What Training Have You Done Today???

[old] Rocket Roy · Post by **[old] Rocket Roy** » January 14th, 2005, 4:32 am

Rich, Today I got a spare hour before work so got to the gym at 06.30 and did 1 hour at 287 watts on the stepper, worked up a nice sweat. My heart rate went from 140 in the first 20 mins; at 145 in the 2nd 20 mins and 151 in the 3rd 20 min segment, finishing during the last minute at 153. So it was pretty easy, i could have done another 20 mins but had to rush off. John, at 213 watts I step at 61 spm at 245 watts 71, and at 287 watts 81 steps per min.

[old] ranger · Post by **[old] ranger** » January 14th, 2005, 4:32 am

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td class='quote'> have rowed very comfortably flat at 172 bpm for an hour.  </td></tr></table> By the way, when I rowed the hour at 172 bpm, I could have easily gone on to HM, which is the trial I was attempting but I decided to kick it into an hour to get a pb there. I did the last 1K at 1:39. Heart rate finished at 190 bpm. ranger

[old] ranger · Post by **[old] ranger** » January 14th, 2005, 5:05 am

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>I was doing 1:50 (at 23 spm) flat at 162 bpm this morning. Nice! </td></tr></table> Coach Gus: This is meaningless unless you let us know how long. Answer: Well, long enough, given how my heart responds. Over long distances, I have almost no drift in my heart rate. At a certain work load, my heart just finds a level and runs flat. Don't remember how far I rowed at 1:50 and 23 spm yesterday, but long enough to see that my heart was just riding flat at 162. Just did a little 5K to recheck. Yep. Rowed it at 1:50 and 22 spm. Heart rode flat at 162, 75% of MHR. My guess is that I can row a marathon at 162 bpm, 75% MHR. This is just a little over a UT2 paddle, well short of UT1 pace and heart rate and a solid 10 bpm below my anaerobic threshold (172 bpm). ranger

[old] ranger · Post by **[old] ranger** » January 14th, 2005, 5:21 am

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'>QUOTE (Rocket Roy @ Jan 14 2005, 03:32 AM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>Rich, Today I got a spare hour before work so got to the gym at 06.30 and did 1 hour at 287 watts on the stepper, worked up a nice sweat. My heart rate went from 140 in the first 20 mins; at 145 in the 2nd 20 mins and 151 in the 3rd 20 min segment, finishing during the last minute at 153. So it was pretty easy, i could have done another 20 mins but had to rush off. John, at 213 watts I step at 61 spm at 245 watts 71, and at 287 watts 81 steps per min. </td></tr></table> Roy-- Nice! _Very_ good news. This is right parallel to me. Your legs are _very_ efficient. It also tells you something important: Core! Upper Body! Technique! Your legs are fine. Develop your upper body and core and how they work together with your legs during the rowing stroke. You'll be golden. How many pull ups can you do? How many V-sits/jackknives can you do off the floor? Take it easy, but if I were you, I would see if you can gradually stretch the stepping at 285 watts to two hours. If you can do this regularly, you will build an iron shod UT2 CV base. In my experience, it is the _second_ hour that does the significant work in these UT2 workouts (on the erg, bike, stepper, whatever). Then (in the off-season) work on your stroke. Row strapless, drop the drag, up the power, lower the rate, etc. That will build up your upper body and give your stroke a quicker, stronger drive and a more relaxed recovery. Efficiency. If you can get as efficient on the erg as you are on the stepper, you'll be whistling Dixie at 1:50 and 22 spm for a marathon. ranger

[old] Rocket Roy · Post by **[old] Rocket Roy** » January 14th, 2005, 6:21 am

Great positve reply and so encouraging! Thanks Rich. I'm sure you are right about the 2nd hour doing the business, I get into that next week. I'm going to start building the core/stomach muscles up next week too. But I wont do any upper body weights until I'm down to 74kilos. I think next time I'm in the gym I'll do 1 hour stepper at 290 watts then 10k then another hour stepper then finish with 30 mins bike just to get the knees going well again.

[old] ranger · Post by **[old] ranger** » January 14th, 2005, 6:45 am

Roy-- You might also be right about the benefit of skipping for what you need to work on. Skipping might be just the thing to give you more quickness, dexterity, relaxation, full body coordination, etc. (or at least to help you recover some of what you may have lost). These things are important assets in developing an efficient stroke. We aren't 20 years old. We are 55! S..t happens over those three decades--especially to the body. And what the heck, skipping is just more UT2 (and fat-burning) work, anyway. ranger

[old] ranger · Post by **[old] ranger** » January 14th, 2005, 6:54 am

Rowing today: 25K UT1 (in various formats), now ramping down to AT. Time to do 5Ks. Day after day. 1:42-1:45 at 25-27 spm feels _very_ comfortable, now. Middle distance relaxation is setting in. Stroke is getting _very_ solid. 114 df. ranger

[old] CAROLE MAC · Post by **[old] CAROLE MAC** » January 14th, 2005, 8:43 am

5 k paddle 2.28.6 22spm then 2 x2.5k at 2.20. 1k cool down.... 11k total....yahooo ......that was a boost to do over 10 k today .... the cushion is doing it's job just a bit annoying ..but never mind .... worse peeps off than me .... Going to attempt to hoover again today .... believe me that is a training session on it's own crutch in left hand hoover in right and hoppity hoppity ....<img src='http://www.techhelpers.net/e4u/animal/1.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

[old] Paul Smith · Post by **[old] Paul Smith** » January 14th, 2005, 2:16 pm

Today: 2K warmup 6K Fartlek 21:09.1 PB 2K Cooldown. Chickenlegs nice 2K's!!!

