Sunday 23 March 2025: Strength session followed by WattBike ride

Good workout 🏋️‍♂️ by a series of strength exercises as shown above utilising a number of muscles as shown above. This was followed by an aerobic efficiency session on the WattBike with staged increases in power over 26 minutes and equivalent to almost 10 Km as shown below.

Wednesday 19th March 2025: PNPGC Race night

After over a week recovering from chest infection took place in the PNPGC Fun races going out into some big swells in Mount’s Bay for a quick race. Crews as follows and Jim’s crew in Rhos and Jame’s crew the one I was in was in the new gig

pretty rough conditions but good practice for Scillies in large swells. See photos and video below of conditions.

Saturday 8th March 2025: Three Rivers Gig Regatta at Saltash run by Caradon Gig Club

Up at 6, quick breakfast and a walk in the driving rain to meet up with James and Gig at Penzance harbour. Then picked up Jayne and off to Saltash. On the way we had a convoy of gigs

We have a gig convoy

Arrived at around 9.00 after stopping off for breakfast as early. Met up with rest of PNPGC team ready to race. I had a bit of a chest infection with coughing but decided to row even though a long 10km race. The plan for the day is as follows:

The events for the day
The 3 bridges course

The ladies were first and started at around 12.30 as they were in heat 8. Cox: Jim, 6: Jem, 5: Jo, 4: Tina, 3: Sandra, 2: Michelle, 1: Jayne.

Some photos at the start and during the race from me and G&B gig photography

PNPGC CIO women’s crew
Off they go to the start

The men’s PNPGC crew was a scratch crew with two fill ins from other clubs as two of our crew (Trev and Steve) were ill with viral chest infections as follows: Cox: Ken, 6: Adam (Mevagissey) , 5: Andy (Roseland clubs?) 4: Antony, 3: James, 2: me, 1: Tom. We did OK and as we were in the last heat overtook a few gigs and had a real race with another. Long hard row with my chest infection condition. Stats as follows:

Overview of row from start to finish
The row as we did it

The above includes about 24 minutes of getting to the start at leisurely pace with few race start. In the following you can see where we started racing.

Pace showing the pace from start to finish
Stroke rate around 30 spm during the race
Heart rate during racing

Some photos from G&B gig photography

The results were as follows:

Great day for our PNPGC CIO pirate 🏴‍☠️ team and good training for the Scillies champs and look forward to Trev and Steve joining us soon as I now know what they went through as experiencing the same chest infection. Anthony produced an excellent video of our day as a team

Video of the day by Anthony

Wednesday 5th March 2025: PNPGC CIO mixed technique training row

Due to sickness and the coming 3 Rivers regatta a small team rowing this Saturday went out in a swell for technique training followed by a few drinks in the sailing club. Cox: James, 6: Jem, 5: Jo, 4: Anthony, 3: Kevin, 2: me, 1: Jayne.

Out of Penzance harbour towards the Mount

Saturday 1st March 2025 – Blessing of our new Gig Myghthernes an Morladron

What a day where we had the Penzance’s Mayor and RNLI Penlee arrive for the event. See post from BBC southwest news provided by Penzance Council

It was a lovely blessing by Reverend Rebecca Fugill that blessed our new gig with holy water from Ireland and of course Patch Harvey the coxswain from RNLI Penlee that also blessed it with a drop of Guinness as it was a gig bought from Ireland 🇮🇪 ☘️. Thanks to Ted from Penwith photography and Greg from Penzance Council that provided some beautiful photos of the event as shown below.

Me at the event and introducing the the Reverend Rebecca Fugill, Penzance Mayor Stephen Reynolds and RNLI Penlee Coxswain Patch Harvey
Reverend Rebecca Fugill
Stephen Reynolds – Penzance Mayor
BBC southwest news showing the blessing of our new gig by RNLI Penlee coxswain Patch Harvey with a drop of Guinness
RNLI Penlee life boat in attendance with crew
James, member of club welcoming the RNLI Penlee crew
Mayor of Penzance inspecting our new gig
Reverend Rebecca Fugill blessing our new gig with holy water from Ireland
Penzance Mayor, Stephen Reynolds saying a few words about the new gig and our PNPGC CIO club
Venue : Penzance Sailing Club
The Mayor of Penzance looking at our new gig
In memory our Queen of Pirates – Julie Saville who all members loved ❤️
Rev Rebecca Fugill giving the blessing
A good luck shamrock ☘️ on our new gig
Coxswain Patch Harvey blessing our gig with a splash of Guinness – slante

Article in our local newspaper – The Cornishman.

Personal GoPro video of event

Thursday 27th February 2025: 7km Fartek session

Session 1: 7k Fartlek

So a nice 200/600/200 x7

First 200 at around 22-24 spm at your UT1

600 at 26-28 spm at your AT rate

last 200 at 30-32 SPM at your TR rate

With difficulty of setting this up and doing it I carried this out in 7 sessions as follows:

This session was challenging as going from low stroke rate and increasing this over the distance although hopefully increasing power actually didn’t make much difference as technique went out the window. Hope to nail technique and breathing with increased row rate to increase power. These sessions are good to improve technique with stroke rate as well as aerobic fitness.