New Personal Best! Brag About That New Pb!

[mochrie71]

Thanks Lindsayh & g-dub. Appreciate the encouragement. I'm hooked. I plan on making rowing a lifelong commitment.

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

First post by a newbie...Having just started rowing on an erg in late October, I'm now up to 750,000 meters in just over 4 months. At 45 years old, I have lost 45 lbs since I began a fitness routine in Sept. The erg is now my everyday workout. I mostly manage to row 8500m 6 days/week. I throw in a 10k every now and then and some days I go a bit shorter distance. I LOVE this machine and it very well may have saved my life. I recently ranked a group of PB's on over the last couple weeks.

March 12: 1K = 3:21.1
March 2: 2k = 7:11.0
March 2: 5k = 19:10.2
March 13: 7856m = 30:00
March 1: 10K = 38:54.8

There is definitely room for improvement, but I'm pretty stoked about these numbers. Looking forward to my future attempts to break them.

Great numbers, but more importantly great to hear about your weight loss and the fact that you're changing your lifestyle.

Keep at it!

[mochrie71]

Great numbers, but more importantly great to hear about your weight loss and the fact that you're changing your lifestyle.

Keep at it!

Thank you! I can now also add 6000m = 23:07 as of this morning

[Bloodbuzz Corio]

I've never rowed further than 10k - though certainly planning to do so - but would love some advice about a suitable training plan to bring my 10k PB down. A few options I'm considering are:

• Exclusive focus on long distance stuff like Edward4492 suggested recently in the daily workout thread
• PP 5k
• PP 2k making sure not to skip the longer sessions - even in preference to the intervals if I miss the odd session (I won't get 5 ergs in every week). This is probably where I'm leaning initially - I'd like to give the intervals with longer rest periods a crack - I certainly enjoyed the speed pyramid I did last night much more than an 11x500m 1R I did last week but certainly did feel like I'd had a proper hit out last night. Here I'd also try to get the longer sessions well up above 10k. I realise this statement about intervals might go slightly against my stated goal, but expect the variety will help to maintain motivation, and I'm not too fussed if I don't get the 10k PB down absolutely as quick as possible.
• Just harden up and go and break 40:00.0 next time I row 10k!

Whilst it turns out the answer was at least partly number 4, I am very grateful for the advice I was given in the thread I started. Since that thread I did a 12k, 15k twice, the 10k push recommended by Greg, and a 30' r20 at 2:03.3 earlier this week which I was very happy with, and even if those sessions didn't benefit my fitness much/at all - they certainly did make a big difference psychologically - giving me much more confidence I had the power required to do 10k at a manageable stroke rate. So thank you all. Just cranked this out:



9th km was 2:00.5 and 10th 1:58.4.

I am absolutely stoked with this, and do consider it a significant personal achievement.

I'd been wondering how long I should wait to have a crack, was thinking maybe this weekend before I go away next week, but I started reading Sam Loch's Instagram on the bus today, and it got me pretty fired up so had a go tonight!

[G-dub]

Very nice! Breaking those big numbers is always sweet!

[mwalsh]

8:14.3 trying to cap myself at ~24spm (though I got a bit carried away with the finish line within my sights).

I think I'm starting to get the whole row slower and harder to get there quicker deal! Who'd have thunk it!

That said, I really don't have any muscle memory yet, still have to concentrate real hard so it doesn't go sideways, and can't pull >200w with any kind of consistency, However, I am now able to feel when it's kinda going right AND pull 10 more just like it immediately thereafter. Now all I need to do is pull EVERY stroke well and with just a hair more power and I'll be under 8 minutes. Might even need to find a new goal too!

[jackarabit]

That's a watershed 10k, Corio, and it was right there all the time! The best is yet to come.

Great progress MWalsh! 8' is in the bag.

[Treesmacker]

I've been rowing for two months now with a D model.
Did my best 10,000 in 45:19 today.
It sure gives this 51 yr old a good workout!

[Papy]

Great times, Corio, Mwalsh & treesmacker !!

[Bloodbuzz Corio]

G-Dub, Jack, Papy, thanks for the kind words!

As well as the sense of achievement for hitting that mark I now have a massive sense of freedom about what to go for next! Think I might have a few of weeks of just having fun - try a wide range of drag factors to see how they feel, enough UT2 not to get ahead of myself but do a bit of short stuff too, and then decide what my next target should be.

[mwalsh]

So, so close! 8:00.4. Gah! You can see how I was doing real well, but peaked too early leaving the last 500m a simply brutal ordeal. I found myself fighting for breath and felt like my heart and lungs were going to burst out of my chest! The increase in SR on that last 500m was not so much trying to make up for loss of power as it was me wanting the torture to be over!

When it was going well I noted peak power on one stroke at 219w, and I was consistently hitting between 200w and 210w (hence the 205w/206w averages).

That's it for me chasing a PR for a few days - I think I deserve a couple of "Just Row" sessions, but when I come back to it next week I completely expect to break 8:00.0!

[zacclowes]

looks like you'll crack 8 minutes next time.

what sort of training are you doing atm? looks like you've done two max 2ks in a short amount of time

[mwalsh]

looks like you'll crack 8 minutes next time.

what sort of training are you doing atm? looks like you've done two max 2ks in a short amount of time

I've not had a PM on my home erg until this weekend, so I've just been rowing it for cardio - 9 minutes at relatively low power and moderate pace. On the gym erg I've been doing a small number of 500m intervals with a focus on generating power and trying to remember how it feels to get that power.

I actually like 2ks, and like chasing PRs, but my gym erg recently got fixed (it'd been acting up from within a couple of days of me starting to use it - and, lol, no, it wasn't me who broke it!) and I got the PM fitted to my own erg, so I wanted to see what I was capable of on both.

[Donnie]

Just hit a PB in the 10K. 40:37.3. Not the fastest but getting better. Will hit my first million meters at the end of the mud season challenge this month. Happy days.

[Galeere]

Nice PBs documenting excellent progress, Chad, Rohan, Mwalsh, Treesmacker and Donnie!