Nov. 19, 2002

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 North Carolina. This installment, the tenth of the 2002-03 school year, is by Lauren Yoder, a senior from Charlotte, N.C.

Hello Carolina Rowing Fans!

This week marked the beginning of winter training. It is with a bit of a heavy heart that we leave the invigorating scenery of University Lake with the beautiful yellows, oranges, and reds of the changing leaves and late-afternoon sunsets. But our training schedule calls us in and, so far, I've heard no complaints.

Winter training entails long hours and hard work on the erg and other land workouts. It can be a bleak prospect to face with spring competition so far away. But we're tough. And this makes us tougher. Winter training is a time of continual betterment and strengthening. It is, perhaps, one of the best arenas for witnessing improvement in yourself by leaps and bounds, if not bits and pieces at a time. It is a time when you find yourself doing things you may never have thought possible. Each day we essentially push ourselves to a new limit, and it will make us faster for the spring.

We started the week with a 6k erg test. Quite a few people got personal records, a great feat given the state of fatigue we are in following some intense training over the last few weeks. The level of energy in the room drowned out any chance of negativity and lent itself to an exciting day. Each of us had to work as hard as ever to achieve the times that we did, whether they were our best or better. In the end, it was a widely successful day.

The rest of the week found us divided into smaller practice groups for shorter, but more intense workouts. Novice and varsity are training together. This is a great opportunity to introduce the novices to the varsity intensity and to light a fire under varsity members, knowing that these fast novices are breathing down our backs. It makes us all faster and creates a heightened team atmosphere when we practice together.

We look forward to continued challenges and strengthening this coming week. We are getting faster by the minute. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving break is only a week and a half away. While spring may seem a long way off, it will be here before we know it. Continuing as we are, we'll be more than ready for it when spring racing rolls around.

Your Tar Heel Pal,

Lauren Yoder