The Two Types of Training

[ranger]

Hey, where is Roy Brook in all of this?

He's very well. Has switched sports but still holds your age group WR for erging.

No, his erging is not at all good, and there is no proof that it is.

He has now lost the opportunity to get anywhere near the 60s lwt WR, if he ever had a chance, anyway.

I suspect that 6:48 is the best he will be able to do next year.

By that time, the 55s lwt WR will be below 6:20.

When Roy is 60, 6:42 will be way too tough for him.

He will be lucky to do 6:50.

Even given historical standards, his 55s lwt WR is soft by about six seconds over 2K, too, as we will soon see.

Historical standards in the older weight divisions are shifting radically.

They are coming down in leaps and bounds.

I hear that a sixty-year-old is getting reading to beat Roy's 55s lwt WR by 22 seconds.

That will show how quickly these things are changing.

The 50s lwt WR was 6:31.6 in 2003; now, it is 6:25.

ranger

[ranger]

TomR has posted some borderline porno here

But this is what really excites ranger:

All lightweight performances 50-59... screenshots from C2 rankings
{some are just workouts.. but I post them anyway as markers to see how I'm doing at the time}
The percentile rankings aren't too shabby if you take into account that 50-54 lights are included too...

Wonder what Rich has for all these distances.. Could help with his head racing predictions

Care to post what you have for the last 3 years Rich?

MvB 2010 (so far)


MvB 2009


MvB 2008

You won't be my age for another couple of years.

You're just a youngster.

ranger

[mikvan52]

I'll post all of these by the end of April, Mike.

Isn't it too late to pull 2008 and 2009 times, Rich?

Don't you have any times for distances other than 2k for the last x number of years?

[chgoss]

Hey, where is Roy Brook in all of this?

He's very well. Has switched sports but still holds your age group WR for erging.

I hear that a sixty-year-old is getting reading to beat Roy's 55s lwt WR by 22 seconds.

Well, if you do rich, be sure to tell C2. For 5-6 years now they have been getting all of the IT resources in place to make the updates to the 55-59 rankings in anticipation of just that, but every year it turns out to be a false alarm

[mikvan52]

Care to post what you have for the last 3 years Rich?

To which Rich answers:

You won't be my age for another couple of years.

Why do I feel like were engaged reciting lines from an obscure play by Ionesco?

The question remains unanswered... and will forever...


Isn't great to try to "embrace the infinite"?

[ranger]

I'll post all of these by the end of April, Mike.

Isn't it too late to pull 2008 and 2009 times, Rich?

Don't you have any times for distances other than 2k for the last x number of years?

I am interested in the 2K right now, Mike.

I just pulled 6:41, the best anyone my age and weight has ever done.

I have two more regattas this year, one on Saturday in Chicago, and then one next Saturday in Detroit.

So most of my work in training is on sharpening workouts, high rate rowing over short intervals.

Training is coming along great.

I think I will pull sub-6:30 this Saturday in Chicago, just an AT 2K at 32 spm, rowing well.

A sub-6:30 ain't absurd at all.

It is just a solid achievement, a result of my solid training.

No need to invoke Ionesco.

I am already a couple of seconds per 500m beyond your best time this year.

Sub-6:30 is a couple of seconds per 500m below the 55s lwt WR (even though I am now 59), five seconds per 500m better than your best time this year.

If I get it done, then I can take a slap at the 50s lwt WR (6;25) in Detroit on March 6.

That's what got me into all of this training on technique and stroking power in the first place back in 2003.

My times plateaued at 6:30 or so, give or take.

So I needed to find some more umph if I wanted to get better.

Mission accomplished.

My stroke is now 2 SPI stronger.

At the same rate, I go about six seconds per 500m faster than I did in 2002-2003: 1:32 @ 36 spm rather than 1:38 @ 36 spm.

ranger

[ranger]

He's very well. Has switched sports but still holds your age group WR for erging.

I hear that a sixty-year-old is getting reading to beat Roy's 55s lwt WR by 22 seconds.

