Damper Questions

[[old] freestyle]

I have always rowed at a damper setting of 10---which I just found out gives a drag factor of 203. When I set the damper at 5, the drag factor was 138. I usually row 2k at a 149 pace. The wierd thing is that when I was trying out the level 5 setting, my pace slowed to 151. I felt I had to work harder to attain 149 at the lower drag factor. Is it because I have been conditioned to use the higher level for 2 years? I like the firm feeling of the higher setting. But why do others prefer a lower drag factor?

[[old] neilb]

<!--QuoteBegin-freestyle+May 7 2005, 11:42 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(freestyle @ May 7 2005, 11:42 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I have always rowed at a damper setting of 10---which I just found out gives a drag factor of 203.  When I set the damper at 5, the drag factor was 138.  I usually row 2k at a 149 pace.  The wierd thing is that when I was trying out the level 5 setting, my pace slowed to 151.  I felt I had to work harder to attain 149 at the lower drag factor.  Is it because I have been conditioned to use the higher level for 2 years?  I like the firm feeling of the higher setting.  But why do others prefer a lower drag factor? <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Drag factor is a very persoanl thing and there is a lot of energy expended on this forum in discussing it. Some searches on drag factor will give you lots of detailed commentary.<br /><br />What spm do you row at? The difficulty in maintaining splits at lower drag may suggest that technique needs to improve and a high spm may be indictative of this and/or that the power per stroke is low.<br /><br />I row at around 120 and tend to be comfortable training at around 12 meters per stroke. This is nice relaxed stroking for me. <br /><br />It will take a while to adjust to a lower drag factor but I think the theory is that is helps improve the efficiency of your rowing.<br /><br />Neil<br /><br />