Episode 12: The 2k

[00:00:08] Speaker A: Oh, the 2K. In its simplest form, a rowing 2K is exactly what it sounds like. Cover 2,000 meters as fast as you possibly can. That's it. No tricks, no shortcuts. Just you, the machine or the water and the truth. It's the gold standard of rowing from high school novices to Olympians. The 2k is the benchmark, made so because 2000 meters is the international racing distance, and therefore what medals are decided on. What makes it so uniquely awful is that it lives in the space between worlds. It's too long to be a sprint, too short to be steady state. It demands everything all at once. Aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, technical precision, and above all, mental fortitude. It is a beast. And any room full of rowers doing a 2k, someone will end up on the floor. Someone's probably gonna throw up. Someone might pass out. Someone will definitely stare blankly off into the distance, questioning every life choice that brought them to this exact moment. And somewhere in that room, someone will discover something about themselves they didn't know before. Because a 2K isn't just physical. It's psychological. Here's how it unfolds. The first 500 meters feels almost easy. Adrenaline carries you forward. You're fresh, you're powerful. You might even think, dangerously, that this [00:01:23] Speaker B: won't be so bad. [00:01:25] Speaker A: The second 500 meters, it starts to get real. Adrenaline fades. Lactic acid starts to build. You've settled in, and this is no longer exciting. [00:01:33] Speaker B: This is work. [00:01:34] Speaker A: The third 500 meters, you are fully in the pain cave. Your body is screaming, but it's your mind that gets the loudest. It's negotiating, suggesting, rationalizing. You could slow down, pretend that you're sick. You can give up. No one will know. No one will care. And then the final 500. There's no comfort. There's no strategy. It's not even physiology. You're just empty. Every stroke is a decision. Every second is a choice. And when you finally cross the line, you don't collapse because you're weak. You collapse because you gave everything. What stops. Most people, as you can tell, it's not their body, it's their mind. Your brain will offer you very convincing reasons to stop. It'll say, this is the limit. This is as far as you can go. It's usually not true, because the limit, as it turns out, can be negotiated. It's not absolute. Life works the same way. There will be moments when things feel too hard, too uncomfortable, too uncertain. Moments where your mind tries to protect you by convincing you to step back. Play smaller, stay quiet, stop just short of what you're capable of. But just like in a 2K, that voice isn't always telling you the truth. Sometimes it's just testing whether you're willing to find out who you really are. And more often than not, your ceiling isn't your true limit. It's just your first serious conversation with discomfort. Are you willing to find out who you are on the other side? Welcome back. I'm Alicia Kushman, and this is the Gather. We are here for another Sunday in Jess living room. We're a little bit earlier today, so some of us are a little tired, but it's all good. So our topic today is the dreaded 2K. I think it's really interesting when you see people 2K. So I'm really curious since something that surprised you guys or something interesting that you guys have heard stories about when you hear about the kids doing the 2Ks. [00:03:18] Speaker C: Well, actually, when Will started doing it, the 2K thing was such a motivator. I just remember hearing him in the basement, like, over and over and over trying this. He would go down in the middle, like, late at night, and he wanted to get faster, so that's what he did. But he was prepping for his first 2k, and then after that, he didn't know what he was expecting. And he came home with these stories, which I'm sure all of you have, of course, of people passing out and throwing up and what has happened. This is not okay. Yeah, I was actually concerned. I thought, like, are the coaches watching you? [00:03:52] Speaker A: Yep, for sure. [00:03:53] Speaker D: So my kid also has passed out doing a 2k, and I remember feeling a little bit alarmed by that. And 2Ks were not his favorite thing. I mean, he rode starting in eighth grade, so five years of rowing from eighth grade through senior year, and he avoided that 2K at all costs. And I can understand why it's a tough test, like. And so he really tried to avoid it. And one time he was trying to do a 2K test in our living room and he passed out and just fell on the floor in the middle of our living room. And if we hadn't known that this was a thing in rowing, I'm sure I would have completely freaked out and, like, written to the superintendent of schools and cause all kinds of problems. But I'm like, ah, it's