Dec. 1, 2006

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 2006-07 school year, is by Kathryn Winz, a junior from Raleigh, N.C.

As December approaches, it brings many changes for us both as athletes and as students. We are drawing near the end of the semester, which means our 10 o'clock bedtimes may have to be sacrificed for some late nights in the library for writing papers or studying for numerous exams. December also means winter training, a significant change from our practices during the fall. Instead of having organized team practices, we are given individual practices, as our coaches cannot require us to practice at a certain time during exams because of NCAA rules.

Now at first, individual workouts seem like a blessing. You can in theory sleep in, which is something all of us would enjoy, and do the workout whenever you can fit it into your schedule. However do not be fooled, we still have two-a-day, "highly recommended" workouts. So in order to balance studying with workouts and everything else that the rest of the year entails, many of us will still be waking up early and spending our mornings in the erg room and our afternoons cross-training.

For me, December is all about finding the motivation to commit to these individual workouts. While our results in the fall were good, spring is when we really want to shine. As a team, we have set significant goals for ourselves, which we all believe in and want to achieve. Our previous successes, coupled with our goals for the future, supply the motivation necessary to demand more out of ourselves and a commitment to the workouts. Moreover, knowing that your teammates are working hard also supplies you with that much-needed motivation when you are struggling. This sport is all about team and so every one of us must do our part to make the entire team stronger and faster during the off-season.

Winter training reminds me of a quote I once read from Anson Dorrance, the highly successful women's soccer coach at Carolina, "The Vision of a Champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when no one else is watching". How hard we push ourselves now will define our spring season. Either we can be content with where we are, or we can work even harder and surprise everyone in the spring racing season, though we will not be surprising ourselves.