Concept2 Forum

First post here but I have trained on the erg for a few years on and off,the thing is I cant stand long rows anything over 5k and I lose the will to live. I am ok with intervals and hard 5ks but when reading on here I feel I should be doing plenty of 30min plus sessions.<br>I have a 7.14 2k a 19. 23 5k and 7625 for 30mins although all 3 pbs are now over a year old I am 45 and like some advice on how to push on to long rows or even better can I improve without them.

Although some people get by with just the zen of rowing, I think music and/or tv are essential for enjoying long rows. So get some headphones or speakers, and crank up the tunes.<br><br>You don't give us any details on how you are trying to row long, and since you don't complain specifically about butt pain being the problem, I will guess your rate is too high, or your pace is too fast. So I would row them strapless (put your feet on top of the straps) and at low stroke rates (24 or less). How about trying to row at 2:10 pace and a SR of 23 (this is 10 meters per stroke), and seeing how that feels for a 10k. A 2:15 pace and SR=22, or 2:05 pace and SR=24 are also 10mps if you want more choices.

Don't worry about trying to get to the "long" workouts that you are talking about. 40 minutes without a break is the outside edge of what I would recommend to anyone. If you need the volume, do a couple 6k's with good rest in between. You have gone under the 20 minute time for 5K, so need to get your minimum "aerobic" training time up over 20 minutes.<br><br>It also sounds as if you simply like to train hard, so make sure you get in adequate recovery between your normal "hard" days, you can still Erg, but the pace target should be about 5 seconds slower than your hard day average, adn can focus on technique.<br><br>And listen to that michaelb guy, he sounds pretty smart.

I went through about a month (October into November) where I simply couldn't erg continuously for longer than 20 minutes, even though I was doing up to 10k of hard interval work. Nothing helped, TV, music. Two factors, I think, got me to that point: mental boredom and being physically exhausted by the need to "go faster than last time" some of us newbies go through. Finally I threw a shirt over the PM3 and just started erging at a SLOW pace and rate. Did that for a few days, varying from 30 minutes up to an hour. That seemed to get me past the combination of physical and mental blocks. I now have a template cut out that covers all the PM3 information except the top line (time/distance and stroke rate) for those days when pace just can't matter. Not sure it will work for others.<br><br>Peter

I watch TV while I'm erging (or skiing; I've got a Nordic Track too).