21-25th Dec – Christmas!!!!

Monday

A relatively easy morning on the ergs – nice long warm up and then 3km at 2km pace….. All followed by coffee with the girls 🙂 and pot luck dinner in the evening – great way to start the week

Tuesday

It was pouring with rain, but nice flat water in the lagoon, so the lovely Nina and I headed out with me in a single and her with her trouser legs rolled up holding onto me…….

You can row the length of the lagoon in about 5 strokes, so the holding on to the end thing was to practice the rowing stroke without endlessly having to turn around! That and I got some coaching at the same time

Best advice for being in a single – if it all feels like it’s going horribly wrong, put your hands together. Putting your hands together means the boat will find its balance and you shouldn’t tip into the water……

We were out for about an hour, did do some rowing up and down the lagoon, and it wasn’t too scary and I didn’t fall in (but to be honest I was so wet from the rain it wouldn’t have made a difference!!!)

Felt really good to be out in a boat, not too terrified, so fingers crossed I can stay rowing even when the others are out in the 8.

Wednesday

Ohhhh, it was a traumatic row this morning. While the other Novices went out in the 8, I went in an 8 with the Masters.

We have a boat called the City of Wellington, COW for short and this morning it lived up to its nickname. I was happy in my traditional spot of 4 seat.

The row was a rocky one with balance being a major issue, but what I soon realised was that my left calf was getting cut into by the slide – the bit the seat moves backwards and forwards on. It had no cover on the end so was just bare metal, stabbing my leg every stroke, before long it was bleeding and then it was all I could do to stop thinking about the metal jamming into my leg – felt pretty queasy…..

On the up side we went to see Star Wars in the evening at the Lighthouse in Petone – all thoughts of manky leg forgotten

Thursday – Christmas Eve

No evening rowing session tonight, so instead I went to Masters lunchtime ergs – there was 3 of us, so not exactly packed!!! Did manage to rescue 2 birds trapped in the shed, didn’t want them being stuck in there over Christmas.

There was a rumour we could leave work at lunch time, was untrue, but the boss left around 2pm, so we followed soon after….. Home for food shopping, present wrapping and Muppets Christmas Carol

Friday – Christmas!!!!!

Had a crazy long lie-in until 8am!!! Then we were up and cooking lasagna and cannelloni for dinner.

Was rescued from too much cooking by a Skype call to Nikki and her family – they have fab Christmas Eves so was lovely to see them all, champagne in hand!!

Although Friday is normally a rest day, today we had to exercise as tomorrow was a travel/rest day….. our coach had requested a gift of a photo of our chosen form of exercise. We went on a really great bike ride round the coast to York Bay – wanted to make it all the way to Eastbourne, but lunch was calling……

On the cycle back I got waved at by a police man – I’d been a good girl and looked over my shoulder before pulling out, spotted him behind me and so waited for him to pass (in his car). The then turned around (I was a bit worried) and waved!

Home in time for a speedy shower and a drive into town – such a beautiful day, the water looked amazing.

Off for our now traditional (2 years in a row) Christmas lunch at Dragons – Yum Cha – so yummy, totally justified the eating after our cycle!! We went for a walk afterwards along the waterfront and then spotted that Te Papa was open. Rhys hadn’t been to see the Gallipoli exhibition, so seemed like a perfect time to go. He enjoyed it as much as I did the first time I went. It was quieter (fewer people) and somehow became more moving than the first time. We both left in a slightly less than Christmassy mood, but back out in the sunshine thoughts turned to the afternoon ahead and the arrival of 2 excited children.

Was a great afternoon with the girls, they loved their present, we walked the dogs on the beach, watched the original Miracle on 34th Street, had yummy pasta, I started watching the end of Hotel Transylvania 2 but headed for bed at 9pm…….

Could be why I was then wide awake at 4am…. decided to Skype my parents and was happy to see Christmas jumper action in full swing.

From 3 years ago!

 

 

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A hard week, but full of fun 14-20th December

So nearly up to date!

 

A triumphant start of a very hard week.

After our late nights getting back from Karapiro we were given Monday morning off, but not a rest day – 30mins steady state, so I treated myself to a run – my achillies are super sore, hoping they behave themselves and it’s just the lack of running recently.

