Short Interval Workouts

[ausrwr]

Mike, I reckon if you check the feet height on the ergo, vs. what you have in a boat, you'll be surprised just how high your feet need to be set on an erg to match in-boat settings.

And driving the bow into the water? I'd be surprised if that vector occurred unless your feet were above your hips!

[mikvan52]

Mike, I reckon if you check the feet height on the ergo, vs. what you have in a boat, you'll be surprised just how high your feet need to be set on an erg to match in-boat settings.

And driving the bow into the water? I'd be surprised if that vector occurred unless your feet were above your hips!

I'll check this...
Thnx.

[mikvan52]

Hi,

I have been rowing for about six months. Originally, I was rowing 6x week 40 minutes. I read about intervals and started about three weeks ago. Not sure about how to gauge.

I started at 1 min work/30 rest for 10 intervals avg spm 50. Damper was set at 3 and at the end I was dying.

Then 500m(about 2min)/2 min rest for 5 intervals avg 48 spm. Very diffucult.

Should I use time or spm to gauge?

I also realized I need to take a day off every three workouts due to soreness.

Any help or advice would be great!

Work load advice:
We would need to know how old you are.
What is your training volume in meters per week & at what pace?

What has been governing your rate selection?
Weight and height and 2k time would also help.

[luckylindy]

Hi,

I have been rowing for about six months. Originally, I was rowing 6x week 40 minutes. I read about intervals and started about three weeks ago. Not sure about how to gauge.

I started at 1 min work/30 rest for 10 intervals avg spm 50. Damper was set at 3 and at the end I was dying.

Then 500m(about 2min)/2 min rest for 5 intervals avg 48 spm. Very diffucult.

Should I use time or spm to gauge?

I also realized I need to take a day off every three workouts due to soreness.

Any help or advice would be great!

50 spm is REALLY fast, particularly if you just started doing intervals. It's possible that you are cutting your stroke short and hurting yourself by focusing on the spm rather than the time. Here's something that might be worth trying:
- Do a 500 at ~25spm.
- Focus on pulling real hard for a full stroke (i.e. focus on maintaining good technique)
- Ensure you have a slow, controlled, recovery
- This should feel just as difficult as one of your repeats before

If you can maintain a pace faster than 2:00 in the above test, it means your focus on spm is hurting technique and your times are suffering as a result (also that you are wasting a lot of energy).

[luckylindy]

My 2 cents: Yes, the feet are way lower on the C2 than in a boat. I am guessing that they put the feet so low as a concession to all the people in gyms who start the slide forward and therefore raise the knees before getting the hands past the knees toward the flywheel. I raised my footstretcher so the heels are about six and one half inches below the top of the seat. The problem is then you need to change the angle of the footstretcher. The angle on the C2 is about 45 degrees, which is too steep for the raised footstretcher. So I use a homemade orthotic, just a simple wooden wedge, to make the angle less steep: around 39 or 40 degrees. To me it feels better and I get better times on the erg. Everybody else who has tried it says it feels much better. I can return the arrangement back to the original configuration if I want to do a ranked piece. I can't say it is a superior arrangement for everybody but I can say it is more like the arrangement in a boat.

Byron - the wedge is a really good idea! I rowed 16k tonight with the stretchers raised another inch and my knees felt much better, but the angle bothered my ankles a bit. I may need to head over to home depot, thanks!

[LincolnB]

Old thread, I know.

The 500m is my best distance, usually top 5-10 in the world in my age group. I'm faster at that distance than a lot of rowers who put in way more training meters and destroy me at the longer distances. IMHO intervals are great for the 500m and the LP but intervals will only get you so far. The 500m is rate-limited -- the stroke rate can only go up so high before the wheels start coming off, so to speak. To get faster times it's imperative to put more and more power into each stroke and that means getting stronger. For me that means squats and deadlifts and the Olympic lifts a couple times a week in addition to rowing.

When I work intervals I'll practice a couple of different modes. Most workouts I'll use a low stroke rate so I can concentrate on getting as much power per stroke as possible. Other workouts I'll crank up the stroke rate to get practice with the timing of higher tempos so the technique doesn't get too ugly. Then on a pr attempt I'll try to put the two together - high rate and high power per stroke. Since the 500m is only 90 seconds long I also practice my starts, using the :30 on/:30 off workout.

[luckylindy]

LincolnB - good insights. After a few months of pounding out the meters (~80k per week), I realized that I was just getting slower at the shorter distances ... for example, my 500 went from a 1:29 to a 1:33. Considering I just started rowing a few months ago, this was rather discouraging, so I started focusing more on strength building (the big lifts in the gym) and rate-limited intervals.

[aharmer]

Lindy, I'd be curious to hear more about the rate limited interval sessions you did. I'm focused on strength building right now and would like to use the erg to that extent as well. Right now I erg off and on but have no focus at all due to no specific goals.

Today I did some of my normal intervals 500's with 1'r, then decided to play around with some sprints. I've never done sprints and rate fairly low (even on 500 repeats I only rate 27). Did some fast 10 stroke combos then set the monitor for 200m. Took a 1/2, 3/4 then full pull to start, then went back to about 3/4 pulls the rest of the way in order to rate as high as I could. Ended up clocking 32.2 seconds and a stroke rate of 48. Rested for 2-3 minutes then tried again but was really shot and ended up with a 32.7 the second time. I was still breathing hard 15 minutes after I was done!

I wonder when sprinting like this if I should do full strokes as hard as possible at a lower rate, or shorten the stroke, rate higher and go for the fastest time possible. One side of me says rate lower with a full powerful stroke. The other side says generate as much wattage as possible during that 30 seconds no matter how it's done.

On a side note, has anybody here done Tabata rows? Set the monitor for 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest. Repeat 8x and log as many meters as possible during your 8 "on" periods. Crossfit had this one on their site recently. The goal is to do 1000 meters total. For every 5 meters you fall below 1000, do 1 burpee immediately following the 4 minute row session. I've used this protocol for run sprinting and have never experienced a more intensely painful workout. The goal is to go absolutely as hard as you can from the first interval. Clearly the last ones will be much slower pace. When sprinting, the last couple are little more than a jog, trying not to fall on your face.

[luckylindy]

My rate limited workouts haven't been terribly scientific ... basically 'sprints' at relatively low rates. For example, last night I did the following:
* 1000 warmup
* 6x12 pulls @ ~14spm, as hard as possible, with slow recovery for a couple minutes between rows.
* 1000 cooldown

Each repeat was between 250 and 280 meters, so it felt more like a gym strength workout than a rowing workout. Once I have time I'd love to start doing more squats and power cleans in the gym as well.