Last Day of Swimming

Farewell treats and card from MEMO:.

Thursday:  Last day of summer swim session and last day of swimming with Marcia.  And of course, Marcia had to end it all with a big splash of a 4x100yd swim test!

This morning, I was the antithesis of "waking up like a tiger."  I must have hit the snooze button three times.  Once I was actually physically in the pool, wet and cold, there was no going back to bed.  Trust me, I have dragged myself out of bed before, driven to 5AM rowing practice, decided that I was not going to have any of this rowing shit, drove right back home, and went to bed.  Granted, I was also pregnant at the time, and I had the hardest time getting up in the morning, even for work.

The 4x100yd swim test was not as bad as I had feared.  I managed to stay aggressive for all four pieces.  On the last piece, I knew that I lost time on the flip turns, not holding a tight streamline off the wall, but it happens when you are tired and oxygen deprived.  4x100yd:

1. 1:10 min.
2. 1:09 min.
3. 1:09 min.
4. 1:09 min.

Consistent, but not able to go 1:08 min like I did the last time, two months ago.  I had feared the swim test because I knew I was not in as great of swimming shape as I was in May.  Almost two months of training for SW Regionals will make you faster rowing, but probably slower swimming.

Why should I be anxious for a swim test?  Same reasons why I get anxious for an erg test.  One, because I know how much it will hurt.  And two, fear of personal disappointment.  Cool if you can swim fast, but Marcia could careless if you swim a 1:50 or a 1:05 as long as you are doing your best and digging deep.  Marcia will care if you fly and die, e.g. 1:30, 1:35, 1:40, 1:45.  She will say, "(insert name here), what's happening?!  You are getting slower!!"

I am sad to leave Marcia and the awesome swimmers and lane mates from MEMO:.  Here are a few things I have learned from swimming with Marcia:

1. A really good coach is with his or her weight in gold.  Most masters swim teams have a coach, but you are mostly swimming on your own.  You swim whatever workout is written on the board.  Trust me, 200yd warm-up, 200yd kick, 200yd pull, 5x500yd, etc. gets old real fast without Marcia yelling at you.
2. I should never race backstroke.  Or, if I do, race "unaffiliated" so I will not embarrass anyone else besides myself.
3. Fast swimmers come in all shapes and sizes.  But if you want to be national team/Olympic fast, you might need to start looking like Michael Phelps.  
4. It is always easier to improve when you are relatively new to a sport.  Not so easy when you begin to plateau or when you have already been at it for many years.  
5. It is always more fun when you are fast or are getting faster.  
6. You always swim better, faster, farther when there is competition around.
7. A week off, a month off.  You might be still be fit, in-shape, but you will have to re-build that edge again.  Athletes worry about peaking at the right time.  You cannot be at your peak all the time--that's called a plateau.
8. Details do matter.  Keep your eyes on the bottom of the pool, head tucked in.  Tight streamline and four dolphin kicks off the wall.  You need less air than you think.  
9. When tired, hold onto that technique and KICK!
10. Masters swimming races are divided into age groups of five years, e.g. 30-34, 35-39.  Triathlons typically have similar age groups.  Running has age groups of ten years.  Cycling tends to only have three age groups, but has different ability categories.  On the other hand, rowing has these AA-G(?) age handicaps.

Thank you, Marcia for so many things!  And, go Lane 3!!

The Princess attacking the goodies...

What's the Hurry?

It has been a hectic last few days for me in the non-rowing, normal person world, but ironically, on Sunday, I seemed to be the one left behind.

Sundays are usually an informal practice with several other scullers at the club.  This Sunday, we had SIX singles out on the water--2 women's singles (me) and 4 men's singles!  Because the finger was invaded with weeds that get caught in a boat's skeg, we stayed in the main body of the lake and did loops around.

With Southwest Regionals over and no other sprint races left, I thought we could say goodbye to high rates.