Tuesday was to be a training session involving Ballena Bay – brings dread into every Wellington rower’s heart……. After warming up, our coaches requested that 3 of us stay behind while the other set off……. we hadn’t made the top 8.They spoke to the other 2 first and then me. I kind of knew what was coming, I’d been thinking about it but didn’t know quite how it would work out.

It was a hard conversation for all 3 of us.

There are 12 people in the novice squad.

8 get to row in the coveted 8

1 is currently injured

2 get to row in a double

and then there’s me…….

This I’d worked out. What no one had worked out was what to do with me…..

Needless to say I cried, a lot, I couldn’t disagree with what they were saying -the 8 best novices are amazing (the best squad they’ve ever had), the 2 in the double are amazing also. So, we talked through options, some I vetoed (giving up, moving to Masters – they’re lovely but I want to complete my season with the Novices if I can), a few things popped out of the discussion to think about, so we left it there.

I was amazed to be given the option of just heading home, but wanted to brave it out and go finish the training session with the girls, so we went and found them. It was good to get some fresh air and run back from the Bay with them.

Wednesday – this was going to be a tough week

One of the ideas was that when the 8 and double were out I could (on a Wednesday as that’s when they train) go out with the Masters, so I did! Allan who coached me at Corporate rowing was there and made the mistake of being nice to me….. cue tears…… went out in the 8 with them, had my own personal coach sat behind me, was a rockier ride that I’m used to (us Novices have better balance than they did) but was good to be out on the water!

Thursday

We did something in the evening…….

Friday – rest day!

But also email chat day – having thought about things since Tuesday, I had questions/requests to discuss. Was a very honest exchange, but no point being anything else!

I get to try being in a single – a boat all by myself – terrifying – but it means I can still row even when everyone else is out on the water. I get to sub into the 8 when people can’t make training (makes me feel like I can’t be sooooo terrible) and I’ll still do all the land-based training too 🙂

Saturday – meant to be a regatta

Rowing

But in true Wellington form it’s too windy, so instead we were out at 7am for a row. The water was beautifully flat and I had fun in the coach boat as they rowed out to the airport. I swapped in on the row home as someone had a injury. Sadly by then the water wasn’t as great, but good to be in the boat 🙂

Then, a lovely thing happened as the Masters had just arrived and were heading out to Petone to row as the water wasn’t great in town. They asked if I wanted to join them – fab as it also meant I got a lift home!! We went out in an 8 and it was a lovely row, I really enjoyed it – sitting on stroke side really helped with that (and also I wasn’t the worst in the boat!!) Their coach at the end said I had a lovely finish (part of the stroke), well, bless him, I felt so bad as I then proceeded to burst into tears – after everything that had happened this week, praise was a bit too much for me!! We then proceeded to have a lovely chat and he said that I was welcome to come and borrow a wide-bottomed single from him if I wanted (he usually coaches the club next to ours) they’re more steady than the racing boats. He also said he’d have me in his novice team, but that’s never going to happen as I love mine too much.

Sailing

No regatta did mean I could make it to sailing for the first time this season….. we sail out at Titahi Bay. We got there and it was WINDY, the water choppy and an on-shore wind at that. Too windy to sensibly go out – we may never have made it off the boat ramp!

Kayaking

Not sure why (retrospect is a wonderful thing) but we decided to go out in kayaks instead….. we’d gone less than 100m before I decided I was going back….. as I turned around I capsized…….  but managed to 1. get out of the boat, 2. keep hold of my paddle, 3. hold the boat, 4. realise my rowing hat had fallen off and managed to rescue it, but best of all 5. put my feet down and discover I could stand!!

What a relief, the kayak was so full of water and there’s no way I could empty it unaided, so I walked it over to a little boat ramp, hauled it up and awaited assistance……. Help arrived via a boathouse full of geese (apparently they rescue injured birds) kayak emptied it was back into the water and less than 2 minutes paddle to the boat ramp to the club.

Football

The evening was no less jam-packed with a trip to the Westpac Stadium to watch Wellington Phoenix play Sydney FC – our work night out. Was great, we had a lounge, food and an amazing view. My boss is a massive fan, taught me the chants, my favorite being the one when you spot seagulls flying over the stadium – ‘Seagull’ ‘Seagull’ ‘Seagull’ until they’ve disappeared…….. Final score was 1-1, disappointing Wellington weren’t ahead in the last 10 minutes as then we’d have been treated to the sight of the Phoenix fans removing their shirts and twirling them around their heads….. My boss challenged me to get a selfie with the team captain at the end of the game – mission accomplished – photo and an autograph…. Bodes well for my next performance review I think

Sunday was a quieter day (thank goodness!)

