Training
Create a training group and share planned sessions. You can do the following things:
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- Share individual training sessions, then see how your training group adheres to the plan. This is ideal if you’re all following the same, structured training plan. Creates accountability.
- Sharing simple challenges. For example, you can challenge your group members to row a session of at least 60 minutes, or at least 10 kilometers. This is ideal if you’re just beginning to work out together. You can gradually ramp up the duration of your sessions. The goal is to complete the session. The pace is irrelevant.
- Total over a time period. Challenge your group to row at least 40 kilometers per week, or at least 180 minutes.The goal is to make those meters or minutes, the pace is irrelevant. This is ideal for if you’re not sharing the same training plan, but you want to make meters over the winter period.
To create a training group and share planned sessions, you need the following plans:
- One member on Self-Coach and all other members on Pro
- A coach on Free Coach and all other members on Pro
- One member on Coach plan and other members can be on the free plan.
See Rowsandall Paid Plans for more info on paid plan features and pricing.
Tests and Challenges
Tests and challenges are a little more competitive. Rowsandall.com creates a ranked list of results. Again, you want to have a few friends in your training group. You may have to check first if all your group members find testing fun. If that is not the case, it is better to use the simple challenges mentioned above.
- Ergometer tests! These tests are tough and painful, but they are more fun if you do them together. As we cannot erg next to each other, the next best alternative is to use Rowsandall.com to tell your training partners to erg that 6k test (or any other test) some time during the next week, and upload the results to your training group’s page on rowsandall.com. You can then compare results and dig into the details. Who finished strong? Who went out strong and then died?
- On-the-water tests over a fixed course. You can define a course on Rowsandall.com and the site automatically extracts the time over the course from the uploaded GPS data. The benefit of this type of test is that it is clear where start and finish are, and every participant rows the same course. This is ideal for a local training group who share the same body of water. You can use correction factors to have people from different genders, ages or boat categories compete (household 2x against 1x, etc).
- On-the-water trials over a fixed distance or time. Rowsandall.com automatically extracts the fastest interval with the given length or duration from the uploaded workout data. With this type of trial, group members can participate even when they do not share the same water. Handicaps by boat type, gender, age, weight class, and more, are possible. Of course, comparing results between different bodies of water is tricky, but if your training group is scattered over the country, this is the best you can get. Competing on the water is definitely more fun than competing on the erg!
To set up these challenges that are private and restricted to your training group, you need the same combination of plans as in the previous section:
- One member on Self-Coach and all other members on Pro
- A coach on Free Coach and all other members on Pro
- One member on Coach plan and other members can be on the free plan.
See Rowsandall Paid Plans for more info on paid plan features and pricing.
Public Challenges
All the test and challenge types described in the previous section are also available in a public version. Anybody can set up a public challenge, and anyone can compete in it. This is great if you are not a member of a training group but you need some competition.
The on-the-water tests over a fixed course can bring together scullers and sweep rowers from a club or a few clubs sharing the same water. The fixed distance or time on-the-water trials are global events. We’ve had a few very successful challenges (“speed orders”) organized over the summer and fall of 2020. Here are a few past challenges:
Charles River Speed Order – September 2020 edition
You can also set up indoor rowing virtual challenges. Here’s an example:
Stuck At Home Rowing Club Half Marathon
If you are thinking about organizing a public challenge, it is good to take into account a few lessons that we learned while organizing our own:
- For challenges over a course, it is a good idea to have a small scale trial challenge before organizing the big event. This allows you to get the course just right, so that people know where to start and finish, and how traffic rules might be implemented using some of the row-through gates.
- For on-the-water challenges, it’s a good idea to allow a long time window, spanning multiple weekends. This gives people the opportunity to plan and cartop to your course, or to wait for the ideal weather conditions.
- Allow the results evaluation deadline to be a few days after the end of the challenge window. This gives people enough time to get back to a computer to submit the result.
- It’s a great idea to start a challenge series. Same course (or same distance/time duration) and repeat. A challenge per month, or per week. A challenge that starts small can easily grow quite big when you repeat it and get a few more participants every time.
Public challenges are completely free. You can set up and/or participate to any challenge on a free membership of Rowsandall.com
