Journey to the Centre of the Four... (A Rower's Journal)

Thursday 9/10/08 - Day 39 (58 Days to Deadline)

No rowing this morning but coaching again.
I felt really bad today; kinda seedy in the stomach and head, really tired and generally not real good almost like being hungover...
I couldnt miss coaching though but I drove down rather than run or cycle. Afterwards I went home and slept from about 7 till nearly 1. Got up, had some food and then felt crap all day.
Around 6 I figured I needed to do some sort of training today so I went to the gym.

4x15 Bosu + S/B push ups
4x10 M/B squats (20kg) on upside down Bosu
2x20 S/B Reverse Crunches w/ S/B between feet
2x10 As above w/ 10kg M/B held 1 inch from ground with arms
4x10 S/B Feet Tucks - V Crunches
4x10 (2x10 each leg) S/B x2 push ups (one S/B per arm) with one leg off ground
2x20 Bosu Bicycle Crunches w/ M/B in hands and between feet (pushed out with both legs at once rather than alternating... otherwise I'd drop the ball silly )
4x10 Each arm, D/B Front Trap Raises @7kg
4x10 S/B Over the Head Crunches w/ D/B @20kg
4x10 M/B Side Lunges on Bosu @10kg

Then did 20mins HIIT on the ergo holding a 1:39 split for 1minute, then 2minutes light not worrying about the split. Giving I wasn't feelign well I probably should have left the HIIT but I didn't... didn't throw up afterwards but I felt like I was going to, felt completely and utterly exhausted.

Food:
Breakfast:
2 weetbix w/fruit and trim milk + egg, sausage and cheese on a white roll (from the rowing shed after coaching).
(~400 calories)

Lunch:
2x Ham+Cheese sandwiches on wholemeal
(~610)

Dinner:
Left over Beef Stir-Fry I'd frozen, pays didn't come in today so I couldn't do a grocery shop... reckon the microwave probably killed any nutrition in the food... god I hate being poor lol
(~would have been around 800 calories fresh... not really sure how the microwave would have altered that)

Sub-Total: ~1810

So I then had nuts and milk to make up to 2500 calories. It was a lighter day training wise and as I slept for so much of it I figure I don't need 3000 calories today.

Total: ~2500 calories

Thought for the Day:
If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain
 
we all have days where we feel off. its good you managed to get a small workout in. when you're feeling sick doing a long hard workout will just be counterproductive. it is best to not skip working out completely so that you stay on track, and hey...sometimes working out helps ya feel better.

Sounds like you might need some more sleep during the night. I know its hard with your schedule, but sleep is where the body rebuilds.
 
Friday 10/10/08 - Day 40 (57 Days to Deadline)

I am both pleased with myself and totally disugsted with myself today...

I wake early... roll over and look at the alarm... wtf?

5:20... I've slept through my alarm...

I have woken up and hour late and so by the time I get down to rowing its an hour and a half after the session has started. Everyone is on the water. I sit and wait for them to come in, when they finally do I cop a bollocking from coach... great start :mad:

I run to and from work today (its about 3.3km or just over 2miles each way) but work is reasonably cruisey. Oh, and when I say run I mean I do actually run each way. 16:14 there and 15:48 on the way back, not spectacular numbers by any means but I'm not a runner.

In the afternoon the gym has closed. I do some squat jumps again for the first time in weeks.

5x30 squat jumps
5x30 Push ups
5x50 sit ups
5x20 dips

I do these exercises that a few weeks ago seemed to challenge me... now, meh. I don't think that these are the way to go anymore, I think I need to be using the swissball or weights or both now. Still they were great for getting my initial strength up.

That evening I go to an engagement party for one of the other coaches. I don't drink a drop of alcohol (hence me being pleased with myself) and leave at 8.45 so I'm home by 9.30.

Food: Crap
Breakfast: 6 weetbix w/trim milk+ honey
2 slices toast w/sardines

Dinner:
Some **** party food.

Total calories - can't even guestimate the party food. So don't know.

Overall I was pretty dissapointed with myself. Was still feeling a little ill as well but not as bad as yesterday. Tomorrow is going to be a rutheless day. Mus push myself hard. Today was not good enough.

Thought for the Day:
"The best pace is suicide pace, and today is a good day today."
 
Sam, if you're still not feeling up to snuff, that's definitely a valid reason for going easy on your training ... or not training at all. The last thing you want to do is keep stressing your system and then end up REALLY sick.

As for sleeping through your alarm, you obviously needed the extra shut-eye. Not a great excuse, and I know you're kicking yourself for missing 1.5 hours of training, but sh!t happens.

Are you taking Sunday off? If you are, I suggest doing absolutely NOTHING but the bare minimum. Give your body and mind a really good rest.

