New guy here....

[hjs]

Okay....THAT HURT!

Today was the day that made the most sense to swap workouts and do the 4 X 1000 with 5min rest thing. It actually went really well. I thought I may have overcooked it on the second one but held it together through the end. Definitely felt like I had a good day for the fitness level I'm at. Here are the splits....

142.3
140.3
142.2
141.1

Average 141.5

So I'm in 6:42'ish shape according to this test?

This erg stuff hurts like hell when you're letting it rip! It reminds me a lot of skate skiing. Feels like every muscle in your body is fighting one another for oxygen and it puts you in the PAIN CAVE!

Yes, nice, if you do a 2k right now, you could keep the pace around 1.41/42 with from 500 meter on giving it what you have left. And yes, erging on the edge is certainly tough.

[bend3333]

One quick question. Do you start intervals from a standstill or do you have the fan revved up when it starts?

I've been going from a standstill but wasn't sure what the protocol is.

[hjs]

One quick question. Do you start intervals from a standstill or do you have the fan revved up when it starts?

I've been going from a standstill but wasn't sure what the protocol is.

Both can, most objective is from a stop.

[Bob S.]

One quick question. Do you start intervals from a standstill or do you have the fan revved up when it starts?

I've been going from a standstill but wasn't sure what the protocol is.

As hjs said, both can be done. There are no formal rules. If you are following someone's predictive advice, it very likely makes a difference - you would have to check directly with the advice supplier. If you are using intervals for tracking your own progress, the important thing is to do them the same way each time.

Bob S.

[jackarabit]

I always use rolling starts on all but the initial interval rep for training. A rolling start trains only the ability to time the first big stroke to the PM countdown out of the rest period. No place for it in competition with the exception of informal "participatory" challenges such as the Concept 2 Cross-Team. Rolling starts reduce the repetitive physical demands of standing starts but deadwheel racing starts practise a necessary competitive skill. I would credit your interval paces from standing starts as predictive of a better single distance time than could be anticipated from the same paces done from rolling starts.

[maestroak]

I always do rolling starts because I never fully rest between intervals. There may be a good reason to do it, but for me I feel more comfortable keeping my body moving a bit. Of course, the mental aspects of the 2....N intervals being slightly easier/faster than 1 is nice too.

ETA: Very nice times on the 4x1000. You have some good physical attributes so should be able to put up some great times. As someone else said before, you should improve fairly significantly no matter where you're at now. Nice (or terrible) thing about erging is it's just you and the machine. It's enjoyable to be in the phase of lots of progress and reward for the toil. It typically last a long time for new ergers.

-Steve

[Marsh_Creek_Sculler]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I'm actually not so sure I need to lose weight? I'm actually a pretty lean 205. Would losing muscle weight help me?

I was basically starting from scratch a month ago. A 8k row at 2:05 was difficult at that point. I started the program a little over two weeks ago. Was just doing the 4 day a week on level 4 until this week. I finally feel like I'm in good enough shape to where I can actually recover from workouts and start to actually get into reasonably good shape. So I'm bumping it up to the 6 days a week this week. We'll see how it goes. I started pretty much at the bottom a month ago so unless I really screw up my training I should have nowhere to go but up for another month or two I would think.

I'm doing the workouts based on putting a 6:50 2k into the system.

As I said, I live in Austin. I've lived here for a decade and have never been on the water to row even though I see people driving by the water every day. I may have to figure out how to get into the on the water stuff in a month or two. It's fun to find a new sport to get into. Training hard for running or cycling and not being able to sniff anywhere close to personal bests that were set 15 or so years ago doesn't really interest me anymore. It's just frustrating!

Sounds like you're off to a good start. Transitioning into a new sport can be a great way to keep yourself motivated and see some really big improvements in a short span of time as your technique improves and your body adapts. There are a couple of great rowing clubs in Austin that offer learn to row programs. http://www.texasrowingcenter.com/ and http://austinrowing.org/. I know some of the folks at TRC and they're a great bunch. I heartily recommend giving it a go.