided to skip it today.

Last weekend's rowing single got me to thinking about the water temperatures. The air temperature was in the mid- to upper-50's and very little breeze. Nonetheless the coldness of the water, up to my knees, at the boat ramp was enough to make me wonder what it would be like around my chest and head. Actually, I didn't think about it until I was out in open water in the middle of the lake.

The Catawba Yacht Club has a T(air) + T(water) < 100F rule. The Three Rivers Rowing Association (Pittsburgh) has a nice safety matrix here but they only mention water temperature. We haven't gotten around to getting any special cold weather clothing. JL Rowing has a special but they assume you're launching from a dry dock not a wet ramp. I don't think they have any waterproof stuff. I hope we're not done for the season.

Fall Head Races

Autumn is the season for head races in the rowing world. As in,

• Head of the Charles


• Head of the Hooch


• Head of the South

And we've missed them. Not to race in them, but to be spectators for the event and meet up with folks from CYC. The last, and closest (Augusta GA), was this past weekend but not planning to skip cantoring at our Saturday vigil Masses and visiting relatives laid waste to the hope.

We went sculling together instead. Kathleen hasn't rowed with me for several weekends. The flatwater kayaking has been taking up a couple Sundays and I was on my own other times. In spite of her broken finger, she did okay. But the water at the access ramp, where we get in & out, is getting COLDER.

A Week Off & Another Human-powered Watersport

I've got a week off here. We're gonna forget about the financial crisis and "who's on first" acquiring my employer. We're going to row, do some leaf peeping, and sort out a whole bunch of things that have been up in the air ...

Like the dock accoutrements for our shell and kayaks. Yes, I'm sure all those die-hard rowers would be screaming "argh" if their throats weren't constricted. Well, perhaps I exaggerate; but I did find a rowing site that banned paddlers so there's some antipathy by some in the community.

I'm actually a little confused by the term "paddler." It seems to be used by whitewater kayakers, flatwater kayakers, and canoers to describe themselves. I see the commonality between canoeing and flatwater kayaking, but not the whitewater variant. Yes, the "boat" construction and paddles are the same, but the intent of the sport is completely different. Because whitewater is so popular in our area, it's a bit annoying to need to add the "flatwater" adjective. Quietwater is another variant I've seen.

While the two sports are quite different from each other, for our purposes, they're complementary. I commented on this earlier, after we had a very pleasant kayaking experience at Sunset Beach. Also here, at the end of our CYC rowing sessions, I thought about kayaks as a video taking platform to help us study our rowing technique.

The last two straws were

1. Continued agonizing over logistics for our floating dock add-on and multi-part sling and storage mechanisms for the shell.
2. Kathleen's interest in going out on the lake in a kayak, on her own, for a workout. (A kayak, at around 40 lbs and 12 feet long, would be more manageable than an 80 lb, 24 foot long shell.)

We decided to go the US National Whitewater Center on Sunday to take their guided river tour. It was nice trip up the Catawba River and into Longs Creek. One of the guides, Mike, took pictures here. They start at #434 and go through #459 (click the little arrow buttons above the pictures to go back and forth). We are in the two blue kayaks. Kathleen is wearing her sweatshirt over her rather bulky life preserver. The trip helped narrow the field for our potential purchase. Kathleen's boat was 9 ft; mine was 10 ft. We found them harder to keep straight than the 12 footers at Sunset Beach.

After good rows on Saturday and today and paddling on Sunday, tomorrow we are heading to Hickory to the Outdoor Supply Company to look at gear. We may make an impetuous purchase and do our best to contribute to stimulating the economy. We already dropped over $400 replacing the worn out tires on our truck.

Your Other Right!

Kathleen, being raised a (Long Island) "bay girl," is always giving me grief about my directions while rowing. I'm in the bow seat, so it's my job to look back, decide which way we should be going, and give directions for how to get there. Her job is to set the stroke rate, be steady with it, and do whatever I tell her for direction.

