Ranger's training thread

[macroth]

Yea, in this internet age, you are only as good as your worst moment, which someone has caught on their cell phone.

So you'd better shoot low and be safe!

Don't take any risks!
ranger

ranger, ranger, ranger...
You don't shoot high. You don't take risks. You make a fool out of yourself by setting unattainable goals (6:16 2K and related set-in-stone trials/paces) and failing to get anywhere close to them.

Shooting high would have been aiming for the 55s ltw record. There's still a chance you'll get it, but you aren't preparing like you should be, making the same mistakes over and over for the last 5 years.

Part of the reason for this is that you are completely detached from reality. "I saw 1:48/23spm on the monitor for a few strokes today, this is going to be my marathon pace even though I can't hold it for more than a few hundred meters right now." "My MHR is 190+ --even though I haven't seen that number in years-- so when I'm panting and sweating buckets at 170+ and having to take breaks every 5 minutes, I'm really only barely at my aerobic/anaerobic/schizoaerobic threshold".

Which brings us to your next bit of lunacy:

you rowed like hell to get your liftime Pb

No, it wasn't my lifetime pb.

My lifetime pb is 6:27.5.

Sure, I rowed hard.

What you do in a 2K doesn't depend on how hard you row, it depends on your preparation.

At Baltimore in 2006, I rowed 6:29.7 at 55 without preparing for it.
ranger

[/quote]

What hjs meant, and what is certainly true, is that you were trying to beat 6:27.5 on that day and came up just a bit short. Nothing shameful at all about that.

However, you claim you didn't prepare for it (no sharpening, blahblahblah). Fact is, since you essentially do only fartlek rowing at pretty high intensity (HR going over 170, ie over whichever threshold you want, sweating buckets, etc.), year-round, you are in fact enduring a constant regimen of disorganized, half-hearted sharpening. You haven't been preparing well, but you sure as hell HAVE been preparing, almost in spite of yourself.

You don't even follow your own advice. You say you just need to row a bit longer every day at 1:48/23spm, but you never do. You say you will/should lengthen your sessions from 15 OTE and 10 OTW to 20/20 over the summer, but you don't even take a single stroke in that direction. You say lots of things, and you never do them. Because you're using the wrong numbers (to say nothing of the wrong units, more often than not) and therefore can't bridge the gap between fact and fiction. If you had bothered to set attainable goals and come to grips with your true level of fitness, you could have performed much better recently.

The world will never know if ranger's training methods are worthwhile, because even ranger doesn't train like ranger says he should.

Oh well.

[Byron Drachman]

June 25, 2010: I'll do a round of head races this fall, as I planned to do last fall, but didn't.

June 27, 2010: No need for Craftsbury, if I am rowing this well. No one my age is rowing any better.

June 27, 2010: given that I was just out in my Fluid, doing 1:56 @ 31 spm. No one my age is rowing any better, including Dietz and Spousta, who, between them, have won the Head of the Charles a couple of dozen times.

June 28, 2010: I will enter a full round of head races in September and October.

Flushed with success, having done the FM@1:48 before Sept 1 and the 6:28 2K on Sept 1, you will certainly at last do the full round of head races this year. If we happen to be at the same head race, no matter who starts first I will finish before you do. Like your generous offer to Mike, I'll make you a sandwich while waiting. Would you like mustard on it?

[ranger]

Shooting high would have been aiming for the 55s ltw record.

When I had just rowed 6:29.7, without preparing for it, rowing at max drag, and still working out my technique, shooting high would have been trying to row 6:38?

Nope.

I won't try to row 6:38 at BIRC 2010, either.

I'll try to hold 1:35, and then kick it in over the last 300m.

ranger

[ranger]

What hjs meant, and what is certainly true, is that you were trying to beat 6:27.5 on that day and came up just a bit short.

No, I was trying to beat 6:32 so that I could qualify for WIRC.

That's why I held 1:38 for 1700m--and then kicked.

I had no chance of beating 6:27.5, given that I held 1:38s over the first 1700m.

The way to beat a pb is to improve your UT rowing, your effectiveness and efficiency as a rower, and then get fully prepared to race.

