Hi Paul,
I'm a 66 year old Lwt and doing alot of one hour rows at the moment so interested to hear what you're saying.
Before I mention training are you using the C2 rankings? They are very good for motivation and at only 12 stone you could probably get down to Lwt (11st 11lbs) with a bit of nutritional planning...although I appreciate that's a bit of a guess!
Here's the current Lwt rankings;
https://log.concept2.com/rankings/2024/ ... L&gender=M
and here's the Hwt ones;
https://log.concept2.com/rankings/2024/ ... H&gender=M
Sounds like you may be training too fast too often so not building a good aerobic base.
How to go about training to improve your rowing is a commonly asked question so I wrote an article on the subject that I can copy onto here when it crops up so here it is…hope it helps.
I think the best way to approach any training plan is to make sure you start by building a good Aerobic Base as the benefits of doing that are huge.
To give an image of that….You can jump higher from a platform than you can from the flat of the floor…and rowing without a good aerobic base is like trying to jump from the floor…not the platform.
For long term, sustainable progress then you really do need to do a large volume of base building endurance and aerobic development rows under 70% of maximum heart rate type training.
This is known as the ‘’ UT2’’ heart rate training zone.(Google that for some good info).
When you add interval sessions into the mix you'll see greater results than if you only did the interval sessions with no longer stuff to ''back it up''.(as I often bang on about!)
Interval sessions can improve your speed and fitness over a short period but if you do them (or hard paced distance sessions) for too long you'll plateau and possibly 'burn out’ as you could suffer ‘’over training syndrome’’
The endurance base will improve your rowing times over all distances.
A few weeks peaking for a race with interval sessions is one thing but for the bigger picture you need to build your fitness up from a solid endurance base which involves plenty of long (20 - 30 minutes or more) slow rows at 18 to 20 spm to help improve power in the stroke, slide control plus overall technique...and by slow I mean between 55 - 70% of your maximum heart rate.
If for example your maximum is 180 then 70% would be 126 bpm and you’d need to stay under that at all times during the row….if it looks like you’re going over then slow down….don’t worry about the pace it’s the heart rate that’s important.
If you put ‘’Maffetone Training’’ into Google a lot of good information on this will come up and also google ‘’ ‘’building a good Aerobic Base’’ as there’s plenty showing it’s the way to go.
Training stimulates the body into adapting…. And Adaptation happens on rest days and slow days. That’s when the body has chance to recover and grow. This is when improvements take place.
Going hard at it every day merely breaks the body down, doesn’t have time to adapt, never heals and you can easily get injured so don’t go too fast too often. (Twice a week is plenty and only then if properly fit).
Over time as you go on with this your pace will improve but your Heart Rate will not go any higher so you can enjoy watching progress because the heart is working as the same rate but more efficient at oxygen transportation.
This slow aerobic rowing helps the heart adapt over time.
In this aerobic state the body is happily supplied with enough oxygen to get around the body to the muscles however, it likes to become more efficient at doing it so the heart adapts the left side by stretching the wall.
Each beat of the heart now allows more blood into the left side and in turn, pumps more blood and oxygen around the body on each beat.
It also means that the threshold of when your body goes into a state of oxygen debt is raised and thus you’re able to push harder and improve race times.
This training stimulates many physical changes which drive the improvements, some good examples are;
1) Your small blood vessels (capillaries) open up and grow more to the areas of highest oxygen demand so they can deliver more oxygen to your muscles and carry away waste products such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid.
2) Mitochondria (Energy boosters) in the muscles will multiply and you'll improve the body’s efficiency at burning fat for fuel. Your heart will become stronger and more efficient plus you'll have a lot more energy.
If you do around 80% of your training like this with the remaining 20% faster (such as interval sessions) you’ll have a good chance of improving your rowing over all distances.
3) To summarise…. Training in UT2 uses more fatty acids as fuel for the muscles & enhances the physiological adaptations of capillary growth & mitochondrial replication, so it will long term aid your efficiency.
Another good source of info is ‘’Polarised Training’’ by Steven Seiler so would suggest a Google search on that too plus plenty of good videos on Youtube about improving your rowing/stroke rate/aerobic development.