What 2km pace shall I attempt, given...

[WhatHeyHuh]

This weekend I want to test myself at 2km distance. What pace should I attempt, given:
1. I've rowed ~500,000 meters over the past 7 weeks, so I guess I have plenty of endurance.
2. Almost all my training has been at a steady aerobic pace, chugging along at a heart rate that I keep under 180-age. My average pace at that leisurely heart rate is 2:17. Yes, a pretty low intensity/conversational pace.
3. A few days ago I did my first-ever 500M for time and held 1:32.

Given the above, what pace should I attempt in my planned 2km piece?

[Dangerscouse]

This is a tough one to call as a 500m isn't much use at all when compared to a 2k and the longer slower distances will not prepare you for the discomfort of a 2k.

If you try a 2k now it will be guesswork for the pace, but if you did say 4 x 1k on 4 mins rest that will give you a better idea of what pace is possible as this is a good 2k indicator.

Imo I think you need to test your limits more but if you did want to give it a go maybe aim for 1:50 pace for the first 1km and speed up if it feels easy enough.

[harrythehamster]

1:38.8
Easy peasy. But only if you have plenty of endurance as you said yourself.

This weekend I want to test myself at 2km distance. What pace should I attempt, given:
1. I've rowed ~500,000 meters over the past 7 weeks, so I guess I have plenty of endurance.
2. Almost all my training has been at a steady aerobic pace, chugging along at a heart rate that I keep under 180-age. My average pace at that leisurely heart rate is 2:17. Yes, a pretty low intensity/conversational pace.
3. A few days ago I did my first-ever 500M for time and held 1:32.

Given the above, what pace should I attempt in my planned 2km piece?

[MPx]

1:45 pace. No reason to say that from your numbers, but if you can do it you get a 7min or hopefully 6:59.9 which is a huge milestone. If you don't you'll get a bigger number and know more for next time...

[Ombrax]

Welcome to the forum!

Psychologically I think it's easier to start off a tad slow then speed up for the last, say, 500-1000 meters, than to go out too fast and blow up, so I'd say 1:45-1:50, and adjust depending on how you feel.

Don't forget, there will be plenty of other opportunities to try again, so if at the end you feel you have something left in the tank, you can always give it another go in a few days with a more ambitious plan.

[lindsayh]

This weekend I want to test myself at 2km distance. What pace should I attempt, given:
1. I've rowed ~500,000 meters over the past 7 weeks, so I guess I have plenty of endurance.
2. Almost all my training has been at a steady aerobic pace, chugging along at a heart rate that I keep under 180-age. My average pace at that leisurely heart rate is 2:17. Yes, a pretty low intensity/conversational pace.
3. A few days ago I did my first-ever 500M for time and held 1:32.
Given the above, what pace should I attempt in my planned 2km piece?

It is really difficult to say of course but the 1:50 ish to start with a negative split would be a good place to start. Don't be disappointed if you are slower than you think - it is all part of a learning curve and no-one is likely to nail a fast 2k at first attempt. Age and size and previous athletic experience all have a huge influence.
Couple of things:
1. If you were in good physical fitness before you started then your training will be totally different than if you had no training background. It will be dependant too on what sort of physiology you have - some can sprint well and others will be very cardio and go long distances.
2. Long slow endurance pieces are a good place to start and important as part of 2k training but you will need to add some harder interval pieces at sub 2k pace as well - have a look at the Pete Plan to give you some ideas.
3. The 2k is about 70/80% aerobic and the rest is anaerobic so you need to train both energy systems to do really well.
4. Using any mathematical formula to estimate your Heart rate training zones is a waste of time - the most commonly misunderstood and misused one is 220-age. 180 - age is meaningless and it may well be that the 2:17 pace is too slow to build good cardio fitness. The only way of finding an accurate MHR to use for calculations really is to go as hard as you can for say 20/30 minutes either in one piece or intervals until you can't go on and then use that and your resting RHR to determine appropriate ranges.

Best of luck

[Cyclist2]

I'm going to throw a (little) cold water on this.

If "all" you've done is what you posted, then you have no idea what a hard 2K piece feels like. If you try even a pace in the 1:50s you will be unpleasantly surprised at how much you are gasping at around the 1250m point.

My recommendation is this: Don't try for a personal best this weekend, but do a 2K piece at say 2:00 or even 2:05. That should "wake you up" as to what is in store. Then over the next few weeks, do some 1K interval sessions, then give the 2K another try at a pace that you'll have some idea about. You have to figure this out, and if you fly and die this weekend, your enthusiasm will be drastically reduced.

