Target Time

[[old] I Love Crew]

I'm new to rowing, and I want to set realistic ergometer goals for myself. I am 15 years old, 5' 7.5" tall (171.45 cm) and weigh 156 lbs. (71 kg). I need to set goals for:<br /><br />3x 4 min<br />3x 12 min<br />1x 20 min<br />2k<br />6k<br /><br />Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[[old] jamesg]

Those are training distances, except 2k, so the idea of goals is meaningless. <br />2k is too long for you at 15, and useless for training anyway, so forget it, it's an Olympic test distance.<br />Suggest you use the erg at most only for it's design purpose (CV training) when the water's frozen. <br />If you are rowing, learn to row first, your coach will know which end of the oar is which.<br /><br />Your goal is to stay alive, kicking and injury free til year 2100.

[[old] samdkrc]

It's tough to set goals unless you've completed those pieces before, so a few questions,<br />have you ever done a 2k and if so what was your time?<br />and have you moved into rowing from a different sport? <br /><br />Otherwise i'd say aim for an 8:00 2k to start with aiming to move the goal around 10 seconds everytime you beat it. For 6k around 26:00, with a 500m split of 2:10 as this would be (roughly) the same as doing 8:00 for 2k. A 20minute piece at around the same level would mean going between 4650m and 4700m (2:08 per 500m)<br />

[[old] Robywar]

I spent 5 years coaching high school rowers in Augusta GA 1995-2000, so let me start off by telling you that in high school rowing, technique wins novice races, power wins varsity races.<br /><br />That being said, your erg training can help, but the degree to which it will help depends on the total volume of rowing you are doing on and off the water. there is such a thing as too much training. If you wake up tired in the morning after a good night's sleep (7-8 hours) even on an 'off' day, you are probably doing too much.<br /><br />I agree with samdkrc that a good inital goal for a 15 year old light weight is ~8:00/2000m- or since we are in the head season <21:30/5000. I had several rowers at the novice level below that, but not many your size got much lower than 19:45 by the end of the season and not even the big guys were <19:00 as a novice. I also never coached a season where at least one of my boats was not undefeated, so that should show you the importance of technique over power. The vast majority of your instruction both on the water and on the erg should be spent on technique.<br /><br />Once you hit varsity level, your training will change from mostly instruction to mostly workouts and your goals should become obvoius to you. If you don't get much taller and stay lightweight, your 5k time will probably not get below 19:00 while you're in high school, but it's possible and definately likley to happen in college and beyond. <br /><br />Remember, race pace is not 100% pressure- if you pulled as hard as you could, you'd be dead in about 90 seconds. Do your pieces and find your average split time. If you can, graph it. Next time, instead of starting strong and peaking early, start off about 2 or 3 seconds below your last average split- you will find your time drops and you won't be as tired. You have to learn to find your pace and the rest will fall into place.<br /><br />Best of luck!