Wow, it's 5th Week...

[Aletta Warne]

....and this is only my third post. I do apologise.

So, it's been just over three weeks now and what a lot has happened! Abingdon became rowable again after a frustrating two week spell of ergs, circuits, ergs, runs, more ergs - never the most popular of training schedules, but an effective use of otherwise dead red-flag time. Since then we have utilised our water time well, concentrating on finding a good rhythm and length, first at lower rates and then for short bursts as well as in longer pieces. The Torpids 1st VIII was decided about 2 weeks ago and since then outings have been as a crew. The land training continues to go well with a healthy squad of 11, with erg scores improving every session and our now-standard circuits warm up at a thigh-pumping 10 minutes of squats.

Last weekend, the 1st VIII went to Bedford Head to compete over the 2km course in two divisions. Unfortunately, both our cox and coach were taken ill at the last minute, so couldn't accompany us - but thankfully the senior men's cox offered his services, enabling us to compete. The day was an overall success. It was the first taste of external racing for all of us, and the first of our races as a crew. Everyone gave it their all, and even though our times weren't fantastic, it was invaluable to be able to get two long, hard pieces done at high rate in a race situation. We now know what it feels like to row solidly for 2km and are starting to get the feel for what coxing calls get us moving as a crew, and which ones are less motivating or technically useful. Putting the crew in a high-rate, high-power situation also meant we could see where our technique starts to fray as we get tired - things to perfect over the next two weeks.

The crew are glad to have raced and are not despondent about our times or the things we need to work on. Quite to the contrary, they are spurred on by their first race of the year; more focused and determined to arrive at the bung line come Wednesday of Torpids ready for four hard, but good rows. The change in our training is definitely helping. As erg intervals get shorter and starts begin to appear in our outing plans, the crew can smell Torpids just around the corner - and they're hungry for some 'slow boats' meat.