rowing, you know, but. And he, of course, was fine. And, you know, he did get it done eventually, but it's a tough test. Yeah. [00:04:37] Speaker B: I mean, as a new person into the sport, you know, A parent's gonna go, wait, what do you mean? What do you mean you threw up? [00:04:43] Speaker C: And that was a point of pride. [00:04:45] Speaker D: Yeah, like, no, but I, but I did really well. [00:04:47] Speaker B: I'm like, yeah, but we threw up. [00:04:51] Speaker D: Yeah, no, definitely. You know, there's a, a scene in the movie version of the Boys in the Boat, which I know is an iconic rowing book that we haven't talked about yet on our podcast. And of course there was a movie that came out a couple years ago, but there's a scene where the head coach of University of Washington says, there's no sport that's harder than eight man. And I always think about that line and I think this is the stuff that makes it hard because of the intensity of a race, how it's so relentless you can't stop. And I feel like the 2K is the embodiment of that. I mean, you're in it for that 2000 meters and you have to find a way to get to the end even when it's so painful. [00:05:25] Speaker A: That's right. I mean, they're testing you on the erg, Right. But when you're on the water, you don't really have a choice to stop. Like, you can't be one person in an eight man boat and you're like, nope, I'm done. Right. So you have to, like, you really have to train that mental side. I remember, you know, Derek being the oldest of this bunch, actually of our kids, and the first time he passed out two king, which he has done quite a bit actually. I remember the, either him or the coach called me and said he passed out and I was a mess. I took him immediately to the emergency room. I was like convinced something was wrong with him. And I was so upset because Chris was like, well, it's not, not normal. My kid doesn't just pass out. [00:06:05] Speaker D: What are you talking? [00:06:07] Speaker A: And it was a thing. And then fast forward to recently. Dan, my youngest, was a senior and he had a vasovagal reaction when his eyes dilated, which means he passed out at the eye doctor. And they kind of rushed him down to the emergency room. And I'm talking to the emergency room doctor and the emergency room doctor goes, has he ever passed out before? And I was like, well, he's a rower. And so at that, like, I had been six years in the rowing world at that point. And so I had gotten to this place where it's like, oh, you're going to 2k, you're going to pass out, you're going to 2k, you're going to throw up. And the emergency room doctor looked at me and there was so much judgment and like he goes, that's not normal. What do you mean? He's a rower. And he passes out. And it was at that moment where I was like, oh, they should have [00:06:52] Speaker D: doctors just for rowers. [00:06:53] Speaker A: Right? [00:06:53] Speaker D: They really should. [00:06:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:55] Speaker A: But it was that moment where I was like, oh, wow. You know, this is kind of unique to rowing and, you know, it's just such a mental thing. You know, it's just this. It's really unique to rowing, this 2K environment. And it's not just a physical thing. Right. They're battling against their mind that whole time. And you've. But you have to, right? Because when you're on the water, the 2k is the water distance. You can't give up. [00:07:19] Speaker B: Well, and I think that's exactly right, what you said. I mean, the 2k is a mental game, pure and simple. You know, a rower is going to have a limit in their speed, but the mind's never going to recognize that limit because the mind recognizes pain. And until you can push past that pain, you won't get to that speed. And once that rower can get to recognize that they've got to go through that pain, they'll make that accomplishment and reach their speed. So it is. It's a pure mental game, which. What other sport has that? I mean, there might be, but I've never really. [00:07:53] Speaker C: But I love how you talk about the pain, the pain. What is pain zone? [00:07:56] Speaker A: The pain cave. Pain cave. [00:08:00] Speaker D: Cave is even worse than a zone. [00:08:02] Speaker A: It is a cave. Everything goes black. [00:08:04] Speaker C: And you just, as you're describing all those things, I'm like, yes, my mind is a very sophisticated, like, coming, you know, comes up with all the reasons why you can't do this, that or the other thing. And it like, knows your own mind, knows exactly what to tell you to try to convince you to stop. [00:08:18] Speaker D: Right? Because it goes into protective mode. It thinks this is really unusual and this is. Can't be good for your body, so it's trying to get you to stop. Just like fight or flight, you know, [00:08:27] Speaker A: I was always so