Good luck!

[jamesg]

Cannot but agree with the cold water idea, not least since you don't provide enough information. Height and age would help, as well as the paces and ratings (spm) you used in training.

In Power terms (Watts) your 2:17 is 135 watts, which if leisurely, i.e. not even UT1, suggests a 2k at 200 - 220 Watts.
But a 500 test at 1:32 is almost 450 W, so evidently you have plenty of available power.

2k Watts will fall somewhere in the gap between these two. Where depends on technique and endurance.

To be safe, base your 2k test on your endurance - 200W. You can then do what you want in the last 500.
To gain some interesting experience, try 60-65% of your 500 test power: 270-290 W, at maybe 65-70% of the rating you used in that test.

[Ombrax]

In case the OP hasn't seen this yet, here's a link to the C2 power-pace calculators:

https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/ ... calculator

(You can also use the equations they give you to create a spreadsheet in Excel)

I agree with the suggestions above try to figure out what a reasonable power level will be for your 2k and try that.

Since the required power is highly nonlinear relative to the pace, it can be tricky figuring out what's appropriate. To go just a bit faster requires a quite a bit more power, and when you're at or close to your max, well, you're done for if you need to hold that for an extended period of time, like, say, 7 minutes.

Even though you only mention slow steady state and hard 500m workouts, surely you have some sort of feel for how hard, say, a 2:00/500m feels like. Check the power required for each of those situations, and based on that try to interpolate on something you think you can do for 2k.

Good Luck

[hjs]

This weekend I want to test myself at 2km distance. What pace should I attempt, given:
1. I've rowed ~500,000 meters over the past 7 weeks, so I guess I have plenty of endurance.
2. Almost all my training has been at a steady aerobic pace, chugging along at a heart rate that I keep under 180-age. My average pace at that leisurely heart rate is 2:17. Yes, a pretty low intensity/conversational pace.
3. A few days ago I did my first-ever 500M for time and held 1:32.

Given the above, what pace should I attempt in my planned 2km piece?

Do it twice, first one relative safe, second one, give it a real go based on the first.

[Cyclingman1]

To OP, I see no age, height, & weight numbers. I'm thinking you are not all that old and fairly heavy. Doing 1:32 for 500m suggests that on top of very slow rowing. But 2K is an entirely another beast. There are plenty of fast 500m rowers who absolutely die on 2K. I suspect that you are not in any kind of shape for a fastish 2K. I would think that you would be around 2:00 pace for 2K.

[jimmyshand]

This weekend I want to test myself at 2km distance. What pace should I attempt, given:
1. I've rowed ~500,000 meters over the past 7 weeks, so I guess I have plenty of endurance.
2. Almost all my training has been at a steady aerobic pace, chugging along at a heart rate that I keep under 180-age. My average pace at that leisurely heart rate is 2:17. Yes, a pretty low intensity/conversational pace.
3. A few days ago I did my first-ever 500M for time and held 1:32.

Given the above, what pace should I attempt in my planned 2km piece?

It's not really possible to extrapolate from the information here to a suggested 2k pace but I'd say just try a 750 at sub 1:50 and if it's really easy then try starting 2k at 1:49 pace and then go faster every 500 if you are feeling okay. It's possible that this could either be far too easy or far too hard but there's only one way to find out!

I say just try a 2k at your limit and see what happens. But done properly, at max effort, a fast 2k should be very nasty! It's also pretty deceptive because 'I feel pretty good, might speed up' at 700 metes in quickly turns into 'I think I might die here, I better stop' at 1600 metres.

[Ombrax]

Well, OP, how did it go?

[Gabe_G]

Threads like these scare me from even trying an all out 2K. I can almost feel the lactic acid build-up when I watch the world championships. What is the recovery time, on average, for an all out 2k? I think I would be wrecked for about a week. I am also curious how the 2K went for the OP.

[Amazing Amazon]

At many competitions you are expected to be able to do a 500m 3-4 hours after an all out 2k and can often row a SB: this is what I did at the Welsh, British and English IRC this year. I have been to some competitions when they scheduled a 2k, a 1000m and a 500m less than 2 hours apart and still rowed respectable times.
This year's world championship in Paris was exceptional in that they scheduled the 500m for the evening of the night before the 2k. FWIW I then did a SB 2k at home 3 days after I got two Silver in Paris.
But of course some rowers have more problems with lactic than others.