Today the weather looked a bit windy but it wasn’t too windy to go out – we just didn’t have a coach to take us out. Coach G popped in for a minute to put a workout on the board for us, then he had to high-tail it out of there for a drive out of state.

Upon hearing that you’re doing an erg routine instead of going out on the water, you basically feel like the pits for a few seconds (or minutes). Various thoughts run through your mind, along the line of, “I knew I shouldn’t have come in today! I could have slept in! If only I had a crystal ball that would have told me this!” and so on. But then, because you have pride – and because there are other people there who know you – you stick around and do the routine. Deep down you know it’s good for you, that quality time on the rowing machine will make you stronger, improve your form, and increase your speed on the water.

It was another pyramid workout:

5 minutes at 18 strokes per minute and 1/2 power, 4 minutes at 20 spm and 1/2 power, 3 minutes at 22 spm and 3/4 power, 2 minutes at 24 spm and 3/4 power and then 1 minute at 26 spm and full power – then the pyramid descends and you do it again but in reverse: 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes – for a total of 29 minutes.

After a five minute break, you resume the pyramid, but cut off the 5 minute pieces, so it’s 4-3-2-1-2-3-4 at all the previous stroke rates and power percentages. Another five minute rest and then one final pyramid of 3-2-1-2-3.

I rowed with two of the ladies from my racing squad, and we kept each other going. The pyramid is pretty tough for me because I have a hard time with maintaining stroke rates. I tried to prioritize good form over power and everything else, but I’m sure I could have done a better job.

Miraculously, the second the last stroke was pulled, I felt fabulous. I was all revved up after 14km. The exercise endorphins had kicked in by then so I was feeling good and giddy. We were all drenched in sweat. When you walk out after such a workout you’re grateful for showing up and sticking it out. The contrast between the first minute of the erg workout and the last minute is pretty stark, haha!

I’ll try to remember this the next time an erg routine is sprung on me like that!

May 14, 2013

This morning I went over to another rowing club to check out their program. When I first started rowing I picked the club that had the most straightforward pricing and dues structure (flat rate). I think it was also the only one I looked at that didn’t require evidence of a swim test right off the bat, too. In any case, seven months later, I’m finally taking a look around at other options.

The club I visited today was a small, private women’s only club within a big club, which is a set-up I’m not familiar with. They ask to see you row a few times first to make sure you can keep up, I guess? After a warm-up on the ergs, the Coach, who I’d met before, announced line-ups for two 8s. She put me in good old 3-seat!

The time was 5am – an adjustment for me, used to a 6:30am program – and our two 8s went out with just Coach H on the launch. Surprisingly, the sky was bright and the sun shining clearly even at that hour. The water was shimmering and pretty flat. A good day to row. I only knew one other person in my boat and she was sitting right behind me in 2-seat.

We took off from under the I-5 Bridge and warmed up as we headed for Gasworks. I felt pretty out of sync. The boat was big and the ride felt smooth. Even though I felt out of sync with the other rowers and struggled to match my 4-seat, the boat had a good set.

I don’t know if it’s because of the age of the rowers (mostly white-haired) or because they’ve rowed together so much, but there was a nice calm in the boat. Not a lot of chatter, and even when the intensity picked up, I picked up no nervousness or tension.

Coach gave some feedback as we rested near the Aurora Bridge. She told me my release was good but I needed to improve my posture during the catch. We continued down the canal past Sound Mind and Body Gym, past Seattle Pacific University, and then turned around before the 15th Avenue Bridge. Coach had us do five 3-minute pieces, at 20, 24, 28 strokes per minute, then back down, 24 and 20 spm. All the pieces were at full power with two minutes of paddling in between.

It was a good regimen, I felt really worked out by the end of it. It was challenging but with just enough rest that I didn’t feel anxious about not being able to last. My boat went up against the other 8 several times, and outraced them each time. Back at the boathouse, one of the long-time members said to me, “It felt good to be in a boat that wins!” Does it ever. Even in friendly “competition,” being the faster boat is way more fun. Once we got into a good rhythm, it felt like we were flying. In one of our last pieces, the coxswain exclaimed happily that we were lifting the boat! – and we were; I could feel it. It was fantastic!

Our coxswain was great – very calm and assuring, and I never felt any concern about the course. I was a little nervous, knowing I was being eyed and reviewed. What if I didn’t make the cut!? Every time my mind started to wander I remembered I was under evaluation and tried to focus and do my best in terms of form and power. Nobody wants to row with a lazy person whose mind is in lala-land. I mean, I know I don’t, and I am often in lala-land.

