Single sculls rower and Canberra lawyer Brennan (nee Crow) makes the sport look easy after a decade of dominance.

But the former 400 metre hurdler, who is tipped as a gold-medal favourite in Rio, says she's still learning her craft less than days out from the start of her games.

It's a scary thought given she's been winning international medals for the past 10 years, including five golds at world cup events since last year.

"I've had a good year, I think with a big event like the Olympics everyone will be in much better form come the Games but I've been really happy with my preparation over the whole four years.

"I'm still learning and I'm still getting faster so that's exciting. I think everything is starting to come together at the right time."

Preparing for an elite rowing regatta is a tricky and complex balancing act.

Athletes must train rigorously to build cardio fitness but at the same time control specific race-style output to ensure they are not peaking before the set event. This is particularly tricky with the Olympics, where four years of preparation comes down to a handful of days.

"We do pretty heavy base blocks early in the year, so we really only come up to top set speed work once and that's for the big regatta, so you often see some people will perform a lot better at the big competition and that's part of the game," said Brennan.

Brennan said the camaraderie within the rowing team is pivotal during the current regime at the Australian base in Italy, where they are training three times a day, 6 days a week.

"The team is pretty exhausted but in very good spirits. There is a really good atmosphere in the team at the moment, I think we're, a bit of a sporting term, but we're all in the hole from lot of hard work but that's part of training adaptation and we help get each other through it."

Australian rowing has come under public scrutiny for failing to qualify both the men's and women's eights, but the single-sculler said the squad's output is world class.

"We definitely still row the big boats it's just that for our top of the top, the decision was made to select people in smaller boats first, so they weren't prioritised in that order.

"In the past that hasn't always been the case, there has been time when the eight has been the priority boat, and Australia has done very well in it.

"But the reality is no country can win them all, so we've gone for the boats we've got the best chance in."

But the single skull on the picturesque Rodrigo de Freitas Lake is certainly one to look forward to, where Brennan will bet her chance to turn the tables on Mirka Knapkova and Fie Udby Erichsen from the last Games.

Brennan will begin her campaign for gold this weekend after the opening ceremony.