On the Water...

Practice has been going pretty well.  We've been lucky this year, the weather has not been great, but not so bad that we've had to cancel much practice.  It's wet, cold, and windy, but we can handle it and it's building character.  I'm not going to lie, it's been challenging with 2 8's.  I feel like I'm not giving either one the attention that they deserve, but I'm doing the best that I can.  It's also an added challenge because Meehan took one of my novices up to Varsity to fill out his boats, so I'm left with a Freshman 8 and a Novice 7.  Fortunately, very often we've got extra boys and they've been rowing with the girls.  Not sure how much they enjoy it, but it does make it easier for me.

I'm finding that I'm starting to enjoy the girls, I know I was so very "hesitant" when sent to the girls side, but I'm finding myself being drawn in.  Maybe they are just a good group of girls, which they are... but maybe girls aren't as bad as I imagined...

Here's one example of the difference between boys and girls...
I always have snacks, it's my "thing."  Power bars, granola bars, nutra grain bars, in my bag, in my locker etc..  The boys know this and have always counted on it.  Well, the girls discovered them this season and it's all I can do to keep them fed!! Those girls can eat...  Anyway, I had a tupperware full of power bars and when they were all gone, the girls approached me.  "Coach Hyzy, all the power bars are gone." they said, looking expectantly at me... but then... they said, "We've been talking and we're going to take turns bringing in bars, you shouldn't have to buy them all the time." ????? Say What?   Boys, would never/have NEVER done that, even thought of that!  #teamgirls

Zack and the A-word....Adult

There's no way it's true... how can my sweet baby boy, the light of my life, my buddy and partner

 be an official...ADULT.  18 freaking years old!  It seems so cliche... but time just seems to be speeding up the older I get.  Seems like not so long ago, we were worrying about pacifiers and pull-ups and now he can sign his own excuse notes for school, vote and go to the doctor by himself.  I just don't want to believe it.   It was a quiet celebration, Brenna was home and we went out to dinner, then he had a Co-ed sleepover... I must admit, he's the most difficult kid to buy for... he doesn't want anything, he doesn't really do anything and seems happy enough with what he has.

A little college prep present... he eats Ramen all the time... not he's got the proper tools.

Movies with his friends,  Brandon and Shannon.

The morning after, such a good group of kids!

Dinner at Smokey Bones.

It was pretty low-key, but then he's a pretty low key kid and I think he enjoyed it.  Time just keeps moving on...

Brenna Bday Recap...

I can't believe my girl is 23 years old!!!  She celebrated her actually birthday in Wisconsin with her friends.

The aftermath in her backyard after what looks to be a very exciting celebration

My girl loves her pedicures.

She and I went out for drinks with the coaches, Tim, Jason, Yonas, Chris and Emily  after practice and had a great time.  

We actually ended up drinking and then going Drunken bowling!!  Didn't get home until 1:00am!!  I don't think I've stayed out that late in forever!  AND..... I WON EVERY GAME!!  They more they drank, the better I got! Brenna got along great with everyone and we had a ton of fun!!

She's almost home! She's almost home!

T- 2hours..... It's spring break for Brenna and she gets to come home for a week!!  I'm so excited to have her home!!  She's going to come to practice with me and ride in my launch or row if I need her!!   She's going to meet my coaching friends and go out drinking with me!!!  Yeah!

Boys and Tampons

We finally had a consult with a dermatologist and we've decided to put Zack on Accutane.  The antibiotic he's been on has been controlling, but not fixing.  The dermatologist seems to think Accutane will really cure his acne.  It's a 6 month course, but I guess it's a pretty heavy duty medication, we have to go to the doctor every month, monthly blood work etc...   Some of the side effects include dry, flaky skin and lips and nosebleeds.  I guess because it's just drying everything out.   Zack went on an overnight camping trip and long hike this weekend and I guess had his first experience with the nosebleed side effect.  I guess they are pretty serious and he had trouble getting it to stop, and of course, it happened when they were out on the trail and didn't have kleenex or anything, but one of the girls had a tampon!   Apparently in the movie She's the Man, they used a tampon and Zack remembered that, and boom! tampon up the nose.

