The Giver of Pain and Delight

Now that my outdoor rowing season has come to an end, it's time to switch over to indoor conditioning. It's time to reintroduce myself to my ergometer or erg for short. It's also known as an indoor rower. Truly a torture device. The giver of pain and delight. Pain while you are on it and delight when your workout is finished. I actually stole that line (giver of pain and delight from an old Star Trek episode. In that case the givers were women, but I digress). I try to erg 3 to 4 times a week, but since my on water season ended its been more like 1 or 2 times a week. My conditioning is slowly going to hell. The good news is it doesn't take a lot of working out to get it back. Since I own my own erg, a Model C with an upgraded monitor, most of my erging is done at home. Once a week, however, I try to make it to an erg class at our local Gold's. There are about 24 ergs, half are owned by our rowing club and half by Gold's. Its certainly easier to erg with 20 or so of your teammates then doing it on your own. In a class, I'll normally row at least 10,000 meters. That's something I hardly ever attempt at home on my own.

So today after much hemming and hawing, I did sit down on the erg and do a 5,000 meter piece. Its the first I've erged in about 2 weeks and it showed. I was a good 20 seconds off my all time best for that distance so I definitely need to work on my conditioning. I just need to get more consistent with my workouts although that can be tough this time of year. To keep from being bored out of my mind while I erg, I have a DVD of the finals of the rowing events from the Olympics in Athens to watch. Sometimes it helps sometimes not. Just depends on my mood. I also need to introduce some weight training into my workout plan. It can't be strictly aerobic workouts. I need to get stronger to help keep me in the top boats come next year. After all its just 114 days until I can get back out on the water.