I tell her when we need "power on the left/right" to do a gradual turn or slight course adjustment. Since we have a wider-than-racing shell, we can do "all on the left/right" where we keep the opposite blade flat on the water and pull only on one side. (I have a suspicion we'd tip ourselves over if we did this with a bonafide [REALLY narrow] racing shell.) This allows us to do a pretty sharp turn. Finally, if we're at a stand still, we can do a corkscrew turn in place with her pulling with one hand while I push with the opposite.

Since we are facing towards the back, we have to pull on the side opposite from where I want us to go. The grief comes from my mixing this up and saying "right" when I want to go towards the right. I should be saying "left." In the open water, it's no harm no foul because I realize my goof fairly quickly and we have plenty of room. In the tight confines of our cove, or when we're fast approaching a quiet fisherman, it's a different story.

On the return leg of our trip last Sunday, we're taking a long run straight with the wind in our faces - blowing at the stern of the boat. We're looking to make time back home to finish off the lawn work for liming, fertilizing, and seeding. This stretch involves threading our way between a really small island, a big one, and two points of land. Did I remember to re-iterate that we are facing AWAY from where we're going?

One other tidbit ... I'm about as limber as a decent piece of lumber. One day, in high school gym class, the coach is doing his usual job of humiliating the geek wearing glasses. We're doing some kind of stretching exercises and he keeps calling four eyes an old man because I can't stretch worth a damn. I haven't improved much and, now verging on old fartdom, it's quite a challenge to turn around 90 degrees on the swayback, get a good view of what we're about to run into, and keep up with the stroke.

Back to the story ... we're humping it on the way back with a strong wind and I'm trying to thread us between islands on the port side and land on the starboard. I'm twisting one way to get a look on one side then the other for the other side. I call out "power on the right" and we ever so slowly start trending in the direction I want. After awhile, I comment "shooie, why is it taking so long to turn right?" "Argh!!!!" is her response because she's been pulling with her right while I've been pulling with my left.

Maybe you had to be there. ;-)

Wind & Tacking with a Shell

With the long Columbus Day weekend, we rowed three times. The first two were very windy -gusts coming out of the north or northeast respectively. Monday, with only a slight breeze, was amazing in comparison.

On previous windy days, we'd already picked up the trick of rowing closer to the shore where the wind is coming from. The houses, trees, etc. help to break the wind and calm the water. On the far shore, the wind has the most room to run, pick up to full speed, and kick up the highest waves.

Our traditional starting run goes straight south from our home cove. So, we're doing pretty well with the wind in our faces. Since we row faster than the wind-blown waves are driven, we're moving into waves quite easily. Everything is hunky-dory. We just need to keep our oars higher out of the water (hands lower) on the recovery.

When we turn to go east at the south side of the water, wham-o! - full cross wind and waves bouncing us around. It doesn't take long to realize the difference. After a bit of struggling, I realize that we'd probably be better off zig-zagging across the stretch. I think sailboats "tack" into the wind to move forward. So, we tack "across" the wind to minize the turbulence. It's definitely bouncy on the zig, but it's much more manageable as long as we stay steady and even in our strokes. The zag is easier than the zig, but no picnic. Saturday was a short row since the cooler weather had us starting late and our need to get the lawn mowed before going to church.

On Sunday, I didn't pick up on the easterly component of the northeast wind. We chose to go up a twisty scenic cove. It wasn't until too late that I realized our path's orientation had us rowing straight into the wind for one of the longest stretches - where I thought we'd be protected by trees. Oh well. It was somewhat compensated once we turned around and headed home - by a big assist from mother nature.

On the way back, we had a funny "I'm gonna smack you!" moment. See the next post.

Dock Conundrum

I've been looking at three options lately for a floating dock arrangement with our dock.

1. A kit at Little River Marine to build something that lashes to our posts.
2. EZ Dock
3. AccuDock

A local boat company deals with EZ Dock but Kathleen didn't like the callback that we got after our inquiry. Bad customer service - ixnay that one.

