Glad and Sad

Second rowing class this morning.

We spent some time watching a video on how to go through a wake properly, water safety, and people falling out of boats. This has a name, but I forget it. A cat? Catch? I don't know. Rowing has weird terms. And I thought the word "gait" was weird?!

Then we went back to the ergs to work on our technique. First arms, then arms and back, then arms, back, and legs.

Arms back legs
Legs back arms

This I chanted to myself (in my head!) as I "rowed." I did so much better today! I don't know why. But I didn't get any kind of advice except to use my long arms, back, and legs. Hee!

Then we brought the boat down to the water. Yeah the boat bringing down is still a pain in the ass. More like pain in the shoulder. It's so odd, sometimes it seems super-light and others I feel like I'm carrying the whole thing by myself. Part of it is the angle--we have to bring the boat down and up a ramp to get to the river. Part of it is where you stand--this time, we arranged ourselves by height, which was supposed to help. I'm not so sure it did?

We didn't leave the dock this time either, but we did more in the boats than we did on Monday -- arms and back, and this time we added legs to it. You sort of row in a rectangle, a long thin rectangle. A good way to think of it, Peter said, is like using a rolling pin.

A really big, kind of unwieldy rolling pin with a big, uh, fin at the end.

But that kind of helped.

Kind of.

I happened to be at the front of the boat and people were following my motions. That's kind of what you do when you're rowing. Scary! It's like being the aerobics instructor, without the mirrors. And without proper training. Or coordination. Or those creepy mirrors. (You can tell I was never a big fan of group fitness classes.)

What I was having problems with was the point at which the the oar goes in the water. (Ha, she doesn't have both oars in the water--isn't that the "she's stupid" metaphor?) As I'm typing it, it goes back to the erg -- once you reach in and your body is forward and your legs come in, then the oar goes in and... you push BACK! And through! And it is fun!

And then we learned going backwards. To switch from front to back and back to front is a lot more difficult than it looks. I kind of fear what's going to happen when we get in the water. Did you know rowers don't use lifejackets? I never noticed that, but they don't. Peter or someone will be in a boat alongside us when we go out on the river for the first time.

The boat (named Tammy Faye, by the way) seats 8, but there are 11 of us in the class. I guess that's supposed to account for no-shows and dropouts, but I am thinking that I want to be in the boat as often as possible.

I am however glad that it's the last time this week I will have to get up THAT early. 6 a.m. is going to seem like, late to me.

Speaking of wakes: Maybe it was a beautiful morning, but it seemed a little easier to get up. I'm not saying waking up at 4:50 is something I'm excited about doing (at all) but it didn't seem as shitty as it did on Monday. I wonder why.