Thursday, February 7, 2013

500m rowing.

For the first time in years I did a times 500m row on the Concept 2 at lunchtime.  1:44.3 for 500m.  Not great.  I forgot how hard it is.  The first 100m or so I was in the low 1:30's for pace and then it hits you hard.  The last 250m are a killer, each stroke seeming harder the power draining out of each pull.  It would be good to get under 1:40 again - about 10 years ago I was at 1:39.

I am amazed by the speed that some people can achieve:

Here is a 70 year old guy pulling 1:34.2



and this guy getting 1:14.4 for a world record

6 comments:

Asclepius said...

Do an O'Neill test!

http://concept2.co.uk/training/oneill_test

Chris said...

I think I'll try that next week. What is your score?

Steven Sashen said...

I've found, much to my chagrin, that tests like this don't favor the 5'5" athlete (me) ;-)

Asclepius said...

ONT Attempt 1 - 20100129 - 1122m
ONT Attempt 2 - 20100205 - 1158m
ONT Attempt3 - 20100423 - 1200m

The scars run deep. I've not done one for three years! Must be about time for another.....

Bill Strahan said...

I had a goal for about 5 years of sub 1:30 for a 500m. About 5 weeks ago at CrossFit we had a challenge to get under 1:35. I started out rowing a 1:28 pace, and kept telling myself to slow down so I didn't explode at the end. Instead, 100m in, I was averaging under 1:30 and I just said to heck with it and started pulling. Got pace down to 1:24 for the next 100m or so and then just held on for the ride!

I DID still explode at the end, but finished at 1:29.8!! Can't cut it too much closer. A buddy came over and said "Nice job...uh...and your lips are blue." :) Less than 1.5 minutes of work, and about 10 minutes until I felt somewhat recovered.

I'm 45, 5'10" and about 200 pounds. Nice to FINALLY tick that one of the list of goals.

Bill Strahan said...

Oh, forgot to add one more thing: My stroke rate for a short sprint like this is about 35 strokes/minute. So one way I zone out is to treat it like 50 explosive deadlifts. I actually don't pay much attention to the distance covered on a 500m sprint, I just count strokes and know that I'll be done at 50, +- about 4 strokes. Helps to keep me from realizing how bad I feel when I'm doing it.