How many meters did you row/erg today?

[BobD]

Well, after I posted a few months ago, I bought myself a Waterrower. Great piece of equipment for my needs. To be clear, I am an ex University and (small nation) National team member but now a working parent with no time to get to the local river. With a multi year gap between my last outing in a boat to the new Waterrower, I'm starting from a very low level of fitness, and no doubt some dodgy technique.

I'm following the example programs on the Waterrower/coach site with the aim of getting fitter and losing some of the easily aquired beer gut.

Today was a 5K with controlled HR ~130 @~17spm with a disapointing 22:52.8.

I'm not competing with you guys here, but maybe if I get used to posting here I'll be kept 'honest' and ensure I roll out of bed eary enough to do my rowing before wife and baby wake.

happy rowing.

BobD

 

[bach]

Originally Posted by BobD

Today was a 5K with controlled HR ~130 @~17spm with a disapointing 22:52.

Hr seems nice and low. Was that a pretty easy piece for you? What's your max hr?

Chris, I do all my training pieces at a consistent pace. All my strokes have the same split.

 

[BobD]

Originally Posted by bach

Hr seems nice and low. Was that a pretty easy piece for you? What's your max hr?...

It is fairly easy, although as normal my HR creeops upwards as the piece goes on. I've not worked out my Max HR other than the 220-age method, and the 130 is about 65-70% based on that calculation.

I've been trying to set up my WR and laptop to do some virtual races with others, but for some reason I can't connect the two correctly. I'll take another look when I find some time.

Today, day off, or rather, slept in so no time. Maybe I find some time this evening.

happy rowing.

 

[Sir Humphrey Appleby]

3000m: 1500m steady pace, the rest 100m fast, 100m slow.

 

[unclesam099]

Originally Posted by rjmaiorano

^^^

Unclesam,

Were you able to row/erg a lot while adding the weight? I'm about your size now, 6'2" 195; optimally I working to be a semi-lean 210/215. I spose upping my calories is a must, but I'm weary of excessive rowing while bulking. I feel like it will counteract my bulking effort...

I wasn't able to bulk up when rowing for the team due to the lack of focus on weights. However, I was able to put on 10lbs of lean muscle on my own during my 5th year of college because I erged, rowed the single a bit, and trained on my own with a focus on the "beach muscle lifting". You should use the rowing for the cardio and then do strength training to correspond with the rowing muscles as well as the muscles to balance (ie triceps/biceps; or chest/back). I did curls, bench, lat pulls, wide-grip pullups, squats (3 sets of 12 at 315lbs), bent-over row, overhead press, etc.

I feel that if I had done that while rowing, I might've put on the weight and been a stronger rower. I was a light heavyweight at 182lbs. I also carry much of my weight in my legs and the upper body strength really helped me row the single. Rowing the single really is a great workout that can be more like lifting since you're carrying your own ass around

My biceps, back, legs, and shoulders got bigger just from the single.

 

[bach]

today's workout. my HR max is 190.

 

[CDFS]

Originally Posted by bach

today's workout. my HR max is 190.

That's pretty damn fast.

 

[BobD]

stroke pyramid for me today

5 min warm up
10 strokes hard (~1:43, HR~155, 25SPM), 10 light
20 hard (~1.45, ~157, 24), 20 light
30 hard (~1.44, ~161, 25), 30 light
40 hard (~1.45, ~171, 24), 30 light
30 hard (~1.47, ~167, 25), 20 light
20 hard (~1.45, ~161, 25), 10 light
10 hard (~1.47, ~163, 24)
5 min warm down

The longer hard pieces hurt a little and my HR would fall back to the mid 140's at the end of the lights.

happy rowing

 

[unclesam099]

bach, you are too consistent! I want to see improvement over those pieces. You aren't pushing if you can go the same speed on the first and the last pieces... I coached a kid who rowed in high school and came to college, did that same thing, and was really fast only on the last piece. That's mediocre and not effective in spending all of your energy. Try to get faster, even a little bit, on every single piece.

 

[bach]



bach, you are too consistent

I never thought I'd hear that in a pejorative way . Consistency is good! I've been following Mike Caviston's wolverine plan for a while and one of the main principles is consistency.

