Training Camp in Florida

COCOA BEACH, FLORIDA - I am just wrapping up a 2 week training trip in Florida.  My team and I train in Wisconsin during the year but since the lake freezes, we take a couple trips south to get some time on the water.  It is a great way to break up the indoor season so that we don't have to be on the rowing machines for the entire winter.  To orient you a little bit more on my training situation, I rowed at the University of Wisconsin during college and now I'm continuing to train alongside the team even though I graduated.  So while they are training for the collegiate national championship in June in big, eight person boats, I am training for my races in the single.  The picture below shows how practices usually are.  I'm in the red boat!  As you can imagine, I have to push myself to keep up with the speed of the eights, but it is great for training.  

During the first half of the trip, the weather was unseasonably cold.  On one of the mornings last week, we woke up to 16 mph winds which made the air temperature feel like 19 degrees!  We must have brought the cold with us from Wisconsin because the news reports said that it was the coldest it has been in decades for this area!

One of the coolest parts about rowing in Florida is that the wildlife is unlike any other place we get to row.  We see groups of dolphins swimming around the boats during almost every practice.  The other day we saw at least 20 at one time!  We've also seen lots of fish and a few manatees, although not as many as in past years because of the cold.

I love training camps because you get the opportunity to focus solely on rowing.  Morning practices go from 8 to 11:30 and afternoon practices are from 3 to 5:30.  Although practices are long, we have been able to put in lots of good miles and it has been a really productive trip all around.  One more practice this afternoon and another tomorrow morning before we head north to Madison!