Ranger's training thread

[ranger]

If you know better, Byron, and coaching solves the difficulty, then you must be _very_ good. Post some video OTW of several passes by the dock, pulling 1:52 @ 30 spm.

You are blurring the distinction between two things. One is fitness and strength. The other is good technique, usually gained by good coaching. Good technique allows you to go nearly as fast as your fitness and strength allow. If you, with your bad technique, can go faster than someone older and smaller than you but who has better technique via good coaching, that does not prove that good coaching will not make you faster. All it would show is that good technique by itself does not guarantee you will beat somebody who is stronger.

R.A. is bigger, stronger, and just as fit as you are. He has excellent technique. Your only chance to compete with him is to improve your technique. Your self-coaching did not work, and you don't have all the time in the world to figure it out by yourself.

No, I am not blurring these things, Byron.

I am disagreeing with you at various points.

In rowing, strength is not the whole issue by any means.

Aerobic capacity is just as important.

My self-coaching didn't work?

I disagree.

It has worked in all kinds of ways, although, sure, it has to continue to work quite a bit more if I can to do my best.

Let's see what I end up doing for 1K and 5K this fall, and then we can return to this discussion.

If I do sub-1:50 for 1K and sub-2:00 for 5K this fall, would you still say that my self-coaching has not worked?

Why?

ranger

[snowleopard]

So, what we should be discussing here is what we are doing in order to get better.

Well whatever you're doing isn't working. Your sculling sucks

Training isn't at all about results.

It is actually. Because training is about progression and progression is about intermediate results. This is what we call feedback.

If the feedback is poor. We amend the training. You have entirely forgotten this step owing to your woeful powers of self observation and your own poisonous hubris.

Since, as you now admit, your sculling sucks and there is a lot work on, why did you claim just yesterday that only fitness work was all that remained to be done? (Leaving aside your claim that your fitness is already maximal.)

[ranger]

that does not prove that good coaching will not make you faster.

I didn't say that good coaching could not make me faster.

Undoubtedly, it could.

I said that I don't prefer to learn that way.

ranger

[macroth]

I didn't say that good coaching could not make me faster.

...

I said that I don't prefer to learn that way.

ranger

Best. ranger. quote. ever.

[ranger]

Well whatever you're doing isn't working. Your sculling sucks

You mean my sculling _technique_ sucks?

Sure.

But "sculling" is a product of technique and fitness, not just one or the other.

It's pace over distance rowed.

So, let's see what I end up doing for 1K and 5K OTW this fall.

If I do a 1K @ 1:50 and a 5K sub-2:00, even with my bad technique, would you still say that my sculling sucks?

On what basis?

No other 60s sculler can do as well.

ranger

[ranger]

The problem with old men who have lost their fitness is that this fitness can't be regained, no matter what they do.

It is gone for good.

Over decades and decades, if you don't use your fitness, you lose it--permanently.

Sculling technique is not limited in this way.

There is nothing that prevents an old man from learning to be an excellent sculler, especially if they have unusual fitness.

Because of this, if you want to be a great sculler as an old man, it is much more important that you keep up your fitness throughout your life than that you scull early and often and, therefore, as an old man, already scull well.

ranger

[macroth]

There's a famous French sketch with Pierre Dac and Francis Blanche, which goes something like this:

Magician's assistant (to the magician): Can you do [various feats]?

Magician (sitting there doing nothing): Yes, I can...

Assistant: Ladies and Gentlemen, HE CAN DO IT!

*Applause*

[da capo]

This is exactly what ranger expects from us. If he says he can FM1482k616whatever, we should believe him and be amazed at his prowess, even though he never has done FM14813SPIanything and has never shown any sign of being able to.

[ranger]

he never has done FM14813SPIanything and has never shown any sign of being able to

I'll do the FM at 12 SPI (1:48 @ 23 spm), not 13 SPI.

I have a sub-6:30 2K at 12 SPI, without even preparing for it, at high drag, still struggling with technique.

As far as the erg goes, my problems with technique are now solved.

I have dropped the drag.

And I am now preparing to race.

ranger

[lancs]

I'll do the FM at 12 SPI (1:48 @ 23 spm), not 13 SPI.

This is indeed exciting.

How have you addressed the small problem of you being absolutely unable to get past 5k @1:48, 23spm.

[bellboy]

even to a layman like me

A "layman"?

Does that mean a "non-rower"?

I hope not, given your comments on this thread.

Post some video of your OTW rowing.

Let's see what you can do.

Make a couple of passes by the dock, doing 1:52 @ 30 spm, as I just have.

