Over the last 12-months, I have tried out different boat brands, (check out the Filippi vs Nelo article) and always come back to Filippi for shear speed, performance, quality of build, and style. Over the course of the last 3-years, I’ve enjoyed success with the F22, and planned to simply continue. Then David Filippi shared with me, the new performance features for the 2021 models, then it was clear, an upgrade was in order. The features David shared with, sound really exciting, both from a performance and design aspect. More about these new features in late January 2021.
I invite you to join me as I follow David’s team at Filippi Boats, as the build my new 2021 F22 single scull over the next few months. Together, with the team at Filippi, we will be following the process from start to finish.
The first step will be choosing the final colour. My current F22 is all black, although ascetically pleasing, the boat suffers in direct sun, with the all-black surface heating up. There was always the risk of damage to the materials if the boat is not covered and out of direct sun.
I have selected the following colours for the boat. Which one do you like best? You can vote for one of the three colours below on the Masters Facebook Group.
The final colour will be accented with the classic Filippi white stripe.
Stay tuned and subscribed to my newsletter to follow the build, and for more information on the new performance features released in 2021.
Most will now be aware, that the 2021 Boat Races, will take place on the River Cam in Ely. After a combination of factors, including the COVID pandemic, and the closure of Hammersmith Bridge at the halfway mark of the 6,800m course, forced the organisers to take radical action. The change in venue marks a return to Ely for the first time since a series of unofficial races took place there during the Second World War. Source; Robert Treharne Jones (Dec 2020)
Although the scale of the Boat Race event, could seem small in comparison to other major sporting events held in London, the Boat Race has an important attractor effect on people through physical visitors and also through television and digital platforms. I feel we can all learn a lot from what the Boat Race Organisation, and others like Henley Royal Regatta, The Head of The Charles, and Silver Skiff regatta, are are doing to attract and inspire people to rowing. How the organisers are understanding and translating the economic benefit of regatta, as well as learning how to televise, engage and extend the reach of the event beyond Race Day itself.
The facts and figures used in this article have been gathered from multiple sources, including a detailed report titled; The Boat Race, Impact of a Single Day Major Event on a City, Arup & The Boat Race Company (October 2017). Link to the original report can be found at the bottom of this post.
The Boat Race Today
There are 250,000+ visitors each year to the river banks on Race Day, and some 7 million people watching on national television, representing 3,400 visitors and 100,000 viewers per athlete.
In comparison the London 2012 Olympic Games had 10,568 athletes, 52 million individual viewers in the UK and 2 million visitors to London for the Games – or each athlete “attracting” 190 visitors and 4,900 viewers.
As such, each rower at the Boat Race, “attracts” 20 times more visitors than Olympic athletes.
The Boat Race generates 40 percent more spend per athlete than the London Olympics.
In the spirit of sport competition, The Boat Race has always been inclusive to all visitors, with no ticketing costs to the visitor. Yet the total spend from visitors is estimated between £7 million and £8.5 million, averaging £30 per person or £100,000 per athlete.
The visitor spend generated by the London 2012 Olympic Games was about £760 million (in the UK), averaging £1,290 per person, or £72,000 per athlete. Again, the Races have a yield per rower (based on visitor spend) 40 percent higher than the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The Boat Race attracts 50,000 additional day-visitors to London.
The Race attracts 200,000 visitors living in London who would not be considered additional visitors to the local area as the vast majority of them come from one of the four adjoining boroughs along the route.
Yet it attracts over 50,000 people from outside London each year to west London.
The direct net economic impact on the local economy is estimated between £2.1 and £2.9 million.
The 50,000 day-visitors spend £1.4 to £1.7 million in the local economy. Whilst London-based visitors are not additional as such to London or the local area, they will likely be spending more than on their average Saturday day-out, due to the event and celebratory atmosphere.
The direct economic impact of The Boat Race in the local economy is estimated between £2.1 and £2.9 million, with indirect contribution reaching £2.8 to £3.7 million each year.
