I did an erg session for the first time in a couple of years just a month ago, after doing s/b/r for a couple of years and it struck me how much more of a strength-endurance sport it is compared to running and cycling. Now, obviously this has partially to do with the fact that not a lot of rowing races are over 20 minutes, where most of tri's are at least over an hour, so a better comparison is probably track cycling and track running. But even then, without any background in track running/cycling, it seems to me as though rowing is much more based on acceleration, followed by recovery, instead of a continuous load on the muscles. Using both legs at once, instead of one leg at a time is also a big factor in all of this I'd assume.

For another comparison on the erg watts to cycling watts, I did my best 20 minute test at an avg of 368W, 2k in 449W. If I would have spent the amount of training it took to get to that number solely on cycling, I'm sure it would be possible to hold 450W for 20 minutes (I'm definitely a heavy-weight rower)

We never used watts but 500m splits or total time but here's a useful calc to find the corresponding watts: http://www.concept2.com/...tors/pace-calculator