One of a series of blogs provided by Naomi Riches – building up to The Great Thames Row, an attempt to set a record for being the fastest woman to row 165 miles along the length of the River Thames, whilst raising funds for www.IN-vision.org.uk. The full archive of related blogs can be found here: www.mymarlow.co.uk/blog/tag/tgtr2016/
31st March 2016 – The Missing Piece
The first and definitely the most exciting thing to mention is that Stephanie (www.designbystephaniej.com) who built the website for the incredible Coxless Crew, is creating a website for us… You can find the holding page at www.thegreatthamesrow.org. Watch this space!!!
A month ago I was fooling myself when I was telling the world that the training was going well. I knew what to do, I had set my own programme and goals from the knowledge I had built up over the years and from what Malcolm, the 2005 World Record holder had shared with me… but it just didn’t feel right. I was enjoying being back in the Marlow Rowing Club squad and training with them but something was missing and I couldn’t put my finger on it.
In early March Liz and I met in our favourite place, Marlow Rowing Club’s Scullers Café to discuss leaflet layouts and content. We bumped into a friend of mind, Jacqui Jones whilst we were there we chatted for a few minutes about the row… at last I admitted that training was not going well at all, in fact I was being rather pathetic about it, was scared that I would not be fit enough and was demotivated. Jacqui, without faltering for even a second said ‘I’ll write you a programme’. She has trained people up for Marathons and she is a rower, between us we know a lot… so why did I not think of this before? What a numpty!!
‘YES PLEASE’ was my immediate response and a few days later, after sitting together and planning out the next 6 months of my life I realised what had been missing… I spent almost a decade in the GB Squad reporting in to someone, handing in my programme, having weekly and monthly targets. I know that I am motivated, if I wasn’t I would not be doing The Great Thames Row… I’m just not hugely self-motivated. I prefer to work with people, so even though it is just me propelling myself down the Thames in September I will be part of a team, everyone working towards the same end goal.
So this last month’s training has gone very well and I can see a process starting to develop! At the end of April I will complete my first long session on the rowing machine, I’ll start at 4pm and row the first 4 hours of TGTR, rowing for and stopping for the times stated on the time sheet; a dress rehearsal I guess. Each month I will do a least one long row adding 2 hours each month. This will be either on land or water, replicating a part of the row including the time of day/night. Slightly concerned but excited by the 8 hour stint that starts at Midnight at the end of June!!!
At last the Filippi is out on the water at! I went for my first paddle a couple of weeks ago and I it feels so smooth and stable… good job as we need to survive the Tidal Thames and the Thames Estuary together.
My boat does not yet have a name… can you help? Get your thinking caps on as the next month’s blog will outline the different ways you get involved in and support TGTR2016, including a boat naming competition.
So I am on track, improving every time I get on the rowing machine or in a boat and I can see and feel the changes not just in my muscles but in how much clothes fit 8-)! At MarlowRC there are so many willing volunteers to coach, row with, arrange events with and generally support TGTR2016; I feel overwhelmed and very, very lucky! Just a little shout out here to a remarkable woman and dear friend Ruth Naylor, she is always a willing victim/partner for a paddle!
If you would like to know how you can get involved in this, please contact us at info@IN-vision.org.uk and we can send you all the information you might need.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thegreatthamesrow2016
Twitter: @TGTR2016 @INvision_buzz @NaomiRichesMBE
The full archive of related blogs can be found here: www.mymarlow.co.uk/blog/tag/tgtr2016/
