Rowing

[xProtein]

This is a log of my training activities related to rowing.


Monday March 19

Erg-
6 x 1000m starting each interval at 10-minute intervals.

1:49.5 rate 23
1:50.6 rate 24
1:48.4 rate 25
1:46.5 rate 26
1:44.4 rate 27
1:43.0 rate 28


DB Shoulder Press-
5 @ 85s
5 @ 85s
5 @ 85s



Tuesday March 20

Erg-
25 min. @ 1:57.7

Target stroke rate 18,20,22,20,18 changing each 5 minutes.
In actuality my stroke rate generally drifted above the target.


Deadlift-
warmup
6 @ 365 lbs.

Heartrate elevated approx. 20 minutes.


Cable Row-
Experimented a bit using full, deep extension of the arms to build strength in this range of motion. This might be the exercise to do it with but I'm not sure.

[xProtein]

Wednesday March 21

Felt a little overreached. Took it pretty light. Elevated heart rate for 15 minutes and later 30 minutes doing some rowing, kettlebell swings, air squats, and mobility drills.


Thursday March 22

Off.


Friday March 23

Did a 1k erg test, aimed for 24 stroke rate but averaged 26 over the piece. I find it hard these days to keep the rate down but I think this will improve. Split was 1:32.5 (3:05.0 total).

Did some cool down and then low-intensity rowing for about 15-17 minutes. From warmup to exit my heartrate was elevated for about 45 minutes.

After, I went for some lifting:

Bench Press-
5 @ 195 lbs.
5 @ 205 lbs.
5 @ 215 lbs.


Deficit Rows-
8 @ 135 lbs.
5 @ 135 lbs.

Deficit was pretty high, like a foot or more. Way too high for now. I'm hoping to find a good exercise to imitate the rowing stroke but again, not sure that this is it, or at least I'll need a lot more posterior flexibility.


T-bar Rows-
30 @ 70 lbs.


Saturday March 24

First day on the water. Light paddling only.

[xProtein]

Sunday March 25

Off.


Monday March 26

Off. Felt overtraining creeping in (haven't properly deloaded in a long time).


Tuesday March 27

Erg-
30 min. @ 1:56.4 rate 19

The 5-min splits went something like 1:52-1:53-1:55-1:56-1:58-1:58 and my rate varied between 17 and 20. Not much consistency yet in pace and rate.

Heartrate elevated approx. 50 minutes from warmup to cooldown.


Squats-
2 @ 285 lbs.
20 @ 185 lbs.

Wanted to do a heavy set of 3-5 followed by a 20-rep set. Poundages were a fair bit lower than what I'm capable of but that is to be expected since legs were far from fresh. I think I will do weights before erging in future rather than after, or split them up in the day.

[xProtein]

Wednesday March 28

Swimming-
40 minutes.


Thursday March 29

Deadlift-
4 @ 375 lbs.
1 @ 405 lbs.


Approx. 40-45 minutes of mixed conditioning:
Prowler
Sledgehammer
Skipping
Jogging
Sprints

[yorick]

I take it that your rowing is done on a Concept 2 rower, or something similar?

Looks like you have a decent background in lifting - what's your training history and goals?

[barbellbrad]

I like to track rowing splits by Watts. What is your bodyweight?

[xProtein]

yorick: yes, Concept2. I have lifted for a number of years but with essentially no cardio until now.
barbellbrad: ~242 lbs.


Friday March 30

Bench Press-
5 @ 205 lbs.
2 @ 225 lbs.


Overhead Press-
5 @ 155 lbs.


Rowing Practice:
Groups of 3 rowers with 2 ergs.
1) Winner-stays-on racing, 10x1min races each with different stroke rates and a couple of arms-only. Won first 4, lost, off, lost, off, win, win. Raced 8 times with 6 wins. Lost an arms-only badly and lost a 30-stroke rate.

2) Have to keep both ergs going for 20 minutes by swapping the third rower in and out. Goal is lowest erg split/lower erg split than 2k time. My group switched off every 30 seconds (i.e. each rower is rowing 1 min on, 30 secs off.) We finished in the 1:43? range for both ergs. This piece hurt me a lot, and I gassed hard.

For what it's worth, a better strategy may have been to switch off less often because we lost a lot of speed and energy on the exchanges.


Saturday March 31

Off. Sore and drained.


Sunday April 1

Body a fair bit less sore which hopefully means I'm adapting to the rowing.

Going to make this a full deload week on weights.

Erg-
35 minutes. Used the time to work on technique and trying some new stuff with foot position. Split was bad fwiw but I feel I made progress in technique which is a win, and my heartrate was elevated. I ordered a heartrate monitor so hopefully that will be in soon. That will be a great tool to help push up the aerobic capacity.

[xProtein]

Monday April 2

Erg-
40-minute piece with 2 1-minute breaks inside, i.e. 38 minutes of actual erging. Split for the total piece, including two 1-minute rests, was 2:04.3.

Took a break with approx. 22 minutes to go and 8 minutes to go. The instructions from coaching are to take a brief rest of just one minute when form starts to devolve. It gets harder and harder through the piece to keep my lumbar from badly rounding. I am working on hamstring and posterior flexibility every day to hopefully make this better.

[yorick]

I am working on hamstring and posterior flexibility every day to hopefully make this better.[/I]

What are your favorite ways to work this type of flexibility? I'm probably one of many on here that struggle with this too.

[xProtein]

Mainly I do a hamstring stretch, putting the heel on an elevated surface and keeping a bent knee. I do it about 3 times per day, not too intense and for about 30-60 seconds. I also do some basic glute, quad and calf stretching. I started out quite inflexible but already I have improved a fair bit in a month.


Tuesday April 3

Did some tests on a Concept 2 Dyno machine with my coach. Max strength on leg press, chest press and bench pull, and then bench pull endurance (15 reps). Coach logged the scores but I don't know exactly what they were. We measured max force and work done, which accounts for length of the movement.

We then redid the bike erg step test for VO2max because they found out the bike had been malfunctioning when I did it a month ago. My result was vastly improved of course. Test starts at 60 revs and goes up by 5 revs each minute. I completed one minute at 90 revs and then conked out.

After I rowed about 10-12 minutes at a slow pace.