Alex Krupp

Get Fast Fast:

A Project Management Approach to
Lightweight Rowing

A Project Management Approach to Lightweight Rowing 0

Alex Krupp
 Alex Krupp

This guide was written primarily for lightweight male rowers, but may useful
for others as well. c.f. the section on page 10 below on assumptions,
caveats, and prerequisites. All weights are stated in pounds (lbs). Convert
to kg.

You’re reading this because you want to get fast. Clearly. Otherwise you
wouldn’t be here.

What follows is a comprehensive guide on going from being a complete

couch potato to an Olympic-level athlete in six months. How is this
possible? After all, normally this would take several years. The secret is
focusing on the fundamentals. Consider the following passage, written about
Japanese baseball:

"In every confrontation with a real American professional team it seems that
what we need to learn from them, besides their technique of course, is how
uniformly faithful their players are to the fundamentals. Faithfulness to the
fundamentals seems to be a common thread linking professionalism in all
areas." –T. Kageyama

The interesting thing is that Kageyama was actually a professional go player,

and the quote above comes from a book about go. But as it turns out,
what’s good for baseball players and go players is good for rowers as well.

Here are the basic principles behind this guide:

 There are three components to fitness: cardio, strength, and flexibility.

If you want to have the fastest 2k, then you need to have the most
cardio, the most strength, and the most flexibility.
 Getting fast at rowing is a project, just like writing software or building
a house. The best way to improve strength, cardio, and flexibility as

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fast as possible is to use the same research-based methodology

behind all other project management.
 Each of the three components of fitness is broken into various
subtasks. Each workout is designed to maximize the measurability of
one’s progress in each subtask over time.

Most other training guides start out with a 2k or a series of max lifts, and
then attempt to divine a new best workout each day based on initial
performance. These top-down programs never work for two reasons:

1. They don’t have you doing the most efficient workout on any given
day.
2. They fail to generate actionable data.

These ‘systems’ are mostly designed to keep the kids from getting bored,
and to make the person who created them seem smart.

In contrast, by holding our workouts constant we can easily track our rate of
progress and make data-driven decisions quickly. This allows us to tweak
our workouts to keep our rate of improvement in each exercise linear for as
long as possible, rather than having it prematurely reaching the point
of diminishing returns. I will follow up with several real world examples of
this below, as well as some raw data from my own personal experience.

The ultimate goal is to go from your current level of fitness (or lack thereof)
to being able to pull a sub-6:20 2k in six months. In order to break 6:20,
here are the benchmarks you need:

Aerobic cardio: sub-1:55 for 2 x 45’ @ 155hr / 19spm

Anaerobic cardio: >2900m avg. for 3 x 10’ @ 24spm (4 min), 26spm (3
min), 28spm (2 min), 30spm (1 min)

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Squats: 320-360 lbs max

Pull-ups: 35

If you can achieve each of these goals then you are pretty much
guaranteed to have a sub-6:20 2k. Notice how we are breaking the 2k down
into its component fitness parts, each of which we can directly measure
against the data generated from our daily workouts. This way there is never
any guessing. Each day you know exactly how much progress you’ve made
toward each goal, and exactly how many days it will take to reach each
goal at your current rate of improvement.

So what does this actually look like in practice? It’s extremely simple. Here
is the plan for the first three months:

Months 1 - 3

Monday – Saturday: Erg 2 x 45min @ 19spm, 75% max HR

Monday – Saturday: Stretching, core strength
Monday & Thursday: 6 x max pull-ups
Tuesday & Friday: 6 x 10 squats
Wednesday & Saturday: 4 x 10 back extension
Sunday: Rest

Erg

 2 x 45 min @ 19spm, 75% max HR (around 155)

 Take a water break every 15 minutes. The standard half-strength
Gatorade advice is good here, i.e. one scoop of Gatorade powder for
a 32 ounce Nalgene. Limit the water breaks to fifteen seconds so as
not to mess up your numbers; this should be enough time to down at
least 8 ounces of fluids.