impressed by Derek's ability to shut his mind down like that. You know, it's probably why he is so fast, because he just has this like superhuman ability to turn that mechanism off in his brain. [00:08:39] Speaker B: The pain receptors. [00:08:40] Speaker A: The pain. It's the pain receptors, right? And I'm just like, you know, if it's me in that pain cave, I'm like, yeah, I'm good. Do this and he just shuts it down. He's always been able to do that. Even before rowing, when he was running in, like, elementary school, he could shut it down. It's like a. It's like a talent that he has. I don't know if that's good or bad, but. [00:08:59] Speaker B: Well, it's very, it's. It's a very powerful, like, mature mental state, actually. I mean, you think about it, like, to be able to recognize that and that there's something else you want to accomplish beyond what your mind is telling you. [00:09:12] Speaker D: That's. [00:09:13] Speaker A: That's incredible. [00:09:14] Speaker D: When I was rowing at Washington Rowing School, briefly, the head coach, there's a fantastic scholar named Cindy Cole. And, and when we were going to enter this race, she said, you're going to feel like you're going to die. Everything in your brain is going to be telling you that you are dying and you're going to die. And she always said, no one ever really dies in rowing. I was like, are you sure? [00:09:36] Speaker A: But I. [00:09:36] Speaker D: But she was trying to get to the idea that this was a mental thing and that your brain is going to be telling you to stop. And so I thought, I always remember that I'm not going to die. I'm not going to die. I'm not going to die. [00:09:46] Speaker A: But I think it was interesting, Jess, you were talking earlier about something that Mira said, that, like, true speed is really on the other side of pushing through that. [00:09:54] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:09:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:55] Speaker B: And, you know, she and I were talking about this a little bit, and, you know, she shared with me that until you get through that pain, you're never gonna get to that speed and you'll grow through that pain. And a mature rower is one who recognizes that their body has the speed capability and not to allow their mind to prevent them from reaching that speed. [00:10:15] Speaker A: I wonder if that's also what Russell meant when he said, you know, the effort is the speaker. Because, you know, at the time I took him saying that as the consistency of the effort, right. Putting in the hours, putting in the meters, but also like putting in that mental effort in the middle of those hard. In the middle of those hard. And I, I imagine the 6k has a whole different. I've never actually done a full, like full press 6k, but I imagine it has similar mental fortitude built into it. But I wonder if that's some of what Russell meant to. About the effort is the sport. [00:10:44] Speaker C: I mean, when you guys are all talking about this, it just makes me think. Been listening to podcasts about AI, which is Taking over our lives and the, the world of how a lot of technology is geared towards minimizing the friction in our lives, minimizing the effort. Right. But then you realize, you know, as an educator, I think the thing that we're most scared about is how if you don't take the time to read a book or if you're not taking the time to really work through arguments or other things like that, or if you're just letting AI summarize it for you, you're not actually exercising the mental habits that are required to have original thoughts, to have new ideas, to make connections that no one thought of before because you're not in that moment. And effort seems to be such a critical part. So I love that connection in all of these and just sort of thinking how wonderful this sport is at helping, especially those who are in high school and then in college develop these mental habits of. Yeah, no, actually no pain, no gain. Right. Or the. Whatever, something like that. [00:11:45] Speaker B: Well, there's, there's no easy cheat sheet. There's no easy out. There's no easy way of getting to your goal except going through it. You know, they can't chat GPT it, they can't, you know, there's, there's nothing that's going to get them to that end goal without making it through that space. [00:12:00] Speaker D: And I, yeah, I always think about with rowing, how special it is because this is not to denigrate any other sport, but if you think about all the field sports, you're a position player somewhere, you probably have a chance to catch your breath. You know, if you're in the outfield and they're only like batting, you know, infield, you have some time to look at the sky and check out the clouds or whatever. Get, catch your breath in rowing, when you're racing, you don't get any chance