Older rower seeking opinion

[iahoka]

This is the thread that I've been hoping to see for quite a while, and it is truly a pleasure to meet and listen to everyone here, all of whom seem to be in my general age group.

Anyway, speaking to the original posted question: I used Polar10 HR monitor religiously until I found that I could use the stroke rate and the force curve as proxies...slowing down or speeding up as needed. So now I just row long and steady trying to keep creating the best force curve I can and maintaining whatever stroke I choose for the work distance. Most of the time that means a stroke rate of 16-19 and 2:14-2:20 500m splits over 15K-20K rows, and, as was said earlier, using the stroke rate as a brake against increasing HR if the perceived effort seems like its climbing. As for the WOD's, that's just to have fun and to try to break up the rowing regimen. Another C2 friend who's 74 years old says he just likes to "pile up the meters everyday", so he does 5k-8k "just rows", then the WOD, then another 5k-8k warmdown. Building cardiovascular and muscular fitness takes a long time at any age, but from sixty on it seems interminably slow. So if fitness is your goal and you are trying to extend your healthy lifespan, just pile up the meters like you're already doing and try focusing on the curve instead of the heartrate. After a few weeks you'll have enough muscle memory that you won't need the HR monitor at all for most of your rows, because the point of erging is to have fun and stay fit rather than having a bunch of data points to monitor..at least from my noobie vantage point.

This thread has also cleared up a lot of things together that I've been struggling to understand.....for example, why my force curve looks more semi-circular than haystack was explained by lindsayh, because no matter how hard I shove off with my legs I simply cannot close at the catch, and that has to be the result of a biomechanical fault due to two fake knees (2006 and 2010). The core hinge is likely out of whack as well thanks to a hip replacement in 2021, and the arm pull is certainly weaker due to extensive bilateral rotator cuff wear over the years. What is left for me is the realization that my racing days were over before they ever began, leaving fitness as the only goal I can and should pursue.

mjhatten, thank you very much for your comment as to who you are racing against. I always say that I want to die healthy, but you phrased it far better.