how to row slower

[jamesg]

If we erg for health, we have to decide what health is. My take is that as I get older, I still need strength, otherwise I soon won't be able to get off the sofa. So I try to stay at around 40kg in ergdata, half my weight, as doable. I've never been strong and have no intention of lifting weights, and climbing stairs though a splendid exercise, almost as good as the erg, is getting a bit too tough. And I do enough of that anyway.

The other components of rowing are length of stroke and rating. I can't see any point, especially on the erg, in pulling short strokes, given the mechanics of chain and flywheel: there's slack enough anyway.

So all that's left to adjust is rating. Oddly enough that's how rowing is done too, if we want to move the boat and keep our seat for racing: treat it as a sport that wants strength, technique and endurance. You can't go wrong.

[Wilpert]

Well,

had a go yesterday, kept the damper in my usual number 3 position, started off with the monitor set so that i could watch the power curve. (yes its all happening over at my place).
anyways, when i dropped off my effort a bit in an attempt to slow things down, i the power curve was pretty ragged looking, not a nice even curve at all.
So I tried to adjust my stroke a bit and see that that produced, it produce a sore lower back, so that told me something wasn't quite right.

So i found the perfect solution, switch the screen to something else and stop looking at the curve.
I did this and just kept an eye on the numbers, I settled in at a SR of 25 and an average pace of 2:25 (2:30 was my target).

Then after 20 minutes or so, i switched back to the power curve and discovered to my amazement, the power curve was looking pretty good, I think this means that I just needed to stop trying so hard and settle in a bit.

I managed to complete an hour at that said pace and I felt comfortable enough to say that i could have carried on to complete a HM at that rate but not a full M, so I now know that I just need to drop this a bit lower and this can be my marathon training pace.

the lesson learned for me is that I need to relax a bit and hopefully it will pay off.

[DavidA]

Well,

had a go yesterday, kept the damper in my usual number 3 position, started off with the monitor set so that i could watch the power curve. (yes its all happening over at my place).
anyways, when i dropped off my effort a bit in an attempt to slow things down, i the power curve was pretty ragged looking, not a nice even curve at all.
So I tried to adjust my stroke a bit and see that that produced, it produce a sore lower back, so that told me something wasn't quite right.

So i found the perfect solution, switch the screen to something else and stop looking at the curve.
I did this and just kept an eye on the numbers, I settled in at a SR of 25 and an average pace of 2:25 (2:30 was my target).

Then after 20 minutes or so, i switched back to the power curve and discovered to my amazement, the power curve was looking pretty good, I think this means that I just needed to stop trying so hard and settle in a bit.

I managed to complete an hour at that said pace and I felt comfortable enough to say that i could have carried on to complete a HM at that rate but not a full M, so I now know that I just need to drop this a bit lower and this can be my marathon training pace.

the lesson learned for me is that I need to relax a bit and hopefully it will pay off.

Sounds good.
I think our brain often gets in our way, and we should just let the body be in control.

David

[Ombrax]

When I'm trying to "take it easy" (say, during a warm-up)

1) don't push as hard on the drive, and 2) slow down the recovery. My "normal workout" rowing is usually at a stroke rate of about 20-22 spm. For "easy rowing" it's usually around 17-18 spm. I don't bother to look at the force curve, but I doubt that it's as good as my "normal" curve (which isn't perfect either).

[Nomath]

My problem is that I cant seem to produce an efficient stoke when I ease off on the effort.

To expand on this, what i mean is, let us say i would row a 10k using a SR of 25 spm and this will give me circa 2:15 per 500mts.
So to slow down and not burn out, i would want to keep the same SR but slow it down to circa 2:22 per 500 mts.... then even slower for my Marathon which will be down the line sometime.

To row slower, reduce the stroke rate by the percentage that you want to reduce average power AND reduce the drag factor by the same percentage. This will keep the perceived handle resistance the same and you can maintain the force curve.
For explanation, see this topic

[jamesg]

My problem is that I cant seem to produce an efficient stoke when I ease off on the effort.

So why ease off? All you have to do is drop the rating but hold your stroke value, if your intent is to train. Going a particular distance is not an obligation; this only happens in races.

[jackarabit]

My problem is that I cant seem to produce an efficient stoke when I ease off on the effort.

To expand on this, what i mean is, let us say i would row a 10k using a SR of 25 spm and this will give me circa 2:15 per 500mts.
So to slow down and not burn out, i would want to keep the same SR but slow it down to circa 2:22 per 500 mts.... then even slower for my Marathon which will be down the line sometime.

To row slower, reduce the stroke rate by the percentage that you want to reduce average power AND reduce the drag factor by the same percentage. This will keep the perceived handle resistance the same and you can maintain the force curve.
For explanation, see this topic

So for 10% reduction of power av. (ex: 110W to 99W), reduce rate (20 to 18) and df (110 to 99). Concise prescription and a novel one on this board where set df and forget it is the conventional take.