Concept2 Forum

I've recently started rowing 8 weeks ago and have become very interested in everything about indoor rowing. However, i'm finding it hard to benchmark my workouts. I post my logbook results to see where I stand with others in my age/ weight class but still don't know what's considered a "good" time, split etc. With that said, what are considered excellent, good, average times for a 2k, 5k and 10k set pieces?

I'm 27 years old, 6' ft tall, weigh 210lbs and have no crew background or experience, training on a Concept 2 Model D. Right now I'm focusing on 5k and 10k workouts, my best 5k time thus far is a 18:23.2, and my best 10k time is a 37:19.1. Any advise on workouts to drop my times and breakup the training schedule?

Looking to see where I stand in the 'world of rowing' and where I can take my workouts if I start training properly, any information would be great.

Thanks in advance.....

7crisp7 wrote:I've recently started rowing 8 weeks ago and have become very interested in everything about indoor rowing. However, i'm finding it hard to benchmark my workouts. I post my logbook results to see where I stand with others in my age/ weight class but still don't know what's considered a "good" time, split etc. With that said, what are considered excellent, good, average times for a 2k, 5k and 10k set pieces?

I'm 27 years old, 6' ft tall, weigh 210lbs and have no crew background or experience, training on a Concept 2 Model D. Right now I'm focusing on 5k and 10k workouts, my best 5k time thus far is a 18:23.2, and my best 10k time is a 37:19.1. Any advise on workouts to drop my times and breakup the training schedule?

Looking to see where I stand in the 'world of rowing' and where I can take my workouts if I start training properly, any information would be great.

Thanks in advance.....

Since you are already using the ranking, you can see where you stand, i.e. at what percentile in your category. What more do you need? If you are 90 percentile and up, I would call it excellent. 75 is good and, obviously, 50 is average.

Note that not everyone uses the ranking, so it is sort of self selective and those that do would rank only their best time of the season for each distance (or time).

The usual advice to your question is to look up the rankings - but you have already done that, so I am puzzled by your post.

Bob S.

Bob,

You nailed it on the head when you said that not everyone uses the online ranking system; which is why I'm looking for more information. There's only 40 people (plus or minus) in my age/weight category which isn't a very large database to rank myself against. In addition, these times could be done by anyone (such as myself) and don't hold much weight in terms of comparing times.

To put more specifically, I'd like to know what experienced rowing athletes are posting for 2k, 5k and 10k times.

Thank you for the input and helping to clarify the info I'm looking for.....

7crisp7 wrote:I've recently started rowing 8 weeks ago and have become very interested in everything about indoor rowing. However, i'm finding it hard to benchmark my workouts. I post my logbook results to see where I stand with others in my age/ weight class but still don't know what's considered a "good" time, split etc. With that said, what are considered excellent, good, average times for a 2k, 5k and 10k set pieces?

I'm 27 years old, 6' ft tall, weigh 210lbs and have no crew background or experience, training on a Concept 2 Model D. Right now I'm focusing on 5k and 10k workouts, my best 5k time thus far is a 18:23.2, and my best 10k time is a 37:19.1. Any advise on workouts to drop my times and breakup the training schedule?

Looking to see where I stand in the 'world of rowing' and where I can take my workouts if I start training properly, any information would be great.

Thanks in advance.....

Ffor 5k the Wr is around 15 min, that is what the very best otw rowers do, those guys seldom rank there time.Sub 16 is still very, sub 17 is good, sub is doable for a normal fit guy who trains for.

I am Talking men in there prime, you have the right age, are a bit short for a rower and proberly a bit to heavy.

I'm not a rower, but I've been using the erg for 20-25 years. When I was 27 I felt like I could run 100 miles if need be. I thought i was strong. I never posted times anywhere what you have done. At my strongest I could do 5000 in 19 min. I think you are probably in outstanding shape and will really improve your times as you improve technique and train more. What rate are you doing your pieces at? If you are just starting out, I bet you are rowing at 23-26 spm or higher. Try to do your same times @ 18-21 spm. That's a good way to start improving I think. Then when you try to do PRs, you can let your rate drift up again.

Dave

7crisp7 wrote:Bob,

You nailed it on the head when you said that not everyone uses the online ranking system; which is why I'm looking for more information. There's only 40 people (plus or minus) in my age/weight category which isn't a very large database to rank myself against. In addition, these times could be done by anyone (such as myself) and don't hold much weight in terms of comparing times.

To put more specifically, I'd like to know what experienced rowing athletes are posting for 2k, 5k and 10k times.

Thank you for the input and helping to clarify the info I'm looking for.....

When I wrote that, I was thinking about fact that those folks who do very poorly do not post their results in the ranking because they are embarrassed to do it This would make it harder to get into the higher percentiles. But, like hjs wrote, it is also true that the really top OTW rowers, like national team and Olympic contenders, often don't post their erg results, which would have the opposite effect. That data is just not going to be available and the best that members of this forum can come up with is the C2 rankings website. It does include the results of major erg competitions, so the very top ergers are listed and many of them are OTW rowers as well.

Bob S.

I did an analysis of the rankings versus Crash-B results. The top end of the rankings lined up pretty well, but the online rankings had a much longer tail of slower times, as you would expect.