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 Between the two sets eat something like a banana or a power bar.
This helps prevent chronic glycogen depletion, the cause of most
overtraining syndrome.
 Take 15 or so min in between sets to go through a full routine of
stretches. After 45 min of erging your muscles will be nicely warmed
up, so this is the ideal time to gain flexibility.
 Keep the drag factor around 100 for the 90 minute pieces.
 While spending 20 minutes between sets probably isn’t ideal from a
purely cardio point of view, taking the time to properly stretch, eat,
and hydrate goes a long way toward preventing repetitive strain
injuries. And since pretty much the only thing that will keep you from
breaking 6:20 if you follow this plan is injury, this is time well spent in
the long run.
 I'd recommend taking one extra day off from the 90 minute erg pieces
every other week, and then cross training for one day during the
weeks that you're not taking an extra day off. This means that you
should be doing your 90 minute erg pieces 22 days out of the 30,
with an additional two 90 minute pieces per month of cross training.
However, don't erg any less than 22 days per month or else your
cardio will take a dramatic hit.
 Never skip a strength workout. Even one missed day will set you back
at least a week. In economics terms, the bulk of the improvement
comes from the marginal effort you put in near the end. That is, the
first 80% of the effort gets you only 20% of the benefits.
 Similarly, never skip a workout for an erg test. I’ve seen way too
many rowers try to cheat the system this way, which makes no sense.
By training through every piece you ensure that even if you’re a little
slower in fall, you’ll be miles ahead in spring. This takes a certain
amount of self-confidence and assuredness in your ability to make the

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boat, but the dividends here are enormous. Go easy the day before
your last 2k of the season, but train through everything right up until
then.

Pull-ups

 6 sets of as many pull-ups as you can do.

 Record how many you get on each set in your notebook, but in excel
record only the number you get on the first set and the total for all
six sets.

Squats

 Start with the maximum amount of weight you know you can safely do
for 6 sets of ten reps. Each time you can successfully completely the
6 x 10 two workouts in a row for a given weight, increase the weight
by 10 lbs for the next session. Always use a squat belt.
 If you complete the lift just barely both times then keep with that
weight for another session or two, especially as the weight gets
heavier. Again, if you follow this workout plan then pretty much the
only thing that can stop you from pulling a 6:20 is getting injured, so
don’t f**king get injured. If there is ever a question about safety then
immediately reduce the weight.
 All squats should be full squats, i.e. the Olympic-style
squats described here.
 It generally helps to put a 5 or 10lb plate under each heal. This lets
you push with your entire foot while keeping good form.
 Once the squats start getting very heavy it’s good to lie on the
ground between sets, and with your legs on elevated (e.g. resting on
a chair or on the erg) do crossovers with 5 or 10lb weights. Start with
your arms lying on the ground completely extended, as if you were

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making a snow angel. Then slowly bring each arm across to the other
side of your chest with the weight in each hand. The point of this isn’t
to get a workout, it’s just to help drain the lactate and other cruft out
of your legs. Doing this for a minute or so between sets dramatically
improves recovery.

The method of lifting described above is extremely taxing. Especially as you

get better, it’s not uncommon for your heart rate to be close to its maximum
after each set. Because of this it’s ok to wait a few minutes between sets,
especially in hot weather. Remember, the reason we lift this way is that it’s
the fastest way to improve our strength. Don’t try to rush through the lifts to
gain cardio; this vastly slows down one’s rate of strength improvement, a
trade-off that makes little sense considering that strength takes so much
longer to gain than cardio. Even worse, rushing through lifts gives only a
nominal additional cardio benefit if you’re already doing the 2 x 45 ergs,
resulting in a huge overall net loss in rate of improvement.

