Winter erging schedule

[lite&lanky8]

My crew's winter workouts are minimal at best, and I honestly don't see myself getting very far doing erg relays for the entire winter. Does anyone have suggestions for where I can find a good erging schedule? I've heard a bit about Bob Kaehler's business, but it seems pretty expensive. If there isn't an accesible workout out there, any suggestions for designing my own?

[arbrighton]

What exactly are the relays/ current training you are doing? How old are you, what gender are you? How many days/ hours a week do you want to train? What is your goal, what are your stats now? Do you row sweep/ scull/ only erg? When/ where do you want to race?

Without more information, anything you get will at best be general, and at worst be completely inappropriate and lead to injuries.

[lite&lanky8]

I'm 16, male, in my junior year of high school, 6'1" 150 lbs. I'm just coming off of the fall season, during which I mostly rowed a single. My most recent 2k was at a 7:17, although that was this past spring. I'm testing on Wednesday, and I can post the results when I do. I'm looking to train at least 5 days a week, possibly 6. I own an erg, so I'm fairly flexible on the length of the workout. My ultimate goal is to be at 6:45 by the end of junior year, although like I said, I'm not entirely sure where my time is now.

[MChase]

Is this your first winter erging?

[lite&lanky8]

In the past I have participated in my team's workouts, which were usually 3 days a week. This year, I'm looking to do a lot more work.

[bloomp]

Off the top of my head, if you don't get what you want from answers here, you can turn to three pretty good programs that are based online. More exist I'm certain, but I've found these three to be reliable and popular.

Concept2 UK Interactive 2000m Training Program
http://concept2.co.uk/training/interactive

You plug in your numbers, it will then spit back a schedule for X number of weeks with training sessions and intensities (paces are at the bottom of the page) depending on your 2k, MHR, level of experience and number of sessions per week.

Wolverine Plan
http://www.concept2.com/forums/wolverine_plan.htm

This one takes a lot of effort to understand and execute, but it can be very successful in terms of maximizing your ability on the erg. Lots of low rate, pressure-per stroke work and a fair bit of race pace or just-below race pace intervals. But do not attempt it without reading it and understanding it!

Rojabo
http://www.rojabo.com/

Rojabo is a paid training service, but you can still get a free trial (I think). The program is also unique to your numbers and you have to do a few tests to get the workout schedule. It was created by one of the Danish NT coaches so he has some clue as to how to get folks to speed through 2000m (Stephansen, Ebbesen). Most of the workouts are shorter, a reflection of the training style the Danes use since they all work jobs and just need to hammer away at it when they can.

The advantage to any of those plans is that they are periodized (Rojabo and the Interactive Program moreso) so that you build into your volume and intensity. You could always just say "hey, I'm going to do 80k of SS/week" and break that up into 10-12k pieces and you'd still see huge improvements at your level, but the earlier you understand and work with the periodized training model the better off you are.

[lite&lanky8]

Thanks for the response. The C2 program seems to be just what I'm looking for.

I just have a quick questions regarding the heart rate targeted training (something I'm new to). The first workout of the program was to do a 20 minutes in the UT1 range. As I was doing the workout, I found myself having trouble staying within the correct heart rate level while keeping my split down. I ended up taking the rating down to about an 18. Is this something expected for a UT1 workout? Is there anything else that I can do to make getting my heart rate down an easier task? I tried focusing on my breathing during the piece (in on the recovery, exhale on the drive), to some minor decrease in my BPM. Can I do any more with this?

[KiwiCanuck]

Thanks for the response. The C2 program seems to be just what I'm looking for.

I just have a quick questions regarding the heart rate targeted training (something I'm new to). The first workout of the program was to do a 20 minutes in the UT1 range. As I was doing the workout, I found myself having trouble staying within the correct heart rate level while keeping my split down. I ended up taking the rating down to about an 18. Is this something expected for a UT1 workout? Is there anything else that I can do to make getting my heart rate down an easier task? I tried focusing on my breathing during the piece (in on the recovery, exhale on the drive), to some minor decrease in my BPM. Can I do any more with this?

