The priest looked at the six year old nervously. If the rumours were true then this child was the reincarnation of the high priest. The gossip in this remote village of a child born at the exact time of the death of the last high priest, and having wisdom far beyond his earthly years, had reached the main temple. Now the child stood before him, impossibly collected, his blue eyes seeming to see into the depths of the priest's soul. The child finally spoke, Wotcha cocker, if you've got a question, just send it to [email protected]. Graham Price: I have seen a FISA [the World Rowing Federation] table giving boat speeds as a percentage of 2,000 metre speed, for the different training zones, e.g. UT1 65-75%, AT 75 - 85% etc. I presume that these are lower than for a rowing machine as there is not the same increased resistance on one compared with on the water. Could Terry let us know what he thinks of this and suggest some speed zones?Terry O'Neill: Graham, when you were rowing at international level we only referred to training types as steady state, tempo and interval training. The increased training bands started when the wall came down and a lot more of the training regimes and coaches from the DDR popped up in the west.On water training in the bands monitored as a percentage of 2,000 metre speed is a way you can control the quality of the work and this would be a combination of technique and effort. The problem is that different conditions on different days have a big effect on boat speed. By taking the predicted gold medal time for the particular boat you would measure boat speed through 250m markers and compare them. When you do this every 250m on every day you can build up a picture that is irrespective of conditions, in other words you would see a trend.As you rightly point out, the rowing machine is not affected by conditions and so it should be a much easier prospect to relate training band percentages to target 2,000 metre time. But here is the rub; if the session is 20 minutes UT1, you should be working between 70-80% of your target time. If this target time was 6 minutes then at the top end of 80% your 500m split should read 1.48. What can happen is that when you are aware of the split you achieve it by moving up out of the band you are supposed to be in. Done on a regular basis the training programme becomes totally corrupted and the athlete can become run down.The training bands are based on lactate levels and as there is a correlation between lactate level and heart rate, and heart rate is easier to monitor, the training bands are grouped in percentages of heart rate. Once you do this you have an average for the general population which is unlikely to fit any one individual (the average family has 2.2 children but no one family has). At the lower intensities, heart rate increase to increase in load is pretty linear but once you reach anaerobic threshold this is no longer true.What you could do is to identify what your split time is for each of the bands specifically for you, but you would need to take lactate levels from your blood at each of the steps. You would also need to do this on a regular basis, 6-8 weeks as you adapt to the training load.Taking blood lactate is not as difficult as it was as there are now portable pocket size kits that you can buy for around 500 pounds that give an instant readout. At the end of the day it is a question of balance and return for physical and financial outlay.