Rowing Program

 

The 2012 Rowing Program will be starting this month. 
Please scroll down for more information.

To help prepare CrossFit athletes to compete in the Concept 2 World Indoor Rowing Championships, Front Range CrossFit has put together a winter rowing program.

Big Jon Kissick, FRCF's Rowing Coach, will post two weekly rowing workouts on Sunday, a primary and secondary workout.  Those athletes whose main objective is to compete at the Indoor Rowing World Championships should do both workouts.  If the reason you are doing the rowing workouts is simply to improve your rowing abilities to improve as a CrossFitter, just do the primary workout.  The workouts are designed to be done in conjuction with your regular CrossFit workouts. 

If we can get everyone to post their weekly workout times to the comment section on this page it will be much easiter to monitor our progress.  And you can ask any questions that come up about the workouts here as well. 

The workouts will be tailored toward improving a CrossFit athlete’s aerobic capacity for rowing and anaerobic threshold.  The training goal is to prepare as intelligently as possible for the Colorado qualifier - the Mile High Sprints. 

As a CrossFitter, you already have great work capacity.  With a little bit of rowing technique work and some time spent getting used to the unique level of suffering that a 2,000 meter rowing piece offers, it is amazing to see what CrossFitters can accomplish on a rower.

Those that choose to continue on to the C.R.A.S.H - Bs are invited to continue to use this training resource as they prepare for Worlds in Boston in February.  But even for those that do not choose to compete at the Mile High Sprints or at the World Championships, this is a great opportunity to improve your rowing performance, your overall conditioning level, and your ability to excel at any CrossFit workout involving rowing. 

The FRCF athletes that are going to compete at the Mile High Sprints will be doing the primary rowing workout on Thrusday evenings at 7 PM.  We will post the FRCF athlete's results either Thursday night or Friday during the day.

2012 Fall Rowing Program - Week #9

Mile High Sprints – Saturday, January 26, 2013 – FOUR WEEKS OUT!!!

Denver Indoor Rowing Championships – Saturday, February 3, 2013 – FIVE WEEKS OUT!!!

Primary –          

10)   6 x 2min, at fast race pace.  2 min on / 2 min off.  Hold to that rest interval.  Go flat out.

Secondary – 

1 x 18min @ 22-24 spm @ ¾ pressure.  Recover row, work on clean technique.

2012 FRCF Fall Rowing Program - Week #6

Primary – Stairway to Heaven   

1 –250M (3 min. rest); 

2 - 500M (3 min rests); 

3 – 750M (3 min rest);

4 – 1000M (3 min rest);

5 – 1250M (3 min rest);

6 - 1000M (3 min rest);

7 - 750M (3 min rest);

8 - 500M (3 min rests); 

9 - 250M (3 min. rest); 

At as close to 2K race pace cadence and fan setting as you can hold.  Five stroke start w/ 10 strokes high for each piece and right down to race cadence

Secondary –       2 X 9 min; 22-28 spm; 75-85% of 2K pace, u set fan.

2012 FRCF Fall Rowing Program - Week #5

Rowing requires a ton of oxygen.  Every major muscle group except for the Pectorals is called into service when rowing.  When rowing hard and fast the demand for oxygen is huge.  Big Diesel workouts are one way to build that capacity.

The maritime diesel workout that all rowers know well is the 3 x 20 minute row.  Good crews can easily cover over 12 miles in this workout.  We will be doing the mini diesel version of 2 x 20 minutes.  As we build our capacity we will crank these pieces at just below race pace.  But this time through we are going to focus on steady work output and good technique. 

Inevitably in these workouts you will hit a point maybe in the third minute of your second piece or the eighth and ninth minute of each piece, where the fatigue will tempt you to round your low back or let your shoulders, rib cage and head drop forward thus choking off your lungs room to work.  If we can build the mental discipline and resolve of character to say, that “this level of inattention and physical sloppiness is not how I row”.  If we can cultivate that focus and precision for 40 minutes of duress, then when it comes time to rip off one 2000M piece, those dance steps will be automatic and the only question becomes how much wood you want to toss on the fire.  Good luck.

Workouts:

Primary – 2 X 20 minutes.  Pieces 2: 22 spm, first 5 min, 24 spm, next 5 min, 26 spm, next 5 min, 28 spm, next 5 min.  2^nd 20 minutie pieces:  spm u pick; fan setting = u pick; rest interval – 4 minute (if alone).   If sharing a machine we will do video reviews between pieces.  Work effort is between 65%-85% of your 2K race pace.