As for not drinking at the engagement party, that's not an easy thing for most people to do. I'm very proud of you :) But I'm proud of you anyway ;)

And tomorrow is another day. Hope you're feeling well enough to really give it your all.
 
Saturday 11/10/09 - Day 41 (56 Days to Deadline)

4.15am rowing. Get to the shed and check my phone
"Servo and Kiwi got me blind last night, not my fault. Won't be at TRC in the am'
Good one coach...

We put out a four but its a different combo to the one we rowed earlier in the week and I have to row bow side which I havent done before. Its a pretty **** row and we only go about 14k as well.

Afterwards I head to rowing coaching and then the gym

4x15 Bosu + S/B push ups
4x10 D/B squat and hold (20kg) on upside down Bosu
2x20 S/B Reverse Crunches w/ S/B between feet
2x10 As above w/ 10kg M/B held 1 inch from ground with arms
4x10 S/B Feet Tucks - V Crunches
4x10 (2x10 each leg) S/B x2 push ups (one S/B per arm) with one leg off ground
2x20 Bosu Bicycle Crunches w/ M/B in hands and between feet (pushed out with both legs at once rather than alternating... otherwise I'd drop the ball)
4x10 Each arm, D/B Front Trap Raises @7kg
4x10 S/B Over the Head Crunches w/ D/B @20kg
4x10 M/B Side Lunges on Bosu @10kg

In the afternoon I run to work (3and-a-bit-km), 16:08

Work is nothing special.

Food: Less good again, I need to do a grocery shop and clean the kitchen lol

Breakfast: 7 weetbix w/honey + trim milk
Post Coaching: Chicken and salad on pita bread
Post Gym: Protein Bar + 250ml trim milk
Pre-Work: Grilled snapper, 8 grilled sea scollops, greek salad
Post Work: 2xCheese+Ham+Greek Salad sandwiches on wholemeal

Total Calories: ~2600 calories.

Was too tired afterwards to stay up and make up the calorie deficit. Just need sleep

Thought for the Day:
"My roommates expected that by junior year, at least, I would have come to my senses. Once of them sat me down and very logically pointed out that by that point I'd probably already derived all of the value possible from putting 'crew' on my resume, concluding with, 'You could just quit, you know.' He clearly didn't get it either." - Matt Classen Georgetown University Lightweight Crew 1995
 
Sunday 12/10/08 - Day 42 (55 days to Deadline)

Day off. Wake up feeling fine. Although a little sore.

Still run to and from work (set new PB, 15:01 for the run to work, would have cracked 15mins but i slipped over about 10metres from the end as it was raining and I was running on tiles...)

Work was cruisy.

Food:
Need to do a grocery shop.

Breakfast:
Bowl of oats w/trim milk

Lunch:
Grilled squid and prawns on a dressingless greek salad

Dinner:
GF wanted to go out for indian... so indian it is. Had chicken tikka masala with steamed rice.

Total Calories: ~1800 calories - way down but at least i didn't do any training today so its not as bad.

Thought for the Day:
It is one thing to practice, and quite another to race. And the trouble is, you never know who, on the day, will find it within his soul to give more than he has ever given before
 
Monday 13/10/08 - Day 43 (54 days to Deadline)

Rowing in the morning... hmm, I didn't seem to get the text message...
apparently coach had another blinder last night and can't make it. Thats pretty bull****.
We go out in the four and its a miserable morning, cold, wet, raining, the goddamn corporate regatta season has started so theres double the amount of traffic. It all adds up to a **** row.

In the afternoon I'm not able to get to the gym because I'm too swamped with uni work.

Alround and unpleasant day.

Food:
Breakfast:
2 fried egg, cheese, and ham sandwiches on wholemeal

Lunch:
2 peanut butter + honey sandwiches

Dinner:
Salmon and colcheny(sp?)

Total calories ~2700, plenty for the amount of work I did today.
 
Sounds like your coach needs to get his **** together. isn't he being paid to be there while you are on your own time? sounds like you and your team need to sit him down and have a nice chat about what he expects out of you while he's too drunk to make it to your scheduled morning practice. (i am presuming a blinder is the aussie equivalent to the american bender)
 
Firefreak - yep thats right, its just aussie slang for a big night on the grog. The thing is though, he isn't paid for it. He does it for free, he runs the entire rowing program for the club (almost 300 rowers) so he's there every afternoon after work as well as the mornings that he turns up.
He's also regarded as possibly the best lightweight coach in Queensland, and in the last 5 years has produced 7 gold medals, 4 silvers and 5 bronzes at the nationals. He's also taken crews to the world championships the last three years in a row, winning a medal last year and making the final this year so he is a top quality coach.
I've also already learned a lot just from when he has actually been there...
the trouble is, as we've discovered, he tends to be away a bit...

Fit4life - I know its not good but as I've just said his results demand respect... even if his attendance record is somewhat sub-par.


