Concept2 Forum

Brand new user here (Model D will be delivered tomorrow) and can't wait to get started!
I am 56 years old, 290 pounds and tired of it. I have used the Concept 2 before at the gym and really enjoyed it, so I am excited to get going again!
I have had several pieces of home gym equipment over the years and have always started out great but soon loose my enthusiasm and the machine turns into a place to hang my coat.
Determined not to let that happen with my new rower, I started looking at the motivation and workout section of the website, and immediately was drawn to the idea of
rowing a marathon. A lofty goal for someone 100 lbs over weight...but a goal that I am excited about and also hoping to drop a bunch of weight in the process!
My question to you all, what is a reasonable training routine to accomplish my goal? I would say my time frame would be by July 1st of 2017. Sound reasonable?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! And Thank you!!

dhbehler wrote:Brand new user here (Model D will be delivered tomorrow) and can't wait to get started!
I am 56 years old, 290 pounds and tired of it. I have used the Concept 2 before at the gym and really enjoyed it, so I am excited to get going again!
I have had several pieces of home gym equipment over the years and have always started out great but soon loose my enthusiasm and the machine turns into a place to hang my coat.
Determined not to let that happen with my new rower, I started looking at the motivation and workout section of the website, and immediately was drawn to the idea of
rowing a marathon. A lofty goal for someone 100 lbs over weight...but a goal that I am excited about and also hoping to drop a bunch of weight in the process!
My question to you all, what is a reasonable training routine to accomplish my goal? I would say my time frame would be by July 1st of 2017. Sound reasonable?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! And Thank you!!

Congratulations on your new Model D! (and on your new resolve. )

Advice? Good goal to keep yourself motivated, but there are other things you can do too, to keep yourself motivated. Here are a few:

1. Take a look at the "Introduction to Indoor Rowing" thread for some ideas.

2. Start entering your workouts on the "C2 logbook." Once you've created a user ID, you'll be able to compare your results on the various "standard" distances & times to others. You can sort out those you want to compare yourself to by age, so you'll be able to see where you start and how you "move up the ranks" as your results improve.

3. Consider posting a video to get feedback on your stroke. You can get some good comments & suggestions that way.

4. You can consider joining the "Nonathlon" which will allow you to compete in an age-adjusted competition each year.

5. RowPro (on-line rowing software) allows you to train or compete with others. I don't use it, but those who do are highly enthusiastic. At one point there was a trial period to let you try it out--there may still be!

6. Consider in-person coaching if there is a local rowing club or indoor rowing studio. Nothing beats having a knowledgeable person giving you corrections "live."

7. There are a number of training plans available. You may want to consider one of them.

And have fun!

Alissa

I have done exactly one full erg marathon, remarkable only in the fact of my having finished. By contrast, I have done 10 half marathons, nine prior to the full. My opinion and strongly-held conviction is that the FM can easily become a bridge too far for someone who underestimates the demands it makes on physical and mental conditioning. So the obvious first piece of advice is to take eyes off the prize and set interim goals for continuous rows. A typical progression is 30', 60-80', half marathon, 25-35K meters, full marathon. This training/conditioning can be the work of a year or maybe two or three. My big mistake was not training (repeated) distances longer than the HM (21097meters). Although I was able to finish, target pace was not sustainable. There is a fundamental reason why distance runners do 5,6,10,13K on the road before they attempt the marathon. Likewise indoor rowers. The incrementalist strategy which entails countless cycles of increased load and compensatory strength and endurance is not the work of a day.

Thank you Alissa and Jackrabbit! I really appreciate the advice and will take it to heart. Thanks Jackrabbit, I am concerned about the bridge too far so your strategy is very helpful.

Some good advice already given... your bum will need to get use to the seat as that can get sore quite quickly. Getting your muscles use to the repetition takes a while but also the mental fitness needed is also important as it is easy to lose the will along the way, so a plan in your head plus some good music does help.

I still remember the first time I attempted a FM.. I had done several HM and thought I could just jump and I crashed at 28K and really felt defeated and depressed. What I had failed to do was prepare myself, I just assumed that because I was fit and could do a HM then FM would just take twice as long.. boy was I wrong, in fact it took me what seemed like forever to get back to that 28K and then slowly extended it and the mistake I kept making was to be impatient, I wanted the FM almost too much and too quickly... so take your time, build up your aerobic base, your body needs to learn how to cope and deal with lactic acid and muscle fatigue and you will need to re-learn how to hydrate yourself and yet still maintain your toilet habits.. good luck.

