Insider Rowing

My pair partner Chris is out of town for a couple of days, on vacation with the missus, so I’m on my own training-wise. I took out his Hudson single this morning and tooled around the river. It was a nice row, but I’m rusty as a sculler so I didn’t do anything exciting. It was totally sweet rowing his boat though…it practically rows itself.

There are two other pairs training up here, a lightweight and a heavyweight, crewed by Marietta College oarsmen. I filled in as coach this morning for the heavyweight pair and it felt really awesome to be back in the launch. I strongly miss coaching and it makes me realize how much I enjoy it. The pair rowing I’ve been doing has totally informed my coaching. I’m able to visualize the stroke mechanics and describe it clearly and accurately, and I know exactly what the rowers are talking about when they provide feedback on their own strokes. This was definitely a good idea for me from an experience and knowledge standpoint.

After two weeks of training I feel like I’m in good condition and it’s much less painful to go out and row a 12 miler. We’re working out our technical issues fairly quickly and I feel confident we’ll be matched up and rowing smoothly by Nationals. My biggest issue right now is that my hip and neck get completely misaligned from the sweep rowing, and I’m having to visit a chiropractor once per week just to keep myself going. If I go too long without an adjustment, I lose stability in my back and can’t pull hard without injuring myself. The good news is I found an awesome chiropractor–Jeff Dexter–and he’s giving me these crazy good adjustments.

The weather up here is grand, and I’m generally having a fine time living in Marietta.