Help improving on 2k score

[Rubik314]

Hi,

I am 15 years old, 154lbs, 5'8", and am getting ready for my second year of high school rowing. My current PR for a 2k is 7:27.0 (which was set on June 12, 2012), but my coaches want me to start winter conditioning under 7:10. Since this PR, I have rowed and erged over 450,000m.

I am currently erging about 7,000m a day (mostly steady-state) and do not have access to weightlifting facilities. I would like to have suggestions of what I can add to my current training to drop these seconds.

Thanks.

[Bob S.]

Hi,

I am 15 years old, 154lbs, 5'8", and am getting ready for my second year of high school rowing. My current PR for a 2k is 7:27.0 (which was set on June 12, 2012), but my coaches want me to start winter conditioning under 7:10. Since this PR, I have rowed and erged over 450,000m.

I am currently erging about 7,000m a day (mostly steady-state) and do not have access to weightlifting facilities. I would like to have suggestions of what I can add to my current training to drop these seconds.

Thanks.

Does your school have a Fall program with daily workouts and a number of head race competitions? If so, you should be getting plenty of training just in the program. If not, with about 4 months to go, you might consider the UK C2 program for 2k training:

http://concept2.co.uk/training/interactive

Edit: Another thought occurred to me. If you do have a full fall schedule at school, but it doesn't start until September, your might do well to check out the "Pete Plan." I don't have a handy URL for that, but it would be an easy Google search. That would give you the month of August to prepare for Fall rowing.

Bob S.

[NavigationHazard]

To add to Bob's advice, you might consider doing another 2k trial (or two) between now and whenever your Fall conditioning starts. Assuming you've been erging purposefully, and not just racking up easy meters, you're almost certainly better now than you were back on June 12. Getting a concrete sense of your rate of improvement should help you 'calibrate' your workouts.

The Interactive Program, FWIW, will ask you to do that explicitly.

[Rubik314]

Thanks for the advice.

@Bob S.: I will try to incorporate the "Pete Plan" into my work-outs. Also, my school does not have a fall season, but I might join one of the local fall rowing clubs or just simply erg, I am not sure of what I will do.

@NavigationHazard: I will try to do another 2k in the start of September, when school starts. Also, your assumption is correct, I am trying while I erg (it makes getting the meters in a lot faster).

[AWAL]

Let me know what you think about this strategy: http://www.c2forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12636 I just thought of it earlier and would love feedback.

[Rubik314]

@AWAL: That strategy seems to complicated for me to use, even with a coxswain.

I will try to stick with the strategy the varsity coach taught me, (Get your split under your goal during the first 100m, the settling down to your goal split until you hit the halfway, then you bring the split down 1 or 2 seconds until you start the last 500m, where you start your sprint).

I have heard of and seen people use a similar strategy, but this was usually when they were not going for a PR. However, If people trained for this race plan, I think that it would work like a dream.