Multiplier Effect
The additional spend in local businesses has an indirect impact on the wider supply chain, called the ‘multiplier effect’. In this case for every £1 spent directly, it will generate £0.30 in the supply chain.
It is estimated that the total net economic benefit to the local area from The Boat Race to be between £2.8 and £3.7 million each year.
Digital Spectators
Global sport is in the process of undergoing a dramatic change in how it is presented, followed and consumed by the public. As the demographics of sport spectators moves towards people who have grown up in the digital age the appetite for ‘sport as entertainment’ and data integration have become the focus of events organisers to capture the attention of the digital consumer. In a recent report out by Deloitte, it is estimated that 85% of the workforce in 2025 will be of the ‘Millennial Generation’, a generation that is defined by their use of digital in daily life.
Integration of technology and data into the broadcast material has enabled The Boat Race to reach out to, and maintain the interest of, a new generation of spectators. The results of online consumption are on the increase. For a small sport, at time of writing this post, the Boat Race has more than 1 Million views on You Tube, and Henley Royal Regatta nearly 10 Million views, and World Rowing 5.8 million views. Source, YouTube 2020.
Another ‘niche’ spectator sport, the America’s Cup, has transformed itself, from an event that attracted attention within the sport – but little public interest – to an event that has a huge online following (165,000 subscribers to their YouTube channel, with over 35m views in 2017) and is broadcast live through an in-house app and subscription TV channels worldwide.
Final Thoughts
The Boat Race has a much larger and wider impact on the London economy, beyond the event. The Boat Race and Henley Royal Regatta, have already, and continue to transform the way they present rowing in the digital age. Both have looked to how other sports, like the America’s Cup, T20 Cricket, Golf and Formula E motor sport, have achieved success, and figured out how the success of attracting and keeping new audiences, can translate and be relevant to rowing.
As the younger generations become the predominant spectator demographic for sporting events, integrating data analysis and real time graphic updates into the streaming and broadcast feeds will ensure that the rowing can move into the digital age. As former FISA secretary general and Henley Steward John Boultbee said, “Most people watch the World Championships and Olympic Regatta, do so via television. We need to make it more appealing for these audience to stay relevant.” You can listen to the episode with John, by clicking on the link to the Faster podcast below.
I invite you to consider how you and I, can directly influence rowing events, to challenge and inspire regatta organisers, to explore, to test and develop ways of presenting our sport to current and future generations.
You can access the report that I have sampled by visiting the following link on the Boatrace.org website. https://www.theboatrace.org/wp-content/uploads/Arup-Report-The-Boat-Race.pdf
Anne-Marie Howald is well know in the rowing world, having represented Switzerland at the 1987 & 88 World Championships as a lightweight, and now as the Head Coach of the U23 and Junior Squad.
In 2018, Anne-Marie was awarded the “Swiss Olympic Coach Award” for the impressive achievements of the junior national team at the European Championships in Krefeld and the World Championships in Trakai.
Anne-Marie leads the talent identification of young rowers in Switzerland, with the ‘Future Rowers’ programme that takes promising young athletes through to the Elite level. In this episode, Anne-Marie covered how she first started in rowing and how that love for rowing, and high performance, has taken her on her own journey to coaching and inspiring others. Plenty of inspiration for the listener, some ideas and tips on how to move the boat faster, along with some nice insights into her time training with the legendary coach, Harry Mahon.
This podcast is supported by, Precision Hydration, Bont Rowing, Filippi Boats and Citius Remex seat pads. For more information about our supporters, please ensure you subscribe to my newsletter to gain access to exclusive bonus offers.
Sharing an interesting article on why sodium is important for Masters Rowers to perform at our best. Original article by Andy Blow and medically reviewed by Dr Tamara Hew-Butler.
Disclosure: Precision Hydration support subscribers to the Faster newsletter with 10% off all purchases.
Why sodium is important
Sodium plays a key role in how your body functions as it helps maintain fluid balance and cognitive function, so it’s important to replace the sodium you lose to some extent when your sweat losses really begin to mount up.
