Questions for rowers

Did lightweight crew my sophomore year at Cal, but washed out during fall training because I wanted a social life instead. Got my 5M meters free shirt from Concept2 a few years back. Pulled 20k yesterday for the first time in a while, took me 1:25 but that was after a 2hr workout at the gym, and I'm 48 so fuck you
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I'd heard mention @BearsWiin of your being a dude that still pulls ergs, so props for this. I'm all in favor of old guy ergin' - still use it myself - but why 20,000 meters? Are you training for a marathon or something? 2:07.5 splits for and hour and 25 mins of work at age 48 ain't nothing to be ashamed of. In my college days, we never did pieces for time longer 10,000 meters; for longer work at low strokes per minute, it was lot more stuff like 6 x 10 min pieces with 2 mins rest in between.

Amongst my friend group which is most ex- UW rowers, we have a saying: 2:00 min splits is the new 1:40. Most of us - me included - were sub 20:00 min guys on 6000 meters, so 1:39 or better, but these days we're all happy to just hold under 2:00 min splits for 30 minutes give or take.

 
Did lightweight crew my sophomore year at Cal, but washed out during fall training because I wanted a social life instead. Got my 5M meters free shirt from Concept2 a few years back. Pulled 20k yesterday for the first time in a while, took me 1:25 but that was after a 2hr workout at the gym, and I'm 48 so fuck you
Click to expand...

I'd heard mention @BearsWiin of your being a dude that still pulls ergs, so props for this. I'm all in favor of old guy ergin' - still use it myself - but why 20,000 meters? Are you training for a marathon or something? 2:07.5 splits for and hour and 25 mins of work at age 48 ain't nothing to be ashamed of. In my college days, we never did pieces for time longer 10,000 meters; for longer work at low strokes per minute, it was lot more stuff like 6 x 10 min pieces with 2 mins rest in between.

Amongst my friend group which is most ex- UW rowers, we have a saying: 2:00 min splits is the new 1:40. Most of us - me included - were sub 20:00 min guys on 6000 meters, so 1:39 or better, but these days we're all happy to just hold under 2:00 min splits for 30 minutes give or take.
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Nothing special. It's just like a bit of distance running. Burn off the calories from the previous night's wine drinking while watching UEFA Champions League soccer on FS1. I've never been comfortable with intervals (at 5'11" 180# I don't really have the brute strength or leverage to do them well anyway), so I just pick a distance and see how quickly I can do it.

 
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I think 89ute, you need to realize that in spite of UW giving out rowing schollies to hundreds fake rowers, your daughter still isn't getting one and you still have to pay for college.
 
I think 89ute, you need to realize that in spite of UW giving out rowing schollies to hundreds fake rowers, your daughter still isn't getting one and you still have to pay for college.
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Too late. she graduated about two years ago. Cost was about 7k a year, her books were free.
 
I rowed in high school but that was 20 years ago plus. So it was a thing then. Around the NW, you usually just row for a neighborhood club more or less. I don't know about back east. It might be a club thing at a couple of schools, can't remember. The Canadians are more wannabe Limeys so they row for their snobby private schools more often. We used to go up there for races sometimes. I'm not 6' 5" and 230 lbs. though. Back then I topped out at 5' 9 3/4" and 158, maybe 160 lbs.so they'd stick me with lightweights. What was I going to do though, play football? Play basketball? It's basically a sport for 6' 3" preppy white dudes who aren't particularly athletic, or don't want their body to take a pounding in sports like football. I'm not sorry I did it, but post high school, I barely gave it a second thought. I saw this thread about a week ago and really had to struggle to remember the terminology such as stern, bow, and what seats were what.
 
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I rowed in high school but that was 20 years ago plus. So it was a thing then. Around the NW, you usually just row for a neighborhood club more or less. I don't know about back east. It might be a club thing at a couple of schools, can't remember. The Canadians are more wannabe Limeys so they row for their snobby private schools more often. We used to go up there for races sometimes. I'm not 6' 5" and 230 lbs. though. Back then I topped out at 5' 9 3/4" and 158, maybe 160 lbs.so they'd stick me with lightweights. What was I going to do though, play football? Play basketball? It's basically a sport for 6' 3" preppy white dudes who aren't particularly athletic, or don't want their body to take a pounding in sports like football. I'm not sorry I did it, but post high school, I barely gave it a second thought. I saw this thread about a week ago and really had to struggle to remember the terminology such as stern, bow, and what seats were what.
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True that on the Canadian HS rowing programs being more snooty than the American HS programs in the Northwest. I think the "preppy" factor really varies from program to program. Our UW squads never felt very preppy. But the Ivy League teams had that vibe, which make up most of the schools that "care" about Men's Rowing. The Concept II Rowing Machine is the great equalizer for tall, un-athletic dudes: it does not care about your vertical, how fast you can run a 40, or your hand/eye coordination. All it cares about is how big is your motor (over 6 minutes) and pain threshold. If you put a 6'4" 220 lb football player who is a better athlete on a rowing machine, they can't make it go any faster than a 6'4" rower with a huge motor.
 
I rowed in high school but that was 20 years ago plus. So it was a thing then. Around the NW, you usually just row for a neighborhood club more or less. I don't know about back east. It might be a club thing at a couple of schools, can't remember. The Canadians are more wannabe Limeys so they row for their snobby private schools more often. We used to go up there for races sometimes. I'm not 6' 5" and 230 lbs. though. Back then I topped out at 5' 9 3/4" and 158, maybe 160 lbs.so they'd stick me with lightweights. What was I going to do though, play football? Play basketball? It's basically a sport for 6' 3" preppy white dudes who aren't particularly athletic, or don't want their body to take a pounding in sports like football. I'm not sorry I did it, but post high school, I barely gave it a second thought. I saw this thread about a week ago and really had to struggle to remember the terminology such as stern, bow, and what seats were what.
Click to expand...

True that on the Canadian HS rowing programs being more snooty than the American HS programs in the Northwest. I think the "preppy" factor really varies from program to program. Our UW squads never felt very preppy. But the Ivy League teams had that vibe, which make up most of the schools that "care" about Men's Rowing. The Concept II Rowing Machine is the great equalizer for tall, un-athletic dudes: it does not care about your vertical, how fast you can run a 40, or your hand/eye coordination. All it cares about is how big is your motor (over 6 minutes) and pain threshold. If you put a 6'4" 220 lb football player who is a better athlete on a rowing machine, they can't make it go any faster than a 6'4" rower with a huge motor.
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I hated those ergs (I think that's what you're talking about). I got down to like a 7:10/2000 meters, which isn't terrible for a guy my size then, but it's not great.

I should have done cross cuntry or something...I got down to a 5:40 mile once without even training that much.
 
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