Your boat speed depends BOTH on the power phase and the recovery phase. You've done the work - now get the benefit.
Timestamps
Your net boat speed is the power you put in to the power phase and the amount the boat slows down when the oars are out of the water. Rowing boats surge through the stroke cycle.
Keep the movements sequential and well-organised. Maximum boat speed comes after the extraction at the finish and as you transfer your body weight onto the feet. A key point is when you can get weight on the feet. As your arms straighten and your body follows - then the boat gets an extra burst of speed if you can sequence this correctly and smoothly.
05:00 4 focus points
You must have weight in the hand - elbows have to be higher than your wrist in order to give downward pressure.
Keep a flat wrist as you feather into your fingers allows you to keep weight in the hand. In sweep only the inside wrist bends.
Squaring on the recovery can mess with the rhythm. If you square late or it's a large movement this contributes to losing rhythm.
When to release your knees - a critical timing point to when to relax your muscles. You will get this right when you know what the feeling of weight in the hand is and the feeling of total relaxation in your leg muscles are.
Increase relaxation - know how to do this will help you to improve the other focus points.
Increase relaxation by 1% and what happens to the boat run, ratio and how the recovery feels. Does the boat speed change? [Remember they average over 3 strokes].
Sometimes athletes get very, very tired. Today we will talk about recovering from exhaustion and the power of napping.
01:00 Is it under recovery or over training?
Mike Spracklen described it as under-recovery. Marlene prefers this term because it affects your ability to train. You don't have to be fully recovered to train effectively. You feel on "high alert" all the time.
04:00 Six causes of exhaustion noted by Elizabeth Avery, sport nutritionist.
What's the reason? If your training has increased a lot recently, that could be a reason. You should be able to adapt to the new training load. Check your nutrition preferably post training.
06:00 There can be an accumulation of fatigue from session to session. After a heavy training day you may need an active rest day. How to balance your training. Emphasise quality over quantity.
07:45 Adapting to a new training load.
Going from 5 x per week to 6x per week. Is a 12% increase in training. Keep to a 5% increase. After a big jump you may feel OK for a day or two, but it will catch up with you.
As masters, your cause of exhaustion may not be rowing-related. It all kicks off the same cortisol hormones
10:00 What about naps?
Elliza McGrand naps heavily after a heavy training day. She asked the Masters Rowing International group if others had the same outcomes. Listen to your body and respect what it's telling you. Your best recovery method is sleep. People are different with naps - some do it every day.
Lie down and close your eyes. Set an alarm so you wake up in time. Bodily stimulation comes in through your eyes - rest your nervous system by closing your eyes.
13:00 What is restorative for you?
Some people find a daytime nap affects their night time sleep. If you don't tolerate daytime naps, find another thing that rests you. Cooking or gardening, yoga. what do you enjoy? Even walking for 10 minutes has a positive effect to your nervous system. As we age our bodies change - you may need naps now and not in the future.
15:00 Leaden legs can happen after a nap. A good way to revive is to wake up slowly, move slowly, do a bit of stretching, walk gently for a couple of minutes. Even 5 minutes of repetitive activity gives you the same dopamine hit as a workout. Rowing repetitive cycles are restorative activities to the nervous system.
When you are in the groove and the boat is in stealth mode, you dial into your mission and rise to the challenge. Whether in practice or on the race course if you are "on" thoughts of failure get no airtime.
However, there will be days when you feel like toast. Athletes need enough rest and at times your scale may be tipped towards the side of fatigue. However, if your performance is starting to drag and the doldrums don't seem to be going away, you may be pushing the "more is better" principle too far and be risking burnout.
Asking yourself these 20 questions can determine if you need to build more rest and down time in your plan.
Answer each one True or False:
Each true answer equals one point; each false equals zero points.
If you scored between one and three you are not at risk for burnout; between four and seven you are entering the trouble zone so take some time off; between eight and 14 you really need a vacation from training and competition; 15 or higher you are seriously burned out and should sit down with your coach and evaluate your rowing future.
Taking a breather can turn the Thank Goodness it is Friday mentality, counting the minutes of practice, into the Thank Goodness it is Monday mentality and get you revved up for the next season.
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Just as pushing your bow across the line for the first time in the 50+ age category signifies entering a mature phase of your rowing career it may also mark new adventures in maintaining equilibrium in your training schedule.
Masters athletes need to include the same intensities of work in their race preparation as their younger counterparts. However, the difference for masters is how and when workouts are planned in the weekly schedule to adjust for potentially longer recovery periods as the body requires more time.
Improving your performance as you age is linked to maintaining a relatively high VO2 max. This means that high intensity intervals at race pace need to be key elements of any master’s program in combination with the substantial endurance work that rowing demands. Such intervals also place a lot of stress on your physiological systems so the volume and frequency needs to be approached carefully to optimize the benefits. Recovery periods are when your body makes the positive adaptation to the work you just did, without a good recovery period, you risk physical break-down and injuries can occur more easily.
Only you can gauge how much recovery you need between the intense sessions of the week. Monitor your morning resting heart rate the day after, if it is elevated above your norm, include low intensity sessions until it returns to normal rest rate. If this typically takes two days you can schedule a total rest day, easy distance work, or low intensity cross training. Using an app to track your heart rate variability gives an even more accurate measure your state of recovery. I use the HRV4Training app.
Weekly training patterns can vary, be creative so you don’t get bored. You may find you feel more energized taking a total rest day after three training days. If a traditional weekly pattern is better for your schedule, resting Monday and Friday might give you the edge you need to maintain quality workouts during the in-between days.
The best form of recovery as you age is sleep. Getting 40 winks, taking cat naps, or simply lying down restores your energy the fastest especially when backed up by healthy eating. Look over your weekly cycle and build your recovery days around your priority sessions of the week and follow it up with a good dose of rest.
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How to plan your rowing season
- when to peak
- how racing contributes to peak events
- winter / summer racing
- what to work on for fitness
01:00 This past week - Rowing Canada Aviron safe sport webinar.
British Rowing strategy
https://www.britishrowing.org/2021/11/have-your-say-british-rowing-strategy/
Karapiro Rowing are seeking a Board chairman.
03:00 Best wishes to the Canadians affected by the recent storm and flooding
You are gearing up for a big performance. When you peak you want to be as rested and prepared as possible.
The taper period is longer, if your training volume is high.
7-14 days before the big event to allow recovery and attain a fully rested state.
11:00 you can do 2 to 3 peaks per year.
In between you review the date of your last peak and when the next major event is.
Every race is NOT a peak.
Winter peak can be races or big erg events
Summer peak can be national championships
Choose your calendar and find your events.
Look at intermediate events between the peaks too
Consider cross-training.
Catch up on home things and deferred activities when you are regenerating.
17:00 What to work on for fitness
Take the tempo down and do long endurance work less than 22 stroke rate.
Do your technique work to correct flaws.
Cross training can also help.
Get back into a routine to build strength - circuits and body weight work. Variety.
20:00 The Faster Masters Fitness assessment is 4 tests. Peak power, top end race tempo, anaerobic threshold, base fitness aerobic.
The proportional fitness of peak power impacts your results.
Base fitness tells us if your bottom of the fitness pyramid is wide or narrow. Helps manage intensities fro training and your recovery ability.
It takes about 3 years to build base fitness.
Newcomers should do cross training to get fitness on land. A light sweat - not out of breath. Up your intensity if you can (not too hard).
Keep it 'conversational' while you train.
Low intensity strengthens your cardiac muscles.
Use fat as your primary fuel.
29:00 doing multiple races in a day - like A/B races to try different lineups
Helps you define your race plan and try different race strategies
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