Another 7am rowing, this time the girls went out in 2 quads, I got to cox one and they spent an hour or so chasing each other up and down the water – I got a tad soggy, but was great fun.

The girls then went on to do weights while I had a go in a single – v scary, just you in a boat by yourself – you go off balance, you fall in, it goes wrong, it’s your fault – no one else to blame. But also, you are totally in control – if it goes right you stay dry and can work on correcting what’s going wrong without affecting anyone else. Apart from a mad 5 minutes where I drifted into a load of other boats that came into the lagoon (while everyone was watching) and the one time I got myself stuck in the corner of the lagoon and had to be pushed off with an oar it went pretty well!

I stayed dry, didn’t panic too much, loved actually rowing it, struggled with turning round – my oat kept sinking, but left the lagoon happy and ready to do it again soon 🙂

 

 

 

KR1 week 7-13th December

So, this week was a light week in terms of rowing – lots of technical stuff/short pieces so everyone was rested for the Christmas Regatta at Lake Karapiro.

It’s a BIG regatta, the biggest we’d been to and will probably get to go to (even Nationals isn’t as big as there’s no school teams there)

True to recent form, I have no idea what happened in the week, but on Friday through various means we traveled up to Karapiro, a small town/village by Cambridge, which is near Hamilton, or to be v general on the North Island!

Cambridge is famous in NZ for horses/horse racing/harness racing – we stayed at the Raceway – most minimal place yet, we were in a function room, a bar (no alcohol), a toilet, a long walk to the shower block (1 shower) where we did find a hot water boiler and a microwave…….. but it was only $10/night.

This is all a good 6/7 hour  drive from Wellington. I had my Software Testing exam on the Friday, so made the good decision to catch a flight up to Hamilton and by happy coincidence so was another rower so we had a fun trip together – drinking coffee and eating Russian fudge and boiled sweets.

As there are no cooking facilities at the Raceway and no where else within walking distance we went to the onsite bar/restaurant – there was a Friday special of steak for $16 and turned out to be pretty good. Pretty much everyone had arrived by 10pm when our coach came in for a chat/what to do in the morning etc. Once he realised how late it was we were sent to bed – had to be up at 5:30am!!

Saturday – heats

It was a bit overwhelming arriving and seeing a sea of boats along the side of the lake. There were nearly 3000 rowers and it felt like as many boats. People from all over the North Island, some from Australia and a team from China.

There are heats on day one and finals on day 2. This is the fancy regatta – they have people who lie on pontoons and hold the boats at the start (like you see on the TV).

I did not have a good day.

The first race I was in was the Quad sculls (it’s at this point in life where I’ve realised it’s sculling, not skulling – now have quite gruesome images in my head) anyway, it’s not my strongest point and for 3 out of 4 of us, I think it’s fair to say it’s not our strongest skill. We were also hampered by having (what turned out to be) an inexperienced cox. It was a horrible row, we came 6th or last depending on how you want to look at it.

Next up was the Novice 8 – I was in with the same crew as last week and still on stroke side – my favourite. We were in a battle for 1st/2nd from the start, it was great, we rowed so hard, but with about 250m to go I caught a crab, my oar twisted and got stuck and there was nothing I could do. 250m is a good minute or so of rowing, losing a rower on one side means it’s v difficult to steer as the other side is always pulling you around. There was nothing to do but 1. desperately try and free my oar, 2. cry when I realised that wasn’t going to happen and 3. watch our potential chance 1st place go, and the 2nd and the 3rd……. 4th place – I was gutted for everyone – 1st or 2nd and we’d have been in the final……. Everyone one was so nice about it, I got hugs and lasagna, wise words, stories of other crucial times people had messed up, but still, a chance in a final gone…..

Finally there was the 4, I was in bow side for this – my less favorite side and already feeling bad after the 8 race I didn’t feel great, we had the same bad cox as the quad earlier in the day, I think it’s fair to say we were tired and the wind was blowing. It was a bumping row to the start, a lot of fingers/thumbs getting bashed on the riggers and tempers were frayed by the time we were at the start…… The row itself was ok, we came 4th, so not last, but not great either.

