Post-morning practice

We actually did pieces this morning, which made things a little more interesting. The kicker, though? The workout was 5 x 7 minutes, rates 18-22... same shit we did every fricking morning this whole year. Didn't make it not fun, because it was in an 8 and not 4s, and after so many miles of paddling and technical work it was fun to lay it down, but it never ceases to shock me how many 7 minute pieces one person can do. Then, because Greg thinks we may be "fatigued," we're going to do a "gentler" workout this evening, with some soft technical work and keep it short, then do some more pieces tomorrow morning. I'm sore from lots of miles and working on my stroke a lot, but I'm certainly not fatigued. Whatever, guess that means it's time to go erg this afternoon...
Key things about the way the US team rows that I've had to work on: 1) smooth catch, no splash anywhere, working to pick the water up at the speed it's moving. This transitions into 2) getting the blade connected, which results in a few inches of just hanging with straight arms and not trying to immediately rip the blade through. Can feel like, and is, less of an intense catch than we do (did?) at Stanford, but contributes to 3) an acceleration through the stroke, hanging as long as you can, straight arms almost until the legs are all the way down, keeping the blade linear all the way through, kind of catching at 1/4 pressure and finishing at 3/4. I guess that's the drive. The recovery, they've been wanting me to A) keep my hands higher and thus blade closer to the water and B) keep this handle height into the catch, not dipping the hands and skying the blade. This has been easier when we're thinking about those softer catches because you can just drop it in and not already be thinking about swinging it in and jamming on the water.
Sorry if any non-rowers read this post, it probably means nothing to you. Actually, I'm sorry if anyone reads these posts at all; I doubt they're interesting. "Pretty boring, but... it's part of my life." - Ron Burgundy