Concept2 Forum

The last time I posted, I was pulling a 2K in about 8 minutes - not great. (I'm a 31-year-old male trying to break 7 minutes).

My most recent effort was a 7:13.4 (1:48.3 split), with 500m splits at 1:48.0 (26 spm), 1:48.5 (24 spm), 1:51.9 (24 spm), and 1:45.0 (26 spm). What sort of conditioning should I work on? My amateurish guess is that I need to work on general race pace. I was trying to keep an even pace the entire piece, but I clearly failed at that effort...

Any pointers are welcome.

mrpeepers wrote:The last time I posted, I was pulling a 2K in about 8 minutes - not great. (I'm a 31-year-old male trying to break 7 minutes).

My most recent effort was a 7:13.4 (1:48.3 split), with 500m splits at 1:48.0 (26 spm), 1:48.5 (24 spm), 1:51.9 (24 spm), and 1:45.0 (26 spm). What sort of conditioning should I work on? My amateurish guess is that I need to work on general race pace. I was trying to keep an even pace the entire piece, but I clearly failed at that effort...

Any pointers are welcome.

24-26 is a very low stroke rate for 2k, unless you are unusually tall and long limbed. Most ergers have rates in the 30-40spm range for the 2k.

Bob S.

Yeah, I think you're right. How do I train in a way that increases my lactate tolerance at higher stroke rates?

The word of the day is "Intervals"

If you want to train yourself to row at a faster rate (and with faster splits), you need to do interval based training.

Try these workouts

8 x 500m with 3:30 rest between reps
4 x 1000m with 5:00 between reps

For the 8x500m aim to do them at your 2K pace, but increase your stroke rate up to 34
For the 4 x 1000m try them about 3 or 4 seconds slower than your 2K time and try to maintain a rate of 32 (at least)

In both cases try to maintain a constant split for all reps and t hen go as fast as you can on the last one. If it feels too easy, you can go faster the next time you try the workout.

These workouts are supposed to be very demanding, and should not be done very often. Maybe once or twice a week tops.

Good luck. Give these a try and if you like them keep doing them. If you are pulling a 7:13 at 25SPM, you'll break 7 minutes after just a couple of weeks of speed work. Then you'll have to figure some new goals.

What sort of conditioning should I work on?

A lot depends on your height. If you are tall and have good technique, as suggested by your low ratings, 7 minutes is not a difficult target at age 31. All you need in this case is more endurance, as also suggested by your slowdown in the third quarter.

However that slowdown and the low ratings can be indicative of too much handle force. In this case, make sure the drag is not too high, as this will stop you using a full length quick stroke. A quick way to adjust drag is to set it to zero, then increase slightly until you catch the flywheel reasonably soon; the catch must be fast and the strokes full length, doing as much work as possible in the first half of the stroke with the legs.

In general, work to be done is 85-90% of km just below AT, and the rest well above. Total 40-50k per week, more if you like, less when you get near a test. See the Interactive 2k (C2 UK) for more details. All plus warm-up.

Your pacing was good as to intentions, but something went wrong. To see what good pacing is, combined with the necessary perfect technique and phenomenal endurance, see Xeno's Atlanta Olympics 1x final.

If i where you i would do three 10k's a week, while keeping your heart rate under 165. Supplement that with 5x500 with 2 min rest and 10x250 with 1 min rest. Finish that off with two lifting sessions. A good training split would look like
Monday- 10k
Tuesday- lifting and 10x250
Wednesday- off
Thursday- 10k
Friday- lifting and 5x500
Saturday- 10k
Sunday- off
This program is fairly intense and should help you build cardio and power, which will allow you to row at a higher rating (30-32). On the intervals focus on high rating and on the steady state focus on technique.

Thanks for the suggestions, all. It sounds to me like there are a couple points of consistency here: high volume and 1 or 2 high-intensity, high-rate interval workouts. Why is there not a middle range in there, i.e., 6-minute pieces or 10-minute pieces?

mrpeepers wrote:Thanks for the suggestions, all. It sounds to me like there are a couple points of consistency here: high volume and 1 or 2 high-intensity, high-rate interval workouts. Why is there not a middle range in there, i.e., 6-minute pieces or 10-minute pieces?

Intervals can be 6 minutes and more. These are 2 days out of the 18 of the simplified Pete Plan, which runs for 3 weeks at 6X a week.

4 x 2K 5:00 rest ≈2K+5

3K/2.5K/2K 5:00 rest ≈2K+5

There are very few that could do the 4 x 2k at less than 6' each and the 3k would take over 9' for almost everyone. For most it would be 10' or more.

Bob S.

P.S. I believe that these are termed endurance intervals. There is a third one of these, which are scheduled on the 4th day of each week. That one is 5 x 1500m 5:00 rest ≈2K+5 and is scheduled for the 2nd week, with the other 2 in the 1st and 3rd weeks respectively. Even 1500m pieces take more than 6' for old gaffers like me, but for most young guys they are probably done under 5:30.

Just wanted to report in. A few weeks ago I took another 2K and cracked 7:00, so thanks to all who gave me suggestions. I especially liked the 34-spm 500m intervals. Those really did the trick, I think. Thanks again.

kbaktidy95@gmail.com wrote:If i where you i would do three 10k's a week, while keeping your heart rate under 165. Supplement that with 5x500 with 2 min rest and 10x250 with 1 min rest. Finish that off with two lifting sessions. A good training split would look like
Monday- 10k
Tuesday- lifting and 10x250
Wednesday- off
Thursday- 10k
Friday- lifting and 5x500
Saturday- 10k
Sunday- off
This program is fairly intense and should help you build cardio and power, which will allow you to row at a higher rating (30-32). On the intervals focus on high rating and on the steady state focus on technique.

How hard are you doing those 10k's?

mrpeepers wrote:Just wanted to report in. A few weeks ago I took another 2K and cracked 7:00, so thanks to all who gave me suggestions. I especially liked the 34-spm 500m intervals. Those really did the trick, I think. Thanks again.

congratulations!!