Permanent link for Rowing Club Takes on Georgia Over Spring Break - Day 1 - 3/5/23 on March 14, 2023

Day one (Sunday, March 5th) 

Kaiya Quinlan 

Ohhh what a day! Our first full day in Georgia started off with none other than the calming alarm set by my dear roommate Margaret going off at full volume for everyone on our floor to hear. Don’t worry though, she turned it off just in time for my alarm to go off two minutes later. Eventually we meandered out of bed with everyone else in my room and made our way down to breakfast with the rest of the team before our first practice of the day. Though I wasn’t particularly hungry this morning, I have learned my lesson a time or two of what malnourished rowing feels like. Therefore, I made the wise choice to fuel up with some eggs, a piece of sausage, and a biscuit. Delicious! 

At 8:30 am wheels were rolling out of the parking lot, and we set off to Lake Lanier, embracing the beautiful sunny weather, and the excitement of being back on the water for the first time since the fall. For the morning row, Coach Troy put me in 6 seat of the Keeler, which also happened to be port. During this training session, we focused on shaking off the rust, and sectioning out the different sequences of the recovery (pausing at hands away, bodies over, and half slide, and alternating every two and three strokes). It was a great way to refresh good habits and encourage boat synchronicity as we rowed in new lineups. We ended the practice with a series of 5 and glides to practice balancing while rowing with all 8 rowers…. which definitely proved to be a challenge, but we found our rhythm by the end!! 

Following the first session, everyone split into different groups for lunch, quick exploring, homework, and naps. I, for one, opted for a quiet nap in my room to make up for all 20 minutes of sleep I accumulated on the trip to Georgia. Once I woke up, my other roommate Beka, came back with almost as much energy as I started with prior to the nap. So, we turned on a movie and cherished the last few minutes of downtime before our second practice of the day. This practice was also a steady state practice, and an extension to the morning practice. However, different from this morning, I started off as 7 seat, due to injuries a teammate and I have been dealing with. Because of this change, I started off as a starboard, inevitably switching back to 6 seat halfway through practice whilst on the water. A fun little plot twist some may say. Finally, after the conclusion of practice, we were treated to an incredible dinner of chicken, baked potatoes, salad, and Hawaiian rolls by team mom, Lisa Harding - Coach Troy Harding’s mom- herself. 

 

Jacob Galloway 

Today was the first time back on the water since November! The jump from the Michigan 20-degree days to sunny blue skies and 65 was perfect weather to knock the rust off and get back to on-water training after months of indoor erging. After rigging the boats, we were off to our first of two practice 

sessions today. The morning practice was mainly getting back on the water to remember how rowing all together in a boat feels. We practiced some drills that pause during certain parts of the stroke and focused on technical details. I was sitting in 2 seat in the bow of the boat and focused on posture, engaging my core, and lengthening my strokes so when I place the blade in the water I can push as much water as possible. 

Between the morning and afternoon practices most of the varsity men treated ourselves to chicken, biscuits, coleslaw, and sweet tea at one of my southern favorites, Bojangles’. Then we had some downtime back at the hotel where I worked on some upper body weights with fitness extraordinaire Josh Scotto, followed by a quick nap before heading back to practice for session two. Vespoli, a well-known boat manufacturer, had a couple of new 8+ boats for us to try out and they were great. The boat I was in had a great turning radius and in general had a lighter, nice feeling. I especially liked the seats and the smooth slide to the catch and release positions of each stroke. During this practice, I sat in 4 seat and put extra emphasis on matching body movement timing with everyone in front of me along with lengthening my arms and body, once again, so my strokes can grab as much water as possible. 

A day’s worth of rowing was rewarded with a fantastic meal of fried chicken, baked potatoes, mac n’ cheese, salad, and dinner rolls coordinated by the incredible Mrs. Lisa Harding (Coach Troy’s Mom)! It’s no easy task to plan a delicious dinner for nearly 60 hungry rowers! 

