First meters strategy on all-out sprint?

[Gerhard]

When doing sprints on the rower, it only takes me a few strokes to get the watts up to the point where avg watts catch up with current watts. On the bike it takes me ‘ages’ - the watts during the first seconds are so low that the average is way lower than current watts for quit some time (all relative - talking about sprints up to 1000). Funny thing is that riding outside (with pedal based power) is the opposite: massive watts at the start of a sprint.

Is there a commonly accepted strategy for the first 10 seconds or so, like “start in bezerk mode and then drop watts to sustainable levels”? Just wondering, maybe just getting used to.

[Dutch]

I have noticed a similar thing. I was told that if the drag is down low it will take time to get the power up, but like you on a rower I can have it on 105 or 110 df and the actual will catch the average very quickly.

I have tried sprint starts on a low drag and high drag on the bike and it can be the difference of 0.7 seconds for the 1st 100 meters, but the side effect of high drag on the bike is my legs tire quicker lol

I think in all honesty if you are blessed with pure sprint power then you are going to be able to do a 7 second first 100m all day long, I can just about do 9 secs. I have never got a sub 9 sec yet. An 8.9 would be great lol.

I use a strategy of the first 150 meters at 90% power then ease off to the get the current pace where I want it and the average seems to catch up with pure momentum very soon after.

[MartinSH4321]

When doing sprints on the rower, it only takes me a few strokes to get the watts up to the point where avg watts catch up with current watts. On the bike it takes me ‘ages’ - the watts during the first seconds are so low that the average is way lower than current watts for quit some time (all relative - talking about sprints up to 1000). Funny thing is that riding outside (with pedal based power) is the opposite: massive watts at the start of a sprint.

Is there a commonly accepted strategy for the first 10 seconds or so, like “start in bezerk mode and then drop watts to sustainable levels”? Just wondering, maybe just getting used to.

This depends on distance, a 100m row can be done all out from start to end, 1' and 500m depend on different variables, like strength vs endurance ratio, lactate/pain tolerance, mental toughness. Fastest sprints are done "controlled fly and die", so fast and short strokes to get the flywheel moving, than cruise a few splits below planned average and slowly dying in the last ca. 1/3 of the row. This will hurt a lot and the wish to stop will be strong
You'll need trial and error to see what works best for you.

[JaapvanE]

When doing sprints on the rower, it only takes me a few strokes to get the watts up to the point where avg watts catch up with current watts. On the bike it takes me ‘ages’ - the watts during the first seconds are so low that the average is way lower than current watts for quit some time (all relative - talking about sprints up to 1000). Funny thing is that riding outside (with pedal based power) is the opposite: massive watts at the start of a sprint.

This effect could be related to an observation made by researchers of the University of ULM (see https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10 ... 01617/full). The PM5 actually seems to ignore a significant speed increase in its wattage calculation as it seems to assume a steady boatspeed to do this calculation (see figure three in the article), which is an issue that officially is acknowledged by Concept2. So increases, like the initial strokes of a row and the start of sprints, are actually underestimated. Sudden slowdowns are overestimated. Your actually bike probably measures torque on the pedals, and aren't affected by such deviations.

[Gerhard]

Thx for the replies. I tested my 200 meter, best effort so far was 18 seconds with 9.5 for the first 100 and 8.5 for the final 100, so the effect has limited impact..

[johnlvs2run]

The PM5 actually seems to ignore a significant speed increase in its wattage calculation as it seems to assume a steady boat speed to do this calculation (see figure three in the article), which is an issue that officially is acknowledged by Concept2. So increases, like the initial strokes of a row and the start of sprints, are actually underestimated. Sudden slowdowns are overestimated. Your actual bike probably measures torque on the pedals, and aren't affected by such deviations.

Thanks for pointing that out.
The pm5 always ignores my start pace for the first 3 to 6 seconds (depending where I'm starting from).
Then all of a sudden it jumps to my pace. Thus my first repetition of a set is always a second or two slower.
However that only happens at the start. I've never seen an over or under estimation of pace once into the ride.

[johnlvs2run]

I tested my 200 meter, best effort so far was 18 seconds with 9.5 for the first 100 and 8.5 for the final 100, so the effect has limited impact.

Therefore you lost a second at the start, depending on the evenness of the subsequent pace.
However, doing a time trial is not the best way to test the monitor loss, due to the rolling start verification.

I did a moderate test this morning of 150 meters, with no verification rolling start.
The same pace was held from 50 to 150 meters. The result was 11.9 + 5.2 seconds, a loss of 1.5 seconds.