NyQuil and Chocolate Cake

Part Two of "I did NOT want to get up this morning, coffee or no coffee."  You can read Part One here.

To be truthful, I think my body simply shut down from too much stress, lack of sleep, and probably too much coffee.  Passing out early the other night was my body holding up a white flag.  That whole night, I had the chills and aches, followed by a low-grade fever and headache.  The following day or yesterday, I left work early to come home and rest.  No rower wants to hear or face the reality that perhaps, she is cracking under too much stress.  Somewhere in her contorted mind, it implies to her that she cannot handle the physical and mental stress of the training schedule.  There are several components that make up a top athlete: strength, endurance, core strength and balance, mental toughness, consistency, and stress.  None of the other components mean anything if you cannot perform under stress.  And trust me, sitting at the start line of a 2,000m race is very stressful because no one else can help you.  Nothing, but rowing those 2,000m and completing the race can bring you salvation, but yet, it is that 2,000 meters that is so uncertain and brings about the anxiety of anticipation.

This morning, I left the house with no coffee and with a low-grade fever and chills, but I had a plan--NyQuil.  I am not a big believer in taking medicine for minor colds or discomforts, but I am a big believer in sleep, and NyQuil will give me sleep.

We had 1 LMRC double, 1 men's single, 1 LMRC eight (same line-up as Saturday and Monday), 2 JLAC women's eights, and 1 JLAC men's eight on the water today.  At the finger, Chris had the eight practice a catch drill where a pair sits at the finish and then rows up to the catch.  At the catch, the two rowers will simply lift their hands off the handle, allowing gravity to do its job and the oar to plunk right into the water.  The drill demonstrates that your hands should lift, and not drop, into the catch.  We continued to warm up to the log boom.  From the log boom back to the finger, we practiced starts.  None of the starts were particularly great even when Chris had us slow down the speed and ease off on the pressure.  Our main piece was from the finger to the log boom at a 24spm and at steady state pressure with a focus on length.  The last drill that we did before going in was the "chop-chop" drill.  (Anyone know the actual name?!)  The whole boat sat at the finish with arms away and simply tapped the oar handle up and down, hence the chop-chop.  Once the boat was able to maintain timing and togetherness, the coxswain would call "Way enough" and the rowers would stop their blades in the air. 

With a quick stop at Safeway after practice, I had my NyQuil, and with my NyQuil, I slept a fitful, yet much needed five hours.  I woke up with the chills gone, but my head in a daze, probably from the NyQuil.  I woke up to one thought in my head--CHOCOLATE CAKE.  I pictured luscious, rich chocolate cupcakes and a whole 9x13in pan of moist chocolate cake coming out of my oven.  I have no idea where this thought came from because one, there is no chocolate cake in the house, and two, I usually prefer white or yellow cake over chocolate cake.  But once the thought of food enters my head, it is a beast to shake off.

If you have not yet heard of my amazing ability, please do indulge me by reading about it here because being sick is no deterrent for me.  I assessed my situation.  There was no chocolate cake in the house, but I did have sugar-free chocolate popsicles and chocolate pudding and real sugar, full fat chocolate chips and several boxes of brownie mix.  In my former, less glamorous lightweight days, I would have gone for the boxes of brownie mix, which I would rip open, pour into a bowl, along with some yogurt, butter, and/or egg whites and would try desperately to make a brownie meant to be baked in the oven for over 30 minutes, in the microwave in 30 seconds.  Then, in worried panic that I might finish off the rest of the brownie mix, I would throw it out and take out the trash because once the brownie mix was in the dumpster, I could not be tempted to fish it out.  Today though, I worked my way up, first from the popsicles and pudding to the chocolate chips.  With my head still in a daze and my stomach bloated from sugar-free crap, I have come to the realization that may be I should just take another NyQuil and sleep it all away.