Rowing Unleashed: All You Need to Know

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Kristi Wagner  0:00  
I really love it and Saratoga and I really love rowing here. I love rowing on Fish Creek. I love training here, it just makes me really happy. And I am not going to be here for a while because it's going to be cold here. And there's big fish to fry down in Florida to try to qualify for the Olympics. Welcome to the other three years, a show for anyone who has an Olympic sized dream, they want to turn into a reality. Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the other three years podcast this week is going to be a little bit different because we thought that since it's a holiday week, and also because we've got some new listeners, it would be a good opportunity to just break down the sport of rowing a little bit and explain some basics about the sport for maybe our non rowing listeners so that some of the words I'm using will be a little bit less confusing. But also, I thought it would be a good opportunity to explain kind of the next few months of my life and what the qualification process is like in the US for rowers trying to qualify for the Olympics. Yeah, that's basically what our episode today is going to be. So you just get to hear my voice instead of a guest this week. But I think that'll be okay to begin with. I just wanted to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving. Yesterday was Thanksgiving. Well, Thanksgiving is in a couple of days, but you will be hearing this, and yesterday will have been Thanksgiving. So I'm very grateful to everyone that listens to the podcast. It's so nice. Like, I'm kind of amazed that people listen. But I really appreciate it. And it's been a really cool way to connect with so many different people and expand. I don't know myself and get to Yeah, connect with so many people that I wouldn't have connected with before. And I'm very grateful to have had this opportunity and continue to be having this opportunity to share my kind of weird life with all of you. So I do have some questions that I'm going to be going through and just explaining I'm going to start a little bit with the sport of rowing. So if you are a rower, this might seem super basic, but maybe you'll learn something I don't know, rowing can be done with either two oars, or one or when it's done with two oars. It's called sculling, that's mostly what I do. But if you have one or in your hand and you go out to like one side or the other, that's called sweep rowing. So you can have 124 or eight people athletes in a boat. And in the one person vote, it's going kind of obviously, because if you only had one or in a one person vote, you would just go in circles the whole time. And then in the two person votes, we have both two people sculling, which is four ors, that's called a double. That's the vote class that I've wrote in the past couple of years. They also have two people rowing with one or that's called a pair. And then we have the same thing for the four and the eight. Well, the eight only has sweep rowing. Well, actually, an octuple does exist, but we don't really do that. So there are all of those book classes, which are contested at the Olympic Games. And so like for the women, for example, there's a single a pair, a double, a lightweight double, which means that both athletes have to be under, it's really like 125 pounds, it's really kilo grams, so it's a little bit confusing. And then we have a four which is sweep rowing, for people a quad, which is scoring for people and an eight. And that's for both men and women. And those are all the boats that are contested at the Olympics. At the World Championships. There are a few more lightweight boot classes, quad the pair and the single, but those are not contested at the Olympic Games. That's basically all of the opportunities that you have to race at like the Olympics or the World Championships right now. And we right now the only event at the Olympics is flatwater rowing which is what I do, which is 2000 meters, mile and a quarter it is six lanes and like you race head to head so we all line up at the start line go the first person that crosses the finish line is the winner. They are starting in 2028. They will have coastal rowing in the Olympics like beach sprints, which is pretty different sport but it is so rowing but right now it's just normal rowing flat water. So we do most of our training on the water in our rowing boats, which people call shells. You can also call boats, skulls. I call them boats. We usually have coaches and they drive in motor boats and coach us either with megaphones or radios or sometimes they just yell We have a lot of different coaches. We're primarily coached by rowing coaches who write our training program and coach us on the water, both like run our practices, telling us like what to do and when to do it. They also coach our rowing technique, getting us to row the way that they want us to row and maybe like the same as the other people in our boats. Then off the water, we'll have lifting coaches, that coach just how we lift and core and that kind of thing. We do have dieticians and all of that stuff, like I had Liz Pascoe on the podcast, but we don't have sort of fitness coaches, our rowing coaches prescribe our land workouts as well. And then we do a lot of our training. Also on a rowing machine, which we call an erg, we use primarily a rowing machine that's made by this company called concept two that's based in Vermont. And they've sort of monopolized the rowing machine market. And people are now pretty familiar with herbs, because a lot of people use them in CrossFit and gyms and that kind of thing. So they're more widely known than they were 15 years ago. Now, like, there's a company called hydro that does sort of what peloton does, but for rowing, and then peloton also has a rowing section. So rowing is definitely gaining popularity, or what land rowing is gaining popularity. But