A 2015 study found that athletes who adequately replaced the sodium lost in their sweat finished a middle distance triathlon an average of 26 minutes faster than those who didn’t.
Whilst that sort of performance gain isn’t going to be possible for everyone, it does highlight the potential impact of getting your hydration strategy right.
Your body contains lots of water – 50-70% of it is made up of the stuff in fact, depending on the amount of muscle and fat that you have. Around a third of that water exists outside your cells, in extracellular fluids like your blood.
What does sodium do?
The main electrolyte in this extracellular fluid is sodium and much of your body’s total sodium reserves are found here. This makes it rather ‘salty’ and the total volume of extracellular fluid in your body is directly related to the amount of sodium you have on board at a given time. So, more sodium equals more fluid; less sodium means less fluid.
As well as maintaining fluid balance, sodium plays an important role in the absorption of nutrients in the gut, maintaining cognitive function, nerve impulse transmission and in muscle contraction. Basically, it’s pretty darn important.
Most of the sodium we consume is in the form of sodium chloride, or the common table salt found in food and drinks.
We take salt for granted these days as we’ve developed ways to make it widely available. But in the past wars were fought over access to and the control of salt, which gives you a pretty big clue as to its importance to life!
Because your body can’t produce or store it beyond a certain point, you need to consume sodium every day to keep your levels topped up.
Individual differences in sweat sodium losses
Sweating is the main way athletes lose sodium and fluids during exercise. That’s basically why those of us who train regularly have different needs when it comes to replacing sodium than those who don’t.
Everyone loses a different amount of sodium in their sweat. At Precision Hydration, we see athletes who lose from as little as 200mg of sodium per litre of sweat to as much as 2,000mg/l. I personally lose ~1,800 mg/l and I often suffered from hydration issues in hot climates as a result. It was my personal search for a solution that led to me founding the company.
Sweat rates also vary from person to person of course; and from situation to situation for any given person (from almost nothing in cooler conditions and at low intensities, to several litres per hour during intense exercise in the heat).
When you combine differences in sodium concentration with those in sweat rates, the potential variance in the total net sodium losses experienced from one athlete to another can be really significant, especially over a middle or long distance triathlon.
And, in a lot of cases, those losses are many times higher than someone who’s not sweating on a regular basis. This is why the standard government guidelines for sodium consumption should be viewed cautiously by athletes. It’s more than possible to lose the daily 2,300mg of sodium recommended by the existing government guidelines in just 1 hour of exercise, if you’re sweating heavily and you’re sweating out lots of sodium. Your loses during a longer period of exercise really can be massive.
What happens when sodium losses mount up?
It’s impossible to nail down the exact point at which sodium (and fluid) loss through sweating becomes a problem for an athlete. But, it’s clear that when losses reach a certain point, the effects can be detrimental to your performance.
Your blood volume is gradually reduced as your sweat losses increase. That’s because sweat is drawn from your blood plasma. This increases the strain on your cardiovascular system, making it harder to pump blood to your skin to cool you down and to your working muscles.
Other issues such as a general feeling of fatigue and muscle cramps can also be experienced if losses are allowed to go uncorrected for long enough, or if significant imbalances between fluid and sodium are allowed to occur.
Up to a certain point, taking in plain water is enough to mitigate sweat losses. But, as those losses start to mount up, you need to replace sodium too in order to avoid your blood becoming diluted.
This is a potentially disastrous condition called hyponatremia, which can certainly ruin your race and, tragically, has even been fatal on occasion.
How much sodium should you replace when sweating?
Because sweat/sodium losses are so individual, any generic guidelines on the replacement of sodium and fluid should always viewed with suspicion.
Having said that, figuring out whether your net losses are likely to be low, moderate, or high can be a great starting point for honing in on the level of sodium and fluid replacement that’ll work best for you in different circumstances.
The two main inputs that drive your personal net sodium losses are…
The total amount you sweat. This is a factor of your sweat rate and the number of hours you spend sweating during a given timeframe.
Your sweat sodium concentration. i.e. how much salt you lose in your sweat.
