@KevJGK:
The PM displays strokes/minute rounded to a resolution of 1 spm. IIRC there's some debate over whether it truncates displayed time splits to 0.1 second or rounds them to the nearest 0.1 second. The most likely explanation for the stroke rate numbers in the screenshot posted looks like this:
100m 18.3 1:31.5 pace 30 spm: 9 strokes, nominal stroke rate 29.508 rounded up to 30
200m 18.2 1:31.0 pace 30 spm: 9 strokes, nominal stroke rate 29.670 rounded up to 30
300m 18.1 1:30.5 pace 30 spm: 9 strokes, nominal stroke rate 29.834 rounded up to 30
400m 18.0 1:30.0 pace 33 spm: 10 strokes, nominal stroke rate 33.33 rounded down to 33
500m 18.4 1:32.0 pace 29 spm: 9 strokes, nominal stroke rate 29.348 rounded down to 29.
500m 1:30.9 30 spm: 46 strokes, nominal stroke rate 30.363, rounded down to 30.
In other words: no single 100m segment was actually at 1:30 r30; he evidently faded somewhat in the latter stages due to lactate buildup despite claiming at the time the rowing was wholly aerobic*; and without the extra stroke in the fourth segment the result probably would have been more like 1:31.3-1:31.5.
Plus it was done as a HW, not as a credibly weighed-in LW.
This related screenshot from 2007 also is illustrative:
It was reported at
http://concept2.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... 88#p336788 as "I got to over 400m, 1:26.8 @ 34.5 spm today but felt a bit weak on the final few strokes [sic] and cut it off there." IOW the wheels fell off the bus and he tied up in the last 100m during a flat-out effort, but probably was capable at the time of a 1:27.5 or so with no stroke-rate restriction. None of this stopped him from proclaiming that he would row a 1:22 r44 or some such within days -- and then somehow never actually doing the attempt.
To put this lunacy in perspective: the 50-59 male
heavyweight WR for 500m at the time -- the category he is still in today -- was my 1:20.8. It's since been lowered to 1:18.5. The 60-69 MHW record is James Castellan's 1:22.0.
* See original post