Ranger's training thread

[JimR]

1:49 @ 22 spm is UT2 for a 6:16 2K.

For me, UT2 is 145 bpm.

A good UT2 row is a HM.

You are only as good as your UT2 pace.

UT2 is 2K + 15.

ranger

The fact you can't do 1:49 at 22 spm for a 2K means what .. it is your AT pace???

JimR

[ranger]

From somewhat better catch timing, I have indeed been gaining a little stroking power over the last couple of weeks. I am now often rowing right at 13 SPI in my FM training, so that even 12.5 SPI seems light and easy. This means that I will only need to rate 22 spm to do 1:48 for a FM. Interesting situation to be settling into 22 spm, the normal stroke rate for UT2 rowing in the IP. I feel quite a bit more relaxed at 22 spm than at 24 spm (25 spm or 26 spm). At 22 spm, it is easier to get each catch absolutely right. Breathing seems to easier to regularize, too. If you get locked into 22 spm, you can just row and row (and row and row and row). At the limits of their training, everyone should be able to row at 22 spm all day long. Once you can do that, you are ready for the rest of your training. You have founded your training on a sheet of granite, Canadian shield.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... CEYQ9QEwAg

For me, OTW, the reflex of the 1:48 @ 22 spm (12.5 SPI) that I am now doing OTErg is 2:08 @ 22 spm.

In his Olympic days, Xeno liked to do most of his training in his 1x at 21 spm.

22 spm is close enough.

It is certainly no accident that 22 spm (a "220") is the stroke limit on Mike C.'s 10-minute Level 4 sequences.

ranger

[ranger]

The major dilemma in training for rowing is that easy speed is the product of good skeletal-motor habits, rowing well.

But good skeletal-muscular habits can only be established by practice, lots of practice, and because it is _very_ difficult to row well, this practice is hard to do.

Sure, certain incremental progress can be made in training by improving your fitness even though you continue to row poorly.

For instance, if you are a lightweight and normally pull 2:06 @ 22 spm (8 SPI) at UT2, by improving your fitness, you might get so that you can pull 1:56 @ 22 spm (10 SPI) at UT2, a substantial gain of 10 seconds per 500m.

But the problem is how to go on from there, e.g., so that you can pull 1:46 @ 22 spm (13 SPI) at UT2, _another_ substantial gain of 10 seconds per 500m.

If you are a lightweight, you can pull 1:56 @ 22 spm at UT2 rowing poorly but you need to row well to pull 1:46 @ 22 spm at UT2.

You need to learn how to row.

None of the major training plans for rowing have anything to say about how to row well, so none of these training plans are of any help at all in confronting this task.

All of the major training plans for rowing focus on improving fitness--and that's all.

Like all sports, rowing is an art.

But all of the major training plans for rowing are bits of science.

Therefore they miss the central concern of the art.

For someone who pulls 2:06 @ 22 spm (8 SPI) at UT2 rowing poorly, pulling 1:46 @ 22 spm (13 SPI) at UT2 rowing well just seems unimaginable, absurd, ridiculous, crazy, etc.

Someone who pulls 2:06 @ 22 spm (8 SPI) at UT2 rowing poorly has no idea whatsoever of how it is even possible (for someone the same size, age, etc.) to pull 1:46 @ 22 spm (13 SPI) at UT2.

ranger

[ranger]

Compared to someone who pulls 2:06 @ 22 spm (8 SPI) at UT2, someone the same age, size, etc., who pulls 1:46 @ 22 spm (13 SPI) at UT2 gets 70% more work done on each stroke at the same level of effort.

ranger

[JimR]

Someone who pulls 2:06 @ 22 spm (8 SPI) at UT2 rowing poorly has no idea whatsoever of how it is even possible (for someone the same size, age, etc.) to pull 1:46 @ 22 spm (13 SPI) at UT2.

Of course they understand ... when they row/erg with such a person they think "gee, why does this guy next to me keep stopping?" or "man, if someone in my boat just stopped rowing we would have to kill them when we got to shore".

