Hurry Hard for Broken Ribs

An injury that happens once in a while with rowers is rib stress fractures. I have seen a dozen or more cases in my clinic but rarely outside the realm of rowers or weight-lifters. The natural history of this condition is excess force repetitively applied through key muscles of the pelvis and low back. Certain muscles attach from the pelvis to the lower ribs (Quadratus lumborum, internal/external obliques, and erector spinae group) and with excessive force stress fractures will show up with increasing the activity level too quickly before the bones are able to adapt.

There are two guys that I train with currently that are dealing with this exact condition. This injury shows up either as an instantaneous pin-point tenderness and gets worse with rowing. The other way is slow progression over a few weeks with localized pain that goes away with rest but gets worse with rowing. The therapy involves decreasing muscle tension around the injury site and physical therapy modalities to increase blood flow to the area to influence healing. Healing times can vary from less that a week all the way up to two+ months all depending on size and location of the injury.

On Monday morning I showed up to the morning practice at Elk Lake ready for a heavy erg session of 2x40min at low rates (16,18, 20, 22) changing every ten minutes. I have to say, even in the warm-up I felt really uncomfortable and my right low-back is very tight and tender. As the first 40 minute session started - I immediately felt the pain move up my back to almost inbetween my shoulder blades. I pushed through for a few more minutes thinking it was just my lazy Sunday off that causes lethargic feelings every Monday morning. After a few more minutes it felt as if the pain is also migrating around the right side of my body and into my abdomen, which can be seen as an referral pattern of more serious internal or structural injuries. With all this discomfort and pain I decide it would be best for me to sit out this practice and have a look at this "injury" more seriously - I had self-diagnosed this as a probable traumatic rib-fracture and my rowing career was going to be put on hold of for a few weeks to months.

I went to work later that same day and chatted with a few fellow therapists to get their opinion of what could be causing this pain and referral pattern. As I discussed the history of the "condition" I realized, like a light-bulb when on, that I attended the PISE staff Christmas party on Saturday Night. It was at the curling rink... and I'm so competitive that during the hard sweeping that goes along with curling I had sustained the feeling of a "probable rib fracture" - which turns out was only sore muscles! I had thought my career as a rower was over... because I was sore from curling. I will never make a joke about curlers being out-of-shape again - it is a different kind of sport-specific muscles utilized.

Check out Norway's new pants. Looks like it is taking on a style resemblance of golf.

Fall Training.

The week after the National Rowing Championships (NRC's) I was hoping for a nice down week of recovery and rest. Instead, there was a battery of physiological (and psychological) testing called the RADAR - as I have mentioned previously, it involves 5 tests on the erg (indoor rower) and one on-water time trial;
10 stroke Peak Power (watts)
1minute (meters)
2000m (time)
6000m (time)
60minute (meters)

In my opinion, I like the idea around the testing session; a quantifiable way to determine fitness, and this series includes anaerobic power, lactate threshold, and aerobic endurance all in a few days! I do find it an emotional drain to get through each time around and luckily RCA has recently changed it from 4x/year down to only 3x.

I have improved my scores again from the last time (Aug. 2011) but I still have an arch-nemesis in the 6000m test. I consistently have frustrations just past half-way in the test and have under-performed the past 3-4 attempts. It will become my new "motivator" for the winter training.

Now that the RADAR scores have been submitted and I can get into winter training I feel the weather is cooperating perfectly. See below for the 10 day forecast outlook;

Training will be a combination of long Erg workouts at low rate (16-22 Strokes/minute), Rowing for LSD (long steady distance), and weight sessions 3x/week. I'm very excited to get into it.

New Rowing Center (Indoor) at PISE

There is a new erg centre a PISE. A free standing outdoor structure dedicated to Rowing. It is 45 paces from my office, LifeMark Sports Medicine clinic. My friend Jerry Brown talks about his goals and plans for the 2012 London Olympics.

Success at Nationals

After all the planning, training, racing, and waiting I have come away with then results I wanted. I feel that the actual race in the finals was not very clean, efficient or glorious but the job was taken care of.

Due to the previous days' windy conditions the race organizers decided to re-shuffle the finals to get the 'A-finals' over first. My race was at 8:42am, so that means weigh-in at 6:42. It is cold and dark at that time in the morning as you can see below

 

 

After the weigh in the sun came up but the wind did not subside. Right from first light in the morning the wind caused anxiety, as it was blowing SW 30-35km/hr. A nice tailwind is beneficial for fast times but if it gets too fast the waves and whitecaps can disrupt a normal rhythm.

In the race, I mis-placed two or three strokes [crab] and almost stopped the boat during the race. The last one was within the final 5 meters of the race and we were almost passed by the lane 4 team. In the end we got the rhythm back enough to pull through with a win, but it wasn't pretty. Another 5 meters after the finish line, I again misplaced my oar, and dumped us into the frigid Welland Canal - in front of the grand-stand and all.

A nice write up of the NRC Finals from Rowing Canada Avirons.

My mother and sister, Lisa, made the trip to surprise me for the weekend! I was shocked to see them at the boathouse after my race. They also picked up my cousin Steph in Hamilton on the way to Welland. Thanks!

