Rojabo, do it, you'll love it and get faster

[lt.wolf]

I switched out of it and back onto a Xeno plan I had for a bit. Seeing pretty good gains back on the erg. That may be more to the fact I am actually erging more than twice a week this year.

[limegreenspeed]

Interesting, Xeno's training programs seem pretty effective. I've seen some people go very very fast.

On a related note - if anyone read the study done on Eskild Ebbesen, it's worth noting he spent a majority of his training time under 80% HR max. I know that for me and most people here who have tried Rojabo, the sort of low percentage of HR for such a large part of the training time just wasn't happening. It's definitely a conflict I see between what I hear, which is that the program needs to be super hard to be truly effective, and some other things I hear, like that fact about Eskild's HR training percentages over his twenty year career and what I hear from you guys, which is that going easier on the power tests might be the only way to sustainably handle this program.

Here's the quote: "On average, 15% of the 15 h or 135 minIwkj1 was conducted at intensities above 80% of peak aerobic power (corresponding to intensities above 300 W, as indicated by the HR), and the remaining 85% of the weekly training may be characterized as low- to moderate-intensity exercise (HR between 50% and 80% of the HRmax). The intense part of the training was both in season (spring and summer) and off season (during the winter) and included 3–4 weekly sessions, with intervals close to or above the power output eliciting VO2max. The less intense part of the training was conducted with a lower stroke frequency (lower cadence), but force generation was maintained in the strokes."

Maybe the Danish just force themselves to get used to the intensity and eventually HR goes down but intensity (their personal rating of it) stays high? That sounds like a contradiction if there ever was one though... My other thought is that certain training intensities have different physiological effects. From reading things MChase has posted about before, sprint work, or high intensity long-ish duration pieces, the sort of work that puts the taste of blood in your mouth, helps the heart adapt to the higher cardiac load, adapting so that it can suck in and pump out adequate amounts of blood for that intensity, matching the demands and capacity the muscles have developed for oxygen utilization, lactate clearance, etc. My understanding is that traditional SS rowing is great for adaption of the skeletal muscle; increasing mitochondria, capiliarization, hence lactate clearance, but it only really trains one ventricle of the heart. Hence the need to do the harder stuff to help the heart adapt to delivering all that blood. I've spoken to physiologist doing his PhD, he's said that often we build big engines but if we don't build big fuel delivery systems, performances can suffer, so doing harder stuff is key to developing that delivery system. Perhaps the Danish program, with 15% of the training at intensity above 80% peak power eliciting efforts greater than or equal to VO2max, or roughly 85% of Eskild's HR max, keeps the delivery system strong year round. This explanation only makes sense IF that when both ventricles have been fully adapted, HR at given power goes down because the heart itself is more effective at pumping, and that despite this adaptation the perceived intensity or effort stays roughly the same at those previous power intensities.

Anecdotally, it took a while but one summer once I'd become adapted to higher ratings, 28 and 30 stopped feeling unsustainably high, 34 felt almost natural, 24 low, etc. Perhaps there's a period of adaption that one needs to go though to get there and the Danish program ensures that that ability is always kept high while also working to develop that 'base' capacity for the muscles to use more oxygen, lactate, etc.

What do you guys think?

I have trouble making sense of what some people say about training adaptations and the Danish program. Still trying to sort things out. Mostly I'd like to understand why its so effective but I also don't want to run into the same problems other people here have had of doing a program that they can only sustain for 4 months at a time...

[track_bites]

My bet is that it works if you are doing 9 or more sessions a week and you go easy in the power test. I can see that the system could generate a reasonable program under those circumstances. I might just go do an experiment to find out.

[mightyquinn]

3 potentially important variables to consider: age, training goals (event type) and length of training program. A few of us in this conversation are in our 40s. It could simply be the case that what works for younger, elite athletes is not for everyone. For what it's worth, I was very happy with my results on Rojabo during a 12 to 16 week span during which I was focused on 2K erg testing followed by 1K masters sprint racing. If I were doing Crash Bs again this year, I would probably be following Rojabo. However, continuing the program for another 12 to 16 weeks seemed to wear me down, and I was slower than the prior year in head racing, despite similar overall training volume.

A note on the power test: it's easy to go too high on the test, but you'll know it when you take the endurance test and burn out at a moderate stroke rate; also, you'll have numerous workouts you just won't be able to complete. Finally, you should be able to calibrate your Rojabo pace chart based on your estimated 2K test wattage; if your watts/spm for your rojabo power test or pace chart is noticeably higher than your 2K watts/spm, then you probably went to hard on the power test.

[limegreenspeed]

Thanks TB and MQ. Good to hear your thoughts. Perhaps, as you said MQ, doing the power test without going too hard is important for long term development on the program. I'd still like to figure out this Danish system better. The Rojabo program itself is pretty self explanatory, value is determined by intensity and duration, but still, I want to know why it works so well for lightweight males. It packs a serious punch when you consider their athletes were only training once a day last year....

[limegreenspeed]

Okay - one more thing to consider. If you've done a 2k recently, according to this 'program', written up by Kurt Jensen, who helped create the Danish program, one's power for 22-24, or 'D' category, should be 60-70% 2k power, so assuming one does the power test and the endurance test, and it spits out a time, the person should be able to recalculate the ideal power for their 22-24spm watts at 60% and 70% of predicted 2k power.

Does that seem to help? It certainly makes things more understandable for me, or it would be a decent guide for training purposes.

http://indoorsportservices.co.uk/traini ... sonalising

[mightyquinn]

Okay - one more thing to consider. If you've done a 2k recently, according to this 'program', written up by Kurt Jensen, who helped create the Danish program, one's power for 22-24, or 'D' category, should be 60-70% 2k power, so assuming one does the power test and the endurance test, and it spits out a time, the person should be able to recalculate the ideal power for their 22-24spm watts at 60% and 70% of predicted 2k power.

Does that seem to help? It certainly makes things more understandable for me, or it would be a decent guide for training purposes.

http://indoorsportservices.co.uk/traini ... sonalising

That makes sense to me, LGS, since 22-24spm is probably about 60% to 70% of one's 2K test average spm.

[lt.wolf]

I have switch plans for a bit to mix it up. I have been on the 3S program http://www.3srowing.com

This has been a pretty good program, I did get a bit tired and tweaked my back a bit while planning the Red Bull event, burning the candle at both ends with not enough rest will do that to you.

This is the same program Greg Benning utilizes for the winning the Head of the Charles, and with course records. He, McGaffigan and I went at this weekend all finishing within 10 seconds of each other. All "of age" and finishing ahead of many youngsters.

A good mix of work and several months of ramping up with a taper.

[lt.wolf]

Just a quick update, the 3S plan worked very very well. I tweaked the taper but was in good form for the Charles and the week before.

He had several people winning the Charles including Greg Benning again.