Skill
Rope climbs
WOD
Complete as many rounds as possible in 15:00 of:
10 Kettlebell swings, 70#/55#
10 Box jumps, 24"/18"
10 Ring dips
Luke during last week's chest-to-bars!
We love how you guys are always getting out there and doing great stuff. It's amazing to see you applying all the work you put in at Evolve in different ways. Steve recently competed in a couple of indoor rowing events. Below is his experience. Strong work Steve!
I recently had the opportunity to participate in a couple of
indoor rowing competitions and was asked to write a summary of my
experience. I’ve used indoor rowing as
an alternative cardio option for years, especially when going through any sort
of injury rehab, but it was only a few months ago that I discovered people
actually ‘race’ on the Concept II rowers and became interested in giving the
competitions a try.
The first event was the Mile High Sprints (Row for the Cure),
held at Crossfit South Denver in which I signed up for the 2000 meter
event. The 2k is by far the most popular
distance at any of these indoor rowing events, although there are options all
the way up to a full marathon. The
racing area consisted of about 20 rowers set up for warm-up and another section
of 10 rowers set up for the competition heats.
The rowers used for racing were all linked to a computer and your boat
image was projected onto a large screen so that you could always see what
position you were in and how many meters ahead or behind you were. There were about 200 people participating,
roughly half were Crossfitters and the other half were crazy people that
actually like to row on the water (who knew a Concept II could float?). There were 4 people that ended up qualifying
for and getting paid airfare to attend the world championship indoor rowing
event which is held each year in Boston.
I previously read one of Greg Glassman’s first Crossfit
Journal articles stating how a 7:00 minute 2k row was one of the benchmarks
used in Crossfit, so that became my lofty goal even though my last full out
effort a couple months prior only produced a 7:40. I was holding out hope that my technique
changes and race time adrenaline would carry me. Ultimately, the adrenaline may have back-fired
since I ended up rowing my first 500m at 1:41 pace and then had to fight the
rest of the way just to keep moving, running increasing splits the rest of the
way home to finish with a 7:10.
The next weekend I participated in the Denver Indoor Rowing Championships
held at the Colorado Athletic Club. This
time I chose to participate in the 30 minute event, where everyone rows for a
maximum number of meters in the allotted time.
This rowing event was much larger, about 500 people, with the majority
coming from an on-water rowing background.
There were also more event options including kids’ events, a team event
and even one of the first ever indoor stand-up paddling events, so the entire
schedule had to be held over 2 days to fit everything in. For my event, I was able to follow my pacing
goal much better and finished with a total of 7578 meters rowed in the 30
minutes, which works out to be an average pace of just under 1:59 per 500m. The team event that was held later consisted
of teams of 2 men & 2 women each rowing 1000 meters on rowers linked by a computer. Only 4 teams signed up for this event and for
the second straight year, Front Range Crossfit took home the first place prize
of a brand new Concept II rower. (Seems
to me like they could use a little more competition next year…..)
Overall, I’m glad I competed in these events along with the
extra time I spent preparing and making some simple technique changes. Now, each time I row, it’s something that I
really look forward to instead of a burden I just need to get through. 1 goat down, 99 to go.
