So, why do we row?

Rowing and training for rowing form a large part of my week and, as such, feature highly in my blog posts. Since we (the royal ‘rowing’ we) have just moved back in to head season training, I am putting a lot of focus on to my training plan. Every year I try to revive my training; to keep me going through the long dark nights and the painful steady-state ergs (or worse the dreaded 5k test), I try to add in alternative sessions to ‘shake things up’. So, on a quiet Saturday night like tonight, whilst Sam is out DJ-ing and I am tired from rowing, I decided to browse the internet and find some rowing blogs. As it is, I came across some interesting things!

The first website I found was a blog, Girl on the River by journalist/rower Patricia Carswell. She rows for Monmouth RC and I enjoyed reading a few of her more recent posts, especially the one about the return to Head season! From there I started browsing a few other articles she either referenced or that the ones she referenced referenced (if you follow me). Here are some highlights:

• 10 Things Never To Say To a Rower: An amusingly accurate list of the things we often get asked which are really irritating. Numbers 3 and 9 are probably the ones that I relate to the most;
• Rowing is Awesome: Just the name makes you want to read it! In a similar way to previous article I mentioned, blog post #25 rings very true!;
• The Race: This is not a rowing video, but is some footage of a university track race in the US which is amazing. It truly shows why you should never give-up if you really want something.

Having read all of this, I feel almost inspired to jump on my erg and pound out some k’s. Except I’m still quite tired from the 19k of water work I did this morning. So, I shall finish-up here and go and vegetable on the sofa until either Sam gets home from his DJ-ing or (more likely) I slump upstairs to bed! I shall save the erg-ing until tomorrow, perhaps! Oh, and to answer my original question, we row because to not row is just plain wrong – I think it’s genetic…!