Ranger's training thread

[ranger]

And why would you want or need to lose 15lbs? Could it be because you're nowhere near lightweight?

Yesterday, 171.8 lbs.

My weight is _very_ good.

So 6.8 pounds over is "very good". Something is very wrong there. YOU ARE NOT LIGHTWEIGHT - FAT BOY.

No.

Most elite lightweights walk around _waaaay_ over weight.

Then they pare down for competition.

I will be at weight within a couple of weeks, or at the most, by the end of September.

That is six weeks before BIRC.

ranger

[ranger]

I am now on a cross-training regimen that is bringing my weight down, further and further, each day, but without restricting my diet at all.

Rich - how do you figure you are not restricting your diet? To loose weight, you are restricting your diet. Think about it for a minute. Equilibrium would mean that you neither loose nor gain. Taking your weight down means that you are burning more cals than consuming so obviously you are restricting your diet!

No.

The work I am doing right now is largely fat-burning.

And I will continue to do this work until I am well below weight, around 160 lbs.

Then, sure, when I do my faster, anaerobic rowing in preparation for BIRC, I will have to be very careful to replace lost carbohydrate, because I will no longer be doing largely fat-burning work.

I will be doing work that is more intense.

But by that time, I won't have to lose any more weight.

You don't have to replace fat-burning calories in order to feel good.

I can still consume several thousand calories a day (in a rich, varied, and satisfying balance) and end up in a caloric debt.

The debt, though, is only burned fat, not anything essential.

The trick to losing weight this way, of course, is being able to work hard physically for 4.5 hours a day at 80% HRR without feeling tired, or in any way inconvenienced (bored, sore, injured, sick, etc.).

That might take a lifetime.

I am used to it.

Before I took up rowing, I was a marathon runner for a quarter of a century.

And not just that.

I _like_ it.

In fact, I _prefer_ it, just as a normal daily routine, even if I _wasn't_ doing a competitive sport like rowing that would put me in an advantaged position by doing it.

Just think.

What if everyone did four hours of exercise a day at 80% HRR?

How many hospitals would we need?

Not very many.

Minus genetic scourges, infectious diseases, psychological problems, and the like, we would all feel great, waaay out into old age (80 years old, 90 years old, etc.).

The lifestyle would be _spectacularly_ healthy.

ranger

[ranger]

1:40 @ 27 spm (13 SPI) now comes along very nicely.

There is my middle distance stroke: AT.

To reach my 2K goal (6:16/1:34), I'll need to do it for 6K.

Or perhaps further?

30min?

10K?

60min?

27 spm is a very modest rate for a little lightweight like me.

Given my age and weight, 1:40 is WR 2K pace.

Something like 27 spm would also be a nice rate to shoot for OTW at the Head of the Grand on October 17th.

So my training OTW and OTErg is converging.

ranger

[ranger]

In recent years, the best 55s lwts have been doing 1:42 @ 36 spm for 2K.

That's 9.2 SPI

Last year, the best 60s lwts pulled 1:46 for 2K.

At 36 spm, that's 8 SPI.

I am using a stroke that is 62.5% stronger.

13 SPI



13 SPI is rowing perfectly for a lightweight of any age.

8 SPI is pulling badly, even for a little old man.

ranger

[NavigationHazard]

The work I am doing right now is largely fat-burning. And I will continue to do this work until I am well below weight, around 160 lbs. Then, sure, when I do my faster, anaerobic rowing in preparation for BIRC, I will have to be very careful to replace lost carbohydrate, because I will no longer be doing largely fat-burning work. I will be doing work that is more intense. But by that time, I won't have to lose any more weight.

You don't have to replace fat-burning calories in order to feel good. I can still consume several thousand calories a day (in a rich, varied, and satisfying balance) and end up in a caloric debt. The debt, though, is only burned fat, not anything essential. The trick to losing weight this way, of course, is being able to work hard physically for 4.5 hours a day at 80% HRR without feeling tired, or in any way inconvenienced (bored, sore, injured, sick, etc.).

