"Explode when you push, but slow your overall pace to 20 strokes per minute. Take time to breathe and rest on the way back in."
After finding the new cadence, my pace was now 1:55m per 500m. A 30% reduction in stroke rate improved my pace by 8%.
Slow down. A good pace is 2min/500m. Any faster and you will feel spent.
You can do intervals to build endurance: 30s fast work/90-120s slow and repeat 5 or more times. If that’s too much try 15s/60-90s. Build up from there.
If you're feeling particularly motivated - bring a bucket ;)
Sometimes I do a 5k at about 1:55 instead. Between that and weight training, trying to build back my endurance before doing 2k sprints again. Maybe I'll get back on the water next year.
What? Assuming that you are talking about running, the current world record for 10K is 26:24 for men [0] and 29:38 for women [0]. It makes you quite a bit faster. Am I missing something?