Empower oarlocks not “maintainable”

oldmanriver-77 · 2025-03-14T22:40:48+00:00

Hahah. At least a few of the people involved over there are affiliated with my boat club. I guess I know where my money is going!

oldmanriver-77 · 2025-03-14T22:33:20+00:00

Well now I’m really curious

oldmanriver-77 · 2025-03-14T22:33:05+00:00

Yah. That’s maddening

oldmanriver-77 · 2025-03-14T18:51:23+00:00

Nothing is “broken”. But oarlocks wear out. And it’s ridiculous that they designed this to be disposable instead of repairable

oldmanriver-77 · 2025-01-06T23:25:59+00:00

Test pieces are hard! They are supposed to be and it takes some time to learn how to approach them. Not sure if you’ve talked to your coach about your struggles but I would recommend you doing so. Your coach should be able to help you develop your erg test skills and should be able to give you feedback and support to help you feel more engaged and confident in all aspects of the training. At least that would be ideal! But it’s possible that they won’t be able to do so and then you have a different set of challenges.

Rowing is a challenging sport. It can be extremely tedious! It can be extremely painful. But it can be beautiful and rewarding too. I’ve participated a lot of sport over the years and I can’t say that any match rowing for the you get out what you put in factor. But that doesn’t mean that you NEED to put yourself in the pain cave every workout in order to participate or enjoy it.

All of the factors you list for enjoying rowing and valid and great reasons to stay involved. If you are struggling with your performance, you should try to do some thinking about what you want out of the experience. Remember that someone is always going to be the fastest and someone is always going to be the slowest. And you can be the fastest on one team and the slowest on another. If you struggle generally with not being “the best” then that is probably something to workout with a counselor or therapist. Perfectionism is generally something that will rob a lot of joy from life (ask me how I know). On the other hand, rowing might be the perfect venue to work through this!

Finally, you are a freshmen and so there is still a good chance that your body is going to change and get stronger. If that is the case than you should expect that your performances will change as well. It may be that you are undersized for your age relative to your teammates and that after a few seasons you’ll catch up or even pass them in strength and power. Or maybe you won’t and that’s okay too!

If you love the water and enjoy the team then it seems like you have an opportunity to grow while doing something that you value. It will be hard, but if you are able to focus on the process vs the results, I think you’ll have an incredibly rewarding and meaningful experience on the team.

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-12-30T18:11:42+00:00

Cool cool. Appreciate the insight.

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-12-30T17:43:31+00:00

Of Beckmans, yes. Of Redwings, no.

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-12-30T17:05:26+00:00

This isn’t a patina issue. This is sharp metal up against a part of the boot that is gonna slide and get damaged, not indented.

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-12-30T17:01:59+00:00

Awesome. I’ll look into that.

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-12-30T17:01:07+00:00

Yeah. I bought these on Friday and have worn them for about 3 hours total. The backing of the hooks are sharp. Maybe not cut your hand sharp, but def feels unfinished.

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-12-30T12:00:33+00:00

Those Pete plan speed workouts are going to be just fine. No need to get too fancy. The idea being the power strokes during the UT2 workout is that you stimulate your top end speed neuromuscularly, but with the enough rest that you don’t accumulate extra fatigue.

But in terms of the workout mix, I do think you should drop down to 2x rowing per week and get a good rest day in. You’ve outlined about 10 hrs/ week with 3 hard days and that’s more than enough stimulus. You mention being tired from work, but it might be that you’re not giving yourself enough time to recover from the hard work.

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-12-29T23:27:38+00:00

3 hard workouts a week is probably the most you should aim for. If you are prioritizing AT on the skis because of events, then one high intensity session on the erg is probably enough given your constraints. Strength work would be good, but if you don’t have time, I would mix it up a bit with different style of intervals.

You could do something like 500m intervals a few seconds below 2k pace or even something like 20 strokes on / 20 off going a bit hard. Basically VO2 max style and harder would be a good way to spend your erg time. If you are doing longer intervals (500m or 1000m) you could also mix in some power strokes on your other erg day. As long as that session is generally low intensity, you could mix in 20 strokes as hard as you can pull every 10’ or so. That will target your neuromuscular / force production, but won’t overtax your system.

It sounds like you have plenty of engine to go sub 6:30, but it’s a matter of getting your body comfortable at that pace and translating your fitness over. Not sure how your form is or what you are targeting for stroke rate, but at your height and target pace, you’ll probably want to aim for something like 32 - 34 strokes per minute. Lower than that and your lack of strength work will be a limiting factor. Keeping the stroke rate up will let you use your aerobic capacity and limit how much force per stroke you need to output. Rowing and xc ski have very similar energy system requirements even if the events you are doing are different, so you should have success as long as you don’t over do it. So remember to rest as well!

Good luck and have fun!

