on the concept website the record for 75kg is under 6 mins?!?! thats nuts!

I should find out what my Dad used to do as he rowed to a pretty high standard.

One of the lads I trained with was doing a 5.47! Sick!!

Coop_de_Ville wrote:My best time was 6.24, I was aiming for the U23 squad qualifying time which was 6.20 before I switched to the sledding.

Feck me!!! That's 40 seconds on my quickest time over 2k and I had to lie on the floor whilst my eyesight went fuzzy and I nearly blacked out. My heart rate maxed out at 206bpm too!

Aim over the winter is to get it under the 7min mark! Might try the bicarbonate of Soda trick to buffer the lactic acid build up?!

right - 4 mins did 1128m.

first attempt so pleased i think.

I did a minutes slow warm up and then 20 seconds max effort, with 10 seconds rest x 8 and hit just over 1300.

I came pritty close to breaking the 41minute barrier for a 10KM with a few stops for water in the summer.

Be interesting to see what my 4 minute time would be though going to be a while before I can find out.

For the record I was under the impression the 'difficulty level' people often refer to from 1-10, doesn't affect resistance at all. It affects the catch position which is when resistance is introduced on the stroke. 10 being right at the beginning and 1 much further back. Supposed to simulate different weight boats/people in regards to boyancy.

I may however be completely wrong and speaking out of my poop hole

Benny wrote:For the record I was under the impression the 'difficulty level' people often refer to from 1-10, doesn't affect resistance at all. It affects the catch position which is when resistance is introduced on the stroke. 10 being right at the beginning and 1 much further back. Supposed to simulate different weight boats/people in regards to boyancy.

I may however be completely wrong and speaking out of my poop hole

Its for setting the drag factor. Basically the damper (the 1-10 thingy) affects the air flow to the flywheel. The higher the setting, the more air gets in. The more air that gets in the faster the deceleration of the flywheel, the harder it is for you.

If you are using the newest version of the concept 2 you can check it by going;

Menu > More options > Display drag factor

Row a few strokes and it dispays the factor. Every machine is different with age, condition, temperature etc all having an effect.

Male rowers are told to set the drag factor at 135.

6:20 is seriously tanking it for 2k! Interesting to know that is a benchmark "qualifying time" for GB.

I haven't done a hard session on a rowing machine for a while, but last time I did I managed 2k in just under 7:30. That was hard, but definitely not my all out max effort. I pretty confident I could get under 7 minutes now.

We had a 300m rowing machine challenge in my gym at the end of last year, I did that in 51.5 seconds. I'm in better shape now so should be able to do that in sub 50. However, some of the Newcastle Falcon rugby players came into the gym that day, and I believe the best time set by one of them was around 44 seconds! Beast!

I've just picked up a new client who is training to get into the female GB rowing squad for the 2012 Olympics. I only discovered this towards the end of the session, as I kept having to move her up to a heavier kettlebell throughout the session as I couldn't believe how strong she was and she had great stamina. A lot of typical guys struggle swinging a 16kg kettlebell for reps, let alone timed sets of 60 seconds*. After a few weeks with her, I'm confident I'll have got her up to the 24kg so that she can humble and shame most of the male gym members, haha.

Makes me think I need to start hammering the rowing machine a lot more, need to up my game so than I can start swinging my 32kg bell for decent lengths of time rather than reps!

* And to be honest, the average person's strength endurance is so dismal that they can't even swing a 8kg for very long before they're wiped out.

Aren

I agree - and theres alot of truth to that fact that us in the western world are losing our fitness and capacity with the advent of internet, fad diets and basically having everything automated.

Aren wrote:6:20 is seriously tanking it for 2k! Interesting to know that is a benchmark "qualifying time" for GB.

I haven't done a hard session on a rowing machine for a while, but last time I did I managed 2k in just under 7:30. That was hard, but definitely not my all out max effort. I pretty confident I could get under 7 minutes now.

We had a 300m rowing machine challenge in my gym at the end of last year, I did that in 51.5 seconds. I'm in better shape now so should be able to do that in sub 50. However, some of the Newcastle Falcon rugby players came into the gym that day, and I believe the best time set by one of them was around 44 seconds! Beast!

I've just picked up a new client who is training to get into the female GB rowing squad for the 2012 Olympics. I only discovered this towards the end of the session, as I kept having to move her up to a heavier kettlebell throughout the session as I couldn't believe how strong she was and she had great stamina. A lot of typical guys struggle swinging a 16kg kettlebell for reps, let alone timed sets of 60 seconds*. After a few weeks with her, I'm confident I'll have got her up to the 24kg so that she can humble and shame most of the male gym members, haha.

Makes me think I need to start hammering the rowing machine a lot more, need to up my game so than I can start swinging my 32kg bell for decent lengths of time rather than reps!

* And to be honest, the average person's strength endurance is so dismal that they can't even swing a 8kg for very long before they're wiped out.

Who cares about swings? Snatches is where it's at!

What kind of work are you doing with her? I know from my days on world class start weights were only used mainly for circuit type sessions and reps of 15+ (although I did my own routine and snuck in a few 8 rep sets!!).