Lightweight Eats

I know, I know, it's been forever since I updated. Access to internet in Boston was spotty at best, and life since has been insanely busy. I have TWO races to recap!

Head of the Charles:
This wasn't a super serious race. A bunch of former Princeton lightweights raced in the alumnae category as the Fat Cat Rowing Club. We had a blast, and in the meantime, I got another run down the Charles race course. I imagine this will be helpful if I race it in my single next year.

The trip to Boston was also a great time--I met about a million new people, caught up with a lot of old friends, and go the chance to actually explore Boston. I've been a few times before, but never navigated the city myself. I feel much more comfortable with the layout of the city and generally getting around. I'm looking forward to visiting again!

Head of the American:
I got back from Boston on Tuesday evening and was back at the boathouse Wednesday morning to prepare for another race. I had an incredibly busy week last week. Between early morning practices, busy days and late nights getting things done, sleep definitely took a back burner. As a result, my training and my performance suffered.

Saturday, I raced in two events--the open quad and the open single. The quad was a last minute addition to my day--I filled in for a sick teammate--but I was glad to have a run down the course once before my single race. We won this race easily, but it definitely helped with nerves.

My second race was a few hours later in the single. I managed my day really poorly--I spent way too much energy wandering around, and let the heat drain my energy as well. I will need to improve this for future racing.

By the time I launched, I was already exhausted mentally and physically. My stroke rate sat lower than it should have, and I had a really hard time finding the last 5% on my pressure to really race the piece. It showed in my results.

We followed this race up with two hard practices Sunday morning, both of which also suffered from lack of sleep. I'm beginning to realize that sleep is more important to the quality of my training than the food I eat--I often associate hunger with tiredness, and eat when I should nap.

Today, we have the day off of practice, and I'm using it to sleep, work and start packing for our impending move! Long to-do list slowly getting shorter.