Does room temperature affect my times?

dinodi · Post by **dinodi** » October 24th, 2006, 5:27 pm

Ok- all of you physics majors...or whomever..I need expert advice. I'm either hitting a plateau or the ambient temerature in my rowing room is affecting my times. I rowed 6k easily two days ago when the temp in my room was 65 degrees. Today it is about 50 and I struggled...same effort resulted in a significantly slower pace. What's up?

ps- the cold room situation will persist through the winter ( hereabouts, that's five months!) so my hope is that I'm just a "pooped pup" and the temp. has nothing to do with it.

Sean Seamus · Post by **Sean Seamus** » October 24th, 2006, 9:27 pm

Cold air is much heavier and denser than warm air, just as with water.
Cold water slows boats. Quite literally, you are having to push your body through a thicker medium, much the same as walking in a muddy field.

RowtheRockies · Post by **RowtheRockies** » October 24th, 2006, 11:35 pm

How much slower was your time, do you have any HR data to compare the two sessions. Rowing in 50 degrees should make little difference. I open the window all the way in the middle of winter to get the room as cold as possible. I do better in colder temps.

You could check your drag factor at the start of each session and compare how it changes based on temp.

Rich

dinodi · Post by **dinodi** » October 25th, 2006, 1:17 am

Damper setting was identical--4.5 since it is an older machine at the gym I was rowing approximately 300 meters slower per 30 min. Drag factor was identical as well- about 105. Also- I had to pull 30-32 reps versus 26-28 as I tried to keep up with my earlier effort.

I'm not sure if rowing with the windows open is the same as having a machine in a room with a constantly low temp...perhaps?

Thanks for the feedback.

almostflipped · Post by **almostflipped** » October 25th, 2006, 11:27 am

You were just tired. Such a small change in air temperature would have no effect on the machine. Perhaps you personally are not acclimated to that temperature though. That would be enough of a swing to throw a person off a bit if you weren't used to it.

As for the windows open, that can sometimes effect drag if a good wind comes through. No different than dealing with it on the water though and not likely to be a big deal.

Rockin Roland · Post by **Rockin Roland** » October 26th, 2006, 12:06 am

Colder air will increase the drag factor on your erg. Hence you need to counter that by lowering the fan setting.

50 degrees is the most ideal temperature to erg in. If you did worse in those conditions then some factor other than temperature was affecting your performance.

I pray for those conditions all the time but very rarely get them. Although where you live it's probably no concern but Global warming is a real threat to indoor rowing in Australia. The number of days suitable for indoor rowing in a non-airconditioned room are becoming fewer and fewer every year for us.

Whoever made that C2 YouTube Global warming video, found in another forum thread, got it completely wrong. Global warming is going to lead to fewer sales of indoor rowing machines. Not more as suggested in that video.

johnlvs2run · Post by **johnlvs2run** » October 26th, 2006, 2:25 am

You should be able to row faster/longer at 50 degrees than 65, but it takes longer to warm up when it's colder.

You probably didn't have enough of a warmup.