Personal Best! (But Not There Yet)
rowing, personal best, concept ii
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The funny thing is, I wasn't even planning on hitting the gym today; I was going to take it easy and give myself a rare break, since I've been feeling a little rundown lately. I rolled out of bed this morning and thought - what the heck, I'll do a quick workout and get this Friday over with and onto the weekend...
Friday is normally a day that I run, so I wanted to do something cardio in lieu of a lunchtime run. I walked into the gym around 6:30 am and the place was empty, not even the crickets were chirping. As I scanned the room, trying to decide where to begin, my eyes locked onto it. There it was, smug, in the center of the unmoving, silent cardio machines - the Concept II. It was almost as if it was daring me to come over, knowing that I would pass. On the contrary, I walked straight to it and started stretching out for the upcoming battle. It coldly sat there, doing it's best to intimidate me.
I sat down and strapped my feet in, adjusted the damper to max, then turned the electronic display on. I paused and my confidence wavered. Would I come in at 9 minutes again? I haven't been able to break that barrier despite all the tips from the college rowing studs that I know. Form was good, breathing was good, cardio was good, heck - 9 minutes is good! But not good enough. The guy who consistently wins the yearly rowing competition came in with a blazing 8:30 (defeating the guy that he had won with an amazing 8:31) in the previous competition. Since then, I've had my sights set on 8:30. Yeah, me - the average joe with no previous rowing experience. After trying it out a few times, I quickly got to the 9 minute range and thought - I can do this! So now here I was, wondering if I would hit the barrier and bounce backward, yet again.
On the first pull, I felt something was different today. The Concept II felt it as well - I could tell that it knew that today I was stronger than usual. My form was smooth, and my breathing immediately fell into cadence. My mind quickly flashed between Obie's blog on motivation and recent messages between jules and I regarding rowing. I also thought at that moment that I would be blogging today that I kicked this machine's ass. So here I am.
My pace per 500 meters started in the high 1:30's, evened out in the mid 1:40's, and even scraped the 1:50 mark about halfway through. But I could feel that there was more flow than ebb, so I pushed it back down into the mid 1:40's where I stayed pretty much the rest of the way. At the 2000 meter mark, my time was just over 7 minutes, so I knew then if I could keep it steady I was going to smash through the barrier. I did keep it steady, giving a little back near the end, and rolled across the 2500 meter mark with a time of 8:49! Eight-f'ing-forty-nine!! Screw the cool-down, I jumped off the machine and circled around it a few times, getting my walking legs back, with my hands in the air. By then, a couple people had come into the gym and were looking at me funny, but I didn't care. Victory was mine!
So there it is: a personal best of 8:49 for 2500 m. I can see 8:30 and I'm going after it - not today or tomorrow, not even next week. But it knows I'm coming. Happy Friday!!
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on 3/28/2008
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