Adult training plans (age 19+)

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Adult training plans (age 19+)

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If your age is over 18 in your User Profile, the Training Plan Wizard takes you through the following steps:

How will this plan fit into your training program?

This is a question for adult training plans that determines how long the sessions in your training plan will be. Your choices are:

Full
Short
Segment

How many weeks should your plan last?

This is a question that determines how many weeks your training plan will be. The default is 14 weeks. Your choices are:

14 weeks
12 weeks
10 weeks
8 weeks

What are your intentions?

This is a key question that drives the rest of the training plan creation process. Your choices are:

Weight control
Fitness
Competition

Note: Although any given RowPro training plan has one of these three training intentions as its primary focus, in practice that same plan will also provide considerable benefit for the other two training intentions that are not the specific focus of that plan. So if you feel that you have more than one of these training intentions, pick the one you feel most strongly about and make that your focus, and let the others come along for the ride.

Describe your training history

Here's where it starts to get interesting. The wizard asks you about the training you've done to date:

Number of years training
Longest workout in minutes
Most training hours per week
Most training hours per month

Note: When you create your first training plan you need to fill this form in very carefully. Your answers are saved so in future you only need to note any changes. Be careful though, because once you've rowed a training plan, these often change as a result.

While your rowing history is the most important consideration (either on-water or indoor rowing), the Wizard will also accept your training history in other sports or fitness activities, however rowing history carries more weight than other sports or fitness activities. While this may seem "unfair" to people who are otherwise very fit but have limited rowing history, in practice rowing uses a specific set of muscles and skills, so other activities besides rowing have lower value to the Wizard's decision process.

Describe your racing history (competition only)

If you want to compete, the Wizard needs to know your racing history, specifically:

Number of years racing
Number of racing competitions
Highest race result
Event distance

Note: This time the Wizard wants to know about your racing history exclusively related to on-water and/or indoor rowing, not your racing history in other sports or fitness activities.

What's your fitness target? (fitness only)

If you want to stay fit, the Wizard needs to know what your fitness target is, specifically:

Cardio
Tone-up

Note: Choose Cardio if you want maintenance or advanced fitness workouts, choose Tone-up if you want lite maintenance or fitness workouts.

What's your distance focus? (competition only)

Most people who are competing have a distance focus much like runners do. RowPro's training templates are specifically tailored to optimize your training for you chosen distance focus. Your choices are:

1.Marathon        Marathon (42,195m)
2.Very long        10,000m, 60min, Half Marathon (21,097m)
3.Long                30min
4.Medium long        5,000m, 6,000m
5.Medium                2,000m
6.Short                500m, 1,000m

Note: By far the most popular is 2,000m because this is the official on-water and indoor race distance. However a quick look at the online ranking at www.concept2.com will show you that there is also strong interest in the other distances. Masters athletes in particular tend to favor the longer distances, as they are less about a mad high-energy dash and more about steady lasting power.

What level do you wish to row at?

The Wizard asks you to choose the level at which you'd like to row. The training plans for the higher levels are naturally more demanding both in a physiological sense and also in terms of the amount of time you'll be training each week. You're free to choose any level up to the highest level the Wizard has cleared you for based on what it already knows about you.

The competition levels are:
1.Elite
2.Competitive
3.Semi competitive
4.Lite competitive
5.Beginner
6.The fitness levels are:
7.Very fit
Fit
Moderately fit
Casual
The weight control levels are:
Burn baby burn
Medium burn
Semi competitive
Lite burn

 

SAFETY NOTICE

The levels the Wizard has cleared you for are checked, and any levels that you are not cleared for are tagged with a warning and cannot be selected. DO NOT be tempted to go back and change the information you gave the Wizard so you can get access to higher levels of training. Digital Rowing expressly prohibits such misuse of the Training Plan Wizard. If you want access to the higher levels, then put in the work at the levels you are cleared for, and in time you'll gain access to the higher levels.

Create your training plan

The final step is to create your training plan. To do this the wizard needs to know:

Training plan name
Start date

Note: The name you give your training plan will appear on the list of training plans in your training plan library. Over time you will create an ever-increasing number of training plans, so it's important that you put enough information in the training plan name so you can recognize it later. For example, you might call it "Pre-summer slim-down" or "Build-up to CRASH-B".

All RowPro training plans begin on a Monday. You can create a training plan ahead of time if you want, simply by setting the start date accordingly. You can also set the start date in such a way that the training plan is already part way though. This can be handy if you:
Want to skip the Technique weeks, which is OK if you've recently completed a previous plan or are a seasoned rower.
Find you're over-committed and decide to create and switch to a less demanding plan part way though, picking up on the new plan at the same place you were through to on the old plan.
Click Create Plan to finish, and the Wizard will create a training plan that fits the information you gave the Wizard. The Wizard then puts the new training plan in your training plan library, and closes.