Concept2 Forum

March Madness! Mud Season Madness! Enough of winter already madness!

Had to take a break from rowing due to stitches in my lower leg. (Minor procedure and all is well.) But stitches are gone as of Weds, and I got my first row in this morning (5K) after a 10 day hiatus.

My plan is do 10K for 10 days and see how I feel. Then I can decide on continuing with the 10K or changing to 5K.

I'm 'on-call' next week so the scheduling logistics will be a challenge in, and of, itself!

Whether you're doing the 5K, 10K or just plain rowing for the madness of it, I hope everyone has a great month!

Sharky
keep on rowing, just keep rowing

Hi sharky, I'm joining you, although not competing in the mud challenge because I'm not fit enough yet.
I'm doing 2500m a day for March as a personal challenge.

Holly

Hi everyone,

Apologies again for my lack of input, so before I begin, this is an enormous catch up " Well Done! " to you all for your recent achievements.

Sharky it’s good to see you back as I had wondered where you were and hope that your leg will heal well and quickly.

Janet, I do hope that the ski-ing conditions will be to your liking and that you have a great time.

Holly, to quote the song by Madness, “ Welcome To The House of Fun! “ - much admiration for your determination and good luck with completing your personal challenge. I will add my thoughts to your Holly’s Journey thread, especially as I’m another ex - overweight lady whose life has been changed around since I took up rowing 5 years ago.

Sharky, brave girl for taking on the 10000m Mud Challenge again and remember, if you do decide to drop down to the 5000, you will still be one of the original Queens of Speed.

I have completed the 10,000m challenge for the last two years and it would be tempting to try and do so again … but common sense prevails. The ongoing work in the house has taken up a lot of my time and energy, so I have opted for the 5000 distance. Sharky, I shall be following in your wake, with a spare canoe, so if you hit a particularly nasty stretch of white water rapids and you capsize, then I’ll throw you a line.

Still that fraught old bird from Blighty.

Jill

Hey Holly, Great job on setting yourself a good challenge.

Turns out I was probably a bit too aggressive in starting back rowing, so I'm not sure I'll make the challenge at any level. I never actually asked my doctor when I could start back to rowing and I'm thinking I may have jumped the gun a bit. I'll ask on Monday, and see what he says.

Been meaning to do some upper body strength training anyway....

Sharky
keep on rowing, just keep rowing

Hi Sharky,

You must have beaten me to it, by a few minutes, with your post.

I do hope that everything will be okay and erging hasn't pulled on the stitches.

Take care.

Jill

Hello All,

I am brand new to this forum and I'm very new to indoor rowing. I just bought myself a Concept2 for Christmas in an effort to get in better shape. I have been using it a few times a week since I got it, and I decided I would challenge myself with this Mud Season Madness challenge (5000m).

My times so far have ranged from 24.36 to 30.32 (the latter was following a weekend of 6 ice hockey games, so I was definitely pretty tired!). I am 35, and I'm still working on proper form over speed/power, but I'm what a decent time would be for a beginner female my age? I have not used the corrected weight option, and was wondering if women typically use this when they track their time?

Thanks, I'd appreciate any advice you have.

Amanda

Without choosing a weight class filter for lightweight/heavyweight, the recorded workouts for women in your age at 5000m are 23:12.3 for the middle of the pack 5k times reported.

For just starting out, I'd say you wont take long to be at the 50th percentile or above!

Like your "slow" 5k after the hockey games, don't be afraid to row slow. It builds that aerobic base to improve your time when you choose to pick up the pace. Trying to beat your 5k every time will lead to exhaustion and will break your will to continue training because it's like running into a wall every workout - exhaustion with no gain and lots of pain.

I'm participating in the Mud Madness too! I know this is the women's forum, but the entire forum is pretty slow some days, so I like to poke over and see what everyone is up to. I'm attempting the 10k Mud Madness, I'm at 4 completed days so far, another one should be easy tonight, I feel pretty well recovered from my last 2.

I have not used the corrected weight option, and was wondering if women typically use this when they track their time?