Similarly, the best way to complete these workouts is to do the lifts before
the cardio. The thinking is that even if you can’t erg as fast at the 155
heart rate after lifting, you’ll still be getting roughly the same cardio benefit.
Whereas if you’re lifting less weight each week because you’re lifting after
cardio, then ultimately it’s going to take much longer to gain strength.

Months 3 – 4.5

Monday – Saturday: Erg 2 x 45min @ 19spm, 77.5% max HR (around 160)

Monday – Saturday: Stretching, core strength
Monday & Thursday: 6 x max pull-ups
Tuesday & Friday: 6 x 8 squats
Wednesday & Saturday: 4 x 10 back extension
Sunday: Rest

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Monday & Thursday: 3 x 10’ @ 22spm (4 min), 24spm (3 min), 26spm (2

min), 28spm
Tuesday & Friday: 2 x 1250m @ 32spm
Tuesday & Friday: Extra 45 min of cross training cardio.
Wednesday & Saturday: Varies

I’d recommend the lifts and 2 x 45 erg in the morning, and then the harder
stuff in the afternoons. Do the Thursday and Saturday pieces on the erg.
The rest of the hard pieces should be done on the water, unless your goal
is purely to get a fast erg time. Do at least 30 min cardio during the warm
up with a few power 10s or 20s, and do an active recovery between pieces.

Wednesday and Saturday is your choice of anaerobic cardio. Good options

are 2 x 30’, 3 x 20’, 10k, 5k, etc. The point is to do at least one hard
piece every day. After all, once you know how to pull hard, being in shape
is just icing on the cake.

The cross training should be done on the elliptical, the bike, or running. Do
elliptical at the same heart rate you would erg at for the 2 x 45, do the
bike at 10bpm lower, and for running do 10bpm higher.

Months 4.5 - 6

Monday – Saturday: Erg 2 x 45min @ 19spm, 77.5% max HR (around 160)

Monday – Saturday: Stretching, core strength
Monday & Thursday: 6 x max pull-ups
Tuesday & Friday: 6 x 6 squats; superset each with 3 jumpies
Wednesday & Saturday: 4 x 10 back extension
Sunday: Rest

Monday & Thursday: 3 x 10’ @ 24spm (4 min), 26spm (3 min), 28spm (2

min), 30spm

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Tuesday & Friday: 2 x 1250m @ 34spm

Tuesday & Friday: Extra 45 min of cross training cardio.
Wednesday & Saturday: Varies

At the end of the six months you should be easily hitting the goals outlined
at the beginning. If so, then you either should be able to break 6:20 on
pure cardio, or else be very close. If you’re hitting the goals but you’re not
quite there yet, then here is what to do:

Months 6 – 7.5

Monday – Saturday: Erg 2 x 45min @ 19spm, 77.5% max HR (around 160)

Monday – Saturday: Stretching, core strength
Monday & Thursday: 6 x max pull-ups
Tuesday & Friday: Plyometrics for legs (i.e. jumpies)
Wednesday & Saturday: 4 x 10 back extension
Sunday: Rest

Monday: 3 x 10’ @ 24spm (4 min), 26spm (3 min), 28spm (2 min), 30spm

Tuesday & Friday: 2 x 1250m @ 34spm
Tuesday & Friday: Extra 45 min of cross training cardio.
Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday: Varies

For the plyometrics, the simplest program is to work your way up to 3 x

100 jumpies. For example, start with something like 6 x 20 your first week,
and then slowly work your way up.

On Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, do shorter anaerobic sprint

pieces. Good examples are 5 x 2000, 5 x 5’, and 6 x 2’.

Complete at least two 8 x 500 ergs before your next 2k. Do the pieces at
the following stroke rates: 26, 28, 30, 32, 29, 31, open, open. Rest for 1:45
after each piece, and 8 minutes after the fourth. If you can break a 1:35
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average for all eight pieces then you should now be able to break 6:20 on
the 2k.

