Free Spirits Rowing

For a number of reasons too dull to write about, I'm looking to move away from long steady pieces for a while in an attempt to improve my personal stats at shorter distances.

I'm therefore thinking that in order to build towards say a 30 minute piece, I should be doing Tabata style training.

In my head this is something like warm up - 30 secs hard, 15 secs active recovery, rinse and repeat for 8 cycles (6 minutes) and then say 2 minutes of active recovery. Then two more complete cycles. So around 24 minutes + warm up/down.

Has anybody tried this or something similar and if so what are the problems/benefits?

The above timing sequence is very much from gym based body weight exercises. It strikes me that because the erg takes two or three strokes to power up and perhaps 5 to 8 seconds to wind down, then the "hard/recovery" elements need to be longer? Perhaps the recovery side also need to be longer as it is active?

If so, then 45 seconds hard and 30 seconds recovery? That's 10 minutes per cycle (if I do 8 repeats) and 3 cycles is 30 minutes which is convenient.

As you can tell, I'm grasping here and looking for more experience and thoughts from the more knowledgeable members please.

Some of my favourites would be.

30 seconds on 30 seconds off x 30.
1 minute on 1 minute off x 10.
500m x 8 with 1 minute recovery. Start with 2 or 3 recovery though.
750m x 6 with 2 minute recovery.
1k x 6 with 2 minute recovery.


Best of luck

IIRC, true Tabatha is all out wit little recovery (eg 20S on, 10S off). It is truly horrible on erg as at least this feeble lightweight needs his alactic system to accelerate to sprint speed. 10S recovery is insufficient and so every stroke after the first interval or 2 is a struggle. I never understood the benefit of trying to hit max effort and slowly declining and worried that compromised strokes would cause injury. Might have a psychological preparation for 500m or a min where you have to row them like that, but can't see benefit for 30min.

I would recommend some of the short intervals in Pete's 5k plan if you want partial recovery work to prepare of middle TTs. He suggests 6k in intervals with 1 min rest such as 12 x 500, 8 x 750 and ultimately the unpleasant 6 x 1k (a proxy for 5k pace). Pace is starting at 6k SB and try and do faster last each time and then use average for initial intervals next time. For 30 min you might like to do a few more intervals. I once tried 15x500 then 12 x 600, 10 x 700, 9x750, 8x800, 7 x 900as prelude to 6 x 1k to try and keep pace similar. You might like to keep at 8k or so.

Look forward to seeing what you decide.

- Iain

There is a Zoom Ergos Tabata session tomorrow at 12:00 GMT. It is the style the Iain mentions below (20s on 10s off). I have to say I agree with Iain though, I struggle to see how these would work on the erg and would be really worried about form going out of the window with injury lurking. I've the the Zoom Ergos link below.

Zoom Ergos Session

Hi, all those 40/20 or 30/30 or what ever are indeed high intensity training like tabata...to improve Vo2max, in cycling very popular...here more known as Ronnestad intervals vs classic intervals (for indoorrowers most known as PetePlan intervals )

in my opinion: do what you like, what makes for you the most fun...mix it...if you have done PetePlan 3 cycles...maybe Ronnestad intervals are a change...best luck !

JonT wrote: ↑Mon Feb 08, 2021 1:43 pm There is a Zoom Ergos Tabata session tomorrow at 12:00 GMT. It is the style the Iain mentions below (20s on 10s off). I have to say I agree with Iain though, I struggle to see how these would work on the erg and would be really worried about form going out of the window with injury lurking. I've the the Zoom Ergos link below.

Zoom Ergos Session

I find the weekly tabata zoomergs surprisingly good. Its key to maintain stroke rate so as not to provoke injury, however I have found them to be beneficial and can feel them the day after.

Thank you - lots of food for thought.

My objective is to first keep motivated and to do that I need a target that is more than metres on the board. Having done FM/HM this season I've decided that my 30 minute distance is in need of improvement.

My thought therefore is that 2 or 3 sessions a week at Tabata/HIIT intensity and some more steady stuff and then a series of 30 minute tests every 5 days or so would be sensible. We'll see.

I'll have to try some of the above suggestions and report back.