maestroak wrote:I was where you are at one point and while you'll get different answers from the hardcore types on here, but what served me best was meters, meters, meters and pushing myself for improvement. The low rate can't hurt but to me it is over stated on here. I rated down to 20spm for a million meters, it never felt entirely comfortable. I can rate low in a boat no problem, on an erg I have a very hard time doing it without pausing, I need a rhythm that only feels comfortable around 24spm or so. All that being said, you're likely plateauing because of the limited time you're putting in. When I was where you were I was going 30 min four-times a week and 10Ks on the weekends. I also think you should keep pushing yourself, there is no reason you should be at a plateau in terms of performance. Set targets and keep trying to incrementally improve. At your size, you should be able to row 30 min at 2:00/500m reasonably easily. If you're not there, starting working your way down to it, your body will catch up.
_Steve
Thanks Steve,
I pushed myself today. I planned on doing 3 X 2k with 3 minutes breaks. I got two in and got called away from my rowing time!
I logged:
2K - 8:59 - 20 s/m - 500m split of 2:14.8
3 minute break, then . . .
2K - 8.33 - 21 s/m - 500m split of 2:08.4
I have to admit I felt pretty gassed after the second row, but was looking forward to the last before I got called away. The fact I was able to push myself to a 2:08 split after having already rowed 2k at about my normal split made me feel pretty good. I normally can only sustain 2:08 split for a minute or two during my past "normal" workouts and at a much higher stroke rate. It's fun to know I can go faster while rowing slower and get a killer workout in.
As a side note, I found Pete's plan and printed out the whole thing this morning. I'm going to start on Monday.