In 2006, I hadn't yet done that at all, not the first, and then not the second.

I have now done the first, though.

And over the next three months I will do the second.

ranger

[macroth]

I'll try to hold 1:35, and then kick it in over the last 300m.

Nope.

Nope indeed. Let me fix that for you.

I'll try to hold 1:35 for 750m or so, then come undone and crawl in at 6:40 unless I take a break or two and see the north side of 7:00.

Here's a tip: try to do a few 500m repeats at 1:35 before race day, just to get a feel for things.

[ranger]

you will certainly at last do the full round of head races this year

I hope so.

I have been doing 10K a day OTW and have been getting quite a bit better.

Dang my new boat is fast!





Which head races are you doing?

As I remember from last year, there are five or six in the area (Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, etc.).

In good conditions, what do you do for 5K in your 1x?

ranger

[ranger]

Here's a tip: try to do a few 500m repeats at 1:35 before race day, just to get a feel for things.

In the fall of 2003, when I was 52, I did 20 x 500m, 1:36 @ 40 spm (10 SPI), pulling at max drag with my back, neglecting my arms, and dragging my legs behind.

I'll now do 20 x 500m, 1:34 @ 32 spm (13 SPI), rowing well, with good timing and sequencing, at 118 df.

ranger

[Byron Drachman]

you will certainly at last do the full round of head races this year

I hope so.

I have been doing 10K a day OTW and have been getting quite a bit better.

Which head races are you doing?

As I remember from last year, there are five or six in the area (Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, etc.).

In good conditions, what do you do for 5K in your 1x?

ranger

I'm planning on the Grand Rapids Regatta and the Head of the Grand. Your question about my 5K OTW is a good one. I don't know and I should do some test pieces to get a rough idea.

[aharmer]

I'll now do 20 x 500m, 1:34 @ 32 spm (13 SPI), rowing well, with good timing and sequencing, at 118 df

Yes you will. But what we're all asking is...will you ever actually do it, or just continue to tell us that you will. How about doing it, then posting a screenshot. I'm having a hard time understanding this. As I said before (and of course you ignored it) we're not asking you to do anything you don't already claim to do. All we want to see is proof of these outstanding workouts you claim to do. Why are your workouts perfect, but posting a screenshot of those workouts suddenly 'racing your training'?

I know that you currently employ the RWB strategy, and it's like a poem and all that other bullshit, but what date will you start doing concrete workouts that require you to look at the monitor?

[NavigationHazard]

In the fall of 2003, when I was 52, I did 20 x 500m, 1:36 @ 40 spm (10 SPI), pulling at max drag with my back, neglecting my arms, and dragging my legs behind. I'll now do 20 x 500m, 1:34 @ 32 spm (13 SPI), rowing well, with good timing and sequencing, at 118 df.

ranger

Yeah, sure. I've got a better chance of doing the Dutch national women's viii. And their coxie.

You did NOT do a single-session 20 x 500m r40 @ 1:36, then or ever, whatever the rest period. And you cannot do, are not now doing, and will never do 20 reps at 1:34 r32 unless you take the better part of a week to complete the session.
Why do you persist in claiming that you're going to do things you have no capacity to do?

Fraud.

[whp4]

Why do you persist in claiming that you're going to do things you have no capacity to do?

Simple. Because he is a....

Fraud.

[ranger]

I'm planning on the Grand Rapids Regatta and the Head of the Grand.

Ah.

When are these?

Are the details up on Regatta Central?

Your question about my 5K OTW is a good one. I don't know and I should do some test pieces to get a rough idea.

Yea, me, too.

I think I can now hold 24-26 spm for 5K without getting ragged, whatever that might come out to be in terms of pace, given the conditions.

ranger

[whp4]

In good conditions, what do you do for 5K in your 1x?

He rows the whole piece without stopping, you should try it

[ranger]

When are these?

Are the details up on Regatta Central?

Ah.

10/2 and 10/17

Yea, those would be nice to do.

ranger

[Byron Drachman]

Are the details up on Regatta Central?

The last time I looked the details were not up. In the past singles went early at the Head of the Grand but I don't know what the schedule will be this year.