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

[Thor MW]

Back on Firday Dec. 12th I tweaked my back getting out of my car. As a result, I took that Sat. and Sun. off from the erg. That was challenging for me since my weekends are when I get a lot of meters in so that I can either take a day off or do lower meters during the week when I erg before work. I was nervous that for the first time since 2008 I wouldn't hit the 200k mark on the holiday challenge. On Monday Dec. 15, I decided to try erging again, but rowed a super light steady state piece (even lighter than my normal warm up pace). This actually helped my back feel better later in the day. I continued to do this every day and hit the 200k mark on Dec. 21. PHEW! Until today, I hadn't rowed since then. My back is still sore, but is doing better.

When I'm not erging, I tend to forget to check the forum. In doing so, I missed the Virtual New Year's Celebration. I celebrated New Years at 7:00 pm EST which was New Years in Ireland where my husband and my ancestors are from with Bushmills Irish Whiskey with gingerale out at our favorite Irish Pub. I celebrated
the clock striking midnight at home with my husband and child.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my Loonie friends and their families.


Yes, Danwho, I did row the Crash-Bs once. Way back in 1991 when I was a senior in college. (I'm flattered you remember.) I also rowed in a couple of CT Indoor Rowing Regattas around 2004-2006. I was toying with the idea of trying the Crash Bs again this year, and had started doing some training for it, but then I hurt my back. It still doesn't seem up to max pressure pieces, so I'm thinking it won't be likely this year. Good luck Barbara G and anyone else who decides to go for it. It is a fun experience.

As for asking technique questions, yes, this is the forum for that as well. I'm afraid I forget who asked the question about toes v. flat feet, but you asked a good question. People tend to go up on their toes partially because they are not flexible enough to get full reach with flat feet. However, sometimes this leads to bringing the shins beyond perpendicular which is wasted energy. You won't have good contact and force until your shins are back to perpendicular and your feet connected. It's not completely bad to go up on your toes (as long as your knees don't go past your ankles), but be sure to get the feet flat again as quickly as you can. Your lifting analogy is a good one. You definitely have more leverage lifting flat footed than on your toes. It ultimately is the same with rowing (erging). You definitely want to feel the connection through the footboards. Kudos on your personal best on your 2k. Keep it up!

Congrats on Baby Xander. What a cutie!

Thank you for the response. I shall flat foot away.
Thor MW

[Thor MW]

Thor, if you hit the "Post Reply" button on the bottom left side under the latest posting, and just above the "return to teams" link, it should give you a blank posting window, and you shouldn't need to delete anything. You can create a new subject in the subject line if you want to, or you can leave it as it is. It will self populate with the topic name if you don't (that is the Luna-Tics Team Room name).

Ron, you are doing smashingly! I am so proud of you!

Happy New Year to the whole Team! Somehow I missed getting my drink order in on time for the party. Guinan, if you could be so kind as to blend me up a monster sized chocolate malt with a cap of real whipped cream I will be able to drown my sorrows and regret over this error, and vow to not miss the party next year.

Thank you very much Kristine. I think I found the link.

[Thor MW]

Happy Friday everyone!

I have been doing some thinking the past week or so about some 2k competitions coming up in my area in February. I started a thread in the training section for help if anyone wants to stop by. I'm just getting a little anxious about them. I only started erging last March and was known the water by may. So I have never done an indoor competition. The girl that runs our local club doesn't think she is doing any indoor competitions this year and most of our crew are youth. Only 3 of us are adults who are somewhat active and it seems I may be the only one wanting to push really hard this year by doing races. So with that I may be doing the2k competitions alone and that makes me nervous! I don't know how to register, what to do on race day or what to expect. But I don't want to give up. So hoping this forum will really push me to keep working.

Is there anyone here from Ontario Canada by chance?

