Summer

Question
QUESTION: Hi, I am a sophomore in highschool in my second year of crew and love it. I was wondering about staying in shape over the summer, and was planning on working out 6 days a week. Monday I'd lift and run, Tuesday I would erg, Wednesday lift and run, Thursday erg, Friday lift, Saturday erg, Sunday off. Would this be too much?

ANSWER: Hi Tom: It's an ambitious, yet doable, schedule.  I'd say, every couple weeks use a few benchmarks to monitor your progress, like how much weight you can bench press eight times for your weights, how fast you can run a certain distance, and your 1K (or 2K) erg time.  You want your bench press total to go up and your running and erg time to go down.  If you don't improve, you want to tinker with your routine to get better results.

The only other thing I'd suggest is that the best thing you can do for rowing over the summer is to join a local rowing club that offers a summer on-the-water rowing program.

Good Luck/AP

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Who can I talk to to get onto a summer club on the schuylkill?

Answer
Hi Again, Tom: That's an easy one.  I was born in Philadelphia and of course learned to row at Temple University and spent many summers rowing in clubs.  From 1979 to 1988, I was a member of the Crescent Boat Club.  It is an outstanding club.  Many of the club officers were teammates of mine going back over 30 years ago.  Here is the web site with contact information:

http://www.crescentboatclub.org/contact.htm

The only other club I have experience with is Penn A.C.  They are affiliated with St. Joes prep and offer a strong junior program.  

The others, Undine, Malta, Bachelors and Vesper have youth programs.  I think Vesper is a bit too elitist so I would not make that my first choice.

Ask your coach for recommendation.  He may have friends and associates at these clubs who could get you a tryout in a good boat or even a discounted membership with one of these clubs.

Good Luck/AP