6:28 2K

[JohnBove]

Sounds as though you don't know anything about temporality, either.

Science is concerned with space.

Problem is: in many, many things, we aren't.

Thus, the critique of science.

ranger

Have you heard of Einstein, you schmuck? Of time/space?

You know nothing about science. Try keeping to displaying yourself as an egregious, lying asshole.

[ranger]

I race about five times as often as my immediate competition.

In fact, this year, my immediate competition (the WR-holder in my age and weight division, Rocket Roy) isn't racing at all.

My other main competitor, Mike VB, I assume, will just race once--at WIRC.

MVB did one ERG race in the begining of his season six months before he peaked for the national championships sculling, and 10 months before the Head of the Charles. He raced more times in one weekend at the Nationals then you did all year.

He started rowing very well and continued to improve throughout the season. His technique was beautiful in the beginning of the summer and just got better and better.

He may be one of your main competitors, but you are a long way from one of his.

Sure, I have never said otherwise.

Mike is an OTW rowing coach, an Olympian at 18, and has rowed OTW continuously for 40 years.

I have rowed OTW for five years or so, starting when I was 53, and only marginally so.

I have never rowed with a club or team and have never been coached.

I have never raced OTW at all, in any sort of boat.

Because of this, I will only beat Mike by 30 seconds at WIRC 2010, no more.



Sure, I am a novice rower, but I am working at it hard.

I am learning something new every day.

I'm getting better and better, both OTW and off.

This next year will be my first big year OTW in my 1x, I think.

I will try to put in 20K a day.

ranger

[ranger]

Sounds as though you don't know anything about temporality, either.

Science is concerned with space.

Problem is: in many, many things, we aren't.

Thus, the critique of science.

ranger

Have you heard of Einstein, you schmuck? Of time/space?

You know nothing about science. Try keeping to displaying yourself as an egregious, lying asshole.

Einstein?

That's still space.

I am talking about temporality, not pseudo-spatiality.

Time in music, for instance.

Music is thoroughly temporal, but science has nothing to say about it.

Music has nothing to do with space.

Music isn't organized by clock time but by our own temporal cognition.

Rowing is similar.

ranger

[Nosmo]

I race about five times as often as my immediate competition.

Sure, I have never said otherwise.

Except you don't like to acknowledge that your "main" compitition races far more then you do, and far more successfully in recent years. The ERG is just not their first priority.

[ranger]

I race about five times as often as my immediate competition.

Sure, I have never said otherwise.

Except you don't like to acknowledge that your "main" compitition races far more then you do, and far more successfully in recent years. The ERG is just not their first priority.

I haven't been so unsuccessful in my racing on the erg over the last seven years, even though I haven't been preparing for it.

Last year, I had the best 2K in my age and weight division on the erg by three seconds.

In 2005, I set the 55s lwt BIRC championship record, which still stands.

In 2006, I pulled 6:29.7.

And so forth.

This year will be the telling one, though.

I am finally preparing to race, rather than just working on foundational rowing.

I get about a dozen seconds each over 2K from distance rowing and sharpening.

I have been doing distance rowing for several months now.

Over the next two months, I will be sharpening.

I'll be around 160 lbs. next Monday.

After next Monday, before each of my morning erg sessions for the next six weeks, I will weigh in when I get up.

Given this, any trials I do in my morning sessions will be lightweight trials.

It will be interesting to see how my lightweight times this year compare with the other 59-year-old lightweight ergers out there, both past and present.

In my training, I think I am right on the targets in my signature.

These targets are about 6-10 seconds per 500m faster than anyone my age and weight has ever done on the erg.

ranger

[ranger]

I race about five times as often as my immediate competition.

Sure, I have never said otherwise.

Except you don't like to acknowledge that your "main" compitition races far more then you do, and far more successfully in recent years. The ERG is just not their first priority.

My reference was to the erg, and basically to Roy, who is both the hammer and WR-holder.

Mike VB didn't even have the second best erg 2K last year in the 55s lwts.

ranger

[ranger]

For me, 160 lbs. will be 10% body fat.

