Blood sweat and tears, seriously this is what I have been going through the past few weeks. As well  I have started rowing again coincidence?  Sounds like fun doesn’t it. I will explore this decision today as I get back to my neglected blog. To say that I have been fulfilled with my actions in the outside world after the Olympics has been a notion I regularly ponder.  To be successful at something I believe we need to find an avenue at which best aligns our skills and our motivation to achieve said avenue. And this is why I have started to embark on my journey back into the rowing scene, or at least steps toward figuring out how and why I may continue with this life choice.

Pulling the oars off the rack for the first time in more than a year was a chilling experience. Firstly I had forgotten my sandals and I was walking barefooted on the cement dock at the UBC boathouse and furthermore there was a medium to high wind blowing from the north.  As I walked my oars to the edge of the dock I started to wonder if I could even remember how to row in a single.  I spent most of my time rowing in a two man boat called a pair (each oarsman had one oar) now I was in a boat where I had two oars. As well, the single is narrower and shorter making it very tippy and unpredictable in wavy windy conditions.  Well I can report I did not entirely forget how to row, and except for a few bobbles here and there, by the end the boat was pretty stable and each stroke was cleanly exiting the water and the blades (oars) were not touching the water on the recovery!

The feeling of a balanced single scull is a splendid skill, for the inexperienced rower this may take years of practice to accomplish with any sort of consistency. Now I am not trying to brag…too much, but I hope to give credibility to the sport and its complexity.  This comes in the form of power and finesse, power begin the most important part, but without any finesse the rower will ultimately loose too much energy fixing balance and forcing a high stroke rate.  So for me to row and hear the sound or small droplets of water falling off your oar on the water during the recovery phase of the stroke just after powering through the drive was music to my ears. The sound gave me knowledge that I was doing the right things, I’m not saying I was going at a world record speed, but to the untrained eye I was rowing!

So what’s about this blood sweat and tears business you may ask. Well, just picking up the boat and putting it on the water can sometimes break a small sweat, let alone the 15 km rowing . Sweat is not a big deal; it’s the other two that can cause some concern.  The blood, caused by popped blisters on my hands from pulling on the oar handles. This is common after not rowing for some time, since my hands lost their large callus’ which had developed from years of training. Now what was only left to protect my hands was thin layer of flesh to protect my underlying bones.

And the tear business, well that is just something which comes with a bit of embarrassment. I would like to say I was training so hard I was crying but I have only had one or two moments in my life where I have been able to take myself into those depths.  My tear/ weeping comes from an event which is actually unrelated to rowing, but worth mentioning I think.  I was helping my landlord carry my hot water tank out of my apartment the other day and when I was walking through the doorway my left pinky toe smashed into the door jamb. Clumsy yes, but not improbable as the water tank was obscuring my view.  I managed to keep hold of the water tank and then taka few more steps until we had made it to our landing spot.

Stubbing your toe can hurt, but it probably won’t kill you, but what might do some damage is what happened next. When I looked down at my foot, I was not wearing any shoes, my foot looked wider than normal and there was a searing pain developing. What had happened was my pinky toe had been completely de-hinged and was facing perpendicular in direction of my other toes…. Not something you ever want to see. And at that point, a flash of anxiety ran through my body resulting in what some may call weeping (mild, of course).  I thought it was broken but when I touched it, it sprang back into place from its sideways position! Lesson: wear shoes when carrying hot water heaters out of the door!

It has since returned to normal function, not without some challenges though, I have stubbed it at least 5 more times in the coming 2 weeks. I am not used to its swelled size, and I continue to not notice where it is in relation to my foot….OK enough whining

After putting in some more time with my training I figured this is only one part of the rowing scene and to really gauge if I liked the sport I would have to also enter a race. So it was decided that I would enter the National championship in London On, on Nov 4th.  I had decided the single may not be the best option for me to race in and after talking to a few old teammates I decided to enter the Men’s pair with x -teammate Pete Dembicki.  We put in a couple of training sessions together before racing and things were looking positive.  Not Awesome, but positive ;)

Arriving in London we had one session together before we were able to try our skills out against the rest of the nation’s best rowers.  The weather was very cold and we even had a day of racing delayed due to the weather! At the very least this gave us a bit of extra time to row together and find out some key strengths in our final races.  We raced hard and had a not bad National championship. We ended up placing First in the B final…not exactly perfection, but with our limited time together and lack of fulltime commitment to training I think we had a solid performance.

The overall result is I still love the sport and have continued to keep training and keep up with my fitness. My plan is to work hard on my own during the winter months and when I am expected to be back in camp I will be there ready and willing to go!