Try a 2k Race

November marks the beginning of the indoor rowing racing season in Ireland. On Saturday November 25th hundreds of rowers of all age groups from all four provinces will gather at the University of Limerick to compete at the annual Irish Provinces Indoor Rowing competition. And in January the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships will also be at UL. The sport of rowing, both on the water and indoors, is all about the 2K. It is the equivalent to the runner’s mile. These competitions also offer the option of racing over the 500 and 1000m distances, and there is still time to register!

A 500m all-out sprint is a go-to rowing machine challenge among gymgoers and CrossFitters, but not so much for rowers. Because it takes just a couple of minutes, it doesn’t truly test your aerobic fitness-it’s more about peak power and bragging rights. 1000m is the race distance for Masters age rowers. There’s a world of difference between a 1K and a 2K race-it isn’t just another thousand meters! Rowing is a “power-endurance” sport, and a 2000m race is approximately 75-80% aerobic and 20-25% anaerobic. To get your best 2K time, you need to maximise your stroke rate. It’s basically a seven to nine-minute sprint and one of the most challenging fitness tests you can do-both physically and mentally.

Whether you’re a cyclist, triathlete, rugby player, or gym junkie, if you pride yourself on physical fitness and mental fortitude, why not try a 2k race or time trial on the rowing machine? It will introduce you to a whole new level of indoor rowing intensity and test your physical and mental limits like nothing else. If you don’t believe me, give it a try-or just ask former Irish professional rugby player turned adventurer Damian Browne, who rowed solo across the North Atlantic in 2022. He calls a 2K time-trial on the indoor rowing machine “the gold standard examination of mental strength.”

And if you’re preparing for such a challenge, combining rowing with strength training classes near me can significantly enhance your power and endurance. Many athletes today include strength training classes near me to build resilience, improve performance, and avoid injury.

The gold-standard measure of aerobic fitness is your VO2 max. This is usually measured in an exercise lab but your best 2K time on the indoor rower will give you a very good estimation and age classification using this online calculator. The calculator will work for a 2k test on the Concept2 Row or SkiErg but it will not work for the BikeErg. An equivalent test on the BikeErg would be a 4000m TT but it will not elicit the same heart rate response or level of fatigue as a 2k on the Row or SkiErg. No matter how hard you push yourself on the bike the effort is confined to your lower body. Another advantage of doing a time-trial (TT) for people who do heart rate based training, is that it should elicit a maximum HR response. If you don’t know what your true max HR is, your heart rate based training zones are pretty meaningless.

Of course, you don’t need to push your physical and mental limits to get the great benefits of indoor rowing. But there is no getting around the fact that rowing does involve work. It is not an exercise for the faint-hearted. There is a reason the rowing machine is called an “ergometer”. The erg accurately measures the work that goes into your workouts and thus enables you to easily track your progress over time. In my Power-rowing programme I encourage all of my clients to focus primarily on the endurance component of indoor rowing, by working toward a goal of a continuous 5000m row. This is done in tandem with working toward building your power output over the 1000m distance.

The 5000m and 1000m distances are two great benchmark rows for assessing your progress over time and they are much less daunting than doing a 2k. 5K-based rowing builds your aerobic capacity and stamina while 1K-based rowing develops speed and power. And they prepare you well should you ever want to try a 2k! Pairing sessions on the rowing machine with strength training classes near me is a smart way to build overall strength and resilience. Many find that combining rowing and strength training classes near me leads to more balanced progress and fewer injuries in the long run.

Rowing with others is a lot more fun, more motivating and more effective than rowing on your own. There is a growing community of people who participate in the increasingly popular sport of indoor rowing and there is a growing list of indoor rowing races around the world on Concept2 ergs that include both virtual and in-person options open to anyone.

But you don’t ever have to race or row on the water to get the great health and fitness benefits of rowing. Indoor rowing is an exercise that every body can do!