Kind of like the people who beat you at BIRC ... you, "mr. best erger ever".

JimR

[ben990]

The major dilemma in my training for rowing...

ranger

I think that this summarizes your training to date:

[ranger]

Nice 10K OTW, after 10K OTErg.

Yea.

OTW, I am now doing just 20 seconds per 500m over my erg paces at the same rates.

Revved it up to 1:50 today OTW and was surprised at how smooth and controlled it was.

I'll have to try some 500s when I get up to Door County later this week and see if I can rip them off at 1:50.

70 strokes?

Europe Lake has a nice 1K sheet of open water.

http://www.lakeplace.com/lakefinder/wi/ ... rope/93100

My cottage is on Wisconsin Bay, just a mile or two to the north, on the big lake.

At dawn, no one is there on Europe Lake except me.

Europe Lake is beautifully clear and clean--spring fed, almost no boats, very few cottages, no vegetation or pollution, etc.

Public access is easy and free.

A gem.

ranger

[ranger]

Before my WR rows (6:29, 6:28) in the fall of 2003, as one sort of exercise, I was doing 5Ks, 1:48 @ 22 spm (12.5 SPI), 15K (3 x 5K) in a session as a whole.

At that point, rowing badly at max drag, I couldn't row 1:48 @ 22 spm (12.5 SPI), steady state, at all.

Rowing 1:48 @ 22 spm (12.5 SPI), my HR just steadily rose until it hit 185 bpm after 15 minutes or so and I had to stop.

5K was it.

In the fall of 2003, I also did 60min, 1:52 @ 20 spm (12.5 SPI), albeit with a top-end UT1 HR, not at UT2.

ranger

[ranger]

Here's Europe Lake in the morning.



ranger

[hjs]

Is that you? Lightweight status is really far away now. 90 kg there?

Nice picture though, looks great, almost a pitty you are in it

[ranger]

The major dilemma in my training for rowing...

ranger

I think that this summarizes your training to date:

Hardly.

I have three WR rows, four major championship golds, all in championship records, the best 2K for my age and weight in 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010; sub-6:30 rows as a heavyweight in 2002 and 2006.

And now my training for a 6:16 2K is coming along great.

There are _very_ few veteran rowers who have a more distinguished record OTErg over the last ten years.

ranger

[ranger]

The major dilemma in my training for rowing...

ranger

I think that this summarizes your training to date:

Actually, it appears that it is not me, but most of my major competition that has crashed and burned, either literally or figuratively.

It is very hard to train in a way that maintains a sustained record of achievement in this sport.

Almost all of the distinguished veteran rowers that I competed against ten years ago are no longer rowing--at all.

In most cases, they were the victims of the major endgames in the sport--sickness, injury, staleness, and/or discouragement.

ranger

[ranger]

Is that you? Lightweight status is really far away now. 90 kg there?

The pic was taken four years ago, in the summer of 2007.

I am about 170 lbs. now.

My weight is _very_ good.

ranger

[ben990]

Here's Europe Lake in the morning.



ranger

Hey what are those strings hanging from your shirt? Oh, wait, sorry. Those are your arms.

And I thought you said Europe Lake is pollution free. I see a big pile of pollution standing in the center of this picture...

[Byron Drachman]

From today's Lansing State Journal

News of the Weird

Quite a Disease, that Lyme: Marilyn Michose, 46, was referred for medical evaluation in May after she was spotted roaming the lobby of the Waldorf-Austoria Hotel in New York City wearing neon pink panties on top of her street clothes, with a .25=caliber Beretta visible in her jacket pocket, and speaking gibberish--something about a FM@1:48 and 6:16 2K coming soon. According to Michose's mother, Marilyn had overmedicated for her Lyme disease.

OK, maybe I added the part about the FM and 2K. Lyme disease is found in Wisconsin. Hmmm, could it be?

http://www.aldf.com/usmap.shtml