Ranger's training thread

[mikvan52]

(Ranger:) Predict a piece that you're going to do tomorrow, and then do it. I don't care what piece it is, or how long it takes, or how you measure it. It can be something that fits exactly with your training anyway, like X continuous strokes at Y SPI and Z SPM. Just predict it today and then do it tomorrow.

Paul!

That wouldn't be poetic enough for our maestro!
Remember: TSO goes by "feel".
It must "feel" right to handle-down frequently .. so he can "get it right" and continue with the mantra of "long term goals"

Achievement of the goal of a 6:18 2k at 13 spi is "irrelevant"... He on a long journey on the mobius strip of his own creation.
"resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!"

for those interested: google "wikipedia Möbius strip"

Rich is literally riding a road to nowhere and ending up in the same place each year... "in the fall"

[PaulH]

Because nothing significant changes between today and tomorrow that would change whether you could do a piece. So if you thought it was a good thing to do today, it should be a good thing to do tomorrow, whether or not you end up being able to achieve the piece.

Sure, if you are a computer, or a video game, or an android.

But not if you are a human being.

ranger

Then why bother predicting any piece? Given your record there is *always* something that means you can't attempt the piece, so why bother ever predicting any of them?

[ranger]

Predict a piece that you're going to do, and then do it.

Well, I suppose our goals are that, no?

We pick a time that we want to do for 2K.

We train.

And then we do it.

So, I have been telling you what you want to hear all along.

What's my piece, and when will I do it?

A lwt 6:16 for 2K at 60 (WIRC 2011).

My goal for BIRC 2010 is 6:20.

ranger

[ranger]

I have settled on a factor of 0.968.

Ah.

Is this what Gord and John Paul find, too?

If what you say is right, the Fluid folk should be able to tell everyone how to calibrate their speed coaches if they row a Fluid.

ranger

[ranger]

So, for example, If you say you scull at 2:00 pace per 500m pace, you are really going at approx. 2:03.8 pace.

No problem.

So, if I am now doing 2:00 @ 26 spm calibrated at 1.00, I am really doing 2:03.8 @ 26 spm?

Fine with me.

That's still plenty good to win the Head of the Charles, rating 26 spm.

And I think I am going to end up rating 30 spm for 5K OTW.

ranger

[Bob S.]

Then why bother predicting any piece? Given your record there is *always* something that means you can't attempt the piece, so why bother ever predicting any of them?

If the purpose is to keep getting responses from this forum, I would say that it is working very well.

Bob S.

[ranger]

Then why bother predicting any piece? Given your record there is *always* something that means you can't attempt the piece, so why bother ever predicting any of them?

O.K.

I won't predict them.

I will just cite my goals, and work in ways that put me in a position to achieve them.

For example, rowing a lot of 1:50 @ 20 (13.2) at 118 df. in the background, while I am sharpening.

My goal is 6:16 at 60.

ranger

[ranger]

BTW, relative to UT2 rowing at 20 spm, AT rowing is just a move from a 3-to-1 ratio to a 2-to-1 ratio.

With a drive of .75 seconds, a 2-to-1 ratio is about 27 spm.

The stroke cycle is 2.25 seconds.

ranger

[aharmer]

This is a fun game. It doesn't frustrate me because I know it's nothing more than a game, and you have no intention of ever showing a piece or showing up at BIRC 2010 in 8 1/2 weeks.

However, what people would like to see isn't even a 2k trial prior to BIRC 2010. We are assuming you aren't going to show up at BIRC without doing some real training. And no, taking a few strokes at 1:50/20 and then stopping to post lies on a message board before repeating isn't real training.

If you really plan to race at BIRC you will do things such as 4x2000 or 8x500. These things should have already started if you truly plan to race at BIRC. People are simply asking you to post the results of workouts that you have to be doing if you really plan to race at BIRC.

The need for those workouts is your words (dozens of times unfortunately) not mine. Have you not done them yet? What date will your first attempts be? Show it.

Oh, I see, you never really planned to race at BIRC. Yes I know you have travel booked, etc. Never stopped you from not racing in the past.

