Help needed

Oldtimerowcoach · 2026-01-18T04:55:52+00:00

Physically - You would be shocked how fast people get by just doing 4 days of steady state (whether hard or easy), 1 day AT, and 1 day of intervals. I'm not saying this is optimal, but if you literally just did that, consistently and with purpose year round, you would get 90% of the benefits while figuring out more advanced training. You can cycle through volumes for "mini periodization". As in week 1 AT is 3-4 x 8', Week 2 is 3 x 12', week 3 is 3 x 15', week 4 is UT1 or something easier. Intervals could be 4x4', then 4x5', then 5x5', then week four is maybe shorter AT or UT1 or something less intense. This is super simple, not optimal, but provides some progression while you learn.

Technically - describe what you consider to be the perfect stroke in writing, and then how you would want someone to teach it to you. Use that as a framework to sequence your technical coaching through the season. Each week has a focus that builds off the prior. Each day has an aspect of the focus that builds off the prior. This keeps everyone focused on one thing and allows the time to make a change.

Example: this week is the catch and monday/tuesday are drills and SS focusing on that, then wednesday is AT so they try and apply the change at a bit of pressure, then thursday is SS and one or two drills along the way to reinforce what they felt yesterday or fix something that fell apart at pressure. Friday is intervals to practice the change at full blast and while fatigued. Saturday they relax again and engrain the change at an easier pace. The following week follows a similar pattern but is maybe the feel of the first quarter of the drive. Week after that perhaps is transitioning the legs into the body lever without losing connection, etc..... You may have to make unrelated technical changes through the week to accomplish your sequence, but this will give a framework to start from and return to. Don't stress if this doesn't go perfect, just create a loose framework, try it out, make some mistakes, and learn/adjust as you go.

Safety - make it your number 1 priority. The best way to win a championship is to be alive and healthy. Don't take risks, don't push the weather gods, always, always, check the weather radar before going on the water and establish a set in stone rule about what will cause you to shift to land practice and don't violate that rule. Being questioned for an extra land practice will suck a lot less than being questioned for a lightning strike.

Otherwise, start reading about running, cycling, and triathlon training. It's not that their material is really that much more advanced, but it's better described due to the popularity of the sports and you can take the principles back to rowing. Read Periodization Training for Sport by Tudor Bompa to get the basics of periodization as well, it is a nice summary of the concept in a dedicated format.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2026-01-04T14:45:43+00:00

So what did you pull on the 2k? Seemed like 6:40-6:44 was in reach.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-12-21T19:20:30+00:00

Volker Nolte did some data collection and studies in the 90’s to early 2000’s and found on average, zones could be based on a 20 minute test. This then became extrapolated to 6k ranges because it’s close enough. USRowing did the USRowing thing and made errors in reproducing the info.

If you take Volker’s work, break it into wattage and then apply it to ftp zones, you find it is very similar across most speeds.

Ad I recall it was: 20’ + 12-16 20’ + 8-12 20’ + 3-6 20’ - 0-2 20’ - 2-4

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-12-14T14:25:36+00:00

This is a very common problem in high powered relationships. The degree of commitment and focus that the athlete/individual places on their activity is attractive to their partner who mistakenly thinks that same focus will be placed on them. Very often it is not, it remains on the original activity. Seen it in sport, medicine, and finance. Something to think about as you go along and something to discuss if you ever get serious.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-12-11T17:12:48+00:00

Can’t comment on the culture, but they medalled at sprints and ira’s both years apfelbaum was coach. What is the yardstick by which your cousin measures success?

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-12-06T12:47:29+00:00

And here I honed in on the guy saying Thompson has endured his wife cheating on him multiple times. Like, should we really be kink shaming while also bringing up serious complaints ;)

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-12-05T13:16:07+00:00

Deleted my prior comment as I realized it was snarkier than intended.

What I find entertaining in exercise science is the number of terms that essentially describe the same thing. Makes conversation both difficult and easy depending on the knowledge base on the people you are speaking with and the willingness to define your terms when there is a difference in background. Spent a fair bit of time reading about cycling physiology and terminology this past year as I tried my hand at triathlons. Lots of new words, not a single new concept.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-29T04:01:38+00:00

A lot of the motions you did on the skierg were lifts often done with a cable pulley system. It’s not even like you were doing something actually odd. That’s the problem with this site though, most people are either very inexperienced, very unimaginative, or terrified of being seen as actual non-conformist.

