Lauren Yoder is a junior from Charlotte and a member of the UNC rowing team. She will provide TarHeelBlue.com readers with regular updates during the team's Spring Break trip to Florida.

March 13

Hello Carolina Rowing fans!

This will be a quick update, as I have to hurry to my skit-preparation meeting with my fellow junior teammates. Tonight is skit night!

Spring training isn't all about rowing. It's about coming together closer as a team. One thing that we do is the annual skit night. Each class (senior, junior, sophomore/freshmen varsity and the whole novice class) is to come up with a skit. This skit is something fun and original, usually making friendly fun of teammates, coaches, or the sport of rowing, and is ALWAYS highly entertaining and funny.

Other things that have been going on. . . In case you were wondering about seat racing, we finished up today. We put in a lot of work and are all feeling it, but Joel got from it some good information as to lineups and we got in a great amount of work.

Tomorrow morning we go for a short row before loading the trailer and boarding the bus for Miami. We are racing on Friday. I think we?re all excited for that, getting a chance to see where the work we've done this week has taken us.

What else have we been up to? Well, last night was another non-rowing event that brought us together as a team. We had tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters game that was being played in the arena in town. After dinner, a bunch of us headed over to check it out. What an adventure it proved to be! During half time, some of my teammates went down to the announcer's table to see if they would announce that UNC rowing was there. They not only announced it, but also invited us on the court. We were all in a goofy mood. As if to make a random and silly situation sillier, once out on the court, instead of waving to the crowd (who, by the looks on their faces, already didn't know what we were up to), we began taking pictures of each other. It was amusing -- for us anyway.

The weather is still nice, and I think we're all still having a great time. More from Miami. . .

Your Tar Heel Pal,

Yoder

March 12

Sometimes a row doesn't feel as pretty as it looks. Today it felt pretty -- even if it wasn't perfect.

We started a little later this morning than the last two mornings -- at 7:30 a.m. That extra bit of sleep was nice.

As we arrived at the launch site, the morning air was calm and warm. There was a light breeze and the sun was just coming up, reflecting on the buildings of downtown across the river. We met at our boats after putting the coach's launches in the water for practice. Joel read us the line-ups. We were taking out two eights. We went to the trailer to get hands on and take the boats to the dock. Because dock traffic sometimes get very busy, we take our sandals off before picking the boat up so that we don't have to mess with them before shoving off. The grass was cool under my bare feet as we carried the boats on our shoulders. The warm air made me feel like a kid out playing on an early summer morning. Rowing this morning did not at all feel like a chore or a challenge, but rather a fun endeavor. It was just one of those days from the beginning.

We got in the boats and got our feet "tied in" to the shoes (they are Velcro shoes on movable footplates, adjustable for the length of the rower's legs). We shoved off of the dock and began paddling upriver, beyond the first bridge to the place where we stopped and adjusted before taking off.

My hands were pretty sore from yesterday, and my legs tight, but I quickly warmed up and loosened up. I enjoyed the sun spilling over the horizon and warming my face. The image that you sometimes see in posters of the sparkling water surrounding the silhouettes of the boats and rowers was what it felt like today. It was a sparkling day on the water.

We began with rowing by sixes. The coxswain cycles out pairs to hold the boat set while the others row. After a while, we stopped to do some drill work. Joel had us focus on getting our blades into the water at the catch (the beginning of the stroke when the legs are compressed and the oar is engaged to pull through the water).

After that, we rowed some more by sixes. It was enjoyably warm out, without being hot. The breeze was refreshing. We stopped to spin and head back down-river. We switched coxswains to give them all a chance to practice. During that time I drank in the sweet smell of grass, wind, and beach.

Then we began rowing by all eight. Sometimes rowing feels like a beautiful thing. When you're not distracted by wind or splashes or catch-timings or set or wobble and it all comes together without having to think, it is as beautiful from the inside of the boat as it is watching -- especially on such a pretty day. That was how it was for me today. I watched from my bow seat as the seven bodies in front of me split to their riggers in sync like scissors. I listened to the rhythmic click of the blades against the oar-locks. I felt us seem to fly on the glass-like water. It felt good.

We rowed by eights all the way back to the dock, focusing on technique and pausing to pay focus on certain aspects of our stroke. When we reached the dock, we quickly got the boat out of the water and washed off, then back on slings. We came together for a hands-in. We discussed practice and I smiled at my teammates.

Then we headed for the best kind of breakfast -- the one that you are so hungry for having already accomplished so much in the day already that you can't help but enjoy.

More updates to come.

Your Tar Heel Pal,

Yoder

March 11

And the blisters begin. . .

After the first full day of practice and another morning practice, the trainers are breaking out "the glove", a wrapping technique that effectively covers the major areas of the hand while still allowing us to row. The novices in particular are finding themselves with raw hands since this is the first time for many of them to experience such a concentrated amount of rowing.

