Mon row in a 4

1 Brett

2 Doug

3 George

4 Frank

Not a bad row.  Took it carefully running blades on the water.   On the way home before the west end city cat terminal, we  got up to 20spm and pretty smooth. 

ERG#5 Mothers Day

#5 21:26. 10-May-2029 @centenary 102kg

#4. 20.57 6-May-2026 101.6kg

#3 21:17 26-APR-2026 @Centenary 101kg

#2 21:26. 22-Apr-2026 @home

#1 21:45 15-Apr-2026 @home

100.3kg

Mothers day

The day began with yet another 5k erg. Not feeling it so just hooked on but didn't break any records. 

21:26 being half a minute slower than Wednesday's 10:57

After that had the privilege of looking after a mothers day quad and a single. Being mothers day, the quad was populated with two BBC boys and their mums. It was a glorious day bobbing around on the river. Mags and a dad observing. I would like to note that these BBC boys are really fine young men. Focused, helpful, respectful and all the similar words to describe them. 

Then home for [mothers day] breakfast with Phoebe Antonieff Mitchell and one of her sons.

Other activities 

"Fixed" the kitchen tap.  Glued the screw in with locktite. 

Worked with Fletch to make a door to keep mags away from the cats food. 

Morthers day Dinner at Amy's - Clam chowder by Zac and Amy. My contribution was sticky date made with gluten free SR flour. 

Parkrun rocks Riverside

You know when you see the faces of silver medallists.   

Note one second slower than my previous PB at Rocks Riverside.

 Mind you I'm now confused about parkrun PBs. It appears a person gets separate PB's for each location rather than a global PB. I will have to see if I can work out my global PB as a target for going forward. 

Rocks Riverside parkrun results for event #618. Your time was 00:35:04.

Congratulations on completing your 73rd parkrun and your 53rd at Rocks Riverside parkrun today. You finished in 394th place out of a field of 559 parkrunners. You were the 236th male and came 17th in your age category VM60-64. Take a look at this week's full set of results on our website. Your PB at Rocks Riverside parkrun remains 00:35:03. Congratulations on your fastest time this year.

Sweet Caroline's mum and Phoebe crossing the finish line. 

Erg#4 & Row

Wednesday 6 May

AM ROWING 

PM ERG

ROWING

Had what turned out to be a really good row.  Sarah coxed and I was stroke. A few less experienced rowers in the boat so the potential was there for a frustrating unstable row but it turned out to be surprisingly good. 

Traditional warm up in 4's.

Strikes on coxes call finish then

Hands then

Bodies then 

Half slide. 

Two rate builds 10 stroke steps of 2 points each and topped out at 30.

Turned around near sommerville. 

10 and later 15 on 20 off with a couple of city cat stops. 

Slow rating 13 power strokes from GPS to BGS rounded out the day. That last fun exercise is a welcome change to get a tired person home. 

For me, one noticeable nice aspect was that in the 20 off's, the boat sat up. I've been in much better boats where the offs were all over the place. That showed to me that everyone was focused.

ERG#4

After work another 5k job.  This time selected the fixed 5k simply to provide a bit of a comparison yard stick and a finish point.  

Did a 1k warm up and then walked around for 5 minutes. 

Then started at 30 seconds on 30 off but quickly changed that to 20 seconds on and 40 seconds off. 

Once I hit the 2500m mark,  I needed a change of focus so went back to just knocking it out at a reasonably constant pace. 

Weight stuck at 101kg.

Potentially more cardio 

#4. 20.57 6-May-2026 101.6kg

#3 21:17 26-APR-2026 @Centenary 101kg

#2 21:26. 22-Apr-2026 @home

#1 21:45 15-Apr-2026 @home

100.3kg

Happy Birthday Amy

Phoebe's kids came for dinner. 

Amy said she'd like Fish Taco's.  

Jai brought his BBQ and they cooked corn on the cob in its greenery. Hot with butter was very tasty. 

BIG day Tuesday

4am took mags for a run. 

Shower

Empty and reload dishwasher. 

4:50 coffee into Phoebe. 

Dress

5:10 depart

5:30 weights.

6:20 Shower.

