The Ranger Plan/ranger Way

[old] ranger · Post by **[old] ranger** » September 27th, 2005, 1:13 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'>QUOTE</div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>Will you have time to work on the middle distance rowing for BIRC 2005? </td></tr></table> Not sure I can make BIRC this year, but if I make the USIRT, I will row at EIRC. My stroke is now set. No futzing with drag. Nothing like last year. There's plenty of time to do all the middle distance and other sharpening I need to do before EIRC. 10 weeks. ranger

[old] R S T · Post by **[old] R S T** » September 27th, 2005, 2:10 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'>QUOTE(ranger @ Sep 27 2005, 05:13 PM)</div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'>QUOTE</div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>Will you have time to work on the middle distance rowing for BIRC 2005? </td></tr></table> Not sure I can make BIRC this year, but if I make the USIRT, I will row at EIRC. My stroke is now set. No futzing with drag. Nothing like last year. There's plenty of time to do all the middle distance and other sharpening I need to do before EIRC. 10 weeks. ranger </td></tr></table> Ranger Just out of curiosity - when was the last time that you raced a 2k? And will you be having a go at a 2k before the USIRT? Cheers RichardT

[old] ranger · Post by **[old] ranger** » September 27th, 2005, 3:14 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'>QUOTE</div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>Just out of curiosity - when was the last time that you raced a 2k? And will you be having a go at a 2k before the USIRT? </td></tr></table> My last 2K was EIRC 2003, almost two years ago now. That's not really the relevant thing, though. More relevant is that I have _never_ done a 2K at low drag with my new stroke. In fact, I haven't really raced _anything_, of any sort. Will I do a 2K trial before the USIRT? No. No reason to, I think. Will I be doing 2K's? Sure. Lots of them: 4 x 2K, etc. In the fall of 2003, I rowed 6:31 in a workout before my USIRT trial just going 1K at 2K + 2, then 500m at 2K + 1, then all out to the end (1:39, 1:39, 1:38, 1:35). I will probably be doing some things like that. Save the best for the races. ranger

[old] ranger · Post by **[old] ranger** » September 28th, 2005, 4:40 am

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'>QUOTE</div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>I don't really care how you train except out of the same curiosity that I have for learning about how other successful athletes train. </td></tr></table> You are interested in how successful athletes train? Really? Well, for rowing, I don't think this has much to do with exactly which workouts are done when, although, as I have granted, certain general contours of training must be in place, for instance, by the end, a balance of work on needed skills, energy pathways, etc. Rowers do all sorts of things in order to get ready to race, improve, etc. Given the extremity of the physical effort needed to row at the highest levels, I think that these things are probably much more important than any exact schedule of workouts. (1) the ability to constantly learn from performances, both in competition and in workouts (2) a good sense of your personal potential and then the setting of high but realistic goals relative to that potential (3) a good diet and physical economy (sleep, etc.) (4) good, stable, satisfying life routines that minimize other kinds of personal stress, both physical and mental (5) flexibility, openness to new ideas, creativity, originalilty (6) ability to produce a consistently high level of effort in training (7) a good sense of the many sources of physical power (8) a good sense of physical effiiciency, the production of power with minimal effort (9) the ability to relax when performing physically near the upper limits of your effort and ability (10) a good sense of physical balance, the meshing of your sources of physical power: arms, legs, core, ankles, toes, etc. (11) the ability to maintain the highest level of fitness/health (12) the ability to avoid staleness and overtraining (13) the ability to avoid sickness (14) the ability to avoid injury (15) a good sense of what it means to make progress in your training (16) consistently high spirits, enthusiasm, a love for the sport ranger

[old] PaulS · Post by **[old] PaulS** » September 28th, 2005, 9:31 am

(17) Select your parents wisely. BTW - How is the work on the water going, seems a few lessons have not been learned, we can discuss them in the future. Cheers!

[old] gw1 · Post by **[old] gw1** » September 28th, 2005, 9:58 am

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'>QUOTE</div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>(17) Select your parents wisely. </td></tr></table> Most important!

[old] Jim Barry · Post by **[old] Jim Barry** » September 28th, 2005, 10:13 am

Ranger, I may seem you are being difficult in not explaining your regime stucture etc and instead reenforcing the qualities of the athlete FIRST, but this would not be unlike Lydiard who, although laid out a general plan (aerobic base then sharpen), there was not a lot about the details (where is the Lydiard Plan?) and the workout week, etc. Although we see some attempts at laying out a "Lydiard workout week", he himself never thought a coach could prescribe workouts all that well (or optimally) instead leaving the gap between current state and goal state to be something that mostly challenges the athlete's will to work hard (and long) for years and years. Few workouts were timed, etc. If the qualities are there (good list you have there) and the goals are there and you stress the mileage(or meters) and avoid the pitfalls of anaerobic workouts too early, it all falls in place. The other day I was watching old Olympic footage of Peter Snell (Lydiard Protege) and in all honesty, few have ever smoked the field as he used to. Here's a great article citing our need to look to Lydiard again. <a href='http://www.myruncoach.com/109301.html?* ... ion*id*val*' target='_blank'>Lydiard Article</a>

