Winter Training Begins

Trevor Rush, always has the time to beat in prognostic during the Winter Series.

With all the big local and national competitions of the 2016-17 rowing season behind us - including NZ Club Champs, Maadi Cup and World Masters Games - it is now time to focus on trying to at least maintain or, if possible, develop the rowers Strength Endurance to put them in line for an even better 2017-18.

For us older rowers, unless we have a strong winter sport, the task is fairly simple, in that we might reduce our on-water training by at least 50 per cent, with the excuse of daylight saving, cold weather and time to let our older bodies recovery a bit.

However for our school aged rowers, apart from some of the same excuses us oldies face, they often have to balance the demands of winter sport and the importance of their academic work, which can suffer a bit in the summer, due to the onerous demands of rowing training.

I'm a great believer in 'consistency' of training being the key and if asked always suggests one 30 to 45 minute total ergometer workout a week, a one hour land training session, that can involve some resistance work, a 45 minute run or swim and one-to-one, and a half hour row on the weekend.

This type of training is enough to maintain a good strength endurance base, around other winter sport, family, work and academic commitments.

Of course, if a rower is able to do an extra workout or two per week, as long as well targeted, this should help them come into the summer rowing season in even better physical shape, as long as they don't get mentally stale.

At the monthly meeting of the Wanganui Rowing Association last week, a decision was made to keep all the winter series races at 6km, as opposed to increasing the distance per month from 5km kilometre in May up to 10km in October.

There was quite a bit a email traffic on this subject and the vote was far from unanimous.

But the decision to try a change in a standard distance has primarily been made to entice more secondary school rowers into the winter series, which has been dominated by hardened Masters rowers in the past.

The theory behind the move is that our younger rowers will feel more capable of rowing 6km each month, if unable to focus on much rowing training in between.

It is also arguable that rowers racing in the same boat each month can focus on beating their time each race, although the tide will have a role to play in that.

My view is 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' but the challenge is clearly out there to our young folk to turn up and race or we may revert to increasing the racing distance again!

The May race was unfortunately cancelled due to fear of flood and the next 6km winter series race is on Sunday, June 11, starting 9am, on the river by the National Library Building, with the turnaround opposite Caffray Avenue and the 2000m race finish, just prior to the Railway Bridge the finishline.

I'm looking forward to a good turnout of rowers, kayakers and waka ama and the challenge I put out there is that you will know you're in great shape for the summer when you come close to beating 70-year-old Trevor Rush's prognostic (percentage based on world's best time).

If anyone thinks a 6km race is too long, spare a thought for our elite New Zealand rowers.

Kerri Gowler tells me she did her longest ever row in a coxless pair last week of 50km in one session.

Each Wednesday, as they build up to head to race in Europe on June 8, they do between five and 8km racing with the rest of the squad, or 4x4km pieces!