A Fat New-ish Rower With a Question About MPS

[JABIII]

All-

Before I start, I wanted to thank everyone in advance for providing such a valuable resource of intelligence, motivation, and information- you may not realize it, but there are probably loads like me who spend time reading these forums without initially diving in and letting our presence be known. I can't speak for others, but for me, the amount of information and confidence I've gained through this window into rowing is completely invaluable! So cheers for that.

Anyhow, A little intro about me: I'm a fairly new rower who spent a bit of time doing an OTW 'Learn To Row' program a couple of years ago, and then spent a couple months on and off an erg before falling victim to an, albeit delightful, but destructive lifestyle of gluttony and sloth. Anyhow, two years and 45 extra pounds later, I've decided to get back into rowing properly- even after all the time off, I still found myself daydreaming about rowing, alot. I've dropped the smoking, the over imbibing, and the crappy food, and am starting the Pete Plan for beginners. I spent a couple of weeks before starting just doing some easy jogging and and walking, and am now halfway through my second week of the plan. I'll also be getting back into OTW rowing come mid/late may, which should sync up nicely. I've already lost about 10lbs in the past 6 weeks (down to 215!) and am shooting for a rate of 1.5-2lbs per week. Anyhow, none of this pertains to my question, just thought I might give some insight into where I am. Onto the real issue:

My question is about MPS (meters per stroke ), and what I should be looking for when getting back into things. My splits are all over place, +- 2 seconds for 500m paces at 250m splits, and although I have been getting better at dialing them in, I'm wondering if part of the problem I'm having is my MPS isn't what it should be...

For example, my 5500 meter piece today was completed in 25:03.5 at a rate of 17SPM, with a 2:16.6 500m pace. Some quick napkin calculations (with a salad...) show my 5500m piece today averaged 12.9 MPS (possibly closer to 12 if I was closer to 18SPM), which is higher than the 10 MPS I've read about before. In my mind, the more efficient I can make my stroke, the better, and then I'll work on upping the rate as the fitness goes up, but I have nothing to back that up- which means it's most likely wrong! Should I be shooting for both a higher stroke rake and less MPS? Or Is doing really low rate, high MPS stuff ok for a beginner like me?]

Any insight would be hugely appreciated, and I look forward to hitting a point in my rowing that I can start to give back to the forum!

John (JAB)

[jamesg]

10 metres clearly indicates that the idea of rowing is to shift boats, and possibly a long way each stroke. However the numbers are not so simple, due to a cube function that relates power and speed, and to the fact that we can row at whatever rating we like. At low ratings the boat will drift a long way, much further than 10m, whereas at 40 no-one can maintain 10m.

So suggest you apply the idea of "more than 10" rather than just ten m/stroke.

Other possible indices are:
* Power/body mass, where 2 W/kg is a reasonable starter level to maintain (1 for pounds), for long pieces;
* Work per stroke (or Power in Watts/rating) which is also a useful technical control; the absolute value depends on sex, height and age. 8 is a good starter, corresponding to your 2:16 @ 17.

[JABIII]

James-

Thanks, that actually helps a lot putting it into the OTW perspective- I think I was trying to come to conclusions without any 30,000 foot perspective of what I'm really trying to achieve.

The idea of other possible indexes is a valuable one, which I will give a shot on recording and utilizing as the weeks progress- I'm a stats/econ/math guy, so the more tools to measure things the better!

At the moment I've decided to just keep doing what I'm doing within the context of the pete plan for beginners (which- if anyone new to rowing is reading this- is amazing) , while working on upping the rate a bit for interval work, and taking some film once a week to try and spot one thing I want to work on fixing for the next week. I'll also hopefully be starting OTW work in a month to six weeks, which should be a huge help in making sure my form is heading in the right direction.

Best.

JAB