S5E42: Live from HOCR 2024 - Gates & Collicott/TRC

Alright. And we're live, and we're back. Hello, Charles 2024. I have 2 new guests, and your names are?

John Collicott.

And Ken Gates. Alright. Texas Rowing Center.

Texas Rowing Center. So I'm a little partial because I also am a TRC, rower as well and a huge mega fan of the Texas women's rowing team. So what has you here have the Charles this year? What are you racing?

It's in director's challenge top, for the, men's squad.

Alright. Now did you win it last year? We didn't do it

last year.

We didn't do it last year. year. Yeah.

Oh, wow.

TRC has has entered the previous number of years and has always got very well top five finishes.

Okay.

No wins yet.

Okay. So you're gonna wanna change that, make it a win tomorrow. Yeah? Well, you stand a very strong chance. So, I have 2 very strong pedigree rowers with me right now. Ken, I want you to list some of your accomplishments because when it comes to crash Bs, you're the standard.

So Well,

I came to rowing kinda late. I started at 29 and, in by the time I got to be 55, I was more competitive. So I started

I started

going to crash bees at 50 years old. At 55, I won for the first time and I haven't lost since. So I've got 9 hammers.

That's amazing. Yeah. Now if memory serves me right, I remember we were at the YMCA one day, and you said there was some world record that you wanted to go after. And you said it's been on the books so long. They didn't even have a date on it.

There was a well, it was

a very old record. It was, it was for the one k.

Okay. And a 60 year old had never gone under 3 minutes

for a one k on the earth.

And 60 year old had never gone under 3 minutes for a one k on the earth. And at 56, I

was going, that's a piece of cake.

I'm gonna slot it. I'm gonna do a 255. And each year I got older, I got closer and closer.

You know,

at 57, I was at 257 and at 58 I was at 258 and then, and then it came time to do it when I was 60 and I I missed it the first time and I and I got it the second time. So it's I was the first 60 year old to get under 3 minutes for a one thing.

That is amazing. That that's phenomenal. Wow.

it hurt a lot.

But you will forever have that record. So, John, tell us tell us about you, Rowan, so you some of your background.

Yeah. Well, so it's kind of a a very different story book fans. I started running late 13th.

Okay.

I started off as very fortunate, the public western that I went to in the waterworks area.

Okay.

And, walked under that as as we all did back in the day, It, literally the first practice just after he bumped it. It was it was the the kind of rowing practice that everyone thinks about when they think of rowing. It's it's, terrible time of day. It's it's cold. It's raining. It's windy. You know, it's when you have wooden oars and wooden gunnels on the boats and when it tips, you crack your knuckles open, clean everywhere. I like the shotgun. This is this And

you loved it. Wow. So what are some of your successes that you've had since starting in Rowan?

Well, you know, being having started that early was great for me to give that that kind of perspective on not having to be fast right away. A lot of people start learning college and meetings is just difficult to Oh,

that's true.

Was just more participation. We were available for the guys' big team, but, again, a lot of boats because we're a very big team. So everyone got to to row, which was a good thing for me because I was 5 foot 2 and having £5 when I started

rowing. Wow.

So, you know, I wanted to row in college, but I also didn't wanna grow after college. Nice. Ended up going to to a university that was, had a very new rowing program that was only 4 years old when I got there. So k.

A lot

of buildings still

Yeah.

The program. And then when I got out of school, I worked full time for another 10 years.

Oh, wow.

So, a major program because it's very new. I had a lot of, you know, powerful going success stories, but wonderful opportunity to come out of the gateways here in Charles, back in the eighties

Okay.

Which was wonderful for for a team like that. And then when I graduate from the. Okay.

Alright.

Participated in in and participate in that next 2 work, for the next 10 years or so. Nice. To hit the sculling.

Okay. I did

a lot of everything. I had a wonderful career. I really, really enjoyed it. I I wish I was still racing and training at that level, but, you know, now I got Ken to push me on the earth. So Oh, yes.

Something's a rat Let me ask you this, Ken. What made you wanna start rolling?

People would come up to me and say, you look like this guy that rode it by college. And I figured there must be a type, and so I Yeah. Figured I'd try it.

Okay. So now are you from Texas?

No. I grew up in Colorado. Colorado Springs, so I grew up at elevation.

Okay. So did you start rowing in Colorado first before you came to Texas, or was it

once you I started rowing in Texas. Yeah. Okay. Austin Rowing Club, which was kinda the only choice at the time.

Yeah. Down the river. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. That's the kind of the the rival club now.

That's right.

So let me ask you this. The 3 biggest competitions you've ever raced in, same for you?

I wanna hear yours first. That's a that's a that's a good

that's a

I'm not even follow on answers to this.

Well, I I guess you gotta go with the whole trials. That's Alright. That's the biggest Okay. Most important, I

guess. What boat class?

