*Night Rider*

Picture this…

A narrow river is surrounded by tall colourful trees, perfectly reflected onto the water’s surface .

The stillness of the water allows the bird’s music to sound clear, and the air feels crisp and refreshing on your face.

Minute by minute, the night comes upon you, and before you know it, the moon is helping guide you home.

That was my row yesterday - absolutely beautiful!  An added bonus was that I got to enjoy it with my teammate Kathleen.  Below is a picture of the two of us on the dock after the row – too dark to even take a picture with my camera phone! 

We are doing a silly pose, can't you tell?!

There are only a couple of weeks left to row before the weather gets too cold and the water freezes overL - so I truly take advantage of these great days.  I fit in my standard volume of 30km of rowing, and also did some pieces of 10 strokes to see how my boat moved at a racing pace – they went well and helped boost my confidence and trust in the work I have been doing to date.  I needed that boost since I am leaving to Boston today for work and need reassurance that I still have my fitness.

In general, I am finding that for the most part, I row in the dark.  This is because I am on the water before work and need to be off by 8am, and I am on the water again after work which means I return from my row by 7:30pm.  This is the case as well for a lot of master’s rowers.  I can’t see many advantages to this, but one that I have made myself believe (J) is that rowing in the dark is similar to rowing with your eyes closed.  You have to feel the water more because you can’t really see how the boat is moving at the stern or when you will be hitting a wave.  Of course if the weather is really windy, then it’s dangerous to go out in the dark because your perception is really off and you can risk falling in.  So be wise;)

So yes, I am off to Boston – a great city for rowing!  Along the Charles River you can find a number of boathouses, including Harvard, Boston University, Riverside and more.  Unfortunately I won’t have time to row as I will be in a city just outside of Boston and will be indoors from the beginning until the end of the day (Wed/Thurs), but I will be doing a lot of visualization and strength training!  No excuses should be made right?!  Do what you can, and don’t dwell on what you can’t do.

With that said, I will write again at the end of the week once I’m back and let you know how it goesJ.