Ranger's training thread

[lancs]

I natter away at the keyboard here for about a half hour or so a day, if that.

Have you got past your 'half hour or so' yet today Prof?

[ranger]

Rich: What's your short list of successes


1: 2003
2: 2003
3: 2003
4: 2003
5: 2003 ?

2002 6:27.5, 6:28.5
2003: 6:30, 6:32, 6:32, 6:36 (HAMMER, CHAMPIONSHIP AND WR)
2004: 6:29, 6:28, 6:32 (EIRC GOLD, CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD; BIRC GOLD, CHAMPIONSHIP REOORD; TWO WR ROWS)
2006: 6:29.7 (WITHOUT EVEN PREPARING FOR IT)
2007: 6:42 (BIRC GOLD, CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD, WITHOUT EVEN PREPARING FOR IT)
2009: 6:41 (BEST 2K FOR MY AGE AND WEIGHT, WITHOUT EVEN PREPARING FOR IT)
2010: 6:41 (BEST 2K FOR MY AGE AND WEIGHT, WITHOUT EVEN PREPARING FOR IT)

ranger

[ranger]

Do try some head racing this fall... any experience will stand you in good stead....

Sure--and the next year, and the next year, and the next year, etc.

A good goal for this fall might be sub-2:00 pace @ 30 spm.

Have you ever gone sub-2:00 pace for a head race?

ranger

[mikvan52]

Do try some head racing this fall... any experience will stand you in good stead....

Sure--and the next year, and the next year, and the next year, etc.

A good goal for this fall might be sub-2:00 pace @ 30 spm.

So: Which head races "might be" your debut for finishing an OTW race this fall?

AND No, 2:00 r. 30 "might" not be a "good goal"

You cannot do 1k at 2:00 pace r. 30. WHat makes you think you can do 5k that fast?

Want a rational suggestion? Go out and practice something more moderate... Like 2 x 5k with a short rest

Such as: Mike's most excellent OTW workout of Monday 08/08

Post it back here. Do whatever you want as a warmup 5k then be steady for the second...
See if you can match me: 538 strokes = 5k = 21:29.1 (0.975 calibration)

[Mike Caviston]

I was a marathon runner for 20 years from 25-45 years old and so stayed at right around 165 lbs.

I put on weight in my late 40s, because I had achilles tendon problems and couldn't run as much, but I suspect that my muscle mass stayed about the same.

When I couldn't run, I biked, paddled, swam, jumped rope, and did exercise routines of various sorts.

I have been rowing since I was 50, and so that I could row as a lightweight, I lost most of the weight I was carrying around in my late 40s.

I still want to know how come you had to lose 30lbs to get back to a weight you claim to have maintained for 20 years. You’d think hours a day of biking, paddling, rope jumping, and exercise routines would burn a few calories. And how can you do your hour-long rope jumping sessions with bad Achilles tendons? That would put more stress on the Achilles than running.

I also still wonder why someone who claims to have run 30 marathons in under three hours can’t remember the details of a single one (i.e., the exact time, date and location, not some vague “Milwaukee sometime during my 30s”).

[Mike Caviston]

I don't race on a team.
I am not a member of a club.
I am not rowing for a school or country.
I don't have a coach, other than myself.
I am not racing in a big boat with others.
When and where I race is entirely up to me.

And of course, “I lack any trace of sportsmanship or basic human decency and am not fit to associate with others.”

A few years ago when I was still at UMich, I went to the indoor race at Elkhart, IN. Cureton shows up at the gymnasium, checks in with the race officials, is weighed in, spends some time chatting with some of the other people in attendance, then proceeds to one of the warm-up ergs, presumably to get ready for his race. A few other heats are run, and an announcement is made for the competitors in the veterans event to report to their race ergs. Time for the race to start, seven ergs are occupied, one erg is empty. An announcement is made for Richard Cureton to report to his erg, the race is about to start. No Cureton. Race volunteers go off to check the locker room, the hallway, the parking lot. No Cureton. Seven racers wait patiently to give every opportunity to someone who had clearly shown up with the intention of racing. More requests for Cureton over the PA. Finally, after several minutes delay, the race starts with one erg empty. Cureton has another city to add to the Never-Ending DNS Tour (Birmingham, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Toronto), having slunk out without a word or a nod to anyone and no thought or care as to who might be inconvenienced.

