What's my best distance?

[Bob S.]

It only matters in that I wasted time having to visit twitpic.com to see your monitor photo and then had to waste more time feeding 63:34.0 and 15019m into http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/ ... ulator.asp to discover that you were rowing at an average 2:06.9 pace. (Which is mostly OK for a newbie doing a 15K row.)

Twitpic! That sounds to me as an appropriate name for photo site used by this particular poster. I know, I know, the rules say that we are not supposed to use insulting language on the forum, but I find it hard to take this guy seriously. I can't tell if he has a chip on his shoulder or if he just has a rotten attitude.

Citroen's "comment" wasn't exactly what I would call diplomatic, but it certainly was an appropriate "tip." It was a tip in the sense that it is better to use the units that other forum members feel familiar with - sec/500m rather than calories.

Bob S.

[Bob S.]

thats better thanks for the tips, my fastest 2000m is 6:59'9 and i would like to get it down to 6:30 so a lot of 5-10.000m to get some fitness, will that help. 5000m in 19:00 is my best so far(im not that fit)

ps i did the 15.000m to see if i could do it, and like i said i did 2000m b4 that so i was a bit fooked

O.K. madmax. I take back what I said in the post I just sent. I suppose that I should simply delete it, but I did want to point out that Citroen's response was intended to be helpful. Also, your reactions seemed a bit short-fused and had me wondering. Again, I take back and apologize for the twit comment.

Bob S.

[madmax]

ok no prob, i am a nice chapp would of been nice of some to say welcome an all that.....
so how often/days a week is best to train?

[Bob S.]

ok no prob, i am a nice chapp would of been nice of some to say welcome an all that.....
so how often/days a week is best to train?

Sorry about that, mm. A belated welcome to the forum.

How many days a week? Good question, but the answers vary a lot from one person to another. The elites training for the olympics put in a dozen workout sessions a week. Most folks don't have that kind of time to devote. For myself, I was up to six days a week 2 or 3 years ago, but decided that some one my age (85) should stick to resting every other day, so for this season and the last one, I have been sticking to just 3 days a week and have had decent results.

A good workout program should have a lot of variety for several reasons. It should have both long, slow pieces to build up endurance and it should have high intensity short pieces, especially intervals, to work on speed. It should alternate hard and easy days to allow recovery in between. Variety helps to stave off boredom. I have used a couple of different programs that incorporate these features and both of them were helpful. One was a simplified version of the Pete Plan, which is a 6 day a week program that runs for 3 weeks and then repeats. It was designed for rowers who had only about an hour each day, 6 days a week, to train. The other was the Interactive Programme (U.K. sp.), which is available through the U.K. Concept 2 website. It is adaptable to whatever days of the week that you want, but it assumes that you will be doing 4-6 days a week if you seriously want improvement. It is a continual program that starts out with mostly endurance work and gradually brings in the speed work. It ranges from 16 to 26 weeks.

Probably the best one is the Wolverine Plan and there is a thread on this forum about it. I haven't followed it because I am basically a very lazy guy and didn't want to bother to make the effort to read all about it. The rowers who use it regularly are quite enthusiastic about it, but it is somewhat complex and takes some study.

Regards,

Bob S.

[madmax]

85 , me 6 days a week fook noooo i work 5x12hour days, every other day yes that sounds good to me the gym opens from 6am till 10pm.
anyway thanks for the info

[Bob S.]

85 , me 6 days a week fook noooo i work 5x12hour days, every other day yes that sounds good to me the gym opens from 6am till 10pm.
anyway thanks for the info

Yeah, there are some advantages to being a retired old fart.

I see that I made an error in that message. I said that I was on a 3 day a week schedule. That is true right now when I am not training for anything, just trying to maintain conditioning (translation: keep the deterioration of age down to a slow gallop). Last season, when I was seriously training to go after the 85-89 records and a good nonathlon score, it was every other day, so 3 1/2 days a week. I also have the advantage of having my own erg, so I don't have to go out to a gym.

Bob S.

[madmax]

fook i'll be burning about 6000+cal a week, i dont eat over 2500cal a day(well i try not to) i eat lots of protein.