(Alternate version: 6 x 500m open. Rest for 1 min after each piece. Drop
the fastest, drop the slowest, and the average of the middle four is your 2k
split.)

The most important thing to remember here is never skip the 2 x 45’ in
favor of the sprint pieces. Approximately 70% of your 2k speed comes from
base cardio, and the sprint workouts contribute only a small fraction to the
remaining 30%. At the elite level about 100k per week is the break-even
point. That is, if you’re doing more than 100k per week you’re gaining
cardio, and if you’re doing less than 100k per week you’re losing cardio.
That’s not to say that doing sprint work isn’t extremely important, but as it
gets closer to sprint season a lot of people start doing less cardio and only
focus on the sprint pieces. This is a huge mistake. Never do sprint workouts
unless you’re already doing at least 100k per week.

Assumptions, caveats, and prerequisites

 You are a lightweight male between the ages of 16 and 38. If not you
can always modify goals and workouts as long as they remain
consistent with the principles outlined above.
 At least 3+ years of general fitness, including basic experience with
strength training, cardio, stretching, and competition. You don’t need to
currently be in great shape, but you do need to know what you’re
doing and have some basic muscle memory in place.
 Getting fast is either the first or second most important thing in your
life. Meaning that if your number one priority is school/work, then
training has to take priority over hanging out with friends and
significant others, partying, staying out late, surfing the web, etc. This

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system will only work if you have a love of sport and a strong
intrinsic motivation to be the best.
 You know how to erg, row, and lift weights safely. If not visit Row2K
(or an equivalent website for your country) to find a learn-to-row
program in your area.
 This guide assumes you have at least a minimum of non rowing-
specific strength. You don’t need the perfect beach body by any
means, but you should hopefully be able to do 20 dips and bench
155. If not then spend six weeks or so working on this before you get
started, perhaps concurrently with a longer version of the two-week
cardio plan outlined below. The reason is that for the next six months
you’ll be focusing almost exclusively on rowing muscles, so you want
to make sure your antagonistic muscles (pecs, triceps, hamstrings) are
strong enough that you don’t injure yourself. Some of the book
recommendations below may be highly useful for creating an
appropriate program.
 Similarly, you'll want to go back to training your antagonistic muscles,
as well as doing core and cross training, for 2.5 - 3 months once this
program is over before repeating this program next year. Otherwise
you won't have enough base strength in your non-rowing muscles to
avoid injury.
 If you’re completely out of shape when starting this, then you might
want to take at least two weeks to ease into the erging. Try
something like 15 minutes the first day, 25 minutes for the next two
days, 35 minutes for the next three days, 45 minutes the next four
days, and 2 x 35 min for 5 days. Hopefully you are steady stating at
least under 2:30 by the time you start the full workout plan.
 The biggest caveat here is with the pull-ups. For me I found that I
gained strength very quickly using this method, but then eventually

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topped out around 35. While this is really all you need to break 6:20,
I feel like there are probably ways to improve upon this component
after the first three months. Again, the reason you are plotting your
progress in excel is so you can see if your improvement is starting to
level off. If it does, figure out why and modify the workouts as
needed.

Suggested variations

 Consider substituting some of the pull-ups for bench pull after the first
three months, especially if you are already close to hitting your pull-
ups goal. The only reason I didn’t include this in the standard plan is
that most people don’t have access to the necessary equipment.
Basically the suggested workout would become:

Monday: 6 x max weighted pull-ups

Thursday: 6 x 20 bench pull

Once you’re able to do over 30 pull-ups on your first set without

weight, add 10 lbs using a dip belt. Then add another 5lbs every time
you’re able to do 20 or more on your first set for two workouts in a
row.
 Start on plyometrics early if you’re already close to hitting your goal
for squats after the first three months.
 If you reach a point where you’re no longer making acceptable
improvements in your cardio, trying alternating light and heavy weeks.
I find that doing over 144k per week on average is unsustainable, but
if you’re already pushing this limit and struggling to improve then try
alternating between doing 185k one week and then only 100k the

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next. This seems to work well, but I’d recommend against doing it
more than two cycles in a row.

