Tag Archives: boat

A “bump” in the River

1 Comment

So there is a first time for everything. Your first boat (February, check). Your first boat flip and dump into the water (March Training Camp - Aiken, SC, check). Your first Time Trial and 2,000m race (NSR-1, check). Your first loss and your first win (check and check). And finally we arrive at the first bump(s), well “big” bump-on the water. When rowing on the Connecticut River through Hartford, CT, your head needs to be on a swivel, constantly checking behind you for debris and floating odd objects. It could be compared to the necessary awareness required of the Head of the Charles. Perhaps not that crazy, but some days it feels like your trapped in the video game Frogger, but on the river. It should come as no surprise that all of the rain and recent storms ripping through the Northeast have wreaked havoc not only on land, but on the water.

A couple of weeks ago, I managed to kill two fins-one was a legitimate “I was in a zone, working on something in my form and not watching the water behind me…and abruptly found myself stuck on a tree floating down the river” occurrence, while the other broken fin was less dramatic and unrealized until I docked and had my boat in its slings. It was possibly a rotted fin or I hit a smaller branch just hard enough to snap the small strip of metal that is cleverly designed to break to keep from ripping the entire bottom of the boat if the fin were to remain attached. A fin is much easier to replace than the hull of your boat.

Twice in one week...I'm now an expert at replacing fins.

So two fins gone, a few days of dry land work in the books, and I was finally back on the water. I couldn’t help but recognize how those bumps on the water served as a metaphor for where I was in my training. I had allowed myself to become frustrated with some of my workouts. Whether it was fatigue, stress, or distraction, I just hadn’t been showing up the way I knew how to show up for my workouts. Routine training really should represent “competition” every day. Especially in a sport like rowing where you’re not always competing on a regular schedule, each day of training needs to be approached as a day of competition. This is similar to many endurance sports where the races are fewer and farther between than say, a basketball or softball league. Marathon runners and tri-athletes don’t have the luxury of competing every few days. You have to show up for training every day ready to race and beat your biggest opponent: yourself. This is an integral part of what I love about rowing. Each day there is a race to be won no matter how many boats are out on the water.

Frustration and setbacks are intrinsic to any training regimen. Any athlete would attest that frustration is part of the process toward becoming great, as long as you don’t let it consume you and swallow you up. It’s what keeps us pushing harder and prepares us for the challenges we’re bound to meet during competition. Those setbacks serve to strengthen us mentally, emotionally, and strategically.

Pride on the Shelf, Feet in the Water

Leave a comment

Just over seven days ago, I was returning from a full training week of rowing in South Carolina, exhausted from pushing myself physically, mentally, and emotionally on levels I hadn’t experienced in a long time or to an extent, ever. My first day out on the water (probably my 10th time ever in a single), and in the midst of trying to keep up with the other elite rowers during a speed workout, I swamped my boat and ended up going for a little dip. After the realization that the water wasn’t as cold as I had expected and the fear of hypothermia had subsided, I threw myself back into my boat as quickly as possible and hurried down the racecourse at a steadier, controllable pace. Surprisingly, I wasn’t embarrassed but rather angry. I wasn’t expected to be “winning” the speed workouts; I don’t really know if there were any expectations attached to my performance on the water that week. I still couldn’t help but be angry and frustrated. I quickly learned there wasn’t time to dwell on the mistakes, and I couldn’t expend the energy dwelling on how poor of a rower I was at that moment. The week was about gaining experience and repetitions. For lack of a better term, it really was about getting my feet wet. I was killing it on the erg, on the safety and comfort of dry land. Now it was time to see what I was really made of and how well I would be able to move a boat. I got more than I bargained for.

The training week was critical on several accounts. Progress of my rowing skills from day one to day seven was worth the quick dump in the water. Talk about being thrown in the lion’s den or fire or whatever metaphor comes to mind, I was forced to sink or swim (again, it seems impossible to get away from the water/boat puns). I grew more in those seven days as a rower and person than I have in any other setting. The emotional gamut ran from days when I wanted to break my oars across my knee (no, I did not attempt this…) to the afternoon when my coach said, “Meghan, you look like you are actually rowing…” to the last morning row when the fog was breaking across the smooth, glass water reflecting a southern sunrise and the only sounds were the light splash of your oar breaking the water and the slide of your seat as you eased into the catch.

