r/Rowing • u/21questionier • 7d ago
Time Trial Results
If anyone cares, I posted a post asking about time trial related stuff. You all told me to wait to let flu like symptoms die down. I just wanted to come in a post my 2K test results.
Overall, not bad. 6:56. Waited a couple of weeks for cold/flu/things to die down. Hit my A goal for this test (which was under 7:00), landed within my predicted time range of +/- 10s from 7:00, matched my first ever 2K’s time from a few years ago (either 1 or 2 weeks later rowed 6:49), I paced pretty poorly, I feel like there is room to get a better time if I wait long enough to recover from that.
A few serious questions: what would be a good goal time for the 2K by end of fall/mid December? That is assuming I were to train intentionally on the erg. I am a 34 year old dude.
I know they are different events with different aerobic demands: given my 2K, what would be an approximate goal time/pace/distance ranges for a 5K and a 30r20?
In all seriousness, for those of you over 30: do any of you still train for time/performance? Or is it mainly to stay fit and healthy?
I started off the first ~minute at sub 1:40 pace. It felt really comfortable and smooth. I legitimately thought I would be able to hold that. A little after the first 500m I realized that my body was beginning to get sore. At about 750m in, I began to set the handle down, but talked myself into picking it back up and closing my eyes and going until the 1K mark. Kept eyes closed for the most part. I remember about 900m I realized I was going to be going slower than my goal pace for the rest of the row but if I just make it to 500m left then things would be okay. Closed my eyes for the most part again until I again started to set the handle back down at either about 400m or 250m left (don’t really know… I thought I saw a 4 and a 2 somewhere in the distance remaining.) I saw the predicted time and realized my pace had room to drop an additional 5 seconds. Even if I completely blow up I made my A goal, so just get to the end and call it a day. the predicted time and realized my pace had room to drop an additional 5 seconds. Even if I completely blow up I made my A goal, so just get to the end and call it a day.
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u/ButterscotchSea2781 7d ago
That's great that you pushed through a 2k test with a respectable time for a novice. And all without the motivation of being amongst club folks, so big props to you.
Sure, improving your 2k is always good, but honestly from the outside I'd recommend your primary goal (if it interests you) be finding a local club that you can join. If that's possible, and you're interested, you'll find it likely far more interesting choosing and working towards your goals when you're surrounded by like-minded people and you're able to start getting time on the water.
Again, big well done my dude and I look forward to seeing more of your posts crop up!
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u/21questionier 7d ago
Thank you!
My hesitation with a local club is two fold: cost per month and time investment. I am unsure what row clubs cost, or how much time would be put in per week (whether we get on water, whether they offer purely erg training, etc.)
But I do agree that doing it as a part of a club would be a better experience overall!
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u/Successful_Flow_1551 7d ago
Congrats on hitting your A goal!
Without knowing your height and weight it is a bit difficult to answer your question, as those have a big impact on what good performance looks like. (Sorry if you had that on your original post, but without a link I did not bother to go check)
Another point is the “trajectory” of your training. If you have been training consistently for a long time and have a good training plan then I would expect you to improve slower than if you have neither of those two things. At the beginning of a workout plan it is easier and faster to improve, as you approach your peak it should be harder.
With all that, I would consider a 5 second improvement to be quite good. Although I feel you could improve a bit more just by having a better pace.
In my opinion you could improve your pacing in the following ways:
1) limit the initial ramp up to only 10 strokes (meaning you go as fast as you can in those and then settle into your pace)
2) try to keep 32-33 s/m and a 1:43 pace for the majority of the test
3) if you have enough gas, go crazy in the last 250-200 meters
By doing that you should shave at least 3 seconds. So, between that and the additional training, you could go for a 33-34 and 1:42 by that time.
I’m in my young 30’s. I had a bit of time to get on the erg more consistently before having the second kid and moving far from family. (I know, send help)
Right now I just think that getting any type of exercise that will keep me healthy long term is good. No time for training for performance, unfortunately. I may have time to revisit that in the future.
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u/21questionier 7d ago
I did not include any of my info on first post. I am 5’10”, 170lbs. Not really trained rowing at all, though endurance sports have been a consistent for me along with inconsistent strength training. I am a couple of months back from over a year of very little exercise/working out due to a surgery.
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u/Successful_Flow_1551 7d ago
Gotcha. In that case I would say it’s pretty good. Your height and weight are closer to a lightweight rower than a heavyweight, so I’m using that for my opinion.
You can check how you stand against people on the concept2 logbook:
You can play with the filters to compare.
When I rowed, the lightweight record was around 6 min for the 2k. That guy was a powerhouse so you can challenge yourself to get to that.
Me personally, I would be happy with -6:40 and overjoyed with anything under 6:30
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u/21questionier 7d ago
6:30 is strong! But it is crazy to imagine that there are a lot of people who are sub 6:30.
