5-7 sessions per week
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Introduction
There is a logical transition zone between doing 4 and 8 sessions a week. With proper planning, 4 sessions a week can just become part of a weekly routine and does not have to impact on life outside rowing. At the 8+ session mark though, this becomes less so-even if you can and want to find the time, fatigue can start to become a serious factor with training days and sessions back to back. In between, it is often possible to find a good balance point between time and life commitment, and results. While it is possible to follow on from the fitness maintenance schedules and do 5 x half hour ergos a week or reduce an international level schedule down to 7 x 70-120 minute rows, this 5-7 session schedule gives a good balance between time, fitness gains, interest factor and water work. The schedule will be updated regularly on the web and once I get organised enough at the clubhouse too (hopefully). It will be adjusted to take into account weekly and seasonal cycles, but perhaps not individual races, unless specifically requested. If you want to adjust it then stick to the rules, otherwise it could be a waste of time or even counterproductive. The schedule will not be on this page, but will be put on the website as a stand-alone section.
At this level some more background info is useful for effective training, so that is given below. This includes information that has been presented in previous schedules, but is taken to a slightly deeper level in terms of practical advice and theory, but for more explanation either ask or have a look at some websites. It is maybe best to read the 3-4 session schedule first to get an overview of this kind of stuff if you are new to it.
Energy Systems/Duration/Intensity etc.
As the title might suggest, there is a close relationship between the body’s energy supply systems and the duration and intensity of exercise required to train them effectively.
It was stated in a previous section that any exercise over 30s duration is likely to use a significant proportion of aerobic energy and that in rowing outings or even short races, 70-100% of power (energy) is going to be from aerobic energy. Actually, any exercise over 30s is likely to use a very significant proportion of ‘aerobic’ energy production and in any rowing race, even those that we normally call ‘sprints’ will probably rely on a majority of energy being supplied by the aerobic system. Because of this, the vast majority of training in any schedule worth its salt will concentrate on aerobic fitness, but as this is a racing training schedule, the input of the body’s anaerobic energy system will not be neglected. It is worth looking briefly at energy systems at a basic level to get an idea of what I’m talking about.
Energy Systems
To start with, imagine that you had to run away from a mad dog up the towpath or you were being chased by a shark that had made it through the weir. Anyway, you get the message- the important point is that you have the incentive to be going absolutely flat out! What’s going to happen?
- The chances are that at first, you’ll be able to go really fast with little fatigue and you’ll have high hopes of making safety. This is because your body’s first energy system, the ATP/creatine phosphate system is at work. It is the principal energy source for short bursts and can provide energy at a very high rate (high power). There is not enough ATP and creatine phosphate stored in the muscles to last very long without being regenerated- only around 15s or so.
- Anyway, assuming that you kept going flat out, you would still be able to keep up a fairly high pace (you’d have to!), but the edge would be beginning to fall off it, despite your best efforts. After a bit, your legs and arms would begin to get tired and you would feel them hurting a bit.
This is your body’s second energy system, the anaerobic, lactate system. It uses glucose (glycogen) as an energy source, but produces lactate as a by-product. This system effectively contributes to power from 15s to between 30s and 1 minute, but it still makes a significant, but decreasing contribution beyond this.
- By this point, assuming you are still going flat out, it would be getting very uncomfortable indeed. You would start to breathe harder after about 15s and by the 2 minute mark you’d be gasping for breath. Your speed would have dropped considerably and would continue to drop as time went on. If you weren’t safe by now, you’d have to hope that you had a decent head start.
Your aerobic system is your endurance energy system. It takes a while to fully kick in, but it starts to take effect from square one and will be at 100% capacity and providing the vast majority of your energy after about 2 minutes or so. It uses glycogen as a fuel source at first (normally for up to 40 minutes depending on supplies). The lactic acid produced by the anaerobic system won’t go away, but you’ll eventually not be able to produce any more of it.
- If you lasted long enough, the last source of energy would be aerobic, fat burning energy. This is very slow burning energy that would kick in as your glycogen reserves ran out and would be characterised by a sudden drop of power output and a feeling of ‘running on empty’. This is ‘the bonk’ that marathon runners talk about.
This is an example of the energy supply systems during flat out exercise. It is an oversimplification, so I don’t need exercise physiologists jumping down my throat, but it gives a good working idea of how the different systems work. They generally overlap each other quite a bit, depending on the intensity of the exercise and most run concurrently. Although the contributions given above are broadly speaking correct at high intensity, at lower intensity it is very different. For example, at very low intensities, the body may skip directly to burning fat as a fuel.
