I was coming down the biggest hill in Saddle River County Park, ripping fast, lining up to pass some joggers with dogs, when the dogs saw something on the other side of the path and were strong enough to pull over right across the path on their leashes. 

It was a split second decision, me or the dogs, and I decided to ditch instead of running them over.  Ouch!  I tried to brake but it was too late – instinct from on-water paddling kicked in and I ditched to the right side, landing on my torso (probably not optimal for ditching on pavement) – my paddle, board, Windows Phone, and Rudy Project sunglasses kept accelerating down the hill and ended up abut 50 feet down the path in front of me.

I have been experimenting with the RunKeeper software, and happened to be tracking my ride.  Here’s the moment before the crash.  I am the blue dot heading north on the map.  You can see just ahead where the GPS track goes nuts as the phone goes flying.  Just before I ditched I was going about 23 miles an hour.  You can see in the speed graph how the phone continues to accelerate down the hill up to 34 mph after it left my body before coming to a stop.  That means the paddle did the same.  Good thing I got the paddle and board pointed off the path before I bought it.

The good news is that no dogs or humans got really hurt.  I figured I’d be covered with blood and possibly have a dislocated shoulder.  But I had my safety gear on and escaped with only minor abrasions and a strained right pectoral muscle.  The rowing calluses on my hands kept the cuts from going too deep.  I credit my Crossfit work with kettlebell snatches and overhead squats with keeping my shoulder together – if this had been a year ago it probably would have popped.

Now for the interesting parts: 

• The phone survived and kept tracking the ride!  That’s a pretty nice vote of confidence for the quality of Windows Phone devices. 
• The paddle flew off the path into a tree, but suffered only scrapes that ruined the graphics.  I took some pics back at my car.  You can see how deeply the aluminum got scored.  I guess its now officially a “battle paddle.”  But this shows it’s a high-quality instrument.  No dents, no bends.

I still can’t believe I didn’t end up at the hospital.  I am sure glad I nixed the shorts idea, because I considered it given the temperature.  I guess 43-year old rowers/crossfitters are pretty durable too, as long as they have their helmets on!

If you are in the Seattle area check them out!

Happy New Year and thanks for reading this blog.  I’d love to hear from you on topics you’d like me to cover in 2012, especially as it’s an Olympic year.  What are the things you need to know but can’t find information on?  Please comment or use the Feedback link to let me know what you are most interested in.

Thanks again for reading!

P.S. I like the “Annual Report” that WordPress creates for each blog – check it out here for this blog.

This is a great video of some French athletes setting a new 2K record on the Concept2 indoor rower.  About 1:25 minutes in, note how the shoulders remain on a level horizontal plane throughout the stroke – there is no wasted energy here.  There is no up/down movement of the chain.  The heads are not bobbing up and down.  The hands hit the ribs right when the knees are down.  Once the knees are down, they stay down until the hips are fully open.  Looking at this dude rowing, you would think he’s pretty relaxed, until you realize he’s pulling sub-1:30 splits!  This is how it’s done – 5:44 !

Félicitations !

Thanks to Flywheel Fitness for the link to this video.

I get a lot of questions about setting the Concept2 damper, both from Crossfitters and rowers.  As a reminder, the damper setting controls the drag factor on the C2, which determines how much air resistance is on the flywheel.  The lower the drag factor, the less the flywheel slows down between strokes, and the harder it is to generate net acceleration on each stroke. 

I think there are three schools of thought on this:

1.  Set the drag factor to simulate the type of boat you are training for during the on-water season.  This article is an excellent study of how realistic this is, and the bottom line is, it’s not!  The two are biomechanically quite different.  While the C2 is a great way to develop rowing fitness, it is not necessarily a great way to simulate actual rowing.  This is why I tell people that the drag factor is probably the least important variable to worry about on the C2, compared to technique, aerobic fitness, and mental toughness.

2.  Set the drag factor heavier than on-water rowing, because the point of winter training is to develop strength and fitness.  I may be old school, but I am in this camp.  I view the C2 as a rowing-specific strength and power developer, not as a rowing simulator per se.  I want to use the indoor season to become huge and powerful so that when I am back on the water I can focus on technique and power application and not feel “behind the eight ball” on strength and fitness.  In college and the pre-elite club system in the mid-nineties, we tested at drag factor 180 on the old Model B, which would be very heavy by today’s standards.  My body probably can’t take that anymore, but I feel that a drag factor of 125-140 is heavy enough to train myself to be able to handle a strong headwind in my single.  There are those who would disagree with this approach, particularly big-boat rowers, and I respect that.  It is a highly individualized thing.

