★僕はエルゴ大会に出ました。その日、大会があることを知っていましたが、現役時代から「エルゴの痛さ」をよく覚えていたので、今回のエルゴ大会に出ようとは一度も思いませんでした。今日、通常練習をするために鶴見川漕艇場へ行きました。しかし、ズラリと並んでいるエルゴを見たら急に参加したくなりました。
★ちょっとウオームアップしていましたが、「エルゴレース」が始まる直前は、自分の心臓の音が聞こえるほどに、とても緊張しました。とこらが、レースが始まったらすぐに落ち着きました。!
★1300mから1700mの間は、一番苦しかったです。しかし、残りの300mにさしかかるとゴールが想像できたので、僕の残りのパワーを全部エルゴに注ぎました。
漕ぎ終わったら、エネルギーゼロ。後悔もなかったし、最高な気持ちでした。
★I guess you could say I have a love/hate relationship with the ergo-meter. For me, erging is the best work-out in the world. After a piece on the erg, you feel like you’ve exercised every muscle in your body. That’s a great feeling. However, when you are actually on the erg there are two challenges you have to face mentally. One is your muscles screaming with pain, begging you to just give up and finish your work-out early. The other challenge is that the monotony of each stroke can make each second that goes by feel l! ike an eternity. It is these two reasons why I HATE the erg. Yet, when these two challenges are overcome, in other words, when one has proven his or her mental toughness to the erg, there is an extreme sense of confidence which results. That confidence is what makes a person a better rower, a stronger rower—both physically and mentally.
★Sunday, March 15, the Annual Erg Competition was held at the boathouse in Tsurumi. When I first heard about the competition I reflected on my days as a rower in college, and could only remember the feelings of agony that the erg caused. I had no intentions whatsoever of entering the competition. Surprisingly, when I arrived at the boat house for usual Sunday practice with the Amenbou Boat Club, the sight of the ergs lined up ready for competition sparked something inside me that told me I should go ahead and sign up. I knew no matter how poorly I did in the competition, the feeling of failure would be better than! the feeling of regret I would have if I did not at least give it a try.
★When it was my group’s turn, we had about 5 minutes to warm-up. I was so nervous. As I tried to stay calm and take deep breaths, my legs felt like konyaku and I just about heaved the natto from breakfast. When the race started, I took a quick power 15 and then settled into my rhythm. Any feelings of anxiety were quickly forgotten. I focused on nothing but the numbers on the screen in front of me, doing my best to keep my split at a constant rate. The first 1000 meters went by so quickly. But when I hit meter 1300 my split kept going up higher as my legs began to feel weaker. With 300 meters left I did my best to ignore the burning pain felt in my legs and put every ounce of energy into my erg. When I finished, I felt completely exhausted. I had pulled my hardest and had no regrets. That was a great feeling.
by Michael