First and Third Trinity Boat Club
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Robinson Head, Lent Term 2012

A timed head race over 2200m - from Little Bridge to Peter's Posts
Fri 10th February

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1st men's VIII, 1st division

2nd
Time: 4:15
Off the start at rate 36, we settled to an average of 33.5, but hitting rate wasn't the aim of this race.

We fulfilled the objective of staying calm and composed despite a few strokes when things threatened to go terribly wrong. But we recovered well, maintaining a good rhythm down the Reach and sharpening into and pushing off the Railway Bridge. The power didn't seem to drop from then on, which was quite satisfying.

Finishing 10 seconds behind Robinson still baffles me, but we've decided to attribute it to our rather conservative race plan.

Same composure coupled with more roar should bode well for Pembroke Regatta. (Penelope)
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2nd men's VIII, 2nd division

6th, 2nd M2
Time: 4:29
We went into this race with 2 subs, neither of whom had rowed sweep for a while, including our stroke man, who admitted to not feeling very well, and a cox who had only been with this crew for 1 outing before. The ice had also limited training for the days before the race, so there were plenty of reasons to be apprehensive.

We went quite well off the start, settling to our target rate of 32 and keeping things composed and committed. Towards the middle of the race some rush crept in and power dropped off. However, we picked it up again as we approached the end.

We came sixth overall and the second M2, 8 seconds behind Christ's. (It should however be noted that Caius were not racing.)

Despite the shortened course, I think this served as useful race experience. We need to work on keeping the composure and commitment throughout the race, and seeing how much higher we can push the rate. (Chris E.)
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3rd men's VIII, 1st division

9th (out of 42), 1st M3
Time: 4:40
This race was actually one to be proud of.
Given the freezing temperature, M3 pushed off wearing plenty of heavy clothing. Just before the race we had to give the kit off to Miles (the coach) in the most peculiar way since we were not able to park next to where he was standing on the bank. Adam at stroke seat was collecting items from the crew members behind him and literally throwing them off to Miles from the distance. At some point of course one item (belonging to Steven) fell into the water, and Steven's reaction was a bit fantastic.
Miles was not very enthusiastic at the beginning because M3 haven't rowed any high rate pieces this term, in fact M3 haven't rowed at all in the last 2 weeks thanks to ice. So Miles said that we shall *try* rate 32 and apply firm pressure.
Of course we all know 32 is not Adam style, he was only happy with 34 and still, the boat was fast and stable and the crew were rowing nicely together. I could also swear it was 36+ at some point but the cox box that Ellie was carrying decided then to go bust.
--
"We'll try rate 32, and if it goes wrong I'll signal Ellie and she'll take the rate down until things look stable" said Miles.
--
The race was short and intense, Ellie turned out to be a motivator and she was immersed in the action. There were some motivational shouts from Steven and occasional ones from me.
Excessive splashing was an obvious problem in today's race. But nevertheless...
M3 finished at 9th place overall, 9s ahead of the next M3 and 11s behind our M2. We beat all 5 out of 5 M3 crews and 6 out of 8 M2 crews (excluding our M2). Not bad at all, well done. (Ahmad)
We rowed a respectable race considering it was our first outing in 12 days. Our rate of 34 was surprisingly high, but I thought it came at the cost of not reaching full slide. I was later informed that this was only a problem for three members of the crew -- in seats 3 and 5 due to "serious flexibility issues," and in seat 4 due to exceptionally long legs. Certainly there is much we can improve upon for the Pembroke Regatta and Lent Bumps.

Special thanks to our guest cox Ellie, who gave us many useful suggestions on the row down and screamed admirably at us during the race. By the way, Ahmad, the sweater (Canadian here) which fell in the water belongs to Matt, which explains why my reaction was only a bit fantastic (don't try me). (Steven)
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1st women's VIII, 1st division

2nd women's 1st VIII
Time: 4:58
The recent cold weather had us figuring on a 50/50 chance of the race going ahead. Extensive ice on Plough Reach meant that the course was shortened from the spinning area on the reach to men's top finish. The cold made the wait on the reach unpleasant, but Mark kept our spirits up by making this the most medically educational marshaling I've ever experienced.

Matt told us to push hard as the race would be over before we realized, and I was worried that the first half would be spent warming our stiffened muscles.

We built the power nicely from our rolling start and maintained a comfortable 33 for most of the reach. We had been working on time into frontstops on the row up and this paid dividends as the rhythm was good, with enough length and ratio for me to sit comfortably in the 7 seat laying down power.

We wobbled under the railway bridge, and lost a bit of our rhythm and stride. I lost feeling in my fingers and implemented a novice death grip in an effort to make sure my hands stayed on the blade.

Our wind for the finish was scrappy, but did the job. Not very well paced on my part, but I guess pacing doesn't really come into bumps strategy anyway....

