Ranger's training thread

[bellboy]

Who are Alexc25 and lightweight Management? Are you mucking around with quotes again?

Read the forum, numb-nuts.

ranger

Numb-nuts? Moi? It wasn't me that got banned for a week for missatributing quotes now was it?

[lancs]

it is not at all easy to post a FM @ 1:44 (the Open hwt FM WR).

<snip>

I am making good progress on it.

By what objective means are you measuring this 'good progress'?

[mikvan52]

RIch:
Here's something for you to shoot for:
A long time from now.... you should be 'rowing well' by then...

First US Head Race Nationals to be held in 2012

[ranger]

it is not at all easy to post a FM @ 1:44 (the Open hwt FM WR).

<snip>

I am making good progress on it.

By what objective means are you measuring this 'good progress'?

In standard ways.

My first race will be a FM.

Then I will race the other distances, from the top down: HM, 60min, 10K, 30min, 6K, 5K.

Then I will sharpen with standard interval workouts: 4 x 2K, 4 x 1K, 8 x 500m, etc., and do sprint trials: 1K, 500m.

Then I will race.

ranger

[ranger]

it is not at all easy to post a FM @ 1:44 (the Open hwt FM WR).

<snip>

I am making good progress on it.

By what objective means are you measuring this 'good progress'?

My progress has been technical.

Technically, it is obvious, on every stroke, what you do well and what not.

Correcting these technical faults is not easy at all, but when you do, the result is also obvious.

I used to row badly (10 SPI) at max drag (200+ df.).

I now row well (13 SPI) at low drag (120 df.).

This training is now done.

My fitness has been maximal for a decade, so that isn't even an issue.

When I say that I am making progress preparing to race a FM, I just mean that I am putting in as many meters as I can, both OTErg and OTW, rowing well at low drag, building up to 42K.

When I get up to 42K, I'll put a clock on my effort and get some race times, perhaps over several FM trials.

In a max effort, I'll rate 24 spm for a FM, at whatever pace I can muster.

ranger

[ranger]

RIch:
Here's something for you to shoot for:
A long time from now.... you should be 'rowing well' by then...

First US Head Race Nationals to be held in 2012

Perfect!

Fun indeed.

And right next door.

The fall of 2012 is a sabbatical for me.

Better yet.

ranger

[ranger]

it is not at all easy to post a FM @ 1:44 (the Open hwt FM WR).

<snip>

I am making good progress on it.

By what objective means are you measuring this 'good progress'?

While most go about it in the opposite way (and therefore end up frustrated failures), if you want to row to the limits of your potential, there is only one best way to train for rowing.

The training comes in four steps.

The first two steps are technical and skeletal-muscular.

The second two steps are physiological.

(1) Learn to row well (13 SPI for lightweights; 16 SPI for heavyweights) at low rates (effectiveness).

(2) Learn to row well (13 SPI for lightweights; 16 SPI for heavyweights) at middlin' rates and low drag, e.g., 120 df. (efficiency).

(3) Push yourself to the max, time over distance rowed, rowing well at middlin' rates and low drag, starting from a FM and working down to 5K: HM, 60min, 10K, 30min, 6K, 5K (aerobic capacity and endurance).

(4) Push yourself to the max, time over distance rowed, over long and short interval sessions (anaerobic capacity and endurance).

For step (1), as a lightweight, you should work on your technique at low rates until the peak of your force curve catches the top of the PM4 screen (135 kg.F) on every stroke. If you do, your drive time will be only .5 seconds and therefore you will be in a 4-to-1 ratio when you are rating 24 spm.

At step (2), rowing well, rate 24 spm in a 4-to-1 ratio, working on relaxation, smoothness, etc., until you can do it, steady state, with a middlin' UT1 HR. Everyone can row a FM at 24 spm with a middlin' UT1 HR.

At step (3), race all of the distance events, building up a battery of distance pbs. Do the FM at 24 spm and then add a spm for each shorter race as you move down in distance. Do the HM at 25 spm. Do 60min at 26 spm. Do 10K at 27 spm. Do 30min at 28 spm. Do 6K at 29 spm. Do 5K at 30 spm. All of these pbs will be 2K predictors. A FM is 2K + 14. A HM is 2K + 11. 60min is 2K + 10. 10K is 2K + 8. 30min is 2K + 7. 6K is 2K + 6. 5K is 2K + 5.