I guess it worked like a charm!!  Gotta love the kid who is self-confident enough to finish a hike with his friends with a tampon up his nose!!  Over the course of the weekend,  back at home, he had a half a dozen more.  Went through my tampons faster than I do!! 

Had to go to Giant today and this was the list for Zack!  OB tampons because then there's no irritating applicator to deal with!  They are much more discreet!!  He also told me to get at least regular tampons because "his flow is pretty heavy."  LOL!!!  That kid!!
I also got him some medicated nose lube and that seems to be helping.  As long as he keeps vaseline or some kind of nose gel up his nose, they seem to be subsiding... but we'll keep tampons handy just in case!!

Snow Day Half Marathon

We got our last snow day today... even though there was not an actual snow flake anywhere to be found.  Actually that's not true, I had about 16 flakes on my car and maybe enough to make a golf ball sized snow ball on the deck... but the predictions were dire the night before and I guess that's all it took.  I'm not complaining... I don't mind one more day off.  I've had a To Do list that's been being ignored for days and days and I got a majority of it all taken care of.

I also went to the gym and Erged and freaking Half Marathon!!! Yes I did!!  21, 097 meters!!

One of my friends put on FaceBook that he'd rowed a half and I decided to meet his challenge and see if I could do it too and I did!  It's funny though is was just like the 2 Half's I ran.  I was good until about the mile 10 point and then the last 5K was pretty wretched.  I started out pretty strong, had some rocking tunes going, actually rowed 90% of it with my eyes closed just listening to the music and trying to feel my body and technique.  It went well, I was keeping it right where I wanted to be and feeling pretty good, but then the last 5K, my back started to cramp up, I had to slow down a couple of times, go to arms and back for a little bit.  But, then by the last 1500meters I was able to pick back up and finish strong.   So, now I've run 2 race Half's,  1 treadmill half, I've rowed an on the water Half and now erged a half.  I think I've pretty much covered all my bases.  

Still not on the water, but starting to get excited

We've actually gotten out on the water twice, but now we're back at the school.  Damn Spring.  The

first couple of days we got to go out, it was really cold.  I took one boat out and left the other on the shore to circuit and run and then I switched them out.
I'd forgotten just how bad novices are when they first get out in a boat.  We did some arms only and arms and back rowing by pairs, and let the coxswains do a little practicing with steering and guiding the boat.  First day, pretty crazy, I wasn't thinking right and I just put them in the seats I thought they'd be rowing in eventually, when what I should have done is make sure I had an experienced bow pair to help with the steering.  Fixed that problem on the 2nd day, so it wasn't quite so crazy.  Everyone has had a little bit of a chance to get out on the water, except for 2 girls.  One just never showed up... she's going to be flaky I think and the other failed her swim test... sweet lord... I need her to pass her swim test.  I don't want to be down 1-2 girls.  That's going to make it really difficult if I end up rowing with 6 or 7 every day.  Bleeck!!

The last two days we've been up at the school, but it's been very productive.  I had the girls on slides, practice rowing in sync and slow up the slide.  We also got some pause drills done in the hopes that they'll be more familiar out on the water.
Then I divided them into their boats Novice 8 and Freshman 8 and we did some circuits, competing against each other.  I was really please and impressed with how hard they worked and their competitive spirit.  They had to do 500m, 1 lap, 50 squats and 10 burpees, repeated twice so each person in the boat did something.  It was a tough circuit and I made them race 3 times!  Not one complaint, not one real whine... they just buckled down and worked hard!  They encouraged each other.  I was so tickled with them!!  #teamnovicerocks

Super Tuesday

Super Tuesday... Primary time in Virginia in what is probably the most fucked up election year in history!
I mean we're choosing between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders
or
Donald Trump
Ted Cruz
Marco Rubio

Seriously.... it's a virtually impossible decision.  The lesser of two evils... the lesser of all evils...
Hillary is the establishment
Bernie is like 59 million years old
Donald Trump is an arrogant, obnoxious asshole bully
the others....
What a crap election for Zack to have his first voting experience....
He gets to vote in the primary because he'll be 18 by the general election.  He was pretty pumped.
He voted for Bernie
I voted for Hillary
and
John somehow voted for Donald Trump... it's like I don't even know him anymore.  I can't understand how any intelligent human would actually think letting that idiot be the leader of the free world would be anything but a bad idea!!!  God help us all!