Summer Training Plan

[Ruderer]

Hey everyone,

Spring season is slowly (sadly) coming to an end, and as a high school sophomore I am getting ready to make a big push for next year. This summer I will be sticking to a training plan. I don't have a clear goal yet, so far it is just "become a much better rower". I have been lurking on these forums for a while, and I am looking for some final pieces of advice before I start the plan.

I am 5.10/11 ish, ~145 pounds, 16 years old. My last 2k was a 7:17, I think a 7:12 would be doable for my next one.

First off, I will be following 3 cycles of the Pete Plan (6 days of workouts, rest on Sunday) pretty much word for word. Then I will be spending about 2 hours on the water, sculling, hopefully in a single, 5 times a week. I will also mix in 40 minutes of weight circuits twice a week.

Is this enough? Too much? If I should add more workouts, I might be able to bike too and from the boathouse, which should be a solid hour, hour and a half total.

Again, I don't want to make many changes to the plan once started, so I was wondering if anyone had some advice to improve it.

Thanks in advance.

[Atorrante]

I think you should also look at your diet and try to gain some weight... that will help.

[Ruderer]

Hey,

Yes, I have been trying to gain weight. I weighed 138 pounds at the beginning of the season, so I have been making some progress. I'm still unsure on the best way to go about gaining weight without gaining fat, but I guess that's a topic for another thread. (If you know of one, could you show me it?)

[nfeht]

I would say biking to and from the boathouse is beneficial. I didn't get into cycling until college and wish I got into it sooner. In college riding to and from the boathouse for practice a few days a week paid dividends for me. I used cycling to help build my cardiovascular base. One side benefit was time budgeting. During periods of training which were high volume low intensity, cycling allowed me to greatly increase my volume while not taking away tons of time from my classes. To get to practice by bike rather than with the team (by bus) took me 15min longer, but i gained 40-60 min of training, one way. I did speak with my coach to incorporate it into my training plan as additional cat 4-6 work.

My ride to the boathouse http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/6013084 (mapped as to the boathouse and back)
When I started riding it took me a little over 1hr, but I dropped that to slightly over 40min as i got stronger.

[Atorrante]

Hey,

Yes, I have been trying to gain weight. I weighed 138 pounds at the beginning of the season, so I have been making some progress. I'm still unsure on the best way to go about gaining weight without gaining fat, but I guess that's a topic for another thread. (If you know of one, could you show me it?)

Hi. Inevitably you'll get some fat with the weight gain, but it will also help you to be stronger and better your times. I think that the combination of a structured training and a diet will help. In regards to the diet, maybe a dietitian can help you. I can't because my case is the opposite, i have to diet to lose weight.

[Ruderer]

Nfeht, I made a route to the boathouse on the mapmyride.com website (thanks for showing me that!) The route is about 12 miles one way, I am considering using the biking to replace some of the steady distance portions of the Pete Plan for logistical reasons.

Atorrante, yes, it is a strange sounding position to be in! If anyone else has tips on weight gain I would love to hear them.

[nfeht]

One thing I would recommend that I didn't think of before is that if you end up using the bike you should get a bike fit from your local bike shop. A poorly fitted bike can lead to injuries.