Thank you to Mark for braving the temperatures and super subbing, to Matt for braving my tiny bike and bank partying and Yimin for the sympathy measure of taking off his coat to bank party so he'd be cold too. (Julia A.)
Mark gave us a lot to think about on the row down (thank you!), being particularly persistent about eliminating the rush up the slide. Despite the long and carefree queueing, I think this took effect in the race. By carefree I mean focusing on keeping our hands warm and being reminded that hypothermia is one of eight causes of cardiac arrest.

The awareness of how short the race was made us really attack it in the way we hadn't done before, so the Reach felt strong and tidy. A very bad stroke under the Railway Bridge threw us off and we never really got it back completely, but the commitment was still there. Winding for the finish (bump) is something we have to work on, but this performance was definitely a step up.

The general consensus was that starting Bumps like that, or even more front-loaded, was perfectly fine, and that we have to implement that into our training. Definitely the best piece we've done so far. (Nina)
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4th men's VIII, Lower VIIIs

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2nd women's VIII, 2nd division


Time: 5:29
There was a lot of incertitude around Robinson Head - it was W2's first race, in first division, the course was modified, conditions on both the river and towpath unknown. The queueing and spinning was happening in the rolling start area, so Alex had to make up for other coxes' incompetence and spin with bow side blades in the ice.

The race was surprisingly composed for such circumstances. That's actually the best description for it, especially since Rachel and I were disadvantaged by jogging in the snow. The rowing was neat and rate 30-32 looked comfortable (note that we've had very little water time this term), but there was a notable drop down in power around the Railway Bridge and Alex wasn't happy with responses to her pressure calls. Having wrong information about the finish line didn't help, which might affect her overall impression.

The finish improved the picture and showed the potential of this crew. This potential is the reason I'm being reserved - it's a great crew, the girls can row together, and even with an average performance, they managed to win the division!

Many thanks to Rachel and Iain for bank partying (Iain also gave a couple of individual points that can make the boat go faster). The result is a genuine springboard, and with a bit more 'oomph' and a couple of miles, we're looking at great Bumps! (Nina)
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<h3><a name="selectedresults">Selected Results</a></h3><h4>Men's VIIIs</h4><p><pre><b>Pos Pos in Cat Club Boat Time</b> 1 / 23 1 / 6 Robinson M1 4m 5s <b> 2 / 23 2 / 6 FAT M1 4m 15s</b> 3 / 23 3 / 6 Pembroke M1 4m 18s 4 / 23 1 / 8 Christ's M2 4m 21s 5 / 23 4 / 6 Fitzwilliam M1 4m 23s <b> 6 / 23 2 / 8 FAT M2 4m 29s</b> 7 / 23 5 / 6 Corpus M1 4m 30s 8 / 23 3 / 8 St Catherine's M2 4m 37s <b> 9 / 23 1 / 5 FAT M3 4m 40s</b> 10 / 23 4 / 8 Emmanuel M2 4m 44s 11 / 23 5 / 8 Robinson M2 4m 47s 12 / 23 6 / 8 Queens M2 4m 47s 13 / 23 2 / 5 Clare M3 4m 49s 14 / 23 3 / 5 Pembroke M3 4m 50s 15 / 23 6 / 6 Darwin M1 4m 52s 16 / 23 1 / 2 Queens M4 5m 9s 17 / 23 7 / 8 Corpus M2 5m 11s 18 / 23 8 / 8 Darwin M2 5m 11s 19 / 23 1 / 1 Queens M5 5m 13s 20 / 23 4 / 5 Emmanuel M3 5m 14s <b>21 / 23 2 / 2 FAT M4 5m 16s</b> 22 / 23 5 / 5 Robinson M3 5m 27s 23 / 23 St Catherine's M1 Time only</pre></p><h4>Women's VIIIs</h4><p><pre><b>Pos Pos in Cat Club Boat Time</b> 1 / 20 1 / 9 Christ's W1 4m 50s <b> 2 / 20 2 / 9 FAT W1 4m 58s</b> 3 / 20 3 / 9 Newnham W1 5m 0s 4 / 20 4 / 9 St Catherine's W1 5m 1s 5 / 20 5 / 9 Pembroke W1 5m 3s 6 / 20 6 / 9 Robinson W1 5m 9s 7 / 20 7 / 9 Girton W1 5m 12s 8 / 20 8 / 9 Hughes Hall W1 5m 29s 9 / 20 1 / 4 Murray Edwards W3 5m 29s <b>10 / 20 1 / 7 FAT W2 5m 29s</b> 11 / 20 2 / 7 Clare W2 5m 31s 12 / 20 3 / 7 St Catherine's W2 5m 34s 13 / 20 4 / 7 Newnham W2 5m 40s 14 / 20 2 / 4 Emmanuel W3 5m 42s 15 / 20 5 / 7 Pembroke W2 5m 49s 16 / 20 9 / 9 Darwin W1 5m 54s 17 / 20 6 / 7 Girton W2 6m 0s 18 / 20 7 / 7 Robinson W2 6m 1s 19 / 20 3 / 4 Christ's W3 6m 14s 20 / 20 4 / 4 St Catherine's W3 6m 28s</pre></p><div align="right"><font size="-1"><a href="#top">^ top</a></font></div><hr>
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