Račice Day 4: Insomnia and steady state

Our group is staying in two bungalows at the 1500m mark. The boys are sleeping in one bungalow, and the girls, one trainer and myself in the other bungalow. The boys bungalow is a bit unlucky. On Monday, the first boy got a mild stomach flu, so he stayed in bed on Tuesday. He was better on Wednesday, but then the next guy had the same symptoms.

I went to bed at 10pm on Wednesday evening. Some time between midnight and 1am I woke up because somebody was knocking on the door of our bungalow. It was Lubos, my single sparring partner of this week. He had a terrible, unbearable earache and wanted to see a doctor. So I get my clothes on, found the nearest hospital in the navigation app and we drove to nearby Roudnice nad Labem.

They couldn’t help us there, because they had no ear/nose/throat doctors on the night shift. They explained that by saying they’re a small hospital, and told us to go to Prague or Ústí nad Labem. Both were about a 30 minute drive so I settled on Prague. Bigger city, probably bigger hospital. Lubos was in great pain.

We arrived in Prague and quickly found the night sister on the ENT ward, who woke up the doctor. Otitis Media, was the verdict, probably as a result of a cold. The doctor punctured the ear, which gave immediate relief, and gave Lubos a recipe for antibiotics, which we picked up at the nearby night pharmacy.

We were in and out of the hospital within 30 minutes. Back at the rowing center at 3am. It took me another hour to get to sleep again, and then I slept until 7.

Lubos kept apologizing, but I don’t know what for. He was in great pain and he was helped. It was an interesting excursion and the problem was quickly solved.

Anyway, it means I will have to train alone, because Lubos obviously has to rest. But that’s no problem now. A few more rowing clubs have arrived, including an interesting Swedish group. I chatted with them after the training. They are a mix of national squad members and club rowers who are staying three weeks in Račice. Some of them will compete on the head race in three weeks.

The morning session was 16k of steady state. I made it more interesting by rowing it as 2k intervals with a 1 minute rest, and doing rate ladders 18/20/22/20/18 per 2 minutes.

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The afternoon session was 10k of technique. Romana cycled next to me for 2k and I did what she told me to do. Then I repeated that. I stopped after 8k. Good enough.

Perhaps I should have gone to a pub or a night club in Prague. 🙂

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