Adding steady state erg work to a Crossfit week

[LaHugue]

Hey, I'm looking for some advice on how to properly incorpore steady state rowing work into my week

I'm a 31yo male, and after almost a decade without exercising even the slightest I got back into fitness last spring via my local Crossfit box. I progressively added more and more training volume and I joined a coastal rowing club in september, I did my first 2k in december and achieved 6:57 in lightweight category. Since then I also did a decent Hyrox Solo Open race in 1h21, and we got 12th place in France National Coastal Championship in 4x. I'm progressively getting fitter, gained some lean weight (currently 80kg for 1.83m ; that's 180lb and 6'0), and having lots of fun training !

Currently, my weekly regimen of training consists of 3 high intensity Crossfit WODs, 2 hours of strength work, 1 rowing session on the water, and I recently added some 1h zone 2 erg 2-3 times a week in the morning to make a more polarized training routine.
Those easy sessions are reaaaaally slow, about 2:25/500m r18, aiming for about 140bpm (max heart rate measured at 203bpm) with a RPE of 2-3 and a good talk test. Using 50% of my 2k wattage, I "should" pull something closer to 2:10/500m but I will surely get in zone 3 training at this speed. My z2 running speed is pretty slow as well, about 8min/km and still easy as hell.
I'm a bit surprised by those low numbers because I thought my aerobic base was clearly better, being more of a cardio guy than a pure lifter, and thriving more on long efforts like Hyrox and 6k than on short explosive workout or even 2k. Technique is seemingly fine though so I don't think the problem comes from there. I don't monitor my HR on boat, and do my UT2 sessions on feelings, and they don't feel as slow and the boat is going pretty ok speedwise.

I'm worried those erg sessions might not be as effective as they should be, and I'm a bit lost on which intensity to target during those steady state sessions, and I get very different ranges depending on where I find the info :

• 60-70% max heart rate : 122 - 142bpm
  60-70% heart rate reserve (Karvonen) : 137 - 154bpm
  Free spirits rowing UT2 : 129 - 154bpm
  Aviron France ramp test : 152 - 162bpm (which uses a 75-80% of MHR calc and might get closer to UT2 than Zone 2)

My max HR is sorta high, maybe that's why general zones formula are not that precise ?
Should I keep on doing really low intensity work and trust the zone 2 process for some more months, or shift to a more UT2 approach and add some more intensity to aim for slightly higher heart rates (which I'm a bit afraid of considering the metabolic load I already have due to Crossfit) ?


I'm fully aware that this prog is not optimal at all and not specialized enough to either join national rowing team, participate in the Crossfit Games, or qualify in the Hyrox E15. It's a compromized between the schedule of the box, my own work hours (and rest periods), me living 1h away from the boat club, and the fun I want to have.

Thank you very much !

[H2O]

I think my aerobic base is pretty good, since this is where I spend most of my workouts. At 50% 2K power I'll hit 120 HR (and higher if hot) which is 62% of my heart rate reserve (max HR-resting HR). Here I would be pulling 9 watt per stroke.
The stroke power has some influence on this, if you increase this (same pace, lower rate), you heart rate will go up. What stroke rate are you pulling?

Personally I would shift to UT2. If I row low rate I usually do 19 spm with 60% of 2K power and this comes naturally all by itself. I then don't worry about the higher heart rate. I don't think we do enough volume to be worried about this.

[Dangerscouse]

Should I keep on doing really low intensity work and trust the zone 2 process for some more months, or shift to a more UT2 approach and add some more intensity to aim for slightly higher heart rates (which I'm a bit afraid of considering the metabolic load I already have due to Crossfit) ?

Let's not overcomplicate it all. First of all, are you wanting to change things because you're not improving enough, or because you in reality it's your ego telling you to speed up?

I'd definitely be inclined to add in some higher intensity sessions, including some grey zone, and then see how you recover. Zones are guidelines that have become far too defined so don't be afraid to change things and then change again when it stops working.

