8-week rowing threshold plan
For rowers who want to hold a faster pace for longer. Two hard sessions a week — threshold repeats and short intervals — with easy rows in between so you arrive at each hard day ready to work.
- Duration
- 8 weeks
- Sessions
- 32
- Total rowing
- 20.3 h
- Frequency
- 4× a week
The first session is an 8-minute calibration: three rising stroke-rate steps. Roowy uses it to set your stroke-rate targets and resistance for the rest of the plan.
- warm-up
- work
- recovery
- cool-down
Week 1
| Session | Intensity | Resistance | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calibration 8 min | Hard | 50–70% | |
| Easy 40 min | Easy | 35% | |
| Intervals 36 min | Hard | 80% | |
| Base 40 min | Steady | 50% |
Week 2
| Session | Intensity | Resistance | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold 36 min | Threshold | 68% | |
| Easy 43 min | Easy | 35% | |
| Intervals 39 min | Hard | 80% | |
| Base 43 min | Steady | 50% |
Week 3
| Session | Intensity | Resistance | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold 42 min | Threshold | 68% | |
| Easy 46 min | Easy | 35% | |
| Intervals 43 min | Hard | 80% | |
| Base 46 min | Steady | 50% |
Week 4lighter week
| Session | Intensity | Resistance | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold 24 min | Threshold | 68% | |
| Easy 28 min | Easy | 35% | |
| Intervals 25 min | Hard | 80% | |
| Base 28 min | Steady | 50% |
Week 5
| Session | Intensity | Resistance | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold 42 min | Threshold | 68% | |
| Easy 44 min | Easy | 35% | |
| Intervals 43 min | Hard | 80% | |
| Base 44 min | Steady | 50% |
Week 6
| Session | Intensity | Resistance | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold 42 min | Threshold | 68% | |
| Easy 47 min | Easy | 35% | |
| Intervals 43 min | Hard | 80% | |
| Base 47 min | Steady | 50% |
Week 7
| Session | Intensity | Resistance | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold 48 min | Threshold | 68% | |
| Easy 50 min | Easy | 35% | |
| Intervals 46 min | Hard | 80% | |
| Base 50 min | Steady | 50% |
Week 8lighter week
| Session | Intensity | Resistance | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold 24 min | Threshold | 68% | |
| Easy 28 min | Easy | 35% | |
| Intervals 25 min | Hard | 80% | |
| Base 28 min | Steady | 50% |
Resistance is in % of your rower’s range — 0% is its lightest setting, 100% its heaviest. Numbers here assume the level you picked; in the app they adjust after calibration.
Why mostly easy?
About 80% of the sessions are easy (UT2, UT1) and about 20% are hard. This polarised split is how endurance athletes have trained for decades: the easy volume builds the engine, the few hard sessions sharpen it, and you recover in between. Every fourth week is lighter so the progress sticks.
Intensity levels and stroke rate
| Easy | UT2 | conversational | 18–22 SPM |
| Steady | UT1 | focused | 22–24 SPM |
| Threshold | AT | hard but sustainable | 24–28 SPM |
| Hard | TR | intervals, very hard | 28–32 SPM |
Typical ranges. Roowy anchors them to your own threshold from calibration and to your machine — some magnetic rowers don’t count strokes below ~22 SPM, so the exact numbers appear in the workout, not in the plan.