You’ll nail it when you’re fresh. Keep us posted!
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Technique definitely play its part. Doesn’t have to be perfect, but lots of good tips here from T Nation contributor Katie P:
Full article:
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The rowing level site is cool. And the calculator is fun to play with though I have no idea how accurate the VO2 max estimator is. Probably not very. But still fun to play with this.
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I did this again today, but it’s a Technogym rower not a concept2. There was a dial for power and rowing, I put it in the middle and felt way more resistance than last time but still hit the 500m in 2mins.
I don’t know if anyone here knows if there’s a standard or “dial in the middle” means anything to you guys. It’d be nice to know where I should be at, but I guess it doesn’t matter as long as I stick to the same place each week and try to improve on it.
None of this is gonna interfere with my back training right? 
I imagine it’ll be better for recovery if anything but my back does feel a teeny bit tired with the extra resistance today. (bare in mind I’m coming back from a 10-week injury lay off).
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I felt a little something “different” in the back when I first got a rowing erg. Maybe a little novelty soreness since I don’t normally train in sets of 1 x 245. (Or however many pulls it takes to reach a certain distance!)
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You want to make sure you’re not engaging the mechanical resistance on the Technogym rower. You only want the air resistance engaged. If you engage the mechanical resistance it is going to be way too much. My googling suggests you should be at a 1-2 on the rowing setting to get to a drag factor of around 100.
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Unless you start doing longer rows, it shouldn’t interfere with back training. If you start doing 5ks and up the you’re probably going to be a bit sore until you adapt.
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By “way too much”, is that saying I’m turning it into something that’s too reliant on strength? l guess turning it right down will likely have me perform the 500 meters quicker - and be more productive for cardiovascular gains? Probably dumb questions, apologies.
Feeling a bit of DOMs still and have a whole bunch of upper back stuff to do tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll be fine as like you say, it wasn’t for a long duration.
Thanks for the information. Won’t be getting back on it until next week now, but I look forward to having a go with the resistance set right for the goals of this challenge.
Yes, if you are engaging the magnetic resistance on the Technogym Rower then you are turning it into more of a strength movement than what it is supposed to be. It would be like setting a Concept 2 on 10 – probably even more than that since a 10 on the Concept 2 is still just a fan setting. Note that I’m saying all this assuming the Technogym Rower you have is one of the newish ones that have magnetic resistance as an option. One of these: https://www.technogym.com/en-US/product/skillrow_DJR0NDT.html?sfcampid=485970&&pdg=aud-662384095119:kwd-1022823627339:cmp-16245912868:adg-132159271654:crv-632596984035:pos-:dev-c&gclid=CjwKCAjwg-GjBhBnEiwAMUvNW6Vzr_GPNfr-SEq4viePn-ckZB9In_ampgWp5RMUbc0zBPmNjuYNZxoChBUQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
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Gotcha. Yeah that looks like the exact one. I should probably be incorporating this on the skill bike equivalent too where I also just go straight down the middle.
I might actually do a quick 30-second leisure pace on the rower today for some active recovery to loosen up this DOMs I still have before getting into all my back work. And as an excuse to quickly try it out.
I have used the rower in the last months especially for longer workouts, I have gone up to 10.000 if I remember correctly. I have done a couple of interval sessions too.
I find time on the rower goes slower than running, but I like the intervals there, much easier setup than a treadmill. I will try this test in the next coming days, one workout I used to do was 6-8x500 with 30’’ rest and I averaged 2’03’‘-2’05’‘, so I expect to be around 1’50’‘-1’55’’ for a single effort.
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Nothing moves slower than time on the rower!
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I used this thing once before several years ago the one time Jed went with me to the gym.
I pushed all the buttons but couldn’t get it to come on… lol
No idea what I’m doing.
About the 5th pull it lit up!
I failed the challenge but not as badly as I thought I would.
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Let’s say those first 4 pulls didn’t register and that was about 8 seconds… so you passed! I dunno, I’m bad at math.
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I’ll take another crack at it one day next week… lol I’m definitely unfamiliar with this piece of equipment.
I got 2:02 and am pretty happy with that. I’m a midget, so I have to pull twice to get the same distance as taller people. There’s something too that, right?? lol
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Tried this morning after some warmup, and did 1.51 as expected, I think I can easily go sub 1.50 but going close to 1.40 which might be a goal will require a lot of hard work.
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Nice work!
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I’m not short but I’m short for rowing. My freshman crew coach told me I was the best half stroke rower he’d ever seen.
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Down to 1:34 for 500 metres.
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