RowingChat

How little energy you burn in one race - about one banana. The real skill is racing more than once in a day - what to eat and drink.
Timestamps
00:50 Fueling at regattas
If you have more than one race in a single day you need to fuel appropriately. A single race barely touches your "fuel tank". The key is timing your meals and recovery between races.
A race is not a big calorie burn - about 150 - 200 calories for 1k.
Your body stores thousands of calories of glycogen.
When you put out a lot of effort you assume the intensity means you are burning a lot of fuel. Separate habit from what you need to fuel on race day.
03:00 What's actually happening?
If you race once in a day - fuel is not your limiter. Your hydration and glycogen are where they need to be if you've had a good meal the night before and on the morning of the regatta. Your job is to feel good on the day. You cannot empty your tank in one sprint race.
Racing more than once in a day the goal is about recovery in the gaps between your races.
You have to replace fluid, nudge glycogen up a little but still keep your gut feeling comfortable.
04:00 Stop fueling the race, start managing the day.
After the first race don't eat a big meal - go small, frequent and easy to digest.
3 levers
- rehydration (do this first). Fluids, a bit of sodium, rehydration salts. Sip between races. Choose a rehydration mix you like and know - it can have protein as well as carbohydrates in it.
- refuel (do this second). Small, easy carbs in modest amounts or a small protein snack if you have time to digest it before your next race. Choose a banana, a small protein bar. Enough to feel topped up but not full.
Finish eating with time to spare before your next race to allow for digestion. Ideally 40 minutes to 1 hour. Different people find this different - practice and notice what happens to you on race day. Time when you ate and how you feel at the second race. How your tummy feels may affect your nerves and affect digestion rates.
Never trial a new food on race day - it's not worth the risk.
06:45 Key takeaways
- I'm not replacing calories, I'm staying ready.
- Know you're not depleted removes the panic eating
- Fuel for one race by how you feel
- Fuel for many races by planning the gaps between races.
Use a race day plan / timetable - add fueling into the timetable and checklist.
Here's an article which may help you.
https://fastermastersrowing.com/rowing-regatta-checklist/

The cause and cure for feeling low in energy during racing. A 5k race burns only about 350 calories.
Timestamps
00:45 Mid-race low energy
Most rowers think they've run out of energy half way through a race. Most races aren't energy-depletion events (porridge is 350 calories; banana is 95 calories). You likely aren't running out of fuel.
02:00 The misconception
The feeling of distress in sprint racing comes in two places - about 40 seconds after the start and again just after the midway point. It feels like exhaustion but your body uses the same "alarm signal" for multiple problems.
Believing you're out of energy gives you mental permission to slow down. But you haven't yet earned the right to slow down.
03:00 What's actually happening?
Lactate - that burn feeling is your body accumulating lactate faster than your body can clear it. It's a signal that you are working really hard. Not that you're out of energy.
Pacing and mental focus can help you get beyond that feeling of pain.
Rebecca and her doubles partner adjusted their race plan to give a focus at the point the pain kicked in.
04:45 What to do at mid-race
Do not back off on your rate and pressure. That instinct is probably wrong. You have fuel - you have to let lactate clearance catch up with output.
A fractional reduction in output can allow lactate clearance to get ahead.
- breathing - if it's chaotic - focus breathing out at the finish for 3 strokes. To stabilise your breathing
- pressure - if something has to give, let the pressure drop fractionally. Hold the rate if you can (it's harder to rebuild than pressure). Make a 1% change in your pressure.
- check your legs are still driving and you're using the right technique
Practice the 1% drop in pressure in training.
Push for 10 strokes - power strokes; then do another 10 strokes dropping the pressure 1% and keeping the rate the same; then do a third 10 strokes back onto full pressure. It's a tiny step down and then a deliberate step up. You can repeat this set of 30 again if you need.
The mental reframing is necessary as well. Tell yourself "this is lactate" and I have got fuel to continue. Once you know what it feels like you can choose your response.

Weight on the feet is one of the three key concepts for rowing and sculling mastery. How it's a key transition point in the stroke cycle and the giant advantages for crews who can all get there at the same time.
Timestamps
01:00 Weight on the feet
This can be hard to understand how to do weight on the feet. After learning how to do this you will learn slide control (stop rushing) and how to move your body in time with the hull of the boat. Learn how to slow down the boat speed less on the recovery - your speed is the net of power phase acceleration and recovery phase deceleration.
03:00 How to locate weight on the feet
Sit on a hard chair and take your two forefingers and put them under yourself and find the "sit bones" which is the ischial tuberosity. It will crush your fingers a bit. While your fingers are there, rock forwards and back with a straight spine. If you are using your pelvis to rock you'll feel the sit bones moving over your fingers. Note if you curve your spine and don't rock from the pelvis, the sit bones do not move over your fingers.
05:00 Find weight on the feet
Stand up from your chair (sit on the very front of the seat to to this). As you stand up you will rock your shoulders forwards and feel pressure through your socks and shoes onto the floor.
In order to push through your feet in rowing you have to get your body mass rocked forward and your hips pivoted. Get your hands and arms straight and your body rocked forward then bend your knees a little and you will feel pressure on the soles of your feet. This is "weight on the feet".
The leaning forwards is an important part of the sequence because it's hard to get weight on the feet when leaning backwards.
Get the feeling of weight on the feet by clenching your glute muscles. At the finish, tighten your glutes which helps you to locate your sit bones on the seat, then straighten your arms and when they cannot straighten any more - the shoulders naturally follow and your legs bend till you feel you can push on your feet. This may be at one quarter slide or half slide - it depends on your flexibility.
You HAVE to get your shoulders forward, if you do not do this you will find it harder to locate pressure on your feet.
The glute engagement connects your back and legs like a door hinge. Soggy glute muscles means you don't get the connection or the transition of body weight forward successfully.
09:00 The key transition point
When you have your feet pressed into the foot stretcher, it's an important transition point in the rowing and sculling stroke. Weight on the feet is the moment when you move from tension to deep relaxation in the stroke cycle. You stay relaxed until the oar goes into the water at the catch.
With deep relaxation you have very deep muscle relaxation in your legs and you can remove all tension from your body (while maintaining poise in your posture).
Elite rowers work hard because they give themselves extreme relaxation and "turn off" muscles when they are not needed - this means they don't get tired so quickly.
At weight on the feet your oars should be off the water in a high balance position (shafts horizontal to the water surface), controlling the blades with your hands. The control of the oars and your body means you are able to relax your body and prepare early for the next catch.
Weight on the feet is one of the 4 key concepts we teach in our Sculling Intensive course.
https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/sculling-intensive/