I meant I had no final races the next day – the only Novice not to 😦

The girls in the 8, top 4 and quad and double had all got into the finals – they’d had great races and that was oar-some news!

We ate at the Raceway again – this time a yummy burger. Also spotted an amazing mullet – v blurry as we were quite far away, but I think you can get the idea.

Sunday – finals day and rain

Lots of rain! And even better, lots of wins. Everyone rowed so well, for the Novices, every win was a great one – especially the Novice  8 – was so exciting to watch – so proud of the girls. The races we didn’t win there were good reasons for, so a great leaning opportunity.

For me it was a hard day, the further realisation that I wasn’t up with the best rowers, so much technique still to work on…. What I did learn though was what I’d be reassured of the previous day – people do catch crabs – one of our boats caught 2 in quick succession – makes mine nothing special – just another thing to learn from.

Boat loading took FOREVER – probably not helped with the knowledge that we all had a massive drive ahead of us. We didn’t leave until around 6pm, took a quick drive to Taupo for Burger Fuel – yum – and then the long drive to Wellington. Events occurred that we will never speak of, although someone has spoken, I’m hopping it never gets out of the Novice girls circle of trust……

 

 

Jury Cup week 30th Nov-6th Dec

The notes are still incredibly vague……..

monday

no clue!

tuesday 2k test

Horrible – had to work out our own plan to get through it – my plan, as ever, was to get under 8 mins, all I needed to do was sit on 2min/500m splits and under for a few strokes and I’d make it under 8 mins.

We had no one coxing us apart from to say ‘remember your plan’. I was doing really well (at sticking to the plan) until the last 250-300m when my splits went from 2mins up to 2:11, I pulled myself and my legs back together, but by then it was too late. I finished at 8:01 – gutted

wed

no idea

thu boat loading 6x 1min

Erghhhhhh. I got to training early and someone else was already there so we did out 6x 1min together. She declared this would be the easiest set piece we’d done in ages…. The first one was mental – we just had to to them as fast as possible – we rated at 40 strokes/min – stupidly fast, normally we do low 30s for racing

With a rest inbetween (I think 2 mins??) we went again 5 for times, this was generally at a slower rate of 36/37 – far more do-able after the  craziness – no way we could have kept that pace up!

fri rest and wanganui – Jury Cup

Rest day and a drive to Wanganui. This was an easy drive compared to when we went for camp, no pouring rain or driving wind. We arrived in daylight! Stayed at the YMCA – an old private school – lovely place, had time to go to the supermarket and settle in before others arrived and an early night before race day

Sat – race

I wasn’t in the Novice 8 but did get to row with another team from the rowing club in their 8 – had a great row – we came 2nd. Also came second in our 4 – hurrah!

Was also in a quad, but that was cancelled – it got really windy out on the water, we all had to shelter under the trees – actually under – we were holding onto branches/leaves to stop floating downstream. Once they’d decided to cancel the races we then had to row the 2km back to the finish – slowly and carefully, but was fun as we had a safety boat with us and a lady filling up her memory card on her camera – sadly not found where the photos ended up!

 

In the evening we chilled out, some of the guys partied, I was boring (and tired) had 1 beer and was in bed by 9:30pm……..

Sun – train/travel

We got a lie in as the Club women trained first. We had a fab long paddle up the river and back before loading the trailer with boats/oars etc. Left pretty early to travel back and were home in Wellington at about 3/4pm – the luxury!!!

Vague memories of 23-29th November

So, here are my notes in bold and what I can remember from them……

Monday – lie in landed 11pm, home 1am

Had texted to say I wouldn’t be at training (at 6am) was a bit too little sleep for my liking!

Tuesday

There would have been rowing, but no idea what it involved….. but I remember it being hard – my legs had not recovered from the weekend

More excitingly though – I got my Resident Visa granted – I can stay in NZ for another 2 years!!!

You can tell I’d been training – check out the cheeks

Wednesday

Another mystery day in terms of rowing, but I do know I popped into work for an 8am meeting before heading off to my Software Testing course – not something I ever thought I’d be involved in, my ‘techy’ computer knowledge is terrible, or so I thought….. turns out it’s quite easy really!!

