Caro's Chronicles #1
30’x30’x30’ - An Introduction.
The year is 2010, a new year, and there are 35 days to CIRCs. What are CIRCs? The Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships, a nationwide erg competition held in four cities across Canada. Erging or indoor rowing is its own world of strange.
If you’ve ever seen a rowing machine, imagine an indoor arena filled with rows of these, all brand new and hooked up to video projectors displaying little digital boats; one for each participant’s machine. These are set to a 2000m distance and competitors race by pulling as hard and as fast as they can.
There are eight significant events, the Sr. and under 23 men’s and women’s events for both lightweights and heavyweights. (lightweights are under 165lb for men and 135lbs for women.) Winners are determined by time and each category has an expected range, for example: if you’re heavyweight male either U23 or Sr. you’ll probably be done in under 7 minutes. Most heavyweight females will finish under 8.
But that that’s just a sketch - CIRCs is much more than a bizzaro on land rowing event. CIRCs is one of the Rowing Canada submission scores. These rank potential candidates for the national team. Indoor rowing is one of the few means to objectively compare individuals’ competitive performance. Unlike on water there are no changes in wind or weather, it’s a pure test of an athlete’s power and endurance. A 2000m or ‘2k’ erg test is also potentially one of the most painful things you will ever do.
With only 35 days, I’m a little scared that I’m cutting it down to the wire, but on January 3, 2010 I started my CIRC’s training, with a New Years 3x30 minute workout; erging, running and biking. The results of my Christmas slacking were evident. I’m out of shape, but I intend to give it my best shot. In 2010… we shall see.
I’m not going to elaborate further about my personal goals tonight, but over the coming month I’m going to blog my training.
Why? Primarily to hold myself accountable, secondly, to create a record of my efforts and those of my teammates so that anyone can see our method and its results, and finally, in some small way to give non-rowers an idea of what I do and what it’s like to train. It’s significance to us and how greatly it impacts and shapes our lives.
