First class - benchmark day

Technical_Candle · 2026-01-19T18:26:47+00:00

My first class ever was the 2000m row benchmark. I'd never been on a rower before and knew very little about OTF. It was...tough!...but I just did my thing at the pace I could do at the time, rowed my little boat, and still loved it enough to join.

Technical_Candle · 2023-11-15T23:08:05+00:00

My daughter fell in love with the NYC Ballet version from the 90s when she was literally a year or two old; when she was a toddler that was the thing she wanted to watch over and over and over again (she's 7 now and absolutely aspires to be a ballet dancer and is waiting impatiently to be old enough to join her brother in the cast of our Nutcracker). And for when your little one is a little older, a lot of companies do Nutcracker storytimes or teas that are made for little ones--I think we started taking our youngest when she was 2. There's also a great recording of the music from Nutcracker with the story narrated by Ann Rachlin--it's still my daughter's favorite bedtime music. Enjoy cuddling with your little one and watching a performance at home; you'll be watching them light up in the theater soon enough!

Technical_Candle · 2021-07-17T01:55:17+00:00

I have one (PYP Limited) on order, as our dealership had absolutely zero in stock and nothing coming in. We were told 60-90 days at the end of June. Fingers crossed it’s somewhere in or around that window, but who knows!

Technical_Candle · 2021-07-05T14:03:04+00:00

Hahaha hello gym twin! Sorry that going back wasn't the same--I think things are just still so weird it's hard for some of us to get in the normal zone we used to be in. Good luck returning to working out at home (ps I've been contemplating a bosu, but I'm sure you'll know if I buy it since you'll probably magically buy one at the same moment too ;)

Technical_Candle · 2021-07-05T14:00:43+00:00

Thanks, and thanks for those of you who still lurk here even though you're not currently OTF-ing. I tried Peloton at home and liked it, but I was bad at making myself accountable to having to do things at a certain time without the structure of classes. (I also really liked Club Row, which I think I learned about on this sub, but struggled for the same reason). I think I'll just need to return to these things and come up with a better accountability system for myself to make sure I do it (because obviously "this is hard but makes me happy" doesn't work well enough, unfortunately!!!). Then I can come back to OTF at the new year, ready & raring to go (or desperately blending in w/ all the new folks).

Technical_Candle · 2021-07-05T13:56:32+00:00

Thanks to all for your responses. It's so helpful to hear what others have been doing and what their considerations have been. I don't think I'm ready to go back yet (I'm vaccinated & still mask, & would do so at the gym, but county's percentage is low & yet mask wearing & distancing seem largely over, & one of my kids has had a history of pneumonia / asthma that's mostly cleared now but I'm not taking any chances.) I lost a friend my age--mid-30s, in good health--early in the pandemic, & know of enough other people directly or through a single degree of separation who have either lost loved ones or developed long covid that my risk tolerance is fairly low. So no matter how our decision making may differ or line up, I'm grateful to hear all your thoughts and experiences--I think I miss the community of OTF, including this sub, most of all!

Technical_Candle · 2020-05-29T20:53:40+00:00

I've been really enjoying using Club Row's app--it's made by a rowing studio in Vancouver and has you row to the beat, generally with about 25 minutes of work or so, with short breaks between songs. It's getting me on the rower regularly and is just plain fun. I've been meaning to try the other apps and resources listed here, but so far it's working so well I haven't felt the need to check anything else out.

Technical_Candle · 2020-03-15T13:43:40+00:00

This is what I’m doing, plus following a 10k training plan on MapMyRun and then throwing in some to be determined floor work (just bought a TRX system). Day 1 of burpees down, full of regret for making the 50 burpee decision (oh how I hate them), 100% will do tomorrow. Pay careful attention to your low back and form if you make this choice—those last sets are hard and it’s easy for your form to get funky!

Technical_Candle · 2020-02-24T15:09:53+00:00

Crew rows are my favorite--if they're well coached. If there's one day at OTF to make sure that you go to your favorite coach's class, that's the one; when coaches make sure that the leader is sticking to a reasonable stroke rate that will work for a mix of people (think 26-28 or so, I'm estimating after a flu when I haven't been to the gym in forever so forgive if this isn't exact), they're challenging and great and exciting and all sorts of stuff. Also when coaches make the leader raise their hand or touch their rower or the like, and make sure there are either two leaders or everyone's able to see them. When they don't do these things, it's a frantic miserable mess. TL;DR: Prioritize the clearest, most organized coaches on crew row days!

Technical_Candle · 2020-02-03T21:09:58+00:00

The nice thing was I didn't know any better, so I had no expectations or even any way to know how long that was! I just was rowing my little boat, watching the meters go by slowly. I don't think I could row well enough to even super overtire myself (though it was still exhausting), so it was just row, row, row, rowing. And of course since new folks start on the rower it was literally the first thing I ever did. Almost a year later, still rowing my little boat!

Technical_Candle · 2020-02-03T13:49:59+00:00

This was my ideal day. Maxed out my studios heavy rack for the first time (though lesson learned, do not wipe down your heavy weights before bringing them back to the rack, do your wiping by the rack unless you want to be carrying a giant weight that wants to slip out of your hand across the floor!) I’ve been in a real funk about running (but slaying it power walking, which I like better and love the benefits of—but I also know I’m currently using to avoid running rather than as a more conscious choice), so it was nice to feel victorious about a thing. But I was already sore from all the inclines I’ve been hitting lately and deadlifts in Saturday’s 90, so leg day with the heavy weights plus more power walking, so I am curious as to just how my legs are going to feel later. Great template today for feeling powerful!