Anyway, Coach seemed pleased with my performance and that of the other two new women checking out the club today. The club likes to compete in regattas, which is good, and there is lots of sculling opportunity. The only thing I’m not clear on is the club’s dues. I’m a little worried they might be a fortune, but I’m waiting to hear from the membership committee about what they are.

All in all, I liked the club. The members were friendly, and getting out onto the water was a smooth and organized process. The Coach was really engaged and straightforward. I really liked her but I think she may be leaving soon.

There’s another club I hope to check out this week, but I’ll row with this one again next week.

May 15, 2013

Back to my club and a 6:30 start time. Coach C took out a 7 (I was bow) and a quad. The water was really good today, but our set was bad. Rowing 7 instead of 8 is not desirable, and it was 3-seat that was empty, a good 3-seat can really help set the boat.

I felt like the world’s worst bow today. Often felt I was being yanked by the neck toward stern, and I was often too deep with my oar. Controlling the oar handle was hard, it was either whacking me in the ribs or rising during the recovery. I tried to match my 2-seat, but his slide seemed fast to me. Maybe he too was being pulled forward?

Halfway through the practice, when a rough row usually improves dramatically, I was feeling like I just wanted to get back to the dock. Coach had us do a few drills … Pausing at the release, and pausing at arms. The boat wasn’t matching well and these were supposed to help us do better.

I was definitely getting discouraged and feeling very alone in the bow, so I coached myself a bit – “C’mon, girl, don’t give up. Own the boat. Press into that oarlock. Sit up straight. Lean into the rigger like Coach said.” I kept my head and my eyes in the boat.

Coach had us row with 2 oars setting. The point was to help us feel where to keep our handles when the boat is set so that when we rowed all 7, we’d keep those handle heights. This helped me tremendously, as I’d slipped so into struggle-mode, fighting with my oar. The last 15 minutes felt a lot better. I got a pretty decent workout, though it felt more torturous than satisfying. I was grateful I didn’t wrench my back – the planks I’d done yesterday at home were coming in handy!

While I think I improved by the end, Coach didn’t do a post-row huddle, so I don’t actually know.

The Gas Station on Lake Union

Oh wow, so I got way behind! Just a few sentences for each day, I think.

May 9, 2013

Rowed in a quad with Coach C, three of my racing quad with a different stroke. We did a long piece from Lake Washington through the Montlake Cut. We were faster than the other boats, but the set wasn’t great and we lost our ratio at times. We didn’t get much feedback from Coach because there were so many boats on the water and we were far ahead of the smaller craft. Good workout.

May 10, 2013

Sweep rowing in an 8 with Coach G. I was three-seat. Focused on matching, rowing as pairs. A lot of fresh out of Learn to Rowers in the boat. It was a short practice due to delays in getting out on the water. Not much of a workout because we did drills and rowed on the 4 at a time, occasionally 6.  I think we might have rowed all 8 for a minute or two.

May 11, 2013

Saturday – I came in to do weights, but was late and jumped into a Learn to Row class as a coxswain to help out Coach G. I enjoyed this but I haven’t coxed much. It is very difficult to steer an 8 when they are learning to row … and are only rowing in PAIRS. The boat is barely moving. We had real steering issues, and a great deal of it must have been my fault. I wish I had read this advice on how to steer an 8 before I went out there! I made a lot of mistakes. Next time I can do better now that I know better.  I’d like to get some more experience coxing for sure. Sure, my legs were numb for the first 20 minutes as my hips pressed against the edges of the boat, but I got used to it. At least it wasn’t cold. I actually got too hot because we were moving so slowly. Kind of unheard of, LOL.

May 13, 2013

Quad with two women I’d never rowed with before. I was 3-seat behind a new stroke. Although she hadn’t stroked in a long time, I thought she had a great pace and rhythm. She is an older woman but has rowed for many years and long distances. If she ever got fatigued, she didn’t show it. Coach C had all the boats do the cut-the-cake drill to work on handle heights and handle control. I felt a real need to erg to build up my stamina and maintaining composure at the end of longer pieces. I think we rowed a 3K piece at one point.  Time to hit that erg! (But when, when?!)

May 14, 2013

Rowed in a quad again with stroke seat from yesterday – except today she was bow and I was stroke seat. We rode out toward the Aurora Bridge but not quite there – we turned around at the gas station, went south into Lake Union, then did a long piece to University Bridge before flipping around and returning home. We went up against another quad that got the jump on us but we pulled it together and started matching well enough that we were able to crank up the power and cruise past them. That felt good. Let me tell you, coming up from behind - well behind - to pass your (friendly) competition feels so good. I need more satisfaction like that in my life. Just to really see your efforts pay off, yes, that is rewarding.

Felt like a short row, as I think we were delayed getting off the dock, but we packed in a good workout. I am noticing my hands are separating more than I’d like. I’d really benefit from better warm ups before going out on the water. Need to get up earlier and make that happen. One of my boatmates suggested biking into the rowing club, but we’ll see.