Feeling lonely.
April

Hi April
Lonely? Never, you have a great group of people here and many will answer your questions better than I can but here's what little I know.
I went to a regatta in Toronto once as a spectator. I was injured and not willing to end up in emerge as I was flying out for some florida style fishing and I wasn't going to mess that up. It was a great time too. Grin. Anyway, I think I found a link on the C2 site with all the different race locations. So once you find the one closest to you then just check out what they have to say for registering and all that stuff and go and have a great time. Any more detail then this, I am no good. Grin. Oh, I think the one in TO was Feb.
If anyone wants to email me offline
mikeewinegarden@gmail.com
No jokes and spam please.
Love Thor MW

[Thor MW]

[/quote][/quote][/quote]
I looked around a little, and I didn't notice if there was someone for you to talk to about this. But I can tell you about a pretty famous Para-rower from Germany, Anke Molkenthin, who competed in last year's CRASH-B's, in both "Open Women Legs-Trunk-Arms" (placing 1st), and "Lightweight Veteran Women (Age 50-54)" (placing 2nd). She holds quite a number of other records too. A while ago, I remember watching her progress in the Moveo project (watching updates on Facebook), where she and two team-mates (male) were out to set records for a 1-million meter row. I know she set another record there.[/quote]

I think wow! pretty much covers it. haha
LTMW

[kgallagher]

Postby April27 » January 2nd, 2015, 11:40 am

Happy Friday everyone!

I have been doing some thinking the past week or so about some 2k competitions coming up in my area in February. I started a thread in the training section for help if anyone wants to stop by. I'm just getting a little anxious about them. I only started erging last March and was known the water by may. So I have never done an indoor competition. The girl that runs our local club doesn't think she is doing any indoor competitions this year and most of our crew are youth. Only 3 of us are adults who are somewhat active and it seems I may be the only one wanting to push really hard this year by doing races. So with that I may be doing the2k competitions alone and that makes me nervous! I don't know how to register, what to do on race day or what to expect. But I don't want to give up. So hoping this forum will really push me to keep working.

Is there anyone here from Ontario Canada by chance?

Feeling lonely.
April

Hi April,

This is fantastic that you are considering an indoor race. It is a great motivator to keep you training on the erg and to push you to row a little harder. For the most part, any race will likely have a website through which you can register. There are lots of different ways to prepare for an indoor race. The Concept 2 website has a page geared towards first time indoor rowers. http://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/t ... ompetition. You should check it out.

My advice - this is your first one. Don't go in with the mindset of winning. Go in with the intent of doing your personal best. To do that, you will have to know where you stand now (Do a baseline 2k test piece) and do another closer to race day after training specifically for this. Your training should include some shorter sprint intervals to work on dropping your splits. On race day, be sure to warm up for at least ten minutes prior to the race and include some full pressure tens at race pace in your warm up. (I don't recommend the 10 miles BG likes to run before a race, but that's just me. Barb is an amazing superhuman being!) During the race, have a plan in mind. I like to start with a high 20 and then settle into my race pace. I like taking power tens at the 500 meter marks. I also have a split in my head that I do not want my average split to drop below. If I take a stroke that falls below that, I take a focus 5 to get it back to where I want it to be.

I hope this helps. Feel free to personal message me with any questions. (I am not always great about reading the Luna-tic forum.) I live in New Haven, CT, so I'm not in your area to help you, but love being a virtual cheerleader. Good luck!

Karyn

[April27]

Thanks Thor and Karyn

The one competition I want to do is in the TO area. I checked out the Site. I think I would be in the masters category, i'm 34 and 147lbs. I just don't know what race day is like. I'm sure if I ask at the registration desk they can point me on where to go. I know I won't win. I just want the adrenaline rush. I tested my 2k time this week. 8:25. Lots of work. Would love to be under 8:00 but the first company is in a month. I plan on doing 2 hard sessions a week with high speed intervals and 3-4 longer sessions a week.

Does the logbook track when we get a personal best or is there a way to track progress?

[Thor MW]

Thanks Thor and Karyn

The one competition I want to do is in the TO area. I checked out the Site. I think I would be in the masters category, i'm 34 and 147lbs. I just don't know what race day is like. I'm sure if I ask at the registration desk they can point me on where to go. I know I won't win. I just want the adrenaline rush. I tested my 2k time this week. 8:25. Lots of work. Would love to be under 8:00 but the first company is in a month. I plan on doing 2 hard sessions a week with high speed intervals and 3-4 longer sessions a week.

Does the logbook track when we get a personal best or is there a way to track progress?

