Dude!

Can ErgData coordinate everything for us? I'd be interested in something if it was easy, like clicking a few things. That's how the challenge has gone.

Start us off with a 2k

I’m slow.

Well that's a wrap on January.

Does someone need to designate the team towards a February challenge?

Yes, team challenges aren't every month. Unfortunately (but also fortunately, don't want to get burned out!). I think it's quarterly at best. I'll keep an eye out.

There are individual challenges very frequently.

ARFCOM ERGERS placed 27th out of 67 teams in the Virtual, 6-20 Participants category. Not bad, not bad! 1,332,454m total.

I ranked my 30min time and I'm 1300 of 1360 in my age/sex/weight.  Fun times.



I did manage to row every day so far.

The challenge is meters. Not speed or heart rate. I keep that in mind every time.

I'm new to rowing and 56yo.  Today I did 5,000m in 23:44 and was pretty winded.

What is a good goal?

Different goals for different people.  I'm new too. Started in January.  I use time blocks as a goal.  7 minute warmup followed by a 1 minute break.  Then 10 to 20 minute blocks with 1 minute breaks between them.  I'm going to start throwing a race to 500m in once a week.  That sprint stuff is tough for me so I should be doing it more often. lol.

Dealing with some knee pain in one knee -- lower inside front. Guessing it's overuse. Trying to avoid going beyond vertical (knee over ankle) on the catch. Hopefully that will bring some relief.

I'm rested

When does the race series kick off?

I took two weeks off, then did a slower pace with much less depth at the catch. No pain so far. Let's do it.

I suggest we open the first race Sunday 3/3. Maybe a 2k?

Every competitor posts their time after the workout. Fastest time wins bragging rights. Duplicate efforts are encouraged to increase the pace over 1 week until Sunday 3/10. Race closes with efforts complete by the same time as start. For example:

Race open 3/3 10:10am CST
Everyone throws down a best effort
Some sandbagger accelerates
Do another effort to match/beat
Do as many as it takes
Race close 3/10 10:10am CST

Fastest human in the series calls the next race effort.

The World Erg Challenge is coming up as well. I'll update OP with it this afternoon, but looks similar to the January one.

Bought a knee brace, just a simple compression sleeve.
Hope it helps, will give it a shot tomorrow.

Have significantly shortened depth of my catch, still a bit touchy with pain.

How do we sign up to the new world challenge?  I clicked join challenge but don't see any confirmation that I did anything. lol.

@Cixelsyd you should see the same thing on your team member page with the option to "leave challenge" instead of join. See image in OP spoilers. Probably more will appear tomorrow when it goes live. 5 signups so far!

2024 World Erg Challenge is March 15–April 15.

Let's get back at it!

Aight.  Currently rowing about 30k/week.

Up to 11 signups already!

You all do read my emails.

IN! Thanks for the email

Any bets on me beating my last total for a team challenge?  

Been dealing with some shoulder pain and it sucks.  It doesn't suck as bad as dealing with a gut, though.  

That said....IN!

I’m in. I was a solid mid pack rower last time, but now I’m also training for a PT test at the end of April. So, I’ll be doing some running and less rowing.

I started a break about mid-Feb.  I lost motivation after the January challenge ended.

Sooo that half hour last night was tough!

You put up solid numbers and twice the duration of my own “here we go again” row. Counts for something!

That was a nice long birthday weekend with/for my wife.  Shifted my focus to "other cardio."  

Back in the saddle.  I am rowing toward a mid-May fitness target.

I’ve had a combo of being lazy as shit and having large meals just before my usual cardio block. I may have to start waking up in AM to exercise like a crazy person.

Chris is killing it!  

On another note, I tested positive for Covid a couple of months ago.  It was a really mild case and just felt like a very, very minor cold for a day or so.  I took a week off of the rower just to take it easy.  Prior to that, I was averaging 2:15 - 2:16 500m split times for 7,000m workouts.  After Covid, I’m at 2:19 - 2:20 500m split times for that same distance; an increase of 4-5 seconds/500m which is huge.   My heart rate spikes rather quickly and stays up there for the whole workout. Strange.

Yeah COVID is a strange thing man.
Hope you get your baseline back.

I got sick right after my last post, some dry cough thing going around but a serious sore throat and spaced-out head. So my meters sit at 3k.

I suck at life.

3k added to the board at a leisurely 2:40ish split average. But I didn’t die.

For me, the fact I get into the seat is more important than how fast I row in that seat.   Seriously.  A lifetime has shown me the importance of establishing routine if I want something to stick.

Speaking of which, does anyone here know what they're doing?    I am shifting training gears in a little less than a week, and I know what I'm going to change, but I honestly have no idea where I'm going to take it, or how far.  Wouldn't mind some conversation.  My background in track only goes so far ...

I haven't put much thought in goals because, like you, I had no idea what I wanted out of a little cardio. The machine has sat for about 5 yrs with little use. The virtual team challenge gave me a reason to at least do something with it. In the beginning I started with 500m and a minute rest intervals. All of my joints hurt and I thought this is going to suck. I was determined to stick with it.

