Rowing it Alone: Against the Current

Friday night after work I was ecstatic to be able to head down to the beach for a row. It was sunny out, 70 degrees, and I actually left work at 5pm, for once. After a quick trip home to change and have a snack, I headed down to the water, not really considering the weather conditions. I was just so happy to have time for a weekday row.

No sooner did I get out there did I realize that it was really quite windy out. Not unmanageably windy, but windy enough that I got a serious workout in. I had also taken it upon myself to row opposite the direction that I usually do, so I was in more exposed water than preferable. Luckily, in spite of my atypical route, I still stuck to one of my big rules of thumb when rowing alone:

Row against the current on your way out, this way you have your easiest rowing to do on your way home.

While it may seem like simple advice, it's something that we could easily forget given that the majority of rowers spend a lot of time rowing in crews. If you get tired in a 4 or an 8, there's lots of other people to pick up the effort for you. And if, heaven forbid, you really couldn't make it back for some reason, you have a coach there to drive you back to shore. Not the case in a solo single.

In the end, the wind wasn't all that bad, and I got a really nice 45-minute row in, with lots of daylight to spare. It was a beautiful taste of what I'm sure will be a gorgeous summer of rowing. A great kick-off to the weekend!