Feb. 21, 2005

Throughout the season, members of the UNC rowing team will provide TarHeelBlue.com readers with an inside look at the Carolina program and the experience of being a varsity athlete at UNC. This installment, the 11th of the 2004-05 school year, is by Clara Leigh, a senior from Orlando, Fla.

Winter training was officially over as of February 1st. At that time our practice time bumped from eight hours to 20 hours. While we may be officially in season, we have not yet found our way back out onto the water.

We spend the majority of our afternoons and sometimes our mornings erging in the bottom of Woolen Gym. Many days we do long distance steady state pieces to build our endurance and work on our rowing technique. We have also blended in a few sprint and low-rating power pieces to get our legs ready for spring racing. It is hard to keep morale high in the hot and sweaty erg room, but we all want to improve, to go faster, and the ergs are one useful tool to help us accomplish our goals.

We spend our Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings in the weight room. There we build muscle mass and strengthen our core. Our weight trainers push our bodies out of their comfort zones to improve our pain tolerance. We encourage and support each other through cheering, clapping, and patting each other on the back.

Every once in a while we make it outside to run miles or run stadiums. Occasionally we even bring the ergs up and out of Woollen. As it gets warmer out, the water calls more and more to the rower spirit in each of us. Perhaps not next week, but soon, we will be in a boat again with an oar in our hands, feeling the water rush by underneath.

Clara Leigh