Hello all,
At the behest of the soon-to-be head coach Bob, I volunteered to post about the goings on of the lightweight varsity men's 8. This is the first of what I hope is many posts about our daily work as well as the more significant events.
Anyone who saw the video of our final at the San Diego Crew Classic will know three things: we came in second, we gave it everything, and we're motivated to win SIRAs. After a conciliatory outing to both Big Kahuna Burger and In-and-Out Burger, our boat had a strengthened resolve to get back to Austin and back to work. Tuesday gave us a needed steady-state out on the water. A couple of people were missing out of the top boat, so Mork gave all of his attention to us. It quickly became obvious that our normal steady-state of a 14 all day was going to be 5-4-3-2-1 with a bit more effort. The boat worked hard and everyone was satisfied.
Today's workout was more demanding. We did 4 sets of 6 minute-on-minute-offs. Each minute was supposed to represent a part of a 2k with starts, moves, and sprints. The boat had trouble adapting to the higher 36 stroke rating, but we did move well on a few of the pieces. The higher rating helped show a few things we've been weak on and the coaches gave advice on how to best fix it. I thought we had a good row, but Mork reiterated via email the need to give 100% for each piece, regardless of how many we've done or have to do. He is right; this is crunch time and we need to focus on each stroke, each piece, each day.
The team as a whole has been frustrated by some people deciding they can show up when they want. I'm glad the lightweights have a good track record, but I must say that it pisses me off to see people missing. I had hoped that SIRAs might have driven people to come to practice, but now, I don't know what will. Steps to success: 1) show up, 2) row hard.
This has been the first posting from the Lightweight Reporter, 5 seat, and Hey-you-stop-eating-!, Sam Kutscha
