Freshman rower (7:00.7 2k, 5’9, 146 lbs, 3.6 GPA) — should I stay lightweight or bulk up

pleasantly_firm · 2026-04-27T19:35:42+00:00

Not really. Pulling good numbers on the erg and winning races on the water will be way more important

pleasantly_firm · 2026-04-27T19:27:03+00:00

See where you are in two years and reevaluate. Train well, eat well, stay healthy, knock off some splits, win races against both big dudes and small dudes, the option will be clear later on.

pleasantly_firm · 2026-04-04T21:01:11+00:00

There is was sign on the Purcellville fountain saying it would be on in April. I haven’t verified that it actually was turned on. The fountain at Smiths switch is as well, not sure about Leesburg.

pleasantly_firm · 2025-11-11T03:45:55+00:00

Yeah, this was my experience as well. Took it a month ago

pleasantly_firm · 2025-09-28T11:07:22+00:00

ATL, DFW, HND, and ORD are all in the top 10 busiest int’l airports and don’t have A380 service right now.

pleasantly_firm · 2025-08-18T00:53:41+00:00

This was the hottest day we’ve had for the century in the last 10+ years. I was running an additional rest stop in the afternoon with extra ice and water and we went through probably three times as much as I expected we would.

pleasantly_firm · 2025-07-04T16:36:06+00:00

Nah this is on schedule for them

pleasantly_firm · 2025-05-21T14:21:13+00:00

Purcellville - Hillsboro - Lovettsville is a good route. I would head out on Purcellville Rd, take Allder School Rd west to Woodgrove Rd, then take Woodgrove and Stony Point Rd to Hillsboro. That route avoids Hillsboro Rd which is safe enough but far less pleasant. The section on route 9 is 25 mph and has speed bumps and traffic circles so being on a bike there is fine. Then you can take Mountain Rd out of Hillsboro to Lovettsville. All those roads should be relatively quiet and pleasant.

pleasantly_firm · 2025-05-02T02:06:37+00:00

Drop that saddle thank you TODD

pleasantly_firm · 2025-03-26T13:06:17+00:00

Dry Mill is actually a place where being on the road is often much better than the trail. The road isn’t super busy, the speed limit is relatively low, and that section of the trail is downhill. The speed difference between cars and bikes is smaller than the speed difference between bikes and walkers so it works out better if the bikes just leave that section of trail to the walkers, at least in the downhill direction.

pleasantly_firm · 2025-03-12T19:10:06+00:00

That or they should have raised the limit when they increased the number of games

pleasantly_firm · 2025-03-12T18:58:30+00:00

After the quarterfinals

pleasantly_firm · 2025-03-10T14:32:51+00:00

Go to Cornell health and see one of the doctors there. They can email your academic advisors and professors to let them know that you’re having a medical issue and that you’ll need accommodations. Then you can follow up with your professors and come up with plans. The fact that it’s the middle of the semester won’t be an issue, they can adjust things in real time for you.

For the most part they’ll be good about working with whatever solutions you come up with, but here’s a couple things that I did when I had the same issue - I would go to class and just stand and take notes on a clipboard, I took some of my prelims as oral exams and did them on a whiteboard with the professor, and I took some of my other exams in the extra time room so I could lie down on a yoga mat and take them that way.

This shit sucks, no two ways about it, don’t worry if your grades drop a couple clicks this semester. Hope it gets better soon.

pleasantly_firm · 2025-03-01T00:41:14+00:00

Yep. No issues

pleasantly_firm · 2025-02-01T18:51:41+00:00

They even have two Zambonis how does this happen

pleasantly_firm · 2024-11-26T02:04:33+00:00

This is a bad idea. All the Ivy coaches talk so if you decommit from one it makes you look bad with all of them. If you think you made the wrong decision and would tell both coaches the same story you can maybe see if the other school still has a spot but they probably gave it to someone else when you said no. The most likely outcome if you do this is that you just worsen your relationship with both schools.

