Beat up runner asks: Can rowing replace running?

[hjs]

Err no actually this season is already a PB in terms of distance at the fastest average pace ever. 7500m+ a day at less than 2:03 pace all pretty much 17-18spm.

We all appear to need different forms of motivation if you want to continue rowing for a lifetime.

You never get faster or improve with age, don't kid yourself. If I had discovered rowing at 18 and in my early 20's I would now be looking back wondering how I ever did that pace. There is no way you "continue to improve" at 50 or else the rowing at the Olympics would be dominated by masters rowers.

As most of the time, I think v you are wrong. We can pb at any age. If you pick up something new. If you have would have said your potential does get less you would be right. You only tried 1 or 2 seasons and after that gave up trying, you could not stand the hard work.
Although its ofcourse fine it you like doing stuff you do now.

My point is, if you tell something, give context, which you did not, so I am doing it for you. Erging is very age friendly, relative speaking we can be pretty competitive as masters. Ofcourse after 40, potential will get less.

Like I said before, if you change your focus its possible to improve. Keep doing what you always did, yess thats a sure way to hit a wall.

[mdpfirrman]

Err no actually this season is already a PB in terms of distance at the fastest average pace ever. 7500m+ a day at less than 2:03 pace all pretty much 17-18spm.

We all appear to need different forms of motivation if you want to continue rowing for a lifetime.

You never get faster or improve with age, don't kid yourself. If I had discovered rowing at 18 and in my early 20's I would now be looking back wondering how I ever did that pace. There is no way you "continue to improve" at 50 or else the rowing at the Olympics would be dominated by masters rowers.

As most of the time, I think v you are wrong. We can pb at any age. If you pick up something new. If you have would have said your potential does get less you would be right. You only tried 1 or 2 seasons and after that gave up trying, you could not stand the hard work.
Although its ofcourse fine it you like doing stuff you do now.

My point is, if you tell something, give context, which you did not, so I am doing it for you. Erging is very age friendly, relative speaking we can be pretty competitive as masters. Ofcourse after 40, potential will get less.

Like I said before, if you change your focus its possible to improve. Keep doing what you always did, yess thats a sure way to hit a wall.

I understand both sides of it. I think people that are incredibly fit or have amazing cardio might feel like they "peak" relatively quickly with the erg. I was not quite the opposite - I was in OK shape, but not great cardio shape when I found the erg. After nearly two decades of inactivity (one by choice the other by a catastrophic knee injury), I found the erg after running two years.

I'm hopeful at 52 (with a bum knee) and not the idea height for rowing that I can eventually break 7 minutes. I might not ever do it, but in the "quest" to do it, I can honestly say I've never been in better shape in my life! I workout very hard 6 days a week and as long as I vary the periodization training (and polarization training), I don't get bored. Now, I have to admit, I'm an efficiency nut. I like to get the quickest bang for my buck in terms of time spent versus calories burned. For this purpose, the indoor rower and kettlebells can't be beat. Also, with a bad knee, the rower has allowed me to train aerobically like I've never trained before. I use the rowers at the gym and currently do around 50K (up to 70K) meters a week. I'm looking into a used C2 to up that distance and I'm considering two rows a day. My goal is to break 7:10 this year and I personally don't feel I'm that far off. Yes, the difference between 7:19 and 7:00 is a LONG way, but it gives me a daily goal and I enjoy that. I'd love to try OTW rowing but I don't have time. With everything I have going on, my workouts are limited currently to just at lunch time daily and AMs on Sunday.

[hjs]

Mike not betting against you, re 2k, but you could go the 500 or 10k, etc.

If everybody only competed if they could win, nothing would be organized anymore. Rankings could be skipped etc etc.

You need to have ambition in one way or the other, and certainly putting others down gets you nowhere. And yes, there is only one guy on top, and even he can,t reach his own level proberly.

[Anth_F]

Yet many people are able to just sit staring at a blank wall going nowhere with no one else in there basement on a Concept 2 rower. Strange.

I don't really see whats strange about that tbh!! But hey, thats just me. Though i tend to stare at the monitor mostly, as i bet many others do.

If you were in a commercial gym doing the same thing, what else are you gonna stare at that would be really anymore interesting?

[mdpfirrman]

Honestly, when you think of the idea of lifting, it's pretty boring too. Yet the difference between people that are REALLY strong and those that aren't is years of consistently doing the monotonous training. No one tells bodybuilders or powerlifters "don't lift because the repetition is boring...".

[Chris_Pook_49]

many people are able to just sit staring at a blank wall going nowhere with no one else

Both a metaphor for my career, and a description of my working day, all in one. Starting to understand why I like rowing!

[aussieluke]

If you were in a commercial gym doing the same thing, what else are you gonna stare at that would be really anymore interesting?

Usually several TVs, music on, then of course the people watching

Even in my office gym at lunchtime I'd see all sorts during my 45-60 minute rows...

Many people would come in and do their entire 'workout' in about 15 minutes and you couldn't help but notice them flapping around on every machine enough to break a sweat then leave.

...in other words, endless distractions from just staring at the erg monitor constantly. And plenty of entertainment.

