Concept2 Forum

Hi everyone, first post here.

I am a bit of a new rower, I weigh 125lb, and am 17 years old. I did my first 2k today, where I put absolute full effort into it and received a score of 8:05, mind this is after being quite sick for the past week still being a bit sick today when I did it.

Im out for winter break on wednesday, and have a place to erg when I get home, and am trying to come up with a workout that will make me improve as much as possible, but in a healthy manner. My body can take a lot of stress, and I am really focusing these next 4 weeks to erging. I have another 2k test Jan 10th. Id def like to break 8 minutes, which shouldnt be a problem, but Id love to get it quite a bit further than that.

Anyways, here along the lines of the training program Im thinking of, and I would love any critiquing/comments on it for improvement.

Monday, Friday: 1 hr @ 2:20-30 with difficulty between 3/4(Not Quite Figured out Yet as I havent done many pieces over 20 minutes)

Tueday, Thursday: 8x500 @ 2:00 with difficulty between 3/4

Wednesday: 30 mins @ Split Yet To Come Up With with difficulty all the way up

Now the splits I have up there are really just for in the beginning. I think its simple, yet hard enough to work out, but I wouldnt quite know. Monday and Friday will be the steady state workouts, Tuesday and Thursday will be the Anaerobic Threshold workouts and Wednesday will be a muscle building workout.

Id love to get some feedback on this. I know Im quite light, but I definitely have the determination. Id also probably do a bit of weight training post workout.

Cheers .

Your 2k was good, especially if you've never done anything like that before (57kg, 200W = almost 4W/kg). Rating? Did you learn to row on water? Are you M/F? Height?

Wednesday and Thursday in your scheme will be quite nasty. Ease off rather than get discouraged. You don't need to raise the damper to pull harder, just do it. Ideal is pull long and hard every single stroke, even when going slow, but stay within your limits. Your tendons and bones maybe are not as tough now as they will be in a few years time.

Most training plans want 2-3% of our time (2-300 minutes/week) and of that, 90% is long slow but all of it with solid strokes.

Thanks, jamesg.

I am male, and about 5'9. Not quite sure what a rating is. I havent learned to row on water yet as its quite cold in New England at the moment.

What would you recommend then for Wednesday and Thursday? Ive read some of your posts and you seem quite knowledgeable, so I'm all ears.

Thanks.

Rating is strokes per minute. In rowing we tend to race at between 30 and 40, but train at 20-30, according to height. As you're new to rowing, try to maintain a comfortable relaxed rhythm with lots of rest between strokes on low damper; no need to chase the next stroke, boats go a long way in between.

I'd suggest you put 2 long slow days and maybe a rest day between your two sets of intervals; and cut out one set if it starts getting too tough. We can work as hard as we like, but only recover and adapt at a rate our bodies allow.

Rating for 2k was pretty much 30 throughout. However on the longer pieces I stick inbetween 20-22 spm.

Thanks for the advice on the program, I will try to figure out something with a bit more rest. I believe I will cut out a day of intervals and maybe do two days steady state, rest, steady state with difficulty all the way up then the blasters, rest then repeat. Does that sound better?

pull harder

The AIS suggest to not do over an hour of ergo training in one go so do something shorter.
It would probably help to hit the gym a bit and build up some more muscle which is what i did and cut my 2k time by 30 minutes.
Do lots of stretching as well