The Two Types of Training

[ranger]

Mike VB's anaerobic threshold is 143 bpm.

My anaerobic threshold is 172 bpm.

ranger

[ranger]

People like NavHaz like to do lots of short intervals, such as 500m, at these ideal UT1 paces and rates (e.g., for him, 1:34 @ 32 spm, 10 MPS, 13 SPI), but when he does these workouts, he is not rowing either effectively or efficiently.

He is just dodging/avoiding UT rowing, which trains effectiveness and efficiency, altogether.

If he were rowing effectively, he would have already trained himself to row continuously at low rates for long distances, e.g., 20K, at 15 SPI, e.g., 1:45 @ 22 spm.

Then, if he were rowing efficiently, he would have trained himself so that he could not only do the UT1 workouts 1:34 @ 32 spm with short intervals (500m), he would have trained himself so that he could do the 1:34 @ 32 spm (10 MPS, 13 SPI) with longer intervals (20 x 1K, 10 x 2K, 4 x 5K/6K, 3 x 30min, 2 x 10K), too, including the longest interval, a continuous 60min/20K/HM row.

Different matter.

Nav misses these marks of effective and efficient UT rowing by 10 seconds per 500m.

ranger

[ranger]

For heavyweights who row effectively, pulling 14 SPI when they race, those who rate 30 spm in a 2K pull 1:34; those who rate 32 spm pull 1:32, those who rate 34 spm pull 1:30; those who rate 36 spm pull 1:28.5; those who rate 38 spm pull 1:27; those who rate 40 spm pull 1:25.5.

If their aerobic capacity is good, efficiency determines how high they can get the rate.

ranger

[ranger]

For lightweights who row effectively, pulling 12 SPI when they race, those who rate 30 spm in a 2K pull 1:39; those who rate 32 spm pull 1:37, those who rate 34 spm pull 1:35; those who rate 36 spm pull 1:33; those who rate 38 spm pull 1:31.5; those who rate 40 spm pull 1:30.

If their aerobic capacity is good, efficiency determines how high they can get the rate.

ranger

[ranger]

Mike VB rows beautifully, as his OTW achievements demonstrate.

Nothing to work on there.

His aerobic capacity is just poor.

So he is a hopeless case.

If he wants to compete at the highest level, he should try another sport.

Physically, he is no longer equipped for this one.

Most elite younger rowers have comparable aerobic capacities.

So if they maximize their effeciveness and efficiency, and then work hard during sharpening, they are fine.

But due to life experience and the ravages of age, older rowers can differ dramatically in aerobic capacity.

Even at 60 years old, some rowers retain their youthful aerobic capacities to a great extent.

But some 60-year-olds don't have much aerobic capacity left at all.

Mike seems to be one of the latter.

So it goes.

Life is hard.

Then you die.



ranger

[snowleopard]

But some 60-year-olds don't have much aerobic capacity left at all.

Mike is just fine. He will break the age group WR at the weekend so, by definition, he is perfectly equipped for his chosen sport.

You, on the other hand, had numerous handle downs on the way to a 7:11 at the weekend. You aerobic capacity must really suck as you approach 60. Why don't you slouch on down to your nearest bowling alley while you still have the strength to lift a ball.

[ranger]

When he races on the erg, if Mike rows effectively and efficiently, as he certainly can, because of his reduced aerobic capacity, he can only rate 28 spm, as he does OTW in a 2K.

The best young OTW lightweights row equally well, that is, with equal effectiveness and efficiency, but rate 38 spm.

No contest.

When Mike raises the rate above 28 spm on the erg in a 2K race, he doesn't gain anything.

He just tosses away all of his effectiveness and efficiency and thrashes away like all of the other bozos in the gym.

Lord knows why he does it.

It just undermines all of the good work on effectiveness and efficiency that he does OTW.

Pride is the motivation, I guess.

He thinks he can go faster on the erg.

But he can't.

To go faster, he would need more aerobic capacity.

If Mike runs into a 60-year-old can row as well as he does when he is rowing well but who can still rate 32 spm in a 2K, or 34 spm, or even 36 spm, it will be no contest.

Mike can row well and rate 28 spm, and that's that.

Rowing 1:41 at a HR of 163 bpm, Mike's max HR, is amazing.

I suspect that no lightweight of any age can do any better, or even this well.

I certainly can't (although it seems that I am getting close to what Mike can do).

