Pre-Regatta Rituals & Nerves...

Only 2 days until my first race of the season and the nerves are kicking in!

Last summer I did a couple of regattas in a double scull, each regatta with a different partner and with varying results. This time, however, I will be racing in a single. No one but me in the boat. I will be completely alone... It is a scary thought. Part of the experience of training in double was that camaraderie. You were in it together. You may not always agree about everything, and we had our issues, but we worked through them together. I may never race with those people again, but we developed a strong bond that we will have for life.

I am, by nature, a single sculler. I like the independence that it brings, but being nervous alone is a new experience. I am excited in equal measure, but it's not the same.

Brutal Manicure!

So! I have decided to focus on my pre-regatta rituals. Sculling is very hazardous for one's knuckles. It's very easy to scratch yourself when you draw the handles of the oars towards you at the end of a stroke. The right hand can be a bit zealous as it crosses over the left hand and, especially during a race, knuckles get scratched, there can be blood, and it's not good. As a result, my pre-race ritual includes cutting my finger nails right down and scrupulously filing away the sharp edges.

Yogalicious!

Because there are only 2 days until the race, I have drastically reduced the intensity of my workouts. I do not want to have any muscle fatigue on the day! No cardio or weights for now, just yoga. Sculling is all about balance and finesse, so yoga is great for both. I include yoga in my daily workouts anyway because it is the ultimate stretching and strengthening practice. No aching muscles for me! And it has the added benefits of calming and focusing the mind. Bonus!

Boat TLC

After taking care of my body, my boat is next in line. I will be cleaning that bad boy from top to bottom! The wheels, the runners, the inside and outside will get a thorough once-over. I'll do the usual safety checks, take her out for one last spin and then it's back on the rack until race day!

Let the games begin!

Circuits - Reborn! Just under 2 weeks until my 1st regatta of the season!

I am preparing for my first regatta of the season in 2 weeks, so I have stepped up my training schedule to match my ambitions.

After doing some searching online, I found these great circuits that have all the movements needed to strengthen my rowing muscles.

A couple of the moves in there are insane! But they have the desired effect. Check them out and let me know what you think.

I have gone back to doing yoga every day, which has kept the aching a bay, and I'm doing lots of racing starts and practice in my single scull.

The first circuit that I have incorporated into my workout is the 'Fast & Dirty' Circuit Workout (sounds good already right!) by Alex Silver Fagan (ASF). It is amazing! Nothing else has made me sweat this much in such a short space of time! I lost 1lb after just one session!

The circuit is just 6 exercises, and you do 3 to 4 circuits / sets:

1. Burpee with Side-to-Side Shuffle (8 reps)
2. Split Squat with Shoulder Press (8 reps on each side)
3. Decline Push-up with Cross Climber (8 reps)
4. Dumbbell Front Squat to Rotational Press (8 reps)
5. Renegade Row (8 reps on each side)
6. Overhead Reach with Toe-Tap Leg Extension (8 reps on each side)

The first time I did this circuit, I managed 2 sets, but the 3rd set almost killed me!

I did the circuit again two days later and I already felt so much stronger! The 3rd set was hard, yes, but it was righteous!

The 2nd circuit - Total Body Strength Workout for Women - is also from ASF. It's more of a dynamic workout, and requires no use of weights, but you can feel the burn!

The first time I tried it was in the afternoon of the same day that I tried the other circuit. I only did 2 sets of this more dynamic circuit, but that was followed by a yoga session.

1. Touchdown (1 minute)
2. Hip Escape (1 minute)
3. Hop to it (10 reps on each side)
4. Mountain Climber Mix-up! (1 minute)
5. Combo Deal - Front squat followed by split squat (10 reps on each side)

I did the circuit again two days later, straight after the other circuit. I followed that with 4K in my single scull to cool down out in the open on the river. It felt great to have measurable progress!

Team Work & Lessons Learned

I had a really tough outing today. The water was rough and the stream was strong. I was really struggling to get my rating up because I couldn't physically draw the blades through the water fast enough, and I didn't want to rush up the slide.

