Couch to 5km Part 2 | Starting Rowing For The First Time

Two weeks in, and it’s time to kick things up a gear with your next two weeks of training, along with a few additional tips and tricks to help keep you on the path.

Let’s dive straight in then with week 3 to this plan.

Your goal this week is to be as consistent with the SPMs as you possibly can. If you are feeling good, then you are welcome to aim for the higher end of the spectrum.

If you’re a little tired, then dial it back a little but try not to miss the workout altogether.

A quick note with this week’s workouts.

You will see a different layout for this workout; you will see ‘rounds’. That simply means do everything you see as written and then go back to the beginning and repeat for as many rounds as written.

E.g. session 1 will be 90 seconds work, 90 seconds rest, 3:00 minutes work, 3 minutes rest, and then back to the start and repeat. Simple.

Secondly, you’ll see ‘active recovery’ in replacement of ‘rest’.

You are still more than welcome to rest here, but we’re not looking for complete-stop rest now. Just gentle movement on the machine, keeping the body moving and taking the intensity down a peg or two.

Here we go!

Week 3

Warm-up:

5:00 minutes gentle rowing at 20 SPM

Workout:

2 rounds of:

0:90 seconds between 22-26 SPM

0:90 seconds active recovery

3:00 minutes between 20 and 24 SPM

3:00 minutes active recovery

Cool-down:

5:00 minutes gentle rowing 18 SPM

Repeat this workout three times per week, taking a day or two rest in between. Your goal is to be consistent and work on maintaining that SPM.

Week 4

A new week begins and with it brings the challenge of starting to increase the duration you are working out for.

Remember to listen to any aches and pains as you spend more and take rest days as you need.

Warm-up:

5:00 minutes gentle rowing at 20 SPM

Workout:

3:00 minutes between 22-26 SPM

0:90 seconds active recovery

5:00 minutes between 20 and 24 SPM

2:30 minutes active recovery

3:00 minutes between 22 and 26 SPM

Cool-down:

5:00 minutes gentle rowing 18 SPM

Another three days in week 4 of this workout. Your goal is to stay in control and allow your body to adjust as it needs to.

Additional tips.

Heart rate training zones.

We had a few questions about heart rates last week and if you should be worrying about what zone you are in.

Truthfully, when you are 4 weeks into anything new, it’s probably not the time to be worrying too much about advanced training methods.

If you do have a watch that records your heart rate as you exercise, then by all means, record the data it gives but don’t be overly concerned with too much of it this early in your journey.

Simple rules to follow with heart rate are to stay out of the red and try to maintain effort in the green or blue zones.

Don’t forget to check in with us if you need it, and keep being a Dark Horse.