This morning, our SDCC eight rowed out on the estuary in order to practice straight 2,000m (no turns!) and to piece with the East Bay Rowing (formerly JLAC) women's SDCC eight. The estuary was in rare form this morning--beautiful, calm, and pretty flat. The East Bay Rowing men had an eight out and the Cal Lights had 2 fours and 2 eights out too.
We had a short and somewhat frantic warm-up to the start line. The workout was 2x2,000m full race pieces. Before practice, Chris gave us a pep talk about the pieces we were going to do. I, unfortunately, missed the first half of the talk because I was using the port-a-potty (very important to use the bathroom before any race pieces!), but I think I caught the gist. Essentially, Chris wanted us to hit high rates, to be aggressive, and to just walk away from and bury the other eight. Think of this as San Diego. There was an almost panicked, fired-up feeling to our warm-up probably due to several factors--Chris' pep talk, us being used to a full lake loop of warm-up (about 3,000m), and a substitute coxswain. It is important to be properly warmed up for a race and to hit high rates so that your body becomes familiar with the lactic acid. There are times, however, when your warm-up might be cut short due to getting to the start line late or changes in race times. What I think about in those situations is this: I have to trust in my fitness. I can do zero to sixty.
For the first piece, we had a countdown start where the coaches counted down from 30. East Bay's boat, which had an older average age, left on the "27," and we left on the "22." In masters rowing, there are some races where instead of tagging the age handicap at the end of the race, there is a countdown start that accounts for the age handicap. That way, the first boat to cross the line is the winner and nobody has to wait for the age handicap to be calculated into the finish times. Our race at Crew Classic is the Masters B race, which has a straight start since all the boats must make a certain age average. East Bay Rowing's race, however, is a club race, which has a countdown start.
The first piece had a rough start and few course corrections in the first 20 strokes. Amidst the chaos, I think we did hit some of the high rates, but we settled to a lower rate about 400m in. There was indescribable pain in this piece. Sometimes the boat is just not going to feel "good," and in those moments, you have to just go no matter what. Limits are meant to be pushed during a race and it probably will not feel very good at all, but you still have to keep your head on straight and your mind in the game. Halfway through the piece, there was a slight drop in speed, but I do not think the drop came from lack of effort from our boat, but rather a small disconnect between the catch and drive, almost like a change in technique.
During a race, one of the most difficult things to do is to hold onto your technique. This is one of the major differences between rowing on the water and rowing on the erg. Rowing on the water--if your technique falls apart and you are missing water at the catch or coming out early at the finish, it does not matter how hard you are trying or how determined you are to win. There is a lot of wasted energy, and you are not moving the boat effectively. Rowing on the erg--if your technique falls apart, but you are still pulling really hard, the erg will reward you and your split will go down. It takes a lot of practice, focus, and core strength to hang onto that technique.
With about 500m left to go, someone, not the coxswain, in the boat yelled out loud, "Com'on." I can tell you upfront that I am not a fan of people shouting in the boat. There are some situations where it might be appropriate and maybe helpful in "rallying" the troops, but I usually find it disruptive. First, shouting and yelling is the coxswain's job. Second, shouting tells me that you have the breath to shout. I do not know about you, but in a race piece, I am pretty breathless. Third, shouting can "rally" up the troops in the wrong way. For instance, today, after the shout, the boat started to bring the rate up, almost like a sprint. Well, I can be honest and say that I do not have the fitness to sprint for 500 meters at a 36spm. Maybe in my next life when I am French (the French, especially the lightweight men, are apparently well-known for their high rates...in the 40s...).
We started the second piece together with the East Bay Rowing boat, no countdown start. I do not remember the start too well (see memory loss), but I think the boat was a little rocky. The rhythm came easier on this piece, and the strokes felt a bit lighter. According to Chris, we made our biggest move in the last 500m as the rate was coming up.
Counting down to San Diego.
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