Is my Time (or Distance) “Good”?

New athletes who try rowing, skiing or riding often wonder how their personal successes stack up against certain benchmarks. Of course, what is “good” for one athlete may not be comparable to another, whether based on gender, age, general fitness or experience. Individuals have their own goals and frames of reference. Still, the Concept2 Rankings can help. But first, you'll need to set up a free account in the Concept2 Online Logbook. The online logbook is a free, web-based application that allows you to record your workouts and keep track of your total metres, just to name few features. Setting up an online logbook is a simple, two-minute process, and can be done at concept2.com/logbook.

As a general rule, aim for 30 minutes of exercise a day. This is one of the most popular workouts we offer in the Concept2 Rankings, where athletes can rank their score against others. I’ll use the 30-minute workout as an example on how I use the Rankings to understand my results.

In the Rankings, you can search by workout, age, weight category, gender. As a 40-something heavyweight female athlete who rows, the percentiles to which I'd compare my 30-minute efforts look like this:

(The 30-minute world record, held by Jordan Falcone, is 7948 metres, completed in 2019. Jordan, that’s amazing! A 1:53.2 split!)

The 50^th percentile is the median result; half of all results are faster and half of all results are slower. (It is not the average of all results added to the database, which would be skewed by extremes.) The Rankings also show an average, 6221 metres.

It feels good to put workout data in perspective. For beginners, it would be exceptional to row over 7000 metres in 30 minutes. It would be more expected that you'll start out closer to the 25^th percentile, and move higher up, as your fitness and skills improve.

I find the 50^th percentile an encouraging and welcoming place to be! Middle-of-the-pack means that you’re in good company with what others row among your peers. You may not be the fastest, but you’re applying your fitness in a way that is expected.

The 90^th percentile often reflects the efforts of more competitive athletes. Many former National Team Members (or Olympians!) regularly train, even in all age groups, so keep in mind that these times certainly could be exceptional.

In some categories, data may be limited and less helpful. The best way to help improve the information is to rank your workouts and contribute to the results. To do this, the workout must be set up as a single distance or single time workout (no intervals) starting from a non-moving flywheel. After you enter your result in the logbook, the rank button automatically appears next to any qualifying result. Clicking this button sends the result to the Rankings.

The Rankings can be a great way to see how you stack up and improve; it doesn’t need to be competitive with anyone other than yourself. Explore the Rankings today to see how they can inform and shape your training goals.