Painting a carrot

Well it’s almost halfway into May, and I’m posting this, but better late than never. April was a busy month for me, with several side projects, including training for two events in a rowing competition, and attending a mini-residency for nature writing in Oregon. As such, my goal at the end of March to cut back on the number of outings was helped along. On the other hand, my record-keeping wasn’t as immediate or complete as it could have been.

Highlights: April is National Poetry Month, so I prioritized poetry reading. Kidlet got a bicycle with training wheels. We attended an unschooler campout for a weekend. Kidlet had her first swimming lesson and began attending theater classes.

She is Talking a LOT About: Om Nom, death, monsters, swords, guns, Michael Jackson, Fix It Felix, Q*Bert.

Read

• Block City by Robert Louis Stevenson (illustrated by Ashley Wolff)
• latest issue of Ladybug magazine
• (AGAIN) Mo Willems’ Elephant & Piggie books: Elephants Cannot Dance, We Are in a Book, Today I Will Fly, My Friend is Sad, We are Going for a Drive, I Love My New Toy, Let’s Play Outside, I’m Invited to a Party
  
• If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff
• Whatever Happened to Humpty Dumpty? by David Greenberg
• Strega Nona: Her Story by Tomie dePaola
• Noisy Nora (and audiobook) by Rosemary Wells
• Toy Story 3 (and audiobook)
• Little Bear and Emily by Else Holmelund Minarik
• One Beetle Too Many: Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin by Kathryn Lasky
• Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs! by Kathleen Kudlinski
• The Art of Brave by Jenny Lerew (gift given to Kidlet by her artist uncle)
• Stardines Swim High Across the Sky: And Other Poems  by Jack Prelutsky
• A Family of Poems collected by Caroline Kennedy
• selected poems from Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry
• her 7 year old friend read to her from Ogden Nash’s Zoo (brilliant poems)

Listened To

• Several audiobooks (Noisy Nora, Toy Story 3, Fiesta Fiasco)
• Shirley Bassey
• techno/electronica – she likes music that sounds to her like video games
• stories/ditties I composed for her
• Michael Jackson Thriller album

Bike riding all around!

Viewed

• Super Mario Bros Show
• The Croods (movie)
• Aristocats (movie)
• Felix the Cat episodes
• a few My Little Pony episodes
• Sonic Adventures tv show
• Air Racers 3D (IMAX documentary) – she didn’t care for it
• Beatles and Michael Jackson laser shows
• Wreck it Ralph movie (watched this daily for at least a week!)

Games

• Dig Dog Dig (game from Ladybug magazine)
• Catch a Falling Star (board game)
• Pinball machine (she loves pinball machines)
• Super Mario 9 (Wii game)
• Fibble (iPad game)
• A few other new iPad apps
• Fortune Street (Wii game that is far too hard for her)
• Q*Bert (Flash game)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Flash game)
• Sonic Hedgehog (Wii game)
• Leap Bunny (knock-off of Q*Bert game – on iPad)
• Minnie’s Bowtique (iPad)
• assorted board games (with her dad)

New Otter Exhibit Celebration at the Zoo with her friend, Kai

Places

• Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) 
  
• Seattle Gymnastics Academy for open gym with her friend Kai
• Millersylvania State Park – location of unschooler campout; we stayed in a cabin; she had so much fun, said she wanted to stay “forever” – messed around with juggling, canoeing, roasting marshmallows, playing ball and “fishing” with other kids
• Volunteering with me
• Card Kingdom game parlour and cafe (2x)
• Errands
• Branch library (4x)
• Swimming pool for her first lesson (1x)
• Community Center  for weekly pre-ballet class
• Lake Stevens for the regatta I raced in
• Pacific Science Center  with her dad
• Woodland Park Zoo (2x) with homeschool group, later with a friend for new otter exhibit preview
• Seattle Children’s Theater – started weekly theater class
• Preschool drop-in for a few hours (2x) while I was away; she did not want to go again after 2nd day because “I can’t bring my mom or dad there and I need someone to protect me from the chickens that bite my nose.” There are chickens but I’m pretty sure none of them bit her. Also says she is too big for school.
• Pioneer Square neighborhood – walked down there one day, visited municipal building, bakery, the square, Magic Mouse Toys