Kim Holt, at AccuDock, has been great. He's used to working with kayakers and rowers. And he has sliding attachment assemblies that stabilize floating docks. He's been great to work with my kooky idea for an arrangement of a 30"x6' piece that would hinge at the end of another 30"x8' piece. We'd normally have the 6' piece on top of the 8' piece. When we get ready to go out, we flip the 6' piece to stick out from the end of our dock. We can then get on/off this section, with oars on one side sticking over the float, like rowers normally do.

After talking through more of this with Kathleen, we have a conundrum. My focus had been getting in/out of the shell on the water. But almost anything we do to make that easier, makes it harder to get the shell in/out of the water. Kathleen has limited ability to get her side of the boat up to her shoulder or over her head. I can address this with sling lifts and spanners, but it's still convoluted and will recall construction. And times a-wasting!

Quieter Release

Kathleen made it out with me this morning. It was a late start - she was still hurting from two days of bowel spasms and I was rather tired from two hard rows on my own. Although we were late to the water, 10:30am, there were very few people out. The breeze was light and water pretty calm.

As we are chugging along, almost retracing my route from yesterday, I noticed Kathleen had the secret of the quieter release: she was coming out of the water almost vertically whereas I had been feathering (rotating the oar handle) to "flip" the blade out of the water. I tried just dropping my hands before doing anything else and it made a big difference. Thus completing the evolution towards understanding the bicycle chain analogy of Kevin from the CYC Learn-to-Row weekend. Up, at the catch, then down, at the finish/release, with the hands at each end of the overall stroke cycle. Duh!

Another Solo & Meeting Melanie

Another day on my own today. Same routine as yesterday (just row and concentrate on back position during the drive, early rolling to the catch position, adn trying to be quieter on the release) but a different route. I decided to go up a cove, near Kathleen's parents, that we had not visited yet.

On the way out, someone was waving at me from the shore and was trying to take pictures. I came back around closer and went across again to provide another opportunity. After turning and coming close to shore, we chatted. Melanie has a Moss Lake focused web site providing a forum for local information exchange: mosslake-nc.com. She is a big enthusiast and advocate for activities on the lake. Sounds like a potential ally if we try to arrange some kind of regatta. I told her about our getting started, how much we enjoyed rowing on the lake, and little bit about sculling. She might write about it on her site. I'll ask if I can post any of the photos she took here.

The row turned out to be quite long. In spite of having the maxim -"on an out-and-back trip, turnaround before you get tired," I kept at heading up that cove. It was worth it. I found a section where the water was glass calm and most of the lots were wooded - the most peaceful spot all morning. My timing was perfect; after I turning around and heading out of the cove, a power boat went tearing right up where I'd left.

Quiet on the Catch, Noisy on the Release

Today, I ended up on the lake by myself. At the last minute, Kathleen wasn't able to go, so I had to re-rig the shell for a single. As before, I hugged the shore to minimize the distance should I flip out. All went well - maybe next time, I won't worry about this anymore.

I just rowed as continuously as I could and worked on standard stuff. With early rolling to a "square" blade, I go into the water very quietly on the catch. The release, however, is a different story. I saw an email on the Yahoo rowingmasters group that reinforced that good technique, at any speed, means a quiet row. I'm definitely going to need some pointers on the release. The only way I'm quiet bringing my blades out of the water is when I'm coasting back into the cove and applying almost no pressure on the stroke.

Note to self - blog posts need more pictures!

Second note to self - gotta watch the grammar and thought flow more carefully. I shudder to think what my English Teacher baby sister and Technical Editor mother think of my sentence construction and writing style. ;-)

Shoe Installation

I installed my new shoes last Saturday. Here's a picture of Kathleen's pair (which went on after our Labor Day row). To expose the innards, the insoles are out, the tongues are pulled forward, and the velcro "lace" flaps are pulled over.

