Bluegrass Endurance: Training Plan Update - The Place of Rowing in the Plan

I am writing this as I am coming to the end of the year and still sort of on easy mode till mid-January. As part of the entry for the Michigan Coast to Coast 200 mile gravel race we got access to a Training Peaks train plan and will work around it - need to review and see where it needs to be adjusted but will give me a base. As far as I can see from a quick glance it is a general training plan for everyone and at 66 and looking to be more towards a Polarized Training Plan I may need to make some adjustments so as to get the right amount of rest between hard efforts. With my goal of going easier when going easy and harder when hard the rest will be very important.

The other thing I need to review is with regards to my goal of following a Polarized training plan as in what I have read the 80% is not about percentage of all efforts but about the percentage of training sessions. Thus on a hard day the whole session is counted not just the hard efforts within the session. May not sound like much but does make a difference and I need to see where this plays in when I do say a long ride of 5-6 hours with maybe less than an hour hard - how this applies to the percentage - again more to study.

What I wanted to do in this part of this series is to go over the addition of rowing to my plans for the year. Since I got my Concept 2 Row Erg around Nov 22nd of 2025 I have put in 202K (126 miles) at the writing of this post (Dec 28, 2025) The rows have been from 30 minutes to 60 minutes with some hard efforts but mostly focusing on form as not only is form critical for speed but also so as to minimize the risk of injury. When I started my back for sure was sore but between doing more rows and usually spending 5 minutes on my inversion table my back is much better and rarely sore. Even is helping with my back on the bike - what I was hoping for. Also, in the month of rowing I am seeing more muscle definition and hey I have Lats:). I realize that rowing does not build muscle like lifting and other forms of training but that is fine with me as the goal is strength over definition. The strength I am getting I feel will translate great for riding - especially on gravel - and will even help running.

When I first decided to get into rowing I also had plans of doing some races when

December 2025 CTC

possible - the first will be a 1K in mid January and is online. Also, will take part in some challenges on the Concept 2 site (Via RowErg App) and also the monthly CTC ( Cross Team Challenge ) I do with a club I joined. I joined the The Diamonds (Over Sixties Erging Group) which while being based out of England has rowers, over 60, from all over and some really fast rowers at that. It is a great group and while rowing does not have racing like on Zwift, at least yet, the camaraderie of the group is very much like I find with the BMTR team I am with on Zwift. Each month there is a new CTC that you can do as often as you want. The goal is to get the most distance possible in the confines of the challenge and great to see all levels seeking to do their best. These workouts along with being able to do the Concept 2 workout of the day (WOD) if I decide to give some good options for hard rowing efforts.

Part of putting in so many kilometers rowing is so that when I cut back on rowing kilometers and then do hard workouts I will have less chance for soreness or injury. The rowing workouts allow me to do cross training that helps keep working on my upper body strength and still get in hard zone 5 workouts with less stress on my body - pounding wise. Again, through the coming year I will be keeping up with rowing, just less kilometers, and also add in some running with the main focus being on riding with a number of gravel races planned for the year - including a couple really long ones. I still need to figure out when I will do what but with the rowing CTC each month and then some other rowing workouts I hope to get in a hard ride each week - early on will be a Zwift race in ZRL - and then a hard Row and/or Ride.

As I mentioned before my goal is a 14 day cycle to make sure I have 3 days between hard efforts - may have times when the situation leads to a 2 or 4 day easy Zone 2 period but the goal is 3 days. The hard part in this is to make sure when I need to go easy I indeed do so as one of the downfall of my training is venturing into Zone 3 too often. As I get older rest becomes even more important.

So that is where I am at and hope in the next week or two to better lay out a plan and will go over that more in Part 4.

For those of you who row or want to add in rowing here are some resources:

Concept 2 Erg Row - What I think is the best Rower out there
ErgData - Free Software to work with Concept 2
EXR - Zwift like software that works with rower, I use this for some rows
Asensei - Training software with instructor led rows - I use this for more technique based training and to work on pace
Rowtopia - this is a new app that is not out yet but may be interesting when it comes out
List of other apps, some of these are for the SkiErg or BikeErg

Here are link to the first 2 parts:

Races for 2026 - so far