Stretching

If you want to be the fastest then you need to have the most strength, the
most cardio, and the most flexibility. Unfortunately all too often stretching
takes the back seat behind the other two components of fitness even though
it’s equally important. Therefore I’m taking the position that the best
stretching routine is the one that you do every day. And the best way to do
this is to create a routine that you actually enjoy because it feels good. To
that end I’d recommend doing the stretches below in the order listed. Doing
the wrong stretches or doing them in the wrong order can be really tedious.
The idea here is to create something that’s aesthetically appealing while at
the same time hitting all the muscle groups required to keep you safe and
maximize your 2k.

 Aerobic Flexibility - Stretches #1, #3, and #2

 Wrist flexors stretch.
 Shoulder stretch.
 The hurdler stretch. First with each leg extended, then with both legs
extended. The goal here is to get your chest as close as possible to
your knees.
 Quads stretch.
 The thoracic stretch.
 The butterfly stretch.
 The cobra stretch.
 The achilles stretch. If you prefer this can also be done on all fours
(pushup position) instead of against the wall.

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I’d recommend stretching between the 2 x 45’ erg pieces. This helps keep
your muscles operating at their peak going into the second piece and may
also offer some protection against injury. Hold each position for at least 30
seconds. If you want to add in any dynamic stretches then do them after
the static ones. I’d also recommend stretching again after the 2nd 45’ piece.

If it’s a lifting day then warm up for at least ten minutes and stretch out
fully before lifting. I find that for that quad stretch flexibility gains tend to be
limited after the first couple months, but it’s still important to always do this
before and after squats so that your muscles fibers don’t shorten up as they
heal.

If it’s a race day then warm up as usual but only stretch lightly. This is
because heavy stretching makes your muscles significantly weaker for the
next few hours. This has only a minimal effect on your steady state cardio,
but it makes a big difference when it comes to racing.

Core Strength

Core strength is popularly believed to prevent chronic use injuries. While the
scientific evidence is somewhat equivocal I think it’s safe to assume that at
least a solid baseline level of fitness here is necessary, if not a p90x beach
body physique. Here are three exercises below:

 Pillar bridges – Get into pushup position. Hold for 10 seconds. Raise
and extend right arm. Hold for 10 seconds. Switch arms. Hold for 10
seconds. Raise and extend right leg. Hold for 10 seconds. Switch
Legs. Hold for 10 seconds. Raise and extend right leg and left arm.
Hold for 10 seconds. Switch arms and legs. Hold for ten seconds.
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Hold pushup position for 10 seconds.

The way you get better than this is by increasing the amount of time
you can hold each position. Try to get to the point where you can
hold each position for 25 seconds. Be careful not to let your lower
back sag because this can cause damage.
 Cherry Pickers - Remember, the goal isn’t just to move your arms
back and forth, but rather to isolate your core muscles and use them
to twist your entire trunk from side to side.
 Leg Lifts - Lie flat on back with head and shoulder blades off ground.
Lift both legs so heels are six inches off the ground and knees are
straight. Hold for one minute.

This above shouldn’t be taken as a complete routine, but rather as just a

few exercises to get started. You should supplement the above by layering
in other core exercises as necessary.

Food

I’d recommend picking up Nancy Clark’s book on sports nutrition. This book
is invaluable, especially when cutting weight for race season. No special diet
is needed to complete these workouts, just remember to eat something in
between 45-minute pieces to prevent chronic glycogen depletion.

My only other tip is to try the Seth Godin breakfast. It’s healthy, low calorie,
and delicious. Try it with cilantro, sprouts, and grape tomatoes.