[jackarabit]

I heard that the average Rowpro user opens the program only a few times before he becomes frustrated, eats his hat, and has no further use for the C2.

[Anth_F]

If you were in a commercial gym doing the same thing, what else are you gonna stare at that would be really anymore interesting?

Usually several TVs, music on, then of course the people watching

Even in my office gym at lunchtime I'd see all sorts during my 45-60 minute rows...

Many people would come in and do their entire 'workout' in about 15 minutes and you couldn't help but notice them flapping around on every machine enough to break a sweat then leave.

...in other words, endless distractions from just staring at the erg monitor constantly. And plenty of entertainment.

I guess your gyms differ from the one's we have!! Thats another thing that irks me as well... if you're going to go to the gym with intentions of wanting some distractions and watch TV's or just generally piss around to pass the time away... don't bother!!! Go to the cinema instead and grab some popcorn on the way in.

[jackarabit]

Chris, it really does help to have a hobby that's worse than your job--something you wouldn't do if you got paid to do it.

[Tomx]

Our Model D will be delivered Tuesday! I had NO IDEA that there was this kind of rowing community. Very excited!

I've been poking around the forum, but can someone recommend a good beginner's guide?

What I sort of imagine myself doing is replicating my running routine on the rower. For me that is wake up early (alarm goes off at 3;50am), run 10 miles, go to work. My competitive days are long behind me. Some days are faster, some are slower, but I pretty much run the same route every time, usually 5 or six days/week. This has been my routine for many years. No headphones. No intervals. I don't love running, but I do love having run. If I can burn a similar number of calories/workout (~1,000 if my Garmin and online calculators are accurate) I would be thrilled.

On the other hand, there are all kinds of ways to measure progress and compete with this rower that might make it far more interesting than running.

Thanks again for all of the good feedback!

[Rowan McSheen]

Tom, if by beginner's guide you mean a training schedule then look no further than here:

https://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/beginner-training/

And once you're started on that, join us on the Pete Plan 2017 thread

[Steve1960VA]

Our Model D will be delivered Tuesday! I had NO IDEA that there was this kind of rowing community. Very excited!...
What I sort of imagine myself doing is replicating my running routine on the rower. For me that is wake up early (alarm goes off at 3;50am), run 10 miles, go to work. My competitive days are long behind me. Some days are faster, some are slower, but I pretty much run the same route every time, usually 5 or six days/week. This has been my routine for many years. No headphones. No intervals. I don't love running, but I do love having run. If I can burn a similar number of calories/workout (~1,000 if my Garmin and online calculators are accurate) I would be thrilled.

On the other hand, there are all kinds of ways to measure progress and compete with this rower that might make it far more interesting than running....

First, welcome to the forum. You sound like the kind of guy who might grow to really enjoy rowing. I'm a real noob here, and fairly new to rowing, but for my current daily rowing session, the monitor indicates about 715 calories burned. I believe I recall the machine / monitor is calibrated for a 175-pound person. There's a Concept 2 formula (simple) that I have plugged into the Excel spreadsheet on which I track my rowing work. Since I currently weigh 270 pounds, I believe the formula says I'm really burning about 850 calories. It sounds like you're much fitter than me, so it might not take long for you to get to 1000 calories in an hour (my workout time).

Good luck to you. I think you'll find you can get all the work you want from one of these machines, and maybe in less time than running - I know I get the calorie burn much faster than I do with mountain trail walking, but that's walking, not running.

[Cyclist2]

What I sort of imagine myself doing is replicating my running routine on the rower. For me that is wake up early (alarm goes off at 3;50am), run 10 miles, go to work. My competitive days are long behind me. Some days are faster, some are slower, but I pretty much run the same route every time, usually 5 or six days/week. This has been my routine for many years. No headphones. No intervals. I don't love running, but I do love having run. If I can burn a similar number of calories/workout (~1,000 if my Garmin and online calculators are accurate) I would be thrilled.On the other hand, there are all kinds of ways to measure progress and compete with this rower that might make it far more interesting than running.

Start with the C2 videos on how to row properly. Get the basics down first so you can concentrate on the other stuff without having to correct bad habits. Maybe post a video here to get feedback on it early, or just so you can see what you look like and self-correct using the C2 guides.

Then, yes, there are lots of on-line challenges and "competitions" where you can participate to keep motivation up (I'm sure you've seen some threads here about beating the boredom of it). Try the Nonathlon (http://www.nonathlon.com/ranking.php), or the Cross Team Challenge (CTC for short; http://c2ctc.com/). There is even a live rowing community on RowPro, Carl Watts on here will chime in with that. Join one of the virtual teams (see the "Teams" thread on this forum) for more community.

If you want training, then I agree that the Pete Plan is a good one to go with.

Welcome to indoor rowing! If you are able to get up at 0350 and run in the dark, then you'll have no problem sitting on an erg for long repetitive sessions.

[jackarabit]

Intro to the proper sequence and kinematics of the rowing stroke in video linked below.

https://youtu.be/Ai64EEexI0I

Additional vids, tutorials, drills available @ http://www.concept2.com

Plenty to occupy the mind and body for a few weeks! Training regimens targeting general fitness goals, weight loss, or competition goals can follow.