Back in the bOat

As we stood in the AIS canoe facility getting our boat read to row. The heckling from some of the paddlers about spending more time playing with our boat than rowing it was coming thick and fast. It's true we do spend much time get our set up right and fine tuning little aspects of how we fit in the boat. We have gotten to know some of the paddlers well and enjoy the banter.

Over the last three days Chris and I came up to the Gold Coast to spend some time with big Dunc's. The four training session on the water went well. Actually our skills were better than I expected. The movements in the boat were reasonably sharp and together. Obviously with a few health issues we could both tell that the physical conditioning was lacking.

We have our National long distance time trials next week and as these were our first sessions together since Munich it was a boost to slot straight back into some quality rowing. Even the few work loads we did seem to go pretty well. At this stage we don't like to get to hung up on the measurement but rather enjoy settling in and allowing the good work from earlier in the year to come through naturally.

It is warm and humid up here and I found it was a bit energy zapping, but probably the focus of finding our rhythm and getting use to the pair again was really enjoyable. A couple of times I found myself smiling as we rowed along thinking how good it was to be back in the boat. Chris and I both commented before the mini camp that it was going to be great to get away and have some time to unwind for our busy lives. Due to my chest infection I found it a little challenging still but made the most of the opportunity to rest.

Next week will be interesting to catch up with everyone at the trials. Being pre-selected doesn't change our focus but with everyone fighting out for there seats it means that some of the tensions the we would normally being feeling will have shift completely from our experience.

Being back in the boat even briefly was like a energising reminder of were we have been and were we are planning to go. We will be back together next week and it will be under more testing conditions. It will be great see how we are traveling at this stage relative to others.

It will be our first time trial together and as such I think we will need to be very clear about how we will approach the 5kms. So in the next few days I will dig into some old files about results and notes on doing 5kms on the Nepean River in Penrith.

So we are back in the boat and about to be tested. How cool and when I think about why I row it really does revolve around the opportunity to challenge ourselves.

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