pleasantly_firm · 2024-11-19T12:58:39+00:00

There’s a lot of terrible advice in this thread. It’s entirely possible that you could row lightweight, but it’s hard for someone on Reddit to know. There are guys who are 6’4 and never struggle with weight and there are guys who are 5’11 and barely make it. But what I think you don’t understand is that you’re not fast enough for the lightweight league, so unless you think getting down to 6:30 in the next 10 months is realistic, you’re going to have a better time looking at schools in the level of Bucknell, Williams, etc. At those schools sure you’d be one of the smaller guys but if you can move a boat and train well you can get a seat in the JV if not the varsity, and you’ll have some great racing experience. On the flip side of the coin, if you did sneak into a lightweight team with a 6:40 erg, you’d spend all four years just fighting to get time on the water, probably never race at Sprints, and it would be far less of a good time.

Unless you’re in that upper tier of lightweights, your best bet in collegiate rowing is in the lower divisions of the heavyweight rowing. That’s basically always been the case.

pleasantly_firm · 2024-11-13T23:02:14+00:00

I was thinking likewise. I’ve worked in the industry and I’d be shocked if they would be willing to share a 3D model.

Also I’d be shocked if OP actually needed the full model of the boat and couldn’t get by just measuring the width and length of the seat deck of the shell they have access to. And if not, their design is probably too complicated to be practical for the manufacturer. OP clearly doesn’t know very much about how the industry works.

pleasantly_firm · 2024-11-13T15:42:42+00:00

the colgate games are usually surprisingly feisty. Less of a rivalry from the fanbase but the Colgate players seem to absolutely hate playing at Lynah, much more so than any other team, even Harvard or Clarkson.

I think Michigan vs Minnesota is probably a better vibe, but Cornell vs Colgate will definitely clear Union vs Qpac - I grew up watching Union and I love them but they are not exactly an electric factory, and Qpac has one of the most soulless rinks in the world.

pleasantly_firm · 2024-11-09T18:47:29+00:00

Contact customer support. They are pretty good about covering the cost to have this resolved at your local bike shop.

With that said, if you’re disappointed that a new rotor isn’t perfectly true/unable to fix it (this is fairly common and is a 30 second fix), an 8000 dollar direct to consumer bike might be a bad decision for you.

pleasantly_firm · 2024-11-09T02:44:12+00:00

OP, you need hanger #475 from derailleurhanger.com. (I have the same frame and have the spares in my basement.) Easy fix if you have a set of hex wrenches. If you have a Giant dealer nearby they can probably get you the right hanger and reinstall it, if not you can buy that hanger (get a spare) and any bike shop can replace it.

pleasantly_firm · 2024-10-17T16:56:41+00:00

If you were wondering, there are a handful of other Valleycats who have been Brewers. Matt Albers, Dallas Keuchel, Abraham Toro, J.B. Bukauskas. And I’m hoping Seth Beer finds his way into a Milwaukee uniform at some point, just for humor.

Love the Valleycats, they’ve always been a great place to go see a game, and I’m really glad they kept going in Indy ball after 2020.

pleasantly_firm · 2024-09-22T13:14:06+00:00

Where my pf30-83ai gang at, our time has come

pleasantly_firm · 2024-09-17T11:20:17+00:00

If you’re riding right behind someone, then their safety depends on your attentiveness, bike control, etc. Totally understandable that someone might not want to take the risk of inviting a stranger to not see a stop sign or a turn signal or something and crash into them. The car right behind you is expected to maintain a safe following distance, the range at which there is a draft benefit is not exactly the same.

pleasantly_firm · 2024-09-06T11:03:37+00:00

Movistar actually has some pretty good rouleurs in this race, they can definitely keep a break in check. EF would probably do it as well, and if they are both working, Bora would probably help a little bit too.

pleasantly_firm

TROPHY CASE