Question about Virtual challenge

[cflrules]

Hey there, just entered my first challenge and pretty pumped about it. Just curious however...I looked at the leader boards and there is already people at 450,000+ meters. It's Jan 5th. That is 90,000/ day. So by my calculations thats 6 hours of rowing per day (at 2:00 500m splits). Now I'd assume there is not too may people who can sustain a 2 min pace while accumulating 90k in one day. Even at 2:45 pace thats 8 hours per day.

Are people really doing this??

[lindsayh]

yes there are a few "extreme athletes" who are doing 80-90kms per day - some such as Darlene Brennan (>70flwt) will get to 2500ks in the month (and probably 2:30 pace). 8-10 hours per day - she has done it multiple times.

[DanielJ]

Ms Brennan's grocery bill must be enormous!

[cflrules]

8-10 hours a day?? I just can't see how that is possible. Is it like 8x10k or 4x25k....would like to ask her. How can you work?

[lindsayh]

8-10 hours a day?? I just can't see how that is possible. Is it like 8x10k or 4x25k....would like to ask her. How can you work?

She is a retired lady in her 70s - has been know to do 100km in a day and 12 hours - it really is mind over matter!

http://www.concept2.com/news/meet-ultra ... ne-brennan

http://www.concept2.com/news/meter-madness

[jackarabit]

See thread subject "Darlene Brennan" in Fall Team Challenge subforum, particularly final post by Ken Brennan. Ms. Brennan is rowing the equivalent of two full marathons plus every day of the current C2 seasonal challenge and has done so several times previously. Incredible? At first glance, yes. Crazy? Perhaps. Impossible? For her detractors, impossible by their own admission. I don't think I could chop it up into 9x10K and make it tolerable in a 24 hr. period but I personally believe Ms. Brennan can. Jack

[Carl Watts]

Hey there, just entered my first challenge and pretty pumped about it. Just curious however...I looked at the leader boards and there is already people at 450,000+ meters. It's Jan 5th. That is 90,000/ day. So by my calculations thats 6 hours of rowing per day (at 2:00 500m splits). Now I'd assume there is not too may people who can sustain a 2 min pace while accumulating 90k in one day. Even at 2:45 pace thats 8 hours per day.

Are people really doing this??

There are several posts on this already, personally I don't believe its possible and the pace is not 2:00, not a chance try 3:26 or something and then work out the hours.

I do however have respect for anyone who can row at 3:26 pace, I tried it and cannot row that slow. At 6 to 8 spm the monitor has a spastic and starts throwing random paces at you. At 18spm you must be using more energy going up and down the slide than what's going into the flywheel so you can decide if this is really "Rowing" or not.

Concept 2 needs to dump the manual meters entry system and people need to elect what form their results are uploaded in and there should be two new columns in the results one for IND_V, C2Log, RowPro etc and also one for the average pace. This still doesn't stop all the cheats but it makes things much harder. It also adds perspective to the results as distance without average pace for those meters is meaningless information.

Good luck with the Challenge, the best I did was 650Km at around 2:05 pace average, I have never felt so exhausted at the end of it, its both physical and mental the same as a full marathon.

[cflrules]

Hey there, just entered my first challenge and pretty pumped about it. Just curious however...I looked at the leader boards and there is already people at 450,000+ meters. It's Jan 5th. That is 90,000/ day. So by my calculations thats 6 hours of rowing per day (at 2:00 500m splits). Now I'd assume there is not too may people who can sustain a 2 min pace while accumulating 90k in one day. Even at 2:45 pace thats 8 hours per day.

Are people really doing this??

There are several posts on this already, personally I don't believe its possible and the pace is not 2:00, not a chance try 3:26 or something and then work out the hours.

I do however have respect for anyone who can row at 3:26 pace, I tried it and cannot row that slow. At 6 to 8 spm the monitor has a spastic and starts throwing random paces at you. At 18spm you must be using more energy going up and down the slide than what's going into the flywheel so you can decide if this is really "Rowing" or not.

Concept 2 needs to dump the manual meters entry system and people need to elect what form their results are uploaded in and there should be two new columns in the results one for IND_V, C2Log, RowPro etc and also one for the average pace. This still doesn't stop all the cheats but it makes things much harder. It also adds perspective to the results as distance without average pace for those meters is meaningless information.

Good luck with the Challenge, the best I did was 650Km at around 2:05 pace average, I have never felt so exhausted at the end of it, its both physical and mental the same as a full marathon.

Thanks Carl, a different more realistic perspective IMO. I do agree the pace needs to be posted as well.

What do you mean you did 650k...Like in a month and the average was 2:05? If so great work.

[Carl Watts]

Yes 650,000m in a month (actually maybe it was 625 but anyway it was a few years ago now) so that's rowing every day. Started with a 10Km but was getting wasted on our team so upped it to a HM every day at between 2:03 and 2:06 pace. Day 15 you kind of plateau and its a bad as it going to get. Was not working at the time, probably not possible for me while trying to hold down a job as well as its eat, sleep, repeat and you are also able to crash anytime you want for your body to rest. Prepare to get tired and irritable before the end of it. If you put 100% percent into a Challenge you will also want the way the results are recorded changed. Every meter was done Online with Rowpro and every row was on the Digital Rowing results page for anyone to view.