General

• Language – She is so expressive verbally, using idioms frequently, making humor (well, it’s humorous to her), can go on for paragraphs expressing a single idea. Asks frequently what words mean, even when you think she’s not listening. Still says “w” instead of “l” in most words.
• Reading/Writing/Rhyming – Asking how to spell words (but doesn’t write them usually), e.g. “fortune” and “what letters make the ch sound?” She asked me to type out a list of words and read them to her, then she takes the list and studies it (on the iPad). She heard a lot of poetry this month, she enjoys putting words to music and we recorded a few ditties.
• Math – Learning some cooking measurements: cup, half cup, tablespoon and teaspoon; playing with subtraction (see favorite story at end); it began with Kidlet mentioning how if I died, “Daddy would take care of me, it would just be the two of us.” And I pointed out that we were a family of three, but if I died, she and Daddy would be a family of two. I segued into using zombies and vampires as examples, as those are monsters she is interested in right now. She can do subtraction on her hands fairly easily so long as the sums stay at 10 and under, she may be memorizing some of the equations. “What is zero for?” I gave her reply based on my recent reading of Angeline Lopresti’s A Place for Zero: a Math Adventure (she seemed satisfied with the explanation); jigsaw puzzles: she seems to prefer to put together center of the puzzle first whereas I like to start with the border. I’m not sure she understands straight edges or if she just doesn’t care about borders. I need to get better at encouraging her through difficulty of figuring out answers. 24, 48 and 100 piece puzzles, her first time doing several floor sized puzzles
• 

  Took this half-squished worm home to be her pet.

  Science – Talking a lot about the planets, completed solar system floor puzzle with me, her favorite planets are Mars and Saturn. Telling me all about Saturn, large flat rings. In bathtub: what things float? What are allergies? Watched car get jumped, where’s the engine? Wants to know how an engine works. With frequent bike riding, learning about momentum and getting better sense of what gravity does. Collecting (and losing) ants, messing with worms, etc. Why does food steam? Why does chapstick shine? 
  

• Patience -  Reminding her of joys that can be had in “giving the victory” to another. Has been demonstrating a lot of stubbornness, insistent on doing what she wants. Had a real breakdown when it was time to leave her friend.  When riding her bike, however, she is very patient in waiting for passersby to go past, or waiting for lights.
• Grooming - blow drying her hair, pretty good about washing her hands (is very thorough thanks to Wellbody Exhibit surgeon’s handwashing game at the Pacific Science Center).
• Housework - I’ve been encouraging her to clean up her messes before moving on to the next thing, she will with repeated requests. I’m hearing a lot of, “As soon as I’m done with ….” which sounds like she is echoing me and her Dad.
• Coordination and Gross Motor Skills (Physical Exercise/Movement) – Went riding almost every day after getting her new bike, can be very fast (with training wheels) and enjoys it. Also attending pre-ballet. Running and trying to learn to skip. Enjoys hopping on one foot. Loved her first swimming lesson, is convinced she already knows how to swim. Jumping off things often. Learning to bounce balls, enjoys playing catch. Says she wants to play all sports.
• Independence -  Demonstrating some regressive behavior. Can do many things well, wants to cook and jump in a pool when she doesn’t know how to swim, but when it comes to fundamentals like putting on her socks, will declare, “I can’t. I need your help.” It’s pretty annoying, but I should read up on it as it sounds familiar. Seems restricted mainly to getting dressed and cleaning up her toys.
• Social – She is on a roll! Introduces herself, says farewell, is very conversational, has reached “business telling” age, enjoys asking questions of strangers. Relaxed with most adults, participates quickly and willingly with other kids. Not at all shy in new social situations, jumps right in to whatever is happening. Still cautious, working on reading intent when play turns physical (e.g. chasing each other, tag). Greets and interacts with shop keeps, speaking louder in making requests, expressing appreciation quite a lot. Her aunt stayed with us for a week and she spent a lot of time with her.
• Caring for Others - Don’t have any specific notes on this, but working with her on the concept of compromise and that other people’s needs are as important to them as hers are to her.
  
• Money - Spending it all at Sunday markets, wanted a $1 thing (sweet?) somewhere and when I informed her of the price she readily handed over her only $1 bill. (Will probably eliminate this category for May summary and those following.)
• Art - Making playdough, still cutting up lots of stuff, making more extravagant foods with her play dough in her toy kitchen, drawing with colored pencils, painting, coloring all on her own (rejects input or suggestions on subjects to paint).
• Music & Drama – Continues to dress up, play-act; she has begun doing voices – gruff voices, capturing tones of character, mimicking them more specifically, not just repeating their lines in her own voice. Loves her theater class.

Favorite Story:

For May:  There are so many things I’d like to do! More time on measurements, more cooking (we did a little in April but not as much as I’d have liked), doing some (kitchen?) science experiments, and learning more myths. More singing! She enjoys little ditties. Her favorite planet is Mars so I’d like to get her some books on Mars. Also, physical activity is a big thing for me right now, and she seems to be needing lots of it, so making plenty of body movement a priority in May. Thinking about changing the format of this summary, too, to make it more integrated in terms of what she’s doing, but haven’t figured out what I want that to look like yet.

