Indoor rowing - Concept 2

[Street]

I'm a runner firstly and generally hate doing cardio indoors, but i do enjoy a rower when i'm near one.

I'm the opposite. I love fell running but find city running totally soul destroying and fell running isn't exactly something I can fit in after work. What tipped me over was doing my achillies in a few years ago so I couldn't run at all and while I was recovering, I wanted something low impact to do. I realised I could row with less pain than running so bought myself an erg and found it perfect for evening and morning sessions in the garage! Then I got a bit addicted..

I've started back on the Pete Plan for a 3 week cycle as my prep for the BRIC

 

[Martynt74]

Agreed, city running wouldn't be ideal. I keep debating signing up for the Manchester marathon as it's just before a 45 mile ultra, so in theory i should be in peak condition and it'd be a good training run whilst giving a good chance to hit a PB, but it's changed to a 3 lap route which kills me.

Whilst it's still tarmac, i have a lot of country lanes around me, along with the canal towpaths within very close proximity. Then the likes of the Preston Guild wheel and Darwen tower/Rivington 10 minutes drive away if i fancy something hillier.

I am tempted to head to the spare room though to measure up, whether i have the length to stick a rower in. I could stand it up when not in use.

 

[Street]

There's not really anything like that near me at all without having to drive somewhere. My missus is from over your way, and the options from her doorstep were great! I usually go over to North Wales at the weekends but that's out at the moment anyway. I went over to Delamere forest last weekend for a quick 10k but I'll be avoiding there in future as it was so busy you couldn't move for people.

 

[Martynt74]

Yeah, i'm quite fortunate i think (well we specifically chose to live here, so not exactly unexpected)

Look at all that greenery



My friends lived in Mossley Hill in Liverpool and i couldn't imagine anywhere they could go without a hefty drive.

 

[hellarda]

I feel your 30min rate 20 is lagging your 2k.

Or at the very least I feel could go to the gym tomorrow and match it without to much pain but matching the 2k would really hurt if that makes sense?

Well done on the PBs btw, good momentum you have to get faster!

Quite possibly, although looking at our lactate training bands, I'm sitting about where I should be for a 30r20 -> 2k relationship. My steady state UT2 however is quicker than it should be for my effort pace. I also negative split quite a lot in tests, which probably means I could push myself harder throughout, but I'm only 8 weeks into this program so still getting back used to the serious testing!

Just got to try and push through a month of erging alone and not being able to get out on the water

This is some serious effort. Don't mind me asking what's your sport background? How long you're rowing for?

Thanks - my recent sporting background is next to nothing, I basically had a 3 year gap between uni and starting again (due to working in events, but seeing as there aren't any of those at the moment, thought I'd start rowing again!). I played rugby all through school so up to 2013, then rowed for just under 4 years at uni (2013-2017), but the fastest I got at uni was 6:36 2k and 1:49.5 30r20 (I blame the lack of sleep and copious drinking )

In terms of recently - started off lockdown in March fairly out of shape, and that got worse through until start of May (when I was about 114kg), Did a 6km steady state on the erg and could barely hold 2:10 for it. Started road cycling about 200km a week, did another 6k in June and managed this:



To put that into context, I'll do 3x6k steady state ergs now with a 2min rest and sit on a 1:58 split, with my HR between 150 and 160

Then continued cycling through until September when I decided to join Molesey and start rowing again, and now we're 8 weeks into the training program (2/3 sessions a day, 6 days a week) and this is what I managed for a 2k test last night! hoping to be down to around 6:12 by the summer...



I'm still cycling quite a lot too to supplement the training (and it's way more fun than sitting on an erg alone!)

I track everything on Strava if anyones interested - link here https://www.strava.com/athletes/58840689

 

[Street]

this is what I managed for a 2k test last night! hoping to be down to around 6:12 by the summer...

Awesome, I can feel the pain in that last split from here!

This months league challenge was 6344m so I had a crack last night, planning on doing it slightly slower than my previous 6km PB. I ended up going a bit faster so guess I've got to set a new proper 6km PB now! Judging by the last split, I was probably a bit conservative at the start so could hopefully get it closer to a 1:53 pace.

 

[hellarda]

Awesome, I can feel the pain in that last split from here!

This months league challenge was 6344m so I had a crack last night, planning on doing it slightly slower than my previous 6km PB. I ended up going a bit faster so guess I've got to set a new proper 6km PB now! Judging by the last split, I was probably a bit conservative at the start so could hopefully get it closer to a 1:53 pace.

In all honesty the last 500m was actually when I felt the best, which means I probably didn't pace it right... 1250m - 750m was absolutely hell and I was constantly telling myself to **** off as my brain was thinking up all the creative excuses I could use to stop...

Solid effort that! 1:53 is probably doable from that, but you do want a bit of negative splitting on the longer threshold tests.

 

[Street]

1250m - 750m was absolutely hell and I was constantly telling myself to **** off as my brain was thinking up all the creative excuses I could use to stop...

I'm glad it's not just me that does that!

 

[BennoUK]

Quite possibly, although looking at our lactate training bands, I'm sitting about where I should be for a 30r20 -> 2k relationship. My steady state UT2 however is quicker than it should be for my effort pace. I also negative split quite a lot in tests, which probably means I could push myself harder throughout, but I'm only 8 weeks into this program so still getting back used to the serious testing!

Just got to try and push through a month of erging alone and not being able to get out on the water

Then continued cycling through until September when I decided to join Molesey and start rowing again, and now we're 8 weeks into the training program (2/3 sessions a day, 6 days a week) and this is what I managed for a 2k test last night! hoping to be down to around 6:12 by Sumer...

I still think you should be knocking on 8450m for 30 mins rate 20 with that 2k. You jest about the 6:12, but when I went from 6:20 time to 6:00 ish it happened very quickly, much faster than 6:40->6:20. - well done btw!

