Bad Decision

[lyons9890]

Yesterday was the last practice for my school this season, and all we did was clean up the boathouse. Some people decided to do a 2k, to see end of season results. I got nervous and started thinking about doing one before I came to practice. When I got to practice, one of my friends told me that another one of my friends did his, and got a 6:41. His previous PR was a 6:45, and he only weighs 150lb.

So, still feeling extremely nervous, I decided to go ahead and do one. My PR is a 6:39, and I was aiming for a 6:35. So I get on the erg with a buddy who is also aiming for a 6:35. We start to row, and I am holding a solid 1:40-1:39, probably going to get around a 6:38-41. More than midway through however, the guy next to me stops erging and yells 'I CANT BREATH' and just starts panting. This was a huge blow to me mentally, and with only 600 meters left to go, I quit. I threw my handle down and cursed really loud. I’m almost certain this is the first piece I have ever quit . I have been rowing for three years, I'm a junior in high school, and I have big plans for college rowing. But this is just killing me. Does anyone have a story to match up with this to make me feel better?

Geoff

[PaulS]

No Story for you, but a bit of positive spin on the experience.

Now that you know how it feels to quit, you won't be likely to do it again, and that may be worth having the experience you did.

As Xeno says: "Always get to zero!"

[Elamonta]

The same kind of thing happened to me when I returned from Christmas break at the beginning of last spring semester. On the first day of practice coach sent us on a short warm up run, and we returned and our ergs were all outside and lined up...either we were doing a workout or a 2k test. It ended up being a test. I am one of the few who love erg testing and erging in general. My teammates both girls and guys...do not. I am still a relatively new rower/erger, so I am still in the phase of beating my own times just trying to find that plateau. To cut this story short...no one on my team except myself and one other girl had done any training over xmas break and the majority of the rowers pulled 2k times anywheres from 25-30 seconds slower than the test they had done before we left for break. I beat my time by 3 seconds. Needless to say our coach told us that we werent committed and said we were junking the season because we didnt train hard enough over break and now we were too far behind. After two weeks of testing we earned her respect and she returned to coaching us. I personally went on to win 10 medals over the remainder of the season, with 4 of them coming at the Clemson Sprints (LTWT 4 gold, Varsity 4 silver, Mens Pair silver, and Mixed 8 bronze). My LTWT 4 would end up 2nd in States (FIRA) and 2nd in regionals (SIRA), and we would miss the finals at the Dad Vail Regatta by .56 seconds, which put us 7th ranked out of 26 boats...had we advanced we would have more than likely placed 4th.

Moral of the story: Sometimes it takes a step backwards to jolt the engine per se. It snapped my team into shape. I have cut my erg score from a 7:38 (first ever test) down to around a 6:45 now and I lost 15 pounds to become ltwt...the other girl who had done faster after break ended up cutting 21 seconds off her time by seasons end...she now pulls a 7:39 and is also a ltwt...we plan on rowing a mixed 2x at some of the fall collegiate regattas...where we will win more than likely (obviously a fun event...but why not if we can win it lol)! Good luck in the future, and remember even though he was a teammate there were still "two boats on the water" and I hate coming in last regardless of the opponent...if you adopt this mentality you can achieve anything you want.