whp4 wrote:you're in the dark about all things rowing and biking
Agreed.
I don't know much about either.
Given my age and my competition, though, I don't have to know anything more.
Now, I just need to hold to my daily regimen and I will end up quite a bit better than any 60s rowers of any size have ever been, both OTW and OTErg.
OTErg, I now row perfectly (13 SPI) at low drag (118 df.).
In the history of the sport of indoor rowing, no one beyond their 30s has trained themselves to row perfectly at low drag.
OTW, I now pull 7-8 SPI.
With more practice and experience, together with my physical capacities and training, that is plenty good to win the Veterans race at the Head of the Charles.
As the years go by, and I get better and better, times at the Head of the Charles are (overly) handicapped, so no Veteran rower who is still learning to row is punished for improving by the passage of time and the entry of younger rowers into the division.
Because of handicaps, the Veteran race at the Head of the Charles is often won by a rower approaching 70 rather than one who has just turned 60.
I am delighted that I still have lots of the learn.
This means that, OTW, I might improve steadily from now until I am 70.
Old foggie scullers like Mike VB, Rob Slocum, and Bob Dietz have nothing more to learn.
So as they age, they can only get worse and worse unless they do something pretty startling to reverse this decline.
When I retire in a a couple of years, I will also have much more time and money to explore both sports more extensively--equipment, racing venues, training techniques, rigging, big boats as well as small boats, coaching, club activities, the history of the sport(s), winter training venues, etc.
When I don't have to work all day, I can also shift my training times so that I do all of my training outdoors in the daylight.
When I retire, my wife and I are also going to get a winter home in a warm climate to go with our summer cottage in Door County, WI (and our house here in Ann Arbor), so I can bike and row all year round.
That will be fun, too.
Over the last ten years, I guessed _both_ of the major bubbles and then downturns in the stock market (the tech bubble and the housing bubble), not losing a cent and quadrupling my investments while no one else made a cent, so we will have enough money in retirement to own all three houses outright, no mortgages needed, and plenty more in addition to that to fund travel and a range of other activities.
Academics aren't paid much in their day jobs.
But their jobs are enjoyable, providing room for both personal expression and a flexible lifestyle.
And then, as my investments in the stock market illustrate, being smart can pay off in other ways that compensate for losses in revenue.
When I retire, my retirement savings might well equal my lifetime earnings; and both my wife and I get social security as well on top of that.
That makes for a pretty comfortable old age.
ranger
Rich Cureton M 72 5'11" 165 lbs. 2K pbs: 6:27.5 (hwt), 6:28 (lwt)
ok ok ok, but he really is getting out, his straight jacket is getting loose
