Training how often?

[markinnb]

water rower?? what the hey ? I guess it's an easy mistake to make.

buddy's in great shape- no matter the rower. hopefully he'll get better on a c2 . keep at it Berger... no matter what machine you use... or what you weigh !

[markinnb]

well several things came from this thread... but the most important was :

I made history by making the most blatantly wrong & idiotic post that cast doubt on a person's truthiness...
that alone has to be worth a world record.
BEAT THAT !

[jackarabit]

Mark, you really do need a nap altho I give you credit for not getting TOOOOOO cranky. Lindsay, first over the line with the real skinny. I love watching True Pace Detective!!

[G-dub]

bergerm6,
as you can tell there is lots of passion on the forum! Someone asked what your goal was. For general fitness and to spice things up, the Pete Plan beginner program (don't be bothered by the name) might be an interesting choice. Something tells me you are geared toward a little intensity anyway and the interval sessions scratch that itch. there is also balance brought in with some longer rows. A link is provided below. There will be other opinions too.

https://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/beginner-training/

[jackarabit]

If the washtub delivers "inflated" results cf. to the squirrel cage, has anyone determined the conversion factor? I know that C2 rules so long as Dick pays the airfare but it won't always be that way. Calibration might be in order, not to mention an independent cert for same. Yeh, I sense sidewinder stirring his bones but think this is a legitimate question. Jack

[bergerm6]

bergerm6,
as you can tell there is lots of passion on the forum! Someone asked what your goal was. For general fitness and to spice things up, the Pete Plan beginner program (don't be bothered by the name) might be an interesting choice. Something tells me you are geared toward a little intensity anyway and the interval sessions scratch that itch. there is also balance brought in with some longer rows. A link is provided below. There will be other opinions too.

https://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/beginner-training/

Thanks so much for the link! That looks like the answer to the question I should have been asking.....does anyone have a good/proven program to recommend.

The passion is great. I'll just try to stay on the right side of the passionate responses for a while. I really wasn't trying to brag or boast or anything in my initial post, I was just looking for a little guidance and wanted to give a rough idea of where I am starting from today.

[jackarabit]

Mr. Berger, one never anticipates the Spanish Inquisition. Welcome to our happy enclave.

[G-dub]

Dude, if you've got it flaunt it. That is what most of this is about - pushing ourselves to better fitness and faster times and there aren't many people to share it with. my wife finally understands that I talk about progress in terms of 500 meter splits (frankly she is usually not listening but nodding politely). But one thing is for sure, you need to brag about times on the Concept 2! It is the one that races are held on. The forum is lots of fun. It keeps you into it and there is lots to learn from the seasoned and sometimes crusty veterans.

[Carl Watts]

Row Monday to Friday with the weekend off. Occasionally row one day in the weekend, depends on how hard the week was.

Mix of 30 minutes to 10K rows, all low rating these days at 20spm. Pace is 2:03.6 down to 2:00.0 pace recently with a heartrate that's not killing me so its sustainable from one week to the next for the whole season. 2K Cool Down most days so about 50-60Km a week is working well.

Times a PB's are only comparable if done on a Concept 2 rower, anything else doesn't count.

[lindsayh]

Mark, you really do need a nap altho I give you credit for not getting TOOOOOO cranky. Lindsay, first over the line with the real skinny. I love watching True Pace Detective!!

Yep didn't ring true but seemed genuine - "the old water rower trick" as Maxwell Smart used to say.
There is no direct correlation or conversion chart between the C2 and the water rower but if you use one regularly then apparently you can get some individual relativity. Richard Steventon uses one quite a lot and doesn't mind it - it is "faster" - maybe 20-30 secs in 2km.

[sharp_rower]

I train 2 to 3 times a week. Maybe it's just me, but it takes me a good few days to properly recover from the previous workout. If I go back at it too soon, then I'm just doing the so-called "junk meters". Depends a lot on how disciplined you are with sleep and what else you have going on during the week. But basically if you're not properly recovered, you're doing more harm than good, developing fatigue, and then can't perform optimally on test day. That was my mistake this year, not giving myself enough time to be fully rested not only between training sessions but before race day.

Agree though that if you want to make real progress you need to train at least 4 times a week and be disciplined about what you do in between training sessions (eating, sleeping, intensity of your other activities).

[Cyclingman1]

I would have to second sharp_rower big time. Rowing when tired is counterproductive. You can get away with it for a while, but it will come crashing down on you. Everyone is different. If you can row 5-6 days a week, so be it. When you see commentary about having to row 50-100K a week to get good, one had best be careful before embarking on such a regimen. You can get really good on 15-20K a week if done properly: that is a mix of speed and endurance. If the OP is really close to the published times on twice a week, it is not necessarily true that 4 times a week will put him in world class territory. It might well be the beginning of the end.