Hi,

Just to pile on. Your timeframe seems totally doable. I think the key thing will be to come up with a set of interim goals along the way. I agree with the the point that it will take a while to get used to spending that much time rowing. I suggest that yourself up with a plan. You could start with the weight loss plan from the indoor sport services website...

http://indoorsportservices.co.uk/weightloss/interactive

This is a nice gradual introduction to rowing longer distances. Once you have gotten going and are seeing some results, then you can move onto more focused training.

The most important advice that I got when I started using the indoor rower for weight loss was to make sure that I tracked calories as well as adding exercise. I was VERY hungry after I started rowing more meters, and it was only by tracking how much I was eating that I could maintain the calorie deficit to lose weight. The good news is that it works if you do. I lost about 50 pounds over about 8 months and I've kept most of it off for the last 5 years.

If you are an engineer or other quantitative thinker, you might want to take a look at this. It's called the hacker's diet, and more than any other weight loss plan, t made sense to me. No tricks, no secrets, just an approach using data collection and analysis to figure out how much you eat and burn.

https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/

Other suggestions.
1. Start ranking your times. Set aside one day per week where you will do a test. You can do any distance from 100m up to a half marathon. But for that day, do a good long warmup. Then do the test piece and rank the results on the concept2 website. The next week, try another distance. Eventually, get back to doing the same pieces again. If you are like me, you will start near the bottom of the rankings, and as you go along, you will climb higher. It gives a very measureable and tangible idea of the progress that you are making.

2. Find other folks that are doing what you are doing. There is a weight loss thread over on the Free Spirits Team forum. Basically, people just post their weigh ins and comment on how they feel like they are doing. Other folks on the team with sympathize, cajole, and congratulate you as you go along. http://www.freespiritsrowing.com/forum/ ... s&start=25

3. Ramp your volume slowly. It would suck to burn out early. Increase the distances you row by increments. So if the longest you have rowed is 5K, try to row 6K, not 10K. Same thing about paces. If you previously did a 2K in 8:00, next time shoot for 7:52, not 7:30.

Good luck on your journey. I hope you find the forum lurkers to be friendly and supportive.

I suggest that the most important thing you can do is make an absolute commitment to follow some plan. Start with an easy plan, say 15 minutes at 50W Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:00AM. Create the habit of rowing regularly. Make it easy on yourself so you can stick with it. The point to this is not to get in shape or loose weight but to ingrain the habit.

After a few months, when getting on the rower is automatic then start working a little harder. Try 20 minutes for a month then 30. When 30 minutes three days a week is a solid habit look into the interactive plan referenced above. Stick with three days a week and don't push too hard. If you burn out you won't accomplish any of your goals. If you keep your rowing easy enough that you keeping getting on the erg you can reach them.

By far the hardest thing is sticking with it. You know this from your experience with other machines. In my opinion the most important goal for the first six months, at least, is building the habit of following the plan. If the plan pushes you to the limit it will be harder to stick to it so choose an easy plan. Once you have created the habit, then you can start pushing but just a little. The habit will be fragile. If you push to hard you can break it.

Can you do a marathon in a year doing what I described. I don't know. What I do know from experience very similar to yours is that if you don't make a plan and stick to it no matter what you will never do a marathon. For me the only way to do that was to choose an easy plan that I could stick to easily. 1.5 million meters later my 2k is better than the 50 percentile for my age bracket. If I can do that, so can you.

time in the saddle will definetly make your target doable.

i did my first Marathon in January (Total 3 upto date) - and only one of them was without a "drink" break.

Everytime i finish, I ask myself why I do this.
Its uncomfortable, hard work and definetly gets to the bone.

But - I do look at the marathon pin with pride.

If you have a training partner - then that helps, otherwise some distractions; music, tv etc.
the most important thing for me is a fluffy cushion...

Erging a marathon is "easy" its like cycling one, if you want a serious time thats a different matter. But simple rowing 42 km you can get there pretty soon.
First I would get a decent technique, don,t go erging with a poor stroke, build a strong long stroke first, after that huild the meters.

Congratulations on buying an erg and wanting to row. Please don't take this as negative, but...

I would question whether the marathon is the best goal for someone who wants to lose weight? You're going to have to row a lot, and you're going to want to eat. A lot.

Maybe work on skill first and the habit of rowing almost every day. Get good at rowing 20 minutes at a reasonable pace with good technique. Then work on rowing 10k non stop. Then work on (relatively) fast 2k, 5k, 10k times.

Just like with running, everyone wants to run a half marathon and then a full marathon. No one wants to get good at running a fast 5k, which would probably be a much better goal for most people.

Just my opinion.