As you all know, I’ve been keeping track of your ergs and the numbers.  It’s very important for us….and for you….to be able to track your improvement.  Improvement leads to better technique, which leads to better performance, which improves your confidence.

If any of you not listed here want to know your exact numbers and ranks, please ask.  Note that there are a number of you just below these top four or five.  So even though you aren’t listed, those are still good performances and we’re quite happy with those athletes. However, there are a number who are lagging behind in both the number of ergs done and mileage and we are starting to have some concern with those athletes, with whom we will be having chats with in the New Year.  It’s pretty simple:  If someone has done 11 ergs and someone else has done three, there is an imbalance that needs to be fixed if those two athletes are to sit in the same boat.  “More ergs” would be a wonderful New Year’s resolution to make if you are lower down the list, because “MILES MAKE CHAMPIONS”.

Congratulations to the athletes below–well done!

NUMBER OF ERGS-NOVICES
Charlotte: 11
Dania: 11
Sequoia: 10
Camilla & Serena: 9 each

NUMBER OF ERGS-EXPERIENCED (**NOTE:  It is likely that both number of ergs and mileage is higher for the experienced athletes—I spent more time with the novices than seniors, so below is what I have from the relatively short time I was with the seniors)).
Lauren: 8
Victoria: 6
Meegan: 6
Lucas: 6

DISTANCE: NOVICES
Sequoia: 45,559 metres
Dania: 41,626 metres
Serena: 41,331 metres
Charlotte: 40,509 metres

DISTANCE: EXPERIENCED
Lauren: 95,100 metres
Victoria: 81,060 metres
Lucas: 79,914 metres
Erik: 67,823

Details are not complete yet, but there is some information to relay.

HAMILTON INDOOR ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS (LEANDER)
Saturday, January 14th at Leander BC (upstairs from where the tank sessions are).  The fees, nor the entry registration process has not been finalized yet, but we will let you know when this happens.  I expect the fee to be approximately $15.

CANADIAN INDOOR ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS (HERSHEY CENTRE, MISSISSAUGA)
Sunday, February 5th.  The website for the event is at cdnindoorrowing.org  For novices, I encourage you to have a look at it–you can see pictures of the event and get a feel for what these events are like.  Entry fee will be $20.  Registration is now open.  Before you register, check with Mike or Tom to see which category you need to enter.  From the website, click on the “Registration” button on the top left menu.  Click the big red “online registration” button, which will take you to the Regatta Central website.    Click on Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships.  Click on the “Register” Button in the top right corner.  You will link to a Login page where you will have to sign up.  Club affiliation is Westdale Secondary School.  Once that’s done and you login, you will find yourself on the Registration Form page, where you fill out you/your parents Contact Details.  Click “Next” and you will land on the race entry page.  Click on the event that Tom or Mike has specified for you.  Once you are on that page, enter your 2K score if you have one.  For novice girls, enter 9:00.  For novice guys, enter 8:00.  Your name should be available from the dropdown menu.  If not, let us know.  From there, click save and complete the registration on the pay page.

MAC 2X4 TEAM EVENT (MCMASTER UNIVERSITY)
Sunday, February 12.  I have the entry forms for this event.  These entries are in teams of 4.  Mike, Pete and myself will have the final say on teams, but please let us know if you have any requests for teams!  The entry fees are $50 per team of four, ($12.50 per athlete).  Please coordinate among your team and give us ONE about of $50 in cash or cheque (as opposed to us collecting $12.50 per person!)

ONTARIO ERGOMETER CHAMPIONSHIPS (RIDLEY COLLEGE, ST. CATHARINES)
Saturday, March 4.  Registration is not yet open for this event, but the entry process will be on the same site as for the Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships (regatta central.com). I will let you know when entries are open for this.  Entry fee last year was $15.

Best wishes from Mike, Pete and I for a SAFE holiday.  Whatever your reason for celebration is, be it Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hannukah, The Solstice, Yule, Hogmanay, Saturnalia or any other of the many traditions that take place around this time….may it be a Happy/Merry one!!!!!  And may we all enjoy HEALTH, many victories over EL Crossley,  and as much success as our training makes us worthy of in 2017!!!

Please bring your ugliest Christmas sweater to practice on Thursday morning!!!

