16 ounce curls

What is your favorite form of physical exercise?

It’s thirsty work, but rewarding. 

In all seriousness, I’ve never been a big fan of exercise for exercise’s sake. I prefer participating in a sport. Should extra exercise help my performance, so be it.

As a for instance, I decided to try crew when I went to college. I wasn’t a particularly sporty person, but I love anything involving water. Crew always looked like a fun, snooty Harvard thing to do, and I had to try it. I figured how hard could it be? You get to sit down, and you do the same thing over and over.  Piece of cake 😜

I found out quickly that it was enormously taxing on my cardiovascular system. I was sucking wind five minutes in, and we were just “warming up,” according to the coach. Hmmm… maybe I should stop smoking, too.

I actually did, eventually. 

But yes, crew got me started into the jocko phase of my life. I was in my late 20s and a good 40 pounds too heavy. I would get “boat burn” on the sides of my legs where my thighs rubbed against the gunwales. My hands sometimes looked like raw hamburger meat after rowing on particularly humid days. In FLA, that was pretty much ALL THE TIME! I still really loved it.

I started alternating my crew days with running or weights. I did lots of squats and stuff because crew is 85% leg strenght. It didn’t feel like exercise because I was doing it so I wouldn’t be the weakest link on the team. Turns out I was anyway. The coach conveniently forgot to send me the notice about the practice schedule when the next semester rolled around. Meh, I understood. I was kind of a hot mess next to all the younger college kids.

A few years later, I joined a community rowing team. It was more my speed. The age range was college to mid-seventies and all different abilities. I got to row in quite a few regattas and still have a collection of medals, and not the ones you get just for participating 😉. I was over the moon the first time I was handed a gold medal, more so when I got the second one for a different race on the same day. We called it “getting the clink.”

My crowning crew achievement was rowing in the Head of the Charles in Boston.  The HOTC is a BIG deal. It’s like the Superbowl of rowing. Only a handful of community rowing groups get in every year, and their intro year is always by lottery. The club I was in got the golden ticket, and they immediately held try outs.

This was a big deal. I had never tried out for anything before. We had to do an erg  (rowing machine) test followed by a series of “seat races.” This is where you race against another 8-seat boat, and they swap random people between the two boats. Somehow, they are able to determine the strongest rowers. I have no clue how that happens.

A few nights later, the big announcement was sent. I opened the email and slowly scrolled down, revealing one name at a time. I was on name number six and was already making peace with not being selected, and… my name was next!

WHOOP!!!

I found out much later that I had been a controversial pick. I wasn’t the strongest rower, but I was ambidextrous.  I could row port or starboard side equally well. Should someone need to drop out, I had the flexibility. Turns out, someone did. The alternate was brought in, and I was moved to a different side.

I haven’t rowed in many years. I don’t live close enough to a rowing club anymore, and erg work on its own is tedious. I now enjoy hiking with the hubs and our dog, Freya. Once in a while, I’ll still do a few squats to keep my legs in shape. 😉