New to Rowing...Want to lose 15-20lbs...suggestions?

[Bob S.]

Did thinks slightly differntly today. Started out hard to get my HR to 125+as quickly as possible then held it. Maintained an average pace of 2:45.9. Did one minute sprints every 10 minutes over the hour and managed 10857m. Stopped once for 30 seconds to hydrate. HR during the steady parts was 128 and jumped to 142 during the sprints. It appears as if I have lost 3 pounds, but will see if it still says so tomorrow. Thanks Bob and Greg for all of the sound advice!

How did it feel? If you don't feel wiped out the following day, you are probably on track. Just be sure not to overdo it. It takes a lot of patience and persistence, but just take it one small step at a time. Don't be too concerned about day to day weight fluctuations. You have to wait it out for the long term results.

Bob S.

[Corkster52]

Felt pretty good actually. A little stiff this afternoon though. This body of mine not used the sprints, but it's a good kind of stiffness. Needed to be done.

[Corkster52]

Having a real hard time taking a day off or dropping my pace/distance to less than the previous day. Did a little over 11K today with an avg pace of 2:44 and spm around 25. HR did spike to 160 during one of the sprints, but overall everything felt great. Been doing more reading in the book and on the net and there are 2 schools of thought. Keep the pace and to heck with the heart rate or adhere to the heart rate and the drop the pace/spm to do so. My competitive side wants one but not sure if I should be doing so. What are your thoughts?

[shorelinelaw]

@corkster -

I'm not rowing the distances you are, but I had the opposite experience. I got myself up to 6,000M - then took not one, but (really through some bad timing) two days off. But it was a good thing. My hamstrings were so tight. My arms were fatigued. I'm now throwing 6,000 M off like nothing at an even faster pace. I don't want to take two days off again - but I do want to keep taking at least one....maybe 2 days off a week. It seems to actually be helpful.

[Bokaj]

@corkster - I'm having the same problem of just wanting to scale up but I did take one recovery day and my workout the next day felt better. I'm doing the interactive program from the uk site, I'm doing 6 days a week and each week the second 3 workouts are just a repeat of the first 3. I was annoyed about scaling back each week but I'm choosing to look at it as a partial recovery day. Plus I get a chance to see improvement each week.

[Corkster52]

Thanks for the feedback guys. It's official! Will be taking Easter Sunday off! Felt strong today. 11.3K, 25spm, 2:38, no stops....butt hurts!...lol

[gregsmith01748]

Re: Taking days off. One tip. The main point of the recovery day is to give your muscles a chance to regenerate and for minor tweaks to heal, before they flare up into something more major, or cause you to compensate by changing your stroke in a bad way. Just because you are taking the day off of rowing does not mean that you need to be sedentary. A long walk, yard work, or other non-rowing "active" activities are fine. I used to worry a lot about losing momentum in my weight loss by taking the recovery day and it still nags at me a little bit. Worse, I feel antsy all day when I don't exercise. But I keep in mind what happened to me when I didn't do this. Last year, by obsessively running when I could not get to an erg while travelling, I ended up aggravating the osteo-arthritis in my knee and lost a full 2 weeks of training.

[Corkster52]

Greg, you mentioned a while back about doing Fartlek, so the next day I started doing 1 minute sprints every 10 minutes for the hour on the erg, until tonight. I figured since the sprints were kind of really pushing it for me, I figured I would try to do a steady pace for the hour like I had before. lol...I think it was the longest hour of my life. Got to a pace of 2:37 and held it there. Forty minutes into it my HR was 138 and gradually went up to 142 as the hour ended. Tomorrow I will back to changing things up through the workout! Gotta figure out something for the seat. That hour in the saddle is painful. Tried a doubled towel and it helped little.

[gregsmith01748]

60' is a long time, but sometimes it's good just to push as hard as you can for as long as you can.

With regard to the pain in the butt. Your mileage may vary, but I find it a lot more comfortable if I am perched very near the front of the seat. If I sit further back I get numbness that sort of progresses down the back of my legs. It will actually make it all the way to my heels during a long row sometimes. There are numerous padding ideas floating around. Multiple plies of bubble wrap, a folded towel, and customer made pads sold online from somewhere.

