Quieter Release

Kathleen made it out with me this morning. It was a late start - she was still hurting from two days of bowel spasms and I was rather tired from two hard rows on my own. Although we were late to the water, 10:30am, there were very few people out. The breeze was light and water pretty calm.

As we are chugging along, almost retracing my route from yesterday, I noticed Kathleen had the secret of the quieter release: she was coming out of the water almost vertically whereas I had been feathering (rotating the oar handle) to "flip" the blade out of the water. I tried just dropping my hands before doing anything else and it made a big difference. Thus completing the evolution towards understanding the bicycle chain analogy of Kevin from the CYC Learn-to-Row weekend. Up, at the catch, then down, at the finish/release, with the hands at each end of the overall stroke cycle. Duh!

Another Solo & Meeting Melanie

Another day on my own today. Same routine as yesterday (just row and concentrate on back position during the drive, early rolling to the catch position, adn trying to be quieter on the release) but a different route. I decided to go up a cove, near Kathleen's parents, that we had not visited yet.

On the way out, someone was waving at me from the shore and was trying to take pictures. I came back around closer and went across again to provide another opportunity. After turning and coming close to shore, we chatted. Melanie has a Moss Lake focused web site providing a forum for local information exchange: mosslake-nc.com. She is a big enthusiast and advocate for activities on the lake. Sounds like a potential ally if we try to arrange some kind of regatta. I told her about our getting started, how much we enjoyed rowing on the lake, and little bit about sculling. She might write about it on her site. I'll ask if I can post any of the photos she took here.

The row turned out to be quite long. In spite of having the maxim -"on an out-and-back trip, turnaround before you get tired," I kept at heading up that cove. It was worth it. I found a section where the water was glass calm and most of the lots were wooded - the most peaceful spot all morning. My timing was perfect; after I turning around and heading out of the cove, a power boat went tearing right up where I'd left.

Quiet on the Catch, Noisy on the Release

Today, I ended up on the lake by myself. At the last minute, Kathleen wasn't able to go, so I had to re-rig the shell for a single. As before, I hugged the shore to minimize the distance should I flip out. All went well - maybe next time, I won't worry about this anymore.

I just rowed as continuously as I could and worked on standard stuff. With early rolling to a "square" blade, I go into the water very quietly on the catch. The release, however, is a different story. I saw an email on the Yahoo rowingmasters group that reinforced that good technique, at any speed, means a quiet row. I'm definitely going to need some pointers on the release. The only way I'm quiet bringing my blades out of the water is when I'm coasting back into the cove and applying almost no pressure on the stroke.

Note to self - blog posts need more pictures!

Second note to self - gotta watch the grammar and thought flow more carefully. I shudder to think what my English Teacher baby sister and Technical Editor mother think of my sentence construction and writing style. ;-)

Shoe Installation

I installed my new shoes last Saturday. Here's a picture of Kathleen's pair (which went on after our Labor Day row). To expose the innards, the insoles are out, the tongues are pulled forward, and the velcro "lace" flaps are pulled over.

To take advantage of the original footpads, Don sent a single bolt setup: a rather wide, round, flat head with a washer and a nyloc nut. To tighten the thing down, I had to use a lock wrench on the head. I decided to keep the heel cups in place to help guide the heels and to avoid complicated change outs should Carl or anyone else row with us.

On my first trip out, the shoe twisted on me right away. I was going to have to bear down on the ratchet wrench when we got back. The second trip was better (which had me really torquing it when putting Kathleen's in). The shoes are definitely more comfortable than the single velcro strap. I didn't have to think about "catching myself" with my feet at the finish. (I bet this is confusing. Remember that we're pushing off the footpads but don't want our feet to leave the pads. We curl our toes up to keep them from slipping out from under the strap.) Kathleen has been getting some blisters on one heel, so she'll really like these. I do notice that they do their job of fixing the foot - it's rather awkward now to lean forward on a break to get my water bottle. I also needed to bring a hand towel with me to dry off after getting in the boat from our access ramp. Putting socks on dirty wet feet is hard and yucky. More incentive to get the dock arrangements worked out and installed!

Dizzying Flotsam

After 6 inches of rain from Hurricane Fay over a couple days, it was an interesting row on Friday morning. The lake was indeed up as high as we'd seen it - not over anyone's dock, but up to the sideboards. I was wondering if we'd see a muddy current through the lake but there was none. However, lots of branches and bark had accumulated from run off and been blown together by the wind. Without boat traffic, it was just hanging around out there. It was amazing - as we would row through it, the rushing past would almost make me dizzy! I'm focusing on Kathleen in front of me, most of the time, and the water going past is rather nondescript just having a general sense of movement. But the flotsam really sets off the peripheral vision sensors, so it's like my whole field of view (except Kathleen) is rushing away. I'm so used to driving forward, this backwards motion is very different and was rather unsettling. "Cewl!"

The flotsam didn't last long. Saturday was noticably "cleaner." Sunday was all clear except for an errant log. Fortunately, it was a long way from us.