CrossFit Journal Article Reprint.

First Published in CrossFit Journal Issue 55 - March 2007

Using Worldwide Erg Data to

Fine-Tune Your Training
Judy Geer

Would you like to hone your indoor rowing training to for our purposes it’s best to leave these blank
target the specific areas where you need it most? in order to get the biggest data pool.
5. Note that the ranking season ends on April
There’s a powerful source of international training data 30. The later in the season it is, the more data
available on the Internet. Since 1999, rowers all over there will be. If it’s early in a season, it would
the world have been entering their personal best times be more informative to use the prior season’s
for a variety of race distances on Concept2 rowers into data.
a database called the Online World Ranking. The tests 6. Click Continue to start the search. Within a
range from a 500-meter sprint to the 42-kilometer few seconds, the results you requested will be
marathon, and the age groups range from under 18 to displayed.
over 80. Men, women, lightweights, and heavyweights 7. The fastest performance to date during the
have all been submitting their times. There are now season specified will be shown at the top of
thousands of data points collected here. The database the list. Above the table, you will find the
is easy to access, free, and searchable, so it’s easy to pull scores that correspond to the 90th, 75th,
out just the data that you want. 50th, and 25th percentiles for the data pool
OK, great. But why should you care about someone you requested, as well as the average score.
else’s rowing results? How can other people’s data help How good is this data? The Performance Monitor on the
you to become faster and fitter? Concept2 Indoor Rower is not just a simple revolution
There are a number of ways that you can use this counter. It carefully measures the acceleration and
data to improve your own fitness, from setting goals deceleration of the flywheel on every stroke and uses
to monitoring progress to analyzing strengths and that data to calculate the actual power being dissipated
weaknesses. by the flywheel, which it then converts to speed, pace,
watts, and calories for the display. It also recalibrates
First, though, here’s how to access the database: itself with every stroke to account for environmental
1. Go to www.concept2.com. conditions. And every flywheel is calibrated at the
2. Click on Ranking & Log in the upper right factory so as to keep the calculations accurate to within
corner. .01%. This accuracy is what makes it possible to compare
3. Click on Rankings in the upper right corner. scores rowed anywhere in the world. Indeed this
4. Now choose the distance, age group, gender, accuracy makes the Online World Ranking possible.
and weight class that interests you. You can Now that you have all this data at your fingertips, here’s
choose to specify city, state, and country, but how you can use it to improve your own training.

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Worldwide Erg Data (continued...)
Test yourself Analyze your strengths and weaknesses
Use the pre-set workout function of the Performance The most powerful way to use the data, though, is to
Monitor (PM) to set the exact distance for your time- compare your own personal best scores for all the
trial. As you row, the PM will count down the meters different distances to the accumulated data for your
to zero and then display your time at the end. Record age/gender/weight class, you can learn a lot about your
your time. You can also use the memory function to relative strengths and weaknesses. At which distance is
obtain additional information about your workout, such your percentile ranking the highest? At which distance
as average pace. is it the lowest? Are you in 90th percentile for the
500-meter piece, but only average for the 10k? Armed
Rank yourself with this information, you can then focus your training
program where it will benefit your conditioning the
Go to concept2.com and set up a personal logbook, if
most.
you don’t already have one. Enter your time-trial result
and click the Rank button to rank your piece. Now As an example, the following tables contain data obtained
click the Ranked Workouts tab to view your standing. from the online ranking for men’s and women’s age 30-
You can also go back to the searchable Online Ranking 39 heavyweight categories. (“Heavyweight” is an old
itself, enter your event, age group, gender, and weight rowing term that means over 165 pounds for men and
class, and find yourself in the list. Now that you’ve done over 135 pounds for women.) The first column contains
this for one distance, try a few more. The more you do, the time-trial distance in meters. The second column,
the more you will learn about your own conditioning “2007 Record,” is the fastest time that has been posted
relative to everyone else who has entered data. for that distance since May 1, 2006. The third column,
“Record pace,” indicates the pace per 500 meters that
Challenge yourself was required to achieve the record time. It is helpful to
Now that you know where you stand, you can start understand pace since the PM displays it while you are
to set goals. Take a look at the fastest times for the rowing. It’s just like time per mile in running. The faster
different distances. There is always the ultimate goal you go, the lower your pace number because it is taking
of besting everyone else…and bringing home a world you less time to row 500 meters.
record in one or more categories. Or maybe you just Add your own data to the last two columns. If you didn’t
want to set a goal of improving your percentile ranking record your pace, you can use the pace calculator at
by five or ten points for each ranking distance. See how http://www.concept2.com/us/training/tools/calculators/
high you can get in the rankings by April 30, when the pacecalculator.asp to quickly calculate it from your
’07 season closes. time.

