Thread: Do we have any rowers or erg-ers?

I've never been in a boat, but a buddy of mine got me into erging in college. I was pretty into it freshman year, and then dabbled a bit through the rest of college. This year I want to get back into shape; I started biking on my trainer in January and am hoping to be riding outdoors soon (finally!). My buddy has a Planet Fitness membership with free guest passes, so I started going with him. Unfortunately, no ergs. Recently, he broke his arm, so that's dried up for now. Given the lack of gym time and the hole that left in my workouts, I felt justified to drop some cash on a Concept 2. Hunted around quite a bit (aka I was obsessed with the hunt for about a week), and finally got one locally at a pretty good price. I now have my own Model C with a PM3.

Yesterday I did a 5k, just to see where I stood, and averaged 2:16 splits at, I think, 21 or so SPM.

Today I wanted to back off a bit, so I set up for 30 mins and ended up averaging 2:20 at 19 SPM.

Comparing these times to what I was pulling in college is kind of sad, cause I used to do 20 mins just under 2:10 no problem, but I have been more or less sitting around for the last 3 years.

I do think it's odd that I'm so comfortable at such a low stroke rate, given that I'm about 5-8 and 135, but I'll figure out what works in the next few weeks.

When my gf was in college, she was on crew, first as the stroker and then the power seat in an 8. She also won CRASH-B's (an international indoor rowing competition held annually) in her age/weight class. She and I have informal plans to race 2k's; she is extremely competitive and has it in her head that she'll beat me. Bets have been placed, and it should be a great training motivator.

Anyone else row or erg?

Yup, I do. In fact, in the fall of 1980, I came up with the idea for the traveling pulley that makes the thing work. I've got a B, bought my inlaws a D (which they never use), and regularly row on an E now that I'm back to a gym.

The C is an excellent machine is not significantly different than the D and E.