On the first loop, I concentrated on my own boat, rowing a nice, steady 22spm.  By the time, I bothered looking around, all the other boats were much farther ahead!  Hmm, maybe I was having a bad day and rowing slow or maybe everyone else was having an amazing day and rowing fast.  At the turnaround point at the Embarcadero, I cut my turn short and started out ahead of everyone else.  And again, everyone else was moving much faster and quickly caught up to me.

I am the slowest of all the scullers, but at least usually, I can hang with a few of them for awhile.  I thought maybe, in the four days that I was swimming, I somehow got slower rowing.  But when I looked more carefully at everyone else, I realized that they were all pounding away at a 26spm or 28spm.  No wonder I was so slow!

With head races and (god forbid) a marathon race next on the calendar, what's the hurry?  I had assumed that the workout was steady state, but who am I kidding?

"It ain't steady state when you have two boats next to each other." --Wolfe

Sportgraphics

Friday:  This morning, we had 1 eight, 1 men's single, and 2 women's singles (me) out on the water.  The workout was steady state with drills.

If you are a rower, you probably have heard of Sportgraphics, a sport photography company that takes photos at various regattas.  In fact, if you just finished racing at a regatta (e.g. SW Regionals) where Sportgraphics was snapping away, you are probably salivating over your keyboard, obsessively refreshing the Sportgraphics page, anxiously waiting the photos to be posted.  These photos are the one chance for you to feel famous and for you to show all your non-rower family and friends just how cool you look in your amazing crew gear and racing shell.

For me, these photos offer a candid look into exactly what the hell am I doing wrong on the water.  Without any live video footage of my race, photos are the next best thing.  Let's look at several cases.

Exhibit #1:  (from 2011 SW Regionals Women's Masters 1x race)

Photo copyright Sportgraphics

This is me in the single at the start of the race, somewhere in the first 100m judging from the red buoys.  Look at the yellow rectangle around my hands.  Notice the vertical separation between my hands.  Now look at the starboard oar, circled in yellow.  Compare the half-buried starboard oar to the completely buried port oar.  Clearly, I had a little difficulty with setting the boat.

Exhibit #2: (from 2010 SW Regionals Womens Masters 1x race)

Photo copyright Sportgraphics

My first reaction to this photo (common female reaction) -- "I look fat."  Second reaction, why is my body leaning to starboard (shoulders slanted downward to starboard)?  Almost looks like my hands are slow out of bow and are going to get stuck.  Third reaction, why is my starboard oar coming out early?

Exhibit #3: (from 2007 Sac State Invite, Cal Lwt 8+)

Photo courtesy of Nick F.

Good God.  See me in four seat?  See me with my arms bent and my back straight.  There is even just a little bit of leg drive left.  I look like a novice, bending my arms too early and opening up my back.

Ever wonder what you do during a race?  Look at the race photos!

Fly Week

Womens Lwt 2x USA winning bronze at Lucerne;
photo copyright row2k.com

Last weekend was a busy rowing weekend with Southwest Regionals at Lake Merritt and the third World Cup series occurring in Lucerne, Switzerland.  At Lucerne, the US had a strong performance, earning medals in the Men's 4+ and the Women's 2-, 8+, and Lwt 2x.  Read a summary race report here at RowingRelated.  A huge congratulations to Kristin and her doubles partner for earning the bronze in the Women's Lightweight 2x!  Read Kristin's race report here at her blog.  Watch the third World Cup racing here at Universal Sports.

For me, this spring has been busy with several races--San Diego Crew Classic, Pacific Coast Rowing Championships (PCRC), Gold Rush, and SW Regionals.  With the last race of this season done and over with, I took this week to swim with Marcia again.

(Marcia actually keeps her own blog called "Distance Lane."  Check out one of my favorite Macia post.)

Fly week.  What a great week to start swimming again.  And it even ended in a swim test!

