Monday Morning

A full parking lot this morning, and chaos on the docks with three teams trying to launch at the same time. On the water, we had 1 LMRC women’s eight, 2 JLAC women’s eights, 1 JLAC men’s eight, 1 LMRC women’s quad, 1 men’s single, and 3 coaches’ launches. In addition, we had three men stay on land to erg. Despite all the chaos on the docks, it was relatively uneventful on the water—no crashes or near-misses. Each team practiced separately and managed to always be on separate ends of the lake from one another.

According to Chris’ calendar, today was suppose to be steady state at 24-26spm, which is not what we did this morning probably due to all the boat traffic and because Chris wanted to see our exact line-up from Saturday “in action.” We did a quick warm-up from the finger to the log boom followed by a three-quarters pressure, 2-3 minute piece back down to the dam at a 28-30spm. The boat felt “on edge” and the 10mph winds, especially from the finger, did not help the set. We lined up at the dam and did our first 500m piece at a 34spm. I was able to bring the rate up to a 33spm, but could not hit the 34spm. After, Chris asked our coxswain for our split and stroke rate numbers. Half-serious, I told her not to tell Chris that our stroke was at a 33spm because a 33spm is not the 34spm that he asked for. I still have memories of my summer at Wisconsin and my coach hounding me about pulling the exact stroke rate that he specified—no higher, no lower.

We spun and did another 500m from the log boom back to the dam. This piece was with a start and a settle to 32spm. We had a poor start and a poor settle, but were able to regain rhythm. The boat did not feel as smooth as on Saturday, but the effort was there. The last 500m piece also had a start and settle. We had a better start, but somewhere in the first 200m, I could feel the rush into the catch. I was a little peeved for two reasons. First, if you are not stroking a boat, you better be watching your stroke seat, controlling your slide and matching up your catch timing. We can row a 32spm with ratio and control, all the way up the slide; we did it on Saturday. Second, a stroke seat really needs a seven seat who can back her up in power and rhythm. A seven seat should help the stroke seat lead the boat, not allow the rest of the boat’s rush come barreling into the stern. Maybe I just did a shitty job stroking today, in which case, you can disregard those two reasons.

At the end of the workout, Chris gave us a talk. Today’s (i.e. Saturday’s) line-up is close to our San Diego line-up. He had really wanted to seat race us, but with one SDCC contender missing, that was not possible today. Chris also warned us that this is crunch time, and we need to be focused on rowing. All other forms of exercise, such as Pilates, yoga, running, swimming, biking, do not count, only rowing and erging count. Counting down to San Diego.