Rowing really is just a universal language cause yesterday, we did exactly what Amelia used to tell us to do back in novice year : race anything that moves. Without planning it, we ended up racing for 9km up river, which is more like 13km because of the current. I wouldn't call it an even lineup but for some reason, we just had even boat speeds. So I went out in a double with Lucia (think lightweight double) while the coach coxswained a tubby four (in order to work on their technique) with three big guys and a girl, who all can row compentently. So usually a racing boat i.e. our double would be able to overtake any tubby and then get open water but since it was the two of us pitted against three heavyweight guys and a fourth rower with good technique, eugh, we just kept trying to outpace each other. It was more like Jörn, the coach, wanted to have some amusement because he just kept the tubby quad going past the normal 5km turnaround point and Lucia has been rowing with him for years so she knew what he was trying to do and since she was stroke, we just kept on going.
Really no problems except past the 5K point, I didn't know the course and apparently the reason we normally turn around at the 5K point is because there are two U turns immediately after that point that are about half the size of the horseshoe turn on the Charles---so if you don't hold a really tight course there, the other boat can easily pass you. Yea, whew, only almost hit shore once :P And we outlasted the other boat so we had extra fun 'winning' on top of the sore butt and overall exhaustion.
Oh and I almost forgot, the row back was the most peaceful row ever after that intense of a workout. We took the 9K back so slow, it was like no work in comparison to the row upriver. lol. And with the current carrying us, it took about the same amount of time to get back paddling as it took to steady-state it upriver.
No comments:
Post a Comment