Ranger's training thread

[ranger]

you speak condescendingly about feats many people work very hard toward and could never achieve

I'm not sure what your point is here.

That no one has the right to counter whatever rationalization makes someone feel good about themselves?

Self-satisfaction as a right, however undeserved?

ranger

[ranger]

When UofM finally pushes you out the door you should run for a seat in the US HOR. You'd probably feel a real kindred spirit there.

He would then be the head douche in a room full of douches ... spinning tales of BS in a non-stop hum of BS ... which sounds a lot like a peotry class I think!

JimR

Sure.

This sort of cynicism is everywhere.

It is the easiest thing in the world, and therefore the most needless and useless.

Let's hear what you admire, embrace, and are trying like hell to further and achieve.

That's much more substantial and interesting, don't you think?

ranger

[hjs]

you speak condescendingly about feats many people work very hard toward and could never achieve

I'm not sure what your point is here.

That no one has the right to counter whatever rationalization makes someone feel good about themselves?

Self-satisfaction as a right?

ranger

Not slowing down when you are aging

[ranger]

If you could perform these feats it would be bad enough, but for somebody to act this way and never back anything up is beyond reprehensible

Who says that I am not going to reach my goals?

As far as I can tell, I am right on track with them.

If you have already met your goals, they are no longer your goals.

Are you saying that it is impossible for someone to have goals, to work toward something and then achieve it?

Odd thought, given human nature and the importance of ambition, dedication, planning, skill-building, experiment, etc. to any sort of significant human achievement.

This is a _training_ forum.

By and large, training is diametrically _opposed_ to performance.

ranger

[ranger]

aharmer--

Are you saying that if you can't do something, no one else can talk about it, even if they can do it easily?

That's also a _very_ odd attitude.

All the talk in the world is not being fashioned for your convenience.

Like all of us, I would assume that you can't do most things of any significance, no matter how hard you might try.

So.

You think that all of those things that you can't do should be unmentionable?

_Very_ odd.

You never talk to anyone who can do something that you can't do?

Wow.

If you're not a genius at everything and the most accomplished person ever, that's pretty selective conversation.

ranger

[ranger]

you don't perform and never will

Well, this is a training forum for indoor rowing.

As a 50s veteran like you, I had six sub-6:30 2Ks and a dozen sub-6:40 2Ks, all done at race venues, including all of the major championships.

You had none.

I had three WR rows.

You had none.

I have raced OTErg three or four times as many times as you.

I had the best 2K in the 50s lwts five out of the nine years I have been rowing, with sub-6:30 rows as a heavyweight in two of the other years.

Hmm.

Sounds like you are getting your facts a little jumbled.

Yes, a couple of years over the last nine years I didn't compete. I was doing other things, or I felt I wasn't ready. That is not at all unusual for veteran rowers, who are no longer kids and have busy lives and many responsibilities elsewhere.

I don't perform?

Lordy.

Most of the good veteran rowers I competed against eight years ago no longer row at all.

I am still rowing 20K a day, sometimes more.

ranger

[ranger]

Today so far: 15K OTErg, just before dawn.

BTW, now, at 120 df., I am indeed pulling a full 13 SPI, with my normal rowing motion.

I am rowing well!

1:43 @ 25 spm, 1:41 @ 26 spm, 1:40 @ 27 spm, etc.

Delighted with this.

Better catches and finishes.

A better push with my heels and swing with my back in between.

ranger

[ranger]

Mike VB--

I puzzle over your repeated juxtapositioning of these two claims:

(1) Learning to row OTW should be easy for me. I should do it quickly. I shouldn't still be learning to row, given how much time I have spent at it.

(2) While I should learn quickly how to row OTW, no matter how hard I try, I can't possibly be any good at it, certainly never as good as you.

So is your claim this?

I should learn quickly to row badly, but that will be it?

Interesting way of viewing the efforts and abilities of others.

You're a _coach_?



ranger

[ranger]

Claiming that I don't perform is just a lie. I perform as much or more than anyone.

I think what seems to be bothering everyone is that I don't train performatively (i.e., by performing).

True.

I don't.

Training is an opportunity to get better.

Performances never made anyone better.

You get better by overcoming your weaknesses.

When you perform, you avoid your weaknesses and parade your strengths.