So I raced in 96 in a quad. Oh, fun. And and back in the day, it was an open trials. One of the things I love about about Boeing is there's there's although there's some politics at the boathouse level, which, you know, sometimes people love or or hate depending on the Yes. Yes. Politics, but the racing is is democratic against. You know? You're a US citizen. You can enter trials. 1st motocross on our goes, absolutely lovely.

you

know, not quite fast enough. And and to to send the best for America, you're gonna have people that are fast that aren't going as well. That's true. That's right. Trials. Race them. There was the, Olympics sports festival of.

Yes. I know that. Yes.

Let's see. You're racing at altitude. It's hard. On a course, it was about 30 meters more water than the blue line. And so you get it down at the end, but you got these 4,000 foot peaks surrounding to have some amazing, you know, great courses on the west coast.

How about you, Kent?

You know, I think our first win in the in the quad, we had gone to Augusta, Georgia in 1993. Okay. And it we'd only rode together for 3 months, and we finished second in the in the a category.

And we thought, you

know, let's let's try harder at this. And we got the guy who had coached the women's, silver medal pair at the prior Olympics. And he worked with us for a year, and we went back to, Minneapolis the next year and won, in, like, 3:10. It was just a really fast boat. Fast.

That's amazing. So what would say how has rowing run lateral with your life? We always say with Ready Rode USA that rowing imitates life. So how could you tie in rowing with your life?

No. I I think it's it's it's an absolute wonderful reflection of life. I think it's, a great sport where you advance technically, you advance physiologically, put the work in, how do you get better? I think it's a great life for us.

I

was very fortunate because as a young person, and I'm 13, I'm still developing, figuring out who I am, what the world is, and and that sport like this, it it was so black and white, so easy. If you if you eat right, you sleep right, you put the time in on your your times get better. It's amazing. Right?

That's right. It doesn't matter. It's just

the point is you're constantly improving your passing getting better.

That's right.

That to me is a great example of of what rowing can out of can't let it, what it brings us to Mhmm.

How about the year?

Oh, I would say it's about learning. There's, you can do things the hard way and suffer a lot, or you can learn to do things the right way. And and I'm a slow learner so I spent 30 years learning how to do it off the hard way and now I've kinda figured out there's a way to move a boat that isn't quite as painful. The lights came on one day, I went, wait a minute. You guys are using your light. That hurts a lot less. So so that was, an important life lesson.

Alright. So if you were not in the sport of rowing but you were still competing, what would it be in?

Oh, I could answer the question for you. You would be on a bike. I think so. What what is the answer?

What? It

started when I was when I made it to swimmer. It definitely wouldn't be something like that. But, yeah, I can't get up and see myself cycling.

Okay. It'd be a waste of those quads if you weren't on a bicycle. Like, man's got huge legs.

How about you? You know,

I don't I can't think of another sport I would be competitive at. I the thing about rowing, it is the thing where you I had aerobic capacity and I had strength. Where else do you use that? Because as a big guy, if you wanna try to run distance, you're carrying a lot of weight around. Yeah. And that just wasn't that wasn't my thing. And I there was less of a penalty like, in sports for being too big.

Yeah. That's true. That is true. That's funny. I know for me, I came from track, but if it wasn't track, it would be tennis. Really? Yes. Love tennis. Love it. Now swimming, I like to watch it. Horrible at swimming. Just horrible. You

don't float. Oh.

I swim like a rock. Yeah. It's just it's something doesn't work right with my legs, and I just I hang like that for some reason. But, yeah, it's horrible. For you, since you all are still rowing at such a high level at the master's level, what does your normal week of training look like? When you're not together in the boats or separate but just in totality for a week, what would your week look like?

So my week looks the same every week unless there's interference by weather or something else.

And so

I you know, as I get older, I worry a little bit about AFIB.

Oh, yeah.

Because it is a real problem in the rowing community. It's a problem in the cross country skiing community. And so I try not to put 2 real intense heart rate workouts back to back.

Okay.

And so I row, you know, 3 times a week, space those out. Then typically, I'll weight lift one day a week. I'll swim one day a week. I'll do yoga one day a week. And then the 4th workout has ended up being on the erg. It was hill running, but we've got a group that gets together and it's a lot nicer to

erg together. Yeah. I think Steve Henry text me. We were texting. He said, yeah. I'm on my way to to, Ken's house

now to erg. Steve Steve Steve Steve's

an animal. Steve Henry. Yeah. Yeah. How about for you? What is your normal week of 20?

Like, I have very specific schedule that that I follow every single week. Mhmm. A little more, diversified to say than I am in terms of different activities. Okay. No. I'm I'm in her, or in a boat. She's made a week. Okay. There's always a lift, usually one day a week just to to to try to slow the decline as as much as I thought. Right.

