G'day,

Firstly, congratulations to everyone who competed this weekend at the Three Rivers Sprints. It is heartening to see everyone support the club, and build the spirit of rowing in Pittsburgh. For everyone who couldn't make it (myself included), we will race on Wednesday RaceDay.

Monday is now upon us, and we will begin to make use of our Peak Power outputs from last week. With the intention of building our maximum possible output, Monday's steady state, aerobic base building workout will begin with some power.

5:15-5:30 ==> Warm Up.

5:30- ~6:00 ==> 10 seconds ON, 60 seconds OFF, at 90% of your maximum wattage. When you fall below 90%, as in you can no longer hold that power, paddle and rest for 5 minutes to recharge, and then continue. Repeat until you have completed 20 ten-second bursts. Set the monitor simply to "Just Row," because this is too hard to program otherwise. I will bring my computer with your target scores, and PostIt notes so you can have a reminder of your target wattage right on the monitor.

If you can go all 20 in a row, your recorded Peak Power is probably too low. You should test again.

6:00-End ==>Steady state, 3 X 18 minutes, rate 18-22, change every three minutes. Rest is 1 minute.

There you have it. Building maximum power, and base aerobic fitness. This will be the pathway to speed. I hope to see even more people there tomorrow than we had last week.

Rock and ride that erg,

Dan

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Our capable search committee announced at practice on Saturday, 1/22,  that our head coach position was offered to and accepted by Daniel Reid.  Dan will be starting immediately.

Here is the Bio that Dan sent out:
I'd like to greet and introduce myself to everyone who couldn't make the team meeting this past Saturday. I'm Dan Reid, the new Head Coach of the TRRA Masters Women. I come to you from the Great White North, where I learned to row on the mighty St. Lawrence River, and arrive by way of the Charles, Lake Onota, and the Thames Rivers. I am a teaching intern this year at Dorseyville Middle School, part of the Fox Chapel Area School District, while I complete my certification in the MAT program at Pitt. My wife is a medical student there as well, and is doing research before she begins her delayed fourth and final year.

Thanks to Jill, Sally and Sally for their efforts.  Additionally, we appreciate the networking done by Anne Nelson and Jay Hammond.   Finally, a big thanks to Jenn for providing us with great instruction and fitness workouts.   The ability of this team to step up when we are faced with challenging circumstances is amazing.  Go Team!

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Jenn Langzettel has been coaching the women's team during this winter season. Here is her New Year's note to the team - it contains helpful information and goals.
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Happy New Year to you all and I hope you had a wonderful holiday!

We started off the year with a wonderful joint practice with the men on Sunday.  The numbers worked out perfect for each pair to have a man and a woman.  While it did not turn into a challenge of any sort it was still fun to work with a partner and have the whole team together to start the year. 

So far for winter training we have had pretty decent attendance.  I have seen over 70% of the team at one practice or another, but there are about 9 that we have not seen at all yet.  I hope that these people are well and we hope to see you as our training progresses.  Things are going to begin to progress a little now that we are into the new year.  Things will still be kept fairly long and low though with a focus on endurance and strength. 

With Master's Nationals being in Oklahoma this year (a 17.5 hour drive) I am assuming that the main event of the year may take place at the end of July.  Working backward from there, the team has 7 months (29.5 weeks) until this competition and 5 months (19 weeks) until the first competition of the sprint season, which I am assuming will be Pittsford.  There is a lot of time to prepare and get competitive, but it must be done properly so that we do not peak early and burn out prior to our focus event.  We need to continue to work aerobically to become more efficient with our oxygen use as well as working technically to become more efficient with our body movement through the stroke.  Technique on the erg will transfer to the water and we will begin to work in the tanks this month as well.  We will be throwing in some higher rating work later this month to prepare people for theIndoor Sprints (Saturday, January 29th), but having a good aerobic base and a smart race plan is key to doing well and achieving goals. 

That being said, I am encouraging everyone to participate in the Indoor Sprints to support our Club as well as get the first 2K of the season under your belt.  Everyone will be required to complete a 2K during the last week of January and the results must be sent to me no later than Sunday, January 30th.  Everyone should report a goal for this first 2K to me no later than this Saturday, January 8th.  The goal should include the split and overall time that you wish to achieve.  If you know one but not the other you can calculate it easily using the pace calculator on the Concept2 website.  http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/calculators/pacecalculator.asp

On Monday I will be starting practices with Duquesne and will no longer be able to attend weekday practices, but I will still be supplying workouts along with what the team should be focusing on during those workouts.  I am hoping that coxswains will be able to begin attending practice to help the team with their focuses and calling shifts during pieces.  If you are injured I would also encourage you to attend and help run the practices as well.  You can learn a lot from watching others.  I will still be able to attend Saturday practices at this time.

Thank you for the opportunity to do this for you all.  I am having a great time this winter and have enjoyed working with everyone at practice.  

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