Club Captain Tim Grant reports…
A busy first week of the season! The LRC senior squad opened the season on the 2 Sept with a presentation, 1km at rate 24 ergometer test then an outing in 8s to shake the cobwebs out. A good showing of athletes from last season and some new faces with the starting number of the squad at 38 including coxes. Sunday saw the squad start to settle into small boats as is the focus for this phase, with a number of singles, pairs, doubles, and fours out on the water followed by a second session in matched eights for power strokes. A cracking first weekend coached by Steve Salter.
The first week of training similarly was successful, 2 weights sessions, led and coached by our strength and conditioning coach - James Mead, first erg down the range and finish the week with a classic London Circuit, 4 x 10 mins with a couple of laps of the pain train to finish it off. A few of the squad followed up with some refreshments, representing the club in the local hostelries as well as on the water.
The weekend of 9th September, witnessed numerous water sessions, The Great River Race and then Club Pride day. There was a lot going on!
Club Pride day was a great success and our whole hearted thanks goes out to all the members who really got amongst the club facilities to help prepare for the next season. All the boatsheds were fully cleaned out and the balcony spruced up including polishing the Peter Coni Plaque, the workshop looks like new, and the access ready for gym rebuild to commence is clear, we even cleared out Resis! Tommy and the events team put on both breakfast and lunch which was gratefully received.
Thanks to Kathleen for the leg work in the build up, not giving up on the task list and then organising groups to start the day. John Auber is prettier than he was after a tumble followed by violent interaction with a dishwasher…. Wishing you a swift recovery! Whilst everyone really dug out and it was great to see the commitment, a couple of notable efforts should be called out….Miles Preston (his power washer) and his lovely assistant Diana Bartley, Phil Hannay (and his mighty jet washer which was eventually defeated) and Donna for their hours spent on the tedious job of weeding the courtyard. Nick Wykeman for giving all of us a shower whilst jet washing (with his own machine) the balcony.
Stewart Harries for banging years of paint off the bollards and Tom Killick for cycling off to purchase a closer to LRC blue paint (that went missing shortly after) when we realised the bollards weren’t quite Pantone 280c! Bill Baker for being the first to agree to lead a team and to Matt Reeder who took responsibility for a painful, awkward task. John Auber who spent a fair amount of time at Brewers for concrete paint (the correct colour grey!) Alan Foster who motivates himself to do the same clearing year and after year. Mike Baldwin (with his elite cox team) who have made it possible to walk into the coxes room and will make it possible for the Squad to hear coaches shouting at them through repaired loudhailers. Finally... Nick Parnell who clears, cleans and repairs boats all year long, and even more in the lead up to Club Pride Day.
The squad continue on their first block of three weeks in a 6 week 2 peak cycle, which will include a 30 min erg test at Rate 20 next week, something to look forward to…. There will be circuits this Thursday as useful which other members are more than welcome to join if you fancy joining the train…
Bang the Drum