Then I went to 1000m intervals, then took the big leap to see if I could go 5000m in one push. Then improve split times a little. I guess the answer for me is do more. Even pushing for 5 or 10 second improvements on split times increases the cardio. I'm down to two bad knees and some odd grip pain, like a trigger finger irritation. Overall, good enough to gut it out and keep going.

I'm pushing for a goal of 10k m in one sitting regardless of splits, just sitting on that thing for that distance would be a huge accomplishment for me. Then I can work to improve times. I'm old and my body has been abused but I am determined to do more.

Maybe a program like this will get you off to a good start?  

Beginner Pete Plan

I started this awhile back but never finished the program.  I think that the most I ever did at one time was 9K meters.  I settled into doing 8K meters every day and managed to injure my elbow.  It took 8 months for it to heal. Now I just do 7K meters 4X week and that seems to be working for me. I know intervals work on strength and speed but I never really got into that but probably will in the future.  My goal at my age is to just be able to pull a consistent 150 watts (roughly 2:12/500m) over long distances.  I doubt that I’ll get there but I’ll try.

I’ve been able to stick with it because I just play mind games with myself.  I hit the rower Mo, Tu, Th, and Fri.  On a Monday, I’ll just tell myself after today, I just have to do tomorrow and then I can relax on Wednesday.  Likewise, on a Friday, I just tell myself to do this and I get the weekend off to relax.  I have an iPad that I put in the device holder and that helps pass the time.  I picked up the rower in 2019 and am closing in on 5M meters now.

Good luck with everything.

So here's what I'm up to.

First, my immediate motivations/goals.  Fitness.  My wife and I attend the Electric Daisy Carnival every May (17-19 this year).  We spend 4 nights dancing and staying up all night.  It is a lot of fun but it is also a physical grind.  I'm 65, so there's no coasting on the vigor of youth for me.  I'd like to get through in good shape, and if I dropped a (relatively small) amount of midsection fat I wouldn't be displeased.  I'm 6'2" and 185 lbs.

My thinking has been related to increasing energy reserves generally, and building cardio health and endurance.  I started running back in the early '70s, so the precepts of LSD running (long slow distance) are in my head.  Take it easy, build capacity, tune up the body.  Resting heart rate goes down, better performance arrives.

Plus, I just ease into things more these days.  Give my body time to make all its microadjustments and to get comfortable with the work.  Strengthen this, loosen that.  Just row; it'll happen.

I started this about a month ago, very deliberately slowly with 6-min rows and a 3:30 500m pace.  Very easy, very relaxed, just getting my schedule sorted and motivation in place.

My last few workouts looked like this:

4/30 22 min -- 3894m -- 2:49.5 pace
4/30 22 min -- 3907m -- 2:49.0 pace

4/31 22 min -- 3920m -- 2:48.5 pace (Easter)

5/1 22 min -- 3930m -- 2:48.0 pace
5/1 23 min -- 4122m -- 2:47.5 pace

5/2 23 min -- 4132m -- 2:47.0 pace
5/2 23 min -- 4148m -- 2:46.5 pace

5/3 23 min -- 4158m -- 2:46.0 pace
5/3 24 min -- 4351m -- 2:45.5 pace

You can see I'm not hyperfocused on performance.  It's very mechanical.  Each day, I add 1 minute of rowing.  Each workout, I drop 0.5 s from the target 500m pace.  It is still easy and I am clearly well within my physical capacity.

My plan is to finish the progression to two 25-minute rows (50 min of rowing; that's also conveniently about the time when I hit 10k/day), then break the day into 3 rows, each at 20 minutes (60 min of rowing) and continue building volume by quickening the pace and adding a minute/day to my rowing.  I have no idea where/when that will end, but it clearly can't go on indefinitely.  Something will break, but I should be able to feel it coming and make an adjustment.  In terms of my May goal, if I get to three 30-min rows at a decent pace, I will be satisfied.  (I have a separate mostly-bodyweight calisthenics program.)

That's fairly short-term.  I can see it.  But longer-term, I just have no idea what a reasonable training progression would look like.  I'm not looking to race but to be fit.  So for now, I row a simple program of my own devising.  Is there a better one?  No doubt, but I don't know what it is yet.  In running, the distance and pace would vary by workout, and within the workout would be surges and recovery.  There would be harder days and easier days.  That's all ahead.  For now, I row.

Switched to 3x20min today and got through the 10k/day barrier.  No sonic boom.

Cool gray morning mist
The quiet water patient
Shells wait in the shed.

My thanks to those of you carrying us. I'm back from work travel (and a fun weekend of food poisoning, now recovered) and can put a few k more on the board before it wraps up.

Food poisoning, ouch.  Being sick while traveling for work is not fun.

I'm on track for my annual big weekend in mid-May, so I'm satisfied.  This challenge was a happy serendipity. I"m still working that boring, mechanical workout program, but my body's been responding and I'm putting in the rower time without having to dig deep.  So far.  I'm about a month out, and still have work to do.

Last day for the World Erg Challenge! Let’s finish strong