How good is 7:30 for 2000m?

[Bradycardia]

Hi!
I recently discovered the benefits of indoor rowing and I love it.
I realize I don't have optimal weight and/or height for rowing since I'm 135 lbs and 5'7" tall. But I'm not going to give up just like that. My sport is running so I need to be lightweight in order to perform well.
Today I did a 2000m time trial on a indoor rower. My time was 7:31 while my "weight adjusted time" was 6:26.
How good is 7:31 min given my height and weight? I'm in my early 30's.
Thanks in advance!

[Gammmmo]

It's OK. To give you some sort of reference when I started erging spring 2016 I was coming off the back of 5 or so seasons of competitive cycling and was 44 (so you have some age advantage too - not far off your prime). I was 144lbs and 5'11". I would say I was aerobically fit enough to go sub 7mins right then but had to go through a period of 3-4 months to strengthen my lower back to actually do that. I tended to test 5K more often and rapidly got to 18:1x. The gains kept coming but rapidly slowed up. That said, a very rough rule of thumb is "2s for free for every inch in height" so we can see I had an 8s advantage over you. So...in summary your time is OK but you need to keep erging because that time will rapidly come down and you'd best revisit this thread then.

I would've said your 2K result is quite good BUT you give the impression you are a competitive type with a good engine and so I'm being a bit more honest with you. I'd ignore "weight adjusted" and just look at comparing yourself with lightweight ergers and just mentally factor in you're only at a slight disadvantage as I found cardio ability was FAR more important than muscle on the erg, certainly with 2K and longer.

As an side, you may be interested in "Ed Baker" on youtube who is a runner (EDIT: triathlete) who does some erging. He's good.

[Citroen]

How good is 7:31 min given my height and weight? I'm in my early 30's.

If that was done on a Concept2 ergo after very little training then it's a very good result. Your height is against you.

[Bradycardia]

How good is 7:31 min given my height and weight? I'm in my early 30's.

If that was done on a Concept2 ergo after very little training then it's a very good result. Your height is against you.

Yes, it was done on Concept2, PM5 monitor.

I would've said your 2K result is quite good BUT you give the impression you are a competitive type with a good engine and so I'm being a bit more honest with you. I'd ignore "weight adjusted" and just look at comparing yourself with lightweight ergers and just mentally factor in you're only at a slight disadvantage as I found cardio ability was FAR more important than muscle on the erg, certainly with 2K and longer.

As an side, you may be interested in "Ed Baker" on youtube who is a runner (EDIT: triathlete) who does some erging. He's good.

Thank you for the honest answer. I'm not that competitive, only 34 min 10K runner off 35 MPW.
2,000m is most likely not my strongest side. I did 60 min "tempo" and covered 14,800m without any training.

What drag factor would be good for me? Does drag factor vary depending on race distance?

[Citroen]

Drag is supposed to simulate whether you're in a one man skull or a coxed eight. So the rule is find a level where you feel comfortable, you're not hauling anchor in storm and you're getting the best results.

There are some "rules of thumbs" that give a range to use depending on height, gender and HWT vs LWT.
https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/ ... etting-101
https://www.concept2.com/news/debunking ... -intensity

[Cyclingman1]

First, look at the rankings for 2K, LWt on the Concept 2 site. A full yr, like 2019 is best. It appears you would be at the 67 percentile mark. So that is OK. Being a highly trained endurance athlete coming into erging, not sure what your potential for improvement is. Most people get better by becoming more aerobically fit. You undoubtedly can benefit from more strength, but it is hard to say how far that will take you. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to get to 7:00. It gets a lot harder pretty quickly the faster you go. The power differential from 7:31 to 7:00 is non-trivial.

[jamesg]

I recently discovered the benefits of indoor rowing and I love it.

Your 250W 2k at 61 kg is very good (just over 4W/kg), especially if you are female.

[Bradycardia]

I recently discovered the benefits of indoor rowing and I love it.

Your 250W 2k at 61 kg is very good (just over 4W/kg), especially if you are female.

I'm a built like a lightweight female rower.

Where can I find predicted times for longer distances based on 2,000m time?