The Mind is Willing, but the Body is Weak

I was in a double, at the stroke position, and my doubles partner was convinced that I wasn't getting my hands away fast enough and that was why I couldn't get my rating up. I was getting them away as fast as I possibly could, but I took her feedback on board and tried harder to be faster. It made no material difference to the speed at which I could draw the oars through the water because my physical strength has its limits. At that point I felt I had no other option than to rush up the slide in order to increase the number of strokes per minute. It was horrible. I wasn't able to sustain the pace without the proper recovery between each stroke - especially when each stroke was taking everything I had - so I had to ease off on the pressure and take my stroke rate back down to a rate at which I could achieve better ratios.

Communication is Key

It was a very disappointing outing for a number of reasons, but most of all I was disappointed that I hadn't stuck to my guns. Being in a team means communicating and working together. If I felt that I was not being listened to, or that we were not working as a team, I should have spoken up more assertively. I don't know everything, but I do know the limits of my own physical strength. I could have given myself an injury and I'd have no one else to blame but me.

Lessons Learned

Team work can be tricky at times. You can't always choose your team or control how they will behave, but you can learn something from every experience. The row must go on! :)

The Humble Yoga Mat

The humble yoga mat is the unsung hero of yoga. Here are some tips about how to care for your mat, and yourself :)

When I did my first yoga class, I didn't have a mat of my own, so I borrowed a spare one from the teacher. It had been borrowed by countless newbies before me... It smelt like feet, had grubby marks all over, and it was not very pleasant to touch.

Yoga mats are not expensive. A normal one is about £10. I would suggest buying a couple: one for at home use, and the other can be kept in your car for classes and yoga emergencies.

I tend to do yoga after my shower when I'm nice and warm. I always moisturise after a shower. I do it on autopilot. But the problem is, it makes my hands all slippery... Not great for yoga! So, try not to moisturise your hands before a yoga session.

Keeping your yoga mat clean is easy and important. I just use fairy liquid (washing up liquid) and give the mat a good rub down in the shower / bath and rinse it off. If you don't have anywhere to hang it up to dry, you could lay it on a towel, or give it a wipe down with a towel. Simples.

If you have hard floors at home, you can make your yoga experience more comfortable by laying the mat onto a rug, rather than straight onto the hard floor.

This blog post won't win any awards, but I hope you find it helpful (in a really mundane way).

Yogi with a mat :)

Feeling That Connection

Erging was always a necessary evil for me. I saw it as a way to keep fit as opposed to a useful tool for rowing. The saying 'Ergs don't float', was used a lot at my old club as a reason for not taking erg scores too seriously. Performance on the water is ultimately more important. It's easier to get a good erg score because you don't have to worry about balance or water / weather conditions.

Being on the water feels natural and comfortable to me, so getting my rating up on the water was never a problem. Feeling the connection between my oars and the water, and feeling the consequences of my actions makes it easier for me to correct and adapt my technique. On the ergs, however, I struggled to make the mental and physical connection between my actions and the numbers on the screen. I couldn't quite work out how erging was supposed to feel.

Like a Fish Out of Water

I didn't know what the connection was supposed to feel like. I wasn't quite sure what it meant to squeeze with my glutes, as I thought I was doing enough by pushing down with my legs. I didn't have a discerning eye when looking at other people's technique. I felt like a fish out of water on an erg!

Thanks to some great erg coaching from John Gill, and the support of a couple of the experienced ladies during our squad erg sessions, things are finally clicking into place. My sequencing is improving and I now know what the connection feels like, and my glutes just keep on firing! Even a relaxed session on the ergs now is more powerful than what used to be a hard session for me!

Milestones

I did a session on the erg this afternoon, and my times are better than they ever have been, and that was just during the warm-up! Rowing is a journey that I came to quite late in life, and it has taken a lot of perseverance to get this far, but it has totally been worth it! I'm still a novice and this will be my second regatta season, so who knows what will happen!

Gold star!

Looks can be deceiving...

It was an absolutely beautiful and summery weekend on dry land, but the River Thames had other ideas!

Because an odd number of people turned up for the ladies squad outing on Saturday morning, the coaches decided to put together a IV, three doubles, and a single scull. I am the only person in the squad who actually enjoys single sculling, so when they said that I would be in the single, I was so happy!

I pretty much shot up the river right away to do my warm up, whilst the others sorted their boats out. The sun was shining, the river was calm, and although I was rowing against the stream, it felt easier than usual, which was great. When I got up to the weir to turn around, I took off a couple of layers because it was such a warm day.

