Challenge Yourself with Indoor Rowing on a Concept 2

After our visit with Clarence Bass late last year (2002) both Tina and I became inspired to train for the Concept 2 World Rankings for indoor rowing in our weight and age classes. The current ranking season ended at the end of April which also coincided with my departure for FIBO. All this year we have been pushing our weight training, upping the intensity of our cardio training and doing rowing intervals and Tabatas several times a week. Me more so than Tina who has mostly relied on her general training and treadmill intervals to improve her rowing times.  Tina has only been training seriously for a few months, and felt working on her overall endurance doing running intervals on the treadmill was the best way to go for her.

Just before I left for Germany it was rowing D-Day!  We both did the BIG TEST at a public gym on a brand new Concept 2 rower, and we are very happy with our results.  I improved my time more than I had expected as I did a time of 1:46.5 for the 500 metres which was an improvement of 10.9 seconds on my previous attempt.  Tina was almost as good, rowing at 2:05.02, which was an improvement of 9 seconds on her previous best.

I now rank first in Australia in the heavyweights for my age group, and Tina still ranks second in Australia in hers but the time differential is vastly reduced.   This places me 21st in the world in the heavyweights, and Tina is 17th in the world in the heavyweights. Tina is also very happy with her overall ranking of 11th in Australia (all ages, all weight groups).   But I will never compete in the heavyweights again as I missed my weight limit of 75 kgs to be a lightweight by 1 kilo. (I presently weigh 74 kilos).

If I had been just 1 kilo (2.2 lbs lighter) I would have competed in the lightweights and been ranked 8th in the world for my class, (just 4 positions behind Clarence Bass!!).  Thanks Clarence for the inspiration and if I can find a Concept 2 rower at a gym in UK, I will do it again as a lightweight!. My next goal is to break the 1:42.3 time set by Glen Vandewinckel of NY. This would place me at 6th in the lightweights. Now it is back to the training and I will keep you updated on how this continues to improve. I had never touched a rower till late last year so it is never too late to improve and go on improving. Like Clarence I accept no limits on improvement and as he always says - "challenge yourself"!

Check out the Concept 2 site at www.concept2.com, and also check out Clarence's latest rowing article on his site http://www.cbass.com/Rowing4.htm  regarding his new personal record row just over a week ago.

In a future article I will outline the general training both Tina and I do. In my case I have been working out for 40 years and even on the road I always look for a gym. During the stressful 6 days in Essen Germany for FIBO l managed to get in 3 good workouts at Gym 80, which is a top hard core gym in the heart of Essen. Now to find a good gym in Cambridge, England.