Q - Power
Indoor Rowing Team
News (2012)
1 December 2012
Ollie and Eddie raced in the Men's Heavyweight Open at the Welsh Indoor Rowing Championships on 1 December 2012. Both were looking for solid performances and the chance to race together having both won at other venues in previous weeks. Each had similar race and pace plans, and Eddie led the majority of the race with Ollie tucked in behind in second. At 500m remaining Ollie put on a small squeeze to nudge him out in front. Eddie responded as they both pulled away slightly from the chasing pack. At 300m Ollie went for the line although Eddie found the acceleration hard to match from the man 20 years his junior. Crossing the line Ollie took the victory nearly 4 seconds ahead of the chasers in a time of 6.14.9 in what was a confident and controlled performance racing for position rather than time. Eddie took a very creditable bronze in 6.18.4 (the winning time in the Men's 50-59 competition being 6:43.4).
Valuable race experience for both and another title and two more medals for Q-Power.
17/18 November 2012
A good weekend of racing at Q-Power. On Saturday Paul raced in the Open of the 2012 British Indoor Rowing Championships, albeit he was on a trip to the US at the time. Another race, another gold, although an 11 length lead on the competition resulted in a modest time, at least by his standards, of 6:17.9.
In his first race for 5 years, James raced in the M30-39 on somewhat limited training. Paul had agreed to row 7:00.0 dead as a pace boat pushing him to a 6:59.4. Although 31 seconds away from a PB, it represented a first step back into the racing scene.
On Sunday Eddie trekked up to Newark to race in the Nottinghamshire Indoor Rowing Championships. Despite being eligible to race in the M50-54 event, Eddie went for the Open and picked up a comfortable gold in a time of 6:15.5. The heart rate data revealed a performance that was will within himself, and we are looking forward to the Welsh Championships in December.
8 November 2012
Congratulations to Ollie Osborne who won at the Royal Navy Championships in Portsmouth. He won gold in his event (M30-39) but also earned a further award for the fastest time of the day. It was a tough race in cool and very dry conditions, but having been lead out to the 500m, Ollie stayed focused on his race plan and finished 8 seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
26 October 2012
Another day, another record. Today Paul broke his own national record for the mile whilst time trialling for the challenge series. Since Paul and Ollie are slogging it out for top honours in this season's Concept2 Challenge Series, at the moment it's just Paul and Q who know the time - all will be revealed at 23:59 on 1st November 2012.
22 October 2012
A mixed day at Q-Power. The good news is that Eddie broke his own British Record set two days ago for the mile, shaving 0.3s off the time and covering the distance in 4:57.4. We will leave it there for the time being and press on with training.
Unfortunately we found out this afternoon that Carolyn has picked up a stress fracture of a couple of ribs, so a few weeks off the erg and on the bike beckon. We are optimistic that there will be enough time before the Worlds to rescue the situation.
20 October 2012
Jason McCormack flew down to Sydney this week to compete in the World Firefighter Games 2012. They are held biannually and Jason is there competing as part of a football team... but made the most of the opportunity and slipped out to race in the 2000m open, picking up the gold medal in the process.
In the meantime, we have had a great day back at home. Ollie rowed his 1 mile time trial for the Challenge Series and with just a single attempt this month, it was all about performing on the day. As it happens, the 4:55.0 target was demolished with a 4:54.0 (1:31.36).
Paul, who is finding his way back into things after Row24, put down quite a marker by setting yet another national record, breaking his own half-marathon record of 1:16:13.1 by 23.1 seconds, setting a new bench mark of 1:15.50.0 (1:47.8).
Then, to wrap up what has been a great day at Q-Power, Eddie did his 1 mile time trial in the 50-59 category and set a new British record with a time of 4:57.7 (1:32.5). Although he reports it was a disappointing performance with concentration not being all that it could be, he broke his personal best by 5.3 seconds - he his hoping to go a fraction faster in the next 10 days.
06 October 2012
3 New Zealand Records: We are delighted to announce that Q-Power has picked up another 4 gold medals in national competition and another 3 national records. Shirley Godkin competed at the South Island Games in Timaru, New Zealand, racing over 2,000m, 1,000m, 500m and 100m, and setting new records in the first three events. Racing so many times on the same day is less than ideal, but it is the same for everyone and the volume of training Shirley has become accustomed to saw her through the day.
