I'm hungry, but I don't have any of the food I normally eat. If I had a car, I'd go to the grocery store and buy myself some more Myoplex (protein shakes) and some cereal and some milk, but my parents heard too many horror stories about first year college students flunking out of school because they drove their roommate to wrestling matches and out-of-town football games and such, so they wouldn't let me bring my car this semester. If I had gone to school out of state, like both my brother and sister did before me, I wouldn't be getting a car for the entire first year, but since my school tuition is roughly one third of what theirs was, and I have some scholarships on top of that, my parents are considering letting me bring my car to Austin at semester. I really don't know where there's room to park a Ford Expedition in this town, but I'll find some place. My car would have been nice to have last last Sunday morning, because there was a rowing team meeting at the boathouse, which is too far to walk to, and I ended up not being able to go because I couldn't find a ride. I was pretty upset, but My R. A. Danny, the one who talked me into trying out for the rowing team, told me to go to practice this morning anyway, and the coaches wouldn't mind. He was right. I just added my name to their list of names that they got at different meetings that I wasn't able to attend, went through the workout, and they told me to come back on Wednesday. It was a lot tougher than I would have thought, in some respects, but a lot less strenuous in others, when I look back at it. The one mile jog wasn't hard at all, and neither were the pull-ups, but eventually the sit-ups wore me out, and the jump-squats actually made me nauseous after a few sets. I think that's mainly because my legs were really sore from the gym the day before, which was a bad move on my part, but it's hard to say. I've never done jump-squats before, so I might have felt sick afterwards without being sore. We didn't get to go out on the water, which was somewhat disappointing, but the group of guys I was with are supposed to take a boat out on wednesday, while the other groups run body circuits, since that's all our group was able to do. We did actually take a boat down to the dock, and set it in the water, but I wasn't able to get in, and the boat never left the dock, so it wasn't as much fun as it could have been. I'm somewhat nervous about the next practice session. We get to use the rowing machines for the first time, and I've never used one before. I'm not sure if three sets of ten minutes is going to be a breeze, or if I'm really going to throw up this time. I work out 6 days a week, and I run, and most of my workouts are repetition, not heavy lifting, so I could definitely be in worse shape for rowing, but I'm still not sure how far away I am from the kind of endurance I need for the urgs" (rowing machines. )  I would actually be stronger, but have less endurance if my shoulder hadn't been giving me problems all through high school. I pulled it while unloading some suitcases for some elderly friends at the New York airport after a two week cruise through Southern Europe. We went to the doctor, they told me to lay off it, and I did, but apparently it wasn't long enough. I was too anxious to get back in the gym, and I never let it heal completely, so about six months later I hurt it again. Six months after that, when it happened the third time, my parents took me to a doctor, and eventually to physical therapy. The therapist told me that my scapular region was too weak in comparison with my pectorals, triceps, biceps, and deltoids. Apparently I hadn't trained my back well enough to keep up with the rest of my upper body, which was causing my shoulders to carry all the strain of my movements, where the muscles in my back were supposed to be assisting the shoulder. The doctor was amazed that both shoulders hadn't been more severely damaged, but I was told that I wasn't beyond repair. A full month of therapy, very specific exercises, cross-friction massages, and ice massages helped a lot, but my shoulder is still pretty fragile. If I push myself too hard on the bench press, or if I don't put ice on my shoulder while stretching it for about ten minutes after every workout, it's sore for the next few days. I'm hoping that rowing will help develop the muscles in my back, especially the scapular region, so I can push myself harder at the gym when I'm training the rest of my upper body. The pull-ups we did the first day of training worked parts of my back that I can feel had been neglected, because the muscles were all tight and sore after only two sets of the pull-ups. Apparently some muscle somewhere in my back is getting some work, so I'm happy with the training so far. I was actually worried for a while that I wouldn't be able to train the rest of my body if I got serious rowing, but the coaches talked to us about how rowing really only works out your back and your biceps, so the rest of your body will need developing too, like your chest and triceps. This means I can still go to the gym, and I actually have more reason now than ever, because I have to keep my chest strong enough to balance with the back muscles that I will undoubtedly be developing. Running and jump-squats in training won't come anywhere close to giving me the leg workout I want, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to work legs without being sore at training the following day. I suppose that after a few weeks of real practice, assuming I make the team, I'll be able to decide when to work my legs, and how hard. Some of the guys there seemed to have been working out, or playing football in high school, because they were pretty used to running body-circuits, and jogging, and weren't too beat at the end of the day. Some of the other guys were obviously novices in the world of fitness. A few people vomited, one guy passed out, and I heard talk about a guy who was trying the rowing workout a few days ago who fell flat on his face and started convulsing. I'm not sure exactly what was going on there, but I'm glad nothing like that has happened to me yet. I can't wait for it to get cold outside, so I can actually stand in that boathouse without wanting to collapse. It was so hot and stuffy in there today that going outside in the 80 degree weather felt like walking into a refrigerator. Once it gets colder, I'm sure I'll have to buy a sweatshirt, and some warmer gym shorts, but the cold will be much more welcome than the hot sticky boathouse. It'll be a lot colder if I fall in the water too, but I'm hoping that won't happen too often.