Faster Times - How To Train For It?

[[old] xdarrylx]

I'm looking to lower my times (aren't we all?) and although I've read<br />a great deal here on the site about how to accomplish that, I kinda<br />wanted to get a firm and overall answer from the pro's on this one. <br /><br />Is it better for me to train 4-5x/week doing 8x500m, or doing 4x1,000m<br />or 2x2,000m or what!? I'd like to know that when I'm rowing and giving<br />110% that I am aiming toward an overall goal and not just rowing and<br />rowing and if I get better, hey, that's great. I'd like to have something<br />to work toward, as my goal is to be able to keep lowering my times over <br />& over again, and I want to know what solid routine will make that possible! <br /><br />Thanks again (newbie extraordinare), <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Darryl

[[old] jamesg]

After the warm-ups you mention, you could start by doing say 60' UT2 or 2*30 UT1 or some of the L4 sequences; there's plenty of choice in the Interactive and in the Wolverine. Would be best to set yourself a rational organised plan for say a year, so that then after following it and recording the data, you can see the results. <br /><br />We know rowing is highly "enabling", working brain, bone, skin and tendon, not just muscle, and that there are no quick fixes, only long slow ones. So we can also think in life-long terms, not just tomorrow's benchmark. Keeping all those bits and pieces tough and flexible is a perfectly reasonable goal, worthy of our consideration.

[[old] neilb]

Darryl,<br /><br />Too much 8x500m etc per week will burn you out and whilst your initial progress will be good it will soon tail off.<br /><br />Good times are all built around good strong base so lots of 30 -60 min rows at steady rates will build fitness and technique. The 8x500m stuff will help with sharpening for racing by getting you used to higher spm and mental toughness but you need that long hard stuff to get really good times.<br /><br />When I started 12 nearly 12 months ago I was struggling to do 60 min at 1:58. Now I am comfortable at 1:51 and can push sub 1:49 as a PB. This all helps transalate into faster 2k times - as long as I do the 8x500m or 4x1k once a week to stay sharp.<br /><br />Enjoy it.<br /><br />Neil<br /><br />

[[old] xdarrylx]

Neil,<br /><br />So rowing 3-5x per week between 30-60 minutes will improve my 2,000m time, huh?<br />Occasionally throwing in an 8x500m or 4x1,000m sprint for good measure? AWESOME! <br /><br />I am very much dedicated, so once I have a solid plan, I will stick to it and drive, drive, drive!