Technique now, Power later.

Some friendly advice:

If you are a very active athlete (men included, but mostly for females), go get a blood test to make sure your iron levels are good.  I found out that the reason I have been so tired is because I have been anemic for the past couple of weeks (level of 4ng/ml).  A lot of athletic women are prone to this.  So just be aware of your body’s needsJ.

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/female-athletes-and-iron-deficiency-anaemia-752

That being said, today is the first day in a while that my energy has been normal and I’ve been able to get through a day without feeling completely exhausted.  It honestly feels like a new life has been given to me – thank you iron pillsJ.  I ended up having so much energy, that I did an hour run, did my erg workout, did a strength training session with my teammate Claire, AND went shopping for 2 hours:S  The last activity was a bit dangerous, but nevertheless…fun!

So today for my erg workout, I did a 3000m distance at stroke rate 20.  My average was 1:59.8/500m and I ended up negative splitting the piece which was nice to see for once.  It’s workouts like these where I see that I’m on the right path to pulling faster scores in the next round of erg testing.  It was a more technical erg, and I focused on keeping my shoulders down (not scrunching them up as I usually do when I get tired).  The technical part needs to be so good that when it comes to testing, one can just focus on pure power applicable and be strong enough to hold good technique for the duration of the test.   So this is why I’m putting such a huge emphasis on strength training and technique, and I know that this is not only for rowing, but can be instrumental for being a successful runner, cyclist, swimmer…and shopperJ.

Sometimes, just being incredibly strong (with terrible technique) can lead to winning races, but as a lightweight sculler, I have the same weight as my competitors, so technique does have more of an affect on how well I can perform.

I want to leave you with these videos that focus in on technique:

The rowing video above shows Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski (last names sounds familiar because she was married to my coach Bernhard) completely take control of the race after the first 500m.  Since her technique is flawless, she looks like she is easily rowing through her competition.

Sit up, relax, and GO!