Hit a plato

[ozzymann]

Hello,

age: 25
height:178cm
weight:86kg

I am a college rower who rowing for 6 year now. My PB 2K time is 6.30.26. I did it 2 years ago and since then I could'nt pass this time. After a year-off from racing my 2k is around 6.40.

My question is what should I do to go faster than my PB? Should I increase my volume or spend more time in weights or focus on hard short intervals? I have 7 months to next seasons trials and my target is sub 6.25. I used to do a lot of SS on erg, I feel that strength training is also helping me. At this point I don't know which would improve most. Thanks for help

My training volume for off season;
Weekly;
200K cycling
80K Erg mostly SS
3 weight session, low weights high reps
Sometimes run with crew but not regularly

[hjs]

First what do you do now? At your age you should be able to pb.

In general, most meters should be aerobic at lower rates. Closer to race season faster work at races rates becomes more important. Weights can help, but rowing volume is king.

[ozzymann]

I added my routine, to give rest to my back and avoid from overloading I reduced amount of erg in programme for summer. In season I do around 120km.

Also, I am a fan of long SS trainings too but, one of my old coach was has this motto, something like "to race fast,you should train fast" we never made a session longer than 30 min back at his time. After three years I am thinking that ıf I should change SS approach to Short-but-fast. After two year I think that doing something different than usual will help me to past this plato.

[hjs]

I added my routine, to give rest to my back and avoid from overloading I reduced amount of erg in programme for summer. In season I do around 120km.

Also, I am a fan of long SS trainings too but, one of my old coach was has this motto, something like "to race fast,you should train fast" we never made a session longer than 30 min back at his time. After three years I am thinking that ıf I should change SS approach to Short-but-fast. After two year I think that doing something different than usual will help me to past this plato.

Races at rowing are not fast, everything above a few minutes gets "slow" and most energy comes from aerobic sourches.

You should ad some different stuff. Look at Sam blythe s Instagram for some inspiration. Still decent volume but with added higher stroke rates stuff. Also just like you a shorter guy. Have a look a browse a bit. Could give you some ideas.

[H2O]

Doing too much SS will do little for you but make you tired so your faster sessions will loose quality. Doing only SS is simply not a reasonable approach.

Starting from a similar 2K as you the following worked for me in my younger days (age 46):

Alternate
(a) extend 1:45 pace for as long as possible until 20 mins reached, then push the pace
lower.
(b) 3 x 1500 with full recovery (must be scary)

with one long slow session each. Now and then two SS sesions in between. Some cycling on the side, can be intense also. I found out that I could do hard 6 min intervals on the bike, then go right to the 20 min workout with no impact on the rowing.

As the 2K approaches, even more intense stuff, like once 1750 all out with targetted 2K pace.
I did not do any purely anaerobic intervals which may have been a mistake. With this I made significant progress in 3 months (e,g, 5K split down to 1:40.7).

Obviously even on intense days you will row a whole lot longer than 30 mins, with warmup, cooldown, other easy stuff besides the main set.

Adjust this upward as appropriate for your age.

[danielcccook]

I had to laugh, I am sorry. Plato is a greek philosopher, and it caught me off guard.

One thing you might consider is researching how to do kettlebell workouts. It strengthens your entire body and is very intense cardiovascular workout as well. Your PB is way faster than mine (7min), but, I love doing the kettlebell workouts to break up the monotony of being on the rower so much. I follow Pavel Tsatsoulines simple + sinister program, where you do 10x10 one armed swings (alternate arms each set), followed by 5x1+1 turkish get ups. I havent done a 2k piece in a while, but my UT1 speed I am able to keep on my heart rate is faster by 5 seconds /500m which is significant improvement for me. (I pace my workouts based on my heart rate)

In the 80s the soviets took two groups of 1500m runners in a military university and separated them. One group continued to train running with slightly increasing volume and intensity for 12 weeks, the other did not run at all, and only worked out with kettlebells. When they raced, the whole kettlebell team had beaten the running team. The rationale is that they were already extremely good at the sport, and cross training and strengthening made them superior runners.

[ozzymann]

I had to laugh, I am sorry. Plato is a greek philosopher, and it caught me off guard.

One thing you might consider is researching how to do kettlebell workouts. It strengthens your entire body and is very intense cardiovascular workout as well. Your PB is way faster than mine (7min), but, I love doing the kettlebell workouts to break up the monotony of being on the rower so much. I follow Pavel Tsatsoulines simple + sinister program, where you do 10x10 one armed swings (alternate arms each set), followed by 5x1+1 turkish get ups. I havent done a 2k piece in a while, but my UT1 speed I am able to keep on my heart rate is faster by 5 seconds /500m which is significant improvement for me. (I pace my workouts based on my heart rate)

In the 80s the soviets took two groups of 1500m runners in a military university and separated them. One group continued to train running with slightly increasing volume and intensity for 12 weeks, the other did not run at all, and only worked out with kettlebells. When they raced, the whole kettlebell team had beaten the running team. The rationale is that they were already extremely good at the sport, and cross training and strengthening made them superior runners.

Finally someone noticed:) even though I am a fan of Aristotle I won't hit Plato damn you autocorrect

I do like kettlebells, kswing always part of my training however I cannot push weights because they effects my erg time in training and quickly lead to total failure. I also recommend deadlift, it really improves mid-stroke. I used weighlifting especially powerlifting for earlier to score 6.40 some time ago. However I think more you into in rowing becomes all you need.

[ozzymann]

Doing too much SS will do little for you but make you tired so your faster sessions will loose quality. Doing only SS is simply not a reasonable approach.

Starting from a similar 2K as you the following worked for me in my younger days (age 46):

Alternate
(a) extend 1:45 pace for as long as possible until 20 mins reached, then push the pace
lower.
(b) 3 x 1500 with full recovery (must be scary)

with one long slow session each. Now and then two SS sesions in between. Some cycling on the side, can be intense also. I found out that I could do hard 6 min intervals on the bike, then go right to the 20 min workout with no impact on the rowing.

As the 2K approaches, even more intense stuff, like once 1750 all out with targetted 2K pace.
I did not do any purely anaerobic intervals which may have been a mistake. With this I made significant progress in 3 months (e,g, 5K split down to 1:40.7).

Obviously even on intense days you will row a whole lot longer than 30 mins, with warmup, cooldown, other easy stuff besides the main set.

Adjust this upward as appropriate for your age.

Thanks for advices, ı will use them. However, there is an interesting thing I cannot sustain an good erg score at a distance longer than 2K. last week I saw an excel made by NZ team telling how my paces should be in different training zones and I train much lower than how it should be. This also made me think that I am not pushing enough on erg.

[Gammmmo]

Finally someone noticed:) even though I am a fan of Aristotle I won't hit Plato damn you autocorrect

I noticed. I dunno..."yoof" of today.

[hjs]

Thanks for advices, ı will use them. However, there is an interesting thing I cannot sustain an good erg score at a distance longer than 2K. last week I saw an excel made by NZ team telling how my paces should be in different training zones and I train much lower than how it should be. This also made me think that I am not pushing enough on erg.

What are your pbs and where they done at 100%?