500 Meter Time

[Quickbeam]

Hello,

I am new to rowing and have been working on my machine for a couple of weeks now. I am 57 years old, 5 foot 8 inches tall, and weigh 152 pounds. I am in decent shape - not fantastic, but not bad. We have an elliptical trainer I regularly use and i also do some strength training, although for that has slacked off for the last couple of months.

I am up to 20 minutes on the rower and my average 500 meter time has been around 2:20. I thought I was doing O.K. until I looked at the online rankings for my age and weight group. The average, out of 36 rankings, was 1:48.6. The best was 1:33.4.

Today I tried to step it up a notch and achieved an average of 2:16.4. I was really spent after 20 minutes and my heart rate was getting up there. Is this something I need to concentrate on, or will it come in time? Any other comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Quickbeam]

Sorry, should have mentioned in my post that I am a male.

[bloomp]

What you are seeing is someone's best individual, all out 500m time. They are not going for 20' at 1:33.4, they did one 500m piece at 1:33.4. So if you really want to compare, set the machine for only 500m and see how fast you can do it in.

I recommend you stick to working on your distance average and see if you can hold 2:10 for 20', then extend that to 30' and beyond!

[Bob S.]

Hello,

I am up to 20 minutes on the rower and my average 500 meter time has been around 2:20. I thought I was doing O.K. until I looked at the online rankings for my age and weight group. The average, out of 36 rankings, was 1:48.6. The best was 1:33.4.

Today I tried to step it up a notch and achieved an average of 2:16.4. I was really spent after 20 minutes and my heart rate was getting up there. Is this something I need to concentrate on, or will it come in time? Any other comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

A pace of 2:16.4/500m would get you 5k in 22:44 - not too much more than the 20' that you were doing, so you could probably do a 5k in less than 22:50. that would put you just behind the 79th position (out of 94) in your age/weight/gender category for the 5k. Not really all that bad for only a couple of weeks. Nowhere near as bad as comparing it with 500m times.

As a beginner, you could well drop a couple of minutes off of that by learning proper technique. It is not intuitive and the usual fitness center trainers are clueless about indoor rowing technique.

So don't despair at this point. Learn the proper technique - best bet is to post a video on this and/or the UK C2 forum for a critique, unless there is a qualified rowing coach available in your area. Then work on pieces as long as you have time for, at a sweat producing intensity, but not all out efforts. Occasionally do one of the longer ranked pieces, like 5k, 6k, or 30' at a higher intensity and see how you compare in the rankings with those results. Note also that you are at the upper end of your 50-59 age bracket, so don't be too concerned about your status in that group. Don't feel that you have to compete with the 50 year-olds. In the major erg competitions, the distance is 2k and, over 50, the age brackets go by half decades, so you are in the 55-59 LWT M for that distance.

Bob S.

[Quickbeam]

Thank you for your responses. I did not know that the times posted were their best 500 meter times and not the average time in a longer row. That made me feel better. Also, I will take the advice of posting a video to this forum. I have been concentrating on technique, but I suppose the only way to know for sure how I am doing is to have someone else critique me. I won't be able to post anything for a couple of weeks, but I will do so.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. Both posts helped a lot.

[NELSON]

I would also suggest switching from 20:00 minutes to the 5000M piece, as a beginning long distance pierce. Set your work piece up as a new workout, thereby allowing you to set a lower split distance within the 5000M piece. I like to use a split of 250M, that gives you 20 split intervals to review. After you finish your work piece you can then go back in memory and check the point that you started to weaken & slow, it is a very good tracking for your work progress. Also, once you have established your first base piece, I like to use the race pace boat option as a re-row function, it will keep you honest.
Also, for me it is easier for me to row long meters than row long time. But that could be just my mental state. Hey, keep using the forum because there are so many rowers out there that are just KICK-ASS good and are so willing to help newbies, as in Big Bad Bob!

[Quickbeam]

Well, I took the advice and today I did my first 5000. Did it in 21:33.1 which was an average 500 meter time of 2:09.3. I was pretty pleased with the result given it was my first 5000 and I really haven't rowed very much. I also think I started off much to quickly as I was really spent at the end. When I started out, my 500 meter times were below 2:00 minutes. I have never been able to achieve this, so I started trying to maintain it and it cost me later on in the row.

One other change I made was that I checked the drag factor on our machine and it was set at 105. I boosted it up to 117 and I believe this was a big help in my time. Previously I have been rowing for time, not distance and in previous 20 minute rows my best, average, 500 meter time was 2:14.3. So I felt really good getting that time down to 2:09.3, but again, I think the increased drag factor played a part.

[Bob S.]

Well, I took the advice and today I did my first 5000. Did it in 21:33.1 which was an average 500 meter time of 2:09.3. I was pretty pleased with the result given it was my first 5000 and I really haven't rowed very much. I also think I started off much to quickly as I was really spent at the end. When I started out, my 500 meter times were below 2:00 minutes. I have never been able to achieve this, so I started trying to maintain it and it cost me later on in the row.

One other change I made was that I checked the drag factor on our machine and it was set at 105. I boosted it up to 117 and I believe this was a big help in my time. Previously I have been rowing for time, not distance and in previous 20 minute rows my best, average, 500 meter time was 2:14.3. So I felt really good getting that time down to 2:09.3, but again, I think the increased drag factor played a part.

Thanks for the report. Looks like you are coming along very well. If you check out the rankings for your category, you can see that you are between 62 and 63 of 96, so you have moved up into the middle third of the group and these are just the folks who do well enough that they post their results for all to see. Also you are at the upper end of your age bracket. That, coupled with the fact that you have been doing it for such a short time suggests to me that you have a good chance to get into the upper brackets of your group. Technique is another factor. Get some advice before you get the wrong habits too engrained.

Bob S.

P.S. Another factor in your favor is that you are a natural lightweight. A lot of guys in your category qualify as lightweights only at competitions where they have to weigh in officially. Their reported 5k times might well have been done when they were well over the 165# limit. There is no check on this.

[Quickbeam]

Thanks Bob, for the encouragement. I will post a video so I can get advice on technique. Just not able to do so right now. Hopefully will be able to post something within the next couple of weeks. Thanks again for the friendly words. Really helps to motivate.