Plateauing

[BillyWhizz]

57 year old man, been erging for about 7 years having been a cyclist for the 30 years previously. I’m 5’8 and 145lb. Very fit with good V02 max, and run and erg 12k alternate days, plus strength training every evening. The 12k erg is 10k plus a warm down.

My question is - my 10k times are plateauing and now I struggle to better 1:58 (or just over 39 mins) over 10k. Generally I row 8m moderate / 4 min hard and repeat over that distance. My stroke
rate is 30, damper 4.5 or drag 110. I’d love to get back to 1:56 over 10k. Any tips?!

[iain]

For a maximal 10k you need to row at a fairly constant pace through the Anaerobic threshold that will have your body shouting at you to slow down!

Most people plateau on the same training, so time to change it. I don't do conventional strength sessions, but every night seems excessive if you want to prioritise the rowing and 3 times would be plenty for general fitness / rowing. I find if my muscles are tired then I need to up my stroke rate at any given pace and that makes me hit my aerobic limit sooner so slows my overall pace. Try a lighter couple of days without weights and with shorter rows possibly a full day off then have a go at holding 1:
57 throughout a 10k and see how it goes, you may surprise yourself. I would also suggest substituting some interval workouts. I like 4kr4', 3kr3', 2kr2' and 1k each 1S/500m faster than the previous with an all out 1k at the end. Start at 1:58 on the 4ks.

Your rate is fine for a TT, but is higher than most in training, but that might just be what works for you given your size and aerobic history. An alternative might be to do some work at a lower rating to develop a stronger stroke. at R24 you would be doing 2:07 pace at the same work per stroke. So holding sub 2:05 initially at R24 (1 stroke every 2.5S so make sure you hit the catch on times ending 5 & 0) by slowing the recovery without any pauses might be where to start.

[jamesg]

I’d love to get back to 1:56 over 10k. Any tips?!

Wouldn't we all; I haven't done a 10k in years. However I've had three clogged coronaries bypassed, and doing ok now.

Cholesterol does not help bloodflow.

[Tsnor]

Very fit with good V02 max
run and erg 12k alternate days
strength training every evening.

My question is - my 10k times are plateauing ...

Two thoughts.

(1) Progressive overload says improvements come from CHANGE in what you are doing. If you've been following the same training approach for a while then maybe change it.

(2) Training Plateaus in endurance sports is essentially the problem that pyramid and polarized training are designed to solve.

Long term gains through improved aerobic power are key to improving endurance results. The claims from both pyramid and polarized are that (1) there are adaptations your body only makes when you do low output, long duration workouts. (2) working hard every day (or even too many days/week) blocks those adaptations.

Suggest you read up on both polarized and pyramid. The polarized camp conceded a few years ago that 25 years of tracking shows that both polarized and pyramid work equally well, older articles will say you must be polarized. So when you read articles that say "avoid the middle, go really hard or really slow" that's no longer considered true.

If you like studies, try this one: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6873141/

This is a very old TED talk that summarizes polarized. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MALsI0mJ09I

This is a deeper version of the same information from USRowing coaches education. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l1qUftZurw It says the same thing with more supporting details and is more actionable.

[micc2]

That PMC article and the TED talk were both really helpful for understanding how training structure impacts long-term gains. I’ve been doing a lot of steady moderate work myself and probably not enough variation, so it’s interesting to see how both pyramid and polarized approaches aim to address that. The point about too much hard training blocking adaptations really stood out.

[iain]

If you like studies, try this one: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6873141/

Thanks for this. frustratingly I can'tr find details on the amount of training done, but a Tri coach I know recommends 25 hours a week although most of her athletes aspire to full ironman rather than 70.3. If we assume that the athletes did 25 hours a week, the pyramidal athletes would be doing nearly 5 hours broadly UT1 per week that I expect is what many of us do in SS training. I am not aware of many studies considering the benefits of slower training within 5 hours per week or so of total training except where participants are coming from a largely sedentary starting point. So I think the old debate about whether to do SS harder if you can still recover fully for the harder sessions is not answered.