Is a Concept2 erg time faster than a running time over the same distance? For almost everyone, yes. Running only wins at the very top: world-best runners leave the erg far behind, but below roughly the top 2–3% of men (and an even smaller slice of women) the erg is faster, and the weaker the athlete, the bigger the erg's lead.
Each cell compares the same standard of athlete in each sport, at the same population percentile. Orange cells mean running is faster. Blue cells mean the erg is faster. The top row compares world bests. Switch the erg data between Rowing Level's standards (age 30) and real 2025 Concept2 rankings (age 30–39, against age-35 running standards).
Running standards start at 1 km because there are no amateur running tables for shorter races. World bests cover 100 m to the marathon.
Within each sport, finish times sit close to a normal curve. Fitting that curve to each sport's five standards, and finding where the two meet, gives the percentile at which a run and an erg piece take the same time. Above it running is faster; below it the erg is. This extrapolates beyond the Elite (95th percentile) tables, so treat it as an estimate.
Each line is one standard. Blue is the erg, orange is running, and the darkest line in each is the world best. Running's lines fan out much more widely than rowing's.
How close each standard gets to world-best speed, averaged over 1 km to 10 km. A beginner on the erg already moves at about two-thirds of world-best speed. A beginner runner moves at about 40%.
The Concept2 monitor turns power into pace with a cube root: watts = 2.80 ÷ (seconds per metre)³. Eight times the power only doubles the speed. Running speed rises roughly in proportion to the energy you put in. So the same difference in fitness shows up about three times smaller on the erg. Body weight matters too: the erg supports your weight, while a runner carries every kilogram.
The same comparison for every age from 10 to 90, at each standard.
The Rowing Level standards are modelled, so they're compared here with real 2025 Concept2 Logbook rankings for 30–39 year-olds, read at the same percentiles. Positive values mean the real rankers were slower than the standard.