<p>Hello all, this is my first post on the site!
I am 16 years old, a sophomore, and ~173 pounds. My best 2k, which I pulled the day before I turned 16 (3/1/13), was a 6:59.3.
How is this for someone my age? My goal is to have a 6:25 or lower 2k by the end of my junior year. This summer, I will be training for a ton of time every day, twice a day. Is my goal reasonable? Would this get attention from top rowing colleges like Princeton, Harvard, etc.?
Thanks.</p>
<p>EDIT: forgot to mention, soon I will be training in the mornings before school and after school as well. I also train on saturdays.</p>
<p>Sounds like you are a heavyweight (or are planning to be). I’m in the same boat as you. I’m a 15 year old sophomore (16 in June), and a 155 pound lightweight. I don’t mean to brag, but I pull a 6:46. However, I know someone who is a Freshman lightweight at Harvard and he pulled a 6:29 at the Crash-B’s last month, and a Heavyweight who pulls a 6:19. Anyone will tell you that academics are important too, as is rowing on the water.
My training plan, outside of practice has been to do a 10k every day at 2k+17 (1:58) at a 20-22 SPM.</p>
<p>Over the summer, try to take out a single or be in a small boat (if your club allows it) and race at something like Club Nationals or Henley (if you aren’t racing in something like Nationals in June).</p>
<p>So tell me this-- what on the water experience do you have to complement your erg scores? How are your academics? Not a bad start, but the truth is that you will have to drop a LOT of time to get noticed by schools such as Princeton and Harvard. </p>
<p>Try to set some goals for yourself, such as breaking 6:50, then 6:40, and so on as time goes by. If you are in the low 6:40’s or high 6:30’s as a Junior (in the fall), it’s a good start. Keep plugging away, and with a lot of time, effort, and sweat (and probably some blisters), you’ll get there. Don’t injure yourself (like I did, and missed out on the entire winter season) or burn out.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>How fast can you drop a 2k time if you have been rowing for a while, but not been training with a 2k format in mind?</p>
<p>Hm, thanks for the reply, LightweightDream. This info is for you:
Academics: I currently have a 4.92 weighted GPA, 3.96 UW, with a 216 on the PSAT. I took the test sick. I do test very well.
Mind if I ask what you do at practice? The 10k sounds like a great idea that I could do in the mornings, as I do NO steady state at the moment. Would this help me considerably?
Over the summer Ill likely be in a single or double, and training for something like 7 hours a day (4 morn, 3 evening). Essentially, my entire summer break will be devoted to rowing.
I have a good deal of OTW experience. Most of practice takes place on the water, and I’m on the water at least 5 times a week.
Im not sure if you’ll know any better than I would, but with this increased training how reasonable is it to be 6:40 by the end of the summer, or a couple months into fall season? As I said before, I’m about 175 pounds. I forgot to mention Im also apx. 6’1" and still growing. I can definitely add a LOT of muscle and still have quite a ways to go with my fitness (I’m quite far from capping off).
Thanks again.</p>
<p>Im just gonna bump this with the fact that I do literally no steady state. Is this bad?</p>
<p>Not to dash your hopes, but Harvard, in particular, will be a reach (literally) because most of their recruits are a lot taller and faster and almost all of them are from abroad with international wins. Look at the ivies that are not doing so well in terms of rowing, which means that they will have to recruit rowers with slower erg times.</p>