The log book doesn’t exactly track your personal bests. Let’s back up a sec. When you choose a workout on the PM, Say 2K, do this by hitting B, A, A, on the buttons on the right side of the monitor. A being the top button. Make sure the fly wheel is still then do the race. Depending if you are using the log card or phone to save the workout, upload the workout to the log. Do you know how to do this? Assuming yes, go to the log page and the piece will be there. On the same line as the piece, an icon will appear saying rank this piece or something like that. You click that and the piece will be ranked along with everyone else’s. I think near the top of the log page there is a link called Ranked Workouts. If you go there you can see the pieces you have ranked so far. The next time you do another 2K piece, you can compare the ranked workout page with the one you just rowed and see if you beat your last effort. If so, click the rank link on the same line as the piece and the previous best will be replaced with your current best. The rank button is not smart enough to know which is the better score. You need to know that before you hit the rank button. I have been playing with two split times settings. Current and average. I can’t see the PM so I can’t say what you would see there. Through the app, I hear every 15 seconds what I choose to hear including the current and average split time. Do you understand how to read the split times? If not let us know and I or someone will explain that to you. the current split tells me how fast I am going right now. The average tells me the split for the whole piece. So, I can tell when I need to pick up the pace either by using more muscle or increasing the stroke. I do not have good wind right now. I start hard. I hold this as long as I can without winding myself too badly. I then slow some and catch my breath. When I see the average split is falling more than I’d like I hit it a bit harder again. I know by the current split the effect it will have on the average split time. I think the key to racing is this. Know what you can handle and have a strategy and follow it. I bet Karen would have more training tips to practice strategy. I just pay attention to the numbers and what I do to make them increase and what my body can handle. I am still over the 8 minute mark. I fully expect that I will drop down to the 7 minute something fairly soon. This means I have to row less than 2:00 split time. I hope this made sense, if not ask away. I have very thick skin so if I don’t explain something well, just say Thor dude, love you but don’t answer ok? Haha One more thing. There is a pace calculator on the main log page. You can enter two of the three bits of information and press the calculate button under the third bit you want. So enter 2000 under distance, The time you want say, 8 in the minutes and 00 under seconds and hit the button to calculate split time and the answer will be 2:00.

[April27]

The log book doesn’t exactly track your personal bests. Let’s back up a sec. When you choose a workout on the PM, Say 2K, do this by hitting B, A, A, on the buttons on the right side of the monitor. A being the top button. Make sure the fly wheel is still then do the race. Depending if you are using the log card or phone to save the workout, upload the workout to the log. Do you know how to do this? Assuming yes, go to the log page and the piece will be there. On the same line as the piece, an icon will appear saying rank this piece or something like that. You click that and the piece will be ranked along with everyone else’s. I think near the top of the log page there is a link called Ranked Workouts. If you go there you can see the pieces you have ranked so far. The next time you do another 2K piece, you can compare the ranked workout page with the one you just rowed and see if you beat your last effort. If so, click the rank link on the same line as the piece and the previous best will be replaced with your current best. The rank button is not smart enough to know which is the better score. You need to know that before you hit the rank button. I have been playing with two split times settings. Current and average. I can’t see the PM so I can’t say what you would see there. Through the app, I hear every 15 seconds what I choose to hear including the current and average split time. Do you understand how to read the split times? If not let us know and I or someone will explain that to you. the current split tells me how fast I am going right now. The average tells me the split for the whole piece. So, I can tell when I need to pick up the pace either by using more muscle or increasing the stroke. I do not have good wind right now. I start hard. I hold this as long as I can without winding myself too badly. I then slow some and catch my breath. When I see the average split is falling more than I’d like I hit it a bit harder again. I know by the current split the effect it will have on the average split time. I think the key to racing is this. Know what you can handle and have a strategy and follow it. I bet Karen would have more training tips to practice strategy. I just pay attention to the numbers and what I do to make them increase and what my body can handle. I am still over the 8 minute mark. I fully expect that I will drop down to the 7 minute something fairly soon. This means I have to row less than 2:00 split time. I hope this made sense, if not ask away. I have very thick skin so if I don’t explain something well, just say Thor dude, love you but don’t answer ok? Haha One more thing. There is a pace calculator on the main log page. You can enter two of the three bits of information and press the calculate button under the third bit you want. So enter 2000 under distance, The time you want say, 8 in the minutes and 00 under seconds and hit the button to calculate split time and the answer will be 2:00.