Muppet. You are NOT "work[ing] hard physically for 4.5 hours a day at 80% HRR."

1) You haven't a clue as to what your max HR factually is these days. As you've been told innumerable times, it is what it is: the highest current exercise-specific value you can produce. It is NOT some fixed, immutable number you carry around permanently. You persist in the willful delusion that you have some stratospherically ginormous max HR despite a total failure to have seen anything like it on an erg for the better part of a decade now. News flash: even if it ever was as high as advertised, which is doubtful, it's not that now. Most likely it's 20 bpm or so under what you claim it to be -- but who knows, since you don't actually measure/prove your exercise HR in any meaningful way. In any event, your misrepresentation of your max HR means that you're wildly inflating your training bands. Offhand I'd say that you're at least one band more intense than you think you are, maybe two depending on exactly what kind of rowing with breaks you're doing.

2) Because you're rowing with breaks (i.e. doing irregular intervals, whatever you want to call them), total workout time is NOT equal to total time in some training band. You may be working hard physically. But you're NOT doing "4.5 hours" of continuous work. You're NOT keeping your HR at 80% of putative HRR for 4.5 hours/day. Every time you take a break it will drop out of the zone you're trying to make us think it's in. Fraud.

3) Even if you were working factually at 80% HRR for a factual 4.5 hours/day, which you're not, you'd still get the weight loss wrong. At 80% of HRR you should expect to burn about 65% carbs and 30% fat in durational activity. That's nowhere near the "largely fat burning work" you're claiming it is. Given rowing with breaks the percentage of carbs burned will be somewhat higher, as a function of of the energy pathways used in starting/stopping rather than working continuously. To burn predominately fat in rowing with breaks you probably need to be working no more intensely than about 70% of actual HRR.

The upshot: as usual, you have no idea what you're talking about. Your weight-loss strategy is as flawed fundamentally as ever. You'll keep piling up the volume as BIRC approaches in an increasingly wrongheaded attempt to shed fat. And to the extent you succeed, it will be by some combination of dehydrating yourself and reducing stored carbohydrates. That combination must be debilitating.... Yet again.....

[hjs]

Ever looked at Siejkowski

by Verena Loch, translated from the German by Oli Rosenbladt
Verena Loch/row2k: Did you imagine ever breaking the record again? What was your goal for this event?

Matthias Siejkowski: After training as hard as I did recently, I actually hoped to score something around 5:38 or 5:39. Under perfect circumstances, I thought, I might seriously threaten Rob's record. However, I hadn't thought I'd actually smash it just like this. And yes, the goal was a world record, but I'd only have been disappointed had I been above 5:38.2. I suppose I set another bench mark for others to try harder. Getting close to those extreme results, every tenth of a second counts and hurts even more if I don't drop it, which is what motivates me a lot to push even harder, once I see the record close at hand.

row2k: Would you please describe the race?

MS: I kept the 500m at 1:24; 1:25, 1:25 and 1:23. That's an average of 1:24.2 over 2k. My opponents were elite national team members of Poland who had to qualify in several heats. Shortly after the 1000m mark I had difficulties keeping up the intense speed. That's when I got some help from outside: My former partner of 1993 (Polish Eight), Andrzej Krzepinski (who is now the chief of sport marketing for the Polish Rowing Federation), went ahead and yelled: "Wind it up, Maciej, wind it up!" Right in time with the rating, and again and again. At that point, I hardly felt strong enought to keep it up unless I would increase the stroke rate. Hearing the commentator's voice over the loudspeaker, I closed my eyes after 3.5 minutes and worked it up stroke by stroke.

Beforehands, I had prepared a note for myself and sticked it to the floor which said: "You can do it! Work with every stroke. No brains, just work!" Well, and then I stopped thinking about the pain and somehow there was the finish. I realized the score, broke down for a second, got treatment, but then managed to push away the paramedics. I rose up to new strength and got up again. Started dancing with joy, hugging and kissing everyone around.

row2k: At what point did you realize you were about to break Rob's record?

