Row for Life

Today, while riding over to the Rec Center to erg, I pondered what would be involved in writing a rowing-equivalent book to the book Bike for Life. BfL is a good read, in case you're ever looking for ideas and inspiration about how to stay active at any age.

What brought on the day's musings was that feeling of having to go it alone. Again. I tried to get the Outlaws to erg a marathon, but everyone has various other things going on, so they all dropped out at one point or another (or said no to begin with). I tried to get the Aggies to erg a marathon, but they pulled the plug yesterday. The plan had been to erg the marathon today.

I can understand why, and am just sort of left wondering, why am I the only one left doing this? Everyone else must just be less of a fool than I am. It's a stupid thing to do, and yet it feels much less stupid than running a marathon, at least. I made a commitment to myself (first and foremost) at the beginning of the summer, to train and complete my fastest erg marathon yet, and it would all be for naught if I didn't put myself back on the proving grounds. I erged 35k three weeks ago and felt pretty good and fast - signs that the training was effective. I started tapering to some extent two weeks ago (where "taper" means "ride my bicycle to and from the lake instead of erging"), and have been resting and eating in anticipation since Thursday evening.

And so, it's done. Yeah, fast, but I don't know if that matters much anymore. More than anything, I did it in memory of Okie, who quietly started participating the same year I did, and who always modeled the qualities of the best rowers, working hard, but remaining modest about accomplishments, and always trying to bring people together to share the joy of water sports. Sometimes, when we discover we are more crazily passionate about something than other people, it's a sign that we need to back off. So it's done, and now I will move on.

Writing a Row for Life book - more than anything, I thought about how I would want to interview people who have been in the sport long-term. I want to know, have they taken breaks from the sport? Why, and for how long? How have they managed or avoided injuries or other obstacles that sideline people from athletic activities? How have they handled the challenge of team dynamics over the years, watching so many people come and go? Do the veterans all wind up rowing in singles eventually? (no, actually, I know that isn't true because of the Ancient Mariners)

Rowing isn't quite like bicycling or running - there isn't rowable water everywhere, or infrastructure for boat storage and launches. You can't just step out your front door, strap into your boat, and row away (with rare exceptions). Yeah, you can erg, but that just isn't the same. I am sure there are stories to be told; at a regatta in Arizona, an 80-year-old rower came up to me, eager to tell some about rowing experiences over his lifetime (I think he raced for the national team in Argentina?). The sport isn't nearly as common as bicycling, so any book on the subject would have to be written in spare time out of a deep commitment to the sport, not any hopes of profit.

Rowing always factors in to my decisions about where to go next. While I'm looking at job ads, I'm also wondering, "What are the rowing facilities like?" Generally, I have some idea because I've visited the area to race before, or I've raced teams from that location. I'm getting closer to the point where I can afford my own equipment, which should help so long as there's a way to store and/or transport things.

The Concept2 UK site has a training manual that actually covers quite a bit of territory with respect to the sport of rowing (or, at least, erging), but there's something to be said for a compendium of stories, too.

A few more erg marathon notes

I was going to just e-mail a bit of this to scrottie, but then it occurred to me that some of you might be interested in these notes, too.

1. I applied a goodly amount of Chamois Butt-r to my nether regions, but in the end, that's what hurts the most. No excruciating pain during the erging, but some stinging afterwords. I did the entire piece on a piece of closed-cell foam I got in Tempe a few years back for the purpose of making rowing seat padding (from Tempe Sales, as recommended by K). Oh, wait - I'm lying. I got it for the purpose of making a Flying Spaghetti Monster costume back in 2006:



...but used the remains for seat padding.

2. After spending all that time this summer reading about sports nutrition, I decided to try something different than for previous marathons. In previous years, I've taken swigs of water after each 10k (marathon = 42.195k), and generally take additional swigs during the last 5k, too. I've also queued up a GU packet for the halfway mark, as the whole thing takes long enough (3 hours or more) that a person needs to refuel muscles that have been glycogen-depleted. The Sports Nutrition Guidebook, however, points out that gel-based energy products are dense (hypertonic) to the point where they need to be consumed with water; otherwise, the stomach/intestines cannot easily absorb the contents. On the 35k, I decided to test out what would happen if I just drank sports drink instead of water, and that went well. So I had two bottles of sports drink at my side this time around. I also decided to take swigs more frequently, as most sports nutritionist types would recommend hydrating at least every 30 minutes during intense activity. So, every 7k instead of every 10k. This, too, worked well - I took my last swigs at 7k to go, and was able to finish strong.

3. How about that marathon training plan? Overall, I'd say I fell off the wagon to some extent during the last month or so. I did pretty well with picking back up after bike touring in July, but lots of other life factors started to interfere towards the end (mostly, the fall semester starting and rowing with the Aggies, which really means coxing for the Aggies and bicycling to and from the lake a lot). I was concerned today about getting back into heavy-duty erging without having maintained the erg volume I had going previously, but I did all right, all things considered. The training program I followed is good in that it can get a rower geared up to erg a marathon and then hop back on the erg the next week, without much break. I didn't follow the plan religiously, but it was extremely helpful for my purposes - provided good guidelines. To some extent, I like it better than the lower-volume plan, but maybe that's mostly because it produced the results I wanted, heh.

4. The whole experience has been a great exercise in remembering a fundamental element of rowing: if you want to do well as a rower, you must put in the consistent hard work. Finishing 18k weekday lactic-threshold pieces was challenging, but great mental preparation for sticking on the machine for longer pieces. I can clearly see returns for my effort, especially when I am doing those puny little head race pieces (6k's or 5k's - standard race distances for the fall).