rowing
stoat | October 23, 2013Just like 2011 or 2012 but faster! TL;DR: 3:43:06. Just 5 minutes faster and I'll only be an hour slower than Maz. This post is mostly for my records. Transport and accommodation just like before, except I had Miranda with me.
As you can see, Amsterdam has some exciting architecture.
My GPS track is here, or at least a bit of it is. Turning it on as I went in to the stadium I realised I hadn't bothered to charge up the battery. Oops, though its perhaps nice that I'm getting rather casual about things I'd once have obsessed over. So the track contains the first ~16k, and the last ~4k. The…
stoat | July 20, 2013We rock. M1 up 3, and the rest of the club did well, so we win the John Jenner trophy for 2013.
Tally for the week:
* day 1: epic row-over n front of Sharks
* day 2: bumped Nines 2
* day 3: bumped St Neots (revenge)
* day 4: bumped Press
Press had a GoPro on a rigger, which sounds like a good idea, but doesn't really work that well as you can't see their bladework. You can see us closing on them, though the track cuts off just before or on the bump. Here, but unless you're a fan of pre-start tension skip to about 3:00.
[This post will get elaborated. Update: well, clearly I lied. Try here if…
stoat | July 17, 2013Epic row over the first day (St Neots got Nines 2 quickly) but today it was our turn to get Nines, even more quickly.
Make that up two: St Neots, in the gut, with an oar.
See-also: the final tally.
stoat | September 17, 2012 More misc, under a thin veneer.
I've been rowing again: the Boston Marathon.
For fans of short-sellers-are-all-irredeemably-evil brigade, try Bronte.
Our head isn't too impressed with todays announced shake-up of the exam system: my heart sinks at the prospect of even more time spent on debating assessment rather than improving teaching and learning. Pols too keen on "leaving their mark" rather than knuckling down to work. Or indeed, leaving well enough alone.
Two views on Tyler Cowen (who he?)'s piece in the NYT about hunger.
stoat | August 1, 2012
The mighty DeutschlandAchter.
The NZ pair (gold) congratulating the UK pair (bronze). The UK were completely out of their lane over the finish line.
Or, if you're interested in my original subject:
It am all de news: Olympics badminton: Four pairs charged with not trying.
My take on this is different: I've watched some of the sport (not the badminton, obviously, because it shouldn't be an olympic sport any more than football should be) and its exciting: you're watching people doing their very best to do as well as they possibly can. The rowing is gorgeous, especially the VIII's: 2000m at 1…
stoat | July 22, 2011[This post written in arrears and given an in-arrears date, so few people will see it. But I care.]
So, day 4. Champs 1 again ahead of us, and we sort-of resolved to go for it rather harder this time, but in a slightly vague way. We mostly decided that we would aim to get them by the Plough; and if we didn't, we'd take the race from there. And we knew Champs 2 were fast off the start but we knew if we held them to first post they would fade from there.
I'd watched the early divisions. Div 3 was notable for practice starts in bright sunshine followed by it pissing with rain on the division. Ah…
stoat | July 21, 2011Still on the rowing I'm afraid. A row-over today: two years ago we'd have killed for a high-quality row-over like tonight, but after yesterdays superb bump-up, tonight felt like a let down.
Thinking (and drinking, in the Waterman again, a pub I'm coming to like) about it afterwards, it all seemed like an unwelcome mirror of last years M2, also on day 3, albeit at a far higher standard. Just like then, we'd bumped up the day before so had no fear of what was behind us; just like then we had a crew ahead that we knew we were faster than; just like then we were a bit too confident of grinding…
stoat | July 20, 2011...I will wear the green willow. Yes, we went up: yay! Though that doesn't begin to capture it.
L to R: Andy Southgate (4); Steven Andrews (5); Chris Wood (2); Ollie Crabb (S); James Tidy (Cox); Chris Metcalfe (3); William Connolley (B); James Howard (7; with George); Chris Smith (6).
Yesterday, Tabs 3 caught City 3 round about Grassy; and since we mostly held station with Tabs, we were happy that we could get City in a fair fight. But! Behind us, Champs 2 had caught Nines 3 not much after the motorway bridge: and while we'd pulled away from Nines by at least 1/2 a length, that was still a…
stoat | July 19, 2011Bumps again, hurrah. The distant sound of gunfire. The culmination of a lot of peoples training for a long time. And, as I discovered once again while waiting for the start, a deeply unpleasant / scary / unnerving experience. It didn't help that we had to stand around for 20 mins waiting for the 4-minute gun, wondering what the hold up was: it turned out to be the bloody Georgina. Meanwhile we're chatting, thinking, looking about, going for a wee, trying to dispel the nerves. Early rain had given way to a beautiful evening, though getting dark now. We'd done a good start after the railway…
stoat | June 17, 2011I had such fun watching the last three divisions today that I'm going to bore you with yet more rowing. First, here is Corpus M1 (hello Rob!) catching Christs M2 (note cox's hand half raised in the process of acknowledging the bump) to cement their place in division 2 and their hopes of blades tomorrow. Pembroke II look on in admiration, having bumped the brightly coloured Darwin.