Well, if you do rich, be sure to tell C2. For 5-6 years now they have been getting all of the IT resources in place to make the updates to the 55-59 rankings in anticipation of just that, but every year it turns out to be a false alarm

"Moment time" again.

Roy hasn't come anywhere near 6:38 in _years_.

I suspect that next year 6:48 will be a challenge for him.

Veteran rowers who train in traditional ways like Roy decline at a rate of about two seconds a year over 2K.

My training is coming along great.

Roy isn't training for rowing at all.

I don't blame him, really.

The way he trains, he only has a steep decline to look forward to.

He should get a better coach.

I have the best coach in the world.



ranger

[Rocket Roy]

Don't worry, come the time I'll be handing you your ass again....

Right now I have bigger fish to fry.

[ranger]

BTW, in the 40-70s male hwt and lwt categories, no one has ever been in a position to break a WR when they were a few days shy of entering the next age bracket.

In fact, other than my three 50s lwt WR rows in 2003 (6:30, 6:29, and 6:28), when I was 52, and for the last row, just a month shy of 53, to my knowledge, no WR in these 40-70 male age and weight brackets has ever been set outside the first year that the rower entered the age bracket, that is, when they were just 40, or just 50, or just 55, or just 60, etc.

Why?

If you can break a WR when you are ready to enter the _next_ age bracket, given the normal decline with age, you could have broken the record by 10 seconds when you just entered the age bracket, as of course, I could.

In 2006, when I was 55, I pulled 6:29, but was just a couple of pounds overweight.

The outrageousness here is that I think that by the end of April, I will best Roy's 55s lwt WR by over 20 seconds, even though I am a few days shy of 60 years old.

That's _entirely_ unprecedented.

That means that I might have been able to break the 55s lwt WR record by _30_ seconds when I were 55.

ranger

[ranger]

Roy himself doesn't have a hope in hell of getting back to the 6:38 he rowed in 2006, much less 20 seconds faster than that.

Given the normal decline with age for those who train in traditional ways, as Roy does, the prediction is that he will pull about 6:48 in 2011, if he even chooses to train for it and race.

Given how he trains (i.e., with no attention to his training base, just by training to race), the only thing Roy has to look forward to is (rapid) decline.

ranger

[ranger]

Just got a hotel in Chicago for the weekend.

I'll drive over on Friday, perhaps with the wife, so that she can be there when I break the WR.

She gets interested in the highlights but pretty much ignores what I do in my rowing beyond that.

We will row together OTW for the Ann Arbor Rowing Club this spring, summer, and fall.

That should be fun.

She is pretty good on the erg.

She was a marathon runner for 10 years or so back in her 20's and 30s.

Strong legs.

ranger

[snowleopard]

Strong legs.

What else did she do besides running then?

[Nosmo]

She is pretty good on the erg.
She was a marathon runner for 10 years or so back in her 20's and 30s.
Strong legs.

Ranger you complimented someone else! Are you turning over a new leaf?

[DUThomas]

She is pretty good on the erg.

Nice to see you compliment another erger, even if she is your wife.

But you didn't say she rows well. What's her SPI? How far does she go at 9.3 SPI for 27 minutes?

She gets interested in the highlights but pretty much ignores what I do in my rowing beyond that.

She's smarter than the rest of us!

[mikvan52]

Care to post what you have for the last 3 years Rich?

To which Rich answers:

You won't be my age for another couple of years.

to which I re-ask the question

Care to post what you have for the last 3 years Rich?

to which Rich answers:

I am concentrating on the 2k

Rich the question is: Care to post what you have done at other distances for the last three years?

Is the answer "No." ? Thought so.

100 million meters of training and all you have to share are a couple of dozen lwt 2k times... hmmmm ..... interesting....

R.Cureton seems to fit the profile of a midweight who trains down for a few hours of here-and-there lighweight-dom...

What did Sir Pirate used to call it? Oh, yeah... "Glory Weight"

My guess is that if you had to weigh-in before a lightweight hour on the erg: your blood would coagulate in your veins due to dehydration....

Have you ever logged a lwt hour?.... If so, what was it in meters?