Rowing

Hi Kev,

I raced for a few years with Neptune Rowing Club, so I will give you a few pointers.

Your 2k times will depend a bit on your weight, in general the bigger you are the better your time will be.

As a general rule however, between 6 and 7 minutes for a man is good.

A good lightweight (of international quality) will run to about 6:30, a good novice would be a bit higher, say in the 6:50's, basically anything below 7. A good heavyweight will score lower than 6:30, I have seen 6:03 once.

There is no quick way to boost your rowing times, its a long hard slog. But like everything else, practice makes perfect. I have my own rower at home now and my times are better than when I was still racing.

A typical training program would kick off in september consisiting of long rows on the river (10k on the erg would be a good equivalent at a fairly easy pace, say 22-24 strokes per minute, be doing enough to sweat, get a heart rate monitor and try to keep your heart rate around 70% of your max).

You would also do a couple of long (say 10 miles, but it depends) runs a week (again, you could do long distance rows instead) and then you do heavy weights. Normally, 5 sets of 8 reps of 80% of your max on the following 4 primary excercises, powercleans, bench press, bench pull and squat. Don't forget as well that you should always no matter what the season, be doing lots of flexibility exercises and trunk strengthening exercises. Every day in fact. (i.e. sit ups, and back excercises, make sure you don't neglect the back).

Moving into christmas you would drop the heavy weights, maybe do them once a week, keep up the runs and start gym circuits, thats when you get lots of machines, say 12 excercise stations like sit ups, bench press, bicep curls etc.... try do, arm,leg,trunk,arm, leg trunk etc......... alternate them, you would put about 40-50% of your max weight on the bars and go round the excercises, doing about 25 reps per station in one minute, with about 15 seconds between stations. When you finish the 12 you take a 3-5 minute break and go again. Do this 5 times when you get used to it.

Onto spring, near race season the training changes. You should keep up your long distances a couple of times a week and perhaps your gym circuits, but now you introduce interval training.

Say 500 metres full blast on the rower followed by 4 minutes of light rowing, then 500 fast etc.... normally about 6-8 fast 500's go in there. You might also so 20 hard strokes, 10 light and so on, ensuring that you do 200 hard strokes at least, this type of training is also known as fartlek, I have seen some coaches use 17 strokes 'on' 5 off.

You might also do say 4 fast 1000's with a small break in between, say 5 minutes.

Around the same time you might start hill sprints, which is where you get a hill (I like to get one that takes about 4 minutes to get up) and run up it like it was a hundred metres, you should literally be half dead at the top, then you jog back down and go again. 5 times in all. Do this once, maybe twice a week if you like pain.

This really sharpens you up and brings down your times to peak for race season.

Now 8:42 is your marker. Set small milestones. Aim for under 8 next. Try for now to beat your current time by just a second or so each session, don't go for broke and get put off. It will take you a while, then after that the gains are harder to come by. Under 8 is the first major milestone. When I coached ladies novice crews, breaking 8 minutes was the major barrier. Some of them were doing similar times to yourself initially, but over the course of a year got down to 7:20.

Go about your training in a structured way. Write out a training program and stick to it. If you miss a session, forget it, and do the next one you had scheduled. Rowing is all about discipline and there is no tougher sport out there.

The other tip I would give is technique and flexibility. It's easy to hurt your back rowing. God knows, I did it myself. warm up and then stretch for at least 15 minutes before you get on the rowing machine, do not take short cuts. I did for a while and the damage built up.

Extra flexibility also gives you better or more comfortable reach which gives you more leverage per stroke which brings your times down. Technique is the final thing, although in a real boat I would argue its the first thing. However, the rowing machine is a great leveller. However, with the correct rowing technique, you will have a better chance of avoiding injury and your times will also be better. It's not easy, rowing is a far more technical sport than people give credit for. There are websites out there, look for Rachel Quarrells (might be spelt wrong) world rowing services, there should be links there to articles on such things as the cambridge rowing technique etc........ Invaluable (there is only one rowing technique by the way, Cambridge college crews tend to be very good at it).

Also Steve Redgrave has a 'complete book of rowing' thats also quite good, hunt it down on amazon. Don't get confused with his autobiography.

Thats fairly solid for a lighweight quigs. Did you row for long in Neptune? My brother rowed with them for a few years, and I have a few other friends who rowed down there. My brother only rowed intermediate on the water, but he was an animal on the erg .. and still is

Personally at the moment, I have stopped doing 2k's altogether - I don't have the time, it is fairly lethal training and I need to keep my remaining 3 days free each week for resting up.

