Jello Legs

Saturday: This morning, I woke to a clear head, a normal body temperature, and jello legs.  Somehow in the last 24 hours as I laid in bed under the spell of NyQuil, it felt like all the muscles on my legs had atrophied away.  It was such a funny sensation to have tingling legs, not from the exhaustion after an erg piece, but just from the feeling like there were no more muscles left on my legs.

The JLAC women's team practiced before us with 2 eights on the water.  As for us, we had 1 eight, 2 women's singles (including me), 1 men's single, and 1 double. We did a full lake warm-up with a few starts.  The main workout today was 3x7min with starts and sprints.  The eight was to hit a 34spm in the start, settle to a 30spm, and sprint at a 34spm.  This is one of the few times where in my single, I do not mind understroking the assigned stroke rate.  At the start, I hit a 36spm, but after, I settled to about a 27-28spm on the first piece.  As the workout progressed, I felt more comfortable in the single (afterall, it has been more than a week since I rowed the single) and could settle to a 28-29spm.  As for the sprint, however, that still needs much more practice in the single.  I cannot manage to bring up the rate and pressure AND maintain the set in my boat. 

Sometimes after a piece, the different boats become scattered, and it is not always clear where to line up for the next piece or whether we are going in.  After waiting for sometime for the eight, the 2 women's singles and 1 double did the last piece on the water.  For whatever reason, the eight went in early, after the second piece, and did the last 7 minute piece on the erg.  Seeing the women erging gave my stomach a queasy feeling. 

I remember a morning practice in Wisconsin where we had gone out for a long steady technique row in doubles with one short race piece at the end.  As we were docking, the coach said to meet in ten minutes, upstairs in the erg room.  You could see the dread on everyone's face as we quietly washed and put away our boats.  Upstairs, we did 2x10minutes (4'/3'/2'/1', from rate 22-28spm) on the erg with the coach watching and recording splits.  After the first piece, he had us get up and reorder from fastest to slowest so that we would be competitive with the people next to us.  That was also the day when on the second piece, in the first 4 minutes, I was at a 23spm and not at the exact assigned rate of 22spm.  The coach first gave me a warning about my rate and after seeing no change, he said from behind, "A fucking 22.  Not a 23.  Stay on rate."  That was only one of several water practices that we had, immediately followed by erging. 

As for the jello legs today, they had persisted during the warm-up, but somehow magically vanished during the main pieces.  As I got out the boat, however, it was jello legs all over again.  I would have some jello now if it did not take so long to make.

Want to watch our practice?  Click here.