Desperate for an Erg

Let's get the hard stuff over with--erging. I am not a fan of erging to say the least, and if I didn't row on a team, I would probably never erg. Erging or indoor rowing is done on a rowing machine called an erg. Think treadmill for running. Why would you run on a treadmill indoors at a stuffy gym when you can run outside under the sun and sky? Like the treadmill, the erg is great for those rainy, windy days, which can make rowing miserable. Also, like the treadmill, the erg is great for training and measuring your fitness.

There are few fundamental truths in life, and here is one of them--the erg does not lie. It does not lie about your fitness, strength, endurance, or mental toughness at that particular point in time, in that particular piece. Everything on the erg is measurable and recorded. That is one of the reasons the mention of erg brings knots to my stomach. There is no where to hide. It takes a certain amount of courage to face the erg and the truth it displays.

Thus, it was very odd this morning when I was desperate for an erg. Yesterday morning, at the end of practice, our coach, Chris, informed us that each of us were to do a 2k erg test by next Saturday. We all knew this was coming, but a sense of dread still over came me. A 2k erg test is similar to running a timed 1 mile, but worse. The time for a 2k and a 1 mile are pretty comparable in time (about 8 minutes for women, obviously depending on fitness level) and distance (2000m vs. 1600m). Unlike on the 400m track, on the erg, the erg tells you exactly what you are pulling. When you run a timed mile, you might have a coach on the sidelines calling out your 400m split, but you don't have a machine telling you every step what your pace is and whether you are fading.

In order to avoid having the 2k hang over my head all week, I decided that I would do the 2k this morning. I went down to the lake to erg, only to find the gates locked and the ergs inaccessible. This left me at a loss. Lake Merritt Rowing Club moved all the equipment into an area that is shared with the Sailboat House Club because the Sailboat House is under construction. This shared area has a dual lock system that makes the area accessible by LMRC and by Sailboat Club with different keys. Yesterday, someone had locked the whole area with the Sailboat Club lock, thus making the area inaccessible to LMRC. I thought about jumping the fence, but the fence is about 9 feet tall with barbed wire on top, and I was never good at adventurous things, such as climbing fences.

Sometimes in life, things do not go as planned, and I am a person who reacts poorly when life goes askew. In a cross mood, I waited around in vain for 30 minutes, hoping that someone would come unlock the gate. Desperate and hoping it was not too early to call, I called a good friend whom I knew had an erg. She was generous enough to let me barge into her house at 8AM and erg.

I did not set any PRs today nor did I feel particularly strong, but a solid 2k was good enough for me today. Life is looking up now.