we mostly just use concept twos, we also use a rowing machine called an RP three, which is sort of the same. If you don't row it wouldn't seem that different. The main difference is that an RP three, your feet move and your seat moves, whereas the concept two, just your seat moves, your feet are stationary, and you're kind of moving back and forth. But on the RP three, your feet are moving, and your seat is moving, which is more like what happens on the water, because everything is moving on the water as well, which is why that is preferred by some people, it's also a little less like load. So it's a little bit easier on your body and your joints. But really, I personally think it's kind of all the same. There are a lot of differences between logging and rowing, I would say it's kind of like riding a bike outside versus riding a stationary bike, like you're not going to, you don't have to balance when you're riding a stationary bike. But you do have to balance when you're riding a real bike, it's sort of the same thing. And when we roll on the water, there's a ton of variables, the wind, the weather, the other people on the boat, when you're rowing on a machine, it's just a machine, you can do things that wouldn't really make the boat go faster, but they're going to make you go faster on the machine. So it's a good training tool. And it's a good measure of fitness and those kinds of things. But it's not like the end all be all. A lot of coaches like to say that herbs don't float, which is kind of a funny thing to say. And they basically mean that like, just because you're growing fast on the ERG doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be a good boat mover. I personally look at it like you will pull a certain speed on an erg and that creates a sort of V for how fast you could go on the water. So if you are a really really highly skilled technical rower, you could kind of go really close to one end of the V. But if you're a really bad technical rower, you're on the other end of the V. So if you're a really good technical rower and you have a slow ERG score, but there's a person that has a really good ERG score and as a slow technical rower, like maybe you would change, you know, ranking on the water and on the ERG, or maybe you wouldn't, you know, depending on how much more strength one person has than the other how much better technically the other person is. So there are a lot of factors that go into making the boat go fast. And I'd say arriving and being fit and strong is definitely one of those things. It's just not the only thing, but it's definitely important at the level, at the elite level to be good at everything. But on the ERG it is important and we do still do a lot of ERG testing and ERG fitness and that kind of thing. So the biggest difference between sculling and sweeping is that in schooling, you have one or in a sweeping you have two oars. And schooling is much more in the middle of your body. Like you come up to the couch and you stretch both your hands out sweeping, you kind of go to one side or the other so it's a bit more uneven. Maybe both sides of your body aren't the same strength level if you've swept for a really long time, always on the same side.

I'd whereas in schooling, hypothetically both sides of your body should be totally equal to make the boat go straight. That's really the biggest difference and that in schooling, we can grow singles. So we don't really need another person to train with and in sweep rowing. You can't roll by yourself so you always need to have somebody else throw in the boat with you. The next question on here is about Caucasians. So we have a few Caucasians on the podcast so if you have Coxon questions I would recommend listening to like Jimmy's episode because it was really good and he did a very good job explaining what a Coxon is, but toxins are the people that steer the boats. So in the eight for example, they have a Coxon. A Coxon sits all the way in the back of the boat, which is also sort of the front of the boat but it is the back because we go backwards. That's another big thing about rowing. We go backwards so we're not facing the direction that we're going, but the Coxon is facing the direction that we're going so they have a rudder that's on wires and they steer the boat using a wire rudder. And then they also have a microphone and their speakers throughout the boat and they call the race or the practice. So in big boats, like they have Coxed fours COC states Coxed quads, and they're just sort of like hybrid coach athlete, person jockey person in control. And they do serve like a very important role a good Coxon can make a boat like a lot better, I'd say a bad Coxon can make a boat a lot worse, and they they're very important. In small boats, we don't have toxins, we steer the boats either with pressure steering, meaning you just pull a little harder on one side or the other. Or sometimes they the small boats do have a rudder and one of the athletes has the wires connected to one of their shoes. And so you your shoe was on a swivel and you'll point your toe in a different direction to steer the boat. And in boats that don't have toxins, one of the athletes will make the race calls, or the practice calls or that kind of thing. Obviously, they don't talk as much as the Coxon would talk. And during practice, you also have the coach to make the practice calls and that kind of thing. We all will row in multiple boat classes throughout the year, we train in lots of different boats. at the elite level, we train primarily in small boats. So it's a lot of singles and pairs, some doubles and straight fours. And then sometimes we get in the quads and eights. But it is a lot of small boats training throughout the year, I'd say most people row in lots of different boat classes. And it's important to be able to go in lots of different boat classes. But people also have boat classes they like more than others or both classes that they're