[old] Byron Drachman · Post by **[old] Byron Drachman** » January 14th, 2005, 3:07 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>Yes, the erg is still harder for me, too, given equal wattage. </td></tr></table> According to this reference: <a href='http://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/rowing/physics/ ... #section13' target='_blank'>http://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/rowing/physics/ ... >Somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of your watts expended are not being measured on the rowing ergometer (without slides) so you would expect a higher reading on a stepper. In other words, the watts used to slide your body back and forth, which you would be burning even if you didn't have hold of the handle, are watts used but not measured. Byron

[old] J.D. · Post by **[old] J.D.** » January 15th, 2005, 2:38 am

50K in 222m22.2s. I was initially just planning to do it in 3:45:00 but when I loooked at the projected score I thought it would be fun to see all those 2's.

[old] ranger · Post by **[old] ranger** » January 15th, 2005, 2:45 am

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'>QUOTE (Byron Drachman @ Jan 14 2005, 02:07 PM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>Yes, the erg is still harder for me, too, given equal wattage. </td></tr></table> According to this reference: <a href='http://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/rowing/physics/ ... #section13' target='_blank'>http://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/rowing/physics/ ... >Somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of your watts expended are not being measured on the rowing ergometer (without slides) so you would expect a higher reading on a stepper. In other words, the watts used to slide your body back and forth, which you would be burning even if you didn't have hold of the handle, are watts used but not measured. Byron </td></tr></table> Byron-- Thanks for the reference. Interesting. According to the reference, your numbers are high, though. The difference is more like 5% at 22 spm, 15 watts or so at the paces we are talking about (1:45-1:50). I suppose this is significant, though, and interesting to know. I have done 2 hours at 300 watts on the stepper, although this was really going at it too hard for my purposes (a second session, UT2 training, etc.). It made it so that my legs were tired the next day when I rowed. Adjusted to 285 watts for the energy used getting up and down the slide, 300 watts (1:45.3 on the erg) on the stepper, then, is equivalent to about 1:47.1 on the erg. 285 watts on the stepper would adjust to 1:49 pace (270 watts) on the erg. This is getting very close to what I have been observing. When I get completely trained with my new stroke, I think I will be able to row 1:49 with a heart rate in the middle 150s. I am not quite completely relaxed with my new stroke. I am working on it, though, and it is getting better every day. I think that the work I will do over the next month at AT, TR, and AN training bands will also affect what I will be able to do efficiently at UT2 and UT1. We'll soon see. I think that Jim is right that the legs are naturally more efficient than the full body motion involved in the rowing stroke. But that is just the technical challenge in rowing, then. How efficient can you be, given that you only use your legs as _part_ of the drive? Can you make the rotation and lift with your back as efficient as the push with your legs? Can you get a nice arm pull but still avoid the naural inefficiency of the arms relative to the back and legs? Can you become so strong in the back and arms that they also become super-efficient, relative to the normal person walking around on the street? And so forth. To do these things, the upper body of an efficient rower will have to be high developed and the back and arms positioned and sequenced in the rowing strokee so that they do very little to _initiate_ motion and power/work done. The back and arms will need to be used only to pick up and contiinue the the power generated by the legs, "drafting" seamlessly behind this use of the naturally more efficient muscles. If this isn't done (e.g., by upping the drag and throwing more weight on the upper body), efficiency (given good technique) will be lost. Or so it seems. ranger

[old] Rocket Roy · Post by **[old] Rocket Roy** » January 15th, 2005, 12:05 pm

First day back training properly for a week 20 mins stepper @ 290 w, 10k erg, 30 mins bike, 20 mins stepper @290w, 80.5 kilos

[old] Paul Smith · Post by **[old] Paul Smith** » January 15th, 2005, 1:29 pm

Today was weights in the garage and a 10K Strapless Fartlek alternating pace each 1K, 37:18.3 22/23spm

[old] Jim Barry · Post by **[old] Jim Barry** » January 15th, 2005, 3:54 pm

Hooked up to Ergmonitor today. First row without a PM (since the days with the A). Weird. 2000m at 1:54 (hr 176). 27spm 3' forced rest (meant to do 5000m straight out, but my screensaver kicked in arghh!) 2500m at 1:52 (hr 185). Ergmonitor Stats for last piece: Drive length avg 118cm Min Drive Length 112cm. Max Drive Length 127cm. Avg Drag 118 Avg SR 28.69 MPS 9.89 Drive to Recovery Ratio 1:2.32 Peak Torque Range 10 to 12 Nm (from about 40 to 50 cm) Peak Handle Force 90Kg. Peak Handle Speed 210cm/sec (at 100cm in the drive) Percent ATP energy from glycolytic Pathways: 72.5% (Kidding, it does not do this) 12 pull ups.