Danish Rowing Plan VS Polarization

[Sb13ky]

Recently I was able to come across a plan thanks to my coach based on what the Danish Lightweights were during the early 2000’s. Unfortunately I can’t share the whole plan as it’s not mine to share. The mileage varies from about 120-150km a week compared to what you would see nationals squads doing at about 200km a week. There program does not have any true steady state and has more UT1. Steady state is done at 22 rate with +7-10 seconds of 6k pace. Everything is based on rate change and I find most workouts fall into threshold work with some higher rate work. 2 days a week usually has work between 28-32+, where most workouts are some kind of rate changes for 35-50 minutes of work between 22-28 rate. Warm up and cool down is done most workouts and total mileage of most workouts are 16-18km while steady state is sprinkled in between 12-16km. Sessions are usually 8-9 ergs a week.

I have had friends who are rowers say that seems normal based on their highschool and university experiences rowing, but there are also people who think this is ridiculous and doesn’t leave you fresh for any workouts. I know GB and some other countries do a lot of UT2 mileage with some sprinkled AT and high end work. Does anyone have any experience with this type of training? My goal is to progress into the 6:20’s this winter from 6:34 but I don’t want to end up injured or overtrained.

[Tsnor]

I have had friends who are rowers say that seems normal based on their high school and university experiences rowing, but there are also people who think this is ridiculous and doesn’t leave you fresh for any workouts. I know GB and some other countries do a lot of UT2 mileage with some sprinkled AT and high end work. Does anyone have any experience with this type of training? My goal is to progress into the 6:20’s this winter from 6:34 but I don’t want to end up injured or overtrained.

Our OTW training program has 4 medium hard days/week (heart rate 80-100% of max every workout for at least 10 minutes). Measured by growth and race results this approach doesn't work well. I am not surprised a lot of programs still follow a "more harder is better" thinking, but have not seen any studies that say this is a good idea and a ton of data that says it's bad news.

The research I've seen that supports using UT1 to get good results all still have large blocks of long/slow and are substituting the UT1 work for some of the max efforts. 120-150K/week is 10 hours/week. If you do 5 hours or more of that at UT1 you are doing more than the studies I've seen. Even our program is only driving an hour or two a week at these levels.

Any effort level is doable for a short time. Google supercompensation. If you do drive towards this mix of workouts google "non-functional overreach" and get familiar with symptoms. Track your resting heart rate. Be ready to bail out. Everyone is different, this may work for you.

In cycling Trainer Roads has a set of training programs that mirror the training program you describe, "sweet spot training". If you can ignore the snarky comments, there is a ton of good information in this rebuttal of those plans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0n-nnRbFBs

Here is a good podcast on overtraining and how to get there. https://www.fasttalklabs.com/fast-talk/ ... d-burnout/

[mjk]

Recently I was able to come across a plan thanks to my coach based on what the Danish Lightweights were during the early 2000’s. Unfortunately I can’t share the whole plan as it’s not mine to share. The mileage varies from about 120-150km a week compared to what you would see nationals squads doing at about 200km a week. There program does not have any true steady state and has more UT1. Steady state is done at 22 rate with +7-10 seconds of 6k pace. Everything is based on rate change and I find most workouts fall into threshold work with some higher rate work. 2 days a week usually has work between 28-32+, where most workouts are some kind of rate changes for 35-50 minutes of work between 22-28 rate. Warm up and cool down is done most workouts and total mileage of most workouts are 16-18km while steady state is sprinkled in between 12-16km. Sessions are usually 8-9 ergs a week.

I have had friends who are rowers say that seems normal based on their highschool and university experiences rowing, but there are also people who think this is ridiculous and doesn’t leave you fresh for any workouts. I know GB and some other countries do a lot of UT2 mileage with some sprinkled AT and high end work. Does anyone have any experience with this type of training? My goal is to progress into the 6:20’s this winter from 6:34 but I don’t want to end up injured or overtrained.

I think that sounds like a standard high-level team training amount of volume, but I'm not sure that the level and frequency of high intensity work matches what they do at every college program.

