I am a former university/national team rower who is thinking of making the switch. I still row and did my first try a tri last summer.
I ran in high school and have been riding for a while, but the swimming intimidates me. Never been a great swimmer… any other rowers on the boards who have made the switch/cross train with tri? any tips for switching over? any comparisons to erging?
Yeah, I made the switch… I actually was in a similar situation, good on the run/bike, but bad at the swim. I’ll admit, took me a couple of years (about 4) before I was posting competitive race times, but then again I didn’t start focusing on good technique til I’d been doing it about 3.5 years.
Compared to an erg??? UGH. Nothing I can think of in any race i’ve done compares to the utter despair of a 2k. If you’re pull a sub-5 min, you’ll think everything you do in tri is cake.
If you really miss the erg though, they make the Vasa Swim ergometer, which is KIND of similar 
Compared to an erg??? UGH. Nothing I can think of in any race i’ve done compares to the utter despair of a 2k. If you’re pull a sub-5 min, you’ll think everything you do in tri is cake.
If one pulled a sub-5min 2k, it is unlikely one would be screwing around on ST.
hahahaha i’m sorry, I meant sub 6 (meaing in the 5 minute range).
Yeah, if he could pull a sub 5, he’d be um, not human.
There’s a lot of former rowers on here. Im sure all the american rowers will chime in about the horrors of erging. I personally don’t ‘get’ the horrors, it’s just an exercise machine like any other.
Your background is the same as mine and SOs. Tips for switching over:
- swim a lot the first year and get a good swim coach from the beginning. My switch to swimming went well, but SO and a couple other former rowers we know really struggled, tried to muscle their way through the water. Swimming is like good sculling technique- unless you learn to relax you will never catch or glide properly. If youre marginally proficient at running and riding now you should have no problem with making the switch with those two.
- Join a club, masters swim or find some buddies to train with- unless you were really into 1x sculling, you may miss the motivation of training with others, plus the learning curve is much higher if you hang out with people who know what they’re doing.
- Last tip: try not to self-destruct and get by on ‘rowing fitness’ (ie do 2.5hr runs without running miles in your legs; doing workouts in your first year too hard- remember you have the ‘lungs’ but your ligaments and muscles are not used to the new patterns of activation)
Enjoy!
Ziva
Former rower here, and lots of others about as best as I can tell. Tri is a good outlet for any former college endurance athletes. As for ergs, I agree with IKnowEverything, nothing in tri beats that for pure hell. When I think of that erg that kris korzeniowski used to tote around in the mid 80’s I just shudder. . .
I made the switch after 10 years of competitive rowing. With a cross-country background I had no problem with the run. I picked up biking pretty quick to the point where it’s nearly equal to my run. I find biking to be fairly ergometer-like since it’s about raw power output with comparatively little technical stuff to worry about.
Yes, the swim is rough. Going in I thought that my rowing background would give me a “feel for the water” - good understanding of catching and holding onto water, accelerating through the stroke, etc. Total bollocks. I struggled just like any other novice. It’s starting to come around now, after about 18 months, to the point where I feel vaguely competitive in the water, and can get onto the bike with the people I’m trying to compete with still in striking distance. Just be prepared for a big dose of humility if you don’t have a swim background.
On the other hand I know a past Olympic rower who’s a tremendous swimmer - on par with good pro triathletes. But I think he had junior swimming experience.
In general, though I find triathlon to be more enjoyable than rowing, mostly because of the freedom to train in a much wider variety of places, with a wider variety of people, and with an awesome array of races to choose from.
You guys must be heavyweights…lightweights rule!!!
I still have an erg, but everytime I use it, it brings back painful memories.
Can anybody suggest some erg workouts that would be good to use when I don’t feel like swimming, biking or running?
another heavyweight here.
I ran/swam in high school- I was a mediocre runner, and a mediocre swimmer (only swam one season)- then hopped on the club crew team in college, pulled a 6:30 in my first 2k about a month after i started, so i stuck with it.
Even after running for… 6 seasons in high school, I still feel more comfortable in the swim. The lat’s i built while swimming, only got stronger as a rower, and now they help me swim pretty damn well without any practice. As far as bodytype goes, other than the fact that heavyweights are almost all clydesdales, I think it should be an easy switch. huge flexibilty, strong back, strong legs… just gotta transfer the row fitness to run fitness- biking should be easy.
If you have a trainer, I see a pretty equal comparison to erging. I used to be able to zone out on the erg, seeing nothing but the 6 or so numbers that the display was giving me… the whole time i’d be running numbers through my head, extrapolating finishing times/splits… a trainer with power and HR has got to be almost exactly the same. The only thing that I couldnt see being similar is if you wanted to do power 10s or 500s, I dont think i’ve ever exerted that kind of power on my bike, but in a boat or on the erg, i’d regularly try my damndest to break the oar/rip out the chain.
