any ideas on what the best conversion swimming > rowing for the low volume 70.3 plan
outta shape z plodding through thd workouts bike ones are just achievable. running ones involve walking sometkmes. so breaking 45 minute runs into chunks of 3 x 15 with two minutes. its already been two weeks and its picking up nicely.
Ihave been rowing using the following:
Where it says swim and using a ratio of 2000m for every 500m in the plan.
Using a 500m max effort as a pace to prescribe the pace i row at. i think its 1:56 at the moment so 80% is 2:19/500m (Multiplication method).
Wow you’re approaching it in a very organised manner. I too am rowing instead of swimming at the moment but have gone for a little and often approach just to keep lats & arms remembering what it’s like to move.
I would suggest investing a month or so into just doing technique work. use a mirror, and also video yourself. trying to do your swim workouts on a static erg right away is a really good recipe for injury.
your swimming fitness will come back just fine when you can return to the pool. rowing, like swimming is super technical, but working against a fixed point of resistance on every stroke makes good technique essential, otherwise you’re risking back, disk, and rib issues.
the Aram Training channel on YouTube is good to see his technique breakdowns, as is the Decent Rowing channel (tied in with the Australian Institute for Sport).
Ditto on working on technique! It’s really important on the rowing ergometer. Learning to relax will help prevent injury and will also help you engage the back and arm “swimming muscles” that you’re targeting. You’ll get a lot of benefit from rowing at a lower stroke rate and learning to relax on the recovery between stroke / drive. A mirror can help a lot, as can following a video of someone rowing at a lower stroke rate of 18 to 22 strokes per minute.
The 500 - 2,000 meter ratio sounds ok, up to a point. Rowing involves so much leg work that if you keep adding and converting “swim distance” to “rower distance”, and then add on cycling trainer workouts (and running!), you’ll be putting more strain on your legs than swimming would. I would cap the rowing work at a certain point. It also not a great idea to “de-emphasize” the leg drive, since it helps set up the back and arm muscles to do their work with a manageable load. (You can lighten the drag factor to help a little, but it does not work like the weight setting on a weight machine.)
In place of some of the rowing erg distance, you might want to incorporate some swim-muscle weight training: lat pull downs, band work, shoulder exercises. You don’t even need to go to a “real” gym – doing pull-ups and using rubber bands, and some small dumbells can help you strengthen the swim-specific muscles that rowing will not use as much. Getting these muscles stronger now can help a lot when you are able to get back into a pool.
(If it matters, I was a D1 rower, and a life-long pretty fast swimmer and have coached both sports.)
Lower drag is better, imo. Most advice re: drag is for people who are training for racing in a boat. If you just work out for fitness, the lower drag is much kinder to your back. I endured a lot of pain and RSI before I realized it was OK to lower the drag to a reasonable setting.
It’s not an arm thing. Don’t make it an arm thing. I know you want to use the rower to take the place of swimming, but although rowing does engage the lats and back, they’re only 30% of the stroke – it’s 60% legs. Cue – leave the arms and hand relaxed during the first 6 inches of so of the leg drive. It’s really tempting to start pulling with your arms at the catch, but don’t. The catch and the start of the drive are all about setting up your trunk and arm position while the legs do all the work.
Look up “hang on the handle” to help learn this.
Damper on 3 or 4. Really. The higher the damper, the more the non-rower (meaning you’ve never been on the water – myself included) will want to start using the arms too early. College and Olympic women – VO2 between 60 and 70+ – will use the damper on 4. That tells you that 4 is enough for the Cat 3 cyclist or hobby triathlete.
Slides. If you have the room, and you have plenty of patience, setting up your Concept 2 D on slides will force you to row with good technique – bad technique, you bang the slides. They will drive you absolutely nuts at first, and it will take longer to be able to do an endurance workout as a result, but, like riding the bike on rollers rather than a trainer, they will sort out a lot of technical errors.
(I was doing all right with the model D this last year, and cracked 7min for 2k, before straining a rhomboid due to overreaching at the catch and engaging the arms a bit too early. Slides have helped me fix both things, and they take a lot of load off your spine/back and ribs, as well)
Definitely a leg first rower and the only real pain I get is in my core, normally where I would have a six pack Bit like swimming, if you concentrate its nice smooth and easy. if you thrash around like you are escaping a alligator then its no fun at all.
I would like to re-assure you the effort is on the bike this more about keeping the other parts of the body moving and not just abusing my legs running and cycling
Bit like swimming, if you concentrate its nice smooth and easy. if you thrash around like you are escaping a alligator then its no fun at all.