Coffee with Crafty.  Discussed billy karts, lawn mowing and his mini restoration project.

7:10 depart West end

TODAY

gluten free sticky date. Shop.

Veggies and dips for work. 

Check on Tim and Ro.

UPDATE 

In the end, Ro called that Tim had a fall.  I went over for support and Tim was taken off to hospital. 

No sticky date. 

Did do the veggies and dip at work.

Aunty Margs Phone

4 MAY 2026

PROBLEM 

Only does 3 rings. 

INVESTIGATION 

For telstra land line, 

*9945#

Sets it to 45 seconds before it diverts to message bank.

SOLUTION

*9945#

gave 12 rings. 

the Kings speech

Pondering King Charles's speech to the US congress.

Perhaps democracy needs a regulator a bit like the "free market" needs a regulator.  

Maybe the English crown acts as a sort of regulator to the commonwealth democracies.  It seems to me that American democracy is missing such a regulator and so Trump is able to move into the space and exert disproportionate individual power.

State Masters Rowing Championships

SATURDAY 2 MAY

Masters and Championships in name only. 

The term "Masters" seems to somehow be synonomous with age rather than mastery of the sport and when it comes to Champions, it's essentially a competition between those who have put their hands up.  

Phoebe found a friend - Beesties girlfriend Linda.  It was Phoebe's 3rd regatta and Linda's first introction to the Grammarians.  They are both very people persons and mixed in easily chatting to many people. 

Phoebe spoke with a BBC fellow (a plumber) who had shared a eight with me in it years ago at Coomera. I later caught up with him.

FIRST RACE
I was subbed into a Dragons Quad.  These guys were a gun crew.  I was honored and at the same time felt woefuly inadequate.  They are old and very very fit.  They tell me they rate 34-38 and skip the boat along.  I would love to train with them.  We ended up in 4th place.  I was in 2 seat.
On the way up we did a great warm up.  6 strokes, legs only from half slide.  Then 6 strokes legs only transitioning to legs and bodies.  Then 6 strokes starting half slide and building to dull slide then bringing backs and then arms.  All at full tilt.  I dont have the memory quite right but it was fast and got the leg muscles warmed up and firing. 

DRAGONS/BRISBANE GRAMMARIANS
[F]
Our time: 3:37.65     +11.20 behind the winners.
    M.Wilkinson [DRC], A.Rettie [DRC], F.Thomson [BGRC], P.Mulrooney [DRC]
Coach: K.Phillips 

 

SECOND RACE
BRISBANE GRAMMARIANS   E8
Our Time: 3:45.11     33.48    +38.45 seconds behind first place
R.von Hoyer-Davies, R.Pym, B.Cribb, N.Alcorn, M.Medaris, G.Miller, F.Thomson, P.Prenzler, Cox: S.Sedgwick

Bow six had just done a race with only me and prenz swapping in.  I had just come off race 1 and felt beautifully warmed up.

 

THIRD RACE
Was after lunch. 

 BRISBANE GRAMMARIANS  Coxless F 4
Our Time      4:10.13        +17.50 seconds from first
 F.Thomson, S.Austin, S.Cleasby, A.Thorpe

 This race epitomised the both my feelings of being manifestly under prepared and the grammarians lack of organisation.  In the [2week] lead up to the regatta, I never once sat in any of the boats that I raced in and never once did a race sim.  Hardly any high rating work.  Did a tiny bit on the Friday just before the regatta and a nice row in a 4 several weeks earlier but in general I went in very under prepared and once again feeling [quite negative] that other had had much more preparation.

 

SCHEDULE
We were given a very good run sheet advising:
FRI  
6am de rig and load boats onto the trailer.  This included two coxed fours borrowed from BGS.
SATURDAY
6am   Rowers arrive Wyaralong
6:00-6:30   Trailer arrives having left Brisbane 4:30am
4:00PM Depart Wyaralong
5:30PM Meet west end to unload, wash and re rig.

 

In the end, Phoebe and I left about half an hour late and arrived around 6:30.  We snuck out early and I dropped phoebe home and had an hours rest before heading in for an earlier call of 5pm for unloading.