Timing
The summer of my junior year in college was the perfect time to get work experience, and I was looking forward to it. I got an offer to work for Amazon in Spokane, WA. Interning for 10 weeks implied passing up u23 worlds since they were in my fifth week of work and it was truly incompatible. Still, worth it.
No Rowing?
For a moment, I thought I would not row/race (for the first time in 6 summers) but something inside me did not agree with that decision. My coach suggested me racing at senior worlds, that were going to be celebrated two months after I was done with the internship. It was, in fact, an awesome idea because it was widely-known that most of the rowers who competed at the Olympic Games would not attend, giving way to younger athletes like me to touch base with the senior category. It was said and planned.
Training
Stanford provided me a boat (1x) and although it took me a bit longer than I would have liked to figure out a (tight but) good schedule, I got in quality training. Thanks to the rowing team, I received permission to use Gonzaga University's facilities , located very close to my house. I did not have a team to train with at the location I was at, which entailed no coaches, no teammates, no athletic trainers... and still working out twice per day; 6am and 7:30pm. Each session was normally 1-2h.
Work
During the first three weeks my schedule was variable, ranging from 8 to 11h days. At Amazon, I was in charge of organizing a team of 50 associates to achieve maximum performance, meet daily targets and assist them. In addition to that, I did research to work on my intern project on how to help Amazon reduce their carbon footprint
COVID-19
I tend to plan in advance and stick to my decisions firmly. Nonetheless, COVID-19 has become the main character when talking about sudden changes. And so it happened; halfway through the internship senior worlds were canceled.
GU Boathouse, Spokane river, WA
No Rowing?
After all the effort I had put in, I refused to not race after the summer. The European under 23 championships were at the end of August, exactly two weeks after my last day. I started planning accordingly, being extra conscious that I would not get there in peak performance. Again, I was looking forward to it too. Apart from that, I got a proposal to give a try to coastal rowing and represent Spain at Worlds in late September.
U23 Europeans
I got funding for the trip to Poland and planned the entire thing myself (flights, lodging, transport...). I was the only person from Spain attending the event, so I traveled only with two more people.
I ended up placing 4th in the women's single sculls, an. event I hadn't raced in 3 years.
Coastal Rowing
I had never done coastal rowing until the day before national trials to qualify for worlds. Nonetheless, my double partner and I won and thus got the pass for Portugal. In Portugal, we raced in the two different disciplines, beach sprints and endurance race. We managed to win a gold medal in both of them
Coastal Rowing Worlds Podium,
Oeiras, Portugal
School
I headed back to school straight from Portugal after I was done with coastal rowing worlds, two weeks after the quarter started officially. With my original plan of racing at senior worlds, I would have missed the first five weeks of school, which was not an issue since I had already planned out the classes I had to take that (lighter) quarter.
Remarks
I had a great time learning and thriving in a new environment. It was a peculiar experience for many reasons. As opposed to training camp or school where housing logistics are arranged for you, I lived in an apartment and handled meal prep, grocery shopping, cleaning, and bills. Moreover, it was the first time I witnessed the corporate sphere from the inside, operated with real data and put into practice classroom learnings.