LUNA-TICS TEAM ROOM: Year-round "Looney" fun.

[Jodi]

So let me make sure that I have this right. You guys are saying that if I up my damper setting I should be able to increase my 500m time? Does it really work that way? Before I give this distance another go I just want to be sure to get the best possible time out of it because it was an ass kicker at my usual damper setting of 3.5! (Sorry if anyone’s offended by that).
Strange how much this distance intimidates me and makes me feel like a rookie rower. I’d rather do a 6,000m row any day of the week. But I feel like I have to try, for myself, just to know that I gave it my best effort.
And I admit that I want to see the Eagle soar higher in the Women’s ratings.

Well, I did cut my time by 3 seconds with the damper setting at 9, resulting in a record breaking row for me at that distance, beating my best of 7 years ago . That's the good news. The bad news is that immediately following the completion of the row, I got a massive pounding migraine. Needless to say I've logged the distance 3 times this week and I won't be attempting to improve on my 2:10.7 time any time soon.
I would rather row a 2 hour half marathon than a 2 minute 500m any day of the week! Kudos to those Olympians who do this on a regular basis, but my guess is that they can't see the 60 year mark over the horizon, so all the more kudos to us loyal Luna-tics who do this for the fun of it. (Which, by the way, "fun" is the last thing I would ever consider the 500m row to be). And if you need some fast paced music to do your 500m row to then check out Swedish House Mafia's song "Greyhound" It pushed me to go faster, maybe it will help you too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3XlIQ5pmdQ

[TallErgs]

Well, I did cut my time by 3 seconds with the damper setting at 9, resulting in a record breaking row for me at that distance, beating my best of 7 years ago . That's the good news. The bad news is that immediately following the completion of the row, I got a massive pounding migraine. Needless to say I've logged the distance 3 times this week and I won't be attempting to improve on my 2:10.7 time any time soon.
I would rather row a 2 hour half marathon than a 2 minute 500m any day of the week! Kudos to those Olympians who do this on a regular basis, but my guess is that they can't see the 60 year mark over the horizon, so all the more kudos to us loyal Luna-tics who do this for the fun of it. (Which, by the way, "fun" is the last thing I would ever consider the 500m row to be). And if you need some fast paced music to do your 500m row to then check out Swedish House Mafia's song "Greyhound" It pushed me to go faster, maybe it will help you too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3XlIQ5pmdQ

3 seconds, nice! I liked the song you linked! I've been listening to a Drum'n'Bass DJ - my longer ranked pieces have all been done to https://www.mixcloud.com/dkpilgrim/dkpi ... drum-bass/ lately (it has some cursing in it, but we're all adults here). It helps me to be familiar with the music, so I know how I'm doing based on what part I'm hearing.

[SweatSlide]

Woo woo! Got it on the second try today....but so very barely. 1:29.7.

[BAZzy]

Well done to all, some fantastic times rolling out in the 500M sprints...fine and sunny today in the Harbour City, Good luck out there, Cheers, Baz

[Kona2]

Zach's time of 1:29:5 and Eric's time of 1:29:7 ....

[danwho]

So let me make sure that I have this right. You guys are saying that if I up my damper setting I should be able to increase my 500m time? Does it really work that way? Before I give this distance another go I just want to be sure to get the best possible time out of it because it was an ass kicker at my usual damper setting of 3.5! (Sorry if anyone’s offended by that).
Strange how much this distance intimidates me and makes me feel like a rookie rower. I’d rather do a 6,000m row any day of the week. But I feel like I have to try, for myself, just to know that I gave it my best effort.
And I admit that I want to see the Eagle soar higher in the Women’s ratings.

Well, I did cut my time by 3 seconds with the damper setting at 9, resulting in a record breaking row for me at that distance, beating my best of 7 years ago . That's the good news. The bad news is that immediately following the completion of the row, I got a massive pounding migraine. Needless to say I've logged the distance 3 times this week and I won't be attempting to improve on my 2:10.7 time any time soon.
I would rather row a 2 hour half marathon than a 2 minute 500m any day of the week! Kudos to those Olympians who do this on a regular basis, but my guess is that they can't see the 60 year mark over the horizon, so all the more kudos to us loyal Luna-tics who do this for the fun of it. (Which, by the way, "fun" is the last thing I would ever consider the 500m row to be). And if you need some fast paced music to do your 500m row to then check out Swedish House Mafia's song "Greyhound" It pushed me to go faster, maybe it will help you too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3XlIQ5pmdQ

My 2nd try was going to be at damper setting 6 (up from 5 on the previous attempt), but you inspired me to be a little less less conservative. I noticed some fine print on the damper selector that said "sub-migraine" next to 7, so I went for that. And I guess some of your magic rubbed off on me - 3 second improvement to 1:49.9. But since I have a PM2, it won't get verified until Monday.