[lindsayh]

1) I am sure Darlene Brennan is doing the distances - there is no way that Concept 2 would write about her exploits several times unless they were sure too and she does have witnesses. To call her, her husband and supporters serial fraudsters and liars is unfair and unpleasant.
2) there is a guy named Robert Snapper in Portugal who has done over 600km per month every month for years on end at a good pace all logged and legit in meticulous detail.
3) there is a guy in the UK by the name of Matt Rockett who has done individual long distances at about 3:00 pace for days and days with out a break to set records too. If you try it is very hard to maintain that slow a rate as Carl has said but Matt can do it and stay awake (I think for 100 hours but not sure of the numbers).
4) there is a guy named Leo Young who once did 1:10.4 for 500m (filmed with witnesses) - there are still people who say it couldn't/wasn't done.

Just because we can't do it (or even imagine it) doesn't mean it doesn't happen. (what about the 10Km @1:33 that was done by Eric Murray in December?? Wasn't that unbelievable?)

[DanielJ]

[T]he 10Km @1:33 that was done by Eric Murray in December?? Wasn't that unbelievable?)

I knew about the 6k but not that! Wowzers!

[jackarabit]

My high meterage per month is 377K for Sept. '14 and per month-long challenge 301K for this year's FTC. I verified every piece with either C2log or ErgData entry. I eliminated and did not upload bits and pieces under 100m which were aborted for reasons as mundane as doorbells, ringing phone, dogs outside and upset about who knows what? Best continuous streak around 16K per day for 13 days. Highest per day meterage: 32K in multiple pieces. Longest continuous row an uploaded HM and another piece of HM distance so slow that even I would be ashamed to call it an HM "effort." All I could do to maintain sub-3" pace over a lot of those meters. Certainly not quality training time on the rower. I was tired but also elated at my own decision to persevere in this nonsense. I can't row as fast as Carl nor as far as Diane Brennan. Despite, or perhaps, due to the abysmal level of performance, my challenge meterage is perfectly credible WITHOUT verification. Jack

[Carl Watts]

My high meterage per month is 377K for Sept. '14 and per month-long challenge 301K for this year's FTC. I verified every piece with either C2log or ErgData entry. I eliminated and did not upload bits and pieces under 100m which were aborted for reasons as mundane as doorbells, ringing phone, dogs outside and upset about who knows what? Best continuous streak around 16K per day for 13 days. Highest per day meterage: 32K in multiple pieces. Longest continuous row an uploaded HM and another piece of HM distance so slow that even I would be ashamed to call it an HM "effort." All I could do to maintain sub-3" pace over a lot of those meters. Certainly not quality training time on the rower. I was tired but also elated at my own decision to persevere in this nonsense. I can't row as fast as Carl nor as far as Diane Brennan. Despite, or perhaps, due to the abysmal level of performance, my challenge meterage is perfectly credible WITHOUT verification. Jack

Yes you get quite a sense of personal achievement, which I guess at the end of the day is reward enough for most people.

I guess I'm one of the few that the current result system just annoys the hell out of me. Even in our "RowPro Team" only two of the top 10 did any metres online so it was visible and a verified row. Also I don't understand why everyone would not just want a verified system, then posts like this would not keep coming up every other Challenge !!!

Making the assumption that nobody cheats because they say they don't carries no weight with me, Lance Armstrong is only one case in point, but at least he got on his bike and actually did it, not just rocking up to the podium with his bike still on top of a car !

[DanielJ]

I don't see it as an achievement at all. It's an expression of insanity at best. One could at least cut the rowing down to, say, 3 hours a day (still loads), and thus probably manage a better pace and maybe get a decent workout out of it, and then have the time to do crazy things like spending time with loved ones and developing in other ways.

I'm not sure which is more a waste of time: rowing 100,000 metres a day or falsely claiming to have rowed 100,000 metres a day. (My guess is there are people doing both in these competitions.)

[lindsayh]

I guess I'm one of the few that the current result system just annoys the hell out of me. Even in our "RowPro Team" only two of the top 10 did any metres online so it was visible and a verified row. Also I don't understand why everyone would not just want a verified system, then posts like this would not keep coming up every other Challenge !!!
Making the assumption that nobody cheats because they say they don't carries no weight with me, Lance Armstrong is only one case in point, but at least he got on his bike and actually did it, not just rocking up to the podium with his bike still on top of a car !

Carl I share your irritation when people don't verify ranked pieces especially at the top. I agree that the verification system would be much better if it accepted all pieces not just ranked ones and then that it wouldn't accept non verified ones.
I am not assuming that nobody cheats but I am assuming that the people we are talking about who are regularly "claiming" their huge metres and have been interviewed by C2 and have witnesses to their efforts are actually doing it. Unlike Lance Armstrong they have nothing to gain by cheating. These are senior athletes with a lot of time on their hands and I suspect a much better developed set of ethics than LA.
Just because we can't do what they do doesn't mean it can't be done.