2k plateau hit me like a train

[ItalianRower]

I think you Can do it. You say it's not a matter of mental strenght, I say it's a matter of a mental block. It took 6 months to go from 7:04 to 7:02.x but only 2 to get from 6:57 to 6:47.9. btw 2:01-2:04 it's too hard for ss SS should be at 1.5-2.0 mmol concentration of lactic acid in your blood which is 50-55% of 2k watts and around 70-75% hrr.(Heart rate reserve which is max hr minus resting Heart rate multiply that by 0.7-0.75 and add your resting Heart rate to that). Don't test for a month or so and crush it, If you don't have a hr monitor Just train ss at roughly 150 watts for the majority of your pieces and do the test of ss Rate 22-24 maximal power each stroke, If you Can do 10-12k's between 1:55 and 2:00 consistently you Can phisically.

[TomR]

the only other things that may explain my bad performance is

1. my warmup

did 4*500 2 min rest at 138.5, 2 hrs before test. Probobly over did it here.

2. I did not eat anything the morning of.

I woke up at 6, my test was 5 hrs later.

the warm-up is wrong, both the timing and the method. here's one approach that many who have been around here know
http://www.rowingmachineking.com/wp-con ... pdf?x72109
some do longer warm-up, some shorter, but the approach shown in the link is common. finish the warm-up about 10 mins before the race starts.

also, eat something. racing in a fastest state makes no sense.

a question for you: do you drink enough water?

[hjs]

the only other things that may explain my bad performance is

1. my warmup

did 4*500 2 min rest at 138.5, 2 hrs before test. Probobly over did it here.

2. I did not eat anything the morning of.

I woke up at 6, my test was 5 hrs later.

the warm-up is wrong, both the timing and the method. here's one approach that many who have been around here know
http://www.rowingmachineking.com/wp-con ... pdf?x72109
some do longer warm-up, some shorter, but the approach shown in the link is common. finish the warm-up about 10 mins before the race starts.

also, eat something. racing in a fastest state makes no sense.

a question for you: do you drink enough water?

Not even seen this. Almost bizar, this "wu" is tougher that the actual test.

In general, relax about it, it will come, you need a few goes to know what you can. And you will improve but it will go slow.
Relative speaking your sprinting will stay stronger, if 2k is your goal, you really should stop doing short stuff, build your slow fibers. Not your fast ones.

[JerekKruger]

That warm up surely can't be the warm up for the 2k. It was done two hours beforehand.

[hjs]

That warm up surely can't be the warm up for the 2k. It was done two hours beforehand.

Think about it, 7 seconds below 2k pace. For you say 134 pace, with 2min rest... This would really kill any row 2 hours later. And I am almost certain almost nobody can do this. That 2k test was really far below par.

[JerekKruger]

Think about it, 7 seconds below 2k pace. For you say 134 pace, with 2min rest... This would really kill any row 2 hours later. And I am almost certain almost nobody can do this. That 2k test was really far below par.

What I meant was why would you warm up two hours before the test. I'd typically warm up, take about ten minutes getting things ready and making sure I'm fully rested, then do the test. If I warmed up two hours before I'd be cold going into the test itself.

Of course I completely agree that it's a bad way to warm up as well. I usually row between 10 and 20 minutes easy with a handful of faster bursts building up to one or two at race pace.

[hjs]

Think about it, 7 seconds below 2k pace. For you say 134 pace, with 2min rest... This would really kill any row 2 hours later. And I am almost certain almost nobody can do this. That 2k test was really far below par.

What I meant was why would you warm up two hours before the test. I'd typically warm up, take about ten minutes getting things ready and making sure I'm fully rested, then do the test. If I warmed up two hours before I'd be cold going into the test itself.

Of course I completely agree that it's a bad way to warm up as well. I usually row between 10 and 20 minutes easy with a handful of faster bursts building up to one or two at race pace.

Got that.

To me it looks like he was super motivated and could not hold himself back.

10/15 minutes easy rowing, 3 x a faster 300 orso, around 2k pace. 5 min rest and do the test. Is roughly what I do.

[Dangerscouse]

I need to re-think my strategy! I never warm up for any session

[JerekKruger]

@Stu - I don't think warming up is necessary for steady state rows. I do, but only a short technique drill. It's for higher intensity rows that warming up is important, in large part for injury prevention. For time trials it's also important to get your body ready for the work it's about to do. Here's an old post by Mike Caviston on the matter that I tidied up*:

The purpose of warming up is to prepare the body for the physical (and mental) demands of the task at hand. Some of the physiological effects of properly warming up include dilating blood vessels supplying the active muscles; increasing sympathetic neural drive to the heart so HR will be able to reach max values; beginning the sweating response to keep the body cool; beginning the process of activating the appropriate energy pathways; mobilizing adequate fuel sources (i.e., breakdown and release of fatty acids for longer sessions); and allowing the muscles & joints to reach the full Range Of Motion required during the session. Many people behave as if all of this can be accomplished with a few minutes of low-moderate intensity preparation prior to their training session (or race!) In fact, a proper warm-up needs to be longer and more intense than many people apparently realize.

