St. Patrick's Day Morning

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  My swim suit does not have a hint of green on it—it is black.  My swim cap is yellow with “Cal Triathlon” printed in blue.  Thankfully, no one was up for pinching at 6 in the morning. 

I was excited this morning to wake up because tomorrow is Friday, and this Friday, we are rowing at JLAC with the JLAC women’s team.  Rowing on a different body of water with other boats on the water is always fun to look forward to.  I am probably getting ahead of myself since I still have to get through today!

The first thing I felt in the pool today were my chest muscles from getting out repeatedly yesterday for those sprints with dives.  This morning, we warmed up again with butterfly and Marcia yelling at us to get our butts in the air.  The dolphin kick should not come from the legs, but rather from this undulating wave that your whole body makes.  After the warm-up, we did 4x50yds of free with a pull-buoy, descending.  As we were finishing up the 4x50yds, we saw Marcia with a clipboard.  Why does Marcia have a clipboard?!  Clipboard means SWIM TEST because on that clipboard, Marcia has a list of all your old swim test results and she is ready to record your latest and greatest result.  Today was the 15 minute swim test.  The 15 minute swim test requires focus, good pacing, and strong counting abilities because you have to keep track of the number of laps you do.  After while, it is easy to doubt yourself—was that lap 20 or 22?!  This swim test is probably my “favorite” of Marcia’s three swim tests—15 minute swim, 4x100s, and 400yd kick—because it involves a cumulative tiredness instead of massive lactic acid build-up.  It is like a 6k erg test compared to a 2k erg test.

I swam one lap short of my last record, but I felt pretty strong overall.  We did have some order switching in the middle of the piece because our lane’s #2, 3, and 4 (I was #3) swam in a clump, all at the same pace.  Our #1 was about one lap ahead of us.  In our situation when all three swimmers are at the same speed, the leader, #2, is doing a lot of the work because she is out in front.  #3 and #4 are able to draft off of her.  At some point, I was so close to #2 that I was able to tap her toes.  She moved aside to let me lead the clump, but as a lead, I was basically going the same speed as what she had been doing.  After a few laps of her swimming on my toes, we switched back to the original order.  This reminds me of cycling when you ride in a pack and the pack alternates lead rider while everyone else drafts.  Personally, I am usually too slow to keep up with the pack, and I am paranoid about crashing into someone else.  There are definitely etiquette guidelines for group cycling.

After the swim test, we did 12x25yds of breast with fly/dolphin kick with fins, fast.  Now, here is a stroke I am good at.  For whatever reason, I can go pretty fast with this combination of strokes and fins.  Too bad this is not an Olympic-sanctioned event!

Monday Morning

A full parking lot this morning, and chaos on the docks with three teams trying to launch at the same time. On the water, we had 1 LMRC women’s eight, 2 JLAC women’s eights, 1 JLAC men’s eight, 1 LMRC women’s quad, 1 men’s single, and 3 coaches’ launches. In addition, we had three men stay on land to erg. Despite all the chaos on the docks, it was relatively uneventful on the water—no crashes or near-misses. Each team practiced separately and managed to always be on separate ends of the lake from one another.

According to Chris’ calendar, today was suppose to be steady state at 24-26spm, which is not what we did this morning probably due to all the boat traffic and because Chris wanted to see our exact line-up from Saturday “in action.” We did a quick warm-up from the finger to the log boom followed by a three-quarters pressure, 2-3 minute piece back down to the dam at a 28-30spm. The boat felt “on edge” and the 10mph winds, especially from the finger, did not help the set. We lined up at the dam and did our first 500m piece at a 34spm. I was able to bring the rate up to a 33spm, but could not hit the 34spm. After, Chris asked our coxswain for our split and stroke rate numbers. Half-serious, I told her not to tell Chris that our stroke was at a 33spm because a 33spm is not the 34spm that he asked for. I still have memories of my summer at Wisconsin and my coach hounding me about pulling the exact stroke rate that he specified—no higher, no lower.