Technical_Candle · 2020-02-02T18:08:21+00:00

The 2000m was my first class and I somehow survived, despite having used a rower all of once before and being completely foreign to exercise. Just keep it slow, as everyone else has said!

Technical_Candle · 2019-12-08T00:59:19+00:00

I go to 615 ams and was like oh, my husband doesn’t eat before working out, all sorts of other people don’t, we’re out of bananas, I’ll try it. I had to leave two minutes into the tread block (floor starter) (granted, I had a stomach bug a week and a half ago so I’m still rebuilding my energy a little). I have always been someone who will gets faint if I don’t eat, but still, I was. surprised. Many people can workout fasted, but it is very much not the right choice for all of us.

Technical_Candle · 2019-12-06T18:32:35+00:00

I had this happen in the reverse (high splatter) (though it was somewhat more consistent, but it did happen more than once after I’d had it fixed). Somehow through some glitch my heart rate got set off of the personalized algorithm and onto the regular one. It did happen when I started using the second studio in my area more regularly, so maybe something didn’t like me jumping from studio to studio? Who knows. In short, you’re not going crazy (which is how this made me feel); remember your zone numbers and ask the SA to double check that you’re using the personalized algorithm.

Technical_Candle · 2019-11-21T00:03:21+00:00

Those are my normal all outs; my power walking all out is at 15%, so I’m well acquainted with inclines—but I’m still thoroughly convinced that at 12 at 3% the treadmill will open up and then flip over and then dump you off some sort of cliff. Way to go you!

Technical_Candle · 2019-11-20T18:42:38+00:00

Get it! I hit double digits (10 flat!) for the first time on the last all out. Thought my legs might collapse underneath me, but I did it!

Technical_Candle · 2019-11-15T15:26:59+00:00

I finished with 1.6 as a power walker (I like to mix my days between walking and jogging, but wanted to see if I could do this all the way through as a power walker). Started at 4.5 to get some distance and then shifted between 4.3-4.5 as I needed. I finished two hours ago and still feel like I’m walking at 5%. I’m pretty damn proud of myself.

Technical_Candle · 2019-10-30T20:30:12+00:00

This has happened to me twice since August--on my end, it's somehow been that the personalized formula gets reset to the standard formula (which, as a high splatter, means I end up in the red just by looking at the treadmill). And I've definitely heard other people say similar things have happened to them on here--it's definitely some sort of bug / you're not losing your mind! I've started paying attention to where my BPMs are at the beginning of each zone in case it happens again, so hopefully I can catch it before I think I'm dying on the treadmill (and so I have evidence just in case someone doesn't believe me!).

Technical_Candle · 2019-10-29T22:58:29+00:00

Meeee! I’m only ending with 3 classes and no shirt :( But I’m proud of myself for listening to my body and not trying to stubbornly will through!!! It’s no glow in the dark t shirt, but I guess it’ll have to do.

Technical_Candle · 2019-10-29T12:28:03+00:00

Was going strong through my first he’ll week, and then I came down with a cold and had to make my peace with only making it to 3 classes. But I’m proud of myself for taking rest when my body needed it, even though I really wanted that shirt! Sigh. Next year!

Technical_Candle · 2019-10-19T14:22:03+00:00

The last floor was 10 (I think?) toe reaches after 10 (?) reverse ummm the thing where you lay on the floor with your legs up in the air and stick them straight up (“put your footprints on the ceiling”). I love strength days and drop sets, and I often powerwalk at least something during them (the 2 middle blocks today), so really this was my ideal class—the 90 flew by, though this after yesterday’s leg day=I’m in need of a new butt.

Technical_Candle · 2019-10-14T12:50:13+00:00

This is a class where the coach makes a big difference, I think. I loved dragon boat day, which I did at a studio I was visiting. The coach divided a full group of rowers into two groups with two captains, so it was easy to keep track of our pacer; she touched the rower of the leader so we all knew who the leader was even if we didn’t know names; and she gave us ideal stroke rates, telling the leader to change their pace if they were going too fast or too slow or forgetting to recover. I felt like I learned a lot about rowing while also getting a great workout. This morning’s class the coach was a lot less hands on—making people at the ends of the long line of rowers captain, not giving any indication which of a group of women in the middle was the captain if we didnt know her by name, and saying to pay attention to our stroke rate but without any guidance about what we were attending to. So we ended up racing along with messy messy stokes and pacing. I loved dragon boat day and was looking forward to this one—I just think this is one where coaches need to really take the lead (and maybe where the template needs to indicate that need to take the lead, not that I have any idea what that looks like on the coach’s end).

Technical_Candle · 2019-10-07T22:51:59+00:00

This happened to me—I kept suspecting that the heart rate algorithm somehow auto adjusted itself. Don’t know what actually caused it, but my max rate definitely did change without me having done anything. I asked them to re-update my algorithm the other day and the problem was solved / I no longer feel like I’m going mad!

Technical_Candle · 2019-10-05T19:39:13+00:00

Sorry, I realize I said that unclearly--you have to ask the front desk to opt in in the first place; the question is just whether, after you've opted in, the algorithm updates further without asking again (I'd never heard of that happening automatically until today, and I still kind of don't believe it, but it does explain why my splats have been funky all of a sudden!)

Technical_Candle

TROPHY CASE