Couple newbie questions

[Masterninja]

Ok so I got a tremendous amount of help from some forum members in helping to build my endurance and focusing on steady state to increase my 2k time.

Longer easy rows at around 18spm have already done wonders. Did an impromptu 2k test a week or so ago and dropped my time by 28 seconds. 8:06 down to 7:38. All with about 4 weeks or so of the slow stuff. Still shocking to me but I'll take what I can get lol!

I also hit a 3:38 1k and after starting with a 500 right around 1:30 I decided to test this again (one board member correctly predicted that he thought my 500 time would increase as well as a result of this training). So I got a 1:26 on my 500 recently! Super happy with that!

Question 1: I was rowing at around a 1:21 split for almost the first 400 meters (as I recall). Lost my way with a few strokes as I got a little wobbly on the seat. Seemed like only a few strokes so I was shocked when my time was 1:26. Obviously took a few strokes to get going but does a few strokes at a higher split make that much of an impact on a 500? 5 seconds seems like a lot!

Question 2: in bringing up my 500 time, is there a solid way to do this while continuing my steady state work? I'm really enjoying the SS work and seem to be making good gains with it. I realize a lot of these improvements are probably nothing more than initial newbie gains but I am curious if the SS low rate stuff will continue to transfer to the 500 as my conditioning improves.

[Invictus]

I got nothing........but your time!!!!!!!!!! That is fast! Awesome work!

[Masterninja]

I got nothing........but your time!!!!!!!!!! That is fast! Awesome work!

Thanks brother! Fortunately I come from a heavy lifting background so power isn't a problem right now. God knows it's nothing I can attribute to awesome cardio lol!

[Edward4492]

To answer your question, it takes very little to lose time in a short sprint like a 500m. Pretty typical to fade with 100m to go and fall off by several seconds until you learn to properly pace. 1:26 is very fast for a new rower, but is typical of guys who have a heavy lifting back ground. The crossfit gang usually have some guys in their box that can blast a 500m. Keep up the good work and as you're aware, the newbie gains will stabilize at some point. With your power, it's just a matter of building the aerobic conditioning. To give you an idea of the disparity between your 500m and 2k, when I had my best 2k of 6:59, my best 500m was 1:33.4. Hard to extrapolate from me to you, but it would seem that going well under 7min would be a realistic target. At some point you may want to add in a hard 5k (I'm partial to 4k's) and work towards making that a benchmark work out. It will build your ability to hang on the edge and deal with discomfort. Do the first one at a pace you know you can handle (maybe 2:10 - 2:15) and work it down each week. Good luck!

[Masterninja]

To answer your question, it takes very little to lose time in a short sprint like a 500m. Pretty typical to fade with 100m to go and fall off by several seconds until you learn to properly pace. 1:26 is very fast for a new rower, but is typical of guys who have a heavy lifting back ground. The crossfit gang usually have some guys in their box that can blast a 500m. Keep up the good work and as you're aware, the newbie gains will stabilize at some point. With your power, it's just a matter of building the aerobic conditioning. To give you an idea of the disparity between your 500m and 2k, when I had my best 2k of 6:59, my best 500m was 1:33.4. Hard to extrapolate from me to you, but it would seem that going well under 7min would be a realistic target. At some point you may want to add in a hard 5k (I'm partial to 4k's) and work towards making that a benchmark work out. It will build your ability to hang on the edge and deal with discomfort. Do the first one at a pace you know you can handle (maybe 2:10 - 2:15) and work it down each week. Good luck!

Thanks Edward! Yes I am all too aware of the glaring disparity between my sprint times and my 2k and up times lol! I think even my 1k demonstrates quite a bit of that same pattern as it nowhere close to resembles my 500 sprint pace. I have been working at distances more around 5k for now. Slowly creeping my split time down by a few seconds each week. Hoping to hit a nice 20min 5k in the near future and work my way down from there. For some added volume i have started throwing in some 5x1500 sessions and 7x1000 just to break up the monotony as I don't yet seem to possess the mental fortitude to go past 5-6k straight in one sitting. Thanks for taking the time to respond I appreciate the advice!