Secondary – 8  X 3 min: spm = above 26 spm; experiment with fan settings; Rest =2min.  At 75-85% of race pace. 

2012 Fall Rowing Program - Week # 4

Primary –           BENCHMARK WORKOUT

4 x 4½ min w/ 6 min rest; u set fan; 26-28 spm @ race pace

Secondary –       1 X 20 min; 22-26 spm; 65-75% of 2K pace, u set fan.

2012 Fall Rowing Program - Week #3

Primary –           1 X 12 minutes; 24-26 spm;  65-75% of 2K pace.   4 min. rest; u set fan.

                         1 X 10 minutes; 26-28 spm;  65-75% of 2K pace.   4 min. rest; u set fan.

                         1 X 8 minutes; 28-30 spm;  75-85% of 2K pace.   4 min. rest; u set fan.

Secondary –       1 X 24 min 22-26 spm; 55-70% of 2K pace, u set fan.

2012 Fall Rowing Program - Week #2

Great job last week!  Let’s keep the intensity this week and continue to set the ground work for efficient technique and strong conditioning. 

Workouts:

Primary – 2 X 10 minutes.  Vary stroke rate ever 2 minutes:  

First piece 20 spm, first 2 min, 22 spm, next 2 min, 24 spm, next 2 min, 26 spm, next 2 min, 28 spm, final 2 min. 

Second piece 22 spm first 2 min, 24 spm next 2 min, 26 spm next 2 min, 28 spm next 2 min, 30 spm final 2 min. 

fan setting = u pick; rest interval – 5 minute (if alone).   If sharing a machine we will do video reviews between pieces.  Work effort is between 75%-85% of your 2K race pace.

Secondary – 3 X 5 min above 26+ spm; experiment with fan settings; Rest 4 minutes.  At race pace not above (no sprinting).  

2012 FRCF Fall Rowing Program - Workout #1

Here we go!!!!!

FRCF Winter Rowing Program – Week One

Workouts:

Primary – 3 X 8 minutes; 24-28 spm;  fan setting = u set;  rest interval – 5 minute or partner worktime.

Secondary – 10 X 300m; 26-30 spm; fan setting = u set; Rest 10 strokes between 300m pieces.

2011 Week #20

In many colleges freshman learn how to row in 30+ year old boats made by the Pocock Racing Shell Company of Seattle, Washington.  These heavy wooden boats have beautiful Pacific NW Cedar Skins on top of wooden frames.  They’ve been around so long they have earned the affectionate nickname – Cedar Speeders.  The one reason they are still in service is the constant care and maintenance showered on them by each boathouse.  Take care of your equipment and it will take care of you.

For our last workout of the year, we are going to clean all the machines that have helped us build much bigger CrossFit motors this winter.  Also anyone who has made a single Wednesday night practice needs to sign the 2012 Denver Indoor Team Championship erg.

Great job this year! 

Way to “fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run”.

_________________________________________________________________________

IF

Rudyar Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build them up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

 

2011 - Week #19

Great Job this past weekend at the Mile High Sprints!!

We all got a chance to feel what it is like to compete in one of these events and we each got a sense of what we need to work on to improve in our next race.

Denver Indoor Rowing Championships – Saturday, FEB. 4^th

This will be the race with CU and CSU rowers.  Let’s make the most out of the next two weeks of preparation.

Primary Workout – Transportaion

2 x 1000m at race pace for TEAM

2 x 1500m for individuals

Secondary Workout – UT2

2 x 10 min – 60-70% of race pace.  This should be a shakedown pace just below ¾ pressure.  Feeling loose and strong and moving the blood to promote recovery.

2011 - Week #18

This link should take you to an interesting podcast about a biological device humans have developed.  It is essentially a biochemical tool that prevents us from completely “empting the tank”.  Humans that didn’t completely spend themselves running away from the first saber tooth tiger had enough gas to run away from the next tiger and ultimately pass along a refined set of genes.  As the old joke goes, you don’t have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the guy the bear ends up snacking on.

To maximize your performance as an oarsman requires you to overrule thousands of years of evolutionary programming.  Essentially your whole being has to be a committed to your own destruction.  Without that resolve you will leave 5-13% of your performance capacity untapped. 

Limits - http://www.radiolab.org/2010/apr/05 

Four days till first race!

Primary Workout (Transportation):  4 x 500m – @ race pace.  Rehearse each 500m of race - 6 min rest.

Secondary Workout:  Timed - 2000m piece – Jan 21