Running for Rowers
From GRP rower Alex Spaulding.
Heidi Caldwell has coached hundreds of runners in her life, all bringing different levels of experience, personality and attitude to the table. Though I haven’t heard her say this explicitly, I am confident that this spring brought Heidi her biggest coaching challenge yet - “Running for Rowers.”
Rowing is the epitome of a repetitive sport. We take nearly 2,000 strokes in a given practice, each one made up of a dynamic leg and hip drive followed by a swift follow through of the back and arms, and all tied together with an (ideally) engaged core. The repetitive stress on our hips and backs causes those muscles to tighten up and restrict mobility, which makes us perfect candidates for frequent cross training. Cycling is often our go-to form of cross training as it provides a stable environment for the cranky erector muscles in our backs and also provides a similar power-to-endurance profile we typically use in our training. However, the downfall of biking is the added time in a seated position, thereby contributing further to our hip tightness.
Running is the other main form of cross training we like to utilize, however rather than “running”, it is often referred to as the “rower shuffle” due to the aforementioned hip tightness I referenced earlier. The average gate of a rower often includes minimal surface clearance with each step, and an anterior pelvic tilt caused by tight hip flexors.
We started running clinics with Heidi in late April. The first few weeks toggled between t-shirt weather and parka weather, but no matter the temperature, we were somehow always tripping over our own feet. So, we started with the basics and built from there. Our first “unit” included a runner’s dynamic warm-up with some tricky footwork exercises at the end - this is when we started to let our true colors shine. It took a lot of us asking “Hey Heidi, can you do that again, but slower?” and “Ok, so it’s right foot and left arm lifting at the same time, while the left foot goes forward?”. We rowers are usually very technically focused but don’t spend too much time on our feet, so we had a lot to gain in the coordination category. But as the weeks have passed, we’ve definitely seen a lot of improvement. Our footwork is getting cleaner and our skipping is more dynamic. Even Heidi says it’s been impressive to see how much we have improved over two months! Although we do like to counter her statement by reminding her that it’s easy to improve when you’re starting from ground zero.
Another highlight of our running clinics has been the hurdle drill sequence. Most of the team has said this has been the single most productive piece of all the sessions. Every week, Heidi runs us through a series of hurdle drills which are intended to activate and open our hips. Like the dynamic warm-up, the hurdles were a struggle for us in the beginning, but over time we have seen a huge improvement in both our ability to do the drill as well our hip mobility overall. It has been awesome to see the gains this drill has afforded us in both running and rowing.
Outside the two pillars of our clinics (those being the warm-up and hurdles), Heidi has taken us through a number of educational units. These have included uphill running, downhill running, trail running, and balance drills. These drills have had immediate and obvious impacts in our running, but what has been really special is seeing how much our running curriculum has impacted our performance on the water. The hip mobility has been a big bonus for us in the boat and has been great for injury prevention. Moreover, the focus on athleticism and balance really comes into play in rowing: it has helped us bring more awareness to the movement of the boat underneath us, and improved the athleticism required to row our race pace effectively.
The best lesson I have learned in my eight weeks of running with Heidi is that it’s never too late to make a change, no matter how engrained your habits are. I have been rowing for nine years and often find myself reluctant to make technical changes out of fear for how difficult it would be to change a pattern I’ve cemented over 10 million strokes. The idea that I have been running since I was a young child (albeit not competitively) and was able to completely change the way I run in just eight practices has opened my eyes to all of the opportunities I have to improve my rowing stroke - and that it’s never too late to try something new! Thanks to Heidi for helping me such an important revelation. Here’s to many more like it!
Interested in doing hurdle drills but don’t have access to hurdles? I had to miss the first few weeks of running clinics while I quarantined in Michigan, but tried to make the most of it virtually. See my homemade hurdles here!