Athletic fitness - 1000m

[Cozzie]

Hello!

My first post here. I'm planning to compete in athletic fitness in about 8 months time. In this competition rowing is a part of the game - with 1000 meters.
I just started with serious rowing and I would like to get some advice on how I should train to improve my 1000m time. How often, what distances and so on, interval training and other tips.

A really newbie question maybe, but I feel that this board could come up with a good training schedual

I'll make some videoes to have my technique critiqued later

[NavigationHazard]

Cheers, it would help if you briefly described your age, gender, height/weight, athletic background and baseline fitness. What else (if anything) you're also doing or planning to do as far as training also will have a bearing on any rowing.

[Cyclingman1]

Without knowing personal specifics, a few comments perhaps can be made.

1000m is well beyond a pure sprint distance, so training will require both endurance and speed work.

At some point in the not too distant future, you have to determine what you can do for the 1000m, that is, what is the average time/500m for the entire distance. You should try to row the 1000m at a fairly even pace throughout. Workouts will be based on that pace. Every month, a time trial will need to be rowed to reassess your training paces.

You need to do shorter and longer intervals, that is, perhaps, 6x200m and 3x500m. If you can do 1000m at 2:00/500m, then short intervals would be in the lower 1:50's and longer intervals in the upper 1:50's. The rest time between the intervals should be approximately twice the time to row the interval. Don't stop rowing - just slow down quite a bit for an active recovery. You also need to warm up some before doing the interval workout - at least 5 mins of rowing. Endurance work can range from 2K to 5K at a pace 5 to 10 secs slower than 1000m pace. As you get faster all of these times are adjusted downward. The intervals improve fitness and get you used to rowing at faster paces. It would take forever to get better by always rowing at your 1000m pace.

Of course, all times mentioned have to be adjusted based on your initial 1000m TT.

You should look at the Concept2 web site for rowing form. Keep it all long and smooth coordinating the leg push, back lean, and arm pull. It's not hard.

This is a rough idea of training required to row a faster 1K.

[Cozzie]

NavigationHazard:

I'm 27 years old, 182 cm height and my weight is 80 kg ripped. I've been training with weights for 10 years. Not much endurance training.. doping free. In adittion to rowing athletic fitness require doing chins and dips, but rowing is new for me, so it needs a bit of work.

I've tried rowing 500 meters some times, and my PB was 1:28. I feel like the breath and endurance is my weak point.

Also, is there an optimal number of strokes per minutes I should have my pace at? When I do 500m, I row between 30-32 strokes per minute. Maybe it might be better to decrease the number of strokes and pull harder?

cyclingman1:

Thank you for your response! I highly appreciate your tips!

[comictimes]

It sounds like you're already pulling a very solid piece, and if you're doing it at a 32 your form can't be too bad. If anything I would try bringing the rating up. Generally 1Ks are rowed between 35 and 40, depending on the type of stroke you prefer and your height- shorter people tend to go at higher rates. You're somewhere in the middle height-wise, so I would be shooting for around 37spm. Of course holding such a high stroke rating for 3 minutes or so does require a certain amount of endurance, so I would add in some slightly longer pieces (6k, 30 minutes, etc, all done at around 18-24spm) to improve your cardio.

In case your form is suffering (you can improve your time a surprising amount just by rowing better), I would film yourself, have someone who knows what to look for watch you, or row next to a mirror after watching some videos of world-class rowers so that you know what to look for. The how-to videos are good when you have no idea what to do, but in general they seem to make the movements very black and white and overly segment things, in my opinion, when in reality it's a much more smooth motion with all the parts blending into one another slightly.

[Cyclingman1]

Sounds like you might be in CrossFit. If so, you really do not have the time to become the best under-29 rower around. But 1:28 for 500m is pretty good. A sub 3:10 1000m or 1:35/500m pace would put you in the top 25 in the C2 rankings.

Strokes per minute, drag factor, and how hard you pull interact. If you pull harder but lower the stroke rate will the time/500m come down? Only you will be able to judge that. Ideally you pull harder and keep the same stroke rate - now you're going faster. Perhaps 2x750m might be your cup of tea at 1000m pace +3sec. I doubt if you are really interested in gaining extra endurance beyond surviving the 1K.

[hjs]

NavigationHazard:

I'm 27 years old, 182 cm height and my weight is 80 kg ripped. I've been training with weights for 10 years. Not much endurance training.. doping free. In adittion to rowing athletic fitness require doing chins and dips, but rowing is new for me, so it needs a bit of work.

