Erg torture and special weekend.

Yesterday, I did a 20-minute piece on our newly renovated erg (it was out of commission for awhile). Normally I would do two 20-minute pieces for a good workout, but I was pretty beat from my hard 8 miles, and it's always hard coming back from such a long break from erging. I think this was a good starting place!

"Basement" is interchangable with "erg chamber of torture" in

my house.

The rowing machine is known for it's unforgiving nature but sometimes I wonder if all the discomfort is just mental--a stigma created by rowers. During my piece yesterday, I kept thinking how much "easier" running felt, but that's just because I probably don't know how to push as hard running as with rowing. I know a lot of non-rowing athletes that hop on an erg and do really decent work, and a lot of people who start rowing in college pull times on their first-ever piece that I couldn't even dream of. So, I do wonder if a lot of it is affected by mentality...we rowers create this big thing out of erging but perhaps it's really not so bad...

P.S. Guess who's coming this weekend!!! (love sneaking him on the blog hehe)

P.P.S. This is a very old photo...