Monday, 7/12/2011
AM:  SWIM
Warm-up w/one-arm butterfly and dolphin kicking w/fins
Main set:

1. 4x200yd free w/one tennis ball in each hand; focus on keeping elbows high in the water (the tennis balls were miserable, never felt so slow in my life)
2. 4x200yd free w/fins and NO tennis balls!  (never felt so fast in my life!)

PM:  OFF

Tuesday, 7/13/2011
AM:  SWIM
Warm-up w/back dolphin kicking w/fins
Main set: (no fins at all!)

1. 2x25yd fly
2. 300yd free
3. 4x25yd fly
4. 300yd free
5. 6x25yd fly
6. 300yd free

The 300yd free were suppose to get faster each time.  At this point in the workout, it was already 7 o'clock, and I had to get out in order to get to my morning meeting on time.  Apparently, Marcia's sessions in the summer go until 7:15AM (1.5 hours).  Trust me, the extra 15 minutes is killer.

PM: OFF (watching the Princess instead of going to practice)

Wednesday, 7/13/2011
AM:  SWIM
Warm-up w/dolphin kicking, fins and board
Main set:

1. 15x100yd of 75yd free and 25yd fly
2. 200yd of partner drag, alternating partners every 25yd

You would think that the 15x100yd would not be too bad, but that was brutal.  Whatever interval Marcia put us on, there was only 10 seconds of rest between pieces.  At the beginning, Marcia wanted 20x100yd from us, but she must have took pity on us or got tired of watching our miserable fly.  Our lane leader and I were watching the clock very closely, and there was definitely enough time for 20x100yd.

PM: OFF

Thursday, 7/14/2011
AM:  SWIM
Warm-up w/flutter kick, fins and board, and some crazy sculling
Main set:

1. 4x25yd free, working on stroke frequency
2. 15 minute swim test!

My 15 minute swim test felt strong, and I was a little surprised not to beat my record from the last 15 minute swim.  That's probably what I get for not swimming for almost two months.

Southwest Regionals 2011

A crowded Lake Merritt for SW Regionals

Sunday:  All those practices of 3x1000m race pieces or 8x500m (here and here and here) and of high rates, manic starts, balls-to-the-wall sprint came to a head this Sunday at Southwest Regionals at our own Lake Merritt in Oakland, California.

There were a total of 371 entries in the regatta, which is quite a size-able number.  After all, Lake Merritt is not a large body of water, and the regatta pretty much dominated the park (apologies to any runners, non-rowers, angry parents trying to take their screaming three year old to Fairyland).  Lake Merritt Rowing Club was out in full force, running the regatta as well as racing on the water.  LMRC had a total of 21 entries in addition to 4 entries from the San Francisco Bay Blades.  Results to the regatta can be found at RegattaCentral.

Womens 4x at the start line; LMRC in middle lane

The LMRC Women's team competed in a variety of boats from a pair to fours and eights.  In fact, I think that everyone on the women's team who competed walked away yesterday with at least one metal!  In masters rowing, it is always hard to tell exactly how "good" the competition is.  Sometimes, your race might only have two or three boats or you might have to race in a heat to make it into the final.  Still, it is exciting to have everyone on our team earn at least one metal!  It is a testament of how far we have come.

As for myself, I had two events--Womens 1x (AA age group) and Mixed 2x (B-C age group).  Since both events were in the afternoon, I spent the morning holding boats at the start line.  Quite an interesting job!  You wear a bib, marking your lane number--I was Lane 5.  Each lane had a stake boat in which you sit and hold your lane's race boat as the boat gets aligned.  When the announcer says, "GO!", you let go and the boat is on its way.