slightly better at. So everyone has, you know their own preference of what they think is fun to row. And if they like big boats better or small boats better. It's a personal preference. But it's really fun. I'd say I've had like really fun experiences. In all size boat classes, it's when you spend a lot of time in small boats, it can be really exciting to get into a big boat. But you know, in college or something when you're spending all your time in a big boat can be really exciting to get into a small boat. So it's just kind of fun to change it up sometimes. Switching gears a little bit, we are going to talk a little bit about what the qualification process is like in the US and kind of what my like day to day training is like there are two steps to quote Well, there are many steps to qualifying for the Olympics. But there are two big steps to qualifying for the Olympics. And the first is that the country has to qualify the boat class. So each it's not like you can just say I want to go to the Olympics. And then if you're the fastest boat in your country, you can go you have to internationally qualify the boat class for the Olympics by either performing at a certain level at the World Championships the year before the Olympics. So the World Championships that just happened, or by going to the final Olympic qualification Regatta, which will happen this spring in Lucerne. So Sophia and I finished high enough to qualify the women's double for the Olympics. So the US will definitely race a women's double in Paris. But that doesn't mean at all that we are the athletes in that boat. It just means that as a country, the US will have that boat class, I have an opportunity to race that book class. So the boats that didn't qualify didn't perform at a certain level at the World Championships will still have another chance to qualify through the final Olympic qualification regatta which is also called the regatta of death by a lot of people because it's like, either you make it or you don't get to go to the Olympics. And it's different in that case because the athletes that race in that Regatta, if they qualify those athletes 100% are in the boat for the Olympics, so, for example, our men's aid for the US did not qualify for the Olympics based on how they performed at the World Championships. So the US will still failed and eight and they will go to the final Olympic qualification regatta and if they finish high enough in the top two, then those nine athletes eight rowers in a Coxon Will 100% be the athletes that go to the Olympics for the US. So it's a little bit different depending on the route that that's taken to qualify, like how the athletes qualify and how the boat qualifies. So the boats that have already qualified that performed at a high level at the World Championships this past year, those boats will either have to win a trial in the US, and that's for the singles and the pairs, or they will be camp boats, and they will be named through a selection camp. So the single on the pair will win a trial and the trials winners will represent the US at the Olympics, every other boat class will, athletes will be invited to a camp based on past performance based on race results based on ERG scores, Coach recommendations, all of those things come into the camp. And throughout the camp, there will be a series of racing training matrix sees lots of stuff, and then the coaches and the high performance director and the selection committee and a high performance committee, everyone will decide what the best opportunities are for the US. And those athletes will be named to those boats for the Olympics. So it's a little bit confusing, because there's a number of different ways that you can qualify. But I think that as athletes, you just have to realize that, you know, cream rises to the top, and you can only control like your every day. And know that maybe everything doesn't seem totally fair, or like clear cut, or maybe some stuff is confusing, but at the end of the day, like everyone wants the fastest boats to be at the Olympics. And of course, everyone wants to be in those boats. But like, you just have to trust the process and trust that if you put in the work, and if you're showing the speed, then like you're going to be in the boat. And it's a lot easier said than done, it can be really stressful. And sometimes, you know, crazy things happen. But it rarely comes down to like one day or one thing it really is more a body of work. And putting in a lot of days a lot of really good results. A lot of you know all that but also being primed and ready to go at the right times of the year. And at the right times of the quad like through a four year Olympic cycle, it's most important to be going the fastest right at the Olympics. So you have to make sure that you have done all the right work at the right times to be showing the right speed at the right times. So it's um, it's a little bit stressful. But I think it's also you can't just constantly be worried about this far off date, you have to be able to control every day and what you can do every day to help you achieve little goals on the way to the big goal. In rowing, we train a lot more than we race, we really raised very little, which is kind of a bummer. But it's also okay, we train, like so much. We have two practices, if not three every day, it's really a part to full time job of training. And that's true, like a lot of high schoolers train that much, which is crazy and a whole separate topic. But most College Division One athletes are training almost that much. And definitely every elite rowers training that much, we put in a lot, a lot, a lot of time into our training, whether it's rowing or getting lifting, cross training, which is running, cycling, swimming, any of those things. We're doing it multiple hours a day, six days, if not seven days a week, basically almost the whole year. And rowers are also most people aren't taking time off during holiday breaks.