The advantages for crews "From Frustration to Flow" using the four quarters method taught by Richard Parr - learn how to do this quarter in his masterclass webinar.
https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/frustration-to-flow/

Once you can handle weight on the feet you can do three things
1- better prepare for the catch. blade entry
2 - further control the balance on the recovery
3 - manage wind/waves better

Repeating workouts to improve your skill at doing them - how to sharpen into the piece, count down, ways to swap with bow four. How not to waste strokes and ways to start on the right stroke rate.
Execution quality is a performance variable in its own right.
Timestamps
01:00 Execution quality matters
What do you think is happening when you do a workout? Execution skill improves with repetition. There are repeating workouts in any training program - this builds fitness and your ability to do that practice. The second time you do a workout, you know what it feels like, how to make your effort work consistently across the whole piece. This is performance-relevant knowledge.
Poor execution comes from wasted strokes at the start of the piece, being at the wrong stroke rate, the wrong pressure, taking 5 strokes to get to the specified stroke rate. This affects your pacing (too hard or too light) and also changeovers (steps up in rate for example).
Your physiological adaptation needs to be as good as it possibly can be.
Over a season there is a compounding effect of successful physiological response to training stimulus.
03:45 Use a countdown
Get into the work and don't waste your approach. For a 20 stroke firm / 10 light piece. All the 20 firm need to be at the right stroke rate and intensity. Use the last few light pressure strokes to build pressure and rate. By counting down into the work piece so each stroke builds to the stroke #1 rate and pressure.
Have in your mind the target stroke rate - what does SR 24 feel like? Build your familiarity without needing a stroke coach to count rating.
06:30 Build in the right order
First add pressure before adding rate. Rate without pressure leaves you "spinning" especially at rates over 24. Call "Going up in 3 -2 1 - GO" or "Going up, on the next stroke [wait one stroke] now".
Our cox calls "Build pressure now'; two strokes pass then 'Rate up now'.
At rates below 25 it's easy to hit the rate just using increased pressure - it is harder at rates from 26 and above to get the rate - you have to be more deliberate building the pressure then the rate.
Start a change like that at the correct place in the stroke cycle. Make these changes at the catch. The pressure change starts at the catch; stroke rate changes begin at the catch.
To do this effectively, athletes must know they are making a change half a stroke cycle in advance of the change. Call the change at the FINISH. This gives them advance warning of the change.
There are changes which happen at the finish like stepping down in stroke rate or a rhythm call and these must be called at the catch.
Be half a stroke ahead of time if you give the calls. Listen to when the cox or the caller made the call to change.
Your goal for the workout is to execute more and more successfully.

Three fixes for your indoor rowing technique faults.
Timestamps
01:00 The unforgiving erg
Interrupt the fault before it becomes a habit. Foot connection gets lost at the finish as your toes come away from the footstretcher. When you lose connection you aren't moving the boat forwards, same on the erg because the feet are the only connection to the boat.
Take a $10 bank note and put it under the toes of the athlete - if they lose foot connection at the end of the drive, the money falls to the ground. Have a bet with your athlete - they can keep the money if it's still under their toes.
The whole of the sole of your foot needs to stay pushing on the footstretcher at the finish. Try it separately for both feet.
04:00 Catch position
Avoid over-compressing at the catch with knees going over your toes. Take a bungee cord or some electrical tape and wrap it around the rail so the seat wheel butts up to it at the correct catch position. The athlete will feel the wheels rolling over the tape - it acts as a gentle physical reminder to stop at the catch position.
Check your catch position first using a mirror or a photo - get your shins vertical. Do some steady rowing to learn where your new compression limit is.
06:00 Slide control
If you tend to pause at the catch, try this. On the erg the rail slopes downwards towards the footstretcher. Lift up the front leg of the rowing machine by 10-15 cms. Use a crate, an aerobics step or a big book. The incline means it's harder to rush forwards. Note if your catch alters when you change direction with the front leg raised. Gravity will tend to make you want to roll backwards away from the flywheel.