Ranger's training thread

[leadville]

You row OTW, and have made several claims that you'll win HOC easily.

Nonsense.

I never made any such claim.

No one wins the Head of the Charles easily.

ranger

June 27, 2010: given that I was just out in my Fluid, doing 1:56 @ 31 spm. No one my age is rowing any better, including Dietz and Spousta, who, between them, have won the Head of the Charles a couple of dozen times.

January 12, 2009: If I can hold 32 spm for 3 miles OTW, taking full strokes, at 155 lbs., at the HOTC in a couple of years, when I am 60 years old, I'll win, going away.

Byron, we owe you a debt that exceeds the one occupying the headlines here on this side of the pond!

[leadville]

Time to start FM trials

Yes, indeed, as I mentioned, too.

I am waiting to recover fully from my injury.

My ribs feel much better today than yesterday.

I think I am turning the corner on this.

I have rowing the last few days, rather than riding my bike, but still with quite a bit of pain.

I don't think it makes sense to do a FM trial until I can row without pain.

ranger

quick, someone call Whine-One-One and get a WAAA-mbulance to ranger's!

[ranger]

quick, someone call Whine-One-One and get a WAAA-mbulance to ranger's!

No ambulance needed, but I do have my chest strapped in, to protect my ribs from expanding suddenly.

Lots of rib pain when that happens.

So, I have been back riding my bike, waiting to heal.

ranger

[ranger]

Why on earth do you jump to the unwarranted conclusion that a WR row means your fitness is maximal and cannot be improved?

Because it's true?

It's also true for people like Roy.

Sure, Roy can get back into rowing shape after his time away from the erg, but given that he is aging, not in the same shape he was in five years ago, when his fitness was also maximal (for his age).

It's a losing battle, and senseless one.

To get faster, Roy only needs to get better at rowing.

His fitness doesn't have anything to do with improving his technique.

But he doesn't seem to have any interest in this.

60s rowers miss rowing well by 4 SPI, 45 kgF. of peak force, a mile over 60min, seven seconds per 500m, etc.

For a 60s rower, the margin for technical improvement is _enormous_.

For a 55s WR-holder like Roy, the margin for improving fitness is nil.

Given a lwt 6:38 in competition five years ago, if Roy just works of his fitness, without getting better at rowing, the prediction is a 6:46.5 2K at 60.

The normal decline with age among veterans for those who follow traditional training plans, which all just prepare you to race, working on fitness, is 1.7 seconds per year over 2K.

Sure.

6:46 is great for 60s lwt, much better than the VIking or Mike VB.

But it is still a long way from Bailey's 6:42.

Bailey's 6:42 is also just a historically consistent standard, a standard set by someone who just has great fitness, rather than great technique.

Bailey isn't a rower, either.

Bailey is a runner.

The normal decline with age for those who don't row well is a second a year over 2K after 20.

The normal decline with age for those who row well is only .5 seconds a year over 2K after 20.

ranger

[ranger]

January 12, 2009: If I can hold 32 spm for 3 miles OTW, taking full strokes, at 155 lbs., at the HOTC in a couple of years, when I am 60 years old, I'll win, going away.

For this to be equivalent to "I win win the HOTC easily," "hold[ing] 32 spm for 3 miles OTW" needs to be easy for me.

But holding 32 spm OTW for 3 miles would be a great achievement for me, not easy at all.

If Mike VB could rate 32 spm for 3 miles OTW, he'd also win the HOTC.

If you row well, it is not at all easy to rate 32 for 5K OTErg, either.

If MIke VB could rate 32 spm for 5K OTErg, he'd pull 5K under 17:00.

If Mike VB could rate 32 spm for 5K OTErg, rowing well, he'd pull 5K in 15:40.

ranger

[PaulH]

January 12, 2009: If I can hold 32 spm for 3 miles OTW, taking full strokes, at 155 lbs., at the HOTC in a couple of years, when I am 60 years old, I'll win, going away.

For this to be equivalent to "I win win the HOTC easily, "hold[ing] 32 spm for 3 miles OTW" needs to be easy for me.

But I didn't say that at all.

Holding 32 spm OTW for 3 miles would be a great achievement for me, not easy at all.

If Mike VB could rate 32 spm for 3 miles OTW, he'd also win the HOTC.

If you row well, it is not at all easy to rate 32 for 5K OTErg, either.

ranger

As I think you know, "winning something easily" can have two meanings. It *can* just mean winning something without any great effort. By far the more common meaning, however, extends that idea to mean winning by a large margin. That meaning is also shared by the phrase "I'll win, going away".

