What's my best distance?

[detlefchef]

I've only been taking rowing somewhat serious for a little bit and my Crossfit gym is sponsoring an indoor rowing competition in conjunction with a local rowing club.

At my gym it turns out I'm among the better rowers but I have no idea what to expect, other to expect that I'm far less likely to be among the best, once those guys are added into the mix. The good news is that I'm 41 and the age groups are under 20, 21-39, 40+

The options for distance are as follows:
500m
1000m
2000m
30 minutes

I haven't developed near enough base to feel like I have much of a chance in the 30 minute, so it's pretty much down to the other 3. Lately, I've gone in and tried to get a best effort in each of those to get a sense of where I am. The competition is still a month off and I hope to improve, but given where I am right now, what do any of you think?

500m 1:30.5
1000m 3:21
2000m 6:53

Who knows, maybe I'll get smoked regardless of what distance I do, but I'd like to just pick two and pick wisely.

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

I'd say the 2k definitely, and probably the 1k. The 500m will probably be won by some very big guy who can pull hard for a relatively short period of time.

[PaulH]

The spreadsheet at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/228375/row%202010.xls will give you some idea of how you compare to others. That aside, I think the 1k and 30 minutes would be your best events. Hardly anybody likes 30 minutes, because no matter how hard you work it still takes 30 minutes, so few people are practiced at it. By contrast the 2k is the standard distance, so lots of people do that.

That leaves you with the 500m and 1k. I'd go for the longer one, as the rugby types can suffer over 500m much more easily than over 1k, so will be much harder to compete with.

But take a look at the spreadsheet and see you how compare.

[Bob S.]

The competition is still a month off and I hope to improve, but given where I am right now, what do any of you think?

500m 1:30.5
1000m 3:21
2000m 6:53

Check out:

http://www.machars.net/

Scroll down to the very last calculator.

Plugging in some of your numbers clearly shows that your 500m is your best, followed by the 2000m, with the 1000m the weakest.

Paul's rule isn't really designed as a predictor, but it still can give you a fair idea of where you stand.

Bob S.

edit: I see that a couple of other responses came in while I was trying to put this one together. Obviously, I didn't take the potential competition into account. I was just looking at how your times at various distances compared to one another.

[detlefchef]

I'd say the 2k definitely, and probably the 1k. The 500m will probably be won by some very big guy who can pull hard for a relatively short period of time.

Judging by your best times, maybe I'm that big guy? Though in reality, I'm not all that big (5'10" 195) After all, your best 2K smokes mine. I actually think I can shave a few seconds off my 1K so I may be able to equal yours, but my 500m is already faster than yours. That sort of tells me that I'm the guy can only hang on for a short period of time.

So, using you as a baseline, I'd be inclined to think the shorter the better for me. Mind you, that's hardly much of a sample size.

I did think about the fact that nobody was going to enter the 30 minute and that everyone was going to be in the 2K.

Not sure how interested I am in showing well by default, so I still think I'll pass on the 30.

I've got a few weeks to go before I have to register, so we'll see how I progress.

Thanks everyone for the insight.

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

Not that I really mind, but I just want to point out that all those times are from the fall of 2008, when I started rowing. My 2k is the only updated score as of this year. I can probably do a 500m in under 1:28.0 and a 1k in under 3:06 at this point.

195 lbs is pretty solid though, but keep in mind some guys can weigh up to 240.... I'm pretty sure there's someone who posts here regularly who weighs around 260..

That being said I'm just a college rower, I don't claim to really 'know' much about erging and whether your times are good or not.

Best of luck though!

[PaulG]

Compare your time as a percentage of the World Record for your age and weight class in each distance. The distance with the closest time to the World Record is your best event.

[djh]

Another way of doing the same thing, possibly with less work: investigate http://www.nonathlon.com. Enter your times and look at which event scores highest.

Warning: This may tempt you to try other distances!

[johnlvs2run]

Considering the competition, probably the 2k.

Maybe you will have a chance to find out what others are doing in the meantime.

[Carl Watts]

Thanks Bob S for that link, I just put in my best 30min time and it came back with a sub 7 2K for me !

Now time to stop doing all the 20 - 40min rows and post an actual fast 2K !

[detlefchef]

Not that I really mind, but I just want to point out that all those times are from the fall of 2008, when I started rowing. My 2k is the only updated score as of this year. I can probably do a 500m in under 1:28.0 and a 1k in under 3:06 at this point.

195 lbs is pretty solid though, but keep in mind some guys can weigh up to 240.... I'm pretty sure there's someone who posts here regularly who weighs around 260..

That being said I'm just a college rower, I don't claim to really 'know' much about erging and whether your times are good or not.

Best of luck though!

That explains a lot. To be honest, it did seem like that 2K time of yours was out of whack with the rest.

[detlefchef]

Another of doing the same thing, possibly with less work: investigate http://www.nonathlon.com. Enter your times and look at which event scores highest.

Warning: This may tempt you to try other distances!

OK, now that is a very, very cool resource! Based on that, my 2K is just a bit stronger than my 500 and my 1K is the weakest. Which, of course tells me that I need to do a few more tests because that simply doesn't make sense.

[PaulG]

Another of doing the same thing, possibly with less work: investigate http://www.nonathlon.com. Enter your times and look at which event scores highest.

Warning: This may tempt you to try other distances!

That's right! I should have remembered that. Looks like I am a sprinter with over 900 points in the 500 and 1k and then things go steadilly downhill. Yes I will try more distances but no way will I do a FM.

Paul

[Big Chris]

Detlef,
I am also a fellow crossfitter. IMO I would be doing the 500m and 2k. Based on your times I am assuming you are about the top rower at your box. Anytime you can pull a sub 7 2k you are doing good. If you look at most competition times if you can pull a 6:50 you should be hanging well.

[detlefchef]

Detlef,
I am also a fellow crossfitter. IMO I would be doing the 500m and 2k. Based on your times I am assuming you are about the top rower at your box. Anytime you can pull a sub 7 2k you are doing good. If you look at most competition times if you can pull a 6:50 you should be hanging well.

Turns out, I think the schedule is going to allow me to go ahead and sign up for all of them. I think they're just doing open trials where you have 1.5 hours to get your row in for each distance starting with 500 and going up in order to the 30 minute.

If I have at least an hour between rows, I don't see why I can't do the three short ones and put up good times for each. Then, depending on how I feel and whether or not there's much competition, I'll just give the long one a try. Since I'm pretty sure it's going to be my weakest event, I won't mind if the three earlier rows take anything out of me.

What the hell, it's my first competition, I have no idea what to expect.