Back from camp, back to reality-it’s been a full week of training mixed with a full week of being back in the office and juggling “life” and “rowing” -it seems the deeper I get into rowing, the more it becomes “life.” No complaints from me. Every morning, I wake up looking forward to the painful but fulfilling relationship I’ve entered. Torturing myself to pull a PR (Personal Record / Personal Best) in a 6K erg test this morning and knowing that the hard work I’m putting day in and day out is actually paying off is a rewarding, accomplishing feeling. Flipping my boat and having my butt kicked by (albeit, the top Juniors in the country) a week ago forces me to remember that it takes putting pride on the shelf and forgetting your ego, to truly embrace starting from the ground up and having the confidence to know you will reach the top.

Resolutions to Rio

Leave a comment

So I might be a few days late but I think resolutions are to be made on a continual basis. Who’s really watching deadlines? Don’t get me wrong, it is wonderful to mark the turn of a new calendar year with (hopefully) life-improving statements and more importantly plan(s) for follow-through and results. But resolutions shouldn’t be limited to the 3-2-1 count and dropping ball.

My 2 cents on goals and resolutions: for every long-term, far away goal, you should always identify 1-2 that are short-term and quantifiable. Can you measure your success in a clear-cut way? A year or really, life is a long time(because again, we make resolutions throughout the course of our entire lives rather than just when 365 turns back to 1). Without those shorter, attainable goals to boost our confidence and provide direction along the way, when the going gets tough, it can seem to get even tougher. The long-term goals are made to force us to reach and push ourselves. Obviously some should be realistic and attainable, but throughout our lives we should also be setting goals that at first glance may seem off the reach of easily possible. Those are our DREAMS. They’re the ones that keep us up at night; distract us during our day jobs (unless you’re one of the lucky ones and your day job is your dream); and make us start writing a blog about the journey to reach that goal. They make us continue to stretch further, work harder, and do everything we can to get close enough to touch, if not grab hold of whatever it is you set out for yourself to achieve. If you grab it-hold on tight and enjoy the ride. Dreams should never be taken for granted.

All clichés aside…without further ado and in no specific order, here are my rowing resolutions, goals, and dreams for the next year and possibly beyond.

1. Break the sub-7 minute line for my 2K. My current Personal Best is 7:04.8 that I pulled this past October. This was prior to any real training so many variables come into play for me to consider. The past 2 months I have been busting my ass to increase my anaerobic base and put my body into the best shape possible. In that time, I’ve also managed to learn how to erg correctly-not perfectly (yet)-but correctly and that alone will improve any score. I have a 2K Test coming up this Sunday (1/9). First shot at hitting one of my goals.

2. Break the sub-22 minute line for my 6K. I’ve mentioned this before and it really is similar in nature to the 2K goal above. My Personal Best stands at a 22:32 which I pulled in December (12/18/10), smoking my previous 22:49 out of the water. I know with the right amount of training and simply just time spent erging, I’ll be able to break 22 minutes in no time.

3. Buy my own boat. It’s kind of like growing into my big kid pants. Every real sculler needs their own shell. Once the ice breaks and the weather warms up, it’ll be time to get a real boat and really start racing. The singles (single sculling, 1-person boat) that I’ve been in before were by no means racing shells. They were bricks with huge logs for oars. Rowing in the fast, sleek racing shells will take some getting used to and breaking in, not to mention disciplined budgeting and saving. Boats aren’t cheap. Bring out the penny bank.

4. Medal. Kicking butt on the erg doesn’t bring home the hardware. You have to be able to translate your hard work, speed, and strength onto the water. That is the true test. My goal is to race and race well. Granted, it will take some time to get my sea legs, and I’ll have many losses before I see a true win; but I have no doubt that by the end of the year, I’ll be making some noise at the finish line.

5. National Team “looks.” That noise will hopefully translate into the type of message I want to send. I want to compete at the highest possible level and that in the simplest of words, means the US National Team. This first year is primarily about a couple of key things: 1) Training as hard as I possibly can to push my body into the kind of shape it needs to be in to truly compete. I have the physique, now I just need the fitness. 2) Truly learn to row well and start winning races, proving that I’m a competitor. If I can make sure to take care of those couple of things, a lot (not all, but a lot) will take care of itself. Results speak the loudest and there is no substitute for results.

I’ll keep it at 5 for now. All these things lead up to that big dream goal: Rio. I have 5 years to get there. There will be many resolutions to Rio made along the way, but this is definitely a solid start.