My Rowing Times

[Elifant]

Hello,

I started rowing in the gym on the Concept 2 about a year ago. I am 41 years old and my weight is 130 pounds. I always felt that my times are decent for my age, but got a bit discouraged when I found "reference points" on various rowing websites such as rowinglevel.com. I then found the weight adjusted calculator on the concept 2 website.

Today, I completed 6,000m in 27 min and 52 seconds in the gym. According to the weight adjusted calculator that translate to a 7,058 meter row in 23 min and 42 seconds, if I were rowing on the water. However, I would like to know my "true" 6k time. Does the following work?:

Adjusted time of 23min and 42 seconds = 1,422 total seconds for 7k or 4.963 (7,058/1,422) meters per second.
NEW time based on adjusted numbers: 6k divided by 4.963 = 1,209 seconds or 20 min and some for a true 6k on the water.

The reason I am asking is that I only have access to the indoor machine. I always felt that my time for my age and weight is good but maybe not that good after my adjusted calculation.

Any help would be appreciated!

[JaapvanE]

Why bother comparing yourself to others? At your age you probably won't make it to the Olympics anymore. Only comparison you should make is your past self.

[Elifant]

Yeah I know, am not chasing any WR.

Just fun to know if what I have been doing is somewhat "efficient". I do watch tons of videos about form, technique etc. I am more or less interested where I fall, that's all .

My times improved indoors from well over 30 min for a 6k to my personal best today of 27 min and 52sec. But than again those machines are not the greatest and am not even sure if I am improving that much. That drag factor also seems to fluctuate on these machines...

[Citroen]

How tall are you?
What gender are you?

[Elifant]

5’8” male

[Ombrax]

Your height is going to have a significant impact on your rowing. If you look at a men's team (especially the heavyweights, of course) they're typically a bunch of 6' 4" monsters. The taller you are the longer a stroke you'll have, and therefore more distance to put energy into the flywheel.

As was mentioned above, don't bother comparing yourself to others, just track your improvement over time and be happy with your own accomplishments. Anything else (unless you're truly a unicorn) will be a waste of time and inevitably end in disappointment.

[Elifant]

Guys, I know that I am not a Hulk, that I am "old"... and no I do not compare myself to an Olympic athlete. All I wanted to know is if I can translate my indoor time, adjusted for my weight, to an equivalent time on the water (see my original post). Basically would my potential 6k time ON THE WATER be around 20 min or closer to the 27min. I assume there is a reason for that weight adjustment calculator.

[jackarabit]

You’re faster than I was at age 69, 164lbs, 5’7”. Congratulations. At that time, I was almost as fast as my 90 year old forum buddy. I was happy to be doing that well.

It’s OK to compare your progress; everyone does. A good place to do so is percentile position for each of the C2 ranked distances and times. The weight adjustment calculator is a handicapping system for considering the relative value of ltwts to hwts for the purpose of OTW crew selection in sweep boats and isn’t designed for the daydream fulfillment of casual ergers.

[Ombrax]

There's a limited down side to higher weight on the erg (other than you having more body mass to accelerate up to speed on each stroke). However I think I read somewhere that OTW there is the additional factor of higher mass by necessity causing the shell to displace more water, which increases the drag.

[jackarabit]

Actually, you’re a bit slower on the 6k. I wIll make (or would have made) a great target for you. Do the work for 26’ and then pick another target. Don’t get hung up on the idea that comparison to another person’s results is out of bounds. Competition is for everyone including the demonstrably non-competitive.

[jamesg]

6,000m in 27 min and 52 seconds.

That's about pace 2:20 and 128W, so well done: 128W/59kg = 2.2W/kg. If you know the rating you can also estimate work per stroke. These are the numbers that have some use, because they can tell us if there's any chance of getting or staying fit by using the erg.

As for water:

At 65 I could do the erg 6k in roughly 24 minutes, so 1k = 4 minutes; and a 5k in about 19:20.
My average speed over 10km (end of lake and back) was around 55 minutes in an Olympic single, so 1k per 5.5 minutes, almost 40% slower.

The problem with boats is they have headwinds, wash, waves, tides, you have to watch where you're going, you can fall in, the gearing is never right and drag is always too high. I've caught swimmers and fishing lines and once I sank a rubber dinghy who wasn't looking where he was going. And boats don't even stay level. Wherever you go you have to come back. So comparing times is a bit of a laugh.

[JaapvanE]

once I sank a rubber dinghy who wasn't looking where he was going.

Is an skiff pointy enough to do that

[jamesg]

Apparently; but the single wasn't mine, probably had no bowball.

[p_b82]

I'd just add that the weight adjuster I don't think really translates all that well really either (coming from a "monster" position who doesn't row that well in comparison to my other HWT peers) when trying to make a judgement on pace comparisons.

The C2 rankings I find do give me more of a steer as to how well my improvements are stacking up though - I've taken ~15s off my 2k time (at r20 for a obscure challenge I set myself to force me to do some work on my stroke); that 15s gain equated to roughly 20w average power improvement for the 2k, and moved me from 22nd percentile last season to 33rd percentile this season.

I've made similar improvements on my 5k, up to the 33rd percentile, but my 6k is weak still, only 23rd percentile (but I am aware why that is the case in hindsight; attempting it only 3 weeks after having covid to be precise).

If we compare our W/kg rating for the 6k, mine came out at 1.7W/kg; yours is 2.2; so by that metric you're better than me - we're the same age and I've not been rowing/erging that much longer.

As an aside my peak W/kg that I've held for 30s so far comes out as 4.3 (not great compared to others I'm sure but it's improving) - so it re-confirmed I am cardio/endurance limited not strength limited currently; and so my focus has been on that side of things.

[Elifant]

Thanks everybody! I don't know any long time or experienced rower - rec or pro level. I have zero clue about all these metrics and numbers other than split time

Basically, in a very indirect why I kind of wanted to also know: am I fit for my age. Honestly I have no clue. p_b82 and jamsg thanks for adding some context to my numbers. that is a great start for me to familiarize myself with some metrics and have my own benchmarks. I wouldn't even know if I am missing cardio (fairly certain I do) or am limited by my strength (also fairly certain I am). But this gives me some directions.