Womens 4+ with bow-loaded boats
where the coxswain is placed in the bow of the boat

You get to see how the different rowers and coxswains handle the stress at the start.  Some rowers are stoic and hardly acknowledge you.  Other rowers are clearly nervous, fidgeting in their boat and throwing you a tight smile.  And yet, there are other rowers who come to the line, ready to strike up a conversation with you.  Now, coxswains are even more interesting to watch.  Some coxswains know what the hell they are doing--they get the boat to the line on time, have no problem backing to the stake boat, and get their point down the course.  Others have a little more trouble--they get confused as they try to maneuver towards the stake boat and start to panic or get really bossy or annoyed.  Also, to be clear, boats have to be at the start line and in their lanes two minutes BEFORE your race time.  If your boat arrives after the two minute warning, the officials will probably wait for you, but will issue you a warning.

While some rowers raced all morning and were just about to tap the beer keg, I was getting ready to launch for the Womens 1x.  In my head, I was awfully nervous, probably even more than at Gold Rush.  First, the water had been somewhat bumpy all day with a cross-tailwind.  The single and the pair are the two most sensitive boats to rough water.  Second, this was my first race of the day while most of the competition already had one or two race before.  Most people would find this to be advantageous.  But when the distance is only 1,000 meters, it is crucial to feel comfortable racing and to be able to lock into your race rate and speed quickly, making every stroke as efficient as possible.  There is very little room if you catch a crab, have a bad start, or have a bad row.

I had thought about adding another race as a "warm-up" before the singles race to help me get comfortable mentally, but did not.  At some point somewhere, I might have a really important race, and there will not be a chance for a "warm-up" or "throw-away" race.  Like at San Diego Crew Classic this year, we had no heats, just a straight final.  You have one shot.  Can you deliver on race day, in the moment you need it the most?  Can you keep your head on straight?  Can you remember to sit up and get that extra run every stroke down the course?  Can you handle the pressure if you find yourself behind?  Can you handle the pressure when you are ahead, but the field is about to catch you?

I had a decent warm-up and practiced several starts.  During the warm-up, I did something that I usually do not do--I talked to the other singles out on the water.  In fact, I even ran into (figuratively) a old friend from my novice days when I rowed during the summer whom I have not seen in about five years.  She was racing in the singles race after mine.  At one point in the warm-up, we had four singles lined up and we practiced a start together.

Our race was delayed by five minutes as one of the doubles in the race had mechanical problems.  Occasionally, a problem might arise with the boat that cannot be fixed on the water.  If that happens and an official is notified, he or she may allow the defective boat to return to the docks and fix the problem, and the race will be delayed.

When we finally got lined up in our lanes, my boat holder was actually a friend of mine who rowed a summer at Lake Merritt.  With all the boats present, the official started our race ahead of our scheduled race time.

We were off!  I do not remember my start particularly well, but it must have been decent enough or else I would have actually remembered.  I did 10 strokes high and settled to a...36!  For reference, I have never rowed 1,000m in a single at a 36spm before.  My usual race rate was about a 31spm.  I relaxed a bit and thought about swing, allowing the rate to come down to a 33-34spm.  In the first 100m, I did not look out of the boat, but I could feel Lane 3 (River City Rowing Club) next to me.  By 300m, I could feel her fall a little behind and looked to find myself slightly up on the rest of the field.  By 500m, I was ahead and I was pushing for time.  The water got rougher in the last 250m.  With the exception of a few rough strokes coming out of bow, I made out alright.

Race 32 AA: Womens Masters 1x (AA-A) Final 1 @ 02:08 PM

1.  Lake Meritt  (A. Cheng) 04:02.65
2.  Berkeley   (R. Haurwitz) 04:15.09
3.  River City A  (K. Rindell) 04:17.05
4.  Long Beach A  (L. Pomatto) 04:18.03 

Apparently, during the race, the commentator mentioned my name several times and commented on my boat, which was a wooden boat, borrowed from another LMRC member.  How embarrassing!