Awesome advice! Thanks.
The erg I use at the gym is a PM2 so I just write down my stats and manually enter them I to my logbook here. The erg I use during our team workouts is a PM3 and I do have a log card but other then looking at my history on it I don't know what to do with it. So I was planning on writing my workouts down and manually logging again. I then have an app that I can enter in my stats to give me Avg split. I sometimes watch my Avg split on the PM but not if I'm tracking time or meters because it doesn't show both.
Thanks for explaining the ranking. I didn't understand that. But what if I want to rank different types of workouts like 2k and 5k. Will it override any previously ranked workout or only override a 2k ranked with another 2k. And keep say a 5k rank?

[danwho]

But what if I want to rank different types of workouts like 2k and 5k. Will it override any previously ranked workout or only override a 2k ranked with another 2k. And keep say a 5k rank?

A ranking of a 2K will not override a 5K - no worries about that. But a ranking of a 2K will override a previous 2K (even if the previous one was faster - at least that used to be true - so you would want to watch out for that).

[Thor MW]

But what if I want to rank different types of workouts like 2k and 5k. Will it override any previously ranked workout or only override a 2k ranked with another 2k. And keep say a 5k rank?

A ranking of a 2K will not override a 5K - no worries about that. But a ranking of a 2K will override a previous 2K (even if the previous one was faster - at least that used to be true - so you would want to watch out for that).

the Danwho answered about the races, very cool. I think there's a card reader yu can get that will allow you to upload from your log card to the site at home. Does anyone know what this is called? If not, I may be able to ask someone I know who told me about it.
LT

[Thor MW]

Hi fellow Sweaty ones.
I believe the below is more a testament to how much my overall fitness has improved rather than the struggle if that makes sense. It really is amazing how good the C2 machines are at improving one’s health. I used to have a fitness site and I believe the best form of long term health with all the benefits is still weight lifting. However even then I told people that if you are only going to have one exercise machine, get a C2. I digress, on to the results.
previous
5835M 30:00.0 2:34.2 967 of 1017 5th 12/4/2014 9:50:00 AM

New
6640M 30:00.0 2:15.5 805 of 1017 21st 1/3/2015 8:31:00 AM

I do a 2K warmup and cool down. I really wasn’t planning on doing a 2K cool down today as I was a bit tired but I was paying attention to the heart rate and yes, I pretty much needed it.
I also want to add that I had a goal of a 2:20 split time. Obviously I blew that goal out of the water and scurrying on the land for the bush. Haha
So for any new folks to the C2 out there. Just keep on rowing. You will see your body change for the better and you will make progress. There’s just no other option.

My next really bad score right now is the 10K. Perhaps next week.

[Citroen]

Does anyone know what this is called? If not, I may be able to ask someone I know who told me about it.
LT

For PM3 & PM4 there's two supported card readers
1. Omnikey 3121
2. Athena ASE IIIe
You'll get one of those quite cheap on eBay.

With a PM5 the logcard has gone. The workout data is now stored on a USB key.

[kgallagher]

When I first got my erg the card kept causing the monitor to freeze up. I just stopped using the card and always write down my stats and what the workout was and enter it manually after each time I row.

For April and anyone else who cares:
There are different things you should know about the erg. Having your damper set at 5 on one erg will not be the same feeling on a different erg set at 5. You should always set the drag factor to where you like it. (I usually keep mine between 115-120.) To set the drag factor you might have to play around a bit to find it. Different monitors have it in different places. On mine, you hit the menu/back button and more options. Then hit display drag factor. Take a few strokes and the monitor will display your drag factor. Move the setting up to get a higher number and down to get a lower number. You should do this every time you use a new erg, especially if you are using one in a gym where it is used by people who often don't know what they are doing. Then on race day, you should set the erg to your comfort level prior to the race starting.

If you are doing a specific piece for time (or distance) you should program the monitor. Hit the menu/back button, then select workout. You can pick a workout by time, distance, or intervals. Then when you start rowing the clock or distance will count back from that point. Once you finish a workout you can hit the menu/back button and go to memory. Your workout will be the most recent one entered. If you did three different pieces that day, they will all be listed under memory. If you hit change units, it will give you the watts or the calories used.

