with Exclusive Sportin Wales columnist and GB Rower Becky Wilde.        

 

My body feels like it’s been hit by a truck. Heavy from fatigue my legs buckle walking up stairs, my arms ache getting dressed, my eyes struggle to stay open.

We are nearing the end of our pre-Olympic training camp and this has without doubt been the hardest training any of us have ever done.

Each stroke has the same goal – being the fastest we possibly can be in Paris.

The British Rowing women’s squad have been in Varese, Italy for almost a month now. Over 600km has been rowed in the scorching sunshine. The Alpine views and stunning lake have done nothing to ease the brutality of the training.

We work in three-day cycles: two three session days followed by one two session day (kindly named a “half day”). Each cycle is made up of long endurance sessions, shorter race pace sessions, weights and intensity sessions on the bike or rowing machine.

Time between sessions is filled with eating as much as physically possible in order to recover and be ready to go again. That’s five meals a day with napping or lying horizontally for as long as possible in between.

Recovery is vital to stand a chance of making it through the next session, let alone the next three days.

By the time the half day crawls around we have no energy for sightseeing, only a quick trip outside the hotel for a gelato.

There’s no sugar coating it, it has been horrific at times, but every stroke taken, every weight lifted and every litre of sweat lost is done in the hope no one else is training as hard as we are.

When you are unsure what will come first, throwing up or passing out – that’s when you know you’re putting in the work.

When you are unsure how you are going to make it back from one end of the lake to the other -that’s when you know you’ve had a good session.

When you are unsure if your legs will ever feel fresh again – that’s when you know you’re deep in the training hole.

It’s a special feeling completing a session knowing you could not have given anything more, and when you add the sessions up, then the days, then the weeks, it fills us with confidence ahead of racing later this month. We know nothing in Paris will compare to the pain we have gone through out here.

Having only joined the senior squad this year, it is not hard to see why Great Britain are so successful.

Every element is taken care of; physical, technical and mental, no stone is being left unturned and every percent is being squeezed out of us.

Whatever happens at the end of July we are in the shape of our lives. Time to show the world what we can do.

 

📷- Photographs by Benedict Tuffnell for British Rowing

 

Becky Wilde is set to compete in the women’s double sculls at the Paris 2024 Olympics, following a long and arduous journey to become an Olympian. 

If you want to know more about Wilde and her route to Paris then check out this month’s magazine here or subscribe to the magazine at https://sportin.wales/subscribe/.

You can also keep track of her progress on our socials at @Sportin_Wales on X, Sportin Wales on Instagram and Facebook.