Lightweight Eats

After a whirlwind September of travel, racing and some much-needed vacation, I got back into my boat on September 24th and was immediately humbled. See, when I wrote my training program for the fall racing season, I had these grand plans of going full tilt from the get-go and hitting peak volume by week two. It turns out, that was more than a little ambitious.

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I’m back! I have a lot of thoughts about our fourth place finish at Worlds, but most of them are going into a blog post. For now: thank you thank you thank you to everybody who helped me get there. . This past week has been about getting back into the swing of things. I had grand plans of 20km rows and three days of solid weights sessions. My body had other plans. It’s been pretty frustrating to have to stop every workout short or cut them altogether, as I deal with fatigue and soreness. But the goal right now is to build fitness and if I can do it with less work, maybe I should be glad. . Next race on the schedule is @hocr1965, terrifyingly soon. . #rowing #lightweightrowing #veganrower #lw1x #rowingrelated #justrowing #tokyrow #fitness #motivation #athlete #dreambig #nomeatathlete #veganathlete

A post shared by Michaela Copenhaver (@lightweighteats) on Sep 29, 2018 at 5:45am PDT

Not only was my body not fully in the game, but my head was also still not screwed on straight. I wasn't quite ready to grind.

By week two back to training, which fell on the first week of October, I had tempered my expectations and adjusted my training plan. Our river/lake was flooding due to heavy rains, making it frequently unrowable. Instead of forcing myself onto the erg, I decided to let the season guide me, and take a more lax approach to my training plan. I got myself onto the bike and spent some time pounding pavement. I didn't worry so much about hitting specific targets and just did some work every day.

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Stopped to pee and found this gem. Think it’s big enough to row on? Persistent rain has made the Housatonic unrowable more days than not since I got back from Bulgaria. (Swipe to see a graph of current flow versus median.) Instead of suffering through long erg sessions, I’ve been using this as encouragement to explore the roads and trails of Northwest Connecticut in the perfect fall weather. Today’s ride was 45km of gentle rolling hills, a covered bridge and about 20km of hard packed dirt road just to keep things exciting.

A post shared by Michaela Copenhaver (@lightweighteats) on Oct 5, 2018 at 9:28am PDT

But Head of the Charles was coming and I knew I needed to get my sh*t together, fast. I'd seen plenty of athletes, after achieving big goals, flounder for months. I have more big goals and they won't wait for me. So, although I was letting myself go with the flow a little bit, I was also searching for the floodwaters—the mental space where I would be swept up with the momentum of my training and the grind would become easy again.

Despite the groggy start, I had actually performed really well on a lactate test (a measure of lactate threshold that we do a few times a year) on the first day of October, which was a confidence booster among some otherwise pretty dismal indicators of fitness. The week of Head of the Charles, I had  two really great workouts that further boosted my confidence. So, although I felt underprepared, I convinced myself that my perception of my fitness was not an indication of my actual fitness, and I lined up on October 20th to race.

And it was awesome.

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What an awesome Head of the Charles! Thanks to @scullingfool for this picture of me passing bow number one, Caitlin Pauls, about 750m into the race. She stayed right off my stern for the remaining 4000m and pushed me to a level I didn’t know I had. I ended up coming away with second place 🥈 just three seconds off the winning time. Congrats to Jenna Pelham (@pelham.ette) on 🥇 and Sydney Taylor (@sydneyt6) for snagging third! #rowing #hocr #lw1x #lovethatdirtywater #veganathlete

A post shared by Michaela Copenhaver (@lightweighteats) on Oct 23, 2018 at 12:31pm PDT

If I needed something to switch me back 'on', Head of the Charles was it. I came back to training the following Tuesday ready to rip, doing a extensive endurance workout in the morning and 2x3k race pieces in the afternoon. I crushed some lifts and a few 18-20km rows, distances that I hadn't been able to go just a few weeks prior.

I finished out October down in Princeton, preparing for the Fall Speed Order. Our river/lake was drained on October 26th for dam inspections/maintenance, sending me in search of rowable water. Training on Carnegie Lake, it's easy to find the metaphorical floodwaters—the actual water is perfectly rowable every day, beckoning the eager rower to do one more loop, a few extra meters, maybe just a quick extra session.

So, two weeks after Head of the Charles, I'm ready to face off again. This time, race day won't be my second longest row of the season (unless something goes terribly wrong...). Fall Speed Order kicks off Saturday with a 6k erg test, which seeds starting order for a 4.25km singles race on Sunday.

Follow results on herenow.com.

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