Crew Diary
Squaddies are crazy for numbers. We know our heights, our weights, and the weights we can lift-for max tests, high reps, low reps; for our last bench pull test.
We know our personal best times (PBs) for the sprint ergs, the 30-minute ergs, the 60-minute ergs. We have graphs of projected boat speed based on percentages of Olympic gold medal times, and time our weekly 2x3K races on these percentages. We know our heart rates when we wake up, during pieces, at rest. We know how many calories a day we should be getting (and how many were in that last chunk of malt loaf). And we especially, definitely, know the splits* and time of our last 2K erg test.
The tragic thing about this obsession with numbers is that rowing is not something we leave on the water, or even at the gym. We may spend about 30 hours a week in training, but the hours not spent training are often spent thinking about rowing-and the numbers involved-in some fashion. Is this the same for dedicated athletes in most sports? I would guess so. Yet rowing has a way of taking over not only your body but also your mind. It turns each of us into maths students, calculating how to shave seconds off our PBs. And it has turned me into someone no longer identifiable as anything but "rower".
19th Feb 2004