Overtraining or am i being a wimp?

[Tim huges]

Thanks martin, ive had a food diary app on my phone for a long time...just havent bothered to use it.

[Gammmmo]

I agree with the previous postings, just my 2 extra cents:
A calory deficit of 2000 is really a lot, with your current food intake i doubt you get enough vitamins, micronutrients etc. And burning about 4lb of body fat per week will release a lot of metabolites (I hope that's correct, I'm no native speaker) in your system which is very demanding. As the others said, a deficit of 500, maybe 1000 is OK, take care to eat quality food, drink enough (water ) to flush out the waste products, and sleep enough, this will make a huge difference I think.
@recovery session: I like short and easy recovery sessions (10-20min, pace 2:20 or slower), and then a long streching session to relax the muscles, I also use a foam roll.
Good luck, your PBs are already very good, still a lot of room to improve!

Thanks martin, im pleased with what ive done so far but i do feel ive got more to give...just got to get the balance of training, recovery and nutrition right. I do feel rowing is the most demanding physical hobby ive ever done so its all a learning process.

So should my daily calorie needs include my gym activity? The UK government reccomended daily calories is 2,500...lets say i burn 1000 in the gym...with a 500 reduction should i aim to eat 3,000 or 2,000? Does that make sense, not sure that was explained well or not?

Had no idea about the metabolite issue, not very knowledgable about thats sort of thing...i'll look into it and educate myself.

I don't have a strict eating plan, but a few months ago I documented all my food intake and analyzed it. I found out that I eat about 4.200 kcal on average, and the analyse showed that my basic metabolic rate is at 3.500 and I aditionally eat about 1000 per hour of sport on average.
So I would recommend to eat according to your training schedule. When you train long eat a bit more, and when you rest a good bit less.
I would also recommend to write down what you eat for at least 2 weeks to have a good overview.

just to add my two penneth for comparison....I find I need to eat 3200-3500 cals/day to very steadily gain weight (mainly to help support hypertrophy) and that excludes cardio requirements. Rate - 1kg/month say from this.

[jamesg]

I'm feeling a little unsure of the best way forward.

Depends where you are now and where you want to go.

Presumably you keep an eye on W/kg, W/Rate, m/stroke, HR range in use / Watts and all the other indices that the PM makes available.

It's not easy to set reasoned targets for any of these, even referring to known values that can be seen in the Logbook and Rankings, but they do show progress. We are all different as to shape, size and style as well as age, but we can at least see where we are in our specific bands.

If you want to race:

Gold Standard.
This type is very simple: set a 2k target and work out what's needed to get there. Using arithmetic: Rating x Work = Power. Method: develop the stroke needed then use it to develop the endurance that can allow its use for 6+ minutes.

Analytical.
Unfortunately the only analytical training schemes that were available, made to measure for all (Interactives), have disappeared. To some extent we have been left stranded.

These plans (very basically) said:

Do a 2k test and note the average Watts.
Do six weeks long stuff, from 2*10 to 4*15', 4 to 6 days a week as available, at up to 70% of 2k test Watts (called UT2 and UT1 in HR parlance)
Do another six weeks, including about 20% at up to 80% of 2k test Watts (this called AT) and a small amount even faster (called TR)

Do another 2k test and readjust the bands: 60, 70, 80% of test for UT2, 1 and AT
Add an increasing amount of short TR and AN work over 12 weeks covering the band 80-115% of 2k test Watts
In the last week do only about 10 minutes work, all over 2k pace Watts.

ALL TIMES PLUS WARM-UP.

Last day: RACE.

Recycling the first six-twelve weeks is more than enough to maintain fitness for the rest of our lives, which is what we need anyway.
This type of plan hardly ever repeated the same workout, which was extremely useful in helping to acquire experience, not least of pacing: all-important in a 2k race.

[DSB]

I was in a similar situation with a poor diet, and was drinking maybe about 20 cans of lager a week (5 nights x 4 cans). Suffered from terrible insomnia, was wide-awake at 3am usually. Would have to caffeine up in the morning to normalize everything. My diet was poor too really. Was about 104kg 6ft. 150km-200km erging a month.

Decided to have no half-measures. Giving up alcohol is crucial. I went on a no BBC diet (No Beer, Biscuits, Cake, sweets etc). So stick to that, no need to really count calories, as your weight will drop if you do that.

I dropped 10kg in about 2 months, and am continuing, and aiming for a 6-8kgs, which was a happy weight for me in adulthood, at which point I'll eat more, but no bad stuff. Try something similar.

[max_ratcliffe]

Hmm, not sure whether you're really over training, but you're not giving yourself the best chance and not fuelling your training properly (too big a caloric deficit IMO).

I winced a bit when I read how hard you're working, with poor sleep, average diet, tabs, and occasional nights on the turps. And then I look at your times and wonder how good you could be. Very good, I suspect, with a couple more years of training, better sleep and a diet that supports your training.

[Tim huges]

@james Quite a technical answer, sheds some new light on my approach to training. Thankyou.

@DSB Theres alot to be said for just making healthier choices rather than counting calories. Counting calories tends to make me a little obsessive. Im going to give your suggestion some serious thought...cut out the beer and cheat meals and focus on just eating decently full time rather than starving myself for the sake of a cheat day once a week, and trust that the rowing in the gym will take care of the rest.

@max Thanks for the kind words of encouragement...i certainly plan on sticking around with this erging. Seems ive been a little naive with the demands it puts on me. Time to get my head out the sand and tackle some of the issues.