Stroke rate 26???!!
After Nationals, my training consisted of a lot of stroke rate 12, 14 and 16 on the erg. For anyone who doesn’t row, this is really low! The focus was purely power per stroke…there’s enough recovery time in between the strokes for you to really push hard when you need to drive the legs down. I must say that the focus on power and technique has really helped a lotJ. Fortunately as a lightweight my target watts are pretty easy to commit to mentally since they are similar to my stroke rates: at 12 I need to hold 120W, 14 I hold 140W, 16 I hold 160W, etc. As we’ve continued to follow the training program, I’ve found that I am now getting very comfortable in the 20 and 22 stroke rates. I can hold 200W and 220W respectively during pieces.
Now that the training has come into a new phase, I am starting to see the 240W and 260W come into play with the pieces we do. I don’t expect that the same mathematical approach will stick as I increase stroke rate…otherwise I’ll be breaking the world record in no time (holding 320W at stroke rate 32!). Not there yet but bring it on!!:)
This past week has been a tough one…it was a short week at work so a lot to catch up on, I’ve had a personal matter come up, and also had a heavy training week!
Monday I did stairs again with my teammates, Kathleen and Claire (and also a random man who saw the fun we were having and wanted to join), and since Tuesday I have been having fun on the erg with Kathleen…and I am happy to say that I have absolutely no back pain, so I feel that this injury is GONE for good!
If I feel discomfort then I’ll continue to row, but if I feel pain then I’ll stop.
The fun isn’t over as we still have two more days of hard pieces on the erg, but the one I want to highlight is the pyramid workout. It’s 29 minutes of absolute physical and mental exhaustion.
Imagine that you are capped at a fixed stroke rate and pushing at your max on every stroke, only to find that you have to pick it up one more gear and keep pushing hard as the stroke rate increases (not letting your watts suffer). It’s kind of like this:
You look outside and it’s a beautiful day to run in the country side. You decide that you are going to go out for a 29 minute run to enjoy the fresh air. You put on your sneakers, head outside and start your timer…in the first five minutes you get into a good rhythm, hold a steady pace and feel strong. Suddenly you sense that someone is following you, so simply out of fear, you pick up the pace a bit. Not only that, but now imagine that you also have 2 lb weights on your ankles. You run like this for the next four minutes only then to find out that there is someone following you and they want to steal your ipod. But you don’t want to give it to them, it was a present from Aunt Florence for your birthday…and she’s your favourite Aunt! You start to run faster as they start to call on you, heckling you. Again you are running hard but now have 5lbs on each ankle. Your legs are starting to feel tired, your heart rate has escalated and you are focused on getting away from them. You run like this for three minutes, counting down every second, only to learn that the next two will only be harder. In desperation you throw your ipod to them assuming they will leave, but they don’t. They were really after you! They want to kidnap YOU. You are running harder the next two minutes, now knowing their intentions, and you additionally have 7 lbs on each ankle. Your legs want to take a break but they can’t…you have to hold on for dear life! Running, grunting, sweating. Now they are right behind you in their car, they are reaching at you, calling at you…you turn a corner and for the last minute you run as fast as you can thinking that you are in the clear. With 10 lbs on each ankle you hold nothing back, go at your max!....run…run…run. After the minute is over, you have to do the whole things in descending order…2 minutes…3..4..5. You come home at the end of the 5 minutes in disbelief, but smile because you just had an amazing workoutJ.
Every stroke counts.
Happy Training
No comments:
Post a Comment