Raring to go, but where do I start? I need your help!

[Moosey14]

Hi there,

Super new to this forum, so hope I’m in the right place.

I’ll get straight to the chase before giving you a little (probably a lot) of detail.

I’m a 22 year old female novice sculler (178cm high and 181cm armspan) who wants to make a big push and see how far I can go in a year.


I fell in love with rowing when supporting a family friends daughter in her ‘come back’ season following a nasty injury. In those few months I watched her battle through and win her Jr double at Henley and represent her country over the summer. It was pretty inspiring and I found my self hooked on the sport.

In about August of that year (2014) I started doing some light paddling bit of an ergo (my god was it bad) and was settling into a single scull. Then, in December I had a pars stress fracture, apparently a really common injury in Jr’s, that said I was a bit old for a JR injury and hadn’t been going it THAT hard. I saw some amazing Dr’s and physios who just so happened to work the Team GB who steered me in the right direction and got me back to stcatch again.

Then in October of last year I was given the go ahead to get rowing again. I was super eager to commit to a crew and was thrown in the deep end with the Women’s squad of my local club. The club unfourtunatly suffered some politics from the year before and the squad fell apart and I hardly made it on to the water at all.

As that squad fell apart I took a leap on over to an another club, who are all fantastic however there’s no/very little coaching and you’re never in the same boat twice. It’s got a masters focus and so long term It’s not really the club for me.

Between now and 2017 Regatta season, I want to make a real push and effort to turn around my rocky start into rowing. At present I’ve found my self able to commit to morning and evening sessions of a varied training plan. This currently includes pilates, yoga, erging, a variety of all the squats and stretches you can imagine, and about 4-5 water sessions.

It’s likely that if my old club doesn’t pick up then I’ll change to another more competitive club with some solid coaching however between now and then I recognise I need to get a bit my confidence back in the boat and so I’ll continue to train on the water. However, when it comes to land training I’m looking for some direction. Is there anything in particular I should be doing on the ergo build strength and endurance (I need to work on my stamina for sure!). I’ve upgraded my breathing resistor so that I can work on getting my lungs opened up and giving myself that extra boost.

In terms of fuelling I’ve been advised by my PT to go for 1.5 times my bodyweight in lbs into grams of protein (works out about 220g) around 60g of carbs (before and after major workouts) and 30gs of fat.

Essentially, all advise would be welcomed, what I’ve lacked in experience I’m quite prepared to make up for in determination and drive.

So, come at me, tell me what I’m doing wrong and what to do next!

[KevJGK]

Hi M14

I think The Wolverine Plan may be of interest to you.

http://www.concept2.com/files/pdf/us/tr ... nePlan.pdf

Best of luck with your training.

[Moosey14]

Thanks! This looks really helpful. Giving it a read through now!

[KevJGK]

It takes a fair bit of understanding but its well worth it.

Here is another document for you to study which should answer a lot of the questions you may have and of course you can get an almost unlimited amount of information by asking the experts on here.

https://quantifiedrowing.files.wordpres ... -notes.pdf

[Bloodbuzz Corio]

KevJGK thanks for linking to that - most times previously I've seen links to Mike's writing it's not formatted properly on my screen so I'd not seen any of this before - a fascinating read!