I now have 144 lbs. of non-fat body mass.

10% body fat is a nice racing weight.

Elite younger rowers, on the average, are 8% body fat.

ranger

[mikvan52]

I'll be around 160 lbs. next Monday.

ranger's " 'round 160 " is 170.



luv ya, 'bro!
You never fail to give a good laugh.
In the words of an appreciative maestro: "You hockey puck!"



*Note: Casual observers of this thread should be aware that ranger and I are good friends. I've even congratulated him by phone immediately following one of his contests... the Baltimore Burn.
You may have heard of that erg race? It's one where a high school student lets you weigh in many hours in advance of your race so you get hours to rehydrate.

Additionally, people should know I've always conceded that Rich has faster erg times than I do. I'm no good. My hammer (a 6:45 2k) means nothing.

We love to razz each other. Why, it seems like just the other day, I invited him to join me on the water at Masters Nationals so we could go up against the best, he and I together in 2x. This way we'd get to see how we stacked up against others. The invitation remains open for next year and the following year too, and the year after that.
Too bad his dance card was full for '09!

BTW: Rich has predicted a win in the 60+ men's division of the Head of the Charles on his first time out.

Years pass but he's just gets faster and faster. He is surely the best.

(burp)

[mikvan52]

Mike is an OTW rowing coach, an Olympian at 18, and has rowed OTW continuously for 40 years.

(snip)

I will only beat Mike by 30 seconds at WIRC 2010, no more.



(snip)

This next year will be ... I think..
I will try ...

Rich:

You are too, too kind...
and too, too wrong.

I was not an Olympian &
you will not beat me by 30 sec. on February 14th, 2010, a scant 6 weeks from now.

Glad you are already thinking about the next year!

Also: to set the record straight: I stopped competitive rowing in 1971; ran in College (non-comp.) and beyond; tried for the Olympic trials in the marathon (failed) returned to rowing now and then ; started erging in 1997 or '98 (?); got serious about competing at a high level again in 2007.

I set two goals in 2007:
#1 win an age group hammer at WIRC
#2 win an age group in the single at the HOCR

I am finding the second goal far more difficult than the first... but it's all hard.

When you an I get into the the last 500m 6 weeks from now you may recall the same sentiment.

Hope you don't have to row heavies! Hope you get your free ticket from C2 as you usually do. Remember to book a direct flight to Logan... snow cancellations plague those who route themselves through multiple airports.
And, tie your shoe-laces.

[chgoss]

This year my weight has been in order since September.

My weight is great, folks. Best it has ever been. I don't have any weight to lose at all.

I'll lose five pounds or so before I race at the end of January. Standard stuff.

Yea, I'll have to watch my eating during January, but if I do, I'll make weight easily, given my present training routines.

if I just watch my eating a bit, here and there, I can lose a half pound of fat a day as I am preparing my weight for a competition.

I will make weight easily this year.If I just watch my eating a bit, here and there, I can lose a half pound of fat a day as I am preparing my weight for a competition

This year, I will be [at 160 lbs] over a month before WIRC

It's simple:
- Weigh yourself first thing in the morning, every morning, before doing any excercise at all.
- See how much work needs to be done to get down to 165 lbs. If the race were to be held today, that's how fatigued you

would be when you started the race.
- if your starting weight is going down day by day, you will have to do less and less work to get to 165.

by simply keeping track of that, you can see if you are on track or not.. simple.. no self deception.. no

surprises..

This type of calculating doesn't have much to do with success in anything.

It is just a bunch of artificially imposed clap-trap.

After next Monday, before each of my morning erg sessions for the next six weeks, I will weigh in when I get up.

A pound a day, and I'll be ready to play.

I'll be around 160 lbs. next Monday.

[ranger]

As I have just mentioned, I will indeed weigh myself in each morning, right when I get up, after next Monday.

No reason to do this until I am at weight, though, in fact, well below weight.

160 lbs. is just about right, I think.

10% body fat.

Next Monday is the Jan. 11th.

