Erg times for 2k.

Question
Hi, I'm a freshman and very new to rowing. Right now our team is in the middle of winter training, and we just took the 2k test. I'm not very proud of it because I weigh 174 lbs. and I'm 5'9. The time was 8:17, and I wasn't sure if I should be really concerned because im in the bottom four for our novice team. What is the average time for a rower my age? And what should I do to improve this by at least 10 seconds this month?

Answer
Hi Michael:  The average time for 14-15 year old heavyweights is 7:19.  You have a little bit of work to do to get that time.

While your time might be disappointing to you, you have to consider that you are a rank novice.  You may have some technical flaws in your stroke that might be robbing you of seconds and/or you might not be quite in rowing shape yet.  You might have been in shape for baseball or basketball when you played those, but rowing shape is at a much higher level.

As you continue through winter training, you are going to get much stronger and have much better endurance.  You are also going to get the right coaching to improve your stroke technique.  All three things are going to improve your 2K time.  You just have to make sure you persevere and not give up on the sport, because it is going to be quite grueling over winter indoor training.  

If you hang in there, you should easily improve by anywhere from 10 to 40 seconds over the next couple of months.

Good Luck/AP