Improving 2K Times

Question
My son is a junior in high school, in his third year rowing for a club team. He's about 5'9" and weighs around 175 lbs. He's getting frustrated because he can't seem to improve his 2K times. He doesn't know if it's a nutrition or training issue. Do you have any suggestions that might help him? He's also worried that he won't be tall enough to compete in college. What are your thoughts on that?

Answer
Dear Jennifer,

Your son seems to have hit the proverbial "wall" as they say. It is a point at which an athlete has trouble overcoming a specific obstacle (in this case getting better on a 2k), and must work his way over it to achieve his goal. This is one of the most challenging parts of being an athlete, that is doing the work and seeing no results.

Looking back to my days of rowing in high school I remember hitting this "wall" around sophomore year. I started off after a year of summer training, I started off my scholastic season with a 7:19 2k (my personal best at the time).  However, as I progressed through the winter training season doing the workouts, and going to every practice, I saw no improvement on my 2k time. For four months this continued of me pulling a consistent 7:19, and seemed to me that I was doing all this work for nothing. However for my size and weight a 7:19 was a respectable score so I continued. I really don't know what happened, but as the winter training season came to a close we did our last 2k and I pulled a 7:09, my best time, and a 10 second drop in a month. Needless to say I was ecstatic to see such a low score after all these months at work, and it really boosted my morale. (I then went on to pull a 6:45 at the end of my high school career).

In retrospect I believe your son is at a similar point. To be quite honest it will be fairly easy for you to tell if he has a training issue. Look around at his team, how are they doing at regattas? What 2k scores are members of the team pulling? How intense is the training program? If you have a problem, these things will not be to good. Crew should not be easy, there should be 7-9 practices a week and they should leave your son exhausted (There will be easier ones then other, but a good woopin' should be in store for them a couple times a week). If this is the case, then I would recommend joining a gym, or considering buying an erg. Supplement his workout as much as you can, do push ups/sit ups everyday before bed, run, just do something to get his heart rate going!

At 5'9" your son may also want to consider losing a couple of pounds, nothing to serious, but at his height he may wish to consider going lightweight (155 pounds in the USA). Take it easy though, there should be no rush about this. Honestly the biggest killer for weight is eating out and snacking. I am no food expert, but look at your eating habits, or continue searching online for ideas, just try to cut back on the junk food, and the workouts should do the rest.

In all of my experience as a rower and a coach I have yet to encounter any evidence that a good  rower's height is related to how fast he/she pulls. Don't get me wrong, being tall helps your length of each stroke, but really it is all about the muscle mass/VO2 and lactic acid threshold of said athlete. If your son can get down to lightweight, he will probably have a very he may not have such an easy time, as the guys do have a height advantage, yet lightweight rowing would be a good option (college lightweight is 165 pounds in the USA).

If you care to send me more specific information about your sons training regiment, 2k times, or goals that he wishes to achieve I can help you more, but for some general advice just continue working at it, eventually the times will come down if you continue to train hard.

Good Luck,
- Richard Izzo