Are we training too easy?

[iain]

My usual row is in the AT zone with peaks in TR. ... I take about 2 recovery days a week. (My schedule is not fixed because life happens.)

I am pretty sure that this is too hard, of course depending on volume. How long are these rows?

I would expect It would be too high for someone at peak fitness rowing 6+ hrs per week,. But HR zones are easier to maintain when less fit (fortunately as true threshold can be lower than 70% HRMax for some couch potatoes!). SO I always start at this sort of level when I have had 6 months off, although usually only doing 30k per week initially.

[flatbread]

I'll welcome correction from the OTW rowers and more experienced ergers on this, but when I look at XC skiing, which I did up through my early 20s, and road bike racing, which I did from 1980-2021, the "easy" HR zone 2 work would really seem to correlate with UT3 on the erg. Under 60% of HRR is really slow, and would most likely necessitate a noodly stroke. Also, the thoracic load of the erg would make 2+ hours a day of that stuff a formula for eventual injury. When I still did things like 4-6 hour rides on the bike, the HRR would end up averaging 50-55%. That's LSD.

UT2 is, in my limited experience, more like the low end of Zone 3 in Coggan's cycling power model. So, just above VT1. 70% of my HRR would be 124, which would put me in power zone 3 on the bike. That's not conversation pace.

UT1, is, I think, more like Coggan's "sweet spot" -- high zone 3/low zone 4 his cycling power model. It's steady state, but doing it more than twice a week might be a bit much. It should be quality sub-threshold (just under 60 min test pace), or the high end of "gray zone" HR zone 3. I wouldn't call it low intensity at all.

The training paces and HR zones I see for AT erging are really more like low zone 5 in a power-based cycling model. If your HR is getting into the 85-90% zone after only 4 minutes of erging on an 8-minute AT interval, you're over the split/power you could hold for a true functional threshold/maximal lactate steady test effort. Definite high intensity.

As has been said, 80/20 is not about duration. It's about sessions. Two days harder than UT2 a week. Try to do 20% of your training time at AT or above will be fantastic way to overtrain or hurt yourself.

[wonderfullbill]

Good point — with only 4 to 6 hours a week, I’ve also found that leaning a bit more into UT1 or Zone 3 can make a big difference, especially coming from a street workout background where intensity matters. Striking the right balance without overdoing the volume has been key for me too.

[Dangerscouse]

Try to do 20% of your training time at AT or above will be fantastic way to overtrain or hurt yourself.

As usual there's a lot of variables to consider. Some people will thrive on this, whilst others will regress. This can also change on a weekly or daily basis too, so this needs to be considered regularly.

Imo, training should be based on how quickly you can recover rather than using guidelines that are based on elite athletes who have time to train for many hours a week.

[flatbread]

Try to do 20% of your training time at AT or above will be fantastic way to overtrain or hurt yourself.

As usual there's a lot of variables to consider. Some people will thrive on this, whilst others will regress. This can also change on a weekly or daily basis too, so this needs to be considered regularly.

Imo, training should be based on how quickly you can recover rather than using guidelines that are based on elite athletes who have time to train for many hours a week.

Indeed. If you're in single digit hours per week, you might be able to handle 20% of total duration at VT2/LT2 -- but that would be two days of 30min in the red zone, if you were training 5 hours a week, which, unless you had a lot of base behind you, might be a bit much. More than 20% just above VT1, different deal.

[milansanremo]

Try to do 20% of your training time at AT or above will be fantastic way to overtrain or hurt yourself.

As usual there's a lot of variables to consider. Some people will thrive on this, whilst others will regress. This can also change on a weekly or daily basis too, so this needs to be considered regularly.

Imo, training should be based on how quickly you can recover rather than using guidelines that are based on elite athletes who have time to train for many hours a week.

Indeed. If you're in single digit hours per week, you might be able to handle 20% of total duration at VT2/LT2 -- but that would be two days of 30min in the red zone, if you were training 5 hours a week, which, unless you had a lot of base behind you, might be a bit much. More than 20% just above VT1, different deal.

Dangerscouse... Flatbread and I raced together (cycling) as masters...(Flatbread..I had to tell him that because he helped me more than anyone on here getting started).
Anyway, I have found that doing a block of Eric Murray stuff(changing up rate 20-30 during an hour temp effort,(that's around UT1 for me) without intervals during this block has progressively made the intervals faster and easier once I'm done with the Murray block.
I attempt to have 3 hard AT days during the new block or 2 AT days and 1 effort of 5 or 10k going out at former PR pace.
My next experiment during the Murray block is to alternate the DF factor during each workout ie( 20 minutes of 20-30 rate @ 130DF..then doing the same @145DF...and finally one @160DF.)
This is supposedly one of Murray's former workouts... though I can't confirm it.