What do you think about this bespoke program

[G-dub]

So I’ve made a shift to almost all on water, but cold weather is coming. I’ll be able to row almost all winter anyway, but that will be mostly steady state. We test 1K erg for boat selection purposes, but I also hold out hope that a sub 7 will sneak up on me by February - last test was 7:01.7 a couple of years ago - but that is not a huge priority. Anyway:

I won’t list the aerobic work - that will be as much as I can handle usually morning and evening when not doing intensity and either bike, run, erg, or OTW.

Weight training: 2 sessions per week. Heavy weight. Doubles and singles to 10 reps total (not for hypertrophy but for strength gains and higher rep schemes trash my recovery). Focus on deadlift and incline bench one day and barbell rows or pull-ups and squats the next. Work light weight corrective stuff and mobility stuff in there too, but not at any real effort.

Interval training erg: 1 “endurance” interval session (say 4-6 x 8’, 2’R) at 5K / 6K pace as a goal to work for and 1 “alactic” interval session (say 8-12 X 100m at r45+ with 3’ or so rest between) per week. 200 drag or so and full power.

[Galeere]

Well, my friend, I would settle for 250s or 1 minutes for the short stuff as 100s @drags of 200 done on a regular basis IMO are too risky with regard to injury. Got ma best erg phase finished with an injury. Important to stay healthy as each restart is a mess.
Cheers
Hardy

[G-dub]

My friend, nice to hear from you. I hope you are well and prosperous. Seems like ages ago when you were blowing past me on the erg.

Good point about the back, but my dumb @ss says " why would these be any different than power cleans or KB swings in terms of risk". Maybe I'll do them with a running start. What I'm trying to do is have a power and speed session that doesn't have me using glycolytic energy as much for something new and different to try. Same reason for how I'm approaching the weight training part.

[mdpfirrman]

I'm convinced at this point that some have higher tolerances for training at more, uhum, tender/waning years than other (I'm nearly right there with you Glenn!!).

Look at Rod. Does insane volumes of training and doesn't have issues. I try to do around 2/3 of what he does and I fall apart. You've seemed to do really well, from what I've seen, handling the load of heavier lifting and Cross Training well. I also think that it's smart doing one speed session/intermediate a week, but not adding in a 3rd day (all three of us know how well that goes with the PP repeatedly and ongoing ).

I think as long as you watch the form on the sprints, you'll be OK, but if you're doing it close to your leg days (which is I'm understanding are nearly every day with deadlifts one day, squats the next). Might be smart to have a day of separation for leg work every now and then. I think Lindsay, if I'm not mistaken, is doing an occasional 200 DF day for power boost (but I don't believe he lifts on top of it).

Sounds like a solid plan as long as the SS days are UT2 type stuff.

[G-dub]

Mike - if you come back to this page...I think the key, for me, in terms of keeping the lifting going in some form is to not do hypertrophy or endurance / circuit type workouts but to do reps and sets to 10 ish reps total for a few exercises at most and only twice a week. More often than not I’m doing 10 singles or 5 doubles. I’m adding weight to the bar but it’s not wrecking me. Most often I just do trap bar deadlifts once or twice a week with heavy weight (I’m hoping they are right when they say heavy dead’s make you strong all over) and then I add in fun stuff at lighter weights. So swings, goblets, overhead squats, vertical bird dogs, stiff leg dead’s, shoulder presses, bat wings, rows, get ups, etc are at weights and reps that don’t wear me out - I just do them for the movements and to feel good. And those I do almost daily in various combinations.

[Remo]

So I’ve made a shift to almost all on water, but cold weather is coming. I’ll be able to row almost all winter anyway, but that will be mostly steady state. We test 1K erg for boat selection purposes, but I also hold out hope that a sub 7 will sneak up on me by February - last test was 7:01.7 a couple of years ago - but that is not a huge priority.

You are in a battle between age related slippage and improved efficiency, experience and conditioning. Given how close you are, I hope you make it.

I won’t list the aerobic work - that will be as much as I can handle usually morning and evening when not doing intensity and either bike, run, erg, or OTW.

Good plan. Based on your published times, your relative weakness is on the endurance side.

Weight training: 2 sessions per week. Heavy weight. Doubles and singles to 10 reps total (not for hypertrophy but for strength gains and higher rep schemes trash my recovery). Focus on deadlift and incline bench one day and barbell rows or pull-ups and squats the next. Work light weight corrective stuff and mobility stuff in there too, but not at any real effort.

