Advise Needed>Newbie Addicted to Best Timing Every Piece

[HammerHead Sk8r]

Well, took the plunge a few weeks ago and purchased my first rower, Model D. I have always been focused on fitness but due to injuries and other distractions have lost a great deal of my optimum fitness level and felt that rowing would be a way to recapture it. Just in the two weeks I have had my erg I have completely become convinced that I made the right decision in that purchase.....

Here is my dilemma, however: I am too freakin competitive for my own good and I find myself being drawn into focusing on my PM3 and have already pushed myself harder than I most likely should have. I can't seem to fight the temptation of wanting to improve my best personal time on each piece that I row. In the two weeks I have had my erg I have already logged close to 65,000m (which I know for you season vets thats about a half a week's work but due to my sport I have missed several days from the rower) done two different 2000m pieces for time along with two 10000m pieces for time. It seems everytime I sit on the darn thing I can't seem to focus on training but instead want to just go full bore and beat my previous piece, both in 500m average and overall time. Coming from cycling and competive skateboard racing I know in my head that you don't go balls out every time you get on a bike or run a course on a board, instead, opting for building up to a certain level but I can't seem to translate that to my rower. The PM3 begs me to push it and the REROW FEATURE is probably the main culprit with the pace boat visual.

My question to you guys is, were you faced with this when you first started and how did you create your training regime so that you didn't burn yourself out everytime you got on the erg?


For the record so far my best time on 2000m is 7:58:4 (with a pb 500m split of 1:54:1)and 43:11:15 for 10000m which I know is really not that fast but still was hard for me seeing that I just started, my technique is horrible, and I'm out of shape.
Age 43

[Gus]

My question to you guys is, were you faced with this when you first started and how did you create your training regime so that you didn't burn yourself out everytime you got on the erg?

Use a HR monitor and STAY within the appropriate training zone. The biggest mistake almost all athletes make is to try to go too fast too soon. We're a world that thrives on instant gratification. In my opinion, even those who have been using the erg for a considerable amount of time, still find themselves too often racing their workouts trying for another PB. It takes discipline to train properly and not many are patient enough.

[TabbRows]

Look at some of the other training threads here and at some of the training schedules they offer. If you're competitive, try the ones focused on 2K training, you'll get plenty of anaerobic and hard paced workouts but also endurance building ones.

When I first started out, I couldn't get those slow rate suckers at all. I thought my PM3 was programmed to never go below 24 or if it did, I had to crank it back up because I'd only do a 2:38 at 18spm and nearly 3:00 at 14spm. But as technique improved I found my slow rate strokes picking up the power they needed and could take advantage of the recovery time.

Also, pick up Xeno's DVDs. He has some varied pace workouts and for long steady state pieces, you can try to match his strokes on the water as he rows in Newport Bay.

When you pick a training schedule, select a 2K time as a reasonable goal the adjust your workouts accordingly. There are several tables around that can give you the stoke and pace for various efforts.

Best of luck. come back on the boards and let us know how you're doing.

[Sean Seamus]

1 - heart monitor
2 - pace / stroke rate schemes
3 - technique technique technique
4 - force curve
5 - read through the forum, current and old posts / threads

hard day / easy day / hard day / easy day / REST

[JohnBove]

You might try, every now and then, pivoting the output up and backwards so you can't see it and just row a piece by a clock.

[PaulS]

Make sure to get your technique sorted out ASAP, and I mean by having someone who knows, give you a bit of help, perhaps a Rowing coach at a local school or club. Watch the C2 video several times, and arrange a mirror so that you can see yourself trying to immitate what you think you saw on the video.

If you do the "guy thing" and just yank on the handle as hard as you can, you will get to a plateau that is restricted by your bad habits and have to break them before continuing, how frustrating is having to go slower while breaking bad habits?

As for filling the competitive need, pick a different measure. Say for 10k, set up 1k splits and see how close you can make them all to a specific target you set prior to the workout. If you set a 2:10 target, keep an eye on the Avg split during the piece and when you recall the splits later you may be surprised to see that they were not all 2:10.0, it's rather challenging. Plus you will gain a bit of discipline along the way. Eventually you will find it interesting that the 2:05 you started with, that was sooooo easy at teh beginning of the piece, can get plenty tough by the end of a long piece, though it requires no more power than it did when it was "easy" at the beginning.

Cheers.

[johnlvs2run]

My question to you guys is, were you faced with this when you first started and how did you create your training regime so that you didn't burn yourself out everytime you got on the erg?

For the record so far my best time on 2000m is 7:58:4 (with a pb 500m split of 1:54:1)and 43:11:15 for 10000m which I know is really not that fast but still was hard for me seeing that I just started, my technique is horrible, and I'm out of shape.
Age 43

That's normal when you're first starting out. The PB's come fast and you improve at lot at the start. As with your cycling and stateboarding you will automatically work out your own routines with times. You're doing great already so keep on having fun and enjoy it.

[HammerHead Sk8r]

This all great stuff! Thank you all. I do have the heart rate monitor interface and am highly familiar with managing ranges. Like I said in my post, I know better...but doing it on this addictive thing is a different story!

The suggestion regarding techique is a key one I think. I have watched the C2 one a couple of times but do feel I need help from someone in the know. I think there is a rowing club on Lake Norman down in Davidson (North Carolina)...maybe I could try to find out if they do some stuff on an indoor trainer.

This is great info...again Thank you. One of my skate racing buddies on the West Coast swears by rowing as a great all around fitness cross trainier. I race slalom which requires burst of energy and drive over typically short distances. It also requires, at most races, explosive pull out of the starting gate and I can tell already that rowing is going to help with that....Got our club's starting ramp out the other night and set up the timer an worked on reaction times (tone start with a reaction time indicator)...I can see where rowing is going to improve my pull out of the gate..even though I am strong it's a different motion...

Thanks again to all of your post. Looking forward to learning more for all of you guys...give me some time and who knows, CRASH-B could be on the horizon...ha ha.

[michaelb]

I am not sure new people really need to follow a training plan right from the start. Plenty of time to get into that later. I agree though you should sort your technique out, so read here and on the UK forum about proper technique, and also get one of Xeno's DVDs or some coaching advice. I would unstrap your feet and row strapless from now on, until you are ready to race.

I think 10ks are a great way to start. Skip the 2k time trials for a couple of months. I don't see what is wrong with pushing yourself now at the start. Each day start the 10k at the average pace of the day before, and then for the last 2k, increase the speed as much you want. You don't have to do this, and it is not a training plan, but I don't think it will hurt and it is a good way to start working on the sort of foundational rowing that is the basis for any training plan.

[HammerHead Sk8r]

[quote="Gus] It takes discipline to train properly and not many are patient enough.[/quote]

Guilty as charged....but I know from my other sport how to do it....just that freakin PM3 is yelling " PUSH IT YOU WUSS>>>PUSH IT>>" ....doesn't your's do that? ha ha

By the way, I have gone strapless based on reading on here earlier...took them off of my erg. Funny thing is, I find that my Ipath skate shoes (shameless sponsor plug) are the shoes I like rowing the best in rather than my running shoes or cross trainers.