The corrected weight score is only an option in the context of boat crew selection in OTW (on water) rowing. The penalty for weight in a boat is that the greater the crew weight, the larger the hull displacement and area of hull wetted surface acting to limit boat speed. Corrected wgt. scores balance the desirability of high output power against the cost (total crew weight) of producing that power. Certainly of interest to aspiring lightweight rowers but merely a daydream-inducing curiosity to those of us who are exclusively indoor rowers. It is not acceptable for ergers of either sex to enter weight-corrected scores in the C2 rankings. To date i haven’t heard of anyone doing so or even being accused of doing so.

Tenshuu wrote: ↑

March 6th, 2019, 1:20 pm

Without choosing a weight class filter for lightweight/heavyweight, the recorded workouts for women in your age at 5000m are 23:12.3 for the middle of the pack 5k times reported.

For just starting out, I'd say you wont take long to be at the 50th percentile or above!

Like your "slow" 5k after the hockey games, don't be afraid to row slow. It builds that aerobic base to improve your time when you choose to pick up the pace. Trying to beat your 5k every time will lead to exhaustion and will break your will to continue training because it's like running into a wall every workout - exhaustion with no gain and lots of pain.

I'm participating in the Mud Madness too! I know this is the women's forum, but the entire forum is pretty slow some days, so I like to poke over and see what everyone is up to. I'm attempting the 10k Mud Madness, I'm at 4 completed days so far, another one should be easy tonight, I feel pretty well recovered from my last 2.

Hi Tenshuu,

Thanks for the great insight! I appreciate the advice to not always try to beat my 5k (or any other benchmark) time, every time I row. Coming from a competitive background, I could foresee myself getting caught on this one!

That's great that you're going for the 10k challenge - best of luck! (and hey, maybe I'll be able to tackle the 10k next year)

Amanda

jackarabit wrote: ↑

March 6th, 2019, 5:32 pm

I have not used the corrected weight option, and was wondering if women typically use this when they track their time?

The corrected weight score is only an option in the context of boat crew selection in OTW (on water) rowing. The penalty for weight in a boat is that the greater the crew weight, the larger the hull displacement and area of hull wetted surface acting to limit boat speed. Corrected wgt. scores balance the desirability of high output power against the cost (total crew weight) of producing that power. Certainly of interest to aspiring lightweight rowers but merely a daydream-inducing curiosity to those of us who are exclusively indoor rowers. It is not acceptable for ergers of either sex to enter weight-corrected scores in the C2 rankings. To date i haven’t heard of anyone doing so or even being accused of doing so.

Thanks jackarabit - this helps clear things up! I have never been an OTW rower, so I will just ignore this feature for my purposes.

No rowing for at least another week for me. No mud season challenge. No 1MM this year.

Feeling a bit annoyed since I had originally scheduled this procedure for the end of Jan, so that I could row in March, but life happens.
What I'm really not looking forward to is the week or two it will take me build up to where I was before.

Ahhh well life goes on.

Cheering on all of those rowing this month whether its 1K, 5K, or 10K!

Go! Go! Go!

Sharky
keep on rowing, just keep rowing

Just catching up on recent posts. We are still out in Colorado skiing. It has been an epic week...6 ft of snow this week! Avalanches everywhere closing the roads, but our friends' house is well situated and we have been able to avoid the road closures and still get out skiing 5 days so far and I swam the other day. Once I get back next week, I am hoping to re-establish a rowing routine and my triathlon training routine. Our travels should be over for a couple of months anyway . Looks like you are all doing awesome. Welcome to the new forum members, best wishes for a speedy recovery Sharky, and Jill, I always enjoy your humorous posts. Be back rowing soon!

How's everyone getting on with the mud, it's a tough challenge.

Holly62 wrote: ↑

March 11th, 2019, 2:14 am

How's everyone getting on with the mud, it's a tough challenge.

It sure is tough. I'm currently 8 days at 10k so far. Tonight I'll be another 10k finished I think - depends if I get caught up at the end of my shift or not tonight.

My major problem is just finding an hour to fit in, I've been doing a lot of my sessions at 8-8:30PM which cuts it close to bed time by the time I'm done, and showered. Soonest I get home from work is 6pm, cook dinner, get kiddo in bed, etc.

How have you been doing Holly?

10,000m, that's, that's, just amazing, stunning in fact
I'm still plodding on, I'm getting fitter and losing weight, much more, is little more than a dream at this stage, but I keep going.
Posts like yours give me real hope for the future tenshuu, thank you,

Holly