Hitting the bottom

There's nothing more terrifying or disheartening that pulling an erg piece and finding no energy. Despite the greatest will and drive, there just isn't enough energy to pull the score an athlete knows he/she is capable of. Sometime this happens because of sickness, lack of sleep or the coach.

It is a hard place to be. It's also hard for the coach to know just how far to push. We have to get the athlete to that point of "nothing left" so the body system will recover stronger, with more reserves than before. If the coach over-estimates the athlete's reserves, most of the crew will fail. Nobody goes home feeling good in that situation. If the workout is too easy, the athletes will accomplish the work, but the benefit won't be as great as it could be.

When the crew has a few days off coming, coaches start to up the intensity of the work. The athletes will get a few days to recover energy reserves and rest sore muscles. So, that final day will be the culmination of previous workouts that were very hard to start with. It will hurt, and if the coach has been right, the first few pieces will be on target and the real struggle will come in the second half.

I think that we got it right today. The last of the 5x5min this morning saw a few guys unable to hit their goal splits. Rather than be frustrated, I'm happy with the result. They're at the bottom of the barrel, getting there right when we wanted. Overall result was a success; the vast majority went faster that they ever had. The long-term result, that coaches think about, was also what we wanted. The guys pushed all the way past the last of their reserves, so they will come back stronger next week. A good, hard week. They should feel some accomplishment, having survived the worst the coaches could dish out.