WELCOME to New Members

[Iain]

Do you want to give it a go Ian? On the 24hr I found 20min was much harder than 15, but would be going slower and do longer sessions now so 30 might work.

[plummy]

Watching this....from a healthy distance...
(maybe time to move it elsewhere i.e. another thread though)

[ArenT]

That kind of long-haul effort on a RowErg would be an incredibly formidable challenge. I have done mega-endurance efforts on a bike (e.g. > 24 hours solid), but at least on a bike you get some alternation of effort, and a chance to rest going downhill. Though on second thoughts, the fairer comparison would be against an indoor bike/BikeErg, and e.g. doing a 2 million meter (given the 2x multiplier of BikeErg > RowErg) does not seem much, if any, less tortuous. 2 million metres BikeErg, or 1 million metres RowErg, I guess it just depends which part(s) of your body you wish to torture

1 million metres on a SkiErg might probably be the worst/most painful of the lot...

[strider77]

Welcome to Emma Love, our newest member, who goes to the same gym as me. Please extend a warm welcome to her. She will be a great member of our little community ☺

[Iain]

Hi Emma, great to see a new member.

[Jill]

Good morning Emma and welcome to Free Spirits.

I do hope that being a member of this club will help you stay young, fit and beautiful.

Kind regards,

Jill

[Carole S]

A warm welcome to you Emma

[Carole S]

I would like to extend a very warm Free Spirits welcome to Chris Williams, we "met" online through our health issues and Chris has made a fantastic recovery
Great to have him join us

[Chris Williams]

Thank you for the welcome, Carole - what a lovely thing to find while working out where to start!

[Iain]

Welcome to FS Chris, looking forward to "getting to know" you.

[plummy]

Welcome Chris. Great to have you in the team.

[GrizzlyTM]

Hello Team. I'm Tony Moore and I live in Southern California. Bought my C2 back in 2022 and went a good while not using it after the initial rush. Just got back on it this year and trying build up my fitness again, so I'm doing lots of UT2 and trying to just increase the meters logged. I want to hit 1 million before season end. I'll worry about pushing speed later.

[plummy]

Welcome to the team Tony - thank you for choosing Free Spirits. Looking forward to watching your progress and hitting your targets.

One of our most prestigious members (albeit not rowing or posting at the moment) - Christine Wojcik, lives in southern Cali (San Diego)

[JonT]

Hello Team. I'm Tony Moore and I live in Southern California. Bought my C2 back in 2022 and went a good while not using it after the initial rush. Just got back on it this year and trying build up my fitness again, so I'm doing lots of UT2 and trying to just increase the meters logged. I want to hit 1 million before season end. I'll worry about pushing speed later.

Welcome aboard Tony.

[Iain]

Hello Team. I'm Tony Moore and I live in Southern California. Bought my C2 back in 2022 and went a good while not using it after the initial rush. Just got back on it this year and trying build up my fitness again, so I'm doing lots of UT2 and trying to just increase the meters logged. I want to hit 1 million before season end. I'll worry about pushing speed later.

Tony, welcome to FS. Sounds like a good plan. The key is to start a plan that you enjoy so that you can keep it going. Most of us in FS are not at the top of the sport and are trying to get/stay fit rather than set the IRC world alight. Look forward to hearing how your training progresses.

[northwestwind]

Hello all,
My name is Cameron, and I'm currently living in Quebec, Canada. After rowing occasionally in various gyms the last few years, I finally had the space for a C2 of my own at home. Have been rowing consistently for about 10 weeks now, and am looking for a community for encouragement and motivation. Haven't been following a specific training plan, but hope to find some guidance here about good plans to follow.

[plummy]

Hi Cameron - welcome to Free Spirits and thank you for choosing us.

There's plenty of encouragement available here in this community (without any pressure). The forum has a long history of discussion over various plans so please rummage around to your heart's content to see if anything suits your needs.

Plummy

[Iain]

Welcome to FS Cameron.

There is no one plan for C2 training. To help us respond, please would you let us know:

What are your objectives from your training?
What timescale do you have in mind for these objectives?
What other training do you do?
What rowing (on the water or erg) have you done previously?
What is your current fitness state (ie previous fitness and strength training)?
Please provide examples of recent performances on erg as the pace (time /500M), duration and strokes per minute together with indication of how hard this was (ie all out or easy session etc.)
What sessions have you been doing recently and how did that feel (ie did you have DOMS (delayed onset muscle stiffness, felt fatigued from it, stiff in certain body parts etc.)
Any questions you have about the erg and training in general?

As FS please feel free to limit the info to what you are happy to share with the world, but the more info the more tailored we can make replies.

