Blog de Puree

It rained this morning, so I decided to get in some indoor training for the rowing regattas I’ll be competing in this September and October. I went in to work early and made time to train on the rowing ergometer at work during lunch hour.

There’s nothing like a 5,000 meter piece at full pressure, at approximately 28 strokes per minute to blast out your lungs and see just how out of shape you really are for upcoming races. (5000 meters =3.1 miles. Fall Head races are typically 3 miles long.)

I strapped in and went balls to the wall. About 1,000 meters in, I was sucking wind. Thankfully, I had my iPod and was blasting Chemical Brothers to get the adrenaline going and once I settled in, it was decent workout. My total time was 20:58.5, just shy of 21 minutes, with an average of 2:05.8 splits (splits are your average time for 500 meters and a great guage for pacing yourself.).

If I can keep that time on the water, while pulling the weight of my single scull through the water, I should be able to do pretty well. The winning lightweight men’s single at last year’s Head of the Charles Regatta pulled a time of 19:21.7. While I won’t be racing in the HoCR, it’s a great comparison for rowing times as that race showcases the best rowers in the world.

During the workout, I was thinking of a great blog post from a former colleague, David Churbuck. Here’s the link and it accurately describes what erging with the proper music is like, as well as my two cents at the end of the post.