When it comes to picking training program, I think that using a national team or even college training plan when you're an individual training solo isnt always a good approach. A lot of team training is focused on selection - so there will be a lot of ranked test pieces during the week to measure progress and compare between teammates. Some of that selection is what I would call "selection through attrition", the genetic freaks who can handle the high workload and high amount of hard training are likely to also have the genetic gifts to make them move a boat quickly. Injury prone rowers and rowers with poor recovery habits get weeded out by these brutal training regimens.

You can look at a training program like that, and experiment with elements of that training program to integrate into your training. Unless you build up slowly, have a perfect diet and amazing sleep habits, I think that following a high volume/high intensity program like that puts you at a high risk of over training

[Dangerscouse]

You can look at a training program like that, and experiment with elements of that training program to integrate into your training. Unless you build up slowly, have a perfect diet and amazing sleep habits, I think that following a high volume/high intensity program like that puts you at a high risk of over training

Totally agree. This type of programme is only suitable to a very small percentage of an already small percentage of people, and would ruin most people.

Good luck to you if you do decide to do it, as you may one of the lucky few, but it would definitely ruin me.

[btlifter]

I have had friends who are rowers say that seems normal based on their high school and university experiences rowing, but there are also people who think this is ridiculous and doesn’t leave you fresh for any workouts. I know GB and some other countries do a lot of UT2 mileage with some sprinkled AT and high end work. Does anyone have any experience with this type of training? My goal is to progress into the 6:20’s this winter from 6:34 but I don’t want to end up injured or overtrained.

Our OTW training program has 4 medium hard days/week (heart rate 80-100% of max every workout for at least 10 minutes). Measured by growth and race results this approach doesn't work well. I am not surprised a lot of programs still follow a "more harder is better" thinking, but have not seen any studies that say this is a good idea and a ton of data that says it's bad news.

The research I've seen that supports using UT1 to get good results all still have large blocks of long/slow and are substituting the UT1 work for some of the max efforts. 120-150K/week is 10 hours/week. If you do 5 hours or more of that at UT1 you are doing more than the studies I've seen. Even our program is only driving an hour or two a week at these levels.

Any effort level is doable for a short time. Google supercompensation. If you do drive towards this mix of workouts google "non-functional overreach" and get familiar with symptoms. Track your resting heart rate. Be ready to bail out. Everyone is different, this may work for you.

In cycling Trainer Roads has a set of training programs that mirror the training program you describe, "sweet spot training". If you can ignore the snarky comments, there is a ton of good information in this rebuttal of those plans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0n-nnRbFBs

Here is a good podcast on overtraining and how to get there. https://www.fasttalklabs.com/fast-talk/ ... d-burnout/

+1 to all of this^

[flatbread]

That may have worked for some very talented Danish rowers because they were very talented.

Some have mentioned the pyramidal vs. polarized models in cycling, and as a 40-veteran bike racer, I'll offer some general observations there:

* "Sweet Spot" training is a good way of creating your base if you are a pure Time Triallist, a stage racer, or a climber. Those riders need to work on increasing fractional utilization of VO2 max, and reducing volume of lactate accumulation (lowering VLA Max). Those riders, yes, do a ton of low intensity, below the first lactate turnpoint, but also tend to have a more pyramidal training distribution, spending a good amount of time each week riding what cyclists call "tempo," and for what a rower would be the upper half of UT2 and then UT1, often at lower cadences. This work is crucial for building the big engine for a stage race or doing multiple big climbs in a single day.

* "Sweet Spot" is not so optimal as a base training modality if you are a puncheur, track pursuiter, or MTB racer. Those events are often decided by big efforts of 2-10 minutes well over maximal lactate steady state, and too much Base period tempo/sweet spot lowers VLA too much for explosive efforts in that duration range. Peter Sagan's coach would remark that after a three-week grand tour, he would have to put Sagan on a training block that was polarized to bring his high VLA back -- after three weeks of a lot of "sweet spot" just to finish the Tour, Sagan's sprint and explosive 2-10 minute punch would be blunted.


A 2k is a high VLA effort. Too much UT1, and too much high UT2, will probably blunt your speed. The training models that have a lot of time in UT2 are necessarily going to shift a lot of that to the lower end of UT2, below the first lactate turnpoint/ventilatory threshold. It's hard to keep up big-time volume while always going at the top of the UT2 band.

Even if you're not doing big-time volume, the demands of the 2k suggest that you're better off keeping your fast fast and your slow slow, and not spending too much time in UT1.