MS: At 1300m I went down to 1:23 (as I managed to peek through my right eye now and then). That's when I knew that I wasn't about to let it disappear any more. It appeared to me that this was THE day I had set the programme for. After all, it's just a head game. The psyche is the key to a successful competition. Of course, I had prepared both my body and my technique with a lot precision. I inherited a book from my father, called "Psychology between the Starting Line and the Finish." It's from the former GDR and excellent, I recommend it to every athlete.

row2k: What settings do you generally use for your races? How did you pre-set your display this time?

MS: I usually set the drag factor to 155-160. My stroke rate after settling down was around 36, and I could see 500m splits of 1:25.

row2k: How did you prepare for the race in Warsaw?

MS: It was a murderously professional three months.

row2k: Was this your main competition for this winter? What other races have you planned?

MS: Sure, this was the main event. Anyway, I will definitely also race in Tallin (Estonia) and Wroclaw (Poland) in January.

row2k: Since you hold dual citizenship of Poland and Germany, what country do you want to race for?

MS: Not an easy question, and not the most pleasant topic either. When I tried to explain to the my friends in Poland how I got treated in Germany for the last couple of years, their only comment was: "degeneracja kompletna!!!", and I think I don't have to translate this. The kind of immediate success that the German Rowing Federaces has produced at the 2001 Worlds in Lucerne do not reflect real state of what's going on there. I would comment more, but I would not want them to use it against me at any point. My friends, Bernhard Stomporowski and LRV-Berlin coach Thomas Jung also talk about, how can I say this, "deranged" people, whom you are dependent on as a rower. So, I'm not on any national squad at the moment. No further comment.

row2k: Why did you not row at the Olympics in Sydney?

MS: In the spring and summer of 2000 I had to make ends meet as a newly unemployed engineer, so I was very busy looking for work, and that had to be a priority. But my heart was bleeding while I watched the German men's sweep team have so much "success" in Sydney.

row2k: How much do you train? Do you do only ergs, or do you cross-train as well?

MS: In the peak training periods of October/November 2001, I was doing 19/20 hours per week. Everything else I think I'd like to keep a secret...

row2k: Who is your coach, and who writes your training programs?

MS: I do all that myself, I have 20 years of experience. >From time to time, people who know a little bit about rowing watch my technique, which is very important even on the erg, and give me valuable tips. In that area, you need outside input. I'm extremely grateful to all those who have supported me.

Row2k: A lot of rowers think they've peaked out at 25, and you've just turned 35. How do you keep getting better?

MS: I feel incredibly fit. Maybe that has something to do with my life philosophy, or my philosophy towards health. Remember, a corresponding lifestyle can extend (or shorten) the time interval of your highest vitality!

[hjs]

I am now on a cross-training regimen that is bringing my weight down, further and further, each day, but without restricting my diet at all.

Rich - how do you figure you are not restricting your diet? To loose weight, you are restricting your diet. Think about it for a minute. Equilibrium would mean that you neither loose nor gain. Taking your weight down means that you are burning more cals than consuming so obviously you are restricting your diet!

No.

The work I am doing right now is largely fat-burning.

And I will continue to do this work until I am well below weight, around 160 lbs.

Then, sure, when I do my faster, anaerobic rowing in preparation for BIRC, I will have to be very careful to replace lost carbohydrate, because I will no longer be doing largely fat-burning work.

I will be doing work that is more intense.

But by that time, I won't have to lose any more weight.

You don't have to replace fat-burning calories in order to feel good.

I can still consume several thousand calories a day (in a rich, varied, and satisfying balance) and end up in a caloric debt.

The debt, though, is only burned fat, not anything essential.


ranger

Ignorance is bliss

[ranger]

Wow.

HR 43 bpm when I sat down on the erg this morning.

I am _really_ getting rested!

Am I rowing--or sleeping?