Blisters, really, are part of the experience and can be viewed as a sign of the hard work we're putting in. Despite them we're having a great time! I asked the novices at lunch today what they think about their first spring training so far.

Leah Dickerson offered that it is a lot of hard work, but "we're having a lot of fun, too." This morning's practice found us on the water at 6 a.m. The varsity program did some more steady-state work in four four-man boats. Joel also added some high-ratings pieces. That entails increasing the stroke rating (how fast the slides and oars are moving) and pressure (how hard we're pulling).

Today we rowed out towards the bay area. The weather, again, is magnificent and definitely conducive to a very enjoyable row. Some of the boats had a better practice than others (as is common in every practice) but we all got something good out of our work and improved as the practice went on. We are still getting used to being able to row for miles on end without having to stop and spin.

This afternoon we move to the bulk of our work. We will begin the process of determining who will be in the varsity boat and who will be in the second varsity boat. I stress the word "begin" because the selection is a process that will go on all season in order to put together the best possible line-ups.

The next three days' practices will consist of seat racing. Seat racing is an imperfect, but effective, way of determining which rowers and in what order the rowers are in will move a boat fastest. Each boat (sometimes fours and sometimes eights) has a consistent stroke (the woman in the stern whom the rest of the rowers follow) who most often does not get switched between pieces - but they can be. The rest of the boat is "fair game", and that includes the coxswain.

We do stretches of hard pieces (length to be determined by Joel), then switch rowers around and do it again. Over the course of the pieces, Joel determines who has moved the boat fastest and most effectively throughout the racing.

There are a lot conditions to be considered between pieces: effort and efficiency of the other rowers in the boat, wind, water (chop, current, and tide), course and other random variables. Joel takes these into account when determining the results. And the results are never final. We will be seat racing for the next three days - an exhausting effort, but one that I personally enjoy for the challenge.

A big part of seat racing is the fact that we're not supposed to think about it. You can't think about it or you'll have wasted energy and effort on something next to impossible. Our goal as rowers is to put in a maximum effort on every piece - whether we are being switched or not (we might not know it when we're being evaluated anyway!)

Coxswain Kim Baxter said, "In my six years of rowing experience I've never been able to predict or follow what the coach was thinking or who the coach will switch next. It's hard to follow and that's a good thing because it keeps everyone on their toes."

I'm looking forward to the late afternoon row, to be followed by another great dinner out by the water together as a team sharing in the satisfaction of having put in a good amount of hard work.

Now its time for me to head out and begin warming up!

Your Tar Heel Pal,

Yoder

March 10

A crescent moon hung over the pre-dawn silhouette of the palm tree-lined cityscape as we launched for our first spring training row this morning. We set out at 6 a.m. for a long steady-state technical row. We rowed upstream from the launching site (on the Hillsborough River) at the boathouse on the campus of the University of Tampa. The practice took us up a quiet stretch of river past houses, docked boats, and lots of greenery. The morning air was warm enough to be comfortable wearing only short spandex and a tank top. The water was smooth as glass for most of the row. It was a great way to kick off the week's practices.

We arrived in Tampa Saturday around lunchtime after riding the bus through the night. Luckily, most of us were able to sleep for a fair amount of the trip, making it seem to go by quickly. Once in Tampa (where temperatures are in the low 80's and the sky is clear) we dropped off our bags at the hotel, changed, and walked the two blocks between our riverfront hotel and the launching site.

There, we rigged the boats. (The metal bars that protrude from the sides of the hull of our boats are called riggers. They are what the oar rests in while we row. In order to travel, we take them off of the boats so that the hulls fit on the trailer. They are connected to the hull with bolts and nuts.) Rigging and securing the boats took about an hour. After that, we were free to go for a run to "get the bus legs out" and then shower before dinner.

At 6 p.m. we met as a team for dinner. It was great! We all applaud coach Laura for arranging dinners at the hotel. We had a pasta dish while sitting outside on the patio. Watching the sun set over the water as we ate together was a great way to end a long, but good day.

Today's early-morning practice was followed by a brief break for breakfast and then we were back out on the water again to get in our second practice before the Sunday-afternoon recreational boaters made it difficult and/or dangerous for us to be on the water.

The afternoon's practice was more long steady-state, but we headed the other direction than we had in the morning. Our row took us along the edge of McKay Bay at the mouth of the river. Having been on University Lake, the bay feels huge! The massive expanse of water is amazing. And the houses on the shores are also impressive. I felt that my senses were heightened throughout the practice. The sun was warm on my back. The breeze was refreshing. It was clear out and the air was sweet. We had fun spotting dolphins near our boats in the bay. After two hours, we took the boats back to the launching site.

The goal of the rest of the afternoon was re-hydration and replenishment for our bodies. Many of us enjoyed relaxing by the pool of the hotel.

It is just the beginning of the week, but already we are having a great trip!

Your Tar Heel Pal,

Yoder