A Full Week of Rowing

Yesterday was the fourth day of rowing in a row and my quads are feeling it. The weather has been gorgeous and the water flat as glass. The rowing camp novices are being so spoiled. Speaking of our rowing camp, we now have them rowing by 8 and on the feather. Its amazing how quickly they can pick things up when rowing with experience rowers. I also imagined they're a bit disappointed when they start going out on their own and they have to set the boat themselves. I'm sure they'll manage just fine. On Saturday, their last lesson, we have a little miniregatta set up for them. Its a graduation of sort for them and gives them a little taste of what its like to be in a race. Everyone usually loves it and we'll have some refreshments when we get back to the boathouse. Some have already signed up to continue to row with us and I expect many more will. Whats not to like? We have the greatest water on the east coast to row on and a great coaches and a great group of rowers and programs to satisfy the most competitive amongst us and for those who just want to row for fun and fitness.

Our regular Men's practice are starting to warm up a bit. We've had a hell of a time getting off the dock in a timely manner though. Last night the men were going to put an 8 and a 4 in the water. After getting both boats out of the boathouse, it was decided that the 4, a midweight boat, wouldn't hold the 4 men picked to row it and that we needed to get a heavyweight 4 out instead. Only problem is the heavyweight 4 wasn't rigged. So it took forever to get the 4 out and put the riggers on and get it out to the dock. So that cost us about 30 to 40 minutes of practice time. We did several short race pieces against the 4 and over all it was a good practice, but you can tell we're just getting out on the water. Our timing is still way off. It will come with time. Supposedly we'll be doing some seat racing on Saturday. Seat racing is placing trying different combinations of rowers in the boat to see what best combination moves the boat the fastest. I like seat racing better than stacking a boat with the top rowers based on erg times. I'm probably the smallest of the competitive men. I'm the only lightweight (less than 165 lbs). Consequently, I can't match up very well with my erg times. However, I have more experience then anyone. I like to think my technique is better than most. Being a monster on the erg doesn't always translate to making a fast boat. So I"m hoping to make the boat run well based on technique over brawn.