My distance rowing is approaching completion.

My weight will be in order.

That will give me six full weeks of hard sharpening and racing at weight until the end of the winter erging season in Chicago on Feb. 27th, two weeks after WIRC.

ranger

[PaulH]

My reference was to the erg, and basically to Roy, who is both the hammer and WR-holder.

So you've set your immediate competition as a guy who is training hard for a different sport? Way to set yourself a challenge.

[ranger]

I am now _really_ rowing well.

1:47 @ 24 spm (12 SPI) is hugely relaxed.

FM stroke.

HR in the low 150s.

Low UT1

This is wonderful background rowing for the seven weeks of hard sharpening that I will be doing this winter.

This is not truding at all but just good rowing.

At a rate as low as 24 spm, though, each stroke can be aligned perfectly.

Flaws in technique can be worked on, one by one, over long periods of time, hopefully as the winter goes on, for two hours a session.

This type of rowing will also be great for the off-season next year.

No longer any need to do foundational rowing on the erg ("Learn to Row").

I now row well.

According to the Interactive Plan, 1:47 @ 24 is _top-end_ UT1, threshold rowing, for a 6:28 2K.

So this pace and rate is perfect as background preparation for my 2K at the end of the month.

I would be very happy if I can pull a pb at Indianapolis on the 30th.

There's my racing stroke.

12 SPI

If I just keep my technique steady and lift the rate to 36 spm, I go 1:33.

12 SPI

So this is also great preparation for the 500s, 1:33 @ 36 spm, I will be doing in the foreground of my daily sessions.

ranger

[ranger]

My reference was to the erg, and basically to Roy, who is both the hammer and WR-holder.

So you've set your immediate competition as a guy who is training hard for a different sport? Way to set yourself a challenge.

Well, what a WR-holder chooses to do is up to him.

Roy could defend his WR, if he thought he could.

It is hard to see how pulling 6:44, or perhaps a couple of seconds slower, given that he is a year older, will do this in some better way that the 6:38 he pulled four years ago back in 2006.

A WR-holder is always at an erg race in spirit, even if he is not there is the flesh.

The WR is the standard in the age and weight division.

There are no such things as erg race tactics.

The conditions are always perfect.

An erg race is just a race against the clock.

It can be done anywhere, at any time.

Doesn't matter who is in the race.

You just hold t he pace you have trained yourself to hold--and that's that.

Roy's challenge is not how to show up at a race and pull some time he has never trained himself to pull.

His challenge is to learn to row well, to train himself to row faster.

Since he set his WR, he hasn't done that.

In fact, in all of his work with PaulS, he didn't get a whit better.

Before he started working with Paul, he pulled 6:38 in competition.

The best he pulled in competition working with Paul was just that, 6:38.

While working with Paul, he just lost weight so he could row as a lightweight and learned how to prepare for races more consistently.

All of Roy's present pbs predict a 2K in the middle 6:40s.

He needs to move the whole edifice if he wants to better in his 2K racing.

To do this, he can't just prepare to race, as Paul taught him to do,

He needs to work on his weaknesses and get better.

The only way to do this, really, is to return to foundational rowing.

He needs to train himself to pull 12 SPI in a 2K, too, rather than 9.5 SPI.

He is entirely capable of such training, given his leg strength and aerobic capacity.

He just needs to do it.

The training would only take five years or so, not long at all.

It _is_ a lot of work and commitment, though.

It isn't easy.

ranger

[ranger]

Even 60min, 1:47 @ 24 spm (12 SPI), much less 120min, would be a _massive_ improvement for Roy, in the range of five seconds per 500m.

No 60s lwt has ever done 1:52/16K for 60min.

1:47 @ 24 (12 SPI) for 120min would be an improvement in the range of _eight_ seconds per 500m.

At the moment, Roy pulls a FM at 1:56, and at a rate that is considerably above 24 spm.

The source of this difficulty is clear.

He needs to learn how to row.

Another name for foundational rowing might be LTR ("Learn to Row").

ranger