On the front cover of Rowing and Regatta magazine is the caption - Row Better - Can cycling help? I am going to test that theory (and am hoping that it will!)
Let me introduce myself. My name is Debbie Flood and I have been a member of the British Rowing Team for the last 12 years (wow time flys!) for which most of I was a full time Lottery funded athlete. After returning from the Beijing Olympics in 2008 I decided that I deserved and needed a well earnt break as well as wanting to start my career pathway for 'life after rowing' if that indeed exists. I am the sort of person who will never stop doing 'something' exercise related, so kept myself occupied in my year out attempting a few triathlons and duathlons as well as doing some domestic rowing for my club Leander. I now continue to work in my day job as a Prison Officer full time but am fitting in rowing alongside this with the intention of hopefully getting back into the senior team and competing in this years World Championships in November.
This is a task that I am finding more difficult than I first thought - having the positive mindset of a racing athlete and thinking that I am always fit and ready to race anything, I find that I possibly havent been this unfit Ever. Structure and managing the spare time I do have are going to be key in my return to fitness. Rowing is an endurance sport hinging on the fact that an exceptionally high skill level is needed inorder to transfer that fitness and power into speed over the water. Sport specific training is essential BUT coming from a varied sporting background myself - running, shot putt, karate, judo and rowing - I am a firm believer in all round fitness and strength.
The bike has more and more formed a part of our training in rowing as a squad. After our break following the end of our racing season we particularly use cycling on training camp to regain fitness and kick off our winter training. On my year out last year, the Rowing Team also started to use Wattbikes, and a few appeared at Caversham Lake - our squad training ground. I had heard whisperings that the Wattbikes were really good and better than any alternative we had used before, so when I had the opportunity after the Indoor Erg Champs this year to use a Wattbike I jumped at the chance. Cycling to work was forming the main part of my training and use of spare time, but with the nights already dark and the icy mornings drawing in, being out on the road was becoming less favourable.
With the Wattbike charged and me ready and raring to go, it will form a new set of targets for me. Being less fit than I am used to, the ergo is frustrating as I can see that my times are not what I want them to be at the moment. But the Wattbike is an unknown to me and II look forward to seeing what I can do and charting my progress with my increasing fitness.
Having taken a year out of international Rowing, the general consensus is that it takes a year to get back to that level of fitness, and even then you will be on catch up. I hope to be an exception to that rule. Bring it on!