As for a workout idea. Try this, it like rolling hills. I'm guessing about pace, so you'll want to experiment

4' at 2:50
3' at 2:45
2' at 2:40
1' at 2:35 (or faster)
repeat 6 times

or speed it all up by 5 seconds per segment, and take a 2' rest between each segment.

[Corkster52]

I like it! I'll do it! Doubt I will maintain my 11.5K in an hour, but it looks like fun! Thanks

[Bob S.]

Your mileage may vary, but I find it a lot more comfortable if I am perched very near the front of the seat. If I sit further back I get numbness that sort of progresses down the back of my legs. It will actually make it all the way to my heels during a long row sometimes. There are numerous padding ideas floating around. Multiple plies of bubble wrap, a folded towel, and customer made pads sold online from somewhere.

Sitting on the front of the seat definitely helps. C2 sells their own pads for $3.50 US:

https://www2.concept2.com/VIA/index.jsp?RefAgent=IND

Click on accessories. It is the thing that looks like a mask for an old-fashioned masquerade ball. I use one regularly and find that it helps a lot. My old rowing club installed the C2 pads on all of their indoor rowers.

For the really long pieces like marathons, coach Xeno Mueller recommended using two small folded towels with a space between for air circulation to help with cooling. I used that on top of a C2 pad and it has gotten me through several marathons (for me that is well over 3 hours). I won't say that it was painless, far from it. The butt pain is the hardest part of doing a marathon. But with the pad and the towels, I am good for well over an hour before the pain kicks in.

Bob S.

[Corkster52]

Alright. Did it, but it did feel a little weird (taking the breaks that is). I did find an old "garden kneeler" pad that was just a little larger than the seat. It was about half the density of the seat. Trimmed it down and away I went. Gotta say, much more tolerable than the steady state 60 minutes. The only place I messed up was on the 5th set I lost track of my rest period and the 2 minutes turned into 3 and my display timed out and went to zero, but at the rate I was going I am sure I did a little over 10K. I think I understand the concept (pardon the pun) a little better now and I will have to toy with different rates, durations and rest times so I get pushed but not slaughtered. Thanks for the suggestions Greg and Bob!

[Corkster52]

Played with pace a bit. Started out hard, got HR to 125 then settled in to 2:35 pace, with 1 minute sprint to 30 spm each 10 minute interval, then dropped back to 2:50 for one minute to recover, then back to 2:35. Did no breaks, but felt good overall. 11.7K in 60 minutes! A long way from your pace Greg or Bob, but I will keep plugging away. The pad I cut for the seat last night really worked. Only slight discomfort after an hour!

[Corkster52]

As advised, took my first "day off" since I started rowing a couple of weeks ago. The wife and I went for a 4 mile walk at a HR off 115 and 120 steps/min. Even did about a 50 yard jog. Really appreciate the no impact of the C2 now! I think on my next day off I will give the kettle-bells a try. The wife only weighs about 115, but swings 35 pounders around like a loaf of bread. LOL Looking forward to getting back in the saddle tomorrow.

[carlb]

Greg, you mentioned a while back about doing Fartlek, so the next day I started doing 1 minute sprints every 10 minutes for the hour on the erg

I would not call that a Farlek, more like a power 20.

The Fartlek I like are 3 steps with an easy one to allow recovery to working HR. So go 200m hard, 200m easy, then 600m target/normal to make 1000m, repeat. So for you go up to 2:27 for 200m hard, then 2:47 for 200m, then 600m @ 2:37, repeat.

To focus on HR you can also do 200m meters hard, then row easy until HR recovers to target, then resume target pace unti end of 1000m.

I think it was the longest hour of my life.... Got to a pace of 2:37 and held it there. Forty minutes into it my HR was 138 and gradually went up to 142 as the hour ended. Gotta figure out something for the seat. That hour in the saddle is painful. Tried a doubled towel and it helped little.

The seat pad from C2 for $4.50 is so worth it. I did 60 min yesterday. While it felt like "the longest hour of my life" my seat was never sore. I actually moved back in the seat as rec by a coach, I think to prevent leaning back too far.