Wondering how much I can improve as a beginner

[daisys28]

Hi everyone, I just started a winter training program for rowing at my high school. I'd never rowed before about a week ago, which was when the program started, but I am considering doing crew in the spring. I've rowed 3 times now - two days were steady state workouts as part of the program. The first day was a 3x20 but I have no idea what my stats were because the display screen was broken. The second day was 30 min going switching from 18 to 20 to 22 spm every few min. I struggled with keeping the same split at different rates. I found that I could usually only maintain 2:30-2:35 at 22spm and that would go up to 2:35-2:45 at 20spm and 18 spm.

Then today, I tried a 2k on my own because we need to know our 2k pace for some of the workouts next week. My time was 9:16.8, my split was 2:19.2, my average rate was 26spm.

To train, I'm just going to be doing my school's program. Generally, this is what each week will look like:
Mon - long erg (something like a 3x25 steady state)
Tues - 3x19 pyramids, 4-3-2-1-2-3-4 min, pace: 10k goal +8,+6,+4,+2 or triathlon (15 min stairs, 20 min erg, 20 min run)
Wed - 2k test or 20 min test
Thurs - yoga + 30 min steady state or run
Fri - 2k test, 10k test, or 20 min test

I'm sure my technique isn't great - my school coach just spent ~5 min showing me how to erg on my first day and we aren't really receiving additional instruction beyond that. I plan on asking him for some more help on improving my technique now that I have a slightly better idea of what I'm doing. I'm 15 years old, 110 lbs, and 5'4"-5'5". I haven't really done sports or worked out much of my life - only sport I do is cross country - so I'm not very strong in general.

I'm mainly wondering how much I can expect to improve my 2k time by the end of this program (which is about 3 months long) since it seems like most of our tests will be 2ks. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[p_b82]

Welcome to the forum.

I can't really offer any specific advice towards the training or pace goals- but getting the technique sorted early will be crucial for you to make progress efficiently. Check out https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/ ... que-videos for some pointers to help you avoid some of the worst of the technique pitfalls.

I found using the force curve on the PM5 display very useful to help me become more consistent while I row, as it is a real time way to see if you've got the phases of the stroke in the right timing sequence or getting the effort balanced through all phases.

As the majority of the power in rowing is generated in the legs, you may want to look at swapping some of the TT/hard rows for some squats/leg work, make sure that you time the rest days appropriately after the hard sessions.

I've found doing long UT2 rows (low heart rate steady state, 60-90mins) really has helped me with my base endurance - which then helped me be able to rate a bit higher and hold a higher wattage (pace) for longer durations; 5k, 6k & 10k or 30-60' TT's. I can now do a 5k, ~23mins, at the same pace as I could 4mins flat out nearly 6 months ago. (I've purposefully avoided putting myself through a 2k so far lol)

If the end goal is improving 2k time you may want to do some sprint work in your routine - I'm not sure from what you listed if that's in there but if 2k is the focus, you'll probably want to be rating higher than 26.

[MPx]

As you are just starting out, and as @p_b82 stated above, the most critical thing right now is getting the technique right. So search out the videos and find somewhere with a mirror to see if that's what you're actually doing rather than what you think you're doing. Best done at a low rate (like 20) so you have time to piece all of the elements together and then work on making it fluid.

The training plan looks more like racing than training to me. Of course its so long since I was 15 that I can't remember how good my recovery was. Nevertheless doing full on tests twice a week and a hard day on Tuesday as well looks like a recipe for 6 weeks of rapid improvement before a crash/plateau, if you're not already injured by then. If you're going to go that hard, then IMO the hard days should be Mon/Wed/Fri with the long slow days Tue/Thu to give you a better chance at recovery.

Longer slower sessions @ 20 ish spm. Fast intervals and TTs @ 30 ish spm. Pace differential between slower and faster 20s to 30s

Its potentially a sport for life, so worth getting it right - but most important of all is enjoying it, so find ways to make that happen! Best of luck.

[GlennUk]

As you are just starting out, and as @p_b82 stated above, the most critical thing right now is getting the technique right. So search out the videos and find somewhere with a mirror to see if that's what you're actually doing rather than what you think you're doing. Best done at a low rate (like 20) so you have time to piece all of the elements together and then work on making it fluid.

If you get your technique right you will likely see large gains early purely form using your legs/body with good technique, then as your strength/endurance improves the gains early on will likley be large, and then gradually decrease as the physical improvements become smaller.

For what its worth, i was seeing gains in endurance (i.e. distances of FM and longer) after over 2 years of training and that's at the age of 60 plus (ill be 62 1st Jan). The point being, that the gains can keep coming depending on the training you do, how long you do it and how rigorous you are, ultimately those gains will stop, not entirely sure ho2w quickly one can reach a plateau for any particular effort.