From http://www.concept2.com/forums/wolverine_plan.htm:

....The more fit & experienced you become, the smaller the variation between pieces. We also want to minimize variation within pieces. Each 500m piece should begin with a couple rapid hard strokes to get the wheel spinning, then settle right into a consistent pace. It is not effective training to begin each piece at 1:39 and finish at 1:50, even if on paper you achieve your goal of 1:45....the basic idea is to be consistent, and be smart, so you are able to finish strong.

Also, from http://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/rowing/physics/basics.html#section5:

.... it is more energy-efficient to keep the same pace throughout a race (or on an erg) rather than, for example, start fast and slow down, or start slow and speed up...

Anyway, I'm making progress on the WP plan. Here's a 4x2k workout I did 2 weeks ago:

Today I increased the pace and my HR was lower than it was last time, and last time was a slower pace. Not bad.

Try to get faster, even a little bit, on every single piece.

Instead of going faster every piece, I go faster every workout. Each time I do a workout, I set a lower target split than the split I did the previous week. So far, my fitness gains have allowed me to keep up with the reduction in pace. Since my fitness gains are probably getting smaller and smaller with each passing week, eventually, I won't be able to reach that target split. When that day arrives I'll really be "pushing". For now, it's still really @#$(@#ing hard, promise.

 

[rjmaiorano]

Bach,

We get your logic, and without question, consistency is more efficient as you pointed out.

What Sam was saying is when you are doing training pieces you should push yourself to better each piece. Doing 1:45 each split is easier than trying to lower that split each time, and going easy until the last split is useless. You want to give it everything you have each piece and the last piece should really ruin you.

My coach once had us give a solid 3 mile run to warm up... then told us we were racing for seats for 2k... then gave us a cool down jog. Then gave us another 2k test to see who would really get seats. Performance under pressure, failure, lack of energy is very important in this sport.

It seems you are really working at this, please post when you first pass out and/or vomit.

 

[unclesam099]



Bach,

We get your logic, and without question, consistency is more efficient as you pointed out.

What Sam was saying is when you are doing training pieces you should push yourself to better each piece. Doing 1:45 each split is easier than trying to lower that split each time, and going easy until the last split is useless. You want to give it everything you have each piece and the last piece should really ruin you.

My coach once had us give a solid 3 mile run to warm up... then told us we were racing for seats for 2k... then gave us a cool down jog. Then gave us another 2k test to see who would really get seats. Performance under pressure, failure, lack of energy is very important in this sport.

It seems you are really working at this, please post when you first pass out and/or vomit.

Well, he is being very consistent per that plan. Keep in mind, though, that plan (I think?) is for women. I read thru it again and didn't see any mention of whether it could be for men or women. Generally, men and women train much differently.

If you're following the plan, then stick with it. The way we trained was a bit different, where (like I said) we were given the workout and budgeted appropriately. When I was done with my erg workout, I likely couldn't do any more (though sometimes Coach said "one more piece! It's mind over matter - I don't mind, and your legs don't matter!"). That season, our 3rd 500m was usually the fastest of any crew in the race, vs. the opposition's slowest.

All that being said, there are MANY ways that coaches have us train, and none of them are better than the other. We all react differently to our training regimen.

 

[bach]



Well, he is being very consistent per that plan. Keep in mind, though, that plan (I think?) is for women. I read thru it again and didn't see any mention of whether it could be for men or women. Generally, men and women train much differently.

If you're following the plan, then stick with it. The way we trained was a bit different, where (like I said) we were given the workout and budgeted appropriately. When I was done with my erg workout, I likely couldn't do any more (though sometimes Coach said "one more piece! It's mind over matter - I don't mind, and your legs don't matter!"). That season, our 3rd 500m was usually the fastest of any crew in the race, vs. the opposition's slowest.

All that being said, there are MANY ways that coaches have us train, and none of them are better than the other. We all react differently to our training regimen.

From what I've gathered, the WP is basically just Caviston's erg routine, although it's true he gave it to the UMich women's team. He set a WR at CRASH-B for his age/weight, so it's gotta work for some people.

 

[wmmk]

Yeah, WP is some solid ****.

 

[bach]

wmmk, did you do the lvl 4 pieces as often as the plan said to? it says that 65-70% of the volume should come from lvl 4, but i'm lucky if 30% of my work meters are lvl 4.