Rowing Training (Winter Off-season)

Hey guys,

      I was just curious as to how i should spend the rest of my winter off-season (approx. two months, the season starts Feb. 23).  I am currently 5'11" 137 lbs, and started rowing last year in the spring, with a PR of 7:40 being much lighter at 128. Lately I have been doing stronglifts 5x5 3 times a week, along with erging (steady state, long and short intervals, etc.) 3-5 times a week to work on getting my 2k down so i can make the team come late february. But as the weights start to get heavier (squatting 145 5x5), all this rowing and lifting together is becoming rather difficult, especially on my legs. I have a feeling I will have to reduce one of the two, lifting or erging. My question is which? Should I lift more, row less and eat plenty to try and gain some mass before the season (since im still a good distance from the lightweight limit of 155), or lift 2 times a week and row the same or more? or any other ideas? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you

thanks a lot for the advice 

Hey there,

So I rowed for 2 years in college and although it's been a few years since then, I still have some knowledge you may use. I would definitely stick with erging, because that way you can train for the split that you want. Example, I PR'd on my 2K at 1:36 split, I had been training at 1:38/1:40 split. I was doing short intervals, but high volume. An example of a workout that I would do would look something like this:
1st interval: 1:38/500 for 250m, pace 28 or 32 SPM
Rest/easy rowing: 30 to 60 seconds
Repeat until I had done at least 10 or more intervals. 

As you get better at holding your ideal split at the shorter distances, you increase the distance and decrease the intervals.

Hope this helps bud.