3x4000m/5:00r

This is the sixth time in a row that I have done this erg. Concept2 classifies it as an Interval:Distance workout. This morning I moved it into the Favorites folder on the PM5. I am trying to find the balance between pushing myself too hard and not pushing myself hard enough. Staying pain-free and producing an ideal force curve every stroke will always be the primary goals.

One thing I am noticing is that when I take the catch properly — that is, when I maintain the natural shaped curve of my spine at the catch — it just feels wrong. I cannot say it any other way than to simply say that maintaining a straight back at the catch somehow feels so unfamiliar that it feels unnatural. It feels as if I am angled far too far backwards, that I am on the wrong side of the clock for the catch, closer to one than to eleven.

This leads to wonder if I haven’t over many years misled myself into thinking that when I feel I am standing upright I am not. In reality I am actually bending forward and allowing my spine to collapse.

Whenever I use Gordon Hamilton’s method to find the natural shaped curve of my spine I experience the sensation that I am about to lose my balance. Gordon suggests pressing heels into the floor while tightening the buttocks, then straightening the arms with palms flat, facing forward, and then raise arms parallel to the floor while lowering the shoulders away from the ears and bringing them a little closer to each other so that arms are perpendicular to the sides of the body. Of course Gordon’s suggestion works. It really does produce the natural shaped curve of the spine. But it also makes me feel as if I am about to topple backwards.

When, however, I maintain the natural shaped curve of my spine the split times drop and the force curve improves. And this happens even though it feels wrong.