to stop. Like it, just the relentlessness of it, I think is really, really powerful and makes it very unique. And it does require such fortitude. Like I cannot take a break. Like I've got to get all the way to the finish line. And I think that just requires so much mental and physical strength and makes it unusual. [00:12:35] Speaker A: And I, I wonder if that's not why so many rowers succeed after rowing, like what you're talking about. Like they're, they're, they're comfortable working through that friction because they've learned that skill. Interesting. [00:12:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:47] Speaker A: You know, and you know what? [00:12:48] Speaker D: This reminds me of the college admissions scandal from a couple years ago when I read a book about it actually A lot of those kids that with their parents help in some cases, which is really shocking, who falsified their records to get into colleges and paid people to help them do that. A lot of them said that they were rowers and most of those kids that said that they were rowers on those applications had never seen a boathouse. But why did they say that? Because if you know anything about crew, you know that, that it requires that level of effort and commitment and fortitude and follow through mental strength. And mental strength that's going to be impressive to college admissions officers. And that's why they wanted to use it as a shortcut. [00:13:24] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:13:24] Speaker D: So, you know, for our rowers who really did do the work, that's what's made them, you know, stronger people, I think. But you can see why that's an attractive sport to cheat with and say, hey, I was a rower. Because that's code for being a tough person. [00:13:37] Speaker A: Yeah. It's funny when you talk about AI ED and like it potentially removing friction when it shouldn't. I recently heard somewhere, and I wonder if this is true, that they did, there's a cognitive study out there where they've compared using AI versus not using AI to do like emails and stuff. And your cognitive function actually decreases when you leverage AI to do the summaries and to draft the emails for you. And I think about this for myself where I actually struggle with words a lot. Right. I'm a, I'm a math and science person by nature and so words have always been really hard and I will like agonize over emails. And so I lean heavily into ChatGPT when I'm like, I have no idea. I just need to get words on a paper. And I read that article and I was like, oh, does that mean I'm taking the easy way out? And even though in the moment it feels faster and it feels easier, is that, does that mean long term I'm not learning and I'm like losing my skill that I worked so hard at from the language perspective. [00:14:32] Speaker B: I think that's one of the biggest fears that we have about AI, or at least I know I do. I think it's mirrored a lot is you have to make sure that we're using AI in the right way so we're not losing the mental and intellectual growth, you know, where, what, what. And that's the big argument right now. What space does AI play in ensuring that we're not eventually going to be [00:14:53] Speaker C: dumbing down our society, but the ease of having it. I mean, writing is Hard for me too. I mean, it's just not it. But I realize it's how I think through things. So the editing process, the rewriting, the thinking of how do I organize these thoughts, that's the hard. And so the blank page is always scary. And having the. Having chat GPT fill something up pretty quickly is an. Is very attractive. But then I find myself just editing someone else's thing and it's not really mine anymore. And it almost feels. It's a fundamentally different. It's an editor rather than a creator. And I don't know what the parallel in rowing is in this. Like, what the. What the shortcut is necessarily. But maybe that's. I mean, the point is that there isn't. [00:15:34] Speaker B: Well, that's what. Yeah, I don't think there is. I mean, I don't think there is a shortcut. [00:15:38] Speaker D: So, you know, I teach writing and my students often talk about how hard writing is. And I'll say, writing supposed to be hard. Like all the things that are worth doing in life are usually hard. And so lean into the difficulty, lean into the challenge and be willing to get in the mud and wrestle with your words. It should be hard. And then you get through that like a 2K and you're stronger on the other side. [00:15:58] Speaker B: And the growth comes through going through that pain and when. And it, you know, and you become more mature by recognizing that you. When you go through that pain and you grow. Exactly. And you get to that goal and you reach that goal. But kind of back to the 2K, because we're talking about the mental space. I was reminded just in this