Eric Murray
RowingChat is really delighted to be interviewing half of the world famous Kiwi Pair, Eric Murray. Recently retired Eric and Hamish Bond 
enjoyed one of the longest runs of consecutive international wins at World Championships and Olympic games ever for endurance athletes.
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Timestamps to the show
1:00 Introduction and background in rowing
2:00 The 2004 Olympics when I made the final. Beijing 2008 we dead heated in the semi-final. We didn’t know how to replicate our 2007 success.
07:00 How Hamish and I decided to do the pair. I would have loved to see what we could have done against George Bridgwater and Nathan Twaddle
09:00 Hamish ad I are buddies – you have to have trust
11:00 I am optimistic, Hamish is pessimistic and perfectionist.
16:00 Have you ever lost it completely in a boat?
18:00 Who is your most influential coach? Chris Nilsson has a sense of boat feel, Noel Donaldson – we’ve had a great collaboration with him
21:00 Dan Plews physiologist worked with us. A rowing programme is a one-year experiment.
27:00 Being the new boy in the group. Respect your elders. There’s an element of fear
31:00 “Last man standing” 500m on and 250m off
34:00 How Dick Tonks will go in Canada
39:00 Strong leg drive – hanging under your armpits
40:00 Mental preparation – normal training will suck, so get used to it. Get rid of your superstitions. Be flexible.
42:00 How to get a better erg time – do more ergs. If you can train at 80% of your race speed consistently, you only have to increase it by 15-20% to hit race pace.
44:00 I didn’t keep a training diary but I have got a list of my 2k times over the years
45:00 You cna spend too much time on an erg. 90 minutes and your output reduces to survive.
46:00 Our average daily distance is 36-40 km
48:00 Do you do weight lifting? In 2010 we stopped. Before that we did lots. We did band work, plyometrics. Dick Tonks said we will go faster by being fitter rather than being stronger. We still did core work.
51:00 I’ve been lucky not to get badly injured
53:00 Why didn’t you go round in circles? Hamish pushed 350 watts in mid race, his power was more than I could product – but I could pull him round at the start and finish. So I had the steering and used it a bit. We were slightly out of tine in our power application. The stern fishtailed a bit.
57:00 How to get to the Olympics – ergs – be quick.
58:00 What do you do in a 2k when you think you’re dying? Breathe. Start on your target number and use rating to hit the number. Listen to the machine, am I rowing coherently?61:00 Synek does short intensive workouts. What works for different people is different.
63:00 Transitioning out of sport. I worked before I rowed professionally. I now do sales for the Laszlo Boats team.
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