Leaving

Today was our last day of training! It has been 5 weeks in total since I've arrived, and they have been long ones too. This past week has been exceptionally grueling. Ontario got another heat wave that lasted all week. Temperatures were in the low 30s but the humidity made it feel as though it was 40. It was really uncomfortable as the breeze was warm, the water was warm and I'm sweating a lot so there isn't anything that I can do to cool off. This certainly is a change from being in Victoria. I did survive, and it sure felt like that is what I had to do to get through some practices; survive. Yesterday it finally rained. I was so excited! That is probably one of the few times I have been excited about rain. It was raining while we were rowing and it was raining HARD. I felt like I was taking a shower it was coming done so hard. But I was really happy! :) All the humidity left and the smog went too. The air felt clear and crisp, like west coast air!

We are all very excited to be going to Poland and continue our training over there before we go to Belarus to race the World. Our crew is very pumped and we feel as though we have taken another step forward in the right direction; getting faster! Now that we are leaving for Europe everything seems so real. What we have been training for and working towards has finally arrived!

Our last practice on Fanshawe lake was great! Beautiful weather and no wind. Perfect rowing conditions. The first practice we did race pieces which went really well and we made some big improvements too. The second practice we had fun! Did a lot of fun drills with our feet out of the shoes, played some music through the cox box, switched with our pair partner and rowed the opposite side! Lots of fun! It was a great way to remember that rowing is fun!!