Nov. 30, 2007

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 third of the 2007-08 school year, is by JoAnne Rogers a sophomore from Silver Spring, Md.

With our last fall race finished and winter training beginning, it is more important than ever for us to remember that every drop of sweat, every rep in the weight room and every stroke we take on the erg are bringing us closer and closer to 2k season. All I can say is, bring it on! This is the time for us to really drill ourselves into the ground with the hopes that we emerge this spring as powerhouses ready to beat the competition. To me, winter training means one step closer to sprint season, one step closer to walking down boats, one step closer to laying it all out on the line and one step closer to "do or die" bow-ball-to-bow-ball racing. This is where the real fun begins.

Winter training not only brings grueling erg workouts, but also a little more free time. So far, this extra time has been happily spent doing quite a bit as a team. Because we have more free time now, we have begun working out on our own, where we get to decide what kind of workout that we need. This varies from strengthening and de-stressing yoga to an hour of high-intensity work, where we are all reminded of the endurance we gained this fall. We also recently took a trip to nearby Hillsborough where we helped to build houses with Habitat for Humanity. Now, not only do we know how to row as a team, but we also know how to put siding on a house. Also, with exam season steadily approaching, I am sure that everyone has spent some extra hours in the library curled up with a book.

Soon, we will have our last battery of fall season erg testing where we will get our final chance to see how we stack up against each other. This will give us the motivation needed to work extra hard over the holidays with the hopes of either maintaining or surpassing this ranking when we come back.

So far, winter training is off to a great start. With sprint season just a few short months away, both the Novice and Varsity teams are working hard and anxiously waiting to see it pay off. As I said before, this is where the real fun begins.