What s10mps offers me ... (resurrected thread)

[NavigationHazard]

The original thread on the old Forum starts with this post from GeorgeNZ:

http://concept2.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3974

[NavigationHazard]

Here's a reprise of one of the last posts in the thread, of some interest to me:

Paul, am I right in thinking that looking at ErgMonitor's handle force curve equalized for amplitude against the TorqueJoule curve should show whether stroking efficiency is being carried over as the rating goes up?

Here's me chugging along [Edit: strapless, though I normally use the straps] at 1:43 r20ish: roughly 16 spi, 15 m for the stroke, drive-recovery ratio of 1:3.61



And this one is stroke #672 from an 80 x 30" on/ 30" passive rest workout done in December averaging 1:34 pace:



I cranked it up for this interval (#40?) -- this stroke was 15.9 spi but r38.6, so only about 9.37 meters.

In terms of the general shape of the curves, it seems crystal clear to me that I'm losing relative quickness on the drive as I basically double the rating. OTOH, my back and legs seem more in sequence in #2 than in #1. Is this because the higher pace/rating enforces a certain biomechanical efficency (sort of a gyroscopic effect)? Is it because the relative speed of my leg drive has slowed down in #2, creating the illusion that I'm doing better at keeping the back closed? Or is it some combination thereof?

[NavigationHazard]

Paul Smith replied a couple of posts later, saying

NavHaz,

I'd say that both are fairly well coordinated, though the one at high rate and force is a bit more coordinated than the longer lower profile.

The stand out characteristic is the stark change in shape between the two circumstances.

My take on what is happening in the better shaped profile (top) is that you have plently of strength in reserves to have a bit of early back opening and not have it effect the smooth profile of the force unit, an you can support that level of force even with an early openned body.

Now when you up the rate and get closer to maximal force, all is coordinated well, mostly out of necessity and to avoid injury to your lower back. This is happening to such a great degree that not only the TorqueJoule unit is effected, but both units are.

First thing to get right is the Force, then we coordinate it the best we can. The problem with the second profile is that in the first 20cm of drive you litterally only establish about 1/2 the handle force that you did when going "easier", and that is going to make a huge difference in what would be happening in a boat. You would have lost the opportunity to capitalize on the early accleration fo the boat/rower system, the boat would likely appear to be bounding along in a series of "jumps" rather than moving smoothly across the water.

The remedy to get the early bit of the drive more quickly is to tidy up the recovery so that you are not feeling a great thump and your momentum is brought to a halt at the catch, it must be brought to a gradual stop so that your direction can be reversed in an instant. This is no problem when the ratio is nice an long, but becomes tougher as the ratio becomes shorter. Fixing the DPS maintinas ratio, and allows the gradual conditioning by taking equal proportions from both the drive and recovery as the pace increases. Taking the lions share of the time right from the recovery, when used to having oodles of time there, pretty much makes a mess of it.

An exercise that you might enjoy, would be to do a set of negative split intervals, S10PS, starting at a 2:00 and taking 1 second off the pace each rep until max is reached. Your focus would be oriented toward seeing when the force profile changes nature.

Normal Notation:
300m x 1min, S10PS, Descending Pace targets beginning at 2:00 to maximum. (The first step in the Stop The Madness [STM] plan)

[NavigationHazard]

By way of update, here's an ErgMonitor screenshot from a 40 x 30" on/ 30" passive rest workout I did this afternoon (1:32.7 average pace @ r34).



As before, the main display graphs handle force and torquejoule (time-adjusted force); the curves have been adjusted for equal amplitude.

Comments are welcome. My own take is that while I might not be able to go to the Olympics with that, it's probably going to move a boat a lot better than the "fast" stroke profiled in the earlier screen shot. Not only have I improved the handle-force curve (much quicker catch), if I'm understanding things correctly I seem to have improved the sequencing of my main levers. One of the most interesting things about this to me is the number for meters per stroke -- for this particular stroke it's 9.97, and for the interval to that point it's 9.86. It's amazing what a combination of trying to row at 10 mps and watching ErgMonitor's force curves can do for your biomechanics.

Now of course I need to do about a squillion strokes like this one to ingrain everything in muscle memory....

[JimR]

I was thinking about this while I was erging the other day and I think one thing 10mps forces me to do is keep the rate up. This goes well with the idea that learning to pull hard is not the same as learning to pull strong at race pace.

10mps is closer to the reality of racing, so one is better able to translate training to racing I think.

JimR