I’d say you’ll be fine. they’re both great for
-maintaining sick total body fitness
-waking up at ungodly hours
-blowing thousands and thousands of dollars
-laughing/mocking people improperly using your equipment
-maintaining that competetiveness in everyday life (ie, trying to walk faster than every stranger you see on the sidewalk, etc)
its a natural progression, and you dont need 7 other dudes, and a really small dude to do it.
plus theres nobody else to blame for your failures. its all on you
Yeah I’ve got an old model B. Wooden clogs, no fan cage, the display doesn’t work very well and some times starts counting backwards and is twice as loud as my trainer but you’ve got to love it.
J
Ok, so my question is: who here was/is a heavyweight, and who is/was a lightweight?
Definitely the prototypical heavyweight, 6’4", 210-215 lbs
I took a year off from any training/rowing training/racing last year and got back into training by entering a try a tri (the loaring tri, a great race, raises money for breast cancer research near Windsor, Ontario). after a week or so of training, i placed second in the try a tri, only came second because i couldn’t find my shoes in transition… got passed and never caught up on the run. definitely was a noob, although i looked a little pro, as i raced in my rowing uni, which looks like a speed suit
Ok, so my question is: who here was/is a heavyweight, and who is/was a lightweight?
I was a lightweight in college (at 6’0" and 160 lbs) and am sad to say I have begun my 40s as a Clydesdale…
BTW this thread may have broke the record for fastest degradation of any conversation involving the word “rowing” into some Monty Python-esque litany of the horrors/pain/whatever of erging in HS/college/whatever…alright, we get it, rowing is hard…now HTFU and move along!
Ahem, rant concluded.
Cheers,
Paul
Ya, I’m a rower, but not the sissy boats you row up and down in a flat water channel. Here is a real mans boat, the 300+ lb Dory. No keel, flat false bottom so you can tip over in the 8 ft surf, and recover and keep going. No sliding seats, and oars made out of old pole vault poles, and hand turned wood blades. I’ve rowed these things in huge surf, with only your oars to steer the boat, and your weight shifting to dip a rail. I’ve also rowed it across the Catalina channel many times(26 miles), 4+ hours of pure hell, and all alone in the lifeguard Ironman, where you run, swim, paddle, and then row this tug by yourself for the final leg…Most fun I’ve ever had in a race…
And of all the sports I have done, nothing got me in all around shape better than this sprot, You will transition fine to triathlon, just need to get your swim technique down as soon as possible…
see my signature…
used to say “six five two hundred plus and so sexy” to quote a Gym Class Hero’s song…
graduated high school at 6-5 200, and was really counting on my freshman 15. 6 yrs later, and im up about 3lbs. oh well
The way I saw it, biking is the thing that will come the most naturally, and possibly become your best leg, thanks to the gazillions of squat-like moves you made.
Running can also become a forte due to a strong base, but I have observed that heavyweight did not enjoy themselves running, while destroying the field on an erg. I believe this is the leg where you should focus as a former rower.
If you never swam, then you should focus on technique more than anything at first, you can focus on swimming fitness afterward, since your base should be pretty decent already. I actually do think of rowing while swimming, especially when it comes to get rid of any vertical forces parasiting your stroke, and not lose any water at the catch. Apples and oranges maybe, but similar still.
All in all there is some movement adaptation required, but I believe the nature of rowing training helps greatly to transition to triathlon. Better than golfing for sure, even if Tiger Woods is the toughest man of the year.
Lightweight.
For me, cycling and rowing correlate very well and running and swimming correlate very well. Practice all 4 and you will be the most fit and well rounded athlete imaginable. I am trying to get in the habit of getting back on the erg twice a week to balance out the upper body and to get some of my old low back strength back to help out with long hours in the aerobars.
Now we just need a “quadrathalon” that finishes with a 5k head race. Someone put that together and I will be there.
I’m an ex rower that also made the switch, ( surprise surprise )
when I first got on the bike, power was no issue, endurance was though, and running off the bike? forget it. I would be a twisted mess of cramp after only a mile or two. I was never a strong swimmer to begin with ( still not at 1:10 IM swim) either.
I feel I have lost a lot of outright power since changing codes, but I my endurance is far improved. A 2k erg would probably depress me these days however. No hurry to hop on one anytime soon.
I still have my single though, my stroke has gone to hell, but I still take her out on the river occasionally. Still a very relaxing way to train ( oxymoron?)
My girlfriend and i were talking about organizing a sculler’s triathlon last summer. Replace the swim with a 5k head race, thus turning my weakness (the swim) with a strength. We never got it organized but almost all rowers i know ride bikes and run, so it might take off, at least among rowers who bike and run…
Former rower turned back to triathlon. Former Lightweight (6’2", 135… that’s right)
Wanted to find an outlet at Michigan, started rowing, stopped my sophomore year after pulling a 6:57, and got back to triathlon. My stature didn’t quite mesh with rowing life. I agree with much of the above, but cycling and rowing are very comparable in the monotonous drone of power output. There is certainly no pain in triathlon that compares to the end of the throat burning, muscle destroying 2k, but they aren’t comparable. Different endeavors. If there were a 6 minute triathlon, it would likely hurt just as much.
I imagine any rower has the drive and determination to figure out all that it takes to be good in triathlon. It may take time, but it is probable that you have a hell of a work ethic, and we’ll get there eventually. With swimming, focus on technique, technique, technique. Don’t worry about times until your form is excellent.