Things aren't looking good however for me. Our ergo trials the other day see me ranked 8 out of 15 lightweights at the club... thats far, far better than I would have expected in my first year and is a sign that training is paying off.
The bad news however, is that I'm ranked about 14th in the club. There also aren't enough heavyweights to form a heavyweight 8. In the past when this has happened what the club has done is make a joint lightweight-heavyweight 8 and enter it as a heavyweight 8. They then don't put together a lightweight 8. Now if this occurs I won't be in the 8, and if I'm not in the 8 I won't go to states as I don't own my own single scull I can't enter in it. All other boats are made up from people in the 8... so right now if we don't get some more heavyweights, I won't be rowing at states unless I can climb another 6 places in the rankings... in under 2 months that would be a tall order...
 
Dutes said:
Things aren't looking good however for me. Our ergo trials the other day see me ranked 8 out of 15 lightweights at the club... thats far, far better than I would have expected in my first year and is a sign that training is paying off.
The bad news however, is that I'm ranked about 14th in the club. There also aren't enough heavyweights to form a heavyweight 8. In the past when this has happened what the club has done is make a joint lightweight-heavyweight 8 and enter it as a heavyweight 8. They then don't put together a lightweight 8. Now if this occurs I won't be in the 8, and if I'm not in the 8 I won't go to states as I don't own my own single scull I can't enter in it. All other boats are made up from people in the 8... so right now if we don't get some more heavyweights, I won't be rowing at states unless I can climb another 6 places in the rankings... in under 2 months that would be a tall order...
Click to expand...

Hmmmmm. Sam, am I reading this right? You have to own your own single scull to compete in the single scull?

Next question ... What happens if you don't get to row at the states this year?
 
Correct, the boats that the club owns and that I use for training in the scull well, below the standard useable for racing.
I have been saving all year and have nearly half a boat saved. I'm hoping that for christmas my parents will agree to loan me the other half so that I can buy one for next year. The downside is that would come after states has finished.

If I don't qualify for a club open 8 and no lw 8 gets sent, then I will go with my girls to another regatta in another state they are competing at in the same weekend, I will enter through the school's rowing club, row a double with another coach, row in a single borrowed from the school and simply try and win.
Then I'll come back and I'll start training again, I'll look to qualify for a club boat for the nationals in March. As by that stage I should have my own boat it should be easier.

I am 18 and have, if I want it, maybe 15 years of competitive rowing potentially ahead of me. I have 5 years before I even get out of my current age group. One dissapointment won't kill the dream. It just means it might not happen this year.

Thought for the Day:
"Adversity causes some to break, others to break records"
 
I understand, Sam. I believe that whatever happens will happen for a reason. I know that sounds awfully fatalistic, but when I use 20/20 hindsight, I always realize that when something crappy happened to me (at least I thought it was crappy at the time), it was definitely for a reason. And something better happened to me in the end ;)

What brand of competition single scull are you looking at purchasing? Sykes (those are soooooo sweet!)? The Honeycomb Carbon Composite Single Sculls are about $10,000. I don't think you'll find anything decent under $6,000, even if it is used.

I'm assuming you'll want Dreissigacker oars, too :)
 
I'm looking at getting either a Ted Hale Series Elite F1 Honey Comb with Carbon Fibre Bow Wing Rigger. They retail for about $9200 Australian.
This is compared to the top of the range WinTech's (the International) which is roughly $11,000 or the top of the range Sykes which is around $10,500.

That model Ted Hale has won back to back Open Schoolboys single scull titles in Queensland in the last two years, in 2006-2007 it was used to win back to back U17 Schoolboys Single Scull titles at the Australian National Championships and was used this year by a 17 year old (my idol and my quad's former stroke :xmas:) to win a silver medal in the U19 Mens Single Scull at the nationals. Ted Hale himself won many, many single scull titles at national level. The model down is the boat I rowed at the nationals myself last year. The fact that its $1200-$2000 cheaper than a comparable boat from another range is just a bonus.

I am however investigating the possibility of a 2nd hand boat, in which case other things will need to be considered and I may choose a different model/range of boat.

As for the oars I use Croker oars.
 
Tuesday 14/10/08 - Day 44 (53 Days to Deadline)

No rowing this morning but rowing coaching, cycled down to the shed and back home again. With traffic took about 30mins.

After the boys got off the water I went over to my shed (as its right next to the one I coach at) and had a look at ergo results... and was in for a few suprises
I qualified 8th, thats fantastic. Better than I expected, better than I hoped and a sign that my work is starting to pay off.