Figuring out approximately what these are is a sensible place to start.
Your sweat sodium concentration is largely genetically determined and doesn’t vary much at all which means that, whilst you can only find it out by getting your sweat tested, you only really need to get tested once in most cases.
Precision Hydration offer a free online Sweat Test that’ll help you get started with understanding your losses and refining your hydration plan through some good old fashioned trial and error in training.
Precision Hydration supports subscribers of the newsletter, with 10% off all purchases when you enter the code below at checkout.
We’d like to suggest you consider the How To Create Your Annual Training Plan online course. It’s a proven, effective way to level up and prepare for the next season in your rowing calendar. This is a proven, effective and powerful way for you to plan out your training, understand where you are now, and start doing the work you were meant to do.
Signups for our new intake of the How To Create Your Annual Training Plan starts today. If you’re ready to start doing the work of transforming your rowing training, this window of time might be an opportunity. Masters rowing is hard work, and the best way to go faster, is to train smarter. You don’t go faster by training more hours. You can’t always train more hours. You do better by finding a better way to prepare and train.
If you’d like to join the others, as they learn and connect together, today is the best day to join. It’s our last session for 2020.
How to Create Your Annual Training Plan, is an online interactive course that will enable you to;
Set up your training plan in under an hour to maximise your power and speed for 1,000m and head races.
Set up your personalised training zones in less than 30-minutes.
Understand how to be +14% more powerful at race pace and +11% more aerobically efficient in 12-weeks.
Access to the key workouts from Champion Masters athletes.
Understand how to train with fewer hard sessions to maximise your training and go faster than ever before.
Know how to burn fat for fuel through increased activation of the Aerobic system.
Access to downloadable tools and frameworks to help you assess your fitness to improve Aerobic efficiency, increase Anaerobic threshold and increase power at VO2max.
Get an advantage on the competition with knowledge and cutting-edge insights into training methods from the world’s best coaches, sports scientists and fastest Masters crews.
Here’s what one student shared about his experience in the course:
After 10 weeks of Bill Chambers Faster training program, I set out to break @grahambenton record of 9110m. This was my second attempt after hitting the wall the first time at 7min to go. Bill Chambers program was very well laid out and all I had to do was get on with it.
Luke Wollenschlaeger , 5 Times age group world ergo record holder
Contact me directly for the subscribers discount code.
Here’s what’s included in the course
Exclusive access to the Faster Alumni Group on Facebook, to share ideas and cover questions with past students. This group is only open to Faster Alumni.
Three Live Zoom Classes to review the course together with the course community. Classes will be streamed Live to the Faster Alumni Group
Access to all the online learning modules via the Teachable platform
Downloadable tools and templates
Protocols on how to test your performance
Access to Tips & Tricks – Ideas & Inspiration from our advisory panel of experts
PDF downloads of studies on the best approaches to train
Guidance on how to train from the world’s best coaches, scientists and athletes – period!
Here’s what another student shared about his experience in the course:
“I completed the course earlier this year, and what I learnt has opened my eyes to what I was truly capable of, and transformed the way I train and prepare. I used to always train hard, yet never knew if I was really training the right way. Since I have done the course, I now KNOW what I need to do to reach my potential. I don’t train any more than I used to, yet I am going faster on the ergo and on the water. I can better plan my training to achieve balance with my family and the business that I own and operate.
I highly recommend this course to anyone that wants to train smart vs. just training harder all the time.”
I’m really excited to let you know, my flagship course, How to Create Your Annual Training Plan, is ready to go live! I have opened the course exclusively to you, before it opens to the public on Friday, 6th of November. The course will be open for a limited time, and for a limited number of people, so get your spot before the course officially opens. Click here to purchase the course.Special coupon code EARLYBIRD30
In addition to the course materials and downloadable tools, there will be three Live Zoom classes with Bill and former students from the Faster Alumni, exclusively for course delegates.