[NavigationHazard]

For the umptieth time: rating does not determine intensity as measured by associated HR. Intensity determines intensity. If you're going to use HR-associated terminology, what makes something "AT rowing" is an intensity at or just below HR-associated threshold level of blood lactate. It's NOT rating. It's perfectly possible to row at threshold level at, say, 16 spm if you put enough grunt into it long enough. Alternatively, it's possible to row at UT2 intensity at 40 spm if you leave enough grunt out of it. And if you're rowing with breaks, you undermine such relationship as may exist between HR as a proxy for intensity and intensity in the working skeletal muscles.

Moreover, you have no real idea how long your drive is because 1) you lack understanding of when it starts/stops relative to both the erg and the boat; and 2) you have no easy way of measuring it with precision even if you did have such understanding. It's also true that drive duration tends to shrink a bit along with recovery at faster paces/ratings. Without dinking around with drag factor, it's very hard to maintain the same drive duration at 27 that you can at 20....

[lancs]

The ultimate goal, I suppose, is to train myself to do 1:50 @ 20 spm (13.2 SPI) for a (continuous) FM.

Anyone reading this statement who is not familiar with your pathology might reasonably assume you're in a position right now to row for this pace and rate at, say, a mere half of this distance. Particularly as you are a 59 year old athlete with ever diminishing cardio-vascular capabilities (in keeping with the rest of the human race).

I'd therefore like to point out to any said unfamiliar reader that you are not capable of even 10k, less than a quarter of your 'ultimate goal', at this pace and rate.

At this point in my training, I don't want to do a 2K _trial_, with a max HR, in 6:28.

I want to do four 2K repeats, 1:38 @ 30 spm, given some generous rest, at an AT HR.

Similarly, can I point out that you cannot even do one 2k at 1:38 pace, let alone even think about doing 4 of them...

[ranger]

Recalibrated my speed coach to .968.

And sure, times are not as fast.

But what the heck.

They are still just fine.

I still get to 2:10 @ 23 spm, 2:06 @ 25 spm, 2:03 @ 27 spm, and so forth.

So, 7 SPI.

Happy with that.

I continue to get better and better, too.

So this is not the end of it.

Paying closer attention, it turns out that my loop to Barton Dam is 5.2K, 10.4K for two loops, 15.6K for three loops, 20.8K for four loops.

I did two loops today, after 15K on the erg and 90min on the bike (at 20.8 MPS).

I don't know what's up, but I'm not tired at all after all of that.

Must be in some sort of zone.

Competitively, OTW with other 60s rowers, the issue is going to be rate.

When I am fully prepared for it and pushing it to the max in a race, I think I'll rate 30 spm for 5K.

Even at a lowly 7 SPI, that's 1:59.

ranger

[ranger]

Moreover, you have no real idea how long your drive is because 1) you lack understanding of when it starts/stops relative to both the erg and the boat; and 2) you have no easy way of measuring it with precision even if you did have such understanding. It's also true that drive duration tends to shrink a bit along with recovery at faster paces/ratings. Without dinking around with drag factor, it's very hard to maintain the same drive duration at 27 that you can at 20....

Yea, in my 25K of low rate rowing today (flanked around 90min of biking), I was locked in nicely to that 3-to-1 ratio.

Just put a metronome on at 160 clicks per minute and do the drive on two clicks and the recovery on six clicks--and you have it.

Metrically, make the leg drive an up-beat and the arm pull a downbeat and you get a 4-beat measure:

-----arms
-----arms----------------------recover
-----arms-------recover---------recover-------recover
Legs-arms-recover-recover-recover-recover-recover-recover

AND-ONE---AND--TWO---AND---THREE---AND--FOUR



ranger

[NavigationHazard]

Just put a metronome on at 160 clicks per minute and do the drive on two clicks and the recovery on six clicks--and you have it.

The theory is fine. Is that what you're actually doing? No, you're relying on your legendary "feel" and your own subjective metricality. You really want to assess ratio, get ErgMonitor. You won't, of course, because its cold hard numbers will contradict a whole host of your presumptions.

[ranger]

The theory is fine. Is that what you're actually doing?

Yep.

Got the metronome clicking.

ranger