How Much time between Max Effort Time Trial Efforts?

[RowtheRockies]

I did a 5K TT on Sunday which was a new PB for me and was wondering how much time I should allow before trying again. Is once a week to much, every two weeks, more?

Thanks,

Rich

[Elamonta]

Hmmm... I have always heard that you should do more training than actual "racing". Therefore I would say maybe once every two weeks at a minimum...I mean you want to give your body some time to improve and doing time trials back to back (I would imagine)...wouldn't show any large improvements.

BTW...you have a pretty good 5K time compared to your 2K...when was the last time you did a 2k?

[johnlvs2run]

I'd say once in two weeks is better than once a week, as it gives you more time for recovery, development and improvement.

[Bob S.]

I did a 5K TT on Sunday which was a new PB for me and was wondering how much time I should allow before trying again. Is once a week to much, every two weeks, more?

Thanks,

Rich

I don't know how much one should allow, but it is certainly nice to have the luxury of that option. In a big regatta, with a succession of heats, a rower might have to do a couple of races with only a few hours in between. Sometimes it can mean 3 or 4 races in one weekend. In the big national meets like the U.S. National Masters, many sign up for more than one event and may have a half a dozen races in a weekend. This isn't exactly the same as PB attempts, but it requires similar effort - and better planning.

The erg competitions used to require such heats, but they have been eliminated since it is presumed that all the erg pieces are done under the same conditions - which is not strictly true, since changes in temperature and humidity can have varying effects on performance.

Bob S.

[RowtheRockies]

Elamonta,

Ya, I noticed that about my 5K and 2K times when I posted the last 5K in the rankings. For the 5K, I am at the 36th percentile and for the 2K I am at the 52nd percentile. My last 2K was done about a month ago. I decided to focus on 5K for a while because of the 4 2K's I have rowed, I crashed and burned on two of them. I have a distance running background so I think my aerobic base is much stronger than my strength and power at this point.

[LJWagner]

Consider using a heart rate monitor.

How soon you recover from an all out effort is also an indication of your overall fitness level. If you try to race significantly harder than you train, you are not well prepared, and you will need a longer recovery time (days). Train at a similar level, and for some people, recovery is only hours, or less. 1984 Women's Olympic Rowing. The US 8 won by 1 meter over the Romanians. Those Romanian "silver" medalists all had one or two (or three ?) gold medals from the earlier finals of the morning. They won all the other events, with possibly only an 8 woman crew. The US 8 was fresh, and medalless, before the race. The US kept putting fresh crews against the same women all morning long, and losing, until the last race, which they barely held on to win.

As part of your 2k training, learn when your heart rate stays steady, and when you have pushed to hard for your currrent conditioning and it begins to climb at a steady rate. When it keeps going up, you're soon to crash. At the least you know to back off a bit until it goes steady again.

I'm finally able to to do steady state training again, I could not get it to not climb for a long time, and could not figure out why.

Now, after my triple bypass surgery in January, it stays steady under stress. Last week, I could go 5 minutes @ 3.0 mph at 7% on my treadmill, then my heart rate began to creep up. Yesterday, I went 8 minutes at 10% before it began to creep up. So I am still getting better recovering from the surgery. Two weeks ago, I did a cautious 9:58 for 2k on my C2. My pulse hit 158 the first and last minute, and 147-151 in the middle 8. In December, I did cautious 10:29s, with a creeping heart rate even while slowing down my 500m times.

You do have to do some pacing during long events, and know your body's energy systems. All out cardio will last only about 5 minutes, no matter what your conditioning. If your event is longer than that, you must take it into account and hold back a bit so you'll make it to the end. You can still blast some short bursts periodically, but don't take it too far, or you will crash. Don't do in a race or PB time trial what you have not practiced. You won't know the result, but it is not likely to be good.

Guys who do multiple events have trained to be able to. Their level of conditioning is truly amazing. In Dr. Rowing's book, he even discusses Xeno Muller in his collegiate or prep days. Xeno would sometimes pick and choose when he would take over a boat, and the thing would suddenly gain speed when Xeno turned it on full. The boat was fast when he was on 90% or better, but it was REALLY fast when he went all out. The function of training for excellence is to make your 90% or 95% effort better than most people's 100%, or at least better than your own 90% was before.

Try adding squats and bench row sets to your workouts. Work up to multiple sets. Back extensions or Good Morning for your low back. Or on the erg, from a stopped flywheel see how few strokes you can use to accelerate to your top speed, at various stroke rates. On your arm pull, be sure you are maintaining your back position. Otherwise if you "pull" harder than your back will support, you are not pulling the oar toward your hips, you are pulling your shoulders toward the oar handle and your body will be rocking slightly toward your feet and the handle won't be moving much in the direction you want it to move.

Train and test. You'll move forward. Time and dedication, and avoiding injury.

[margaret]

Thanks LJ Wagner for your very informative explanation of fitness training. My speeds aren't competitive, but your explanations help me know how to improve. I wan't aware of using heart rate leveling vs. increase to predict crash & burn. I've rowed more in the last year than before, but my speeds started decreasing last fall. Apparently I need to learn how to "read" my physiological responses, like heart rate, better.