Talk about sending mixed messages.
I'll spend all this week getting the team tapered and psyched up for a great performance at an erg race. Why?
After all, it is just an erg race. Doesn't mean all that much in the long term scheme of things. I'd trade a great performance at an erg race for a great performance at the Midwest championships any time, if I had to make that choice.
What I'm trying to say is this: It's a great opportunity to put up a fast number right before we go on the water to boost confidence. For most guys, this will show a great deal of improvement from the beginning of winter. That's something that can really boost your mental picture going into the cold and wet of early spring.
I don't want to give the impression that I'm too overly interested in the erg scores. I know it's easy to think that given the time I spend on my laptop, analyzing scores and looking for trends. Just remember, that laptop log doesn't get looked at more than twice once we hit the water. I'm much more interested in seat racing and 500m times over the measuered course.
So, here's what I want the guys to take from this week and weekend. Have a great piece, try your best and set a personal record. If you do, you've won the erg race. If you don't or can't attend, don't worry.
After all, it is just an erg race.
4 comments:
Jay its not an erg race its death
Thanks Dave.
Glad to know you're keeping your perspective.
As always, death seems to be a constant theme with my team.
It is not just an erg race. It is an erg race in which two thousand meters are "rowed." Erg races are not comparable to races in which it is more than just one person, plastic, and 2000 thousand meters (say, 7 minutes and change) of no movement. Rowing on the water, real rowing, is nothing like the endless back and forth on those damned machines we like to call ergs. Ergs don't float. Boats do. I don't care what you or anyone else pulls at this race. As long as you think you did your best, that is what matters. I plan on doing the best that I can on saturday, and if you don't plan on doing your best, don't bother showing up on saturday. If you can't find it in you to do your best on a race day, why bother coming to practice? Take your concern for those silly machines and put it towards something useful, like technique. Lord knows Joe Brendel could use some of that. Think I care that I have to race him on saturday? Hell no. I'll take that bastard to school on the water anyday.
Solutions to worrying about the erg race:
1. Don't think about it.
2. Think about why you row.
You don't row to be inside and smell sweat and urine and body odor or the Townsends. You row to fly up and down the river faster than you could ever run or skate or bike on land. You row for the last 500 meters of the Midwest Scholastic Championships. You row for the finish line of USRowing Junior Invitationals. You row for yourself, and for your team.
Hell Ya Steve. I want to do my best on Sat. (while keeping technique of coarse). Ergs suck we all know that, but you can learn a lot from them; one of those glass half full things. Think how sweet we have/will become with people actually thinking about what they are doing on the ergs not just the stupid three digit number glaring in your face. I know my technique has improved and I hope the rest of the guys have too. I find when I row correctly, I pull faster splits.
So on Sat. keep good technique, so when we kick ass we know that we can do it on the water too.
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers"
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