Former competitive rower, Julia Drisdell, says she only tries to best herself during workouts as opposed to racing against others.
For six years, Julia Drisdell was a competitive rower. It was normal for her workouts in high school and college to include jumping air squats and long runs.
“In those days, we didn’t go below 90 degrees because people thought it would ruin your knees,” the 32-year-old says.
Lengthy aerobic workouts were a key part of her training at Harvard University. Multiple times a week, Drisdell spent 90 minutes on the water alongside her teammates. Other days, her collegiate squad would begin running stadium stairs at 6:30 or 7 a.m.
“The football stadium has bench seating and we ran up all the seats and down the steps of the entire thing,” she says.
Harvard’s football stadium seats 30,323.
The training made sense as the sport’s shortest race is 2,000 meters — just more than one mile.
“In big competitions, we had to get through heats, reps and semis in order to get to the final, and sometimes rowed that distance two to three times in a day,” Drisdell says.
But after her second year of rowing at Harvard, Drisdell felt herself falling out of love with the sport.
“I wasn’t doing as well as I had hoped at the time and I was probably over-thinking things and stressing out too much,” she says.
Drisdell left rowing stroking the Varsity lightweight women's eight at the regional and national levels.
Life After Rowing
For the next few years, Drisdell focused on academics. She graduated with highest honors in sociology, taught English in Mexico for a year and pursued a master’s degree in social policy and a law degree in London. She has been living in England’s capitol city since then, working as a corporate lawyer.
About a year ago, Drisdell reached a breaking point. She found herself working long hours, getting little sleep, exercising even less and eating poorly. She turned to a close friend who was a personal trainer. After a few training sessions with her friend, Drisdell expressed interest in learning more. Her friend recommended CrossFit.
“I was worried at first about how I would carve out time to train several times per week, but have found that the answer is simple: If you like something enough it becomes your priority and you will do whatever is needed to spend time on that activity,” she explains, adding, “including occasionally joining conference calls outside the box via BlackBerry.”
Today, Drisdell trains four to five times a week, often leaving the office or working from home to ensure she gets a workout.
The focus on mobility, she emphasizes, has helped her work through issues tied to her rowing days and her corporate job.
“I spent a lot of time on one side of the boat. I’m much stronger on the right side and a bit curled up on the left,” Drisdell says. “Mobility is important for me. The past 10 years of sitting at a desk have impacted my posture and shoulders.”
Despite her competitive, athletic background, she says she only tries to best herself during workouts as opposed to racing against others. She was most successful on the water, she notes, when her boat had a plan and executed it — regardless of what other crews were doing.
“The days that I’m going to go fast are the days that I feel good,” she says. “And it doesn’t necessarily matter who else is around or how fast they are going.”