If you think of the ATP system like a direct debit mortgage or rent payment that is constantly demanding money from your account, the aerobic system is like your income-you can work overtime to a point but there is a limit to the amount you can earn. The lactate system is like an overdraft-you can use it but it has a greater penalty the more you withdraw and you have to pay it back eventually (muscle efficiency decreases as lactate concentration increases). It also has a limit, but will still charge you when it reaches this until you get rid of it.
It is important that you have an idea about the body’s energy supply systems so that you can a) understand what is happening to you in a race or ergo and learn to anticipate and counter associated problems and b) understand what I am talking about below.
A) Intensity
The main reason that all this aerobic/anaerobic/energy system stuff is important is that the intensity of your training determines what kind of improvements you will make. The body is very adaptable-it can do the same thing in slightly different ways. If you train it mainly anaerobically then it will improve mainly anaerobically. If you train it mainly aerobically then it will improve mainly aerobically. The reasons why you want to train your aerobic system more than your anaerobic system is that
- Most of your races are going to be 80% aerobic
- Muscular efficiency and technique are best learned at aerobic intensities because the body is under less stress and can operate for far longer.
- There are some changes that can only be made while training aerobically-same goes for anaerobically though.
- It takes a long time to develop an aerobic base, but large improvements can be made and retained. Anaerobic training can result in good improvements in a short period, after which there are diminishing returns. Long periods of anaerobic training will effectively damage your aerobic base though.
- Anaerobic training can be very intense resulting in greater injury, illness and overtraining risk.
- While training your aerobic system you will also be training your anaerobic system a bit.
Training schedules are balancing act between the different intensities and training effects involved. This is why periodisation is important. It is not a good idea to try and train every system at the same time as to a certain extent they are mutually exclusive. [There is a lot of discussion about the importance of Fast Twitch vs. Slow Twitch muscle fibres in rowing, but this is beyond the scope of this guide. Slow twitch are effectively aerobic, fast twitch can be either.]
Generally people come in 2 categories. Those who try to really push themselves and train a bit too hard and those who just go through the motions and do not train anywhere near hard enough to get a response. Unfortunately, neither person is likely to reach their optimal fitness level. One group will make very quick progress, then either find it too much or find they grind to a halt or get ill and injured; the other will make very slow progress and then almost none at all.
The training level guide given in the 3-4 session schedule is not really adequate here, as it is now necessary to know the intensity at which you are training with a little more precision. Training at different intensities trains different energy systems, so,
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO TRAIN AT THE CORRECT INTENSITY TO GET THE CORRECT EFFECT.
Again, without going into huge amounts of detail here, there are 6 ‘zones’ that concern us from the point of view of training. These zones are related to how hard the body is working at any given time. Some are defined by the amount (or strictly speaking concentration) of lactate in the bloodstream, some by the energy systems used. These are easily measured in a laboratory, but for the average rower at our club, this doesn’t help much unless anyone has a spare £250 for a portable analyser. Fortunately, heart rate is very closely related to lactic acid concentration so heart rate can be used to measure intensity of training.
Below I have listed the 6 training zones that interest us, and what heart rates they correspond to. Clearly, there is a range of heart rates for each zone.
ZONE |
% Max HR*** |
Training Type |
UT3 |
50-60 |
Recovery |
UT2 |
60-70 |
General endurance |
UT1 |
70-80 |
Endurance |
AT |
80-85 |
Endurance/Threshold training |
TR |
85-90 |
Oxygen Transport |
AN |
90+ |
Anaerobic-maximal |
***First of all go to section on training with a heart rate monitor to see how to work this out-it’s not quite a simple % of Maximum HR.
UT3: There is much debate about what this zone is useful for, if anything apart from recovery. There may be training benefits here when coupled with long distances (90-120+minutes), but realistically only top level athletes who have lots of time and are doing large volumes of training have much to get out of this type of training on its own, except as a recovery, when it is worthwhile. The top end of this zone is possibly in the UT2 zone though, depending on who you ask.
