The friendly virtual indoor rowing club
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than last time so decided I would stick to pace rather than HR.
I got a lot out of a series of rowing plans - Fletcher is definitely a longer term benefit (but needs a larger investment of time per session as it's marathon focused), Pete is good for 5k and you can definitely see improvement over cycles through, while Rowalong has the benefit of John Steventon being online and doing form analysis. I fondly remember fellow free spirits dissecting my form in Manchester a few years ago when I suddenly developed a tick in my arms when they passed over my knees. Never happened before or since....
Rob, it took me ages to learn to switch down and row at 18-20 spm, now I spend most of my time there. It does take some time to adapt to. Having said that, that is quite a big drop off in speed. A good rule of thumb is if you are putting in around the same effort per stroke then a change of 2spm will give you a change of around of 2s in your /500m pace. You are clearly very strong, looking at your times, so I suspect there is something going on here with technique.obirobsan wrote: ↑Thu Aug 04, 2022 11:22 pm I'll have to read about the Pete Plan someday. I'm mostly just doing my steady state biz (20-30 minutes in a single long session), although I've heard enough of the benefits of rowing slower SPM that I periodically try to do that. I've found the huge falloff from 25-ish SPM (where I can do 1:50ish pace for a while) to 22-ish SPM (where at my very BEST I might get a 2:09 pace) somewhat disheartening. I think this means I have really quite poor form, or just lack some brute power (because I think lower SPM means the flywheel can decelerate more and you spend more force reaccelerating it). I fear I may just need to go somewhere that has a lot of pros that can endlessly tell me how to correct things, maybe RowHouse. I've been saving the interval training for CTC.. haha. Though, when I was treadmilling a lot, that was one of my standbys.
I've just been in touch with John Steventon and he recommends the following session for a good overview of technique -> https://youtu.be/qpkD1EKLOsgobirobsan wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 4:26 pm I use the "5" setting pretty religiously so I don't hurt myself on higher settings, which equates to around a 110ish drag. My self-generated philosophy in rowing was that everything should be fluid and basically at the same speed - so no lingering at either side, and drive and recovery at the same speed. Using this system, I have a lot of drop off in speed -- this morning I managed to get 30 minutes at 20 spm, average pace was 2:41.7. I've found there are ways I can get faster by deviating from my "system" -- one I call "fast hands" is normal speed everywhere except hard snaps in the last 25% of the drive and the first 25% of the recovery, the other I call "the staggering drunk man" where I pull a 30+ spm drive and then pause for a while and then slowly recover, and pause for a while at the catch, so that it averages out to a 20 spm stroke. Both those don't seem right, though they'll let me get much faster paces at the lower SPM.
Decided on a 60minR20 done as a countdown. Wanted to target my 30minR20 pace above & let HR drift up a bit, more concerned with doing 60mins.
I did this today Rob just to check it out. If you are watching it for technique tips then I would actually watch it without rowing. There are some good tips in here but it is very difficult to fully understand and follow it while rowing. Then watch it again while rowing.obirobsan wrote:Thanks, Jon, I'll check it out!
I find it very difficult to do hard intervals in the heat. Kudos for posting! HR down despite the heat & this felt nice & relaxed. Not looking forward to the next few days of heat. 