You're still quite young. Most of these workout/heart-rate etc charts were developed through studies on people a little older, whose normal heart rate may be a little lower than yours.

That's one side of it. the other thing I understand about long duration exercise is that it takes a while for your body to adapt. If you're pushing hard, the heart rate will rise, so you have to take the stroke rate down to keep the HR down. As you put in more mileage and as you continue to grow, your heart should grow larger, have more ability to pump blood per beat, enabling a lower heart rate post-training (months of training) for any exertion level than pre-training.

Another main effect of the endurance training is at the level of the muscles actually doing the work. The muscles grow more capillaries to deliver more blood flow to the muscle fibers, and the muscle fibers develop more mitochondria (in-cell energy factories) to make better use of the increased blood flow...

that's a very coles-notes description.
The message, I guess, is that one workout does not a training plan make. Work for a few months and see what happens. Log your workouts. If you live in a part of the continent where you can cross-country ski, try replacing an erg session or two with a two-hour cross-country-ski session. Sitting on a static erg all winter MAY (not necessarily will) have undesired effects on your lower back, and cross country ski work gets you out in the great outdoors breathing what might be fresh air (again, depending on where you live )

[bgutting]

If you're using the C2 Interactive Program--which is great, and has produced results for many people who participate in the Free Spirits Rowing forum--make sure you're being 100% honest about your level. Don't select level 5 unless you've actually been training hardcore, high-volume for as long as they say you should have been.

Are you totally certain about what your max heart rate is? Do you have a general idea of where your LT lies? The former is relatively easy, if unpleasant, to figure out, the latter a bit more challenging but still possible. Many endurance athletes do a 30min piece, starting at an easier pace for the first ten minutes and then emptying the tank over the last 20, using the avg HR over the last 20min as their estimated LT (note your rating if you do this). Something is better than nothing, but formal lactate testing is optimal.

Regardless, if you can get in six weekly sessions, for the first month I'd make at least three of them 45-60min around HR150bpm. This is optimum for stimulating eccentric cardiac hypertrophy (making your heart's left ventricle bigger), and that's fantastic for increasing the amount of blood pumped per beat. The others should be at UT1, which I typically think of as a pace that'd be hard to maintain after about 32-36min (I deduced this from Hagerman; others might disagree). So it's not brutal, but it's definitely working. The C2 program breaks this up into a lot of 15min, 20min pieces. You mentioned going "out of range" here, and that's important to recognize. If you keep your HR during these pieces under your known/estimated LT, you'll be fine. The more long, easy work you do--i.e., 150bpm--the more you'll notice your heart rate staying under control as the intensity rises.

Having experimented with lots of high-intensity intervals (CrossFit, other stuff) I discovered they have their place, and it's a very small place, and for a rather limited period of time. If you lack power or strength, consider adding hard intervals once per week. If you're confident you'll get this work in after your crew gets their act together and starts putting in enough practice time, wait until then.

The university near me (Washington University in StL) has a 5-week long holiday break, during which the coaches expect the rowers to do a certain volume of training, which they unfortunately cannot monitor. If this is similar to what you face, just focus on doing a lot of long, low-rating pieces. This time of year myself, I never go over 20spm. In fact, even when I'm racing I rarely go over 20spm in training.

[bloomp]

Kiwi and Bgutting thanks for clarifying on the HR values - yeah it is meant for folks that are familiar with their HR and are probably older than most.

The university near me (Washington University in StL) has a 5-week long holiday break, during which the coaches expect the rowers to do a certain volume of training, which they unfortunately cannot monitor. If this is similar to what you face, just focus on doing a lot of long, low-rating pieces. This time of year myself, I never go over 20spm. In fact, even when I'm racing I rarely go over 20spm in training.

I remember at camp one summer in HS, the UPenn coaches said they'd lend out their rowing machines to guys over the holiday. Little did the rowers know the coaches could check the total meterage and see that they actually did nothing over break!