I'll be in my parent's garage on my rowing machine, like on the holidays, just getting in your minutes, because that's what you have to do. And I think that's kind of a universal router thing. We're all a little bit crazy. So and that's just what you have to do. Like you have to put in the time because if you don't, somebody else is going to be doing it. So there's a lot of training that goes into rowing. And it's crazy because our races are like so short, six to eight minutes, only a few races every year. It's definitely much more than a lot of other sports where they're mostly competing and not that much training. How does the busy training schedule affect your personal life since it's a lifestyle choice? I'd say that my training schedule kind of runs my life and if I can fit in other things around it, then that's great. But especially right now being so close to the Olympics, like, it's a kind of easy decision that rowing and training come first, which I'm the first one to say that that's like a pretty selfish way to live. But I think that being sort of singularly focused on a goal is a unique thing that you don't get to do a ton of times in your life. And I am at a point in my life right now, where I'm able to be putting that much into a goal, which is, I think, kind of a rare thing. So I don't have children, married anything like that. So I am able to be like putting everything into, you know, my Olympic dream. But it's definitely like a pretty time and life consuming pursuit. That's not to say that we can't have fun, we can have fun. And we can have friends and relationships and families and all of that stuff and do fun things be 100% Can it's just a lot less than I think the average person and I think our emotional capacity, are saying our I should only speak for myself, my emotional capacity for real life, quote, unquote, gets smaller and smaller, like the closer we get towards race season. In the other three years, what steps do you have to take to even get there?

I'd say the other three years are our journey. But like I was just saying everything gets more singularly focused down as you get closer to the Olympics. So in the first year, out of the Olympics, like the post Olympic year, there's definitely a lot more time for different things, and fun, and travel and work and all this stuff. And then as you get closer and closer to the Olympics, it's more training more focus more sort of blinders on. Because you just have to do it. That being said, I think that you also have to have other things in your life so that your whole life isn't rowing. Like, it's so easy, if the only thing in your life is rolling, to get hyper focused on things that really don't matter. And then if you have one bad practice it like spirals out of control. Whereas I think when you have other things in your life, whether they're, you know, relationships with friends, or significant others, or hobbies, or work or family or any of those things, then it's easy to, you know, realize, like, just because you lost a race, you know, your friends and family still love you, you probably still have your job, you know, you still can do things that make you happy, like it's not the end of the world. And I think that if you don't have those things, if you've narrowed your focus down so far, then it can be really hard to dig yourself out of holes. And at the end of the day, I don't know if like I said this on the podcast once, but like if you shut everything else out of your life, and then you win an Olympic gold medal, and you're standing up on a podium alone, and you have no one to share that with, I'd question is that really worth it? Which I think some people would maybe say yes, but I think that for me, personally, I don't know if it would be. So it's all about balance, a day of my life of typical training. When I'm in Saratoga, or on a training trip, it's really the same. I wake up by six, I have a sunrise alarm clock, which my brother and his fiancee gave me for my birthday last year. Thanks, Joe and Jenny, it's really nice. And then I have oatmeal toast every morning, which I cannot, you know, say more is really the perfect breakfast if you're going to be doing two hours of cardio, because you don't get hungry. And the second half of your workout is 100% fueled, and it's sort of also fueling your afternoon workout all at the same time. So it's really the best, it's a lot of carbs, but that's what you need to feel your workout. And I ride my bike to the boathouse, which is great sort of free fitness, and I usually ride with cat unless he's too cold to ride. It's a little jab a cat because he was my friend in the cold and then we go to practice are well then I do a little bit of warm up. And I do a warm up that people make fun of me for but they're just being haters, and then we do practice and I like to have a really good practice every day so that I can feel good about my training. And then I have some food and coffee rest a little bit. I usually