Ranger's training thread

[ranger]

why does anyone bother engaging with him....its insanity...

Yes, indeed.

Why think of doing anything on your own, outside the girlish behavior of the crowd?

It is much more fun to fail repeatedly together than to succeed alone.

ranger

[ranger]

If I can just row through a 2K at 30 spm next weekend in Indy, it will be--by far--the best hwt 60s 2K of the year.

RANKING RESULTS 2011

1 TJ Oesterling 62 Waikoloa HI USA 6:35.8 IND_V I
2 Stu Miller 62 Falmouth ME USA 6:47.0 C2Log S
3 Peter Summers 61 GBR 6:48.4 RACE I
4 Marcus Sherwood 61 Chichester GBR 6:51.4 RACE I
5 William Wright 64 Free Spirits GBR 6:53.1 C2Log I
6 Greg Williams 60 Lake Stevens Wa USA 6:55.2 IND I
7 Hjalmar Schiotz 61 Tonsberg NOR 6:56.9 IND_V I
8 Ray Bigauskas 60 Victoria BC CAN 6:57.0 IND I
9 Seppo Peltola 67 GBR 6:58.6 RACE I
10 Tony Gill 60 Honolulu HI USA 7:03.1 RACE I

It will also be right about my hwt pb (6:27.5) from almost ten years ago and will best the 60s hwt qualifying time for WIRC 2011 (1:44) by 16 seconds.

If I pull sub-6:30, I'll be only the second 60s rower of any weight to do so in the history of the sport.

The other is Paul Hendershott, and he only did it a couple of times.

And he can no longer do it.

ranger

[ranger]

Does anyone know T.J. Oesterling's height and weight?

ranger

[ranger]

Ah.

Found it.

Oesterling is 6'5", 220 lbs., about the same size as Hendershott.

Both are a half a foot taller than I am--and 50 lbs. heavier.

ranger

[mrfit]

I'm a contrarian investor. Like Buffet (my hero). I watch the news scare everyone away from a good stock and then buy it. For instance. BP stock was way undervalued at $27 last June. I put 25% of my portfolio in it. It's at $47 now which is probably (IMO) going to be its price for a while so I sold it last week. When no one seemed all that excited about silver in 2003 (it was a dog in the 90's compared to stocks) I decided to move my stock mutual funds into that and take a contrarian stance on that and bought in at $5/oz. Anyone know the price now?

http://www.infomine.com/chartsanddata/c ... 682&dr=10y

I'm selling now, not surprisingly.

Here's more on Contriarian investing. (the spell checker here does not even think it's a word!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrarian_investing.

I would not recommend this to everyone though. It takes a lot of time to research values. I have a degree in finance and work in finance so maybe I'm a little smarter than the crowd. Additionally, I can tolerate volatility due to circumstances (I'm 20 years from retirement and my 80 year old parents are millionaires).

[PaulH]

BTW, why is the edit function on the forum being disengaged after a short delay?

If posts are written quickly, as they often are, but remain permanent, as the do, it is better reading for everyone if the edit function remains engaged so that the poster can go back and correct typos, etc.

Clearly, the moderator of the forum doesn't think so.

Why?

ranger

Unfortunately some forum members were using the feature not to correct typos, but to change the content and meaning of their posts. I'm sure you would agree that that's not really in the spirit of the edit feature. Happily it's not "a short delay"; members have two hours to correct their typos, which seems more than adequate.

[MRapp]

God forbid somebody be forced to own up to what they write on a forum, versus being able to lie and then go back and change posts to fit their story. And ranger, I didn't misunderstand the article you posted. My comment was far more basic in nature...I was calling you a liar. You didn't perfectly time the two bubbles any more than you were at weight four months before BIRC like you stated. This forum is nothing more than a stage for you to see how many lies you can get away with. You have a small fraction the money you claim to have. As is the case with your erging, I welcome you to actually show some proof of your claims and prove me wrong.

You're actually going to drive all the way to Indianapolis and HOPE you can pull a 2k all the way through without having to paddle or handle down? That's definitely a contrarian method of racing, best of luck with it.

[ranger]

I was calling you a liar. You didn't perfectly time the two bubbles

Yes, I did.

I took all of my retirement money out of the market 12/29/2000, parked it annuities making 6%, waited for the crash, and then started buying back in at the bottom at a rate of 10% of the total plus interest per year.

Then I took all of my retirement money out of the market 12/05/2007, parked it in annuities making 6%, waited for the crash, and then started buying back in at the bottom at a rate of 10% of the total plus interest per year.

In each case, the value of these contrarian decisions, selling high and buying low, was to double my money.

In all, I quadrupled my money over the decade, while the market made nothing.

So, I can now retire 10 years early (62 rather than 72) on twice the income I received while I was working.

