Beginners question(s)?

[Willy.VdW]

I still get uncomfortable on a cinema seat within an hour though, so figure that out

[Pendolino]

I have a question that I think belongs here... I've been rowing for about 3 months now, and the gains I've made in that short time have probably already put me at the fittest I've ever been. However, this fitness lark is still very new to me, and I'm wondering whether something I experience is normal...

Did a 9000 m (2:05 / 500 m) at r22 yesterday, which really demonstrated this thing - namely, that I find my energy comes in 'waves'. I've heard about the lactic acid burn, hell, I've definitely experienced it, but this is different... First 2000 m is always where I push through the initial asthma-ish-ness and clear out the lungs. After that, it's a bit of a roller coaster of energy levels through to the end. People talk about getting more and more tired as they go further, but I seem to work in reverse sometimes... After the first 2000 m, I'll enter a strange zone where I genuinely question if I'll be able to finish, because I start to feel weaknesses appearing, in breathing, in muscles, in general energy, and so on. I will then, every 1500 m or so, feel 'part of me' really starting to suffer, but another part really picking up, as though somebody has injected me with a performance enhancing drug or something! I'll then enter another hellish zone where my brain tries to convince me to stop, time slows down, and the metres count down painfully slowly, and the fear of failure rears its ugly head again.

200 metres later, that energy deep down returns and I push and sweat my way through the next 500-1000 metres with relative ease!

I wonder how much of this is psychological - the no man's land of the middle 60% is the worst for sure, but is still interspersed with periods of energy.

The question I want to ask, as an inexperienced practitioner of exercise is, 'is this normal'? I do operate at the upper end of what my body's capable of most of the time, and this has rewarded me with some really motivating gains in the past 3 months (5k in 25:17 then verus 20:22 now, felt like dying after both!) and I always find myself chasing that post workout high which gets me on the seat every single time, but am I doing something wrong? Recently I've found myself pendulating either side of my target pace by about 1 second on the distance work. I just can't work out if this is the cause of, or effect of, my undulating energy levels...

Also, I get massively different results out of different SPM's - I did a 3 x 1000 m the other day, first one at 20 SPM felt mega trying, but the next two at 30 SPM were pretty manageable. Reverse this for the SS and distance work - I feel out of breath at high spm on a longer piece, but at ~ 22 spm I can go probably 20% further for the same pace.

Is it all normal?!?! :shock:

[jamesg]

Yes. To some extent it's only a question of putting a name to what you find.

Names I use are warmup, endorphines and the balance between strength, stroke length, and rating, all under the control of style and rest time in both stroke and week.

Maybe that catalogue is incomplete; you work a lot harder than I do, so will find plenty more cliffs to climb.

[Dangerscouse]

Is it all normal?!?!

Yeah, very normal. I don't have as many peaks and troughs, but I do have them; not every session, but most of them.

For a long session I can usually tell when it's around the 40 minute mark as I do feel a subtle change, which I think may be due to different energy systems, but I'm not sure about that.

Second, third, fourth etc winds are proven moments, and there's also an element of your limbic brain controlling your thoughts, so you start to wonder if it's possible, but if you keep going you eventually realise that you are capable and those emotional feelings subside.

Stroke rates are definitely more applicable for different sessions, different days and different physiologies, but, eventually, you should work on your weaknesses. It sounds like you're more of an aerobically fit than strong, so that's why a higher stroke rate feels better. That will change as you progress, and if you do weights.

[Pendolino]

Yes. To some extent it's only a question of putting a name to what you find.

Names I use are warmup, endorphines and the balance between strength, stroke length, and rating, all under the control of style and rest time in both stroke and week.

Maybe that catalogue is incomplete; you work a lot harder than I do, so will find plenty more cliffs to climb.

Cheers James, very succinctly put and makes sense.

Is it all normal?!?!

Yeah, very normal. I don't have as many peaks and troughs, but I do have them; not every session, but most of them.

For a long session I can usually tell when it's around the 40 minute mark as I do feel a subtle change, which I think may be due to different energy systems, but I'm not sure about that.

Second, third, fourth etc winds are proven moments, and there's also an element of your limbic brain controlling your thoughts, so you start to wonder if it's possible, but if you keep going you eventually realise that you are capable and those emotional feelings subside.

Stroke rates are definitely more applicable for different sessions, different days and different physiologies, but, eventually, you should work on your weaknesses. It sounds like you're more of an aerobically fit than strong, so that's why a higher stroke rate feels better. That will change as you progress, and if you do weights.

I'm going to have to start paying you soon....

