Cut Slide

[ranger]

How about this?

I can pull 500m, 1:30 @ 30 spm (16 SPI).

I think that might be a challenge for Stephansen.

ranger

I dont think that would be a challenge.He has the world record.
I can pull a 1:28 at 29spm.

You can pull 500m, 1:28 @ 29 spm?

Are you a lightweight?

Not many lightweights can do 500m at 18 SPI.

Stephansen has the 2K WR because he rates 43 spm not because he pulls 18 SPI.

When he races, he pulls 11.5 SPI.

ranger

[ranger]

Yea, at full slide, I pull 13 SPI, no matter what the rate.

So, that's my natural stroking power.

But I don't think you want to race at your natural stroking power.

You want to trade some rate for pace, lower the stroking power about 2 SPI, and raise the rate about 5 spm.

At full slide, I pull 1:34 @ 32 spm (13 SPI).

But I will race a 2K, 1:34 @ 37 spm (11 SPI).

All along the line, especially early on, it is good to row a lot at full slide and your natural stroking power, though.

This is level 4 rowing in the WP.

500s and 1Ks at your natural stroking power, I think, are also good to do, at least from time to time.

A nice test for your racing SPI, I think, is 60min at 10 MPS.

Then subtract 10 seconds per 500m and you have your 2K.

For instance, both Rocket Roy Brook and Mike VB do 60min, 1:51 @ 27 (9.5 SPI).

So they both do 2K at right around 1:41 and 9.5 SPI.

I suspect that Eskild E. does 60min at 30 spm and 10 MPS (1:40, 18K, 11.7 SPI).

Most of the best boats at HOCR rate 30 (and above).

That's the ultimate.

Rating 30 spm for an hour, holding your technique firm (with a bit of a cut slide).

That's the kind of thing I am working on now.

To get this done, your technique has to be _very_ good.

I think the best term for 60min @ 10 MPS would be this:

BASE PACE

After you have learned to row well (13 SPI for lightweights, 16 SPI for heavyweights) and technique is no longer a problem, almost all of your rowing from day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year, should be in and around your BASE PACE.

It makes you feel great and works on everything you need, pretty much, to row your best 2K.

You just need to do some sprints from a month or so and you are ready to go.l

In training for rowing, the best session by far, the sine qua non, is an hour row at base pace.

Back in 2000-2002, I did hour rows of this sort, every day, often twice a day, for a couple of years.

Nothing else.

And what happened?

I pulled a 2K right at the 50s lwt WR, without even sharpening for it.

After a month or so of sharpening, I turned up four seconds under the 50s lwt WR for 2K in my first race, even though my technique was wretched.

I didn't know how to row!

ranger

[whp4]

I pulled a 2K right at the 50s lwt WR, without even sharpening for it.

After a month or so of sharpening, I turned up four seconds under the 50s lwt WR for 2K in my first race, even though my technique was wretched.

I didn't know how to row!

Stunning, really, that a heavyweight could row under the lightweight WR for his/her age group

Odd that you always forget to mention that you were a heavyweight at the time of this "triumph"! One has to wonder about your claims of extensive improvement since then, as you have yet to eclipse that first result rowing at any weight. But maybe we'll see it "in the fall"

[ranger]

maybe we'll see it "in the fall"

Yep, see it, we shall.

It's here now.

September 21st.

The fall.

ranger

[ranger]

Odd that you always forget to mention that you were a heavyweight at the time of this "triumph"

Fat has nothing to do with how fast you can race on the erg.

It's your non-fat body mass that counts.

In a pretty stable way, I have 144 lbs. of non-fat body mass.

I am just sometimes fatter, sometimes, not so fat.

I am at weight when I am at 12% body fat.

I am at about 14% body fat right now.

I am in the process of grinding off the last five pounds on my bike.

I am doing 2-3 hours a day on my bike, for extra burn, in addition to my rowing, both OTW and off.

ranger

[ranger]

Yea, good distance rowing at 10 MPS (i.e., with maximal efficiency) is largely a matter of slide control, getting used to using sequencing, timing, posture, rhythmicity, and the efficient use of the entire body tto carry your stroke; then adding in slide with your legs as you need power to maintain the ratio as the rate rises.

If you get the hang of this, you can reduce the peak power with your legs that is necessary in order to maintain the ratio given the pace/rate.

For instance, at 1:43 @ 29 spm (11 SPI, 10MPS), I only need 100 kgs. of peak power with my legs.

That isn't much, really.

Even for a lightweight, this isn't rowing well at full slide at all, but rowing with 80% of full power overall (11 SPI, not 13 SPI), so at about 3/4 slide.

The best way to learn to row efficiently over long distances, I think, is to stay comfortable but rate 28-30 spm, with 29 spm as a center.

If you row well, to do this, you have to lighten up your stroke considerably, and as time goes on, this lightening up, just to stay comfortable, settles into 10 MPS.

At 29 spm and 10MPS, you go along at 1:43.

That's what I am doing now.

I think I'm going to row a HM, 1:43 @ 29 spm (11 SPI, 10 MPS).

Given how well I row now and my physical condition due to my extensive cross-training, this is _very_ comfortable rowing, well under my anaerobic threshold.

I just have to relax more and more with it until my heart settles down entirely into steady state at my anaerobic threshold.

When that happens, I'll be able to do it for 75 minutes.

I have no problem rowing at my anaerobic threshold for 75 minutes.

In terms of pace, the major question for me has not been whether I can row at my anaerobic threshold for 75 minutes, but how effective and efficient my rowing can be when I am doing this.

I am now _much_ more effective and efficient than I was in 2003.

How much?

6 seconds per 500m in a HM, 3 seconds per 500m in a 2K.

1:43 for 60min is right around 17.5K, half a mile (800 meters) more than I pulled back in 2003, when I did 16.7K for 60min (1:48).

1:43 for 60min predicts a 6:12 2K.

60min is done at 2K + 10.

Historically, no 60s lwt has ever pull 16K for 60min.

The 60s lwt WR for 60min is Greg Hodge's 15928m.

For a 60s lwt, the challenge of all of this, I think, is not aerobic at all, but skeletal-muscular and technical--how to generate 11 SPI, easily and anturally, at 3/4 slide.

Most 60s lwts row a 2K (which is usually done at 90% slide) at about 9 SPI.

That is, about 3 SPI short.

3 SPI at 30 spm is right around the difference between 16K for 60min (1:52) and 17.5K for 60min (1:43).

90 watts, 9 seconds per 500m.

ranger