Amazing food – check out our afternoon tea

thursday

Another no clue about rowing day, but there was more testing

friday christmas party

Last day of my course! 33/40 in our mock exam

Then the Rowing Club Christmas party – was great fun, lots of drinking and dancing. There was some cartwheeling which wasn’t without incident, but I wasn’t involved in that!!!

I don’t have any photos of the party (there must be some somewhere??) but I’m sure she won’t me sharing her involvement in the pre-party decorating

sat rest day

Thank goodness for a random rest day! I think it’s fair to say not many of the Novice girls achieved all that much today.

sun 2x water sweep and skull

We were right back at it today though – 2 sessions out on the water – one lot of sweeping and another skulling – beautiful day, some comparison of random bruises and piecing of the night together

 

Let’s see what I can remember from 16-22nd Nov

Monday 16th – sleep in, text from Joe, immigration, no key, bootcamp, green parrot

Those are the clues….. I slept in (ie didn’t set my alarm for 5:20am), Texted my rowing coach, got a reply…… got a phone call from Immigration saying my work visa application had been approved – hurrah can stay for at least another year in NZ – collected passport for can go to Oz at end of week. Did bootcamp to make up for missing training in the morning (hideous circuits trying to beat previous time each time round) and then went to the Green Parrot to celebrate – amazing steak!!!

Tuesday –

There would have been some training in the evening…….

Wednesday

According to my calendar – hair cut and then rowing…..

Thursday sydney – early training rhys

Here I have more of a clue – went to Sydney!!!! But first did some erging with my bf (trying to correct his technique) then a monster breakfast out, a mad pack, trip to the airport, flight to Sydney and then a drive to the Blue Mountains – stopped at a really yummy Thai restaurant on the way, but sadly no idea where or what it was called….. The temperature difference between Welling (17) and Sydney (27) was amazing, so warm, every time we got out of the car we were reminded of how warm it was (compared to the aircon in the car!!) We drove out to the Blue Mountains and stayed at a really friendly hostel called the Flying Fox in Katoomba – was late when we arrived, so time for a glass of wine and a sleep!

friday

For some reason we were both awake stupidly early, but was to be a blessing in disguise – temperatures of nearly 40 degrees C were forecast so it was good to get up and out before it got too hot. Took a walk down to see the view at Echo Point – it didn’t disappoint and even better there was no-one else there!!

We wandered back for our free breakfast – amazing yummy bread and jam and cups of tea. Spent the day exploring, went to see Gordon Falls – a bit of a disappointment, but with the weather it shouldn’t have been surprising there wasn’t that much water!

Lunch was at a yummy veggie/vegan place in Katoomba. In the afternoon we were in Leura and spotted a sign for a vegan restaurant open in the evening – was upstairs in the mall, popped our heads in and it looked great, so that’s where we went for dinner – after an evening stroll back at Echo Point.

Food was delicious, was even dessert – we got 2 to share and thankfully both preferred different ones!!

 

saturday TM

Tough Mudder!!!! Our reason for being in Australia. It was held in Glenworth Valley just under 2hr drive away from the Blue Mountains – was a lovely drive, but we only had the map they gave us when we hired the car…… it took us most of the way, but not the vital end bit….. we had no data on our phones, was getting a bit tense as to whether we’d missed a turning/not gone far enough when out the corner of my eye I spotted a sign (I thought) for Glenworth Valley, we turned off the main road and there were no signs, we drove, no signs, then turned around to retrace our steps when thankfully I spotted a sign from another road pointing to Glenworth Valley, with much relief we followed that and were soon surrounded by people all heading in the same direction!

This was my second Tough Mudder to participate, but my 3rd after volunteering in Auckland last year – spent 2 great days manning the Cage Crawl (Day 1 and Day 2).

My first TM was in the UK and was soooooo much fun and I’d trained so hard for it, this time, I’ve been training for rowing and hoped that would be enough!! My report for the UK was obstacle by obstacle, but without the memory of Nikki to help me this is far less detailed!!

It was fun, it was hard, it was wet, muddy and shocking (of the electrical kind) was well worth the travel to get there and everything that went before.

