Graham Spittle is a listener to the Faster Masters Rowing Radio podcast. On our November Q&A episodehe asked this question
Graham Spittle UK erg champion 70-74 category
I have been watching YouTube and it seems some people do a pre-warmup, warmup. As a 71 year old heavyweight is this necessary?
British Rowing Indoor Championships (BRIC) were held this past weekend at the Olympic velodrome. It seems Graham was keen to learn about warm ups because he was preparing for this indoor rowing event.
Graham explains what happened on the day [taken from the Masters Rowing International Facebook Group thread]..
OK - it’s a rare bragging post from me, but with included thanks to Rebecca Caroe and Marlene Royle for their opinions and advice on pre-warmups!! Also thanks to legend Eric Murray, on the BRIC Asensei stand, for letting have a pre-warmup warmup on one of their ergs 👌🏼👍🏼
I had good day at the BRIC office yesterday, despite a messy cough and cold causing an extreme training taper(drought) kicking in a week too soon! But - I’d paid my money, I had tissues and (clean)lozenges and wasn’t gonna let a cold get in my way! (I had, however, re-assessed my 2k target from ~7:00mins, to ‘whatever I could manage’!)
1st race 09:15 2k 70-74 hwt 🥇😎 With little expectation, other than I was pretty certain I wouldn’t come last, I found, at about 500m, that I was in the lead!? I thought I might as well stay there, for as long as I could and, funnily enough, I was in the lead at the finish too, by a smidge!!
2nd race 14:10 500m 70-74 hwt 🥈😎 5 hours later and feeling not awfully well, I did consider scratching, but it was only going to be 90 odd seconds, so , like gladiator bait at the Colosseum I lined up in the Race Floor tunnel, like gladiator bait at the Colosseum! The winner shot off at 44spm, but he hadn’t raced the 2k earlier, however, I managed to stay within .4 of a second, to take silver!
Christmas shopping now seems less daunting!! 🥴
The Head of the Charles is 26 days away as I sit and write. Less than four weeks.
Somehow I found time to create a past history spreadsheet for my event. I used the last five years’ results to calculate the average winning time, the average top 5 finishers time, plus their corresponding benchmarks at Riverside, Weld, CBC.
I’ve filmed myself erging and rowing and sought technical advice. I’ve been reading the program resources on preparation, plus some extra Googling.
Yes, the rowing nerd has come out.
Training Update: Week 1 vs Week 2
Life caught up into the second week. This is why flexibility is so important. Usually I take Sundays off, but Thursday changed the plan. We think it’s important to foster a love of the outdoors in our son, but we live in suburbia. So once a week I try to do something outside with him. The hike lasted longer than I expected, followed by a two-year-old refusing to nap. Add to that an overall sense of fatigue, and Thursday ended up being my “off” day and I trained through the weekend.
Late summer flowers on our hike.
Now into week 2 of the Faster Masters 5k program, a few workouts have comparison data. I write all my indoor training sessions in a journal to monitor my progress.
There’s an anaerobic threshold workout I showed improvement in the last two of the three timed pieces. I wrote that I “felt better” although the last three minutes at a 28 got tough. That’s what you’d expect as your body adapts.
Another comparable workout was a long, steady state recovery-style piece. Unfortunately, this week’s session totaled 500 meters shorter than Week 1. I’m not concerned about it. This workout was done at home; I noted I stopped more than before. Next house must have a dog door.
Taking Thursday as a rest changed the remaining workout schedule, with lots of flip-flopping to fit the weekend plans. I did a different workout on the water. This technical focused workout is definitely what I needed. I love the challenge of square blade rowing. I need to work on keeping my chest lifted at the catch. When I thought about it, the boat set better and the screen proved it gives better numbers.
The spouse and the kid helped me get some technique video. Unfortunately it was during my warm-up and not after my workout.
Consistently, I noted more fatigue this week. Less sleep combined more physical and mental struggles. Lucky, training is a long game. Seven days shorter than a week ago, but still a long game.
I’m starting the third week feeling drained, but optimistic. I think I will see more growth this week. Two weeks to push hard and make a final effort to build more endurance and strength before the taper begins.
Track my progress training for the Head of the Charles:
Faster Masters is following one athlete's progress towards the Head of the Charles 2019. Casey McKenna is a 35 year old single sculler, a mom fo a 2 year old. She trains alone since her job relocted to Kentucky and she was massivly excited when she got her entry into the HOCR this year - it's her first time. We will be following her blog updates weekly through to the race, and beyond!
