Nov. 20, 2004

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 10th of the 2004-05 school year, is by Jess Ziebell, a senior from Rocky Mount, N.C.

Hello Carolina Rowing Friends and Family!

As many of you know, last weekend we wrapped up our fall racing seasoning at the Rivanna Romp in Charlottesville, Va. There were several top teams there. We had a very strong showing, proving that we could hold our own against the big dogs. The highlight of the day was the varsity four which finished eighth, beating out all of Miami's fours ... quite a welcome to the ACC!!

After a strong fall season, Monday meant preparing the boathouse for winter by cleaning all the boats and the boathouse. Luckily the weather cooperated and gave us a good day to wash all the boats. But, alas, it was finally upon us...WINTER TRAINING!!!

Winter training is almost every rower's nightmare. We are forced to go inside for the winter to train on the ergs (rowing machines). Winter training is a time to bring the team together as a whole as both varsity and novice begin to train side-by-side at the same practice. It's a time to get better, faster and stronger than our competition and a time to prepare for the spring racing season. It's the period where dedication can set us apart from our competition in the spring.

This was the first week of winter training. This week we had a strong focus on technique on the erg. On Tuesday we did two power-per-stroke (full pressure on each stroke) pieces with rating changes. Wednesday was two 30-minute steady states (about three-quarters pressure) with a strong emphasis on keeping proper technique throughout the piece especially when we were getting tired. On Thursday we did another power-per-stroke piece with the ergs set up in lines so we could work on following one another and so the ergs better simulated being in a boat.

Friday's workout was the best of all. Fridays are always a lot of fun because the whole team is at the same practice in the erg room together. It always promises lots of competition and lots of noise. This Friday we played erg baseball!! Erg baseball has seven innings with each person on the team being "at bat" each time. Each "at bat" was 500m, with different splits (or times) for different scores. For example, if we pulled the 500m under 1:46 then we scored a home run worth four points. We also had triples, doubles, singles, and sacrificial bunts worth three, two, one and zero points, respectively. Everyone put in a lot of hard work, and several surprised themselves at how well they were able to do. A big congrats goes out to Emily G., Gretchen, and Chris who blew away the competition with a total of 63 points, with second place only having 54 points.

As you can tell it has been quite a busy week in the world of Carolina Rowing. Next week, we actually only have two practices with Thanksgiving. But, Monday we have our first 6K test of winter training. It should go very well with all the speed that we have gained through the fall! Stay tuned to hear about our test results in next week's edition.

Jess Ziebell