Does adding some cycling help on the erg?

[Gammmmo]

Has anyone added to their total training volume by doing some cycling, and if so did it bump performance on the erg? I am well aware specificity is key with any sport but the "crossover" between cycling and rowing is often cited. Perhaps say how much erging/cycling you did too. Cheers.

[Edward4492]

As a former Cat 3 racer (300 races over a ten year stint, criteriums, road races, and one season of TT's) I can tell you (IMO) that cycling will NOT improve your erging. Seems to work better the other way around, my racing friends that erg in the off season seem to find it a big help to their cycling; but that could be due to alleviating the boredom of winter time indoor work outs on a trainer.

Any aerobic activity done in the proper HR range will certainly help to maintain cardio fitness. And if the goal is variety and to break up monotony; cycling is fine.

But to me it always comes down to the same thing. If you want to be a good rower.....row. Row, erg, and everything else comes in a way distant third (running, swimming, weights, crossfit). The only exception might be heavy weights for the sprint events (100m, 1 minutes, 500m, 1000m). OTW it's not even close, rowing is so technical that there is no substitute for meters in the boat.

[Gammmmo]

Edward thanks for your reply. I too was a cat2 racer in the mid 90s although I hear the standard has gone up! How much cycling and erging were you doing? I could quite envisage there comes a point (total volume is high meaning recovery is tricky or longer rides where carbs are getting exhausted and the body is nibbling at muscles for fuel if nutrition is not optimal) with the amount of cycling where the body is being put in a slight catabolic state which is not conducive to erging but makes one skinny/quick on the bike. My plan was to go out on the bike say twice a week and just do 60-90mins to supplement the erg work. With erging say you do 90k a week, that's still "only" about 6hrs/weekof aerobic exercise.

[Edward4492]

I had a cross-over period of about two years. I was a mid-pack Cat 3 (partly due to age, started bike racing at age 48). Best example, one year I did my last race in September, erg'd heavily (60-80k per week, CRASH B's,six erg races). Got on my bike mid-March, literally first time in six months, and finished a 45+ race with the pack. Did another six bike races that season, literally the only time I rode was when I raced, hung on for all races except got dropped at the 50 mile mark of our Cat 3 RR. I never won a bike race and was working my way backwards (or they just kept getting faster). I've had modest success on the erg (CRASH B's bronze, several nice wins) so I went that direction. My thought was always the same.....if I have 10 hours a week I'm going to row. None of this is to suggest that cycling will hurt your erging, it's just that if your ultimate goal is to have the absolute fastest erg time possible; it would seem that erging is the thing to do.

In my case I've solved the problem by getting into sculling. It is an extremely technical sport to master, I have 500k on the water since June and I'm barely adequate. Of course you have to have the right situation, I work 5 minutes from one of the best venues in the country (Cooper River in NJ). So it works for me. For me it's a no-brainer...row or erg.

If you still have the cycling urge, probably makes sense to go heavy bike in the summer and heavy erg in the winter. If you follow my recent posts in the "sprint" thread I'm experimenting with extremely low volume sprinting on the erg (one hard interval mostly daily) to supplement my high volume, steady state rowing. Might be the answer for you if the cycling is your main goal. You have some pretty solid erg times, we're similar build (I'm 6', 165lbs LWT), you would compete well as a LWT.

I think at your fitness level, you're looking at grabbing that last 2-3 %.

[Brewster]

..... alleviating the boredom of winter time indoor work outs on a trainer.....
Any aerobic activity done in the proper HR range will certainly help to maintain cardio fitness. And if the goal is variety and to break up monotony; cycling is fine.

I’m new to erging and I intend to spend this coming winter working on my new C2 Model D (which I’ll have at home by 10/1), one of my bikes on a CycleOps trainer and doing lap swimming 2x or 3x/week. I’ll be starting out slow and building gradually, but I wonder if anybody has any suggestions about advisable rest days/intervals. I’m starting out flabby, overweight and out of shape, so I’ll be starting very conservatively/slowly. Thanks for any thoughts.

[Gammmmo]

..... alleviating the boredom of winter time indoor work outs on a trainer.....
Any aerobic activity done in the proper HR range will certainly help to maintain cardio fitness. And if the goal is variety and to break up monotony; cycling is fine.

I’m new to erging and I intend to spend this coming winter working on my new C2 Model D (which I’ll have at home by 10/1), one of my bikes on a CycleOps trainer and doing lap swimming 2x or 3x/week. I’ll be starting out slow and building gradually, but I wonder if anybody has any suggestions about advisable rest days/intervals. I’m starting out flabby, overweight and out of shape, so I’ll be starting very conservatively/slowly. Thanks for any thoughts.

My advice (I raced bikes from 2010-2015 and came over to erging in March) is watch your back and err on the side of caution. Alot of people on here will give you detailed sessions of particular paces and stroke rates, but really IMO you (and me too nearly 6 months later) are at the stage where you just want to build volume...there's nothing to say you can't vary the intensity within blocks. I'm still getting faster just by doing more and in my case because the load isn't really that high (40-50K/week max) I can push quite hard in pretty much every session. At some stage you might want to reduce the rate and concentrate on improving leg drive.

[hjs]

Think it depends on volume, if you back/hands give out cycling is a good way to get your aerobic system working extra. If thats not the case rowing itself is better.

[turboskiff]

It's good aerobic training and for sure two hours on a bike in the clean air is more to enjoy than two hours on an erg.

[Brewster]

It's good aerobic training and for sure two hours on a bike in the clean air is more to enjoy than two hours on an erg.

I’m ~200 miles S of Montreal. Winters are sadly characterized by bike trails/paths unusable because of accumulated snow/ice and road riding made dangerous by snow/ice and hostile vehicle traffic. Generally, mid-December through around April 1 is a no cycling season unless we have an unusual “no snow” type of winter.

[valgozi]

If adding in cycling I would say a 3 - 4 hour + bike ride will be great to increase volume. It would be in addition to erging/rowing rather than instead of though. For people around double figures for weekly volume it could really add to their already well developed aerobic engines.

One of the GB rowing camps had the guys on mountain bikes (so they didn't go too fast) on the road for long (but slow) aerobic rides. Not sure how long but seemed like most of a day. Sessions that would be very difficult to do on a erg or in a boat due to wear on hands and bodies, easier on a bike.

Cycling is difficult for most in the winter, but with summer temperatures not kind for erging definitely something to add to the mix.

Having only recently really done some longer rides, it is easy to see how the constant load and high cadence of cycling would keep lactate down and low HR's can be achieved for long periods of time.

[valgozi]

Hamish Bond smashing out some good distance on the bike in his off season, 750km's in the last week and a bit - https://www.strava.com/activities/713849210

[Gammmmo]

Yes, I think adding some cycling is the way forward....just seems very difficult to max out the stress on one's aerobic system with the erg from a practicality point of view (there's only *so* much time most can spend on the erg). You could offset this somewhat if most of what you did on the erg was higher intensity.

Hamish Bond smashing out some good distance on the bike in his off season, 750km's in the last week and a bit - https://www.strava.com/activities/713849210

Ah Rotorua....good place for mtbing. Went there 2008.