The Batteries are Drained

Today we had a triple row session. It involved a technique row sandwiched between two 18km steady-states. It seems a little excessive but it is what coach put forward for today. I feel that a coach is always looking out for my best interest and would only put something on the schedule that would benefit in the long-run.  Sometimes I think that it is hard as an athlete who wants to get better and move forward with training; at certain times in the workout macro-cycle everyone has a period of low energy or injury and it would probably be beneficial to hold off on a training session and recover. But, usually we all push through and have the detrimental effects weigh us down.  I read an interesting article recently about Institutionalized Overtraining with references to the Canadian Rowing team.  I don't feel that my training is too much to handle but I always want to be critical and make sure a bit of overtraining (overreaching effect) and turn into a chronic fatigue syndrome.
 Below is a summary of the rows today. It just looks like a spiders web strung across the lake.

The batteries on both my Garmin and StrokeCoach died on this double steady-state row.  In addition to that my internal energy system were depleted and in need of a re-charge.  I was, however, able to eat some delicious bread that my fiancee made for us - I ate the whole loaf.

Next up is a development regatta in Burnaby Apr. 20-21st.

The Grand Dueling

This spring weekend was the enjoyable classic event held by Vic City Rowing Club called Dueling Over a Grand. It is one of my favorite events because the total amount of racing experience obtained is huge. For example, I had six races in 24hrs!  That almost DOUBLES my previous rowing racing portfolio.  The race itself is only over 1000m, hence a Grand, but in conditions that we had today it felt more like 1500m due to the strong head-cross wind.  The umpires even had a meeting in the morning regarding the safety of sending singles out in the wash because a few boats flipped first thing in the morning.  It is a double-knockout elimination style regatta, so that means I would have to loose twice to get dropped. Oh, and the winner gets $1000 and runner up is $250. Another motivator to not get bumped.  And I wasn't going to loose without a fight. 

Due to the conditions I felt I had a fairly ugly, choppy and all-around scattered racing and rowing technique. But, everyone is racing in the same water so I couldn't blame my (lack of) speed on that. It was my first experience in being able to row through a competitor in the middle of the race and a confidence booster at that. I had a great dogfight, not once but twice, with my pal Jamie Abbass.  He is a classy guy with many stories and always has a smile on his face. We were very close both races and within a few feet it was always hard to tell who reached the imaginary line first. I hope to race him again soon.  In the end I was knocked out (2nd loss) by Steve Van Knotseburg, a heavyweight sculler in my fourth race today.  It was going to be a huge uphill (headwind) battle with SNV and in the end he finished by over a length in front of me. I was spent! What a great event. 

Kevin Kowalyk boathouse slow-walk 

SNV setting up for race time

Final Results:   Fraser Berkhout edged out Kevin Kowalyk for the win this afternoon.  On the womens side my friend Rosie DeBoef held off Erica Shaw for the top prize. Congratulations.