A Day in the Life of a GRP Rower (at Clemson)
Ok, so this will just be a quick look at the typical structure of our days here in Clemson to paint the picture of our new routine.
7:00AM – Wake up and tell Charlie to stop his alarm.
7:15AM – Eat breakfast. For some of us that’s eggs and for others that’s granola and yogurt. For me, it’s granola/cereal and yogurt, protein shake with chia seeds, a banana, some beta alanine, and maybe a few chocolate chips.
8:30AM – Sprinter/bus leaves for first practice. Dan leaves his house with whatever rowers need a lift at 8:29 to pick up the Poteets by 8:30. The Poteets like myself live at 525a Poteet Lane, just four tenths of a mile from the other house. Some of us have already left to practice as it is common practice to self-commute to or from the boathouse either by foot or bicycle. It winds up being either a 20′ bike or a 45′ run. The hills are notable.
8:45AM – Dan gives his pre-row talk filled with instruction, tips, advice, and usually a couple peripheral anecdotal gems not yet known as Roock Rocks.
9:00AM – Begin row. Depending on the day this could be a steady state exploration excursion, a technically focused session on the buoyed 2k course, or piece work.
11:30AM – Hopefully, you’re eating again by now after having stretched at the boathouse, ridden back in the sprinter, or self-commuted home.
1:00PM-3:30PM – People are either doing extra work, getting recovered, or more often than not grocery shopping to keep the furnaces well-fed and burning.
4:30PM – Sprinter/bus leaves for second practice.
6:30PM-7:00PM – Get home and whip up some dinner at each house.
This routine has some serious variation, but this is the general structure. Sometimes, we do one big dinner at one of the houses, but usually, meals are done in slightly smaller groups at each house. Additionally, there may be other independent work spliced into each day by each individual in the group. Tacking the self-commute onto practices though really does a good job of stacking up minutes of work.