Two Days into Staging Camp

We have had two full days of training since arriving on Monday. It has been extremely hard to acclimatise to the weather. It has been very hot and humid which is something that my MS doesn’t really like. Thank god for ice vests, which has come in handy to try and cool my core body temperature!

I think the other thing is the jet lag. It just seems that we have no punch/strength in the legs. It is important to get our bodies right as this is what we need to drive the boat. The Sport Science member of our entourage is Tony Rice and he has been monitoring our recovery since arriving. This involves making sure that we are hydrated, checking our weight, making sure that we are sleeping at the right times and eating properly. With massage and physio available to us there is no way that we won’t be ready to race!

We had two sessions on Tuesday and with each row we seem to get a bit better. The boat is so different from what we are used to and this has caused us to be a bit unbalanced. But the more we row the better it gets.

It was very interesting on Tuesday as while we were on the water the Italian coach was in a speed boat and filming us. We are such an unknown entity and as we are training at the same facility as the Italian LTA4+ (our competition), they want to know everything they can about us. Actually it is quite flattering to think that they may be worried about us, so much so that they want to film us!

The other good thing we have available is the use of a tank. For those not into rowing a tank is used indoors to teach rowing strokes in either a scull or sweep boat. It is literally a tank full of water with a “pretend” boat down the centre with oars that have wire blades. This allows you to row with the coach nearby to physically change your position, something that would be impossible on the water. This has become very valuable as we have each been able to have one on one coaching with Pedro to fine tune our strokes.

After dinner on Tuesday we decided it was time to try out the local Gelato. Well I have never tasted anything so good! We sat outside at the shop and shared a few minutes with the men’s Quad. In this crew is David Crawshay, who was celebrating his 30th birthday, so we wished him well. The man who ran the shop had a good laugh at us as we tried to pronounce the names of the different flavours! But we managed to get what we had ordered!

Wednesday morning there was the most blood red sunrise I have ever seen. Unfortunately the picture does not do it justice, but it certainly told of a hot day to come. We had a session in the morning and by the end of the session we had the boat moving better than we ever had before. We had done a couple of different drills and I honestly believe that this is what got us moving. I also think that we are getting more used to the boat and also getting our body clocks back on track.

Our afternoon session was a pool recovery session. We did half an hour in the pool with some ice bath sessions after our swim. This was the most wonderful way to cool down! Ice baths tend to do that to you!

The drive back and forth to the sheds amazes me each time we do it. Each time I see something different. As I have said before the roads are very narrow and when passing cyclists (of which there are too many to count) you could almost reach out and pat their bottoms! Some of the roads have very old brick walls right up to the edge of the bitumen. As we drive along we pass a number of old churches and see numerous locals hanging around local “Taverna’s”, I know that I want to one day come back and stop to have a look at these beautiful and interesting places.

The other thing that was absolutely amazing yesterday was the Swiss Alps. It was clear as a bell and we were able to see the tops of the mountains which had snow still on the top of them. I just wish that I had a zoom lens on my camera to get a photo of them!

Tomorrow we have two race pieces that we have to do, similar to ones we did in Sydney before we left. So I know I am eager to see if we can surpass those times and prognostics now that we are only 11 days away from the start of the World Championships. I look forward to proving that we can go even faster!

The day has seemed really long, with the sad news from home about my cousin and the training sessions as well as a physio session, so my tired body is looking forward to the night hours. Talk to you all again soon.