On the other hand, my maxHR is 190 bpm, not 163 bpm.

Different matter.

And some younger rowers have maxHRs of 220 bpm.

Different matter--in spades.

As a result, those younger rowers can do quite a bit better than 1:41 for 2K at their maxHR.

They can do 1:29, a dozen seconds per 500m better than Mike.

Because of their greater aerobic capacity, these younger rowers are over two training bands better than Mike.

What they can do at top-end UT1 (1:40), Mike has to push into AN to accomplish.

Mike's top-end UT1 is 1:52.

ranger

[snowleopard]

The usual excitable crap as a key date approaches.

Why are you sledging Mike in this way? He's oblivious to your green-eyed ranting so you're wasting your 'breath'.

Mike is a well-prepared and composed athlete. Nothing that you say now will deflect him from his goal on Sunday. You should go along and learn something about racing.

[ranger]

But some 60-year-olds don't have much aerobic capacity left at all.

Mike is just fine. He will break the age group WR at the weekend so, by definition, he is perfectly equipped for his chosen sport.

You, on the other hand, had numerous handle downs on the way to a 7:11 at the weekend. You aerobic capacity must really suck as you approach 60. Why don't you slouch on down to your nearest bowling alley while you still have the strength to lift a ball.

No, he won't break the record.

And me aside, a few years from now, it is almost certain that Paul Siebach will row well under 6:30 at 55, as I did, fifteen seconds faster than Mike.

If he wants to, now that he is 55, I suspect that Graham Watt can also still row under 6:30.

Now that I row well, over the next year some time, I might well row 6:16 for 2K, thirty seconds faster than Mike, even though I will be 60.

I repeat:

This has nothing to do with Mike's rowing.

He rows beautifully!

It has to do with his aerobic capacity.

As a lightweight, you can't establish a significant standard in a 2K if, when you are rowing well, you can only rate 28 spm.

If you can, the problem is with the standard.

It is ephemeral.

It won't last long!

For a lightweight, 28 spm is a HM rate.

Top-end UT1, not TR.

ranger

[snowleopard]

And me aside

Correct, you don't feature, anywhere.

[ranger]

And me aside

Correct, you don't feature, anywhere.

I am not the issue.

The issue is Mike's aerobic capacity.

I am not the only fast 50s/55s lwt in this sport, and there will be many more in the future.

Whoever these other fast 50s/55s lwts are, and whoever they will be, if they row well, they won't rate 28 spm in a 2K.

Paul Siebach and Graham Watt rate 35 spm.

When I am fully trained and ready to race, so do I.

So does Mike Caviston.

Etc.

ranger

[snowleopard]

And me aside

Correct, you don't feature, anywhere.

I am not the issue.

The issue is Mike's aerobic capacity.

Which isn't at issue at all and is actually none of your business . Mike will let his results speak for themselves. Just as you did last weekend.

You see ranger you're just not a player in the game any more. You're not an authority on anything to do with erging or rowing. You claim to have done 60 million meters in the past seven years and all it got you was a 7:11.

You're a totally busted flush, all you can do now is sit in the sidelines and direct your bile at better men. As the saying goes, "if you can't hack it, be a critic".

[ranger]

Correct, you don't feature, anywhere.

I am not the issue.

The issue is Mike's aerobic capacity.

Which isn't at issue at all and is actually none of your business . Mike will let his results speak for themselves. Just as you did last weekend.

You see ranger you're just not a player in the game any more. You're not an authority in anything to do with erging or rowing. You claim to have done 60 million meters in the past seven years and all it got you was a 7:11.

You're a totally busted flush, all you can do now is sit in the sidelines and direct your bile at better men. As the saying goes, "if you can't hack it, be a critic".

More than a bit premature in the judgment, as usual.

I have a month left to train and race.

Lots can happen.

If I just stroke through a 2K at 31 spm, I'll pull sub-6:30.

ranger

[hjs]

he mike


Good luck in Boston, take the hammer and the WR !

[ranger]

Mike is a well-prepared and composed athlete.

Indeed he is.

I haven't said anything against Mike's preparation or composure.

Or his skill as a rower.

I have been all praise.

Mike's skill, preparation, and composure has nothing to do with the aerobic capacity he has lost with age.

Nothing to be done about that.

Spilt milk.

Or should we say ink.

Ineradicable stain no household, or even industrial, cleaner can remove, however powerful.

The erg is a truth machine.

ranger