[hjs]

For now, don,t change a winning team. Your 2k compared to your base speed is still miles behind. I do think though if you really did a proper go you are already much faster. Depending on your goals you could do one faster 5k, or intervals say 4x1500 with 4 min rest, with a higher rate.

Re 500, look at your 100 m splits. If first 400 was 121, the outcome 126, the last 100 has been 141 pace! Sounds off.
Normally, you don,t lose more then 1 second in the last 100m, even with a serious fade. But check the splits in the memory.

[lindsayh]

Question 1: I was rowing at around a 1:21 split for almost the first 400 meters (as I recall). Lost my way with a few strokes as I got a little wobbly on the seat. Seemed like only a few strokes so I was shocked when my time was 1:26. Obviously took a few strokes to get going but does a few strokes at a higher split make that much of an impact on a 500? 5 seconds seems like a lot!
Question 2: in bringing up my 500 time, is there a solid way to do this while continuing my steady state work? I'm really enjoying the SS work and seem to be making good gains with it. I realize a lot of these improvements are probably nothing more than initial newbie gains but I am curious if the SS low rate stuff will continue to transfer to the 500 as my conditioning improves.

Yes have a look at the splits - bet the first 100 is a bit slower than 1:21 - it takes say 5 strokes to get down to LP territory in the first place and there are not a lot of strokes to go. The fly and die will get you in the end too. Try not to go too low - get under target pace quickly but don't go much beyond that or the last 150 gets really ugly and costs a lot. It gets better when you get fitter but eventually your 500 will stop improving much without some genuine sprinting training. I wouldn't stop the SS training right now but if you want to then set aside about 6 weeks and go anerobic - 100 to 300m intervals hard with good rests and up the weight training. You also have to learn to rate up into the 40s as well.

[Masterninja]

For now, don,t change a winning team. Your 2k compared to your base speed is still miles behind. I do think though if you really did a proper go you are already much faster. Depending on your goals you could do one faster 5k, or intervals say 4x1500 with 4 min rest, with a higher rate.

Re 500, look at your 100 m splits. If first 400 was 121, the outcome 126, the last 100 has been 141 pace! Sounds off.
Normally, you don,t lose more then 1 second in the last 100m, even with a serious fade. But check the splits in the memory.

Hjs definitely not changing the SS work right now the gains are too good and my body is soaking it up! I'm still doing 4-5 days of long slow work and one sprint day. I was more curious as to what training regime I might incorporate on my sprint day that might have the added benefit of helping my 500 time? I see a lot of people reference 8x500 workouts but not sure if that's what's needed for me or whether I should focus more on 250 m sprints or something like that.

Lindsay, I'm a little nervous about rating up lol! Any suggestions about how to plan/train for that gradually?

[hjs]

For now, don,t change a winning team. Your 2k compared to your base speed is still miles behind. I do think though if you really did a proper go you are already much faster. Depending on your goals you could do one faster 5k, or intervals say 4x1500 with 4 min rest, with a higher rate.

Re 500, look at your 100 m splits. If first 400 was 121, the outcome 126, the last 100 has been 141 pace! Sounds off.
Normally, you don,t lose more then 1 second in the last 100m, even with a serious fade. But check the splits in the memory.

Hjs definitely not changing the SS work right now the gains are too good and my body is soaking it up! I'm still doing 4-5 days of long slow work and one sprint day. I was more curious as to what training regime I might incorporate on my sprint day that might have the added benefit of helping my 500 time? I see a lot of people reference 8x500 workouts but not sure if that's what's needed for me or whether I should focus more on 250 m sprints or something like that.

Lindsay, I'm a little nervous about rating up lol! Any suggestions about how to plan/train for that gradually?

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=111430

For inspiration re 500, browse through this thread