Natural Talent / Potential

michaelb · Post by **michaelb** » March 21st, 2007, 12:40 pm

Since you have only been rowing a few months, I would be very surprised if you are at all near your limit. You have rowed 400k in 3 months, so you have been doing a lot of rowing, but don't indicate at all what that involves.

Instead of focusing on your 2k, you may want to focus on your 5k or 10k times. A mid range goal to go sub20 in the 5k would give you something to work toward, and then when you can do that, going sub 7:30 is a lock.

What pace are you rowing your long steady rows? Maybe long rows at 2:10-2:15 pace, and medium hard rows in the 2:05 range. But I am sort of guessing at those numbers without more info of what you are currently doing. Based on PaulS's coaching, I would have you do them at 10 meters per stroke. so rowing 2:15 pace at stroke 22; 2:10 pace at SR 23, and 2:05 pace at SR 24, for all your rows.

Good luck.

kipkeino68 · Post by **kipkeino68** » March 21st, 2007, 7:18 pm

michaelb wrote:Instead of focusing on your 2k, you may want to focus on your 5k or 10k times. A mid range goal to go sub20 in the 5k would give you something to work toward, and then when you can do that, going sub 7:30 is a lock.

Thanks for your advice. I was doing a lot of meters to build a base.
Being new to the sport I wanted to avoid injuries so I stayed away from lots of intense speedwork.
I was training for CRASH/Bs using a rough version of the Pete Plan.

Now that the seasons over I'm experimenting with less meters per week and rowing faster. I'm doing more high intensity intervals. I got my HR to 183 yesterday, the highest in 2 years including running.
I'll start running again in April. It will be interesting doing two sport
cross training.
I will be following your advice when I start training for the 2008 CRASH/Bs. For now I'm having fun training for a fast 500M and 1k.

kipkeino68 · Post by **kipkeino68** » March 25th, 2007, 8:46 pm

At last I made a big improvement.
Today I improved from 7:42.1 to 7:36.1. My recent speedwork helped me finish with a 1:51.0 last 500.

It was also a good day because RowPro is compatible with Windows Vista now.
I got to use RowPro for the first time. It felt really good uploading my first Rowfile to the online rankings. Thanks for the support.

kipkeino68 · Post by **kipkeino68** » April 5th, 2007, 1:35 pm

[quote="michaelb"]

"Instead of focusing on your 2k, you may want to focus on your 5k or 10k times. A mid range goal to go sub20 in the 5k would give you something to work toward, and then when you can do that, going sub 7:30 is a lock."

I'm very happy with my recent progress. 19:54.3 for 5K today. I'm feeling ready for a fast 2K now.
Thanks

PaulS · Post by **PaulS** » April 5th, 2007, 2:00 pm

kipkeino68 wrote:
michaelb wrote:
"Instead of focusing on your 2k, you may want to focus on your 5k or 10k times. A mid range goal to go sub20 in the 5k would give you something to work toward, and then when you can do that, going sub 7:30 is a lock."
I'm very happy with my recent progress. 19:54.3 for 5K today. I'm feeling ready for a fast 2K now.
Thanks

Could be tight, but you may nick 7:30 with good planning, just don't panic. Start on 1:53 and then negative split the 500's.

Of course give yourself a day or two after todays 5k to recover.

chgoss · Post by **chgoss** » April 5th, 2007, 2:01 pm

Bill, glad to hear that RP is working, you might be interested in a couple races that a few folks on the East Coast USA do on a regular basis..
- Thursday night at 7PM EST we have 2k intervals (4 of them, 5 min rest in between)
- Sunday afternoon at 4 PM EST we have 5k intervals (2 of them, 5 min rest in between)

all speeds welcome, hope to see you there!
-chad

kipkeino68 · Post by **kipkeino68** » April 7th, 2007, 7:46 pm

When I started this thread I wanted to hear how other people progressed their first year erging. I'm still interested in learning when the honeymoon period ended for you.

I started training on 12-15-2006. My 2K progress went like this:
After 2 weeks: 8:03.9, 5 weeks 7:44.5, 12 weeks 7:42.1. That's when I started this thread. How can the honeymoon be over so soon?

I changed my workouts to less meters per week with more quality.
14 weeks 7:36.1, 16 weeks: 7:31.5 today. (3:47.1, 3:44.4 negative split)
I feel really good about breaking 7:30 now.

I'm a lightweight who turns 50 next month. I'd especially be interested in hearing from the over 40 crowd.
Just curious, does anyone know how many weeks it took Rocket Roy Brook to break 7:00 when he started on the erg?

coggs · Post by **coggs** » April 7th, 2007, 8:07 pm

I fall into the over 40 crowd. Actually over 50, but don't feel like it since I started rowing last summer. Have not been at it a year but suspect the honeymoon (PB on nearly every session) is long over. My first 2K was over 8 minutes when I got me Model C last September. Did a personal best at CRASH B's of 7:02.3. I have not been doing much speed work since, so doubt I'm faster at 2K, but have been bringing my PB for longer distances (hour and HM down). Will focus on OTW rowing once it warms up a little more so don't expet to be doing mnay PB erg attempts for quite some time.

coggs · Post by **coggs** » April 7th, 2007, 8:09 pm

Just want to add it's funny Chad, Bill, and I post so frequently here and we all live about 15 miles from each other and have never otherwise met. Small world.