Rowing Update!

Hi everyone! Thought I'd fill you in with a little rowing update! As I mentioned in my 'Life of a Rower' post I trialled for Wales in April and I've got a seat in the Women's junior coxed four and the eight for Home International Regatta this weekend! The four is my old J16 four and it feels so good to be back together! We've been training so hard and had a few wobbles and disappointing sessions but we're all so happy with how the boat is moving now. 

The eight, however, is a completely different crew comprised of girls from Kings School, Chester. Two weeks ago I went to Chester to meet them and bond with them and to try and gel as a crew. Being the only new girl in the boat was quite daunting when I arrived but thankfully a cox from my club accompanied me which made me feel a little less awkward! I was put at three but as the boat is tandem rigged I was on stroke side, opposite to my usual bow side! For the first session I was fine, we did eyes closed/eyes open and some high rate exercises e.g. half slide for 10 strokes then keep the rate up and go to full slide for 10. The next day we did more of the same, gelling as a crew and enjoying being back in an 8. However, my hands began to not enjoy the outing as much as I was and soon enough I had a large blood blister (the most unattractive thing I've ever seen) on my right hand. As I'm accustomed to bow side, altering my hands was challenging, instead of using the outside (left) hand to pull the blade in I was using my inside hand as on bow side that is my outside hand. The result of this was numerous open, painful blisters that made squaring/feathering rather difficult. 

With copious amounts of electrical tape I contiued to train with the girls. We managed to fit in some sightseeing (Chester is such a pretty place) and a lovely picnic by the river on the last day. Our last outing was going to be 500m pieces to practice the 2k. However an invisible log in the water had other ideas and decided to remove our fin before we had finished our warm up. This meant a 30 minute spin bike, 3mins @ steady state followed by 1min @ a higher gear and faster pace. It was a dramatic way to end the trip!

Now with four days to go until race day it's safe to say I'm getting nervous. We have no idea how good the competition are going to be and how we compare. I think we can be sure that we'll have a fight on our hands. I'm fed up of not getting a medal despite training so hard so fingers crossed this additional hard work will pay off! 

Thank you for reading this week's post. I'll update you on how we get on sometime next week after a day or two of continuous sleep as I know i'm going to be shattered! 

Much Love

Charlotte

xo