discussion that sometimes rowers will do really well on a 2K when it's just them and their coach and maybe a friend. And some rowers will do great when they're in a big room and everybody's screaming and pushing them to do better. [00:16:32] Speaker A: And I think that's very interesting too, [00:16:35] Speaker B: because I don't know if it's introvert, extrovert. I don't know if. If it's, you know, too much noise on the outside, that it's another mental strength to push all of that out and focus, whereas some need the quiet space to focus. But I think that's also another interesting thing with especially high schoolers because in looking back, there's this sense that it's this big event and we're going to do our 2K and everybody's going to [00:16:59] Speaker A: be in the room and everybody's going to cheer them on. [00:17:02] Speaker B: And like, for some. No, like they are that's not their space to succeed, you know, and sometimes they just need it to be them and their coach and maybe a friend cheering them on. You know, I want to kind of bring that in too, because it's another kind of mental game that they may have to play. [00:17:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:17:20] Speaker D: Yeah. We talk a lot in our podcasts about what makes each of us tick and what is required, like understanding ourselves well enough to understand what we need to get to success. And I think it's great to think about that. And I hope that rowing programs would be flexible to understand there's different kinds of people that might succeed on a 2K in different ways. Like, I think it'd be hard if they just imposed one way of doing this test on all rowers if they did have those differences, because they're not setting them up for success that way. [00:17:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that goes back to the conversation. We were talking about structure, too, right? Like, if it's not the right structure, then how do you navigate your path through? But also, just to play devil's advocate a little bit, again, that teaches them the brain. Brains are cool, right? How cool are our brains? [00:18:01] Speaker C: We should all get one. [00:18:02] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. [00:18:04] Speaker A: You know, Ed, there's some people in the world that I would say that about. We should all get one. But, yeah, brains are super cool. And, you know, we're talking about the pain cave. But I. As you were talking, I was like, well, that's actually training them to figure out how to work against their nature, you know? [00:18:27] Speaker D: True. [00:18:28] Speaker A: You know, if. If one person doesn't do erg sprinch, which, by the way, is so intimidating, every erg has a puke bucket next to it. And you know exactly why it's there. And you're like, really? Yeah. You walk in. That's really intimidating. Right. [00:18:41] Speaker C: I'd walk in and I would be like, what are all these buckets? [00:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:18:44] Speaker D: I put it on my head and walk out. [00:18:47] Speaker A: And that's what I did. And when I found out the answer, I was. And I looked around and every single one had a little. And it was the ones I went to, they were bright red. Like, they were first aid puke buckets. [00:18:55] Speaker C: And I'm kind of triggered by the whole thing that happened. Like, I would just imagine, like, it would be this chain reaction around the whole room. [00:19:03] Speaker D: Absolutely terrible. [00:19:04] Speaker A: If somebody puked next to me, I would definitely. And also, we're not. Like, I'm a full grown adult, right? Like, if somebody's puking next to me, like, what are we doing? What have we Done. Why are we there? I totally lost my train of thought. I think I was talking about brain scenes. [00:19:21] Speaker D: It's hard to come back from puke buckets. [00:19:24] Speaker A: Oh, I remember. So it's really around training your brain in that environment. Like, yeah, I'm intimidated by this bucket sitting at the end of my erg. But my. And my brain is telling me, oh, girl, you're in the wrong spot. [00:19:36] Speaker B: Like, don't do that. [00:19:37] Speaker A: But that teaches your brain. Like, you're. You're, like, facing that friction. [00:19:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:19:41] Speaker A: And I've thought a lot about our brains and how, you know, Ed, you were talking. Your brain can really talk you out of a lot of stuff. It knows you really well. It's really good at talking about. Of stuff. And so to be able to, like, learn how to debate yourself. [00:19:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:53] Speaker A: And, like, because your brain's your own worst enemy. Right. And learn how to debate yourself. Just to make it a little bit personal, this is something that I've been dealing with