Rojabo Training

[sander]

A few questions about Rojabo:

Is this program really possible for a beginner? I started rowing in Septermber 2010 and the workouts here seem VERY difficult. I am looking for something "more" in my training but I highly doubt my fitness is there.

My main concern is to get involved in this and not being able to keep up and thus have the training work against me rather than help my fitness and times.

I've recieved earlier advice just to work on my endurance and my overall strength for a begineer seems to be ok.

Just a few suggestions would be appreciated.

For reference here are my stats/times:

25 year old male, 6'0", 195

500m: 1:36.6
2000m: 7:24.0
5000m: 19:03.1
30 min: 7,633 meters

As NavHaz said, the test result fed into the rojabo site should result in a 'doable' training program. In my case, it correctly focuses on the weakest aspects of my fitness.

You said you're a beginner but looking at your times your fitness level is not too bad. You will benefit from following a plan and measuring your progress. You can give rojabo a try. The other programs that are recommended on this Forum are not bad either, but you will need to put in some time to adjust them to your personal needs.

Looking at your PBs, I would say that your 2K could be a lot faster. Somewhere around 7:11. Then a nice achievable goal could be to go sub 7 for the 2k, then improve your other PBs. Just to make it more interesting.

The second part of the equation would be your technique. You said you're a beginner. Find someone to review your rowing style or post a link to a video to the Forum. The technique shortcomings give you something to work on during those longer workouts.

"The only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be." Haruki Murakami in "What I talk about when I talk about running."

[rayg1]

Yeah, sounds good. I decided to go ahead and sign up. One last, novice question, should I do both the power and the endurance test on the same day?

The program says that the power test should not be "all out" and should be with "good rhythm and flow" so it sounds like they want you to save yourself for the endurance test for later that same day.

Regardless, I'll at least do the power test tonight.

[NavigationHazard]

If you do them on the same day you'll probably not do as well on the second test as you otherwise might.

[sander]

Yeah, sounds good. I decided to go ahead and sign up. One last, novice question, should I do both the power and the endurance test on the same day?

The program says that the power test should not be "all out" and should be with "good rhythm and flow" so it sounds like they want you to save yourself for the endurance test for later that same day.

Regardless, I'll at least do the power test tonight.

I did them on different days. I did the power test on a rest day and the endurance test on a training day, replacing a training. I am time constrained. The endurance test is a tough one. They advice to have someone watching you do it and I think they're right. I do it on my own in my basement. During the test, you reach a point where you want to give up. I "solved" this for myself by agreeing with myself on a cutoff power (7W below the target) where I quit. Then I try to stay at the target as long as I can. Then I stay above target-7W as long as I can.

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

[rayg1]

OK guys thanks for the advice, power test today, endurance test tomorrow.

I'll let you guys know how it goes. Thanks for all of the help.

[rayg1]

Ok guys, now I'm officially clueless (keep in mind I'm a new guy to this sport).

So I did the power test here is the break down:

Stroke Rate: 20 / 20 / 22 / 24 / 26 / 28
Wattage: 261/262/258/258/ 274/ 281


Rojobo tells me this is "too inconsistent" to give me a power guide measurement and power max so that I can perform the endurance test. No to the novice rower that I am this doesn't look to bad to me, my wattage went basically flat until it slowly went up at the higher stroke rates.

Any clue why my test was bad?

[NavigationHazard]

The formula will expect watts to increase with stroke rating. You were marginally slower at 22 and 24 strokes/minute than you were at 20 strokes/minute. By way of comparison, here's one of my tests from last summer:

r20: 283w; r20:283w; r22: 311w; r24: 339w; r26: 367w; r28: 396w

My guess is that you started out giving it too much grunt at 20 spm and couldn't sustain the power as the rate went up. It's important to take seriously the reminder that it's NOT an all-out test. Rather it's all about seeing how well you conform to an ideal 'decay' curve as the rating goes up. I think the idea is to assess your ability to 'carry' power as smoothly as possible as you take more strokes per minute. Next time start off more conservatively and you should get a viable result.

[PaulG]

Any clue why my test was bad?

Did you have the monitor on pace/500 m or watts? You may want to consider putting the monitor on pace as that is a more intuitive unit for most beginning ergers. During the test the pace should decrease (get faster) as the rate (stroke per minute) increases. The watts will increase also. I'm pretty sure the Rojabo website tells you how to configure the monitor and retreive the data in any units you want. Just remember the 30 day clock is ticking once you sign up.

