After a long and disrupted winter, regatta season is finally here and that can only mean one thing: 2ks! 2ks can often play a role in crew selection and are important for athletes looking to be recruited to US programmes, so here are some tips and workouts to help you improve your 2k score.
8 x 500m
Often considered the GOAT of 2k erg prep, 8 x 500m with 90 seconds has to be one of the toughest workouts out there. You should aim to sit on your 2k target split and ideally rate above 32 strokes per minute. Whilst the first couple usually feel quite easy, the fifth and sixth are anything but. It’s a great way to build mental toughness as well as practising your mid-race pace.
Sprints
Aside from putting you in a pain cave, sprints sessions are really useful for getting used to splits that are faster than your 2k, helping to remove the fear of the unknown. Some of my personal favourites include 10 x 200m (or 40 seconds) with 20 seconds rest or 8 x 250m with one minute rest.
4 x 10 minutes
This is a slightly longer workout, but probably the one I credit most with helping me drop five splits from my 2k in as many weeks. It is 4 x 10 minutes with 10 minutes rest/recovery on a spinning bike. You should aim for your target split +6-8. I often like to break down each 10 minutes into 1 minute @ rate 30, 5 minutes @ rate 28, 2 minutes @ rate 30 and the last two minutes @ rate 32. This makes it more manageable and also mirrors a 2k as, after the excitement of the first few strokes, increasing the rate should help you get faster throughout.
UT2
Winter is over so I don’t need to do UT2 anymore right? Wrong! Events like National Schools’ and Henley Royal potentially consist of multiple races over several days so it is important to keep your endurance up. In addition, UT2 helps to improve your aerobic capacity and several studies suggest a 2k is about 80% aerobic so it is definitely not something to neglect.
As far as workouts go, some popular ones are 3 x 20 minutes or 2 x 6k, both with 90 seconds rest. You should aim for about 65-75% of your maximum heart rate. For most people this is about 20 splits above their 2k.
Tips
The most important thing is to have a plan and stick to it. If you’re aiming for a 1:50 split, there’s no point going through the first 500m at a 1:40 split. If you go out too fast, you won’t be able to hold on and it will be immensely painful. This is known as “fly and die”.
Sometimes it can be difficult to know what score to aim for. If you fall into this category, I would recommend doing a 1k @ rate 24. Your split for this should be about the same as on your 2k.
During the actual workout, it is often advisable to negative split it. This means you gradually get faster throughout your 2k, hopefully preventing you from blowing up. In practice, this means rowing at your target +2 for the first 500m, +1 between 500m and1000m, on your target split for the third 500m and as fast as you can go in the last 500m. It can be quite mentally challenging to get faster during the erg so it is important to dig deep and trust your endurance training.
It is also really important to get your warm-up right. Many people don’t do enough of a warm-up and their 2k score suffers as a consequence. I like to do at least 20 minutes on the erg with a bit of mobility. That 20 minutes is broken down into a back-end build and a front-end build followed by continuous rowing for 10 minutes. After a drink and a short break, it is time for 15-20 stroke bursts at high rate with a firm paddle in between. Another short break and it is time to set up the screen and begin the workout!
Other things to be aware of are food, hydration and recovery. Rowing is an energy intensive sport so it is important to make sure you eat enough so you can be fuelled for your training. Recovery is often what sets apart a good athlete from a great athlete and is something not to be neglected. Stretching and rolling are really important and a weekly yoga session is often worthwhile. Above all, it is vital to get enough quality sleep so aim for at least eight hours per night.
If you’ve made it this far, hopefully you’ve got some ideas on how to improve your 2k, so all that’s left to say is good luck on your next one!
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