Monthly Archives: January 2011

Crash and Burn: When the Erg Wins the Battle

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Sunday was a rough day to say the least. Evidence of that is that it has taken me a snowstorm and 3 full days to get this post written. But finally I’ve been snowed in and forced to finish. It is easy to talk about training and success; not so easy to talk about training and failure. Painful. I haven’t felt defeat to the degree that I felt it around 11am that morning in quite some time. We had a 2K test as part of the training plan. Going into the test, I was amped. I knew that I had been kicking ass with my training over the past month; my time could only be a personal best, right? Not exactly. My goal is to break 7 minutes in the 2K (for those of you who haven’t felt this pain, the 2K row is basically sprinting a mile as fast as you can). For females, making it sub-7 in the 2K is a “big milestone” in erg testing and separates you into a competitive, elite group of rowers. I’m the ambitious type and like to think I’ll be pulling in the 6:40s at some point soon. I’m just getting started and while I’ve progressed quickly-I learned a bit of lesson in patience this past Sunday.

In The Battle of the 2K, the Erg won the battle. I did not break 7 minutes, I didn’t even reach a new Personal Best, which was the most disappointing. I was pissed, upset, and may have even pouted for a hot minute. As an elite athlete in other sports, I know defeat and I know how to recover from defeat so I didn’t allow myself to get too down, but I couldn’t help but beat myself up for the better half of the afternoon. The brilliant thing about rowing and the training that goes into it is that you truly are responsible for your own success. While that idea extends to all sports to some degree, there are variables that sometimes impact the outcome of a softball game or volleyball game that you have no control over. The umpires may suck, and the beast on the other team hit a grandslam with bases full of runners that your pitcher walked; you can’t control that…unless you’re the pitcher, then you should’ve threw that curveball with a little more zip.

This obviously is not me, but sums up just about how I feel after completing a 2K test.

Beating your time on the erg or water is up to you and the preparation you put into it. Looking back on those 2,000 meters, if you fail you spend hours breaking down each set of 500 meters and analyzing every pull. At what point did I let it go? What could I have done differently? Did I over train? Did I not train hard enough? Was I too ambitious with the splits I planned? The list goes on and on if you let yourself dwell. All excuses and reasons aside, you didn’t hit your mark. So how will you approach the next test differently? If you win and reach the goal you set out for yourself, (once you catch your breath) you do a little dance and let the adrenaline of the punishing workout and success take you on a high the rest of the day.

Life would be too perfect if you were putting up personal bests every time you tested. You must have defeat to know true victory and be reminded that you are human. Rowing does that to you. Knocks you down after lifting you up, but you keep coming back for more. So when the erg wins the battle, make sure you come back to win the war. 6K test this weekend and I plan to annihilate it.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” - Muhammed Ali

You Are a Rower: Fact.

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As a former volleyball, basketball, soccer, and softball athlete (notice, all multi-player, ball team sports) I recently experienced a little bit of a “denial” phase that I can now consider myself a rower. In college, the rowers were always nice people-perhaps a little odd to me. I mean being involved in the sport has to attract a certain kind of person…and mental capacity. The rowers I knew in college woke up at crazy times in the morning to go workout in the freezing cold ON WATER of all places, only to come back in the afternoon and do it all over again (I have found quickly that this is still the case in my post-college experience with rowers). I have learned to love 5:30am. My training partner said the other day: Rowing builds character, but it can build two kinds of character. It can build the good kind of character in that it truly forces you to dig deep and find the best that is inside you. To be successful at the sport you have to be committed, you have to have discipline, and you have to have passion and truly want to row. There is very little fame and money in being a successful rower (if there is, please enlighten me!). You do it because you love it. Which actually segues to the other kind of character rowing builds. The crazy kind. It seems there exists a fine line between the two, but rowing can lend to building “the crazy” character as well. Some of my close friends may disagree but I plan to stay on the sane side of things. Borderline, but sane.

