Andy Shirley on the Crossfit boards pointed to these fantastic rowing workouts for rugby players with great crossover to all field sports. The Rugby Training Guide (PDF) is the big one. See if these two passages grab you, no matter what your sport:

A rugby player needs to produce a top performance almost every Saturday of the season. They cannot afford to relax their fitness preparation; if they do the game could be lost and the season with it. So how is it possible for players to produce this top performance week in, week out? In truth, it is not. However, by training smart a player will include the correct balance of training, recovery and relaxation, which will enable him to arrive for games in optimal condition.

[snip]

Physiologically, rugby players have to perform intermittent high intensity and low intensity work during phases of play and throughout the game. This demands high levels of anaerobic and aerobic endurance. Phases of play can vary from 10 seconds to over three minutes so conditioning will be geared to cope with the maximum demands. The high-speed modern game demands that players of all positions are capable of producing high power high strength movements in extreme physical situations. Whilst all players will require a highly efficient aerobic component of their fitness to encourage speedy recovery from maximal efforts...

Then there's these bits on "Why Rowing?":

In England's preparation for the World Cup Martin Johnson's injury history meant he only did one session a day on his feet. Most of his aerobic work was done on a Concept 2 rowing machine.

Games players need whole body aerobic fitness, not just individual muscle fitness, to perform. To raise the aerobic fitness level the entire body should be exercised and exercise on the Indoor Rower uses both upper and lower body muscles, therefore recruiting a very large muscle mass.

If the statement that "aerobic fitness underpins the whole performance" is true then it would make sense to follow the training programme of a rower. Rowers are generally recognised as athletes with amongst the greatest aerobic capacity. This is achieved with no risk of injury through impact, as training is weight supported and non-contact. A slightly modified programme currently used by rowers in preparation for their competitions would meet all the physical requirements of ball players.

There are very few training activities than can produce a high intensity upper body workout, involve the strongest muscles in the body, the legs, and raise the heart rate to cause almost immediate fatigue. These are the requirements and demands of a rugby player. They can be achieved by using a Concept 2 rowing machine.

That's all just preamble though. Where the guide shines is in it's programs, and I love that they include benchmarks. Always good to have a target! « via CrossFit Forums »

1. 135 lbs. on the overhead/military/shoulder press (whatever you call the thing that's harder than a push press or a push jerk). I'm particularly happy about this because I can now just leave a set of 45s on the bar all the time. Hooray for laziness. :-)
2. Broke 1:30 on the C2 500m row. Specifically, 1:29.6. Owwwww. I never want to do that again; the 1.4 seconds I needed came really hard. I think deadlifting, even though I'm fairly new to it, helped with this one. More power in each stroke. Also, this workout of mine may have helped, as it really gets you pulling hard.

The 500m reminded me of a really weird symptom I get when I really push myself to the brink: my teeth feel weird. Like a numb ache. Very unpleasant. Lasted for like 20 minutes after this effort. It's probably a heart attack warning sign, or something.

Okay, that's more than enough about me.

Here's a workout I've tried a couple times now that I like. I apologize, but it does call for a C2 rower, although you could simulate the fatigue with a 20-second all out exercise bike sprint (on a Schwinn Airdyne would be even better). Still, your gym may have a C2. Check the dusty, unused corner of the gym reserved for pieces of equipment that cause real misery.

Anyway, the workout probably doesn't seem like much (and maybe it's just that my off-season conditioning slide is worse than I thought):

• 100 meter sprint on the C2 (I do it in 18 seconds)
• 10 max. speed/jump burpees
• Rest as long as you want
• Repeat 10 times (I only did 5 today)

By round three I could feel the burn in my legs, and round five was pretty darn uncomfortable. Surprising, given how much rest I was allowing myself. I think what made it so hard was giving a true maximum effort. I can't pull 100 meters any harder, and on the burpees I made a concerted effort to (a) do them as fast as possible and, this is key, (b) jump as high as possible with each jump.

I don't know if you're like me, but when I do burpees I tend to short-change the jump in favor of getting the reps done faster (after all, more time in the air hurts your reps/minute). Burpees with a max. effort jump torch the legs in a hurry (and they are already fatigued from the C2 sprint).

Anyway, give it a shot, report back!

If you have access to a rower, here's a workout I run through when I'm strapped for time. With 30 seconds rest between each interval, row:

100m
200m
300m
400m
500m
400m
300m
200m
100m

Last time I set an average 500m pace of 1:43. I think I can do better, but that was a pretty good workout.

It's a bonus if you can set up this workout on a C2 rower, as you can program the distances and the rest intervals into the monitor, and it forces you to be honest on the rest time. Once the rest is over, the clock starts ticking on your interval time, and any time spent dead in the "water" REALLY hurts your average.

