Ranger's training thread

[ranger]

Out of curiosity, I decided to calculate my SPI at "low drag" and low spm.

Results:

• 500m: 1:55
  spm: 12
  DF: 120
  Watts: 230
  SPI: 19.18

So, if I could maintain this SPI at 32spm for 2k ...

• spm: 32
  Watts: 612
  SPI: 19.13
  2k: 5:32

Rob Waddell, watch out, that record is mine! Who cares that I would almost need to triple my energy usage (to almost 600 Watts, wow), it's SPI that matters ... right?

Everyone who rows OTW knows that pulling at 12 spm is _wonderful_ training, especially if you take _huge_ strokes and do it for hours and hours, session after session, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

This training is concentrated work on technique and stroking power--quickness, timing, balance, leverage, sequencing, length, relaxation, slide control, preparation, strength, posture, etc.

Sure, to be fast, you have to have a high aerobic capacity and you have to train it to the max.

But that isn't the most important thing in rowing at all.

Rowing is primarily skeletal-muscular and technical--line golf, tennis, baseball, basketball, etc.

In the end, everyone the same age and weight rows a 2K at right about the same rate.

The rower with the best stroke (i.e., the highest SPI, the most most skeletal-motor and technical effectiveness and efficiency) wins.

To complicate things, rowing is just massively aerobic and anaerobic, too.



Oh well.

ranger

[ginster]

I now row like this guy:


By null at 2010-09-21

ranger

I think I have solved the conundrum - Ranger says he rows like Ebbesen, but then posts this picture, which is very clearly of Ebbesen NOT rowing... maybe that's what TSO means, he lays the handle down during his "breaks" in the same manor that Ebbesen lets go of his oar after he finishes the race.

[hjs]

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.

ranger

Of course I'm not fretting about it, I simply enjoy asking you about it because then you must post 10 times to bury the request on an old page. The screenshots in question have been going to appear sooner than later for years now, I'm not stupid enough to believe they're going to show up now. Nobody here has a right to see your screenshots, and nobody here believes they will see them. It's as much a game for us as it is for you. You lie. We know you're lying. We respond, forcing you to tell more lies and try to talk your way out of the lies you've been caught in. We laugh at you. Repeat cycle hundreds of times. Like a gossip message board for men who erg. Guilty pleasure, nothing more nothing less. Unfortunately when you race fully sharpened in a couple weeks and still pull your standard 6:40-something, it will all end. Until now there has always been an excuse for you to continue the charade. Not any more.

[ranger]

I am not sure why, but for racing, I seem to like 31 spm rather than 32 spm.

So I suppose I should probably rate 31 spm at BIRC 2010, rather than 32 spm.

31 spm is a little more deliberate than 32 spm, especially at the catch, where you lay down the power with your legs.

Oddly, slowing down the rate 1 spm, I don't lose any power.

I still go 1:34.

But I feel more relaxed.

31 spm is what I rated in Baltimore in 2006, when I pulled 6:29.7, without even preparing for it, although, rowing at a higher drag and still struggling with technique, I only went 1:38, rather than 1:34.

Rowing well at low drag (120 df.), I am now 4 seconds per 500m better, 1.5 SPI.

Back in 2002, I pulled 10.5 SPI.

At Baltimore in 2006, I pulled 12 SPI.

Now, in 2010, I pull 13.5 SPI

So my progress with technique and stroking power has been _very_ steady.

Now, the goal of all my rowing now should be toward 4 x 1K, 1:34 @ 31 spm (13.5 SPI), which predicts a 1:34/6:16 2K.

20 x 500m, 1:34 @ 31 spm (13.5 SPI), might be a useful stepping stone toward those 1Ks.

It will undoubtedly take me quite a while to get to these targets, but it is good to be (finally!) on my way.

I need only 196 strokes for a 2K.

ranger

[macroth]

I now pull 13.5 SPI

The goal of all my rowing now should be toward 4 x 1K, 1:34 @ 31 spm (13.5), which predicts a 1:34/6:16 2K.

It will undoubtedlu take me quite a while to get there, but it is good to be (finally!) on my way.

ranger

This had me literally laughing out loud. Almost to tears! Are you even going to bother racing at BIRC? How long is "quite a while"? Hopefully less than 4 months --or are you alreday giving up on WIRC 2011 as well? You poor man. I imagine you'll still be rambling on about a 6:16 2K when you're 64.x and pulling 6:5x, telling everyone you're about to smash the 60s LWT record at BIRC 2015.

[ranger]

Back in the day, when he was in his 20s and much faster than he is now, Pete Marston pulled 13.5 SPI.