Masters single sculler Casey
Ever since I resumed training for specific rowing events, I’ve written my training plan. That’s partially been out of necessity: no rowing team here, no outside coach to be the guide, no boat to motivate through the tough times. Mix that in with new limitations to my time (hello, toddler!) and resources (where’s the water?) and writing my own plan just made sense.
The thing is, writing my personal training plan has been time-consuming. Part of that might be how I structure the workouts. I’m always asking myself, “Am I doing the right thing? Is this the right workout at this time?” I like variety, so you don’t see much repetition in the erg sessions.
As I prep for my first Head of the Charles, I’m giving the Faster Masters program a go. I plan to give an update each week for the next six weeks.
Week 1- Diving into training
I once participated in both a sweep and sculling clinic from Marlene Royle, whose instruction I credit with helping me win my first 1x race. And I listen into Rebecca Caroe on the RowingChat/ Faster Masters podcast, so I was excited to jump into the resources they offer. The program is broken into modules, but when I launched last Monday morning I needed to dive in quick.
The training plan is the first module. The guidelines spell out how the training works whether you’re erging a lot, like me, or have the benefit of water training. There are four training plans available. I’m picking up September’s plan for an October/November 5k peak.
It’s simple to understand, but my Florida-native brain trips me up when reading workout intensity. “Category 1” usually means bring out the margaritas and board your windows while “Category 5” means “Run for the hills because it’s about to get real.” Here it’s reversed: Cat I workouts are the most intense while V and VI are more steady state.
Initial Thoughts
Flexibility is the key reason I’ve been writing my plans. The kid could be sprinting across the house one day and running a fever the next. Some weeks I can only do four workout sessions. Others I hammer out six sessions. I can’t break up my workouts, as in row/erg in the morning and strength train/erg in the afternoon. I get up to two hours to smush in as much quality as I can. Erg, then immediately strength. If I’m lucky, I might have time for yoga or stretching later in the day.
Case-in-point for last week: I only had five days of training instead of a typical six because of traveling for two days.
The training guidelines advise you on how to fit the recommended training into 4, 5 or 6 days. I like that certain workouts in the plan are designated “priority.” So I focused on hitting those sessions and dropped a 60-minute row. But Week 2, as long as everything chugs along like normal, I’ll hit all six sessions.
The program isn’t so rigid that I can’t move things around to accommodate my schedule. Example: when I logged in to the training plan on Monday, I actually had a “rest” day. I typically use Sunday as a rest day, so I simply moved Sunday’s workout to Monday.
And it flows between water sessions and erg sessions, which is great since I never know for sure when the 1x will get wet. I had a chance to row a Women’s 2x in Columbus last weekend. My partner was on board with doing the scheduled Saturday workout. We had a solid row, I exposed a technical weakness, and she liked the workout better than the one the Coach intended for the session. Triple win.
There is rowing in Columbus, Ohio!
Tracking progress
My past training plans look like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re gonna get. When you’re staring at black numbers and a white wall for over an hour, some mental spice is necessary. I achieved that by frequently dishing out something new. I always made sure to hit two hard steady states, two anaerobic, etc, but I’d rarely do the same type of hard steady-state twice in the workouts. Some key sessions would occasionally repeat, like 3x 20m x 3mr at 18-20, but not with any real frequency.
This training plan is the same throughout the month. So Tuesday’s workout is Tuesday’s workout all four weeks.
I’m looking forward to seeing how this works for me. I think right now repeating each week will be super motivating because I’ve become very competitive against myself. I keep a rowing workout journal and track every session. I’ll know if I’m showing progress from Week 1 to Week 3 (Three and not four weeks, in this case, having picked it up the month a week late).
Resources
There’s a treasure trove of resources included in this plan! While I didn’t have time until my weekend car ride to start sifting through the materials, I look forward to exploring more. Already the erg video drill has been helpful, especially since that rolling seat and I are intimately acquainted.
How’d it go?
I think the first week went well. I learned after the first land training session I needed to up my weights quite a bit. After the second one weight session, which paired with a fairly intense erg session, I was a little sore the next day.
Working on those front squats.
This month includes hip mobility, which I was grateful to see. Given the struggles I’ve had figuring out why my low back/left hip has a clicking and pulling sensation, it was timely. Working on my hip flexibility through stretching and sitting less has been a priority the last few weeks. I’ve jumped on adding this routine in my week. The first time I did it, my hip “popped” during one stretch, but in a good way.
I’m looking forward to seeing how Week 1 stacks up against Week 2.