We spun and did another 500m from the log boom back to the dam. This piece was with a start and a settle to 32spm. We had a poor start and a poor settle, but were able to regain rhythm. The boat did not feel as smooth as on Saturday, but the effort was there. The last 500m piece also had a start and settle. We had a better start, but somewhere in the first 200m, I could feel the rush into the catch. I was a little peeved for two reasons. First, if you are not stroking a boat, you better be watching your stroke seat, controlling your slide and matching up your catch timing. We can row a 32spm with ratio and control, all the way up the slide; we did it on Saturday. Second, a stroke seat really needs a seven seat who can back her up in power and rhythm. A seven seat should help the stroke seat lead the boat, not allow the rest of the boat’s rush come barreling into the stern. Maybe I just did a shitty job stroking today, in which case, you can disregard those two reasons.

At the end of the workout, Chris gave us a talk. Today’s (i.e. Saturday’s) line-up is close to our San Diego line-up. He had really wanted to seat race us, but with one SDCC contender missing, that was not possible today. Chris also warned us that this is crunch time, and we need to be focused on rowing. All other forms of exercise, such as Pilates, yoga, running, swimming, biking, do not count, only rowing and erging count. Counting down to San Diego.

Saturday Morning

The sun was shining and the lake was calm. Perfect for rowing.

The docks were busy today with so many boats. Earlier in the morning, we had the LMRC Senior Men's team out in a double. During our practice time, we had 1 LMRC women's eight, 1 JLAC women's eight, 1 JLAC men's eight, 3 men's singles, 1 women's single, 1 LMRC women's quad, and 1 mixed double all out on the water. For the most part, the eights practiced together, and the other boats did their own workout, keen to stay out of the way of the eights!

This morning's practice was a little unusual for several reasons. First, Chris was gone today because of a regatta for juniors. Second, JLAC's two masters coaches and parts of JLAC's women's and men's teams joined us for practice. And third, I stroked our eight.

All rowers, at some point in time, openly or secretly wished that they sat in stroke seat, but with great prestige comes great responsibility. Two years ago, I stroked the LMRC SDCC boat, the first time I had ever stroked an eight in a race. We had a heat on Saturday and a final on Sunday. In the heat, there was major rush in the boat that I could not control and I mentally panicked. I was not mentally prepared for the high rates and the associated pain. I just wanted to cry. The whole 2,000m, all I could feel was the lactic acid.

LMRC Master 8+ at San Diego Crew Classic 2009;
photo taken by Roger Allen

As stroke, no matter how bad, unset, heavy the boat feels, you must go on with the same aggression, drive, and determination as if the boat did actually feel smooth, set, and fast because the other seven rowers looking to you for rhythm and commitment. You must not give up. Somehow, we managed to edge out another boat and come in third to qualify for the final. After the heat, I told our coach at the time, Dede, that I couldn't do it, I couldn't stroke the boat, I didn't have the stroking and racing experience. Dede somehow reassured a very reluctant me that I could do it.

Sunday's final went better than the heat. There was more rhythm and run in the boat, and we finished third overall. Despite my redemption in the final, that experience in the heat has haunted me. The lactic acid, the feeling of giving up with 1000m to go, the panic of knowing I had nothing left in the tank all makes me very hesitant to ever want to stroke another SDCC.

This morning's line-up was some version or variation of our soon-to-be-announced SDCC line-up. Our usual stroke who is quite experienced was gone today, and it was with great hesitation and doubt that I stepped into stroke seat. The workout today was main lake loop pieces (about 6-7 minutes each), with starts and a settle at 32spm. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I suffer from anything-higher-than-a-26-spm phobia. I am a big fan of steady state, long and strong, but I dread all kinds of intervals work, sprints, starts.

We warmed up from the finger to the log boom and practiced some starts. The more starts we practiced, the more comfortable I got. On the last start in the warm-up, we hit a 41spm during the 10 high. That's highly unusual (no pun intended)! All 3 eights lined up at the log boom. The starts were staggered, with our boat leaving first so that the JLAC coxswains could follow our course through the turn at the dam. For each piece, we did start 5, 15 high, and then, settle. To my surprise, I was able to hit the 32spm no problem and maintain the rate 31-32spm throughout all the pieces. We did three pieces in total. In the first half of all the pieces, I tried to focus on locking in the rate, steady and strong. Then, after the turn at the dam, which was halfway, I pictured us in the third 500m of the race. I thought about those 4x100s I had done on Thursday and had mentally practiced that third 500m. Minus a mini-crab at 6 seat and lack of cohesion on the last start, the boat felt strong and consistent for all three pieces. Four weeks to San Diego.