Tuesday evening: We had 1 eight, 1 mixed quad, and 1 men’s single out on the water. The Bay Blades also had 1 men’s quad and 3 men’s singles out. I sat bow in the quad.
The workout was 6x3minutes pieces with starts and at full pressure.
The first piece was actually meant to be at 90% pressure to ease us into the rest of the workout, but from the first few strokes, it became very clear that this was going to be a dogfight. The eight and the quad were very close in speed, making it difficult to tell which boat came out on top and pushing us to give more. After the first piece, I could feel the burn in my legs and I wondered how three minutes could seem like such a long time.
Meanwhile, Chris was probably congratulating himself. You can tell when a coach really knows his crew when he can put together two equally fast line-ups. On high intensity days where the workout is intervals or race pieces, it is helpful to have a boat constantly next to you, challenging you.
In the quad, the effort was in the boat, but for whatever reason—new line-up or differences in technique, we were not able to “find another speed” and make a decisive move on the eight. We had to fight for ever inch, but that’s what made it a dogfight. The moment that you let up just a little bit is the moment that you lose ground. With the two boats so close in speed, it would be almost impossible to recover that ground.
Several years ago, there was a blog that followed women’s lightweight rowing. The blog was titled, “Fight in the Dog.” Because…
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” –Mark Twain
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