The Sphinx of the Charles by Ayer Toby;

Author:Ayer, Toby; [Ayer, Toby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2016-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Two days later Bill is taking two crews out in the cold, late afternoon of a snowy day, but Harry’s squad are on the ergs, doing a 5k test. It has been almost two months since their last, though they were encouraged to try one on their own in January.

As in December, Harry talks to them in the final minutes as they warm up, looking from rower to rower, nodding as he talks. The rowers are talking to each other, but one will look up and nod back if Harry’s gaze falls on him. “Find a good rhythm, a good pace. Be conservative. Find something you feel you can hold consistently, find where you are today. If you feel you can’t hold it, back off. Good press with the legs, hold all the way to the finish.”

During the piece: “Good persistence. Keep bearing down. Stay strong. Stay strong.” Later that night, he sends the team an e-mail: “Outstanding! Great effort on the 5k pieces today!”

This is a strange time of year, the transition from winter training to the spring season, with many unknowns: Is training indoors or outdoors? Which will be more useful, a controllable session on the ergs, where individual efforts are visible and measurable, or a cold row in the boat, improving bladework, group cohesion, and racing skills? Which is more important for the team right now?

Harry, in a very unusual step, had individual meetings with each member of his squad back in December, to discuss their training goals for the winter. They were both surprised and intimidated by these one-on-ones with Harry, but they added some bite to the holiday points contest and to all their individual efforts. Harry knows he does not have the strength he has relied on for the last few years.

This week all the Newell squads have squeezed in some good rows on the open river, all the way through Saturday morning. But by the following Monday the river has frozen over again, with a discouragingly solid look, and the rowers are back on the ergs and in the tanks. Charley has the varsity lights in the Old Tanks, and Linda has her freshmen doing short, hard pieces on the back row of ergs.

Across the erg room, Harry is talking to Bill about something. The ergs are loud, the music is louder, and you can’t hear what they are saying. Harry does most of the talking, and combines a slow nod of the head—up, then down—with a pushing away of the hand, like he’s telling someone to slow down or relax. He does this periodically, and Bill nods a lot, which is a good idea when you talk to Harry. He could be scolding Bill, or telling him something about the Red Sox, or explaining the afternoon schedule in the Old Tanks. It’s impossible to know. All these would look the same from across the room, although if it is baseball he might smile.

Most of Bill’s guys are doing lower-intensity erging, but one of his foreign recruits is doing a 5k test on his own.

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