Sounds Like Somebody has a Case of the Mondays

On Sunday we finished the day with a team pizza party and videotape viewing in the hotel banquet room. It gave us a great opportunity to step back and see the coach's perspective from a launch and focus on the improvements we can make in the coming days. Already today I noticed rowers making small changes and adjustments based on the feedback they received yesterday. Our goal is to videotape one more time and compare/contrast our performance once they week is through. I will post videos once I return to a better internet connection.

We completed our second full day on the water today. You might ask, what does a typical day look like?

• 6:30am: Wake up, get dressed, and eat breakfast at the hotel
• 7:00am-9:30am: Load the bus to drive to the river. Rowers take oars down to the docks and return to carry the boats while the coaches fire up the launches. Practice drills by pairs and full boats. Watch coaches' motors die (several times) and hope they can get started back up.
• 9:30am: Load the bus to drive to the hotel. Eat second breakfast. Thank our hostess who always makes sure we have plenty to eat. Play Frisbee/take a nap/work on homework.
• Optional 11:30am: Drive in the van to the river to take out small sculling boats (double and single). Stay out until 1:15pm, dock, and return to the hotel for a quick change or snack.
• 2:00pm-5:30pm: Load the bus and get ready for a second (or third) row of the day. Fill the launch gas tanks. Change line ups. Begin by practicing drills and get into racing pieces. Watch coaches' motors die (several times). Watch coach's megaphone die and have to shout over the motor roar. Stop to observe a large dead fish. Turn, race some more and then dock. Strap all of the gear down, secure the launches for the day.
• 5:30pm: Return to the hotel, shower up and get ready for dinner.
• 7:00pm: Eat dinner as a team. Copious amounts of food are always appreciated and expected. Congregate in the lobby to play cards, games, or just hang out. Have coaches check hands for blisters. Sleep.

We take rowing, eating, and sleeping very seriously. Often times in that order. Even if we are serious on the water we also always try to have a good time. That is usually accomplished through humor. Rower Chris Chizeck wants to share a joke with you that he created today. What do motorboats and coffee have in common? They wake you. The only down side to rowing on a beautiful stretch of water is that others find it attractive too -- such as fishermen and recreational boaters. Traveling a great speeds, they create large wakes that can make it difficult (or sometimes impossible) to row through.

Back to the eating part. We ate at Ryan's Steakhouse this evening which is an all-you-can-eat buffet. As a crew team, the restaurant presented us with a boat paddle (like the kind the coaches use when their motors die) to sign as a team and hang on the wall. "Ryan's Appreciates Rowers" and proudly displays a paddle of each team that eats there.