Many people fear an intense/extended warm-up will leave them too exhausted to perform well during a workout or race. Ironically, failing to warm up long enough with sufficient intensity will limit performance! I find that during a Level 1 or Level 2 interval workout, the first interval is generally the hardest and slowest (even after what I consider a complete warm-up). The next interval feels significantly easier, and throughout the workout, even as fatigue progressively becomes more of a limiting factor, the later intervals are more relaxed. Clearly, the body requires time to become prepared and acclimated for hard work. I have heard or read many people recount experiences where they performed unexpectedly well after a tough initial work period (e.g., doing better on the second 2K at a venue race even though the first 2K was supposed to be “all-out”.) An anecdote I have related before illustrates the point. Several years ago while coaching at Michigan in the pre-erg era, a staple workout was to have the team run a dozen times up (and down) a dozen flights of stairs in the tallest building on campus. Cumulative time for all 12 trips up & down would typically be in the 30-35’ range. The standard warm-up I required was to jog to the top & back at least twice before beginning the actual workout on the clock. Some athletes, as a penalty for various infractions during the previous week (late to practice, etc.) would also have to do two fast “penalty flights” within a specific time limit (or do more penalties), and within a couple minutes start the actual workout. So that meant 2 jog + 2 penalty + 12 workout flights. It quickly became apparent that not only were the athletes given the penalty flights NOT too tired to perform well – they took huge chunks off their best overall times; they performed MUCH better relative to past performances than their non-penalized teammates.

With that in mind, for the past several years I have repeated a little experiment with many different squads of rowers (similar to the “pacing” experiment I described in a previous post). Part of the season would go by and athletes would be given some general guidelines for warming up but would have quite a bit of flexibility in determining their own formats and intensities. Then at some point before a tough workout (e.g., 4 x 1K) I would require a more specific and demanding warm-up – something that when they saw it written on the white board would cause their jaws to drop a little and you could tell they were thinking something like, “I’m going to do THAT warm-up and THEN do 4 x 1K? I don’t THINK so!” [I think that’s the hallmark of a good warm-up: it should be intense enough that outsiders will mistake it for the actual workout.] So the athletes would be afraid they wouldn’t be able to complete the workout. But they always did, and in almost every case they did it significantly faster than previously and with less perceived effort. (Inexplicably, when the specifically intense guidelines for warm-up were removed, most athletes reverted back to an easier but less successful format. Someone could devote an entire thread to the topic of athletes’ psychology and why they tend to resist things that have proven to be effective.)

So, warm-ups need to be longer & more intense than performed by many people. I don’t have a blanket formula (I doubt if there is one), but I can offer examples of warm-ups I use for my own training. Like all aspects of training, I prefer quite a bit of structure with my warm-ups. I follow specific formats for specific workouts. The formats aren’t quite as strict as for Levels 1-4, and a slight amount of variation may occur from one day to the next, but by-and-large I follow pretty scripted scenarios. I do so for a few reasons. In the first place, following a routine is a good way to encourage consistency. People who get inconsistent results for different types of workouts might benefit from re-examining their preparations before the workout. One of the guiding principles of the Wolverine Plan is to slowly, gradually, and systematically increase the overall training load week by week. What many fail to realize is that warm-up is part of the training load. I perform a set routine every week (i.e., 1 L1, 1 L2, 2 L3, and 6 L4 workouts every week). The intensity and duration of each workout is controlled to keep an overall balance and pace for the entire week’s training. The warm-ups are also part of the training load and I keep the duration and intensity of the warm-ups controlled as well. Essentially, warm-ups can be thought of as “Level 5” in the WP framework, and account for over 25K of my training meters every week. These are not “junk” meters, but quality meters with a specific training effect essential to the overall process.

