TrainerRoad with Concept2 Rower

I’ve seen several of you mention that you have (or have attempted) to use TrainerRoad with your Concept2 rower. How successful have you been? Any tips?

I have not attempted yet but I do have a Bluetooth adapter plugged into my laptop (source of TR). Should also be able to connect to my phone.

Did you do a new FTP test to figure out what it would be while rowing? What types of workouts do you do? I mainly use the rower during the winter, to stay in shape but when I’m “over” cycling for a while, or before I started my off-season TR training plan!

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Hi. I am a rower and exclusively follow TrainerRoad programming on my C2 erg. I have been through one complete Sweet Pot LV Base/LV Build/40KTT Specialty cycle and have seen great results. I follow the program as written, using the watts screen on the erg.

The key is figuring out how to get TR speaking with the C2. This is what works in iOS. I’m not sure about android. You need to have a PM5 monitor for starters. Then you have 2 options. (1) You can use the PainSled app (in Zwift mode) to connect an iOS phone via Bluetooth, and then you connect the TR App ON A SECOND iOS device to the PainSled app. The obvious drawback is the need for two devices. (2) connect your erg to a CABLE () and then connect the TR app to the CABLE. ( CABLE is a Bluetooth/ANT device that is, confusingly, not a cable at all. You can find it here: CABLE - North Pole Engineering, Inc. Store)

But even without this rigamarole, you can use TR without the connection. Just set up the TR programming and follow along. You won’t capture your workout or have the post-workout analytics, but you can get the workout done. It’s kindof like streaming versus download. For the first half of my time with TR, this is how I did my workouts. If you’re doing it this way, you will need to manually calculate your FTP after the ramp test. Remember the watts of your highest minute and then multiply by .75.

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I also use TR workouts on my SkiErg on non-rowing days, and this seems the way you’d use the rower on non-cycling days. I’d recommend you do a separate ramp test on the erg just to get an FTP to use for your rowing workouts. It will almost certainly be different from your cycling FTP. My SkiErg FTP is different from my rowing erg FTP. I just manually adjust the FTP in Account when I switch to SkiErg and then adjust back when I’m doing rowing erg.

As for selecting workouts, I mainly do endurance sessions on my SkiErg: Birch, Homer’s Nose, and Black. I sometimes do these on my rowing erg as a supplement to the low-volume days.

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Does this setup - which I’ve managed to get working - actually programme the PM5?

Using painsled I can get the PM5 power output into trainerroad, but does the communication work the other direction? For me it seems important that workouts are programmed into the PM5 so you can see the interval time remaining, average split for the interval etc.
The way I had it running, everything looked good in the trainerroad software but on the erg it seemed to be on just row - not very helpful.
Is there something I can do different, or is this the way it is?

Hey @tobypearce, there’s no way for TrainerRoad to program intervals into the PM5 automatically (I guess you could just program TR workouts manually using the PM5 Custom workouts)

For the last six months, I’ve been using the PainSled app on an old iPhone which transmits my power data to TrainerRoad running on a second iPhone. I don’t have PainSled multiply my power readings - I just set the intensity on TR to 80% (of my cycling FTP). I just follow along with the TR workout on that second iPhone mounted to the PM5. This has been really successful for my purposes of prioritizing cycling training but using the rower intermittently.

Since the PainSled app is also recording while its transmitting power data to TrainerRoad, I export the PainSled recording to my Concept2 LogBook account when I’m done, and I delete the workout on TR (so it doesn’t mess up my cycling progression levels). So I track cycling training on TR and rowing training on LogBook.

One pro tip if you use your PM5 with TrainerRoad this way, set up a single time workout on your PM5 (rather than “Just Row”) - doing this means PainSled will record the 0’s if you step away from the rower in between TrainerRoad intervals. That at least allows you to see your TrainerRoad intervals on your Concept2 LogBook even if you didn’t row at all during the rest intervals.