[jamesg]

https://log.concept2.com/log

[max_ratcliffe]

I recently discovered the benefits of indoor rowing and I love it.

Your 250W 2k at 61 kg is very good (just over 4W/kg), especially if you are female.

I'm a built like a lightweight female rower.

Where can I find predicted times for longer distances based on 2,000m time?

Google "Paul's law". Your split increases by 5s every doubling of distance. According to your 2k:

Distance Split Time
500m 01:42.8 01:42.8
1000m 01:47.8 03:35.5
5000m 01:59.4 19:53.6
10000m 02:04.4 41:27.2
21097 (HM) 02:09.7 1:31:14

30min 7368m
60min 14186m

I think we know where your strengths lie, given you've got a 14800 for the hour.

[Gammmmo]

Thank you for the honest answer. I'm not that competitive, only 34 min 10K runner off 35 MPW.

I think you know that is actually very good.
NIce!

2,000m is most likely not my strongest side. I did 60 min "tempo" and covered 14,800m without any training.

Work on technique...lots and lots of gains for you just getting this wired most likley.

What drag factor would be good for me? Does drag factor vary depending on race distance?

I use DF=125 for 2K and up, below that up to ~142 for 1min efforts. You should use 120 at most I'd say....really in the first instance keep it low to prevent injury and lend itself to a higher stroke rate which may suit you.

Maybe talk to 'hobbit' on here...another small guy who's a runner mostly I think.

[hjs]

Your 250W 2k at 61 kg is very good (just over 4W/kg), especially if you are female.

I'm a built like a lightweight female rower.

Where can I find predicted times for longer distances based on 2,000m time?

Google "Paul's law". Your split increases by 5s every doubling of distance. According to your 2k:

Distance Split Time
500m 01:42.8 01:42.8
1000m 01:47.8 03:35.5
5000m 01:59.4 19:53.6
10000m 02:04.4 41:27.2
21097 (HM) 02:09.7 1:31:14

30min 7368m
60min 14186m

I think we know where your strengths lie, given you've got a 14800 for the hour.

This is WRONG, THAT LAW WAS NEVER ment as a PREDICTION, It was ment as a guideline to train ones weaknesses. There is NO 5 doubling per distance. Differs very much per rower.

500 and 1k excluded as a whole. Differences should be much larger there.

[max_ratcliffe]

I'm a built like a lightweight female rower.

Where can I find predicted times for longer distances based on 2,000m time?

Google "Paul's law". Your split increases by 5s every doubling of distance. According to your 2k:

Distance Split Time
500m 01:42.8 01:42.8
1000m 01:47.8 03:35.5
5000m 01:59.4 19:53.6
10000m 02:04.4 41:27.2
21097 (HM) 02:09.7 1:31:14

30min 7368m
60min 14186m

I think we know where your strengths lie, given you've got a 14800 for the hour.

This is WRONG, THAT LAW WAS NEVER ment as a PREDICTION, It was ment as a guideline to train ones weaknesses. There is NO 5 doubling per distance. Differs very much per rower.

500 and 1k excluded as a whole. Differences should be much larger there.

Sorry Henry, I thought that might offend.

As a diagnostic tool, though, it seems to be quite useful. The OP suggested that the 2k might not currently be a strength relative to other longer distances. That is borne out by the Paul's law curve fit (for want of a better term) that suggests that the 60' piece was much stronger than the 2k. I think most of us would agree that it was.

[hjs]

Sorry Henry, I thought that might offend.

As a diagnostic tool, though, it seems to be quite useful. The OP suggested that the 2k might not currently be a strength relative to other longer distances. That is borne out by the Paul's law curve fit (for want of a better term) that suggests that the 60' piece was much stronger than the 2k. I think most of us would agree that it was.

Just wanted to clear, was at aimed at you.

Point is the context, bit like the hf rule 220 minus age. Those rule had a meaning within the context. But people want it simple, throw away the context and keep the “rule”

And in this case I knew Paul pretty well, and his rule was ment for his trainees within his training program. Was never ment for the general row population and a tool to spot strenght and weaknesses. Not a prediction tool.

[Cyclingman1]

This predictor works pretty well if the guidelines are followed.

https://www.freespiritsrowing.com/forum ... -predictor