17min chapter

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From Pain Cave to Podium: Fintan McCarthy's Rowing Journey to Gold

WHOOP Podcast

CHAPTER

Rowing Dynamics and Teamwork

This chapter explores the intricacies of teamwork in competitive rowing, focusing on the testing of pair combinations for optimal performance. It delves into race strategies, synchronization between teammates, and the importance of communication, particularly in high-pressure situations. The discussion also touches on recovery practices, the emotional experience of winning, and the implications of changes in rowing divisions for future competitions.

00:00
Speaker 1
So
Speaker 2
you and your brother would compete against him and his brother? Yeah yeah yeah. And then at some point you sort of said like well maybe we should team up. Yeah we
Speaker 1
should have a look and kind of open things up and see if we could find maybe a quicker combination. And that's how it works. And how
Speaker 2
do you test something like that? You know, is it like an F1 driver getting into a car and it's like you go around the race and the car's a little faster than before? Yeah,
Speaker 1
basically. So there was four of us, right? So we have two doubles and we'll have two guys race against the other two guys. And then we'll come in and swap, race again, and then swap again. So you, you will have rode with each of the other guys. And then all that, you know, you take all that data. You can do it a load of different ways. You can pick whoever went fastest, but that is sometimes not the best because it's an outdoor sport. So all the conditions are variable. So basically all those things get taken into account and compared and the coach then decides what the best two guys for the job are. And then you go to competitions. Now
Speaker 2
there's some aspect of like, I mean, you tell me, but there's some aspect of like learning how your partner rose isn't there or yeah becoming in sync yeah
Speaker 1
so couldn't
Speaker 2
some of that be a little misleading it's like if the two thoroughbreds haven't figured out how to row together they might not actually look as optimal on paper yeah
Speaker 1
yeah exactly but it it's nearly a bonus if they're still going fast while not looking great because then there's improvements that can be made.
Speaker 2
So you'll also have some kind of video analysis or just your coach's eye will be like, okay, I can tell that the form wasn't perfect, but you still had this speed.
Speaker 1
would come down to biomechanics in terms of like how the boat moves when the two guys are in it but also what you're doing in the boat so you look at like forces on the on the gate which is where the the oar sits in the boat you look at like stretcher forces so how much force you're putting through your feet how much is going through the gate um and yeah it's you you can you can look at all that stuff too now
Speaker 2
would you and paul talk to each other before races about how each of you are feeling and this and that or is it just sort of like hey i assume you're great let's go do yeah that's
Speaker 1
pretty much it like it's pretty chill i think it can get over complicated sometimes and um we might take it too far in terms of like we don't usually have a plan we kind of just react to what's going on in the race but i think because we do so much training together and we've raced together so many times before um we usually will come to the same conclusion within races um without having to without having to say anything and i can sort of feel i can feel what he's doing he can feel what i'm doing so if there there actually doesn't need to be that much communication between us whereas it's different for you know it's different for different crews but i think for us yeah it's pretty straightforward what
Speaker 2
would be something in the race that you would be reacting to it
Speaker 1
would be maybe conditions so if there's some wind that we weren't expecting, or if they're, you know, a competitor does something completely different. Like
Speaker 2
they come out faster
Speaker 1
or something. Yeah. So usually, because you can't affect what anyone else is doing, we're quite internal. And the best way to go fast and wrong is just focus on yourself and try and get from the start to finish as quick as you can. But there are some tactics, I guess, for us. We try and do a lot of work in the middle and the end of the race and not start too hard, just so, you know, we're coming into the line at, like, top speed. But some of our competitors sometimes will go off quite hard, because in rowing, you can see who you're beating. If you get ahead, then you can see everyone ahead of you and sort of watch them make moves and try and stay on top of them. So I think psychologically, that's something that a lot of our big rivals go for. So like this, Swiss and the Italians usually have a pretty good start in there. Our sort of biggest rivals, the Greeks as well, had a really good start in the Olympics. And we're usually known for being a bit slower out of the block. That would be something that we wouldn't take too much notice of, but just be aware of. You know, you don't want someone going ahead and then all of a sudden they're two or three lengths off and you don't know what's an interesting point
Speaker 2
about if you're in first you can see where everyone is behind you i mean it's the only i'm trying to think of another sport where your back is to the finish line yeah
Speaker 1
i
Speaker 2
