As we have stated before the definition of process is the series of actions or steps needed in order to reach a particular end. Obviously our desired end is English Harbor in Antigua. It is easy to look at a map and draw a line between La Gomera and English Harbor and say have at it boys, row your little hearts out, yet it would be a futile way to train and plan. We have to be process oriented when it comes to this not get caught up in results.
Take our seal rows for instance, an integral piece to our training the shoulders and back for this row. The boys struggled six months ago with reps at 95 pounds, yet through simple linear progression they routinely do working sets now at 155, even 185 on the heavier days. These tiny marginal gains add meters to each stroke but you have to earn those meters by doing the necessary prerequisite reps beforehand. We used to have mental Friday’s at the Citadel Track where we would run laps with weighted vests and do pull-ups and push-ups. The boys having spent the last few years running their businesses and cooking in kitchens, couldn’t do proper pull-ups, instead just poor representations of a pull-up. There wasn’t much progress being made in their fitness and strength, they hadn’t got caught up in process. Everyone wants to wear the sexy weighted vest and rip it. You wouldn’t build the second story of a house before you lay the foundation, a lot of people try to do this with their training. At the end of the day what is going to get the boys across is simple, grit and mental fortitude. Nothing sexy about a sunburnt, chapped lipped and dehydrated man rowing stark naked across the ocean blue. It already sounds difficult enough, so let’s make training simple but effective, train hard fight easy as our ocean rowing coach Duncan Row says.
Life is process. Stop trying to take the easy way out.