NK Speedcoach - never row alone (encouragement)

Another minute off of my 4.3mile course (beautiful morning here in FL, sun just coming up, no wind, mist on the water  (a bit like the end of Phantom down under the Opera House)) - again with the FLOATS ON. Geting more comfortable with the changes to the stroke - basically hands away earlier and lower, more core compression and a little longer reach at catch, followed by a more horizontal stroke.

Anyway the point of this post is to say how pleased I am with the Nielsen Kellerman Speedcoach XL2 It is just SO useful to be able to get immediate feedback on how effective the last stroke was. I've been using that along with a cheap ($50 Amazon) Polar HR monitor. I row along just under the top of my training rate (136bpm) and try out changes to the stroke. The XL2 displays the HR which makes it easy.

I'd never paid much attention to the average pace display (an option you can set) up until now but as I can now get around the whole 4.3 miles without stopping for a wheeze, it's a huge incentive to be able to know that if you just keep the SR better that the last average, your time around the course will be better. Obvious! Doh.

A big point to make is this works from an impeller in the water - while this is not as accurate at measuring distance, it is the only way of getting accurate info on that last stroke. GPS based systems (even the latest) just aren't accurate enough over the distance covered by one stroke.

Loving this rowing thing.