I am again closing in on a sub 7 minute 2k. One thing that I have noticed about rowing is that the effectiveness of a workout is directly related to how miserable you are during. Any effective workout is going to be absolutely miserable.

I have tried to lower my 2k time by doing long slow rows, like 10k or longer, and I have tried short intervals even as short as 200 meter sprints. I found that doing things to decrease the misery factor also decreased the effectiveness of the training. Really long rows are probably good for something, but they don’t seem to directly affect my 2k time. To effect that, I have to concentrate on distances closer to 2k, and row at a pace that is also closer to 2k pace. Which also puts the misery level closer to what I feel during a fast 2k. A 2500 meter or a 3K row done just slightly over 2k pace might even be worse than a fast 2k.

Really short intervals like 200 meter sprints, while being fun and often not miserable at all, also don’t seem to help much. For intervals to really help, I have to make them at least 500 meters, and limit the rest period. Multiple 500 meter intervals with 1 minute rest period are a pretty useful workout. But doing 10 sets of this interval again might actually be more miserable than just doing a fast 2k.

In short, there is simply no way to get around the discomfort of the training process. In this, rowing is much like weightlifting. The things that are useful are hard. Multiple heavy sets of 5 on the back squat. Heavy deadlifts, heavy pulls, or heavy push presses. All hard. All miserable if you push yourself hard enough to actually move the weight up over time. Maxing your snatch is not miserable. For many who “dabble” in weightlifting it is fun. Everyone loves to max the snatch. But that is not weightlifting. It is not the sport I fell in love with. The sport I fell in love with is hard. Brutal even. And to succeed in it you have to have a certain mindset. A mindset that develops over time and comes to not only accept the discomfort and sometimes downright misery of the training process, but to welcome it. To look forward to the misery. To fall in love with it.

As a competitor I fell in love with weightlifting, even with all the misery involved. Now as a rower and I am trying to appreciate the misery in rowing. But even more important to me is to foster the love of of weightlifting in a new generation of lifters. Even with all the discomfort of the training process, it is a great sport to love!