Paris, 18:55 on February 7, 2020
SIT READY
WARNINGS
ROW
For all those who have never done one rowing race, these three words say little or nothing, but for everyone else, and in particular for me, they mean the start of a race and in this case it is the 500m of the World Rowing Championships 2020.
Before talking about this moment, I would like to tell you about the path that led me to Paris.
Index
MY PREPARATION
Everything started at the end September when my friend Salvatore tells me:
Stefano we go to Paris for the world championships ... what are you doing?
My answer is useless for you to write it….
Ad October I immediately search for flights and find the hotel and decide to participate only in the 500m races, and not the 2000m one for various reasons, but the main one is certainly linked to the preparation of the race since the 500m are easier to prepare than the 2000m (I also wrote an article concerning).
So, in mid-October, I start my preparation, trying to make the rowing training sessions coincide with those of CrossFit® and BikeERG and clearly with my private and working life.
It was not easy at all!
Finally I find the squaring of the circle, training a few times before the CrossFit® lessons with Rowing and dedicating 2 trainings a week to BikeERG.
By managing the week more or less like this:
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
Row + CrossFit® | Row | Row + CrossFit® | BikeERG | Row | BikeERG | REST |
Without even realizing it, they were missing 30 days at the race and everything was going great ... both in the Rowing sessions and in the BikeERG sessions I reached the targets I had set myself, the CrossFit® workouts proceeded well until around 10 days from the race I get the flu .... second time in my life, and I don't add anything else.
Dear flu (it wasn't coronavirus… .at least I think) forces me to bed and when I recover I was missing 4 days to the race.
Il 2 February, I decide to take a 1 minute test to understand what condition I was in and I realize that improving my personal 1: 23.7 was utopia.
05:50 am on 6 February I wake up to finally start the journey that will take me to the world championships.
Race day
17 hours: 00 on February 7th I arrive at the Pier de Coubertin stadium and immediately go to collect my card, I get undressed and all excited I sit in the stands to enjoy the show.
About 18:00, so about 1 hour before my race, I decide to go and warm up and enter the "warm-up" room where there will have been over 100 rowers and more than 200 people, I let you imagine the "Perfume of that room".
I start to warm up in front of Olympic champions, the 500m record man passes by me with a time of 1: 10.5, which for those who don't know who he is, is called Phil Clapp.
If you went back to read the article after seeing his IG profile, I can assure you that up close it is even bigger !!!
At 18:50, again without my realizing it, I find myself walking towards the oar meter number 78.
Paris, 18:55 on February 7, 2020
SIT READY
WARNINGS
ROW
La Race 500m
I start to row trying to drop the average as soon as possible: for the first 10 shots everything under control, then ... .. I start to lose control of everything, my body puts on automatic pilot and my brain addicted to adrenaline dissociates from the body.
When 300 meters were missing, I regain my consciousness for a moment and I see that the average over 500m worsens ... then the darkness again (and when I say dark I mean that I have no memories of what I did!).
My brain comes back on when 80 meters are missing, where I only think of trying to shorten the cart but I don't feel the legs or the arms, but I don't feel the fatigue, I don't control the breath, I don't have muscle pain, I just feel "light "And then my eyes see this ...
So finally after 4 months of training, thoughts, anxieties I find myself in front of the monitor and I think only of what time of m **** I did !!!!
Results
It 's really true ... the emotion plays bad jokes.
The world championships have been a unique experience, which will help me to face the next races in a less emotional way, or at least I hope.