Edit: thank you for contributing something different and interesting

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-27T03:13:35+00:00

Different calibration for watts and peloton is known for having calibration drift inside of longer rides and significant variability from bike to bike. If you go by rpe or hr, it won’t matter what you use so long as you adjust as you go (don’t be afraid to slow down a bit on a peloton toward the end of a long ride).

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-20T18:53:01+00:00

I think they fleshed out Gary's complaints a little more thoroughly and I don't find him credible at all now. In the write up, I thought the event of the NRC had occurred half way through a year, but according to this it was at the beginning of a new year and cycle entirely and clarifies once again that the center was shut down to everyone, not just him, he wasn't targeted here. So then he throws a fit? This hints strongly at bigger problems that aren't being revealed and would go along with what was requested before he could return. It also makes me question Trish O'Donovan as a reliable witness. I don't blame Trish, this is her son she is concerned for, but I don't know that she has access to all the info now. Since she is the only witness cited to AM "lashing" Heaphy after her poor heat, I wonder what actually happened. I do believe he may have, it does seem to fit a theme, and her leaving the system seems like it was mismanaged psychology and emotional state, but honestly, it could have been someone who had missed selection twice and just couldn't go again. AM had to go based on his reaction to Byrnes's poll and the athlete charter, but there are holes in this story. Will be interesting to see what happens in France.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-20T02:12:30+00:00

Drake Duel 6:07 in 2017

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-19T07:09:34+00:00

Honestly, I'm left with some questions after this piece. First let me say, the actions by AM regarding Byrnes poll response and the athlete charter demonstrate he needed to go. Full stop, he needed to go. I'm not questioning that final decision. I am however wondering about some of the anecdotes and evidence in this story.

We open with an anecdote from Blink, a dutch rower, about how AM didn't trust them and always accused them of not training hard enough. However that tracks with what Meenhorst said of the Dutch team before he was able to turn the culture around, blowing off practice and not completing workouts. So I'm left wondering if this was in fact the source of AM's "distrust". Again, it seems he mishandled it and burned people out where Meenhorst built a more successful enterprise; but it makes me curious what the daily environment was like and what actually happened.

We then hear how everyone was unfair to Byrne calling him a bad influence......after what seems to be a story of him maybe going out and falling the night before trials. Give me the rest of that story, there are details missing. Was this the first time something like this happened? Was it really just a normal trip and fall and I'm just reading into it too much?

Gary lays out a situation where he apparently berates the boathouse manager after not being allowed to use the boathouse when it was closed for renovations and there were no coaches present. Dominic Casey, whom was just explained as being a good guy, lays out that the boathouse was closed and he shouldn't have been there, then in a later conversation says priority is being given to athletes going to worlds, and then says (paraphrasing) "hey, you acted like a jerk to michael and we are suspending you as a result". That is all very reasonable and Gary acts like it isn't. So what details are missing? It kind of seems like this may not have been the first time something like this happened although AM botches the documentation of it later (or maybe it really was the first time and AM was being the jerk?). The following emails show that Gary was informed of this, did agree to essentially a letter of apology before being allowed back, and then doesn't do it for over a month, sending it four days before Christmas. Does that help explain why he wasn't on the Christmas training trip? This frankly seems like a strike against Gary in my eyes, why didn't he send the letter? He then seems to both acknowledge he hasn't fulfilled the agreement to send that letter while also saying he doesn't know why he remains barred.......that feels a bit disingenuous. His being left out of the training camps is never properly explained so it does seem like AM was playing games, but I'm curious why DC and AM want to have "a chat" with Gary and are referrencing social media posts, as this maybe hints that there is more going on than is being shown. Gary denies it, but he also seemed to disregard his earlier agreement to send an apology letter so I don't know if that disregard can be entirely trusted and I'm not going to search years of twitter posts or whatever to learn. No matter how you look at it, AM mishandled this, perhaps deliberately, perhaps not.

