Recovery/Zone 2 rowing questions

cportner

If you are rowing a Zone 2 row or a recovery row, what stroke rate do you normally row at? The DH program does have those every so often and I like to do them when I just need to move (days off or when I come back from a flight) and they have a stroke rate of 20 for those. However, I find it really difficult to ease off the push with my legs to the point where I can hit both the stroke rate and the low heart rate at the same time.

@Timothy_Moores 15,000 m at <100 bpm also peaked my interest. How do you even move at such a low heart rate? Very low stroke rate, very low drag, or a combination of those?

TJA1

Claus, my UT2 “recovery rows” are either at 16-18 spm, or 18-20. The 16-18 at a 2:20(ish) split on the SimOAR will keep my heart rate at or below 118 bpm, (118 is the bottom of my UT2 zone). I’ll use 18-20 if I’m willing to tolerate a slightly higher heart rate, 118-126 bpm which is the bottom half of my UT2 zone. Depending on the length of the workout 18-20 spm @ 2:09.5 split may cause my HR to drift into the upper half (126-134) of my UT2 zone by the end. We are training partners so you should be able to see the workouts I did on March 1 and March 6 for examples of what works for me.

One other thing to think about. Check out this Travis Gardner video where he argues that UT2 is not necessarily your “easy” day.
https://youtu.be/5ykfx1HiUlQ?si=DFanlywPemPOKGrQ

cportner

I was thinking more of this as a true recovery row, which using the zones on the erg would be 102-119 for my Zone 2 heart rate. This is meant more like a rest day row, essentially akin to a good walk.

Speaking of heart rates, did you test yours or used one of the formulas?

TJA1

I tested mine with a 10x500m interval session. I got my resting HR from my smart bed that monitors HR, HRvariability and Respiration rate. Then I used the Free Spirits rowing calculator to get all the zones using the resting HR from the bed and the max HR from the intervals.

https://www.freespiritsrowing.com/forum/app.php/page/heart-rate-bands-calculator

For my total rest days I just use my 118 bpm ( bottom of UT2) as an upper limit and limit my pressure at 16-18 spm to keep my HR below.

Timothy_Moores

My 15,000m at under 100bpm was at 24-25spm and an average pace of 2:30/500m, DF 125 (always)
I can hold 2:20 at 24spm for 15,000m and keep my HR below 110 (this tends to be whilst watching TV episodes).
Likewise 2:15-2:10 for 15,000m at 24spm and keep it below 125bpm (waiting for people at the club).
24spm seems to be my 'go-to' stroke rate regardless of pace (unless it is a time trial when it gets pushed to 28 or 30+).

My weekend warmup while waiting for everyone else is also mainly done at 24spm and starts at 2:30/500m, then drops 5 seconds off the pace every 500m, so 2:25, then 2:20, and aiming to stay at or near 24spm, although when I hit 2:00 and 1:55 it usually drifts up closer to 26 or 27, that's 3,000m, I then drop it back down again to around 2:15 or 2:20 as a 'cool down' then continue at this until everyone else has arrived and stop at either 5,000 or 6,000m depending on when they all arrive.

As a group we do our UT2 sessions at 18, 20 or 22spm, which is lower than I like, and in time with each other, but have HR limits, mine is usually restricted to 135-140bpm, we tend to get a bit competitive over distance rowed as most of the sessions are time based so as not to be too demoralising for those who don't 'live on an erg'.

We had an ErgRace 'UT2 session' the other week that was most definitely a race with several people going way over what they were supposed to from a heart rate point of view.

As Terry mentions a UT2 'workout' is not the same as a 'recovery' session, In a recovery session, I may/may not break a sweat depending on the duration of the piece. After a proper UT2 workout, I will be dripping just as much as at the end of a UT1 or AT piece.