Ranger's training thread

[ranger]

Nice _two_ hours OTBike, yesterday, after erging, albeit a click or so slower (18 mph), just to make sure I have the energies I need each morning for the faster rowing I am now doing.

Just an hour OTBike today, after erging, but I will see if I have the energy for a second session, both OTErg and OTBike, when I get home from teaching.

ranger

[mrfit]

Why did I pull 6:29.7 when I was 55, rowing at high drag, still struggling with technique, without even sharpening for it?

ranger

Most people improve for about 10 years in a sport they participate in (at any age). That row was 2.2 seconds slower than your best row. It suggests failure, frankly.

[mrfit]

Nice _two_ hours OTBike, yesterday, after erging, albeit a click or so slower (18 mph), just to make sure I have the energies I need each morning for the faster rowing I am now doing.

Just an hour OTBike today, after erging, but I will see if I have the energy for a second session, both OTErg and OTBike, when I get home from teaching.

ranger

Nice!

[ranger]

I don't care.

O.K.

But _that's_ obvious.

Tell us something new.

ranger

[snowleopard]

I don't care.

O.K.

But _that's_ obvious.

Tell us something new.

Tell it how it is:

But please, go ahead, post the 1Kr30 @ 1:38

No, not 30 spm, 32 spm.

Race rate.

I don't care. This spm malarkey is just smoke and bullshit anyway.

But please, go ahead, post the 1Kr32 @ 1:38 [with HR data] without delay.

[ranger]

Why did I pull 6:29.7 when I was 55, rowing at high drag, still struggling with technique, without even sharpening for it?

ranger

Most people improve for about 10 years in a sport they participate in (at any age)

Sure. I agree.

But oddly, nothing of the sort has happened in indoor rowing, especially among veteran rowers.

No prominent veteran rower has ever been faster at 55 than they were at 50, much less faster at 60 than they were at 50.

Rather, the norm has been a 17 second (!!) decline over the decade, 1.7 seconds a year.

Even crazy guys like Hendershott and Ripley declined rapidly in their 50s.

Ripley did 6:07 at 50 but only 6:21 at 55. Hendershott did 6:11 at 50 but only 6:24 at 60.

Tore Foss rowed 6:11 at 50, but now, as he approaches 60, he rows closer to 6:30.

Honestly, we won't have a good test of whether I have improved, and if so, how much, until I race again, fully prepared, rowing well, at low drag, even if I pb (by a large margin) at BIRC.

I probably won't be fully sharpened up until WIRC.

The issues with drag and technique are now behind me, though.

Happy about that.

My stroke feels great.

13 SPI at 120 df.

Smooth as butta.

ranger

P.S. BTW, my last race in 2003, fully sharpened, was 6:32.

[ranger]

Mrfit--

BTW, your two hours at 20 mph with a 160 HR is getting pretty good.

Impressive stuff.

ranger

[DUThomas]

How did I pull 6:29.7 @ 12 SPI in 2006, when I was 55--at high drag, still struggling with technique, without even sharpening for it?
No one my size has ever come within two seconds per 500m of that--fully sharpened, rowing well, at low drag.

Your size at that point was heavyweight. As you don't hold the WR, the statement can't be true.

Given that your best times (and presumably your now obsolete WR rows) came while you were rowing "at high drag, still struggling with technique, without even sharpening for it," you may want to dance with the one what brung ya!

Perhaps stroking naturally (cute nickname for the little guy) is making you blind to your true strength.

[mrfit]

Why did I pull 6:29.7 when I was 55, rowing at high drag, still struggling with technique, without even sharpening for it?

ranger

Most people improve for about 10 years in a sport they participate in (at any age)

Sure. I agree.

But oddly, nothing of the sort has happened in indoor rowing, especially among veteran rowers.

ranger

It's a strange sport. I've never seen so many relative novices blow the doors off the experienced rowers. (Benton, Fleming, Brooks, Cureton, Seibach)

[mrfit]

Mrfit--

BTW, your two hours at 20 mph with a 160 HR is getting pretty good.

Impressive stuff.

ranger

I'm not that good. I can probably do 90 minutes at 20mph. I'm keeping my work at 160 and 170 limited to 20-30 minutes now. Many many more weeks before I need to trash.

[ranger]

Your size at that point was heavyweight.

Sure, but only a few of pounds of fat.

I have a couple of dozen lightweight rows now.

I only have 148 lbs. of non-fat body mass.

I make weight at 10% body fat.

Fat doesn't make you faster or slower on the erg.

It just hangs there.

But sure, it's hard for some of us to be 10% body fat when we are 55, much less 60 years old.

Only 1% of 60-year-old men are 10% body fat (or less), and I suspect that most of those are beanpoles who can't row a lick.

25% of 20-year-old men are 10% body fat (or less).

ranger

[ranger]

Given that your best times (and presumably your now obsolete WR rows) came while you were rowing "at high drag, still struggling with technique, without even sharpening for it," you may want to dance with the one what brung ya!

No, I was fully sharpened for my WR rows in 2003, when I was 52.

The 6:29.7, without even sharpening for it, several years later, was due to work on technique and stroking power.

I pulled 12 SPI.

By that time, I had learned how to use my legs.

I only pulled 10.5 SPI for my WR rows, because I rowed primarily with my core, back, and arms, neglecting my legs.

BTW, that 6:29.7 in 2006 was slightly _faster_ than my first WR row three years earlier, even though I pulled it at 5 spm less.

This year, when I am fully sharpened, I think I will pull 6:30 @ 28 spm, down another 3 spm from 2006.

If I do, then I will have lowered my rate at the same pace (1:37.5) 8 spm (from 36 spm to 28 spm) in the eight years from 2003 to 2011.

That's doing some good work!

When you get the hang of it, low drag helps raise your stroking power and therefore lower your spm at the same pace, with no extra cost.

Pulling at 120 df., I am now warming up, 1:46 @ 22 spm (13 SPI).



Back in 2002-2003, I used to warm up with things like 1:55 @ 26 spm (9.5 SPI, 10 MPS).

I now find things like that ridiculously bad.

ranger

[aharmer]

We've all heard about your past and your SPI and your weight a thousand times. You say you'll post screenshots of these workouts when you do them. You say you're doing them. No screenshots. What am I missing? The only posts beyond this from you should be screenshots of sharpening workouts. Everything else has been said a thousand times, the screenshots have been shown zero times (in the past few years).

We know you wont show them, at least maybe you can post a message describing why you promise to show them, say you're doing them, and refuse to show them. Either you're not doing them, which would be foolish beyond what even you are capable of, or you're doing them and the results are showing a 6:45 erger. Which is it? It has to be one or the other, which means you're lying, it's just a question of which lies you're telling.

[ranger]

The only posts beyond this from you should be screenshots of sharpening workouts

Yikes.

Do you always tell people what they "should" say and not?

Not a very fruitful strategy in this context.

Last time I looked, it's a free world.

And talk on the internet is especially free and unconstrained.

Sure, I'll post some shots of workouts, as I do them.

When?

When I get around to it.

In the meantime, I don't need to do and say what you want me to do and say.

Are you used to treating people as your personal slaves?

Is so, good luck with it.

ranger

[ranger]

What am I missing?

The screen shots, obviously.

But that isn't under your control.

So why fret about it?

They'll appear at some point, sooner (I would think) rather than later.

But, geezey louisey, the screen shots _certainly_ won't appear when you tell me they _should_.

ranger