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Rowing News Workouts

The following workouts are taken from the excellent American magazine Rowing News and are the favourite workouts of some of the top coaches working in America.

If you have any questions about any of the workouts, email [email protected]

Tom Bohrer's Long Intervals

3 or 4 x 10 minutes, broken into 4-3-2-1 minute rate changes as follows:

  1. 18/20/22/24
  2. 20/22/24/26
  3. 22/24/26/28
Rest: Five minutes between pieces.
Intensity: Pull hard at every rate. Heart rate can be 10 beats less than max.

Tom Bohrer's Steady State

10-12,000 metres
1,000 metres at rate 20, 1,000 metres at rate 22 and keep switching.

Tom Bohrer's Short Intervals

(Four minutes on, one minute off, x 4) x 2 or 3 series.
Rates: 24-26
Rest: Five minutes between sessions

"People say, 'How do you work out if you have kids?' I say, well if you try to work out when the kids take a nap, that's Rule No.1. When they got a bit older, I put them in the baby jogger. I put them next to the erg in the playpen or the saucer - interval training becomes pretty good because you might have to stop (and give them a pacifier or cracker). And my third tactic was to pull out a video."

Mike Teti's Hard Day

3x10 minutes, first one at rate 24, second at 26, third at 28, then 1x7 minutes at 28-30.
Rest: Six to eight minutes between each piece. Add up all your metres to get your ranking in a group.

Tom Terhaar's Very, Very Tough Workout

5x5 minutes, (90 seconds rest). Rest 7-8 minutes, then repeat another set of 5.
Rates: 24/26/28/26/24. Pace is just slower than 6,000m test pace (the rate 28 is at 6,000m pace).

"It's very, very tough and when you finish it you feel like you've done a really hard workout. And it's self-regulating - with only 90 seconds rest you realise you've got to keep a lid on it."

Xeno Mueller's Pyramids

  1. 29 minutes divided into 5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5-minute rate changes of 20/22/24/26/28/26/24/22/20
    "If you're not training for competition, I would do one 29-minute piece where you have five minutes cool down if you need it. You can have a great workout just doing a 29 minute pyramid watching a show on TV."
  2. 2 x19 minutes divided into 4-3-2-1-2-3-4 minutes rate changes of 20/22/24/26/24/22/20
    "It's a very good way to keep thing interesting"

Craig Milburn's Killer Workout

3x12 minutes, open rate, with 12 minutes rest between sets

"We're attempting to see how many metres they can get for the first one, and what kind of drop they have on the second and third ones. For novices (women), if they can go over 3,000 metres at a 2:00 split, that's pretty good."

Liz O'Leary's Anaerobic Threshold

4x15 minutes or 3x20 minutes at your 6k pace.
Rate changes: 4 minutes on, 1 minute off, x3.
Rates increase each piece: 22-24-26

"I tell all the recruits that you come to Harvard for the academic programme, not for the rowing programme, as your primary reason for choosing the school and I can't take four hours out of their day every day. And they will tell me that the most important thing is that things run efficiently because that's the way their run their lives."

Evans Liolin's Endurance Workouts

  1. 3x5k, rates 20-24. Rest five to seven minutes between pieces. Work on length, rhythm and consistent splits.
  2. 1x10k, rates 18-22. Same focus and same splits as 3x5k workout.

"It's probably not the exciting stuff, but I think volume works."

Steve Hargis's Quick Legs Test Prep

  1. 15 minute warm-up then 2x20 minutes at 85 percent of your 2,000m goal split at 22-24 with five minutes rest between pieces. Drag factor: 110.
  2. 15 minute warm-up, then 10x500 metres at 100 percent of your 2,000m goal split at whatever rate it takes to maintain the split with five minutes rest between pieces. Drag factor: 90, but you can assist with a towel over the vent if needed.
  3. 3. 15 minute warm-up then 2x5,000 metres at 95 percent of your 2,000 metre split at 24-26 with 15 minutes rest between pieces. Drag factor: 110.

"The workouts provided should establish a solid anaerobic threshold training base that will allow everyone to see real gains, especially for those submitting 4,000 metre test results to USRowing for U.S. junior women's national team consideration."