[G-dub]

Jim, you've been consistent and it looks like a bit more conservative lately. So for 15 -20K that would be (at most for you) an hour and a half to two hours of training tops per week. Is that really all you did when you were training? You did nothing else - no cross training, no kayaking, no biking? No spinning? I'd be bummed really since it is so nice to exercise for so many other reasons too. Sorry, I keep editing this post. How about when you trained for duathalon? Was that just 1-2 hours per week? If nothing else, I am not sure most of us would have the confidence to only train that much and still reach goals.

[hjs]

Jim, you've been consistent and it looks like a bit more conservative lately. So for 15 -20K that would be (at most for you) an hour and a half to two hours of training tops per week. Is that really all you did when you were training? You did nothing else - no cross training, no kayaking, no biking? No spinning? I'd be bummed really since it is so nice to exercise for so many other reasons too. Sorry, I keep editing this post. How about when you trained for duathalon? Was that just 1-2 hours per week? If nothing else, I am not sure most of us would have the confidence to only train that much and still reach goals.

Volume without talk about intensity means nothing. You can sharpen on 15/20 k a week, you can not build a base on those meters.

Jim had a big base from other sports, kept on doing a lot of cross meters on the bike, did sharpen on those 15/20 k. But soon after that, albleit with other problems, he completely lost the plod. For some strange reason he never tels it like it really is.

The more you can train the better, but the limitation is your recovery. Top towers are top because they can train a lot. If yoy can,t, you simply lack the talent. 99% plus of the population.

[Cyclingman1]

For some strange reason he never tels it like it really is.

Come on Henry, I'm not going to write my autobiography in these posts. I've actually revealed quite a bit about my athletics in posts over the last 3.5 yrs. Glenn, you are lumping together a whole bunch of stuff and gettin all confused. First of all, I did duathlons well over 20 yrs ago. I rode about 125 miles (6 hrs) a week and ran about 15 (2 hrs) a week. I did emphasize intensity. Nobody liked to train with me, because I hammered pretty much all the time on the bike and did not run junk miles. And it worked. In 40+ competition across the Southeast, I very seldom lost a duathlon until I got into my mid to upper 40s. Those races were generally 40K bike and 10K run. But all of that has nothing to do with what I've done on a rower since Jan, 2012.

I took up rowing only accidentally, because my wife volunteered me to go the GA Tech Erg Sprints in Feb, 2012 as part of Decatur Crossfit. At the first of Jan, 2012, I did a 7:12 2K as a test to see where I was. I had been on a rower a few times over the years, but had never seriously tried to do a 2K. Yes, the 7:12 was due only to my cycling fitness, which was hardly at a peak. I was almost 66. When you get to 66, you'll know what I'm talking about. 6 weeks later at Ga Tech, I did 6:57, which disappointed me. 8 weeks later I did 6:40.7, which was the best time ever posted by a 65+ person at that time. How did I do it?

I averaged 16K a week for those 14 weeks. But I worked hard. For example. Once a week I did 12-15 rapid clean and presses from the floor with fairly light weights and then immediately rowed a fairly fast 500m. Did that five times. The rest of the week I did miscellaneous 2-5Ks, with an occasional 30min thrown in, and shorter hard intervals [250m, etc]. I kept up the intensity with 30+ SPM. I did no other cross training, although I started riding my bike some in March - not hard. I made a 32 sec improvement in 14 weeks. That was due to intense rowing, not the 5K miles a yr I put in on a bike for 30 yrs.

I actually think that I could take almost anyone posting in this forum and get their times down with the kind of rowing that I did. Now, perhaps that wouldn't work for the ultimate world class time, but my success is not about smoke and mirrors. It is about intensity and guts. You have to like discomfort and I do.

Regarding recent training/results. The reason that I have fallen by the wayside in rowing is that I'm not healthy. I've been hospitalized twice in the last three yrs with DVTs (blood clots) and PEs ( pulmonary embolisms). Unfortunately, it appears that I have lingering effects from all of that. I'm currently undergoing testing for CTEPH (Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension). The bottom line is that I can't breathe. I don't know where I could have gotten to in my rowing. I had actually bumped up my meters to around 22K a week in mid-2012 and was doing well. Had my sights on 6:30. But then things started happening: the DVTs and a hip replacement and some other stuff. Even with all of my difficulties, I'm at the top of nonathlon this yr and have several times at age 69 well under the 70+ records. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll make it. Crap happens. In any event, I've blathered on way too much here.