Female rowers who are interested in competing in this year’s Head of the Yarra (“HOTY”) have until Sunday morning *29 August* after the time trial to let me know.
For those who don’t know much about HOTY should have a look at the event website
The race will be held on Saturday 27 November. It is only for 8s and is a time trial 8.5 km long, going upstream from the judges’ box to hawthorn rowing club. Our top women’s crew will be looking to beat the 35 minutes mark, and will be at a rating of about 26 – 28 at near full pressure for the distance. If you don’t understand what any of this means then talk to me or your coach.
This is very demanding and is likely to suit rowers who are fit and particularly good at rowing extended lengths of time. What becomes important is the ability to keep rowing with good technique when you are very fatigued. This is what a lot of the training is about, particularly our October training camp. It is one hard race no matter what your skill level or fitness.
Many of our current female rowers are at or near this level and I believe many could well be capable of building up to this.
For everyone who intends to say yes, I would like to know how your fitness on an ergo is at the moment. In conjunction with your current coach, you need to do two ergos which I will use as baselines for training and evaluation – a 1000m sprint and a 20 minute session with rating at max 24.
For the 1000m ergo, please record your time, watts and average rating.
For the 20 min ergo, please record your distance, watts and average split (i.e. 500m split time).
For either ergo you MUST warm up beforehand for 5 – 10 mins rowing lightly (rating max 18) and cool down for 5 mins afterwards, again doing about 18.
Please send me your results by email.
Selection for the final crews will be quite competitive, but there is another time trial event the week before HOTY, called Melbourne Head, which is downstream from Big Bend to Princes Bridge (about 4.5 km). Most people who don’t quite make it to the HOTY crew will get a row in this regatta and it’s a very good time trial event.
Finally, the upcoming club time trial, going from RRC round the island and back, will give you a practical idea of what you are capable of doing right now.
Derek Begg