What do UT2, UT1, AT, TR and AN actually mean on a Kiwi training plan?

They are the five intensity bands Rowing NZ coach education and most NZURA and Maadi school programmes run on. UT2 (utilisation 2) is steady aerobic, 18 to 20 strokes per minute, the pace you can chat through for an hour. UT1 (utilisation 1) is firm aerobic at 22 to 24 spm, where breathing turns deliberate. AT (anaerobic threshold) sits at 26 to 28 spm, the sustainable edge of lactate clearance. TR (transport) is your 2k race pace at 30 to 34 spm. AN (anaerobic) climbs above 36 spm at splits faster than your 2k, used for short power and rate pieces. Through a winter Karapiro block UT2 and UT1 carry most of the metres, AT sprinkles in once or twice a week, and AN reappears only in the final sharpening fortnight before North Island Champs or Maadi.

How does a single 2k score translate into the five zone splits?

Every zone sits at a published offset from your current 2k split, measured per 500 metres. UT2 runs 12 to 16 seconds slower than 2k pace. UT1 runs 6 to 10 seconds slower. AT runs 3 to 5 seconds slower. TR is your 2k pace itself. AN runs 3 to 5 seconds quicker than your 2k. The form above takes one 2k input and prints all five zone bands, alongside stroke-rate windows and indicative watt figures, so a coach can sanity-check a planned session against the PM5 screen before the first stroke. The offsets match the Rowing New Zealand athlete pathway and the FISA intensity model used internationally, so the numbers travel with an athlete moving between a Kiwi school programme, a Bond Cup university squad and an open-club crew at Cambridge or Ashburton.

What does a typical UT2 session look like in a New Zealand boatshed?

Standard UT2 prescriptions across Kiwi programmes are 60 to 90 minutes continuous at 18 to 20 spm, 5 by 12 minutes off 1 minute rest, 4 by 20 minutes off 2 minutes, or 8 by 10 minutes off 1 minute. The format is interchangeable; the discipline that matters is split control. If your pace creeps more than 2 seconds across a UT2 piece, you went out hard and the aerobic stimulus you came for is gone. UT2 builds the engine everything else sits on, so even in the back half of pre-Maadi taper a programme keeps an hour of UT2 in the training week.

Do lightweight rowers and masters scullers use the same zone offsets?

They do. Because each band is anchored to the athlete's own 2k, the prescription scales automatically to the standard of the rower. A 7:00 2k sits with UT2 around 1:57 to 2:01. A 6:30 2k drops UT2 into the 1:50 to 1:54 band. A masters athlete on a 7:30 2k finds UT2 around 2:09 to 2:13. The zones describe physiology (aerobic, threshold, anaerobic), which behaves the same across body weights and age groups; absolute splits are what change. On the water the same rule holds: swap the erg figures for boat splits coming off the SpeedCoach and the structure of the week is identical.

NZ Rowing Training Zone Calculator: UT2 to AN Setpoints from a 2k

Whiteboard-ready, no signup

Rowing Training Zone Calculator

One 2k erg score in, five zone bands out. The form below returns target splits, stroke-rate windows and watt targets for UT2, UT1, AT, TR and AN, plus an interval menu a Kiwi coach can copy straight onto the boatshed whiteboard at Karapiro, Twizel or Hamilton before tomorrow's session.

How a 2k erg score becomes a Kiwi squad training week

Drop a current 2k split into the field above. The tool reads it as the anchor pace, applies the published offset for each Rowing NZ intensity band, and prints the target split, stroke rate and approximate watt figure for UT2, UT1, AT, TR and AN. Coaches at clubs from Auckland to Ashburton use it to lay out a complete week of programmed sessions in a few minutes, rather than scratching the maths on the back of a coach-boat fuel receipt after a long morning at Karapiro.

Your current 2k split

: min : sec

Print this for your coach

Use your browser print dialog (Ctrl+P / Cmd+P) to drop this page into a PDF. Or grab a marker and copy the bands straight onto the boatshed whiteboard. The arithmetic on this page is the same arithmetic Row HQ runs in the background when a coach programmes a squad session.

The five intensity bands a Kiwi programme runs on

UT2: steady aerobic

The volume band. UT2 runs 12 to 16 seconds slower than your 2k pace per 500 metres, at 18 to 20 spm, with heart rate sitting around 65 to 75 percent of max. The rule of thumb is conversational: if you cannot answer the rower next to you in a full sentence, you have drifted out of UT2. The bulk of weekly metres in any serious New Zealand programme lives in this band, whether that is a Christ's College winter erg block, a long steady paddle past the powerhouse at Karapiro or a dawn session out of the Hamilton Boys' boatshed. Typical session length is 60 to 90 minutes continuous, or long blocks of 12 to 20 minutes with brief rest between.

