Steady State, AT, Goals, What?

[Adam William Swetlik]

Team,

For those of you who don't know a few of the terms and what they mean here we go:

Steady state is an aerobic workout that increases endurance.  We give you specific split times to hit compared to your goal.  It's important you hit these as we ask.  Too fast will not work your aerobic system as intended and result in overexertion.  Too slow won't provide you with the aerobic work you need.  And please don't sprint at the end of a steady state piece.  Hold the split we put on the board, otherwise you look like an idiot.

Aerobic Threshold or AT is just that, pushing your aerobic capabilities to their max.  These are the workouts that build massive amounts of lactic acid in your muscles that replaces oxygen.  This causes pain.  This type of workout increases you max speed. 

You will learn very quickly that paddling between pieces and after the workout at no more than 30" about your goal will help substantially.  This takes out lactic acid and replaces it with oxygen so you can continue working hard.  Remember you are required to paddle at the end of every AT workout and upon our request. 

In a similar vein you will be required to warm up before most AT pieces.  Your body is not ready to perform until your heart rate is elevated, your blood is flowing and your muscles are loosened.  Don't ever think that warming up or paddling are a waste of energy.  You'll never be as fast as you could be if that is the case.

Goals are provided by me after every major 6k and 2k test.  They represent what I think you are capable of pulling on your next test.  Along the way AT workouts will have predictors to see if you are on track to hit your goals.  If you are predicted faster than your goal I may lower it.  I rarely make goals slower once made unless there is a major injury or illness.

If you are wondering where our training plan of workouts has come from most of it is developed by Michigan who is consistently top 3 in the nation.  It's been tweaked and added to by us over a few years.  The main thing to take away is that while weight lifting and cross training can benefit you, nothing is a better substitute for getting speed than erging.That's why a majority of our time will be done erging.

Questions?  Feel free to ask.  We'll go in to more detail about these items as the year goes on.

Adam Swetlik

Men's Head Coach
Colorado Crew