March 11, 2008

March 8-10

Hello, this is Chris Klotzbach, a member of the Boston University's men's rowing team, writing from our spring training trip to Clemson University in South Carolina.

Clemson graciously shares the waters of Lake Hartwell every year with us. After numerous delays due to Boston weather, we arrived to our home for the week, Clemson University's James F. Martin Inn around 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning. After some rest, we trekked to the course for a quick rig and row. Unfortunately, we arrived to 35 mph winds and whitecaps moving across the racecourse. Needless to say, that day was a wash.

Sunday was back to the daily spring training grind: early rise, row, lunch, nap, row, dinner, and then finally bed.

This morning, after a quick breakfast, we headed over to the course to get some miles under our belt in the pairs. Coach Pratt places a special emphasis on the ability to row in a pair. Later in the week, he conducts a pairs racing matrix that factors into selection for the different boats. Our drive over was a bit different in the sense that our van was engulfed in fog. At the lake, visibility was even worse and Rodney decided against sending the small boats out. We rowed twice in the afternoon through the oppressive fog.

All in all, Clemson is a great place to train for the week. Aside from a few blistery hands, we are all in pretty good shape and charging forward to prepare for our first race against Brown on April 5.

March 12

Since the last update, a lot has happened on all fronts.

Rowing-wise, the boats are becoming sharper and more focused. Over the last two days, we have begun our "pairs-matrix" selection, a process that realizes and highlights those individuals competent at moving small boats effectively. By the end of this grueling workout, which takes places over several days involving many different heats with all varsity rowers, each individual will have rowed with every rower from the opposite side (for example, one port side rower will have rowed with all the starboard rowers). By repeating this process over and over again, it is easy to see who rows well not just with a select few people, but across the board, and thus who can really move any boat.

And while rowing is more or less all that we do down here, we have been able to sneak in a few moments of a decidedly non-athletic nature. Traveling as a team to go support the BU lacrosse team at its match against Clemson was one of these such moments. It is hard to overstate the look of confusion and surprise of Clemson parents and fans when 50+ kids got out of packed vans to cheer on BU, despite the fact that we were over 900 miles away from our school. While Clemson edged BU out for the win, it was a fantastic game with a phenomenal rally from the Terriers that led up until the last minutes of the game.

While at the present we are working to acquire mastery of our boats by working on several different things, and the hours are both long and arduous, our thoughts are never removed from our ultimate goal for this upcoming season: being the fastest rowing team possible.

- Matt Trevithick, Class of 2008

March 15

As we approach the end of the week and soreness begins to take hold of our bodies, it becomes increasingly harder to roll out of bed, reflected by more and more rowers with coffee cups in their hands on the morning van ride over to the boats. But we all recognize the importance of training and of being the fastest team so we stay very motivated. No matter how intense practice gets, everyone pushes each other to get the most out of each stroke.

Some rowers continued with the pairs matrix today which we started on Tuesday, while others took out larger boats in the morning. We continued the pairs racing in the morning then transitioned to eight man boats in the afternoon. Our afternoon consisted of a slightly competitive practice with Purdue, one of the other schools we share Lake Hartwell with during spring break. Taking on heavy and changing winds paired with unfavorable water, the five-minute pieces against Purdue's first, second, and third varsity boats proved challenging. Purdue's first boat put up a strong and consistent fight throughout the four pieces with our first varsity matching its every move. Taking into account the tough pairs racing we have been doing, BU Crew had a good showing with three BU boats coming out in the top four each time.

Friday morning we got to sleep in a little. It is strange how a half hour makes a difference when you are waking up early every day. We finished up the pairs racing in some fun and intense races and got off the water right before the rain came. After practice, we got to look forward to our traditional trip to Just More Barbecue. After paying a small fee, you are free to get as much food as you want from the buffet with such goodness as pork, chicken, rice, and macaroni and cheese. After washing the food down with some sweet tea, entertaining music, and good conversation, we all loosened our belts a little bit. As spring breaks end is approaching rapidly, we take as much as we can out of the warm weather in our last few days.

- Ricardo Sinicio-Tessarotto, Class of 2010