Below are our training times during the school holidays.  ALL SESSIONS WILL BE AT LEANDER BOAT CLUB. (Go to the foot of Bay St., turn left and go to the end. Leander is the yellow building on your right with the sign “Bay City Music Hall” above). I apologize for the lack of consistency—the club dictated the terms based on club needs and other schools, so we got some, but not all of the times requested.  We understand there are commitments over the holidays, and we realize some of you will be away.  But making as many of these sessions as you can is highly recommended–with Quiet Week followed by exam week in January, the potential is there to lose a good bit of the base we have all worked so hard to build.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 24: OFF
SUNDAY DECEMBER 25: OFF
MONDAY DECEMBER 26: 8AM: Experienced optional 2K race at Leander–The “Boxing Day 2K”. Novices off.
TUESDAY DECEMBER 27: 8AM: Option for experienced rowers only at Leander: The Holiday Movie Marathon. Row 42,195 metres and watch a few movies at the club. All others: 12 Noon-2PM training session at the club.  NOTE:  Novices not allowed to do the marathon, given technical limitations.  You aren’t quite ready for a 4-hour erg!!!!!
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 28: 8AM-10am for all.
THURSDAY DECEMBER 29: 8AM-10am for all.
FRIDAY DECEMBER 30: 10am-12 noon for all.
SATURDAY DECEMBER 31: OFF
SUNDAY JANUARY 1: OFF–HAPPY NEW YEAR!
MONDAY JANUARY 2: 6:30am-8am for all
TUESDAY JANUARY 3: 6:30am-8am for all
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4: 8am-10am for all
THURSDAY JANUARY 5: 8am-10am for all
FRIDAY JANUARY 6: 8am-10am for all (NO TOM)
SATURDAY JANUARY 7: OFF
SUNDAY JANUARY 8: OFF

It is early, but early notice is good notice!  We will be undertaking one our our two main fundraisers this year on SATURDAY, APRIL 15TH.  Note that this is the Saturday of Easter weekend.  I will be providing details in the coming weeks, but we will need all rowers available for some part of this day.  Ideally, we will work in 2 or 3 hour shifts.  There are some small tasks involved with this, but really—for the amount of money we can potentially make for our rowing program vs the effort involved, it is a VERY worthy fundraiser.  But we need YOU to make it happen!

For novices and novice parents, FYI the other fundraiser we do is the Legendary Chili Cookoff!!!  More information on that as we get closer–that is a fun one and also a huge fundraiser for our program!!

With the date confirmation of the Mac 2×4, our indoor regatta schedule is now available.  You can find it in the link to the regatta schedule on the Home page, or I’ve posted it below.

LEANDER INDOORS (Saturday, January 14, 2017 at Leander)
CANADIAN INDOOR ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS (aka, “CIRC”) (Sunday, February 5th at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga. NOTE: This is Super Bowl Sunday, but all our races will be finished by mid-afternoon in plenty of time for the game!)
MAC 2X4 (Sunday, February 12th, 2017 at McMaster U)
ONTARIO INDOOR ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS (Saturday, March 4th at Ridley College, St. Catharines)

The Mac 2×4 is a team event where a team of 4 uses one erg to row a combined 8000 metres.  Basically it’s a whole bunch of 20-30 second bursts with each team member rotating in.  It requires teamwork on the transition.  A fun event!  All other indoor events are 2000 metre races.  For novices, there is a big screen for the spectators, with each competition listed and assigned a boat icon on the screen—you can track the athletes on the screen, and the atmosphere gets very LOUD (especially at Ridley!)  I believe something like 22 of our 26 athletes who competed at Ridley last year set a PB (personal best), so it is VERY beneficial!

If anybody wants to do a tank session on Monday and/or Tuesday afternoon at 4PM at Leander, please let me know via e-mail at tbeshoff@cogeco.ca, or text me at 289-527-5800.  Need two minimum for a session, and I’ll take a max of eight at one session.  If you do a tank session, you do not need to be at morning training that day.

Mike will be at the foot of Chedoke stairs on Saturday morning at 8am for our weekly instalment of stair runs.  I’m unable to make it, but will be there for future weeks.  If you are unable to make it, a Leander Boat Club coach is running one on Sunday morning this weekend at 8:30am.  For Sunday, to make things even more fun there will be a costume contest with prizes for the best group and individual costume, this month’s theme is “Holiday Cheer”.

Next week, we begin the third three week cycle of 11 in our season.  This next three week stretch offers something distinctly different each week:  week one is a normal training week.  Week two is a testing week.  And week three is the first week of holidays where we will be offering training sessions at Leander Boat Club each day.  Mike, Pete and I have been impressed with your work ethics thus far.  Keep it up!

We have one more week of the experienced/novices mix.  Experienced rowers will be on the ergs Monday and Thursday, Novices will be on the ergs Tuesday and Friday.  For non-erg days, experienced rowers will do S&C on Tuesday and will start the pre-Holiday testing battery on Friday with flexibility tests.  Novices will do S&C on Monday and weights on Thursday.  YOGA FOR ALL on Wednesday and a Chedoke Stair Run to finish off the week on Saturday!  I’ve been collecting erg numbers for all of you and the data is starting to tell the story.  Some of you are noticeably falling behind on the number of ergs completed, so please make sure to prioritize sessions where your group is on the erg.  If this is a problem, please see one of the coaches.

I am almost finished doing a video session with everybody.  If I haven’t gotten you for video, this should happen on either Monday or Tuesday.  Our next run of video will happen in the New Year.  Remember that each of you are responsible to make the technical changes and correct the mistakes that we both see on the video—becoming better technical rowers will collectively make your crew faster!

Friday is National Hug a Llama day.  So let’s celebrate the fun camelid.

If you have a llama then give it a big hug.  If you don’t have a llama then find one then give it a hug.  Remember llamas are only good when they are bad.

A special prize to anyone that brings a llama to practice on Friday.