May 7, 2013

Uneventful row. Went out with Coach C in a quad with two of my fellow racing mates and a 4th woman taking the place of our stroke seat. It was cool and overcast, and with the temperature change, the lake was a bit choppy. We headed out to Portage Bay with a few other club boats and rowed as far as Fox Point. It was a pretty uneventful row, we had a drill of some type but it didn’t seem to connect with us and what our boat needed. I can’t remember much about the row, honestly. I did get a bit of a workout, towards the end. But it wasn’t too vigorous.

May 8, 2013

Coach G is filling in for some early morning coaches so the 22 people at practice today self-organized into two 8s and a quad. Great! Let’s go meet Coach in the boat bays. Oh! Wait, there was a miscount because we actually only have 21. Water was choppy on the lake, Coach didn’t feel it was good for doubles. Three folks dropped out to go erg instead, so we went with just the two 8s and headed to Portage Bay. I was 7-seat in a boat well-stocked with new women just out of Learn to Row. The other 8 was the same story, but they were a men’s boat.. Keeping up was not an issue as we were doing drills and rowing on fours or sixes, and both boats had steering issues. There were no long stretches or head-to-heads. My stroke seat was good, and I worked on matching her. My main problem with rowing at a slow rate and half power, or sitting out when were rowing on fours and sixes, is that my mind wanders. It’s hard for me to stay focused when there’s little intensity and nothing for me to physically do except set (with several other people).

One thing I thought about (in the boat) was maybe switching out one or two days of beginner rowing practice for pool-time. I’ve been learning to swim recently – I have a blog post in the works about that – and I want to swim 3 days a week if at all possible to work on my skills. That kind of time is tough to find with a four year old who is also just learning to swim and therefore needs monitoring. How do I coordinate swim time for the BOTH of us several days a week? Ack! The logistics on this is tricky.

In any case, I got very little workout today because we rowed such short pieces, and only for a few minutes at a time. The emphasis was on technique, which makes sense (and I can always use more technique). But my body needs a workout, too, and I didn’t get in early enough to erg more than 1000 meters. So I need to think about this. Give up time on the water for more rigorous activity in the pool? We’ll see. The pool is an hour drive (round-trip) and rowing club is only 15-20 minutes (round-trip). Decisions, decisions. Will need to draw up some sample schedules to figure out how I’m going to fit this all in – or if it’s even do-able. Something’s gotta give.

Another beautiful day on Lake Union

We’re having a stretch of very fine weather here in Seattle, with temperatures in the 70s most of the day, getting up to 80. This means more people coming to rowing practices, and more boats on the lake in general. This morning, I was stroke seat in a quad with women I’ve rowed with many times. Coach G took us, an 8 well-stocked with recent Learn to Rowers, a double, and a single, and two more singles (rowers from competitive group, who were more or less left to their own devices). We stayed in Lake Union, and there were signs from the outset that it was going to be a beleaguered row.

It never fails to amaze me how much ones state of mind can interfere with what’s going on in the boat. There was miscommunication about how close we were supposed to be with the 8; I assumed Coach had put us together so he wouldn’t have to monitor us as closely and focus on the 8 and the double, but turns out he had just put us together because we row well together; he still wanted us to remain close at hand. There were frustrations about where to stop, where we were going, and with so many boats on the water – steering.

I found it hard to get into a rhythm, and we were changing up what we were doing often enough that there really wasn’t a chance. It was a stop and go for most of our lap around the lake. The last piece we did was a pause every-other at arms and body drill for 2,000+ meters, with bow calling the “row” portion. I felt a little frustrated with my lack of control over the rhythm, so I tried to focus on squaring up early, correcting my  posture and pushing harder at the finish. Even with our efforts to slow down, we weren’t close enough to Coach for me to get feedback on that. Our boat was, from what I could tell, not mentally in the boat, we were really beset by minor grievances and confusions. We had become accustomed to having more than one coach out with us, and being able to get to full speed, and we’re having to adapt to different circumstances.

I mentioned that we need to be patient with each other, and then shortly after  I said that, was curt and irritable when I got two conflicting messages from the seats behind me about what pace I should be going at. We were not really having fun. Moods really are infectious. Learning to cope with inconvenient changes is probably not unlike learning to ride out a wake from a barge. The impulse is to tense up, to think, “This shouldn’t be happening!” But it is happening, and – as I’m learning in swim school: You cannot control the water, but you can control how you are in the water.

Trying to keep all that in mind while still campaigning for needed improvements is a tough balance, a life skill.

