The time is getting nearer

Starting to get into a routine now that things have settled down. We are now, on most days, waking up and having breakfast in the largest ever dining room I’ve ever seen, then hanging out in the village for a bit sometimes getting a massage then having brunch at about 10:30am. We then leave the village shortly after brunch for a 45-50min trip to the rowing course for a row. After that row we then have a 5 min bus trip to our recovery centre where we can relax and recover for our next session. Prior to leaving we have a pre-cooling session which lowers our core body temperature in preparation for the next session. We do this by laying in an ice bath for 10mins while having a powerade slurpee. We are nearly bordering on hyperthermia after that. From there we travel back to the rowing course for another session at about 5pm, have a row and get back to the village by about 8pm for dinner, then kick back for a bit before going to bed. It’s actually not a bad little routine.

Here’s a brief diary of activities since we’ve been here…

Friday 1st Aug
Arrive in Beijing at about 9pm. Travel to village, have a late dinner and off to bed about midnight.

Saturday 2nd Aug
Off to rowing course to rig our boat and have a row. Find its pretty warm and heart rates are pretty high…..Then back to village for lunch and then at 2:30pm we leave to collect our team clothing. Big day….we get back at about 9:30pm. In amongst that while waiting around we managed to get some gym and stationary bike in. Once back, another late dinner and off to bed.

Sunday 3rd Aug
Press conference at about 9am then off to training. Had only one session then went back to village for some lunch and we did about an hour of ergo and stationary bike before a couple of hours of formal AOC welcome/information session. Then dinner and bed.

Monday 4th Aug
B/fast then down to course for a session, then to recovery centre for a bit. Then a second row and back to village for some gym before dinner.

Tuesday 5th Aug
7:30am Breakfast, hang out. 10:30 brunch. Travel to rowing for a session, then recovery centre for 2-3 hours with another row about 5pm then travel back to village for dinner.

Wednesday 6th Aug
Pretty much the same as yesterday.

Adapting to the heat and humidity after travel seemed a little stressful in the first few days. The heart rates were significantly higher than normal while rowing by about 20 beats and breathing quite a lot. It wasn’t really a question of are we going to adapt but when?? Well, yesterday was a step in the right direction and today nearly seems normal. Heart rates are close to normal now which is good. Still have to watch hydration….we learnt pretty quick that there is a lot of fluid loss in a session, in fact I lost 3kg in one short session while consuming 1 litre of water. So I actually lost about 4kg of sweat. Great weight loss strategy!!! Still breathing quite a bit when training, sometimes feeling as if you cant get enough oxygen in the lungs. I’m also slowly adapting to that.

The time is getting nearer!

I’ll get some photos up soon…….Ciao.