Let's see your boat run.

ranger

Hey fucko i dont row. I erg for fitness. The machines primary function. I have been witnessing your internet car crash for a few years now. Whenever i need a pick me up here you are. For hundreds of pages you tell us how you "are much better now" while decrying everybody else. You dredge up the courage once or twice a year to post video of your supposed magnificence only to see it ripped apart by athletes who really know what they are talking about. It is almost worth the hubris and bullshit just for this. You have no talent except a good pair of lungs. All that time. All those metres. I'd wager my dog could become proficient quicker than you in a boat and he is a blithering idiot. Still autumn is nearly upon us. The six months of sharpening on the erg will soon start followed by your non appearance in Boston...AGAIN. It is like a wonderful merry-go-round with you getting older, bitchier and falling to meet your goals in spectacular fashion. We are merely spectators watching it all unfold in predictable fashion. Makes me feel warm in a fuzzy kinda way.

[ben990]

Rich:
I THINK I'LL GO BACK TO LURKING HERE... THERE'S NOTHING LEFT TO BE SAID UNTIL YOU COME UP WITH SOME REAL RESULT...

Wanna bet, mikvan52? You are probably number 2 by far in posts in this thread. I will bet you $1.00 that you can't go 2 weeks without posting. And unlike that little lying pathetic old man, I will pay up if you do.

[ben990]

The problem with old men who have lost their fitness is that this fitness can't be regained, no matter what they do.

ranger

What about old men who have lost their minds?

[Rocket Roy]

Some very witty post's on here today, Ben, Bellboy, Byron, all made me laugh out loud

[leadville]

Here is another of those bad videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szk_XslR-ws

ranger

Rangerboy you are even worse than I thought. Let me recount the ways.

Short at the catch. Not near enough compression.

Checking the boat at the catch due to diving and dropping the hands and at the finish due to yanking the handles down into the lap beforE getting the blades out of the water.

Poor body control on the slide.

No hang on the handles anywhere during the drive.

A violent ugly catch.

Plus a lot of other issues too numerous to be mentioned here.

Christ you suck. For someone who's been sculling for what, seven years, you are really awful.

Thanks for that, coach.

I'll keep working on it.

See you at Nationals next year.

I am now fast enough to win.

I think that my fitness will let me rate 38 spm for 1K.

I'll test that out over the next year or so.

At 8 SPI, that's 1:45 pace.

ranger

rangerboy - it is truly amazing that you can claim in multiple posts that you row well OTW than admit here that your technique sucks. How does that pinhead of your's handle the cognitive dissonance?

You are NOT fast enough to win anything. You will NOT be at nationals next year as you will still suck and you are a coward.

If you could row a 38, which you cannot, you would slow the boat down so much by virtue of checking it at both ends of the stroke that you would go slower than almost anyone else rowing a 28.

[leadville]

Short at the catch. Not near enough compression.

Sure, I keep working on this. I am _much_ longer than I used to be, though. On the erg, the front of my seat now comes six inches from front-stops, and I use the same stroke OTW.

Checking the boat at the catch due to diving and dropping the hands and at the finish due to yanking the handles down into the lap beforE getting the blades out of the water.

Sure, I can work on both. In terms of power, my catches are _enormously_ better. But that has to do with footwork, a more relaxed upper body, and fast legs. The things you mention here, yes, are still bad.

Poor body control on the slide.

Hmm. Don't think this is a problem at all.

(my response) - then you are indeed an idiot.

No hang on the handles anywhere during the drive.

Hmm. Don't think this is a problem at all.
(my response) - then you are indeed an idiot.

A violent ugly catch

Yes, I still have a lot to learn about getting my oars into the water right at the speed of the boat, and of course, without the splashing on my right oar. I keep working on it.

Plus a lot of other issues too numerous to be mentioned here.

Of course.

I think I'll have no problem doing 20K a day OTW next year. That should help a lot. I am also on sabbatical in the fall next year, so I can continue this work OTW a little more aggressively than I have this year.

Christ you suck. For someone who's been sculling for what, seven years, you are really awful.

Not as badly as your fitness sucks.

How fast you are is a product of both your fitness and your technique.

You can't do it on just one or the other.

What is your best finish at the Head of the Charles?

What do you do for 5K OTW?

Can you do sub-1:50 pace for 1K OTW?

I'll get some flat out times for 1K and 5K this year, so I will an idea of how fast I am right now, rowing this badly.

If what you say is true, I should be able to get another five seconds per 500m better at the same rate from improvements in technique.

That would be amazing, if I can already do, say, sub-1:50 for 1K and sub-2:00 for 5K, which is faster than Mike VB.

ranger

rangerboy, I''ve actually finished the head of the Charles three times in a single and a bunch of others in a 2x, eight, etc. you, on the other hand, have never even finished ONE RACE. What was your time at the Head of the Grand, rangerboy? Oh, that's right, the clock is still ticking...

If my fitness 'sucks', how is it that I've won the National championship in the single twice in two years? This year by four seconds?

Well, rangerboy?

Christ you are best described as the terminus of the gastrointestinal system.