Training for Competition

[Don]

Hey guys,

we are getting serious, and if the club is going to get a boat, we better be ready to row that boat seriously!

so straight from consept2.com, here is an idea (endorsed by me!)
for how we should be training:
"
Your preparation for the 2,000 meter race should fall predominantly into the aerobic area and should continue to be focused on distance, measured both in time and in meters. With this in mind, I would like to offer my five favorite types of workouts as a guide for your race preparation. Good luck and good racing.

1. Endurance: Rows of 30-45 minutes or 7,500-10,000 meters. This workout category includes:
* Thirty minute time trials for the World Ranking.
* a continuous 10,000 meter piece with increasing intensity (decreasing splits in terms of pace) each 2,500 meters.
* "swing" rows at 20-30 seconds easier than race pace - a swing row is a steady moderately paced row; not so fast that you can't keep up a conversation the whole time.
* and the old favorite: a continuous piece which consists of 5 to 8 repetitions of (3 minutes, 2 minutes, and 1 minute, as follows. Row 3 minutes @ a low stroke rate of 22 spm (strokes per minute); then 2 minutes at a moderate stroke rate of 27 spm; then 1 minute at a high stroke rate of 32 spm. Then repeat. There is no rest between these pieces.

2. Overdistance: Rows of longer than the race distance; such as: 2 x 6,000 meters with 5 minutes rest between, keeping the pace steady but trying to improve your overall time for both pieces in the course of your training.

3. Repetitions: Moderate intensity work intervals alternated with short rests; such as: 15 x 1:40 work/:20 rest. For the 1:40, work at 4-6 seconds slower than race pace.

4. Long Intervals: 3 to 5 repetitions of 1500 meters at 3-5 seconds slower than race pace, with 3-5 minutes rest between pieces.

5. Intervals: high intensity work intervals with rest for 1-3 times the work duration, such as: 2 to 3 sets of 3 x 500 meters at 3-6 seconds faster than race pace, with 3 minutes rest between 500 meter pieces and 6-8 minutes between sets.
"

the way i see it - 5 kinds of workouts, monday-friday for workouts! We should have one workout a day each weekday so every week we cover these 5 points!

[don]

I think everyone whats to get a boat,

but to form a club that is able to row with the best of them, we need to practice like the best of them.

No one likes erging but it is the best time to work up your endurance, and times.

Once we get a boat we will be spending the majority of "boat time" on the water learning how to put oars in the water, how to keep from flipping over the boat, turning the boat, getting the boat to a start line, keeping a boat in our lane during the race, and how to make sure we are all stroking at the same time and pulling the same distance.

There is a lot to do on the water, besides getting a good workout in.... So the time spent on the ERGs is valuable time, and practice we need, so when we are able to perform all the events mentioned above, we can row our well trained hearts out, and hopefully finish before someone!

what i am trying to say is: "come row on the ergs with us!" you won't be able to row on the boat with us - if you don't row on the ergs with us!

[Laura]

Don, do you know if this plan was designed for 2k or 5k season? Just curious... Since we're not likely to be rowing in any fall head races (5 kilometers), I'm thinking we're training for spring races and erg sprints (2k). I'm sure there are lots of different training methods, but my college team basically treated the fall season as sort of conditioning for the spring, and winter was mostly sprinting intervals and erg tests. But I am the first to admit I know absolutely nothing about designing workouts.