To take advantage of the original footpads, Don sent a single bolt setup: a rather wide, round, flat head with a washer and a nyloc nut. To tighten the thing down, I had to use a lock wrench on the head. I decided to keep the heel cups in place to help guide the heels and to avoid complicated change outs should Carl or anyone else row with us.

On my first trip out, the shoe twisted on me right away. I was going to have to bear down on the ratchet wrench when we got back. The second trip was better (which had me really torquing it when putting Kathleen's in). The shoes are definitely more comfortable than the single velcro strap. I didn't have to think about "catching myself" with my feet at the finish. (I bet this is confusing. Remember that we're pushing off the footpads but don't want our feet to leave the pads. We curl our toes up to keep them from slipping out from under the strap.) Kathleen has been getting some blisters on one heel, so she'll really like these. I do notice that they do their job of fixing the foot - it's rather awkward now to lean forward on a break to get my water bottle. I also needed to bring a hand towel with me to dry off after getting in the boat from our access ramp. Putting socks on dirty wet feet is hard and yucky. More incentive to get the dock arrangements worked out and installed!

Dizzying Flotsam

After 6 inches of rain from Hurricane Fay over a couple days, it was an interesting row on Friday morning. The lake was indeed up as high as we'd seen it - not over anyone's dock, but up to the sideboards. I was wondering if we'd see a muddy current through the lake but there was none. However, lots of branches and bark had accumulated from run off and been blown together by the wind. Without boat traffic, it was just hanging around out there. It was amazing - as we would row through it, the rushing past would almost make me dizzy! I'm focusing on Kathleen in front of me, most of the time, and the water going past is rather nondescript just having a general sense of movement. But the flotsam really sets off the peripheral vision sensors, so it's like my whole field of view (except Kathleen) is rushing away. I'm so used to driving forward, this backwards motion is very different and was rather unsettling. "Cewl!"

The flotsam didn't last long. Saturday was noticably "cleaner." Sunday was all clear except for an errant log. Fortunately, it was a long way from us.

New (Little) Shoes

We got bonafide rowing shoes to replace the original velcro footstraps and heel cups...

Ain't they cute? End to end like this, they are probably about as long as some of the shoes in the big shells at CYC. The only way we could mitigate that problem was by wearing cheapo water shoes to widen our feet enough to make their velcro shoe ties hold us in. I'll be drilling holes in our footpads to bolt these in. Pictures forthcoming this weekend.

You can't tell from this shot, but the shoes have thinnish soles with holes in them for bolting into various "foot stretchers." Bike shoes are built to stay on the feet and click off the pedal. Rowing shoes are built to stay on the stretchers in the boat and have your feet come loose. We will be putting a lace on that joins the velcro shoe straps - in distress, I think you grab these and pull. I probably should get clarity on this! ;-)

I'm taking Friday off again this week to make a 4-day weekend this time. Rain from Fay should be done and forecast looks good for lots o' rowin'!

Nice Long Row

The water was the calmest this morning, the last of our three rows this weekend. There was a nice breeze and minimal chop. Yesterday's wind was stiffer but we managed to do drills going back and forth across our primary route. I took our old digital camera out to get pictures. Unfortunately, the batteries pooped out in no time so I didn't get many shots. Here's the best one of the bucolic view from our shell:


With it being Sunday (slowest start for water skiers), we decided to follow the longest out-and-back route that we have - going to the dam and public access ramp. Our goal was to keep it steady and even and row as long as we could before taking a break.

With our new seating arrangement, Kathleen in the stern and me in the bow, we made good time and weren't nearly as tired as when we did this before more than a month ago. We even added on an additional leg towards the end. I think this kind of row is a good idea to do at least every other weekend. We'll start tracking our times and see how we improve. We do need to work on eliminating the "S's" in our route. Not that I would accuse my rowing partner, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to be looking to the left or right most of the time. And she accuses me of being the sightseer!

All in all, a very successful set of row for Kathleen to get back into the swing of things after having missed several weeks in a row and not able to make many of the Saturday's at CYC.