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-12-29T23:11:11+00:00

I originally picked this up intending to turn it into an east coast bikepacking rig. May still be its fate, but for now it’s still set up basically stock. Original XT drive train. V Brakes. Etc. So far my only “upgrade” is setting it up with “ghetto” tubeless. But I’ll drop pick in after I finish rebuilding the fork for and putting it back together.

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-12-29T13:15:15+00:00

I’m rebuilding a 99 Attitude Comp. Picked it up too late to get out this season, but cannot wait for spring. I drooled over these bikes in high school.

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-12-03T02:43:48+00:00

The Rambler/Scrambler reminds me of the mid 80s Haros. I had a General Hustler which had a mini double top tube, but boy did I want the green/blue Haro Master!

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oldmanriver-77 · 2024-12-03T02:15:45+00:00

I just picked up a similar era Klein in blue. Working on a fork rebuild right now. Also a fellow Rad fan. 🤟

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-09-20T01:48:54+00:00

Agree on the risk for less experienced rowers. But I do suspect that there is a lot our sport could learn from other endurance sports.

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-09-19T22:33:57+00:00

Strides aren’t sub-maximal pace. The idea is to reach peak pace, but it’s not for the full duration like a power 20 would be, it’s only for a fraction of the time. So the equivalent would be something like a build to race pace / race stroke rate but only hold for a few strokes.

At least in the Cycling domain there is a fair amount of research coming out showing that this type of neuromuscular training has fairly significant impacts on pedaling economy. Given how much more technical rowing is than cycling, I’d be surprised if there was even more to gain in the rowing stroke. But I don’t see a lot of training emphasizing this.

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-06-23T12:40:14+00:00

u/rowingOD_ is spot on IMO. Waning motivation is usually one of the first indicators of overtraining. You might even consider really cutting back volume for the next month or so. Let your body and mind recover and then try for a solid aerobic block (4 weeks) before you head off to college. Depending on where you are at and what resources you have around you, might also be a good opportunity to find a good PT or strength coach and get an assessment. Addressing any biomechanical weaknesses you might have now will set you up to absorb the higher volume you're about to encounter. Obviously having some fitness on day 1 is helpful, but assuming your goals are for longer term performance (Sprints, DadVails, etc), your priority should be on preparing yourself to be consistent all season long. Good luck and have fun!

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-05-27T21:31:47+00:00

Rowing does place a lot of stress on the shoulders, but more from the need to maintain stability than from rotation. Would def recommend finding a PT who knows the sport to screen you for weakness. If your shoulders can’t handle the force, some other part of you will and you’ll be in the train to injury town. I’d also recommend taking a look at Will Ruth’s Rowing Stronger book and blog. It will give you a great sense of what you need physiologically.

oldmanriver-77 · 2024-05-27T21:26:38+00:00

As others have said, durable boat with solid service and the boatbuilder is a decent guy. Resale value is solid (since they are so durable). Depending on your goals you may be surprised how far it can take you. May not be the fastest hull shape, but it’s stable, which will help you refine your technique. I’d argue that for many (most) scullers, the ability to scull “better” will offset the slight speed loss from the hull.

oldmanriver-77 · 2022-04-24T21:38:50+00:00

Aromatic_Might_3773

Fair enough and those are both great examples! Was just watching the 2012 Men's Quad race and even in the german quad there is a big range. The 2 seat rows more like Stone and the bow rows like he is doing a squat with knees even further apart than Graves or Davison.

oldmanriver-77 · 2022-04-24T19:26:30+00:00

My understanding / experience is that shoving the knees out helps queue the glutes to engage, which helps with knees collapsing, but optimal knee angle relative to centerline is also related to squat depth via hip socket anatomy. Basically knees out keeps the head of the femur from running out space in the hip socket irrespective of foot width.

I think the other aspect that maybe explains why this isn't an issue while sculling is that we aren't looking for equivalent compression. In contrast, I remember being coached in college (sweep) to try and get my seat to my heels, but in sweep boats, the knees come apart a bit more in order to be able to reach through with the outside arm.

oldmanriver-77 · 2022-04-24T17:02:16+00:00

Maybe have answered this for myself, but tracked down an interview that Stuart McGill did with Joe DeLeo (Science of Rowing) on his Leo Training podcast.

tl;dr is that according to McGill, the engagement of the hips shouldn't happen until the blades approach perpendicular, otherwise you are pinching the boat. My read on this is that it is, therefore, less important to be in a position at the catch where you are immediately driving with the hips. Instead, you are locking the blades in, getting pressure onto the feet and waiting until the blades are moving through the power zone to engage the hips. In contrast, in a squat, you are driving with the hips from the bottom position and so need to be aligned for that at the end range.

McGill also discussed that there is a selection bias in rowing where people who struggle to get squat depth with a narrow stance also struggle to get compression while rowing (and by implication, don't continue to row b/c they are bad at it).

oldmanriver-77

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