 

Heats in the Snow

Day one of the 2011 NRC's is now over and an experience I will remember. There were many races all through the day from bright dark and early 8am to 4:30pm. The weather was in constant change from rain to shine snow and hail, sometimes all simultaneously. A steady West wind was gusty throughout the day and there was no way to predict the direction. Eric and I raced our pair at 1:54pm... or so we thought until a crew scratched and changed our heat into 6 boats with only the 1st place advancing onto the finals. The race was bumped up to 1:45pm, so we had to rush to get our 45min warm-up in. While finishing our warm up and getting into position for the start there was some confusion with another pair who didn't get the memo on the changed race times and were in our position. To make a short story long, we got a "yellow-card" due to our late entry into the starting gates, which Eric argued against and was promptly thrown out and the race continued on as nothing happened. Who knew someone could argue with an Umpire and they change their ruling... With that, comes Woelfl.

The race went just as planned! And we ended up pulling away from the group at 1200m in. With these results we don't race tomorrow (Saturday) and move straight to the finals on Sunday. What a relief and that concludes my first race in a pair (2-) (or pear...?)

My partner Eric has helped me immensely and constantly explains things that are probably elementary to him (and most other rowers) such as... You need your ID to launch your boat? Something that I didn't think would be necessary on the water, but as I find out from Eric before we lift the boat I need to run to my car and grab it.

 

Next race, Sunday @ ~11am. I'm excited to watch a day of racing tomorrow.

Bridge-town (Rose City)

Due to the many canals, lakes and rivers in the area there are countless antique bridges. On google maps I counted 11 within 4 km from Welland city centre. On the rowing-warm up course there are two! Many of these turn-of-the-century bridges are olde-style draw bridges because the large container ships needed to pass through the canal en route to the St. Lawrence seaway. For me, I like being around bridges, as I spent 4 years living in Bridgetown, USA aka Portland, OR, which by coincidence is also the "City of Roses" - but that is about it with the connections between the two places... I took a few shots below of the local bridges;

 

 

 

 

And yes, the locals like there bridges so much that there is a bridge model at the Historical Museum.

The Day Before

 

Practice Row Day 2 went well this morning! The storm last night blew in some chilly weather and precipitation. It dropped down to 6-8 C this morning. There was a cross/head wind for the morning row, and it was gusting both directions. It almost feels like we are in the mountains with an un-predictable wind direction. I feel, however, the small width of this body of water there is little chance of a cross wind producing any waves of concern. There is just over 6 lanes on this canal and it is arrow-straight.

The rest of the competitors arrive today to get in a practice row. The rowing location has a feeling of excitement building and I like it. Another day of hanging out and then the racing heats start tomorrow. See the racing order here.

Welland, Ontario - Arrival for Nationals

The arrival to Welland, Ontario was relatively routine with no problems. The Toronto 5:30pm rush-hour traffic on the 401 was expected but uneventful. I made a side trip to drop of my pair partner, Eric, at his parents house in St. Catherines to make sure he got home safe. I don't want anything to happen to that guy, especially in the next five days. The kitchen is stocked with food and everything is going as planned. Tomorrow we check to see if our boat arrived from Victoria safely and in one piece. The weather is decent right now, but as you can see below, it may get a bit cooler and more "seasonal" or typical. Tonight was very foggy all the way through from Hamilton to Welland. Hopefully it doesn't prevent us from rowing tomorrow morning.

For a quick refresher where Welland is located. It is on the Niagara Region of Southern Ontario. about 30 minutes from Niagara Falls and 30min from Hamilton. The rowing course is on an old arm of the Welland Canal, circa 1827. This map below is the training water, roughly 4km in length with a certified 2000m course on the south end.

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Pair Partner

Next week I leave for the National Rowing Championships in Welland, Ontario. They take place Nov. 11-13th. I'm racing in a pair (two people, two oars) with my pal Eric, aka Wolfy, or my favorite is The Wolf Pack (thanks Terry). We trained together for the PanAm Games in a pair while our 4-'s partners were busy in the double sculling. We should be able to bring it together for a very fast weekend of racing. He recently crushed a 6km erg test (at 19:57) dropping something like 15 seconds off his last personal best. For me, I had an ok 6k erg test as it was 9seconds faster than Augusts RADAR time but I still have to be 20+ seconds faster. I need to not limp through these Erg tests and understand that it is going to painful. I need to follow in Eric's example and maybe together we can represent (Ontario and BC in one boat...) See a picture of Eric below as he is often seen; endlessly doing cardio...

 

Happy 57th Birthday!

Today is my fathers birthday! He has been keeping me focused and motivated for many years. I still try to keep up to him on a mountain bike and x-c skis. He has recently semi-retired and putting more time into the things he enjoys - which luckily are things that I enjoy; fly-fishing, hockey, watching movies with his eyes closed, xc skiing, kayaking, mountain biking, traveling.

He visited Victoria a few months back and I took him out with the family for an easy row. I think he is a natural. See picture below.

Old Man Guns