Concept2 Forum

Hello!

I have been rowing indoors now for almost 2 years. Off and on due to surgeries and medical conditions. But I've tried to stay true even with breaks of 3 months or longer. Now that my health is mostly on track I would really like participate and be competitve in my age group (37yo) at WIRC 2020.
So far I just "free row". I'm not really sure what else to call it. I hit Just Row and do just that. Sometimes I do intervals on my own, sometimes I do long 60 minute rows and so on. I also regularly work slow on technique and try to understand all the jargon to be better technically.

All that said, now that I own my own Concept 2 (3 days old!) what program would be best to be competitive?

Thanks!

The Pete Plan is a great programme. I haven't followed it yet, but I'm considering it.

It sounds like you are doing a very informal version of the plan anyway. Best of luck with it all

When you get closer to the race the pete plan will help a lot - see the specific plan thread. It is a three week cycle that is focused on improving 2km and is quite intense/demanding which in my experience could not be done for long periods - for me three cycles is good. There is also an excellent program on the UK indoor sports services site called the interactive plan which is also directly focussed on improving 2k with a nominated race or TT date. In my experience it can be sustained for a longer period of time and has a maximum of 26 weeks. You can insert some PP cycles into a IP program in my experience.
For me I would spend the next 6 months working as you are on fitness - lots of meters with some harder intervals to sharpen and then from say July do say 2 cycles of PP within an overall IP (which is more sustainable) and then say in October do that again.
Write it down and decide sessions per week and make sure there is at least one day a week rests (which is as important as the training itself)

https://indoorsportservices.co.uk/training/interactive
https://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/

If you haven't already done so, you should take a look at the C2 rankings and also the results from the bigger erg competitions (British, European, WIRC, Crash-Bs) for the last couple of years to get a sense of what being "competitive" will entail.

In general, if you're thinking about a podium place at WIRC, you're probably going to need to be capable of something around 6:15 or better. And bear in mind that your competition will have a say in the order of finish.

Good luck with it -- I suggest that whatever plan or strategy you end up adopting, you join one of the many virtual rowing communities that are around so that you can get both encouragement and feedback. For that matter, plenty of people on this Forum will cheerfully follow along if you want to post here.

I will be watching this as well... if they race the 500M there, and if I can improve my time 5 seconds, i'll race it.

I can't row with the BIG BOYS in the 2K, but the 500M... different story.

Mike in Oklahoma

Thanks everyone!