Concept2 Forum

I am new to this Forum and new to rowing. I purchased a "Brand X" rower back in July and started rowing regularly. I have rowed around 430K meters since July. I quickly became disillusioned by my rower, however, and decided to purchase a C2, mostly because of the PM3 monitor, after becoming a regular reader of this Forum.
I am a 50 yr old male, 6'3", 195 lbs and posted times this morning of 2.35/500m and overall 7290m/30 minutes with the damper set at 3.5. I feel like I've kind of hit a wall, at this pace, and need some advice. My question is; should I just keep rowing or do I need to add some weight training to my regimen to help get my 500m times under 2 minutes? I've been impressed with the overall quality of discussion on this Forum and will value any advice given.

Keep rowing, and your times will come down as you get used to the exercise.

Stuminator wrote: posted times this morning of 2.35/500m and overall 7290m/30 minutes

What stroke rate was that done at?

Stuminator wrote:with the damper set at 3.5.

What drag factor is that giving you?

I think you simply need to work harder. Rowing intervals can help. Instead of 30mins try a warm-up, 8*500m 3:00rest then a cool down.

Take a look at some of the training plans; Wolverine (search on here), Pete Plan (http://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/), C2 Interactive (on http://concept2.co.uk) or C2 weight loss (also on the C2 UK site)

Stuminator wrote:I am a 50 yr old male, 6'3", 195 lbs and posted times this morning of 2.35/500m and overall 7290m/30 minutes

Maybe I am mis-reading something here, but your times do not seem right.

If you pull a 500m at 2:35 pace, then you cannot do 7290m in 30 mins. I do see that if you did do 7290 in 30 mins then that is at a pace of 2:03.5

Is that what you meant?

Brian

I appreciate your thoughts. Yes you're correct, my time this morning was 2:03.5. I lowered my tamper from 5 to 3.5, based on some Forum chat, in an effort to see what works best for me. My drag factor went from around 125-30 to 115 or so. I have trouble keeping my pace steady at this point as it ranges widely. I like the idea of doing a series of shorter challenges and will try that.
On another note, I can see some positive changes in my physique already, which is quite motivating. While I'm a quite active 50 year old (bicycling and rock climbing) I wanted to "kick it up a notch" which is why I got interested in the rower. Now that I'm hooked, I plan to work out hard this winter and then see if I can join our local rowing club next spring.