I also got a nice endorphin dump about an hour in my 90min bike ride, after erging.

ranger

[ranger]

Most likely it's 20 bpm or so under what you claim it to be

Last winter, I saw 185 bpm on the PM4, and that wasn't during maximal work.

ranger

[ranger]

You are NOT "work[ing] hard physically for 4.5 hours a day at 80% HRR."

I row with a HR of around 160 bpm, middlin' UT1.

160 bpm is 80% HRR.

Very comfortable stuff.

My anaerobic threshold is 87% HRR, 172 bpm.

When I bike, I suspect my HR is about the same.

If I step at a comparable wattage (310 watts, etc.), my HR is also about 160 bpm.

Lots of 1:44 @ 25 spm (12.4 SPI) today on the erg.

ranger

[NavigationHazard]

No one believed you then, and no one believes you now. You'd been challenged -- repeatedly -- to post any sort of screenshot corroborating your outlandish HR claims. And you didn't. Because you couldn't. You never got close to 185 bpm unless it was a spurious reading or else some sort of tachycardia.

More importantly, what was it today? If it wasn't at least 161bpm for an hour of continuous, unbroken rowing you weren't rowing for a continuous hour at 80% nominal HRR. And if it wasn't at least 161bpm for a cumulative hour of rowing extended by breaks you didn't spent an hour in the 80% HRR zone. And even if you had done either, which would have required transcending the constraints of physiology, you would have been burning ~65% carbs (or more) vs. ~35% fat (or less). You did NOT row for a continuous hour of "middling UT1" of 1:44 r25 at 161 bpm. Whatever you did a) wasn't continuous, b) wasn't at or above 161 bpm for an hour, and c) wouldn't have been 'middling UT1' even if it had been either.

Be honest with yourself for once. 80% HRR for you is more like 145 bpm for continuous rowing. You get above the low 150s and what happens? You discover you have to take breaks every minute or so. Muppet -- that's because you're pushing above threshold-associated HR. You're masking things with your intermittent rests, but you're working a lot harder than you think you are. Furthermore you're NEVER going to achieve the HRR percentages you fantasize you can.

It would take you roughly 5-6 minutes to do a step test to establish your factual max HR. Any normal person would do it before embarking on a HRR-determined fat-burning strategy or training program. But we all know how abnormal you are....

[lancs]

Lots of 1:44 @ 25 spm (12.4 SPI) today on the erg.

Would you not think it prudent to abandon your RWB routine fairly quickly before BIRC so that you at least have some idea how much slower you've become since last year's 2ks?

Having said that, it will be quite amusing to see you set off at 1:35's at BIRC and then realise after 500m that you overcooked the pace by 5.5/500m or so..

[ranger]

Lots of 1:44 @ 25 spm (12.4 SPI) today on the erg.

it will be quite amusing to see you set off at 1:35's at BIRC and then realise after 500m that you overcooked the pace by 5.5/500m or so..

At BIRC, I will only pull the pace that my training predicts.

I know what that pace is, over and over, from my sharpening workouts, distance trials, etc.

This fall, I suspect that I will do quite a few sub-maximal 2Ks at home, too.

In the Fall of 2003, I did a couple of at-home 2Ks in 6:32, rowing 1K at 2K + 2, 500m at 2K + 1, then all out to the finish.

So, 1:39, 1:39, 1:38, 1:36.

To do the first 1K of my BIRC 2K @ 1:35, I will have to do 8 x 500 (3:30 rest) @ 1:32.

At 13 SPI, that's 36 spm.

ranger

[ranger]

No one believed you then, and no one believes you now.

Believe what you want.

What can I do, other than report what is happening?

Last year, I did a couple of easy 5Ks where my HR was 175 bpm at the finish and I posted the screen shots.

So, the last little bits of those 5Ks, where I pulled it down to 1:44, were AT.

You didn't believe those either?

ranger

[ranger]

It would take you roughly 5-6 minutes to do a step test to establish your factual max HR

No need.

I assume that the HR I will see during sharpening at the end of the last couple of reps of 8 x 500m (3:30 rest) @ 1:32 will be pretty close to max.

I assume that I would also see my max HR in a 1K trial.

ranger