12 August 2012
All of us involved in Row24 are overwhelmed by the enormous support and generosity of people who are making contributions. A massive "thank you" from all of us - well done to you all - this is helping other people. We are now through the £1,000 barrier and we are still 10 days out.
Preparations are going well. Pretty much all the hard work has been done by Paul and we are coming into the taper - quite a long one given the distance in his legs. My schedule of things to do remains rather fuller... a job gets done but another replaces it. However it is all very much under control. Tomorrow we are doing a full climate test of the studio where the row will take place. We are chilling and drying the room from 6am. At about 11.15 two of us will row for half an hour whilst monitoring temperature and humidity to see whether we can put a dent in the air conditioning system. Hopefully not, but our sponsors and supporters are prepared to bring in further equipment as necessary - who could ask for more. After that we are going to increase the number of people exercising in there up to about 15 to test the system to its limit. Temperature and humidity is crucial to the event, so we have invested quite a bit of time on it.
Thanks again so much for all the support to date. Needless to say we would love to see you on the day (whether in the studio with us, or up at the bar, or both!)
29 July 2012
Preparations for Row24 continue to go well. With just 24 days to go Paul completed his last ultra-distance training session over the weekend - 8 straight hours on the rowing machine.
We divided it up into 1 hour sectors (as we intend to do on the day) and he rowed for 56 minutes in each sector, with 4 minutes rest at the end of each of them. We used some software to analyse the heart rate data which has given us yet more information about Paul's physiology, and we learned some useful pacing tricks which we hope will help us on the day. Paul covered about 108km in the time, which as compared to the World Record of just over 313km is promising. We have another couple of mid-distance training rows to go (a marathon and a 3 hour row) and then we should be just about there.
22 July 2012
We have a couple of news items to report. The first is that Carolyn Gersh (USA) and Shirley Godkin (NZL) have become full time members of Q-Power, and we will do all we can to help them achieve their goals. We will get their individual pages set up as soon as we can, but quite a lot of work has been going into our second news item which has required a lot of our resources.
The other matter to report is our attempt on the 24 Hour World Record: Row24. We have been working away on the project for about 6 months now, and a few months ago we teamed up with Withers LLP and Grange Hotels who are helping us turn the dream into a reality.
Many members of Q-Power have had to come face to face with cancer, whether through parents, partners or others who are close to them. Sadly that proximity can be found in almost any group of people. We considered that a world record attempt of this nature might serve as a conduit for raising some money for Cancer Research UK.
Withers are putting together their team and are hoping to give Paul a run for his money. However they have gone rather further than that. Their marketing department are working hard with us to publicise the event, and they have provided us with the financial support needed to get the European based members of Q-Power to London for the duration of the event. The value to Paul of having his team mates around him cannot be overstated.
We needed to find a suitable venue and we spoke to the vast majority of major gyms in London. However we were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of Grange Hotels and that of its founder and Managing Director, Tony Matharu, who have given us access to their very considerable resources, most notably their gym, spa and marketing/public relations facilities and capabilities.
We will keep you updated as to how our preparations are going with regard to both the organisation and of course the training. Suffice it to say Paul is covering enormous distances in training, although with only a month to go we are now not all that far away from starting to taper down... that said, there are still quite a few kilometres to row!
23 June 2012
New British Record: Although it was only intended to be a standard time trial built into the training schedule (and at the end of a heavy week at that), Eddie has managed to smash the British Record (subject to Concept2 verification) in the 30 minute M50-59 category. He broke the current record set in 2008 by a comfortable 92 meters with a distance of 8,725m (1:43.2). Having rowed a 30r20 PB just two days before, it may be there is more to come.
15 June 2012
Q-Power is pleased to announce that Eddie Ventress and Ollie Osborne have become the 3rd and 4th full team members of the Q-Power Indoor Rowing Team. We wish them luck in achieving their goals.
