I recently rowed a pb at 6:56.3 i dont think i will shave much more off as it almost killed me.
Anyone on here faster ?

Did a lot of rowing and Erging last year and had a 2k test last Monday – 6:35.

Good effort mate thats shifting ! nobody at my gym has gone under 6:40

AFAIK – sub 7min 2k on the C2 = you can enter the Indoor Rowing Champs. Not an easy achievement!

I love the C2, but cannot do the short fast stuff, 10K @ 39:15 is my PB.

Thanks, better rowing than cycling where I’m living currently so been doing it lots.
TBH I think the erg is a better workout than the turbo trainer for keeping fit over the winter – awesome.

Wimps.
When I did indoor rowing, the ‘standard’ distance was 2500m, best was 8:29. (But that was 20 years ago)

Now here’s a challenge.

6.17min when I was 36. An harder session was 2x10min @3000m with 5mins easy row inbetween.

Occasionally use one at the gym. Best 2k is 8.39

resistance set at….?

resistance set at….?

Doesn’t matter.

resistance set at….?

My experience is that resistance is futile.

My money is on 10!

For me drag factor 135. Setting 3.5 depending on the machine.

I stick to level 10. Im gonna ask advice on improving my stroke see if i can get a bit more efficient

Stroke rate is the killer. It only counts if your high resistance (8 or above where 10 is the hardest) and stroke is around 22. Much higher stroke rate than that and you are cheating!

Extend with your legs, then in to the chest/gut with your arms. Keep the back pretty straight. Unless……..you are a gig rower, and in which case, lean back until your head is nigh on resting in the crotch of the man in the seat behind, then off to the pub for 10 pints as a warm down.

I dont remember my time exactly, but it was just over 6 minutes. Resistance up full and a stroke rate of 28 for the first 1500m then 30 for the final 500m. Was training a lot at that point though.

I dont remember my time exactly, but it was just over 6 minutes.

That’s pretty good.
I just try to keep it steady at 2.30 splits over distances of 5-6km and a stroke rate of 24ish, I’m in no rush anymore,if I’m feeling good I’ll put the hammer down for a while.
I much preferred head races to regattas.

Sub 7 minutes?! I was pleased with 2000m in 8 minutes dead… not anymore 🙄

I tend to row at 20 to 22 SPM with the odd 2 minute interval sprint at 26 SPM with a rhythm of trying to power backwards within 1 second and “slowly” returning to the start position over a 2 second period.

My best from quite a few years back was 6:38. These days it’s closer to 7:50 🙁

just getting back into the concept2 and doing 1’57 / 500m for 4500m but i am an unfit big fat fatty.can’t imagine getting anywhere near some of the times on here.every time i get off it i feel sick and can’t walk for 5 minutes – horrendous machine.my mrs calls it ‘rolling thunder’ cos it’s in the upstairs spare room 😆

Guy I used to coach posted on Facebook today about one of his crewmates at the Danish indoor champs – pulled 5:56.7 – now that is brutal.

And yes, as above ^ resistance means bugger all…

5:56 is superhuman !!

I used to clock 6:41 … My more illustrious crewmates got a bit too carried away by the dreaded instrument if tedium

There’s EPO abuse in indoor rowing as well as cycling and in some cases by the same individual, just Google ‘Dan Staite drugs cheat’

My PB was 6:41 a long time ago. Was a lightweight by more than a stone at the time – I gather that’s fairly decent for a LW.

Did my pb on Friday 7.39, was hoping for sub 8, well chuffed with what I got 😀
PJ

My PB is 6.27.4 but that was almost 10 years ago now and when I was rowing for my university. Couldn’t get close to that these days

this is pretty quick!

6:12 but I wasn’t actually much good on the erg compared to my competition. I didn’t do much other than row and road ride back then, mind.

I doubt I’d break 7 mins now though 🙁

FWIW, drag factor 10 isn’t really rowing as such – it’s indoor rowing as it bears no semblance to on water rowing and while it can be a useful specific training session, it’s never going to be as good for fitness training as a more sensible 135 drag factor (usually setting 4 or 5).

Just as encouragement for the guys wondering how on earth some of the faster scores are being achieved, technique makes a big difference. Even the rubbish, fairly low fitness guys who actually row (on water) can usually do around 7 minutes while I know several non-rowers who are much fitter who can’t.

I normally have a stroke rate of 30-32, should I be going slower?

for 2k 30-36 is the right sort of range. The higher probably for more seasoned and aerobically fit people.

but rate is only a very blunt measurement. Non-rowers usually only take very short effective strokes so higher rates are easier to achieve. Back to technique that I was talking about above.

Anyone use a power meter on bike and rower? Curious as to how they compare eg using the gym rower (badly) I seem to be only able to sprint at 230W on the C2, which on a bike would be just chatting pace. Admitedly my total lifetime rowing time is less than 20mins, whereas I have 1000s of hours on the bike.

iirc I could get close to 1000w on a C2 so back to my technique post 😉

edit

http://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/calculators/watts-calculator

1000w = 1:10 which was approx my max (eg flat out sprint for 10-20s.

or 435w for my 2k score so it certainly sounds broadly comparable though I always figured that since rowing uses some back and arm power it’d tend to procuce higher power over shorter distances as you’re not relying on aerobic capacity alone.

A bit of googling reveals that an Olympic rower is about 336W, which is lower than cycling as I used to be able to do that for a 10k TT and I’m a mediocre cyclist.

http://www.la84foundation.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1999/OREXXVI30/OREXXVI30zw.pdf

http://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/calculators/vo2max-calculator

How do you do on this? Times are relative – I can only row 7:56 but at 60kg it reflects a reasonable VO2max for my age.

I was regularly rowing under 6 mins doing sets of 10 of 2000m..I was in the 100metre national team though years ago! 🙂

How do you do on this? Times are relative – I can only row 7:56 but at 60kg it reflects a reasonable VO2max for my age.

I’d also be curious about other people’s scores on that, given my impression that most people with faster times than me are big blokes. When I did my PB I was ~67kg, giving me a VO2max of 75.75 (I think I was just over 30 at the time, but then that appears to be fairly respectable whatever your age!)

Ok, so lots of assumptions etc,
Best time I can find, about 20 years ago, so 2500m : 8:29
Using the same pace, gives 2000m time of 6:47
In the Concept2 VO2 max calculator gives 68.4 (I’m guessing ml/min Kg)

A test I did a few years ago gave 55.1 ml/min Kg

Doesn’t mean a thing to me, anyone?

75kg, mid-30s: did a 7:38 in November, prefer longer distances though.

Current “favourite” challenge is 10km: starting at 20spm, increasing 2spm every 2km. Took my best 10km pace in previous 3 months, subtracted 2sec/500m to use as target pace.