The Two Types of Training

[ranger]

13 SPI is good if you are tall enough, can row at a high stroke rate at that power, have a high VO2, know how to pace one self, etc.

Indeed.

That's rowing well--for a lightweight.

13 SPI.

If you are extremely short, you will never be a good rower. You don't have the body build necessary for the sport. Rowing is all about length (relative to weight).

If you can't rate up at a decent stroking power, you don't have the skill to row well. You are inefficient.

If you don't have a high VO2 max, you are in the wrong sport. Rowing is all about VO2 max.

If you don't know how to pace yourself in a 2K, you don't have the self-discipline and/or intelligence to participate at high levels in _any_ sport.

ranger

[ranger]

In saying all of this, I am not saying that all sorts of people can't enjoy rowing, even though they don't have any talent for the sport, row like shit, and don't care.

Sure, they can.

But they should be aware of what they are doing.

They don't have any talent for the sport.

They are rowing like shit.

And they don't care.

They have no talent for the sport, but are doing it anyway, casually, just to enjoy themselves.

Nothing wrong with that.

When I drink a six-pack and watch a good movie, I am doing the same.

I am in a different mode when I am rowing, though.

Get the difference?

In Chicago, I rowed against a professor at Northwestern who pulled 7:35 and therefore came in 45 seconds after me, even though I wasn't even rowing for big chunks of the time, and therefore had a wretched race.

After the race, he said that he had been rowing OTW with some folks at the Lincoln Park Rowing Club who thought he should be pulling harder, etc., but he couldn't understand why.

He thought he was doing just fine.

There you have it.

Different world.

ranger

[DUThomas]

If you don't know how to pace yourself in a 2K, you don't have the self-discipline and/or intelligence to participate at high levels in _any_ sport.

Nah, too easy

[ranger]

If believing that you need to row well in order to row your best, and acting on that belief, is a "train wreck," then the world is indeed topsy-turvy.

Your belief that spi-abotaging yourself is rowing well is the train wreck.

I am now rowing at exactly the SPI of the great Danish lightweights.

_Delighted_ about that.

If I indeed pull 6:16 over the next couple of months, I catch Eskild E., the greatest lightweight in the history of the sport, even though he is 37 years old, and I am 60.

Not _too_ bad.

Eskild can no longer rate 40 spm in a 2K, even though he is 37 years old.

He can only rate 39 spm.

By the time he is 40 years old, I suspect he will only be rating 36 spm.

He is now pulling 10.5 SPI.

I pulled 10.5 SPI @ 36 spm when I was just a month shy of 53 years old.

At 59, I now pull 11.7 SPI, and when I am fully trained, I will still rate up to 36 spm.

ranger

[snowleopard]

If you don't know how to pace yourself in a 2K, you don't have the self-discipline and/or intelligence to participate at high levels in _any_ sport.

Nah, too easy

[ranger]

That is what a true champion does

Refer to the 40-70 age groups, and I will believe you.

Referring outside of these age groups is just a dodge, and you know it.

ranger

[snowleopard]

You don't know this at all. You only know that he has not admitted doing any predictive workouts.

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we do not know we don’t know.

[ranger]

The average decline with age in erging is about a second a year over 2K after 20.

So, I would predict that the 85s WRs will soon be 7:03 (for lightweights) and 6:41 (for heavyweights).

In fact, I might just be the one to show that this is true, if you can wait that long.

Bob missed these marks by over a minute.

According to these standards, the 60s lwt WR should be 6:38.

Yep.

Probably should, given current training methods.

The 55s lwt WR should 6:33.

Yep.

The 50s lwt WR, at 6:25, surpasses expectation.

It is excellent.

6:28 would be the expectation, what I pulled, at a month shy of 53, in 2003.

ranger

[Nosmo]

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we do not know we don’t know.

What is really missing is the unkowns knowns. The things we think we know but don't really. That is what really bites you in the a$$. It did for Rumsfeld and it does for Ranger.

[Nosmo]

Bob S. didn't row anywhere near 13 spi in his two erg races this year, yet he knocked about 45 seconds off both the heavy weight and light weight records.

Beyond the 70s, all considerations are moot.

In no time at all, these records will be _drastically_ revised.

BS Bob's records are not soft. The previous ones were but his are not. They will stand for a long time.
You have repeately said Roy's record is soft. IT has lasted a while.

[Nosmo]

I am now rowing at exactly the SPI of the great Danish lightweights.

But they don't do 13 SPI. They don't "row well"

[Nosmo]

The average decline with age in erging is about a second a year over 2K after 20.

Not true. It is pretty flat from 20 to early 30s. Then it starts to decline but not linearly. It appears peice-wise linear.

[Nosmo]

If you are extremely short, you will never be a good rower.

Erin Cafaro is short and she's got an olympic gold. There is a women in my club who is about 5'4" and she has some masters world chamipionship golds.

Rowing is all about length (relative to weight).
Rowing is all about VO2 max.

I thought is was all about SPI. Get it through you thick scull it is not all about any one thing. It is about very many things. Rowing well is doing most of those well.

[johnlvs2run]

I am now rowing at exactly the SPI of the great Danish lightweights.

That means nothing.

I can easily row higher than 13 or whatever spi.

[ranger]

That means nothing.

Well, we'll soon see, John.

ranger