mikvan52 wrote:Failing to row in Boston year after year: Is it nerves?... Cowardice?... Sloth?... Poor Planning?... Alcoholism?... Parsimony?
In 2008 and 2009 it was snow.
My plane didn't fly.
In both years, I qualified and was in the airport with a round-trip ticket from C2.
In 2010, I didn't qualify. I couldn't quite make weight and row well until three weeks after WIRC.
In 2007, as I remember, I didn't even try to make weight and so wasn't ready to race.
In 2006, I qualified as a heavyweight and was indeed at WIRC, although I tried to row as a lightweight when I got there and things didn't work out very well.
In 2002, I pulled a heavyweight 6:28.5 at WIRC.
In 2003, I pulled a lwt 6:30, breaking the 50s lwt WR.
In 2004 and 2005, I was just beginning to learn to row well and so wasn't prepared to race.
I'm not sure what any of this has to do with your list of motivations for not rowing at WIRC.
I am not in control of winter weather and flight traffic in the US.
It is indeed hard for me to make weight and so I sometimes don't succeed.
And, sure, when you are just learning to row, it is not only hard to race; racing doesn't make sense at all: you don't yet have a stroke/technique to race with.
Poor planning?
How could it be poor planning?
Since 2003, from year to year, I have not been training for WIRC.
I have been training to be the best that I can be.
That's an entirely different project.
Those plans have been playing themselves out beautifully.
I now row well (13 SPI) at low drag (119 df.) and so now have what I need to be the best I can be.
The only thing that remains is some good race preparation, which I am doing now.
Most people in indoor rowing just do race preparation.
They don't try to develop the means to be the best they can be.
It is too big of a project.
Just to keep things interesting, I didn't see any other alternative for me, though.
By the end of 2003, I already had three WR rows, and even though a prepared repeatedly to race, my 2K time plateaued at 6:28-6:32.
Unless I significantly altered my resources, I couldn't get any better.
So that is what I have done.
I have significantly altered my resources--in particular, my technique and stroking power.
In 2002-2003, I rowed poorly (10 SPI) at max drag (200+ df.) and so had to rate 38 spm in a 1-to-1 ratio in order to pull 1:37/6:28 for 2K.
Now, rowing well (13 SPI) at low drag (119 df.), I can pull 1:34/6:16 for 2K by rating only 32 spm in 3-to-1 ratio.
So, it is now possible for me to get quite a bit better over 2K than I was back in 2002-2003.
You can't row your best over 2K unless you row well.
But it is quite a trick for a veteran to row well (13 SPI for lightweights; 16 SPI for heavyweights), much less learn to row well when you are already a veteran.
No one has ever done it.
ranger
Rich Cureton M 72 5'11" 165 lbs. 2K pbs: 6:27.5 (hwt), 6:28 (lwt)