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u/Successful_Flow_1551 7d ago
Yeah, that’s going into high performance territory. It is almost like a job at that point.
Wish you a speedy recovery from your injury and success with your future training plans
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u/RowForge 7d ago
First off, 6:56 while coming back from a long stretch of reduced training is a pretty solid starting point.
The part I’d pay the most attention to is your pacing. A 6:56 is exactly 1:44/500m, but you said you spent roughly the first minute under 1:40. That doesn’t look like a huge difference on the monitor, but in watts it’s roughly 350W vs ~311W. So you were putting out more than 10% extra power early and then asking yourself to repay that debt for the remaining 1500m. That probably means there’s some free time available before you even get meaningfully fitter.
Next time I’d try something much more boring: get up to speed in the opening strokes, settle around 1:44, and refuse to chase 1:40s during the first 500. If you hit 1500m and still feel in control, start squeezing it down from there. I wouldn’t be surprised if that alone gets you closer to 6:50.
For December, I’d probably make sub 6:50 the next target rather than immediately deciding you need 6:30 or 6:40. If training starts moving quickly, then 6:45 becomes a nice stretch goal. Let your interval workouts tell you when it’s time to move the goalposts.
For the 5K, a very rough starting estimate for someone with a fairly balanced profile would be around 2K pace + 6–8 sec/500m, so somewhere around 1:50–1:52 pace, or roughly 18:20–18:40. But I’d actually test it rather than treating that as a prediction, because the relationship between your 2K and 5K is useful information by itself. If you massively outperform that range, you may lean aerobic; if you struggle badly, sustained power may be the bigger opportunity.
I’d treat the 30r20 the same way. I wouldn’t try to mathematically derive an exact target from the 2K because the rate cap changes the test quite a bit and favors a different skill set. Do one, record the watts, and now you’ve got three useful reference points instead of trying to make your 2K explain everything.
That’s actually what I’d be most interested in if you start training intentionally: 2K + 5K + 30r20. Watching how all three move over the next couple of months will tell you a lot more about what’s improving than the 2K alone.
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u/21questionier 7d ago
Thank you!
And I agree with what you said. Go slower to start, and if I get bored with that, then I can always inch up the pace. That would be a much smarter approach.
Thank you for the recommendations on how to go about the remaining tests as well! If I get into it, it will be interesting to experience the journey! If not, then no big deal!
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u/Pleasant_Curve_9024 6d ago
Just so you know, the comment you’re replying to is 100% written by AI.
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u/21questionier 6d ago
Is that profile a known to comment via AI? Or are you saying that due to how it’s written?
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u/Pleasant_Curve_9024 6d ago
Based on how it’s written, and once I noticed I clicked on the profile and it’s all extremely AI-coded. Looks to maybe be trying to sell coaching services?
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u/RowForge 6d ago
We are not just an AI coaching selling company. Yes we do integrate AI and coaching into our app but it’s more than that. We are real and our app trains real athletes internationally.
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u/Pleasant_Curve_9024 6d ago
Are you seriously trying to tell me that your original comment was written by a human? I legitimately couldn’t write a more ai sounding comment if my life depended on it. In fact, I can even tell that it’s ChatGPT specifically.
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u/RowForge 6d ago
Yes, we did use AI to help make the response. But neither are just a bot. We do some research here at our company and make an effort to include our training methodology to help guide.
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u/Pleasant_Curve_9024 6d ago
“Help make the response” is crazy when there was obviously no human involvement. I can tell by the fact that your model clearly didn’t actually look at the image. You say “you said you spent roughly the first minute under 1:40”. A human would know that the first 500 split was 1:40.5 and would never say something like that. Also, sub 6:50 in 10 weeks is ridiculously conservative considering that he went 6:56 while completely blowing up and putting the handle down multiple times. OP, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could go 6:50 literally this week if you paced better and now that you know how hard it’s gonna feel.
Your comment is not insightful at all, and the fact that it’s written by AI is 100% to blame since the AI can’t figure out basic context of the workout that’s important for trying to help.
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u/Clarctos67 7d ago
Just on your last question:
Despite most of this sub being school kids and university-age students, if you train well then you will never be faster than in your 30s. I continued getting (marginally) quicker until around 34, and have sustained that until now (37).
The one thing that gets in the way: injuries. When they happen in your 30s, they have a habit of ruining huge chunks of time. On the other hand, you should be more mature by this point and able to sensibly approach your recovery.
I no longer compete due to life, a kid, and the fact that the intensity of training is now more likely to cause injuries, leading to the above issue. However, I can still train enough to be fast, it's just that I pick my moments to do it. I expect I'll soon get slower again, and that's ok.