First erg (not Concept2, alas) and something's "not right."

[TXCiclista]

[nostalgia]
When I was in college (early-90's), I joined Crew team and had an amazing year in an 8-man. Rowing on the Cooper river (I was at College of Charleston in SC) with dolphins just a few feet off our brand new hatchet oars? Man, that was where it was at. Well, long story short, I transferred to the mountains of NC (should have studied harder) and rowing was over. Fast forward ~18 years...
[/nostalgia]

I happened across the Amazon.com Black Friday sale for a Body Rower BRW7200 magnetic for $300 and saw a chance to see if I could recapture some of the feel of sitting in the gym pulling for an hour. The machine came today, and while it's not a Concept2, I think I got my money's worth, and then some. Except for the computer. It's bad; really bad. Readouts are too small, no wattage, etc, etc, etc. Still, I can just make out the time and pace, so it works OK.

So today I pulled a short 5m stint just to get the feel for the machine. Kept about 24spm, good form (6'4", ~275 (sad, I know)), and so on. When I got finished, the readout said 0.06 MILES (yep, no meters or km). Since I know that's not right, I'm thinking something's fishy. When I ran the numbers with the assumption that the decimal was in the wrong place, I got 0.6 miles, or ~1k, which gives me right at 2:30. Would this seem about right for a "beginner"? (I consider myself a beginner shape-wise, not form, etc). Are there any ways I could test to see if it's off somehow? Or should I just assume that 1k in 5m is about right, especially since moving the decimal one place makes everything seem more reasonable?

Thanks in advance (and sorry for the blabbering ).

[jamesg]

Suggest you use your heart rate to govern power level, and sweat amount to control total work, until you're fit. Then get a C2.

The numbers are fictitious anyway (except Watts), but within the C2 range are comparable, as there's a constant flywheel type. The speeds/times of its acceleration/deceleration are easily measured and provide enough info for the monitor to tell us how much mechanical work we've done.

If you pull full length hardish strokes against low drag on your machine it shouldn't take you more than 15 minutes to warm up to say UT1 range HR; then you're in biz, so keep going. To get fit we have to keep our HR in zone for a certain amount of time. Whatever the machine says, this is what's needed.

I'm guessing you're 40, so probably have a max HR of around 205 - 40/2 = 185. If your rest HR is 60, then your HR range is 125; using 60-70% or even 80% of this range will get and keep you fit: so the HR band to be in is 133-160. Keep the work per stroke constant, adjusting the rating to control power level and so HR.

Don't try to kill yourself, you may succeed; but a year's steady rowing is worth a year's extra life, or so we trust and hope.

Take it easy, your progress will be faster than you'd believe anyway.

[Citroen]

I happened across the Amazon.com Black Friday sale for a Body Rower BRW7200 magnetic for $300 and saw a chance to see if I could recapture some of the feel of sitting in the gym pulling for an hour.

There's a couple of diabolical reviews on http://www.amazon.com/Body-BRW7200-Delu ... B003C2P8GY I'm surprused you wasted $300 on it, best of luck when you try to sell it on eBay (if you can't get a refund from Amazon).

[TXCiclista]

I happened across the Amazon.com Black Friday sale for a Body Rower BRW7200 magnetic for $300 and saw a chance to see if I could recapture some of the feel of sitting in the gym pulling for an hour.

There's a couple of diabolical reviews on http://www.amazon.com/Body-BRW7200-Delu ... B003C2P8GY I'm surprused you wasted $300 on it, best of luck when you try to sell it on eBay (if you can't get a refund from Amazon).

Heh. I'm assuming you looked at the dates, right? They're all Dec 1,2, so people who got theirs the same day I got mine. One person thinks there's only an 18" slide, when it's more like 48". The 4-star is closest to the "real" thing. I'll be putting mine up soon. Is it a Concept2? No. Is it as bad as people say? No. It's worth what I paid for it, maybe a bit more. Something tells me the others don't really know what a decent ergo costs...

[Rockin Roland]

Something tells me the others don't really know what a decent ergo costs...

$3,500...........That's what a decent erg costs.....and that's what I paid for mine... with no regrets.

But as the saying goes ...."you get what you paid for".

[TXCiclista]

Something tells me the others don't really know what a decent ergo costs...

$3,500...........That's what a decent erg costs.....and that's what I paid for mine... with no regrets.

But as the saying goes ...."you get what you paid for".

Yeah, though this machine is surprisingly good at $300. I guess they were expecting 100% performance at 10% of the price. Me? I just wanted something with a decent feel to it to get back into ergs. It's been an enjoyable experience so far, and after a year or so, when I know I'll stay with it, I'll start looking to upgrade.

On a side note, no one answered my actual question: Is 2:30 a reasonable time for 500m for someone who's been out of the water for 2 decades?

[gregsmith01748]

I think you did not get a direct reply because it's a tough question. It's great that you are getting back on a rowing machine and that is something to be encouraged. It is also likely that your $300 erg is not providing a very accurate measurement of your 500m performance. With that in mind, take the following with a grain of salt.

In absolute terms, if you are over 75Kg and between 40 and 50 years old, 2:30 is pretty slow for a 500m. The online rankings for 500m show the following percentile breakdown.

PERCENTILES
90th, 75th, 50th, 25th
1:28.1, 1:33.0, 1:38.1, 1:45.4

I'd like to think that if you rowed in college, you would likely be pulling well under 2:00 if you were on an accurate erg.

[Carl Watts]

As above, you cannot directly compare the reading from your Erg to a Concept 2.

Probably not a bad start just using your purchase to get back into a bit of rowing, then if you get serious buy a Concept 2 and sell it.