At step (4), use the 2K predictions at step (3) to set targets for long and short interval sessions. 8 x 500m (3:30 rest) is 2K - 3; 4 x 1K is 2K; 4 x 2K is 2K + 4, 1K is 2K - 5; 500m is 2K - 10, etc. Sharpen with long and short intervals (and sprint trials) for a couple of months.

Then race!

ranger

[macroth]

Three posts to answer one question, none of which actually do so. Welcome back, ranger!

[ranger]

Three posts to answer one question, none of which actually do so

Sure they do.

I am on step (3).

My work on effectiveness and efficiency, technical and skeletal-motor issues, is complete.

I now row well (effectively and efficiently) at low drag (120 df.).

The last two steps are a cinch for me.

My fitness has been maximal for a decade.

Nothing to be done there but a little tidying up and sharpening.

Back in 2003, I started my training as a 2K WR holder.

My major weaknesses at the time were technical and skeletal-motor.

My fitness was great (and has remained great).

In fact, for a 60-year-old, my fitness is now (perhaps, by far) the best ever, bar none.

My maxHR is still 190 bpm.

ranger

[ranger]

Lancs--

If you row well (13 SPI) at low rates (16-22 spm), you should be able to lighten up to 12 SPI and cruise along, 1:46 @ 24 spm (12 SPI), with a middlin' UT1 HR for a FM.

If you can't do the latter, go back to step 1.

You don't row well.

What are the major problems with your technique?

Have you been working on them?

Relative to rowing badly at high drag, rowing well at low drag is worth seven seconds per 500m in pace at the same level of effort (e.g., % HRR).

ranger

[ranger]

Lancs--

If you are fit and can row effectively and efficiently at low drag (e.g., 120 df.), you should hold the Open lwt FM WR.

Or something like.

ranger

[ranger]

The 60s lwt FM WR is 2:00 pace; the 60s hwt FM WR is 1:54 pace.

The first is 8.3 SPI.

The second is 9.8 SPI.

Wretched stuff.

Some advice:

Back to step 1!

Back to step 1!

ranger

[lancs]

By what objective means are you measuring this 'good progress'?

In standard ways.

My first race will be a FM.

Then I will race the other distances, from the top down: HM, 60min, 10K, 30min, 6K, 5K.

Then I will sharpen with standard interval workouts: 4 x 2K, 4 x 1K, 8 x 500m, etc., and do sprint trials: 1K, 500m.

Then I will race.

Ah. I see. This is much clearer now. All your objective evidence is still in the future, not yet done.

Currently, you still convince yourself that you 'row well', despite, for example, not being able to complete a 10k at 1:48 pace without breaks.

I'd go back to step 1 if I were you....

[lancs]

the 60s hwt FM WR is 1:54 pace.

<snip>

Wretched stuff.

And yet you, the greatest erger of our lifetime, could row nowhere near this pace for a FM (and I mean as a 60's hwt, ie right now, not 8 years ago)

A bit odd to call this 'wretched stuff'?

[ranger]

the 60s hwt FM WR is 1:54 pace.

<snip>

Wretched stuff.

And yet you, the greatest erger of our lifetime, could row nowhere near this pace for a FM (and I mean as a 60's hwt, ie right now, not 8 years ago)

A bit odd to call this 'wretched stuff'?

We'll soon see.

My target for a FM is 1:46 @ 24 spm, so that's what I am doing a lot of now.

I can't/don't pull any less than 12 SPI for my distance rowing, so I would have to max out at 19.5 spm for 42K to pull 1:54.

I don't expect that at all, given that I am rowing comfortably at 155 bpm and 24 spm right now, but really, there is nothing to be said about it until I try.

So the talk is beside the point.

I can do 2.5 hours of labor with a HR of 155 bpm, steady state.

And no one needs to race anything at a ratio higher than 4-to-1, which is now my ratio when I am rating 24 spm at 120 df.

In my daily rowing regimen, I think I will indeed get so that I am doing 20K OTErg (just before dawn) and then 20K OTW (just after dawn).

So I should have no problem doing a FM trial.

Erging is done for this morning.

Time to get out OTW.

The sun is coming up.

ranger