Weights, by themselves, do not make you faster; however, to the extent that they work on any defects you may have and thereby improve your efficiency, they will allow you to get faster. That said, pull-ups, squats, seated and barbell rows and inclined (or military) press are all good exercises. Never done deadlifts but I presume they are good too. I got great benefits out of power cleans -- but they are a little hazardous.

Interval training erg: 1 “endurance” interval session (say 4-6 x 8’, 2’R) at 5K / 6K pace as a goal to work for and 1 “alactic” interval session (say 8-12 X 100m at r45+ with 3’ or so rest between) per week. 200 drag or so and full power.

Your endurance interval is great for improving VO2max. Although I would suggest that you start with 3-4 reps and possibly work up from there. If you have a HR monitor, you want to be finishing the interval session (i.e., the end of the last piece) with your HR between 88 - 95% of your MaxHR. As you approach your erg test, you should increase the rest time (rest time = work time) and your pace. Also, after a couple of weeks, these workout gets stale, so you will want to do some variations to keep it fresh. Some examples would be 5k, 6k or 30 minute rows, or 4x1500m, or 3x 10 mins, or 8x 3:00/30s rest (this last one may seem a little strange, but for me, at least, it is effective.)

I occasionally do alactic work, but 45+ sr and 200 drag seem high and doesn't beget good form. It you are going to do them, row them well. You will get the same physiological work even if you may not be quite as quick. (The underlying goal alactic work should be to prime ATP-creatine system and to improve your underlying speed and explosiveness).

Given a choice, I would focus more on short intervals such as 1:00/1:00r mentioned by a commentator above.

[lindsayh]

good suggestions/analysis from Stewart I think.

think as long as you watch the form on the sprints, you'll be OK, but if you're doing it close to your leg days (which is I'm understanding are nearly every day with deadlifts one day, squats the next). Might be smart to have a day of separation for leg work every now and then. I think Lindsay, if I'm not mistaken, is doing an occasional 200 DF day for power boost (but I don't believe he lifts on top of it).

I try to avoid the leg weights on sprinty days too. My weights days are generally after a shorter steady session. Muscle mass reduction is defo part of the aging battle (it even has a name - "sarcopenia") so IMO weights etc are important.
Mike I don't use 200df but I do some power sessions and short sprints with longer rests with a df around 150 or so. Sort of 20"/1'R using 90% of low pull in watts as the goal each time and not too fast on the sr as above - you want "real" strokes IMO. Try to do say ten then rest and do it a second time to failure sort of thing. I would be concerned about df200 stuff as well because of back risks. It also slows you down as hard to get things moving.

[mdpfirrman]

Glenn, sorry, misunderstood what you meant on leg days. Thought you were doing them nearly every day. Yeah, that lighter stuff shouldn't be an issue.

Don't know if this helps or not but this year (when I lowered my PB from 7:19 to 7:11), I was doing a lot of stairs on the stairmaster and added in a lot of Plyo Box jumps near race time. I actually just bought a Plyo Box this year. I'm going to do a lot more leg work on that. There are a lot of really creative ways to use a Plyo Box (even aside from jumping) that can really work the legs without too much (or any) strain on the back. Having it around to add explosive strength at the end, towards race time, is a huge added bonus. Honestly, compared to my other times, that was an outlier that I did. I'm not sure at my age (and height/weight and joint damage), though I'll try, that I can improve on that.

[G-dub]

OK - good consensus opinion on lowering drag on super sprints and keeping stroke real. On the water we come off the line at r38/40 in a good boat so that should be where I work. Here’s the set up, knowing that I tend to not stick to the set up religiously. This isn’t much different than I’m doing now in terms of # of sessions:

Monday am: easy run and corrective weights and stretches (easy)
Monday eve: SS erg or SS OTW in 4+ (easy)

Tuesday am: easy run and corrective weights and stretches (easy)
Tuesday eve: weight session #1 (squats and pull ups) *note: squats won’t be too heavy (Medium)

Wednesday am: easy run or indoor bike and corrective weights and stretches (easy)
Wednesday eve: Long intervals (Hard)

Thursday morning: easy run or indoor bike corrective weights and stretches (easy)
Thursday eve: SS erg (easy)

Friday: off

Saturday am: SS OTW in single or 4+ (Easy)
Saturday eve: short sprint intervals - short and sweet (Medium hard)

Sunday am: easy something - probably OTW in a single or quad (easy)
Sunday eve: weight session #2 (TB Deads and Incline Bench) (Hard)