What you can't see in this pic is the rain, which got even worse for W1 and then eased just a fraction for M1. So I spent a lot of time hiding under the motorway bridge. One crew - the one at start 7 - gets lucky…
stoat | June 16, 2011
But only the university ones, which don't matter too much. However, they have been pretty exciting so far and definitely good fun to watch. This year they are Wednesday 15th June and Saturday 18th June, ie we've had days 1 and 2 so far. This post is just a convenient place for me to dump the map and some accompanying text that I can point people at, link to my first youtube uploads, review my cheapo camera, and generally enthuse. You can also read CUBCs guide to watching, or First and Third's.
My pic is Caius chasing First and Third, whom they caught (thus becoming head) just at the top of…
stoat | March 31, 2011I haven't bored you with rowing stuff for a while, you lucky people. But you have to see:
because doing 25 ergs is very very boring. I'll be back next year.
Update: by "popular" demand, here is my list of times. Nothing spectaculr I'm afraid, or even (over such a short period) any real sign of improvement.
MetersTotal TimePaceDate AgeClassSlide?
500019:27.8 1:56.73/31/2011 46Lstandard
500020:27.7 2:02.73/29/2011 46Lstandard
500019:58.1 1:59.83/28/2011 46Lstandard
500020:13.9 2:01.33/27/2011 46Lstandard
500020:39.2 2:03.93/25/2011 46Lstandard
500021:29.5 2…
stoat | March 4, 2011 This week is the Lent bumps, and I've been down to watch (except tuesday, when I forgot - since when do the bumps run over 5 days? - and thursday, when it was grey and miserable). Today was a lovely still sunny chill March afternoon, and I was rewarded with some fine bumping action to watch. First I should explain the image, which I stole from a Downing chap. First and Third were head last year (and, I think, a few years before - but I don't really connect to college rowing) but looked weak on wednesday. The results say that Downing caught them on thursday (video here), and today they were…
stoat | February 19, 2011
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways!
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.
In simple trust like theirs who heard
Beside the Syrian sea
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word
Rise up and follow Thee.
O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity
Interpreted by love!
Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of…
stoat | December 7, 2010
and yet more photo spam:
Last week it was cold. It was warmer at the weekend. But this week it is cold again. Though as RC points out, its not going to be the coldest winter for a millenium.
We went rowing tonight. Oddly enough we were the only crew out. We had to stop past the Elizabeth way bridge due to ice on the river - not solid sheets at that point, but enough floating bits to warn us that worse was coming. Very cold, I rowed with a glove on my inner hand and only survived by sticking my outer hand down my trousers when we span. Still it was a good warm-up for a pint in the Fort.…
stoat | November 30, 2010 Exciting news just in - its cold in Cambridgeshire. All over the UK I expect, but I haven't checked. indeed I haven't checked out all of Cambridgeshire, let alone Cambridge, but never mind I'll trust the reports. I tried putting my foot onto the snow and I can confirm: yes, it is cold. Not much snow mind: maybe 1 cm when fresh.
Cycling is fun too. I haven't come off, but then again it is dry-cold mostly in the evening coming back, and in the morning the streets at least are ice-free. Rowing this evening was distinctly chilly. Don't click on the photo to the left - its rubbish. See the Fort…
stoat | October 20, 2010 I didn't promise to cull all the boring rowing stuff off this blog, only the routine stuff. And obviously Anticipation of a new ergs arrival, The is far from routine. Let alone the actual arrival.
Here we see Darling Daughter pulling down firmly into her stomach in violation of all the best practices, but never mind, she is but young.
It comes in a nice cardboard box, and isn't even especially large - foolishly, I got it delivered to home, which meant I got a phonecall in the middle of the day and had to rush off. Argh. I should just have got it sent to work - it would have fit easily into…
stoat | October 18, 2010No, not a man with a stoat through his head. Instead, what appears to be an utterly gratuitious waste of time and money:
Yes, its a 5x. WTF? Presumably, these people really do have so much spare cash that they can create a new hull [update: more likely a converted coxed four; though rumour says that German quints exist] just for a video (though some of the shorts of the bow-bobble nearly going underwater suggest they may have got the shape a touch wrong [update: nope, that is probably them being pushed by the barge]). Thats assuming all this isn't CGI, but I doubt it - some of the shots of…
stoat | September 20, 2010 The rowing one, that is. It was just like last year except wetter, and we were better, but our cox was less lovely.
Oh, and as promised, this is the last of the random rowing-n-running types posts here. You need to go to the other blog for that from now on, except for important stuff like the bumps, of course.
Pic: all of us: L to R: Jo (3), Mel (7), Anne (6), William (4), Joss (4), Freya (Stroke), Amy (Bow), Me (5), James (Cox). Spot the survivors from last year. You can also read Amy's take on it all. The results are now up: 4:43:04 for us (I made it 4:42, but I started my watch a fraction…