snowleopard wrote:ranger wrote:I don't think anyone would doubt that I can pull 6:40, fully prepared, rowing well at low drag.
You're wrong. I strongly doubt it.
But that's not the point at all. You claim to be capable of a 6:16. Your fitness is maximal your technique is perfect you are rowing well.
That means you should be able to row a 6:28 right now, pre-sharpening. But of course you can't.
No reason to speculate at this late date.
I'll be doing a FM trial pretty soon.
If I do 1:48 (or better), the case is closed and speculation ended.
If I do a FM @ 1:48 (or better), I will have a _very_ good chance of pulling a lwt 6:16 at 60.
A FM @ 1:48 would be six seconds 500m better than my FM pb from back in 2003, when I pulled a lwt 6:28.
It would be better than my FM pb by an entire training band.
In 2003, I did 60min at 1:48.
60min is done at top-end UT1.
A FM is done at just above UT2.
It will be especially impressive, of course, if I do the 1:48 (or better) at 22 spm, or whatever, approaching 13 SPI, as I think I will.
The two things that older ergers have lacked in order to row as well as those much younger is (1) a big stroke, that is, advanced skills and high skeletal-motor capacity and (2) high physiological capacity.
Most of the best veteran ergers in the history of the sport have not even been rowers: Tore Foss, Paul Siebach, Roy Brook, Dennis Hastings, Paul Hendershott, Andy Ripley, Graham Watt, myself, etc.
They have been bikers, runners, triathletes, weight lifters, canoeists, kayakers, gym rats, etc.
Dick Cashin is the glaring exception so far, but it looks to me as though Cashin will have a hard time besting Hendershott"s 6:24 when he is 60.
It will be a close call, given Cashin's 6:18 at 55 and a normal decline with age of a second a year over 2K.
Cashin will really have to pony up to beat Paul's standard.
ranger
Rich Cureton M 72 5'11" 165 lbs. 2K pbs: 6:27.5 (hwt), 6:28 (lwt)