You’re defined by one of two sides. “Oh hi, what are you?” I’m a port. I’m a starboard. And the little ones running around-I’m a coxswain…”a cox-what? Why are you so tiny? Are you the midnight snack for all these other beasts?” Take one look above and tell me that thought doesn’t cross your mind.

Ohh and the spandex. Don’t get me wrong, I played volleyball for much of my young and college athletic career so I know what it is to live in spandex. We lived and died by our spandex-it’s the only reason we had fans in the stands half the time. But the unis or “onesies” as I affectionately call them are just special. But what is it with the crazy designs and colors? It’s the 80s meets the water….I don’t hate it. Can’t help but love it. Where else can you get away with wearing something like this and still be a badass?

A telltale sign that “I had arrived” and must accept that I am truly a rower is the large Concept2 model D ergometer that I have living in my dining room. Makes for a great conversational piece when guests come over. For those long 75-100 minute pieces, I swing it around to face my flat screen TV and row down a river of Grey’s Anatomy, The Office, and Parenthood episodes thanks to my DVR…I am a Rower: FACT.

Last but certainly not least. Rowing takes its toll on the body. Looking at the benefits first, it turns your body into a rock-hard, toned machine. I feel like I could run for miles upon miles on the aerobic base I’m building if only my knees and joints would come along for the ride. I truly feel as though I’m close to being in the best shape of my life…at 26 years old. Okay, that’s not old, but I’m not 18 anymore. As I said. Rowing takes its toll on the body. My hands look like feet. And they look like bad feet. I worked up this lovely blister just this morning. It’s one of my better ones. And rowers truly wear them as badges. You earn your blisters like you earn your stripes. My rowing partner turned my hands over the other day and took a look, “not hard enough, yet.” I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that my hands were not yet calloused like a fine hard leather. My mother would be so proud (note, sarcasm). Gone are the days of soft, lotioned hands….or at least for the next 6 years or so.

I am a Rower: FACT.

Resolutions to Rio

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So I might be a few days late but I think resolutions are to be made on a continual basis. Who’s really watching deadlines? Don’t get me wrong, it is wonderful to mark the turn of a new calendar year with (hopefully) life-improving statements and more importantly plan(s) for follow-through and results. But resolutions shouldn’t be limited to the 3-2-1 count and dropping ball.

My 2 cents on goals and resolutions: for every long-term, far away goal, you should always identify 1-2 that are short-term and quantifiable. Can you measure your success in a clear-cut way? A year or really, life is a long time(because again, we make resolutions throughout the course of our entire lives rather than just when 365 turns back to 1). Without those shorter, attainable goals to boost our confidence and provide direction along the way, when the going gets tough, it can seem to get even tougher. The long-term goals are made to force us to reach and push ourselves. Obviously some should be realistic and attainable, but throughout our lives we should also be setting goals that at first glance may seem off the reach of easily possible. Those are our DREAMS. They’re the ones that keep us up at night; distract us during our day jobs (unless you’re one of the lucky ones and your day job is your dream); and make us start writing a blog about the journey to reach that goal. They make us continue to stretch further, work harder, and do everything we can to get close enough to touch, if not grab hold of whatever it is you set out for yourself to achieve. If you grab it-hold on tight and enjoy the ride. Dreams should never be taken for granted.

All clichés aside…without further ado and in no specific order, here are my rowing resolutions, goals, and dreams for the next year and possibly beyond.

1. Break the sub-7 minute line for my 2K. My current Personal Best is 7:04.8 that I pulled this past October. This was prior to any real training so many variables come into play for me to consider. The past 2 months I have been busting my ass to increase my anaerobic base and put my body into the best shape possible. In that time, I’ve also managed to learn how to erg correctly-not perfectly (yet)-but correctly and that alone will improve any score. I have a 2K Test coming up this Sunday (1/9). First shot at hitting one of my goals.

2. Break the sub-22 minute line for my 6K. I’ve mentioned this before and it really is similar in nature to the 2K goal above. My Personal Best stands at a 22:32 which I pulled in December (12/18/10), smoking my previous 22:49 out of the water. I know with the right amount of training and simply just time spent erging, I’ll be able to break 22 minutes in no time.

