After my first foray into rowing, on Sunday, I gave myself a day off.
I did do a two mile walk on the treadmill and an hour’s ride on Zwift in the evening.
I returned to the rower on Tuesday having a bit of a warm up followed by the second workout in the beginners’ section. I had trouble getting the pacing right not being able to speed up enough.
Having another rest day (rowing) my next attempt was on Thursday.
Following a ten minute warm up, I attempted the third workout which would have me rowing above my FTP. As I don’t know my rowing FTP, I set it at a wildly inaccurate 2:45 / 500m meaning that I could row five hundred metres in two minutes forty five seconds and keep this up for a while.
I had trouble getting below three minutes. You can see from the graph that my speed hardly moved even though I was trying harder !
trying to crack this rowing lark, I returned to the “oars’ again the next day. In the virtual world that we’re rowing in (EXR) there are a couple of fun games, one of which is Shark Attack.
Basically, you row but as you do you are being pursued by, you guessed it, a shark.
As you progress, the shark gets quicker so eventually it’ll catch you (and eat you).
I was rubbish and only managed three hundred and sixty four metres. Obviously, the game thinks that I’m better than I am.
I can manage a split of 3:10/500m fairly comfortably so set my FTP a bit quicker than this. Ideally, I need to do an FTP test but not today.
Trying to row with correct form (a subject in itself) I did a further four kilometres at around 3:10. Not too bad.
I must be getting somewhat used to this rowing lark, as I was keen to jump back in on Saturday morning getting four and a bit kilometres in before breakfast at an even pace, paying close attention to my form. It’s getting easier / better – I think.
This morning (Sunday) I did a warm up followed by a race. I was pitched against five other rowers who left me standing on the five hundred metre course. I was, however, quite satisfied with my effort creeping along a bit quicker than usual averaging 2:53.
I am getting to the stage where speeding up (more strokes per minute) equates to a quicker time. It was still hard work but I have now completed a ‘just row’, a workout, a minigame and an event. I’ve probably learnt some XP for that achievement shouting me into level seven.
I will have a rowing rest day tomorrow and return on Tuesday.
It is getting better but I feel that I have a long way to go. Best of all, I’m starting to enjoy it.
Sue and I are really taken with this new sport especially as it’s something that we can both do. Unusually, Sue is a lot better than I and I’m not sure if I’ll ever catch up.
Satisfied as we are with our budget machine, we put a bid on eBay for an ‘industry standard’ Concept 2 machine. This evening we won it.
It was only done a hundred and fifty kilometres so should be in good nick. We need to go over to Sutton Coldfield, tomorrow, to pick it up and presumably get it home and try it out.
Oh, hang on ! Wasn’t I having a rest day tomorrow ?
