As the first rower to post on this website, I’ll quickly catch you up on our season so far. We officially started on February 14th at midnight, after months of training on our own. As the clock struck midnight, we ran as a team into the field house and began our first practice. Since then, we have been working hard every morning in the KSC. We’ve erged, run stairs, spun, erged, run, swingulated, erged, lifted (or “pumpin’ iron’” as Olivia calls it), completed circuits, erged, done video review, core circuits, erged, and yoga (spending quality time in corpse pose).
This morning we wrapped up our third week of winter training with a 2K and full team circuit. Coogs, Jess, Gaby, Rachel R, Camille, Hailey, Kristen, Sarah H, Olivia, Bryn, Jen and Maggie W all PRed on their 2ks (that’s 12 people/1.5 boats!). The fastest times of the morning went to first-year varsity rower Lyndsey and first-year novice rower Rachel. Overall the team average is 7.7 seconds faster then at this point last year!!
A couple more exciting numbers:
· 8 days until we christen our brand new resolute 8+
· 13 days until we leave for our spring training trip
· 21 days until our first race (against Washington college)
Some other exciting things that can’t go without mention:
The ice on the Charles is getting thinner every day. On Monday a dog fell through the ice. Two good things that emerge from this story: first, the dog was saved by Cambridge firefighter and second, this proves the ice is getting super thin (it can’t even hold up a dog) so, we should be back on the water any day now…
Coogs, Bamy, Dodge, and DJVal (I never realized how much this team really likes nicknames) raced at Crash B’s. Coogs PRed-- making that 3 PRs in 3 weeks!
Ally, Becca K, and Kathryn all rejoined us this week from their winter sports squash, basketball and diving respectively. Ally had a strong first half of her senior squash season but was sidelined for the second half due to injury. Becca K had a strong basketball season, making it to the quarterfinals of the NEWMAC tournament. Kathryn , despite spending the majority of the two weeks prior recovering from a concussion, finished twelfth at NEWMACs.
Lyndsey learned when to use her arms on the erg this week—yes, this is the same Lyndsey who pulled the fastest 2K on the entire team this morning. Finally, during video review, after weeks of being told to straighten her arms when erging, she asked Regan “So when are you supposed to use your arms?” Congratulations Lyndsey for winning the “Are you kidding me?” award of the week.
Susan (aka Tex), a junior rower and coxswain, participated in the “Disney Princess Half Marathon” with her family over the weekend in Florida. I think everyone was a bit jealous of her sunny vacation, albeit brief.
Finally, my roommate, a non-rower, would definitely say this is the most exciting thing of the entire year- we got laundry loops. Now the staff at the KSC will wash our practice clothes. This is a big, exciting, step forward for the personal hygiene of the blue crew team. Now if only we can get Casey to shower...
That’s all for now. We have a long weekend away from crew (alright, not that long, just no Saturday practice) and we will be taking full advantage of the free time to catch up on work and spend time with friends.
-Becca Freeman-Slade 14’
