Inside Winter Training: Jadyn Jay
TAMPA, Fla. – Throughout Kansas rowing’s week and half training trip to Florida, various Jayhawks will give an inside look at what’s happening each day during winter training with the ‘Inside Winter Training’ Blog.
Freshman Jadyn Jay shares her experiences during her first trip to Tampa for winter training.
‘The day went’ was a common phrase I heard around the Tampa boat house on Saturday.
My alarm went off this morning at 6:15 a.m., but I pressed snooze a few more times before I woke up. It was a bit of a struggle to roll out of bed and get dressed because my body ached. I moseyed my way down the hall hopped aboard the elevator as it stopped nearly at every floor as fellow rowers would join before it reached ground floor.
We ate breakfast quietly because most of us were trying to prep our minds for the day. It was a big day today, Margo (Hunter) and Valerie (Swisher) had birthdays, we wished them happy birthday, but there was something else as a team more pressing on our minds.
There were perfect conditions during morning practice with a temperature of 55 degrees, the wind was mild and there were next to no boats on the water. Many of the freshmen, myself included rowed in a 4 boat for the very first time today. There is no hiding in a 4 boat, I learned that the hard way.
Although, there were perfect conditions the boat stayed tilted on starboard side as we tried to gain control of the boat. It took us a little while to find balance, but we finally did and we were all very pleased with our performance.
We docked and returned to our hotel where most of us took a nap to rest our bodies for the next practice, but more importantly the thing that had been most on our mind, the 2x5k erg test. We got to practice early, waited while group 1 erged, then it was our turn we each looked at each other with scared smiles and said “Rock Chalk” or “Chiefs Kingdom” because we are good Kansans and both of the games were on tonight.
My heart was racing because of the anticipation as we warmed up, we had a brief moment to situate ourselves, I then heard ‘ready, row!’ and we were off. The constant rolling of the erg, swish, swish, was somewhat peaceful. I fought for every meter I got, but the constant and rhythmic breathing of my teammates reassured me that I could get through it with them.
Without sugar coating anything the training is tough, but we know that the coaches wouldn’t give us work that they didn’t think we could handle. Although the work is hard, I have learned so much and have gotten closer with many of my teammates. We have bonded over our blister filled hands and our odd pains felt throughout our body.
In our culture of champions discussion from the other night, we decided that we must have an ‘I can mindset’ to be champions and that is something we are all utilizing for this training trip, but furthermore it will propel us into our spring season. I am eagerly waiting for what spring has in store for us Jayhawks!
Rock Chalk,
Jadyn Jay
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