Interesting point about the damper on the 500m - never thought of moving it from 5 tbh - must give that a go to see if i can take another second or two off. I think my last rating was 1min 25 - but I almost came to a stop in the last 100m - had just blown out basically. I neither had the lungs nor legs to keep the split down low - I mean max stroke I can get it down to a 1:13 split, but that kills me, so I try to keep around 1:19/20. So even on a the 500 I need to pace myself better i think.

I know it's a sort of jokey distance and I am only doing it for a bit of a laugh - but any thoughts on training for a faster 500 Quigs? I have the strength training side of things pretty much sorted - and am 104kg - but maybe some short burst split training or something would help? Any idea?

Cheers,

JAK

Buying a rowing machine for use at home. Minefield deciding.

for the life of me I can't get my 2k under 8 mins

S/W around 26/27

around 2 mins per 500 m

me: 6ft 1, 79kg, athletic, train 6 days a week, only getting into rowing recently

That's because a sub 8min row IS a decent marker. There's a post above saying 6 - 7mins is a decent time for a man...if they're a rower.

I might give this a go in the gym tomorrow, ive only really started with the rowing though but i enjoy it, funnily enough its one of the machines thats nearly always free, i think folk are affraid of it:D

I genuinely hate my rower at this stage. Nearly four months hammering away at the bloody thing. Can't wait for the race in a couple of weeks to be over!!

Duck's hoop wrote: »

You doing indoors in UL? Draws a great crowd but I cba so soon after November.

Yep. I gave the provinces one a miss, would have been hard to do both.

Tried the 2k today, 1st effort was 8.21, but that was straight after a 30min run, 2nd effort my foot strap on my right foot came off after about a minute but kept going and got 8.13, its pretty tough going, for my first effort i went too hard at the start and tailed off pretty bad, but my 2nd i tried to stay consitant throughout, i am determined to get under 8 mins now, my left thigh/groin is a bit sore now though because my left leg was taking all the pressure after the damb strap came off my right foot

Yer Aul One wrote: »

Scratch that: I did it in 7:45 today. Actually hated every second of it!

Holy crap that is a brilliant time well done, to take that much time off your previous best is some going, it is tough going alright and is no fun, your head goes through some ****e,you feel like killing everyone in the room,its the toughest 8mins or so on earth:D

Yer Aul One wrote: »

A poster above explained the 1-10 counter, I would never have understood that if he hadn't said it, I would have presumed it related to resistance across the full stroke. So thanks!

I assume you are talking about this post;

The lever on the side going from 1 - 10 is not resistance levels.

It determines the resistant 'point' of the stroke. 'The damper'
You can set it at one to have the majority of resistance on the leg drive (start of the stroke) or ten to have it at the end of the stroke (the pull with your arms). I may have that backwards tho - just try it out.

Unfortunately, that post is 12 years old, and its also wrong I'm afraid.

The position along the stroke doesn't affect resistance. Play around with the damper and that should be obvious.

The damper setting isn't a constant resistance level. Not as one would get on a pin loaded rower, or other cardio equipment. It controls how much air is let into the fly wheel, more air increases the drag (air resistance) on the flywheel, but the resistance is also dependant on the speed of the flywheel. The faster it spins, the more resistance. Pull the handle slowly, and you feel little, jerk it hard and the resistance picks up.
Think of it like gears on a bike, the damper makes the rower feel heavy or soft and light.

A setting of 10 isn't always better than 6. It's all personal. To further complicate things, settings between machines don't co-relate. A 6 on one machine might equal an 8 on another. It's affected by all sorts of variables, dush, damage, maintenance, lubrication, etc The only way to compare is to go into the options and display the drag factor. This number is the real resistance at the handle, and how the erg calculates everything.

I like rowing at a drag of 130 for short pieces. And 115-120 for longer pieces. Which is usually a 5-8 on most machines. But some are just way off. The rowers in my main gym all have drag of about 85 at a damper of 10. That's very soft. I've no idea why, and it noticeably affect my times.

The 1st time I ever used one was at the Sports Expo in UCD - the rowing club had a competition where the top ten 500m over the week made a final. Gave it a go and did 1.32.

I had no idea how much I would feel it in my body for days

That said, this thread has me thinking about tackling a 2k.

Because I hate myself.