Graham is a World and British Champion on the Ergo – we thought he should know a bit about doing 2k tests and so asked him if he would read and review Walter Martindale’s e-book for us. Here is what he said:

Seems like a pretty good summary to me. In fact I actually learnt a little bit, primarily about the science behind some aspects of physiology. I liked the level of science included. It was presented at a level that I could understand whilst not being too lightweight. I’ve obviously spent time studying some of this before, but not always found it easy to interpret things completely but I picked up some useful things about our old friend lactate.

Graham sees the race plans not to far away from his ideas: 

The warm up seems about right to me. I probably warm up too little (and now I realise why this could be a problem) but also don’t agree with some sources who suggest what I feel are too lengthy warm ups. I agree with the structure of the warm up as well. I tend to overlook warm down as many times I’m just so glad it is over and perhaps don’t have anything the following day to worry about but now understand why warm down is useful. I thought it was just a case of flushing the lactate out of the muscles, not using them just enough so they ‘eat it up’.

An Idea for the future books:

I thought there could have been a bit more on the mentality of a 2k. It was suggested how important it was but perhaps some hints or tips as to how to deal with the dark moments in the 2nd and 3rd 500m.

Overall though, a very good summary that both ‘rowers’ and ‘non-rowers’ can relate to. Sometimes there can be a certain ‘snobbery’ towards people who row only on the machines but this doesn’t come across like that in my opinion.

Graham
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