Also as a consequence, the ninth veteran entered, Paul Randall, was left alone in a heat of one. However, that did have a feel-good result as seven volunteers (including Paul’s grandson and great grandson) were recruited to row through with him during his time trial, and Paul was accompanied by as much cheering as for any of the high school or college races.

[ranger]

Back to "Steamrollering" today OTErg, getting ready for a FM trial, which I think I will probably do to the "Steamfoller" playlist I have set up on my ipod touch. The playlist just gives me Elvis' "Steamroller Blues," over and over, a hundred times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N91EOUunpTA

"Steamroller" goes along at about 22 spm, perhaps a bit above (22.5 spm).

Yep.

If I now back off to 22 spm and stay right on the beat, I pull 12.5 SPI and go 1:48, right on my FM target, with a UT2 HR, steady state.

Stroke feels great.

120 df.

It's still quite a challenge, though, technically.

To do this, my stroke needs to be pretty near perfect--great length, quickness, timing, sequencing, balance, footwork, posture, angles of leverage, finishes, recoveries, slide control, rhythmicity, consistency, etc.

Considering normal decline with age among veterans (of four seconds per 500m a decade), to pull along at 1:48 with a UT2 HR, I need to be two training bands (10 seconds per 500m) better in terms of technical effectiveness and efficiency while rowing than I was ten years ago, a technical improvement of a second per 500m a year for a complete decade, even though I started from the highest level of achievement imaginable (three WR 2Ks, etc.).

Given my FM pb of 1:54 ten years ago, all things equal, the prediction is that I would now pull a FM at 1:58.

My target is 1:48.

The 60s lwt FM WR is 2:00/2:48, a _dozen_ seconds per 500m slower.

I am now a 60s lwt.

This morning: 15K OTErg rowing to "Steamroller".

I'll be out OTW very early, too.

Then, it is over to Minneapolis for a couple of days with the wife to see my two youngest children, who are both in graduate school at the University of Minnesota, my second son in public policy, and my daughter, in public health.

Our best friends from back home in Urbana, Illinois, just left after a wonderful ten day stay with us here in Door County, so my wife and I are here by ourselves for the first time in a month.

My brother, his wife, and his daughter left just before our friends arrived. They were all here for three weeks in July.

ranger

[ranger]

So: Which head races "might be" your debut for finishing an OTW race this fall?

In September and October, there are head races every weekend in the midwest in and and around Ann Arbor.

No plans yet.

But all of these races are easy to get to.

ranger

[snowleopard]

The playlist just gives me Elvis' "Steamroller Blues," over and over, a hundred times.

Did you ever think of looping a single track playlist

[ranger]

Back in 2002-2003, when I was rowing badly (10 SPI) at max drag (200+ df.), I did indeed row a lot of 1:48 @ 22 spm (12.5 SPI), but I could only do it for 5K with an AT HR.

At 5K, my HR went to max and I had to stop.

Sure.

I could pull hard--for quite a while.

But this rowing was _very_ inefficient.

Short-slided anchor-hauling against high resistance--jerking a heavy chain, both catching and finishing with my back and arms.

I didn't use my legs!

ranger

[ranger]

It is clear that, historically, _all_ 60s veterans have had something like the same technical problems I had back in 2002-2003.

The 60s lwt FM WR is 2:00 pace.

The 60s hwt FM WR is 1:54 pace.

Rowing well for a lightweight is 13 SPI.

At 24 spm, 2:00 pace is 8 SPI.

Rowing well for a heavyweight is 16 SPI.

At 24 spm, 1:54 pace is 10 SPI.

I think that these technical problems are not at all accidental.

They are a product of the major training plans for rowing, which all focus on fitness and neglect technique.

ranger

[hjs]

It is clear that, historically, _all_ 60s veterans have had something like the same technical problems I had back in 2002-2003.


ranger

60 year veterans have only one problem, they are 60...........

[snowleopard]

60 year veterans have only one problem, they are 60...........

I think ranger has more than one problem.

[mikvan52]

Are you incapable of planning?

So: Which head races "might be" your debut for finishing an OTW race this fall?

Where's an answer?

(the answer is, again, that ranger has no plans. He is not going to enter a head race)

Talk is cheap.

[Flipper21]

Ranger a.k.a. Walter Mitty,

will race again when there are none but him in his age group. This will me an easy passage and yet more drivel from the frothing mouth of a bona fide liar who has yet to achieve anything other than a record for multiple posts.