Kind regards

Iain

[strider77]

Hi Cameron,

Welcome to Free Spirits.

There are 2 excellent training plans you can easily look at and work out if either suit you.

The first is The Wolverine Plan by Mike Caviston, it us VERY comprehensive and may be too much to start with.

The second is The Pete Plan, a simpler version of the Wolverine Plan but essentially derived from it.

Google them both and see if either appeal, if not just ask and there are plenty of freespirits with loads of experience.

I myself only have 18 years, there are many here with more.

[northwestwind]

Good afternoon!
Thanks for the kind welcome.
My goal when I started 10 weeks ago was simply improved fitness and cardio health. I have recently moved to a much colder climate (it was -20C this AM!) and bought the C2 as a way to stay active indoors during the winter. Prior to this year, I have rowed periodically in gyms (less thank 200k meters total), but never consistently. I have never rowed on water, but would be interested to try! I do gravitate towards longer distances (was an x-c runner in my younger days, and enjoy cycling in the warmer months). My goal has evolved a bit now, and I'm targeting a full marathon by April, and it would be awesome to get under 3 hours. I added some PB's in my signature (all from the last 6 weeks or so).

Time Meters Pace Watts S/M HR
1:27:58.2 21,097m 2:05.0 179 23 176
16:38.0 4,000m 2:04.7 180 23 167
16:34.4 8,000m 2:04.3 182 23 169
16:49.0 12,000m 2:06.1 174 22 172
16:44.7 16,000m 2:05.5 177 23 176
16:47.3 20,000m 2:05.9 175 24 181
4:24.8 21,097m 2:00.6 199 24 196

These are my splits from a moderate-hard half marathon effort two days ago. This session felt pretty good, pacing could probably have been better. I took a rest day yesterday, but no significant muscle soreness. I am not currently doing any other strength training, aside from a few sets of pushups every day. What would be some good complementary strength training to add to my regime?

I am a bit worried about overtraining; I have been between 40 and 80km/wk the last few weeks, and this seems to be much greater volume than the Pete Plan (but maybe closer to the Eddie Fletcher marathon plan?). I can't seem to find the original Wolverine Plan document, just numerous forum posts with discussion. If someone could point me towards the document that would be great.

[strider77]

Hi Cameron,

Try here:- https://docslib.org>doc>12266006

Let me know how you get on

Alan

[Iain]

Hi Cameron, that is a good HM, quicker than my PB!

Couldn't find you on Meterboard, if you set your logbook affiliation (in challenges tab) to FS then you should be added. WP is the basis of the "Lunchtime" PP and needs to be designed for your circumstances as it does not specify the number of sessions a week. The PP is necessarily short as it is intended all workouts (I think initially for Pete including warmup & cooldown) are under an hour. However I did 70k a week when following it and that was often in only 5 sessions. This includes warm up, recovery & cooldown metres and these add to the 40-70k listed (4k short intervals, 7.5k long intervals, 5-15k continuous and 3 x 8-15k SS). You may be confusing the Beginners Plan that is flavour of the C2 Forum and designed for those who are not ready for the full plan. However both WP and PP are designed to optimise 2k not longer distances.

[William]

Hi everyone.
I'm not a new member exactly but I've been AWOL for 15 years so I thought I"d post something here. I''m now 75 and recently retired so I have time to train seriously. My objective is to go sub 8 minutes for the 2K although this seems awfully slow compared to my times back in 2009. But age takes its toll. I had a heart attack back in 2021 treated with a stent, so I have to be careful about pushing myself too hard. Yesterday I managed 8:27 (in August last year struggled to get under 9:30). After trying to compete as a lightweight, I've decided to go back to being a heavyweight as I just had no real power as a lightweight. My current training programme is 30K a day broken down into a modified Wolverine plan. Next week I'm competing in the World Indoor Rowing Championships - a virtual event in which the technology is more challenging than the rowing. Hopefully the competition (if I actually get into the race) will spur me on to a new PB. I shall try to post a little bit more often and keep in touch with old friends.
Best wishes to my kindred spirits,
William Konarzewski

[strider77]

Hi William,

We've been in touch before and I'm blown away by your consistently rowing 30k a day and your improving times as a lightweight 75 yo.

I struggle to do those sort of distances consistently and know how hard it is.

Your decision to become a heavyweight again is a good one as your power will return as will your times.

I look forward to following your progress, I know the team are in awe of the meters you are doing

[Grobi]

Welcome back William, good to hear and read from you again!

I''m now 75 and recently retired so I have time to train seriously.

Just out of interest, what was your profession? Retiring at 75 seems comparatively late, so you must have really liked your job.

Good luck with the racing and training, please keep us posted