Learning to pull hard

Knowing how to pull hard is the most important thing in rowing. However it’s
also something this particular guide doesn’t put a lot of emphasis on. If this

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is something you need to work on then try adding in the following sprint
workouts:

 Erg: 2 sets of 8 min @ 14 spm

 Erg or Water: 4 sets of 10 on 10 off 10 times. If you do this in the
boat try dragging the bucket on the first and third set.
 Gamut: 1min on, 1min off, 1 min on. The original gamut erg is an
excellent tool for learning how to pull hard because there is a lot of
resistance at the catch and very little at the finish. Because of this it
rewards the out-of-control energy that makes the 8+ win
championships.
 Erg: 100 meter sprints
 Erg or water: 500m sprints. (Or quarter mile sprints if rowing the 1x.)

Gimmicky Ideas

None of the stuff below is necessary, but here is a list of ideas for if you
have some extra time and want to experiment.

 Supplements - The only supplements I'd recommend are the ones that
are generally recommended anyway for health reasons: a basic
multivitamin like this or this,Omega-3, and Co Q10. That said, if you
want to try something crazy, try drinking a Red Bull and a couple
teaspoons of honey 30-45 minutes before a big erg test. It sounds
disgusting, and it kind of is, but the raw energy surge and pulling
aggression you get from this is completely ineffable. (But don’t have
more than one because FISA, WADA and the NCAA have strict limits
on acceptable caffeine use.)

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 Hypoxic tent – This is a low oxygen tent that you sleep in to increase
your red blood cell count. This allows your blood to hold more
oxygen, which improves athletic performance.
 Power Lung – Supposedly strengthens lung strength. The claim is that
A) the feeling of gasping for breath you get at the end of the race
happens because your lung muscles are exhausted, not because
you’re not getting enough air. And B) that gasping for breath wastes
an enormous amount of energy that should be going into your rowing.
 Jump training - If you’re more ambitious with your plyometrics you can
purchase one of the vertical jump workouts designed for basketball.
There are several readily available that you can find via a simple
Google search, although I can’t personally vouch for the safety or
efficacy of any individual program.
 Logging workouts - In addition to keeping a journal with all of my
workout data, I also like logging my workouts in more creative ways
as a more visceral reminder of how much I’ve accomplished. One
example of this is eating one power bar for every 90-minute piece you
do, and then saving the empty boxes. The greatest idea I ever came
up with was switching showers after each cardio workout. The gym
where I went to college had 72 showerheads, so with an average of
roughly 22,000 meters per 90-minute piece it took well over 1.5 million
meters to work my way around the facility.
 Positive visualization - There are several books about applying positive
visualization to sports. Brad Alan Lewis's book Assault On Lake
Casitas actually has a whole chapter about this.

Other training guides Although I haven’t actually talked much about project
management explicitly, hopefully it should be clear how this program was
inspired by and designed to be compatible with project management tools
like iterative development, total quality management, PERT, critical path

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method, etc. If not, try diffing this guide against some of the other popular
training methods below:

 Concept2 Training Guide for indoor rowing.

 Rowing Faster - A book about rowing training by Volker Nolte.
 Lactate Threshold Training - As the reviewers point out, this book is
poorly edited, difficult to understand, and even contradictory in places.
But there are still some good ideas if you're willing to slog through it.
 Super Sport Systems - ($488 per year)

I actually think reading through these guides would be hugely beneficial to

anyone willing to take the time, but I wouldn't actually follow any of them
outright for the reasons outlined in the introduction.

Books and movies about rowing:

 The Shell Game

 Assault On Lake Casita
 The Amateurs
 Olympic Obsession
 Mind Over Water
 The Compleat Dr. Rowing
 A Fine Balance
 A Hero For Daisy

Sports Training Books and Heart Rate Monitors

Hacker News user PaulHoule has an excellent set of book

recommendations for sports training:

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"I'm skeptical of anybody who claims to have a simple answer to success at

weight training. The more I learn about weight training, the more ignorant I
feel.