May 2, 2013

Coach C surprised us (just me?) by letting one of my boatmates choose our destination. It was another gorgeous day of sunshine and flat water. I was ready with my sunglasses this time! The boat mate chose to head out to the Montlake Cut, and so our group of three quads, two doubles, and a single – with Coach following in the launch – headed under the University Bridge. I rowed with 2 of my racing quad, with another woman taking the place of our stroke. We’ve rowed with her in the past and she is a good metronome. This was a familiar boat for us all, and we were all happy.

The Montlake Cut turned out to be a wonderful choice. We navigated through the Cut and out past Fox Point. Preparations were underway for Opening Day of the Boating Season – log booms, stringed buoys, and quite a few yachts that wanted front “row” seats to the racing action were already lined up. On water flat as glass we could see the silhouette of the Cascade Range against blue sky, Mt. Rainier tall and wide to the southeast, and the snow capped Olympics to the west. Fantastic!

Coach had us all focus on squaring early, with 50-on/50-off drills (by pairs) to practice. This was great; I need that drill! Once we got out almost to Lake Washington, Coach had our boat race against another quad from the official starting line to the finish – a 2K race, and the other boat was given a head start. We passed them around the 750m mark, came (way too) close to a barge coming up through the Cut,  then finished with about 200m up on our competitors. It was fun. It’s always fun rowing (relatively) well! Coach G’s winter of erging workouts is still paying dividends, but time in the boat together seems to be a huge factor at our level. One thing I’d like to work on is maintaining handle heights and control of the feathering/squaring when I get tired. When I’m tired that is the first thing to go! And then my timing goes, of course. More time on the erg for me.

Speaking of which, I rowed a measly 535m for warm-up today. Measly, but I will add it to my Concept 2 logbook!

May 3, 2013

Today, about half of our class was folks in their first week out of Learn to Row, so Coach G mixed us up. I was made bow seat, which is something I have not done in a while in a quad! But I was game. I figured we wouldn’t be going too fast, right? Stroke seat was a woman who was new but had some prior rowing experience; the two guys in the middle had only sculled once or twice. As bow seat I got to tell everyone what to do. I enjoy this more than I may be willing to admit. Another flat-water day. Coach G was busy between all the boats, but when he did focus on us, he had very specific feedback and suggestions.

I am still skittish about getting too close to fellow club boats, and he called me on it once when I wasn’t sure if a boat behind us was going to clear as we rowed towards their line. “Now just calm down!” Coach G called out to me. I think panic shows on my face very clearly. I wasn’t really panicked, though, more like very concerned.  I take safety seriously! I am still developing the ability to gauge speed and when those two trains will pass each other in Tacoma, or however that math problem goes.

I was never good at those kind of problems. But I am learning now!

Anyway, it was a good row. I didn’t get much exercise as we rowed in pairs, and then some on all fours, and then with stern 3. They did a great job, though. Our rhythm was all out of wack initially, but halfway through we were really trucking. I got to practice navigating and communicating directions and feedback. There were many strokes I felt myself faltering on the rowing when I was looking back to check our point, so I really need to work on that.

I botched our docking pretty bad and came in at all wonky angles. I got us in all dry and there were no scary moments, I just felt a little stupid for a while. Oh well! Good for the ego! I enjoyed myself and my boatmates. Oh, and I also erged 1500m for a warmup. Chipping away at that million meters!

Neglected ergs on a sunny, windless day.

First Row: 6:30 am

Today I got to the rowing club only five minutes early, so I erged 1,000 meters before it was time to go out. A fellow member at the rowing club is trying to talk folks into doing a million meters on the indoor rowing machine over the next 12 months. He mentioned it yesterday, too, but I avoided saying yes. This morning my will must have been weak. I signed up at the Concept 2 website this afternoon and logged my measly 1000 meters. Only 999,000 meters to go! What was I thinking?

Anyway, I went out today in a quad with an eight and two singles. Coach G was in the launch, and he had us do a pick drill (??) … arms and body, half slide, then full slide. It took me most of the drill to figure out what the drill was, which was funny because I was stroke seat. YES. Stroke seat. I might have wheedled my way into it. Coach G said, “Okay, let her be stroke, she wants to be stroke so bad, let’s see how she does.” Whoo hoo!

Two of my usual racing quad was in the boat, and another woman I’ve rowed with more than a few times. I’ve written before about how awesome stroke seat in a quad is; all of it is still true. Today was a summer-like day and the water was flat  - I had a perfect, unobstructed view of the lake and the city skyline. I wish all four people who read this blog could have seen through my eyes what I was looking at. Glorious.

We just went around the lake, nothing exciting. We worked on getting hands fast out of bow. The slide control was pretty good. We were matching pretty well much of the time (several people in the boathouse remarked to me that they’d seen us and we looked great).  I practiced keeping my oars off the water, and keeping my hands level. It was a good row. Coach said to us: “You looked beautiful.”