9 June 2012
Ollie and Eddie raced in the Men's Heavyweight Open at the Welsh Indoor Rowing Championships on 1 December 2012. Both were looking for solid performances and the chance to race together having both won at other venues in previous weeks. Each had similar race and pace plans, and Eddie led the majority of the race with Ollie tucked in behind in second. At 500m remaining Ollie put on a small squeeze to nudge him out in front. Eddie responded as they both pulled away slightly from the chasing pack. At 300m Ollie went for the line although Eddie found the acceleration hard to match from the man 20 years his junior. Crossing the line Ollie took the victory nearly 4 seconds ahead of the chasers in a time of 6.14.9 in what was a confident and controlled performance racing for position rather than time. Eddie took a very creditable bronze in 6.18.4 (the winning time in the Men's 50-59 competition being 6:43.4).
Valuable race experience for both and another title and two more medals for Q-Power.
17/18 November 2012
A good weekend of racing at Q-Power. On Saturday Paul raced in the Open of the 2012 British Indoor Rowing Championships, albeit he was on a trip to the US at the time. Another race, another gold, although an 11 length lead on the competition resulted in a modest time, at least by his standards, of 6:17.9.
In his first race for 5 years, James raced in the M30-39 on somewhat limited training. Paul had agreed to row 7:00.0 dead as a pace boat pushing him to a 6:59.4. Although 31 seconds away from a PB, it represented a first step back into the racing scene.
On Sunday Eddie trekked up to Newark to race in the Nottinghamshire Indoor Rowing Championships. Despite being eligible to race in the M50-54 event, Eddie went for the Open and picked up a comfortable gold in a time of 6:15.5. The heart rate data revealed a performance that was will within himself, and we are looking forward to the Welsh Championships in December.
8 November 2012
Congratulations to Ollie Osborne who won at the Royal Navy Championships in Portsmouth. He won gold in his event (M30-39) but also earned a further award for the fastest time of the day. It was a tough race in cool and very dry conditions, but having been lead out to the 500m, Ollie stayed focused on his race plan and finished 8 seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
26 October 2012
Another day, another record. Today Paul broke his own national record for the mile whilst time trialling for the challenge series. Since Paul and Ollie are slogging it out for top honours in this season's Concept2 Challenge Series, at the moment it's just Paul and Q who know the time - all will be revealed at 23:59 on 1st November 2012.
22 October 2012
A mixed day at Q-Power. The good news is that Eddie broke his own British Record set two days ago for the mile, shaving 0.3s off the time and covering the distance in 4:57.4. We will leave it there for the time being and press on with training.
Unfortunately we found out this afternoon that Carolyn has picked up a stress fracture of a couple of ribs, so a few weeks off the erg and on the bike beckon. We are optimistic that there will be enough time before the Worlds to rescue the situation.
20 October 2012
Jason McCormack flew down to Sydney this week to compete in the World Firefighter Games 2012. They are held biannually and Jason is there competing as part of a football team... but made the most of the opportunity and slipped out to race in the 2000m open, picking up the gold medal in the process.
In the meantime, we have had a great day back at home. Ollie rowed his 1 mile time trial for the Challenge Series and with just a single attempt this month, it was all about performing on the day. As it happens, the 4:55.0 target was demolished with a 4:54.0 (1:31.36).
Paul, who is finding his way back into things after Row24, put down quite a marker by setting yet another national record, breaking his own half-marathon record of 1:16:13.1 by 23.1 seconds, setting a new bench mark of 1:15.50.0 (1:47.8).
Then, to wrap up what has been a great day at Q-Power, Eddie did his 1 mile time trial in the 50-59 category and set a new British record with a time of 4:57.7 (1:32.5). Although he reports it was a disappointing performance with concentration not being all that it could be, he broke his personal best by 5.3 seconds - he his hoping to go a fraction faster in the next 10 days.
06 October 2012
3 New Zealand Records: We are delighted to announce that Q-Power has picked up another 4 gold medals in national competition and another 3 national records. Shirley Godkin competed at the South Island Games in Timaru, New Zealand, racing over 2,000m, 1,000m, 500m and 100m, and setting new records in the first three events. Racing so many times on the same day is less than ideal, but it is the same for everyone and the volume of training Shirley has become accustomed to saw her through the day.
