Monday it was too windy to go out there. There were whitecaps. So a few of us used the ergs and then I left, drove home, changed and went for a 4-mile run. Too windy to row = wonderful to run. Cloudy, breezy, felt good.
They will tack an extra, make-up class onto the end, but I'll be unable to go that day. So either we can apply it to another class or just get $15 back (10 classes are $150). I haven't decided which I am going to do. More on that later.
Monday I was up late and so woke up too late on Tuesday to get my run in. I went in the evening. By then it had cleared up and it was hot! I think running in the heat (and when you run, 70 and sunny = heat!) is something I will always have a hard time getting used to.
Since I moved to Portland right around the time I started running (outside, as opposed to treadmill), I don't know if it's that I got used to the cool vs. the hot or that I just got older and less able to deal with the heat or quite frankly if I've become a big fucking wuss...but I like cloudy + 50s/60s. At least to run in. If I want sunny and hot, I also want an umbrella drink in hand.
Or to be on the water.
Because this morning it was cool, and a little bit breezy. Certainly not as windy as Monday (and ironically, Tuesday, the day I don't have class, the water was super-calm and still). It was definitely the choppiest water we'd been in.
Rowing this morning was a pain in the ass (and, I suppose, the wrist).
Today was one of those days that you just don't have confidence. We learned to feather the oars, which I still haven't mastered. Feathering basically means you slightly angle the oar by twisting your wrist when the oar comes out of the water. I can't remember which wrist it is, I think it's the inside. Let me find a link that, once again, explains it better than I can.
Oh! Look! Wikipedia to the rescue. Not only does it describe the feather, but it also describes what I haven't yet tried to explain about the "catch" and such:
The two fundamental reference points in the anatomy of a rowing stroke are the
catch where the oar blade is placed in the water, and the extraction (also known as the 'finish', 'release' or 'tapping down') where the oar blade is removed from the water. After the blade is placed in the water at the catch, the rower applies pressure
to the oar levering the boat forward which is called the drive phase of the
stroke. Once the rower extracts the oar from the water, the recovery phase begins,
setting up the rower's body for the next stroke.
And here's the feathering info:
sweep oar rowers usually feather and square the oar with the inside hand (the
one closer to the rowlock), allowing the handle to turn within the outside hand, whose wrist remains flat throughout.
I totally did this wrong. I think. My wrists were sore, which is how I know. How are one's wrists sore? I don't know, but I can tell you that it is possible.
What feathering meant to me is that you turn the oar so that the blade is flat and then turn it back to straight before you dip it back into the water.
I don't know, at least I wasn't behind the guy who doesn't know what he's doing. And continues to not know what he's doing. He kept getting called out "Slow down!"
And the boat wouldn't balance, and it wasn't my fault, so that every time I tried to row the bot would go all cockeyed and I couldn't get my stroke right. And then we didn't have a cox today, so folks took turns steering. We need a cox. We're all pretty sad silly novice rowers. We need cox. Ha. That's funny.
Anyway, I knew today would be like one of those days, we were told it would be one of those days.
So now I might go to Seattle in August for a regatta. There is a category for novices who have not learned to row before June 1. I'm tempted; the houseguests I thought we were going to have might move until Labor Day weekend. We'll see. I might know more today.
I also haven't decided if I want to do an intermediate class. If so, I'd do the one in the evenings. Getting up that early is freaking tough. But then I'm glad I'm up.
I'm indecisive today.
Speaking of indecisive, I've been thinking about the next thing I'll try. It probably should be riding a bike.
But here's the thing: I don't own a bike, or have access to a bike. Or a helmet, for that matter, and there is no way I am getting on a bike without a helmet. Getting to a bike might take me some time. And I have visions of falling off it and then fucking up my chances to run a good marathon. Stranger things have happened.
I want to see if any bike shops would be interested. I want to pitch it as more of an article too, I need to get on that.
Okay, today is a rambling kind of post. I'll think of it as a freewrite for the other writing I'm about to start.
Maybe after lunch.
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