4 weeks to go until Women’s Henley…
Last week has been a tough one: no rest after the training camp at Henley and we were back on the water on Monday evening.
I know only few weeks separate us from one of the main rowing events of the season but I’m still impressed with the level of commitment that the girls are showing at each outing.
We had some technical sessions during the week, visited the gym a couple of times, finally had a rest on Friday and some more intensive outings at the weeken
d.
On Saturday morning I once again remembered why I love this sport: after months and months of cold weather, England has suddenly rediscovered the heat and, believe me I’m Italian after all, it was a pleasure. Plus with the men’s squad away at Henley seat racing and it being too early for anybody else to have even had their breakfast, the water was there just for us.
Perfectly flat like a mirror. Inviting.
But the idyllic moment was broken when our coaches laid out the plan for the day.
Both Saturday and Sunday proved quite strenuous. One session in particular, the last one, included 20 minutes – 1 minute on (flat out) and 1 minute off. During the pieces the feedback I could give to my crew using the Coxmate SCT proved once again to be exceptional: every minute we rowed max out we knew what our split was in the previous minute and that gave us a benchmark to measure ourselves against.
And if every single stroke of every single outing that leads to Henley is defining our crew, our potential and at the end our chance to succeed – then pushing ourselves beyond our limits will hopefully make the difference.
This week we have more water outings, more gym sessions… let’s only hope that it stays warm!
Diego Colantoni
City of Bristol Rowing Club – cox
Next: Racing at HWR