[rayg1]

Any clue why my test was bad?

Did you have the monitor on pace/500 m or watts? You may want to consider putting the monitor on pace as that is a more intuitive unit for most beginning ergers. During the test the pace should decrease (get faster) as the rate (stroke per minute) increases. The watts will increase also. I'm pretty sure the Rojabo website tells you how to configure the monitor and retreive the data in any units you want. Just remember the 30 day clock is ticking once you sign up.

I had the monitor set for watts, I did the power test again and this time I rowed with better form and pace and got some numbers that worked for Rojabo's formulas.

I suppose the concept of "power" threw me off because to me while the test was somewhat of an effort I would say I was having a difficult time at all. I feel I may have underdone it this time at 20 strokes per min I put up 195 watts and it barely felt like I was trying. Towards the end and 28 strokes per minute I got to 278 watts and started to notice the effort.

Oh well, I'll do the endurance test tomorrow and see how it goes, if the predictions seem way off I'll test again, if they seem reasonable I'll roll with it and explore the program for the full trial.

I'm still very excited about the training.

[sander]

Ok guys, now I'm officially clueless (keep in mind I'm a new guy to this sport).

So I did the power test here is the break down:

Stroke Rate: 20 / 20 / 22 / 24 / 26 / 28
Wattage: 261/262/258/258/ 274/ 281


Rojobo tells me this is "too inconsistent" to give me a power guide measurement and power max so that I can perform the endurance test. No to the novice rower that I am this doesn't look to bad to me, my wattage went basically flat until it slowly went up at the higher stroke rates.

Any clue why my test was bad?

rojabo_test.png (10.97 KiB) Viewed 6653 times

Here's three sets of test results. I added a linear trendline to each of them. Two sets increase pretty linearly with increasing frequency. The "series2" set remains pretty constant. Two of the three rowers pull a pretty consistent stroke (each at his own level of power) while the third rower is more like the stronger one at 20spm but his stroke breaks down to that of the weaker rower at 28spm.

As NavHaz said, the power should really go up consistently with the frequency. The 20spm stroke is one that you should be able to sustain for a long time (say 40 minutes). Looking at your 30 minutes PB, you can gain a lot on the endurance side.

Please publish your endurance test results. I am curious!

[sander]

By the way, the "no tests required" option on rojabo generates a linear behaviour between power and stroke frequency for a power test. In other words, with "no tests required" rojabo assumes the energy you generate per stroke to be constant.

[sander]

I feel I may have underdone it this time at 20 strokes per min I put up 195 watts and it barely felt like I was trying. Towards the end and 28 strokes per minute I got to 278 watts and started to notice the effort.

Oh well, I'll do the endurance test tomorrow and see how it goes, if the predictions seem way off I'll test again, if they seem reasonable I'll roll with it and explore the program for the full trial.

I'm still very excited about the training.

I note that these new results correspond exactly to what I get on http://www.rojabo.com/about/no-tests-required using your 2km time of 7:24.0 at 26 spm.

So how did your endurance test go? Did you stop at 24spm with 2:30 remaining or with 3:30 remaining?

Sorry if I ask so many questions. I like playing with numbers. It's a deviation.

[rayg1]

Sander,

Endurance test will be in a few hours when I get off work, unfortunatley, I can only train during the late afternoon because I'm military and we always begin our work day at the ungodly hour of 5:30 AM.

I'll let you know how it goes tonight, I'm pretty excited for it but I know it's gonna hurt

[sander]

Sander,

Endurance test will be in a few hours when I get off work, unfortunatley, I can only train during the late afternoon because I'm military and we always begin our work day at the ungodly hour of 5:30 AM.

I'll let you know how it goes tonight, I'm pretty excited for it but I know it's gonna hurt

Good luck! I'll look at your results in the morning (as it's almost bed time for me). I am excited to see how it goes and how you like the trial period of rojabo.

I am convinced your PB times can improve a lot with the right training.

Sander

[NavigationHazard]

FWIW, in season I'm usually about 6k into an OTW workout by 0530 hours....

Good luck with the endurance test - whereas the power test is about smooth rowing as the rating climbs, the endurance test deffo checks the juice in the kiwis....