Rowing: Thursday the 20th

On Thursday I took the double out with Susan.  (There are a ton of Susan's in the rowing club.  It's like Jessica's and Kristen's on my high school dance team.)  I hadn't sculled with her (she was in the 4 I was in a while back), but she said to me "I'm not very good at sculling.  I've seen you, you're really good."  Can I just say "hahaha!"  First, me, pretty good for a beginner, probably not very good for a rower.  Second of all- she has actually raced sculling before.  She was QUITE good.  Maybe she just prefers sweep?

Anyhow, she was stroke seat so she set the pace.  The pace was a WORKOUT.  (For her it was probably an easy row...)  We rowed at a very fast pace, with very few breaks.  I guess that is good for me, since I have no endurance I need to work on it.  I try no to complain and just do whatever I need to unless I really can't.   The second half of the practice we did slow down, so that was a little better.

I was bow seat, so I had to steer.  I've gotten a lot better at this, at least in terms of not getting too far to the center of the river, and not coming too close to hitting things.  I think I only had to stop us once to get re-situated, the rest of the time we were able to steer within the strokes.  The only problem is I feel like I'm annoying when I do it, because I wonder if I am calling too many corrections.  I don't want us to get too far off straight that we have to do a major correction, but it seems like I'll call "heavy on port", "even stroke", "oh, sorry- heavy on starboard for two", "okay, even stroke"  and have to correct all the time.  Like we barely have even strokes in between, there is always a new correction needed.  How do you keep these boats straight?  I also feel like I'm just not the person for this job, as I have terrible depth perception and can't turn my head the full way around...  But I haven't hit anything yet, and no one has complained to my face that my steering is annoying (Susan actually said I did a good job, but I never know when people are just being polite, and I FEEL annoying, you know?)

But I really like the double!  I'm not getting as bad of slide bites now that I've moved the shoes much further forward (it's those LONG legs of mine!) so that's a big plus too!

Morning Rowing

This morning when I left my house at 5:00 the bank sign said it was 42 degrees outside.  But out on the river, it was absolutely beautiful.  Thank goodness for under armour leggings (complete with rhinestones from skating...)
I wore a fleece jacket and a earband, but was actually pretty warm while rowing.  Towards the end, it actually got a little hot...  I was very worried my hands would be cold, but they weren't too bad at all.

Today I rowed the double again with Barb.  We match each other pretty well, so it was a really good row.  We were definitely slower towards the end of practice, but we never took much of a break (no water break...)
She and I still have zig-zag problems, but we've found a semi-effective way of steering- I just don't think it is sanctioned... The launch was staying with a single, so R.C (rowing coach) never really saw us directly.  Anyway, until we are told to stop doing it (probably right after R.C. reads this blog...) it is way more effective for me to steer by taking a one stroke with just one oar, while Barb continues her normal stroke.  When I try to call "heavy on port side" or vice versus, we rarely end up straightened out and have to stop and reposition and then get started again.  The one side rowing means we can keep going while I even us out.  I don't really think it is "wrong"- but the reason I'm not sure we are "allowed" to do it is it doesn't really let us learn steering by taking harder strokes- something you have to do if you race.  You loose too much speed by skipping out on a stroke from one oar (I would think).

But one nice thing about Barb is she is just there for a little exercise and to enjoy the river.  She chats most of the time (which honestly, is pretty difficult to hear, since she is facing away from me), so we have a similar goal at this point. I get a little bit of a workout (I'm down 5 pounds since I started! But that also might be the ramped up not eating junk efforts) but I'm not looking to get a major one.

So this morning was very good.  Although after showering and walking out to my car to get to work, I was FREEZING.  Is it possible the air temperature actually got colder?

A "what hurts" update: my knee has been killing me lately and I don't know the cause.  My back started hurting at rowing last Thursday and has not stopped.  Oddly, neither bothered me at all while I was rowing (though both hurt now).  During rowing- I was really getting a pulling behind my knees.  I think I need to work on flexibility.

Skating tonight.  By then, I'm going to be exhausted I'm sure.

Two days of rowing

Sunday I rowed, and was in the recreational single.  The Wintech (named Grace O'Malley) is the same one I rowed in last time that I felt like an absolute snail.  For whatever reason, I didn't have that feeling at all.  I wasn't speed racer, but it felt good.  The one sad thing is the pontoons that go on this boat are now permanent, you can't row without them.  This makes me sad because I don't need "training wheels", balance is actually one thing I can do really well.  However, it turns out you can raise them, so it was my goal to make sure they never touched the water, and based on how clean they were when I got out, I don't think they ever did.  Sunday was interesting because R.C. had just come back from a sculling camp put on by Calm Waters Rowing, and she said her mind was blown, and she was scared about what came next.  It turned out that everything she had ever believed about technique was essentially changed.  The straight back arms-body-legs in proper ratio rowing style isn't what is used by elites anymore.  Curved back and slouching -was- poor form that caused pain and injuries.  R.C.said using their method of curved back rowing (accompanied by videos of Olympians winning with the same technique) didn't result in any pain, and her constant tendinitis didn't flare up.  We were told to go sit on the couch and practice slouching.  She said we will never hear the word "ratio" again,  and pretty much all of our drills are gone (like the pick drill that I described in a previous post- picking up arms only, arms-body, arms-body-legs).  Now when we scull, we use the lower abs and the glutes to roll our body through the stroke, pushing our arms with us.  She apologized to me, being new, that this was going to be really hard to adjust, but honestly, I think that it will be way harder for the people who were very used to the other way.  I wasn't exactly good at that, so this will just be something different to master.  It does require a lot more lean back, so I'm going to have to get some abs...  But overall, I'm pretty excited to see how this goes- especially if it is more likely to be injury free...


This morning, I woke up at 4:45, out the door by 5:00 for practice.  It is very difficult to rig a boat in the dark!  I was in the Invictus double (sculling) again with Barb.  Today I learned I have LONG legs, as I need to set my shoes almost in the middle of the stretcher.  Originally, I had been setting them near the front, basing it on the fact that it is a men's boat, and at 5'0", I am very very short by a man's standards...   But twice during the practice R.C. had me stop and push them further away.  She also highly complimented my rowing with the new technique, saying something about how really good scullers have to really think about using the curve back and how I'm just naturally rolling right through the positions.  I don't think it is that I'm good at this, so much as I was really bad the other way!  What's really nice is that my hip flexors, which have really been bothering me while rowing didn't hurt AT ALL today.  I don't know if that is due to the change in shoe position (I don't think so, because they hurt in the rowing tank, and you can't adjust the length of those) or due to the new style of rowing.  R.C. did say she was surprised I was having hip flexor issues, because she cross country skied and realized she had totally under developed hip flexors, so she doesn't think rowing uses them, but I've since read online articles that talk about hip flexor flexibility in rowing.   Right now my middle back does hurt mildly, but it is tough to say if that has anything to do with rowing...   Barb and I match really well as a double, though I still have steering problems and she has stroke problems.  I don't think switching our seats would help though...  My steering issue is that I correct on almost every stroke- it seems like we are headed to shore, so I call to adjust, then we are too far in the middle of the river, and we have to adjust again, etc.  Her stroke problem is that she likes to just stop when she wants, and forgets to call to warn me, or she isn't always even in her pace, so it can be difficult to match.  But overall, I just love sculling.  I haven't had a bad partner in the double yet.  I really hope I can try a racing single before it gets too cold- but afternoon practices are always really crowded, so I don't know what the likely hood of that is.