Curious new rower

HeavyA · Post by **HeavyA** » April 19th, 2008, 11:49 pm

Hello Folks

Just started rowing in Feb. at a weight of 345 and am now down to to 318. I love rowing and I bought the rower for the purpose of losing weight and getting back in shape. Being competitive and finding my times getting better and better everyday I decided to look for other times to compare myself and found you guys. My question is concerning competitions and the rules governing the comps. I have seen nothing mentioning the reguirement for proper form. The reason I ask this is because of my weight and my bad back I find leaning back to painful and I also find that my knees do not go completely straight at the end of the stroke. Can you be disqualfied for improper form or unsafe form and is there a max. weight requirement. I don't know if I will ever go to a comp. but, if I'm going to judge myself I don't want to cheat. My times are very fast but, I assume that is due to my strength.

Thanks Jeff

PaulH · Post by **PaulH** » April 20th, 2008, 3:02 am

Don't worry Jeff, so long as you're not endangering the rowers around you your technique is up to you

badocter · Post by **badocter** » April 20th, 2008, 4:51 am

Congratulations on the great progress you have made on weightloss

There really aren't any rules I am aware of regarding technique in competition. Have you joined a team and jumped on the CTC yet

( http://c2ctc.com ) - we always need more boats floated !!

HeavyA · Post by **HeavyA** » April 20th, 2008, 9:49 pm

Thanks for the response guy's. When I found the Highland games 15 years ago it took me out of a training rut and got me back in shape. Since I left 5 years ago I've kind of let myself go and I'm hoping that rowing and this forum is going to get me out of a deeper rut.

Badocter that site was interesting. How do you join and how do you get on a team? I assume all times posted are on the honor system.

Jeff

badocter · Post by **badocter** » April 21st, 2008, 12:34 am

To add yourself:
http://www.c2ctc.com/person.php

If you are not sure what team you want to join yet, you can select "Independent" -- you can always change the team later. Some teams have entry requirement (eg., Taffs require you to be able to identify where Wales is on a map) or you need their approval to join, other teams are completely open (eg., Free Spirits

). Most of the team threads are on the UK forum:
http://www.concept2.co.uk/forum/viewfor ... d87ef5b2f3
You can get a feel for the flavor for most of the teams there. BTW, Free Spirits have their own forum, so their thread on C2 UK is not active:
http://www.freespiritsrowing.com/forum/

All scores on CTC are entered on the honor system.

HeavyA · Post by **HeavyA** » April 22nd, 2008, 6:49 am

Thanks for your help Badocter.
I tried the 2.5K today after my 10K and did not quite make it. I think I was trying to hard. I ended up only getting 1.5k in 3:56. I'll have to slow it down a bit next time.
Jeff

chickenlegs · Post by **chickenlegs** » April 24th, 2008, 3:41 am

HeavyA wrote:Thanks for your help Badocter.
I tried the 2.5K today after my 10K and did not quite make it. I think I was trying to hard. I ended up only getting 1.5k in 3:56. I'll have to slow it down a bit next time.
Jeff

1.5 km is 1500 m
3 minutes 56 seconds is equal to 236 seconds
236 seconds/3 = 78.7 seconds
1500 m / 3 = 500 m
78.7 seconds = 1 minute 18.7 seconds

your average split on you 1.5 km would be 1:19

if that is the case with a bit of pacing and slowing down the pace to, say, 1:25 (6 splits higher) you would complete 2000 m in 5'40".

that would be a new american record on the concept II erg.

is your first name dwayne?

HeavyA · Post by **HeavyA** » April 24th, 2008, 7:24 am

Hi Chickenlegs

I don't know anything about the records or Dwayne But, I do love rowing. Today I did 3 2.5's and finished with a 2.0 with about 5min. rest between each. My times in order were 8:42, 7:43, 7:23, 6:01. I was actually trying for 4 2.5K's but, I pooped out and decided to finish at 2K. I did a 5:42 2K last week but, I stopped rowing for about 15sec. right in the middle.

I use to row 25years ago when I was in the military on one of those cheap gas cylinder rowers and I loved it. I'm just having a great time challenging myself at every workout.

Jeff

PaulS · Post by **PaulS** » April 24th, 2008, 12:34 pm

HeavyA wrote:Hi Chickenlegs

I don't know anything about the records or Dwayne But, I do love rowing. Today I did 3 2.5's and finished with a 2.0 with about 5min. rest between each. My times in order were 8:42, 7:43, 7:23, 6:01. I was actually trying for 4 2.5K's but, I pooped out and decided to finish at 2K. I did a 5:42 2K last week but, I stopped rowing for about 15sec. right in the middle.

