haptic

-granted, my position is far from that of hamlet’s but the metaphors have a more literal application nonetheless.  while i am certainly not suffering “slings and arrows,” there are still adversities i face with training whether they be external like conditions or internal like fatigue and/or mental toughness, etc.  now, the sea of troubles was the more direct allusion i was thinking of for a brief moment.

-stuff is still going great without doubt, but saturday morning was very challenging.  we haven’t had a day let along an afternoon or morning off in two weeks.  also, our friday/saturday workouts come at you like a tough 1-2 punch.  friday, we have a long row in the morning (which i wound up really pushing in the single) with a weight circuit at night that gets tougher and longer each week.  this week i feel like i pushed the weight circuit exceptionally hard as a result of the added presence of a group and coaches.  then, saturday starts off with the longest row of the week which also even dabbles in a little AT work with 3 high rating minutes mixed in with harder steady state in 21 minute blocks.  that doesn’t describe it well, but it’s tough.  usually, we finish off with 8x500 which we actually did running on a track this time in order to let some aching muscles rest.

-anyways, saturday morn was “the sea of troubles” in a way.  it was extremely busy and crowded on the water.  many different groups out with tons of different boats and launches plus some additional pleasure boats headed out early for the weekend.  on top of that, there was an ok amount of wind.  those are challenging variables to begin with and do not make a tough workout any easier.  you couple those conditions with the fatigue of challenging workouts the day before and you have a stiff challenge ahead of you.  to pile some more on, our boat was re-rigged to give me a heavier spread (ie the spread was made tighter).  the point was not to make it heavier on me, but rather to make it so that i could get around the pin more and be longer at the catch.  however, my oars weren’t adjusted.  i don’t know whether it was the fact that tough workouts had preceded or the conditions or willy being attentive to also watching his shoulder as it heals or all of them, but the it felt like i had a bungee on the entire workout slowing me down.  by the end, i was barely hanging on.  the whole time i wanted to stay positive and give the new rig a chance, but it was hard not to get frustrated considering how well the boat had felt before the changes.

-either way, one row.  still was educational.  still moving forward without doubt.