No matter what time of the year, the Iowa rowing team works hard. And when the rowers aren’t competing, they have quite a hefty list of off-season exercises to help them stay in condition.

The workouts include running, training on rowing machines, and as soon as the new boathouse is finished next week, the team will have a rowing tank to use.

However, Iowa head coach Mandi Kowal likes her rowers to be able to work on the water more than anything else.

“Primarily, we try to get on the water as much as possible,” she said. “But [we] use some of the other training activities, meaning running, weightlifting, rowing machines. On a rare occasion in season, we do swimming.”

In the fall, Kowal wants her team on the water six days a week, practicing for three days in small boats and three days in big boats.

On average, workouts last around two hours a day, and rowers also lift weights on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In the winter, the team works out on the rowing machines.

Kowal admits that each workout has its own positives and negatives, but once the boathouse is finally completed, there will be many more positives that could help the team continue to improve its place in the Big Ten championships come May.

Last year, Iowa finished fifth; it came in sixth in 2007.

“When you’re in the water, you have to deal with the balance and rowing with eight other people,” she said. “On the rowing machines, you can row independently. In the boat, you’re trying to do the timing of the oars, and you don’t have that on the rowing machine.

“In the tank, you’ll have that, but it’s just a much different feeling when you don’t have the balance component.”

Iowa junior Megan Erickson believes the workouts are a big help.

“In season, we do a lot of on-the-water work to improve our technique and to improve our aerobic base,” she said. “We also row on stationary rowing machines, which are also used for technique and to improve our aerobic base. We also work with a strength coach, so we lift weights three times a week.”

Having an aerobic base is crucial to having a fast boat, she said, and improving technique and weightlifting are just as important as being on the water.

Kowal said the workouts get a little tougher in the off-season because of a NCAA rule that only allows eight hours of practice per week when teams aren’t competing.

In the summer, she types up a workout list that the rowers can do on their own. The rowing machines are among the most important workouts, she said, because the machines can be set for time or distance and record the stroke rate and the speed per stroke.

“We train to win,” Erickson said. “Our ultimate goal is to win every race we attend, so that’s how hard we train.”