Daily Workout Strategy?

[tmozer3]

OK I worked on my technique following the suggestions above. Did the hard pull thing and got my watts up to 114. But I could only last 2 minutes. Seems I have a lot of work to do to get in shape and improve my stats.......

[jamesg]

At 5'8" you have an ideal weight of 70 - 75 kg. So 50 to 70 Watts could be a first target, 1 W/kg.

Don't try to work hard. But pull a long stroke, with low force, and not more than 20-25 a minute. Start with arms only to warm up, then gradually add first swing, then slide forward.

Rowing is the ideal way of getting from A to B, because boats move very easily, they don't stop between strokes and there are no hills. To mimic this on the erg, set the drag as low as possible and use low ratings; and remember that your rating (strokes per minute) and the speed of the boat are two different things.

This is a three stage training plan. Start at beginner level with one minute slow pulls, 2 minutes rest, repeat:
https://www.britishrowing.org/indoor-ro ... ing-plans/

Above all, keep at it. Progress comes with repetition.

[Allan Olesen]

OK I worked on my technique following the suggestions above. Did the hard pull thing and got my watts up to 114. But I could only last 2 minutes. Seems I have a lot of work to do to get in shape and improve my stats.......

Good. Now you know how to do a harder effort without skyrocketing your stroke rate.

Next step would be to back off considerably. If you train at max. effort every day, you will not get as far as if you train at a lower effort.

There are a lot of opinions on this, and I am in favour of really low intensity for aerobic base building. A rule of thumb is that you should do most of your training at an intensity which you will be able to hold for an hour and then feel ready to do another hour the next day, and the day after, and so on. It doesn't really feel like training, but it can provide a huge base which you can tap into when occasionally doing the more intense training sessions.

Anyway, there are good training plans out there. I would prefer one of those plans which starts off by measuring your current max. ability, for example in a 2k test (very tough and evil), and then calculate your daily targets from the result of that test.

[tmozer3]

I have not only found an excellent source of exercise (rowing) but also an excellent group of friendly helpful people. Thanks for the all the suggestions and help!

[Dangerscouse]

Damn. I have watched several YouTube videos and thought I was doing things mostly right. Guess I will have to re access. (That is why I liked walking as an exercise. It is just natural and you don't have to worry about technique.)

BTW, what average watt value should I be looking for?

For a seemingly simple exercise it's surprisingly technical.

Don't view it as bad that it's hard going. It's good when a task is hard and you can only manage two minutes as you rapidly improve and there's endorphin boosts most days as you keep getting better.

Write down your sessions, times, pace and stroke rate and track your progress. You may find lower stroke rates are harder, or vice versa, so don't assume that they are the same level of effort. Personally I find lower rates (circa r20) are harder than higher rates (circa r28)

[tmozer3]

For now I am going to use the same approach I used when I was running 6 miles a day. An even fairly comfortable pace that I can maintain for a long period of time (30 minutes or so) and wait until the last couple minutes (starting at 2 and working up to 5) for the sprint: long hard pulls with a watt reading of at least 80.

[Slothful1]

When I started out I found that the various challenges (accumulating metres for myself and a team, doing the monthly Cross Team Challenge, etc.) helped with getting me back onto the machine regularly. Once I knew more I started exploring training plans, etc. Joining a virtual team might help with keeping motivation levels up too, so you'd be welcome to pop around to the Forum Flyers thread to join if you're interested.

Cheers
Dave

[tmozer3]

OK, thanks. I will look into it.