mikvan52 wrote:You are faster on the erg. I am faster in the boat.
Per stroke, right now?
Yes.
But the other issue is effciency: %HRR at various rates.
How far can you rate up?
If you maintain 7.87 SPI, the answer is clear: Not very far.
For 5K, 24 spm/2:03 is about it, perhaps 25 spm/2:00 (at your very best).
This is wretched efficiency.
Over the years, you haven't lost any effectiveness at all.
(Nor has Dietz or Spousta, I would presume).
But your loss of efficiency has been enormous.
Younger rowers who row as well would rate 32 spm for 5K and therefore are 11 seconds per 500m faster than you.
This 11 seconds per 500m is exactly the gap between the Open 2K lightweight WR (5:58) and the 60s lightweight WR (6:42) on the erg.
On the erg, at 12 SPI, 5:58 is 40 spm.
6:42 is 28 spm.
In terms of efficiency, through aging, you have lost about 3 spms a decade.
At 12 SPI, that's 36 watts.
Three seconds per 500m.
If I pull 6:16 on the erg this next year, when I am fully trained and rowing well, it will also be clear:
Over the years, my efficiency has not declined nearly as much.
Less than half as much, pushing one-third.
One second per 500m a decade.
Rowing is partly technical/skeletal-muscuiar/effectiveness; partly physiological/aerobic/efficiency.
The pace you can maintain over some distance is the product of the two, not just attributable to one or the other.
For the best young elite rowers, the issue of efficiency is largely neutralized.
By and large, young elite rowers have the same physiological/aerobic efficiency.
Not so with older rowers, especially veteran (60s) rowers, as I will demonstrate.
OTW, holding 7 SPI, I am not sure that I will rate 32 spm for 5K.
But I am pretty sure that I will rate 30 spm.
For 1K, I will rate 38 spm.
ranger
Rich Cureton M 72 5'11" 165 lbs. 2K pbs: 6:27.5 (hwt), 6:28 (lwt)