Second Row: 8:30 am

Afterward, I snagged the opportunity to row with the small craft scullers who go out with another Coach (L.). I hopped into my usual single, the big blue behemoth. This was my ninth time in a single (and in the big blue behemoth). Maybe my tenth time in a single will be Big Blue’s last hurrah! I’m feeling ready for a lighter boat.

Coach L had a fleet of singles to keep track of so I was on my own until the last five minutes. It was good; I feel comfortable in Big Blue and familiar enough with the terrain to not be nervous on my own. I remembered former Head Coach’s exhortation to be like water bugs, and to be playful. I wasn’t as playful as I might have been with a playful coach on hand demanding it of me, but I tried to relax and appreciate the beauty of the day and the privilege of being out on the water. I worked on squaring earlier, but this still seems to be a real issue for me. I also worked on getting my blades off the water. In this, I made strides. I tried to get to five consecutive strokes with blades off the water; I didn’t achieve that, but I was able to get to three strokes, and I was also able to get blades off the water every other stroke pretty consistently. The water was flat as a mirror, which surely helped.

I talked with another rower out by Westlake, and we rowed down to the footbridge at the MOHAI. That was my first time rowing that far south, and we saw two geese (blech!) and their seven adorable fuzzy little goslings. I chatted with a man who was reading a book up on the landing.

After Coach L watched me row for a bit, she gave me feedback – to lift up higher in my chest when I’m at the catch and to not overreach at that moment; also, to push the blade through the water harder at the finish than at the catch (start at 90% building to 100%) instead of pushing at 100% at the catch. I worked on that a little, but  I was pretty tired after two sessions. I’ll be sure to work on it next time I go out.

Halfway through the row, I was making the turn at Westlake to head south toward the MOHAI, and I thought about how long I’d have to row to get to 10,000 hours (said to be amount of time working at a skill to gain “mastery”). If I row 10 hours a week (2 hours/5 days a week), I’d have to row just under 20 years. I’ll be 56 years old then. So I was really happy to get in an extra row today. One and a half hours closer ….

I hope I live to be 56!

Small craft

This has been a busy month, so I’m not doing a great job of logging my rows daily, will try to get back to it, even if it’s just a dull description of the workout sans any reflection.

April 26, 2013

After the wash-out of yesterday, today was much needed, much appreciated. My racing quad got to row together again. Every time is like a small reunion. You row with the same three people 30 or so times and you feel good about each other, yourself, the sport, the direction your life is going. Coach G took us out, very small group as Fridays typically are. Can’t say much about it, except it was a good day; spirits were high!

April 29, 2013

Went out in a double with S, one of my quad mates. The last time I was in a double was in early March and I was once again bow seat. I don’t mind being bow seat, honestly, but I was tentative once again because it’s been so long. I should get into a double more often, just to get past the nervousness. Coach G had several other boats to manage, including a quad stocked with baby rowers, so we didn’t get a ton of instruction. We rowed a lot with one of us setting, trying to get back into the swing of things as a pair. I jokingly told S it was like a first date. In retrospect, I wish I’d been more aggressive and pushed myself instead of paddling around like a timid duck. Next time! Next time.

April 30, 2013

This morning saw 22 rowers show up and only one coach so we ended up in two 8s and a quad. Coach C set up a quad with two guys and I quickly volunteered because – if I couldn’t row with my usual girls – I wanted to experience the speed of rowing with two men. I rarely row in a quad with experienced guys and the power they put into the boat is kind of awesome. I figured I’d be in 3-seat but Coach put me in 2-seat, behind a tall strong looking guy; a small woman was stroke; and an older, not-big guy was bow. It was an odd place to be, I’m not used to rowing 2-seat, and our sizes are different enough that it just felt check-y for a while. Plus I’d never rowed with any of them and the guy in front of me had only rowed a handful of times since returning from being sidelined for six months with an injury.

A strong guy in a small boat fills you mixed feelings – on the one hand, he can get you flying. On the other hand, if he is out of sync or rows deep on one side, you will feel pain. The row out to Ballard Locks felt rough. I struggled a lot to keep my port side from dipping, to keep the port side oar from being wrenched out of my hand, to keep my hands together – for the first time ever I smashed fingers between my two handles! (OUCH OUCH OUCH). I could feel resentment welling up in me, but I recalled (now former) Head Coach’s admonition once again – “own the boat.” So I gave my little feedback to my boat-mates, and released my negative feelings. I took responsibility for my own rowing, and put more leg into it, paid attention to my handle heights, looked at the water. This helped a lot. Not only did I start to enjoy the row, but we improved. Once we were all warmed up and I was committed to being a team player, the boat moved with less check, better set and greater power.