3.  Change the drag factor based on the type of workout you are doing.  Erin Cafaro advocates this approach in her article on the Sport Tech section of the Crossfit Endurance website.  I can be had on this approach as well, because in different workouts you are training different energy systems.  In a tabata WOD I would absolutely increase the drag factor because I am trying to train myself to get every ounce of acceleration out of my legs in what is fundamentally an explosive strength workout.  If I am working specifically on quickness, I would set it lower to train my neurological system to get the quickest impulse I can on every stroke.

My doubles partner who is currently training in Brazil let me know that one of the all-time great scullers, Ricardo Ibarra, has passed on.  A great loss for the rowing community, for Argentina, and for Brazil where he was coaching.

Here’s a favorite that is a perfect training tool for 2000m Concept 2 testing.  I recommend a heavier drag factor (I use 125) as it will be really hard to move your legs quickly by the end!

5 min warmup

4 rounds of:

• 500m row
• 50 air squats (rowers translate this as “jumpies”) – make sure you achieve full depth!

Goal is to finish in under 15 minutes. 

I would set the C2 for distance intervals, 500m work, 2 minutes rest.  This will give you 2 minutes to do your air squats and set up for the next piece.  The faster you complete the squats, the more rest you get. 

If you are a firebreather/erg monster and find this too easy, replace the air squats with squat jumps and see if you can still finish in under 15 minutes!

This workout is literally 20 minutes end to end, meaning you can be showered and done before your heart rate even comes down!

Thanks to Drew Ginn, one of the world’s all-time greatest rowers (3 Olympic golds, 5 World Championship golds), for the level of transparency he delivers in his blog about what it takes to be an elite athlete.  Check out this dude’s split times for a 2K piece and eat a slice of humble pie…this piece would have easily won last year’s CRASH-B.  This is why I always caution the Crossfit community about lightly throwing around the terms “elite” and “fittest,” because there really is no comparison with some of the specialist elites in specific disciplines.

I was fortunate enough to visit Australia several times before the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.  I received the most gracious invite you could imagine from Geoffrey Stewart and Tim McLaren to borrow a single out of UTS while I was there.  I was basically nobody, they were the best in the world at the time, and they invited me in like it was no big deal.  I will never forget it, and I was also lucky enough to see the famous Ginn/Tompkins pair race on the Nepean River before injury derailed them. 

I remember being amazed at the time standards the Australian team was shooting for, and the percentage gain in human performance they thought was possible year over year in the sport.  I asked if there was a typo on the time standards sheet because it was so much more aggressive than anything I had seen in the US at the time.  While the US has a deep talent pool and should always be able to find fast athletes, I still believe that the Australian system for cultivating and selecting rowing talent is the best in the world, and I always love to see the Aussies win.  I wish Tim McLaren the best now that he is coaching in the US.

What’s one of the best ways to loosen up your thorax and let those imbalances click back into line?  Jump in the pool!  Why?

1. Let’s not forget that we do participate in a water sport and we need to be strong swimmers “just in case.”  There were some tragic events in Connecticut this week that should remind us that even the best of us have 1/16 inch of carbon between us and Davy Jones’ Locker, so we need to feel confident in the water should it ever come to that.
2. It’s a really hard workout.  When you can’t breathe freely, the heart rate shoots up shockingly fast.  Try 200m intervals with 3 min rest to simulate 1Ks on the erg and 400m intervals to simulate 2K.
3. Rowers have massive shoulder girdle strength and elasticity in one plane of motion – horizontal pulling.  We tend to be much weaker at pushups, and the elasticity tends to make us really awful at overhead work.  Swimming trains the full range of motion in the shoulder girdle, and this is really important for injury prevention during the racing season later on. 
4. Swimming twists and extends the spine and ribcage, which is like having a nice massage after a week of spine compression.  Every time I get out of the pool my lower back feels awesome and all the little tweaks on my right or left side magically disappear.
5. It’s fun.  It’s something different.  You get to listen to the old dudes singing Sinatra instead of Slayer.  It’s a new challenge to master.  Let’s face it, winter training is boring.  Mix it up by jumping in the pool once a week.  Your body and mind will thank you.

Been years since you swam?  Order the Total Immersion DVDs from Netflix.  They are awesome, as detailed in The Four Hour Body.