personally. And as we were sort of talking through this episode, I was like, oh, this might be one of the reasons why rowing is so healing for me, is teaching you how to rewire your brain. [00:20:10] Speaker B: Right? Yes. [00:20:11] Speaker A: So for me, I have really struggled because of a lot of reasons. You know, trauma and relationships and everything to sort of take up space and to say when I'm feeling something uncomfortable or that I want something right. I tend to just keep it in and hope for the best and believe that the best will happen. And I believe that that's making relationships stronger. But when, in fact, I'm actually robbing the people around me of my true self. And so it's better for me to take up space, but my brain tells me it's safer to keep it quiet and to stay quiet. And so rowing, I think when I, you know, I've talked about rowing being healing, I do think that's something rowing is teaching me, is to help me, like, rew in my brain as I'm sort of going through this process as an adult of, like, trying how to relearn to exist in my space. I'm curious what you guys think about that. [00:20:57] Speaker B: Well, now you just said that. And there's actually a book called Rewire your brain, and it talks about how virtually to, like, consistently change the way you think about things so that you get to that space where you are creating those neurons that change the way an situation affects you. And so you're talking about exactly like that. How do I get from point A to point B, where point B is where I'm more comfortable. And it's. [00:21:23] Speaker A: It's. [00:21:23] Speaker B: It was actually a very fascinating book because the brains are really cool. [00:21:26] Speaker D: Yeah. A key element in therapy for anxiety is the message that thoughts change feelings. Because when you feel anxiety, that just feels like fight or flight, big feelings. And so if you're in therapy, they will say, like, you're in charge of your brain. You can tell your brain to think differently things, and then that will, in turn, change your feelings. If you need your feelings to feel different, you know, if you're feeling badly or you're feeling anxiety, you know, you can tell your brain what to think, you know, and that's really powerful. [00:21:52] Speaker B: And I wonder if in the 2K, if you can get to that place where when you look at the puke bucket or when you know that you're gonna do a 2K, you get to the place where you rewire your brain that says, okay, I'm gonna feel pain, but that pain's gonna get me to my goal rather than I'm gonna feel pain, and I have to give up [00:22:09] Speaker D: and I have to stop. [00:22:09] Speaker B: How many times, you know, depending on how many times you do it, or whether the maturity of a rower or the mindset is, you know, that that pain's gonna be there already, and rather than succumb to it, you're rewiring those neurons to know that that's just a space that you have to get through. [00:22:24] Speaker D: Yeah. This is a sign that I'm doing what I need to do. [00:22:26] Speaker B: Right, Right. [00:22:27] Speaker A: How cool would it be to get, like, neuroscientist on here or, like a psychologist or something to talk about therapy and rowing and rewiring your brain? How fun would that be? That'd be cool. [00:22:36] Speaker D: Sports psychologist. That could be great. [00:22:38] Speaker A: I am the biggest advocate that rowing is therapy. [00:22:41] Speaker D: Yeah, that's great. [00:22:42] Speaker C: Yeah. But I love that. I mean, it's about these. I'm looking at my phone because I'm about to move us towards trivia at some point. But I'm realizing, too, that how these. How the phone is a constant thing that's trying to rewire your brain. [00:22:56] Speaker D: Right. [00:22:56] Speaker C: And so actually having these conversations with your rower and helping them think about these mental. Like, naming the mental challenges, that's talking through them and saying, look, you've got the. This is what you're doing. And this is kind of the control that you have over your life and have other things sort of trigger to say, you know, you do have control over these devices that are trying to change your brain, too. So it's Just, I don't know, you realize how much the world is acting on trying to reorganize your own brain. [00:23:24] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:23:25] Speaker C: And you need to do as much work to control that yourself for sure. [00:23:28] Speaker B: Before we get to your trivia, I do want to say that this is a great time to do the 2K episode because the men's world record was broken on the 2K in February by Ollie Ziegler. Amazing. Yeah. [00:23:41] Speaker C: Wow. [00:23:41] Speaker B: From Germany. [00:23:42] Speaker D: Do you know what time? [00:23:43] Speaker C: What was the time? [00:23:44] Speaker A: 5.34.7. Yep, I do know. [00:23:47] Speaker B: Yep. [00:23:47] Speaker A: He broke 5. He broke 5. 