I've tried rowing 500 meters some times, and my PB was 1:28. I feel like the breath and endurance is my weak point.

Also, is there an optimal number of strokes per minutes I should have my pace at? When I do 500m, I row between 30-32 strokes per minute. Maybe it might be better to decrease the number of strokes and pull harder?

cyclingman1:

Thank you for your response! I highly appreciate your tips!

500 m at rate 32 is way to low for you, you should st least rate 40 or this, a 1k can be done roughly at 500 av plus 6/8, if you rate higher you proberly can pull 1.25/26 on the 500.
So you could get a 3.05 ish 1k. But if it is not a standalone piece, a few seconds faster or slower don,t matter much. Plu a max 1k will leave you in no state to do anything else.

Rowing 500m or a 1k will always mak you feel like you lack endurence

Training can be interval stuff things like 1 min on 1 off, 250m on 1 min off. Reps around 10. Pace of feel, it should be hard but just doable
Or longer stuff with long rest.

For pure endurance a 5k can be done.

[NavigationHazard]

My recommendation: go to http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/olympic ... amme-41421 and look at former British Olympic rowing coach Terry O'Neill's High Intensity Programme. It 1) is predicated on 8 months to competition; and 2) was developed specifically for masters on-the-water rowers whose competition distance during sprint season is 1000 meters. Tel wrote it for OTW training but the same physiological principles apply if you do it on an erg.

Plus it's free.

[Cyclingman1]

The key point of the program is that to get fast in rowing, one must to do the fast short intervals and the longer ones. For the fit Crossfit type of athlete, the program requires substantial time and is rather involved. It is hard to see a Crossfitter devoting 60-90min, 4 days a week to rowing in addition to the many other activities.

Most training plans devised by rowing coaches are overly complicated and overly long both daily and for the duration. They usually involve numerous types of workouts that in all actuality are so close to each other as to be practically indistinguishable. I'm sure most fit athletes, but non-rowers, would look at this program and be overwhelmed with its complexity. An intereseting thing about this plan is that there is no intermediate rowing in it at all - 4-6K or 15-25 mins. I would think someone could pick through the plan and piece together a training plan that is far simpler and keeps the essential parts and goals.

In fact, it would be interesting to see maybe a 12-16 week plan designed for fit, non-rowers, with limited time, designed for maximum improvement in 1-2K.

[Bob S.]

In fact, it would be interesting to see maybe a 12-16 week plan designed for fit, non-rowers, with limited time, designed for maximum improvement in 1-2K.

The Pete Plan fits that description quite well. Originally it was based on a non-rower training during his lunch hour for the 2k. The early version of it was in 3 week cycles, but I gather that it has evolved considerably from that.

[hjs]

The key point of the program is that to get fast in rowing, one must to do the fast short intervals and the longer ones. For the fit Crossfit type of athlete, the program requires substantial time and is rather involved. It is hard to see a Crossfitter devoting 60-90min, 4 days a week to rowing in addition to the many other activities.

Most training plans devised by rowing coaches are overly complicated and overly long both daily and for the duration. They usually involve numerous types of workouts that in all actuality are so close to each other as to be practically indistinguishable. I'm sure most fit athletes, but non-rowers, would look at this program and be overwhelmed with its complexity. An intereseting thing about this plan is that there is no intermediate rowing in it at all - 4-6K or 15-25 mins. I would think someone could pick through the plan and piece together a training plan that is far simpler and keeps the essential parts and goals.

In fact, it would be interesting to see maybe a 12-16 week plan designed for fit, non-rowers, with limited time, designed for maximum improvement in 1-2K.

The problem with the erg is the amount of data we get. In no other sport we see that and people indeed overcomplicate stuff. Lots of people keep on base building but for forget to build the top of the hill.
I rowed my best times on 20k a week, 3 session a week, plus weight and in the summer zero meters on the erg. And that was with limited (back) capacity. Things like drag and rate I just did how it went.
I did almost no longer endurance work and also not much short speed stuff. Mostly was around AT pace (between 5k and 2k pace)

[NavigationHazard]

You really want to reduce it to basics for a 1k, do a hard 5k row followed the next day by 10 to 20 x 1'/1' and repeat, decreasing the number of intervals as you get closer to competition but increasing the quality (i.e. rowing them faster). It'll bore your socks off but it'll work.