Favorite Workout: Erg 30-30’s

If your backyard is covered in snow and you’re looking for a solid indoor workout, look no further. These 30-30’s build strength, stamina, and can be a “fun” way to spend time on an erg. At least it makes the time go by faster than just going steady state. And by erg, I’m talking about any or all of the rowing erg, ski erg, or bike erg. If you do the workout on all 3, that’s what we call the Concept 2 triathlon.

The What

The 30-30’s refer to 30 seconds “on” and then 30 seconds “off”. These are alternating work and rest intervals where you’ll go at your on pace for 30 seconds, then go at an easy pace for 30 seconds, repeating until your set is done.

The pace should be above your threshold pace but below all out. In skiing terminology you could view this as L4- or L3+. If you start going all out in your 30 seconders, you won’t last at that pace through the whole thing. It should be just beyond comfortably difficult. I like to pick a pace that I think I can maintain for the whole workout. So it will feel hard at the end but only medium at the beginning. The 30 seconds of rest should feel long at the beginning and short at the end.

The Why

The short 30 second reps followed by short rest should allow you to go at a higher speed than you otherwise would in longer threshold intervals while maintaining an overall lactate that is around threshold. This can be good for your aerobic capacity and good for technique as it keeps you from getting bogged down.

The Workout

1) Pick the ski erg, rowing erg, or bike erg (or alternate sets between the machines)
2) Warm up for 10-15 minutes with a 3-5 10 second speeds.
3) Do 3x5-10minutes of 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off at L3+ pace. Give yourself 2 minutes of rest between each set.

Tips

This is a workout that you may have to play around with a bit to really dial it in - both for how long your reps are and for your pacing. Try going out at a pace that you think is too fast and then see if you can hold it through the whole workout. One of the beauties of working out on the ergs is that you can see your exact pace the whole time. It’s staring you in the face!