UT1: firm aerobic

A half-gear up. UT1 sits 6 to 10 seconds slower than 2k per 500 at 22 to 24 spm, with heart rate climbing into the 75 to 83 percent of max bracket. Conversation breaks down to short phrases. UT1 earns its place in pre-regatta build phases, and in the schedules of older juniors or working masters who cannot bank the metres a pure UT2 plan demands. Standard formats are 4 by 10 minutes off 2, 3 by 20 minutes off 3, 2 by 30 minutes off 4, or 6 by 8 minutes off 1:30.

AT: anaerobic threshold

The lactate inflection. AT runs 3 to 5 seconds slower than 2k pace per 500 metres at 26 to 28 spm, heart rate around 85 to 90 percent of max. It should feel genuinely tough but repeatable; the rep-6 split should match the rep-1 split inside a second. Classic AT blocks: 4 by 10 minutes off 4, 6 by 4 minutes off 2, 8 by 4 minutes off 2. A Kiwi athlete who plateaus on race results between South Island Champs and Maadi almost always needs more AT, not another set of maximal pieces. AT is the most undertrained band in masters squads and the most overprescribed in junior groups; the calculator above keeps both honest.

TR: transport (race pace)

Your 2k pace itself, at 30 to 34 spm, heart rate at 90 to 95 percent of max from the second rep onward. Standard prescriptions are 6 by 500m off 4 minutes, 4 by 750m off 5, 3 by 1000m off 6, 2 by 1500m off 8. The rest interval is not negotiable. Too short and the next rep tails away from race pace. Too long and the energy system being trained shifts from 2k-specific endurance toward creatine-phosphate recovery, which is a different conversation entirely. TR earns its keep in the four weeks before North Island Champs and across the build to Maadi week at Lake Ruataniwha.

AN: anaerobic

Sharper than 2k. AN runs 3 to 5 seconds quicker than your 2k pace per 500 at 36-plus spm, used in small doses for power and rate development. Typical formats: 8 by 250m off 3, 10 by 1 minute off 2, 30 seconds on 30 off times 16. AN is brittle. If the nervous system is still carrying load from a heavy AT day or a hard TR block, an AN session will fall flat and produce neither the stimulus nor the adaptation that was wanted. Race-prep blocks usually pull AN volume back in the final fortnight before Maadi or the Bond Cup, leaving just enough rate work to keep the catch sharp.

How to put the bands together across a week

A common base-phase week for a senior Kiwi club rower is roughly 60 percent UT2, 25 percent UT1, 10 percent AT, 5 percent TR or AN. Race-build weeks shift the mix toward UT1, AT and TR while leaving UT2 anchoring the long weekend session. Junior squads at Saint Kentigern, St Andrew's or St Bede's typically push the UT2 share to 70 or 80 percent through winter, because young rowers add aerobic capacity most reliably from low-intensity volume rather than threshold heroics. The data-driven training guide shows how to track the band-by-band split across a full season, and how to spot the squad member quietly drifting into UT1 every time the programme calls for UT2.

One whiteboard scrawl works for one session. A full season is a database job.

Knowing the zones is one half of the work. Auditing which zones a thirty-athlete squad actually trained in across the last three months is the other half, and that is where a paper plan starts breaking down. Row HQ writes every athlete's session pace against the five-band framework as the data arrives, so a coach catches the Year 12 sculler grinding UT1 when the plan said UT2, or the open four arriving at the pre-Maadi camp at Lake Ruataniwha short on AN volume. The mechanics live in coach tools, the practice tracking features capture splits stroke by stroke, and the Oundle Town RC case study walks through how a working club applies the same zone audit to senior selection.

Book a walkthrough All free tools

Companion tools in the Aotearoa erg suite

Concept2 Erg Tool

Convert a 500m split to watts, kcal and projected finishing times.

Erg Score Percentile Tool

Weight-adjusted, age-graded percentile placement for Kiwi rowers.

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Single-screen pace lookup banded by training zone.

2k Prediction Calculator

Back-solve a credible 2k from a recent 5k, 6k or long aerobic piece.

Stroke Rate Calculator

Calculate distance per stroke from rate and split, with training-zone references for rate discipline.

Drag Factor Calculator

Find the right Concept2 drag factor for your weight, experience and goal.

Rowing Training Zone Calculator for Aotearoa Crews

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