Women 30-39 heavy – 2007 data

Distance 2007 Record 90th 75th 50th 25th Average Average Your Your
(m) Record pace %ile %ile %ile %ile time pace time pace
500 01:37.7 01:37.7 01:47.2 01:53.4 02:03.0 02:13.4 02:06.6 02:06.6
1000 03:39.2 01:49.6 03:46.3 03:55.9 04:16.6 04:33.4 04:25.4 02:12.7
2000 07:09.9 01:47.5 07:36.0 08:08.0 08:43.1 09:39.8 09:03.9 02:16.0
5000 19:46.4 01:58.6 21:03.0 22:15.0 23:51.0 25:36.7 24:18.4 02:25.8
6000 24:09.4 02:00.8 25:18.7 26:32.8 28:00.0 30:00.9 28:34.7 02:22.9
10000 40:57.8 02:02.9 42:47.9 44:46.0 46:40.6 50:12.0 47:55.1 02:23.8

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Worldwide Erg Data (continued...)

Men 30-39 heavy – 2007 data

Distance 2007 Record 90th 75th 50th 25th Average Average Your Your
(m) Record pace %ile %ile %ile %ile time pace time pace
500 01:17.5 01:17.5 01:26.7 01:32.0 01:37.6 01:44.9 01:39.6 01:39.6
1000 02:48.3 01:24.2 03:10.0 03:18.3 03:30.2 03:51.7 03:37.6 01:48.4
2000 05:46.7 01:26.7 06:38.8 06:57.1 07:23.1 07:56.0 07:33.0 01:53.3
5000 15:55.3 01:35.5 17:59.1 18:44.1 19:44.7 21:12.0 20:11.5 02:01.1
6000 19:57.1 01:39.8 21:38.5 22:30.6 23:46.9 25:54.0 24:28.7 02:02.4
10000 34:23.8 01:43.2 37:07.2 38:27.5 40:27.6 43:12.6 41:11.2 02:03.6

Men's 30-39 Heavyweight

02:18.2
02:01.0
pace (time/500m)

01:43.7
01:26.4
record pace
01:09.1
average pace
00:51.8
00:34.6
00:17.3
00:00.0
500 1000 2000 5000 6000 10000
distance (m)

Now let’s plot the data to get a visual sense of what’s going on. These plots show the time-trial distance along the
x-axis (horizontal) and the pace (in time per 500 meters) on the y-axis (vertical).
As expected, as the time-trial distance gets longer, the pace slows, and thus the pace number gets larger.

Women's 30-39 Heavyweight

02:35.5
02:18.2
02:01.0
pace (time/500m)

01:43.7
01:26.4 record pace
01:09.1 average pace
00:51.8
00:34.6
00:17.3
00:00.0
500 1000 2000 5000 6000 10000
distance (m)

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Worldwide Erg Data (continued...)
Now comes the best part. Add your own data to this graph and see where it falls.
Below is an example. Note that our sample person is performing very close to the records for the short time-trial
distances, but fades to average and even slower than average as the length of the test increases. This person needs
to work on the aerobic system by doing more training at levels at or just below his anaerobic threshold and by
building his endurance.
A person with the opposite curve—average on short pieces and better than average at longer pieces—will need
to do more anaerobic work. Short intense intervals at high intensity should be worked into the training program
on a regular basis.
All that data is waiting; take advantage of it. Test yourself, rank yourself, analyze your strengths and weaknesses,
and then take the steps you need to take to improve.

Men's 30-39 Heavy - example

02:18.2
02:01.0
pace (time/500m)

01:43.7
01:26.4 record pace
01:09.1 average pace
00:51.8 example
00:34.6
00:17.3
00:00.0
500 1000 2000 5000 6000 10000
distance (m)

Judy Geer was a member of three U.S. Olympic Rowing Teams (1976, 1980, 1984). She placed sixth
in both 1976 and 1984; 1980 was the boycott year. Since then, she and her husband Dick Dreissigacker
(also an Olympic rower) have raised three children, now ages 15, 18, and 20, who are national-level
competitive athletes in their own right. Judy continues to train and race in sculling, running, Nordic skiing,
and biathlon.

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