It's been awhile since I posted a workout of the day. From this afternoon:

• Tabata jump rope (20 seconds sprint, 10 seconds rest, repeat 8 times).
• Rest one minute.
• 500m sprint on the C2 rower. Finished in 1:34. My record is 1:31, so didn't feel too upset, given I don't usually do Tabatas first. Three seconds is an eternity though. Every second is precious in the 500. You'd think I'd be able to shave off 0:02 and get under 1:30. Not yet.
• Waited for the blood roaring in my ears to subside, and for my legs to stop quivering. Five minutes, maybe?
• Tabata NordicTrack: See above. Only managed six rounds. Hated myself. Pride is fleeting, shame endures.
• Rest. Three minutes?
• 100 sledgehammer swings for time (10 lb. sledge, striking tire). 3:15. Wanted to break 3 minutes. Alas. Weakling.

Could have been worse, but could have been much better. Still, it was hard, so it was good. I'll do some hard running tomorrow, pickup Sunday, then just hone a bit next week and get fresh for Regionals next weekend.

Can't. Wait.

Two more excellent Angela Hart videos linked to from Crossfit WODs: Common Rowing Flaws and Rowing Technique Refinements. Putting your weight into it is a particularly valuable tip, I think.

Crossfit hosts two interesting rowing videos featuring Angela Hart: Tabata Wattage Rowing and Row Stroke Rating. The wattage video seemed like more of a warmup than a workout, but the stroke rating video was very illuminating. It perfectly illustrates how the problems with my times (and maybe yours) might be aided by reducing my stroke rate.

As long as we're on the subject of rowing, I just found this terrific PDF (1.7MB) on correcting common technique mistakes: Common Mistakes in Rowers' Techniques and Remedies Therefore. The diagrams assume you're in a boat rather than on an erg, but all the info still applies (except perhaps some of the oar technique stuff). At least, I think it still applies, but keep in mind I know nothing about rowing.

A little over a month ago I tried a 500m sprint on the C2 rower. Since then the Crossfit thread that prompted me to try this in the first place has grown to mammoth proportions. Folks seem to agree that setting the damper to 10 is the way to go for benchmark purposes, so I finally gave it a go. Again, I love that you can set the monitor to show you your 500m pace for each stroke (i.e. how long it would take if all your strokes were like the current stroke). I wanted to break 1:30, and was rowing a 1:24 pace for the first 50 seconds before hitting a wall. It was all I could do to finish. Still, I just barely missed it, 1:30.5. Half a second! Damn!

I stood up afterward and could immediately tell I didn't have a drop of glycogen left in any muscles, anywhere. Almost fell over. My throat was even sore from the breathing (gasping) and grunting (groaning) involved. The best 90-second workout (give or take half-a-second) you're likely to find. Try it sometime.

Inspired by this 500 Meter Rowing Time Crossfit thread, I had to give it a go. I was pretty pleased with my 1:37 time (barely keeping my lungs in my chest towards the end) until I started reading up on the C2 drag factor. Sounds like for this distance setting the damper at 10 is as close as we have to a standard. Mine was set on 3. Dang. Not sure how much harder 10's going to be, but I'll try it next week.

One of the nice things about this particular distance is the C2 display shows you the 500 split pace you are currently rowing. You get feedback on each stroke what your time is going to look like if you keep pulling the way you are. As fatigue set in I'm sure I would have slacked if the meter didn't make it painfully apparent I couldn't afford to slack if I wanted to beat 1:40.

It's a bit vague in spots, but More Research on the Aerobic Benefit of Sprinting nicely sums up why I've completely eliminated anything remotely resembling long distance work from my training. Why sacrifice speed and power with no upside? Personally, I need every bit of speed and power I can eek out. I do wish I knew how much rest the sprinting group took between sprints, and whether the numbers are reversed in that table, but you get the gist of it.

So as you probably know by now, this is why Tabata Intervals are the backbone of my training regimen. For anecdotal evidence of the protocol's broad applicability, scroll down the third success story on this Clarance Bass page, titled "Tabata Protocol Produces PR Rowing from 500- to 10,000-Meters". « via CrossFit »

Caught this in the Concept II newsletter: 23,000 Watts in 120 Seconds. Forty rowers had two minutes to generate enough electricity to move an electrical transporter bridge from one side of the Kiel Canal to the other. To succeed, each rower needed to average 575 watts (~1:23/500m). In other words, two minutes of hell. To give you an idea of what circle of hell we're talking about, you can search Concept II world records for 500m races here. This was for a German game show.