do a little bit of work or something like that. And then I do my second workout, usually in the middle of the day, which is either a lift and some cardio or maybe another rowing session, just depends on the day. And then I'll do some more work. Or maybe I'll do podcasting, something like that, ride my bike home, and then basically just have dinner and have a little bit of rest time and do it all again the next day. So there's really not that much time to, like, hang out between working and training full time. But I like feeling very accomplished at the end of the day. And I like being busy. Those things are all good. Of course, occasionally I do like sitting on my couch and watching Netflix like I'm normal. But for the most part I, I do really enjoy, like finishing a day and feeling like I got the most out of that day. Like I squeezed all the potential out of this day. And I think that's also true with my workouts, like I just go into them feeling like, even if I don't think I can do the whole workout, like even if it seems hard and impossible, I just do the warmup. And then I just do the first piece, they just pretend the rest of it doesn't even exist. And I think because I've done that, for so many years now, like there's no doubt in my mind that I'm going to be able to crush things, I just have this belief inside me that I'm gonna finish and I'm somehow gonna come out the other side, like stronger than I started. And then I think you just stack those days, and then hope that that's what's gonna give you the tools you need on race day. To perform at the level that you want to perform that I feel like the best part of a really great on the water practice, which like maybe it's just a steady state row or something a little bit harder is like the time when you don't want it to end. I feel like in rowing, I personally spend a lot of time counting down the minutes, there's only this much time left or there's this much time left to practice, I'm just gonna make it to this sort of part and then this part, and then this part, and then I'll make it through. But at some point, during most practices, I reach a point where I'm no longer doing that. And I'm just like in this sort of flow state, and I don't want it to be over. Like it's just feels good. And I'm just sort of cruising. And like, I don't know, sort of like tapping into something. And I don't want it to end. And it's really awesome when you have that feeling during something really hard, which doesn't happen very often. But occasionally it does. And I think you're just sort of searching for that feeling. I personally spend a lot of time with my brain on like overspeed and I'm constantly thinking. And when I'm into a workout, whether it's a row, or an erg, or bike or some run, and there are just segments where my mind is just totally at ease. And I'm totally just focused on what I'm doing. And on the water, it can be really great because I'm just thinking about rowing, like thinking about technically sitting up at the release and pushing my hips and leaving my arms out straight and, and just like tapping it along, and not thinking about my life. And my problems or lack thereof problems or, you know, it doesn't matter if life is going good or bad. You just sort of forget about it. And you can just be out there. I think it's what I've always liked about rowing, I think that's what was so great about college rowing, like, college was so stressful. And then you got to go to crew. And I mean, sometimes that was stressful too. But for the most part, you got to go for these beautiful rows with your friends and work really hard and just kind of have fun and not think about school and life and internships and all of that stuff. And just row. Let your mind sort of be free. I mentioned trials briefly before, but the two ways that you can qualify for the Olympics are either through a trial or through a camp. And so trials is just an I think this is pretty specific to rowing, an open trial. Like you do not need to qualify to go to a US rowing trials event. literally anyone can go like you could go, anyone could go. And I think that's really cool. It doesn't matter what you've done before. It doesn't matter where you're from, it doesn't matter. None of it matters. I mean, it will matter once you're there you perform, but to go, anyone can go. And so there really are just endless opportunities within the sport because say it's a random person from a random place and they just got really fast really quickly, like they could go to a trial and win and represent the US in that vote category. And that has happened before so I think it really opens doors and leaves a lot of opportunity in the sport up to the individuals, which is a really cool thing. And we are sort of as a country moving away from multiple trials events, but those opportunities are still available. So it's pretty cool. So if you'd like to learn more about rowing, the Boys in the Boat movie is about to come out Christmas Day.