And, you know, it's interesting that you mentioned that about Afib. Recently, there was a teammate who lost a teammate in the boat. They were racing, and we had a cardiac event right there in the boat. I just I it's interesting that you mentioned that because we had a elite grower, from Cuba on Euphoria who passed away. He's 35.

Oh, I

didn't know.

Yeah. He was, silver medalist of world championships in Salem, Olympic medalist Olympic finalist, I should say, or multiple world championship medalist. And, it's funny that you mentioned that. Any advice for those who are listening who say, hey. I don't even think about that. Anything that you might wanna mention or give a tidbit of advice regarding that?

In terms of a cardiac event? Well, just in general, just like

you were saying in mentioning it about training to not have, multiple, high rating or high intensity.

No. I think about this a lot. What the joke I I make about how people say, how do you succeed as a master's rower? Don't get sick and don't die. That's that's the way. And so but there's some truth behind that, and so you train smarter. You train for maybe resilience rather than maximum performance.

So I

switched from weight lifting to to doing stretchy bands because the risk of getting injured is so much less with those, and I still feel like I'm getting the same amount of work. And then I do those other things, so I have days off that I'm not pushing myself physically to the edge where injury might occur. So so don't get hurt and don't die.

Yeah. I'm I'm taking notes for myself as well because I like to do a lot of longer steady state work. Would that be a good thing to do rather than trying to just go so hard? I don't really like doing hard, intense things a lot. I like the more long, drawn out, plus I like the endorphins.

Well, almost everybody migrates to a longer distance as they age, and the reason for that is the way your body changes. But I think you have to push back against that a little bit because your your natural tendency is to atrophy as you age. It's really tough to maintain your muscle mass, and so I recommend that you do that because it's primarily for injury prevention. If you surround stuff with enough muscle, it's less likely to tear loose or tear off.

Love it. I like that. Yeah. That's wonderful. How about you, John?

No. I mean, all the all the things that are just kinda prevents the most of it, I think. Right. You mentioned this. The the older you get, whether you're gonna do your hard pieces or whether it's stretchy bands or lifting Yes.

And you

don't have to tough it out. What's going on in a practice and you start to know this isn't right, it's okay. We're not training for the big trials anymore. Right? So it's just something that

this is a lot of fun and.

That's right. What becomes more and more fun is to continue to do this longer and longer.

This is what he comes for more and more clients to continue to do this longer and longer. We thought all about what am I

doing next month or, you know, it's part.

This is being so modest. He did he just did a 30 minute piece and held a 1 45 pace for all but the last minute of a of a 30 minute piece. It's nuts. He's an incredible athlete.

Straight through nonstop?

145 for 30 minutes.

Really? That's impressive.

That is impressive.

That is very impressive. You have college kids who can't do that.

Right.

Wow. That's amazing. Okay. Right on. So Charles is here. Season's almost done. What are your plans on the horizon for the 2025 season? You're doing 145 for 30 minutes. There's something you have planned for next year.

Well, my first my first plan is to lose the Napoleon million meters challenge. That's that's what I do every year is I lose the Napoleon million meters challenge. So I'm I'm gonna do that first.

Oh, lord. So the Texas center during the the holiday time to keep people motivated kind of do that December month or next year. There's a million meters challenge that it starts, how many, but 10 weeks or 11 weeks?

11 weeks. 12 weeks.

12 weeks. Okay.

And everyone sends in, everybody beats their meters. And, the 1st year they did this, I don't know, 6, 7, 8 years ago, something like that.

Well, about 6 years ago. Okay.

And,

and and by about week 3, you've been It's over. It's over. Not even more.

In 12 weeks well, the 1st year, I did 3.1. And then I the next year, I I pulled back some because I felt really burned out. But then when COVID hit, I had nothing to do. So I decided I'm gonna send this thing through the moon, and I did 5 years. Wow. It was ridiculous. I was doing 80 k a day sometimes. This is her. And I started thinking about, what am I doing this much? What this is crazy.

But to answer your question seriously, he turns 55 this year. I turn 65 this year.

Oh, wow.

So it's

a whole new shot at the ERG records.

That's right.

And there's 3 or 4 that are hard that are in within reach. The the record for 1 k is 305 and change.

Oh, you can't.

Well, maybe. We'll see.

And then the

the d

k record's 633.

Okay.

The 4 minute record's a 137 and a half pace. So they're all kinda within range if you really wanna suffer, so maybe. And then John's been destroying everything on the dynamic.

Oh, yeah. You're doing it. Oh, yeah. I like the dynamic. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny that you mentioned all those meters because, doing all those meters, I ended up becoming, named one of the ambassadors for Constant 2.

Oh, I bet.

So they sent me a a erg and some other things. So I love that. So when you do crash bees, they are using Constant 2.