UT2: ((Oxygen)Utilisation 2) This is where the majority of training should be done by anyone who wants train more than 6/7 times a week. It is arguably better to do harder training if time is limited, but this is where most international rowers do most of their training-for a reason. It is here where technique can be ingrained at a deep level and where the body learns to be more efficient, both technically and in its use of energy and distribution to the muscles and cells. It can be used for active recovery at the lower end of the scale to a certain extent. One observation that I have made is that it is easier for internationalists to feel that they are working very hard at UT2 compared to club rowers. It’s just an idea, but this could be because most club rowers do not relax sufficiently on the slide to allow them to work closer to their muscle’s limit by pulling very hard in the water at low rates, which is the aim. The limiting factor for these sessions should only be running out of energy. On longer sessions, it is worth taking on some fuel as either sports drinks or a high energy (sugary) bar. You should also stop to drink every 30mins or so, but only stop quickly-these sessions should be continuous!
UT1: ((Oxygen)Utilisation 1) More intense version of UT2. Sessions will have a shorter total duration because the body’s glycogen stores will become depleted more quickly. Sessions can be broken up into smaller chunks with limited rest between each. The time limit for each session should be around 60 mins max. It is probably best to avoid putting these types of sessions back to back on successive days.
AT: (Anaerobic Threshold) These are tough sessions in many ways-they combine just enough duration with just enough intensity to make them pretty hard work. As the name suggests, this is carried out at an intensity that sits just under the anaerobic threshold-which means that it is around or just below the point where the body starts to accumulate lactate. (The threshold can be improved as a %MHR; on the other hand, if you are very unfit it can occur at a lower %-but that’s another story). It can be quite stressful and although physically, the point of doing this is to train the body to deal with and clear higher concentrations of lactate, there is also a mental element of dealing with the stress and holding technique under a bit of pressure that really helps later on when racing. In the training schedules, you will do quite a few UT1 sessions before being asked to try an AT session for that reason. It is argued though that this is the best way of improving aerobic capacity. It is not possible to do more than say 2 of these sessions a week and even then, possibly not at the beginning of the year. Each session is normally split up into chunks and enough rest given between each chunk to allow the body to recover substantially.
TR: (Oxygen Transport) This is intense training going into the zone where the body will really start to accumulate lactate. This is really pushing the body hard and will improve the body’s ability to tolerate lactic acid without falling apart and to transport oxygen under stress from the lungs to the cells. The heart is trained in this zone to increase its output and the aerobic system will be working close to flat out. There is an important mental and technical element to training in this zone in the sense that it is normally carried out close to race pace. This allows practice of technique and mental strategies at close to race conditions. This is more suitable for inclusion later in the year.
AN: (Anaerobic) Flat out. All the body’s systems are being trained flat out here. There is not nearly enough oxygen to sustain the effort, so the anaerobic system is being pushed to its limits (as is the aerobic system once it gets going). High concentration of lactate. Very hard work. Can only be done in short bursts, with rest between. Again, only really suitable for later in the year.
There is also alactic training, which involves short, sharp bursts that do not accumulate lactic acid (they use the creatine phosphate system), but this is not that important here although may be included in the training schedules.
Just one more little reminder from the previous schedule. Training too hard for too long will NOT do you any good in the long run-no, really it won’t. No, really, if it did then international athletes would be doing it all the time-they don’t though.
B) Heart Rate
Most of this has been moved to the heart rate training section on the website. A wee bit is here though because it’s important. The problem comes though when the obvious question is asked: What is my maximum heart rate? and what’s my resting heart rate? Well, resting heart rate is easy. Take it just before you get up in the morning. Maximum heart rate is a little more difficult however. Maximum heart rate vs. age tables are available, but to be honest, they are really not up to much as they are only applicable to a narrow range of people and being 10-20 beats too high or low can mean that there is a completely different training effect. If you don’t know your max HR and don’t want to do a race or step test, then use subjective measures instead such as breathing intensity. Then correlate that with heart rate over time and use these approximate zones after that. However, this is not the best idea as it will only give an approximation at best. A current (that doesn’t mean 2 years ago) 2000m ergo time can also give a good idea of training zones, but again beware-it doesn’t always work.
C) Duration
Again, not going into huge detail, but generally as intensity goes down the duration of training necessary to get an appreciable effect goes up and vice versa. Unfortunately, it is also true that as you get fitter, and reach a plateau of fitness, longer sessions are needed to get an improvement. I would say though that while significant improvements are being made, duration of session should not be increased significantly.
Duration can also change the effect that training has on your life outside rowing. You may be able to do a 45 minute session every morning or lunchtime with ease, but a 100 minute session will certainly have a significant long term fatigue effect.