I haven't seen it. But I've heard it's very, very good. And it's based on the book The Boys in the Boat, which is an awesome book. And I would really recommend and does a great job explaining the sport of rowing, both like logistically but also sort of spiritually seems like a weird word, but that kind of visit the mind and body and all of that kind of thing that go into this sport is really well explained in the book. And it's also just a great story. But if you're a longtime listener of the podcast, you might remember that I did previously recommend some really great rowing books. So I would also recommend listening to that episode, which we can link in the show notes. But if you did listen to that, you will remember that I said, my favorite rowing book was the salt on Lake Casitas. But I also did not recommend our Shea Cooper's most beautiful thing in that episode, which is also a really great rowing book that I would recommend, while it good rowing books. So I hope that everyone learned a lot about the sport. And before I leave you to enjoy your rest of your Friday after Thanksgiving, I just wanted to give a quick update on what's been going on. So I just finished or I'm currently finishing my last week in Saratoga for a while, which I have a lot of feelings about. And I'm trying not to have so many feelings about it. Because I am excited to be going south and doing some winter training in Georgia, and then Florida and all of that and excited to be going home for the holidays. But I really love it and Saratoga and I really love rowing here. I love rowing on Fish Creek, I love training here, it just makes me really happy. And I am not going to be here for a while because it's going to be cold here. And there's big fish to fry down in Florida to try to qualify for the Olympics. But I'm really proud of kind of the work that I've put in this fall and sort of proud of myself for wanting to do that in Saratoga. I think I could have chosen not to be in Saratoga this fall. But I'm really happy that I decided to stay here and to have this fall of training. And I feel like it's been really good for a number of different reasons. But just like training wise, I think that I've really took things into my own hands and of course, listened to cat but was very clear and like what I wanted to get out of it. And then he was sort of like, okay, well, we're gonna do a lot of work. And I just said, okay, and then we did it. And I'm feeling really good. Body wise, mind wise, like ready to attack more work. But feeling like I have a really good engine and a good base to build on as we keep going. I know I told everyone last week in the episode that I was doing an open rate 6k I was wrong. It was a separate 6k that we did on Saturday. So I still have not done an open rate drug test. But the separate 6k went pretty well. I was happy with it. And a lot of other rowers were down in Princeton, New Jersey this past weekend racing at the speed order. And they really had to roll with the punches. There was a lot of wind, a lot of weather, they ended up racing at like 7am, both Saturday and Sunday. But there was some good racing down, there are some really close racing, which is awesome. And a lot of my teammates had really good braces that they were really happy with kind of caps to their falls. So I was happy to you know, I'm a fan of rowing. So I'm a fan of people doing impressive things down there. I will say I was is maybe this is controversial. I was happy. I wasn't there. happy with my choice to not race which feels a little bit weird to say I think it's probably the first race since I've been doing elite rowing that I like, consciously did not go to. So that felt a little bit weird, but I do think it was the right choice for me. Given what everything that's happened this year. So it felt good to like have made a choice and then feel like I made the right choice. And yeah, now I'm just gonna go back to Boston for Thanksgiving, see my family and eat some really good food. And then right after Thanksgiving, I'm going to start the drive down over to Gainesville, Georgia where I'm going to be training for a couple of weeks. So exciting things happening but it's all it's all been good. And yeah, so I hope that everyone has a really great or had a really great Thanksgiving has a great Thanksgiving weekend, watch some good football, enjoy some good leftovers. My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is the sandwich you get to eat the day after Thanksgiving. So I hope you guys are all eating your sandwich while listening to this. So before I leave everyone this week, I have a quote of the week which is from the Boys in the Boat, the book, not the movie, although maybe it's a quote that's in the movie too. I don't know. I haven't seen the movie. From Daniel James Brown, who wrote The Boys in the Boat. He said, harmony, balance and rhythm. They're the three things that stay with you your whole life without them civilization is out of whack. And that's why an oarsman. When he goes on in life, he can fight it. He can handle life. That's what he gets from growing. So, thanks for listening. Hope you have a great week. See you next time.

I'd love to hear from you. So send us a topic suggestion or if you'd like to submit a question for our Ask Christy anything segment, head to our website, the other three years.com

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