[TallErgs]

Well done to all, some fantastic times rolling out in the 500M sprints...fine and sunny today in the Harbour City, Good luck out there, Cheers, Baz

We had 5" / 12cm of snow last night. By this late afternoon it was all melted. I'd welcome a bit of your weather up here!

[Jodi]

Well, I did cut my time by 3 seconds with the damper setting at 9, resulting in a record breaking row for me at that distance, beating my best of 7 years ago . That's the good news. The bad news is that immediately following the completion of the row, I got a massive pounding migraine. Needless to say I've logged the distance 3 times this week and I won't be attempting to improve on my 2:10.7 time any time soon.
I would rather row a 2 hour half marathon than a 2 minute 500m any day of the week! Kudos to those Olympians who do this on a regular basis, but my guess is that they can't see the 60 year mark over the horizon, so all the more kudos to us loyal Luna-tics who do this for the fun of it. (Which, by the way, "fun" is the last thing I would ever consider the 500m row to be). And if you need some fast paced music to do your 500m row to then check out Swedish House Mafia's song "Greyhound" It pushed me to go faster, maybe it will help you too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3XlIQ5pmdQ

My 2nd try was going to be at damper setting 6 (up from 5 on the previous attempt), but you inspired me to be a little less less conservative. I noticed some fine print on the damper selector that said "sub-migraine" next to 7, so I went for that. And I guess some of your magic rubbed off on me - 3 second improvement to 1:49.9. But since I have a PM2, it won't get verified until Monday.

LOL Good job! Glad I inspired you. And wise choice on the "sub-migraine" setting. I'm still fighting it hours later. It could be the rain coming in, but no matter the cause it's a bummer. I'm going to check out the song that TallErgs mentioned when I'm feeling a bit better. Yoga tomorrow, so I may skip a row in order to recover a bit after that butt kicker. Regardless of the result I'm proud of our overall team effort.

[andreacs]

Well, I did cut my time by 3 seconds with the damper setting at 9, resulting in a record breaking row for me at that distance, beating my best of 7 years ago . That's the good news. The bad news is that immediately following the completion of the row, I got a massive pounding migraine. Needless to say I've logged the distance 3 times this week and I won't be attempting to improve on my 2:10.7 time any time soon.
I would rather row a 2 hour half marathon than a 2 minute 500m any day of the week! Kudos to those Olympians who do this on a regular basis, but my guess is that they can't see the 60 year mark over the horizon, so all the more kudos to us loyal Luna-tics who do this for the fun of it. (Which, by the way, "fun" is the last thing I would ever consider the 500m row to be). And if you need some fast paced music to do your 500m row to then check out Swedish House Mafia's song "Greyhound" It pushed me to go faster, maybe it will help you too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3XlIQ5pmdQ

My 2nd try was going to be at damper setting 6 (up from 5 on the previous attempt), but you inspired me to be a little less less conservative. I noticed some fine print on the damper selector that said "sub-migraine" next to 7, so I went for that. And I guess some of your magic rubbed off on me - 3 second improvement to 1:49.9. But since I have a PM2, it won't get verified until Monday.

LOL Good job! Glad I inspired you. And wise choice on the "sub-migraine" setting. I'm still fighting it hours later. It could be the rain coming in, but no matter the cause it's a bummer. I'm going to check out the song that TallErgs mentioned when I'm feeling a bit better. Yoga tomorrow, so I may skip a row in order to recover a bit after that butt kicker. Regardless of the result I'm proud of our overall team effort.

