Sample Training Fortnight
You are new to university, you want to try new sports, join new clubs, meet new people, get used to living away from home, get a degree, and have a social life! It is not as easy as it sounds if you try and do everything! If you know what you are letting yourself in for beforehand it can make life a lot easier for you to balance things out.
Rowing is a demanding sport in many ways, but we are used to freshers and know how to ease you into the swing of it. Ultimately we will expect you to train hard and play hard with us, but we give you time to acclimatise.
Many of you will want to join when you already do another sport- please talk to us, some sports are compatible, others are not- we can advise on which is which and what sacrifices you will have to make. It is rare however for one person to be in two first teams of different sports, so you do need to be sure whether you want to stay with your current sport, or to try a new one.
To give you some guidance, below is a timetable that reflects what a typical trianing week involves with estimated times for sessions and durations. It is very close to what we do now, but it is likely to be different by the time you join!
| Day | Activity | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Circuits 8-10pm |
Station Circuits - 14 stations with 45s on, 15 seconds rest. Exercises are varied to work specific muscle groups. Provides very intensive but fun training as a club. |
| Tuesday | Erg training 3-5pm |
60 minutes of UT2 (low intensity) training. Boring part of the training, but very necessary to develop base fitness. At least one such piece per week. |
| Wednesday | Erg OR Water training 3-5pm |
EITHER 3 x 10 minutes UT (slightly higher intensity). Takes appr. 50mins to complete including rest time. Much more interesting and varied aspect of land training. OR 2 hours on the water. |
| Wednesday | Social 9pm onwards |
Scribble Social - dress with something that can be written on and bring your pens! |
| Thursday | Weights 3-5pm |
Heavy weights set taken by the captain |
| Friday | Alternative/cross training any time |
Athletes are expected to go for a 90 minute run/cycle or swim at low intensity. Anything is fine as long as the intensity and duration is right- and they don't get injured! |
| Saturday | Water Training 11.30-4pm |
Training is all for the water work- its the best part of what we do. On the weekend to start with we may only ask you to come down for a couple of hours, but as we limit our numbers down to the select few who we will take forward for the year, we will also extend your time on the water to 4 hours or so (with a break) so that you learn as fast as possible. |
| Sunday | Water Training 11.30-4pm |
Same as Saturday, aim to take on the work done on the Saturday and push it forward to make great strides of improvement on the Sunday. |
| Monday | Circuits - Core circuit 8-10pm |
Your core (abdominal region) is hugely important to rowing well so we invest time in focused training on it. Approximately every 3 weeks we do a dedicated core session. |
| Tuesday | Erg training 3-5pm |
45' UT2. As last week, another long slog to build the base fitness. |
| Wednesday | Erg training 3-5pm |
6 x 1' AT. 6 1 minute pieces flat out, learning psychologically and physically to push yourself to your limits |
| Thursday | Weights 3-5pm |
Endurance weights, lower weight, higher reps of supervised weights training. |
| Friday | Test piece | Every other week all athletes are required to complete test pieces to monitor their progress and as a tool for crew selection. These rotate around between 2km, 5km and 30 minute test pieces on the rowing machine. When there is no test to do Friday is a day off. |
| Saturday | Water Training and derig 11.30-6pm |
Since we train to race, when the race is on a sunday you can expect to be training on the saturday with a tapering light set of sessions honing the crews. After the session you will need to spend some time taking the boats apart and loading them on to the trailer ready for the race the next day! |
| Sunday | Race | The training programme is geared to our races, they vary in length and type. You can expect them to be very hard work, and very long days, but absolutely the highlight activity that you will take part in- it is what the sport is all about. |
The above is far from comprehensive for what we do in terms of training and it is certainly not balanced! As an example we usually do not ask you to do a test piece before a major race! It is all for example only. If you have any questions please contact the head coach through the contact page.