As Henry said, the most of the best OTW rowers probably don't rank their times, but the age group differences are not that huge, so if you get into the top percentiles of the rankings, I think it is safe to say that you are doing pretty well.

By the way, just looking at your times, I'd say your doing really well. With some 5K specific training, I think you'd crush the rankings.

Those times look pretty good to me... My medium-term goal (likely still months away) is to pull a sub-40 10k.

In any case, the easiest comparisons are done at the 2k distance, since that is the piece all erg competitions are run at, many rowing races, and is, by far, the most popular ranking distance.

7crisp7 wrote:I'm 27 years old, 6' ft tall, weigh 210lbs and have no crew background or experience, training on a Concept 2 Model D. Right now I'm focusing on 5k and 10k workouts, my best 5k time thus far is a 18:23.2, and my best 10k time is a 37:19.1.

You have all the requisites: age, height, and weight for rowing. You did not state your athletic or fitness background. I would say that your times are not too surprising. One can improve quite quickly in rowing if one has any sort of background.

The rankings for 2013 are, of course, quite sparse. Warm months are not big months for hard indoor rowing. Looking at 2012 rankings, 18:23 is right at #100 out of around 520 - about 81 percentile. It all depends on what one is after as to what is good.

7crisp7 wrote:Bob,
There's only 40 people (plus or minus) in my age/weight category which isn't a very large database to rank myself against. In addition, these times could be done by anyone (such as myself) and don't hold much weight in terms of comparing times.

When I first read that, the 40 struck me as odd, but I didn't think it through at the time. I was used to seeing numbers in the hundreds and your category is one of the largest. Later it hit me that you had just looked at this season's results. This season isn't even a month old. I just checked out the current number for 2k rankings in the 19-29 M HWT and there were 72. The season won't really come into full swing until late fall and the fast times will come through in January and February. I see that Cyclingman1 has already brought up this point, but it doesn't hurt to repeat it. There is plenty of data available in the records of previous seasons.

Bob S.

Really its about rating your current fitness level and evaluating your room for improvement.

For example if you have come from the top level of another sport like swimming or cycling you may not make huge gains, however if you have just got off the couch like I did then you can expect your performance to improve over 30% (according to the analysis in RowPro ) over the next 6 to 12 months.

I think the rankings work well for older rowers, in particular the 40+ where things even out and even some top rowers have been spending too much time on the couch. As stated abouve if you can get in the 90th percentile or better your in the excellent category.

You are the same height as me but have a huge age advantage so I would say you have the potential to improve further. I would consider your current results as good and you will see some good improvements with more consistant regular training.

What are you rating (spm) at for your times ?

David Pomerantz wrote:I'm not a rower, but I've been using the erg for 20-25 years. When I was 27 I felt like I could run 100 miles if need be. I thought i was strong. I never posted times anywhere what you have done. At my strongest I could do 5000 in 19 min. I think you are probably in outstanding shape and will really improve your times as you improve technique and train more. What rate are you doing your pieces at? If you are just starting out, I bet you are rowing at 23-26 spm or higher. Try to do your same times @ 18-21 spm. That's a good way to start improving I think. Then when you try to do PRs, you can let your rate drift up again.

Dave

My for my PB 5k was 20 spm avg, and for my PB 10k it was 21 spm avg. From the reading I have done i learned to keep the pace less than 24 spm. So based on that i've adapted to a 20-21spm for both 5k & 10k pieces. Personally I like the feeling of the higher torque/ lower pace as compared to a spm over 25 (getting the breath timing down is more difficult for me at those paces unless I'm in an all out sprint). Ill try to drop the stroke rate down to to 18 and see how that feels, thank you for the tip.

I feel most comfortable currently at 20-21 as well. Last year I got myself down to 18 with work and definitely felt stronger even though the distance and times were the same. After that doing the same pieces at 23-24 felt so easy it seemed like cheating. You also might play with drag factors to see what works best for you. Now it also feels like cheating for me when I increase the DF. Pieces feel easier at DF 130ish compared to DF 116-120. I' think I've read some people say lower DF places relatively more emphasis on the legs.

Dave

For training long may be fine, for doing pb test a higher spm is much more effective. Roughly speaking a 2k is done in the 30/34 range, 5 k roughly done 3 strokes less. Depending on height it will vary a bit, 6 feet is not tall for a rower erger. When you are 6 foot and go to a race you are a midget.

I suppose I differ on what is considered to be the best stroke rate. First of all, no one can row in my shoes, so to speak. So many factors go into how one rows: strength, aerobic fitness, size, fast twitch, slow twitch, flexibility, etc, etc. Stroke rate will depend on those factors. I do not think there is anything particularly magical about rowing slowly.

I for one, always row over 30 SPM - typically 32-34. Generally, I'm using drag factors of 135-150. It does not change much based on distance or even the time per 500m. I don't like rowing in the 20's - feels sluggish. The main piece of data I want when rowing is time per 500m. I slighly adjust the form of my stroke and the rate based on how I feel that day and the indicated speed. I'm reasonably happy with my results. I would not even want to plug in someone else's numbers in terms of DF and SPM, or, for that matter, try to copy stroke technique. It just would not work.