Year S&P 500

1998 1229.23
1999 1469.25
2000 1320.28
2001 1148.09
2002 879.82
2003 1111.91
2004 1211.92
2005 1248.29
2006 1418.3
2007 1468.36
2008 903.25
2009 1115.1
2010 1257.64

At the end of 2010, the S & P was right about what it was at the end of 1998.

But just buying the whole market, while timing the bubbles, I quadrupled my money.

ranger

[ranger]

I didn't misunderstand the article you posted.

Yes, you did.

You still don't understand the parallel between the two cases (investing in the stock market and training for rowing), either.

You still think that following the one of the standard training plans for rowing is the best way to train to get better, even though doing so just makes you, and everyone else, worse and worse.

ranger

[ranger]

You're actually going to drive all the way to Indianapolis and HOPE you can pull a 2k all the way through without having to paddle or handle down? That's definitely a contrarian method of racing, best of luck with it.

Individual races don't mean a thing, especially races early in the winter racing season.

They are just fun to do.

If you want to do well, it's your training that matters.

Never abandon your training in order to prepare for a race.

Worse yet, never confuse sharpening and racing with training.

Sharpening and racing never made anyone better.

The standard training plans for rowing have nothing to say about how to get better.

They are just race preparation.

ranger

[kini62]

You must be a _very_ "natural" rower indeed if you learned to row well quickly, and with no difficulties!

I guess the rest of us don't have your natural talent for the sport.

ranger

It's not natural talent, but natural physical abilities such as strength and aerobic capacity. Same things that separate world class athletes from the rest.

Go to any gym or MMA training center in the country and there will be any number of guys who may never have seen an erg that could easily pull sub 1:30 500m and some much faster than that.

I'm sure you've never heard of the UFC or it's HW champion Cain Valasquez. Former NCAA DIV 1 wrestler, gym rat. I would be willing to bet that he could give the HW 500m or 1K world record a shot if not even set it. And I doubt he has spent the last 7 years learning how to "erg".

The erg takes physical strength and aerobic capacity. Very little technique to it. But for some like you who after 7 or 10 years still has poor form maybe it is complicated.

[hjs]

You must be a _very_ "natural" rower indeed if you learned to row well quickly, and with no difficulties!

I guess the rest of us don't have your natural talent for the sport.

ranger

It's not natural talent, but natural physical abilities such as strength and aerobic capacity. Same things that separate world class athletes from the rest.

Go to any gym or MMA training center in the country and there will be any number of guys who may never have seen an erg that could easily pull sub 1:30 500m and some much faster than that.

I'm sure you've never heard of the UFC or it's HW champion Cain Valasquez. Former NCAA DIV 1 wrestler, gym rat. I would be willing to bet that he could give the HW 500m or 1K world record a shot if not even set it. And I doubt he has spent the last 7 years learning how to "erg".

The erg takes physical strength and aerobic capacity. Very little technique to it. But for some like you who after 7 or 10 years still has poor form maybe it is complicated.

I looked him and with only 6.1 I would bet everything I own against what you are saying about the wrestler. No doubt he will be impressive but he will not come close to any Wr on the erg. He simply is A to short and B not conditioned to erging/rowing.

In general you are ofcourse right, erging is relative very simple, look at other sport like pool vaulting, discus trowing, gymnastics etc. If learning to erg should take 7 years, how many years would those sports take. 1000 ?

Also rangers learning curve is very nice, non whatsover improvement times wise, will be followed by one mayor leap all at once Maybe he will overnight grow an extra hart and leg, that could do the trick

[ranger]

I would be willing to bet that he could give the HW 500m or 1K world record a shot

I am not talking about the 500m or 1K.

I am talking about the 2K.

To be the best at 2K, you not only have to be effective, you have to be efficient.

I suspect that athletes in other sports would fall quite a bit shy of 5:35 for 2K unless they rowed well at low drag.

Across the board, the difference between rowing well at low drag and rowing poorly at high drag is worth about 50 watts, or about four seconds per 500m in a 2K, 16 seconds in all.

That's a lot!

ranger

[ranger]

If learning to erg should take 7 years, how many years would those sports take.

I am not talking about learning to row poorly.

I am talking about learning to row well.

Different matter.

Rowing well is 13 SPI for lightweights; 16 SPI for heavyweights.

No veteran has ever rowed well.

ranger

[ranger]

Also rangers learning curve is very nice, non whatsover improvement times wise

Improvement over what?

My times 10 years ago?

That isn't the issue.

Given the normal decline with age, even if I only pull a hwt 2K at 30 spm this winter, equalling my pb of ten years ago, I exceed expectations by 16 seconds.

Ten years ago, when I pulled 6:30, people like Tore Foss pulled 6:10.

He now pulls 6:30.

Jury is still out on this one, too.

We'll see, but over the next six weeks, as I get fully prepared to race, I think I'll get the rate up to 34 spm over 2K.

If I do, I will be _very_ fast over 2K, much faster than I was back in 2002-2003.

ranger