University of Tennessee Athletics
LADY VOL DIARIES - KAY LOGAN
January 18, 2002 | Rowing
Jan. 18, 2002
By Kay Logan
My diary consists of The Lady Vol Rowing Team's winter training trip to Cocoa Beach Florida over December 31-January 8.
It all began with a bonding bus ride to the Sunshine State. I say bonding because riding 12 hours on a coach bus with your teammates is a way to chat and learn new things about your friends, watch movies, and, most of all come together as a team setting the mood for the week ahead.
Arriving in Cocoa Beach on New Year's Eve, we were all happy that we got to be with one another to ring in the New Year. Practice started very early the next morning though, so we had to watch "the ball" drop, give our cheers while toasting our sparkling grape juice, and get to bed. I know it's not the usual New Year's Eve for most of the world, but for the Lady Vol rowing team...it was preparing for a long week ahead of us.
On Monday morning, we all woke up and went over to the training course -excited to be wearing our sunglasses, shorts, and tees. Although the weather was not as hot as we had expected, Lisa Glenn (head rowing coach) kept reminding us that we were very lucky to be in the warmest part of the country. New Year's Day was an especially great row for us as we celebrated a new year for the Lady Vol rowing team!!! After sadly saying goodbye to the water for awhile to put in some gruesome training on the ergs, I am sure everyone would agree that it was wonderful to be out on the water again. Some of us were even lucky enough to see dolphins swimming through the intercoastal waterway where we were rowing.
Wednesday we set out for our second day of winter training. Okay...maybe we were not as enthusiastic as the day before, but that was only because we had an erg test. As soon as we arrived at the training course, many of us had developed butterflies in our stomachs, but a little anxiety is the best thing for a race. Yet, there is just something about doing an erg test that makes you realize how special and how hard each of your teammates is working to make the team the best. Maybe it was the ocean breeze, the teammate next to us rowing her hardest to push the team further, the teammates cheering us on with encouraging words, the sweat pouring down our faces or the lactic acid burning in our bodies. Perhaps it was just the thought that everyone was working as a team and pushing to the limit that helped us get through it. If you ask me, I would say it was all of those ingredients that made me get through it, even with a faint smile to spare at the end because I knew I was putting in the effort for the team.
Each day while we were in Cocoa, our practice schedule consisted of a long morning row, a break in the afternoon for lunch, lounging around on the beach, and most of all: rest. Later, we had an afternoon row. During practice, we spent time rowing in eights, fours, pairs, doubles, and singles. We also ran back from the training course one morning. It was the greatest five-mile course, running beside the waterway up to A1A Beach Front Avenue.
Each day during practice, we all worked hard on our technique, gained more endurance, and learned how to find a "little bit more" in our strength. It is those things that will make our boat faster this spring, so if you ask me, or anyone for that matter, they will say we accomplished a tremendous amount of work during our winter training trip. As for our down time, we went to the beach, had a few team dinners, and ended the trip with a barbecue by the pool.
In all, I definitely enjoyed rowing with the dolphins and watching the beautiful, picture-perfect sunsets on the beach. Yet, there was something about that trip that made me feel the magnitude of our team. Just knowing that there were other teams training on the same water with us in Cocoa, I knew that it was our teamwork, focus, and determination that set us apart from them. And it will be those qualities that will set our team apart from them on the race course this spring!!!
