Team Meeting

Tuesday evening:  Typical Tuesday--rush to get home, pick up the Princess, change, drop the Princess off with an unlucky friend who is generously repaid with the Princess’ copious tears and wails, get to the Lake Merritt Park entrance, pay the damned $2 entrance fee, and be ready to go.

This evening, we had a short practice and a team meeting after.  We had 1 eight, 1 quad, and 1 men’s single out on the water.  The Bay Blades had three singles out, and two other men’s singles and 1 mixed double were coming in as we were launching.

I bowed the quad, a task that always gives me a bit of angst.  A quad can be a fast boat and even with a steering toe, you can quickly find yourself headed at the wrong point.  When I was at camp in Wisconsin, the coach put together a quad for Club Nationals, and I was in bow.  I was actually so paranoid about steering the quad in a race in a lane that I asked him to either move me or move the steering.  He looked at me with exasperation, but ended up moving the steering to two seat. 

Quad from Club Nationals with me in bow (Miranda in three seat);
thank you to two seat who is steering!
Copyright SportGraphics

We had a long warm up today with starts.  The workout consisted of four short two minute pieces, all with starts.  My bowing was alright with the exception of the last piece where I steered too wide, away from the other boats.  If you ever go to camp and end up bowing, you will learn quickly that you are expected to stay on course AND keep your boat close to the other boats.  Coaches need to be able to compare boats side-by-side and if you steer too wide, they will be pretty pissed off.

After a fairly successful weekend at Gold Rush, especially in the eight and the fours, our next race is SW Regionals, hosted by us and held at Lake Merritt.  Chris talked about seat selections, which are based on age, weight, erg scores, and performance on the water, for Regionals and about being able to put out the fastest, most competitive eight possible.  He also discussed training and still expects 15,000-20,000 meters on the erg or on the water outside of our organized practices.  Chris has mentioned before the importance of specificity—training specifically in the sport that you plan on competing.  Hence, the best workout would be one on the water, followed by the erg, then, bike and run. 

On the workout calendar that Chris passed out, there are several 1k erg tests scheduled between now and Regionals.  Remind me why rowing is fun again.