CRASH-B qualifying times

[tjf0]

How are the CRASH-B qualifying times calculated each year? Last year for my age (61) and wt (162) the qualifying time was 7:11 and I set a goal of trying to achieve that before the CRASH-B’s unfortunately I did not break that time until April. I now see that the 60-65 lwt time is 7:07.9 and was wondering how this was calculated. I am planning on trying to reach this during the up and coming racing season and will be starting to use the Pete’s Plan for the first time this week and see how that goes. I was thinking of starting out the 8X500 trying to hold a 1:47 pace for all 8 reps.

[Alissa]

How are the CRASH-B qualifying times calculated each year? Last year for my age (61) and wt (162) the qualifying time was 7:11 and I set a goal of trying to achieve that before the CRASH-B’s unfortunately I did not break that time until April. I now see that the 60-65 lwt time is 7:07.9 and was wondering how this was calculated. I am planning on trying to reach this during the up and coming racing season and will be starting to use the Pete’s Plan for the first time this week and see how that goes. I was thinking of starting out the 8X500 trying to hold a 1:47 pace for all 8 reps.

There actually are no "Qualifying Times" to participate at the Crash-Bs (the "qualifying times" are to be eligigle for free airfare):

Qualifying Times
All are welcome! You do not need a qualifying time in order to race at the C.R.A.S.H.-B.s, but we do ask for your 2k erg score so that we may seed you appropriately. All races are 2000 meters. If you wish to qualify for a trip to the C.R.A.S.H.-B.s through Concept2's qualifying program, please click here for more information. This is a separate program sponsored by Concept2.

from the Crash-B Registration Page.

Unfortunately I haven't the least idea how the times were calculated. But was worried that someone might think they couldn't participate if they couldn't meet the qualifying time for their age/weight class.

Best wishes,

Alissa

[El Caballo]

From the C2 web site (http://www.concept2.com/us/racing/crash ... b_qual.asp):

The qualifying times are based on averages of prior years’ CRASH-B results.

I think it is an average of 3rd place times from previous years. How many years do they average? I don't know, but I think it is just the most recent years. My guess would be the best three 3rd place times out of the last 4 years. Can anyone verify these guesses?

[tjf0]

Hi Alissa, thanks for the clarification. My goal last year was to try and beat the qualifying time with the possibility of heading for Boston if I did it before the CRASH-B's even though I knew it wasn't necessary to compete.

[NELSON]

C2 takes the 3rd place finishing times from the previous six years at the CrashB, then toss out the fastest and slowest times, then average the remaining four years.

[tjf0]

C2 takes the 3rd place finishing times from the previous six years at the CrashB, then toss out the fastest and slowest times, then average the remaining four years.

Thanks Nelson, it is interesting to know exactly how they come up with these times. I have one last chance on February 6th to try to hit my 7:08 goal who knows maybe it will all come together.

[Bob S.]

C2 takes the 3rd place finishing times from the previous six years at the CrashB, then toss out the fastest and slowest times, then average the remaining four years.

Maybe that is the way it is done now, but they certainly didn't do it that way in the 1997 season. In the 1996 season, the year that the old 2.5K was replaced by the 2K, I got a 7:39.6 at a satellite regatta. It was not beaten during the remainder of the season, so I held the 2K WR for M LWt 70-79 for a few months. When the next Crash-B was announced, the listed qualifying time for my bracket was 7:39.0. I would have had to beat my WR of the year before to qualify. Convinced that there was no way at 72 to beat my best time at age 71, I didn't bother to enter the local satellite race that season. I just stuck to OTW rowing. In those days, you weren't supposed to train for the C-B. It was one of the rules that the founders had initially, but lot of people did, especially those who rowed only on the erg. In retrospect, if I had trained diligently on the erg in the 6 or 7 weeks between the C-B announcement and the local satellite regatta, I might have been able to make up the year's loss due to aging and the extra 0.6" needed, but who knows at this point. It was in 2006, after qualifying at the satellite and getting a hammer at the C-B, that I first started to do real erg training. Before that it was just something to do when I wasn't on the water or doing other forms of exercise. The training that year showed me that it does really work, but whether or not 6 weeks would have been enough in 1997 is another question.

Bob S.

[Nosmo]

C2 takes the 3rd place finishing times from the previous six years at the CrashB, then toss out the fastest and slowest times, then average the remaining four years.

Maybe that is the way it is done now, but they certainly didn't do it that way in the 1997 season. In the 1996 season, the year that the old 2.5K was replaced by the 2K, I got a 7:39.6 at a satellite regatta. It was not beaten during the remainder of the season, so I held the 2K WR for M LWt 70-79 for a few months. When the next Crash-B was announced, the listed qualifying time for my bracket was 7:39.0. I would have had to beat my WR of the year before to qualify. Convinced that there was no way at 72 to beat my best time at age 71, I didn't bother to enter the local satellite race that season. I just stuck to OTW rowing. In those days, you weren't supposed to train for the C-B. It was one of the rules that the founders had initially, but lot of people did, especially those who rowed only on the erg. In retrospect, if I had trained diligently on the erg in the 6 or 7 weeks between the C-B announcement and the local satellite regatta, I might have been able to make up the year's loss due to aging and the extra 0.6" needed, but who knows at this point. It was in 2006, after qualifying at the satellite and getting a hammer at the C-B, that I first started to do real erg training. Before that it was just something to do when I wasn't on the water or doing other forms of exercise. The training that year showed me that it does really work, but whether or not 6 weeks would have been enough in 1997 is another question.

Bob S.

Bob where you in the Owens Valley then? Seems like the water up there might be mighty cold for much of the year. Where were you rowing?

[Bob S.]

