Post
by mdpfirrman » January 10th, 2018, 4:10 pm
Wow, lots of activity going on these days.
@ Dietmar - I know I keep saying this but you put up some impressive numbers! No wonder you didn't feel like doing the fourth set! I wouldn't have either. As far as the German race, too far for me! I have noticed there are quite a few European rowers more on some of the Facebook groups. Fitness Matters and Sub 7 are two groups that come to mind. You should explore that avenue too as a social source to meet other indoor rowers.
@ Brandon - glad you're here. You'll find, after a while, what you like. And sometimes, you'll find out what you don't like is what you really need! Kind of like eating your vegetables. I'm getting "punished" this year because I detest longer, hard rows. Longer, hard rows serve a purpose, though, and I'm not equaling what I probably could do because I've neglected that aspect in training. I did tons of meters in 2017 but not a lot of hard rows over 5K. That's one of my goals for 2018! Look into the "nonathon". It's kind of a fun, silly competition across all distances for points. Training each one accomplishes something.
@ David - I like ErgData a lot. Though I'm not sure how to post it here like Jack mentioned. So easy for storing your workouts on the logbook.
@ Mitchell - nothing really more to add that Tom/RowerGal didn't cover. I've learned in the last year how important consistency/form and feel are. It's still a work in progress with me honestly. I have a left leg that's much stronger than my right leg. Probably the first year, I used my back (as a result of the weak right leg) way too much and when I pushed with my legs, I cheated to my good leg often. I have to many times, during my rows, constantly remind myself to use my "bad" knee more and push off the right leg as much as I can. Drives me insane during SS rows but it helps tremendously. Lately, I've not been up on the balls of my feet at the catch and I've been separating my knees a bit and staying flat footed. Little bad habits creep in all the time. What I've done better with recently is quicker strokes and working on a more light finish (my finish is still a hot mess!). I won't load a video on here because I fear the feedback will be, "oh God, there's no helping you!". I know the form has gotten little by little better and more consistent. It never ends really for me. Someone that really understands their stroke/mechanics (like RowerGal demonstrated on the SS row) can flip rates and know what speed they are at different rates (SPM). When they improve even my .1 to .25 at a certain SPM, they know that the progress is real and tangible. I'm working to get this consistent. Today was a pretty consistent row for me. With using ErgData, I like to put it on the Watts screen and watch my Watts and maintain the same watts at the same SPM to benchmark the row. Today, I was pretty consistently around 161/162 Watts @ 22/23 SPM during the entire 10K SS row. I take a 2 minute towel off in the middle. For me, that's a good SS row (around a 2:09.7-ish SS row). With more experience, the roller coaster will slowly ease up and get more even keeled throughout. And when you do have inconsistent numbers, during the row, you'll adjust your form to compensate.
Mike Pfirrman
53 Yrs old, 5' 10" / 185 lbs (177cm/84kg)
