mikvan52 wrote:Leaving aside the FM claims for a moment, the most amazing thing about ranger is the dearth of timed pieces
Race when you feel you are ready, that is, when you are done with your training.
When I first took up rowing, I did 60min rows, usually once a day, and on vacations, twice a day, without timing anything.
In fact, back then, I didn't know that anyone timed themselves at all when pulling a handle on an erg.
I was interested in weight control and general fitness, and being a lifelong paddler, I just got on the erg and paddled, with the monitor on the calorie counter, as I would on any other piece of exercise equipment.
After doing this for a couple of years, when I was 51, I sharpened for a couple of months and pulled 6:27.5 for 2K, four seconds under the 50s lwt WR at the time, in my first 2K race.
Good training doesn't have anything to do with timing.
To train well, you just need to work hard, and as you get more sophisticated with it, row well.
A clock doesn't improve either your level of effort or the quality of your rowing.
A clock is irrelevant for working on your fitness, and as I have explained many times, for certain other purposes (e.g., working on your technique), a clock can be seriously detrimental.
When you are working on technique, the goal is to row well.
How fast you are going doesn't have anything to do with how well you are rowing.
A clock doesn't critique and correct your technique.
On the contrary, when you are racing against the clock, the temptation is to do any old thing technicially as long as it makes you go fast, right then.
Racing in this way is oriented toward the present, going fast, right now.
Training a technique is oriented toward the future.
It is oriented toward mastering certain gestures, correcting certain bad habits, shoring up certain inconsistencies or weaknesses, honing certain sequencings, correcting certain postures, relaxing with certain things that are uncomfortable for you, etc.
Working on technique is like lip/tongue/bow/pick/foot/hand/finger exercises and scales in playing a musical instrument.
These exercises and scales are very different from playing the piece itself.
They just enable that playing.
They are a prelude--skill-building.
Done well, rowing, like all sports, is an art.
Rowing well requires certain sorts of aptitudes and abilities applied to mastering certain skills.
Pull an erg handle for five years at 13 SPI if you are a lightweight and 16 SPI if you are a heavyweight--as I did.
You'll find out why.
Most people don't confront the issue of how well they are rowing at all.
They just row badly; and that's the end of it--especially if they are older or new to the sport.
No veteran has ever rowed well.
ranger
Rich Cureton M 72 5'11" 165 lbs. 2K pbs: 6:27.5 (hwt), 6:28 (lwt)