mean it's sort of a funny concept of itself so it's why it's interesting thinking about how you uh position yourself throughout a race or how you know when to push harder now will you ever speak during the race yeah
Speaker 1
sometimes um but it's just words you know you can't really go or now or something like usually it might be provocative good good yeah i'm just like we're good we don't really need to you just feel okay yeah but i just like to let paul know that i'm there with him and he can he can go and i'll i'll be there and if if i don't say good then he'll he might know to just keep it steady to the finish um but yeah i i like saying stuff like that i don't know if you'd call it adrenaline but from saying stuff like that, you get sort of an emotional reaction even. Like if I say even to myself, like we're good, this is good, it kind of triggers something in my brain anyway, and it'll sort of help. And, you know, it's a bit of a distraction for 10 strokes anyway, so I don't have to count those ones.
Speaker 2
You don't have to count those. Yeah.
Speaker 1
Now,
Speaker 2
I think this is an obvious question, but if you're pushing at a slightly different intensity than Paul, will that affect the boat? Like, would it affect the form?
Speaker 1
If it was, like, drastically different, then yeah. But, you know, I think if we're in, you know if we're in maybe 20 or 30 watts of each other it won't be it won't be too bad just the main thing is to move move together move together yeah and usually that won't be affected too much because we're both going as hard as we can in a race so there's not too much difference the issue there comes when, you know, one of us might have gone a bit too hard at a certain point in the race and not have enough gas at the end of the race to finish. And that's when the discrepancies in power comes and you can start falling apart. And sometimes you see crews totally just lose it in the last 10 because they've spent all their energy or someone has. So it can be tough to manage, but I think because we're so well drilled at this point. And yeah, we know ourselves so well. I don't think that's happened to us in a long time.
Speaker 2
At the end of one of the interim races or like the semifinal, would you and Paul like post-game it and be like, oh, I felt good at this point or not so good at this point yeah or is it again just sort of it happened yeah
Speaker 1
yeah no a lot of the time um i remember after a semi-final we were both pretty excited about going into the final because it felt really good yeah yeah and feeling it's when you're at the top of your your like physical peak and your condition you really feel it and you can feel you can feel a difference from other races and we we got through that semi-final and we kind of both said to each other how excited we were to get going because we didn't need to dig into the our energy reserves to to win and we won that semi-final by quite a lot against the Swiss guys who had actually beat us a couple of weeks before well not a couple of weeks I think it was six maybe six weeks before so I think that was just like we were just proud in our training block and the fact that we got it right and we were able to turn that turn that around so when we do kind of dissect it and post-game it like that, it's usually to do with what we did coming into it and whether we need to include that again or leave it out. And then during the race, yeah, it kind of just happens, I think. Did you almost follow
Speaker 2
the same exact routine for the final race as you did for the semiffinal given how good you felt yeah
Speaker 1
but um we actually would have dropped maybe one session so because the race is a week long or the regatta is a week long yeah um we try hit the earlier rounds a small bit fatigued so that when we start resting and peaking, we can peak for the finals. So we're still doing some pretty unusual sessions in terms of intensity in between our racing, which I think might be something that I don't know if other teams do that. What
Speaker 2
would be an example of an unusual session? I
Speaker 1
don't want to give away all our secrets here, but we're hitting quite high intensities in between races. So we'll go into, you know, zone three or four session in between races sometimes. Not a full one. You know, you won't be getting into like the 60 minutes of work, but yeah, substantial amount, given that like it's a race week.
Speaker 2
And a workout like that will have some lactic acid buildup in your body. How do you find the most effective way to flush that? I
Speaker 1
think it's just cooling down properly, right? Like you have to spend the time checking for one, because I think a lot of people will do the sessions and you think, oh, that was really good, that was great. But you're trying to train your body to deal with lactate and to clear it. So part of that learning how to clear it is doing those cooldowns and measuring, because there's no point doing it and then being cooked for the race the next day. So you do need to just learn how to fuel during and after so that you recover and benefit from those sessions. I don't think you can get around clearing lactate without doing that sort of whatever it is, 10 or 15 minutes of low intensity. Like there's no other way I found of clearing it. like you can't sit in an ice bath or sit in recovery groups like it'll still be there
Speaker 2
yeah you find you have to do like the the cool down workout yeah or exercise and will you do a cold plunge or anything like that
Speaker 1
yeah yeah we usually it would be after uh a sweat down before the race so that you're not going into the race with your core temp you know so elevated and
Speaker 2
