Indoor Training

Beginning in late November, the team put away our boats for the winter and headed indoors to hit the ergs. What is an erg? Well, in short it is what might more commonly be known as a rowing machine, but ask any rower and you might get a slightly more negative description of what an erg is that may or may not include some cursing. From the end of November to the middle of February the erg becomes the center piece of every competitive rower's life. If I were to compare an erg to something it would probably have to be a screaming infant. It pretty much consumes your life, it gives you hell everyday, exhausts you until you think you can no longer function or keep it together, but at the end of the day you have no choice but to embrace it and be thankful that it's there because the payoffs it gives are incomparable. So essentially, it's what I would call a love/hate relationship and depending on the day, the love or hate may triumph. (Maybe the infant comparison wasn't the most appropriate but it's what came to mind so I decided to go with it.) 

This year's winter training has taken on a new component. We were lucky enough to be given a racquetball court that is front in center in the rec. And when I say front and center, I'm not exaggerating, and if you've been in the rec even once this year you know what I mean. Our newly claimed erg room is the first thing you see when you walk in the rec, a small rectangular room with 2 glass walls that holds nearly 30 ergs in it. If you get the chance to see the room when not in use it looks almost pristine; however, come by the rec anytime from 4-7:00 Monday-Friday or 9:00 on Saturday morning and it transforms into a giant sauna as the sweat dripping of each rower's body starts making the whole room so humid that the glass walls begin to fog. Add in sliders, which connect the ergs together to simulate rowing in a boat, and you soon draw a crowd of at least 4-5 people that just stare for a good 5 minutes before continuing on. We essentially sweat in a giant fishbowl for over an hour a day that the entire campus can come observe and joke around saying, "man, I'd hate to be them." 

And what is all this winter training for? The even more celebrated or cursed, 2k! Spring racing is considered sprint season, but when was the last time you sprinted for 7-8 minutes straight? A 2k is the ultimate testament of athleticism and after pulling your first one, you can add in insanity. You start off the first 500m thinking, hey this isn't so bad, then you hit 700m and as the lactic acid starts building up in your legs, you start to question how you can't even be half way done yet. Once 1000m comes you don't know how you will continue, but somehow you pull each 100m with each stroke hurting more than the last. Legs burning as the lactic acid keeps building up you come to the last 250m and you have to sprint it out for one last minute. As soon as you think the entire room is going to close in on you as your vision starts going you've reached the last 5 strokes and  somehow regain some sort of energy to finish strong only to be able to collapse when the monitor hits zero. And then as the lactic acid pulses through your body you stand up from the erg barely able to walk as your legs shake underneath you. Oddly enough after completing 8 minutes of hell, your also full of pride because you realize what all the training was for. And that's just on the erg, the payoff of spring racing is still to come. 

Megan