Here’s what’s included in the course;
Exclusive access to the Faster Alumni Group on Facebook, to share ideas and cover questions with past students. This group is only open to Faster students
Three Live Zoom Classes to review the course together with the course community. Classes will be recorded for playback
Access to all the online learning modules via the Teachable platform
Downloadable tools and protocols on how to test your performance
Dynamic and Maximum strength plans
Access to Tips & Tricks – Ideas & Inspiration from our advisory panel of experts
PDF downloads of studies on the best approaches to training
Guidance on how to train from the world’s best coaches, scientists and masters athletes – period!
Access to the entire course and all the online learning modules is $287, but I’m giving you 30% off when you enrol before the course opens on November 6th. Just use one of the limited the coupon codesEARLYBIRD30 at the checkout, and you’ll receive your discount.
Here’s what one student shared about his experience in the course.
“What I learnt from this course opened my eyes to what I was truly capable of and transformed the way I now train and prepare. I used to go fast, yet never knew if I was really training the right way. Since I have done the course, I now KNOW what I need to do to reach my potential. I don’t train any more than I used to, yet I am going faster on the ergo and on the water. I can better plan my training to achieve balance with my family and the business that I own and operate. I highly recommend this course to anyone that wants to train smart vs. just training harder all the time.”
Nice to have a recovery week. Time to recover from a big block of volume in the last two weeks, as well as to allow the body to ‘super-compensate’ and build on the hard work done.
So in a recovery week I normally drop down to about 8-9 hours of volume, yet maintain the intensity. At this part of the training plan, I am actually increasing the intensity. The ‘bread & butter’ workouts start to ramp up with 5 x 8-minutes at 92% continuing, and I added in 2 x (5 x 1-minute) at race pace and some Tabata* intervals on Saturday to compliment the 2 x 8-minute ‘warm-up’.
Finished the week with a nice long 90-minute Z2 ergo, whilst watching the first National Regatta take place in a wet and windy Luzern.
Feeling good about entering the third last week before the main event. The entire squad has taken a jump forward in speed. I attribute a lot of this to the ‘lock-down effect’ of more aerobic base work, along with the time to really focus in on the small technical details. The work with the biomechanics, using the video for coaching review and self coaching review, has made a big difference. I noticed this in the practice starts. The squad is way more consistent, in the start sequence. Each of them are moving the boat forward with intent, and transitioning well into race pace. Great to see.
Looking forward to this week, and slotting the training in and around work.
*These intervals are named after the Japanese exercise physiologist Izumi Tabata.
Wow. What a big week,following a big week of both volume and the introduction of more high intensity. It’s always a fine balance of when to introduce high intensity, and how to introduce the intensity. I have found that I respond best to a 4-week block, two to three session a week is enough, and just enough that I feel that I have done a big effort, yet not so much, that I’m in a deep hole after the session. It’s a fine balance, and another reason why ‘cookie cutter’ programs from magazines and books, can negatively impact your season, unless they are treated as a guide. A tip is to observe your morning resting heart rate (MRHR). I will post a short article on my approach to this simple protocol that can really help you to understand your fatigue and readiness in less that 30-seconds.
So this week, I spent considerable time on the bike, on the ergo and fortunately also on the water. Two high intensity sessions this week. 4 x 8-minutes @92% peak HR, with 4-minutes rest, and then on Sunday morning, 5 x 1-minute on 1-minute off. This last one is a great speed work out, and although the heart rate may not respond so fast within the minute, the power and intensity is there, and the cumulative effect over time builds up.
Over the weekend, we spent time on a smaller lake near the Swiss French/German speaking border, working on technique, technique, technique. I am always impressed what our coach, Urs Graf, can find for us to improve. It’s a continuous learning mindset and approach. Fitted this all in around Zoom calls with Mick Miller on High Performance Mindset (check the other post) and calls with athletes around the world.
So to summarise the week in numbers:
12.5 hours
890 TSS
120k on the water/erg
This week is a recovery week. Treat your recovery as seriously as your training. Time for the body to assimilate the training stress and adapt. Maintaining the intensity this week, and the following week will be super-compensation.