35. Yeah. [00:23:50] Speaker D: Wow. [00:23:51] Speaker B: Incredible, right? [00:23:52] Speaker A: I just cannot tell you how hard and fast that really is. I can't imagine that. [00:23:57] Speaker D: My goodness. [00:23:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:59] Speaker C: I mean, what's a typical. What's a typical number for like a high school kid? [00:24:04] Speaker D: Seven something, probably. [00:24:05] Speaker A: I mean, boys and boys and girls are different. [00:24:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Boys are what, like high sixes? [00:24:10] Speaker D: And then girls are usually in the seven minute something. [00:24:13] Speaker A: And masters are different. Right. I think, like for the master's program at pbc, breaking eight as a master's woman got you on the wall. So that was fast for a master's woman. And I don't know about men, but I think the range is really anywhere from like, well, now 5:34 to like 10 or so. Look, 5:34 is pretty impossible. [00:24:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, and men's and women's are very different. The women's world record hold is Brooke Mooney and she's at 6. 21 1. [00:24:42] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:24:42] Speaker B: So that's. Oh, my God. [00:24:44] Speaker A: That's still so fast. It is. [00:24:45] Speaker B: It's so fast. It's so fast. But yeah, she said that in 2021. [00:24:49] Speaker C: I think I'm at a 10. [00:24:51] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. [00:24:54] Speaker A: We interrupt this programming to bring you late breaking news. As it turns out, 2026 is the year of smashing records. In the small window of time between our recording this episode and releasing it, another 2K record has been shattered. Siemen Von Dorp broke Ollie Ziedler's men heavyweight world record by over a second. The new world record now held by Siemen von Dorp is 533.4. A solid 1.3 seconds faster than when we recorded. That's absolutely incredible. Congrats to Simon. Now back to the episode. So first off, it's really funny. 1, 2K. We're talking about 2K because it's so standard in the rowing world. And when you Google the two kids, there is a plethora of stuff on the Internet. From what? Like, from comparison? Like, what's a normal 2k. What should I expect to. Here's how to analyze a 2K. Here's how to approach the 2K. Here's how to get faster people asking to analyze it, like break it. Like there's so much out there on the 2K because it's so prevalent in, in the rowing language. It's how they get measured, it's how they get recruited sometimes. It's how they get seated. It's so, so predominant. [00:25:59] Speaker D: One of my favorite content creators on YouTube is dark horserowing. And what Shane, who is the dark horse rowing guy, he does these two Ks where like if you row along with him, he'll get you through your 2K test. And I think it's really impressive. And he'll be like, if you want to break 7 in your 2k, row along with me. And it's another great motivator. So yeah, there's lots of options and information out there. [00:26:18] Speaker C: Sounds like LSAT and SAT prep sessions. [00:26:22] Speaker A: Exactly right. [00:26:22] Speaker C: Any of these things where you have like this constant, this uniform measurement of something. [00:26:26] Speaker A: Exactly. There's a really funny one though because you said you think you're a 10 for a 2K. There's a really hilarious article out there. And, and it's a woman, she's a journalist and she was sort of writing about rowing and she was like, Everybody talks about 2K. I'm do it. And she was like, so I had a couple beers and I had some dinner and I sat down and she was like, I just want to break 10. So she did it like drinks, trying to do a 2K. And she writes her experience on doing this and it is one of the funniest things I've ever read. So I'll see if I can post it on our Instagram link to that. It was really funny. [00:27:01] Speaker C: So that's not the recommendation prep. [00:27:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:04] Speaker C: Okay. [00:27:04] Speaker A: Well, I [00:27:07] Speaker D: do. [00:27:09] Speaker A: It really depends on your goal if you want to write a really funny article. Maybe it all depends on what you're going for, Ed. [00:27:17] Speaker C: All right. Well, if an old fashioned can get me into the 2k, then [00:27:22] Speaker D: I can [00:27:23] Speaker C: see myself getting there. Well, if we're in the world of 2k. So I thought for trivia today that we would talk about another 2K which was Y2K. [00:27:32] Speaker A: Oh, all right. [00:27:34] Speaker C: So you guys are gonna remember this probably, but what was the computer issue in Y2K? [00:27:42] Speaker A: They didn't build in the. The 19 part. They just built in the last two