On Wednesday, March 30 a group of Canadian lightweight men will attempt to break the world record for team 100k on the erg. row2k chatted with one of the athletes, Tim Myers, on why they are attempting this record and what they've been doing to prepare themselves for it.

row2k - You and your teammates are going for the team relay 100k world record, how did you come up with this idea?
Tim Myers - We came up with the idea of the 100k world record as a way to increase our profile in the local sports community, raise awareness about our sport with local companies, and to raise money to offset some of the costs of being high performance athletes training full time. We were put in touch with a former Olympic boxing medallist from the '84 games, Dale Walters, who is helping us collect pledges as well as hosting the event at the Ringside Bar/Bentall Centre Athletic Club in Vancouver.

He asked if there were any world records we could go after and, after seeing the Danish guys break the 24 hour world record recently, the idea of attacking the 100k record as a team and the relay approach that we will take into our record attempt appealed to us. Since the World Championships in New Zealand, our lightweight group has been all about working together, pushing each other everyday, and training smart. Incorporating the world record attempt into our new training program has been a lot of fun and has brought us together as a group before things start getting geared up for the summer racing months.

row2k - Who all is doing the relay and what are their rowing backgrounds?
Tim Myers - There are 8 Canadian National Team lightweights attempting the record as a part of the 8 for '12 Challenge team. We all train full time at the Victoria Training Centre at Elk Lake under the guidance of Terry Paul and Kenny Wu. Mike Lewis headlines our team as a bronze medallist from the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the LM4-. Myself, Morgan Jarvis, and Terry McKall who all rowed with Mike in the LM4- this past year, 2010 Bronze Medallists in the LM2- Matt Jensen and Rares Crisan, and long time national team athletes John Sasi and Simon Gowdy are the core of the group. Due to a recent bout of the flu making its way through the group, we have recruited a local chiropractor named Derek Vinge as well as Zhongming Huang, 2006 World Champion in the LM4- from China who is now training with us, to round out the team.

row2k - Your team has spent some time practicing for this, what are some of the things you've been working on?
Tim Myers - We have been doing some specific world record preparation once a week during our strength/circuit workouts for the past couple of months. Our strength trainer, Cam Birtwell from the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence, has incorporated the relay style erg between weights and other conditioning exercises to help us get ready for the world record attempt. Our main focus has been on the transitions as one person rolls off the erg and the other grabs the handle and immediately starts working. We struggled with this a bit at first but after some helpful email tips from current heavyweight 100k world record holders in Britain and observing the Danes' transitions during their 24 hour world record on youtube, we have smoothed things out.

row2k - What sort of race plan do you have worked out?
Tim Myers - After figuring out optimal foot height, drag factor, and shift length over the past couple of months, our plan is to start aggressive to get the average under the 1:23.7 that we need to beat and then settle into a pace that will be more manageable for the 4 1/2 hours. Everyone will take about 10-12 strokes per turn and once fatigue starts to become a factor, we will have one or two guys take a longer recovery to refuel.

row2k - Do you have plans in place in case you fall behind pace?
Tim Myers - With supporters and media at the event cheering us on, we are hoping that this does not become an issue. We have had some pretty big botches during our shorter training sessions for the world record attempt and have always managed to keep it well under record pace. Even if we make a couple of mistakes in the middle of the piece, the average shouldn't be affected too much. We have found that when someone drops the handle or misses the seat it is faster for them to just roll off and have the next couple of guys take short, hard shifts to get things back on track.

row2k - Your using this as a fundraiser for your team, what are the details with this?
Tim Myers - With the help of Dale Walters who has raised close to $100,000 dollars for the Heart and Stroke Foundation by breaking the world record for consecutive double-under jumps with a skipping rope, we have encouraged family, friends, local companies, and anyone else wanting to support our world record attempt to make a 'per 100 stroke' pledge. We estimate that we will take somewhere in the range of 15,000 strokes so if someone were to make a $1 pledge, that would end up being a $150 total donation once we have completed the 100k. We are hoping to put the money we raise towards things like training camps, additional nutritional support, and everyday things like transportation and rent. Even though we receive tremendous support from organizations like the CAN Fund, Own the Podium, and Sport Canada, a couple of the guys have children and families, most of us have student loans, and all of us have Olympic aspirations that require a lot of financial support. Here is the link to our online pledge form for anybody that wants to support the 8 for '12 Challenge.

row2k - On to actual rowing, how is training for Bled going for yourself and teammates?
Tim Myers - Training for Bled is going very well for our lightweight group. Our high performance director has created an extremely positive environment for us to work in and every time we test, we are seeing gains that show us we are on the right track. Our coach Terry Paul has written an excellent training program that is making us into well-rounded athletes and is also preventing guys from missing extended periods of training because of injury. Over the winter months the emphasis was on maximizing the sessions on the water as well as doing some cross training like swimming, running, and x-country skiing. Now that the focus is shifting to the summer months and ultimately the World Championships in Slovenia, we are a stronger and more confident group.

row2k - What are your goals for this summer?
Tim Myers - Our goal is to qualify a LM4- and a LM2x for London. For the first time since Bent Jensen was coaching us, we all believe in what we are doing and are set up to improve on our performances from the past two years and become consistent A finalists. We are racing in competitive events and have work to do to match the pedigree of those countries that are on the top end but are finally taking the right steps to get there again.