The problems many people have had with Rod Freed's posted results are that some of them don't make sense in juxtaposition.
For example, his 2k PB apparently was 6:39 (1:39.7 pace). His 5k record is 16:47.0 (1:40.7 pace). It's very hard to understand how someone could row for nearly 17 minutes at a pace only 1 second/500m off his 2k best. Could Rob Waddell do it, he'd erg a 5k in 14:01.0. Rob can't -- he's roughly a minute slower. When my Oarsome teammate Dan Staite set the 30-39 LW 5k record of 16:18.4, he was around 6:16 for 2k. Dan (a national-class cyclist in Britain) was way, way longer on endurance vis-a-vis speed than (say) Waddell and as close to the anti-power monkey as I can imagine. And he was roughly 2k + 3 over 5k as opposed to Freed's 2k + 1 pace.
Freed's 6k is 20:17.0 (1:41.4). Okay, that's consistent with his posted 5k. However, his 30' is 8767 (1:42.7 pace) while his 10k is 34:16.2 (1:42.8 pace). That is, he rowed more than four more minutes during the 10k at virtually the same pace as the half-hour row? At least one of those numbers seems off, unless maybe they come from the same row.
Finally, Freed's 60' is 17132m/ 1:45.1 pace. His HM is 1:14.11.2 (1:45.5 pace). Those are 2k + 5 to 2k + 6. Most of the rowers on the planet are capable of something in the neighborhood of 5000-6000m at that pace. If nothing else, this historically has tended to create suspicion that something's not right. I think the suspicion has been reinforced by the fact that none of the performances, as far as I know, were at a public venue or race. I'm not aware that he's ever performed in an erg competition. I myself am an agnostic on the issues. The bottom line is that I don't really care one way or another, but am inclined to trust people unless they give me reason to think otherwise.
AFAIK, Most of what is 'known' about Freed as an erger comes from this Concept 2 UK Newsletter from 2000:
For this fortnight's Concept Spotlight, we thought we'd throw the net slightly wider than usual and see what foreign fish we could fetch up from the bottom of the indoor rowing depths. So putting on our Arran sweaters and waterproof trousers, we set sail on the good ship Concept Spotlight, corn pipe clenched firmly between manly teeth, the tang of brine in the air. Then we got bored of the metaphor and just checked out the On-Line World Rankings (http://www.e-row.com/ranking/home.asp) Rather than pretend that we baited our lines and hooked a particularly hefty whopper, instead we had a quick search of the best overall times in the world registered this season so far to see if there was any particular person, or fish, that stood out.
There we found Rod Freed, a 51 year old Maths professor from California, USA who's broken the 17,000 metre barrier for the hour row, a feat impressive enough to stop us throwing him back. Rod describes himself as having been "very small, weak, uncoordinated, and lacking in endurance as a child, so that I had no success at all in youth sports." When he was 16 years old, in true Charles Atlas style, he began to run and lift weights and at the University of Virginia in the late 60's and early 70's, took up rowing where he fell under the wing of Paul Wilson, a successful US sculler. "He insisted that we do all workouts at a race pace ('you'll perform like you practice, and "long-slow distance" teaches you to go slow')."
A serious back injury put temporary pay to his on-water rowing in the early 1980's, but a chance introduction to an Indoor Rower three years ago means that he might be back on the water soon.
"I think that I'll always be better on the rowing machine than on the water due to my lack of coordination. However, interestingly enough, I think that the Indoor Rower has improved my technique. By watching the monitor, I've learned that what feels harder doesn't necessarily make me go faster. Examples abound: (1) a quick catch feels "easier" than a big "weightlifting-type" slug at the catch, but the quick catch lets me go faster; (2) keeping my hands lower at the catch and during the drive lets me go faster; etc.).
"Through indoor rowing I've also learned that I seem to have some sort of comparative advantage in the longer pieces. This is a relief to me: at the Long Beach Rowing Assoc., we did lots of 500 metre pieces in practice, and I always performed poorly, despite achieving high heart rates (in fact, my best 500 wasn't much faster than 1/4 of my best 2,000m). Despite the high heart rates, I thought that perhaps I just didn't have enough character to push hard enough on the shorter pieces. Now I've learned that I just have no "top end" (although I'm working on it). My best 2,000m is 6:39, and my best 500 is 1:32."
So what sort of training routine does a mathematics professor at California State University follow then? A pretty intensive one it seems: "I do three different workouts (along with weightlifting: leg press, clean, leg extension, leg curl, calf raise, pull ups, seated rowing, upright rowing, dips, lateral raises, and sit-ups). Some people like more variety to stay fresh, but I like to stick to these three workouts, so that I can compare times, and thus motivate myself to (try to) improve. I've borrowed extensively from what US swimmers do, from the book Interval Training by Mathews and Fox, and from Paul Wilson (e.g., I still try to do everything at a race pace). Heart rates are quite high after each piece (186-192 beats per minute at 30 seconds, back down to 144-156 bpm at 1 minute: resting heart rate 60-65 bpm). These workouts evolve over time as I learn more, but right now they are as follows:
Monday and Thursday ------------------------------- 5-6 minute warm up - light paddle building to full speed 30 minutes - - distance averages between 8580 and 8650 metres Seven minute rest 25 minutes - - distance averages between 7125 and 7175
Tuesday and Friday ------------------------------- 5-6 minute warm up 6000 meters - - times average between 20:35 and 20:55 Seven minute rest 6000 meters - - times average between 20:50 and 21:10 Seven minute rest 4 x 600 meters on, 1 minute off Four minute rest 4 x 30 seconds on, 1 minute off (to try to build some kind of speed)
Wednesday and Saturday ----------------------------------- 5-6 minute warm up 5 x 4 minutes on, 1.5 minutes off Seven minute rest 5 x 4 minutes on, 1.5 minutes off Seven minute rest 5 x 1 minute on, 30 seconds off Four minute rest 4 x 30 seconds on, 1 minute off
Sunday ------------------------------- 3-5 minute warm up 40 minutes on recumbent stationary bike (trying to go as far as possible)
Rod's work-out is obviously a pretty intensive one, training as he does seven days a week. We showed his training plan to Terry O'Neill to see what he thought of it. "Reading Rod's workouts I can see why he doesn't have a very good top end performance. The sessions are pretty straightforward but we don't know what else in terms of the weight programme mentioned are included on these days. I would suggest that there is so much training going on that the body treats it all as sub-maximal and this is why his 500m split is relatively poor and that he is better at the longer pieces.
Rowing 2000m flat out does require a sound aerobic platform but at the end of the day it will only take 6-8mins for most people. This makes it a power endurance sport and if too much emphasis is placed on the endurance and not enough on the power, then the 2000m time will suffer. Research has shown that when trying to combine power and endurance training in the same session, the power training does not have a negative effect on the endurance training but the endurance training does have a neutralising effect on the power training. Rod's training programme is varied and challenging and the sort of programme that Trans-Atlantic rowers should look at because it is so demanding. As for improving your 2,000 metre time, however, no chance."
and now he's disappeared as you will shortly in your quest to make a stab at OTW racing.