Exercise white paper

WHITE PAPER
ADDING ROWING TO THE MIX

So, I’ve now had a rower for two weeks. However, I was out of town for 5 of those 14 or so days. Nonetheless, I’ve already rowed 85,000 meters.

A t-shirt (motivator) is available once I’ve rowed 1,000,000 meters (1,000 km, which is ~620 miles). I think I could easily average 50,000 meters per week in approximately 3 work outs per week. The trick is dividing up the workload between all of my sports, given all of my goals.

Before going down this road, there should be some analysis of the utility of the different exercises: It’s a fundamental question, which is: Is it better to specialize in one sport, or to participate in numerous sports? I’ve always believed it is better to have multiple sports; in fact, to some degree I’ve always believed that, all else being equal, the more sports the better. I seem to be focusing upon 4-6 activities at this point:

1) swim;
2) bike;
3) run;
4) row;
5) aerobics/calisthentics;

Other sports I would like to get back to:
1) surfing;
2) tennis;
3) yoga;
4) videos (taebo, etc.)
5) Treadmill Walking

So, on the one hand, I do believe multiple sports rather than one sport, say, running. Nonetheless, 9 sports may dilute effort so that it detracts from the whole fitness imperative.

I do think the original five are a good plan for the summer. I think there can be a legitimate substitution between running and rowing. And there’s a particular benefit to me on two bases:

1) I’m interested in it now, particularly the long distance aspects of it;
2) it creates less noise/problems for my neighbor;
3) I like being able to watch TV while rowing;
4) Much less damage to my body;
5) Being heavy creates greater stress on my body and, therefore, all things being equal better to row than to run for the purpose of losing weight;
6) I can row for longer than I can run due to the lower strain on my body (less beating).

HAVING DECIDED ROWING IS A DECENT SUBSTITUTE
FOR SOME RUNNING, HOW MUCH OF EACH SHOULD I SUBSTITUTE?

Firstly, how much rowing would I like to do per week.

I think I would like to complete 1,000,000 meters by no later than 20 weeks, so the number is 50,000 meters per week. I can row roughly 12,000 meters per hour (I rowed 14,400 meters for 60 min period, but at extreme effort). So I would like to row a minimum of 4 hours per week, which is roughly 3 workouts of 1:20 minutes per workout [ed: probably better to do 4-5 workouts rather than 3 workouts; because 1:20 per workout is a long rowing workout and perhaps a bit unrealistic in terms of time commitment]. I would consider this a minimum – a floor. The maximum, is probably more like 6 workouts, of roughly 6 hours total: some 72,000 meters/wk (approximately 15 weeks to 1,000,000 meters).

SHOULD I SIMPLY ADD ROWING TO THE TRIATHLON TRAINING OR SHOULD I REDUCE TRIATHLON TRAINING AND THEN ADD ROWING

Having considered it, I would vote to try to simply add 4-6 hours of rowing to the midst of workouts – but only after finals are completed I think.

I currently average 8.4 hours per week of exercise. On its face, it seems reasonable to try to increase this by 4 hours, to an average of 12.4 hours per week. I would say, though, not to implement this increase until after finals.


TO WHAT EXTENT DOES ROWING A HALF-MARATHON OR A MARATHON EQUATE TO RUNNING A HALF OR FULL MARATHON?

I would guess the caloric expenditure is roughly equivalent to running a half marathon – but I would also think that running a half marathon is physically more challenging.

COMPARISON OF RUNNING TO ROWING

Running = 150 calories / mile

Rowing = 14,202 meters = 60 mins = 891 calories.

10k = 6.2 miles; therefore, xk = 1.0 miles

6.2x = 10

10/6.2 = 1.612

1.612k = 1 mile

14.2k / x miles = 1.612k / 1 mile

1.612x = 14.2

x = 8.809 miles

8,809 miles = 891 calories
1 mile = x calories

8.809 x = 891

891/8.809 = x

x = 101.15

for every 1 mile rowing = 101.15 calories.

Therefore 1 mile running = 150 calories which is greater than 1 mile rowing 101.15. This would appear to be a 3:2 ratio. . . probably similar to mountain biking vs. road cycling. . .

14,202 meters / 891 cals = 1000 meters = x calories

14,202 x = 891 * 1000

891 * 1000 / 14,202 = x

x = 62.7 calories

so, rowing 1000 meters = 62.7 calories.

1 meter = 0.0627 cals.

Interesting: the leader on the concept2.com board, rowed ~14.3 million meters for the 2004-05 season. This is roughly 896,610 calories; /3500 cals to get to pounds “lost” would be: 256 pounds. That’s absolutely incredible!

CURRENT HARD WEEK PLAN:

Here’s my current “hard” week plan:

Swim: 5600 yards;
Bike: 80 miles;
Run: 15 miles;
Calisthentics: 1 hour
Rowing: 45,000 meters

Mon: rest day.
Tue: am: rown 10k meters; 20 mins cals; pm: 2800 yard swim;
Wed: am: 4 mile run; eve: 20 mile bike
Thu: am: 10k row; 20 min cals; pm: 20bike; 5 mile run;
Fri: am: 10k row; 20 mins cals; pm 2800 yard swim.
Sat: 25mile bike; 6 mile run;
Sun: 15 mile bike; 15k row

Workout hours / wk = 16 hours.