3. Buy my own boat. It’s kind of like growing into my big kid pants. Every real sculler needs their own shell. Once the ice breaks and the weather warms up, it’ll be time to get a real boat and really start racing. The singles (single sculling, 1-person boat) that I’ve been in before were by no means racing shells. They were bricks with huge logs for oars. Rowing in the fast, sleek racing shells will take some getting used to and breaking in, not to mention disciplined budgeting and saving. Boats aren’t cheap. Bring out the penny bank.

4. Medal. Kicking butt on the erg doesn’t bring home the hardware. You have to be able to translate your hard work, speed, and strength onto the water. That is the true test. My goal is to race and race well. Granted, it will take some time to get my sea legs, and I’ll have many losses before I see a true win; but I have no doubt that by the end of the year, I’ll be making some noise at the finish line.

5. National Team “looks.” That noise will hopefully translate into the type of message I want to send. I want to compete at the highest possible level and that in the simplest of words, means the US National Team. This first year is primarily about a couple of key things: 1) Training as hard as I possibly can to push my body into the kind of shape it needs to be in to truly compete. I have the physique, now I just need the fitness. 2) Truly learn to row well and start winning races, proving that I’m a competitor. If I can make sure to take care of those couple of things, a lot (not all, but a lot) will take care of itself. Results speak the loudest and there is no substitute for results.

I’ll keep it at 5 for now. All these things lead up to that big dream goal: Rio. I have 5 years to get there. There will be many resolutions to Rio made along the way, but this is definitely a solid start.

Back at the Boathouse

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I have mentioned before how valuable having a training partner is. Yesterday was my first workout back with my partner Brian, breaking a long 11-day solitary confinement driven by my own ambition to get the workouts in-and of course, my workout binder (yes, I have a binder that catalogues my workouts, mileage, test results, etc-I might be a bit Type A) mandating I check off each day. More on the binder later.

Sunday’s Sub-max 6K was good-especially in the company of Brian and his wife Pam. While it’s not necessarily “difficult” because you aren’t going balls to the wall, maximum effort-it helps knowing you’re in it with a team. You’re working hard because you know that’s what you have to do but you’re also working hard with others and in some way this creates an atmosphere of obligation and maybe even competition; making sure you give your best because everyone else around you is doing just that (and you expect that from them), and it would be insulting, even disrespectful to them to not put in your 100%.

This morning was a 75-minute easy piece on the erg (easy, HR zone = R)…but LONG. A month ago, 75 minutes without stopping used to seem like an eternity. Today, it felt fantastic-I was cruising and enjoying it. But I also think a huge part of the ease of this morning was having someone working just as hard on the erg next to me. For all the reasons mentioned above and before, there is comfort and strength in that. I was talking with a friend last night who was flabbergasted at the idea of spending that long on the erg. She exercises so it wasn’t the thought of working out but more so the idea of spending so much time doing the same motion-methodical, boring. I remember thinking that same thing before actually trying this rowing thing. I can run for hours but never imagined I could have the focus to sit on an erg for hours…but alas, I have arrived. I guess it’s one of the side effects of the addiction. Focus, fixation. My mind goes to another place for those 75 minutes, 100 or 120 minutes (as tomorrow’s workout calls for). I think about everything and nothing. Time when my mind is completely at ease and for lack of a better term, “blank” is rare but graciously welcomed even when it is sweating on an erg, feeling my muscles working and burning. I love it. I look forward to it. Not just for the time that it is (because truly, I do love the exercise), but knowing that every minute I’m training, I’m working toward a goal; toward being better as an athlete and person. There truly is purpose (and benefit) in every pull I put in on the erg. And for that alone, I absolutely love it. It’s why I wake up at 5:30am every morning; it’s what I look forward to in my day.

It is 3 days into a new year. Many successes and victories and many losses and failures will be seen over the next 362 days. But at the end of the year, the final result will only be success and I can’t wait to taste a little bit every day.