this is the day before this
Speaker 1
is the morning of morning of you do a cold punch yeah yeah two hours well it won't it'd be more than two hours before because we weigh in two hours before but yeah pretty early on the day of the race that's
Speaker 2
interesting is that common amongst the sport that's something you do i
Speaker 1
don't know um i think cold plunging is common but the timing of it will will be different i think a lot of people go after as well to to to bring the the temperature down now
Speaker 2
will you do cold plunging after training sessions or not not
Speaker 1
usually Maybe more heat stuff after training. It's interesting. A lot of the research
Speaker 2
is showing that inflammation actually has a benefit to gains. And so if you're taking a cold plunge, you're actually obviously suppressing that inflammation. And there's some evidence as well that taking a cold plunge before exercise or before weightlifting in particular can boost the effect oh really yeah i didn't even know that and so maybe you've already been a step out ahead of this without realizing it yeah
Speaker 1
but it is an interesting piece sometimes you do want that obviously during during racing you want less inflammation but you actually need the inflammation to to get better and make the gains from training so um yeah during during training i try and avoid that stuff you try to avoid
Speaker 2
cold plunge but you'll stay warm yeah yeah yeah which just to say is not necessarily conventional wisdom in a variety of sports like a lot of sports will encourage you to do cold plunging after our training yeah
Speaker 1
so
Speaker 2
uh anyway the scientific research is still out what's the feeling of winning a gold medal a
Speaker 1
lot of relief to be honest yeah i think a good thing crossing the line is the best part. It's not the perfect race, but, you know, pretty good race. You have to have a pretty good race to win an Olympics. And the feeling of doing that and being the best in your sport, it's obviously really rewarding. Like, I don't know how else to describe it. Like, emotionally and physically. I hope everyone has something in their lives that you can feel that way from, because it is really cool. And then the rest of it is kind of, it's just nice to see your family and see the national anthem. And you feel proud um but definitely crossing the line is is the best part i think if
Speaker 2
i'm not mistaken the the lightweight division is not going to be in 2028 yeah
Speaker 1
yeah yeah i think it's it's been taken removed from the olympic program like indefinitely now yeah so kind of
Speaker 2
piss you off? I mean, or you're over it?
Speaker 1
Yeah, I'm over it now. Like I've got two in the lightweight category. So I think that's plenty. But I think the idea behind it was to make the sport a bit more inclusive because traditionally there's been a lot of, you know, tall guys who get sort of i guess talent id'd and and and they generally are better at rowing because you know longer levers and yeah and all that stuff but now i think maybe one of the reasons that the event got cut is because we are getting pretty close to the to the heavyweight guys and when you talk even to other countries you talk about we train against our heavyweight double a lot and all other countries will and you know the differences aren't aren't huge and we do beat our guys sometimes which
Speaker 2
is amazing yeah
Speaker 1
yeah yeah there's a lot of opportunity to to explore what actually works for those people who don't have as you know the height advantage um which you don't
Speaker 2
have, just to say. Yeah, yeah. Disclaimer.
Speaker 1
I'm not tall. Yeah. Yeah. So it is a cool opportunity to kind of try and find ways around that, whether it's like fitness or strength or setting up the boat in a different way. Yeah, excited to try and find some hacks.
Speaker 2
So what do you think you're going to do for 2028?
Speaker 1
I really like the double as an event. Like it's pretty personal. You know, there's two people and it's a lot easier to manage than than bigger boats but it does depend on one what the coaches want to do so you kind of just have to show up and go your fastest and then hopefully that will put you in a good position to to win olympic medal yeah so
Speaker 2
you you kind of hand the keys over to the coaches yeah
Speaker 1
in a sense yeah and they'll they'll different combinations and different bolts. They just go with what is probably going to have the best chance at an Olympic medal. Well,
Speaker 2
this has been fascinating, Fintan, and I'm stoked for you that you've got two gold medals now. What should we know about these medals that we're looking at on the desk?
Speaker 1
Oh, I think they probably passed through like thousands of grubby hands
Speaker 2
of the boat. I see this one's got a few dings on it. Can I take a look at this? Yeah, yeah, have a look. I
Speaker 1
think they're both probably pretty banged off at this point. But... I will
Speaker 2
say I don't feel worthy holding this. It's like it feels like it should just be in your possession at all times. Oh, no, I think it's nice. One thing that you realize is they're really heavy.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. I think they – I mean, this
Speaker 2
is heavy. Like I feel some weight to it. I think they're both – am
Speaker 1
I right in saying a pound? Is that like 600 grams maybe? That sounds like
Speaker 2
– I mean, this actually feels like it weighs more than a pound.
Speaker 1
Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2
1.3 pounds.

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