For those of you who are available and wish to train during the holidays, we have been given the go-ahead to train at Leander Boat Club.  We are only able to accommodate about 26 athletes per session.  The dates available to us are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday December 21, 22, 23 from 8am-10am and December 28, 29, 30 from 8am-10am.  I will spend some time Thursday and Friday mornings seeing who is available over the break and sending out a schedule as quickly as I can.  Everybody will get a minimum of 2 of those sessions.  There could possibly be more, depending on the numbers we get.

We don’t make any of these sessions mandatory.  However, we’ve done some really good work to this point and the last thing we want to do is regress over the holidays, so I would HIGHLY recommend doing this, especially the novices.  Leander has a rowing tank (which is a pool with a rowing unit attached…so we will actually be able to teach you how to row).  This will be invaluable when the spring time comes.  There will also be erg and weights components to these sessions.  All in all, an excellent way to keep up your training and forge ahead.

A note on ergs and erg tests.  We will be finishing off our Fall testing Thursday morning for those who have not pulled the test.  A BIG majority of the novices made significant improvements on their last test.  WELL DONE!!!  Those who didn’t, in all likelihood, went out WAY too fast and couldn’t sustain that crazy pace and wound up paying for it later.  I can’t stress this enough for the next test:  KNOW what time you want to get, KNOW what the split is to achieve that time, and STICK TO THE SPLIT!  If you’re doing it properly, you should find the first 750 metres relatively easy.  The next 750 will be harder and the last 500 will feel like you’re hanging on.  If you’re hanging on and have 1600 metres left, then you’ve gone out way too fast!

As for ergs, they are the bitter medicine of our sport.  Nobody likes doing them, but if we want to have success in rowing and be competitive in our outdoor racing, we need to do as many of them as we can.  In rowing, MILES MAKE CHAMPIONS and the more miles we put on the erg, the better our chances for success.  You are not the only rowers who hate the ergs.  When I coached in New Zealand, all the rowers hated the ergs.  When I coached at Havergal, all the rowers hated the ergs.  But they embraced the concept and did them.  And because of that, many of them carted home gold medals from national championship regattas.  We’re not asking you to love them.  We’re asking you to do them.  In the new year, we will again be allotted some afternoon erg times.  We will be diligent in getting as many of you as possible on these sessions with the goal of getting faster and giving you as much of a chance as possible of making a good crew and going for gold once the spring hits.  Don’t be afraid of going fast!!