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New rower with high hopes and room for growth

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 8:29 pm
by Charon
Hello Free Spirits,
I am a new member and am excited to join this community. I stumbled on this forum after an exciting day yesterday at my Orange Theory class where I clocked in at 6:48 on the 2k row in my first attempt (although I am reading that these are easier to row than C2, so I am excited to get access to one of these). I am 6'3, 232 lbs, 33yo and have a lot of belly fat I can get rid of. I know I still had more in the tank and didn't start my sprint early enough. I am brand new to this, and would love to pick everyone's brain here about how far I might be able to take this. I signed up for an on-the-water course in Oakland CA. My love for the ocean/lakes makes it worth it enough, but being motivated by some races adds an exciting extra element to improving my technique and PB.

First question, about how much rest do you give yourself between PB attempts? I know there a lot of factors here, but getting a general sense would help me a great deal. I felt very pumped to get back on the machine today to try to improve.

Thanks for any advice, and I look forward to learning a great deal here!

Re: New rower with high hopes and room for growth

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 11:56 am
by JonT
Hello Charon and welcome to the group.

It looks like the group has been quite quiet since your original post.

It's great to hear how enthusiastic you are right at the start of your rowing adventure. It's very difficult to judge your time because, as you imply, most people who row seriously, including pretty much everyone on this group will row on a Concept2 and that is really the benchmark used to assess performance. So I would encourage you to find a C2 to row on and see what your times look like on that. If you can still turn out a sub-7 minute 2K you are doing extremely well indeed.

In terms of your question around PBs. IF you want to improve then you really need to focus on a balanced approach to your rowing with plenty of "steady state" rows to build rowing fitness, some tougher rows to build performance and the OCCASIONAL full-out PB effort at your distance of choice.

Many people here follow training plans such as the Pete Plan. A more recent alternative would be to look at the YouTube RowAlong channel and take on the 2K training plan. This channel is excellent for covering technique, training approach, and also a well thought through balanced training plan.

I look forward to hearing how your training and performance improves.

Re: New rower with high hopes and room for growth

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 3:29 pm
by plummy
Hi Charon. As Jon says, welcome to the group and apologies for the lack of response to your enthusiastic first post.

At 232lbs and 6 ft 3 - you've got huge levers and the chance with training and technique to be VERY quick. A lot of the sharp end of rowing is how much pain you're happy to endure as the early gains are often large and easier to come by but as time goes by, the gains become less each time (but conversely all the more satisfying). Ultimately, it's an ever decreasing circle but that's fine, that's the name of the game.

Jon is right in suggesting the Pete Plan as a solid base and you are comparing you against you, not against anyone else. Each time you repeat a session your target is the time/distance you set on the previous occasion.

Looking forward to hearing about your progress - but again, as Jon says, we are 99.99% a Concept II site so for true comparison, you'll need to somehow to get access to one - especially if you want to join in any of the monthly competitions ;-)

Plummy

Re: New rower with high hopes and room for growth

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 8:40 pm
by Charon
Thanks for the thorough advice and encouragement, Jon and Plummy. I will look for a C2 and try to see how I perform on the standard, and will begin the Pete Plan and look into RowAlong as you recommend. Once I get the C2 access, I am excited to add my metrics here. Thanks for the warm welcome!

Re: New rower with high hopes and room for growth

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 7:23 pm
by Wolfmiester
Hi Charon, and good luck with it.
Please do come back with more questions if/when you have them, and progress updates of course!