12 August 2012
All of us involved in Row24 are overwhelmed by the enormous support and generosity of people who are making contributions. A massive "thank you" from all of us - well done to you all - this is helping other people. We are now through the £1,000 barrier and we are still 10 days out.
Preparations are going well. Pretty much all the hard work has been done by Paul and we are coming into the taper - quite a long one given the distance in his legs. My schedule of things to do remains rather fuller... a job gets done but another replaces it. However it is all very much under control. Tomorrow we are doing a full climate test of the studio where the row will take place. We are chilling and drying the room from 6am. At about 11.15 two of us will row for half an hour whilst monitoring temperature and humidity to see whether we can put a dent in the air conditioning system. Hopefully not, but our sponsors and supporters are prepared to bring in further equipment as necessary - who could ask for more. After that we are going to increase the number of people exercising in there up to about 15 to test the system to its limit. Temperature and humidity is crucial to the event, so we have invested quite a bit of time on it.
Thanks again so much for all the support to date. Needless to say we would love to see you on the day (whether in the studio with us, or up at the bar, or both!)
29 July 2012
Preparations for Row24 continue to go well. With just 24 days to go Paul completed his last ultra-distance training session over the weekend - 8 straight hours on the rowing machine.
We divided it up into 1 hour sectors (as we intend to do on the day) and he rowed for 56 minutes in each sector, with 4 minutes rest at the end of each of them. We used some software to analyse the heart rate data which has given us yet more information about Paul's physiology, and we learned some useful pacing tricks which we hope will help us on the day. Paul covered about 108km in the time, which as compared to the World Record of just over 313km is promising. We have another couple of mid-distance training rows to go (a marathon and a 3 hour row) and then we should be just about there.
22 July 2012
We have a couple of news items to report. The first is that Carolyn Gersh (USA) and Shirley Godkin (NZL) have become full time members of Q-Power, and we will do all we can to help them achieve their goals. We will get their individual pages set up as soon as we can, but quite a lot of work has been going into our second news item which has required a lot of our resources.
The other matter to report is our attempt on the 24 Hour World Record: Row24. We have been working away on the project for about 6 months now, and a few months ago we teamed up with Withers LLP and Grange Hotels who are helping us turn the dream into a reality.
Many members of Q-Power have had to come face to face with cancer, whether through parents, partners or others who are close to them. Sadly that proximity can be found in almost any group of people. We considered that a world record attempt of this nature might serve as a conduit for raising some money for Cancer Research UK.
Withers are putting together their team and are hoping to give Paul a run for his money. However they have gone rather further than that. Their marketing department are working hard with us to publicise the event, and they have provided us with the financial support needed to get the European based members of Q-Power to London for the duration of the event. The value to Paul of having his team mates around him cannot be overstated.
We needed to find a suitable venue and we spoke to the vast majority of major gyms in London. However we were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of Grange Hotels and that of its founder and Managing Director, Tony Matharu, who have given us access to their very considerable resources, most notably their gym, spa and marketing/public relations facilities and capabilities.
We will keep you updated as to how our preparations are going with regard to both the organisation and of course the training. Suffice it to say Paul is covering enormous distances in training, although with only a month to go we are now not all that far away from starting to taper down... that said, there are still quite a few kilometres to row!
23 June 2012
New British Record: Although it was only intended to be a standard time trial built into the training schedule (and at the end of a heavy week at that), Eddie has managed to smash the British Record (subject to Concept2 verification) in the 30 minute M50-59 category. He broke the current record set in 2008 by a comfortable 92 meters with a distance of 8,725m (1:43.2). Having rowed a 30r20 PB just two days before, it may be there is more to come.
15 June 2012
Q-Power is pleased to announce that Eddie Ventress and Ollie Osborne have become the 3rd and 4th full team members of the Q-Power Indoor Rowing Team. We wish them luck in achieving their goals.
9 June 2012
After a few days of particularly fast times in training, a small adjustment was made to Paul's training today, replacing the scheduled 3x56:00[4:00] with an attempt at the Irish National Record (Open) for the marathon (42,195m) which is already held by Paul having been taken on 2 January 2012.
