from Sinead Jennings, 2001 world rowing champion Believe it or not, running training is equally as important as rowing training is in my preparations for the lightweight double scull event in the Beijing Olympics. Strange you might say but let me explain. I come from a cycling/triathlon background. My dad was a keen runner and cyclist and my childhood (and that of my sisters) was spent trying to keep up with him on a bike or chasing after him when he went for a run. Mum loved to swim and so the natural progression was for us to try Triathlon. We competed in a few Triathlon Junior European Worlds and won some Community Games cycling events. Then after finishing pharmacy at university I decided that I wanted to try a new sport and chose rowing. I was extremely lucky. I’d really just joined for the social aspect but I was spotted by one of Scotland’s top coaches. He heard about my triathlon background, saw that I was pretty strong and fast on the rowing machine and even tough I couldn’t row he told me I would be a World Champion in rowing! Fairytale story I thought but before I knew it he had me training 35 hours a week (while I was working full time as a pharmacist) and the social aspect nearly completely forgotten. He was right though. After 9 months sculling I won a bronze medal in the lightweight single scull at the World Championships and was crowned World Champion the following year in the same event.
After that I decided to aim for the Olympics. Unfortunately, the single scull which I had won isn’t in the Olympics and so I decided to focus on the lightweight double as this is an Olympic event. It was difficult to find a partner as women’s rowing wasn’t very strong in Ireland at that time. We had some disappointing results and I found this quite difficult. I started to do some running for fun and was delighted when I won a few cross-country events. I joined my local club, Danore Harriers and trained with the girls there under the supervision of Jim McNamara – one of the most inspiring coaches I have ever met.
Meanwhile I got a new rowing partner and our results really started to improve. I was excited about rowing but was reluctant to give up my new found love for running. I really enjoyed the freedom it offered – you weren’t restricted to sitting in a boat, you could run when and where you wanted and it required none of the intense mental concentration that rowing sometimes took (especially when working on technical aspects of the rowing stroke). I spoke to my coach Thor Neilson about it. I pointed out the physiological benefits – the reason I had reached the top in rowing so quickly was due to my background in running and cycling. He agreed and started to incorporate hill sprints and long runs into our training sessions. Not long after I was seeing big improvements in my physiology. The other benefit of all the running was that it made controlling my weight so much easier. To be a lightweight I must weigh in below 57kg. I’m 173cm and have quite a bit of muscle so to make the 57kg my body fat must be pretty low. Running really helped me achieve this.
I’m studying medicine at the moment and also trying to do a few pharmacy locums to pay the bills and so time can be a bit scarce at times. I can do a really good running session in 90 minutes. The equivalent session in a boat would take 3hours allowing for commuting time and setting up the boat. I would certainly say to any rower – Start running and reap the benefits!