Don't believe us - listen to our Faster Masters members to tell you how using our programs helps their rowing.
Persephone Wynn is 63 and coming back to rowing after some health issues
My boat is a 20 yr old very tippy Fillipi - mostly tippy because I have little or no feeling in my feet due to chemo side effects, and more recently a loss of balance as a side effect of concussion at the beginning of the year - that has improved and is much better. I have been on the water three times this week - once a proper 10k - up to the top of our reach and back scull which was hard.
I loved the technique drills - [they are] drills I make my athletes do and which I used to do myself when I was racing but had got out of the habit. Getting my boat to sit is getting easier and just being patient and doing the drills is paying off. The open oarlocks 'drill' is something I have done several times by accident - when I was coaching juniors from my scull, in 90s, one day I wondered why the girls in the quad were grinning so much and looking at me. After 3/4 of the outing we stopped to do some practice starts, the first two went OK and on the third I went in - as this was alongside our weir I was back in my boat in a flash. The little darlings roared with laughter and said they had been waiting for me to go in as they had noticed that I not done up either side at the beginning of the outing.......It has never occurred to me to use this as a Drill - thank you - not quite ready to do it in this boat yet....
Faster Masters is definitely helping me - it is extremely hard to coach yourself sensibly.
I like the pieces - sensible, doable, but hard enough. Where I haven't been able to get on the water I have been using the erg - not as good - and again, the daft British weather has played a part as we have had a long spell of ridiculously hot weather - I wear a HRM for training and the hot weather definitely affected my performance.
I try to train 4 times a week or every other day - as you know recovery takes longer as we get older - I am 63 and only have one working lung so that has an effect - nonetheless I find the sessions OK. This month I am doing Day 1, Day 3. Day 4, and Day 5. Next month I will change it around.
What don't I like about Faster Masters?
Not much at the moment - it is lovely not to have to tell myself off for putting too much work on my own programme and making myself exhausted.
I have only used the water work and technique sections - I stumbled across the other sections today - maybe the menu could put all the sections up on top of the dashboard so that we can pick and choose - I am sure I am not the only person to dive straight in and miss the rest of the building blocks. I shall make time to go through them in the next week or so.
I hope this helps. Faster Masters is definitely helping me - it is extremely hard to coach yourself sensibly - the old 'but ... I used to it this fast/hard/much' thing keeps kicking in.
I am writing to ask a few questions about the "Faster Masters Program". My partner and I have been rowing a pair and double for a couple of seasons here. We belong to a small masters club, however, we have no coach. We have picked up some coaching during the past two seasons but it has been inconsistent. We competed in the US Masters in 2016 and the Canadian Henley in 2018, but feel we could improve with some consistent coaching. As such your new program appealed to us after our initial reading of its content. We do have a few questions:
We are both 70+ and thus would like to know if your program would be geared to rowers of our age?
MR: Yes the program is specifically geared to masters and in our program guidelines we do tell how to adapt the program better for your needs if you want to. We also have an athlete's forum for training questions and support tickets through the website for specific questions you may have.
We sweep and scull, would the program be geared to both?
MR: Yes, each training program workout specifies for small boats and for big boats in the session
The crew program mentions video analysis, would we take the video?
MR: You would send us the video clip, someone can shoot it from the shore or a launch.
We are considering signing on for the month of July. Could you give us a preview of what the July program would include?
MR: The contents of July will be posted on the 1st of July one training and strength program will start the preparation for the fall head races and the other will focus on Masters Nationals in August. So which program you would like to choose will depend on what you are training for. You can see an example of what is in the June and July program on the website and click “Expand All” for the complete list of topics live right now. The content changes on a monthly basis. There will be a new training and strength program and new videos, drill, and articles for each module.
View Module Content - click expand all
Is payment by the month and can we use a credit card? Would the fee cover both of us and would the info for the month be forwarded to both our email addresses? Would we both fill out the online registration?
MR: The subscriptions is month by month. Because it is a recurring subscription you need to have a PayPal account using a credit card, the way that the program is set up is through PayPal. You can register a credit card with PayPal but it is easier to set up the account first then just sign in to it when you enroll in a faster masters program. You will have one login and password to your account and you both use that to sign in. You need to sign in to access the programs. You can however download the programs to your home computer for reference. You only need to sign up with one PayPal account for your crew and yes the fee covers both of you. If you prefer to each have an individual membership you can do that as well but it does not include some of the specific crew drills or the video analysis. You create ONE login which all crew members will share.
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