I use to row 25years ago when I was in the military on one of those cheap gas cylinder rowers and I loved it. I'm just having a great time challenging myself at every workout.

Jeff

That's absolutely fantastic!
Is this a current model Concept 2 machine?
Which Model Performance Monitor?

What kind of frame are you hanging that 318lbs off of, near 7 feet?

You must have burnt your hands a few times on those old Gas Piston machines, they really heated up when given a bit of stick.

Yankeerunner · Post by **Yankeerunner** » April 24th, 2008, 1:12 pm

chickenlegs wrote: you would complete 2000 m in 5'40".

that would be a new american record on the concept II erg.

Not to quibble (and the rest of your post was excellent), but to recall a Blast From The Past, I believe that the American Record remains the 5:39 (5:39.0?) that Dave Simon did as 19-year-old Brown Univ student at the 2000 CRASH-B's.

Who would have thought back then that it would have lasted so long? A lot of people probably would have bet that Dave himself would do a much faster piece when he got a bit older.

I wonder what he's doing now? I know he had some back problems.

Nosmo · Post by **Nosmo** » April 24th, 2008, 2:33 pm

Yankeerunner wrote: you would complete 2000 m in 5'40".
that would be a new american record on the concept II erg.

If the weight calculator is to be believed, a 5'40 for a 318 lbs person, is equivalent to a 6'36" for a 160 lbs lightweight.

It pays to be big on the erg!

PaulS · Post by **PaulS** » April 24th, 2008, 5:26 pm

Nosmo wrote:
Yankeerunner wrote: you would complete 2000 m in 5'40".
that would be a new american record on the concept II erg.
If the weight calculator is to be believed, a 5'40 for a 318 lbs person, is equivalent to a 6'36" for a 160 lbs lightweight.

It pays to be big on the erg!

Not to pick a Nit, but you are kind of misrepresenting what the weight calulator is estimating.
It's actually saying:
An 8+ full of 318lb guys that could all pull 5:40each = 8+ of 160lb 6:36 guys, all technical issues being equal.

I'm still not sure why that alone proves "It pays to be big on the erg", seems like it pays to be little and adjust your score up for power that doesn't exist.

It's not exactly easy to find an 8+ that will hold 318lb guys, or a bunch of them that can pull 5:40, but I can tell you that if a 160lb guy really wants to hold the King of the Adjusted Erg score, he's going to have to go 5:56 to match up with a 205lb 5:36.8.

Though it's still like saying "ants are really strong because they can lift 10x their bodyweight", which doesn't stop them from being crushed under a mouses paw. Nothing is like pulling under 5:40 for 2k, and that is probably why the people that have done it can be counted on one hand.

badocter · Post by **badocter** » April 25th, 2008, 1:18 am

I don't wnt to put a damper on the enthusiasm here of WR times, but you might want to check the PM3/PM4 settings to make sure the type of erg it thinks you are on is correct:

Citroen wrote:The PM3/PM4 can be foiled by setting it to model C when it's on a model D/E. It's easy to get drag factor 300 on damper 5 with it configured that way). So all numbers become inflated by 2.5. The PM only stores duration, distance, stroke rate and HR (all other number are derived by maths from that).

If you have PM3 -- how to get to the menu that shows the model is here: http://www.concept2.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... el#p417605

PM Citroen if you have problem as he seems to know these things better than the rest of us. It is a bit daft that these things are on hidden menus.

HeavyA · Post by **HeavyA** » April 25th, 2008, 4:14 am

I got my rower in Jan. from this web site and I did actually check the setting in the system after reading some other posting concerning the subject and it is set at Model d/e.

I don't imagine that weight is as much a factor as strength and power, which doesn't automatically come with heavier weight. If I was 5'9" instead of 6'7" I believe that I would be quit slow at 318lbs and if I reach my goal of 275lbs I hope I will be faster than I am know. I noticed that Siejkowski is also 6'7, does anybody happen to know his weight?

"No man is entirely worthless, He can always serve as a bad example"

Brian Oldfield

HeavyA · Post by **HeavyA** » April 25th, 2008, 4:18 am

Correction on that Question, I meant Rob Waddell. Although Siejkowski may also be 6'7".