Question:I am considering doing Boston Marathon later this year with some
friends from university. I was wondering if anyone else had done it
before (I did it 2 years ago in a not very good 4x) and actually
trained properly for it. What sort of training did you do for it? We
were thinking mainly of long, low rate ergos at UT2/UT1 and then a week
of training together in the boat, doing longer and longer outings until
we hit about 40km. After that we thought we should be able to push
beyond the 40km to the full distance of 50km on the actual day. Also,
what have other people done about taking in food along the way?
Answer:
I've only done it once in a S44+. They filled my compartment with food and
drink (I was the cox) which meant that I couldn't move! There were regular
meal breaks 2on/2off at a time so we never stopped rowing apart from the
lock portage.
I've done it more times than I care to remember, mainly in the single, =6th
overall in 1999 was probably my best result.
Training wise, I did mostly UT2 in the boat with outings in the 1 - 1 1/2
hour range, although I'd try to do a 2 - 2 1/2 hour piece about a week or so
before. On the erg I'd do 20 or 25k UT2s 10k UT1s and every week or so a 1
hour piece aiming to cover as much distance as I could.
During the race I just took liquids, either Hi-5 and Hydroplus (2 hours in I
could tell I needed it, as that was the only time I could stand the taste of
the stuff) or SSI's "Go" - something that contains electrolytes is
essential, as life gets extremely uncomfortable and slow when you run out.
I'd go non-stop to Bardney, swig about 0.7 - 1L at the portage, then have
about 2 stops thereafter.
I'm tempted to enter in a single. I don't think it will be too hard,
having done several 26k sculls without any discomfort. Am I being really
stupid or is the leap up to 50k that drastic?
Obviously if I intended to do well and have a chance at winning I'd have
to put in some serious training. But otherwise is it really that big a deal?
I did it last year in a single, my time was just under 4 hours.
My training was a mix of long ergs and water work. My longest erg was
42k and my longest water was 3 hours. (average sesison on land and
water was a 2 hour piece.
I don't think that there's much point in going further as it isn't
the fitness that becomes limiting after 3 hours it's your behind!
Don't bother with food. I took just sports drinks, but should have
taken more and should have taken water. I drank 8l of water during and
after the race before I needed my first pee.
My stop strategy was 10 seconds every 15 minutes. I passed a lot of
people who were on longer stops; why bother letting your boat stop? And
it's very hard to get going again after a stop.
You should consider the first hour to the lock as a fast piece and then
pace it from there in. I averaged 2:18 to the lock and 2:21 after.
I raised £1700 for special care babies, so consider doing it for
charity.
I've done it the last three years with varying results, less to do with
training than the race itself. The longest outings I did were about 100
minutes steady state (I couldn't take more than that on the Cam) which
I was doing a couple of times a week (except last year, when I was
working abroad for the summer and only had weekends).
The main difference for me between 2003 (when I cramped up really
badly, to the extent I couldn't use my legs for the last 8k or so) and
2004 (when I got in comfortably under 4 hours) was that in the latter
case I took some of those disgusting gel things that cyclists use and
tried not to gag as I squeezed one down, which seemed to work. Stops
were at the lock, then each 9 k thereafter, which made 4 in all. In a
single, even with opening the gel sachets, there's no real need to be
more than 15 sec between stopping and starting again - any more than
that and you start to seize up.
The biggest annoyance I found if you're doing it unsupported is that
you spend the first hour staring at a gigantic bottle of water which
you're pulling along and not going to use till after the lock. It would
be much nicer to have a friendly soul to hand it to you at Bardney. Oh,
and take the friendly soul to the finish as well - if you drop your
spanner on the ground there's no way you're going to be able to bend
down and pick it up.
Probably going to do it again this year - I'd be devastated if I missed
the year when there's a gentle tail wind over the whole course!
I did it last year for the first time entered in novice double, really
wasn't an easy race. As far as training was concerned we were doing 12km
daily outings building upto two 12km outings as we got closer to the race.
In the final week we had near complete rest with gentle outings at the end
of the week. We didn't actually do any training on ergs as our Uni coach
doesn't think there's any substitute for actual water work.
For refreshments along the way i had a camal back with water, a couple of
the gel based energy drink packs, and some bananas, The plan was to each
take a break as the other continued to row, but this proved to be more
difficult then first thought and we only managed one break each.
Ended up winning our event in a time of 4:09 and are considering coming back
this year to beat that!
Did it last year in a coastal single scull, which I think must be about
the slowest boat they'll let you do it in! I was going for the course
record for that boat type, so went for a no stop strategy, and ran over
the lock. For this, Camelback was absolutely fundamental, and a three
litre one still had a small amount left at the end. I used, on the
recomendation of Science in Sport a mix of two parts PSP22 to 1 part GO
electrolyte, which both kept the gas tank full, and replaced
electrolytes. A lot of people stopped to eat once they had crossed the
lock, it took a long time for some of these, even the quads and doubles
to row through me again, so if you're serious about getting a decent
time, don't stop for anything. Make sure you train a couple of times
with the Camelback before hand as it takes a bit of messing to get the
mouthpiece in such a position that a drink can be taken without letting
go of a handles, and 3 kgs of liquid sloshing about does slightly
interfere with balance. I had been training earlier in the summer for a
circumnavigation attempt of the Isle of Wight, so had done some very
long pieces (up to 5.5 hrs) non-stop in open water, after that 31 miles
in flat water was a refreshing relief. So it didn't interfere too much
with other training, I just made my weekly UT2 piece during the summer,
a long row. I wouldn't entertain doing it in a single without an Ipod
with some decent tunes on it, but it's debateable whether that's dodgy
when it comes to water safety, although nobody said anything and a lot
of the crewed boats carry a radio.
I also took a speedcoach, the impeller of which systematically weeded
up, underestimating my speed, forcing me to go harder and harder as the
race progressed. In the end, desprately trying to keep my splits, which
in reality meant I was going a knot and a half too fast and way out of
my heartrate limit, caused me to blow up with about 2 miles to go. The
last 2 miles was complete misery, counting out 20 strokes at a time,
then stopping, as the time mercilessly clocked up towards record time.
In hindsight, I would have taken the impeller off and instead used the
guide times from the Marathon website to guage my progress.
I had weed problems a couple of years before in a river single which
had a damaged fin, sticking slightly proud at the front like a hook,
causing it to pick up big clods of weed. Had to completely stop and
back down and waggle the stern about to get the weed off, which every
couple of minutes had formed a lump around the fin the size of a human
head, that was even more of a slog!
So worth checking there's nothing underneath that could pick anything
up!
I did it once in a single. I'd been training regularly over about 30
km but the extra 20 km was a killer! My advice:
1. Take plenty of liquids, both water and sports drinks. I took food
but couldn't face eating anything. However I did get dehydrated which
caused muscle cramps.
2. Take a seat pad.
3. Wear gloves unless you have really hard hands. Take some
Micropore tape just in case.