Here is a basic description of my warm-ups:
I begin with about 15 firm strokes to check my drag factor; this is sort of a “pre-warm-up” warm-up. For the actual warm-up, I set the monitor for Just Row (for all workouts, I pre-set a time or distance and count down, so this is a chance for a little variety in how I look at the monitor). The warm-ups themselves have evolved after a period of trial-and-error and attempting many different things. The current formats have their logic but some aspects are there “just because” they have been working for me. So I’m not presenting these as fixed ideals, but as illustrations that demonstrate some of the key factors in warming up.
My standard warm-up distance for Level 4 workouts is 2000m.
1st 200m (about 20 strokes) @ 26-27spm; pace 70% of 2K Watts (a solid Level 3 pace).
From 200-850m, @14-16spm; minimal pace is the Recovery Pace defined for my 2K in the WP charts (37% of 2K Watts), but the actual Recovery Pace I use will often be faster by 2-4 sec/500m.
At 850m, I firm up so that my rate is 28-30spm and pace is 90% of 2K Watts (a fast Level 2 pace) and hold this for 12-15 strokes until I reach 1000m.
At 1000m, I drop back down to Recovery Pace and rate.
At 1450m, I firm up to 26-27spm and a pace 80% of 2K Watts (a slow Level 2 pace) and hold it for 12-15 strokes.
The final 400m or so is done at Recovery Pace and rate.
From one warm-up to the next, the exact number of firm strokes or the exact pace for each one might vary slightly, but at the end the average pace for the 2000m ends up being remarkably consistent (within a couple tenths of a sec per 500m), at 45% of 2K Watts.
When I finish the 2000m, I take a couple minutes to take care of such business as making sure my water bottle is full, my towel is handy, use the bathroom if necessary, maybe do a few brief stretches, etc. I partly do this to simulate the transition from the warm-up erg to race erg that occurs at venue races. To finish, I’ll take a few more strokes, some easy, some firm, for another 30-90 seconds (depending on how much I’ve cooled), then set the monitor and begin the actual workout.

My standard warm-up for Level 3 workouts is 2500m. The first 2000m is identical to the Level 4 warm-up. The final 500m is done at Recovery Pace except for an additional 10 strokes at 80% of 2K Watts (slow Level 2). The average pace for the whole warm-up is 45% of 2K Watts.
The standard warm-up for Level 2 is 4000m long. It begins with 100m (about 10 strokes) @ 26-27spm, 70% 2K Watts.
From 100m-1000m, 14-16spm and Recovery Pace.
From 1000m-2000m, 26-27spm and at least 80% of 2K Watts. NOTE: this is perceived as hard work, and takes a little mental toughness. For the desired physiological effect, it is important that the pace be maintained continuously (not in short bursts) for the entire distance.
From 2000m-2500m, settle to 18spm @ L4 16 pace (i.e., the pace usually prescribed for rowing at 16spm according to the WP charts).
At 2500m, shift down to 14-16spm @ Recovery Pace. At about 2800m, firm up to 28-30spm at 90% 2K Watts for 15-20 strokes, then drop back to Recovery Pace and rate at about 3000m. At about 3450m, firm up for 10-15 more strokes at 90% 2K Watts, then finish the remainder of the 4000m @ Recovery Pace.
The warm-up for Level 1 workouts is identical to that for Level 2, except the 90% 2K Watts becomes 105% 2K Watts (@32-33spm). The average pace for the L1-2 warm-ups works out to 51-2% of 2K Watts.

Warm-ups also serve a diagnostic purpose for me (i.e., Am I ready to perform?) Some days the first 20 strokes just seem a little harder than normal, and the desired pace doesn’t appear as quickly as it usually does. Or other portions might be more difficult than usual or it might take longer than usual to reach the half-way point. Things like this tell me that I’ll need to expend a little extra effort to get prepared, or take a little more time, or in a worst-case scenario, maybe adjust my goal for the workout a little.

In my training journal I record the times and distances for all workouts, and the distances for each warm-up. (I don’t record the paces for the warm-ups but as I have said, they are very consistent and I know for all intents and purposes what they are.) The percent of total training volume distributed among warm-ups and the various training bands is pretty consistent. Warm-up is about 15-17% of total weekly volume; Level 1 is 2-3%; Level 2 is 4-6%; Level 3 is 20-25%; and level 4 is 50-55%. For warm-up, I only record the standard allotted distances, ignoring any additional or supplemental warm-up meters. I also neglect to record my active recovery meters for interval sessions and my cool-down meters after workouts are completed. This means several thousand meters per week go unrecorded, but I find I get a more accurate and meaningful portrait of my training that way.

