Just a month spring until, eh? Well, given the current temps and snow in much of the country, the erg might be your friend (or frenemy) for a little while longer. This week's winter workout comes from someone who is no stranger to snow and cold. Lynn Hodnett grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and now rows for the University of Minnesota where the ice kept the team at bay last season – they only got 17 rows out of their boathouse on the Mississippi!

row2k: What's your favorite winter workout?

Lynn Hodnett: Personally, my favorite winter workout that we do on a consistent basis is something Wendy [Davis, head coach] calls the Weis Workout [named after Wieslaw Kujda from whom Wendy learned the workout while they were both coaching at Stanford. –ed.]; I may be the only person who would call it a "favorite." It's a 40' erg workout with varying degrees of difficulty and mixes a bunch of different types of workouts into one piece. I set the erg to a single time of 40 total minutes, and the math works out so (in order) the sets take 4 minutes, 6 minutes, 5', 10', 5', 6', and 4', respectively, to complete.

After doing a 10-15 minute warm up, you do the following (rest periods between sets are same as rest within the set):

-4 x 30" on, 30" off at two splits faster than your 2k split

-1 x 5' on, 1' off at three splits slower than your 5k split

-10 x 20" on, 10" off at two splits slower than your 2k split

-1 x 10' at six splits slower than your 5k split (no rest between this and the next set)

-10 x 20" on, 10" off at two splits slower than your 2k split

-1 x 5' on, 1' off at three splits slower than your 5k split

-4 x 30" on, 30" off at two splits faster than your 2k split

Essentially, it's a pyramid workout that incorporates sprint pieces along with hard steady state and all rest is active.

row2k: What about this workout makes it a favorite? 

LH: I like this workout because the mental element is so incredibly important. The last thing you want to do after ten minutes of hard steady state is do some 20 second sprints without any rest. Performing this workout to the best of my ability exercises and strengthens my mental strength for the upcoming 2k tests, and races going into the spring.

row2k: How long have you been doing this workout and who introduced it to you - is it an old favorite or new to your repertoire? 

LH: I've only ever done this workout here at Minnesota, but it reminds me of when we would do 150-meter sprint pieces in high school; I always enjoyed pulling out those bursts of power.

row2k: If you could stay fit during the winter by only doing one type of non-erg cross training, what would it be and why?

LH: If I could stay in shape by doing something other than erging it would be running, though I have a bad knee. I love running along the Mississippi River during the winter since it warms me up, and the scenery is always amazing.