years. And so it was going to switch everything Back to like 1900 when it flipped Over. Wow. [00:27:50] Speaker D: Yeah, I didn't remember that. [00:27:52] Speaker C: Yeah. So that was the big thing, that they thought that all the computers had been written with just two year. Two digits for the year. [00:27:58] Speaker A: For the year. [00:27:59] Speaker C: And so that when it flipped to 00, it wouldn't be too. It'd go to 1900. And then that would screw up all the financial systems. Because they wouldn't know. Yeah. Because the dates would be wrong. [00:28:09] Speaker D: Right. I remember fears about planes falling out of the sky, though. Is that part of this, too? [00:28:13] Speaker A: It's all related to that year. [00:28:15] Speaker D: And of course, my husband Eric and I actually went. We flew to Detroit on December 31, 1999. Like the night of Y2K. We flew to Detroit because it was like a big New Year's Eve and we went to see Metallica and a bunch of other people in concert in Detroit. [00:28:31] Speaker A: First off, that sounds amazing. [00:28:32] Speaker D: It was amazing. It was a very fun New Year's Eve. But then we were like, oh, we're gonna fly home tomorrow. What if the plane falls out of the sky? Like, we made it home, obviously. [00:28:41] Speaker B: Well, we're really glad it didn't fall out of the sky. [00:28:45] Speaker C: Talk about scary. I didn't know this. So what type of machinery had 15 units shut down around the world because of this bug? [00:28:53] Speaker D: Wow. [00:28:53] Speaker A: This is 15 around the world units. [00:28:56] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:57] Speaker A: Like telescopes. [00:28:58] Speaker D: And that's a really good guess. [00:29:01] Speaker C: It's not right, but that's a good guess. [00:29:05] Speaker B: Satellites. No. Like that. Satellite. [00:29:07] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, it's going to be on that kind of scale. [00:29:09] Speaker D: Right. [00:29:09] Speaker B: Dish things. [00:29:10] Speaker C: So I'll just add that this would be. This is very scary. [00:29:13] Speaker D: Oh. [00:29:14] Speaker A: Oh. Nuclear power plants. [00:29:15] Speaker C: Nuclear power plants. [00:29:17] Speaker B: Oh, I should have known that. [00:29:18] Speaker D: Whoa. Holy moly. [00:29:21] Speaker C: That doesn't sound good. [00:29:23] Speaker A: Meanwhile, Microsoft is buying power from Three Mile island for AI. [00:29:27] Speaker C: Well, we got. Nuclear power is going to be part of it. [00:29:30] Speaker A: The future. [00:29:30] Speaker B: I mean, it has to. [00:29:31] Speaker A: It has to be. We don't have the capacity to. [00:29:34] Speaker B: The base load's not there. [00:29:35] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:29:35] Speaker C: Oh, so you had the best Y2K or. [00:29:38] Speaker D: It's honest to me, we had a blast. [00:29:40] Speaker B: I was down at the Washington Monument, sitting on the grounds of the Washington Monument, and they had the. They had it all rigged up so that the lights, like, went. They had fireworks come out of the Washington bottom all the way up to the top. [00:29:52] Speaker D: It was actually really cool. [00:29:54] Speaker C: Yeah. We got all dressed up and went to a big party. Yeah. We all just bought tickets to one, like some thing. But that was a long time ago. [00:30:01] Speaker D: It was a long time ago. [00:30:02] Speaker C: So we were. I don't know, mid-20s, I guess. [00:30:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:05] Speaker C: And so it felt very fancy to us because this was probably the nicest, like, party type thing that we'd ever been to. But we wanted some family, friends and things. [00:30:14] Speaker A: I'm not sure if I'm remembering this right. My best friend, Melissa, from. She's been my best friend since I was seven. It's gonna kill me if I wrong. I think we actually went out for the first time kind of ever for New Year's Eve. And I think that was the year she met her husband. So she met her husband on New Year's Eve one year. And I think it might have been because we had just graduated high school. I was. I graduated in 99, so I think that was the. It might have been the following year, but it was right around that time and I witnessed it all happening on New Year's Eve. [00:30:40] Speaker D: A that's awesome. Yeah. [00:30:43] Speaker C: Well, it was great chatting with y'. [00:30:45] Speaker D: All. [00:30:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:30:46] Speaker B: Hope you have a good 2k. [00:30:49] Speaker A: Don't be afraid of the 2k. Lean into the pain. [00:30:51] Speaker C: Cake a bucket. [00:30:54] Speaker A: That's what I bor and somebody to watch in case you fall off. [00:30:57] Speaker C: Yes. [00:30:59] Speaker A: This was fun, guys. Thanks for listening. [00:31:01] Speaker C: See you on the other side of the splash.