A 2K training pace is a great way to tailor a training plan to your individual, current fitness and strength levels. It centers around using your current best time to row 2000m. Here’s a video explanation, but read on if you’d rather.

Calculating your 2K Average

This all starts off with rowing a 2000m time trial. Set your monitor to 2000m and row it as fast as you possibly can. Don’t take it easy – put in maximum effort. (Be sure you don’t have any health problems before doing anything like this though!)

Take a look at your final time. The monitor should show you the total time and the Average /500m split time. You can calculate this yourself if you don’t see that.

If you rowed 2000m in 7mins 40sec – the average time to row 500m would be 1min 55sec

(There are 4 x 500m in a 2000m piece, so 7:40 split evenly into 4 is 1:55)

Even if you started at 1:40 and fell back to 2:10 – the average time is still 7min40sec split into four – which is 1:55

Applying Training Pace Guides

Then you just take that pace, and add or subtract the pace guide. So in the example above, 2K+18 would be 1:55 +18 which is 2:13 pace.

Set the monitor to show the current /500m pace – and try to hold 2:13 for this guide. And if it changes to 2K-5, then in the example above, you’d then speed up your pace so you’d be rowing at 1:55 – 5sec which is 1:50.