I can use your help and expertise...

[Boxing Diva]

Hello, Rowing Ladies
I would appreciate it if maybe some of you guys can translate this into english for me. I started paying attention and using the PM3 the second day I had my C2. Here is the info:

2/20
time: Meter: 500M: S/M
20:35 3487 2:57 20

2/21
12:11:1 2000 3:02:7 19
11:19:9 2000 2:49 22
(I did two workouts back to back)

2/23
29:47:2 5000 2:58 21

So, how do I read this? How badly am I doing? My workout felt very good - it took an effort, but I wasn't dying. I did work up a sweat and didn't go beyond 30 minutes because I didn't want to overdo it. Can someone let me know how I measure improvement?
Sorry to look stupid, and I appreciate the tutoring.

Thanks forlistening,

Barbara
(Boxing and Rowing Diva)

[seat5]

Hi Boxing Diva,

Those numbers are telling you
How long you rowed
How far you went
What your average pace was in terms of how long it would have taken you to row 500 meters in a real boat
How many strokes/minute you averaged.

I wouldn't worry about improvement on anything at the beginning except your rowing stroke technique. Watch the video C2 sent with your rower and try to emulate the form of the rowers on the video. It's important to row properly so as to avoid injury. When you are pretty solid on your technique, which will happen as you row more and have built up enough stamina to be able to row continuously for say 30 minutes, you might start thinking about improving speed.

I would also recommend rowing with your feet not strapped in, as this helps to develop good technique. BTW none of what I am saying is my personal idea. You will find these same suggestions all over the forum from many people, some of them who are actually rowing coaches, like PaulS, Mike Caviston, and others.

The paces you have mentioned are relatively slow and relaxed and a good start towards building a foundation for speed work later. What is your age height, and are you a lwt (under 135) or a hwt (over 135?) You can take a look at the rankings to see what other women your age and general size are rowing at various distances and times. For instance, 30 minutes is a rankable event, so you can check out the distance the average woman your age and size rows in 30 min. But I wouldn't worry about that much yet, just enjoy getting the stroke a comfortable motion and building up stamina.

Welcome to the forum!

[MomofJBN]

I agree with everything Carla said and have some additional thoughts...

You want to build a good conditioning base and work on your form at the beginning. If you don't have a good base, you'll hurt yourself when you try to improve your speed. Make sure you sit tall and use your abs to support your back. I found that I had to row for a few weeks just concentrating on that before my abs and back were strong enough to go much harder with my legs.

That said, don't ignore your legs. You need a strong drive to get the timing of the stroke right. For a long steady-state row the recovery phase takes about twice as long as the drive. As you work on these things, you'll probably see that your 500m pace is improving (going down).

I'd say your strokes/minute is already in a good range for basic condition. I tend to erg at 20 - 24 s/m.

To answer your final question, measuring improvement depends on my goals for a particular work-out, but in general I want to see my average 500m time for the work-outs decreasing. Progress won't always be uniform, but I want to see that (gradually) my speed is improving.