Indoor Rowing News #36 saw the publication of the first part of a six month training plan designed to see you wallop your Personal Best at BIRC (http://www.therowingcompany.com/birc/news.php?news=telsplan.inc). We've had a couple of letters seeking clarification or assistance on following the plan, so this column is devoted to that. Remember, if you've got a question to do with any aspect of indoor rowing, jot it down in an e-mail and post it to [email protected]. Gavin Allison had the following two questions: 1. With regards to the wave method, should the wave be hard week, light week followed by medium week?2. Should I be incorporating some weight training into my programme, I could add another few sessions on top of the rowing sessions per week. I am already quite big: 6'3 and 103kg.If I want to do more than 6 sessions, and sometimes I will be able to do two in a day, should I do a weight session or one on the Rower? If on the Rower, what should I do?Terry O'Neill: The wave principle consists of a micro and macro wave. The micro wave is created from the day to day loading whereas the macro wave is weekly.Training volume is not based on size; just because you are big you don't need to do more training than a smaller person. There is no problem, however, in doing additional sessions, especially if you are accustomed to more volume. In the case of two sessions a day, I would cross train rather than do two rowing sessions. If you do two, then you would have to reduce the intensity and this would only bring about any benefit if you were training twice a day every day. A weight session would be better in your case, but to get the best results the weights should be done in a complimentary way to the rest of the programme. I've posted a weight training programme on the BIRC web site at http://www.therowingcompany.com/birc/news.php?news=weightplan.inc which suits this purpose.**************************Nick Maidment: During weeks 3, 5 and 6 there are workouts that consist of more than one session. Can you please advise as to how much rest should be taken between each set. Lastly, when will the next 6 weeks cycle be published as I am now well into week 4. This is a brilliant programme that is so much easier to understand than some of the other sessions that you publish. If I don't do a personal best this year, I will only have myself to blame! Terry O'Neill: Glad you're getting on well with the programme. If you are working on heart rate intensity, during these first six weeks you should be in the heart rate percentile but not above it. The rest period is there to make doubly sure you stay in the band and so 4-5 minutes of light paddling between the main sessions should be fine or working off your heart rate until it comes down by 15-20 BPM. You won't find the whole programme as it goes up the week before the current one runs out. The next section will appear on the web site next Friday as well as in Indoor Rowing News #39.**************************Tom Pattichis: I have been very busy with university exams and will be unable to start the programme until the week starting Monday 11th of June. This means I will have missed the first four weeks of your proposed programme.Should I pick up the programme in week 5 and discard the first four weeks, or should I start the programme from the beginning? The former seems like the best option but the only thing that worries me is that I will miss out on a lot of the long distance pre-conditioning work which takes place in the first four weeks.I have a 2,000 metre best of 7.07.9. Despite much effort, this has not improved recently, compared to when I started rowing when I would knock up to 10 seconds off every time I did a 2,000 metre piece. I understand from what I have read, that when this happens you have in a sense reached a peak, and in order to improve your score you need to go and do lots of long distance work in order to build up a more solid base.Perhaps the best option would be to condense the most important sessions from those 6 weeks into my available two weeks? Terry O'Neill: The best way to cover the missing 4 weeks is to cut the first two weeks from the first two six week blocks. So you start the programme on week 3 follow it right through then pick up the programme on week 3 three of the second block and you are back on schedule. Effectively the first two six week blocks become four week blocks.When people get stuck on a performance it could be for several different reasons. One reason is the Beamon effect. You might be a bit young to remember Bob Beamon, but he was a long jumper ranked in the top 6 in the US. He was selected as the third US jumper for the Olympics in Mexico. He won the gold medal with a leap of over 9 metres, setting a world record and completely blowing everyone away. This was a phenomenal achievement and sports scientists have been trying for years to explain the Beamon Effect. Every now and then in an event everything goes right: the athlete is in top shape physically and mentally and the conditions are perfect. When all these things come together then you can pull something out of the bag that is totally unexpected and unrepeatable.When you first start rowing, improvement is rapid as both technique and physical condition improve. Also the load is exponential and therefore requires more effort to reduce your score each time you try.2,000m rowing does require a sound aerobic base as something approaching 80% of the energy required is supplied aerobically. You should not, however, forget the other 20% that is supplied anaerobically. To improve in this area you need to build up basic strength, use this strength initially for higher quality aerobic work and then for greater power and speed.