 

[hellarda]

I still think you should be knocking on 8450m for 30 mins rate 20 with that 2k. You jest about the 6:12, but when I went from 6:20 time to 6:00 ish it happened very quickly, much faster than 6:40->6:20. - well done btw!

Tbh you're probably right, I've been negative splitting the 30r20 probably too much so could definitely go out harder. Fingers crossed I'll get down there by summer, should be doable! My UT2 splits are dropping massively too. 2 months ago I was doing 3x6ks at 2:01/2:02 with HR hitting 180 in the last 6k, just done one today and sat at a 1:58 average and HR in the mid 150s

The training intensity and volume at the moment is pretty high, and finding it pretty tough doing everything alone, although my current setup is helping...



that said we're now into 5k prep for a test on 2nd December. Yesterday was 2x rate stepped 5ks. 1st - 2k r22 / 2k r24 / 1k r26 2nd 1k r24 / 1k r26 / 1k r28 / 2k free with a 10min (well 9:55 as thats the highest the erg goes!) rest inbetween.



Holy **** it was unpleasant, possibly the hardest erg I've done mentally and possibly physically. Still, a double PB so pretty happy, next is a 30min open rate next week which I'm not looking forward to either....

 

[Martynt74]

Wow, that's a stunning setup

 

[Street]

The training intensity and volume at the moment is pretty high, and finding it pretty tough doing everything alone, although my current setup is helping...

That definitely beats staring at the garage wall!

 

[hellarda]

Less enjoyable this morning with the rain and the wind...!

6x1k r24 with 5min rest in between. Legs weren't firing at all today and felt pretty lethargic throughout.

Got absolutely snaked by the rate (god knows how the C2 calculates it but it's ridiculous )



Quite how the below graph (black line) comes out at an average of r25 is beyond me

 

[BennoUK]

Tbh you're probably right, I've been negative splitting the 30r20 probably too much so could definitely go out harder. Fingers crossed I'll get down there by summer, should be doable! My UT2 splits are dropping massively too. 2 months ago I was doing 3x6ks at 2:01/2:02 with HR hitting 180 in the last 6k, just done one today and sat at a 1:58 average and HR in the mid 150s

The training intensity and volume at the moment is pretty high, and finding it pretty tough doing everything alone, although my current setup is helping...



that said we're now into 5k prep for a test on 2nd December. Yesterday was 2x rate stepped 5ks. 1st - 2k r22 / 2k r24 / 1k r26 2nd 1k r24 / 1k r26 / 1k r28 / 2k free with a 10min (well 9:55 as thats the highest the erg goes!) rest inbetween.



Holy **** it was unpleasant, possibly the hardest erg I've done mentally and possibly physically. Still, a double PB so pretty happy, next is a 30min open rate next week which I'm not looking forward to either....

Nice setup. I normally have to mix my rate up on 5k anyway to break it up so it looks like good practice mentally, well done on the PB that must feel nice but the countdown inbetween must have been horrible to watch -haha. I reckon you flat out 5k must be 17:00/17:05 given the 2k - make it so

 

[hellarda]

Nice setup. I normally have to mix my rate up on 5k anyway to break it up so it looks like good practice mentally, well done on the PB that must feel nice but the countdown inbetween must have been horrible to watch -haha. I reckon you flat out 5k must be 17:00/17:05 given the 2k - make it so

Yeah the rest was horrible, starting the second one was such a mental battle

Looking at lactate training bands for my 2km, 5km should be a 1:42.5 split. But looking at my 30min open rate score I did yesterday, lactate bands show I should be on a 1:41.4, so will probably sit on a 1:42 and then see what happens in the last 500m.

30min open rate yesterday though, not an enjoyable experience, 30mins is a bloody looooong time to sit on threshold at r28 although I'm very glad I listened to my coach and forced myself to keep the rate up, lots of others didn't and dropped down to 24/25 and had a horrible time. Ignore the HR - decided to take my strap off with about 6 mins to go.

[[url=https://postimg.cc/CRZvX9Q4][/URL]

 

[PermaChanged]

Guys, what would be a decent 1k rowing time on a Concept 2? I'm entering a rowathon whereby it's a team of 5, each rowing 5k each but switching every 1k. Just working out roughly how much rest I will get between each 1k stint, and how long a 1k stint should take me

 

[Martynt74]

Depends on how good people are, but for a constant 1k i'm around 3:45, although that's as someone who only uses the rower fairly occasionally (always with the intention to do more often).

But i'd expect around 3:30 to 3:45 as a rough guess if you're fit and not rowing too often (which it sounds like), with 4 of you then, i'd say around 14 minutes rest?

 

[Street]

Guys, what would be a decent 1k rowing time on a Concept 2? I'm entering a rowathon whereby it's a team of 5, each rowing 5k each but switching every 1k. Just working out roughly how much rest I will get between each 1k stint, and how long a 1k stint should take me

It depends a lot on your size. I'm a short lightweight and can do a 4x1km/5r at about a 1:46 pace which is about 3:32 in total. My times aren't a patch on the heavyweights though!

 

[PermaChanged]

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned my size, it's half the reason I'm being made to "audition" for the team! I'm 6ft3 and 110kg atm - decent strength levels, decent fat levels too

 

[Street]

I've not done a 2k test for a while so figured I should have a crack before the BRIC to see roughly where I'm at. I've been feeling like crap since the weekend so took a couple days off from training and thought I'd just aim for my previous PB and go from there. Pretty pleased with the result as I knocked a couple seconds off my previous time fairly easily while not feeling 100%. My last 2k was all out and I was ruined afterwards, so it's good to know I can go faster with some still left in the tank!