About Target Splits

Target Splits is a small set of free Concept2 erg calculators: work out the split you need, plan how to distribute it across a 2K, and understand what the resulting numbers mean.

Who builds it

Target Splits is built and maintained by Iain Weir, a digital product lead based in Newcastle upon Tyne who builds software for the rowing community. More about him, and everything else he works on, is at iainweir.info.

He is also behind two other rowing projects you will see referenced around the site:

  • Fantasy Rowing — a prediction league for rowing events. Its address is still the contact route for Target Splits, which is why a fantasyrowing.com email appears on some pages.
  • TapDown — a search interface for World Rowing results, and the credit in the site footer.

They share an author rather than a company. There is no organisation behind Target Splits beyond one person who rows, writes code, and got tired of doing split arithmetic in his head on the way to the gym.

Why it exists

Every rower eventually needs the same two numbers: what split a target time requires, and what the clock should read at the halfway mark. Both are arithmetic, both are easy to get wrong while sitting on an erg with a rising heart rate, and both change the outcome of a test if you get them wrong.

The calculators here do nothing clever. They do the arithmetic reliably, on a phone, for free, with no account and no advertising.

How the numbers are worked out

Nothing on this site uses a proprietary model. Every figure comes from a published relationship, and each one is named where it is used:

  • Split from time. The average 500 m split is simply the total time divided by the number of 500 m segments in the distance. A 2000 m row is four of them.
  • Watts from split. Concept2’s published formula, watts = 2.80 / (split ÷ 500)³, with the split in seconds per metre. It is the same relationship the PM monitors use, and it is documented on Concept2’s pace calculator.
  • Weight-adjusted scores. Concept2’s published weight factor, (bodyweight in lb ÷ 270)^0.222, applied as a multiplier to the actual time. Explained in full on our split benchmarks page.
  • Distance equivalents. Paul’s Law — the rowing rule of thumb that the split drifts about five seconds per doubling of distance. It is labelled as a rule of thumb everywhere it appears, because that is what it is.
  • Running paces. Total time divided by the distance, with paces rounded down so that holding them finishes inside the goal time rather than outside it.

Where a number is a convention or an estimate rather than a calculation, the page says so. Where a comparison needs real data — for instance judging whether a 2K time is any good — we send you to Concept2’s rankings rather than invent a table.

How the writing is produced

Guides are drafted and edited by Iain, with AI assistance used for drafting and structure in some posts. Every published article is reviewed by a human before it goes up, and the calculations in them are checked against the calculators on this site. If you find something wrong, it is a mistake rather than a strategy, and we would like to know.

Corrections and contact

Found an error, want a distance or a goal time that isn’t here, or want to embed the calculator on your club site?

Corrections are made in place, and substantive changes to a guide are noted with an updated date on the post.

Privacy and cost

Target Splits is free, has no accounts, and does not run advertising. Analytics are handled by Plausible, which does not use cookies and does not collect personal data — see the privacy page for the detail.

The tools