Ergometer Training Pace and Zone Prescription Tool

UT2: the aerobic base every Aussie squad week is built on

UT2 is the volume floor. The tool pegs UT2 at 12 to 16 seconds slower than your 2k split per 500m, holding 18 to 20 strokes per minute, with heart rate sitting around 65 to 75 per cent of max. Talk test: you should still be able to hold a sentence with the rower on the next ergo. At the AIS and across the senior university programmes, 60 to 70 per cent of the weekly ergometer mileage lives here, and the proportion climbs higher again across the AGSV, CAS and GPS schools squads where juniors need pure aerobic volume more than threshold sharpness. A typical UT2 prescription is 70 to 90 minutes continuous, or 4 x 20 minutes off two minutes, or 8 x 10 minutes off a minute. If your split drifts wider than 2 seconds between the first and last block, you opened too hot and the session has slipped into UT1.

UT1: the firm aerobic gear that bridges volume into threshold work

UT1 sits 6 to 10 seconds slower than 2k pace per 500m, at 22 to 24 spm, with heart rate around 75 to 83 per cent of max. Breathing tightens but you can still talk. The band earns its keep across the pre-race build, and across athletes who simply cannot fit a 90-minute UT2 paddle into a weekday morning before school or work. Standard prescriptions: 4 x 10 minutes off two minutes, 3 x 20 minutes off three minutes, 2 x 30 minutes off four minutes, or 5 x 15 minutes off two minutes. The way most Aussie programmes use UT1 is as a once or twice a week stimulus, paired across the week with a long UT2 piece and a single AT session.

AT: where most race time gets won

AT lives 3 to 5 seconds slower than 2k pace per 500m, at 26 to 28 spm, with heart rate around 85 to 90 per cent of max. The band sits just under blood-lactate accumulation. Hard, but a clean AT piece holds split rep one through rep six. Workhorse prescriptions: 4 x 10 minutes off four minutes, 3 x 12 minutes off four minutes, 6 x 4 minutes off two minutes, 5 x 8 minutes off three minutes. Athletes who plateau on the 2k regatta-day split almost always need more AT, not more flat-out work. Across a King's Cup or Boat Race build, AT is the band that gets dialled up first as the racing block closes in.

TR: 2k race pace, the band most Aussie selection turns on

TR is the 2k pace itself, 30 to 34 spm, heart rate at 90 to 95 per cent of max from rep two onwards. Standard work: 6 x 500m off four minutes, 4 x 750m off five minutes, 3 x 1000m off six minutes, 2 x 1500m off eight minutes. The rest interval matters as much as the work interval. Shave the rest and the next rep falls off the planned split. Stretch it too far and the system you are training quietly shifts from 2k-specific endurance into pure creatine-phosphate recovery. The pyramid 4 x 500m into 2 x 750m off the same rest pattern is the Aussie schools coach favourite across the final fortnight before Australian Schools Championships because it teaches an opening 500 then a race middle inside a single ergometer.

AN: power and rate, used sparingly across the sharpening fortnight

AN runs 3 to 5 seconds faster than 2k pace per 500m, at 36 spm and above. Prescriptions are deliberately short: 8 x 250m off three minutes, 10 x 1 minute off two minutes, 30 seconds on / 30 seconds off across 16 reps, or a starts ladder of 12 x 100m race starts. AN is fragile. If the nervous system is fatigued from a heavy AT block earlier in the week, the AN session will not deliver the rate or watt response it is meant to train. Most Aussie programmes taper AN volume across the final week before racing, with the last true AN session sitting six to eight days out from the regatta. Across selection camps at Penrith and Lake Barrington, AN is also the band where rate-pressure pairings get assessed.

Blocking the week off a fresh 2k anchor

A typical Aussie open-club base-phase week sits around 60 per cent UT2, 25 per cent UT1, 10 per cent AT and 5 per cent TR or AN, spread across six or seven sessions. The schools 1st VIII programmes (AGSV, CAS and GPS) usually run higher again on UT2, in the 70 to 80 per cent range, because junior aerobic development scales most reliably off volume at low intensity. Race-prep weeks across the Penrith camp build, the pre-Yarra block and the lead-in to Australian Rowing Championships shift the mix toward UT1, AT and TR, with UT2 still anchoring the long weekend session. A King's Cup squad week in March looks different again, with two TR pieces, two AT pieces, one long UT2 and the balance in UT1. The Row HQ guide to running ergometer telemetry across a senior squad walks through how the proportions get tracked across a full season rather than just one week at a time.