I used to say “Running is the Devil”, but after a winter of substituting rowing for running, I realize I inserted the wrong word at the beginning of that sentence…
That right there is the devil. That thing… It doesn’t lie. You can’t cheat. Going shorter range of motion doesn’t buy you anything but additional time on the beast. Pulling with less force does the same thing. And the biggest thing, it gives you immediate feedback. You make a weak, crappy pull? You know it as soon as the pull is finished.
I don’t know anyone in the gym who likes getting on this thing and doing a serious time trial. A 500m row can feel worse than Fran. And a 2000m row, while it starts out not too horrible, promptly turns into a mind game of “Screw this, I’m gonna quit” vs “Shut up, just finish the distance…”
Personally, I hate the thing. But it’s a tool like no other. If you set out on a 2000m time trial with a goal in mind for your splits, you’ve got to force yourself to perform. You feel like you’re about to explode? Whatever… you know you pulled nearly as hard last time and you lived, so keep going. You’ve got to have some pretty huge mental fortitude to push yourself through any other CrossFit workout as hard as you can on the rower. Maybe that’s why we hate it so much. Though it does get repetitive sitting on the rower for 7:21.1 over a 2000m row. The sad thing is, there’s folks my size out there who do 6:15. And a 7:21.1 is a pretty decent time for the “lightweight” division (sub 165 lbs). But dang, imagining someone doing 6:15 just makes me cringe.
So, the moral of the story? Get on the rower and set a PR at least once a month.