Captain's Log
Latest news, requests, moans and cajoling from the skipper
Captain's Update: 7th October
7th October 2024
Hi team,
Apologies for not sending an update email for a few weeks, but here are a few updates across the club.Rhein. Well done to all who rowed the 42.2 km across northern Germany. A gruelling event but hopefully you all stayed hydrated throughout the weekend…
Pairs head. Next weekend sees the first race of the season. Jordan and I will be racing in a pair down the 4.5km course between Chiswick bridge and harrods wall. I’ve sent round the form for helping to volunteer on the WhatsApp group. These events are really important for the club to bring in revenue, so please do spare some time- we will be unable to run water sessions on Saturday.
Water sessions. Hopefully the water will be better by next weekend. It is currently at a yellow flag but very fast conditions for less experienced rowers. As a result, I’m sorry to all who signed up over the weekend and had to just go in the shed, but from experience this land training is often far more productive than a risky session on the water where you may go swimming/ get wrapped around a bridge.Otherwise training is going well. It’s been great to see some busy sheds in the week and some improving erg scores – as well as the Monday socials, of course. Now that we are about a month in, I’m keen to put the developing squad out as one, and the more experienced rowers out in separate crews – grateful if there is coordination among these crews to see if we can build stability in selection. This is particularly important in the run up to fours head next month (reminder, please sign up if available).
Have a good week!
DomCaptain's update: 15th September
15th September 2024
Hi team,
Very solid weekend of rowing in some glorious sunshine, albeit on some wild water of west London!Parish notices this week:
Final call for scamp, with the link in the previous email below. We will make a decision as to whether this goes ahead on Wednesday as we need enough numbers to make it viable. If we don’t go ahead, fear not- we have a back up plan of sticking to the tideway but putting in some extra miles and possible bbq
Charles sent an update to the social events for the next few months. Please do get in touch with him if you have any comments/questions, but particularly keen to get the Monday night dinners post weights going!
Very well done to all with this weeks training- a very strong start. I strongly encourage all to attend the Monday shed sessions – if nothing else you get to see Mustafa bend the bars, and the bars bend me…
Thanks,
DomCaptain's update 8th September
8th September 2024
And we are back!
Great commitment from all those who did the start of the season 2K yesterday. I was really impressed by a number of the scores, and also by the desire by all to push themselves. This start of the season test is critical to provide a good benchmark for the season ahead, so well done all! For those who couldn't come down - you will have another chance either on Wednesday or for the second session next Saturday – no hiding!
We had a really good squad meeting yesterday - which I've summarised and circulated by email. Any questions, please let me know.
Training times. The times for training until Christmas are now confirmed as follows:
Monday 7pm - Coached weights and HIIT sessions with Wes
Wednesday 7pm - Squad ergs
Saturday 0800 Long row (uncoached)
Saturday 1000 - Cross training (erg/run/cycle/HIIT)
Sunday 0800 and 1000- Coached sessions with WesThe Sunday sessions will be key for progressing technically. I found this morning's training hugely beneficial as I try to remember how to single scull. They will be two relatively short sessions with a strong technical focus - with West alongside in the launch. I'm even going to break the habit of a lifetime and try weights as my new season's resolution - so please come down on Monday if you want to see me almost certainly fail at squats....
S'camp is taking place 27–29 September, please do sign-up if you are free. It is a great chance to get people in smaller boats, and to escape the Tideway for a weekend. Tom C is the man if you have any questions, but sign ups are here.
Races. The races for this year are both in the attached doc and also on FitClub. Please do sign up as early as possible so that we can organise crews with as much prep as possible.
Finally, we had a great End of Season Dinner last week, so huge thanks to Charles for doing such a great job organising! And a belated well done to all who showed up to training the next morning!
Thanks team - let's go!
Dom