Always remember you can train as hard as you can recover, so don't force training into neat little boxes, as you could be missing out on a lot of progress. Also, don't be afraid of training through an accumulation of fatigue, as it's knowing where the tipping point is how the magic really begins to happen.

[iain]

I'd agree with Stu. But first you need to be clear on what you are trying to achieve. If you want your high quality training to be Crossfit, 3 hard sessions a week is upper end so I would NOT recommend further even moderately higher intensity sessions. As for HR, not sure where your 140 comes from, if Mafetone I am not a fan, particularly given your high HRMax. I think anything under 70% HRR is usually "Zone 2", so try this. if you remain under recovered then slow down a bit!

Impressive start, keep up the good work!

[LaHugue]

Thanks for your answers !

First of all, are you wanting to change things because you're not improving enough, or because you in reality it's your ego telling you to speed up?

I don't think I'm not improving "enough", the progress is here for sure, especially during those high intensities WODs.
Nonetheless, the next step would be to spend more time developping my aerobic base, as a foundation to rowing and to general fitness overall.
My interrogations were on how to integrate proper steady state to make sure I don't go either too hard, I definitely agree on not to add any more high intensity sessions risking overtraining, but not too slow either and waste my time. The informations I could gather online were a bit confusing, specially concerning how slow you can go, and if too slow is really a thing. Yes there is some ego in the way, but there's also this video from Travis Gardner telling me in brief that you should never pull slower than *don't remember the exact number* or your workout would be useless, and the general consensus that you should do your steady state at 50% of your 2k wattage while still remaining in a low HR zone, which seems contradictory to me as of my current fitness level (1h erging at 2:10/500m would clearly be above my 70% MHR).
I may pretty well overcomplicate and overthink things rather than just go for it and experience it and slow down if needed ; kind of an anxious personnality I guess.

As for HR, not sure where your 140 comes from

My max heart rate is 203bpm, measured with a chest strap during an erg ramp test (I've already seen 209 during a WOD, but not on the erg so I'm not taking this into account), so the upper limit of my z2 would be 142, I target 140bpm to be conservative and have some room.

[Dangerscouse]

Thanks for your answers !

First of all, are you wanting to change things because you're not improving enough, or because you in reality it's your ego telling you to speed up?

I don't think I'm not improving "enough", the progress is here for sure, especially during those high intensities WODs.
Nonetheless, the next step would be to spend more time developping my aerobic base, as a foundation to rowing and to general fitness overall.
My interrogations were on how to integrate proper steady state to make sure I don't go either too hard, I definitely agree on not to add any more high intensity sessions risking overtraining, but not too slow either and waste my time. The informations I could gather online were a bit confusing, specially concerning how slow you can go, and if too slow is really a thing. Yes there is some ego in the way, but there's also this video from Travis Gardner telling me in brief that you should never pull slower than *don't remember the exact number* or your workout would be useless, and the general consensus that you should do your steady state at 50% of your 2k wattage while still remaining in a low HR zone, which seems contradictory to me as of my current fitness level (1h erging at 2:10/500m would clearly be above my 70% MHR).
I may pretty well overcomplicate and overthink things rather than just go for it and experience it and slow down if needed ; kind of an anxious personnality I guess.

Ok, in this case, I'd cut out the 'noise' and (possibly) unhelpful advice that the Internet will give you. There are two main schools of thought; go hard or go home, and go slow to get faster, and then quite a few variations in the middle of both of these.

You need to just try it, assess it, adapt it or adopt it. My main comments are don't apply too much importance to one type of advice, always be curious (chase the question mark, not always the exclamation point) and don't change things too quickly as you'll never know what is working.

The main reason why slow is suggested so you can go fast/hard enough on the intense days, but if you don't really push it on those days, the slow days may be counter productive.

Just to confuse matters further, I know of some excellent ergers who train at 80% of max HR, others who have never done a UT2 session in their lives, and train regularly, and then the opposite where others have made excellent progress with circa 65% of max HR for their slow days.

Be honest with yourself and try both approaches, as I'm fairly sure that you'll eventually feel one suits you more than the other, or maybe you'll prefer a good mixture of both?