I was a “talented” collegiate rower, now turned runner. Ask me anything (spoiler: the talent doesn’t translate…)

Did you see the George Clooney movie about rowing?

Do you think some good runners could be good rowers?

Do you think you could break 3:07, the edge of high performance running?

-talent isn’t universal. - there’s no such thing as training exactly like the pros only slower.

Did you ever do a sub6 2k on the C2?

You’ve gotta be tall to br a good rower, there’s just no getting around that. A good runner can be tall, but I’m pretty sure can’t weigh a lot. So a 6’1”/160 pound runner could be a good rower, but probably in the lightweight rowing division (Crew has heavyweight and lightweight, with lightweights having to be less than 160).

That is a HUGE goal of mine. Actually 3:10 had been my lifelong goal (a BQ for me) and I’m getting slowly there….

Ha yeah I should probably qualify my “talent” as a rower as being really good in division III…so no, not sub 6, but did get to 6:09. The Ivy guys would have blown me out of the water

95% of talent in running is outstanding running form.

Is outstanding rowing form needed to be a great rower? Is there such a thing as rowing form in rowing.

In a non-running fitness test you could beat the pants off Eliud Kipchoge = just sayin'.

So here is a fellow who knows almost nothing about running.

If you’re talking form on the erg, where rowers measure themselves in training and on time trials, then meh, kind of, but it’s far less important than on the water, in an actual boat. For example, i rowed with a guy that had god-awful form on the erg but could pull great times but he could never make the “A” boat because he couldn’t translate it to real life (would get beat in seat-races to guys that were pulling slower erg times). I’m other words you can still have great erg times with sloppy form, but might just not get that last 1% out of yourself in

Trained with and coached some excellent rowers who could run at a relatively high level Top rowers all have outstanding fitness but national level marks in both sports would most likely be a lightweights only. Basically you’d be chasing guys with chests like a birdcage.

You still have the erg competitions and stair competitions but don’t bash yourself for running times, look more for the least running to beat maybe 98% of runners at say 15-20k. Way better off w a hybrid program and less pressure on yourself.

Good luck w it

One of the girls that I coached in HS track/XC, now rows for her college rowing team.

rowing is often a minimal experience necessary, fill a title ix slot on the women's side.

Very cool. Good luck.

I have a moderate amount of running talent, decided not to do D1 track as I was more focused on academics. I did club crew instead, which while a time sink was much less of a focused thing than a D1 track / cross country commitment. Anyway, I can confirm that it does not translate. I am a MUCH better runner than rower. I could run circles around my rowing teammates, but most of them were better rowers than me.

If you were to have done a 5x500m w/ 1 min rest workout on the C2, what would your average have been? What would you consider decent for the average person? Really have no clue what to aim for and what is considered actually really good.

Cool! all sort of unsurprising to be honest!

solid erg score, 6’3 200 is a rowers frame. Definitely not great for running. I was curious your best 2k (609?)

how old are you now?

I ran in high school (1540 5k), rowed in my 20s (552 erg) and now in my 30s i’m a similar runner to you. once you spend enough time rowing say goodbye to your running. Unless you’re very light as a rower.

You can’t imo evaluate “talent” by times in running…

there’s a lot of new stuff out there arguing to look at the power your generating, especially going uphill versus say an élite mountain runner (usually 125lbs/5’8”) like Kilian or even Jim Walmsley…

you probably have a huge, robust v02 max but its work (f x d) won’t show in the running world because you finished 100th at Speedgoat or a vertical K…

the talent is where some anomalie like a Bjørn Daehlie in skiing or Vingegaard in cycling seem to display on an average basis…

it would be cool to s” plus-size” runner talents over Western States 100 runs or that feature on Strava segments where you see a rough “power” from your $800 watch