You both inspired me as well!!! Congratulations and thanks for all the advice!
Managed to get just one hair below 2:00 which makes me very, very happy!
I was reluctant to increase the damper setting, as I had very flexible shoulders (used to be a swimmer way back when) and had some shoulder issues in the past... but reading your feedback went up to 7, and, with a more realistic race plan, ended up with a much better time and experience (max HR 15% lower than last time...) .
Now: first 100 @ 1:53.5 w/ 45 S/M, the last one 2:05.0 36 S/M
Last time: first 100 @ 1:57.0 w/ 51 S/M, the last one 2:17.0 37 S/M
I might try one more timed 500 with the song suggested by Jodi and Zach/TallErg tomorrow or on Sunday.
In any case, as Jodi also said,
regardless of the final result I'm happy and proud of our overall team effort.

[TallErgs]

Woo woo! Got it on the second try today....but so very barely. 1:29.7.

Congrats on the sub-1:30 time!

[andreacs]

Zach's time of 1:29:5 and Eric's time of 1:29:7 ....

Congratulations!!!

[SweatSlide]

Zach's time of 1:29:5 and Eric's time of 1:29:7 ....

Congratulations!!!

Thank you! It is so cool how hard people are pushing themselves. Congrats to everyone. I hope Concept 2 is noticing how motivating this challenge is for a lot of us.

[Shabana]

My congratulations to everyone who managed to get back on and give it another go, you are all winners!
I gave it another go today, this time with maximal drag factor for my erg (210), but did not finish. It became apparent after 300 meters that I was not going to improve and my lower back has been twinging, so I did a slow 9k at the higher drag factor concentrating on form.

I will give it one last go tomorrow (my last chance being in Australia).

It has been great to see how enthusiastic everyone has been about this series, and the efforts that have gone into it. But I would like to reiterate the advice (that I tend not to follow myself ), LOOK AFTER YOUR HEALTH. There's plenty of time left in all of us for rowing.

"Let's be careful out there!"

[Kona2]

Finished April fools challenge and got my 1m goal for the World Erg challenge this morning.

It was a "quiet" statement of accomplishment, yet worthy of more celebration. Erging ONE million meters during a month long challenge is a feat that belongs to an elite group - even on this team. It's a lot of hours on the erg.

Whoop, whoop and way to get ANOTHER million meter challenge completed! Congratulations, Brett, on achieving another personal goal. We wish you many, MANY more celebrations and milestones!

[Kona2]

Well, today is a sad sad day. My original Model D is going out the door - sold to a coworker that was going to buy a Nordictrack erg. I didn't think I'd get so attached to something that has caused me SO MUCH PAIN in the last three years. But, it's also the one of the key reasons why I was able to turn my life around. In 2017, I was almost 250lbs, and walking with chronic back and knee pain. The wife and I bought a lightly used Model D, and we both started our journey. By the late spring of 2018, I was down to 195lbs and I've been stable since then - thanks in part to the Concept 2 rower.

We still have our second Model D that we bought in 2018, and then the BikeErg that we bought in 2020. I know it's disappointing to hear, but I'll still be sticking around the team for a while longer.

Back when we could all walk into a gym and start working out at various stations on different equipment, always seemed like there was space available at the rowing machine. Often wonder how teammates were first drawn to the rowing machine, and how this ended up being something that started your own erg stable. But there's no doubt that these erg machines have played a significant part in our lives throughout the years.

Many of our teammates are having a transformative erging year this year. I think Jodi erged about 87 K last year, and now she is near being a meter millionaire this season. She conquered the half marathon, and the confidence that sort of victory gives is really undeniable. Zach has earned several personal bests, and put in a lot of meters. Rebecca has rowed a couple million MORE than she did last year. Brett has completed FIVE million meters this season. Andrea puts forth a 500 m time that she is elated to achieve. Norma quietly pushes all of us with solid performances, many palindromes and cheering us on...not to mention figuring out point systems. She's been inspirational to all of us in her fight through chemotherapy for a long six years, and has achieved some distances recently that are her longest ever. Heather just started her rowing adventures this year..and she's already a meter millionaire. The list of teammate accomplishments goes on! These are just the more recent ones.

I think we do "bond" with these ergs. There's so much thinking time that goes on over the hours that we spend on them. They are our instruments of torture, and our call to discipline at the same time...finishing what we told ourselves we WOULD finish. That personal accountability that the erg demands is what makes for character...and we respect each other for it. We understand what it takes for a teammate to achieve a personal best or complete a distance that they've never attempted before. And, as noted before, sometimes it's harder in our adult world to find those events that bring FIRST EVERS, or hooyahs or the satisfaction that doing a hard thing is possible as we get older. The ergs sure provide plenty of opportunity for us to be better on so many levels.