New girl after training advice

[elmerfudd]

Am a real newcomer to this but after only 2 weeks of taking delivery of a new water rower, I'm totally hooked. I've snooped about this excellent forum and thought I'd post here as the women's forum seems to be pretty quiet...hope it's ok to gate-crash?
My question is, my overall goals are to gain fitness, tone up and become reasonably competitive, if my times improve. Do you have any suggestions about the amount of time I should be spending training (I've started off doing 6 days a week), distances I should aim to cover and what spm I should be aiming for over say 2k and 5k.
FYI, I'm a 39yr old female, 59kgs, and my PBs right now are:
2k 7:49' and 5k 21:30'
Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated, thks.

[rtmmtl]

Am a real newcomer to this but after only 2 weeks of taking delivery of a new water rower, I'm totally hooked. I've snooped about this excellent forum and thought I'd post here as the women's forum seems to be pretty quiet...hope it's ok to gate-crash?
My question is, my overall goals are to gain fitness, tone up and become reasonably competitive, if my times improve. Do you have any suggestions about the amount of time I should be spending training (I've started off doing 6 days a week), distances I should aim to cover and what spm I should be aiming for over say 2k and 5k.
FYI, I'm a 39yr old female, 59kgs, and my PBs right now are:
2k 7:49' and 5k 21:30'
Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated, thks.

Here is a link to interactive training.....fill in the blanks and get a plan.

http://www.concept2.co.uk/training/interactive.php

Another source of excellent info

http://www.concept2.co.uk/guide/index.php

on this page, especially top left column, 'online guide' and 'downloads' all free. Also on this page check out 'forums' extreme top second from right. That is the UK forum, much more traffic and even world class ergers posting there. If you do go to the forum check out the 'Pete Plan' should find it here http://www.concept2.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5409 it is very popular

You're gonna find that 99.999% of the conversation is about C2 as opposed to water rowers but should all apply I would think. Good luck

[Bob S.]

Am a real newcomer to this but after only 2 weeks of taking delivery of a new water rower, I'm totally hooked. I've snooped about this excellent forum and thought I'd post here as the women's forum seems to be pretty quiet...hope it's ok to gate-crash?
My question is, my overall goals are to gain fitness, tone up and become reasonably competitive, if my times improve. Do you have any suggestions about the amount of time I should be spending training (I've started off doing 6 days a week), distances I should aim to cover and what spm I should be aiming for over say 2k and 5k.
FYI, I'm a 39yr old female, 59kgs, and my PBs right now are:
2k 7:49' and 5k 21:30'
Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated, thks.

What make of water rower do you have? Does the maker say that the times and distances are comparable to those on the Concept2 Indoor Rowers? It doesn't seem likely, since water rowers and flywheel rowers use such difference physics. My point is that your times look excellent for after only 2 weeks, but it is hard to say what they would translate to on an air resistance flywheel machine like the C2 indoor rowers.

Bob S.

[elmerfudd]

Thanks for your really helpful reply rtmmtl..I'm working my way through the tons of info there is available and am putting together a plan I can follow for the next 3 or 4 weeks and see how I go. Thanks so much.

Bob, I've got the WaterRower 'natural'...not sure how that compares with a Concept 2 in all terms of resistance etc but I went into the gym today and rowed 5k on their Concept 2 Model D just to see how times compared and did a PB of 21.09' altho this could just be a fluke and I was pushing hard all the way through. Am looking to see if I can find out a bit more about the water rower vs Concept 2...anyone else tried both?
Thanks for the feedback

[Bob S.]

Bob, I've got the WaterRower 'natural'...not sure how that compares with a Concept 2 in all terms of resistance etc but I went into the gym today and rowed 5k on their Concept 2 Model D just to see how times compared and did a PB of 21.09' altho this could just be a fluke and I was pushing hard all the way through.

21:30 and 21:09 — that seems close enough for me. It can give you a pretty good idea of how you compare with others in your category that use the C2. In last year's rankings, your 21:09 would have placed you between 5th and 6th of 106 lightweight (61kg and under) women between 30 and 39. Since you are at the upper end of the age group. you should be a real winner next year. Your 2k is not quite that strong, but it is good and the 5k is probably a better indicator. So far this season, your 2k is way ahead of all those that have posted a ranking so far in the LWT 30-39 women.

Bob S.

[PaulS]

Thanks for your really helpful reply rtmmtl..I'm working my way through the tons of info there is available and am putting together a plan I can follow for the next 3 or 4 weeks and see how I go. Thanks so much.

Bob, I've got the WaterRower 'natural'...not sure how that compares with a Concept 2 in all terms of resistance etc but I went into the gym today and rowed 5k on their Concept 2 Model D just to see how times compared and did a PB of 21.09' altho this could just be a fluke and I was pushing hard all the way through. Am looking to see if I can find out a bit more about the water rower vs Concept 2...anyone else tried both?
Thanks for the feedback

Next time your at the Gym, try the 2k and see how it compares. Lat I heard, the Water Rower's pace figures were related more to the rate you are rowing (Stroke rate) rather than to specific power input. The C2 is always based on power input so is a much better machine for determining consistency in training and progress as you go.

Nice 5k though, you must be in decent shape already.

[elmerfudd]

Yup, will try and get onto a Concept 2 down the gym once a week just to check my times and see if I'm making progress. Want to work on my 2k time although think I may be better over a slightly longer distance, we'll see.
Although I'm new to rowing, I've always been a keen trail rider so the leg muscles haven't had to start from nowhere. Unfortunately can't say the same about non-existent upper body strength...not much to write home about there I can tell you!

[Liquid]

I have both machines. The WR you bought is probably the monitor series IV. On the Yahoo group forum one of the users tried both machines and came up with about a 12% difference. This means that if you did a 5k in 20 minutes on the WR it would take about 22:24 on the Concept 2. Your times are much closer than that which I find interesting.