Back then, I was amazed, given that I thought I was pulling like a mad bastard, and I only was doing 10.5 SPI.

Shock and awe.

Shock and awe.

I kept wondering:

How did he do it?

How did he do it?

I am no longer amazed.

Now, I know _exactly_ how he did it.

Because I am doing it, too.

ranger

[snowleopard]

Because I am doing it, too.

Noo noo noo. Pete Marston did it for 2000m

[ranger]

I have started my sit up and skipping routines again, given they are my normal ways of warming up at race venues.

I do 1000 sit ups and skip rope for an hour before I erg.

I do this when I race, too.

Makes you feel great.

Gets all the engines hummin' so that you are really ready to lay the pedal to the metal and get down to the serious stuff.

ranger

[ranger]

Because I am doing it, too.

Noo noo noo. Pete Marston did it for 2000m

No longer.

Now, he is in his 30s.



Pete is a heavyweight.

I am a lightweight.

In three months, I will be 60.

The difference between our age and weight categories is 16 seconds per 500m.

This year, I suspect that I'll outrow Pete.

He has slowed down enormously over the last few years, but I just keep getting better, and better, and better.

The "Pete Plan" is absurd stuff.

It doesn't include any training at all.

It is just race preparation.

So, if you follow it, year in and year out, as Pete has, you just get worse and worse, even if you are in the prime of life, as Pete is, and haven't even started losing your physical capacities.

ranger

[macroth]

Tell us ranger, are you still using a sweep stroke on the erg?

[snowleopard]

Because I am doing it, too.

Noo noo noo. Pete Marston did it for 2000m

No longer.

Now, he is in his 30s.



Pete is a heavyweight.

I am a lightweight.

In three months, I will be 60.

The difference between our age and weight categories is 16 seconds per 500m.

Er, so what? I wrote 'did'. You were comparing yourself to PM when he raced 2Ks at 13.5 SPI. You are not [and will not] race 2Ks at 13.5 SPI.

Which part of, "I am old and have no hair" do you not understand?

[ranger]

Following the Wolverine Plan, Mike Caviston rowed 6:18 at 40 as a lightweight.

Pete's 2K has already slipped over 6:20, even though he just in his early 30s and rowing as a heavyweight.

Given these differences in age and weight, Pete is already off the pace 45 seconds over 2K.

When Pete is 40, he will struggle to pull 6:30.

When he is 50, he will struggle to pull 6:40.

When he is 60, he will struggle to pull 6:50.

ranger

[JimR]

Following the Wolverine Plan, Mike Caviston rowed 6:18 at 40 as a lightweight.

Pete's 2K has already slipped over 6:20, even though he just in his early 30s and rowing as a heavyweight.

Given these differences in age and weight, Pete is already off the pace 45 seconds over 2K.

When Pete is 40, he will struggle to pull 6:30.

When he is 50, he will struggle to pull 6:40.

When he is 60, he will struggle to pull 6:50.

ranger

I don't know that this is true about Pete but is certainly true about you. Why or why do you continue to project your weeknesses on others ... it is the impending doom of BIRC?

You are such a naysayer, the worst naysayer ... why you are less than vermin ... and we all know what becomes of vermin don't we???

JimR

[mikvan52]

Let's cut to the chase:

Effectively we've see the the pre-race jitters set in for out intrepid prof.:
Note:
(ranger thoughts in paren's)

(I am no good anymore)
therefore TSO posts
( X is no good anymore )

(I am bitter)
therefore TSO posts
( Y is no good anymore )

(I need to prop up my sagging ego)
therefore TSO posts
(I, ranger, will eventually do something remarkable beating Z who is currently rowing circles around me)


As for my part, I encourage others to not rise to the troll-bait as ranger is not sincere about what he's saying.
The content of his assertions are ridiculous.

The noose tightens as the BIRC approaches.

[PaulH]

I now pull 13.5 SPI

The goal of all my rowing now should be toward 4 x 1K, 1:34 @ 31 spm (13.5), which predicts a 1:34/6:16 2K.

It will undoubtedlu take me quite a while to get there, but it is good to be (finally!) on my way.

ranger

This had me literally laughing out loud. Almost to tears! Are you even going to bother racing at BIRC? How long is "quite a while"? Hopefully less than 4 months --or are you alreday giving up on WIRC 2011 as well? You poor man. I imagine you'll still be rambling on about a 6:16 2K when you're 64.x and pulling 6:5x, telling everyone you're about to smash the 60s LWT record at BIRC 2015.

It's likely to be much more than 4 months - ranger has finished sharpening now, so if he can't manage these workouts today he won't be able to do them until he's gone back to base-level training and improved his potential ready for another round of sharpening.