Educate me on intervals

[flatbread]

Ya'll know that in the year or so since I bought an erg, my interval sets have been the same as I've been used to in cycling -- VO2/TR being something like 6 x 3min or 7 x 3min, 5 x 4min, 4 x 5min, or at the low end of the power band 3 x 10min, and THR something like 3 x 10, 2 x 15, or 2 x 20.

A pretty bonehead approach.

Given the differences in muscle and bone loading between the bike and the erg, do I want to rethink how I approach intervals? Or is it all just intensity and duration and energy systems, same old same old, just a different activity?

[btlifter]

Great question!

I've always approached energy systems as being roughly transferable (though, in total rowing is more demanding), and so I frequently interchange traditional running/cycling/rowing workouts. Curious to learn others' perspectives.

[Ripples]

I found this article interesting. https://www.sportsperformancebulletin.c ... ong-short/

[iain]

I found this article interesting. https://www.sportsperformancebulletin.c ... ong-short/

interesting study, it would be interesting to know what intervals were done, but I would expect 4 x 5min for the "long" intervals, That would mean 40 x 30S intervals. Also no detail on the rest allowed. While the 2 types are rated as equal RPE, pushing for 30S doesn't feel as hard as for 5'. Clearly the power was significantly higher. Normally we only manage this by doing shorter total duration although there are studies showing that we can maintain higher power with the same time resting and working if split into shorter intervals. So is this just saying that better adaptions occur when a higher power is reached in the interval sessions? Also, we don't know whether the long intervals were similar to what the athletes had been doing before (5x5min is, I understand, one of the mainstays of cycling interval training), so maybe the difference may partly be due to the difference of the long sessions of 30S duration. Also if done with short rests (particularly 30/30s), there is some of the impact of longer intervals as each set has intervals with increasing oxygen debt. Very different if 2min or more between intervals. So not sure what the take away from this is!

Most permutations of intervals and rest are used by rowers for different things, there is no "correct" answer. Generally slightly shorter sets are usually used to prepare for 2k, with 5-6 x 750m (3+ min rest between each, 8 x 500m 2-4min rest between, 4 x 1k 4+ min between as some of the most common around 2k pace. Then longer intervals (5 x 1500, 3-4 x 2k, 3 x 2.5k) also used with 4+ min rest between each around 5k pace. Also longer sets are done with shorter (1-2 min) rests at similar pace to an all out effort of similar distance. Take your pick.

[GlennUk]

Interesting,

often 'traditional' endurance training plans IME seem to have focussed on increasing distances over a long period of time to train for marathon for example.

Im following a plan for 116k, its over 14 weeks, with 3 or 4 sessions a week, the longest sessions being single reps in week 11 with two x 3.5 hour rows which may sound like a lot but will be c.42k compared with the target row is only 30%.

Most of the reps are either relatively low intensity and relatively long, or shorter, higher intensity intervals of 6/7/8/9 minutes at higher HR/rates with total durations up to c.90mins.

From memory, when i look ed at RowPro for a marathon plan there were efforts in the weeks leading up to the marathon almost as long as this which proportionally is far greater, c.70%.

Interesting to see the results of the research

[Tsnor]

Ya'll know that in the year or so since I bought an erg, my interval sets have been the same as I've been used to in cycling -- VO2/TR being something like 6 x 3min or 7 x 3min, 5 x 4min, 4 x 5min, or at the low end of the power band 3 x 10min, and THR something like 3 x 10, 2 x 15, or 2 x 20.

A pretty bonehead approach.

Given the differences in muscle and bone loading between the bike and the erg, do I want to rethink how I approach intervals? Or is it all just intensity and duration and energy systems, same old same old, just a different activity?

"Given the differences in muscle and bone loading between the bike and the erg, do I want to rethink how I approach intervals? " Science seems to support you doing what you are doing. Studies seem to lump all "endurance athletes" including rowers into the same bucket. Studies done on rowers and cyclists and nordic and runners, etc. all tend to come to the same conclusions.

On Short vs Long Intervals. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBgAr7kLsZY This elite endurance cyclist does a great job of summarizing a dozen or so research papers. He also covers the "gotcha's" in the very short intervals study. Essentially the very short intervals 19 mins at 441 watts were compared to 20 mins of longer intervals at 368 watts and found that the 441 watt efforts gave better results.

[HowardF]

A new one that try to sumup:
https://www.outsideonline.com/2424717/u ... arsely-api