You know, I think you're onto something with the whole 'energy systems' thing. Whatever's going on is totally new to me, and I like it. Remember that 3 x 2000 m I tried to do at a pace of 2:00 about a month ago, and arms gave up with 800 m left on the final interval? Repeated it this evening and held a solid 2:00 throughout. I felt the same sensation of struggling I felt before, but then something deep down kicked in and almost carried me the rest of the way. Feels like real progress! Difficult to tell for sure though - last time my spm's were 29 - 27 - 24 respectively, whilst this time I tried 20 - 23 - 30. I'm going to aim for some consistency going forward, but I'm enjoying experimenting to see how different combinations feel.

One thing that's helping psychologically are the increasing distances on the SS's - now I know that if I feel a certain way at 1500 m remaining, I'm doing it no matter what. A couple of months ago, my safe distance-to-go was about 800 m.

Thanks for all your help again mate. One day, depending how far I get with all this, I might do a write up on the whole zero -> novice -> 'I sort of know what I'm doing' type thing!

[Dangerscouse]

I'm going to have to start paying you soon....

You know, I think you're onto something with the whole 'energy systems' thing. Whatever's going on is totally new to me, and I like it. Remember that 3 x 2000 m I tried to do at a pace of 2:00 about a month ago, and arms gave up with 800 m left on the final interval? Repeated it this evening and held a solid 2:00 throughout. I felt the same sensation of struggling I felt before, but then something deep down kicked in and almost carried me the rest of the way. Feels like real progress! Difficult to tell for sure though - last time my spm's were 29 - 27 - 24 respectively, whilst this time I tried 20 - 23 - 30. I'm going to aim for some consistency going forward, but I'm enjoying experimenting to see how different combinations feel.

One thing that's helping psychologically are the increasing distances on the SS's - now I know that if I feel a certain way at 1500 m remaining, I'm doing it no matter what. A couple of months ago, my safe distance-to-go was about 800 m.

Thanks for all your help again mate. One day, depending how far I get with all this, I might do a write up on the whole zero -> novice -> 'I sort of know what I'm doing' type thing!

Hahaha, I'm just doing what others have done for me when I needed it.

Confidence, and knowing you've done it / can do it is a huge consideration. I remember during my ultra distance training I used to think it's 'only' 10k to go, so I'm almost there. It's all part of your mindset and your innate self defense mechanism that will try to limit what you're doing, if you let your inner chimp take control.

The inner chimp is from the excellent Dr Steve Peters' "The Chimp Paradox" book. He was Sky Cycling's sports psychologist so it's well worth a read to understand this side of training without it being technical and hard going.

[Pendolino]

I'm going to have to start paying you soon....

You know, I think you're onto something with the whole 'energy systems' thing. Whatever's going on is totally new to me, and I like it. Remember that 3 x 2000 m I tried to do at a pace of 2:00 about a month ago, and arms gave up with 800 m left on the final interval? Repeated it this evening and held a solid 2:00 throughout. I felt the same sensation of struggling I felt before, but then something deep down kicked in and almost carried me the rest of the way. Feels like real progress! Difficult to tell for sure though - last time my spm's were 29 - 27 - 24 respectively, whilst this time I tried 20 - 23 - 30. I'm going to aim for some consistency going forward, but I'm enjoying experimenting to see how different combinations feel.

One thing that's helping psychologically are the increasing distances on the SS's - now I know that if I feel a certain way at 1500 m remaining, I'm doing it no matter what. A couple of months ago, my safe distance-to-go was about 800 m.

Thanks for all your help again mate. One day, depending how far I get with all this, I might do a write up on the whole zero -> novice -> 'I sort of know what I'm doing' type thing!

Hahaha, I'm just doing what others have done for me when I needed it.

Confidence, and knowing you've done it / can do it is a huge consideration. I remember during my ultra distance training I used to think it's 'only' 10k to go, so I'm almost there. It's all part of your mindset and your innate self defense mechanism that will try to limit what you're doing, if you let your inner chimp take control.

The inner chimp is from the excellent Dr Steve Peters' "The Chimp Paradox" book. He was Sky Cycling's sports psychologist so it's well worth a read to understand this side of training without it being technical and hard going.

The one I've started doing is saying to myself, "Ok, it hurts, and the next 6 minutes are going to get worse. I can either stop now and chalk it up to a bad evening, or I can celebrate in 6 minutes and feel great." That's been working. I've 'only' had to bail on 2 of my 42 rows so far, 1st being the unrealistic target, and 2nd was a genuinely stars not lining up moment.

I'm gonna check out that book, ta!