Bob where you in the Owens Valley then? Seems like the water up there might be mighty cold for much of the year. Where were you rowing?

No. We moved here from Orange County about 7 years ago. In SoCal, I rowed for a while at the Newport Aquatic Center in Costa Mesa and then at the Long Beach Rowing Association. Both of them required a 50 mile round trip, so, even though I much preferred to row OTW, I sometimes worked out at home on my old Model B, especially when the weather did not look promising.

The water can indeed get cold here. The nearest possible rowing area is Klondike Lake, which is sometimes used for ice-skating in the winter and for water-skiing in the summer. It is a natural lake, about 1/2 mile long and 1/4 mile wide and saline. It is about 2 miles from my house, but it has no facilities. Trailered boats can be launched from a small beach at the south end. I considered getting a recreational shell, but I don't have a good place to store it and, having just had my heart surgery right after we moved, I didn't feel that I would be able to get it on and off my pickup. There was also a problem of finding a support for it that would fit on the camper shell. I even considered getting a little trailer that I could wheel by hand, but I would have had to take it across US 395, the major thoroughfare in the valley. Also, the 4 mile round trip pulling that trailer would have been more that enough exercise in itself.

I do miss the water, after having lived on or near the coast for the first 78 years of my life, but the scenery here is fantastic, as you well know.

Bob S.

[tjf0]

[
In those days, you weren't supposed to train for the C-B. It was one of the rules that the founders had initially, but lot of people did, especially those who rowed only on the erg. In retrospect, if I had trained diligently on the erg in the 6 or 7 weeks between the C-B announcement and the local satellite regatta, I might have been able to make up the year's loss due to aging and the extra 0.6" needed, but who knows at this point. It was in 2006, after qualifying at the satellite and getting a hammer at the C-B, that I first started to do real erg training. Before that it was just something to do when I wasn't on the water or doing other forms of exercise. The training that year showed me that it does really work, but whether or not 6 weeks would have been enough in 1997 is another question.
Bob S.

Hi Bob interesting comment about the founders feeling that you weren't supposed to train for the WIRC. You are a wealth of knowledge.
After about a year and a half of erging and no OTW experience and browsing around these forums it is obvious that people take this very seriously including OTW rowers especially college crew teams with many training pretty hard to hit certain times. My son actually rowed crew in college and got in the best shape of his life and fell in love with 6:00 AM workouts and rowing on the river as the sun was coming up in a 4 or a 8. He wanted me to buy an erg and I thought he was crazy so funny how things turn out. I did not understand the erg and even OTW till I started using the erg. I had attended many regattas and felt that crew was all about the people in the boat and definitely not about spectators. I feel that now I can at least feel the pain that an OTW rower might feel during a 2k but also know that the talent to do OTW is so much more than just yanking or maybe I should say pushing the chain. Reading a bit about Wolverine Plans and Pete’s Plan, etc etc ...following the Ranger vs Rocket stuff to keep me amused. .seeing some of the times posted and screen shots of Nav which I can only dream of etc etc is enlightening to me...I feel like I have enter a sub culture that could easily be a TV reality show I am still trying to understand AT UT etc etc I do know what SPI, MPS, SPM, and 500 times are. When I started I just tried to focus on keeping my 500 times under 2:00. I actually just enjoy rowing and working out. Oh well sorry for going a bit off topic.

[Bob S.]

Hi Bob interesting comment about the founders feeling that you weren't supposed to train for the WIRC.

Well, I wouldn't call it the WIRC. It is now, of course, but in the early days, it was just the Crash-B and was started to take some of the boredom out of winter training in the Boston area. It was just a fun thing and not something to take seriously. As it grew, C2 took an interest in it and helped out. Obviously, it is in the company's best interest to have lots of people using the ergs to train seriously for erg events. I don't know the history of the satellite regatta system. By 1994, my first one, it was already well developed. As it turned out, I qualified that time, even though, at 69, I was at the top of my bracket. I had retired five years before that, but I was continuing to work on a part time basis, so I didn't want to take the time off. Besides, my thought at the time was, "Who on earth would want to go to Boston in the winter?" Little did I know. After I looked into it a little deeper, I realized that I had a chance at a WR as a 70 year old the next year. I had a choice of losing 7# or 25 seconds. I went for lightweight as being the easiest option, entered both the Long Beach and the San Diego regattas, and set the record at one of the two - I forget which one now. This time, mainly to satisfy my curiosity about it, I accepted the trip to the C-B. What with jet-lag and all, my time there wasn't as good as at the satellite, but it got me a hammer - big deal - there were only two of us in the M LWt 70-79 bracket. Since that was the last of the 2.5K races, I held the record for about 10 years until the Brits revived it and Geoffrey Knight beat my time soundly. The next year, 1996, I again set the record at a satellite regatta - for the 2K this time. At Boston, my time was not as good as my record trial, but I got a gold medal. No hammer that year. Everybody over 50 was lumped together with handicaps for age. There were still gender and weight classes, so there was a total of 4 hammers awarded for the over all those over 50. However, there were gold, silver, and bronze medals for each decade group.

As I said, I didn't train for this. I would work out on the erg when the weather was crappy, and once in a while I would try a 2k or do some 1K or 500m sprints. I also worked in a 30' and a 60' which were the only other events that were recorded at that time. I managed to come out on top in those and even beat the HWt time on one of them. The weather in Long Beach is generally good enough even in the winter, so I was probably spending more time on the water than on the erg. I was also doing lots of hikes in the Orange County hills at that time and making regular visits to a nearby Family Fitness Center to do weight work (no C2 erg there, but I had one at home).

Bob S.

[tjf0]

Hi Bob, thanks for a little more of the history of the Crash-B and your involvement in the event. Good luck in Boston.