[old] remador · Post by **[old] remador** » September 28th, 2005, 10:50 am

Nice article, Jim. AM

[old] FrancoisA · Post by **[old] FrancoisA** » September 28th, 2005, 11:16 am

Jim, Thanks for this very interesting article. Here is a quote from it that I find particularly enlightening: <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'>QUOTE</div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>Speedwork can only improve your running for a short time. Continued anaerboic work erodes the aerobic capacity. The athlete will need to work harder and harder to produce the same performance. Once that happens, performance deteriorates and will only improve again when the aerobic capacity is restored. Low-intensity, high-volume work is the way to restore or develop aerobic capacity. This takes time, but unlike anaerobic work, aerobic work allows for indefinite improvement. Athletes using the Lydiard system will spend most, though certainly not all, of their time doing volume work at relatively easy paces. </td></tr></table>

[old] ancho · Post by **[old] ancho** » September 28th, 2005, 11:54 am

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'>QUOTE(PaulS @ Sep 28 2005, 02:31 PM)</div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>(17) Select your parents wisely. BTW - How is the work on the water going, seems a few lessons have not been learned, we can discuss them in the future. Cheers! </td></tr></table> (18) and select your wife wisely (I don't know if that's easier or more difficult than selecting your parents... And (19): ROW HARDER!!!

[old] Alan Maddocks · Post by **[old] Alan Maddocks** » September 28th, 2005, 12:04 pm

Jim, Excellent article. Website now amongst my 'favourites'. Quote (from article): "Most of these performances were fueled by a high volume of training. In 1986, Mark Nenow ran 10,000 meters in 27:20. Nenow’s training was almost entirely volume based. His time stood as the American record until May 2001." The proof of the success of the Lydiard System was that he took a group of youngsters from his own neighbourhood and succeeded in transforming three of them (Snell, Halberg, & Baillie) into Olympic medalists - 2 gold - 1 bronze at the Rome Olympics. 4 years later Snell won double gold (800m & 1500m). Lydiard described Snell at the Rome Olympics as being the athlete having the slowest basic 400m speed in the 800m final. But his basic endurance built on high mileage took him to gold. A few weeks ago New Zealand rowers took 4 golds at the World Rowing Championship. My information is that NZ rowers regularly exceed 250,000m of rowing each week. (NZ has a population of just 4 million: 1 gold per million of the population!) I think that somehow, Ranger's training is not as idiosyncratic (spelling?) as some would like to suggest.

[old] ranger · Post by **[old] ranger** » September 28th, 2005, 12:48 pm

Hey, some agreement! What do you know? You guys must be really whacked out--on LSD!! (long slow distance) Thanks for the article, Jim. Good stuff. Hail Zatopek! He was the whackiest of them all! ranger

[old] dadams · Post by **[old] dadams** » September 28th, 2005, 1:32 pm

Great article. Didn't even realize that I was following something of that nature. I don't follow nearly the amount of volume that Rich does, but I do put in more than 200k a week on the erg, plus my weight training. I have noticed that since I'm not putting in the volume that I have in the past couple of seasons, that my times are a shade slower than they were. Not that this has any correlation to the lack of volume of the previous season. Just an interesting observation. Dwayne

[old] DIESEL · Post by **[old] DIESEL** » September 28th, 2005, 1:52 pm

Interesting discussion guys.. but I still think Ranger does too much ancillary cardio - but whatever, can't argue with his results. The man is a "freak" . Anyway, I wonder if there isn't a point of diminishing returns with all this LSD training business. Anyway, Hey Dwayne, A question - do you find that its difficult for you to maintain muscle mass rowing 200K+ a week? You've posted in the past that you race at around 220 at 6'2"? (correct me if I'm wrong! ) How about your strength levels w/r/t the iron? Caloric intake per day ? Carbs? Proteins? Fats? Are you still wasting your $ on HMB? It's all in your head, I'm telling ya!! just curious - thanks, D

[old] dadams · Post by **[old] dadams** » September 28th, 2005, 2:39 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'>QUOTE(DIESEL @ Sep 28 2005, 12:52 PM)</div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>Interesting discussion guys.. Hey Dwayne, A question - do you find that its difficult for you to maintain muscle mass rowing 200K+ a week? You've posted in the past that you race at around 220 at 6'2"? (correct me if I'm wrong! ) How about your strength levels w/r/t the iron? Caloric intake per day ? Carbs? Proteins? Fats? Are you still wasting your $ on HMB? It's all in your head, I'm telling ya!! just curious - thanks, D </td></tr></table> Muscle mass isn't that big of an issue. I'm taking in around 5500 to 6k cals a day. I brake it down to the typical - 60-20-20 HMB is a thing of the past. Wasn't really seeing any benefits from it.

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