Getting Faster at 2K Without Always Testing It

I want my 2K time to come down. I don’t want to keep rowing one flat out just to check whether the training’s working, though. That’s a lot of effort spent finding out where you are. Then you’ve got to recover enough to do some more training.

Seeing a better time is satisfying, especially when you’ve put the work in. I’d take that result seriously. I just wouldn’t let it decide whether the whole programme had been worthwhile.

The test is useful because you can repeat it and compare. It tells you something about your physical capacity on the rowing machine, although that’s where it gets a little bit awkward if we start using it to judge everything about a rower. It doesn’t tell you how well they steer or communicate in a boat. Someone who rows well technically can be quicker on the water than their ergo score suggests.

A big score doesn’t always become boat speed.

Anyway, improving the 2K itself. I’d start by testing less. Or rather, I’d look at how often you’re testing, because there’s nothing wrong with doing one when it has a place in the programme.

For me, a proper test deserves some preparation. Ease the training beforehand so you can give it a proper effort, and leave room to recover afterwards. Keep squeezing full-effort tests into a short period and you lose quite a bit of space either side of them. Space you could have used for the work that might actually improve the result.

Between tests, I’d use intervals for the harder, more specific rowing. Finishing folded over the handle doesn’t have to be the aim of every session, even then.

A lot of the programme should be steady aerobic work. You should feel like you’re working, but still be able to hold a conversation. Check that on your next steady row, once you’ve settled into it. Can’t talk comfortably? Ease off. Matching last week’s split doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve got the effort right today.

That can be quite hard to leave alone. You’re sitting there thinking you could pull harder, and you probably could. Spending time at that steady effort is useful work, though, and if you push it up you’ve changed the session. You can also end up carrying that tiredness into the session that was meant to be hard.

Long rows have a place here. An hour might fit your programme. Longer sessions can be useful as well, but a two-hour row isn’t automatically better for you because someone else is doing it. The amount needs to fit what you’re already doing and what you can recover from.

Two hours is still two hours, whoever suggested it.

You do need rowing above that comfortable effort as well. Longer intervals at a firm, controlled intensity help you develop the ability to sustain harder work. Four lots of ten minutes, with a few minutes of easy rowing between, is one way to structure it. Demanding. You shouldn’t already be fighting to finish during the first repetition.

Shorter intervals let you work harder again. Repeated 500m pieces are an option, with roughly as much recovery time as rowing time. Think about the effort across the session rather than emptying yourself on the first one. If everything after that falls apart, you’ve probably gone too hard.

Those aren’t sessions I’d automatically put together into a week. You have to look at the rest of the programme. They’re options for different kinds of work, rather than things you now have to tick off.

The pace predictor can give you an estimate of your current 2K, and the training zones tool can help organise the intensities. Useful starting points. I’d still check any estimate against what the rowing actually feels like.

I’d use that training time to work on the stroke you want to hold during the test as well. If it gets shorter when you’re tired, or you lose the connection at the catch, pulling harder won’t solve everything. An efficient stroke makes better use of the effort you’re already putting in.

Film a bit of your rowing, or ask someone to watch. Check whether the drive length stays consistent and whether you stay connected through the finish. Hold the length. Not by forcing a different stroke when you’re exhausted, but by practising it before you get to test day, so you’re working on the stroke you actually want to keep. Small changes repeated over 2,000 metres can matter.

During the harder intervals, I’d practise where you put your attention as well. Once it starts feeling properly unpleasant, it’s easy to spend the whole time thinking about how much is left.

Try bringing it back to the next 25 strokes. Keep the stroke together for that chunk, then deal with what comes after. You don’t have to feel positive about it. You can be having a fairly unpleasant time and still row the next stroke well.