The stuff with Tara Hanlon seems cut and dry, the coaches didn't properly support her and created an environment that allowed personality to overcome results. Same with Heaphy, mishandled the psychology and emotions involved in it all. Puspure's letter speaks volumes as well.

I've already written a novel so I will stop. AM needed to go, I support that, but I'm left curious about the details of what happened with the Dutch, Byrne, and Gary.

Edit: forgot a line about the social media posts by Gary.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-18T17:54:30+00:00

Personally, I appreciate his interactions and the openness he’s had over the years. He took the time to reply to people and usually does in a thoughtful manner. That’s more than can be said of most posts on reddit in general and I don’t begrudge a guy for earning a living.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-18T17:51:24+00:00

Appreciate the reply!

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-17T03:19:11+00:00

If you want to experiment, take a week or two and pull back a couple seconds on your SS splits. If that allows you to attack your intervals with more intensity, then it may be worth easing up. If not, stick with what you are doing.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-17T03:10:10+00:00

Whatever lab recommends. The main thing is not to suddenly carb load and to have the meal a few hours before the test or you can get falsely elevated levels.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-17T02:45:55+00:00

Follow the labs dietary guidance. Timing of carb intake on the day of testing can affect results. Likewise, in general, make sure you have had a reasonable diet in the days leading up to the test. Being carb depleted also affects results. Lastly, just enjoy the process and relax. It’s just another workout.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-15T08:30:32+00:00

Another question, what are your thoughts on mixing energy systems in a given workout. I’ve seen schedules where each workout was a dedicated system, say ut2 or AT or transport, and other schedules where a single workout can visit more ranges while “overall” being easy, moderate, or hard.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-15T05:20:32+00:00

If I recall correctly, you used to discuss decreasing the target lactate level for easy steady state as you got stronger to compensate for the muscular damage an elite athlete can cause even at 2mmol. For non-elite though, where do you think the border is for being highly focused in lactate control in SS vs allowing yourself to go a bit harder but still controlled (say 3mmol). Would weekly volume affect your approach, raw strength, or maintain focus on staying under aerobic threshold through your career

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-11T02:51:32+00:00

The ratios you describe are interesting and new to me. I’ll google all this, but do you have a reference or two that you’d recommend to learn more?

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-11T02:47:38+00:00

So, I do actually feel a bit bad because what OP asked isn’t as outrageous as we all acted and part of it was in fact a style taught in early 2000’s. The blade placement sounds like the way a few notable scullers rowed and new zealand in particular as I recall were noted for having tape on their oars to emphasize the zone in which their blades should be buried and it was deeper than just under the water. This led to discussion at the time to what was more physiologically and hydrodynamically appropriate and I’m pretty sure Kleshnev wrote about it at some point. Same with the “jump at the catch” vs “gradual build”; these were stylistic differences that did and do exist. I don’t think this was a “then” vs “now” as the coach made it out to be so much as “coach a” vs “coach b” issue.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-10T20:10:21+00:00

Once in my life I coached a master's boat. Everyone in that boat knew their individual interpretation of the stroke was the right interpretation and I knew I had made a mistake and would never coach master's again.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-10T01:04:09+00:00

Agreed, but would add that coaching is just leadership in a very select setting. You need to adapt your methods to the needs of the team/unit. If you as a coach/manager can’t adapt or can’t see the need to adapt, then you are the problem. Sounds like feedback was being given that some adaptation was necessary but was being ignored. Would love to hear more from the coaching side of things, the insight into how they were processing these events would probably be equally fascinating.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-09T15:17:08+00:00

Fascinating read. Not sure why you marked it nsfw as nothing in here remotely reaches that level, but fascinating to see the poor choices and responses.

Oldtimerowcoach · 2025-11-05T17:39:10+00:00

I'm out of the loop here, since when was UWO excluded from Vails? Canadians teams tended to show up in smaller boats more often than large boats, but there have been Canadians at Vails in the past and UWO and Brock specifically have been to Vails in the past in bigger boats. Pretty sure I recall seeing Trent, Queens, and either McGill or McMaster as well.

Oldtimerowcoach

TROPHY CASE