Generally, do not increase overall training load by more than 5% per week. The schedules do use a light/medium/hard cycling though so it will increase a bit more than that, but should drop back again.
Miles make champions. One of my favourite phrases-mostly true though-within limits! Adapt your training volume to your aims. If you want to aim high then broadly speaking it’s miles and not intensity that will make you an elite rower. If you have limited time, then a bit more intensity will be better. This is why some of the schedules will have a range of duration for each session. Choose your poison, so to speak. But generally, follow the schedules-these are just guidelines here if you want to make your own.
Overtraining
Miles also break champions, but so does doing 6x500m every day. Why not just train hard all the time? Well, apart from the fact that you would go mad and hate training, you would probably stop improving fairly quickly at best and get injured or ‘over-train’ at worst. This is the last ‘don’t train too hard’ dig, I promise. There are short and long term effects of training too intensely. The short term effects that most people who have raced are familiar with are fatigue and discomfort (or burning). But at high lactate concentrations coordination is impaired and muscles are less efficient. What this means in practice is that technique falls apart. It also damages the muscles themselves which, when combined with deterioration in technique makes injury a real risk. Additionally, this kind of training really depresses the immune system and can lead to illness.
More worrying however are the long term effects. Intense training impairs the body’s aerobic energy system and shifts the body’s emphasis to developing power by anaerobic means-great for the first minute of a race but a massive disadvantage thereafter. The real problem though is over-training, where the body shuts down, you feel low on energy and for no apparent reason nothing works. The reasons for this occurrence are disputed and unclear. But this can effectively end a rowing season on the spot.
Training
Without going on forever, here are a few notes about the training schedules and what to look out for.
- The schedules are designed around a yearly cycle, broadly speaking following a typical season i.e. general preparation, long distance training and head racing, pre-racing season and main racing season. They won’t necessarily be designed for a given race, so ask in advance if you have an important one coming up.
- They are designed to be adaptable, so that if you want to do a bit more, it should be obvious what changes to make.
- Cross-training (i.e. not rowing) is great, but if you want to get fit for rowing then only cross train at min. 5 sessions a week and then only for one steady state session.
- Weight Training is also useful, but again only at 5 + session a week and it is not essential. Depends really on whether you want try it or not. I would only recommend doing it if it is carried out properly and if it is done as an extra session or as a circuit. However, they do have a point, can be a bit different and many people enjoy this type of training. Very heavy weights need a lot of practice though and are an injury risk so I will not talk about them here.
WARM-UP (wee bit different from last schedule)
Every session should start with a warm-up, but the warm-up is especially important as the intensity of the session increases. Warm-ups have a dual purpose, they help prevent injury and they maximise performance. Warm-up for at least 5 minutes before UT2, but for a 2000m ergo for example, I would look to do 20-30 minutes in total.
Light stretching is also worth doing as part of the warm-up, AFTER a light paddle/run etc. BUT must be very gentle. Stretching can cause injuries just as easily as help to prevent them. DO NOT stretch cold and be VERY careful before races.
MAIN SESSION
THE IMPORTANT POINT IS NOT WHERE YOU START BUT THAT YOU KEEP GOING AND IMPROVE.
WARM-DOWN
Again very important for your heart, body and for recovery, spend at least 5 minutes slowly paddling after the main session, more for more intense sessions-up to 20-30 minutes after a really hard one. It’s like a reverse warm-up, but it actually helps recovery and so should be seen as part of training. It is after this that you should stretch to improve flexibility. Hold the stretches longer (30s say) than in the warm-up. Improved flexibility also improves technique and performance. Another point to bear in mind is that your body refuels fastest in the first 30 minutes after exercise so if you can, eat a carbohydrate snack asap after finishing.
Oh yes, one last little thing, hydration is very important. You need at least 2-3 litres a day. If training this can go up much higher. You will generally not feel thirsty until you are 1-2% dehydrated. Dehydrated =high heart rate, dizziness and 2% dehydration = 10%+ loss of power. That’s 1.2-2l dehydrated and 3+s/500m down. Your HR would also be higher so you might drop even lower. Maybe more in another section later.
This was going to be a lot longer, but I figured that everyone would be bored by now, so that’s enough for these guides. Hope everyone gets something out of this and don’t forget if anyone has any questions, then please ask me (AL W) ENJOY!.
