Next Stop...Staging Camp

Our last camp before we join the Senior A team for the staging camp finished yesterday. What a week it was!

After our rest on Friday afternoon we were all ready and looking forward to our 1000m race piece on Saturday morning. Or at least we thought we were! As a crew we had worked out what our top stroke rate should be for us and we were told to leave it at that and not try to rate faster. We had Ben, our Arms only rower in the lane beside us and he was sent off 95 seconds before us, we then had to chase him down. The row didn't feel too bad but I honestly don't think that any of us were completely spent at the end of it and we should have been! We did catch Ben and pass him but we realized after that row that we needed to do a hell of a lot more.

We headed back up the course to the start where we stopped and had a chat. Lisa had us do some pairs work on the way back down, trying to make the movements much smoother. Then once the pairs work was done we went into all four rowing. This was much better than the piece we had just done. We were to have two more sessions on Saturday, however Alex's hip was giving her some problems and rather than damaging her any more than need we cut that down to one session. It was more important to make sure that everyone in the crew was healthy as it is so close to the race that counts! We did row in the afternoon and took what we had done at the end of the morning session, into the afternoon. It actually felt the best we had rowed at steady state.

After a week of absolutely beautiful weather we awoke on Sunday morning to an overcast sky and rain. It was also very cold. We were to do two 500m pieces in the morning session and these were to be at race pace. We all had a chat about taking the good rowing we had done the day before and continuing that on but this time, unlike our 1000m, we had to give it our all and have nothing left at the end.

The first 500m, we had a fantastic start and the row felt amazing. We were all very happy with it and I can tell you that I certainly didn't have much left in the legs when it was over. Pedro wanted us to head back up the course, cross over at the 750m mark and then do the second 500m. Well this time the start wasn't great but the row itself felt awesome! When we were done, Pedro asked us how we thought it was, I did yell over to him that it felt awesome. It turns out that it was the fastest 500m we had ever done and the second 250m of it was our fastest ever split! Awesome!!! What a way to finish off a week long camp.

A couple of the Junior girls from the Quad came over to the sheds and gave us "high fives" saying that they had seen us row the last 500m and that it had looked fantastic! The fact that they took the time to come over and let us know, made me feel pretty damn good, as I am sure it did the others. They also told Henry that he had stroked it magnificently...this put a huge smile on his face!

We did have one more row before the camp ended but this was a short, steady state row just to finish off. Once the boat was washed and put away it was time to say goodbye to everyone, but only for 6 days.

It has been a tough week for everyone. By the end of the week, bodies were hurting, tempers were frayed but that was to be expected. The next 6 days will give us time to recover (whilst still training), put our lives in order and pack for the next part of the journey. The exciting part is about to begin!