It’s tempting to get locked into ones own comfort level – I want to row with THESE people in THIS boat along THAT route, and then when you don’t get what you want, to feel like everything else is inferior, to take it as an excuse to not do well. But every time I get in the boat I have things to learn, skills to practice, people to learn from, and terrain to study. On days when everything doesn’t go the way I would have chosen, it’s good to be mindful of this.

Cleaning and re-rerigging shells after Lake Stevens Spring Sprint.

After five days off from rowing – my longest break since mid-January, I believe – I returned this morning to beautiful water and a changed club. Six months in and the honeymoon is over. Enter: politics, personalities, tensions, etc. Surely they were there all along, but I was blissfully out of the loop. The email informing every one that Head Coach was no longer employed at the club jolted me into awareness.

As a newbie to the sport, this was stunning, disappointing, worrisome. But I’m no newbie to life itself, so I can only proceed (with caution?). I don’t have too many thoughts rattling in my head about it, I’m going with the flow. I love rowing and just hope my rowing goals will continue to be supported, regardless of who runs the programs.

Coach C had 16 folks on his hands and he put us into two doubles, a quad, and a 7. His original plan was for two doubles and three quads but we ran out of sculling oars, apparently. I was in a quad with two of my racing quad; a 4th person I’ve rowed with before (and like) subbed in for our missing stroke. Coach took us across the lake to Ballard, just up to the 15th Avenue Bridge. The day was beautiful already – clear blue sky, flat water, warm air. Couldn’t ask for a better day to row.

So it was unfortunate that I felt rusty. I have this problem every time I get into a boat after more than two days away – I feel like there is something wrong with the boat. It doesn’t feel familiar, it feels “off.” It’s not what I remembered. Or something. I don’t know what. It also happens if I row in the same shell for a while and then switch to another. So I know it’s not real – the sense that the boat is “not right.” I’ve learned to not believe it, and to give myself a good 15 minutes for that feeling to fade. But I haven’t gotten good at ignoring that feeling yet and I hate to start out that way.

It’s pestering. I mean, there are REAL things that could be wrong with a boat, and – as a novice especially – I don’t need those phantom feelings. Dealing with these minor “delusions” (for lack of a better word) in the boat sucks because it messes with your head, which of course messes with your rowing. The vibe in the boat was already jittery because we had four boats to one coach (being short one), I hadn’t rowed in what felt like forever and was running on four broken hours of sleep, our bow wasn’t familiar bowing that route, and we had a new stroke to adjust to. None of those are excuses for bad rowing, but … the environment was ripe for griping is all I can say.

We actually rowed all right, but for some reason I was getting super wet. My stroke seat’s blades were splashing the hell out of me. I was not used to this. One of my boatmates said splashing from blades is actually a good thing. She’s been rowing 8 times longer than I have, so I take her word for it, though if I’m honest, I don’t like it. I don’t like getting water of dubious chemical makeup in my eyes and mouth every 10th stroke. But I could even get used to that, I guess. More importantly, I think at least 3 of us were visibly concerned about hitting one of our other boats (as there were a few close calls). Then we got choked up in the canal on the west side of Fremont and were hit to the waists with the wake of a passing workboat. Swell.

Stroke seat kept telling me to tell the others to slow the slide, and I didn’t know if it was me going too fast or people behind me, so then I got kind of paranoid (paran-noyed!) and was not feeling powerful in my drives although I was trying to match. We had some good strokes, but by the time we got out of Fremont I was feeling harangued.  On the way back to the boathouse, we ended up in the wide open of Lake Union – separated from our fellow rowers – and found ourselves rowing right into the path of a ship of not-insignifant size.

I heard the call of bow seat to weigh enough and looked over my port-side shoulder to see the unfortunate proximity between us and it. I just shook my head, I wasn’t even that surprised, it was one of those days. We made some splashings in a starboardly direction and the ship steered around us a bit, but with the angle it had been coming at, we were hit by its wake about five seconds later. I’d been in some wakes before but this was my biggest yet!

For a moment I wondered if we would sink, and I envisioned our boat dropping like a heavy weight to the bottom of the lake with us just sitting there, holding our oars like they were forks and knives at Thanksgiving dinner. It was a silly thought at a time like that, but to be fair to myself, there was nothing else to do but brace ourselves. Water washed over most of my body, up to my shoulders. Of course, the lake is aimless, it wasn’t trying to end up in our boat, so most of the wake ended up on our starboard side and continued in the direction of the Space Needle. The water was, I’m happy to say, not very cold.

We laughed it off, and paddled home, more relaxed than we’d been the whole time, knowing that was the worst of it.