Byron Drachman wrote:Anchor hauling in a boat and mashing a high gear with square pedaling on a bike go hand in hand
There is abundant evidence that I was anchor-hauling on the erg for most of the ten years I have been rowing, but there is little evidence that I am anchor-hauling now.
As I mentioned, I have now learned to relax my shoulders and abs at the catch and keep my shoulders relaxed when I engage my lats and swing my back in the middle of the drive.
I have learned to sit up straight at the catch, to push straight back with my legs instead of diving at the catch and pulling up, and to set my heels and really accelerate the chain with my legs in the middle of the drive by standing up on the footplate and driving with my hams and gluts.
It would be interesting to see someone prove me wrong, but I don't think it is possible to row weil (13 SPI for lightweights; 16 SPI for heavyweights) at 95 df. anchor-hauling with your upper body at the catch, leading with your back and arms while neglecting your legs.
The levers in your upper body are too short and slow to generate enough force in any sort of natural way against such light resistance.
To row well at 95 df. in any sort of relaxed, natural way, you need to be long and quick, and you need to use all of your levers with good sequencing and timing, especially your legs, which are your longest and quickest levers.
At 95 df., if you neglect, weaken, mistime, or missequence any one of your levers, much less all of them, you can't get the job done.
At 95 df., if you neglect, weaken, mistime, or missequence your legs, you are _really_ in trouble.
Your stroking power falls, or you put yourself under the enormous, repetitive strain of trying to make up what you have lost in stroking power neglecting one part of your stroke by overdoing some other part of your stroke.
Rowing is just too repetitive for this sort of technical and skeletal-motor imbalance to be tolerable.
When you row any significant distance, you have to take too many strokes to be able to bear up under such mechanical strain.
Learning to row well is a pretty challenging affair, especially for a veteran.
But learning to row well at low drag is even more of a challenge.
As I demonstrated back in 2003, the most natural and comfortable way to anchor-haul is to jam the drag all the way up to max, and even so, for most purposes, I could only muster about 10 SPI in a comfortable way, which is still rowing _very_ badly.
As I struggled with for so many years between 2003 and the present, the _only_ way to anchor-haul and row well (13 SPI for lightweights; 16 SPI for heavyweights) is to jam the drag up to 10, but even so, this is only comfortable at pretty low rates.
When you are rowing well (13 SPI for lightweights, 16 SPI for heavyweights) and you raise the rate, the drive time at high drag is too long, the work you have to do on each drive is too much, and the recovery time is too brief to maintain the sort of efficiency you need to row substantial distances.
On the other hand, it just isn't possible to anchor-haul and row well (13 SPI for lightweights; 16 SPI for heavyweights) at 95 df.
It can't be done.
To row well at 95 df., you need to stop anchor-hauling and use the full length and quickness of your legs at the catch without engaging your core, back, and arms; and even so, later in the drive, you need to use the full length and quickness of your core, back, and arms, too, when you finally engage these levers. You can't get the job done just with your legs, either, or even predominantly with your legs, neglecting, weakening, mistiming, or missequencing your other levers.
I am now do all of my meters, at all rates and paces, very comfortably, rowing well at 95 df.
So I am no longer anchor-hauling.
I think the only time I would put up the drag now is for a 500m trial.
Given my short levers, I have a hard time pulling along naturally at 1:20, or whatever, at 95 df.
I just can't move my levers quickly enough to do it comfortably.
I have no problem with 95 df. at rates and paces up to 1:30 @ 40 (12 SPI), etc., though, and so that makes rowing at 95 df. fine for most purposes.
I'll be interested to see how my erging affects my rowing OTW, but I suspect that if I no longer anchor-haul OTErg, I will no longer anchor-haul OTW, either.
I can't imagine why I would switch back to anchor-hauling when I get back in my boat in a couple of weeks and start rowing 20K a day OTW.
Anyway, if I do, I am now fully aware of what it entails and what to do to avoid it.
I no longer do it on the erg.
ranger
P.S. Byron, you know these things well, because you are aware of what you need to row well--but you can't do it. As with most things, it is easier said/known than done. This is nothing to feel bad about, though. You have a lot of good company. No veteran has ever rowed well, much less rowed well at 95 df.
Rich Cureton M 72 5'11" 165 lbs. 2K pbs: 6:27.5 (hwt), 6:28 (lwt)
