When It Rains, It Pours Friday

This morning we beat the bad weather by getting in three 8 minute racing pieces. All of our boats are progressing well at this point in the week and I had the opportunity to film some more of their rowing. As a little preview as to what is to come, here are some SU boats and part of the Canadian National Team (with a few Olympians and a bronze medalist in there somewhere!).



During our optional 11:30am practice, I got to drive the van by myself and coach by myself. I guess I am moving up in the ranks. Nothing beats a week of intensive launch driving and practicing as a crash course into coaching. I certainly feel more confident with the motor and megaphone than I did last semester. I'm still learning a lot each day, but it feels nice to have something to be challenged by as much as rowing once did for me as a student.

"I think that's why I coach.. I used to get up early every morning with a clear goal in mind of how fast I was going to be. When I stopped rowing, there was a void in my daily routine. Now I go to bed at night and get up morning with a clear goal in mind of how fast you are going to be." -- Chris Allsopp, freshman coach, United States Military Academy

The sky looked ominous on the way over, with a bit of rain, but we were determined to go out anyway. Devin Thomas took out a single after one practice in the double. Nick Fritz and Chris Ballway took out the double with limited experience as well. We stayed on the 2000m course, so that we would be close to the dock. The wind kicked up a bit across the course and just when we thought the storm may have passed, lightening struck. Luckily each boat and the launch made it safely back to the dock in the pouring rain. Kudos to the guys for rowing in adverse conditions and still having a great time.

We spent the rest of the afternoon indoors playing "cards." Each team member was dealt five cards and the sum represented the number of reps or seconds the team had to perform of the exercise of their choosing. We had a wide range of exercises from yoga, burpees, mountain climbers, diamond push ups, air squats, jumping jacks, ab work, jumpees, and much more for a total of over 40 different kinds of exercises. We finished our session with some pilates, yoga, and stretching. We also reviewed our film footage from this morning and watched a great technical breakdown on Row2k regarding front and backsplash. We also got to distribute our sweet Spring Break tshirts.


After cleaning up, we had a spectacular dinner at the Flat Water Grille which overlooks the Oak Ridge 2k race course. The food was excellent, the portions monstrous, and the company divine. You can tell we are a tight knit crew team when we have no problems eating off one anthers' plates! I think that I almost laughed until I cried today and found out that you can actually snort food out of your nose. Luckily I did not personally experience this phenomena. It will be sad to say goodbye to Oak Ridge tomorrow and return to regular life. The good news is that the racing season has just begun and who knows what is in store for us for the rest of the semester!