A few books I've enjoyed lately are 'Starting Strength' by Rippetoe and
Killgore and Brookfield's 'Mastery of Hand Strength'. The latter book is a real
eye-opener: every page is stuffed with information that makes sense, but
you never would have thought of. (Hand development, of course, is
important for computer keyboardists.)

Although it's not a complete weightlifting manual, I like the attitude of Bruce
Lee's 'Art of Expressing the Human Body', which turned me on to circuit
training. Some other good books which are more focused on bodyweight
training are Cook's 'Athletic Body in Balance' and Boyle's 'Functional Training
For Sports'."

Men's Health has a similar set of book recommendations. It's important to

note though that these books aren't specific for rowing, so many are geared
toward training entirely different muscular aptitudes. Rowers are generally
trying to maximize their average power per unit muscle mass over a 240
stroke race, so it would be an enormous mistake to simply follow a training
guide designed to bulk you up as fast as possible.

As far as heart rate monitors go, you don't need anything fancy. You just
need something that will be able to display your current heart rate, as well
as your average heart rate at the end of your workout. Currently the two
best heart rate monitors that fulfill these needs seem to be the Polar
FS3C and the Timex T5G971.

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My personal data

As promised, I want to share some of my personal data about how this

program worked for me. When I started this program I had already rowed
previously for many years at a reasonably high level, before taking a 1.5
year hiatus. During this time I was almost completely sedentary, except for
things like walking around campus between classes. As such, I was
completely out of shape when I started training again and could barely keep
my erg average below 2:30 at a 155 heart rate. I took 2 - 3 weeks to work
my way into the program, as described above, and then followed the
program diligently for the next 4 months.

At this point I unfortunately had to take 2.5 months off due to a medical
problem that was being exacerbated by training. After these 2.5 months I
trained lightly again for a month, attending team practices but not erging or
lifting at all on my own. After these few weeks back I was able to pull a
6:23.3 on the erg, even though I was nowhere near in the physical shape I
had been before. Thus it stands to reason that even if I wasn't in good
enough shape to have broken 6:20 before this break, I probably would have
come very, very close.

More importantly, I had easily achieved my training targets for pull-ups and
squats, and was less than a month away from achieving the erg targets as
well. So, as it stands, while I'm not the fastest collegiate lightweight rower
ever to have rowed, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who got to my
level of fitness faster than I did. Not only this, but the data suggests that I
still had a ton of potential left as my rate of improvement hadn't yet started
to significantly decrease. But don't take my word for it, download
my workout data for the first four months and see for yourself.

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Final thoughts

If you make it through the above then you should have little difficulty in
ultimately breaking 6:20. The real trick is staying motivated.

So far as I can tell there are really only two ways to go about this. The first
is to regularly visualize yourself winning and achieving your goals. The idea
here is to motivate yourself by the thought of getting to go out and fuck up
someone else’s day. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys this then it’s
theoretically possible to make it work almost indefinitely.

However, the better long term strategy I think is to adopt what Hinduism
calls the sanyasa-tyaga mindset. That is, take the right actions, but then
renounce the consequences. If you can learn to enjoy the process for its
own sake then this is the true path to sustainable fastness.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to make changes. But only make changes that are
based on data, and that will generate more actionable data. Good decisions
are based on patterns, so plan ahead and create workouts that make these
patterns easy to spot. As Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot just
by watching.”

A Project Management Approach to Lightweight Rowing 20

 Alex Krupp
About the book
About the Book
This e-book was published in May 2011.
This e-book was published in May 2011.
Get Fast Fast: A Project Management Approach To Lightweight Rowing by Alex Krupp is
Get Fastunder
licensed Fast:a A ProjectCommons
Creative Management Approach To Lightweight Rowing
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 by Alex
Unported
Krupp
License.is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
If you have any questions, contact Alex Krupp alex.krupp@gmail.com
If you have any questions, contact Alex at alex.krupp@gmail.com

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