My standard race warm-up is 7500m. It begins with a 4000m block that is identical to the Level 1 warm-up. Then, after a 1-2 minute break, I set the monitor for 2000m. I break this 2K portion of the warm-up into 400m segments. The 1st 400m is 14-16spm/Recovery Pace; 2nd 400m is 18spm/L4 16 pace; middle 400m is 32-33spm/sub-2K pace; 4th 400m same as 2nd; 5th 400m same as 1st. Yes, the middle 400m is sub -2K pace, faster than I expect to go in the actual race. A mental component to this 2K portion is to review and visualize my race plan for the day (and to prove to myself that a monitor will indeed count down to zero from 2000m!) After another 1-2 minute break, I do a final 1500m at recovery Pace, with two 12-15 stroke bursts at near-2K pace. Ideally, I finish the warm-up 5-10 minutes before the scheduled start of the race, which leaves me enough time to leave the warm-up area, find a men’s room if necessary, report to the race area, and begin adjusting my race erg as soon as I’m allowed. Prior to the start of the race, I alternate light strokes with short bursts at firm pressure to maintain the proper muscle temperature. The analogy I use is to think of a kettle on the stove just getting ready to boil. I don’t want to start boiling before the race starts but I want the flame to be high enough so that when I see “ROW” on my monitor I begin boiling in the shortest time possible. Incidentally, it is important to know how long the entire warm-up routine will take. I go through the entire routine at least a couple times in the days leading up to the race, so I know exactly when to begin (relative to my race time) on race day. Once I begin the warm-up, I am also prepared to shorten or extend the process as necessary if I receive word the original schedule has changed. Often races fall behind schedule and you must handle a delay (e.g., Paris EIRC 2003), but I’ve also been at races where lost time is unexpectedly made up and a race begins sooner than originally anticipated (e.g., Amsterdam EIRC 2004).

To sum up my major point, warm-up is a crucial aspect of the training/racing process and needs to be attended with as much planning and scientific validation as other aspects of training. Most people will benefit significantly from longer and more intense warm-ups. This will probably take some mental conditioning as well. That is, it may take you a while to get your head around the idea that working harder before a race will make you faster, not slower. I suggest gradually adjusting your warm-up procedures under controlled conditions during training to see what formats are most physically and mentally beneficial.

One final matter related to warm-up for anyone who trains more than once per day. I have come across several published research articles describing the benefits of prior exercise on subsequent workouts. This refers to the lingering warm-up effects of a first session on a second session performed a few hours later. For example, vasodilators remain active, allowing a quicker more efficient distribution of blood flow to active muscles, and metabolic enzymes are in a more ready state. With proper nutrition between workouts, there is more efficient and effective glycogen synthesis and storage in the fibers utilized during the first session, leaving them favorably primed for the second session. I have long known from personal experience that when I add a second session to my daily routine I appear to become more rather than less energetic. It’s good to see my experiences validated under experimental circumstances.

Note that I include the whole thing not because I think you (or anyone else) should follow his exact guidelines for warming up, but rather because it might be of general interest. I certainly don't do warm ups as long as his.

*I just removing the formatting tags from the post, I didn't change any of the writing.

[Dangerscouse]

Cheers Tom. What about a 5k TT?

[gooseflight]

The Eddie Fletcher warm-up has served me well in the past:

http://www.machars.net/downloads/ef-warmup.png

[JerekKruger]

Cheers Tom. What about a 5k TT?

I do roughly the same as for a 2k TT except obviously I won't go as fast during my bursts of speed since I'm targeting 5k pace rather than 2k pace.

I think the Eddie Fletcher warm up that gooseflight linked is a good one, I'm just not usually patient enough to run through it. For a 5k you could probably adapt it by reducing the fast end portion of it a bit.

[TomR]

Not even seen this. Almost bizar, this "wu" is tougher that the actual test.

henry, it's eddie fletcher's i think. the same warm-up that gooseflight posted, using a different link.

it's not all that different from your warm-up. both have some relaxed rowing and three short, quick bursts.

i worry about you. if you think that's almost tougher than the test, you must be getting soft.

[JerekKruger]

henry, it's eddie fletcher's i think. the same warm-up that gooseflight posted, using a different link.

Fairly certain Henry was referring to doing 4x500/2r at 1:38.5 two hours before, not the warm-up that TomR linked.

[TomR]

Cheers Tom. What about a 5k TT?

don't know if this is directed to me or not, but i probably do about 10 minutes of easy rowing 18-20 spm, then i'll do, say, two mins at 22 spm, ease off for a bit, then 2 mins at 24 spm, ease off, then 1 min at 26 spm, the paddle for a minute or two. in any warm-up (2k or 5k) i'll do some strokes at the desired pace and also maybe 10 or 15 at faster than the desired pace.

something like that.

people have often noted how when doing hard intervals, even after a good warm-up, the second repetition is easier than the first. that's probably because they're fully warmed up only after doing the first rep.