You can't step into the same river twice

Normally the journey downstream is the fastest, because you're carried by the current to a certain extent. On Saturday, however, the river seemed to have had a personality change. The usually helpful and accommodating downstream journey was tough! The currents were so strong that it felt as though I was hardly moving! I had to push down with my legs as hard as I could with every single stroke! The waves were lapping over my boat from every direction! It was bizarre to say the least! My warm up was definitely complete by the time I got back to the water near the boat club! I turned my boat around again to do the second loop of the river.

On the way back upstream, we had to do a continuous 16 minute piece, which meant that we had to do 2K at race pace, turn at the weir, and shoot right back downstream again without taking a break. The conditions going upstream were as lovely as they had been when I did them the first time that morning, so I assumed that the freak conditions on the other side of the river had been just that - freak conditions. So I happily raced up to the weir, turned and raced back downstream. But again, on the downstream journey, I was moving, but the boat wasn't. It was a battle to get that single scull to shift against the horrible currents and the wind and the waves. It was like rowing on two different rivers going each way!

Sea-legs

As I was powering along, I passed some quads, IV's and doubles, and they were not moving much either. They didn't catch up with me or overtake me, which is very unusual! So I realised that the conditions that day were affecting everyone.

My legs and glutes were struggling! I did one more loop, and I could feel the lumps of tension forming in my glutes as I crunched over them! It was a real test of endurance and willpower! I gave that third and final loop everything I had, and then I took my boat back in to the boathouse.

When I paddled up to the landing stage, I couldn't actually stand up! I had to roll out of the boat onto the landing stage (and the bird poo...) for a second before my legs were of any use to me! I put my boat away and went up to the cafe to wait for the rest of the ladies squad to finish their outing.

Small Victories

As the ladies started to drift up to the cafe, they each congratulated me on surviving out there in my single. I was really pleased with myself, to say the least, and even the coaches were impressed, which is unheard of! Andy likened the conditions to the North Sea! Charlotte, who had been in a double, said that I deserved a gold star, so I will take that and allow myself to enjoy that small achievement for a while until the next challenge!

Cometh the hour, cometh the [wo]man

Temptation

Last week, our circuit training instructor said she wouldn't be around for our session this week, so we should run it ourselves. That announcement seemed to have turned us all into naughty school children. We all nodded dutifully and assured her that we would be fine without her for one session, when in fact we were all thinking "Yay! Day off!"

My husband calls me a Tasmanian Devil because I'm always darting around doing something and keeping busy. I'm always buzzing with energy, and if I didn't exercise, I simply wouldn't sleep. So I got my kit on and went down to the rowing club last night to check the lie of the land. If no one else turned up, I was going to do a session on the rowing machine or do some weights.

Don't Short-circuit!

I got to the club, and I spied Catherine - in the far corner of the gym - one of the faithful. She's usually one of the first to send out an email to check who will be down for each session, and she only ever misses training if she's unwell. You can count on her to be there. I went over and chatted to her for a bit as we waited to see who else would turn up.

After a few minutes, Donata arrived and informed us that one of the other ladies had also been around but she didn't see us, so she left. Oh well. Three's better than none. So we set up our circuit, and got started.

There were about 12 exercises. We did a minute of each exercise, and allowed between 5 - 15 seconds to move on to the next exercise. It was great because we worked together to do the timing, and it felt like team work. We took a couple of minutes break after each circuit, and we did 3 laps of the circuit in total. It felt really good.

Opportunity Knocks

After the session, I went over to chat to one of the coaches, John, who was coaching the para squad at the time. He has coached people to Olympic gold level, so I am always keen to get as much knowledge and input from him as possible and, luckily, he is always very happy to give it. I thought we were just having a casual chat when, before I knew it, he had me on a rowing machine and I was doing a whole bunch of new exercises. It was brilliant! After just one session, I have so much practical and useful feedback that will help take me to the next level. The rowing machine feels like a whole different beast now. So many things have fallen into place since our first session a few weeks ago, and I am aching in new places today, which means that I'm finally starting to engage the right muscles on the rowing machine.

I really need to lose my novice status this year. It will be my second year of regattas and I am determined to win something!