Those who race their training just get worse and worse.

ranger

[ranger]

By and large, when you race your training, avoiding your weaknesses, you row badly, just as you always have, but try to go faster by working harder.

But you get faster in rowing by doing just the opposite--by overcoming your weaknesses so that you do more and more work with less and less effort, especially, more and more work on each stroke with less and less effort.

Then, when you raise the rate and work hard, you fly like the wind.

ranger

[aharmer]

As usual you addressed only the portion of my post which does not require any action on your part.

Would you care to address the original question about why you've lied so many times about being ready for a FM trial, then mysteriously found another last minute technique flaw so that you could posone the trial for another couple months?

[ranger]

As usual you addressed only the portion of my post which does not require any action on your part.

Would you care to address the original question about why you've lied so many times about being ready for a FM trial, then mysteriously found another last minute technique flaw so that you could posone the trial for another couple months?

If I was continuing to improve something that I was weak at technically, then I was not done with my work on technique.

When you get pretty darn good, you often don't know whether you can improve something until it happens, and you do it.

So, sure, there were many times when I thought I was now doing the best I could, but then I found that this wasn't the case at all.

Being mistaken is quite a bit different from lying.

How is what I am doing now different from these "mistakes"?

I don't know that what I am doing now is any different at all.

Something might happen tomorrow that is a further improvement.

But my sense at the moment is that this probably won't happen.

I am now rowing at low drag (120 df.).

I am now using the full slide.

I am now feeling, very distinctly, the power in all four parts of the drive: quads, hams/glutes, abs, lats.

At all rates and paces, just naturally, I am now pulling a full 13 SPI, which I have always claimed to be the standard for rowing well as a lightweight.

My rowing OTW is dramatically better, given the improvements I have made in my rowing OTErg. OTW, I am now pulling 8 SPI, which is as good, or better, than any 60s rower of any sort anywhere.

I am now rowing as much as 30K a day, both OTW and OTErg, without soreness, injuries, chafing, staleness, etc.

And so on and so forth.

ranger

[chgoss]

Claiming that I don't perform is just a lie. I perform as much or more than anyone.

Rich, no one claims you don't race every year.
People merely point out that you endlessly promise various timed pieces and never do them.

If you honestly feel that reporting the results of any timed piece at all ("racing your training") is devastating to your training progress, then stop promising to do so. It's this same old exchange over and over, day after day, month after month, year after year.

Rich: "I'm awesome, I'm the best that ever was, I can do a FM at an average pace of 1:48"
Forumite: "I dont really believe that"
Rich: "I'll do it next week"
week passes
Forumite: "So? Did you do it?"
Rich: Lecture on racing your training, lecture on training regimen, sports are arts and shouldn't be quantified, re-stating promises to do 1:48 FM "real soon now" etc. etc...

Rich, it all started with your claim to do a timed piece. Your "failure to perform" was of those thousands of promised timed pieces that never materialized. No one is accusing you of failing to do somewhere between 1and 5 erg races every year.

[chgoss]

If I was continuing to improve something that I was weak at technically, then I was not done with my work on technique.

And yet, month after month, year after year, endless pronouncements that your technique is now "fixed".
Not "better" mind you, your claim is ALWAYS that your technique is now "perfect"

If you feel your current technique can be improved upon, you cant use the word "perfect" to describe it.
perfect
1. conforming absolutely to the description or definition of an ideal type: a perfect sphere; a perfect gentleman.
2. excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement:


Next year at this time you will argue that that your technique in Aug 2011 was imperfect, and will have a long list of technical corrections you have made.

[ranger]

perfect
1. conforming absolutely to the description or definition of an ideal type: a perfect sphere; a perfect gentleman.
2. excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement:

Indeed, as I just explained, what I am doing now conforms with an ideal type (full slide, low drag, balanced leverage, etc.) and produces an ideal result (13 SPI).

That is why it is my sense at the moment that, for me, at least, my technique is indeed perfect, as well as I can ever do.

I don't at all think I am going change something major and, by doing so, start to pull 14 SPI, or 15 SPI, or 16 SPI.

13 SPI has always been my standard, my ideal.

13 SPI @ 32 spm is a 6:16 2K.

13 SPI (1:46 @ 22 spm, etc.) is the stroking power that Mike C. recommends in his level 4 rowing for those with a 2K of 6:16.

Etc.

ranger