Now, it’s time for a good stretch, a team meeting, and waiting for two of my teammates - Eliot and Dan - to arrive from ATL. On to Monday! 

 

Sarah Lawrence 

Today was day 1 in Gainesville, Georgia and it was so nice to be back on the water. At our first practice of the day, we had to unload and rig the 8+ boats. The novices 8+ was the Alex today. After being on the ergs for months we focused on the basics and water technique. 

On the water, we did our full pick warm-ups. After that we did a rock ‘n’ roll drill. Once we practiced the stroke broken down into steps, we rowed by fours switching on and off from stern and bow four. 

After the first practice of the day, I got some lunch with some of the varsity women. I got Chipotle and some of the other women got Steak ‘n Shake. We then went back to our hotel room and hung out until we needed to leave for the second practice of the day. 

For the second practice we did the same warm-ups and then coach decided to change up our practice plan. Instead of doing more of what we did this morning we ended up rowing on the feather. After rowing on the feather for a few minutes we did a feathering drill to help us remove the blade on the square and then feather so that we weren’t scooping water up, causing the boat to become offset. Our coxswain was able to take a few minutes to learn how the boat moves by telling us to do something to see what it did to the boat. That was fun because I got to find out how the boat maneuvers and how each person affects the boat. We then spun the boat and rowed by 6’s back to the dock. There is something tranquil about being in a boat on the water that I absolutely love every minute of. 

At dinner we got our spring break guides and that was a lot of fun reading through the nicknames and confessions. After that the novice women walked to McDonald’s to get ice cream. I got an Oreo shamrock shake McFlurry. 

Overall today was a fun and exciting day, and I had a lot of fun rowing and hanging out with friends. 

 

Miles Przybylski 

Today was the first day of spring break practice and it was splendid. I had my alarm set for 7AM to get my day started, but I didn’t manage to get out of bed until about 7:40 when I had a surprise visit from the novice men. After being dragged out of bed by them, I had some sausage, eggs, and a singular biscuit for breakfast and then headed off to practice. We had to practice with a new line up from the fall season as we had a new addition to the team in the form of Kyle. I had been rowing in the 5 seat for most of the fall season, but now I’ve been moved to the 7 seat which felt like a big change for some reason. I guess I was just used to seeing more people ahead of me that I could use to keep in time with, but now I just have Michael in the stroke seat ahead of me. The morning practice consisted of getting Kyle used to the water since it was his first time ever on the water with us, and he did really well considering he had to get acquainted with everything so quickly. The afternoon practice was when things started to get going again. We covered a lot more distance compared to the morning and did a lot more work too. We got to do some rowing by 6s which I thought went pretty well and we even threw in some work by 8s, which did not go as well. Overall practice was very enjoyable and felt great to actually be back out on the water again. 

Outside of practice, the novice men were back at their shenanigans again. All of us tried to go out for lunch together, but none of the places that we wanted to go to had short waiting times, so we decided to split up and explore the city instead. Half of us went to a Vietnamese restaurant where I tried pho for the first time, and the other half went to a southwester place where coach Trevor appeared as a special guest on Michael’s Food Review. After meeting back up again, the novice men went back to the hotel and watched Shark Tale until it was time to leave for the afternoon practice. After the afternoon practice, we played some football behind the hotel, where we had the manager come out to tell us that we had to keep it down and ref our game too. Following the football game, we had some lovely chicken and baked potatoes for dinner, and after dinner we hit the little hotel gym to get pumped. We did a bit of incline bench, some bicep curls, and a lot of flexing in the mirrors. It was a good ‘ol time messing around with the boys. 

So far, so good. It’s only the first day of actually doing work, but it looks like we are set to get pretty fast here. Everyone has been having a great time and we can’t wait to keep practicing and getting better.

Posted on Permanent link for Rowing Club Takes on Georgia Over Spring Break - Day 1 - 3/5/23 on March 14, 2023.