So whatever the effort required for the win, you clearly said that you would win easily, and then lied about having said it. It puzzles me greatly that you lie so intensively about things that you actually said publicly.

[whp4]

Why on earth do you jump to the unwarranted conclusion that a WR row means your fitness is maximal and cannot be improved?

Because it's true?

you haven't answered my question or proven your assertion. There is no reason whatsoever that holding a WR means that your fitness is maximal. Or would you have us believe that you got better at rowing like shit?

[Byron Drachman]

January 12, 2009: If I can hold 32 spm for 3 miles OTW, taking full strokes, at 155 lbs., at the HOTC in a couple of years, when I am 60 years old, I'll win, going away.

For this to be equivalent to "I win win the HOTC easily," "hold[ing] 32 spm for 3 miles OTW" needs to be easy for me.

But holding 32 spm OTW for 3 miles would be a great achievement for me, not easy at all.

If Mike VB could rate 32 spm for 3 miles OTW, he'd also win the HOTC.

If you row well, it is not at all easy to rate 32 for 5K OTErg, either.

If MIke VB could rate 32 spm for 5K OTErg, he'd pull 5K under 17:00.

If Mike VB could rate 32 spm for 5K OTErg, rowing well, he'd pull 5K in 15:40.

ranger

Another obviously intentional misquote. It was Ranger, not I, who made the Jan 12, 2009 quote. Paul, time for another ban?

[mikvan52]

Byron:
No need to ever ban ranger again > We all know that everything he writes is just a dream on his part with little basis in reality. After all, trolls just like to blurt untruths out in cyberspace hoping to get a rise.

How about a little truth, Rich?... instead of all this hypothetical BS? > After all, 'Ifs and thens' don't indicate training or achievement.
Have you entered any OTW races ?
What are your plans for the HOCR? (1x registration for the acceptance lottery ends 8/1/2011....)
It's hard to win if you don't enter....

[PaulH]

I can see how ranger may have made an honest mistake - nested quotes are tricky to quote - so let's just go for a day this time.

[mikvan52]

It's interesting to witness the slow death of this thread. Its decline is due to the fact that ranger isn't doing much in the way of events anymore. What do we have in the last 12 months? .... BIRC.... a 7:02 2k erg ... that's all... pretty lame.

It now seems doubtful that R.Cureton will ever return to the performance volume of yesteryear. The Lone Ranger retires (instead of 'rides again')
Hope he's enjoying his retirement on 'Golden Pond'

[Steve G]

Just watching a programme about John Lennon and it mentioned Ann Arbor, no sight of Rich there, almost 40 years ago.
Civil rights concert for John Sinclair. Famous place!

http://annarborchronicle.com/tag/john-lennon/

[mikvan52]

Just watching a programme about John Lennon and it mentioned Ann Arbor, no sight of Rich there, almost 40 years ago.
Civil rights concert for John Sinclair. Famous place!

http://annarborchronicle.com/tag/john-lennon/

ranger and Lennon seem to have at least one thing in common:

> " (after his "breakup" ) John Lennon performed in public on only a handful of occasions" (from the article you mentioned)

ranger, too, has given up on performing in public... " to the Bat-Cave, Robin! "

Thanks for the post.

[bellboy]

Just watching a programme about John Lennon and it mentioned Ann Arbor, no sight of Rich there, almost 40 years ago.
Civil rights concert for John Sinclair. Famous place!

http://annarborchronicle.com/tag/john-lennon/

ranger and Lennon seem to have at least one thing in common:

> " (after his "breakup" ) John Lennon performed in public on only a handful of occasions" (from the article you mentioned)

ranger, too, has given up on performing in public... " to the Bat-Cave, Robin! "

Thanks for the post.

Where's Mr Chapman when you need him?

[ranger]

Just some work on fitness while my ribs recover.

Nice two-hour bike rides before breakfast, yesterday and today.

This is a good fitness routine, although I am now starting to add in sit ups and skipping, too, an hour of each, just for variety and a bit more work.

Sit ups and skipping just before dawn, biking just after dawn.

Everything done before breakfast.

I think that four hours is an ideal amount of physical activity a day, or at least, that's what makes me feel best.

According to _Rowing Faster_, four hours a day is about what international rowers do.

National team rowers do three hours a day; college rowers, two hours; club rowers, an hour and a half; recreational rowers, an hour.

ranger