My favorite obstacle this time was the mud mile – mud banks to climb over before plunging into muddy water to climb up another bank (and repeat). Least fav was Arctic Enema – plunging into a skip filled with water and ice, ducking underneath a divider and climbing out – loved it first time round, this time freaked out, panic breathing, horrible – the smile in the photo above is misleading!

Had 2 showering sessions to attempt to get the mud off before changing into clean/dry clothes. Then drove to Sydney, parked up and found our hostel (our room more like a hotel) for the night – by the train station – Bounce. Had an ensuite and white towels….. they may rethink that for next year – any TM people should just get old towels. Despite the previous 2 showers there was still mud to be found, lots of it – I was finding mud in my ears and nose for days…….

sunday

After a v solid nights sleep we were up early for breakfast – got to see a steam train leaving the station from our view over the railway tracks in the hostel’s fab kitchen.

Then packed away our stuff, carried it back to the car before heading off to our treat for the day – a Jet Blast Ride in and around the harbour. This was so much fun, the time flew by, we got a little soggy, but then we did sit right at the front!!

The rest of the day we walked to the Rocks, the Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Botanical Gardens, back down Pitt Street and we were done.

When I say done, I mean could walk no more, had seen as much of Sydney as we could do.

Time to head to the airport and back to Wellington…… arrived back at 11pm and we were home for 1am. What a great trip away 🙂

 

Peak week, but kind of cheating

So, this has been sat in my drafts folder for well over a month now……

Monday – sleep in, text from Joe, immigration, no key, bootcamp, green parrot

Tuesday –

Wednesday

Thursday sydney – early training rhys

friday

saturday TM

sunday

 

Monday – lie in landed 11pm, home 1am

Tuesday

Wednesday

thursday

friday christmas party

sat rest day

sun 2x water sweep and skull

 

monday

tuesday 2k test

wed

thu boat loading 6x 1min

fri rest and wanganui – Jury Cup

Sat – race

Sun – train/travel

What more info do you need for 3 weeks worth of my life??!!!

9th November – James Bond week

Monday out in the 8 ghost rowing – loved it – the concept of pushing with the legs and doing nothing with the arms is doing wonders for my blisters, or complete lack of new ones – going to stick with this!!

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/951734356

Tuesday on the ergs, horrible weather, horrible 2km pieces, 3 of them…….

Had a shocker. The first was fine. Rating 24 for 1000m and 26 for 1000m. The second I couldn’t breath at 1000km (at 26), stopped, cried and after some friendly encouragement pulled it back together for the last 1000m (at 28). The third I managed 1000m at 28 and some at 30 before again my breathing went haywire, missed about 10 strokes getting by breathing back and then finished – I was amazed – I finished before quite a few people, so if I can sort out my breathing and keep up that pace I’ll be pretty chuffed with myself.

So, not much to celebrate about rowing, but I did get my work visa for another year, so was allowed out for chocolate cake 🙂

Wednesday – I slept in for a whole hour….. woke at 6:20am thinking it’s a bit light outside and sure enough it was. Quick text to my coach stating the obvious – I’m late! It was a mad dash to get dressed and drive into town and to training. I arrived at the club to find all the ergs full, so was sent on a 20minute run (here) while the others finished what they were up to. When they did it was my turn – all by myself (totally my own fault) – 40/20s 3 lots of 10 – it was HARD. The others had looked broken by the end and they had each other for company. It was a good exercise in not letting myself talk myself into quitting or taking it easy – no point in getting up late, coming to training and not doing it properly – may as well have stayed in bed for that.

Thursday – really enjoyed today. We started with a fun abs session – all 10 of us got to pick our favorite abs thing to do and we did it for 2mins, high knees in between! Then we had a really great team chat about race plans and how things are going to work going forwards before getting into some erging putting that plan into action – hard work, but fun – I love chats like that, made me feel really excited about rowing and it’s always good to remember why we’re doing all this training!

Friday – rest day, but also James Bond Day!!!!!!! As a fundraiser for the club we sold tickets to a special screening of the new James Bond film, Spectre. Was at the Penthouse in Brooklyn, nice arthouse-type cinema, v comfy seats and free wine 🙂 Really fun, but with a 7am start was home straight afterwards for an early night

Saturday – 7am start but rowing in Petone so a quick cycle and I was there – early – early enough to make me double check facebook to check I’d got the time right as no one else was there…… We had rather a rough row in the 8 (the waves not our technique (so much)). I was on bow side (my less favorite side) and have discovered that the feeling I’ve been getting of ‘catching’ the water before I put my oar in properly and I’ve been trying to correct is what I actually should be feeling (it’s called getting backsplash). Good to know if slightly frustrating to have been thinking it was wrong all this time…..

