From the River to the Road

Now that I'm three weeks into Bike & Build, I can say that rowing was crucial to my training. I feel indebted to the Simmons rowing team for helping me begin to prepare for this endeavor. But when it comes to measuring fitness, rowing was perfect for a cyclist-in-training. And cycling is great for an out-of-season rower.

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My experiences with rowing and cycling have both required waking up at the 5:00 hour, beating the heat, staring at the back of the person in front of me, the daily practice of silence and focus that can lead to a meditative state, constantly making "minor adjustments" in technique (as the novice crew coach would say from the launch), learning to pace myself at a steady state, knowing what 85% of my maximum feels like in my quads, pushing with lower body strength, and the mental strength of going beyond my pain threshold.

The Charles River sculler Henriette Lazaridis Power understands this internal struggle of physical exhaustion:

That spring, I began to teach myself to ignore my body's warning signs, little by little. I grew more and more comfortable with discomfort, saw that I could and would be all right after going all out... My risk-taking was invisible to an observer. It was internal -- an attitude of greater freedom to explore and, from there, to commit... If you're really going to commit to something, you're going to have to catch yourself at that moment when your instinct tells you to play it safe. Embrace the discomfort.

Being a novice rower as a junior in college was an unconventional move. I stayed away from the "I'm too old to row with freshmen" attitude. I instead kept my goal of Bike & Build in perspective, and reminded myself that I'm not too old to learn something new. But learning something new, whether it's rowing or how to bike across the country, takes an attitude of humility and a willingness to look foolish while trying your best. No, I don't know how to bike across the country and I still have so much to learn about rowing, but I'm doing it anyway. And dare I say it: this abandonment of my comfort zone to take risks is the biggest lesson I've learned from all this.