I'm not going to go into the downside of it all again... read the earlier posts... but the long-short of it is that I probably won't be rowing at states now :bncry:

Went to the gym after coaching (after a nanna-nap first, I seem to be either at work, uni, or training and then spend all my free time sleeping)

4x10 S/B Kneeling Cable Single Arm Row (this is freakin hard, you have to lean right back when you pull or else you can't stay on the Swiss Ball, then coming forward really works your thighs as you try and not go flying off the front)
4x10 Squats standing on medicine balls
4x10 (2each arm) M/B - push up, position. Single Trap Pull through on Cable @20kg
4x10 Single Arm trap raise on opposite leg (kneeling on all fours, trap raise, and with the diagonally opposite leg you straighten it out and raise it as high as you can, the bring both down together but don't touch the ground)
5 x (each side) 10kg M/B Single Side raise to standing (lying on the ground, holding the med ball straight up, then standing up whilst keeping the ball vertically straight up in the air, then lie back down whilst keeping the ball vertically straight)
2x10 Bosu + Disc lunge with D/B and Press @10kg
2x10 M/B on S/B push ups
Sitting on Swiss ball on Bosu (S/B on top of Bosu, apparently only 1% of people at the Australian Institute of Sport are able to do this... I can't haha) for 10 seconds
3x10 Standing Squats on S/B (easier than on the M/B's)

This was damn hard, not as physically hard as I perhaps was expecting, but the balance required to stand on two medicine balls for example made it so hard, and because of all that stabilizing actually provided a fantastic workout for the legs. Really enjoyable too!

In the afternoon I went to the gym again as I felt too good and decided I needed to do some more work.

4x10 Squat and Press @20kg
2x10 Pull Ups
2x10 Chin Ups
2x20 S/B Reverse Crunches w/ S/B between feet
2x10 As above w/ 10kg M/B held 1 inch from ground with arms
4x10 S/B Feet Tucks - V Crunches - (these 3 exercises together have got to be my favourite ab workout of all. It makes the abs burn, and its fun to do, don't really understand why but I thoroughly enjoy it.)
4x15 Dorsal Raises @5kg
3x10 Bench Press @45kg
3x10 One Arm Seated Rows @25kg

Then did 20mins HIIT on the ergo, 1min holding sub 1:40, 2mins low rate recovery x6 and then 2-on (bit over 500m) to finish with held a 1:41 split, then warm down....
Wow that was freakin hard. Feel great after though.

Breakfast:
2 weetbix and a Sausage on bread at the rowing shed this morning

Post 1st Gym session - Protein Bar and 250ml Trim milk

Lunch: 2xCheese, lean ham, lettuce and tomato sandwiches on Wholemeal

Dinner: chicken and rice, strawberries for desert

Total Calories ~1800... wayyyyyy down. Need to hit up some proper breaky tomorrow, think I'll boil up a whole heap of eggs that I can then just grab whenever I need a snack of something. That should help me keep up the calorie count as well as adding extra protein.

Thought for the Day:
"Adversity causes some to break... others to break records"
 
Last edited:
Dutes said:
I'm looking at getting either a Ted Hale Series Elite F1 Honey Comb with Carbon Fibre Bow Wing Rigger. They retail for about $9200 Australian.
This is compared to the top of the range WinTech's (the International) which is roughly $11,000 or the top of the range Sykes which is around $10,500.

That model Ted Hale has won back to back Open Schoolboys single scull titles in Queensland in the last two years, in 2006-2007 it was used to win back to back U17 Schoolboys Single Scull titles at the Australian National Championships and was used this year by a 17 year old (my idol and my quad's former stroke :xmas:) to win a silver medal in the U19 Mens Single Scull at the nationals. Ted Hale himself won many, many single scull titles at national level. The model down is the boat I rowed at the nationals myself last year. The fact that its $1200-$2000 cheaper than a comparable boat from another range is just a bonus.

I am however investigating the possibility of a 2nd hand boat, in which case other things will need to be considered and I may choose a different model/range of boat.

As for the oars I use Croker oars.
Click to expand...

That Ted Hale sounds like a delicious scull to row in.
Yeah, I've heard Croker are good oars, too, but I've never used them. Just the Dreissigackers. I really like those. But I'm certainly no expert.

I'll be in the market for a new scull and custom oars for me next spring, Sam, so I just wondered which scull/oars you were looking at.

And people think it's cheap to take up rowing :D
 
i_love_muscle said:
That Ted Hale sounds like a delicious scull to row in.
Yeah, I've heard Croker are good oars, too, but I've never used them. Just the Dreissigackers. I really like those. But I'm certainly no expert.

I'll be in the market for a new scull and custom oars for me next spring, Sam, so I just wondered which scull/oars you were looking at.

And people think it's cheap to take up rowing :D
Click to expand...

Its cheap if you find a decent used shell and oars. :D
 
firefreak said:
Its cheap if you find a decent used shell and oars. :D
Click to expand...

Cheaper, but still not "cheap" :D
 
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