When looking at the monitor, there are different options. You can hit the change display button and get different graphs to look at. If you hit change units, you can look at splits or watts or calories. Play around with different things to see what you like. I usually watch splits. Sometimes I want do a piece and not worry about my splits and then I'll watch watts instead. (Like right after I hurt my back. I knew I'd be frustrated with the low splits for me, so I didn't want to watch splits. I just wanted to row, so I set it to watts and just plugged along.)

Thor was right about the rankings. There are set pieces that can be ranked according to the concept 2 site. When you log one of these pieces into the C2 logbook a blue "rank" link will show up. If you want to rank that work out, simply hit the link and the word rank will turn red. The site does not keep track of faster times. Every time you do a piece in one of these pre-determined distances/times it will give you a rank option. You can always go to the "Ranked Workouts" tab at the top of your logbook page. That will show you the times you have ranked for the current season. If your new time is faster, hit the blue rank link. If not, just don't hit it and your previous faster time will stay. These are the workouts that can be ranked: 500m, 1k, 2k, 5k, 6k, 10k, 21,097m (1/2 marathon), 42,195m (marathon), 100,000m, 4 minutes, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes.

Hope this helped.

Karyn
PS(If you don't know, I've rowed for 27 years and have owned my own erg since 2005 or so.)

[Thor MW]

Karyn
PS(If you don't know, I've rowed for 27 years and have owned my own erg since 2005 or so.)[/color][/quote]

Hey Karyn I spelled your name correctly this time. Sorry about that. Exellent post. Thank you. 27 years. Wow! When rowing and split doesn't matter I often will push the headphone off my ear and just row. Then I only listen to my thoughts which are good ones and totally focus on technique.
Am I correct in the following? One should break the movement in to three movements. Legs, back and arms. The legs should finish first, then use the back, then finish with the arms and upper back. the three movements flow from one to the next, I'm not suggesting that you stop between them. Grin.
Another question, when I pull the handle in to my belly, sometimes it is at my lower ribs and other times it is closer to the belly button. Um, it's an inny. haha Is there a rule of thumb or is it based on one's height, length of arm from shoulder to elbow and so on?

LT

[kgallagher]

Hey Karyn I spelled your name correctly this time. Sorry about that. Exellent post. Thank you. 27 years. Wow! When rowing and split doesn't matter I often will push the headphone off my ear and just row. Then I only listen to my thoughts which are good ones and totally focus on technique.
Am I correct in the following? One should break the movement in to three movements. Legs, back and arms. The legs should finish first, then use the back, then finish with the arms and upper back. the three movements flow from one to the next, I'm not suggesting that you stop between them. Grin.
Another question, when I pull the handle in to my belly, sometimes it is at my lower ribs and other times it is closer to the belly button. Um, it's an inny. haha Is there a rule of thumb or is it based on one's height, length of arm from shoulder to elbow and so on?

Thor,
No worries on the name. I'm used to it being spelled the traditional way and often don't even notice. Yes, I've rowed for 27 years. I started as a freshman in college and haven't stopped. Forgive my bluntness. Are you visually impaired? You mention not seeing the monitor and listening to your splits, etc. Sometimes I do what I call "blind rows" on the erg. I cover up the monitor completely and just row for a set amount of time. I'll do this and row as hard as feels comfortable, but not worry about rate, splits, watts, or any of that data.

The answer is yes, and no. The stroke should be one fluid continuous movement (as you insinuated). Sometimes when people think of the three steps they create slight pauses in between the steps. You don't want that. However, there are distinctive steps. Your quads are the most powerful muscle and and have the biggest impact on rowing. From the catch with the body angle forward, you should press your legs down while keeping your arms straight. (Don't raise your arms up to get them over your knees. Get those knees down first.) As your legs are almost all the way down, you keep those arms straight and start to open the back. Once the back is open (don't lean too far back), you finish the stroke by pulling in to your body. My reference point is just below the bra line or where one would wear a heart monitor band. You don't want to pull it in too low, which is referred to as dumping it in your lap. The handle should be moving in and out on a fairly level plane.

Again, I hope this information helps.

Karyn