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One of those days
Sep. 30th, 2009 04:01 pmThis morning I got up five minutes before my alarm went off because I had to go to the bathroom (that would be at 4:07 am, for the record). I seem to not get quite enough sleep from Monday through Wednesday this semester, due to rowing and teaching, so I was still tired/sleepy when I reached the boatyard.
The water was gorgeously flat, though, and K and I managed to knock out two really good 500-m pieces, with racing starts. It seems like our technique is starting to click better--I've been working on the same old problem I used to have back in high school, engaging my leg muscles quickly. My high school coach made me do sets of jumpies all by myself to try and get me to work on quickening my leg drive. With me consciously working on my leg drive, my rowing stroke is matching up better with K's rowing stroke, so we're definitely moving faster and more smoothly for less effort. Overall, it makes race pieces feel more fun.
The only downsides of the row were the bolts of lightning that I watched down at the east end of the lake right after we made our first turn back homeward. I couldn't, in good conscience, let us continue to row on the water after that, even though it looked like the storm was moving away from the lake. The sunrise was beautiful, too, all golds and reds and blues and such, and the water was super-flat. Instead of risking lightning strikes, K and I finished up our practice pieces on the ergometers in the boatyard. Although ergs aren't as much fun, it was actually good that we ended up using them. I haven't done sprint pieces on the erg in quite a while, so it was useful to discover that I'm still as fast as I was back in high school.
After all that, I dragged myself in to the lab to work with a new undergraduate. I taught her how to pour plaster to make nest containers. Sounds simple, right? Partway through, I had to run off to another meeting, so I left her to try her hand at it, and she had all sorts of fun. The best is always when the plaster sets prematurely in the mixing bowl and the mixing spoon gets stuck in it. "Oh hey, this isn't mixing very well anymore, is it?" She looked a little forlorn when I came back to check on her (plaster everywhere!), but she kept at it and I think she'll do okay in the long run.
The other (simultaneous) meeting turned into something of a manic, tyrannical cleaning episode - not what I wanted to be working on with my upcoming trip only a week away.
And that's kind of how the day feels, overall.
The water was gorgeously flat, though, and K and I managed to knock out two really good 500-m pieces, with racing starts. It seems like our technique is starting to click better--I've been working on the same old problem I used to have back in high school, engaging my leg muscles quickly. My high school coach made me do sets of jumpies all by myself to try and get me to work on quickening my leg drive. With me consciously working on my leg drive, my rowing stroke is matching up better with K's rowing stroke, so we're definitely moving faster and more smoothly for less effort. Overall, it makes race pieces feel more fun.
The only downsides of the row were the bolts of lightning that I watched down at the east end of the lake right after we made our first turn back homeward. I couldn't, in good conscience, let us continue to row on the water after that, even though it looked like the storm was moving away from the lake. The sunrise was beautiful, too, all golds and reds and blues and such, and the water was super-flat. Instead of risking lightning strikes, K and I finished up our practice pieces on the ergometers in the boatyard. Although ergs aren't as much fun, it was actually good that we ended up using them. I haven't done sprint pieces on the erg in quite a while, so it was useful to discover that I'm still as fast as I was back in high school.
After all that, I dragged myself in to the lab to work with a new undergraduate. I taught her how to pour plaster to make nest containers. Sounds simple, right? Partway through, I had to run off to another meeting, so I left her to try her hand at it, and she had all sorts of fun. The best is always when the plaster sets prematurely in the mixing bowl and the mixing spoon gets stuck in it. "Oh hey, this isn't mixing very well anymore, is it?" She looked a little forlorn when I came back to check on her (plaster everywhere!), but she kept at it and I think she'll do okay in the long run.
The other (simultaneous) meeting turned into something of a manic, tyrannical cleaning episode - not what I wanted to be working on with my upcoming trip only a week away.
And that's kind of how the day feels, overall.