The row did not go quite according to plan with Paul having to back off a little due some tightness in his right knee at around the 18km mark. However even though he was not particularly pleased with the row itself, Paul set a new record of 2:37:54.8, breaking his previous record by 1 minute 44.8 seconds. This represents a 500m split improvement from 1:53.52 to 1:52.27, and an increase in power from 239.2w to 247.3w (+8.1w or -2.1 seconds over 2,000m at Paul's PB pace).
5 June 2012
We are pleased to say that we have two new trialists joining us this month. For both of them the training regime will be a little different from what they are used to, but no doubt they will find it an interesting experience. In other news, Paul's training is going well for Operation Daybreak with a 3 hour row and a 6 hour row in the last few days (among other training).
Notwithstanding his decision to post the evidence elsewhere, the censoring committee at Q-Power has elected not to publish the photographic evidence of the "wear and tear" sustained by parts of Paul from his training. We are concerned about the impact it might have on some readers and could reflect poorly on the integrity of our site.
25 May 2012
Q-Power would like to extent a special thank you to Jake Evans and the whole of the Concept2 team in Nottingham for recognising Paul's achievement in setting 14 Irish Records in the last year by sending him 14 pieces of kit printed up with his records.
24 May 2012
Well, we have the site up and running. We have had lots of positive feedback so thank you all very much indeed. We are working hard to finish the bits of the site that still need work, so bear with us. Things are moving along nicely with Operation Daybreak. We are just about coping with the logistics, although it is proving to be quite a challenge. I think there are about 40 moving parts, and getting them all moving in the same direction is... well... impossible, but most of them are going roughly to the right place which will do for the moment. We have had some enquiries about joining the team and at the moment we have one person joining us for a few weeks to see if it is a good fit.
In terms of general training things are under control although we have run into a minor glitch with rather more fatigue being sustained than had been anticipated. The relevant HRV data seems to be following the Greek stock market, so at least 7 days of schedule has needed rewriting to adjust. It's actually the largest ad hoc schedule adjustment we have had to make in the last few months, but there we are. Not much point getting the data in and then promptly ignoring it.
The row did not go quite according to plan with Paul having to back off a little due some tightness in his right knee at around the 18km mark. However even though he was not particularly pleased with the row itself, Paul set a new record of 2:37:54.8, breaking his previous record by 1 minute 44.8 seconds. This represents a 500m split improvement from 1:53.52 to 1:52.27, and an increase in power from 239.2w to 247.3w (+8.1w or -2.1 seconds over 2,000m at Paul's PB pace).
5 June 2012
We are pleased to say that we have two new trialists joining us this month. For both of them the training regime will be a little different from what they are used to, but no doubt they will find it an interesting experience. In other news, Paul's training is going well for Operation Daybreak with a 3 hour row and a 6 hour row in the last few days (among other training).
Notwithstanding his decision to post the evidence elsewhere, the censoring committee at Q-Power has elected not to publish the photographic evidence of the "wear and tear" sustained by parts of Paul from his training. We are concerned about the impact it might have on some readers and could reflect poorly on the integrity of our site.
25 May 2012
Q-Power would like to extent a special thank you to Jake Evans and the whole of the Concept2 team in Nottingham for recognising Paul's achievement in setting 14 Irish Records in the last year by sending him 14 pieces of kit printed up with his records.
24 May 2012
Well, we have the site up and running. We have had lots of positive feedback so thank you all very much indeed. We are working hard to finish the bits of the site that still need work, so bear with us. Things are moving along nicely with Operation Daybreak. We are just about coping with the logistics, although it is proving to be quite a challenge. I think there are about 40 moving parts, and getting them all moving in the same direction is... well... impossible, but most of them are going roughly to the right place which will do for the moment. We have had some enquiries about joining the team and at the moment we have one person joining us for a few weeks to see if it is a good fit.
In terms of general training things are under control although we have run into a minor glitch with rather more fatigue being sustained than had been anticipated. The relevant HRV data seems to be following the Greek stock market, so at least 7 days of schedule has needed rewriting to adjust. It's actually the largest ad hoc schedule adjustment we have had to make in the last few months, but there we are. Not much point getting the data in and then promptly ignoring it.
