Work is a little less insane this week and next. (Translation: I have six meetings
today but at least I'm not teaching all week, only 3/4 of yesterday and half of
Friday.) Between that and the fact that my biggest regatta of the year is on
Memorial Day weekend, I've upped my training volume. I've rowed over 30 km in the
past four days and have been doing more intense sprints -- I can't up my longterm
endurance in that period but I can improve my anaerobic threshold, which is what
matters since my races are 1000m and 300m. I'll try to row four days and lift once
this week and the same next week, then taper for the race.
In other
words, it's only Tuesday and I'm tired already. I get a bit of a break tomorrow,
though, because it's a gym day rather than a rowing day. Good thing as I already
have blisters on two fingers and bandaids over raw spots on two others. This is
partly due to rowing three of the last four days and partly because it's getting
warmer. When my hands sweat more, I always get blisters and more ground-in black
oar-grip rubber. My hands look like a mechanic's.
Fortunately, at the
moment, warmer doesn't yet mean warm, at least not at 5AM. The weather has been
just perfect, cool enough to start out in a pullover and warm enough to take it
off shortly thereafter, and there are beautiful sunrises to watch while gasping
for air after my intervals. What a great time of year to be on the water.