Yep. Right.

Right. And you are you doing the dynamic? Is it on a Constant 2 dynamic? That's what I thought. Okay. That's a hard one. That's a little bit more of a catch timing too. It just

Well, I think it's really great, a simulator for growing. Yeah. It, it it makes you think a little bit more about the stroke. It's not just as much, you know, to catch the catch and then move all the way back.

That's right. I love that. That that's amazing.

So getting to the group together. They remember, a 5 years ago. We got a bunch of people overfit altogether. Yeah.

We're

not doing that again. We're never doing that again. We are never

never 24 hour

We're never doing that again.

Was it a 24 hour roll or herb? What

was it? A thon? What was the team? What was the team? Yes. Great experiences and growing for me. And, I still I remember about 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock in the morning. I can't remember who it was. Someone had woke up from a little, you know, 10 minute micron app, and

and he

said, I keep having the same recurring nightmare. I have to wake up and do a 3 minute Earthbeat. I don't know how to talk again. Oh, wow.

That was awful.

So maybe we'll

Hey. That that's amazing. I wanna ask you this. If you could go back in time and speak to your 21 year old son, what would you say to 21 year old Ken and 21 year old John?

Oh, that's easy. I would say learn to row first and don't pull a hard stroke for, like, the first year. Right? Because I got on there, I'm banging away and I was banging away in the boat and it took years to figure out that I was working too hard. And I'd say don't take a hard stroke till you get the muscle memory written correctly.

they can.

And then you write really bad habits into your muscle memory. You're just stuck with them.

I think it's 21. At that point, I kind of, established, you know, my point of throwing that life before. And I would just to that that younger version of myself, yeah, stick with it. It's it's all wonderful. It's all awesome. You know,

it's it's all awesome. You know, it's it's all awesome. You know, it's it's all awesome. You know, it's it's all awesome. You know, it goes down so everybody does, but it's, you

know, persevere. That's That's right. It's worth it.

Lovely. Because I've been coaching the, UT crew, the men and the women, and they're racing here. And I really, really adore them. Mhmm. And those athletes give their all. But I love to hear this advice because this is something that I could pass on to them. Because, you know, if they hear from me, okay, man. That's been coached. But if they hear from someone else and I'm telling some of these guys, hey. You're not wrong.

Say, like that is trust the process. Absolutely. It is nobody's ever gone from August to Olympia and then we right?

That's right.

It is a process, and there is a It is a process and then we say, just people pay

off for the hard work and sticking out and doing the same thing week

after week and I'm sure for all the people interviewing in your group, the same thing. Yes, ma'am. It is a process

and you're right to

work until you get the results. That's right. But being

patient. Okay. Now switching gears a little bit. What's a fun fact, something quirky about you that most people wouldn't know?

I'm pretty transparent. I don't I don't have any skeletons. I just am what I am.

Okay. So it's gotta be something. Like, for example, I am a huge outfit Scott adic. Real. And I love the Twilight Zone. Yeah.

Right.

I'm I am a I'm addicted to those older shows.

Yeah.

I just love them. Because they're brand new to me.

So, you

know, they're reruns. I can't get enough of them. I can watch them over and over again. So that's one of my kinda weird things that I like.

Just that they feel like that's taking so much time to a sport. That's cool. You don't have to stay there. Yeah. And you love the feeling, you know, when you do it, you know, to to the level that that we're committing time. You don't have a lot of time for other quick This is true.

This is true. I'm I'm finding myself. I'm eating while I'm watching those shows, and it is time to go to bed.

Right. Right.

Because I

was picking Sam and Old Man because I'm in bed by 8, 8:30. Mhmm. Yeah. I go to bed. I I want my sleep. You know? I've just always been that way. But, I just really appreciate you all coming in today, taking the time to Yeah. Meet with me and talk about rowing, what we all love so much. And I'm wishing you the absolute very best tomorrow in your race for the director's challenge.

Thank you. Thank you

again. Yes.

And it's the start of the Napoleon millimeter challenge.

Oh, god. Not yet. So I'm debating whether or not I'm gonna do it this year.

Oh, no.

I really am. Really? I've I've applicating I've been saying that for about 3 years now, and every year I get pulled into it. I don't know. I like the meters. I like the endorphins, but I do I wanna do 200 plus or 200 k a week. I don't know. We'll see.

Good luck.

Yeah. I'm I'm thinking about maybe I should give my body a break because this would be the 7th year doing that.

Wow.

So I think in, like, okay, 6 years is nice, but rest of it. So yeah. Well, alright. Thank you again, and you have a great rest of the regatta. Thank you for coming

out. Alright.

Take care. Alright. Bye bye. Oh, I can see you through my peripheral vision. I miss nothing.

Thanks. That was fun.

Thank you so much. You gotta kill that bull over here. Over here.