The mixed double was the last event of the day.  Our particular final (B-C age group) had three LMRC boats (of six boats total) and with the varying age handicaps, made it one of the most highly anticipated and "fun" LMRC races.  My mixed doubles (Mx2x) partner and I had about 13 seconds to make up on the oldest boat in the race.  My fault for not being older!

With a tailwind and a slight cross wind to starboard, we had a clean start (definitely better than last year), five strokes high, and settled.  In the first 250m, we pushed slightly ahead of the field.  I called to swing and relax. At 500m, I called for more because I knew we needed as much time as we could get for the age handicap.  We had to adjust our point twice.  At one point, I meant to say, "Point", but it came out sounding like "Port", which was not the side we needed to power up, and I quickly corrected by saying, "Starboard pressure."  


In the last 500m, we had a little trouble getting hands out quickly and together.  I am sure it was not our prettiest row.  When it is a race and especially when the water is rough, who cares how good you look?  Just get your blade in and drive!  You still have to hold onto your balance and be sure not to lunge at the catch.  But rough water makes it difficult to feel boat run.  Instead of worrying about it, be UNFAZED.  There could be waves crashing over your boat, drenching you to the bone, but you are going to keep rowing totally UNFAZED.

In the end, we did overcome the age handicap.  A good way to end a long day!  It's days like this that we remember why we row.

Race 53 B-D: Mixed Masters 2x (A-J) Flight 2 @ 05:08 PM  (times handicap adjusted)
1.  Lake Meritt B  (G. Lewis) 03:39.20
2.  Lake Meritt C  (B. Birch) 03:48.17
3.  Long Beach B  (R. Glidden) 03:58.93
4.  Lake Meritt A  (D. Kaisel) 04:01.73
5.  Bair Island  (B. Farmer) 04:08.28
6.  Tempe Town Lake B  (K. Axx) 04:38.23

Thank you to all of the LMRC regatta committee and volunteers who helped put on SW Regionals.  My three hours of boat holding was minuscule compared to the hours poured into setting up the event, lane lines, docks, launches, etc.

Wrong Side of the Bed

Saturday:  Last Saturday marked the last hard Saturday workout before Southwest Regionals.  That morning, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

The night before, I went to bed late.  Somehow through the night, I got sick and had a low-grade fever and mild chills.  But the true culprit of my restless night, however, was the Princess.  The Princess used to sleep in her brand new, expensive, fancy crib that is so large that it does not fit in the doorway.  Now, she refuses to sleep in anything except our bed.

The world's worst bedfellow

Sure, this two foot tall, 25 pound creature looks really cute and cuddly, but the Princess is the world's worst bedfellow.  In her sleep, she travels all across the bed, kicks blankets, pillows, and people, even snores, and often sleeps like a king with her arms spread out wide.  In the morning, if she wakes up before you, you can be sure that you will not be sleeping in for very long.  She sees you sleeping peacefully and will come up and start hitting you in your face until you wake up.  In fact, the Princess is so bad that my husband has permanently migrated to the couch.  So every night now, the Princess and I battle it out for every last inch of the bed.

Needless to say, after six hours of being sick and being constantly kicked in the ribs, I was quite cranky Saturday morning.  Being an "I", I was not looking forward to talking to anyone.  And I was most definitely not looking forward to a workout of 3x1000m race pieces.

At practice, we had 1 eight, 1 quad, and 1 mixed double (me) out on the water.  We had a long warm-up.  In the double, the boat felt good, but a little heavy and not as smooth.  As bow seat in a double, a lot of the smoothness of the boat comes from matching up well with your stroke seat at the catch, but especially in and out of the bow.

The race pieces were hard, but the double actually came together pretty well in the pieces.

After practice, I came home with another fever, took NyQuil, and slept, leaving my husband to fend for himself and the Princess.  There really is no wrong side of the bed.  No matter how bad the night is or how little sleep you manage to get, every day can be a good day and every practice can be a good practice.

"The only difference between a good day and a bad day is your attitude." --Dennis S. Brown