The afternoon was given over to the important job of cider tasting. A magazine (Capital) had got in touch with our coach and wanted to know if he could find 10 women who’d be prepared to try about 20 ciders….. he wasn’t short of volunteers! It was a really fun afternoon of tasting, commenting and trying to think where we pictured ourselves drinking these ciders, what landmarks or personalities did they remind us of……. we got better as time went on – some were really yummy, one or 2 were certainly not, but I’m now a firm fan of berry ciders – yum

Sunday – erging – it was hard, I wanted to give up, we did 3 sets, only a short way into the 2nd and I was willing to give up and go home, but talked myself through it and somehow held on through the 3rd. Next week is peak week….. help!

 

Feels like a short week after camp

actually a long week though……. it’s 13 days

Tuesday water – race starts – with Nina, packed away in record time

Wednesday water – power strokes – fun with Joe

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/941131938

Thursday – recovering from kidney bean poisoning

Friday rest day

Saturday Petone Regatta – 4 – shelly B, novice 8 win, quad cancelled, no sunburn

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/944879467 – v stressful being stroke in a 4, the first time I’d been in one since we last raced in Porirua. Went ok, we didn’t die or fall out (just about didn’t anyway……

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/944879482 – the horrible 8 we had at Corporate – Shelly B, crab-a-rama, but awesome cox, nice and calming and we got there to a win!

Sunday – up stupidly early to watch the All Blacks, snooze, 10am on water working on the legs

Monday 6am start “gentle run” and then sprints on the ergs

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/944879497

Tuesday 2km test – I knocked good 3 seconds off my last time, again an awesome cox who kept me going – getting closer to being under 8mins – I WILL get there

Wednesday – can’t remember – something inside – certainly on the ergs……..

Thursday on the water in an 8……. need to keep up with this blog……

Friday boat loading

Saturday, up at 5:30 to head to the Manawatu for the day. Row, BBQ breakfast, more rowing – amazing, lovely flat water and lots of time to work on technique – loved it. Somehow managed to burn the back of my legs though……

Early morning Wellington

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/951734327

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/951734344

At the river

Sunday – weights and watts – really enjoyed it – not done weights for ages and really pushed myself with the arm work. Not worked out the watts on the ergs yet – managed 308 need to be closer to 400…….

Week 10 – swim test and Wanganui Camp

Monday – water – arms only fast, arms and bodies fast – feet out – hard!

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Tuesday – on the ergs – 5 rounds of 10x 40-20s (40 seconds hard rowing/20seconds rest) then a swim test. I nearly passed out at the end of the 2nd round, was pleased there was only 2 more to go then realised we were doing 5…. not a fun night. Was some concern about the swim test – we’ve all seen the jellyfish in the water……

The water was freeeeeezing cold, had to be in for 5 minutes brrrrrrr

Wednesday – water?

Thursday – boat loading

Friday – Drive to Wanganui – it being a long weekend, we delayed leaving until gone 7pm, but it was windy and rainy, we didn’t get there until around 10pm. People were just settling down – we were staying at the Union Boat Club in their club room. Had an awesome mattress to sleep on, it just needed blowing up – v noisy in a v quiet room…….. amazing sleep though!

We had 3 rows on each full day of camp- 2 hours on the water, 2 hours off. We mostly worked on our catches and finishes – amazing to row so much and felt massive improvement – I actually like bow side now I’ve done it a bit more.

Saturday – The Novices had the early start – 6am – out on the water for 2 hours before getting back to get some breakfast – went shopping with some of the boys to get poached egg materials – yum!!!!!  3x rows, 1x floating cow, pasta dinner, blisters, nappy cream

No idea what this row was – might have been me coxing for the novice men – just proof we were there!

Sunday – late row – 8am start! 3x rows (2nd row 3rd row), 1x cow, sheep, more blisters, BBQ, John visited, bed by 9:30

Monday – 6am start – 1x row, no animals, 1 more blister, wash everything down, pack up, drive home and unload – absolutely shattered……

From the drive home