Feeling the Burn
The last four weeks have been long, hot and draining. The weather has been heading steadily towards Australian summer, hats and sunscreen have become an essential part of training kit.
The squad has had their first on water races of the season and have just been racing for three weekends in succession. The racing has gone excellently, the squad aiming for the Fawley remains undefeated in the quad for now, whilst also achieving some fantastic results in small boats. As a result of our racing, we are confident that we are the fastest crew in two of the major Australian rowing states, a fact that we find very reassuring. We’re looking forward to racing in the new year, going further afield to challenge ourselves in other states before heading to the Australian National Championships with the aim of qualifying for HRR. All being well, we’re even more excited to come and test ourselves against the best crews around in the Fawley.
As I write this, the school has just finished the final term of the year, and we are heading into the summer holidays over Christmas and into the new year. After such a busy term, the boys are tired, and fatigue is beginning to show in their erg scores and water work. We believe that they are fitter and faster than they were at the start of term, but scores are suffering after multiple racing weekends and all the travel that comes as part and parcel of rowing in a country as big as Australia. Thankfully, with the summer break looming, they will have plenty of time to recharge and revitalise before coming back and racing again in the new year. We won’t be back to regular training until February, when the new term starts.
This is the period that could make or break the campaign for us – a well-managed break will see the quad on track to hit peak speed at our national championships in March in order to qualify for Henley but slacking during the holidays has the potential to undo all the hard work that we’ve done over the last 6 months.
We’ve got plans in place to manage this. The squad shall be attending two weeklong summer training camps, one before Christmas and one in mid-January, where they will have the opportunity to get a great deal of work done in the racing crews. They’ll be doing three sessions a day, every day over the camps, including some seat racing and time trials to determine the crew selection. As a coach, I’m expecting to see a significant jump in boat speed as a result of these two dedicated weeks. The camps also make the 6 weeks of non-contact less threatening, by cutting it down to only 4 weeks broken up by training periods. We know that the boys will be working incredibly hard the two camp weeks, and this shifts the balance for the remaining weeks towards carefully managed rest and recovery, combined with some base fitness work to keep us ticking over. A much easier prospect for both myself as a coach and for the athletes too.
We’re all incredibly excited to hit the camps hard, get the final crew line up selected, settled in and come out into the new term with our best foot forwards. I know that I’m eager to get out there on the water and enjoy the summer sun between the patches of well-earned rest for the squad.
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