Rowing Calculators

Split pace, power, training zones and race prediction. 9 calculators for ergometer and on-water rowers. Multi-sport training sits under Triathlon.

Erg watts explains why rowing feels the way it does. Every Concept2 machine runs one equation, watts = 2.80 divided by the cube of split over 500, and the cube is the whole story. Air resistance, like the water it imitates, scales with the cube of velocity, so rowing twice as fast costs eight times the power. That is why dropping from a 2:00 split to 1:50 is ten seconds on paper but 202 watts to 263 in the legs, and why the last five seconds of a personal best cost more than the first thirty.

Split pace works in seconds per 500 metres, the universal rowing unit. Reference 2K splits run from around 2:20 for a recreational beginner down to 1:25 for an elite man, and every longer piece sits slower than the 2K figure by a fairly predictable margin.

Training zone and interval pages anchor to your 2K, so test it first and retest every couple of months.