Put the Lighter Week in Your Winter Erg Plan

I'd put a lighter week into the winter erg programme before adding more metres. Write it down while you're planning, rather than assuming you'll back off when you need to. It's quite easy to leave that decision until the next session is already suffering.

The starting point has to be what you're doing now. A weekly distance can look perfectly reasonable on paper and still be a big jump from your normal training. And making smaller increases doesn't guarantee you'll recover from them either. You don't have to add distance every week.

I think that's where the plan can become something you're trying to complete rather than something that's helping you train. More metres look like progress. Well, they are more work, but whether that work is useful depends on how you're managing it.

Anyway, I'd keep coming back to what the steady rowing actually feels like. You should be doing some work, but you should still be able to talk without gasping. If you're consistently getting off the rowing machine exhausted and carrying that into the next session, I wouldn't keep adding metres because there's a bigger number in the programme.

That needs changing.

When you write the opening weeks, mark out a lighter week early in the block and give it a lower distance. An actual reduction from your usual workload, not a slightly smaller version of a target you weren't ready for anyway. The amount needs to make sense against the training you're already doing.

And if the current volume is enough, leave it there. There's no requirement to make the following week bigger.

I'd rather decide on that reduction while looking at the whole block than leave an empty box and trust myself to feel sensible when I get there.